[3.9 HCSSF] Dominating Blow Jugg (Rolling through T14-16 Maps, No unfarmable gear needed)

Testing around some more, dropping my melee splash gems doesn't seem to affect my clear too much. I'm going to try to slot in minion damage and see what happens. I was considering testing out impale, but I really don't think it can come close to comparing to Minion damage. Minion damage is 50% more damage, whereas impale is 15% more damage, and a 40% chance for (15*5)75% damage over 5 hits, or 30% effective damage increase. And I believe the -30% physical reduction only applies to impale hits, not every hit.

After thinking about it, I'm going to try impale a bit and see what happens.

Current Gear

I think ideally, you'd get 1 white socket on your armor and swap out splash for minion damage or impale for bosses.

I will say, I tried sirus and my damage was just awful because he just plowed through all my minions. It sucks. They made minion changes for survivability for necromancers, and its bled over into other classes far worse.

did you made a build for your skeleton variant ?

"

Orion72 wrote:

My favorite easy leveling setup to 28 is smite>Ancestral call>anything useful>anything useful with Ancestral protector>anything>anything>anything

(seriously, any other beneficial gemns can go in those slots and it will be fine).

The leveling part of tree is a pretty clear one way path with a couple of small deviations for life. Take the minion wheels as you reach them. Because dom blow has a pretty heavy mana cost, I didn't take Mom until much later in the game, after I had significant mana regen. I think I was already in maps at that point, but you could take it sooner if you are comfy with your mana flask.

Post mom (until mana regen is sufficient) I highly recommend an enduring prefix mana flask for the constant upward pressure on your ehp. It's like having a mini version of Slayer's overleech with almost constant uptime.

Happy to answer other questions as they come up--good luck!

-O

I am *very* new to PoE. I played almost 10 years of Diablo II so PoE feels very familiar and I have a decent understanding of the fundamentals of the game.

This guide seems very helpful since it doesn't require a lot of ultra rare gear.

I will be trying it out.

Is there anything special I might need to know (as a very new players) about this build? Any bosses or damage types to watch out for? How to play the early levels? Which specific early game gem set ups might help me? Or any common mistakes to watch out for?

Thanks for making this guide. It is *very* helpful for someone like me who is trying to get into the game and doesn't have the ability or experience to power-farm unique items.

"

Arxmessor wrote:

"

Orion72 wrote:

My favorite easy leveling setup to 28 is smite>Ancestral call>anything useful>anything useful with Ancestral protector>anything>anything>anything

(seriously, any other beneficial gemns can go in those slots and it will be fine).

The leveling part of tree is a pretty clear one way path with a couple of small deviations for life. Take the minion wheels as you reach them. Because dom blow has a pretty heavy mana cost, I didn't take Mom until much later in the game, after I had significant mana regen. I think I was already in maps at that point, but you could take it sooner if you are comfy with your mana flask.

Post mom (until mana regen is sufficient) I highly recommend an enduring prefix mana flask for the constant upward pressure on your ehp. It's like having a mini version of Slayer's overleech with almost constant uptime.

Happy to answer other questions as they come up--good luck!

-O

I am *very* new to PoE. I played almost 10 years of Diablo II so PoE feels very familiar and I have a decent understanding of the fundamentals of the game.

This guide seems very helpful since it doesn't require a lot of ultra rare gear.

I will be trying it out.

Is there anything special I might need to know (as a very new players) about this build? Any bosses or damage types to watch out for? How to play the early levels? Which specific early game gem set ups might help me? Or any common mistakes to watch out for?

Thanks for making this guide. It is *very* helpful for someone like me who is trying to get into the game and doesn't have the ability or experience to power-farm unique items.

Early tips for a new POE player on this build:

1. You can create your own vaal molten shell gem by purchasing an ordinary molten shell from Nessa in Act I and using a vaal orb on it. This will not work every time, but seems to have around a 1 in 4 / 1 in 5 chance of creating the desired item. Granite flask/molten shell/vaal molten shell is probably the most important defensive part of the build.

2. Capping your resists asap is important. (For chaos, just having it above 0 is fine for most purposes). When you get to act 3, after you complete the Tolman quest, you will have access to purity auras (fire/lightning/cold/elements) Running 1-2 of these until you can handle resists with just gear and tree can be very helpful.

