Elemental Buzzsaw & Static Strike - Solo the entire game, quickly and cheaply 1.1.0 update

how do you get the buzzsaw effect?
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Shadov1 wrote:

Why it sucks? I mean frenzy gives pretty good atk speed, and elemental hit does elemental damage scaling with all bonuses (btw why elemental hit have the same DPS as regular autoattack? i dont understand that)

And about double strike, double strike+blood magic+life leech/gain on hit+multi strike, what do you think?


I've actually tried out all three - Double Strike, Ele Hit, and Frenzy.

Double Strike was very successful for the first 60-70 levels until I got my ST 5L'd. 5L ST has comparable single-target damage to a 4L Double Strike, assuming two hits per cycle. Obviously that means you lose out on a bit of damage while waiting for the projectiles to return, but considering Double Strike forces you into melee range on top of consuming 4 sockets, I ended up just removing it for a nice CWDT setup.

I had the same idea about Ele Hit, since the base ele damage looks so nice on paper, so I bought a high level one to try. Trash. It failed for the same reason we use WED/Faster Attacks over Added Lightning/Cold Damage supports - the base is nice, but the majority of the spec's damage comes from scaling the beefed-up Anger and Wrath with WED and IAS. Double Strike's 140% damage effectiveness beat out Ele Hit's base damage by a long-shot; the difference in kill speed was very noticeable.

The AS from Frenzy Charges were nice, but jumping into melee range every few seconds to maintain the charges honestly just slowed my clear speed down.
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spoorek wrote:
how do you get the buzzsaw effect?


Seraph Spectral Throw and a whole lot of attack speed.
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Phylaris wrote:
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Shadov1 wrote:

Why it sucks? I mean frenzy gives pretty good atk speed, and elemental hit does elemental damage scaling with all bonuses (btw why elemental hit have the same DPS as regular autoattack? i dont understand that)

And about double strike, double strike+blood magic+life leech/gain on hit+multi strike, what do you think?


I've actually tried out all three - Double Strike, Ele Hit, and Frenzy.

Double Strike was very successful for the first 60-70 levels until I got my ST 5L'd. 5L ST has comparable single-target damage to a 4L Double Strike, assuming two hits per cycle. Obviously that means you lose out on a bit of damage while waiting for the projectiles to return, but considering Double Strike forces you into melee range on top of consuming 4 sockets, I ended up just removing it for a nice CWDT setup.

I had the same idea about Ele Hit, since the base ele damage looks so nice on paper, so I bought a high level one to try. Trash. It failed for the same reason we use WED/Faster Attacks over Added Lightning/Cold Damage supports - the base is nice, but the majority of the spec's damage comes from scaling the beefed-up Anger and Wrath with WED and IAS. Double Strike's 140% damage effectiveness beat out Ele Hit's base damage by a long-shot; the difference in kill speed was very noticeable.

The AS from Frenzy Charges were nice, but jumping into melee range every few seconds to maintain the charges honestly just slowed my clear speed down.


This is good information. I mean even in many end game builds that use ST you see people really happy with 4-5k dps while using ST. With this build you should be able to get a minimum of 7-8k even with crap gear and only using a 5L. Not to mention, the weapon cost is just so hilariously cheap compared to all the crazy ST phys dmg builds :)

For frenzy charges, technically you could use blood rage if you had enough chaos resist (maybe paired with blood dance unique boots). That would mean your other gear would have to be pretty good to make up for the life and resists you would lose on the boots, but it is a way to increase attack speed a bit. Not sure it would work all that great though.
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Altissimus wrote:
Hi Folks,

So like Wow!, this thread has taken off massively over the past couple weeks! We should be really careful, or the price of ele-1handers will go up ;)

To anyone reading this - this build is rubbish, please sell your ele-1handers cheaply because no one wants them. Same with your WED accessories. Thanks.

Now, on a couple other points I have recently hit level 78 and finished the horrible grind down four dex points to Ondar's Guile, and I can report: it's fantastic.

Prior to this move I only had trouble with projectile-based baddies. Melee is just so kiteable (and so quick to die) that it's just laughable. Now, with OG and Acrobatics, projectile baddies are also laughable. That basically only leaves lucky hits, leapers and leap-slamming, and that very-not-rare OP boss called Desync.

