-Recombinator boots are gone in 3.19, which is about 30% of the build's damage
-Probably still playable, but don't recommend, will not be updating the guide
VERY IMPORTANT GAMEPLAY NOTE: BIND BATTLEMAGE'S CRY TO LEFT CLICK
Introduction
Hey guys, this is my build guide for a Brutus Led Sprinkler strength stacker that focuses on scaling fire damage and utilizes infernal blow. Very powerful, very smooth, and most importantly, SUPER FAST. I wanted to make a build that could clear most endgame bosses, map fairly quickly, and ZOOM ZOOM -- move fast, attack fast.
Most importantly, we get to utilize the MAROIDER MTX.
I decided to make this guide because I've done pretty much all the content I've wanted to this league, with this build. It's been a very enjoyable experience thus far.
Note that while you can play this on a budget (I leaguestarted this build), most of my gear here is very very min-maxxed and somewhat pricey. Beware when trying to attempt the build without much currency, you may die a bit more, but the damage should be there if you prioritize correctly. Use a lot of strength essences when crafting gear!
Why Berserker?
Very simple. Highest damage and speed ceiling. RAGE. Also: MAROIDER.
Pro's & Con's
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+Boss killer - Killed Sirus, Maven buffed Uber Elder, Shaper, Cortex, Breachlords, the Feared, etc... relatively smoothly. Still need to know mechanics and occasionally reposition. +Screenwide Clear and Beyond - Anomalous infernal blow with strike gloves explodes the whole screen. Very satisfying. +Good damage - My final damage was 35 million + under perfect conditions (Berserk popped, totems down, ruthless in), we include the DPS of infernal blow + the DPS of 6 debuff explosions (since that guys off regularly everytime we hit a boss 6 times). +Speed-Demon - Max rage + Berserk is a great time. Love going fast as a zerker. +Well rounded tackles all content equally well - Can do whatever you desire, whether that be speed farming maps, bossing, or a mix of both. +Scale-ability - Scales extremely well with gear, my gear is near perfectly min-maxxed but all you really need is Brutus and a bunch of gear with t1 strength rolls (can just strength essence your rares). +Easy to play - You just run around and right click. What's not to like?
-Cannot do ele reflect maps. -Cannot do no regen/recovery maps. -Not immortal, not the tankiest archetype, we're a berserker. -Off meta, don't set expectations sky high. You're in a Brutus infernal blow thread :).
Path of Building Pastebin
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https://pastebin.com/px21vHCh
Bandits: Kill all
Pantheons: Lunaris + any minor of your choosing
^^ NOTE: This PoB uses the fork by local1dentity, not sure if it works with standard PoB. Highly recommend downloading the fork.
Skill gems
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6L Bossing (Chest):
Anomalous Infernal Blow - Anomalous Inspiration - Awakened Melee Splash (mapping) or Ruthless (bossing) - Awakened Fire Penetration - Increased Critical Damage Support - Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks Support
Curse + Buffs:
Assassin's Mark - Mark on Hit Support - Lifetap - Summon Stone Golem
Multiple Totems Support - Ancestral Protector - Ancestral Warchief - Berserk
Defense + Utility:
Molten Shell (14) - Cast when damage taken (9) - Wave of Conviction (1)
Passive Tree
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http://poeurl.com/dF1H
Gear
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Note that I switched to HH after the buff, but up until then I was using a generic %strength implicit belt and it was great.
Notes about Other Pieces
Rings - %str implicit and Unset Ring
-We just want gear with lots of strength and attributes. Also we're starved for rezzes, so need a bit here. The Unset Ring is important as we're tight on gem links.
Gloves - ELDRITCH IMPLICITS HERE ARE VERY IMPORTANT
Gloves are pretty generic life + rezzes. The important bit are the Eldritch mods: We want "Strike Skills target 1-2 Additional nearby enemies" and 3% increased damage per 100 strength. In order to go from 1 to 2 additional targets, you need to roll it with grand eldritch then orb of conflict it up and hit the correct mod at least twice. Really nice for clear, but 1 works fine too.
Boots:
Most important item next to the Brutus. The "Adds 2 to 4 fire damage to attacks per 10 strength" mod gives us 30-40% more damage.
