[3.1] BERSERKER/JUGGERNAUT 288k DPS Ice Crash/EQ Crit Staff AKA "The Shattering Karui"

Mine isn't linked to anything yet but lives pretty long. Hm.

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jbmcarth wrote:

4L: Ice Golem - Minion Life - Blood Magic - Leap Slam

Is the ice golem worth it? Mine keeps dying in any tough fight. I don't have him linked to minion life yet, but it's hard to believe he won't get wtfpwned. I think I'd rather lose the first 3 of those and have leap slam linked to faster attacks and use the other 2 slots for vaal haste - increased duration or something. Thoughts?

It's your choice. The golems aren't meant to be your equivalent of summon zombies, tanking and fighting for you. They're there for utility only, minion life purely lowers the frequency of needing to summon them. +% to accuracy and critical chance in a crit build is something I do not want to pass by. Of course, you're free to do whatever you want :)

Do you still recommend helping Alira in Merciless even though you're using warlord's mark (instead of ass. mark)?

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ComradeSerge wrote:

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Ghorghorexp wrote:

Hello Comrade, thanks for your detailed answer to my previous post, I have a better understanding of the mentioned details. And still lot of fun to play with it !

Now, just like the previous user, Nexzer, I am also wondering how to ensure the survivability of my character, which is even more important in my case since I play in HC, tempest league. What do you think about using life gain on hit (earlier on the game) or life leech (later in the game) linked to Ice crash ? Being a melee character, some boss or even just some champions/normal mobs can get very tricky.

Blood rage is nice, but I'm afraid it might not be enough.

Thanks in advance for your opinion on that :)

Life leech is really nice now in mid to big packs. The bigger the pack, the better. You might also want to go for hematophagy myb, very nice nodes.

Thanks for the advice, I wasn't sure about Hematophagy, but now I will give it a try ASAP.
And yes, I will switch one of the skills gem originally linked to Ice Crash with Life leech. Less dmg for sure, but safer.
Too bad Vaal pact has been moved so far away.

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antilev2 wrote:

Do you still recommend helping Alira in Merciless even though you're using warlord's mark (instead of ass. mark)?

Yes, you gain power charges using hegemony's era.

By the way, I'm using warlord's mark as part of my CWDT setup, it seems to work really well (as you are getting hit a lot). Also, Rallying Cry is really useful to help sustain mana.

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antilev2 wrote:

By the way, I'm using warlord's mark as part of my CWDT setup, it seems to work really well (as you are getting hit a lot). Also, Rallying Cry is really useful to help sustain mana.

Nice idea with the cry, added that to the thread.

I've got no problem leveling the golem and seeing how it turns out. At the moment, he seems to love to do his rolling thing dead ahead into whatever is in front of me and starts taking damage before I get there. If it's a fight I can't just jump into the middle of, he doesn't tend to last long. His bonuses are nice, but if they're increases, not more, then they're probably not crucial, especially if I can get something good out of those 3 gem slots.

Pre-hegemony's era, do you just use assassin's mark instead of warlord's?

I had a question. I've been following this build to a T with the new soft core league and I've come to a point where I'm struggling. Mostly because I'm lacking a ton of Intellect for spells. I believe I have 33 Intellect at level 48, give or take. I can't even put on a level 1 Golem and I don't see many int nodes in the near future. How did you do get by with such low intellect? And at what level did you guys feel this build was doable?

One comment and one question.

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ComradeSerge wrote:

As for CWDT, yes, it was nerfed, but you will have endurance charges up relatively often because of Smashing Strikes, so it will make your IC at least 1.5-2 secs with 3 endurance charges. There is an alternative option if you just want to have endurance charges up constantly: Vengeance linked to Melee Physical Damage + Endurance Charge on Melee Stun + Increased Aoe or Stun gem. But the problem with that is your block chance is relatively low, and even when you do block, vengeance procs only 30% of the time, so, you do the math :) of course, in the end, it's your choice :)

Vengeance procs when you take a hit (30% of the time), not when you block. Personally, I haven't committed to going crit/staff until later in the game -- still leveling through cruel at this point -- so using Vengeance to proc endurance charges is the much better option. But, in general, it's a pretty good even if you're solidly on crit staff, because it does proc pretty frequently.

The question:

On the cluster of 2H Melee nodes south of Duelist, has anyone crunched the numbers to figure out whether it's better to go through the 4% attack speed or the 12% increased damage node? I think it's probably a wash, but if one path is strictly preferable, I'd rather connect through that.