[3.3] critical Heavy Strike Acsendant /pure phys / 1m+ shaper dps / All content / Leaguestarter

Hello to the critical Heavy Strike Ascendant Build!

Changelog:

Build tagged for 3.3 Nothing changed, build still works extremely well.
Main problem in Incursion is the speed-meta. While this build is not slow on nomral maps,
incursion maps can be a bit tricky to fully clear without weaponswitch (or 4link singletarget)

added leveling Guide in Second post.
Build is basically done, might improve little things.

Current Progress with this build(Videos will be addded as i have time:) ):

guardians down, Shaper down.
Shaper deathless
Minotaurus deathless
Chimera deathless
uber elder guardians down, red elder down.

Red elder deathless

Izaro down. (very strong labrunner, at least when regreting vaal pact)
Aztiri normal down.
Atlas: 156/158 (no grandmaster, putrid cloister).
36 challenges.

!!!How to level and Leguestarter guide is found in my second post!!!

Introduction:

This build kinda a scion Version of the Heavy Strike, Juggernaut Build of ZaeN, or at least it was in the beginning. I liked his build but im a big fan of the scion class and thought that there must be a way to build something similar with scion without making the build to weak or loose to much survivability. And here we are. I'm still not done experimenting through and will be changing the build in small ways.

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Base Information:

How do we survive:

68% physical Damage reduction with belly of the beast (88% on full charges)
3k+ Life leeched per second (Vaal pact)

reliable fortify
Immunity to: Reflects, Stun, Chill, Enfeeble, Vulnerability and enough resists for all elemental curses.

How do we do Damage:
We use Starforge, we crit, we get double damage proccs through the two Heavy Strike Jewels and the Head Enchant. Thanks to Ancestral Call and Splash Damage AE dps is fine, Single Target is done with multi strike and ruthless Support.


Core Items:

Weight of the Empire * 2(Heavy Strike Gem), Starforge(Shaper Sword), Impresence (with physical stats and vulnerability buff)

Nice to have Items:

Might of the meek(Jewel)
watchers eye (with immunity to enfeeble with grace and immunity to vulnerability with determination)
Abyssus (for Damage)
Starkonja (For defense and extra life)
Devoto's Devotion (Labrunning)
Belly of the Beast (for life ya ken)


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Build(lvl 94):
Path of Building:
https://pastebin.com/B2meargp

Description:


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Ascendancies: Juggernaut/Slayer

Juggernaut: Jug gets us not only stun immunity but also chill immunity which is a huge improvement at all frost damage based bosses. While not as strong as Kaoms it is enough to get the boot slot free for other(better options). 1000 accuracy for free, yay, no need struggling to reach the hit-cap.
And at last the main point: we get endurance charges almost for free, you only need to get hit(and as we have Iron reflexes will get hit) as a little cherry on top we get damage per charge.

Slayer: The goto Ascendancy for leeching. We get endless leech, immunity to physical damage reflect(and we only do physical damage) as well as more damage while leeching (which is always)

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Bandits:

kill em all.



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Pantheon:

Major:Soul of Arakaali. (thanks to Bloodrage we get it every time Immortal call proccs)
Minor: Take what you like.


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Skill Gem Links:

4L: Enlighten support - Grace - Determination - Blood Rage
4L: Cast on Damage Taken(lvl 20) - Immortal Call(lvl 20) - Increased Duration - Ice Golem (yay, lazy Golem)
4L: Blood magic - Faster Attacks - Fortify - Leap slam

2L: Blasphemy - Vulnerability
2-4L Ancestral Warchief - Maim. Additional Options: Blind, Brutality, Faster Attacks etc.



6L: Heavy Strike - Brutality - Melee Physical Damage Support - Damage on full Life Support +


AE: Ancestral Call - Splash Damage
Single: Ruthless Support - Multistrike

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Notes:

This build is not done yet. I'm still experimenting with different Speccs. Hopefully until then i get a 6Linked Starforge(two would be awesome for easy switching around).

This build can be played as leaguestarter. You just need two 3links, one for AOE and one for bosses. I will write a leaguestarter Howto when the next season begins(as i will be playing this build)

I will also add some videos to the build, so you can see it in action.

Part II: Leveling

Thanks to the flashback event i was able to test how the build performs as a leveling Character without any gear. Not surprisingly it worked quite well. It not that complex to play :)

Build links:
15 points
35 points labtime
60 points labtime 2
80 points labtime 3

Level 80

For the rest please Use the PoB link from above :)

Ascendancy:

first lab: Go to marauder path.
second lab: Take juggernaut ascendancy and begin duelist path
third lab: Take slayer ascendancy

uberlab: finish marauder path (and respecc!)

bandits:

Kill all.


Description:

First just level with any skill you like. We take the resistance route down from scion. (see build links).
After the caged brute Quest you get Melee splash. Now the fun begins. Find two items with 3 red links and build two setups for dps:

Heavy strike - Ancestral Call - Melee splash (AE Setup)
Heavy strike - Ruthless - Maim

When you get your first 4 link, add onslaught to your AE dps setup (only for the movement)

(You need to buy Maim and ancestral call from Nessa!)


