[3.10] Molten Strike Jugg (Thread restored for historical purposes)

OMFG! uARE THE SLAG!!!?? With the best playthroughs i have EVER seen!!!
GRATZ, GRATZ! i kneel for U!!!

Hi guys can anyone help me out? My DPS seems to be really low compared to the build given, not really sure why, i'm clearing maps pretty well up to t15s, but find myself dying unnecessarily.

I think you can see my character from my profile but if not heres my path of building pastebin
https://pastebin.com/pR18aWax

Let me know if theres any issue, im still new and working my way around this.

"

stephoa wrote:

Hi guys can anyone help me out? My DPS seems to be really low compared to the build given, not really sure why, i'm clearing maps pretty well up to t15s, but find myself dying unnecessarily.

You really need "adds # physical damage to attacks" from rings and amulets.
I aim for 10-25 dmg per slot. Maximum Life and Resists as needed.

You also have empty Jewel slots!
Get Life + Attack Speed + Increaesd Damage here.

Switch faster attacks for chance to bleed in your 6L.
Instead of Herald of Ash, run vulnerability + blasphemy for offense, or temp chains for defense.

Finally you dont need the bleeding flask with deaths doors.
Get Kiaras + Taste of Hate instead.

Oh and tick the "is the enemy intimidated" box. Get an uncorrupted Belt of the Deceiver btw.

"

Atzilla wrote:

You really need "adds # physical damage to attacks" from rings and amulets.
I aim for 10-25 dmg per slot. Maximum Life and Resists as needed.

I'm looking to upgrade my amulet/ring aswell.. phys.dmg with max life and resistances? that must cost a fortune.. I'm using essences of contempt to try and craft one but the RNG is not with me

"

Masgon wrote:

Spoiler

Thank you for an amazing and cheap build. This is the first character I have ever gotten above level 51, so you may call me a noob.

Following this build, I have yet to meet a brickwall. I managed to kill 2 of the guardians very easily, namely minotaur and hydra. I pretty much oneshot mobs in t15 maps, and harbingers in t16 are the only encounters(besides the guardians) where I have to re-consider just standing in the middle of them, laughing, like a boss.

Guardians I couldn't kill, and high tier maps:

Spoiler

Phoenix was a bitch. I tried 8 times and I kept noobing whirling blades right back into her bomb/cyclone strikes. I am hopeful that I can kill this flaming bastard with a bit more practise.

Chimera was hard. I facetanked with my life going from 2% to 100% every 0.5 second. The adds that spit chaos broke me down. The rest of the fight I could do with few issues.

Almost every map is cleared without any issues, except for a few of those nasty bosses. I might have to learn their mechanics, or "git gud" or something. I have yet to even attempt shaper.

I haven't really upgraded my gear post-lvl70(besides Ming's Heart, which is frickin amazing), so that's what im looking to do now. I need to get ahold of that beautiful +40% blade flurry damage enchant. I know I can get a hold of better flasks, rings, amulet, but at least in those slots I understand the choices you've laid out for me in this thread.

Which brings me to the equipment slots I don't know what I'm going for.

Spoiler

NOTE: I know this is supposed to be a budget build, but I've got myself a little bit of currency now and all I want is better gear. This is why I, in some cases, compare some of the item choices I've seen in this thread to rare items.
It might be evident that rare items will be better in some slots, but I'm still fairly new so I gotta ask.



BEFORE you start reading the rest of this post, know this: I realized I was following an old version of this build. I've read every page of this thread and since found the latest version, and a bunch of tips. I have also included a summary section at the bottom of the post. You are more than welcome to just read that and give me a reply if you feel like it. The stuff in the spoilers are my trains of thought surrounding the different items.

A) Boots upgrade! Death's Door?

Spoiler

I see that a lot of you are running death's door, which to me seems to not be a great addition to the equipment.

Bleed immunity? I guess it's usable for running uberlab, but I got a bleedingflask that really does the trick. (I know running these boots will then open a flask slot for something better, and it could very well be worth it)

%inc. armor & ES? Sure the armor is alright, but I am not having any troubles with physical damage at all. ES is a bad joke.

