[3.7] Hybrid's Berserker *Insert Melee Skill Here* Insane ClearSpeed & DPS (Reave\Lacerate)

"

EUDiaBoLuS wrote:

"

So i'm quite geared now, i can do all maps, but it's not really a facetank hero.

It's a berserker build. I'm not sure what you were expecting, but berserker is one of the squishiest ascendancies in the game. It's not supposed to be able to facetank everything.

"

and unfortionately, due to my absolute shit internet and me not possessing an ssd, that leads to tons of deaths, as this character needs to MOVE to survive.

I think you've already figured it out. If your internet/pc is so bad that you're dying too often, then you would probably want a more tanky build that doesn't require you to dodge stuff in order to not die.

"

despite 7k HP ur dodge is kind of average, and u have close to no armor. just 76/75/75/75 res is also kind of meh.

You're right. Armor, dodge... well, defensives in general are nothing to brag about in this build. Your defensive mechanic is your ability to move around extremely fast and kill most of the monsters before they get a chance to hit you back. I know it's a '4Head' thing to say, but that's really what most berserker builds come down to.

No a single build in this game is ideal for every type of content. This kinda build is pretty damn good for endgame mapping. Emphasis on endgame, as you commonly don't loot too much stuff once you're in higher red tiers, because stopping to loot too often makes it harder to keep up blitz/rage/reave stacks thus not capitalizing on all the strengths of the build. That said, this build is meant for very fast paced type of playstyle. If that's your thing, then it's an amazing build.

"

DPS is good though, can't deny that, but it's an expensive build with quite some flaws. I've had stronger characters in the past with 1/4th of the currency investment.

It really depends what you define as "stronger", as it's a very broad term in game with such a vast number of ways a character can feel strong.
It is quite an expensive build. However, it's the most generic build in the current meta, dual-wielding foils, using the maim/crit elder body armor. Those are some of the most sought-after items in the game currently and getting the best ones costs a crap-ton of currency. It's true that with a lot less investment you can make a less popular build that is just as good if not better. It all comes down to what you want to play and what fits your playstyle. I personally love the build and don't mind the fact that it requires a little too much currency to make it work (relative to how much you need for other builds to clear the same kind of content).

Now, from what you've said, it seems clear to me that this isn't really your kinda build. But, since you already posted in here and invested some decent currency into the build (judging by your gear), I'll give you a couple tips as to how you can possibly increase the survivability if you choose to continue playing the build.

Unlike chieftain and juggernaut which get a lot of damage reduction and/or regen from their ascendancy points, berserker nodes are all about damage. Unless you decide to go for Pain Reaver instead of Rite of Ruin, there's no survivability to look for in the ascendancy itself. To be fair, Pain Reaver will make you survive a lot more hits and looking at your gear you have plenty of damage to be comfortable dropping Rite of Ruin, so maybe you could try it out. If not, you gotta look survivability in your gear, in the way you spec your passives and gem your gear.

Drop some damage nodes on your tree and get extra life. You have very easy access to 6 life nodes granting 22% increased life in total next to Juggernaut, Bloodless, Golem's Blood and Thick Skin nodes. You can even go as far as getting the life nodes from Devotion. It's an extra 20% increased life, plus some from the strength. However, it's an extra 6 passives too.

Try to incorporate Fortify into your main 6 link. It's an amazing alternative for Rage Support, which you can already stack up through your ascendancy and without the gem, although not as fast. Big upside of this is not having to rely on leap slam to keep fortify buff up at all times, thus not having to leap slam into the enemies in cases where you really don't wanna be doing that. Having 100% uptime on fortify is pretty huge.

I suggest dropping Pride completely. The "more phys dmg if enemies stay in aura radius for 4s" is pretty inconsistent. Most of the time you'll clear packs of enemies, rares included, before that buff comes into effect at all. Pick up hatred instead. You'll be freezing enemies very consistently, hence giving them less chance to hit you. Not to mention hatred is amazing against porcupines.

Drop Precision and pick up flesh and stone instead. The perma blind in close range/11% less dmg taken from enemies that aren't close - while in sand stance gives some pretty great survivability. It's ideal for mapping as you will normally always be in stand stance while mapping since you're already using blood and sand. You can also use a totem with blind support when fighting bosses. Get rid of the CWDT setup, give you some extra sockets and from my own experience self casting Imm Call seems to be more efficient. Because of the cooldown and being and instant cast now, it's much easier to get it up right as you need it and also self casting it means the CD won't be getting wasted on CWDT proccing off hits from some white mobs that you know you wouldn't normally die to.

