[3.1][HC] The Black Plague Berserker [Built around Death's Oath & Abberath's Hooves]

This build is made around the Death aura on the Death's Oath Unique item. The Death's aura skill deals 450 Chaos damage in an aura around the character.
Normally there would only be 3 support gems that help scale the damage from the aura:
- Concentrated Effect
- Increased Area of Effect
- Void Manipulation

In itself this is a problem, as we do not have enough multipliers to push the base damage to anything meaningful. So in order to push the damage from the aura even further we use a trick. We are adding Arcane Surge to the chest. Now, Arcane surge does not add any damage what so ever, but it adds a hidden "duration" tag to the aura allowing us to use far more support gems that scale chaos damage or damage over time.

This allows us to use the support gems:
- Swift Affliction
- Efficacy
- Less Duration

It is also important to note, that while Arcane surge adds a hidden "Duration" tag, the less duration multipliers on these gems does not affect the aura in any way, leaving only the more multipliers! This greatly enhances the damage output at makes it a viable choice for mapping!


Another mechanic we make use of is Abberath's Hooves. Which gives the user level 7 Abberath's fury. This skill does a set amount of damage every time the user takes a step. While the damage is extremely small we are able to make use of it by using Decay.


Decay gives us a chaos damage over time modifier to the boots, meaning that every time we take a step, we inflict a DOT on the surrounding monsters! While this does not do as much damage as the main aura setup it greatly increases the damage output!

Pros
- Lots of life
- Mind over Matter
- Stuff dies if you run towards them
- Very fast map clears
- Fun and Different

Cons
- Getting high Chaos Resist can be difficult
- Not a boss killer

Path of Exile skill tree
Skill Tree

Path of Building Pastebin Link:
https://pastebin.com/krZ3h8CQ

Death's Oath Setup
The bread and butter of this build. Without it, it does not work. It can be hard to get the right colours on the chest, so be sure to factor that into the costs when creating this build. Also i recommend using the jeweller's method for this


Abberath's Hooves Setup
Our second damage aura. Note that the level of Decay greatly increases dps


Abyssal Cry Setup
Abyssal cry is mandatory for this build. We have a hard time with single target damage so this helps us with high health rares. It also heals us 25% of Life & Mana when used!


Enfeeble/Dispair Setup
Enfeeble is used because it makes us insanely tanky, on top of life and MoM We can get up to 50% Enfeeble Effect meaning 45% less damage taken! Dispair is used because it increases our damage by an insane amount. I have linked dispair with enhance to get an additional 8% more damage!


Stone golem & Blood rage
Increases surviveability and damage.


Shield Charge Setup
Standard Shield Charge setup. Shield charge is used over leap slam since it "runs" along a path at increased movement speed, as compared to leap slam. This ensured that the boots still deal damage along the path we take

Off-Hand Setup
We use a staff with +3 chaos gems for the off-hand with Essence drain. This setup boosts our single target dramatically and helps with Vorici missions :D. Note i just started building my off-hand, so i have a lot of improvements to go for here.

Required Items
The staple of the build. The whole character is made around this chest piece. Note that this does not have to be linked in order to support Death's Aura. I will recommend not starting the build until you have 5 of the 6 colored sockets.

Recommended Items
This item along with the Decay setup increases our damage output by around 50%. Prioritize this item above any other Recommended Item

Adds a good amount of damage and life and reduces the cost of our despair by 100%! On top of that, Maddening presence reduces monster damage by 10% and makes them 10% slower. Absolutely best in slot!

Adds a bunch of damage to our damage setups along with increased duration for our damage over time skills and Increased Area of Effect.

Compared to Breath of the Council, this doesn't add nearly as much damage, it does however give us a really good boost to both life and mana. If you get to a point where everything dies before you even have a chance to use abyssal cry, use this instead.

Adds a nice chunk of life and life regeneration. Not Necessary, but really, really good.

Greatly increases the uptime of our other flasks. Not expensive.

