[3.0] Molten Strike Berserker: Weapon choice analysis [WITH MATH]

Purpose:
Show how boring balance in this game right now

About Molten Strike:
Molten Strike is the strongest melee skill is the game, DPS is much higher even with just 2 wild strike jewels compared to a more popular choice - Blade Flurry.

Blade Flurry DPS with perfect channeling: 334% of base damage
Average MS DPS with 7 balls: > 545.96% of base damage
Average MS DPS with 12 balls(dying sun + helm enchant): > 831.21% of base damage



Conclusion about skill choice: Every skill for melee is trash compared to the MS against single target; MS pretty much gives free facebreaker scaling (900% MORE damage on FB vs > 831% MORE damage with MS with ANY melee weapon)


Now lets talk about weapon choices. I'll highlight only the differences in build choices, considering things like Multistrike, Conc. Effect, Aspect of Carnage will provide the same boost in DPS. I'll neglect attack speed from frenzy charges and other minor differences in skill tree, because they will result in +-10% damage increase in either direction, which is irrelevant for this general showcase.
1) perfectly rolled Oro's sacrifice (475-600 damage, 1.55 APS) with Resolute Technique, Immolate, 6 frenzy charges:
(475 + 600 + 205 + 308) / 2 * 1.55 * 1.24 = 1526
2) perfectly rolled Brutus Lead Sprinkler (crit and phys irrelevant, 1.44 APS) with Immolate, Elemental Overload and 1000 strength:
(400 + 700 + 205 + 308) / 2 * 1.44 * 1.4 = 1626
3) perfectly rolled Frostbreath (phys irrelevant, 32-42 cold damage, 1.37 APS) with Added Cold, x2 Tasalio's Sign rings (40-60 cold damage against chilled, BiS) and Elemental Overload, against Chilled target (frost bomb +20 cold pen ~ 1.18 MORE damage):
(32 + 42 + 169 + 254 + 2 * (10 + 20 + 40 + 60)) / 2 * 2 * 1.37 * 1.4 * 1.18 = 1713

P.S: I know, phys to cold/fire conversions aren't accounted for, but then again, there is no calculations for things like attack speed from frenzies. Just boost the damage on every weapon by ~10%.

As you can see, Frostbreath has the highest DPS with cheap items.

Note: RT is better than EO on Oro's, because you can't wear Spider shield. Lycosidae is BiS for one-handers for almost every build; accuracy is too weak to be bothered with.

That expensive end-game unique amulet:
1,2) Xoph's Blood: +10 fire pen, 10% strength for Sprinkler, covered in Ash is 1.2 MORE damage; costs 7.5 EXALTS
3) Pandemonius: + 20 cold pen; costs 1.2 EXALTS

Conclusion, and why Sprinkler is a joke:
good rolled Oro's costs 7c, Sprinkler costs 200c. Sprinkler deals slightly more DPS complared to Oro's, but Oro's has culling strike, which neglects that minor difference in DPS those items have.
On Frostbreath you can utilize Frost Bomb for additional resists pen (you cannot utilize both scorching ray and Warchief to boost damage and pen on fire), together with pandemonius, its +30 better pen compared to fire based uniques with Xoph blood; On top of that, Frostbreath has chill and at least 20% chance to freeze, making it a clear winner.
Also, you're locked up into getting Albion's warpath boots (+18% strength), Black Sun Crest helmet(+15% strength) and Megirold gloves (+100 strength), making Sprinkler even shittier.

Frostbreath > Oro's >> Sprinkler

Pick Oro's if you want Flicker strike for clear and Molten Strike for single target.
Pick Frostbreath if you want Sunder for clear and Molten Strike for single target.
Never pick Sprinkler, it's terrible.





F.A.Q:
But you can go crit on sprinkler, it has 8.4 base crit!
No, you can't, you will get 265 crit multiplier if you take Assassination, Heartseeker and Galvanic Hammer from tree, and 256 multiplier isn't worth to even bother with crit; Disemboweling cluster doesn't boost your projectiles on Molten Strike. You're going into Shadow/Ranger areas on a build that stacks strength.
You can get Terminus Est with Abyssus and go Berserker Molten Strike crit build!
No, you can't, because crit multi is too low (~280), and, again, Abyssus crit multi doesn't boost projectiles on Molten Strike.
What about other uniques/weapons.
They're have worse DPS; you can make anything if you have mirrored expensive rares, there is a good axe for 200 EXALTS right now, you can farm for it if you have no life.