3. Specific gem set ups for leveling 1-28 (Act 1 gems) (Assuming 4 link, if 3 link, use first 3 gems only)

A. Smite>Ancestral Call>Onslaught>Chance to bleed
B. Ancestral Protector>Ruthless> Chance to bleed
C. Leap slam

After level 18, swap in melee physical damage for chance to bleed.

Good luck,
-O

So I managed to get a vorici and have 2 white sockets in my Brass Dome now, making it so I can swap out impale/melee splash.

Also, I'm considering squeezing in Pride for content I feel is no threat to my survivability. I lose ~ 1400 mana to the Pride Reserve, but its upwards of 39% more damage on all my minions. This drastically cuts down on metamorph kill times.

The biggest problem I have right now is sneaking in damage on bosses that regularly kill my minions. Sometimes my minions stop attacking (not sure why, it's inconsistent), but my strategy is to pop Molten Shell, run in, and get a few dom blow dudes up, then back out if I'm in danger.

I would like a minion solution to replace zombies thats not skeletons. I just don't like them, and I don't really need them outside of getting the ball rolling. The 4L damage isn't that great. Something that deals damage when I can't attack. I might do something drastic here and whip out my Dancing Duo, but I'll have to see if thats even possible.

Themetically, I'd like a Dancing Duo+ Dom Blow minions over my carrion golem and zombies that love to die. But Dancing Duo has its own problems, requires a worm flask on phase immune bosses and can just screw you over.

For Softcore, I'm also considering grabbing a mana reserve helm enchant+ synthesized ring for Herald of Purity, 4L, then use that. I think it should only reserve ~ 30% mana so I would still have a lot of mana unreserved.

Didn't make a separate build for skellies.
Tried out Dancing duo--was very fun but same issues with bossing.

Considering (if I go back again this league) combining dom blow with warchief totems to help with bossing issues. Some of you working with this build might give that a shot. I was thinking it might work tolerably with dancing duo, which has reasonable base damage.

-O

Hmm, I might drop MoM for a Softcore variant and get the purity helmet enchant and combine it with a synthesized ring. Using the points from that, pick up Sovereignty, then I have 84% reduced mana reduction on Purity and can easily run a 4L in my helmet instead of zombies. Then get rid of my cast on damage taken punishment setup and throw in just manual punishment and pride. That would make my Herald of Purity on a 4L reserve between 9-10% mana. Then pride at 43% mana reserved (from sovereignty), so even then, may still run MoM and have around 1.2k mana to play with unreserved. Its not great, but i think it may still be worth it. I'd love to fit in a banner, but theres no gem slots unless I sacrifice the Carrion golem or get an unset ring somehow. Banner may beat out the punishment curse for bossing. Banner is just less micromanagement and synergizes with using an impale support gem for minions.

I might go test this out now on a budget. Pretty easy to do , and might net over 50% more damage.

"

Orion72 wrote:

Early tips for a new POE player on this build:

1. You can create your own vaal molten shell gem by purchasing an ordinary molten shell from Nessa in Act I and using a vaal orb on it. This will not work every time, but seems to have around a 1 in 4 / 1 in 5 chance of creating the desired item. Granite flask/molten shell/vaal molten shell is probably the most important defensive part of the build.

2. Capping your resists asap is important. (For chaos, just having it above 0 is fine for most purposes). When you get to act 3, after you complete the Tolman quest, you will have access to purity auras (fire/lightning/cold/elements) Running 1-2 of these until you can handle resists with just gear and tree can be very helpful.

3. Specific gem set ups for leveling 1-28 (Act 1 gems) (Assuming 4 link, if 3 link, use first 3 gems only)

A. Smite>Ancestral Call>Onslaught>Chance to bleed
B. Ancestral Protector>Ruthless> Chance to bleed
C. Leap slam

After level 18, swap in melee physical damage for chance to bleed.

Good luck,
-O

Thanks for the information. I've made it to level 47 with very few issues -- the build seems to be a great mix of damage and survivability.

I have all of the gems that you have listed in the gear section but I have a few questions.

