[2.4/2.4.2] Two Handed Sword Witch / Occultist / Starforge Lacerate
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Hey and welcome to my first build that I share in forum.
 -----INTRODUCTION----- Idea: The witch has an amazing animation of holding two handed swords but a quite awkward starting point for using these. However - after I completed my 36 challenges in Essence League I decided to give it a shot. Because I did not find any satisfying builds in the forum I had to create my own. I am currently at level 80 and everything works way better than expected. This build is relatively expensive. It works with less but some items - like starforge - are hardly recommended for it to shine. Because of this and the awkward leveling I would not choose it as a first build in a new league. It is perfectly fine for those who have some free currency to spend and want to have a fancy build. Build Information: This build is a Poison / Bleed Lacerate two handed sword occultist. It is focusing on physical damage and attack speed as primary damage stats. Energy shield (CI) is chosen as defensive stat. Double Blasphemy with Vulnerability and Temporal Chains adds extra offensive and defensive components. Guaranteed hits are preferred over critical strikes. We leech via the Life Leech support gem. Frenzy is added as a way to create up to 3 frenzy charges when needed. Disclaimer: You are wong here if you are looking for an high-end optimized guide. This build is focused on getting a witch with two handed sword to a decent clear speed and viability. Other classes can likely produce better results. Summary: Pro: - fancy looks - decent clear speed - decent surviveability Con: - medium budget - no pathfinder -----GEAR-----
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Starforge is the best weapon choice for this build. Its incredible high damage combined with neat attack speed, increased area of effect and shock chance makes it a going to. For armour we are obviously aiming for energy shield. A Lacerate Damage helmet gives additional damage. Attack speed gloves provide some increased flexibility (Leap Slam speed / shorter Lacerate attack time) which is nice to avoid damage. A 5-link body armour is recommended for the aura setup. I chose Rainbowstrides as cheap fill. The Stun Avoidance enchantment is our choice of handling with stuns. Voidheart enables our poison and bleeding. Other Ring, Amulet and Belt aim mainly for energy shield & resistances. Added physical damage and mana can be used to fill. Attack speed is also an alternative. Other flasks can be chosen from the remaining utility flasks. I recommend taking Rumi/Basalt to deal with reflect. At least one remove bleeding / remove freeze is required. -----LINKS-----
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6l: Lacerate / Melee Damage on Full Life / Melee Physical Damage / Multistrike / Life Leech and Added Chaos Damage / Faster Attacks (chose one, I am currently using added chaos) If using Added Chaos Damage switch in Concentrated Effect for bosses. 5l: Discipline / Blasphemy / Vulnerability / Temporal Chains / Enlighten 4l: Leap Slam / Frenzy / Faster Attacks / Fortify (currently working on right colors) 4l: Cast when Damage Taken / Immortal Call / Increased Duration / Vaal Discipline Remaining sockets are free but should contain a golem. -----PASSIVE TREE-----
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http://poeplanner.com/AAMAAVhBQU1EQVF3QWZkLUs2UUpMcmhzbDJWdHRHUkZRTmJtbks1ZjBVbE05WDVlVkl2UnNDNU1 uNzRqNU45ZlBTYkctaXFFdmY4YnNHQ3lfRmRlR3JsWmpqX3J3MVVsUmxTNEhIaEdXWEVCVXZSWHR sb3ZWdVE1SVhmSXJDaEV2NjJPMVNOUkNoRzkxX1JhX2FvejFiOGdVb3RtdzJBLXJKSXZET3B1MWh NWEswN1FNUm5HRENlcTZEWHhYeVNqNmdzZjU2RUdIdHo2RHpEd3R4cTdFOW5LcDl6SjgyZW9ZLU9 zVWNSdXFFUER5V29FNll4ZjlNSWlQR3VScXBZTmYxMzdCQjlEUVgyb3FPR0JEYmoyLWdLYzByajV ubS1SUmwza0psamtPODkxb1pYQzc0NFRBbkJ2SXo5M3hpa3l6MEJfdjYzNmhhZGk3X0JWLWZQQ1J CMEo2ZW5BPQAgQVFBQUVBQUNBQWZRQVFQb0FRSVJBQUlEQVFFQUF3PT0AAA== Put an Energy from Withing Jewel next to the Melding-Cluster. To fill up the jewel sockets go for damage / attack speed / energy shield. We chose Occultist as our Ascendancy class. Normal Lab: Wicked Ward Wicked Ward offers a lot of defense. We are also likely not able to reserve 105% mana (Discipline and double Blasphemy) in the early state of this build which makes it unnecessary to path to Malediction first (see below). Cruel Lab: Profane Bloom Profane Bloom grants a chance to deal extra area of effect damage on killing enemies. This has a noticeable effect on pack clear. Cursed enemies also take 10% increased damage. Merciless Lab: Malediction Between the time of Merciless and Uber Lab we finally want to run Disciple and double Blasphemy so Merciless Lab is where we take double curse. Added chaos damage on killing an enemy is also a positive aspect. Uber Lab: Void Beacon For Uber Lab I chose Void Beacon as an additional damage source. I do not feel like Vile Bastion is required at this point since I rarely get stunned. -----BANDITS-----
