[3.5] (This is a bad league starter) Lancing Steel + Shattering Steel - Deadeye - League Starter
 ******************************************************************************* IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS 12/13/2018 update: Some people have managed to make the build work well. But the original plan of "pure phys league starter build" did not work well. It seems the build works better if you are elemental and/or use some unique items that you cannot use until you are leveled pretty high. My build failure story: At around LV70, I had to give up. SS had decent single target DPS but clear speed was terrible. I honestly dont recommend the build as a league starter. I played pure phys double strike for a while, which was a very easy switch. (all u really need is just the main links switched to: Vaal double strike - Ancestral Cal - Melee splash - Melee Phys - Brutality - Maim, in this order of priority) Now, I respecced into Cast-on-crit Lancing ice spear. Its really fun but it is a completely different build. Basically, the lancing steel causes a critical strike, and ice spear/freeze pulse shoots out. This can happen every .150 seconds because that is the cooldown on the Cast-on-Crit gem. Lancing is nice because it has range and also some projectiles that shoot out with a delay. This delay works together nicely with the .150 sec cool down. 1 use of Lancing can trigger multiple COCs. Lancing can get mana on hit, which is on my jewels. The every ice spear can hit the same enemy. Ice spear is doing the most damage. Freeze pulse is nice for clearing quickly. The reason Deadeye is nice is because you get a ton of proj damage, atk speed, accuracy, crit chance, and crit multi, all of which are necessary for this build. Also, the 30 life on hit is insanely good because it works for every hit, including spells. On the tree, I'm primarily taking life, proj damage, atk speed, global/atk/spell crit chance, crit multi, and proj speed. Since ice spear already has 600% increased crit chance at baseline, you dont need much spell crit chance. Focus more on atk crit chance instead. It's not MinMaxed at all. From here on, I need more levels, gem levels, more life, diamond rings, and dodge chance. Notice the spell damage crafted on the sword. This used to not be possible previously. POB: https://pastebin.com/CpCQMMeC Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO0dF4mKyYQ ******************************************************************************* CONCEPT See official announcement/video about Lancing/Shattering Steel: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2250295 My idea is to use Lancing steel or Shattering steel, and scale the damage/clear speed with a combination of Deadeye, crit, high number of projectiles, pure phys + banners, and potentially chain. We will find out later whether Lancing or Shattering will be better for single target/clearing, but they should scale damage very similarly and easy to fit into 1 build. For now, I'm betting that shattering steel will be better than lancing. Therefore, I'll focus more on shattering, but I will definitely try lancing too. For both Shattering Steel and Lancing Steel, point blank might be the best approach for achieving maximum single target DPS (being right up close with the enemy). Shattering Steel can be used from LV12. Lancing Steel can be used from LV28. I plan to use a rare crit Phys sword or Beltimber Blade for the endgame. Beltimber Blade might be expensive this league, so we will see. ******************************************************************************* BUILD PROS/CONS Pros --Decent single target DPS Cons --Bad league starter --Slow clear speed ******************************************************************************* LEVELING PROGRESSION (Tree, gear, videos)
Spoiler
These trees are still rough. Alira for Bandits. Dont take crit nodes until after around LV60.
