[3.0] Lightning Slayer General 2H (Any Skill/Charged Dash)

https://pastebin.com/qKwWRdAx

Leveling as a 2H slayer is super easy, no specific leveling gear is required, at the same time there are tons of great leveling uniques that will speed up the process. For bandits I helped Kraityn

Levels 1-28:Focus on the general 2H nodes and the life nodes to get through the early acts quickly, for the first reward you get molten strike which is an excellent skill for the first few levels and then later on for dealing with bosses, at level 10 you get leap slam which lets you both leap through areas quickly and kill mobs along the way.

Levels 28-50: These levels you path to Resolute Technique, take Wildfire from Death to purity and buy a second wildfire, this will make your molten strike into an absurd single target skill that will let you finish the story in a 4L. You will also be able to ascend for the first time and pick up Bane of legends for better boss killing and faster movement.

Levels 50-70: The "pre map phase", here you work your way up to elemental overload swapping out of Resolute technique when you get there and picking up health nodes on the way, when you ascend for the second time you pick up headsman, you still use a 4L molten strike with 2 wildfire jewels for single target and another 4L for your general trash clear skill

Swapping into AoE (around level 75):When you acquire your first 5L endgame weapon and complete merciless lab you get to swap into AoE nodes and pick up Impact, these aoe nodes will increase the spread of the molten strike projectiles so it is no longer the great singletarget you used while leveling, so you take away the molten strike and wildfire jewels, from here on you will rely on your chosen aoe skill and warchief totem to kill bosses

Swapping into maces (when you get a brain rattler):Our endgame weapon of choice is the 2H Mace Brain rattler, this allows us to save 2 skill points by dropping executioner and wrecking ball and going for skull cracker and bone breaker instead.

Finishing up the passive tree 70-95:Once the base is done we pick up the health nodes and jewel sockets that were missed along the way, the flask effect nodes by witch are also very strong and when pushing into higher maps the accuracy from the marauder start helps

Crafting your own 2Her is very easy, you pick up the a white base that you want to start with, then Quality to 20% whetstones (should take 4) and sell it to a vendor alongside a rare rustic sash and a whetstone, this will get you a blue weapon with 50-69% increased damage, to finish the weapon off augment and if available regal orb and use vagan to craft flat physical damage (this requires a level 2 vagan and a hideout) a weapon like this will cost you 5 whetstones 1 regal and 6 alteration orbs. If you are not playing SSF and it is not the first day of the league you should be able to buy a leveling 2her that is better for less than the crafting cost. You can also use essences, especially essence of contempt to craft 2h weapons of good bases, in those cases you need a level 3 vagan to craft the % increased physical damage

The leveling uniques available are both very powerful and very common, you are spoiled for choice and you can basically sort them by DPS to determine which one to use, below are some of the ones I prefer using, there is however no need to use any for leveling

Levels 1-14 if I have a blood thorn in stash I tend to use it, otherwise I just take the highest damage weapon I can find, these levels are super easy

Levels 14-27 at level 14 I try to pick up a shiversting, the damage is crazy and it will get you to 28 with no problems

Levels 27-40 Geofri's Baptism, my go to leveling weapon, I have used it all the way into maps before and it is brilliant, since you are using resolute technique during these levels there is no downside, just make sure you don't swap into elemental overload before you stop using this weapon

Levels 40-maps The Cauteriser, this is basically an endgame weapon, it completely blows through the rest of the content and will last you until you can pick up a brain rattler, you can map with this weapon with no problems

For armor and jewlery try to max out resists and get life, there are some nice leveling items that give a lot of resists but they are generally not needed, always have movespeed on your boots, when you pick up art of the gladiator you can start using a chest piece

For flasks Use 1 or 2 quicksilver flasks, try to get quicksilver flasks of adrenaline when possible, if you are having mana issues then use mana flasks, they are really good and will carry you, if you are having resist issues bismuth flasks are awesome

when you enter Lioneyes watch pick up Molten strike, this is your boss killing gem for the whole story and works well as a clearing skill early

from breaking some eggs you pick up ancestral protector to help with your single target damage, in act 3 this is upgraded to ancestral warchief

and after you kill brutus you get leap slam and added fire damage, leap slam will serve as your movement skill and trash clear skill

Molten strike up until act 3 you will be limited to a 3L for your molten strike, for this you want a 3R setup with Molten strike Added Fire Damage and Elemental damage with attacks (sharp and cruel act 2), start looking for a 4L after you reach act 3 with the colors RRRB and socket in concentrated effect which you pick up in the library

Leap slam in a 3L use leap slam with added fire damage and onslaught, when you get to act 2 swap onslaught for a faster attacks and added fire for melee physical damage, the for the 4th link you want added fire back in and the colors RRRG