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Normal: Passive Point (Kill All) Cruel: Physical Damage (Help Oak) Merciless: Passive Point (Kill All) -----NUMBERS-----
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Defensive: I am currently running on 8691 energy shield with capped resistances. More energy shield is easily possible with higher level on Discipline (level 18 at the moment) and / or better gear. Offensive: Damage in Hideout without flask.  Damage in Hideout with Atziri´s Promise.  Note that this numbers are based on character level 80, gem level 18 and without poison / bleed / occultist damage buffs / shock / curses. Only damage nodes are left till level 95 tree. Also I only got a poor Starforge roll. -----LEVELING-----
Spoiler
I hate leveling as a melee character. Still I took melee nodes and switched to two handed sword pretty early. It was a bad idea. Carried myself to dried lake by drowning act bosses with my blood / burying them under my corpses. A way more intelligent method would be to take physical nodes and climbing levels with Blade Vortex until you own Starforge. -----OUTRO----- Thanks for visiting this guide. Please share your thoughts in the comment section. All kinds of constructive feedback are highly appreciated! Last edited by Axav on Dec 10, 2016, 8:30:02 AM Last bumped on Feb 25, 2017, 6:43:54 PM
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Very interesting build man. I have planned something similar like this, but was afraid to try. How did it go against the guardians or high tier maps? And isn't Faster Attacks better than Added Chaos Damage? Because it feels kinda bad without it. And how about using Warlord's Mark for leech? With Conc. Effect and Witchfire Brew Flask, won't it have more dps?
Last edited by WarmKitty on Nov 29, 2016, 11:19:52 AM
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@WarmKitty
Hey thanks for the reply! I am afraid - with the release of 2.5 I did not play the character any further by now. I stopped playing on T14 maps which worked quite fine. My only problem child is single target damage on Enfeeble/More Life bosses at the moment. It takes a while to get them down but with some jumping action it does not get too dangerous. I am pretty positive to get this better with the about 150% physical damage I get from tree till level 90. Faster attacks is without doubt a good choise - I got some nice high attack speed jewels and with the points open in the tree I did not feel like it is necessary. Still need to test this out on higher levels. I thought about Warlord's Mark myself (Witchfire Brew is great) but I failed on making a third curse work. It takes too much points in tree and Windscream (no energy shield) and Doedre's Damning (low resistances) bring their own problems. I could not afford a good +1 curse amulet. Vulnerability and Temporal Chains are the best curses for this build in my opinion Thanks for the hint! Concentrated Effect should be used for bosses - forgot to mention it in the guide. Last edited by Axav on Dec 10, 2016, 8:31:20 AM
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I myself have been thinking that the newer "Melee" gems are a bit overpowered and not very melee and that even a witch could take them to high tiers.
Going to make a Blade Flurry Witch for "Summon Ninja Clan" fun. On one hand having a game where any char can do anything is amazing, on the other the simple act of making sure melee worked instead of buffing, tweaking and creating insane gems and weapons could have made beatsticks a fun viable option long ago; the rebalance is gonna be a task! |
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Hey man, im runing your build
Just wana say, Im not runing any of your defensive stuff. Im clearing like crazy. I switch to a high ES high Resistans Vaal regalia for endgame bosses, but for general maping im useing 5L Carcass jack and lacerate 6L on my starforge. The dps with full frenzy charges easily gets to 46k tooltip Damage is great, i mean it's great generally, but my Vortex Ele Witch kills way harder and faster, the Occultist free abyssal cry is doing most of the work with clear speed. The poison and bleed is helping a little bit on bosses, I need to get a flask with knockback for boss high endgame bosses (guardians, t15, shaper, atziri) so my bleeding can do more damage. The build is 10/10 , people are surprised seeing a witch with 2h sword actually pwning shit. When im in highgate i sometimes gets whispers from randoms "wtf is that build". Then I jumnp into Dried lake farms to show off, do some vaal cyclone, laughing like a maniac. |
