Playing with some gem combos in Path of Building with the new 3.0 tree, it looks like Bloodlust and Melee Damage on Full Life are still the top theoretical dps gems for the 5th and 6th sockets. There are a number of options and it may be up to preference. Ruthless Blows, Chance to Bleed, and Brutality are all interesting new additions.
Bloodlust:
Both the axe cluster and sword cluster by Marauder start grant 25% chance to bleed. Using alongside the Voidheart ring would grant up to 75% bleed chance. With Bloodlust, you have to use your other skills or totem to apply the bleed. Keeping the totem up for bosses and tough fights is best practice, but the totem still dies easily and needs recasted. 25% is too unreliable except on long fights, but 75% is great for all content. Using a good rare ring instead of Voidheart and using the next best support gem will be a small decrease in damage but big increase in life and resists from the rare ring. There should be weapons with bleed chance on them as well.
Melee Damage on Full Life:
While the Berserker/VP keeps you topped most the time and nearly instantly, but against anything but slow attacking bosses without adds, you still spend a good portion of the time under max health. Ruthless Blows is the next highest dps gem according to Path of Building, but if I remember correctly, it's an RNG mechanic that grants bursty damage and a stun. Could be a great replacement, since it is only a small decrease in dps.
Brutality
This was the one I was most excited about. Using this gem makes Hatred and Herald of Ash useless, so Haste would be used instead. It also Makes your ele and chaos damage potions useless. However, monsters are more likely to be resistant to ele than physical. You can still use Lion's Roar flask and a sulphur and silver flask for damage potions. This gem would allow more freedom with auras, and make Soul Taker less necessary, which opens up the sword build. Haste is a shitty aura, but extra attack speed is always appreciated. I think ele damage is gimicky, so I will give Brutality a spin as well.
Lots up in the air yet, and I look forward to testing the new gems and providing feedback.
PS, thanks for the announcement on the front page Umbra :)
PSPS, Added Fire is out and good riddance
PSPSPS, helping Kraityn gives attack speed, dodge, and move speed. Oak gives life regen (useless), phys damage reduction (not sure how much), and phys damage. Kraityn is just .6% less dps, and attack speed > damage, so I will go with Kraityn.
This is why this guy is totally the new dual striker haha look at that info, looking forward to seeing how you make dual striking shine more than 3.0 itself bro!
Dual Striker Leech Tank, creator since 11/2014
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1533986/page/1Umbra_the_Wolf
I'll try this in the new league, havent played a dualstriker since i started the game a few years ago. Will b fun!
Yeah he's nearly 4 years old now! I made this guy so long ago, he has to be the oldest build in the game at this point. I've seen like 100 or more good builds get nerfed but this guy keeps chopping!
He may be slicing soon, maybe swords will be fun too!? I know Soul Taker was always a limitation to cost of my build, I hope swords open up. Never liked them myself but others seem to and I'm excited that my build may become much more flexible soon!
Dual Striker Leech Tank, creator since 11/2014
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1533986/page/1Umbra_the_Wolf
Death of Shaper, 2xUber Malachai, Uber Atziri & Trio, Guardians of the Minotaur/Hydra/Phoenix/Chimera, 2xAbyss, 2xColiseum, Uber Izaro & Uber Argus, and Halls of the Grandmasters UMBRA & SOUP'S DUAL STRIKER LEECHTANK
INTRODUCING THE NEWEST ADDITION
TO THE DUAL STRIKER FAMILY
ROGUEMJB (Rogue, from here on out) Rogue has demonstrated himself to be an extremely exceptional dual striker and has consistently answered in the forums knowledgeably and with precision for my dual striker. His answers are to be considered authoritative. Please show him the same courtesy you would if Soup or I had answered your question!
UPDATED 08/04/2017 CREATOR & BUILD MANAGER NOV. 2013 TO TODAY: Umbra_the_Wolf (me) going on 4 years old, damn! BUILD PARTNER MAY 2016 RETIRED JUNE 2017: Triwesterki (Soup) BUILD PARTNER AS OF AUG. 2017: Roguemjb (Rogue) UMBRA's MARAUDER: Penumbra_of_Eclipse TRIWESTERKI's MARAUDER: Zombiesoup (Soup) ROGUE's MARAUDER: Mauloch [*Soup and Rogue] are full build partners. Questions answered by them in the thread are authoritative. Also keep in mind that Soup and I share POE accounts, I may be playing on his account from time to time
AT-A-GLANCE POWER OF DUAL STRIKER Read this Do 5ex Budget build then gradually go full epic!