(Incidentally the 4 points for OG came from Mathil's build from the top left, taking OG over Purity of Flesh. Lost some life; gained a shitload of evasion vs projectiles. Interestingly you also lose a little bit of chaos resistance, but a bulk of the chaos damage in this game is ranged projectiles...)

Running H/A/W + Purity x2 I have 34% evasion. This is partly a gear thing, but it is based on all-evasion gear bar my shield, which I need for +res. I could get another +800 or something on my shield which would boost me into the low 40s, I think. This isn't bad....but I have also reached the point where I can run 3x60+2x40 auras, OR 4x60 auras. This means I can run H/A/W/Grace. This takes my evasion to 50%, which takes my evasion to Projectiles to 100%, less whatever the game allows for the baddies to have a chance to hit. But, basically I can go afk infront of a group of Bramble Cobras spitting Chaos Venom and go make a coffee. You know that bramble cobra boss at the end of the Wharf map? Yeah. Nothing.

So, runnin17 has been talking a lot about lightning coil. (On a personal note as you haven't insulted anyone for a few pages now, I'm gonna assume that your original start in this thread was a hiccup, and we'll call it water under the bridge. I can see you've added a lot of value since then, which is great). Prob with lightning coil (apart from the 200 jews it cost me to roll 6s and the 50-odd fusings and counting without a 5l/6l) is that it isn't pure evasion. This means that to use lightning coil and take advantage of OG you really need grace. If you're running grace, you can't also run purity of lightning...which you need with lightning coil. Now beginning to wonder if lightning coil is actually the best option here. With Grace + OG So. Goddamn. Powerful. I'm not even running the purities anymore. The thing is, of course, that you're not set on any one option - you can carry the purity gems and drop them in for ele weakness maps, or even if you know a certain boss likes a certain ele. Rest of the time grace + OG + 77% res across the board seems generally better for me. I would be really interested in others' views on lightning coil vs evasion with OG.

ETA: Forgot to mention: with OG + Grace, you can take off RT, spec in some Accuracy and your reflect problems disappear completely. Worth it? Haven't tried this yet...not sure what the DPS hit would be. Anyone got a view on this? Be really interesting to know.

People keep asking if XYZ sword is a good DPS weapon for this build. People: APS is king. Take the bandit option that gives attack speed in cruel. Buy the FASTEST weapon you can afford. eDPS is SECOND on the list. Why? Because your damage comes from Anger and Wrath, so the more times you attack the more times Anger and Wrath apply the damage.

Also, as a general tip it's not a bad idea to carry Leap Slam + Culling Strike + Blood Magic + IIR on your boots or gloves, so that you can increase your loot chances on bosses.

Happy New Year to you all :)

A.








I'm running Ondar's + non-RT right now. 4.5k DPS at level 75. I also run 4 60's for the most part, so I actually sacrificed the upper-right aura nodes entirely, since you don't need them to run 4 60's.

The immunity to reflect is nice and the evasion is nice, but at the same time, the damage loss from losing 26% aura effect and Res Tech is quite significant. I think I'd be bumping nearly 6k ST DPS with Res Tech and those aura nodes. And it's not as though the build suffered from real reflect issues in the first place, even at 14k ST DPS. I mean, with RT you can definitely see the reflect damage, but it really isn't too dangerous with double Purity. It's debatable.
Last edited by Phylaris on Jan 1, 2014, 10:26:04 PM
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runnin17 wrote:

This is good information. I mean even in many end game builds that use ST you see people really happy with 4-5k dps while using ST. With this build you should be able to get a minimum of 7-8k even with crap gear and only using a 5L. Not to mention, the weapon cost is just so hilariously cheap compared to all the crazy ST phys dmg builds :)

For frenzy charges, technically you could use blood rage if you had enough chaos resist (maybe paired with blood dance unique boots). That would mean your other gear would have to be pretty good to make up for the life and resists you would lose on the boots, but it is a way to increase attack speed a bit. Not sure it would work all that great though.


I considered Blood Rage as well, but as an ele build we wouldn't even benefit from the life leech. Maybe if the build incorporated a few Frenzy charges it'd be worth it, but with just 3 charges I feel the costs don't outweigh the benefits. :(
Last edited by Phylaris on Jan 1, 2014, 10:25:03 PM
About the Ondar's and reflect. Are you guys still specing into acrobatics? Keep in mind you still have a 30% chance to dodge those reflect attacks AND you are carrying a shield, so you also have minimum 28% chance to block those attacks too.