The strength is the only mod that I find attractive, and strength you can combine with life+damage on any other rare. the runspeed I have managed to do without, seeing as you can whirl wherever you want to go.

There is no damage and no life on these boots. I really want one or the other, or preferably both. The bleed immunity doesn't appeal to me at all. Am I looking at this wrong?



B) Belt upgrade! Belt of the Deceiver?

Spoiler

Damage? It boost DPS, that's for sure. 25% inc physical along with 10% from intimidation is damned sweet.
I'm wondering if a Rustic Sash with 24% inc physical and the inc. elemental DMG mod + hatred would provide around the same damage boost. I will go about testing this if I ever get my hands on such a Rustic Sash.

Life - The amount of life you lose by using this instead of a rare belt is considerable. now I realized that after hitting a certain amount of health, you don't really need any more because you're either going to be one-shot by something hard or you'll have no problems staying alive. Crits are an exception, but I'll get into that.
I am fairly certain that my lifepool will be more than enough at the end of all this, so it might not be needed with a rare belt.

Reduced damage from crit. strikes?
The only thing that kills me on some bosses(including uber izaro from time to time) are crits. At least I think it's crits. Some of the hits suddenly oneshot me, and I've tanked through those same hits before. It could also be hits from mobs that hit me at the exact same time as the boss.
Are those 30% enough to make me withstand those heavy hits? Maybe with a bigger healthpool.

This belt is actually very appealing to me. Lifeloss is inevitable in the quest to upgrade your damage, but I feel there could be better belts out there in both life and maybe damage wise.
The only thing I can not find anywhere else is the reduction in damage taken on crits. Is this why you guys are using this belt? Or is it because a rare one would just cost too damn much?



C) Chestpiece upgade! Belly of the Beast vs. Carcass Jack

Before I start let me begin by saying that this is the itempiece that I have researched the least.

Spoiler

The resistances aren't that much different between the two.

Survivability - I am not certain what gives more HP; 40% inc. life, or a Carcass with +70 max life. Without doing any math at all I am almost certain that the Belly would give the most, of course depending on how much +life you've got on your other items.

Again I would like to mention that to me, a healthpool too high might not be needed. If you're not being oneshotted you will be on full health all the time, and excess health is only used to withstand crits or survive longer when you cannot lifeleech. (CHIMERA CLOUDS).

I have been looking at the Brass Dome for surviving those crits. Now this would mean that you lose A LOT of life, but gain a lot of armour. If one was to go about using this item you would need to fetch life from other sources, meaning that some of the itempieces that give sweet bonuses to damage would be traded out for survivability, which means that damage would suffer at the cost of surviving that rare bossfight where you happen to get a crit in your face.
I am not certain if this is a good trade.
Belt of the Deceiver could very well be enough for surviving the crits. I have yet to test that belt out. Maybe you guys got any experience with this?

Armour/Evasion - The belly has armour, whereas the Carcass has evasion. Without having delved deep into how the %inc. evasion works with Iron Reflexes, I am uncertain which of these bonuses would provide the most armour. Nevertheless this is not something that I am too interested in, seeing as physical damage is the least of my worries.
On second thought: A huge amount of armour could possibly help me with my problem being critted by bosses.

Offensive!
The Carcass Jack is by far what provides the most damage, not much else to say about it.

If however I am gonna run Carcass, Belt of the Deceiver, and Ming's Heart, I am afraid my healthpool will start getting too low.

Belly appears to be the best defensive item. You've got life, armour, resistances.
The Carcass is obviously better for offense with the increased area damage.
Does the Carcass provide nearly the same amount of armour?
I don't know which item provides the most life, but it appears to not matter much.



SUMMARY:

Spoiler

My main annoyance at this point is being critted randomly by bosses. I am wondering how you guys cope with this. Do you boost life to the point where you can survive crits? Do you boost armour to the point where you can survive crits? Or do you use the Belt of the Deceiver for this specific purpose? Or do you simply also get unlucky sometimes?