Spoiler
Shaper capable epic gear (tankable minus arena and his floor explosion attack) U-Atz capable epic gear Guardians T16 fully tankable with 5ex budget gear U-Izaro tankable fully tankable with 5ex budget gear T15 MAP DOUBLE BOSSES: fully tankable 2x bosses with 5ex budget gear Atz at Apex: fully tankable with 5ex budget gear See gear section for any boss specifics
*ALL LEAGUES CAPABLE* including hardcore league
Start budget, and if you love him go epic gradually :D budget
*
**
***
**** WHY CHOOSE DUAL STRIKER? Just watch this
Spoiler
Overgrown Ruin T15, double boss corrupted ultra-tanking
4K videohttps://youtu.be/O-eVGExx-gI ---------- at 19s I lagged, allowing you to see just how much actual damage I'm taking per second
3.0 BUILD NEWS, READ IF
YOU ALREADY PLAY DUAL STRIKER
Update 08/04/2017
WHAT'S CHANGING FOR DUAL STRIKERS COME 3.0?
3.0 should introduce a great boost to survivability thanks to the greatly increased melee phys. damage offered by the brutality gem and possible life pool boosts with a hybrid life chest. The cost of the build is sure to drop a lot since Brutality prevents use of elements so NO MORE SOUL TAKER WOOT (optional of course)!! With the dropping of elemental damage sources we no longer need Hatred and Herald of Ash auras which means we will test full sword setup with some mana leech techniques most likely. It also means bye-bye expensive potions, as only Lion's Roar will work now with Brutality in dual strike setup. While DPS might drop some, survivability will increase but better than that with more constant and reliable output of damage with Brutality my dual striker's overall DPS should flatten out but stretch farther. In the fight with Shaper and Uber Atziri these pots are only good twice for 5 seconds, so that's not what I call reliable in a 15 minute fight. Brutality changes that, making his DPS reliable though seemingly a little lower. We'll have to wait and see!
As noted below, bleed may still be useful since swords and axes both still have bleed on passive tree making Voidheart a possibility. If we find a good way to drop Voidheart we will because it's not cheap and not always easy to keep active for budget builds using non-legacy gear. Our goal is always to make my budget build the best it can possibly be with less emphasis on epic gear as prices sky rocket for the most basic gear.
Playing with some gem combos in Path of Building with the new 3.0 tree, it looks like Bloodlust and Melee Damage on Full Life are still the top theoretical dps gems for the 5th and 6th sockets. There are a number of options and it may be up to preference. Ruthless Blows, Chance to Bleed, and Brutality are all interesting new additions.
Bloodlust:
Both the axe cluster and sword cluster by Marauder start grant 25% chance to bleed. Using alongside the Voidheart ring would grant up to 75% bleed chance. With Bloodlust, you have to use your other skills or totem to apply the bleed. Keeping the totem up for bosses and tough fights is best practice, but the totem still dies easily and needs recasted. 25% is too unreliable except on long fights, but 75% is great for all content. Using a good rare ring instead of Voidheart and using the next best support gem will be a small decrease in damage but big increase in life and resists from the rare ring. There should be weapons with bleed chance on them as well.
Melee Damage on Full Life:
While the Berserker/VP keeps you topped most the time and nearly instantly, but against anything but slow attacking bosses without adds, you still spend a good portion of the time under max health. Ruthless Blows is the next highest dps gem according to Path of Building, but if I remember correctly, it's an RNG mechanic that grants bursty damage and a stun. Could be a great replacement, since it is only a small decrease in dps.
Brutality
This was the one I was most excited about. Using this gem makes Hatred and Herald of Ash useless, so Haste would be used instead. It also Makes your ele and chaos damage potions useless. However, monsters are more likely to be resistant to ele than physical. You can still use Lion's Roar flask and a sulphur and silver flask for damage potions. This gem would allow more freedom with auras, and make Soul Taker less necessary, which opens up the sword build. Haste is a shitty aura, but extra attack speed is always appreciated. I think ele damage is gimicky, so I will give Brutality a spin as well.
Lots up in the air yet, and I look forward to testing the new gems and providing feedback.
PS, thanks for the announcement on the front page Umbra :) PSPS, Added Fire is out and good riddance (lol I agree with this wholeheartedly, added fire was always a filler gem, ~Umbra) PSPSPS, helping Kraityn gives attack speed, dodge, and move speed. Oak gives life regen (useless), phys damage reduction (not sure how much), and phys damage. Kraityn is just .6% less dps, and attack speed > damage, so I will go with Kraityn.
