[2.6] zSavage's Beefy Meatballer (dual BLS molten strike Berserker) - EO, MoM, VP, PB, Acro

Hello peeps!
For those who don't know me, I've been the author of quite a few build guides here on the forums, including Savagenuke, Voll-less Mjolner, and if you have a really long memory, Bloodseeker CI Dual Strike Shadow from 1.3 (among others).
It's been a while since I posted a guide (mainly because I haven't really been able to make video content up to my own standards), but I'd like to put this here, esp since a lot of people are looking at builds with these maces, and IMO a lot of people have no idea how the whole thing works.

What's different about this build vs all the other sprinker builds out there?
1. This build is significantly tankier.
->I use Mind over Matter combined with Berserker mana leech to have a significant chunk of extra EHP. I also have Acrobatics and Arctic Armor for a little extra defense. (Of course we have Vaal Pact with 100% instant leech like all the other Berserker versions).
2. I have 'solved' the AoE clear issue without having to change main skills.
->I swap Fire Pen and Conc Effect for Melee Splash and Inc AoE for pack clearing. This enables me to clear packs with the intial swings before the balls fall. Herald of Ash cleans up any stragglers. It's important to note that the 50% AoE from the Wildfire jewels scales the AoE of the Melee Splash effect. The splash radius is actually quite large (about the range that the balls fly in).

Current stats snapshot: Lvl 93
Life: 7032
Mana: 1376 (688 unreserved)
Strength: 1184
Molten Strike tooltip: 70k in town, 150k+ buffed









Things you should avoid if looking for or making a molten strike sprinkler build:
1. Mace Physical damage nodes. These do nothing, as our damage is purely elemental.
2. Taking Iron Grip. This keystone only affects physical damage; see above.
3. Not taking Point Blank. This keystone scales the damage of the balls (most of the DPS) by up to 50% MORE. Who doesn't want 50% more damage?
4. Not taking the ranger ele wheel (Primeval Force). This wheel has too many upsides to be ignored in most cases.
5. Trying to go crit. In most cases the mace crit nodes are spread too far around the tree to make going crit reasonable while having enough life and STR to make the build work.

Questions? Comments? Post below and I'll answer them to the best of my abilities.
This thread is being monitored by me so I should be pretty prompt.

I'll be updating as my character grows.

Cheers!
-Savage

Very interesting. Started a Zerker myself a few days ago and still trying to figure out an optimal skilltree. It never even occured to me to go MoM... Guess I'll adapt some of your points and try it out. Thanks!

Things to consider: Forgoing Elemental Focus (I use Conc Effect instead) and using Herald of Ash and / or using Abberath's Hooves for prolif makes the mapclear a lot smoother in my experience. Without ignite I had too many stragglers I kept leaping after, and that is with 3 more Projectiles from Lab enchant.

I also have found that I don't need Faster Attacks in addition to Multistrike. Slower Projectiles and Pierce (hello Lioneye's Vision) work as additional, juicy More Multipliers.

Hiya, nice to see more people building around the Sprinkler :-)
Do you use Path of Building? I'd love some links to compare with.

I've already done an AW version as chieftain that was incredibly safe, could do all mods etc, but grew a bit dull in the long run. It was also incredibly budget since it could use Death's Oath instead of Astramentis.

So now I'm doing it with Wild Strike as Berserker. I tried MoM as it on paper looked amazing, but has in practice been the only way I've died so far.

Am I missing something? I tried with 0% reservation, 25% with arctic armour, 50% with grace and 75% with both. All of them had me die to anything that did sustained damage reducing my mana to 0%, at which point I couldn't attack or leech.

Other than that, looking forward to seeing how your build works out! I think molten strike has a lot of potential, personally I just really dislike the gameplay with it. A bonus with Wild Strike is I don't have to gem-swap for bosses.

Thanks in advance!

Current character has hit 90. I will be starting this build in the next few days.

Something I'm planning to add:

-> Use of a 4L Frost Blades + WED + Fire Pen + Multistrike (4L) for aoe clear.

@Sprouting:
1. I don't use Path of Building atm.

2. As for the MoM thing: I intend to run clarity and AA/HoA. This, combined with the almost constant dps output of Molten Strike and the CWDT firestorm I'm thinking of running, should keep my mana up at all times and let me attack thanks to 1% mana leech.

