[2.3] "Vulcan's Exemplar" Crit Dual Strike Slayer with Bino/Catalyst by fiqst
" Thanks for your question, i was about to compile a beta tesing post, but i'll answer your question instead. There is still at least 6 weeks left of the beta so if you want to spec into this build i'd recommend it. And i plan to make to make Vulcan fully 2.0 ready. Here are my notes so far from beta testing: ATM i'm running an RT Ice Crash 2h mace Duelist, not the same as a crit duel wield since currency is an issue, but i'm using similar things like auras, flicker-curser, burn prolif, etc so i can still come to some conclusions after playtesting.
mana reserved
The 2 main auras are Hatred and HoA. In the beta i can use both. Hatred aura has a 50% reservation, and HoA-prolif has 32%. This leaves 18% unreserved. Not ideal. HoA-prolif can't be connected to increased burning without reserving too much mana. In the beta, my max mana is about 550, after the 82% reservation of hatred and HoA, it becomes 64 mana. I am forced to run ice crash with a BM gem. In 2.0 i think i will have to consider some reservation nodes, mana nodes and/or enlighten to compensate. The possible links are: GRBB Hatred HoA ele prolif Enlighten lvl 3/4
HoA prolif
The main AoE function of this build, changes to this combination makes or breaks this build. I can say that with 40k RT dps with ice crash, the AoE burn is noticeable but not full-screen melting. In lvl 72 maps, mobs die from 100% life in about 4-5 seconds of burn. If i were to envision 300k crit dps, i think the HoA burn will still be effective but the radius is limited and the burn time increased (no more insta-death burns). I'm pretty confident that i can make it work.
ice crash
pretty good skill, it only uses the main hand, so in Vulcan spec, you can expect the Catalyst to be very effective here. The off hand Bino, serves as a utility weapon. Any weapon can be used in the offhand, so an ungil's (Glaciator), mark of the doubting knight and others can be used without sacrificing dps. As with Vulcan, i use a flicker to get into range so the ice crash AoE radius isn't important to me, allowing the use of conc effect. The beauty of this skill is the 360 degree AoE, theres no need for aiming at targets. Dual strike required multistrike in order auto-aim at mobs after flickering into position. Without the damage limiter of multistrike, ice crash has devastating single hit damage. The downside is the long wind up before it attacks, i built my beta character with full damage and no attack speed, much like Vulcan, and have noticed the time from button press to attack seemed like half a second. I'll have to see how well this skill works with catalyst/bino when it goes live, but as it is, its promising. The planned 6L: RRRBGG ice crash MPD WED conc effect hypothermia cold penatration because we're always in melee range via flicker, conc effect is perfect to maximise damage. hypothermia is extremely powerful. 39% more damage against chilled enemies. The flicker strike will most definitely chill the target and opens up ice crash + hypo to create massive overkill damage. Also, against enemies requiring multiple hits, like bosses, this is perfect. These gem colours are compatible with cyclone if you feel like a change.
Flicker strike utility
I use flicker to not only close in on mobs, but to inflict curses and self-buffs. Current plans for the 4L flicker: flicker cast on crit assassin's mark fortify Fortify is seriously a prerequisite for all melee builds now. The combination of fortify and 3 endurance charges grants 32% phys reduction. Flicker + Fortify means fortify is constantly activated. The spell of choice is less clear cut. Assassin's Mark has always been the staple but there are 2 other options i'm testing (depending if i can power charges from other means): 1. Punishment. This grants 35% more melee phys damage and 19% increased attack speed when you get hit by a cursed mob. Trash mobs get 1 shotted anyway, but against bosses is where this skill shines. 2. Arctic armour. 13% less physical and fire damage while stationary. This is well suited to my playstyle since i'm basically holding down shift and not walking. EDIT: didn't realise that arctic armor is now an "aura" with a 25% mana reservation
Blood Rage
The flat attack speed and conversion to phys degen from chaos degen means that this skill is buffed for this build. In the CB, i have 2.8% life regen from the tree and makes the degen totally manageable. I have a LL dual strike build that uses BR, and unfortunately, BR degens 4% from life and 4% from ES, double degen!, i will have rethink how i can make that build work with the new changes. So if you're planning to follow the LL version, hold off for now.
War Cries
Manual casting and having to position yourself constantly lowers overall clear speed. You basically have to cast it at every group of enemies, which is annoying. Also, the more enemies in the radius, the more powerful the buff, so it forces you get closer to the group before casting to get the full benefit, opening yourself to attacks. It just creates an extra step where you can just insta-kill everything anyway.
Golems
I love my little pet. It's like a D&D familiar. I've been using the flame golem for the damage boost. It also serves as a mobile decoy totem. A welcome addition.
Jewels
On the tree i have access to 3 jewel slots. I've just been using blue jewels so far since they're so easy to make. I haven't looked into jewels very deeply so far.
Lockstep
This is the best thing to ever happen to the game. I can flicker strike for days without a single problem. I can't praise GGG enough for this. It seriously feels like you're playing an offline game. The only problem i get is trying to group. Living in Australia, i get paired with NA and EU players all the time, and currently, there's no switching between lockstep and predictive without logging out. 360 ping with lockstep is painful. All this info can change every week. So many strikes within one breath. But only one strike needed, for certain death. Last edited by fiqst on Jun 6, 2015, 11:14:13 AM
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Thank you fiqst, for your super prompt and detailed reply!