GEAR OPTIONS
Spoiler
OPTIONAL UBER ATZ. & SHAPER ENDGAME
8000 LIFE +MORE DPS LEGACY BRINGER OR 9000-9300 LIFE BELLY OF BEAST + RARE HELM
If Uber Atziri is giving you crap, try this flask, swap out a life flask for it
Belly+Rare Helm or Bringer of Rain. Must have 7800 life to effectively and safely use Belly of the Beast over Bringer of Rain since you lose 26% block in exchange for up to 500 life and it must be 6L. Damage is slightly higher with Bringer of Rain and the additional block it gives offers better survivability for those around 7000-7500 life. BRINGER OF RAIN IS ABSOLUTELY SHAPER ENDGAME TOO
ALL GEAR FOR ALL BUILDS
Dropped/On-Swap
You can use this if you need a cold flask but want more DPS at the same time but it is not 100% like normal cold flask and can be 100c to 1ex so I say f*ck it! Get Sin's Rebirth if you're going to spend that much, it's a billion times more effective for DPS then just swap for cold flask with a health pot slot since you almost never need health pots
On swap if you need it, good for leveling 68+ til life pool exceeds 7000 and great for phys. dmg. reflect maps
Non-legacy Rumi is fine!!!! Spell block on the potion isn't really even considered either
GEAR NOTES FOR BOTH EPIC & BUDGET GEAR USERS
Spoiler
Gloves should eventually have max APS crafted on them, 0.4% leech is extremely helpful
Amulet helps to have Life on Hit or %Leech
Belly+Rare helm offers MAX 500 life when already at lv100 with epic life gear
Resistances should be 100% (overcapped by 25%) AXES MUST BE 1.88-1.90+ APS-- less makes build unreliable for survival, buy less damage axe with more APS if poor
Low life? Get more Rumi pots. Blocking damage completely is better than a couple hundred more life
BLOOD RAGE IS NEVER AN OPTION. NEVER! It obliterates survivability in tier 13+ maps
Swords have never tested in high tier, hammers far too slow on APS, axes #1 in my opinion
Note: Since no other status ailments or elements bother my build, just craft "immunity to bleed" on your non-unique flasks, might as well as it is the only source of degen that you can even notice reduce leech effectiveness (only after several stacks of it though)
BUDGET GEAR OPTIONS-
CAN TANK T16
& DOUBLE BOSS ALL T15's INCLUDING CORE MALACHAI
Non-legacy Voidheart works very wel!!! Since you attack 14-18x per second there's a 100% chance to apply both bleed and poison 2-5 hits, so that's several times per second for each and the effect lasts a few seconds so it's constant. Legacy Voidheart is not necessary!
Sin's Rebirth flask not needed for budget, it is elite endgame mainly. Note that Shaper and Uber Atziri were killed with legacy Bringer of Rain+Voidheart at 8000 health and only 200k DPS so all the extra potions and gear is not even needed but it's extremely helpful. Start budget then go full epic, I say
BUDGET BUILDS NOTE: Rare helm goes with Belly of Beast armor
Guardians, Atziri (Apex) and U-Izaro (U-Lab) are tankable with budget versions of my build. 2xMalachai is farmable with budget build but not tankable due to 1-hit mechanics but quite doable- watch his teleport attack and hammer slam, that's it otherwise it would be fully tankable. Single boss T15 Malachai is laughably easy with budget build.
-T16 maps are fully tankable with budget gear so long as the map damage mods are not insane (like +100% ele. dmg. or vulnerability curse). All other maps T15 and lower are ABSOLUTELY tankable regardless of mods with budget gear regardless of mods if you have 7000+ life and nearly every T15 is fully tankable DOUBLE BOSSES regardless of mods as well. Lolz the entire game for 5ex or so.
Blood Rage is NEVER an option, it crucifies survival T13+ maps
150k to 200k DPS is ample for T16. Uber Atziri & Shaper originally killed with 200k DPS + 8k health w/ BoR
Remember the tooltip displays only roughly 40% of actual DPS. Mine says 566k but is ~1.2M w/ auras, bleed/poison etc
So no monsters or bosses can kill me except....?
Spoiler
-Shaper's weird void slam
-Uber Atziri's overlapping flameblasts/storm calls
-Malachai's phase 1 hammer slam and phase 2 teleport explosion (can still tank tele attack 90% of the time though)
-T14 Dominus's Fist of God *only* when damage mods are present like crit or lightning, otherwise tankable
-Although it doesn't happen to me, some budget build users stated T16 Minotaur's rocks falling can kill you if two hit you at the exact same time
-When using Belly+Rare helm, physical reflect maps "can" but usually do not cause you to kill yourself. Solution is to use Rumi's potion every 5 seconds, swap Melee Damage on Full Life for Added Fire and avoid using Warchief totem to minimize some extra physical damage that is reflecting back at you. This is 100% effective to tank reflect maps.
