Phys builds suck, don't bother

No point going "pure" phy when phy benefits from things like Added Fire and Hatred (which is not viable on a BM keystone build sadly).

This is why grabbing the Catalyse node over at templar is so good.
95 pts
103 pts

Catalyse nodes + Lava Lash = 80% increased fire damage from Added Fire. Add in WED gem lvl 20 (80% more), that brings it up to 180*1.8 = 324% fire damage. Add in the use of Anger/Wrath, and maybe grabbing Inner Force later. Although at this point it would pretty much be a elemental build, huh?

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Zealflare wrote:

No point going "pure" phy when phy benefits from things like Added Fire and Hatred (which is not viable on a BM keystone build sadly).

This is why grabbing the Catalyse node over at templar is so good.
95 pts
103 pts

Catalyse nodes + Lava Lash = 80% increased fire damage from Added Fire. Add in WED gem lvl 20 (80% more), that brings it up to 180*1.8 = 324% fire damage. Add in the use of Anger/Wrath, and maybe grabbing Inner Force later. Although at this point it would pretty much be a elemental build, huh?

You have devised a build and skill setup I was already pondering for some time. The difference to standard elemental builds is in my view that this build would still have main source of damage coming from weapons rather than the usual combination of IAS+elemental damage from gear for traditional elemental.
This would mean that you cant go after max APS, Quilrain build for elemental archer, but you would build it around your weapons.

I think that below item could be an option for BM builds that cant use Hatred and want to benefit from elemental damage (not as good as Hatred but still providing significant conversion of physical to elemental damage).

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Zealflare wrote:

Catalyse nodes + Lava Lash = 80% increased fire damage from Added Fire. Add in WED gem lvl 20 (80% more), that brings it up to 180*1.8 = 324% fire damage. Add in the use of Anger/Wrath, and maybe grabbing Inner Force later. Although at this point it would pretty much be a elemental build, huh?

i tested lava lash on my lvl 78 mara with inner force.... anger+add fire gem and with lava lash fire dmg difference was only ~100 fire dmg on this

Catalyze on the other hand is rly good.

whole points of physical is to do physical.

If you going elemental, might as well just go all out elemental.

Melee still sucks... no matter how you play it.
Elemental Cleave is the best skill for melee in this game when it comes to damage/speed/clear time.

Its just unbeatable no matter what build you do.

I really don't understand why people are seemingly trying to play "Phys builds"

Like, I honestly haven't played a ranged character or even a caster long enough to know the difference between that and any melee by lategame, but I literally can't see why someone would try to force physical damage alone, and this appears to be a popular goal among people for some reason that I can't see. Especially when it's apparently annoying that going elemental is SOO easy.

It's like dealing damage is part of killing things or something. Granted, I'm all for nerfing some elemental things, since maybe Weapon Elemental Damage is just way too good, or whatever is actually going on.



Is it a facebreaker thing?

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Milchut wrote:

I really don't understand why people are seemingly trying to play "Phys builds"

Like, I honestly haven't played a ranged character or even a caster long enough to know the difference between that and any melee by lategame, but I literally can't see why someone would try to force physical damage alone, and this appears to be a popular goal among people for some reason that I can't see. Especially when it's apparently annoying that going elemental is SOO easy.

I have many map-running characters, and they all rely on high elemental damage modifiers in some way/shape or form to deal damage, and they are powerful.
So I wanted to try the other end of the spectrum - a build that relied primarily on physical damage (to be different, try new things etc.), I knew it would not be as powerful as elemental because as everyone knows elemental builds beast on basically everything; but that it sucked so hard was off-putting. So I made this bitch thread :)

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Zeekin wrote:

I have many map-running characters, and they all rely on high elemental damage modifiers in some way/shape or form to deal damage, and they are powerful.
So I wanted to try the other end of the spectrum - a build that relied primarily on physical damage (to be different, try new things etc.), I knew it would not be as powerful as elemental because as everyone knows elemental builds beast on basically everything; but that it sucked so hard was off-putting. So I made this bitch thread :)

IMO if you wanted to deal primarily "phy" damage, you should have gone with a 2h build rather than DW. The very nature of resist and armor makes it such that physical damage is better dealt in slower but strong hits (more phy dmg = less reduction from armor), whereas there is not much of a difference for elemental damage.

Not to mention that Cleave has a phy dmg penalty for DW-ing. Kripp made a pretty interesting Sweep CI Templar build that does insane physical damage. This is very possible now that they gave back some "more es" nodes to CI users.

CI = always full life.
Vaal Pact + Ghost Reaver.
Melee physical gem + melee on full life gem + sweep + added fire + concentrated effect + Life Leech, for example. 5L could probably take out added fire. This could probably be done on Leap Slam instead, as well (or even future skills that gets released).

Lastly, we are supposedly gonna get 3 new support gems next week, and apparently 2 of them will augment melee skills (like LMP/GMP/Chain/Fork, except for melee) so you could look forward to those.

the title for this should be "DW phys builds suck, dont bother"

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Zealflare wrote:

No point going "pure" phy when phy benefits from things like Added Fire and Hatred (which is not viable on a BM keystone build sadly).

This is why grabbing the Catalyse node over at templar is so good.
95 pts
103 pts

Catalyse nodes + Lava Lash = 80% increased fire damage from Added Fire. Add in WED gem lvl 20 (80% more), that brings it up to 180*1.8 = 324% fire damage. Add in the use of Anger/Wrath, and maybe grabbing Inner Force later. Although at this point it would pretty much be a elemental build, huh?

sorry double post

"

Zealflare wrote:

No point going "pure" phy when phy benefits from things like Added Fire and Hatred (which is not viable on a BM keystone build sadly).

This is why grabbing the Catalyse node over at templar is so good.
95 pts
103 pts

Catalyse nodes + Lava Lash = 80% increased fire damage from Added Fire. Add in WED gem lvl 20 (80% more), that brings it up to 180*1.8 = 324% fire damage. Add in the use of Anger/Wrath, and maybe grabbing Inner Force later. Although at this point it would pretty much be a elemental build, huh?

you have no clue what you are talking about, don't spread misinformation. Catalyse is additive, not multiplicative with the melee bonuses you already have so it doesn't benefit the fire damage from added fire as much. Also where are you getting 324% from? it would be 1.8 x .8 not 1.8 x 1.8. Weapon elemental damage is mainly useful if you have a good amount of flat elemental damage.

Also to the OP, your build is just plain bad, if you don't have great gear, you should definitely be using axes and CE support gem. DW physical builds take more damage and gearing to really work, and if don't have the gear you have to use things so that you can penetrate armor better. Don't badmouth physical builds just because you don't know how to build. Physical builds definitely take more effort to make work though.