Trees: LV ~23 (Get Point Blank ASAP) LV ~40 with Normal Lab LV ~60 with Cruel Lab LV ~80 with Merc Lab LV ~90 with Uber Lab When you start leveling, dual-wield any 2 weapons and use frostblades or molten strike until LV12. At LV12, you can pick up Shattering steel. The starting 3 link is listed below. Main Skill Gem Minimum LV Requirements (Important ones in white): LV4: War Banner LV10: Whirling Blades, Leap Slam LV12: Shattering Steel- Maim - Onslaught (main starting 3-link) LV16: Blood Rage, Herald of Purity LV18: Vicious Projectile, Faster Attacks, Damage on Full Life LV24: Dread Banner, Projectile Weakness, Vulnerability LV28: Lancing Steel LV31: Fortify, Blasphemy LV38: Brutality, Greater Multiple Projectiles, Increased AOE ******************************************************************************* MY LEVELING PROGRESS: LV23 Leveling has been slow. Shattering Steel doesnt work with Volley. Not sure why but it doesnt. I'm going to change my strategy for the skill. It looks like the most damage is dealt when you are up close to the enemy. That is the only way all the projectiles hit 1 enemy. Therefore, POINT BLANK is going to be nice with the build. I'm going to rush to Point Blank. First ~25 levels will be something like this: www.poeurl.com/ca0r The first 3 link should be: Shattering - Maim - Onslaught Once we have access to Greater Multiple Projectiles (GMP) and point blank, the damage should be much higher. I dont think Lesser Multiple Projectiles is worth it. Make sure you use war banner, blood rage, and herald of ash in the beginning. POB: https://pastebin.com/HpnYmynx Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6VixJi_CKw ******************************************************************************* MY LEVELING PROGRESS: LV38 The leveling has been slow but it finally starts picking up when you get Blasphemy - Proj Weakness at LV31, and Greater Mult Proj at LV 38. These were very important to my progression. I'm also using Herald of Purity now, which I got from the library in Act 3.See gems in gear. POB: https://pastebin.com/RbpC691Q Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XGjThrWHPM ******************************************************************************* MY LEVELING PROGRESS: LV53 I've modified the tree a bit for smoother leveling. I took the mana on hit node and Deadeye's Rupture (life on hit). These were too good to not take. Also quickstep. You really have to get right in the face of the boss, but if you do, the damage is good. POB: https://pastebin.com/2QTzutey Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMwkmGzpRy0 ******************************************************************************* MY LEVELING PROGRESS: LV67 I got a 5 link and a ancestral protector totem. The single target damage is good, life/mana on hit is good, but the clear isnt that good. POB: https://pastebin.com/2QTzutey Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txYbgK0pAG4 ******************************************************************************* MY LEVELING PROGRESS: LV84 At around LV70, I had to give up. SS had decent single target DPS but clear speed was terrible. I honestly dont recommend the build as a league starter. I played pure phys double strike for a while, which was a very easy switch. (all u really need is just the main links switched to: Vaal double strike - Ancestral Cal - Melee splash - Melee Phys - Brutality - Maim, in this order of priority) Now, I respecced into Cast-on-crit Lancing ice spear. Its really fun but it is a completely different build. Basically, the lancing steel causes a critical strike, and ice spear/freeze pulse shoots out. This can happen every .150 seconds because that is the cooldown on the Cast-on-Crit gem. Lancing is nice because it has range and also some projectiles that shoot out with a delay. This delay works together nicely with the .150 sec cool down. 1 use of Lancing can trigger multiple COCs. Lancing can get mana on hit, which is on my jewels. The every ice spear can hit the same enemy. Ice spear is doing the most damage. Freeze pulse is nice for clearing quickly. The reason Deadeye is nice is because you get a ton of proj damage, atk speed, accuracy, crit chance, and crit multi, all of which are necessary for this build. Also, the 30 life on hit is insanely good because it works for every hit, including spells. On the tree, I'm primarily taking life, proj damage, atk speed, global/atk/spell crit chance, crit multi, and proj speed. Since ice spear already has 600% increased crit chance at baseline, you dont need much spell crit chance. Focus more on atk crit chance instead. It's not MinMaxed at all. From here on, I need more levels, gem levels, more life, diamond rings, and dodge chance. Notice the spell damage crafted on the sword. This used to not be possible previously. POB: https://pastebin.com/CpCQMMeC Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO0dF4mKyYQ ******************************************************************************* EXAMPLE ENDGAME SETUP (tentative)
Spoiler
This is a rough set up. See gems in gear. For lancing steel, change volley with vicious projectiles. Also, war/dread banner is missing (use 1 or the other). Dont use haste but use vaal haste. Vaal haste is now an instant skill, so it should be very nice. Vaal grace is another option if you want defense. ******************************************************************************* HOW TO FIND IMPORTANT ITEMS (Weapons, jewels, flasks)
Spoiler
******************************************************************************* HOW TO FIND A GOOD WEAPON At league start, you might not be able to find any good weapon. The rustic sash recipe is a good one to know. Simply vendor a blacksmith whetstone, any weapon, and a rare rustic sash. It works for a magic rustic as well, but you get higher phys rolls with a rare one. Try to find a weapon with 1.45 attack speed or higher. If possible, giving it 20% quality first is a good idea.  ******************************************************************************* NOTE ABOUT FLASKS I'm finding that many people tend to neglect flasks. Flasks are VERY important for both DPS and defense. Make sure your life flask is an instant flask. Like most builds, you will want unbleed, uncurse, and unfreeze flasks. Diamond flask is necessary as this is a crit build. MAKE SURE YOU 20% QUALITY ALL FLASKS! ******************************************************************************* Bandits/Pantheon Bandits: 2 Passives or Alira. Pantheon: ******************************************************************************* My Other Build Guides [3.4] Crit Dual-Wield CONSECRATED PATH - Chieftain - 2Mil DPS - League Starter https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2201938 [3.4] Precuror's Emblem - PERMA FLICKER STRIKE - Crit-Claw Raider https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2221485 [3.3] BUILD-OF-THE-WEEK Apep's Trickster Flicker Strike https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2168614 Last edited by Hollyphantom on Dec 13, 2018, 10:13:34 AM Last bumped on Jan 7, 2019, 11:22:51 PM
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ya im waiting for these gems full details. i think lancing steel has potential to replace molten strike on my build and such, but it all depends on gem details.