Death's Door boots does not seem to be worth the trouble even looking at. Can someone please explain to me why this is included in the equipment?

At what point do you say enough is enough life-wise? Is it correct of me to assume that after a certain point, you don't really need more life because you will only die to 1shots anyway? And you regen back to full life in less than a split second

Do you exchange some of this gear with better rares as you become richer, or do you think this is as far as the build can go?

Thank you all for being who you are, and for taking time out of your day to assist people using this build!

For someone who has never leveled past 51, you've done plenty of research into what is good and why, which is awesome. Best way to learn the complex mechanics of this game. Regarding the questions:

A) Death's don't seem all that great when you look at them, but in practice, they are really nice. The extra flask isn't a necessity (I've done Shaper with Kaom's Roots and a Anti-blede life flask) but it obviously is a nice damage boost. The bleed immunity is amazing. Flasks work great of course, but not ever worrying about it at all is awesome. The movement speed, strength, and resistances are all solid as well.

However there's nothing wrong with using Kaom's for a huge life boost, or rare boots with a combo of life/res/str either. Go with what feels best to you, but if/when you have the currency, you should give Death's Door a try.

B) You seem to have already made the decision, but BotD will always be the strongest DPS option because of the aura. That gives a 10% more damage multiplier, which will top any combo of damage on a rare. As for the life, as you mention once you get to a certain point, all you're getting is a little cushion. Generally in the mid-6000s feels pretty good. I sit around 6300 while mapping and 6700 doing guardians/shaper/atziri with my current gear. I could get more HP, but it still wouldn't save me from the one-shot deaths.

C) Carcass is going to be the best option endgame, both with the DPS boost, and the QoL with the extra range. Belly is always going to give you the most life outside of Kaom's, which obviously doesn't have any sockets and is a non-starter. As mentioned above though, eventually the extra life is just cushion and not really adding all that much to the survivability.

Summary) As somewhat mentioned above, but clarifying as a TL;DR here

Coping with Crits: Eventually you have enough life/defense to out-leech any incoming damage, and any one-shot attacks are usually pretty well choreographed.

Death's Door: Quality of life (movespeed/bleed immunity), strong overall mods (movespeed/resistance/str), extra damage flask availability. They don't look amazing on paper at a glance, but in practice they are really strong. They are OP in Lab.

Life: For general T15 and below mapping, 6000 or higher seems fine. I sit just over 6000 with my full mapping set-up (Empire's Grasp/Bisco's). I'm just shy of 6700 with my boss set-up (Rare gloves/rare +1 curse ammy)

Upgrades: I feel the best glove option is Empire's Grasp while mapping (reverse knockback is amazing with Lion's Roar/knockback gem) with a swap to rare Spiked Gloves for Guardians/Shaper/Atziri (immune to knockback).

Amulet, Bisco's Collar is great for mapping for extra currency/drops. Bloodgrip is the easy and cheap option, especially for the dual-curse version of the build. Eventually you can look for a rare +1 curse ammy with better stats.

The most obvious choice to costly upgrades are top-end Steel Rings and Jewels. They can add a LOT to the build. Rather than buying one outright, you can craft the Steel Rings with Essence of Contempt for the guaranteed flat damage roll, and hope for the high life/high resistances combo.

Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge!

"

nEgativezEro89 wrote:

Life: For general T15 and below mapping, 6000 or higher seems fine. I sit just over 6000 with my full mapping set-up (Empire's Grasp/Bisco's). I'm just shy of 6700 with my boss set-up (Rare gloves/rare +1 curse ammy)

Very good to know! I was at 7.1k before I started to upgrade my damage and now I'm around 6.4k. I thought it was going a bit low, but I feel confident in myself again. I have yet to upgrade all my jewels to the expensive ones, so I can get some health there if I feel the need.

"

nEgativezEro89 wrote:

Upgrades: I feel the best glove option is Empire's Grasp while mapping (reverse knockback is amazing with Lion's Roar/knockback gem) with a swap to rare Spiked Gloves for Guardians/Shaper/Atziri (immune to knockback).

