[3.3] PWAR's Vaal Double Reave Slayer/Champion - Fast Clear Speed / Insane Boss Killer

First "legit" build that I made (sorta new to the game), as a league starter for incursion, and clearing has been a breeze so far, so thought I share my build/concept for those wanting a crazy offensive melee build, that isn't a glass cannon needing abyssus to get 2 million+ dmg (against shaper).



Final Goal PoB(Slayer): https://pastebin.com/Fv43J3RV
PoB(Champ): https://pastebin.com/nyNx4CVb

Pro's
+Amazing Clear Speed
+Stupid Boss Killer
+Fast movement speed due to fast leap slam=faster mapping=more exp/items
+GREAT League Starter
+Budget friendly to be effective
+Decently high/fast Leech (Vaal Pact)
+Near or over 10 sec Vaal Skills duration
+Works from the get go (lv 1)
+Phys reflect immunity

Con's
-Average life/defenses
-Uses basically all of your skill bar, need above 40 IQ to manage buttons
-Can't do ele reflect with shaper stat stick

Slayer vs Champ
Both are good classes. Champ provides better upfront defense and single target damage, especially with adrenaline. Slayer provides better aoe and the leech sorta really helps out, and enables you to be able to run damage on full life gem comfortably unlike champ. Can't go wrong with either, it's just one provides better clear, one is a better boss killer, if you work in adrenaline.


VaaL Double Strike
The build incorporates the newly buffed Vaal Double Strike, which is basically now going to be auto-include in practically every melee build that can bleed. The damage of 4 dudes shreds practically everything in under 5 seconds (even without you attacking, for standard bosses) with flask up. Because of this, this build focuses on SKILL DURATION to extend the duration our gang is out for prolonged gangbang sessions. Most things die long before that, but for tougher bosses with phases it does help out not being left with just Reave/Double strike to tickle the boss down, as well as generally making clearing even faster.

With a modest sacrifice of 3 pts and 2 jewel sockets, you practically double vaal double strike's dmg since they stay out for near twice as long (11.1 sec), which is helpful in some (important) situations as mentioned. Haste also last near 10 sec which is nice. With the prolonged skill duration you can (almost) go back to back vaal uses if you kill fast enough, as the skill duration extends past the actual soul gain prevention window.


Double Strike vs Reave
Double strike also got a similar buff (added phys against bleeding enemies), and is fairly crazy too. And vaal double and normal double being on the same gem now helps a ton with gem management. However, clear wise, it still felt a bit lagging behind even with slayer and ancestral call, which is why I incorporate Reave into the build as our clear instead, which melts the entire screen with increase area of effect gem. Now you can just run this build as a 6-link Reave + 4-link VDS, or you can do two gem swaps to vaal double strike for full 6-link VDS deeps against the important bosses like shaper/guardians. And since we're Slayer, even if you gem for single target only, you still get some splash to handle ads.

So up to you if you want to be lazy and stick with reave for everything (swapping to Conc effect against bosses), or want to swap VDS in your six link.


Current Gear


Really just aim for the PoB gear, since the league is still new I have only so many hours into the char so stats can definitely be better, just gotta grind that $$$. If you were to buy everything, prolly under 10 ex total for the gear. But most people don't, so you'd probably pay under half. Most expensive thing I payed for was tombfist, which was 55c at the time. Everything else that looks expensive, I got insanely cheap, then either re-rolled or linked myself. Sword was only 4c, used an annul, got lucky with removed prefix, than crafted phys. Now the sword is worth at least an ex or 2, so this is how you can cheat around prices. Luck. Lol. axe/mace statsticks go for less than swords/sceptre's so you save a bit of money there.



BTW you need an axe/mace offhand for Reave to only attack with main-hand. Runic or Behemoth are best. Runic gets double elemental gains, behemoth only gets one (so 30-40% less dmg) HOWEVER, it gets enemies explode for 5% of their life, which may help with clear speed. Dmg is already pretty insane, so I suppose it's up to you. Behemoth is cheaper tho.

Main stats to look for on mainhand, in order of importance
-1.8-2~ APS
-240-350+ pDPS
-Crit multi
-Crit chance

Dragoon or 35% crit mult foil are best bases. Dragoon for consistency, foil for deeps.

DS/VDS add lots of phys dmg per attack to bleeding enemies, so fast attack rate is vital to dealing insane damage with them.
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Mark of the Elder seems to give the best dmg, so end-game is that and a shaper ring with assmark to gain powercharges. If you absolutely need resist than two diamonds works, they're just less damage.
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Everything else, get resist/life/accuracy. Some int let's you lvl up blue gems all the way. New temple life chest offer near similar life as belly but can get more resist, which helps cap stuff out. Belly should offer more life though even with max rolls on temple chest. Up to you which you want to use. Use jewels to cap res if you need to till you can cap res with just ring/belt/ammy.