Everything looks great! I'm looking forward to make the switch to this build when 2.0 arrives! I have a few other smaller questions that I forgot to ask yesterday. 1) About Doryani's Catalyst, I bought a high phys damage roll ("Adds 83 - 156 Physical Damage), but it has a low ele damage roll ("85% Increased Elemental Damage"). Should I focus more on getting a 100% IED roll over a high phys damage roll for maximum damage output? 2) A part of your guide mentions about "Shift+Flicker", what exactly does the "shift" part of this mean? Sorry I'm still a relatively new player, but from what I read and understand about the build, Blood Rage will create frenzy charges, and these frenzy charges will feed flicker strike's cooldown when CoC procs, is this correct? Thank you so much for your help and explanations, I'm just busy gathering currency now to make the switch to a 5L or 6L Daresso's haha :D |
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" Stick with your current weapon, it won't hamper you too much. Holding shift allows you to attack on the spot. So holding shift while flickering and dual striking will allow you to flicker next to a mob and attack with dual strike without needing to aim at the target. Blood rage does grant frenzy charges on a kill, and the flicker consumes one to bypass the cooldown, allowing for continuous flickers as long as you kill things. The CoC procs according to the chance to proc of the gem, and the crit chance of the flicker. I wish you good RNG! So many strikes within one breath.
But only one strike needed, for certain death. | |
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Nice to see you continue on cb. I am a big fan of the softcore version and it's time to thank you a lot for the pleasure i got on sc ;)
Are you planning to put a tree for the cb version, i plan to try (before the next wipe) a 2h mace dualist ^^ Keep the good job !!! | |
" Thanks mate. I will try to update all the builds I've created. The tree I'm using in the beta was actually for critical dual wield so it traveled towards the shadow area, which isn't very useful to a 2h mace build. Crit equipment is really hard to collect in the beta so i dropped the idea. A nice 380pdps 2h mace dropped for me so i just went with it. The tree isn't very optimised and given the chance again, I'd be traveling towards templar instead. The wipe will probably be in a week. If you need a 2h mace tree at that point i can try to make one for you. So many strikes within one breath.
But only one strike needed, for certain death. | |
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Ty for the answer, i'll try to make this build before the wipe.
I'm wondering if duelist is the best start for an ice crash 2h build, in case i can try another start. I tried to start with 2h and glacial hammer but it's not very effective i'm afraid. Just give me the big orientation of the tree / gems/ gear, i'll try my best to understand the philosophy of this build. (And forget my bad language or misspell as it's not my native language) | |
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This is my current tree:
103 points I was on the way to making a dual wield crit tree (hence shadow nodes), but i found this weapon:  So i changed it around to be 2h RT. If i were to make a pure 2h RT mace tree it would look like this: 104 points So many strikes within one breath.
But only one strike needed, for certain death. | |
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It's a nice toy i admit :)
Ty for your advice on the tree, i'll take the way of the 'pure' 2h rt. I'm not sure of the benefice of acrobatics atm, maybe it's still viable. I just got a convocation for a formation next week. I'll try all that after (surely after the wipe also). | |
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I'm new so this is probably a very dumb question, I'll apologize in advance. When leveling, which gems should we use? Given a lack of mana for all the auras and a lack of links for all the gems, what do we do about the lack of AoE while we're still low?
Thanks, and again, I apologize for the dumb questions. | |
" Hi mate, thanks for sharing your equipment and tree. The reason for the use of the Catalyst and Snakebites were 2 reasons, easy to find items and easy to replicate dps. The tree itself was made to be a multi-purpose dual wield crit tree, compatible with all 1h weapons and interchangeable with a variety of builds. In fact, my soul taker cyclone build uses the same tree. You made a good choice in taking Adder's Touch and using double daggers, i have 2 builds in the Shadow forum that do the same thing. For me, i handle reflect by using the physical to lightning gem with dual strike. This spreads out the damage so i don't one shot myself and have ample time to drink a topaz flask. Using LS works the same way, but if you switch to DS, i suggest changing one of the gems to P2L. The DPS achieved comes from scaling critical chance and ele damage. Around 75% of damage comes from ele sources (P2L, hatred, Quality HoA, etc.) and is boosted by the increased ele damage mod from the Catalyst. You'd be surprised at how fast the clearspeed is with the boosted ele damage from catalyst, especially when it comes to burn damage. I definitely agree that the best defence is a great offence. Massive single target damage gives massive Bino regen. " When levelling, choose a skill you like best. I really like levelling with static strike for the AoE and a nice 2h weapon. Instead of taking the dual wield and 1h nodes, i take the 2h nodes instead while following the general pathways and make the conversion when i have the right equipment later on. To make it really easy for yourself as you level, try to find some Elreon rings (reduces mana usage) to equip, also, use the Clarity aura to regen your mana, just don't level it up too much. When you are able to, use a Blood Magic gem with your attacks so you can do away with the Elreon rings and Clarity and start thinking about Hatred and HoA. This also allows you to drop mana flasks and use more efficient flasks. I made this build for those who have existing characters with a free respec to play around with and its not really designed to be played from the ground uo since i use some really specific uniques. But I wish you luck and i'm happy to help in any way. So many strikes within one breath.
But only one strike needed, for certain death. |
