Hybrid melee phys dagger EK CoC. Atziri-capable, flexible gearing, can do all map mods.
 As an experiment, I wanted to see if I could combine the good single-target capability of crit dagger Molten Strike with the higher clear speed that CoC with a ranged spell allows.
Gameplay Videos
Volcano during Flashback league with Physical Reflect, Physical damage reduction, Temporal Chains, Onslaught, and Beyond. During the boss room I showcase switching out to Safell's Frame in order to be able to facetank forest of flames. Without the phys reflect mod this isn't necessary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATUeye25fBk Jungle Valley boss room with a Soul Eater rare spider. This was before the current version of my build, but showcases the durability fairly well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBdSOFNSps Molten Strike is an ideal attack because of excellent single-target capabilities and a very high number of crits/second against both groups of monsters and single monsters. After extensive testing I have found that it is superior to Cyclone offensively for this build, though Cyclone has other benefits due to being a movement attack. In order to exploit synergistic supports, gear, and nodes, I decided to go with EK as the single spell. Since it does physical damage the Shadow's physical damage starting nodes buff both the spell and the attack, and Projectile speed from the tree gives it sufficient range to increase clear speed, while the projectile damage picked up from those notables increases the damage of the Molten Strike projectiles as well. EK has the added benefit of not requiring a multiprojectile support to offer good AoE coverage. The build maintains power, frenzy and endurance charges automatically, though casting Enduring Cry manually at the start of big fights is still very helpful. Passive Tree The passive tree focuses offensively on physical damage, attack speed, and dagger crit, as these stats buff both the molten strike and the damage and casts/sec of the CoC EK. Defensively it picks up enough shield nodes that it has a decent amount of block, but more importantly scales shield defenses very effectively, allowing the character to relatively easily reach useful levels of armor and evade. Because of these shield nodes, the character eschews Acrobatics in order to make excellent use out of armor/evade shields and a granite flask. Vaal Pact allows instant life leech from both the attack and spell from both Life Leech gem and Warlord's Mark curse. Mana use is taken care of with the Eldritch Battery keystone coupled with two ES on hit jewels. All mana is then reserved for Hatred, AA and Heralds that are switched out depending on the challenges being faced.
Gear
The ideal weapon for this build is a high pdps dagger with high attack speed and crit chance mods. These obviously are not inexpensive, but Binos works very nicely on a budget, especially if you only have a 5L and cannot socket life leech for Vaal Pact. There are no uniques that are absolutely required for this build, though some are very powerful. The Brinerot Whalers boots are particularly effective as they supply all of the ES necessary to sustain skills with EB, in addition to giving projectile and physical damage bonuses. Other excellent uniques would be Rat's Nest and Maligaro's Virtuosity, though I prefer rares to allow for a higher life total. Though there are several unique chests that would be excellent for this build, Lightning Coil, Belly, or Daresso's Defiance, I went with a rare 6L because it was cheap. A shield with high armor and/or evade is very useful to make the most out of the shield nodes the build picks up. Safell's Frame in the off-hand to switch out for elemental and/or spell bosses is extremely helpful for those times when block and physical damage reduction just doesn't do much such as: Atziri, Forest of Flames, etc. Jewelry should be pretty standard life/crit/res/accuracy for CoC builds. I enjoy the Sapping Eternal flask to take advantage of not having a mana pool, but instant flasks are excellent as well. With Life Leech and Vaal Pact you only really need one flask. The rest of the flasks should be surgeon's flasks to maintain constant armor and max res bonuses. I use the Atziri's Promise flask that I got from my first Atziri run because the combination of leech and more damage is excellent offensively and defensively. It does mean that I need to switch out elemental flasks depending on boss/map mods however.
skill links
Weapon: Cast When Damage Taken + Warlord's Mark + Tempest Shield Pretty simple here, more life leech, more block, end charge sustain Hat: Increased Critical Strikes, Power Charge on Crit, Reckoning, Vengeance Since you're constantly in melee range of the bad guys, you're going to get hit. This combo allows power charge sustain even against single targets and bosses. This is superior to the oft-used Herald of Ice + Curse on Hit + Assassin's Mark combo for a melee character, IMO. Shield: Arctic Armor, Herald of Ash, Hatred I usually run Hatred, HoA, HoI (curse support), but I can switch out HoI for AA against Atziri and other big phys/fire bosses where the HoI isn't going to help much anyways. Chest: Molten Strike, Multistrike, Cast on Crit, EK, Increased Critical Strikes, Life Leech These links are in order of importance. You can do the bare minimum required links on a 4L, but the Increased critical strikes increases both the number of EK casts per second and the damage of the EK itself. I would not recommend this support for other builds, but it is excellent for this one. Gloves: Whirling Blades, Blood Magic, Fortify, Faster Attacks Pretty standard mobility option. If you have more ES you can switch out Blood Magic. Fortify is pretty much required for melee builds, so it's quite important. Boots: Herald of Ice, Curse on Hit, Poacher's Mark, Enduring Cry The Enduring Cry is very important for starting your endurance charge sustain. Otherwise it's the standard HoI auto-cursing, but to generate frenzy charges rather than power charges. | |
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Hey mate
I love this build because of the use of trigger gems and the fortify with WB I have had so much troubles trying to think of effective use of spare gem slots and using triggers to get power charges is genius! Im CI crit reave and this build is going to give me so much utility! Thanks! No one can hear you poop in the forrest.
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" Nice to hear! It's an idea I've been toying with for a while, but is only actually useful on melee characters, so a lot of builds don't get much out of it. |