Recommended Leveling Gear
-The Princess
-Prismatic Eclipse
-Haemophilia
-40%+ ele res String of servitude helps out with resist until you can craft or buy a good rustic or stygian triple res+life belt.
-Upgrade main hand with pdps every 10 lvl to keep dmg up when leveling. again, aim for fast aps

All this crap is under 3c by now, so definitely affordable and gets you into early mapping with a 230 pdps 1.7+ aps sword for example, which are also cheap.


Bandits/Pantheon/Ascendancy

Bandits - Alira

Slayer - Impact > Endless Hunger > Brutal Fervour > Headsman

Pantheon - Soul Of Arakaali+Abberath
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Gear Enchantments
Helm - Double Strike has a 15% chance to deal double damage
Boots - Corrupt for +1 Frenzy / 12-16% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you've Killed Recently
Gloves - Corrupt for +1 frenzy or crit chance / ehh idk, any non-elemental enchantment
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For leveling go down left lane in Tree to get Razor's Edge and Blade master as soon as possible, the bleed chance will help. the proceed to the right of tree to get vaal pact and crit nodes. Again for the tree use the PoB Link right under the cover image of this post.


Minor Gem explanations


CWDT - Summon Ice Golem in tomb fist. cwdt removes the need to constantly summon it. lv16 to both gems.

Leap Slam - Faster Attack - Blood Magic - Fortify = Gain fortify for dmg reduction. Blood magic allows you to spam it since you want to move fast without worrying about running out of mana. You might think BM goes against Damage on Full Life gem, it does, however by the time you leap slam into a pack of mons, you'll leech back your missing life lost instantly and be at full life in time for your reave/double strike to gain the gems dmg bonus.

Likewise with Blood Rage, we supposedly lose life, but if you attack a bunch of mobs, due to the overleech from Slayer's Brutal Fervour, we go to full life and stay at full life, out leeching the degen of blood rage. I've check the tooltip to make sure and I'm basically counted at full life even with leap slam and blood rage active for most of the time. The only time it drops a bit is long stretches of no mobs. Blood rage provides attack speed, frenzy charges, and even 2% life leech, so it's a perfect fit for the build.

Need to get 3R/1G in starkonjha to use 4-link VDS, annoying to color.

Vulnerability = 30% chance to bleed @ 20/20
Razor's Edge nodes provide 25% chance
Dragoon = 20% chance

So you'll have 75% chance to bleed with a dragoon sword, 55 without. Since you'll mostly be using Reave, you can run bloodlust for VDS in 4-link for more dmg for your clones.


Videos

Here's a Waterways Run with Enfeeble+Double Boss as a Demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEyYgyyNkZc&feature=youtu.be


I haven't gotten far into maps since my map pool has sucked (barely got to red maps the day of posting this), but I'm sure there's been enough footage by others to know that vaal double strike is insane, as with a LOT of new stuff from 3.3. I'll update with more vids and stuff at a later time to showcase, but be assured the damage is real.


Anyway, hope you enjoy the build! Leave any feedback/questions and I'll try to address them when I can.


Last edited by ProjectWAR on Jun 8, 2018, 3:30:51 PM
Last bumped on Jun 21, 2018, 1:01:53 PM
(Update 6/8/2018)
Added a quick waterways demo vid, and champ pob option for those that want more single target (but less clear speed). Will add more vids as I progress when I have time to play~
Really nice build! Could you please provide more info about the tree? Fairly new player here... thanks!
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SovietGus wrote:
Really nice build! Could you please provide more info about the tree? Fairly new player here... thanks!


Sure!

Here's the first couple levels I did. Because of the pathing, you kinda don't gain as much boost to life/dmg yet till around lv 40-50ish, but luckily early game is fairly easy even with crap gear, which I had anyways since I started the league with it.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.3.0/AAAABAQBAADuFSAV7Bm0Kk0s6S2DNZI_J0d-SshgQWNwZU1uqnvDhNmGs4qvivCQEbXyuR29Nr6nypDYvelG

After this initial startup, start heading to sword and crit nodes on left side of the pob tree.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.3.0/AAAABAQBAADuEPAUcRUgFewZtBuqKCoqTSzpLYM1kjwtPydHfkrIUEdgQWNwZU1nm26qdqx7w4E6g1-DzITZhVKGs4qvivCLT5ARl3mbaq2Nrj618rc-uR29Nr6nxq7KkM9-2L3ZYeRR6UbqGO8O8lr46_4K

This gives you 25% chance to bleed for swords, thus basically allows you to drop "chance to bleed" gem in double strike. I leveled with solely vaal double strike (get as early as possible) till I got slayer's aoe nodes. After you get that, get disembowling crit nodes upper left, remaining life nodes on left side, then start heading down the right side of the tree for vaal pact and dual wield crit nodes. from there it depends if you need/want more life, or the sword circle on the far right for huge dps boost.

