[3.9] Aziire's Dual Strike Berserker - The 0.0% Build
 TLDR: Path of Building Link Videos: Video Build Guide (Very Soon!) Tier 14 Maze + Veritania the Redeemer Build List: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2688401 Build Intro: Finally back. From tomorrow on I'll be replying everyday, and will reply to the past 2 pages of comments (I'll read them all however). If I don't get to yours I'm sorry, just re post it and I'll get it within the next day. For now I have a new YouTube guide here. Hope you all had a good league and looking forward to making build guides for all of 3.10 :) The revival of Dual Strike has arrived. When I first started playing Path of Exile Cleave/Dual Strike builds were my go to. Since then Dual Strike has been a dead skill. Over some recent patches Dual Strike has received some really nice buffs, yet somehow still has no one playing it. On poeninja there are 6 out of 14,709 characters that are using Dual Strike, hence the 0.0% build. This skill is actually a hidden gem, as it is one of the only skills with access to a good source of Double Damage which has been getting nerfed constantly. Thanks to the Might and Influence Threshold Jewel we can get 20% Chance to Deal Double Damage with our Main Hand, and Off Hand Splash Damage. We scale our Damage for the most part through Physical Damage, with a lot of Extra Cold added in with Auras. This makes for a devastating build that swims through maps shattering packs and nuking bosses. If you want to see the build in action, or prefer video build guides over written then the best place to do so is on my YouTube links above/below (my one moment to sell out). I also check this forum daily so if you have any questions, build related or not, just leave a reply and I'll respond fairly quickly. If you are big brain 500 iq and find someway to improve the build let me know, I'm not perfect. Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/aziire YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7vLIcfmXcyxst2uhc9woSg  Pros: - Cheap and Simple, cost under 1 Ex to completely gear - Handles Metamorphs no problems - Rage stacks feel amazing and activating Berserk is Anime Mode - Really easy for lazy playing, cruises through Tier 15s while watching shit - It's unique, practically no one plays Dual Strike Cons: - No major source of mitigation, rather a combination of smaller ones - Elemental Reflect & Physical Reflect will still ruin us - Not super tanky, it is a feelgood level for mapping - For The Awakener and Guardians it is ideal to Gem Swap - Damage can take a second to ramp up while you build Blitz Charges and Rage Offense: - Some of the largest DPS I have ever achieved - Old School Attack Speed levels thanks to Berserker - Weapon Range gives us a little more room to work with - Pseudo 7 Link thanks to Bringer of Rain (1 Chaos as of typing this) Defense: - Can't get hit if you blow them up first - Legit though, as standard with my builds, we absolutely tear so we don't die - 180% Life at End Game, enough to comfortably get 5.5k+ Life - A few layers in everything, some Block Chance, some Armour, Some Evasion - Standard Life Leech Rate  The build is designed around Level 92. This has just become a standard number for me as it's usually the Level I reach before typing these up. Obviously I also have a Level 100 tree just in case there are any people wilding out there. The Levelling trees are also in the Path of Building, just switch the trees at the bottom left on the app. Bandits: Eramir is our Bandit of choice. The area between the Marauder and Duelist is nutty, and I constantly find myself yearning for more points. While Alira and Kraityn both wouldn't be bad picks, going for the two extra passives feels so gooood and allows us to squeeze out another Jewel. Level 21 Tree: Click Here | Progressing through Act 2 | Help Eramir Level 32 Tree: Click Here | Up to Dominus Level 45 Tree: Click Here | Up to Act 5 Kitava | Should have your first 2 Ascendancy Points Level 63 Tree: Click Here | Up to Blood Aqueducts | Should have 4 Ascendancy Points Level 75 Tree: Click Here | Up to Maps | Should have 6 Ascendancy Points Level 92 Tree: Click Here | End Game | Picking up Juicy DPS. Should have 8 Ascendancy Points. Level 100 Tree: Click Here | Luxury Tree | Finish off the tree with some extra Life to help finish it off Ascendancy: TLDR: Flawless Savagery > Blitz > Aspect of Carnage > Crave the Slaughter
Spoiler
For big end game melee damage you only really have two options, Slayer or Berserker. To get the old school Multistrike feels back I decided to go with Berserker as he has access to Blitz Charges. Priority order for Ascendancy is:
Flawless Savagery gives us 50% increased Critical Strike Chance for Attacks, Adds 20 to 30 Physical Damage to Attacks if you've dealt a Critical Strike Recently and +25% to Critical Strike Multiplier. We want to get to our Blitz Charges as soon as possible so for our first Ascendancy we path our way there. The huge boost to our Critical Strike Chance is really nice and the flat Phys that we get from Crits is huge. This really helps bolster our damage a little in the early game, with the Crit Multi being massive in the end game. Blitz hooks us up with 2% more Attack Speed per Blitz Charge, 10% reduced Critical Strike Chance per Blitz Charge, Gain a Blitz Charge on Critical Strike and +20 to Maximum Blitz Charges. To the bread and butter. Blood Aqueducts gets absolutely creamed thanks to this Ascendancy. The Attack Speed is crazy, and you really notice the ramp up effect that it has. Getting to 20 Stacks is a game changer, and is definitely where we are doing our big deeps. This is also the case when fighting Metamorph or End Game bosses, you have to wait the initial few seconds of attacking before we have our maximum speed achieved. Aspect of Carnage simply gives us 10% increased Damage taken and 40% more Damage. After Blood Aqueducts and as we enter maps we would have picked up considerably more health. This provides the perfect time to grab this free 40% more Damage. The damage here is fairly comparable to if we were to path all the way to Rite of Ruin however this will always edge it out. Feel free to go the full Rage route if you like though, it is definitely enjoyable as well. Crave the Slaughter allows us to Gain 1 Rage on Hit with Attacks every 0.3 seconds. Lastly is our Rage generation. This helps a lot with the final bosses and Metamorphs as we slap them silly to 50 stacks. You usually have 50 by the time you get there but if you are like me and fuck around you usually have lost all your buffs by the time you fight the boss. Pantheon: For your Major God you want to either choose Soul of Lunaris or Soul of Solaris. These are both super solid options and just depends on whether you want to be mapping or bossing more. If you think you won't fuck with bosses then take Lunaris, otherwise take Solaris. I personally use Solaris as the mobs die too quickly for us to get massive benefits from Lunaris. Also Boss mobs are our only real problem anyway. For your Minor God your best bet is Soul of Shakari as reduced chaos damage is a nice quality of life, especially once upgraded as you are then Immune to Poison. Because of how quickly we fly around the map none of the other minors are that great. Having ways to mitigate damage is always a plus.  For this build we are using Bringer of Rain which means we will have a Pesudo 7-Link, however we lose the ability to use our Chest Piece slot. We have a lot less room to work with Gems like this however for us this isn't super necessary as Dual Strike handles everything. Be sure to use a Tabula Rasa so you can level up 6 Gems on the side. Dual Strike > Ruthless > Multistrike > Ancestral Call + Level 18 Melee Physical Damage + Level 18 Faster Attacks + Level 18 Blind
Spoiler
Dual Strike is a fairly simple to build around Gem. If you have really expensive gear and manage to Annoint Tribal Fury onto an Amulet then you can probably afford to swap Ancestral Call out for Fortify. This will give us far more dps and some defense. I keep this on me in my Inventory anyway to Gem Swap for bosses that don't have add phases. Otherwise Ancestral Call is necessary to help with clear.
Due to the nature of both Ruthless and Multistrike we really want to focus on getting in three hits. Even though we one shot packs for bosses the difference is huge when you are on the third hit. Thanks to the built in gems we also get a huge boost to not only our offense but our defense. Most notably we get the Level 18 Blind which reduces the enemies chance to hit us by 50%. Whirling Blades > Faster Attacks > Blood Magic
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Whirling Blades is our primary movement skill, and is perfect for travelling across the map quickly. You feel like you are Butterfly Swimming through packs as you Dual Strike and one shot each group. I use Blood Magic as if you don't have mobs around you will run out of mana due to how much we reserve for Auras.
Leap Slam is also a perfectly viable option if you prefer to use that instead. Herald of Ice > Curse on Hit > Assassin's Mark
Spoiler
Herald of Ice is a no brainer as its shatters and explosions are unreal. Combined with the fact that we already do a lot of cold damage thanks to Hatred, this allows us to freeze the shit out of trash mobs. It also provides us one of the easiest ways to apply a curse, thanks to Curse on Hit. A lot of the mobs we are killing will usually be dead very quickly anyway, however this is just a nice sprinkle on top.
There aren't any other Curse options that are worth talking about in my opinion. The Power Charges are just so nice and help combat the reduced Critical Strike Chance we get from our Blitz Charges. Hatred > Herald of Purity > Enlighten Lvl 4 > Blood Rage
Spoiler
Hatred adds crazy damage to any physical damage build and is practically best in slot for all of them. It has a big 50% Mana Reservation but it is an essential. Herald of Purity is used only when you have a Level 3 or higher Enlighten. These are mega expensive but a good chase gem to aim for. The build naturally runs perfectly fine without it however if you can afford it definitely get it. The damage and minions that we get from Herald of Purity is a really nice quality of life.