Rares
Item mods to look for on gear:

- Chaos Resistance (Try to cap Chaos resistance. With 75 chaos resist we only take 112,5 damage per second from Death's Oath.)
- Elemental Resistances
- Life
- Mana
- Mana regeneration

Honorable Mentions
- Allelopathy
If you want to use these gloves, you should check out Isildria's post below mine

- Ming's Heart
Greatly Increases Chaos resistance but at a cost. Use this if you can't get Chaos resistance above 0.

- Death Rush
Chaos Resistance, Life, Armour and Onslaught. A very good choice overall, especially for lower level maps.

- Shaper's Seed
Life and Mana Regen. Use this if you are on a budget or until you can get a Marble Amulet

We have a total of 5 jewel sockets in the build.

We will want to use 3x grand spectrum in order to get enough mana for MoM.

Mods to look out for:
- % Increased Life
- % Increased Mana
- % Damage over Time
- % Increased Chaos Damage
- All Elemental Resistances

My Jewels for reference:

Quicksilver flask
Movespeed is important

Hallowed Hybrid flask
Try to get one with Removes bleeding

Use for anything you like!
I have gone with a Quartz flask with freeze immunity

Overflowing Chalice
Increases the uptime of the other flasks by a huge amount AND gives us increased damage.

Basalt Flask
Try to get one with immunity to curses

Berserker
The Berserker has a tonne of synergies with the build. Not only does it give us 40% MORE damage, it also gives us an abundance of survive ability through War Bringer and Rite of ruin!


Normal Lab: War Bringer
War Bringer is chosen first because it helps us with both clear speed and survive ability. We recover 25% of life and mana instantly when we use a warcry and halves the recharge time.


Cruel Lab: Crave the Slaughter
Prerequisite to Aspect of Carnage


Merciless Lab: Aspect of Carnage
The reason why Berserker is such a popular class. 40% More damage with a 10% Damage taken downside. This scales Both our damage over time effects AND Abyssal cry.


Uber Lab: Rite of Ruin
This is taken because it negates the downside of Aspect of Carnage and gives us Cannot be Stunned, which is quite crucial in later maps.

Note that Helmet and Glove Enchants doesn't make much of a difference in power over all. Focus on your Boots first, as it greatly improves your survive ability!

Boots
"x % Life and Mana regenerated per second if you have been Hit Recently"

Helmet
40% increased Abyssal Cry Damage
20-30% increased Vulnerability Curse Effect

Gloves
Commandment Of Spite

Main Setup

Ohh-Hand: Needs Improvement


Flasks

Coming Soon!

Showcase of the build in action!
- T15 Beachhead showcase

Pit of the Chimera Deathless
Lair of the Hydra Deathless
Beachhead T15 Deathless
Uber Lab Deathless, Very Easy
Atziri Deathless, Extremely easy

I get asked a LOT why i have not gone with Occultist for this character and in all honesty, it is fairly straightforward. If you were to chose Occultist you would end up with:

- Less Effective Health
- Lower Damage
- No way to scale Occultist chaos explosions, meaning slower clear speed
- Harder gear choices (CI)
- Emptier pockets

I hope this has enlightened those of you, who are considering what to choose

- Item descriptions
- Videos
- Screenshots (Defensive/Offensive)
- In depth Explanations
- Skill Gem overview
- Front page GIF

Death's Oath has a strong synergy with Blight in the form of Spreading rot, the blight jewel.

With two of these jewells we get 14-26% increased chaos damage aswell as the insane damage buff from "Enemies hindered by Blight take 50% increased chaos damage (assuming both jewells). Works similarly to how Abyssus works only it's the enemy who is wearing it essentially making it a 50% more multiplier! We can also get blight in a pseudo 6L in the form of:

The lvl 22 Blight and 30% increased damage over time aswell as 10% increased area of effect easily makes this comparable to a 6L and will greatly increase our single target dmg potential not to mention the increased hinder duration which will help us keep that extra dmg up which brings me to the next point about Blight.

Temporal Chains, temp chains will help us in keeping that hinder effect up for longer on enemies not to mention being awesome for survivability without sacrificing too much mana.

This ofcourse is one of the big reasons the build has lower EHP, is harder to cap resists on and why it's gem starved, but if you can get behind all that then this might be the option for you.

Lastly we get to use a new play thing.
The up to 70% increased increased damage with channelling skills is pretty neat.