Chest - Rare craft
You can use iron fortress here, but I wanted to recombine a cool chest to make myself tankier while not sacrificing too much damage. Life + Strength are a must if you opt to go for rare, %life is a luxury, and then craft on attributes. The eldritch mods are very important here. Warcry buff Effect is effectively 10-15% more damage, and the 1% less damage taken per 200 strength is a broken flat 8-9% reduction to all damage of any type (yes, including degens).
Belt - Generic %STR implicit belt or HH
Nothing much to be said here, HH is fun, but opt for a high strength rare otherwise.
Amulet
%STR implicit is important, look for life + damage mods when hitting with strength essence.
Shield - Redblade Banner
Best shield for a Warcry based berserker. Try to get one with determination level 23 corrupt, but that's luxury, not needed.
Helm - Rare Craft, very important
-You want the 15% increased effect of Battlemage's Cry enchant
-You want "Gain Accuracy rating equal to your Strength" warlord mod, then ideally orb of dominance it for the 1% increased crit per 10 strength elevation.
-Everything else is luxury, but life, crit multi, and strength are all nice.
Lethal Pride Timeless Jewel
Look for mods like %str, %DD, melee critical strike multiplier, warcry buff effect, etc... generic damage and strength mods. Try to get one where at least one mod is "10% chance to intimidate enemies on hit with attacks", this is a free 10% more damage.
Rare Jewels
Triple crit multi + strength is nice, can also opt for all attributes
Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh
You want Hinekora, Death's Fury jewels. They are dirt cheap and give us 10% strength, life leech, and free ash. That's insane. The ash effect is worth around 20% more damage, the strength is around 10% more damage + lots of life, and the free leech is great utility. Cheap and strong jewels.
Note that the Interrogation Unique cluster jewel isn't mandatory, but scorch is quite nice and we hit hard so generally have -30% scorch applied. It's much cheaper this league too.
That's all, have fun! I'm pretty much done with the league at this point, so I'm open to selling off some of my gear, hit me up in game (IGN: Thicokeles) if interested. I had a lot of fun playing this build and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Gotta use that MAROIDER mtx.
*Feel free to give me any formatting tips or ask any questions.
Note that you can slide out Infernal Blow and utilize Consecrated Path, Ground Slam, or Ice Crash if you desire but I like Infernal Blow the most :).
Looks fun! How do you level it and ascendies in order?
I'm going to be brutally honest, I'm probably the worst melee leveler in the world. My friends all make fun of my melee leveling. So I completely yolo'd it just using whatever weapon and skill gem through the acts, and as such I can't really recommend a leveling route other than slap on brutus the second you are able to (level 28), and prioritize strength nodes. Aside from that, chuck on a tabula is my only other piece of advice lol.
Ascendancy order I went with was: Aspect of Carnage --> War Bringer --> Crave the Slaughter - Rite of Ruin.
Looks fun! How do you level it and ascendies in order?
I'm going to be brutally honest, I'm probably the worst melee leveler in the world. My friends all make fun of my melee leveling. So I completely yolo'd it just using whatever weapon and skill gem through the acts, and as such I can't really recommend a leveling route other than slap on brutus the second you are able to (level 28), and prioritize strength nodes. Aside from that, chuck on a tabula is my only other piece of advice lol.
Ascendancy order I went with was: Aspect of Carnage --> War Bringer --> Crave the Slaughter - Rite of Ruin.
Thank you! Also since the shield with determination skill does not exist in trade yet. What can i switch out in gear in term of gems to get it?
Looks fun! How do you level it and ascendies in order?
I'm going to be brutally honest, I'm probably the worst melee leveler in the world. My friends all make fun of my melee leveling. So I completely yolo'd it just using whatever weapon and skill gem through the acts, and as such I can't really recommend a leveling route other than slap on brutus the second you are able to (level 28), and prioritize strength nodes. Aside from that, chuck on a tabula is my only other piece of advice lol.
Ascendancy order I went with was: Aspect of Carnage --> War Bringer --> Crave the Slaughter - Rite of Ruin.
Thank you! Also since the shield with determination skill does not exist in trade yet. What can i switch out in gear in term of gems to get it?
I would just drop urgent orders support, you don't need this support for battlemage's cry, it's purely for the quality to give it 10% buff effect. So a small nice bonus, but something you can drop.
Looks fun! How do you level it and ascendies in order?