Blood Rage is used to give us more attack speed, some life leech, and for Frenzy Charge generation. This just aids in our busted levels of attack speed. Berserk > Vaal Ancestral Warchief > Cast when Damage Taken Level 13 > Immortal Call Level 15
Spoiler
Berserk and Vaal Ancestral Warchief are our boss killing juicers. Roll into the Arena in that Tier 15 and activate these bad boys and prepare for mega dps. Combine that with full piano flask mode and you will Blitz your way through the boss/Metamorph.
Cast when Damage Taken Level 13 and Immortal Call Level 15 is our standard Lazy Boy save me setup. We can't expect this to keep us alive however it helps a lot during mapping for when a monster might clip you a little harder than you expect. It'll give you enough protection to obliterate the rest of the pack.  For how much damage I got out of this character, I spent hardly anything. Due to the items I used being fairly non meta it cost me well under 1 Exalt to gear the entire character. I even managed to get the weapons dirt cheap, and will explain a process on how to hunt down insane weapons for cheap in a video at some point. If you want some insane levels of mirror shit you could get some god tier swords (especially thanks to some of the Awakener Orb shenanigans) and have far more damage than I do. For all the gear options I will embed a Path of Exile Trade link so that you don't have to go search yourself and you can instead just open the link for what you need. These are set to search in Standard Temp Leagues so if you are playing in a different League then change it in the top right. Using these when searching for Rares can be confusing at first as I use a lot of filters to find cheap but good gear. Read the section carefully and hopefully I have explained it well enough for people to find what they are after. Please respond to the forum if you have found anything confusing at all and I can explain in further detail. Recommended Gear:
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Rare Thrusting One Handed Swords are the ideal for us. 300pdps is the minimum we want to aim for, I myself am only use ones with around 330pdps. Obviously the higher the better, it's all about what is affordable for you. We want to go with the Thrusting One Handers as they have more range meaning we can hit from further away, as well as having Global Critical Strike Multiplier built into the sword (Implicit). Also don't be afraid to grab something with Elemental Resistance on it. This will help you immensely when gearing the rest, and probably won't hit your dps much either.
Our next main piece of gear is the Bringer of Rain. As of writing this it is 1 chaos on Path of Exile Trade. 1 Chaos for a 7 Linked item is actually insane. Not only that but the links are insanely good. We are provided with free Blind, Faster Attacks and Melee Phys Damage. The downside is that we can no longer use a Chest piece however we have no problems reaching resistances without it. We also get a huge 200+ Maximum Life on our Helmet so we don't need to stress in that department either. Rare Gloves are where we want to start picking up some of the Resistances. The more Resistances we pick up on gear that doesn't have many damage mods, means the more room we have to work with when we get to Jewellery. Even so we can still get one super fat damage roll on Gloves, and that is the Increased Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies. If you follow the link above and sort by Sum you will find Gloves that will increase our dps the most. At the end of the day buy within your budget and always prioritise Resitances > Life > Damage. Rare Boots are simple and give us a lot of piece of mind. As long as we have 25% Movement Speed that is plenty, and the price difference between 25% and 30% is huge. We can save a lot of money here, and really prioritise the things that matter most to us which are Resistances and Life. Our final big chungus Resistance item is our Rare Belt. Squeeze out as much resistance as you can hear and just grab whatever dps increase we can. Even if it is just the Implicit bonus of a Rustic Sash. You will still not be Resistance Capped but the closer you are the better. Here comes the deeps. It's jewellery time, which means it is big fat damage time. Before deep diving into the world of added damage make sure you know how much you need to hit our requirements. We will want to grab at least 50+ Intelligence on one of the rings, as well as some Dex and Int on the Amulet. Fill out the rest of your Resistances that you need here as well and look to grab some Maximum Life or an open Prefix so you can craft Life. Rare Amulets are our best friend, especially influenced ones as they have juicy mods. Same goes for our Rare Rings. 1. Add your basics (Elemental Resistances, Stat Requirements, Maximum Life) 2. Search and sort by Sum 3. Buy within your personal budget For annointments we want to go with Tribal Fury to free up a gem slot or Tenacity. These are both very expensive, but are good to chase for considering we set up the build for relatively cheap. Grab whatever tower add on you enjoy most if you are planning to annoint your Rings. Due to our pathing we have a lot of access to easy Jewel Slots. I don't like to rely on these too much, however if you are pushing past Level 92 then these are great to take. Might and Influence is insane, and a huge source of double damage and clear for us. Socket this just below the Duelist Start. For everything else we just want to grab Rare Jewels. Whether they are Abyss or Normal doesn't matter to much, the search has Maximum Life so just go for maximum deeps (just like the rest, Sum). Pots pots pots. Stock staple stuff here. Atziri's Promise is an essential. For such a cheap flask it is an enormous dps boost. For most builds it is a standard item as it is just so nice. Other than that we can pick up Taste of Hate and Lion's Roar. These flasks are by no means essential unlike Atziri's but provide good bonuses to both offense and defense. The last two flasks I would recommend are to grab yourself a Diamond Flask for Lucky Critical Strikes as well as a Seething Divine Life Flask of Staunching (Instant, and removes Bleeding). The Gear I'm Currently Using: Thank you for reading/following the build guide. Feel free to leave any questions/comments in the replies as I make sure to spend an hour every day responding to people. Also if you have made it this far, feel free to support me by Subscribing to my YouTube. Viewership helps me a lot, especially as someone who pours a lot of time into these guides. Have Fun :) Last edited by AziiRe on Mar 10, 2020, 5:48:41 PM Last bumped on Jul 18, 2020, 2:12:19 AM
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Finally somehting kinda new!
