[3.3] PWAR's Vaal Double Reave Slayer/Champion - Fast Clear Speed / Insane Boss Killer

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ProjectWAR wrote:

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PandaZeus wrote:

cool, thanks for explaining, curious though, with tombfist giving us maim, shouldn't you replace the maim skill in our 6-links?

I think it just gave the most damage for the slot, or perhaps I forgot to change it. I literally just used PoB, sorted gems by dps, and added whatever seemed to give the most damage that didn't need to be played around.

-V-Reave
-Multistrike
-Dmg on full
-Melee Phys
-Increased Aoe/Conc effect
-Ruthless/Maim

So by those links, ruthless gave more than maim, but only because of the 3rd attack. the maim gem gives decent dmg boost outside of the chance to maim though, hence the point of using it (more phys dmg, increased phys from quality, more phys dmg against maimed guys) so it's slightly better since it offers more upfront damage from the first two hits, though with multistrike you do 3 hits per attack anyways...but yah, ruthless helps out every 3rd hit, maim helps out non-stop.

I'd say play around to what feels better for you, I prefer maim as it can help kill mobs in the first 2 hits of reave, rather than waiting for the last 3rd hit and possibly taking more damage or something. ruthless is probably better for bosses though.

I understand using maim but my question is with tombfist's maim is there a need for maim gem? so I guess there's no need and I can just add in a ruthless to get both ruthless and maim(from gloves) effect right? I'm aiming for just purely V-double strike

Nevermind, I googled and found out that the maim on tombfist is just a skill that allows us to proc maim at 100% rate instead of 30% from the gem.

Do you have any other alternatives for boots if lets say I prefer not to run double curse considering I am using tombfist and I need slots for my adrenaline instead of running double curse. Is rare triple resist with hp best?

would loreweave be a better choice than belly, I wonder?

Can you please post your gems/links in your original post and a little more explanation of your choices? I absolutely detest viewing the gem setups in PoB because it never gives me a proper visual of what is being linked or swapped.

Also, I'm confused by some of your choices of gems.

You have Vulnerability being used on Blasphemy, which gives you a constant 20% chance to maim enemies, but then you still choose to use Maim in your 6L for DS/VDS. Other than absolutely guaranteeing that you maim enemies, is there a reason for keeping this over another support gem? Like say, Brutality, should I decide to forego any elemental damage, or maybe some other support like Faster Attacks? I've noticed the VDS clones do in fact have their own Blasphemy/Vulnerability curse aura applied to them, so they are more than capable of cursing enemies on their own when outside of my own curse's range, so even having the Maim support just for them does not seem as beneficial as giving them the added damage from Brutality or Faster Attacks.

Also, you mention leveling Summon Ice Golem and CWDT to level 16. Seeing as I won't be running a Tombfist, I would be running CWDT + Blood Rage + Increased Duration + Ice Golem in the same link. While I do see the benefit of having CWDT cast a level 16 Ice Golem and Blood Rage (13% attack speed over the 8% you would get by leaving Blood Rage at level 7, the highest you could level it while still being cast by a level 1 CWDT), wouldn't it still be better to have your Blood Rage pop as often as possible in a level 1 CWDT setup, with albeit a smaller increase in attack speed? Keeping that in mind, it would obviously make sense to then move Summon Ice Golem out of that link and level it accordingly as a manual cast skill, as having it pop a new one every time 528 damage is incurred seems unnecessary.

Those are just some thoughts. I'm currently running my Ice Golem with my Blasphemy + Vulnerability + Hatred, and replaced it with Phase Run on my CWDT. I'm also primarily running VDS over Vaal Reave since while I do enjoy the AOE clear of Reave, it's such a pain swapping out 3 whole gems in my chest piece and reassigning skills on my hotkeys for every boss fight just to accommodate my VDS setup. And being that I don't do any ele damage this early in my playthrough, I'm opting for Brutality in my 6L VDS setup over Maim.

After I respec my tree a little (I started following a similar build but quickly discredited its usefulness) I will pick apart the passive choices a bit more, but overall I like this build a lot and will be taking my VDS bois to endgame with me.

Just wanted to update with what I've noticed after running this build for awhile. I chose Slayer with Vaal Double Strike over Champion/Reave.

I've opted for virtually no elemental damage so I can run elemental reflect maps. While I still chose to wear a set of Windshrieks, I do not benefit from the elemental damage bonus, but that's okay as it's the only realistic way to have an additional curse with this build (the only other way that would make sense requires a corrupted amulet that will likely not have stats you need).

I lucked out and found this for 2c:

Rarity: Rare
Armageddon Sever
Dragoon Sword
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One Handed Sword
Quality: +20% (augmented)
Physical Damage: 73-156 (augmented)
Critical Strike Chance: 6.00%
Attacks per Second: 1.71 (augmented)
Weapon Range: 12
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Requirements:
Level: 72
Str: 148
Dex: 220
Int: 66
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Sockets: G-R-G
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Item Level: 78
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20% chance to cause Bleeding on Hit
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Socketed Gems are supported by Level 18 Increased Critical Damage
59% increased Physical Damage
Adds 9 to 21 Physical Damage
14% increased Attack Speed
+24% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
30% increased Damage with Bleeding
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Elder Item


Not the greatest sword ever, but solid stats and enough physical damage to still pop most mobs.

