[1.3] Static Strike Duelist

So, to begin...

With this build you will achieve very high AoE and single target DPS, coupled with high health, good survivability and great clearspeeds. This build is also very cheap, and you could do suprisingly well with only a couple exas worth of items. We need not a 6 link, even though that greatly increases our DPS. A 5 link however is preferred.

This build is also very versatile, being able to Mace, Sword and Axe efficiently, which decreases the cost of the weapon, and also makes it easier to find a good one.

With this build, I can do all map bosses, and atziri. I havn't tried Über yet, but I don't think it's possible. I can also run almost any map mod, including Elemental Reflect, but I would advice against it, as it makes the map alot more dangerous. -Max + elemental reflect is a no-go though.

So, what does the build look like? Well, here's the tree.

As you can see, we opt to take all the available endurance charges, alot life nodes, life regeneration, phys damage, and elemental damage. I will try to explain the reason behind some of it.

Endurance charges: This allows us to go pretty low in armor but maintain high damage mitigation. With 7 (3 base + 3 from tree + 1 from bandits) endurance charges active, we get 28% physical damage reduction and 1.4% life regen. This coupled with a granite flask and Molten Shell gives us quite good phys damage resistance.

Life regen: This is a personal preference, and one could opt to get more life instead of it. But as you will see later, we put alot of effort into getting high life leech rates, and if you think about it, the 6.2% per second means an increase of 31% life leech rate, as leech caps at 20% per second. This really does make a difference as long as we are not one hit killed.

The two mana nodes: I had to pick these two to be able to leech enough mana. As you may know, the mana leech is also subject to the 20% rule, and that little extra mana actually solved my problem. You might wanna get some Mana regen and/or mana on gear instead, and drop these two nodes.

The setup I recommend is the following:

1. Static Strike (Q)
2. Melee physical damage
3. Weapon elemental damage
4. Multistrike
5. Life leech (Q) (which you can change to Added fire, if you want more damage and don't run the risk of dying, as in low level maps or easy map mods)
6. Increased area of effect / Lightning penetration

(I am not entirely certain how Lightning Penetration affects reflect, but seeing as you would only use this over Increased area of effect in certain situations (for example, atziri), you can chose to only use it when you encounter no reflect.)

(Q) means that quality is recommended.
If you run a 5 link, I suggest removing the 6th in the list. A few other choices are:

Physical to lightning
If we want really high damage, this is THE gem. Problem with this gem is that we now no longer do any physical damage, and as a result we cannot leech mana. Ofcourse, we can run a HoT+CoH+Warlords, but that makes us rely on a curse, and also that we continuously shock our victims. I've found that the damage we do without this gem is more than enough, and that the extra damage do not make up for the issues in Curse Immune maps.

Conc. Effect
I know alot of people who recommend running Conc. Effect for bosses, like atziri. My take on this is that it is not worth it. The conc. effect only applies to your static explosion, and thus gives you (roughly) only half of its effect. This means the Conc. Effect contributes less that 35% more damage, compared to Lightning Penetration that has the potential to be more than 50% more damage (with roughly 50% of your damage being lightning).

Faster attacks
A solid support gem that could replace Multistrike if you do not like using it, or maybe as a 6th slot if you feel your AoE is big enough and don't want to change gems for bosses.

Weapon: Look for a two-hander with high pure physical DPS. I recommend spending atleast one exalted on this, as a better weapon means more leech and less damage taken. A marohi erqi might be a good starter weapon. However, its DPS is quite low, but you do get that sweet increased area of effect for free.

Chest: Here we have a few interesting options. We can use a Carcass Jack for bigger explosions (but keep in mind the extra AoE damage only applies to your explosions, and that if you go for this option, you should have the 5/6 link on your weapon or be prepared to spend a fortune on chromatics). We can use a Cherrubim's Maleficence for faster leeching. Also, a rare for more resistances and higher armour. What I chose is however a Belly of the Beast for the extra life.

Helmet: You can go for a Devoto's Devotion for extra movespeed, an Abyssus if you care little for yourself, or a standard, rare helmet with high life and resistances. I chose the latter.

Gloves: Until you can afford a good pair of Vorici leech rate gloves, go for a standard pair with life, resistances, AS and phys damage.

Belt: A Meginord's Girdle is definitely a good choice, but a rare Leather belt or Rustic sash does the job too.

Boots: As with helmets, a good rare does the trick.

Rings: Cap your resistances, and look for Weapon Elemental Damage and Phys damage. Also get life. If you find a good ring with mana leech, it's not a bad thing, as we need about 1-2% to sustain our skills.

Amulet: If you could not find any ring with mana leech, this is your highest priority. After this comes life and the last resistances you need to cap out.

Leap slam: Use this to traverse faster, and to not waste the explosion if your target dies of the initial strike. I linked it with Endurance Charge on Melee stun to have an easier time generating endurance charges. Faster attacks is also a good option for even faster movement.

CWDT+Enduring cry (low levels): If you like using Immortal Call, you want to be able to quickly regenerate your endurance charges. This helps with that. You can also link Enduring cry with Spell Echo if you don't mind casting it every now and then. This is by far the fastest way to get your charges.

CWDT Setup (high levels): I link it with Molten Shell, Immortal Call, and Increased Duration. A definite case can be made about Immortal Call doing more harm than good though, so if you want full control over your charges you might want to use Regen Totem or Decoy instead, and cast the Immortal Call when needed manually. As I play scrubcore, I like not having to pay attention to casting something else than Static Strike!

Herald of Thunder + Curse on hit + Curse + Reduced mana: If you opted to use PTL, using this setup with Warlord's Mark is required. If you do not use PTL, then you can either go for another aura, or STILL use Warlord's Mark. As we have alot of Leech rate, extra leech is never a bad thing. This also allows you to use Added Fire instead of Life Leech for maps that allow it. You can also use Elemental Weakness too.

Hatred + Reduced mana: If you like DPS, this aura is a must.

Herald of Ash + Reduced mana: Even more DPS!

Purity of fire/lightning/ice + Reduced mana: Might be a good idea depending on the map you are running. Keep in mind that our Int is low tho, so using anything else than Fire might be a long shot. Purity of Fire is however a very good option for Atziri.

Vitality + Reduced Mana: Who needs life leech when you can regen 10% per second?

I will put some screenshots here if the guide gets popular, until then some text will have to do.

Tooltip DPS(5 link, hideout, LL-gem): 33.3k
For single target DPS, this means about 60k, and that's with gear worth about 4 exa!

Tooltip DPS(5 link, hideout, added fire): 42.5k

HP: 5599 hp

Regen: 272 hp/s

Armour(without molten shell): 2400