Melee Splash: will it propagate Puncture bleeds?

Subject says it all. If I support Puncture with Melee Splash will the AoE spread the bleeds?

Yes, but keep in mind the penalty on it is generic 'less damage' so it will kick in twice, once for initial attack and again for bleed. Crowd control isn't a popular way to use puncture.

Well this isn't about crowd control, we're trying to find a good Puncture/Bloodlust combo. My wife wants to play Melee at launch Friday and we were thinking that if she can do a Puncture/Splash AoE, I can get 140% damage from Bloodlust as a support gem for my Static Strike attacks. We can both run HoT also to get some serious Shock damage going and she'll be getting the Bloodletting nodes to really optimize her DoTs.

She's thinking that after Puncture/Splash, she switches to Viper Strike to get full advantage from the Bloodletter nodes. She's hoping that using Splash might overcome to some extent the suckiness of melee Puncture, particularly if she then switches to Viper Strike. She might even get the Bleed mod from whatshisname on one of her weapons to enhance the fun even more.

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Winterfury wrote:

She's thinking that after Puncture/Splash, she switches to Viper Strike to get full advantage from the Bloodletter nodes. She's hoping that using Splash might overcome to some extent the suckiness of melee Puncture, particularly if she then switches to Viper Strike. She might even get the Bleed mod from whatshisname on one of her weapons to enhance the fun even more.

Hmm, puncture + viper, eh? You got one ambitious woman there, be careful :)

Not saying it's doomed to struggle, but I recommend levelling a backup skill, something she also likes so she can swap over if viper turns out underwhelming.

Splashed puncture seems okay for proccing bloodlust. Might as well make it a full-on utility link with Fortify and Curse on Hit if you can. Also, increased aoe might help a bit if you're near there on the tree (sockets might seem tight).

As an ultimate goal, I'd build with 2h axes in mind so you could eventually sink some currency into an Atziri's Disfavour and use a better skill like Cyclone.

My planned build is going to use Disfavour with Cyclone for AOE, and a stun-focused Vigilant Strike for single-target. The 60% more damage from bloodlust is insane when you already have a huge damage effectiveness to begin with and you're only caring about scaling physical damage.

edit-ooh I forgot about the master crafter mod. You can take advantage of that without having to actually craft a good weapon by dual wielding and making use of weapon-specific skills:

- Use something that's not a claw or dagger in your main hand.
- Master craft a claw or dagger with the bleed on hit mod and put it in your offhand.
- Use Reave and/or Whirling Blades to proc bleeds on enemies
- Use a skill that always uses the main hand or that cannot be used with claws or daggers for damage (like double strike or ice crash or glacial hammer).