Take leap slam as your movement skill. Yes it is slow, no we can't do anything about it :(
Level until you can buy Herald of Ash and use it.
Buy gems we need in endgame to level them. (melee physical damage support, Vulnerability, blasphemy etc.)

There are some good swords we can use: shiversting, Rigwald's charge, terminus est etc. if you have the currency.


early Mapping: get Armour and life, as well as a kondo's pride (it's cheap af) Two 4-link setups are enough, switch to brutality, remove herald of ash and use determination and blasphemy + vulnerability

as scions we can also use the pure talent jewel which is cheap and helps us meeting the int requirement and adds to clear speed. Get two weights of the empire, and an abyssus. Your physical defense should be around 50% without endurance charges (70% with) so for normal mapping you should be tanky enough to use it.

After thats it farming time to get the gear you need.

Concerning Vaal pact: Vaal pact is bad for labrunning. So taking it early doesn't make much sense. I wouldn't take before reaching 6k hp at least.

Looks pretty solid! Going to try this build next league and lets see what new changes come.
Btw: You put "Voidforge (Shaper sword)" instead of the "Starforge" on the wep ítems!
Thanks for the build

"

Zeleby wrote:

Looks pretty solid! Going to try this build next league and lets see what new changes come.
Btw: You put "Voidforge (Shaper sword)" instead of the "Starforge" on the wep ítems!
Thanks for the build

thanks, fixed :)

the build is as it is ready. in flashback is was able to kill a red elder with kondos pride at 87. so shaper without starforge should also be possible (if a bit long)

Hi, I play something similar/ What do you think about it (but it is not finished)?


https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAABAADBAdwB5wJfBS0GIAaiB3UJlg48EPAS4RQgFE0UcRR1F9wYkRjbG6ob-iFVIWAj9iXfKaUwfDGwNZI5DjpSPfxAoESeRrdHfkp9SshNkk3jUEdTu1b6WGNeE18_YLNg3mMXZU1noGhlbqpvJ287dKB07XTxdqx313fid-N4DXloeu9_K4E6ggeEU4TZhO-FUodqh3aMz419j2CQbJHOkn2XeZhvmmqi6qQMpBmmV6i7qSepbqmUrY218rvtvJ-9Nr6nwBrApsEEwQfG2Mv1z37Tb9RS137Yvdlh2Xzawdwj3D3cveOf5FHlz-cP6hjrCe6Q7w7v_fJa8932SPcy-Ov8S_6P?accountName=Voidstranger&characterName=LittleKittyWantsToPlay

Well with that gear it should work just fine. Essentially you lose a little raw physical defense to my build, but get life trough better items and kaoms.
Main problem I see that you only have 3 non unique items which need to push all the resistance you need. Getting 2 steel rings (or wearing mark of the elder) will be hard with this.

additionally, how do you feel with the Attack speed? thats usually the main gripe at 2H builds(as we don't get AS like juggernaut)

I have almost 7 attacks per second on bosses (7 seconds Vaal haste + Multistrike). I think, it is enough.

Main problem with my gear - move speed. It is not a huge problem, because of leap slam and Rotgut, but sometimes it is annoying, especially because of knockback. But I don't want to change Kaom's roots for something else, because without them I will lose almost 300 HP and Freeze/Temp chains immunity. Second problem - gear with Aspect of the Cat (I crafted in on the ring) and Farrul's Fur are now legacy. So this build is for Standard only now:(

Also I think to swap Ruthless for Damage on full life on "boss setup" (Ruthless gives you 37% more damage and Damage on full life gives you 49% more damage) and take jewel node near scion starting point. Then I'll put there Watcher's eye and to left jewel socket I'll put new Transcendent Flesh jewel. With it, I will have 80% Physical damage reduction unbuffed.

Also I am not sure about 2nd curse. For enfeeble I have no Intelligence. Punishment is so weak now. So maybe Assasin's mark.

hmm movementspeed, you could use Onslaught gem for mapping instead of maim, if you have a second linked starforge(as you need a green socket) or eventually you could get celerity with the 3 next points (12% movement 5% ATS and 44% eva rating)

about the curses: yeah assasins mark for dps, there is not much else, for def you could use temporal chains as the int value is not that high.

but linking warchief with maim instead of that(and using ruthless and dmg on full life) should give the most dps on bosses.

Btw: in incursion you could get farruls theoretically :P

Hi! Thank you for this guide. I'm new to this game and currently trying this build. I'm only at Lv 77. I was wondering if you could help me out on what items I should get in the meantime because I still can't afford the recommended uniques.

Here's what I have so far.


Thanks again.

this already a solid yellow gear for the build. just focus on getting the chaos for impresence first(should be about 20c ) This should take about an hour with the chaos recipe.

The amulet will give you more then slayers, dps and survivability
one problem here: Blasphemy support is too high. I capped it at 15(then its the same int requirement as enlighten) but at the beginning as low as 5-10 is ok. it helps with the gearing. (slayer give you 40 int^^)

you could also get pure talent, which is a cheap option to get stats and some small boni.

also try to get diamond rings for a simple dps boost. the rest is just a link problem. Stay on lowtier maps until you can run uberlab for currency. maybe use abyssal cry for incursion pack clearing.