Melee Doryani's Catalyst - what build?

I'm currently contemplating what build to run once the next league runs along (granted, that will most likely be somewhen mid December or early January, and maybe we'll get some passive tree changes before that, but it never hurts to prepare early) and I'm looking for a bit of input from other players.

It turns out that Doryani's Catalyst is a cheap weapon for what it does (~1.5-2 ex) and I've been fascinated with it for a while. I've also been doing very well with a block-based melee Ranger build in Rampage, so I want to go for block again - just from a slightly different angle.

I have a few drafts/skilltrees for that... They're all Ranger-based because I've got a personal obsession with the class and won't play anything else.

First of, here's a build that is meant to use Infernal Blow as it's main attack. To achieve max block, it would have to rely on The Bringer of the Rain together with Ungil's Gauche.
As Infernal Blow does not work with daggers, only the mainhand Catalyst will be used to attack. You still get the dual wield bonuses as well as easily achieveable maxblock and 90% additional crit chance from Ungil's (for at least 46-47% total crit chance).


It would also be possible to run a build with a shield, which would allow a main skill switch to Molten Strike. This also won't require any BoR, so you could for example run Abyssus with Lightning Coil. It's hard to properly fit crit, block and everything else into the passives, though, especially damage nodes.
Here's a possible tree (needs Tempest shield for maxblock):

or you could abandon crit altogether and go for Resolute Technique instead. With no need for crit gems, it's also easier to fit a Blood Magic gem into the skill setup, making Avatar of Fire feasible.

...or you could go for BoR anyway, which frees up quite some points since you don't need as much block. This would favor Infernal Blow as the main skill again due to better synergy with BoR. (depending on the Shield used, the build might need more block nodes, though...)


So, anyone have any ideas?

To recap:
- Doryani's Catalyst
- melee preferred
- Block preferred
- Ranger preferred

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1092900/page/1

Doryani
Melee
Block
Duelist

3/4, gl

I have a good friend that plays a marauder that dual wields doryani's. He uses molten strike and has 100% fire conversion. He does pretty darn good DPS. If you're interested I can try to get him to post his stuff here for ya.

"

Charja wrote:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1092900/page/1

Doryani
Melee
Block
Duelist

3/4, gl

I've seen the build before. I kinda dislike the low synergy between Doryani's and Ground Slam. The passive tree is impossible to fit on a Ranger, but I do wonder if I could go for PCoC and more crit in general...

"

zSavage wrote:

I have a good friend that plays a marauder that dual wields doryani's. He uses molten strike and has 100% fire conversion. He does pretty darn good DPS. If you're interested I can try to get him to post his stuff here for ya.

Yes, please do - it would be really interesting to see his build. I thought about dual-wielding two of them, but I'm not sure how to go about defenses for that.

Molten strike and avatar of fire looks good on paper but you can't leech mana via gear or tree.

It seems like a small issue, but it really is a pain. Unless you're build has built-in mana sustain (eg. BM keystone / MoM), I'd skip AoF for melee. Otherwise, you'll wind up building around mana and not dps/survivability.

btw.. The Taming ring is not the answer. It's a crutch and not better than 2 x 30 WeD, 80 life, all resists, 30 crit

I also found this Freeze + Proliferate build using Doryani's with Glacial Hammer:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/921271

I think the Ungil/BoR passive build might fit Glacial Hammer quite well, too - basically, swap out Lava Lash for Ice Bite:


Herald of Ash could also be interesting with Glacial Hammer - If I'm not entirely mistaken, if you get the instagib on less than 1/3rd life it should turn all your damage into Overkill Damage...

Oh yeah, about the Dual Doryani Molten Strike build - is it this one?
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1000445

Dual wield crit catalyst marauder molten strike super fun :)