honestly i fear they'll both be like spectral throw, pure phys projectile attacks without melee tag, and if so i don't think they'll be meta. certainly they'll be usable but most likely not worth it. beltimber blades are so awesome i love them. oh and if these skills do prove epic, they'll best be utilized with shaper stat sticks so long as they don't get destroyed in 3.5 | |
" well, if impale is really strong, pure phys can be better (especially on budget) than shaper statsticks potentially. We'll see. We already know these skills DPS can be scaled thru # of projectiles, which already makes them substantially better than spectral throw. Im pretty sure they dont have a melee tag btw Last edited by Hollyphantom on Nov 24, 2018, 8:26:00 AM
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shattering steel is confirmed to not have the melee skill, lancing steel we can only assume and imply it doesn't.
if it doesn't, its trash. sure you can get more projectiles but they spread out away from you, meaning the more you have doesn't necessarily mean more will hit one target. of course more projectiles is always better for clear, no arguing that. impale does not sound strong especially for lancing steel since only its middle projectile can apply it, so says the screenshot with the skill description on the homepage. however the announcement post makes no mention that lancing steel can even impale, just to keep in mind. pure phys will never be better than conversion. pure phys, especially without melee tag, you'll be hard pressed to have good supports for this skill. i'll probably eventually make some type of build with it and im almost certain i'll end up running with a stat stick and links of lancing steel cold to fire ele damage with attacks combustion vicious projectiles probably immolate or added cold damage or something run with hatred and hatred watcher's eye with phys conversion and get avatar of fire via tree or xoph's blood. boom you now have 50% phys to fire conversion, 50% phys to cold, and 100% cold to fire. so you'll do all fire damage and can fully benefit from phys fire and cold damage nodes and penetration | |
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How about stacking as much evasion as possible, and then dual wield ?
Deadeye as 1000 free evasion with Tailwind as well. |
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Planning a similar build as a starter myself, looking at the footage of the skill reveals, it seems like shattering steel uses the weapon in each hand when dual wielding(like cleave), so I think foils may be really good for endgame.
Assuming conc effect works on this, the skill could probably reach some respectable numbers and going pure phys with high attack speed, the impale should add a lot of damage as well. I'm really excited for the skill, personally. The only thing I'm a bit puzzled about atm is how to properly arrange the passive tree to not lose out on too much life but also grab important sword nodes. Currently trying to decide whether the bleed node in the marauder area is worth taking or if going assassination in the shadow area is a better idea (also for getting enough int). | |
" sure but you can do that for any attack build. as much as possible, I'd like to try to take advantage of the fact that multiple proj can hit 1 enemy. |
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" This one 6 link that works very well for pure phys. I have spectral throw in there just as an example. If you use shaper weapons instead of Beltimber Blade, you wont have additional proj. so it depends on... well, many things. If u go pure phys, remember that impale is supposedly up to double damage I hear, but I'm not sure yet. And we dont know details about banners either. It might give a huge phys buff. |
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" I think shattering steel has an AOE tag, so conc works probably, but I think that'll prevent AOE overlap, so I would probably not use it. We'll see. Bleed will suck probably. I'll post the tree soon. I already have it made. |
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" Depends how conc effect interacts with the cone, I'm still not sure how the whole thing is gonna work. We will indeed have to see. Kinda hoping we'll get a streamer or someone to try and explain the new skills before the league launches. And the bleed was just to get the additional crit and crit multi from the ascendancy, but the 25% from the deadeye node itself may be enough, especially with overlapping projectiles. I kinda forgot it will do that. Very excited to see (and probably copy, lol) your tree, as I've never actually built anything myself but really want to get into it and some day make a whole build from scratch myself. |