DPS OF DUAL STRIKER
Spoiler
Soup's DPS image in Path of Building right click > open image in new tab for larger pic
My APS is actually like 17.7 & this POB image excludes some damage potions as well as hatred aura and poison from Voidheart
SCREENSHOT right click > open image in new tab for larger pic
Using the new jewel Might and Influence, DPS is now officially exceeding 1M -Tooltip alone is 566k after savage hit
-Tooltip excludes bleed and poison from Voidheart
-Tooltip excludes Might and Influence's 20% chance to deal double damage
-Other crap I can't remember too because I'm dumb
SCREENSHOT SHOWS BASE DPS AFTER SAVAGE HIT ONLY- NO TOTEM, NO FLASKS, NO AURAS ETC
GEMS
Spoiler
20q gems slowly just by finding gemcutters
Leap Slam, Fortify, Culling Support: Leap Slam activates fortify (flat damage reduction), it knocks enemies back, it can start a bleed and poison effect on enemies which dual strike turns into hundreds of thousands of DPS and bosses die at 10% life when slammed. You gain an endurance charge as well (described below. Enemies are dead before they can even attack you
Cast When Damage Taken, Immortal call:, Vulnerability If you get attacked after leap slamming into an enemy the endurance charge you gained discharges for physical damage immunity for arunnd a half second, which is more than ample time to decimate massive T16 mobs and leap again to the next mob. Vulnerability is obvious lol enemies get deadeded betterz.
MAIN SKILL DUAL STRIKE Voidheart Ring Synergy with Dual Strike, Multistrike, Bloodlust and Melee Phys. Dmg. on Full Life: NOTE: When using Belly+Rare helm use swap Melee Dmg. on Full Life for Added Fire on high Phys. Dmg reflect maps and avoid using Warchief totem.
WHAT THIS GEM SYNERGY DOES
1) bleed+poison
-Voidheart ring applies bleed & poison on melee hits
-Bloodlust gem in Dual Strike setup cranks DPS massively on bleeding targets
-Atziri's Promise flask adds chaos into the mix for synergy
-Sin's Rebirth increases chaos damage via phys. dmg. for a synergy
-Lion's Roar cranks phy. dmg. output at its base thereby increasing all of the above even more since they "add/gain" your phys. dmg. into "more" damage as chaos
-Atziri's Promise "gains" 15% of your ele. dmg. as extra chaos dmg. which is amplified by auras (more below)
2) overkill burn
-Herald of Ash aura gains you fire dmg. and burn dmg. over time
-Enemies who die spread the "extra" dmg. that killed them to other enemies
-If those enemies nearby die that "extra" dmg. spreads more, or they ignite for burn dmg.
-Melee splash in Might & Influence jewel amplifies this effect
-Atziri's Promise flask amplifies this effect
3) chill on hit
-Soul Taker has a "can chill on melee hit" which is very defensive and does not take account of dmg. to health as freeze does, this simply works by chance on every successful hit, slowing enemies
-Melee splash in Might & Influence jewel amplifies this effect
4) freeze via phys. dmg.
-Hatred aura "gains" you additional cold damage from your phys. dmg.
-you attack so fast that mobs can be flash-frozen and chilled repeatedly in short periods of time, making attacking defensive
-Atziri's Promise flask amplifies this effect
-Melee splash in Might & Influence jewel amplifies this effect
5) Lion's Roar flask
-As your elemental and chaos/bleed damage is based on your base phys. dmg., using this flask to crank melee dmg. actually cranks all other sources of additional DPS from auras and effects
-Melee splash in Might & Influence jewel amplifies this effect greatly
6) Melee Splash from Might & Influence jewel
-takes everything above and spreads the love all around
-Greatly affected by APS more than total melee phys. dmg. that's why my build focuses on APS more than base dmg. per swing
Note how defensive attacking has become?
By attacking suicidally you are more defensive than when skirting mobs/enemies.
Suicide is the only way to survive lol seriously though,
skirting enemies will get you killed. Jump into the center to live!
Melee Splash: This is now taken care of by the Might & Influence jewel. It is amazing and necessary for mob DPS without taking up a valuable gem slot. Note that 40dex nodes need to be in radius for it to work, and the only spot is far right so you will have to use Melee Splash gem until higher level
Auras: Soul Taker allows to reserve 100% mana and use all melee skills even with zero mana. Arctic Armor and Fortify offer flat damage reduction and is self-explanatory. DO NOT USE BLOOD RAGE!! It kills survival in higher tier maps. All else explained in bullets above
Ancestral Warchief with Culling Strike: What a cool little totem haha this little dude is great for adding physical damage as well as offering a minor distraction to enemies who would target him instead of you. In Soup's Uber Atziri video his totem even culled her haha. Link him with culling strike and he will really help end those annoying bosses and petty enemies. He can do well over 30k+ himself and adds so much to your own DPS too by having him active. Although his damage is enough to kill or help kill mobs, he does die very easily and his timer is short making him less reliable as a genuine damage dealing totem. Spam him all the time so YOU can have the extra DPS and if he succeeds in killing also then consider it a bonus to having him out :D It costs no mana to cast so you can just cast over and over even with three auras that leave you with zero mana. I strongly encourage obnoxious use of him :D
=
Misc: VENGEANCE!! This gem seems like it does almost nothing but it's a life saver. It triggers often enough that in times when you are unable to attack it will attack hard enough to many enemies to leech like crazy. It's always a "Phew!" moment but it saves the day. This gem is essential and needs to be maxed 20-20 for optimal a**-saving results.
