Donald Drumpf: Making Mjölner Great Again [T15 Map-boss Video]
 Mjölner builds don't win anymore. We don't win against reflect. We don't win at tankyness. We don't win at clear speed. We don't win at trade--it's crazy what's going on; we have a trade deficit with Cadiro. Cadiro! And the rest of the league is laughing at us. Those smug casuals in standard insist we need Voll's Devotion to even compete. But you know what I'm going to do about that? That's right, build a wall around standard--and not just that, they're going to pay for it!
Is this build for you?
Down to the nitty-gritty
This build isn't exactly what you'd call ready out of the box. To expedite the process, I recommend a small loan from a parent character of a measly few exalts. A pittance, really, just to get you started. But in all seriousness, if you wanted to try a Mjolner build this is the league to do it in. It's never been more affordable, and this build is one of the cheaper ones as it relies on uniques that aren't terribly expensive. As far as the core design of the build, it operates under a simple premise: hold on to your hair-piece and don't let off the right mouse button until everything is dead. We don't use armor, energy shield, or evasion to protect ourselves. Our main defense is the sheer volume of noxious, volatile, screen-freezing spam and an absolutely ludicrous amount of life leech. Combined with a health pool of 6k+ we have an extremely formidable build capable of easily doing Atziri, T15 maps, and any individual map mod. I've done all the map bosses up to t12 twinned with various mods and haven't had any trouble, yet.  With that said, this build is not for the faint of heart: This build is for winners. And in this case being a winner boils down to constantly taking massive amounts of punishment. It will be immediately healed via leech, but if you have a preexisting heart condition and don't think you can handle your life instantaneously dropping to a quarter at any given moment, then this probably isn't the build for you. So, for those of you who don't like winning, steer clear of this build.
How it works
The core of this build is essentially having an absurdly high health pool combined with the Berserker's Cloak of Savagery, Vaal Pact, and Acrobatics+Phase Acrobatics. The Last two aren't exactly necessary, but I figured since I already traveled all that way the passive tree owed me. After a quick round of negotiations I managed to get a killer deal bundling them with Vaal Pact.
Short of instant death, it's extremely difficult to kill this character.
Passive Tree, Ascendancy & Bandits
Core Passive Tree
Voll's Devotion Variant The Ascendancy is pretty straight forward. You're a Berserker:Pain Reaver into Cloak of Savagery, followed by Crave The Slaughter Bandits:Oak/Passive OR Kraityn/Alira (Oak is possible if using Voll's Devotion)
Links
This build is pretty flexible when it comes to what skills you could run
Mjolner: Discharge/Lightning Penetration/Lightning Skill of your choice (Spark/Ball Lightning/Arc) or Controlled Destruction/Increased AoE. Arc has the best trash mob clear speed. The others are far more hilarious to use. If you want really fast clear speed use Discharge/Arc/Controlled Destruction. This works pretty well on non-lightning resist maps (even with those it's just about as fast as Lightning Pen). Lightning Pen is better against tricky bosses who don't die to Vaal Molten Shell by itself. Chest: The chest only needs to be a 5 link. Molten Strike/GMP/Faster Attacks/Multi-Strike/Fortify. If you want or have a 6 link LMP can be used in the last slot--if you really want it. Vengeance is a fine alternative to a 6th link. It procs Mjolner, and you can self-proc Vengeace with Scolds. You could use Lightning Strikes instead of Molten, but that lags like crazy and does less single target damage. Helmet: Blasphemy/Curse of choice/Arctic Armor. I like running 2 curses in my helmet so I can swap at will, but you can run anything you want in there. For curses I like Warlords Mark and Enfeeble. Warlord's Mark is best for maps below t13, as they don't always trigger your Cloak of Savagery very consistently which means you could run around with an uncomfortably low amount of health against weak bosses combined with desecrate/burning ground. Warlord's Mark is probably the most convenient and easy to use. Enfeeble is nice against high damage modded maps/Bosses. It's also not out of the realm of possibility to run two curses, as it's only 3 points away on the tree. Similarly, running an Aura like a Purity of X, Wrath, or Haste is a good alternative so you can swap on curse immune maps or -16 max res ele reflect maps (which you can do with this build, it's just a little slower and you have to use your flasks well). If you want a really fast clear speed, dropping Artic Armor for Wrath+Warlord's Mark will give you some great results. You have plenty of base stats for any skill in the game, feel free to experiment (I do). Gloves:I like using Vaal Molten Shell/Controlled Destruction/Fire Pen/Increased Duration or Elemental Focus. You honestly do not need Increased Duration at all, but I've had it in there forever and I'm lazy like that. This skill does insane damage (up to 15k+ per proc) and you can self-proc with Scolds. Pop it before you jump onto a boss and his minions and watch them melt in seconds. Off-Hand: Standard Leap Slam/Faster Attacks/Fortify. We use Leap Slam because we have a high attack speed and it procs Mjolner. Boots: CWDT/Immortal Call/Increased Duration/Summon Chaos Golem. This is pretty self-explanatory. Chaos Golem isn't necessary. You can sub it out for Vengeance (if you have a 6l) or whatever else you prefer. You could throw in a Vaal Haste or Arctic Breath.
