[1.2][Beyond] Two Hand Heavy Strike (RT and Crit version)

Before I start, I want to make sure that everyone knows that this build has probably been made several times over with more or less the same passive tree. I just want to give my view and take on this idea. -- THIS IS STILL WIP AND IN AN EARLY STAGE

This build is a pretty generic melee Marauder who uses a two handed weapon, preferably Staves. I'm up to level 86 in Beyond so far, so I'd say it is definately viable in a Hardcore setting.

I can run pretty much any map mod (except -Max) at solid pace.

If you have any questions, feel free to message me @TrizzeX or post in this thread. (constructive) Criticism is very welcome. I'm really looking forward to hear your thoughts! Please also point out typos, I'm most likely writing when it's late.

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Difficulty

You won't have a lot of armour, and you won't have a lot of evasion. All your physical mitigation comes from a buffed Immortal Call. You will have to make an effort to keep up Endurance Charges and pop Immortal Call when you anticipate a good chunk of physical damage coming in.
I wouldn't say this build is necesseraly hard, but you should be aware of your cooldowns and rotations, otherwise you will probably die frequently.


Why Heavy Strike

Heavy Strike is pure physical damage, so you will get the best out of your leech and damage. Molten Strike, Glacial Hammer and Infernal Blow have half of their damage converted to elemental, so your leech is effectively halved and you will suffer against resistant mobs.

UPDATE: Played around with Glacial Hammer. You need at least 2% manaleech (or run Clarity), but the freeze is almost as safe as the stun from Heavy Strike. Gonna try it out more and update later on.

Ground Slam and Sweep are good options, however you will need an extra single target setup.


Axes vs Maces vs Staves

Axes probably are the worst out of the three, simply because we don't navigate around the best nodes for them.
Maces have good damage and you'll do fine with them for a long time but...
Staves have two things going for them: Block and good Crit. Now, for a long time we will be running Resolute Technique, but at around level 90, the transition to Crit becomes really strong. And do I really have to talk about the benefits of block? :)


My Gear (and gem-linkup)

RT



Now, all this is far from perfect, but I'm saving up for a crit staff so no major upgrades soon. You'll want Mana Leech and Life Leech on at least one piece of gear. You'll also need Dexterity and Intelligence for your supports, Curses and the Staff.

Crit



I've lowered my standards for the crit staff, so I bought one for pretty cheap. Ideally you'd want to have Critmulti on your amulet, however this would increase the price by a lot. My flasks aren't perfect yet either. At the moment I'm trying to get bloodrage going, I still need some levels and better chaos resist on gear, so it will take a while.

Spoiler

Main attack: Heavy Strike - Multistrike - Melee Splash - Melee Physical Damage - Faster Attacks - Added Fire Damage (You can work off a 4L, a 5L is very nice and a 6L is pure luxury (I just got lucky))

Curse(s) Enfeeble - Blood Magic - Vulnerability (RT) / Assassin's Mark (Crit)

Auras Hatred - Herald of Ash - Purity of Fire

!! IMPORTANT !!

Spell Echo - Blood Magic - Enduring Cry -- use it.
Immortal Call - Blood Magic - Increased Duration (- Enhance) -- use it.





Uniques

Let me make one thing clear: you don't need any Uniques for this spec. Some will make life easier, and others are just simply BiS but also kind of expensive.

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Ahh, the 1.2.0 unique staff, Hegemony's Era. It's pretty much the dream unique for this build. Before 1.2.0, you had a really hard time to find a solid staff that also had critchance, and you'd have to stick with RT for a long time, if not all through the league. It will still come at a price, so if you want to spec into crit, make sure to get some trading done!

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The Bringer of Rain is a good "gateway" unique from a 5L to a 6L. It gives you good damage and good defense with 15% block and the lvl 6 blind gem. BoR is kind of pricy right now in Beyond though, so it might even be cheaper to go straight to a 6L body armour (I can only speak about Beyond at the moment, haven't had a chance to play Rampage. A quick cross search on xyz tells me that a BoR is not all that much cheaper though).

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Well, if you can get your hands on them, they are 100% BiS. You probably won't get them though. Good alternatives are Maligaro's or Shadows and Dust (those are Rampage only, sadly). Shadows and Dust > Maligaro's.

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When your staff is 5/6L, Kaom's Heart becomes a really nice chest. You can only really use it with Heavy Strike though, since Ground Slam and Sweep need a single target setup.


Videos

66 Map, I don't trust my PC with recording just yet.





Last edited by TrizzeX on Oct 18, 2014, 5:38:34 AM
reserving
Hi, do you have any videos of this build in action?
"
Hi, do you have any videos of this build in action?


I will try to make videos soon, I think my PC can handle it.

Gonna do it tomorrow.
updated, working on videos now
Whats your Heavy Strike DPS at ?
Harvest sucks! But look at my decked out gear two weeks in!

Labyrinth salt farm miner.

"But my build diversity" , "Game is too hard!" - Meta drone playing the same 1-3 builds for years.
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Tin_Foil_Hat wrote:
Whats your Heavy Strike DPS at ?


I'm really hesitant to give away any DPS numbers since it really depends on your gear.

My current Heavy Strike DPS is 24.793 with Hatred and Herald of Ash.
specced into crit, updated gear section.
"
TrizzeX wrote:
specced into crit, updated gear section.


videos pls
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ancalagon3000 wrote:
"
TrizzeX wrote:
specced into crit, updated gear section.


videos pls


I'm uploading it atm.

OpieOP
drop from the master mission in that map. Streamer RNG?

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