HIGH TIER MAP
BOSSES DEFEATED
Please pay attention
to map modifiers on right hand
of screen during gameplay video
Spoiler
TIER 15 LVL82 Ambrius Legion Slayer,lv82 Colliseum map
***DOUBLE BOSS https://youtu.be/5G79zNdq4DA
by Zombiesoup using my build
TIER 14 LV81 The Goddess,lv81 Plaza map
***CRIT DMG ENFEEBLE https://youtu.be/-qsNR9Dko-o
by Zombiesoup using Umbra Standard build
Soup killed Shaper, Uber Atziri, Double-Boss T15 Malachai & Uber Izaro+Uber Argus
in the sections above
========ALL MAPS BELOW BY ME,
========PENUMBRA_OF_ECLIPSE NOTE: All videos below use my Umbra Standard setup unless
indicated as Umbra&Soup Voidheart setup
TIER 16 LV83 Guardian of the Hydra,lv83 Lair of the Hydra
Umbra&Soup Voidheart setup with Belly+Might and Influence Jewel
Me, using Soup's Marauder
4K video https://youtu.be/EjVRaGl51Jc
Guardian of the Phoenix,Forge of the Phoenix T16
Umbra&Soup Voidheart setup with Belly+Might and Influence Jewel
Me, using Soup's Marauder
4K video https://youtu.be/8ttxXHLBR1g
The Infernal King,lv82 Abyss map
***DOUBLE BOSS JAILHOUSE SODOMY (lol) Umbra&Soup Voidheart setup with Belly+Might and Influence Jewel
4K Video https://youtu.be/Fmj7MWgF0ko
The Cursed King,lv82 Dark Forest map
by me Umbra&Soup Voidheart setup with Belly+Might and Influence Jewel
4K Video https://youtu.be/tnlih8lgr5w
Why Duelist sucks with my build and why Berserker Marauder is the only real way to do my dual striker--
1. Block is too costly on passives in other ascendancy subclasses. You need Rumi's Concoction for block so you can reach 8000-9000 life to fight Uber Atziri and Shaper. My dude needs every possible health node to be able to take high damage hits without dying. That's where he is both strong and weak, if he doesn't get 1-hit he doesn't die, but he needs his tree to focus on life nodes.
2. Berserker class lets you take savage hits, allowing for 100% of melee damage to be leeched (this is why I can tank the uber trio for a time all 3 at once)
3. My build is a damage sponge, this is at its core. Blocking is too "chance" oriented. It's not a guarantee. Only leech and high life matter in endgame!!!!
4. Duelist nodes are not well optimized for my build at the starting area, meaning endgame is even worse. If it were possible to compensate then that'd be different, but marauder is just the best. He offers everything you need from start to finish on the tree.
There's a lot more reasons but this is good enough
WHY PLAY MY DUAL STRIKER
MARAUDER?
Because he's fun. Because he's the fastest, most visceral build in the entire game. Because when you hack enemies to bits you feel powerful. That's why people play this game...to feel powerful and my build gives you that. Unfortunately this game has become a slogging mess for cheap difficulty mechanics, economy inflation, and skill nerfing. It's tiring! Time to pick up a 3 year old skill that is fun and play this damn game for fun, you know, like a real game and not a chore. This game is nothing but tedium when people play characters with the intention only to get awesome gear using cookie-cutter endgame farm builds. Screw that jazz. Thankfully, you can take my Dual Striker straight down Shaper's throat for some .... fun! Choose another build if you are dumb lol.
ANY DEFENSE FOCUS IN MIND
FOR THIS BUILD IS?
Spoiler
This is his defense in order of importance numbered below. Remember, this build is very synergistic, where changing one thing impacts the others to varying degrees. It takes time to feel-out this delicate balance!
1. Leech is his #1 defense= sponge damage like the God of War himself in all situations without running, dodging, evading or excessive health potting 2. Life= better sponging and fewer one-shot deaths= tank everything!! 3. Attacks per Second= fast tiny leech hits= instant health recovery 4. Block= negate damage= tank effectively in those hairy situations NOTE: As of patch 2.4, Vaal Pact improvements and the Dual Strike buff made blocking almost unneeded ***Don't go nuts with armor guys! Your Damage Reduction is a mix of armor rating from Rumi's Concoction/Lion's Roar flasks, Fortify, Arctic Armor and just a couple armor/life/evasion nodes which multiply when you pot with Rumi's. Overall, physical damage isn't a big thread and also armor has little effect on my build since he uses Immortal Call setup for physical damage immunity
WHAT IS HIS
PLAYSTYLE LIKE
AND HOW DOES THE GEMS
& FLASKS WORK?
Spoiler
1) Leap slam into enemies
2) Kill them
3) Repeat.
DO NOT PLAY SAFE. DO NOT EDGE MOBS, LEAP INTO THE CENTER OF MOBS OR YOU WILL DIE. PLAYING IT SAFE CAUSES DEATH.
