[1.3.0] Bockwursts Dominating Tank - +300 Minions & 106s Minion Uptime / Aegis Maxblock
|
UPDATED FOR 1.3.0!
Just a short guide regarding my Dominating Blow build I have been running lately, updated for the 1.3.0 Patch. This build utilizes Soul Taker to take care of the ridiculous Mana Cost of Dominating Blow while providing defensive Stats like Maxblock and Blind with Bringer of Rain and Aegis Aurora. Let's dominate some shit! 
Pro/Con
+ Tons of Fun
+ nice clear speed once you gain momentum + pretty safe due to massive flesh shield, Aegis & Maxblock + use map mods to your advantage! Turbo? Yes Please! Fracture? No Problem! + Reflect-safe - can melt your GPU - not particularly party friendly
1.3.0 PATCH GUIDE UPDATES
With the 1.3.0 Patch Block got a huge nerf which results in a lot of people abandoning Block as their defense. However we will hold on to it even if it costs us some HP/DPS. The Results: HP went down by approx 10% but our Energy shield almost tripled which is pretty sweet for mitigating those small shots via Aegis. Maxblock, 56% Spellblock via Strides/Lazhwar. Due to having to spend a whole lot more nodes to achieve maxblock we lose a rather significant amount of DPS, going from 14.8k to 10.4k DPS. Dropped Faster Attacks in Favor of Reckoning which keeps up curses on nearby enemies on block.
Gear
You can outfit this build for less than 20ex, which includes non-legacy versions of Bringer of Rain (~2-4ex), Aegis (~2-4ex) and Soul Taker (~8-10ex). However, when choosing BoR and Aegis I would definitely go for legacy versions as they will be highly beneficial to your defense. A corrupted 4% Block Lazhwar saves us two nodes which is pretty neat. BiS Belt (if you can afford it): With this beauty you basically double every rare aura you get for 20sec which is beyond ridiculous, plus it adds some nice stats like life. Sure, it's kinda more a gimmick but well, it's a freaking incredible gimmick. Check out the Videos for a Dominating Blow + Headhunter vs. Fracture + Nemesis Video.
Flask Setup
Straight forward. Double Quicksilver for Speed, double Animation Flasks to avoid unnecessary losses/counter burning.
Tree
Updated for 1.3.0: http://bit.ly/1uE1FqN
With the new 1.3.0 Patch we have to spend a ton of nodes to maintain our Maxblock/Spellblock. Therefore we unfortunately will have give up some life/dps. For leveling head right towards Art of the Gladiator, Golem's Blood and Unwavering Stance. Branch out to the right towards Iron Reflexes, Thick Skin and up to Herbalism. Pick up the complete Constitution Wheel along with Exceptional Performance to stack some Duration for our minions. Finally work your way towards Potency of Will to max out or Minion Duration, Sancutary to complete our Maxblock and Resolute Technique to maximize our Accuracy. Add +30Int/Dex nodes along the way if needed. Switch to your full setup at Lv70, at that point you'll be able to equip Soul Taker, BoR and Aegis along with a full 20/20 Set of Dominating Blow, Increased Duration, Multistrike and Melee Splash.
Stats
 What do you need? Soul Taker, BoR, Aegis, that's it. Add a 4% Block Lazhwar to save some nodes that you can push into some more life/dps. This build is pretty modular, the only mandatory item is Soul Taker. Aegis is nice for completely eliminating small physical hits like Titty Bitches. BoR can also be switched out for helmet+6L which enables you to run a CWDT setup but on the other hand lacks Block, Blind & some DPS. If you got some Exalteds to blow add a corrupted 4% Lazhwar and Rainbowstrides for a good portion of Spell Block. For other gear just look for life & resistances, rings/ammy with flat phys are a rather nice dps boost. What do you get? Momentum, momentum, momentum. 100+ blinding minions with ~106sec uptime. Flesh Offering, Hatred & Haste for some more DPS and Speed. 16 Seconds of Vaal Haste for ludicrous speed! ~5k HP, ~800ES , approx 10k dps Dominating Blow (Splash). For some additional tankiness this build offers Maxblock and 56% Spellblock with Aegis to mitigate a lot of small arms fire (e.g. Titty Bitches, Voidbearers). Reckoning applies Enfeeble via Curse on Hit when blocking for even less received hits.  What are your Links? Main Attack 4L in BoR: Dominating Blow - Increased Duration - Multistrike - Melee Splash Minion Buff in 3L: Vaal Haste - Increased Duration - Increased Area of Effect Movement/Curse in 4L: Leap Slam - Reckoning - Curse on Hit - Enfeeble Minion Control/Buff in 4L: Blood Magic - Convocation - Flesh Offering - Increased Duration Auras in 3L: Haste - Hatred - Reduced Mana The links are somewhat self-explanatory. 21/20 Dominating Blow + 21/20 Increased Duration plus the Increased Duration Nodes (Exceptional Performance & Potency of Will) gives us 106 seconds of Minion Uptime. Curse Enemies via Leap Slam, Auto-refresh Curses on nearby enemies via Reckoning.  