The Easiest of the Easy Beginner Build Guides [1.1 SotV UPDATED]

How viable is this build currently?

very viable
i highly recommended this build.

The survivability of the build is awesome when I used Life Gain on Hit, instead of Life Leech with the lightning arrow link setup.

Give an example, I was trying out the unique map, coward's trial(the map that spawn insane amount of mobs in a small room) few weeks back, and I kinda failed with my witch summoner. But with using this build, lightning arrow + life gain on hit, I can just stand and a corner and attack those mobs and survive, using life/granite flasks when needed.

Per above. Life Gain on Hit is better at lower levels, but level your Life Leech until you're ready to make the switch.

Ziggyd, please include in your builds, which skill gems you recommend improved quality (for that build) and in order.

Using two 3-socket wands in my alternate weapon slots to level an additional 6 gems, but they won't get to lvl 20 until I'm level 75+. As a bonus, since they only take 3-squares each in the pack, they can be swapped out with larger items in my inventory to make (best case) 6 additional squares of room in the pack.

Thanks Ziggyd! -Don

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doneros wrote:

Using two 3-socket wands in my alternate weapon slots to level an additional 6 gems, but they won't get to lvl 20 until I'm level 75+.

85+ is a more appropriate extimation.

A few questions:

Should I link Frenzy with Physical Projectile Attack Damage support gem at 5L or less? (is Phys Proj better than Added Fire or WED?)

Is Chain straight out better than Pierce for LA, or only past a certain level where the damage penalty is low enough? Or are they interchangeable depending on certain conditions?

How useful is Broadstroke (unique quiver) for this build? I've been using it for a while but it seems more important to get one with life/resists going into cruel/merc.

Thanks in advance!

This works super well with large packs, but single target fights are really long for me at level 36. I have 411 dps with 3 frenzy stacks. (I'm currently using Faster Projectiles and Added Fire damage.) This can make for really, really long fights against life regen / high life rare mobs and boss fights. I had a lot of trouble with Gravicius and his energy shield. I need to move to mitigate damage, but if I move too much they've healed past what I can deal out in a burst. Anyone have tips here?

Also mana is constantly an issue. I can usually manage it, but my mana pool is only 245. I have 6 regen per second and 5% mana leech from physical, but it's really drained very quickly. It's particularly hard to keep up, once again, on long single target fights like a boss. Once the 4 mana flask charges are spent it becomes very difficult.

BM seems like it would be really bad for endgame and considering you can't even reach it until well over level 40 is it even worth it? There's very little life regen here from passives, so it just seems like an extra gear requirement so you don't kill yourself.

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debuskjt wrote:

BM seems like it would be really bad for endgame and considering you can't even reach it until well over level 40 is it even worth it? There's very little life regen here from passives, so it just seems like an extra gear requirement so you don't kill yourself.

You can get BM as early as around level 32-35 by going straight for BM after picking up Iron Reflexes (skip Iron Grip, skip Unwavering Stance). If you placed points in Heart of Oak->Ballistic Mastery, respec out of them (4 points) when you can reach BM in 3-4 nodes.
After getting BM you can backtrack and pick up Blood Drinker, Iron Grip, Unwavering Stance and any nearby life nodes. For life regen there is a Golem's Blood node for 1.5% regen among the health cluster to the left of IR.
To manage health costs after BM, consider getting a Life Gain on Hit support for LA and Life Leech support (buy both from other people) for Frenzy.

Fantastic guides

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blueblacklogcake wrote:

A few questions:

Should I link Frenzy with Physical Projectile Attack Damage support gem at 5L or less? (is Phys Proj better than Added Fire or WED?)

Is Chain straight out better than Pierce for LA, or only past a certain level where the damage penalty is low enough? Or are they interchangeable depending on certain conditions?

How useful is Broadstroke (unique quiver) for this build? I've been using it for a while but it seems more important to get one with life/resists going into cruel/merc.

Thanks in advance!

Go for resist and life on the quiver in any case. Yesterday I picked up a 5L body armor after which my resists dropped from 75% to 55% average. I started dying on merciless like every minute and had to switch back to my old armor immediately. 75% is a must on merc so do everthing you can to get the resists up before you enter it. Only if you can reach 75% resist without quiver, than you should go for PDI%.

The same goes for +life% especialy if you rely on BM.

For Frenzy, I,m using PPAD sice level 15 and it works very well for me on single targets with AFD and FA in a 4L.