Pros

• Better single target Damage due to using blight (unless you do the weaponswap)
• Higher overall Damage

Cons

• Lower EHP
• Harder to cap ressists
• Slower build overall
• Gem starved

Path of Exile skill tree
Skill Tree

Path of Building Pastebin link:
https://pastebin.com/7656Qxqb

Path of Building Pastebin link (lvl 100 skilltree):
https://pastebin.com/j8fvu89H

Death's Oath Setup

The usual stuff.


Abberath's Hooves setup

Nope, nothing special here either.


Abyssal cry settup (weapon or offhand)

Okay so void manipulation is likely better in higher end maps instead of Onslaught, But Onslaught is the faster option for easier maps.


Wither totem setup (weapon or offhand)

Wither totem setup for bosskills, pretty self explanetory.


Blight setup (in gloves)

Since the gloves provide Blight we don't have to socket it so the 4 gems will be purely dmg.


Aura and curse (in helmet)

Our temp chains setup for survivability and to extend our skilleffects, and shield charge because shield charge.

Unset ring

Required item

This is the core item in this build, without it you woudn't have enough damage. Getting 4 or more off colours before starting the build would be a good idea and i suggest using the jeweller's method.

Recommended items

At the cost of survivability you can greatly increase your damage and further the concept of lazyness by just having to walk past the enemies.



Between the 80-100% chaos damage, 10% increased area of effect and 40% increased chaos skill effect duration this is hands down the best in slot weapon for this build.



If you decide to go down the path of using Blight then these will be a huge help damage wise and utility wise (at the cost of no resists and life). Not having to use a 6L is great and they are also cheap.



Now this is an intresting one, first off it has decent life and helps us out with capping resists. Secondly it has a really nice damage increase for our Blight, and lastly it grants us Summon Harbinger of Focus Skill

"What does Harbinger of focus do?"
While you are channelling, the minion will occasionally cast a buff on you that reduces the Damage you take, and makes you avoid all Stuns and Ailments.



This is the best in slot belt for damage, But capping resists will be very hard and it doesn't have a whole lot of life on it.



In a perfect world you'd want %chaos damage crafted on every piece of jewelery but that probably won't happen. You'll ahve to get as much life and resists on these as possible followed by %chaos damage and if possible mana regen and/or flat mana but that seems unlikely.



A helmet with as much life and resists as possible, armour would be nice too. I got the offcoulours by using the jeweller's method.



Best source of the Vulnerability curse and increases our damange while giving us that sweet blind effect for bosses.



Not only giving us much better uptime on our much needed flasks but also increases our damage by 40%

We have a total of 6 jewel sockets in the build, 2 of them will be used for the Spreading rot jewels.

Mods to look out for:

• % Increased Life
• % Damage over Time
• Chaos Damage
• Area Damage
• Damage
• resists (hard to cap)

Divine life flask
Getting one with the instant recovery aswell as bleed removal will be important as the flask can be used multiple time to remove bleed and get you back up in bursty situations.

Hallowed Hybrid flask
Try getting the saturated mod which increases life and mana recovered at the expense of recovery time. this will synergize well with the immunity to curse mod.

Quicksilver flask
We don't use Shield charge since we're gem starved so we'll have to get the most out of our quicksilver by getting the longer duration (Experimenter's) and increased movement speed roll (adrenaline).

Overflowing Chalice
This will help you keep up quicksilver and Witchfire Brew which is very important to the build aswell as increase your damage.

Witchfire Brew
Alot of your damage will come from this item so get it ASAP, not having to use blasphemy vulnerability will help you out tons with survivability by not having to reserve more mana. Ohh, and blinding bosses really helps with that whole face tanking thing.

Twinned Waterways T13 -max
All 4 Shaper Guardians Deathless

The original drawing I sendt back in 2014 telling GGG roughly what I wanted the item to look like. It was made by cropping diffrent items already in the game then putting some shitty filters on it to obscure that i used other items. I think I did a decent job back then. :P


The first draft i was sendt back from GGG.


First time i got to see Death's Oath rendered in 3D.


GGG showcasing the art ingame on their test server.