- Why Desecrate>Cast on Damage Taken? I understand the mechanics behind it, how the gems work, but I think I am missing something about the purpose behind the combination.

- Why are Convocation and Desecrate linked? Was it just the way the sockets were rolled or is there some interaction I'm missing?

- Why two Desecrates? I don't seem to be having problems with my minions dying or not having corpses around. Of course, I'm only level 47 so maybe things will change.

- Why run (Vaal) Molten Shell and Steel Skin? Don't they share a cooldown? Does Steel Skin serve as a stand-in while the Vaal version of Molten Shell is charging up? Is it for specific damage types?

- You say "Convocation (Essentially acts as our attack button)" -- How do you use this in combination with Dominating Blow, say, in a boss fight? Do you use Dominating Blow to summon Sentinels and then repeated cast Convocation (on cooldown) on the boss/target?

Thanks again for taking the time to make this build/guide. I've had a blast running it. The fact that it doesn't require absurd amounts of unique gear cannot be praised enough.

"

Arxmessor wrote:

"

Orion72 wrote:

Early tips for a new POE player on this build:

1. You can create your own vaal molten shell gem by purchasing an ordinary molten shell from Nessa in Act I and using a vaal orb on it. This will not work every time, but seems to have around a 1 in 4 / 1 in 5 chance of creating the desired item. Granite flask/molten shell/vaal molten shell is probably the most important defensive part of the build.

2. Capping your resists asap is important. (For chaos, just having it above 0 is fine for most purposes). When you get to act 3, after you complete the Tolman quest, you will have access to purity auras (fire/lightning/cold/elements) Running 1-2 of these until you can handle resists with just gear and tree can be very helpful.

3. Specific gem set ups for leveling 1-28 (Act 1 gems) (Assuming 4 link, if 3 link, use first 3 gems only)

A. Smite>Ancestral Call>Onslaught>Chance to bleed
B. Ancestral Protector>Ruthless> Chance to bleed
C. Leap slam

After level 18, swap in melee physical damage for chance to bleed.

Good luck,
-O

Thanks for the information. I've made it to level 47 with very few issues -- the build seems to be a great mix of damage and survivability.

I have all of the gems that you have listed in the gear section but I have a few questions.

- Why Desecrate>Cast on Damage Taken? I understand the mechanics behind it, how the gems work, but I think I am missing something about the purpose behind the combination.

- Why are Convocation and Desecrate linked? Was it just the way the sockets were rolled or is there some interaction I'm missing?

- Why two Desecrates? I don't seem to be having problems with my minions dying or not having corpses around. Of course, I'm only level 47 so maybe things will change.

- Why run (Vaal) Molten Shell and Steel Skin? Don't they share a cooldown? Does Steel Skin serve as a stand-in while the Vaal version of Molten Shell is charging up? Is it for specific damage types?

- You say "Convocation (Essentially acts as our attack button)" -- How do you use this in combination with Dominating Blow, say, in a boss fight? Do you use Dominating Blow to summon Sentinels and then repeated cast Convocation (on cooldown) on the boss/target?

Thanks again for taking the time to make this build/guide. I've had a blast running it. The fact that it doesn't require absurd amounts of unique gear cannot be praised enough.

Re Desecrates: The CWDT>Desecrate is specifically geared to support the helm, devouring diadem. Without that piece of gear, don't use that setup. The self cast desecrate in addition is to be able to summon zombies when needed.

Convo-desecrate again is just how the sockets came out.

Steelskin and molten shell share a cooldown. Vaal molten shell does not share a cooldown with either of them. This set-up was an experiment.

When I say convocation is our attack button, I meant while mapping. Apologies if that wasn't clear. You hit convocation upon arriving at a new group of mobs, then swing dominating blow while they die.

For boss fights, you are (if they are dangerous) making sure you have a guard skill up, coming up to the boss and swinging dom blow to generate minions until the guard skill comes down, then dashing away during the cooldown and repeating the process.

Very glad you have been enjoying the build and hope these answers help!

-O

i am a bit new at POE, so maybe I am missing something. Your build uses Resolute Technique but your weapon has added crit chance and one of your rings adds a lot of accuracy. Why?