Skill trees:
Oro's sacrifice with Flicker and Molten Strike. Stick Fireborn jewel in duelist area, 2x Wildfire jewels near strength clusters.
click

FrostBreath with Sunder and Molten Strike. 2x Wildfire jewels near strength clusters.
click

Bonus build if you want crit:
Crit Hand of Wisdom and Action Inquisitor, 2x jewels for molten strike, Str to Int and Dex to Int jewels in appropriate locations. Now possible to go crit HOWA, because Spider shield is balanced (in 2.6 nobody did this because stacking Int, getting crit and accuracy is almost impossible at the same time).
click

Game is figured out and deleted!

Looks a lot like a ploy to reduce sprinkler price.

Is BLS price-optimal? No.
Is it the best thing to take on a big budget? Yes.

BLS is not comparable to Oro's. Those are two completely different builds.
1k strength is very low for a BLS build.
There is almost no point of not going crit with spider shield if you have budget.
Frostbreath seems nice on paper, but you cannot stack just one ele pen. Maybe it is possible to build around, but I do not see a simple way.

My league starter was oro's molten zerker for a reason.
My league finisher is BLS crit molten zerker in building for a reason.

Napkin math already falls apart at the point where you assume 1k strength for a Sprinkler build, as the poster above my already pointed out. I'm running budget rings and amulet, no Xoph's, and i'm already at 1,250 strength, well above your assumption, completely blowing your Frostbreath numbers out of the water on that alone.

For a budget Frostbreath is great, no doubt about it, but BLS is an endgame deluxe version that gets a lot more punch for the currency. Comparing apples and oranges imo and rather pointless.

Stacking strength from uniques isn't free, the highest amount of strength I saw is 1280, which is 154 additional base damage, but helmet, boots, gloves, amulet, weapon and shield is out for uniques with almost no res on them, so we have have belt, chest and 2 rings to
get very high resistance rolls,
get very high strength rolls,
get t1 fire adamage roll on rings,
get additional crit on rings,
get high life rolls on everything
To get crit on Sprinkler you're sacking Ele Overload (40% MORE damage) and 1 gem support(40% MORE damage) for inc. critical strikes. Good luck with that. Even then you'll end up with the build that deals maybe 20% more damage compared to the cheap frostbreath.
Here is the tree for crit BLS, its awful, GL building crit with:

I'm at 1,250 without unique helmet, resistances are capped without an amulet, could even be capped with just 2-3 items with great rolls.

I'm not crit build, which is imo rather pointless to me due to how reliably Overload procs even at crappy crit rates thanks to Berserker Ascendancy attack speed proc.

With a Xoph's i'd be at just under 1300 strength with capped resistances. Not sure what else there is to say, you keep assuming that you need godlike rolls on everything with a BLS build to compete with Frostbreath, which is simply not true. Yes BLS is much more expensive, but yes it also does quite a bit more damage. What you prefer to go for is up to you, there is no "mic drop moment" here that somehow kills BLS so not sure what your aim here is.

Ok, here you go:

perfectly rolled Brutus Lead Sprinkler (1.44 APS) with Immolate, Elemental Overload and 1300 strength:

(130 * (4 + 7) + 205 + 308) / 2 * 1.44 * 1.4 = 1958.544

1958.544 / 1713 = 1.143341506

But if we're making this comparison, don't forget that cold damage from forstbreath has 30% higher penetration compared to BLS (Xoph blood + nothing 10%, vs Frost Bomb 20% + pandemonius 20%), which will result in better DPS from Frostbreath on high resists maps.

Regarding auras Wrath for both builds will have the same effect, for BLS you're benefiting from fire pen, but on Frostbreath you'll get it doubled against chilled and halved with bad fire pen. But we'll have Herald of Ice for FB as additional extra boost.

Dont forget you're getting all the +30 and +20 strength nodes you can reach, + jewels for stat conversion, resulted in a less investment in increased elemental/fire damage from the tree.

Because of that, I don't think the difference in DPS for BLS will be greater than 20%, and we're getting 35% chance to freeze and permanent chill as an additional benefit from FB.

Also, Tasalio's Sign will give you better DPS boost than rings with 50 strength and t1 additional fire damage roll because of double damage against chilled.

Almost forgot, we can use things like Atziri's promise for additional damage, while BLS can't because of Avatar of fire.

EDIT: I made a terrible calculation error, damage for BLS is shittier than I thought =)

For Unbelievers there is path of building, everything is fair, I turned all appropriate bonuses like 'Covered in Ash' or 'Against Chilled' for both builds. Unreliable buffs like frenzy charges and vaal haste haven't been included. On purpose I rolled rings with 55 strength and T1 added fire damage, aslo I haven't capped resists so you could understand how hard it is to cap resists on both builds (Don't forget to turn off wise oak to see real value).

