Glacial Hammer

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Vipermagi wrote:

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Eumaeos_Romanus wrote:

Interesting that you found the Galvanic cluster to be inefficient. I went with it because the % phys and the % ele BOTH mutliply on the cold portion of G Hammer and it seems like a solid damage boost, not to mention that since I didn't go RT the Crit mult in the cluster is a nice throw in.

You are essentially paying two passives just to get there (10 Int, 30 Str; I'm also factoring in the 30 Str below), then five for the cluster, so seven points total.

Seven points gets you:
4% Attack Speed (0.57% per point)
30% Crit Mult (4.2% per point)
8% Accuracy (1.14% per point)
42% Increased Damage for Phys (6% per point)
62% Increased Damage for Cold (8.8% per point)

You also have direct access to the Baptism by Light cluster, near Avatar of Fire. Four points in that cluster gets you:
52% Increased Damage for Phys (13% per point)
52% Increased Damage for Cold (13% per point)
30% Increased Armour (7.5% per point)
10% Accuracy (2.5% per point)

The Galvanic Hammer cluster is a bit shit. It's just in a terrible place, gated behind 30 Str, and grants tiny amounts of a bunch of different stats, making it horribly inefficient. Also, fun little fact: the Cruelty cluster below RT grants you roughly 50% more Crit Mult per point than Galvanic Hammer (but nothing else so eh).

For an RT build the Galvanic Hammer Cluster sucks. No argument there. My logic in using it includes:

I need that 30 Dex node adjacent to it anyway (so I can run grace, and I like to have flicker too), so I am already there. I think for the tree that I have sinking the point for 30 Dex is better than burning suffixes to get the Dex.

Attack Speed and Crit Mult both help your freezing efficiency a great deal against harder to freeze targets. The Crit Mult amplifies cold damage multiplicatively when you crit allowing you to freeze rares and even most uniques for a decent duration and the attack speed helps you to hit them again before they unfreeze, not to mention attack speed is tantamount to a "More Damage" effect rather than "increased Damage".

My accuracy sucks either way without accuracy on gear, so the difference of 8% v 10% doesn't matter.

Being evasion based the armor buff doesn't really help me.

I think it is kind of splitting hairs and I might still drop the Galvanic cluster and only put a few point in a different one instead so I can get other damage nodes too. Its still a work in progress but seems to be working very efficiently up to this point. Once I get better resist on my gear and can run a buffed Hatred I think the damage is going to take off and make it viable for late game maps (I'm running 66-68's now).

great bonus of GH is that it has flat freeze chance regardless of crit. ofc non-crit hits freeze duration are short but still

i play RT and have no issues freezing map bosses for short times. short enough to manage the fight from start to end

the single lesson learnt for me is: GH setup cannot handle AOE and single target at the same time. i run two GH gems. one with ele prolif for aoe and one with cold-pen etc for single target. cold pen is mandatory

if i only knew if 'inc durration of buffs/skill effects' (do not confuse with Scion inc duration nodes) applies to freeze..

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sidtherat wrote:

if i only knew if 'inc durration of buffs/skill effects' (do not confuse with Scion inc duration nodes) applies to freeze..

nope, neither of the two. only effects that say "freese duration" which are at top of the passive tree or i think also on some uniques.

Still Really liking this build. Efficient enough now to even freeze most uniques in low maps (under 70) reliably and certain ones (like the Hybrid Widow) just about permanently.

A few adjustments I've made:

Cold Damage nodes are a total waste. Primary focus on increased physical damage nodes is much better because it boosts the cold from both Glacial Hammer and Hatred. +% Weapon elemental on gear would be another improvement that I can move toward in the future.

Gear still needs a lot of work and I am probably due to spend a little time on xyz to find upgrades to get better Rarity and Life. I am running around with about 3500 life in 70 maps now and haven't died at all in them since most of the screen is stuck in permanent freeze lock.

At this point the build is very combat effective, but can cause problems for cullers because it shatters opponents too efficiently. Thats why I am planning to boost up IIR to respectable levels asap.

Level 78 Tree

Gear

Another note: While leveling I concede that 2 points into the Baptism by Light cluster is the best way to go. If you are building crit like I am, then wait until later levels to pick up Disembowel and the Galvanic Hammer cluster, because getting the Reduced Mana Reserve and Aura Effect nodes is far more important to the viability of the build.

my final take on it:

Resolute Technique, 2h

Gear:


Tree:


Auras: Wrath + Hatred
I wanted to make some use out of that lightning roll on my maul. So took Static Blows and now my AOE setup not only proliferates freezes but also shock stacks. Effectiveness went WAY up. And i mean that - by A LOT.


I managed to buy uber cheap cold Atziri belt (and i know it is already very cheap for some reason). This equals to 10% more freeze chance (im pretty much always 'on a flask'). +cold leech is never a bad thing


Also got the Atziri flask - why people diss it is beyond me. This flask gives me 17% more paper dps (probably more as this is chaos damage - no reflect is an added bonus) and additional leech. Run two of these and most my builds shall soon switch to Atziri flasks. Looking for people selling them for 1c :)

After careful deliberation i regretfully respeced out of Breath of Rime. This is very useful notable that provides serious control element for boss fights but it is waaaay to expensive. Placement is bad, very bad.

Also - Temporal Chains + freezing == win. Got so lucky with Ausie Gloves corruption

ps. funny how paper dps is deceiving.. stuff like shock stacks or long freezes dont affect your stats but oh my how these are noticeable

Can someone link to me a viable glacial hammer build for the new expansion?

ive respeced my old GH 2h RT build

wont post a guide here as it is too long but highlights:



dual curse - one from corrupt gloves (temp chains) second from leap slam + coh + ele weakness

2 setups - AOE and single target

and... the bad, the ugly, the brutally overpowered

Herald of Ash + Ele prolif + inc burn

It works like this:

you jump onto packs (cursed with temp chains + ele weakness) and then smash them. what happens: if they get frozen - they stay frozen (temp chains + reduced cold resist >> much longer freeze duration). if they die - they incinerate entire pack due to herald of ash. the same temp chains + reduced fire resist story applies

in boss fights you AIM (so no multistrike whatsoever) at the 'almost dead' thrash mob to create stronger burn. one quickly learns to aim at the weakest to create infernos. bosses die without being hit once..

it is BRUTALLY effective and cheap.

however i think that my char is somewhat bugged (will contact support) as i seem to take 500% more dmg from attacks than all other chars i have.. and my gear is good enough to not get stunned by voidbearers in docks :/ something is very very strange with it. my other 2h glasscannon melee guy has none of such issues and wears way worse gear :/

Weird..when I tried to play GH marauder couple of months ago I felt the same. He was getting hit for far too much, maybe the skill is cursed? Back then I dismissed it for being my imagination, as I never play melee, so I don't really have a sense of how squishie or not they are.

I however have mainly melee chars and there is something reaaaaally off..

Damage etc is fine. Spell dmg taken is fine but attack hits deal incredible dmg even with granites and not so bad gear. Will raise it with support so maybe they can check it for possible bug