Used frost blades at lv2+ till I got infernal blow, then used that for clear with normal double strike as single target. My 4-link setup for vaal double strike early on (after I got impact from slayer) was VDS (vaal double strike) - chance to bleed - melee physical damage - ancestral call. once you get the bleed sword nodes on left side of tree as mentioned, drop chance to bleed for maim or ruthless gem. Should steamroll act 1-10 easy with that setup, especially after getting haemophilia gloves. Just remember to use the princess sword in offhand, and try to get a decent phys one-hand sword with decently high attack speed (1.5+). cheapest, but best damage at your level. should cost an alch-1 chaos at most. hope that helps :)
Please include the non-pob Skill trees to you guide.

cheers
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I have planned a build using vaal reave / vaal double strike based on the clones instead of the bleeding aspect.

This build is aimed for duo play. The goal is to boost my clones and my mate with auras/golemms.
I would like to be able to play alone sometime (even if it's not optimised).

I have some questions :

If I have an herald up, did the clone have my herald too ?

If I have auras up did the clone get the bonus from the auras ?
Did the clone generate auras for me, other players and other clones ? (On this one I faily sure that's a no, but well... "A man can dream").

Thanks !


sry for being noob why do you need elemental damage though, when the build focuses on pdps and bleeds
"
shuruga2 wrote:
I have planned a build using vaal reave / vaal double strike based on the clones instead of the bleeding aspect.

This build is aimed for duo play. The goal is to boost my clones and my mate with auras/golemms.
I would like to be able to play alone sometime (even if it's not optimised).

I have some questions :

If I have an herald up, did the clone have my herald too ?

If I have auras up did the clone get the bonus from the auras ?
Did the clone generate auras for me, other players and other clones ? (On this one I faily sure that's a no, but well... "A man can dream").

Thanks !


Hey! I'm unsure but according to pob, Vaal DS gains damage when I have herald/hatred up, so I assume they so. Also the aura's state you and allies, so that could also just be effecting them. but usually they snap shot your buffs if i'm not mistaken. example if I activate vaal haste before using VDS, they'll gain the haste like aura around them when I summon them. I don't think they have the same effect if you use VDS first then vaal haste, so they might not be effected by it.

Pretty sure the clones don't generate aura's for you or others though, not even sure how they would do that tbh. I will say without bleed the dmg isn't that great, so whether it's you or your friend, gotta get bleed somewhere. vulnerability usually solves that easily though, which you should be running for damage anyways. bleed enemy with reave, VDS clones can use bloodlust for more dmg.


"
PandaZeus wrote:
sry for being noob why do you need elemental damage though, when the build focuses on pdps and bleeds


It's not really a need, it's just since we scale phys so high, % based elemental effects like hatred or shaper statstick mods provide so much damage (Almost 100% extra as elemental). You're not converting phys > element, I'm not losing any physical damage or bleed, you're simply GAINing elemental damage. As far as dmg gains go, shaper stat stick and hatred are simply too powerful to overlook. You can't gain much damage in offhand that effects physical, and the bleed dmg is so low without big investments it's not worth it (imo).

I usually swap to a "enemies explode for 5% life as fire" + melee splash (for area damage) simple offhand statstick and haste aura to do ele-reflect maps, as having things with gain x as element I spoke of is too rippy to do for those maps.
cool, thanks for explaining, curious though, with tombfist giving us maim, shouldn't you replace the maim skill in our 6-links?
"
PandaZeus wrote:
cool, thanks for explaining, curious though, with tombfist giving us maim, shouldn't you replace the maim skill in our 6-links?


I think it just gave the most damage for the slot, or perhaps I forgot to change it. I literally just used PoB, sorted gems by dps, and added whatever seemed to give the most damage that didn't need to be played around.

-V-Reave
-Multistrike
-Dmg on full
-Melee Phys
-Increased Aoe/Conc effect
-Ruthless/Maim

So by those links, ruthless gave more than maim, but only because of the 3rd attack. the maim gem gives decent dmg boost outside of the chance to maim though, hence the point of using it (more phys dmg, increased phys from quality, more phys dmg against maimed guys) so it's slightly better since it offers more upfront damage from the first two hits, though with multistrike you do 3 hits per attack anyways...but yah, ruthless helps out every 3rd hit, maim helps out non-stop.

I'd say play around to what feels better for you, I prefer maim as it can help kill mobs in the first 2 hits of reave, rather than waiting for the last 3rd hit and possibly taking more damage or something. ruthless is probably better for bosses though.

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