[3.4] ~1M (total DPS) Dominating Blow Dancing Duo/FB Guardian

This is a WIP

Modified 9/10/18:
-Updated final PoB link with ~level 91 character as "top end" within reason
-Updated build description
-Updated gems
-Added gear/lvling guide

Modified 9/7/18:
- Added enfeeble to CWDT setup for more damage reduction
- Move Blood Rage to self cast
- Removed consecrated path recommendation, it's still doable but this build has so much move speed with a rotgut or good move speed flask + rampage + phase run it's not really necessary and you can flame dash into packs.
- added increased duration support linked to phase run, vaal skeletons, and vaal haste (phase run feels so much better this way, vaal skellies do about twice as much damage too which helps on bosses/delve encounters if you get in a bind)
- removed summon holy relic to make room for blood rage self cast, may replace if minions are too squishy but they will probably be fine since they are summoned so often
- updated gear in PoB to be actually attainable for 2-3 ex total (not max life rolls and max damage rolls on jewelry and jewels, mostly)
- subbed vaal haste for hatred

Modified 9/4/18:
- to drop the 5L dancing dervish/consecrated path setup (consecrated path doesn't work once rampage starts and dervish leaves your hands, so...worthless) <<Thanks for the heads up VeroneSum!
- to provide updated PoB link for new gem setup and tree, now 6.3k life and 800k theoretical max Dominating blow damage (up from 5.8k and 675k, respectively)
- to add a cwdt setup for defense
- to add a damage gem setup for Dancing Duo

Initial post 9/3/18
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Build description:
This is a hybrid summoner a la what ZiggyD sort of alluded to in one of his skill reveal videos (and he even played something similar to this with Dancing Duo and Smite I believe). It's very "active" for a summoner, you get to jump in and deal damage pretty safely, it's pretty tanky up to T10 maps, will continue to post about survivability after that but I just don't know right now. The playstyle is almost like being in a party, where you go kill things, your minions go kill other things, and you try to "beat" each other to mobs (because if you don't beat them sometimes the minions for dominating blow will expire). It is pretty fast paced and pretty fun, movespeed can be near 200% with flask + phase run + rampage, rampage gives an awesome bonus to damage too so it's important to keep it going (use Writhing Jar to help). I'll try to post a video soon.

With about 2-3 ex investment total probably, I'm sitting at 5.8k life, ~215k Dominating Blow burst dps (vaal haste and flasks active), and some very fast and powerful minions (dominating blow minions, herald of purity minions, 2 manifested dancing dervish sword minions, and vaal skellies for bosses).

With this build with 20/20 gems PoB predicts about 330k Dominating Blow DPS + ~400k? Manifest Dancing Dervishes Damage + all 20 or so sentinels (from dominating blow and herald of purity) damage + vaal skellies (~100k dps) adds up to quite a lot (hopefully ~1M or else my title is a lie)!

Please let me know if you see any optimizations or if you have any questions. Thanks!
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PoB Link (9/10/18): https://pastebin.com/Yrzwpkuz

Other options on this that I haven't chosen to do at this point:
-Use MoM (we are right next to it). I didn't because my mana pool sucks, with better gear or some different optimizations to grab some more mana, this would be a nice way to have more EHP.
-Don't use brutality/haste, instead use hatred + taste of hate + sin's rebirth + atziri's promise. The DPS is similar, but this leads to more leech and possibly higher DPS if you can get some cold pen [and cold shatters], but it is a bit more expensive for possibly not much gain, further testing needed. For now, I feel this build is a bit more simple and relies less on flasks for DPS (only 1 dps flask), which I like.

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Gem setup:
6L Dominating Blow (in body armor) (switch multistrike to melee splash for boss add phases and for mapping):
Dom Blow - Melee Phys - Brutality - Ruthless - Multistrike - Faster attacks
*note: if you have a 5L/6S chest, I'd recommend consecrated path as the 6S because it helps a lot to have consecrated ground all over the place for more regen and it's an awesome skill to warp into packs (not reliable as solo move skill though).

Dancing Duo (no links needed! just 6Slot! Also, if using PoB make sure NOT to use a lvl 1 cyclone gem, that's just to make PoB work right):
Additional Acc - Conc Effect - Melee Phys - Minion Damage - Maim - Minion Speed (or item rarity support, dps is pretty good on these guys even on 5L)

Other things to fit in on remaining helm/boots/gloves
-4L vaal skeleton - vaal haste - phase run - increased duration
-4L CWDT - enfeeble - immortal call - convocation
-Herald of purity (unlinked)
-Blood rage
-Flame dash
-Enduring Cry
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Gear:
-Required uniques are Facebreakers + Dancing Dervish (upgrade to Dancing Duo later via prophecy)
-Belly of the Beast or Loreweave recommended for chest, but other high life/res chest will work
-Rings and amulet need life + resists, but also high physical damage to pack some more dominating blow punch. *Also, one of these needs mana leech
-Belt high life + resists (or meginord's girdle for highest DPS)
-Boots 30% MS + resists + life
-Jewels need INCREASED minion damage (so it counts for you too) + life
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Lvling: Consecrated path is recommended all the way, use high phys roll weapons, take nodes that grant YOU the minion attack speed and damage bonuses early on (rush them), then put some zombies on a 4L and consecrated path on another, and have fun.