1) BLS, perfect roll, 1300 strength, Elemental Focus instead of Immolate, damage against Shaper per ball, everything BiS. 4 Jewels used. Result: 390082.2

https://pastebin.com/Ubdy3G4e

2) Frostbreath, perfect roll, lvl 21 added cold, damage against Shaper per ball, every unique is BiS, 5 items equipped. Notice that I'm not wearing gloves (no increased attack speed and cold damage roll) and only 2 Jewels used. Result without Wrath: 341792 With Wrath*: 376759.1

https://pastebin.com/FmGppCfk

Conclusion: 390082.2 / 376759.1 = 1.035
BLS deals 3.5% MORE damage compared to Frostbreath; Frostbreath can even this out by equipping damage gloves, you're stuck with your shitty Meginord's, BLS users.

*To be fair, if you're using Wrath and reserving Herald of Ice (75% mana), you need to drop frost bomb + orb of storms, while you can reserve 85% mana for Anger + blasphemy on BLS. 2 extra actions, so BLS wins in this scenario. But curses are useless (80% less) against shaper anyway, so it doesn't even matter that much, Frost Bomb is enough (you can also put them into CWDT for no actions but thats unreliable, BUT you also need to get hit by shaper to cover him in Ash).

Another point in favour of BLS would be the Strength stacking though - those "crappy uniques" you dismiss actually stack BLS build HP pool to 7k+. If you want similar results with Frostbreath you need godly life rolls on amazing rares - making it equally expensive again. So what exactly are you lamenting about with BLS builds - it does slightly more damage, and is expensive. So, however, is getting godly rares to get similar damage with comparable life pools on a Frostbreath. I mean, you can do the same with 5.5k life, but hoho will you die a lot more mapping.

Edit: i just saw the current Brutus prices. At the current prices I would agree that it's not worth the investment - i got my Brutus for less than 1.5 Ex a week ago, and that, given that Meginords, Alberon's etc cost basically nothing, is well worth it vs a Frostbreath with good (like, actually good) rares in those slots.

Edit 2: Your pastebinned comparison is lacking, once again. Some items are missing rolls (such as belt), you're not using all flasks intended (Onslaught, Dying Sun), missing like 4 jewels. To compare such builds properly you need to be comparing them when they are actually fully scaled, and not in a predetermined environment that doesn't really exist in reality.

Your overall point may be better served if you refrained from using trolly language like "BLS is trash", or "x is shitty", btw. So far you've not really made a great point except to point out that BLS is pretty pricy atm, and that another build can achieve similar dps for far less currency - albeit with far less HP as well...a not exactly unimportant aspect in PoE.

Ok, you have 1300 strength, which gives you 650 life. No life roll on gloves, no life roll on boots, possibly no life roll on helmet(black chrest) => 350-450 life is your real bonus value here. Granted forstbreath will probably have a bit less life in the end, but you're constantly chilling, freezing and blinding your opponents (58% chance to evade attacks with just 2 rings + amulet alone at lvl 100, not too shabby).

No need 2 jewels for stat conversion, Xoph's Blood is 10% => 14% increased max life on jewels => 4% net gain, + increased damage bonuses.

Lets look at another sad part of BLS build -> resists. Xoph's blood gives 40% Fire Resistance max, Albion's warpath gives 12 chaos resistance. Nothing on megirolds, nothing on sprinkler, nothing potentially on black sun crest. You need top resists rolls + strength + added fire damage rolls on remaining 4 or 5 items.

Now look at Frostbreath: 50% fire res on FB itself, 30% cold res on tasalio's. 40% cold res on pandemonius. 5 items for easy res caps, strength isn't mandatory, damage can only be rolled on gloves, can just roll high life with alterations, slap shitty Haku resist and you're golden.

EDIT 1 response
The entire budget for Frostbreath is 1.5 exalts, most of its price is for pandemonius, you still need to spend 7.5 EX for Xoph's Blood.

EDIT 2 response
I gave you 2 rings with 55 strength and best possible fire damage roll, every other rare except belt has 55 strength on it, you probably need like 10 mirrors in standard to get to 1466 strength (maximum possible value with 15% BSC and 35 heavy belt with 55 strength) and extra 10% damage. Be real, you're not getting those rings.

Dying sun doesn't boost ball damage, bonuses from onslaught, frenzy charges and vaal haste will be pretty much the same if applied to both builds. You will squeeze out another 2% of damage that way because of 1.44 APS vs 1.37 APS.

Well BLS seems to be quite overrated, you need far more investment for miniscule damage returns, that was my point all along.

I am still tweaking some things and only just started leveling new char for it, but is seems I will be able to make it also work with crit and atziri's acuity. Not having to go all the way to the VP, working regen and best of both kinds of leech at the cost of some damage.
Ofc it is pricey, especially since I will have to get much more expensive bits in rare slots, but I do not see anything competing with it in terms of overall usability.
I still have to try to many things to be sure the black sun crest for example would still be best in slot in this scenario.