ME!
 This is the man who is going to make your Path of Exile great again. His gear is far from optimal, but he still boasts over 6 attacks a second without Frenzy charges and 6.5k health without all %life jewels. His resistances are also above capped for ele weakness maps. Here is my current gear
Gear
Gear Recommendations
Core: Mjolner, Romira's Banquet. We don't crit so we generate free power charges. Classic Combo. Almost Core: Belly of the Beast, Vinktar's Vessel, Scold's Bridle, and Repentence These uniques are easily best in slot, and they're not terribly difficult to obtain. If any item is "Core" alongside Mjolner and Romira's it's Vinktar's; it adds a massive amount of survivability and damage. For your other pieces of gear these are you priorities Off-Hand: Spell Damage, Life, Resists Amulet: Life, Intelligence (if needed), Resists, Spell Damage, Strength Belt: Health, Resists, Strength Boots: Life, Resists, Movement Speed, Strength Other Ring:Life, Resists, Strength/Intelligence, Attack Speed Jewels: %Life, Attack Speed (with Maces is preferable), Resists/Lightning or Spell Damage (Depending on need), Stats for gear Flasks: Vinktar's Vessel requires that one of your flasks have immunity to shock. After that you're pretty free to do what you want with them.If you have the currency, running two of these flasks isn't a bad idea. Basalt allows some mitigation against high-end physical bosses Atziri's is overall too useful not to have unless you're running two Vinktar's Silver is a decent DPS increase, but it can be swapped for anything. A second healing potion can be nice for degen maps, as Vaal Pact can make them rather annoying
Drumpf vs Low-Energy Mjolner Builds
So why pick this version of Mjolner over any of the numerous others? The first, and best, answer to that question is because this build wins more. The gearing is pretty simple: You need Mjolner and Romira's Banquet. After that you just need life, stats, and resist. Everything you add after that is gravy. Because we don't need any real defensive stats, and our health is already absurdly high, we can afford to take luxury pieces of gear like Scold's Bridle and Repetence for over 200% extra spell damage. The build also has tremendous room for growth: adding a Voll's Devotion and high end jewels makes a pretty massive difference in damage.
On a whole, I think this build provides a little more Oomph than the current Templar/Marauder Voll-less Mjolner builds. The damage is higher; it deals with high elemental damage better (it has no problem with Reflect maps); and it simply wins more.
Tips For Making Mjolner Great Again
For the most part I don't really lag with this build. However, a few instances that will lag you are Nearby Allies Cannot Die and an excess of really healthy lightning resistant rares/blues that live past a few seconds. How to Deal With Lag: #1) Things that don't die will freeze your screen, so make sure to take out totems/rares with allies cannot die die first #2) Don't use Lightning Strikes! #3) You are still giving input while lagging, so don't stop clicking. You will probably come out alive, especially if you make good use of Flasks General Tips Use your flasks wisely. Spamming flasks can be fine for beating easy bosses, but some of the tougher ones are a hell of a lot easier if you calculate your flask use. Staggering extra defense/leech can make a 15 second boss fight a lot smoother than just blowing it all at the start. If the boss isn't going to instantly kill you but is still a tough cookie, think twice about how you're utilizing your flasks and you will probably come out with a lot less anxiety than otherwise. Against bosses that cast AoE spells that persist after they die immediately leap away and spam healing flasks. As soon as you stop leeching your health will drop rapidly. Most of these Academy/Crematorium/Village Ruins, etc, are pretty easy fights. What will kill you is the damage after they've died, so be prepared.
Videos
Drumpf vs The Abyss This was a Unid map, but it had Vulnerability+Temp Chains and Lightning Resists (and I'm pretty sure monster life, probably 70-90). And the boss himself is fire resistant. Those are actually the best defensive mods in the game against this build, and he still dies in 14 seconds. It was 28 packsize, for what that's worth. Drumpf Volcano This is a quick proof of concept video killing Volcano boss. Mods were: Crit 260+/39multi, 80+Cold Damage, Elemental Weakness. It was a fairly weak map, but I had it on hand and it shows the concept reasonably well. The little totems didn't aggro very well, otherwise the kill would probably have been twice as fast. Village Ruins Another quick one on the Village Ruins. I screw up the aggro again (stupid dog charges into a wall); both bosses should die simultaneously, ideally. Excavation This one pretty much goes to plan. Note the low life at the end of the fight is pretty common for the build, especially with degen maps and bosses with DoTs/AoEs (I should really have a remove burning flask equiped). It should also be noted that I'm using Spark and Item Rarity in this vid instead of Arc/Lightning Pen (not actually sure how long I've been using Item Rarity in the slot, the other vids might have it too) Unid Overgrown Ruin This is a full run. It's a little slow because I'm still testing spark/item rarity. Loathe melts pretty quick. Those are the basics; I'll expand and add more videos if there is a demand. Last edited by IdleAltruism on Apr 19, 2016, 7:05:20 PM Last bumped on Oct 7, 2016, 8:04:07 PM
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Added a new video +Reserved
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Optimized the Passive tree and added a Voll's Devotion variant.