Thx for the very detailled build, i'm gonna start mappin with it!I'll make sure to let you know if I encounter anything. Thx a lot | |
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Giving this a shot, as I'm getting a bit tired of ranged skills and mines..
Haven't played Dual Strike in ages, so I'm looking forward to getting to maps. | |
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Reached maps after some semi-slow leveling (decided to level with Dual Strike, instead of something "better" suited for that process).
As soon as I hit 67 and got Bringer of Rain on; everything just ramped up (sure, still doing lower tier maps - but the difference was night and day). I've only done the first two lab runs so far, so still missing out on even more damage. Far from "min/maxed" in terms of gear as well. It's fast (ludicrously so..) - it's hard-hitting - I like it so far. Using a Carnage Heart I had in my stash and was already nearly capped on res (it gives a fair bit all res as well) - even more damage because of the leeching bonus on it. Gear so far:
Spoiler
On a side note: I'm using a Dialla's Malefaction instead of a Tabula, for leveling gems. Got one with 5 blue sockets, so that's +25% Exp to the gems socketed in those. Got 4x Dual Strike + 1x Empower (leveling for another character), in the blue ones and the last socket was sadly red, so no bonus. Tested to see if the bonus still worked (got a 5th Dual Strike in the red socket), now that we don't benefit from a body - and it does! Much better pick for leveling gems :) Last edited by Tagger on Jan 5, 2020, 9:08:48 PM
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i try this build but i'm dying a lot in t11 and more maps, my resistance are capped and i don't lack of damages but it's getting frustrating.
Can you check my caracter and tel me what's i'm doing wrong | |
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My dude you have 0 Life on 70 % of your gear. Go get that Life and destroy everything
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I tried, clear speed is awsome,but getting into trouble in maps and in delve ,because getting oneshotted by rare/unique monsters and single target dps is kinda weak. Can you chceck my character,plz and give me some advices?
Last edited by Kminek666 on Jan 22, 2020, 8:29:14 AM
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@keenvaras
How did you go? Hopefully you enjoyed the build like I did! @Tagger It had been yonks since I played Dual Strike as well, as it is probably one of the least ideal skill to use (on the surface anyway). Turned out to be a beast though, just incredibly underplayed. The Carnage Heart is actually a really smart idea, especially with the extra leech. Would help bolster our defenses a little bit. I also didn't even think about Dialla's. I just used a Tabula as I had it spare but that is a much smarter way to level our Gems. Thanks for all the feedback, would love to hear how you went in the later maps (even though It's been a while D:). @yhaxile Lack of life anywhere makes pushing into any Red maps incredibly difficult. I found I ran into problems with the build when trying to do Tier 16 Metamorphs, except those are insanely rippy by nature. Get some life and you should be sweet (although I checked your character and he has since been dismantled, rest in piece :c). @Findejs I checked your character and you have some really nice gear. Optimising your flasks a little would help a lot, other than that getting used to the play style is pretty essential. You have to move around quite a bit, and Metamorphs can be deadly as you have to be in there face while fighting them. Finding the right timing for you to be able ramp your dps in that initial second (it takes a second because of ruthless and multistrike) is crucial. You'll find the boss gets melted once you start slamming them with the bonus hits. | |
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Hi,
Thanks a lot for the build guide. Looks very interesting to me and I might plan to try it in the next league. Just wondering: With the current state of impale for melee builds, would you think it would be beneficial to spec into impale nodes + use a dread banner? Or do you think that's generally not worth for that build? Thanks :) |