Reverse knockback is something I have to try out! It is really annoying when you use lion's roar and end up knocking enemies out of range.
Now that I swapped Haemophilia for Shaper's Touch(with curse on hit) I no longer make enemies explode, which used to have the AoE required to kill the mobs that I have knocked outside of blade flurry reach.

With Empire's Grasp you surely won't have that problem, and the insane armour boost is very welcome for standing in the middle of packs. Seeing as these gloves are cheap I will go right ahead and purchase a pair. The lack of damage by swapping to these gloves can be found in jewels, and that might be enough to kill packs in a split second anyway.

However I am really interested in seeing how far up I can push my dexterity for the 2% inc. melee physical per 10 dex on Shaper's Touch. I have an itchy feeling that this could help my damage on bosses, which is the last content I need to do.
I need to do some testing to see if this bonus along with the curse on hit can overwhelm the positive effects of blowing up monsters with Haemophilia. As of right now I feel the explosion cleared packs faster.

"

nEgativezEro89 wrote:

Amulet, Bisco's Collar is great for mapping for extra currency/drops. Bloodgrip is the easy and cheap option, especially for the dual-curse version of the build. Eventually you can look for a rare +1 curse ammy with better stats.

The most obvious choice to costly upgrades are top-end Steel Rings and Jewels. They can add a LOT to the build. Rather than buying one outright, you can craft the Steel Rings with Essence of Contempt for the guaranteed flat damage roll, and hope for the high life/high resistances combo.

The amulet slot is what I've been working on all day. I've tried to buy all the cheap, decent amulets out there to vaal them and hope for the best. I have also started to purchase essences of contempt to see if I can craft my own. I reckon I need like 20 decent amulets before I start vaaling them.

I had totally ignored the use of a second curse after I got vulnerability on my gloves. What I had been looking for so far is the 20% minion damage boost.
I thought that seeing as we're using The Scourge, this bonus along with +phys.dmg would give a really decent boost.
After checking out the punishment curse I see that it not only gives a bigger damage boost, but also atk.speed. Running a curse on hit, punishment+blasphemy and hatred aura would be sweet as hell! The only thing I'm worried about is mana issues, but our ascendancy gives us 3% of damage mana leech so that is hopefully enough.

It is time to draw up new plans, yet again! But I love optimalizing!

"

Atzilla wrote:

"

stephoa wrote:

Hi guys can anyone help me out? My DPS seems to be really low compared to the build given, not really sure why, i'm clearing maps pretty well up to t15s, but find myself dying unnecessarily.

You really need "adds # physical damage to attacks" from rings and amulets.
I aim for 10-25 dmg per slot. Maximum Life and Resists as needed.

You also have empty Jewel slots!
Get Life + Attack Speed + Increaesd Damage here.

Switch faster attacks for chance to bleed in your 6L.
Instead of Herald of Ash, run vulnerability + blasphemy for offense, or temp chains for defense.

Finally you dont need the bleeding flask with deaths doors.
Get Kiaras + Taste of Hate instead.

Oh and tick the "is the enemy intimidated" box. Get an uncorrupted Belt of the Deceiver btw.

Thanks! I'll start working on those.

May I ask what does an uncorrupted belt do compared to a corrupted one?

I swapped out faster attacks for damage on full life last night when I was trying to figure out whats going on. Would chance to bleed be a better gem for that slot?

"

Masgon wrote:

Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge!

Very good to know! I was at 7.1k before I started to upgrade my damage and now I'm around 6.4k. I thought it was going a bit low, but I feel confident in myself again. I have yet to upgrade all my jewels to the expensive ones, so I can get some health there if I feel the need.

Right, I was the same way at first, really pushing for 7k+ HP, even trending towards 8. However you need to make a lot of sacrifices to get your HP that high that in the end don't feel worth it. Even with 8k you can get one-shot by the end-game bosses. At 6.7k with my current gear, I need to avoid Shaper's Slam, Minotaur's burrow attack, and Phoenix explosion. Aside from those, you can out-leech almost everything else.For fights like those, and Uber Atziri, it just takes knowing the mechanics of the fight and knowing what to dodge and when.