Lastly, try picking up Lion's Roar. I personally don't use Onslaught flask. I don't have freeze immunity at all, but taste of hate compliments that in a sense. Lion's Roar, while it gives insane amount of dps, is also great because of it's knockback. I value that knockback so much that I've invested into some extra AoE for the sake of dmg in my main 6 link. Therefore I'm running Inc. AoE in my blue socket. Combine that with keeping up the max radius (8) stacks on reave by efficient usage of vaal reave and you're gonna be knocking back/freezing stuff that's off your screen.

Now that I mention the 6l setup. I'm running Reave - Fortify - Melee Phys - Inc AoE - Ruthless - Multistrike. I've already explained fortify and inc aoe. Melee phys is self explanatory. MS is just quality of life and it makes the playstyle so much smoother. Ruthless I've found really nice against some of the more tanky enemies. With rare monsters getting buffed this league and the league mechanic itself making you fight more than 3-4 rares at once sometimes, ruthless helps get them down a lot faster, especially when it's stacked with all the other flasks/procs/buffs. And with how fast you attack, especially with MS, you're gonna be getting a lot of ruthless hits off.

I'm sure there's other things that you can change about the build to make it more suitable for you that I'm not thinking of right now, but I hope some of this will be helpful to anyone reading.

"

Gruum712 wrote:

"

EUDiaBoLuS wrote:

"

So i'm quite geared now, i can do all maps, but it's not really a facetank hero.

It's a berserker build. I'm not sure what you were expecting, but berserker is one of the squishiest ascendancies in the game. It's not supposed to be able to facetank everything.

"

and unfortionately, due to my absolute shit internet and me not possessing an ssd, that leads to tons of deaths, as this character needs to MOVE to survive.

I think you've already figured it out. If your internet/pc is so bad that you're dying too often, then you would probably want a more tanky build that doesn't require you to dodge stuff in order to not die.

"

despite 7k HP ur dodge is kind of average, and u have close to no armor. just 76/75/75/75 res is also kind of meh.

You're right. Armor, dodge... well, defensives in general are nothing to brag about in this build. Your defensive mechanic is your ability to move around extremely fast and kill most of the monsters before they get a chance to hit you back. I know it's a '4Head' thing to say, but that's really what most berserker builds come down to.

No a single build in this game is ideal for every type of content. This kinda build is pretty damn good for endgame mapping. Emphasis on endgame, as you commonly don't loot too much stuff once you're in higher red tiers, because stopping to loot too often makes it harder to keep up blitz/rage/reave stacks thus not capitalizing on all the strengths of the build. That said, this build is meant for very fast paced type of playstyle. If that's your thing, then it's an amazing build.

"

DPS is good though, can't deny that, but it's an expensive build with quite some flaws. I've had stronger characters in the past with 1/4th of the currency investment.

It really depends what you define as "stronger", as it's a very broad term in game with such a vast number of ways a character can feel strong.
It is quite an expensive build. However, it's the most generic build in the current meta, dual-wielding foils, using the maim/crit elder body armor. Those are some of the most sought-after items in the game currently and getting the best ones costs a crap-ton of currency. It's true that with a lot less investment you can make a less popular build that is just as good if not better. It all comes down to what you want to play and what fits your playstyle. I personally love the build and don't mind the fact that it requires a little too much currency to make it work (relative to how much you need for other builds to clear the same kind of content).

Now, from what you've said, it seems clear to me that this isn't really your kinda build. But, since you already posted in here and invested some decent currency into the build (judging by your gear), I'll give you a couple tips as to how you can possibly increase the survivability if you choose to continue playing the build.

Unlike chieftain and juggernaut which get a lot of damage reduction and/or regen from their ascendancy points, berserker nodes are all about damage. Unless you decide to go for Pain Reaver instead of Rite of Ruin, there's no survivability to look for in the ascendancy itself. To be fair, Pain Reaver will make you survive a lot more hits and looking at your gear you have plenty of damage to be comfortable dropping Rite of Ruin, so maybe you could try it out. If not, you gotta look survivability in your gear, in the way you spec your passives and gem your gear.

Drop some damage nodes on your tree and get extra life. You have very easy access to 6 life nodes granting 22% increased life in total next to Juggernaut, Bloodless, Golem's Blood and Thick Skin nodes. You can even go as far as getting the life nodes from Devotion. It's an extra 20% increased life, plus some from the strength. However, it's an extra 6 passives too.

Try to incorporate Fortify into your main 6 link. It's an amazing alternative for Rage Support, which you can already stack up through your ascendancy and without the gem, although not as fast. Big upside of this is not having to rely on leap slam to keep fortify buff up at all times, thus not having to leap slam into the enemies in cases where you really don't wanna be doing that. Having 100% uptime on fortify is pretty huge.