My gem setup right now is:

-Vaal Double Strike + Melee Physical Damage + Damage on Full Life + Ruthless + Increased Critical Damage + Ancestral Call/Brutality

-Leap Slam + Faster Attacks + Fortify + Blood Magic

-Blasphemy + Vulnerability + Assassin's Mark + Enlighten

-CWDT + Immortal Call + Phase Run + Increased Duration

-Vaal Haste + Vaal Grace + Increased Duration

-Summon Ice Golem + Ancestral Protector + Herald of Ice


I've opted for running Brutality in my 6L when switching to single target damage for bosses. It gives better damage than Maim and being that I don't deal any elemental damage anyways, there is no trade-off.

I also chose to run both of my curses on Blasphemy rather than having to manual cast Assassin's Mark from a ring (and not wasting space for a better stat and stat combos on my rings). This is harder on mana, but not entirely unmanageable if you have an Enlighten gem (I have since been able to afford a level 4, bringing my overall mana reserved with both curses to 60%). Due to this, I nixed Hatred and I decided to soak up my remaining mana with a Herald of Ice that I have socketed in my sword for the level 18 Critical Damage bonus from the Elder mod. This unfortunately makes HoI reserve 32% mana, leaving me with only 8% of my total mana, so I have compensated for such by picking up Essence Sap and its respective double 0.4% of Attack Damage Leeched as Mana nodes in favor of one of the jewel nodes on my passive tree (which I can just as easily pick back up when I move up past level 90). I imagine I could run Herald of Ash just as well, but I enjoy the extra shatter/clearing potential of HoI for when I don't happen to bleed explode ALL the monsters in the group (usually the ones to the back of the mob). I may swap them around and play with them, but HoI just seems like the better choice for mapping, and HoA for the boss damage. If one finds themself in an Elemental Reflect map, just turn off your Herald of Ash (HoI doesn't reflect) and enjoy a very healthy mana pool.*

These changes mostly let me get my resistances and stat requirements easily and cheaply capped through my Diamond rings and amulet. This in turn allows me to run a Belt of the Deceiver with a 13% Increased Skill Effect Duration corrupted mod on it, which gives me some extra life, resistance, physical damage, reduced damage from critical strikes, and the very nice Intimidated debuff on nearby enemies. The Skill Effect Duration implicit also helps make up for the 20% I lose by not having a second Atziri's Reign Jewel equipped. Haemophilia Gauntlets have been more than helpful even late game too, and I don't see myself replacing them anytime soon, unless I get something crazy like an Atziri's Acuity.

Overall, this build rocks for how cheap it is. My only "splurge" item was a Level 4 Enlighten which tbh, is not even all that necessary unless you're socketing your Herald in an item modded with a support skill (which in turn increases the mana reservation). I even lucked out in 6 linking my Belly of the Beast in under 200 Jewelers/Fusings. By far the cheapest build I've pushed to endgame with, with very comfortable damage and survivability.

Something else I've noticed with your Vaal Double Strike clones: They will in fact utilize all of the buffs available to your character at the time of spawning them (including your Blasphemy auras). So to most effectively drop a boss in several seconds, you will need to pop the following at the beginning of every boss fight, in this order:

Summon Ice Golem (or just make sure he's still alive)
Ancestral Protector
Vaal Haste
Vaal Grace
Atziri's Promise
Diamond Flask
Silver Flask
Leap Slam to proc Fortify on hit
Vaal Double Strike x2

I'm about to set up a macro for this, as otherwise you're playing the piano a bit before you even get to attack the boss, which leaves you a little vulnerable if you derp out and roll your knuckles across your keyboard like a heathen.

Best of luck to anyone else playing this. It's very satisfying to watch your slashy bois gangbang a boss with a million attacks, or even just routinely spawn them as you casually roll through maps to take out the rare/unique enemies that don't immediately die in a bleed explosion. Likewise, they appear to be unaffected by monsters that use Suppressing Fire or any other annoying attack that lowers attack speed. In fact, they don't appear to pull aggro or take damage at all. This is both good and bad, as they can sprint straight through packs and take out anything without any difficulty, but having them take some of the heat off of you would have been a nice addition to their usefulness.


*EDIT* After further review, it appears that the Socketed Gems Supported by lvl 18 Increased Critical Damage does not work on Herald of Ash. Or at least, not the fire damage, only the overkill burn damage. As far as I can tell, HoA doesn't even acknowledge the support at all. Just as much, if you run Brutality, you will only apply the the overkill damage and none of the fire converted from physical damage. If you don't have the Elder mod on the sword, this doesn't matter, as you can just run Maim in Brutality's place and see a significant increase in damage, but otherwise Herald of Ice seems to be the way to go in this instance, as its damage cannot be reflected and it appears to fully utilize the lvl 18 Critical Damage mod.

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CrowMagnum wrote:

*snipped*

First: Going full phys means losing at the very least 50% of your endgame DPS in this meta. A good stat stick and Hatred + Hatred crit Watchers Eye gets that number closer to 75%.

Second: Maim is used because it is simply the best choice of damage support. Nothing to do with guaranteeing Maim. It is 30% more damage AND 14% more physical damage taken, which works as a straight up more multiplier to all physical damage.

Third: "Cast Assassin's Mark from my ring." What? It is applied automatically to everything you hit, while wearing that ring.



@OP: Have you considered Loreweave? You lose 300-400 life while gaining a shitton of damage. And the lifeloss should easily be more than outweighed by the 80% all res.