I'm going to be brutally honest, I'm probably the worst melee leveler in the world. My friends all make fun of my melee leveling. So I completely yolo'd it just using whatever weapon and skill gem through the acts, and as such I can't really recommend a leveling route other than slap on brutus the second you are able to (level 28), and prioritize strength nodes. Aside from that, chuck on a tabula is my only other piece of advice lol.
Ascendancy order I went with was: Aspect of Carnage --> War Bringer --> Crave the Slaughter - Rite of Ruin.
I know this is already like 2 days later, i haven't read anything other than those 2 comments, and as someone who has levelled a lot of melee characters already, your best option nowadays is steel skills till level 12 and then spectral helix to maps, it will completely destroy the levelling with 3~4 linksif you don't have twink gear, if you have money for twink gear just go hollow palm with smite and triple heralds and regrets for later
I just got to maps and enjoying the build so far. I assume you crafted your boots with sentinel mod fire damage to attack per 10 strength? It seems expensive to buy directly from trade.
Quick leveling tips from my experience so far:
Starting so late in the league meant I could annoy my sweaty boi friends who are mostly done already into giving me some starter currency for twink leveling gear. I, too, am terrible at leveling melee, so this is just what I tried and so far it's worked. It feels like it should carry me all the way through to maps--there are some upgrades that I plan to make that I'll mention below. I got through first lab at lvl 32 with no issues--I usually wait until 40 to make the experience smoother.
Gear: Start
Goldrim
Tabby
Lochtonial Caress
Wanderlust
Karui Ward
The Screaming Eagle x 2
Wurm's Molt As you level upgrade to
Le Heup x2
Carnage Heart
Belt of the Deceiver
Meginord's Vise -- gnarly for this build: big damage AND 2% life regen
Brutus's Lead Sprinkler x 2
Skills: Start
Molten strike - Ruthless - Onslaught - Ancestral Call - Ele Damage w/ Attacks - Lifetap --I tried every melee skill and they all sucked. MS sucked the least.
Leap slam - faster attacks
As you level upgrade to
Infernal blow - Ruthless - Ancestral Call - Added Fire Damage - Faster Attacks - Ele Damage w/attacks I dropped lifetap because it felt too squish
Herald of Ash
Blood Rage
Add Precision as soon as you get it -- level it as much as your dex will support. 100% chance to hit's importance can't be overstated.
Passive tree:
Sorry, I'm too lazy to do skill trees for leveling breakpoints. Use this as a general guide for pathing and go after notables that make sense once you're done pathing. Strength stacking early means just picking up the strength passives gives fat damage bonuses (and we get satisfying boosts from picking up notables well into higher levels).
1 - diamond skin & robust
2 - art of the gladiator
3 - utmost might
4 - lava lash
5 - galvanic hammer
I plan to replace Carnage Heart with astramentis later if i can find a decent price on one. Le Heup will probably stay with me through to maps. I'll be replacing the gloves, helmet, and belt of the deceiver as I find or buy rares that outperform them.
Edit: swapped in Battlemage's Cry after I did cruel lab for war bringer and picked up iron will and holy shit it slaps. Once I got the configuration right on PoB (check "have you used a warcry recently?", set warcry power to 100 to simulate "infinite"), Redblade Banner is about a 50% more damage multi over a second Brutus, so I'm picking one up as soon as I have the chaos. BMC + Iron Will feels hilariously broken.
Last edited by MasterWilhelm on Jun 7, 2022, 9:08:26 PM
Having fun on the build after throwing it together. Damage is really high up th ere. Any tips you guys would have to make it more tanky?
The rare chest is pretty big for survivability because of the "1% less damage taken per 200 strength" eldritch mod -- this works on all damage even degens.
I was going to say if you slap on a HH you will become immortal, but I see you already have one. Once you get a few buffs rolling with HH you should never really die unless you go hands off keyboard for awhile. Focus on just stacking more strength and expanding that life pool. The rare chest is a good double whammy for survivability because of the less damage taken mod + life/max% life.
My process for crafting the chest was recombinating fractured t1 strength + fractured t2 or t3 life until I had them both on one base. Then I just veiled chaos until I got %max life and crafted %attributes. You lose around 10-14% damage from dropping Iron Fortress but I felt the survivability boost was worth it considering the build is overkill on damage.