Ancestral protector/warchief: don't prioritize this skill in links, you can link it with damage boosting support gems if you have extra but use it mostly for the buff during boss fights

Auras and curses: during leveling to make gearing easier I tend to use purity of elements over a damage increasing aura or herald, I also blasphemy poachers mark which gives great mana and life sustain and frenzy charges which lets you get through zones quicker and is a big damage boost, both are picked up in act 3, before that I would recommend trying to get a clarity and using herald of ash

Choosing an AoE skill: there are many options for AoE skills to choose from, I went with Charged dash as the playstyle was very fun and it proved itself to be a very strong skill overall, other alternatives are cyclone, leap slam, static strike, earthquake, ice crash, ground slam and sunder. Out of those the two biggest contenders would be cyclone and leap slam as they also allow you to move while clearing, I will be focusing on charged dash as it is what I played but the tree and gear is not limited in any way

Charged Dash: as soon as I could start using this skill I did, you get it in act 3 at level 28 from Sever the Right hand, it is a bit weird to get used to but once you do you get the advantage of never having to stop, the key to using this skill is to have enough damage to 1 shot everything you go through so you never have to backtrack, you also want a big aoe since it increases the overlap of hits, this is where slayer comes in handy as it provides both, when you start using this you can stop using leap slam, the links are Charged dash--Increased Area of Effect--Melee Physical Damage--Elemental damage with Attacks for 5th you want faster attacks and 6th you want elemental focus

Cyclone: I have not played much with cyclone as I have enjoyed charged dash way to much to stop, if you do then use a 2L for leap slam faster attacks (with fortify as a 3rd) to keep your mobility and the links should be the same as charged dash

Leap Slam: works fine for clearing and movement, links are the same as charged dash but faster attacks has a higher priority (you want it in your 4L instead of elemental damage with attacks)

Charged Dash--Increased Area of Effect--Melee Physical Damage--Elemental damage with Attacks--Faster Attacks--Elemental Focus

your main attack, you start channeling this skill outside a pack in their direction, when the "ghost" has passed through them you let go and the pack should be dead, I was able to do this in t16 maps with a 5L and 1 shot rares, this allows for a very mobile playstyle where you never truely stop

Ancestral Warchief--Physical to Lightning--Melee Physical Damage--Elemental damage with Attacks--Concentrated Effect--Lightning Penetration

Boss DPS buff, use it for bosses, will boost your dps and provide shock on bosses

Herald of AshClarity (low level)//Poacher's Mark--Blasphemy

A 4 link for your reserved auras/curse, poacher's mark is very strong as it fixes your accuracy (I am currently at 94% with it) gives you double flask charges and gives instant life and mana on hit, clarity helps out vs bosses and on maps with hexproof, herald of ash increases the aoe a bit and is a nice damage boost that fits the mana reservation limits

Immortal Call(level 4)--Vaal Grace--Cast when damage taken (level 2)--Increased Duration

Survivability, you can up the level of immortal call and CwDT as you see fit, those levels are the lowest I would go for, and at most I would do CwDT level 8, with the change to vaal haste I have found vaal grace to be better

Leap Slam--Faster Attacks--Culling strike(quality needed)--Fortify

Movement and fortify, used when moving long distances without monsters so you can't keep flasks up or to quickly apply fortify during a particularly hard boss

Static Strike--Multi Strike--Melee Physical Damage--Elemental Focus--Elemental Damage with attacks--Ruthless

I got a second 6L in my offhand for a bit better single target on bosses where I can just stand and hit them, this is in no way needed but a nice little dps boost

The endgame weapon for this build, readily available once people start doing guardians, can farm for it yourself, with the innate 50% conversion to lightning on charged dash and the 50% from the weapon you end up converting 100% of the physical damage to lightning, this lets you use the 15% penetration fully and use elemental overload and elemental focus for all the damage. If you were to replace this with a rare you would need over 600 dps on it to compete, more if you are facing guardians


The BiS helmet for charged Dash, Attack speed and move speed are both very important for making it feel good to play and improving your clearspeed


BiS body, however not needed, I would take a well rolled rare 6L over a 5L belly, a nice health boost but not needed

The rest of the gear is rares, try to get accuracy and elemental damage with attacks on rings and amulet, elemental damage with attacks on belt, other than that get life on every piece and make sure to cap resists, 30% movespeed boots is a must and you want them enchanted with chance to crit if you havn't crit recently(helps with elemental overload uptime), here is my current gear, none of it was too expensive. Make sure Lightning resist is your highest resist to use Wise oak properly



Flasks: The only unique flask I use is wise oak, if you want you can swap in taste of hate over the stibnite flask to get a bit more phys reduction or atziri flask for a bit more damage



Jewels: look for Life and 1 damage mod and stats to begin with, you can usually find these for a few chaos, then upgrade to more damage mods as you see fit