The build functions at its core by being all physical melee damage. It uses Voidheart ring to stack bleed and poison damage from melee hits which is devastating because he attacks about 1080x per minute. Using Bloodlust gem further multiplies damage on bleeding enemies making physical damage mods very much more effective.
Furthermore, the use of auras and flasks my dual striker can "gain rather than convert" all of his raw physical melee damage +APS into other sources of "additional" damage like poison+chaos+bleed from flasks & Voidheart ring, while his auras give cold and burn from Hatred and Herald of Ash and chaos from flasks. Meanwhile Soul Taker chills on hit and Melee Splash spreads all of those damage sources across a wide area for devastating AoE. The result is relible clear speed, high life, infinite instant leech in mobs and single boss tanking. He does this with unmitigated fury at all times and is the most devastating, relentless melee build ever conceived
BANDITS:
Spoiler
Normal- Help Oak for +40 Life Cruel- Help Kraityn for +8% APS Merciless- Kill All for Passive Point
SORRY BUT LINK PICS KEEP GIVING "ITEM DOES NOT EXIST ERROR" BECAUSE I NO LONGER OWN THESE EARLY LEVEL GEARS. POE.trade will bring them up easily to see and buy.
Try to get high life/mana leech via gear
Get high life via passive nodes
APS from weapons
and make strategic use of flasks when found or bought very very cheaply
Example of Early Gear, 1 alch to 5c price range or say no
Brightbeak hammer gives insane APS at early through mid-game
Do not spend more than a few chaos on any of these, you will outlevel them very rapidly
You should see the commonality of all the gear- They enable tanking via resisting stuns, getting more max life, increased APS for DPS and Leeching. Armor is harder to come by at low level and while armor is not a factor in my build at all, it may be needed at low level until you get your life pool large enough.
Notice how the life tree is focusing on life across levels 46 to 100? That's your defense at play and is why low levels can be hard. This can make it hard to progress and come lv50-65 a lot of your low level gear won't be very helpful anymore but equipping your other gear requires levels lv68-72 so story progress can become a brick wall. Use teammates for help and when you finally equip the Soul Taker and Bringer of Rain WOW, you will be mapping lv75 alch'ed maps solo like a speeding train. So don't worry, leveling will become so much easier!
So early game really is just nabbing as much APS, leech and life as possible. Manage mana leech with those gloves because they are epic and although the sword and hammer aren't amazing they are so blinding fast at low level you will be crazy! They last til around level 50 before they start taking eons to kill mobs, so that's why you hop in teams for 10 levels. And good luck trying to 5L prior to lv40 haha mana multipliers kill management. Don't be scared to take an Intelligence node. 4L should be fine.
Do your best to mimic endgame with Leap Slam gem setup and Dual Strike for maximum APS and Melee Damage comes in a firm second place. APS gives life/mana leech which helps you tank and genuinely increases damage more than plain added physical damage. It can be hard at first since high APS can drain mana faster than simply opting for more plain melee damage but when you get mana sorted out you will be a god.
MORE DETAIL
1. Equip Lakishu unique one handed sword as soon as you can. They're very cheap (2 alteration to 1-2 alch), It offers a built in Multistrike and will carry you through to lvl 60. In your 60's you'll want to look up Wings of Entropy if you're still broke and didn't have good luck with uniques. It's a very solid Dual Striker Axe and will easily carry you to 75+ while you build currency. It should cost an alch or 2, maybe 1 chaos.
2. Don't hesitate to get that +30 int node. You will have intelligence problems. Respec later once your jewelry makes up for it. Also, don't wear Kaom's Roots until you can max your res from just Jewelry, Belt, Gloves.
Come lv68-72 you should have most or all of the endgame budget/epic gear listed at the top of my forum.
Word to the wise, do not equip Kaom's Roots Titan Grieves until your resists are maxed 75% or 100+%
3. If you're broke, save for that Soul Taker. But get a Bringer of Rain first. It should cost you roughly 1-5 chaos for even a good non-legacy Bringer of Rain. Soul Taker will cost anywhere from 35 chaos (great deal) to 60chaos/1exalt.
4. Get Rumi's flask last, you can get away with some Granite Flasks/Basalt till you have enough currency after your soul taker
Time to equip the Might and Influence jewel over in the right of the tree near Weapon Artistry node for the radius of 40dex nodes and drop melee splash gem for either Melee Damage on Full Life or Added Fire gem. Melee dmg gem better!
POE TRADE LINKS.