Granted if you are not using acrobatics then you are just relying on your resists and the block chance.

If you look at the original spec, there is a reason Mathil is running Purity of lightning and fire. He is running anger and wrath, so pretty much all of the ele dmg is fire and lightning. So the extra resists to those elements are significant.

For example, with the spec that I plan on running I am using Saffell's Frame. I cannot block attacks, but I also will pretty much always run the two purity auras on any -max resist or elemental reflect maps to ensure that I have 89/82/89 resists since I am using RT. As long as I don't play stupid then I cannot imagine that I will have issues with reflect, but this is not something that I know for sure yet. Granted, if reflect becomes an issue while using Saffell's then I will just spec into acrobatics since honestly I don't care about how high my evasion or armor is (gotta love immortal call).

Now one question I do have is about Life Gain on Hit. I know in general life leech is considered to be better in late game; however, if you are worried about reflect would a 20/20 Life on Hit gem be better to switch out since you will gain that life back immediately (basically like vaal pact). I will try and play around with LGoH a bit and see if it is just as viable with life leech with this build since the build attacks so fast.

For example, on quill rain builds you pretty much see people always run LGoH because they are attacking so fast. This build is not as fast as a quill rain build, but ST always pierces, so you hit a lot of enemies and you hit them fast.
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runnin17 wrote:
About the Ondar's and reflect. Are you guys still specing into acrobatics? Keep in mind you still have a 30% chance to dodge those reflect attacks AND you are carrying a shield, so you also have minimum 28% chance to block those attacks too.

Granted if you are not using acrobatics then you are just relying on your resists and the block chance.

If you look at the original spec, there is a reason Mathil is running Purity of lightning and fire. He is running anger and wrath, so pretty much all of the ele dmg is fire and lightning. So the extra resists to those elements are significant.

For example, with the spec that I plan on running I am using Saffell's Frame. I cannot block attacks, but I also will pretty much always run the two purity auras on any -max resist or elemental reflect maps to ensure that I have 89/82/89 resists since I am using RT. As long as I don't play stupid then I cannot imagine that I will have issues with reflect, but this is not something that I know for sure yet. Granted, if reflect becomes an issue while using Saffell's then I will just spec into acrobatics since honestly I don't care about how high my evasion or armor is (gotta love immortal call).

Now one question I do have is about Life Gain on Hit. I know in general life leech is considered to be better in late game; however, if you are worried about reflect would a 20/20 Life on Hit gem be better to switch out since you will gain that life back immediately (basically like vaal pact). I will try and play around with LGoH a bit and see if it is just as viable with life leech with this build since the build attacks so fast.

For example, on quill rain builds you pretty much see people always run LGoH because they are attacking so fast. This build is not as fast as a quill rain build, but ST always pierces, so you hit a lot of enemies and you hit them fast.


The original build does quite well against reflect, yes. Ondar's makes you completely immune to reflect, though, as in you literally won't take a single point of reflect damage in the first place. That being said, I don't feel like Ondar's is necessary if you have Acro and 2x Purity.

I personally only take Ondar's because I'm uncomfortable with how little health the build has for an evasion-based spec - I look for around 300% by level 90, and moving down to Ondar's from Heart of Oak unlocks a ton of nice health nodes. Mathil reaches 6k HP, a solid number, but he's well into the 90s and has nearly perfect gear. My gear will be nowhere near as strong, and I don't feel safe with just 4-5k HP in the 80s.

That being said, if my character reaches a point where it has gear comparable to Mathil's, I will likely respec into the original build at that point, because it's min-maxed to near perfection.
Last edited by Phylaris on Jan 2, 2014, 12:13:35 AM
One question I have about the spec, though, is Static Blows. The build does a considerable about of lightning damage, and would be able to apply three shock stacks almost instantly with how quickly it attacks. I feel like it might be worthwhile to take.
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Phylaris wrote:
One question I have about the spec, though, is Static Blows. The build does a considerable about of lightning damage, and would be able to apply three shock stacks almost instantly with how quickly it attacks. I feel like it might be worthwhile to take.


I would like to know if it is worthwhile to take Static Blows too

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