Thanks for writing this up.

Quick question though - what's the reason for using blood magic with summon spectre?

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Thanks for writing this up.

Quick question though - what's the reason for using blood magic with summon spectre?

I think it is because the carnage chieftains have a small mana pool and adding blood magic allows them to spam frenzy charges more often.

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FlamevellGuard wrote:

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Thanks for writing this up.

Quick question though - what's the reason for using blood magic with summon spectre?

I think it is because the carnage chieftains have a small mana pool and adding blood magic allows them to spam frenzy charges more often.

Correct, but I tried this for a few levels and found it ineffective most of the time, minions are refreshed so constantly in this build it's not worth the (limited) gem space since the frenzies disappear once a new sentinel/minion spawns.

I'll update the build guide tonight - so far I'm at t6-7 maps and it's going pretty strong.

Edit 5:45PM - main post updated with new PoB and other info.

I've been looking for a dominating blow build for a while now, this one seems to fit my playstyle.

Any tips on other gear I can use before I will be able to afford the dervish sword?

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phexifa wrote:

I've been looking for a dominating blow build for a while now, this one seems to fit my playstyle.

Any tips on other gear I can use before I will be able to afford the dervish sword?

I just used dual wield high phys maces/axes/whatever I could find, and I played dominating blow from lvl 28 on, but in retrospect, probably leveling with consecrated path is the fastest/most fun (can support with zombos)!

Dancing Dervish is only 1 alch btw (but lvl 59 req), the upgrade prophecy is like 25-30c last I checked.

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warrofua wrote:

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phexifa wrote:

I've been looking for a dominating blow build for a while now, this one seems to fit my playstyle.

Any tips on other gear I can use before I will be able to afford the dervish sword?

I just used dual wield high phys maces/axes/whatever I could find, and I played dominating blow from lvl 28 on, but in retrospect, probably leveling with consecrated path is the fastest/most fun (can support with zombos)!

Dancing Dervish is only 1 alch btw (but lvl 59 req), the upgrade prophecy is like 25-30c last I checked.

Oh thanks for the info, probably will level with cp to 59 then :D, And i checked the wrong version of the sword which is alot more expensive xD

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phexifa wrote:

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warrofua wrote:

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phexifa wrote:

I've been looking for a dominating blow build for a while now, this one seems to fit my playstyle.

Any tips on other gear I can use before I will be able to afford the dervish sword?

I just used dual wield high phys maces/axes/whatever I could find, and I played dominating blow from lvl 28 on, but in retrospect, probably leveling with consecrated path is the fastest/most fun (can support with zombos)!

Dancing Dervish is only 1 alch btw (but lvl 59 req), the upgrade prophecy is like 25-30c last I checked.

Oh thanks for the info, probably will level with cp to 59 then :D, And i checked the wrong version of the sword which is alot more expensive xD

The Dancing Duo (upgrade of Dervish) is about 25c for the prophecy + 8c for the map (Arsenal)...so you save about 50% off doing it yourself, even if you pay someone else to do the map boss kill for you.

"

The Dancing Duo (upgrade of Dervish) is about 25c for the prophecy + 8c for the map (Arsenal)...so you save about 50% off doing it yourself, even if you pay someone else to do the map boss kill for you.

Ooh, good to know. this will save me some currency :)

I've been running this build, making slight changes.

I've went a tankier route, level 85 with 6,600hp, as well as MoM, plus a WE jewel that also adds 6% damage taken from mana before hp while clarity is active, for an effective 9.4k'ish effective life pool.

I've recently swapped to Consecrated Hulk Smash for clearing, swapping in DB for bosses. Feels very nice and super fast. I think this build still has a lot of room for optimizations. Due to MoM I CANT run Bloodrage, since y'know... I'd be out of mana 24/7. But I do run Rallying Cry, helps a lot in bosses for keeping cappd on mana, as well as giving all my minions, and myself, a massaive boost in DPS.

Standard, I have 780 HP regen a second, due to ascendancy, and holy relic, it'ss jump up above 3,100 hp regen for 1 sec, every 5 sec. Very nice.