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New t15 video. I've been trying to roll some hard, high-end maps to post full videos of, but I keep getting juicy, easy ones with 25+ packsize. Once I get another t15 map drop (hopefully one of the harder bosses), I'll just keep rerolling that until I get something worth posting.
Also, every map I've rolled recently has temp-chains. It's awful. Last edited by IdleAltruism on Apr 8, 2016, 2:16:02 AM
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Thinking of re-rolling this in PHC once I get bored of Voltaxic Spark. I would choose Ascendant and go for both the Beserker and Elementalist nodes now that Lightning Golem has been released. I think I would also swap out Acro for some block and armour just as preference.
I really like the interaction between Scold's, Repentance and VMS on this build, makes it a bit a boss-slayer. Have you tried Atziri yet? |
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" If I were to try Scion, I'd probably try something like this. You get a lot of health and attack speed with it, but I have no idea what the lifeleech rates will look like. You might also try ranger pathfinder, although the +40 int from the witch node is awfully tempting. Cloaked in savagery helped me get through the early portions of mapping. When you take Scion you're in new territory, and I don't know if you'll do as well vs reflect or really hard hitting bosses. It might be a good rich variant of the build, if you can gain access to Voll's Devotion and Kingsguard to supplement your health loss. You might even try a 6l with Life on Hit, if you find your health is falling below what you can leech comfortably. As I've said, my concern is that I really don't know what your results would be. Yes, I've killed Atziri. When fighting the trio I find killing the tentacle chick/WW guy/Double Striker to be the preferred kill order. The degen from the WW guy is scary for the build, and I can survive the double striker. For Atziri herself I just swap arc for conc effect and she goes pretty smoothly. Last edited by IdleAltruism on Apr 8, 2016, 3:16:24 PM
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Can you talk more on the scion one, Im thinking that might be the way I try it, bt Im woried about the loss of tankiness and Id hate to relevel since leveling this tree is going to blow no matter what you use
IGN
Domination: CockBlockingAxes zomgwtfbbqlegs, GotYourselfAGun Standard: LookAtMyHorseMyHorse, ComeOnNSlamEveryBodyJam, AdmiralTrapar |
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As I said before, I can't confirm anything about the Scion in the late game. I only have my own experience.
Scion will definitely give you better raw statistics, so I can see the appeal. You're going to attack fast. It also opens up the option of running CI or Shavs Lowlife, but again that sounds like a more expensive version. It is certainly more versatile. You could try a number of things, including an armored tank version, but experimenting is expensive, too. I don't know how the scion will do against really tough bosses that outlive your Vinktar's. You might have to run two in order to survive something nasty. One of the bigger issues you can find against tough bosses is that on ele reflect maps your life can drain a bit on bosses if they do a ton of damage because you're simply not leeching enough. Some combos, like -16max and ele reflect might be too much for a non-marauder version. I've seen a few build guides pop up using a concept similar to mine, but they don't have any high-end videos, and anything they do have is too easy to really judge. What I can say about my non-cloak of savagery experience is that it was mostly unpleasant. I tried Juggernaut in my early 80s, swapped back to Berserker to Aspect of Carnage, and both of those required Vinktar's to survive anything remotely tough. Aspect of carnage is great until you fight something that doesn't die instantly. Juggernaut did nothing to protect me against elemental damage. When it comes down to it, I had way more success with Cloak of Savagery while doing t9+maps (Major difference doing Malformation/Academy/Crematorium). I think, overall, the scion variant is certainly viable. It has the benefit of being more versatile. You can fenagle way more auras/curses, if that's what you want. It will probably be a serviceable mapper. I just can't say how strong it actually is. It's probably very comparable once you get Voll's Devotion. Last edited by IdleAltruism on Apr 9, 2016, 1:45:30 AM
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Just found a Heretic's Veil, seems like that might be interesting for this build if you are running more than a single curse. Going to give it a try over Scold's for a bit.
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" It's definitely an option, especially if you have a bit of currency to throw around. Running tri-curse works (like Warlord's+Ele Weakness+Conductivity), I did it for awhile with Doedre's Damning. It was really hard on my resists, and I had to run sub-optimal jewels to make up for it. It also really sucks on curse immune maps, but that's not the most common mod. You could run a purity, but I don't find running Ele Weakness worthwhile unless it's combined with Condutivity. Trash mobs die super fast regardless of their level or resistance. It's rares and bosses you want your curses to have an impact on. Bosses typically have a lot of reduced curse effectiveness and high resistance levels. Also, Elemental Equilibrium maps are frequent enough. By not running both minus resists curses, you run the risk of one not doing anything at all. Temp Chains and Enfeeble are great, non-offensive options. Self-Flagellation is probably the cheapest and most questionable option, as on some maps you could be looking at 30% increased damage taken, but would probably work most of the time. However, you could mitigate this by running enfeeble. If you can get your hands on a good +1 curse amulet, though, this becomes a lot more viable. Last edited by IdleAltruism on Apr 10, 2016, 7:59:46 PM
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