How do you play this? Leap Slam right into the first packs you see, dominate everything. Rinse and repeat until you built up a decent army of minions you feel comfortable with (personally try to hover around 80+ Minions). Pickup rare monsters along the way to gain some nice auras such as Speed or Physical/Elemental Reflect. Use Convocation to focus your army onto certain enemies, try to keep Flesh offering up as good as possible. Launch Vaal Haste for 16 seconds of pure whoop ass and to melt down bosses within seconds. What do you have to look out for? Only thing to avoid with your minions are certain AoE heavy bosses like Dominus or Crematorium Boss, with enough Minions everything else pretty much melts within seconds. Everything burning (Burning ground, Fire Throwers etc.) can be an annoyance, but can be countered with altering your playstyle, good use of Convocation and some Flasks (Divine Life Flask of Animation with the prefix of your choice). To-Do-List: - experiment with Minion Instability (might be fun) Videos & Screenshots Special: lv75 Plateau Fracture + Nemesis with Headhunter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ECsU9CUSIg lv77 Shipyard Turbo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oTyunveQw8 lv76 Precinct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBwIuE3ksJA lv75 Bazaar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBwIuE3ksJA Casually plowing through a lv75 Plateau: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ6RZG3IlV0 Dominating Blow vs lv73 Dry Peninsula Fracture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRkmdU5I3wY Dominating Blow vs lv71 Strand Fracture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgpppPNsYPg Some screens for the lulz: http://i.imgur.com/eFYBEYN.jpg http://i.imgur.com/6ABwfKi.jpg Thanks for reading and enjoy! If You have any suggestions/questions feel free to ask! Last edited by Abyssopelagic on Feb 12, 2015, 3:24:08 AM
|
|
|
With all duration nodes in the skilltree vaal haste is preety awesome, u should use it, even if u don't have room to use inc. duration with it (but i'd rather remove duration from convocation-flesh offering link and use duration with aura, so leapslam-faster att. & vaal haste-duration in 4s item and bloodmagic-offering-convocation in 3l). On top of that i feel vaal cyclone while definitely fun, it actually can slow u down, 10 sec duration is just too long, and your minions are spread anyway.
Last edited by SteKrz on Nov 20, 2014, 6:36:36 PM
| |
" Thanks for your suggestion, read your comment yesterday evening and thought I really should give Vaal Haste a shot instead of Vaal Cyclone. Loved it, kept it. :) Rearranged Dual Strike into the 3L to be able to run Vaal Haste with Increased Duration. 17sec Uptime on Vaal Haste is kinda ridiculous. There are some other changes to this build I made during the last few days, will update this guide regularly to keep up with the development.. after all this build is still Work in Progress. |
|
|
3L double strike feel kinda pointless. If u think u need incresed duration with flesh offering - u could use a bloodmagic-faster casting-curse or maybe CWDT setup in 3L? Or even leapslam-faster attacks-curse on hit-curse?
Last edited by SteKrz on Nov 23, 2014, 3:30:51 AM
| |
" Agreed on the 3L Double Strike, threw it out and added Curse on Hit to my Leap Slam, atm running Enfeeble. Increased Duration on Flesh Offering gives me a significant uptime boost which I would not like to miss. Will be uploading a 77 Shipyard Turbo Video this evening, it's pretty fun. |
|
|
13.3 vs 18.4 with 20/20 duration assuming u have enough corpses, on a spammable (kind of) skill. But at this point it is a bit nitpicking :) Anyway - i like curse on hit (quality really important especially against bosses). And get 6socket armour and lvl up gems there. Over time it will give u some currency.
| |
|
What does this build look like with a Headhunter? Pretty ridiculous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ECsU9CUSIg
Last edited by Abyssopelagic on Nov 30, 2014, 10:40:33 AM
|
|
|
Im trying this build out atm and it makes alot of fun and works really solid.
+1 great guide IGN: WhyTheRainbowstrides
| |
|
Updated this guide for 1.3.0! We maintained Maxblock, added 56% Spellblock along with Reckoning while sacrifing ~500HP and a good bit of our DPS for the sake of our tankiness. Energy shield more than doubled which is pretty sweet for making Aegis work even better. Threw Faster Attacks out in favor of Reckoning to refresh Enfeeble which can also still be applied via Leap Slam. Enjoy! |
|
|
I can't check the passives for 2.0/1.3 :( I just got my Soul Taker and really wanna play this on Warbands
|
|