Have started my character, at lvl 73 ATM. Molten tooltip at 81k with EO. I've made a few improvements to my tree that result in more life. At 1067 STR, should be able to get over 1100 without much effort. Here's my current gear, gem setups are inside:


Not running Black Sun Crest cause I needed res. Eventually will swap out ammy for Xoph's and change a ring, if things go according to plan.

Will update op after work today.

-Savage

Here's where I'm at atm, at lvl 87:



Tooltip DPS on Molten Strike gets up to around 110k+ (50k in HO).

I've done up to t13 maps, crushed uber izaro, and can do atziri very quickly and reliably.

I've changed a few things skill setup wise:
-No longer running frostblades
-Now running Bloodrage and Vengance in offhand mace (weapon swap to cancel BR)
-Now running HoA and AA instead of clarity + AA
-Single Target MS links: MS + Multistrike + Fire Pen + WED + Ele Focus + Conc Effect
-General clear MS links: MS + Multistrike + Melee Splash + WED + Ele Focus + Inc AoE

I builded a blood magic chieftain (93 atm) with double warchief (lame, I know), 7k life and 54k dps each totem (in ho), crit based for double dip ignite

you should consider using

they provide a big dps boost

and

is also amazing for sprinkler (life, big dps boost, block and free defensive curse)

"

DarkWap wrote:

I builded a blood magic chieftain (93 atm) with double warchief (lame, I know), 7k life and 54k dps each totem (in ho), crit based for double dip ignite

you should consider using

they provide a big dps boost

and

is also amazing for sprinkler (life, big dps boost, block and free defensive curse)

18% STR is better than +60 flat with the amount of flat I have from the tree and other sources.

Swapping out my second sprinkler makes us lose half of our DPS (the 2-4 fire damage per 10 STR from each mace stacks). I have about 1200 STR atm, which means that each mace gives me 360 average fire damage to hit base, for a total of 720. With the shield and only 1 mace I would have only 360 + 24 = 384 which is barely half.

Double dipping ignite is only effective when you are doing slow, large hits. Smaller fast hits are not very effective at double dipping as ignite doesn't stack.

If you swap out your shield for another sprinkler you will almost double your DPS.

Similarly you would have a DPS increase swapping out Lioneye's for Aberron's Warpath if you have enough flat STR.

For reference, my molten strike tooltip DPS is 67k in hideout (not including balls), and goes to over 150k with typical mapping buffs (blood rage, frenzy charges, EO, a silver flask).

"

zSavage wrote:

18% STR is better than +60 flat with the amount of flat I have from the tree and other sources.

Swapping out my second sprinkler makes us lose half of our DPS (the 2-4 fire damage per 10 STR from each mace stacks). I have about 1200 STR atm, which means that each mace gives me 360 average fire damage to hit base, for a total of 720. With the shield and only 1 mace I would have only 360 + 24 = 384 which is barely half.

Double dipping ignite is only effective when you are doing slow, large hits. Smaller fast hits are not very effective at double dipping as ignite doesn't stack.

If you swap out your shield for another sprinkler you will almost double your DPS.

Similarly you would have a DPS increase swapping out Lioneye's for Aberron's Warpath if you have enough flat STR.

For reference, my molten strike tooltip DPS is 67k in hideout (not including balls), and goes to over 150k with typical mapping buffs (blood rage, frenzy charges, EO, a silver flask).

I have more life and a lot more dps than you, mine was just a tip. feel free to build as you like

Lol, that's a load of BS.

You think 54k dps per totem even beats 67k molten strike?

It does not. You're not accounting for the molten balls, which is most of the damage. 67k is the DPS of my basic hits (which, like I said, goes to over 150k when not in hideout).

My character instagibs every boss in the normal Atziri zone, and can also drop Izaro in the uber lab on 2 player HP in less than 5 seconds, for some in game context.

My character has basically the same amount of life as yours (6,997 at lvl 92), AND has MoM with a big fact chunk of mana that leechs back quickly.

I looked at your tree in my skill calculator; you probably have about 42.6% crit chance just standing around.

You could actually increase your DPS by taking EO and using Orb of Storms or a selfcast GMP Ice Spear. This would save you 6 points after grabbing EO that you could invest in life and DPS elsewhere.

Don't presume you have more DPS just because your tooltip x2 seems to be higher.
Also, test running a second sprinkler, your DPS will go up.