NOTE: links are for STANDARD league and are examples, including offline. Change all what you want through "show search form" button. You need 1.88 APS on the axe minimum and jewels must have 7% max life, 8-14% APS, melee damage and if you're smart you won't settle for 3 affixes, you'll want that 4th mod on every jewel. Fill in whatever gap in defense you have with 4th affix, most likely intelligence and resistances. These jewels are the ultimate endgame gear tactic, so don't skimp
axe: http://poe.trade/search/uazasitonomour
jewel: http://poe.trade/search/hitatonasitito
Now it's time to regret as needed and follow the lv100 tree. REGRET STRATEGY:
1. Fill in the highway node path (south toward Bloody Bludgeon) to acquire that lower-most jewel node
2. Then work up (northwest) to get the Bloodless health cluster
3. Then fill in the highway of strength nodes leading northwest to Onslaught, and once connected you can now cheaply regret the highway beneath Warrior's Blood. Deposit those regretted points according to the lv100 tree or where you think is best for your survival at that current level. You will suddenly be so insanely more powerful that you might have to touch yourself before continuing to play the game! Again, if needed, gently modify my tree to suit your weaknesses! I tend to go for more APS and Life nodes when I feel pressed.
6. Around lv85+ you'll see that one-shots become more common with rared/corrupted maps because of mods like vulnerability, +Damage Taken and temporal chains, among others to keep an eye on. The problem is honestly just life. It's math, as my dual striker has virtually no defense except a super-high life pool and leech so you'll need 6500 life to make endgame T15+ maps reliably cleared. You'll also see your not-awesome-enough siege axes swinging wayyyy too slowly and if you're getting frozen you need more life and maybe a cold flask. When you're taking an hour to clear one corrupted t12-15 map you will start to understand that it's time to start swapping out that old gear for true endgame gear, and this is where you either love this character as much as I do to make the cut or you quit him. With my improvements to the dual striker plus Soup's refinement of him for Shaper and Uber Atziri, even a budget build can make it to tank the Guardians and even farm double Malachai or wreck Atziri at Apex...but if you're reading this then you want Uber Atziri and Shaper, so it's time to get some godly gear.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Spoiler
Can I use Blood Rage to crank DPS since it offers leech too? No, no and no lol that gem crucifies survival even with epic gear once you start running T13+ maps with mods on them because leech is being ruined. A block build would not decrease block for DPS and expect to survive so why would a leech build do that? The added leech percent in the gem does nothing as your leech percent is already high enough to leech a 50k life per split-second. The draining life effect has a process/order to it that interferes with leech even though leech should still be instant, it just isn't anymore. You will die
is this build still viable after the void ring nerf?
Voidheart non-legacy still applies bleed. At 12-18 APS bleed will definitely stack to max in a second flat. Regardless he still has 3 sources to cause bleeding without the ring in non-standard leagues: Leap Slam, Vengeance and Warchief totem
When you leap into enemies, if they are still alive, you get attacked so vengeance works well, it is second source to apply bleeding. If you see rare monsters you can throw a totem before jump which is the third source to apply bleeding.
Chance to cause bleeding= 1-(1-chance to cause bleeding)^sources for 36% voidheart and 3 sources chance to cause bleeding=76%. if totem deals 5 attacks per second, every attack is a source. so after first second of fight, your enemies will be bleeding with 95.5% chance. after 2nd second 99.5%, after 3rd- 100% if totem is active.
Can this build play reflect maps?
-Yes, I play all mods except "no leech" including all double boss T15 maps with budget builds and T16 tanking with budget build.
-Use Rumi + added fire support gem in dual strike setup for phys. reflect
-Turn off elemental auras and fortify in dual strike setup for ele reflect but this rarely needed
Stupid question, why you are not using any chest piece?
The Bringer of Rain helm has mod "can't use chest armor" but you can wear any armor for skin, all stats and gems will be ignored but gems will get experience
Is this HC viable?
Yes. I've had a bunch of guys make it past lv90 on hardcore and stop mainly because of gear expenses to reach higher tiers
Can you test how 'actual' version of your builds works? W/o this old expensive stuff? I tested build without legacy items on every content. Budget version kills T16 iiq100+. I did vaal temple (was t14) with 6 portals, pre-nerf Core with 2 portals (T15 core was true nightmare before atlas expansion) in perandus (no legacy items, 320pdps axe when Voidheart did not even exist). Now with Voidheart both legacy and non-legacy, all of the above is easy-peasy on budget gear
It's not really worth getting the endurance charges?
Endurance charges are not important part of build. Dual striker can not generate them often enough for valuable effect in all scenarios. It's there to help and it does. Uber Trio is a great example. That cycloner triggers endurance charges almost every time he attacks and you can die very fast without the charges
Do you change your gear during the Uber Lab?
1) Flasks swap to all health pretty much. Keep main flasks in inventory for bosses
2) Endurance charges help a bit, 4 link: leap slam- fortify- faster attacks- endurance charge on melee stun is good option there
3) You can always regret Vaal Pact, Uber Lab still very easy with leech without VP
Is there a reason why you chose dual strike as your primary offensive skill? Will other
skills like lacerate work as well?