I suggest dropping Pride completely. The "more phys dmg if enemies stay in aura radius for 4s" is pretty inconsistent. Most of the time you'll clear packs of enemies, rares included, before that buff comes into effect at all. Pick up hatred instead. You'll be freezing enemies very consistently, hence giving them less chance to hit you. Not to mention hatred is amazing against porcupines.

Drop Precision and pick up flesh and stone instead. The perma blind in close range/11% less dmg taken from enemies that aren't close - while in sand stance gives some pretty great survivability. It's ideal for mapping as you will normally always be in stand stance while mapping since you're already using blood and sand. You can also use a totem with blind support when fighting bosses. Get rid of the CWDT setup, give you some extra sockets and from my own experience self casting Imm Call seems to be more efficient. Because of the cooldown and being and instant cast now, it's much easier to get it up right as you need it and also self casting it means the CD won't be getting wasted on CWDT proccing off hits from some white mobs that you know you wouldn't normally die to.

Lastly, try picking up Lion's Roar. I personally don't use Onslaught flask. I don't have freeze immunity at all, but taste of hate compliments that in a sense. Lion's Roar, while it gives insane amount of dps, is also great because of it's knockback. I value that knockback so much that I've invested into some extra AoE for the sake of dmg in my main 6 link. Therefore I'm running Inc. AoE in my blue socket. Combine that with keeping up the max radius (8) stacks on reave by efficient usage of vaal reave and you're gonna be knocking back/freezing stuff that's off your screen.

Now that I mention the 6l setup. I'm running Reave - Fortify - Melee Phys - Inc AoE - Ruthless - Multistrike. I've already explained fortify and inc aoe. Melee phys is self explanatory. MS is just quality of life and it makes the playstyle so much smoother. Ruthless I've found really nice against some of the more tanky enemies. With rare monsters getting buffed this league and the league mechanic itself making you fight more than 3-4 rares at once sometimes, ruthless helps get them down a lot faster, especially when it's stacked with all the other flasks/procs/buffs. And with how fast you attack, especially with MS, you're gonna be getting a lot of ruthless hits off.

I'm sure there's other things that you can change about the build to make it more suitable for you that I'm not thinking of right now, but I hope some of this will be helpful to anyone reading.

"

EUDiaBoLuS wrote:

Thanks guys for the words!

I just wished this would have been clarified earlier.
It's a fun build, just not my type of build.
I'm not super experienced in PoE - this is my 3rd character - and i thought i found what i searched for here.

Is there a non-cyclone build that suits these things i'm searching for in a character?:


- Melee
- Facetanky
- Good at Bosses
- Can clear most map mods
- Preferably no gem swaps
- Preferably no accuracy needed
- Maybe 2hand or shield? not necessary though


Doesn't have to be:
- super high clearspeed


Can be any class, i don't mind.
Thought about earthquake, not sure :(

"

EUDiaBoLuS wrote:

thanks again guys, i swapped some things around and i feel quite a bit stronger now.
decided to get hatred for pride, relentless for maim support as i have low maim% from tree anyway, and got rid of some attack speed notes for life notes.

I initally read your molten strike jugg guide btw, but it didn't really feel like you updated it for 3.7 while reading it and you said it got weaker too, so i checked out this instead^^

"

btw, i really dont like using ruthless, especially not with multistrike.
you would think it works like: normal hit - normal hit - ruthless hit.
but it actually works like: normal hitX6 - ruthless hitX3.

"

HybridBoy wrote:

"

EUDiaBoLuS wrote:

thanks again guys, i swapped some things around and i feel quite a bit stronger now.
decided to get hatred for pride, relentless for maim support as i have low maim% from tree anyway, and got rid of some attack speed notes for life notes.

I initally read your molten strike jugg guide btw, but it didn't really feel like you updated it for 3.7 while reading it and you said it got weaker too, so i checked out this instead^^

what?
maim has built in maim chance
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Maim_Support

by relentless i guess ypu mean ruthless?
ruthless is bad with multistrike as i explained before:

"

btw, i really dont like using ruthless, especially not with multistrike.
you would think it works like: normal hit - normal hit - ruthless hit.
but it actually works like: normal hitX6 - ruthless hitX3.

"

EUDiaBoLuS wrote:

oh ye, i meant ruthless LUL. Still feels like a dps increase over Maim.
i meant i get chance to maim from the tree anyway - its low, but better than nothing.

"

Enemies Maimed by Supported Skills take (10-14)% increased Physical Damage