"

Reverse knockback is something I have to try out! It is really annoying when you use lion's roar and end up knocking enemies out of range.
Now that I swapped Haemophilia for Shaper's Touch(with curse on hit) I no longer make enemies explode, which used to have the AoE required to kill the mobs that I have knocked outside of blade flurry reach.

With Empire's Grasp you surely won't have that problem, and the insane armour boost is very welcome for standing in the middle of packs. Seeing as these gloves are cheap I will go right ahead and purchase a pair. The lack of damage by swapping to these gloves can be found in jewels, and that might be enough to kill packs in a split second anyway.

However I am really interested in seeing how far up I can push my dexterity for the 2% inc. melee physical per 10 dex on Shaper's Touch. I have an itchy feeling that this could help my damage on bosses, which is the last content I need to do.
I need to do some testing to see if this bonus along with the curse on hit can overwhelm the positive effects of blowing up monsters with Haemophilia. As of right now I feel the explosion cleared packs faster.

Reverse knockback is crazy OP. With either Blade Flurry or Cyclone, you just vacuum everything in. The best option, especially since they're so cheap, is to get Empire's with Vuln on Hit. That gives you a solid DPS option since the gloves don't offer any otherwise. I'm actually running two different builds with them now (this one with BF, and one Cyclone fire build with ele weakness instead of vuln).

"

The amulet slot is what I've been working on all day. I've tried to buy all the cheap, decent amulets out there to vaal them and hope for the best. I have also started to purchase essences of contempt to see if I can craft my own. I reckon I need like 20 decent amulets before I start vaaling them.

I had totally ignored the use of a second curse after I got vulnerability on my gloves. What I had been looking for so far is the 20% minion damage boost.
I thought that seeing as we're using The Scourge, this bonus along with +phys.dmg would give a really decent boost.
After checking out the punishment curse I see that it not only gives a bigger damage boost, but also atk.speed. Running a curse on hit, punishment+blasphemy and hatred aura would be sweet as hell! The only thing I'm worried about is mana issues, but our ascendancy gives us 3% of damage mana leech so that is hopefully enough.

It is time to draw up new plans, yet again! But I love optimalizing!

Dual curse is for sure the best way to get top end damage with this build. Bloodgrip amulet is the easiest option to get +1 curses. The stats have a small range of variance, and it's super cheap. Also has max life and flat physical. If you decide to NOT use Death's Door, the "no extra damage while moving" during bleeding is a nice bonus too.

Just remember than the Punishment curse requires a cursed enemy to hit you with a melee attack, and that grants you the buff. It's not up all the time, but it's pretty consistent when we actually need it.

"

"stephoa wrote:

Thanks! I'll start working on those.

May I ask what does an uncorrupted belt do compared to a corrupted one?

I swapped out faster attacks for damage on full life last night when I was trying to figure out whats going on. Would chance to bleed be a better gem for that slot?

Uncorrupted Belt gives you strength = Life and Damage.
You don't need clarity.

Damage on full life is fine, a matter of taste I guess.


To the other discussion A)

I decided to drop Death's Doors for Kaoms.
Bleeding is not a big issue for me, and when I go duo curse, bloodgrip will help with that too.
Freezes and Stuns are, and 8.4k Life wont hurt either.

Note, I have an other dedicated lab runner, who literally can do lab with eyes closed so YMMV.

"

Atzilla wrote:

To the other discussion A)

I decided to drop Death's Doors for Kaoms.
Bleeding is not a big issue for me, and when I go duo curse, bloodgrip will help with that too.
Freezes and Stuns are, and 8.4k Life wont hurt either.

Wait, so unwavering stance affects other stuff that just movespeed? Can you never get frozen with it? Or does it only work on chills?
I am having some issues with freeze! And I frickin' HATE temporal chains for the atkspeed slow! If there's a skeleton frostbolt mage or something else that freezes me while im in the middle of a pack it's a big chance that I'm dead if I don't react fast enough with the anti-freeze bottle.