I created my dual striker to be like the Diablo 2 Smiter Paladin wearing Dracul's gauntlets (only leech gloves in that game). I loved the speed of his chopping and the speed also made him virtually unkilliable unless he's 1-hit in Diablo 2. My Dual Striker can tank 18 stacks of the Uber Trio's corrupted blood while gaining health haha. He's just nuts. I don't know much about other skills but I do know Cleave is viable but many people say it lacks the speed and feeling of extreme power. Other skills were slow or boring or limited and didn't make me feel strong and also wouldn't let me tank. I don't like running, skirting, dodging or anything. I'd say those are all reasons why I love my build more than any other.
SO, YOU WANNA FIGHT
UBER ATZIRI DO YA?
Spoiler
BASIC STEPS TO BEATING UBER ATZIRI:
1. The Trio
You can pretty much tank the uber trio if not for that rain of arrows chick in the middle. Nub dat biotch because she can burst damage you insanely fast but ultimately they aren't a threat anymore when you memorize how to kill them. Kill her first and you need to avoid taking damage from the other two guardians while trying to kill her because their combined damage basically insta-kills everyone. Once the girl is dead it's so much easier to stand still and tank. Your health can still plummet fast so make sure you are leeching constantly and bleed pot when you see 8-10 stacks of corrupted blood because the cycloner can dish out dozens in seconds. You can tank 18 stacks but that's only like 1 to 2 cyclones. He's the worst in my opinion because he doesn't deal savage hits making him always able to kill you when it's just him. When all three are there you take a lot of savage hits making you gain 100% of your damage as leech so you're unkillable almost. No harm is some regrouping because by and large the speed of the trio compared to my guy is slow. You can do some footwork safely. If you get attacked attack back though to avoid burst damage. Work your way around the level to make them move their feet too. Like Badminton!
2. Uber Atziri
Avoid most or all of her flameblasts/lightning calls. Yeah, you can take 9/10 of her single attacks, but even with 8k health and tons of extra fire/lightning res she can critical you and you'll get one hit deadeded. In all honesty Shaper is easier to dodge than Uber and she tends to fill the room with flameblasts so don't get antsy and attack too long in a row, it's safest to attack then back off even if you do not yet see the flameblasts being cast. Multistrike can cause a delay in fleeing the flameblasts so just be patient and you'll win. Remember you chose this build for fun, but Uber Atziri was never meant to be fun, she was meant to punish everyone. She was meant to challenge the most hardcore elite players in the game so you may need to be elite too like others have to be.
3. Take your time dude-
She has millions of health and resists just about everything you throw at her. People who fight her well can die easily in more common situations since they are overspecialized. Overspecialization breeds weakness. But you are not weak, just slow. Go slow, time your attacks, plan your moves, monitor her attack patterns and just be relaxed. RELAX. You might not pwn her, but you'll win.
4. Have 10+ex before even considering trying. You will need to memorize the fight. Period. You will die, a lot. But you'll start to develop a winning curve until you win all of the time. Be prepared to invest a lot of exalts into Mortal sets but for those who want to win, they will taste victory
SO YOU WANNA KILL
SHAPER TOO???
Spoiler
Actually Shaper I thought was more straightforward than Uber Atziri but no matter how easy he can seem you'll likely die a couple times to that stupid arena of AoE doom that he's in. With moderate gear to epic gear you can tank Shaper utterly EXCEPT that weird rune void slam explosion thingy, which does like 30,000 so no one can tank that. You can also tank his yellow death beam kamehameha while standing on a degen void on the ground.
Hugging Shaper will force him to use his weak a** melee attack on you, so facetanking is very much more preferable than attacking and running over and over. Practice your footwork to detonate those big grey orbs that follow you around and pop causing the floor to become a degen doom room. Pop them on the outer edges of the arena. I made the mistake of popping one INSIDE Zana's red safety area lol that didn't end well.
The fight itself I think is easier than Uber Atziri because she has elemental attacks that can suddenly fill the entire room to one-shot you plus almost every spell she casts has the potential to kill you even when the spells do not overlap since my build maxes at 9300 life. Her attacks tend to do 8000 minimum and can critical and can penetrate resistances. Uhg! Shaper though only has one attack that can kill you utterly but his arena is very fustercluck of one-shot doom orbs.
I've even encountered Zana dying, which after she does NOT erect the red orb safety area and then those purple armageddon balls one-shot you.
Besides all of this, that's really all there is to killing Shaper. Just a crap ton of life and DPS followed by tedious memory of the scripted one-shot arena sequences. Honestly, without that arena Shaper would be a total newb.
NOTE: The main reason why budget builds can't reliably (or at all) kill Shaper is because the arena eventually kills you after a period of time has passed. It's like a built in timer so without epic axes your DPS will likely struggle to kill him.
Thanks for the support guys!!! ~UMBRA_THE_WOLF The Wolf bleeds
yet dies not
& Triwesterki (Soup) the first
melee Shaper killer
