[3.14] Aspect of Carnage Ground Slam Berserker, Bosser, Fast, League starter

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Ekule731 wrote:

Spoiler

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R3SPAWN7045 wrote:

I am considering a transition from my current build, back to Ground Slam, an old favorite of mine. However, it is clear at my old age in PoE that the younger and brighter have tuned things better than I ever could. That is just a long way of saying, you've topped my own ground slam builds I have kept to myself for years.

Anyway, lacking the current currency to go crit from the transition start, I am curious if there is a specific reason (outside of skill tree choices in prep for crit) that you recommend a 2H axe, even if looking at a RT rendition.

I have a very high pDPS stave at the moment that I am considering using util I can bankroll a proper crit transition. Other than skill tree nodes, which are easily changed with a pile of regrets, is there any other reason for the 2H axe focus when looking at things from an RT perspective? I am assuming I am just not awake enough, or overlooking something other than planning ahead for a crit change.

I did not read every page of this guide, and admittedly skimmed through the OP while I was at work, so if this is a dumb question with an obvious answer already in the post, feel free to say so.

Back in Harvest league, 2h axes were buffed so that they hit harder than any other weapon type in the game. There is a mace ground slam build guide, which is the other ground slam build guide for marauder in the forums. Maces dont hit as hard as axes, but they have much better stuns. Unfortunately bosses were given a cooldown after being stunned before they can be stunned again (in other words shaper cannot be stun locked anymore) which defeats the whole purpose of using maces. Swords dont work with ground slam at all.

Staves are actually really good for ground slam... if you can get one with high pdps. The issue with staves is they have a little lower pdps than axes, and more importantly have a lot of caster mods they can roll which makes it exceptionally harder to get a good staff to attack with compared to crafting an axe. If, however, you have a high pdps staff, you can certainly use it, and itll be far easier to go crit with one since staff has a lot of critical passives. Axes litterally only have one axe/crit wheel which we have to annoint the notable for since its so far away.

Since staves have so many critical strike passives in the tree, its actually not really very worth starting off with Resolute technique. Here is a passive tree for staves without a cluster jewel. Apart from the weapon and the tree you can follow my guide for the rest of the character.

poeurl.com/dcaY

Anoint Titanic Impacts (Amber Oil, Verdant Oil, Opalescent Oil)

Labyrinth 1: Pain Reaver
Labyrinth 2: Crave The Slaughter
Labyrinth 3: Rite of Ruin
Labyrinth 4: Aspect of Carnage

Once you get mana leech on a piece of gear, be it a jewel or ring or amulet, unallocate Pain Reaver and instead allocate Flawless Savagery.


****If you have a cluster jewel you should use this tree instead.****

poeurl.com/dca1

Edit: Slight modifications to tree and which anoint I suggested.

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Prof549 wrote:

So, i got my hands on 6l chest(Belly) and 5l Atziri's axe for a starter(RT).

While i'm planning to slam a reservation from Crit variant into body(aside from Precision(btw what to put instead there?)) - which red gem can i drop from a GS-link for now? Which one is less important?

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ssampiseth wrote:

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Prof549 wrote:

So, i got my hands on 6l chest(Belly) and 5l Atziri's axe for a starter(RT).

While i'm planning to slam a reservation from Crit variant into body(aside from Precision(btw what to put instead there?)) - which red gem can i drop from a GS-link for now? Which one is less important?

personally, I don't think its worth chasing crit now before completing RT build but u might generate currency at a faster rate so my suggestion is to get a rare 6l axe with as much dps as you can.

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ssampiseth wrote:

Really good guide here, thank you for writing it.
I do have one question, how are ''Attacks has #% to critical strike'' translate into actual crit chance because I'm thinking about getting Astral plate with that mod and massive life/resist instead of the belly of the beast.
Edited: forgot to mention also get crit on hand of templar too, so is it stacked?

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RestlessNomad wrote:

https://pastebin.com/zhaU9eg8

Any idea how to get more damage without going crit?

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Ekule731 wrote:

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RestlessNomad wrote:

https://pastebin.com/zhaU9eg8

Any idea how to get more damage without going crit?

You're starting to get towards the upper limit of the RT variant's dps. You have roughly 11 million dps without seismic cry. With seismic cry for 5 hits you have an average of roughly 22 million dps.

Most of your items aren't bad enough to warrant replacing. Your worst items I'd say are your rare jewels. You can get far more value out of attack speed mods instead of additive % damage like "Increased damage with axes" or "Increased area damage" mods. The other thing you could upgrade is your watchers eye. You could get either the +2 impale or the 8-12% chance to deal double damage with pride. Both of those would be upgrades. Your tree looks correct. You're even using a ryslathas coil, which because its rolled so well is almost 15% more damage on average. (poorly rolled ones can even lower your average damage)

It seems like you're not too far investement-wise from swapping to crit. It would certainly be a way to increase your damage if damage is what you're really wanting.

Here is a search criteria for crit axes you could look at. It may be most cost effective to use a fleshripper with a little less pdps than your current axe, although you certainly could buy a fleshripper with 800-850+ pdps.
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ritual/vd5J9bMCE
Youd also want to replace your rings for ones that have accuracy, although your Sorrow Hold ring would be hard to replace. Bottled faith is 5 exalts last I checked, although you don't need it to transition to crit. You'd replace the taste of hate with a diamond flask, and one of the life flasks with a Bottled faith if you choose to buy one. Overall you could probably transition to crit with 15-20 exalts, and you'd also be able to sell the axe your currently using if you do decide to.

Looking at the current market, selling your axe might be enough to make the transition if your willing to settle for just a little bit less pdps. Id price your current 868pdps axe at around 15ex (assuming its 6linked) at the time of writing. The most ideal scenario would be to buy a new axe, then sell your current axe after, so that you dont have the issue where you cant play the character.