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

"
Daarknight wrote:
"
Melkrow wrote:
OK..the gear + passives + Gem setup + DPS screenshot posted in the first post do not add up.

DPS should only be 12367 DPS. Where is the other 2K DPS coming from? Unless I'm doing the math wrong.


You are doing the math wrong. I have 12,447 at level 87. Mathil's sword is way, way better than mine, I have maybe 7% higher Wed from gear, .08 higher aps but at level 95, he has 4 additional points devoted to increasing dps than I do ATM.


Can u link your gear/gems and the tree, AS IS, so I can do the math on that and see if I actually get your correct DPS.

Because the same math I did for my lvl82 shadow got my DPS correct within 10 points (minor rounding issues).
"
Hakizo wrote:
"
I think I have found a really good alternative to spec throw: Lightning Strike! Now LS does scale from physical damage so at first it doesn't seem to be a good choice, but almost all of our damage comes from auras anyway so that doesn't really matter. Also LS has much better damage effectiveness than ST and as a huge plus can be supported with multistrike for a massive attack speed boost.

I did some testing with my regular RRRGGG evasion chest and used:
LS - Multistrike - WED - LMP - Mana Leech - FA/Pierce
Paper dps was 22k/28k with FA compared to 11k ST.
Had to drop my purity auras and use LS on mana for some test runs on merc docks, hence the mana leech. With this far from optimal gem setup mobs did go down much faster than with ST even tho I could not spam LS like I could ST because of low mana.

If I were to switch over to LS an evasion chest would be very hard to get the colours, but with hybrid is doable. Gem setup would be this:
Blood magic - LS - Life Leech - Multistrike - WED - LMP/FA/Pierce
I was trying to buy tabula rasa the whole day but had no success. Will try again tomorrow to test it in some 66/67 maps and find the best gem combination. I think due to LS' damage effectiveness it should provide more damage and clear speed than ST. Plus with quality on LS and pierce gem 100% pierce is easily achievable, so the AOE would not suffer at all.

Either way, just wanted to throw this out there to get some feedback from you guys.


Hey! I've tested out lightning strike before with Melkrow's passive tree, one of the fun quirks of this tree build is that it is very versatile, as you may have noticed from the lightning strike spec. I started using lightning strike sometime back and like you said it had around 22-28k dps because of the insane boost from multistrike. My biggest concern though was that it seemed to do poorly in terms of single DPS. Unfortunately I don't really have the math to back up my claim but from continuous testing and running of both LS and ST and constant switching between them, ST in the long run proved to be more consistent in clearing both mobs and single targets like unique bosses. Granted I did notice ridiculous power when I switched to lightning strike but it would seem that I was always slower in killing things with resists with lightning strike on.

P.s. been using this build since I got my tabula rasa, for those of you concerned about survivability, I noticed how ridiculously spammable whirling blades is with our attackspeed so it's almost impossible for me to take direct hits from hard bosses.


I experienced pretty much the same thing. Against mobs there is almost no difference between LS and ST, but against high HP single targets ST is definetely stronger because you can hit with all three projectiles.
Also LS tooltip dps is a bit misleading because it shows only the melee dps of it, not the projectiles. At least that's what I observed.
So to sum it up, it's probably not worth switching to LS. The slight gain of dps against groups doesn't make up for the loss of evasion on a hybrid chest or even tabula rasa imo.
Regards.
I'm quite sure that ST does not shotgun. Hitting a boss with all 3 projectiles will do nothing for you. The only thing that's relevant for your damage output is whether the returning blade will hit again.
"
DelightfulD wrote:
I'm quite sure that ST does not shotgun. Hitting a boss with all 3 projectiles will do nothing for you. The only thing that's relevant for your damage output is whether the returning blade will hit again.


So you're saying that there's no difference between hitting with with all three projectiles and hitting with just one? I find that hard to believe.
"
Melkrow wrote:


Can u link your gear/gems and the tree, AS IS, so I can do the math on that and see if I actually get your correct DPS.

Because the same math I did for my lvl82 shadow got my DPS correct within 10 points (minor rounding issues).




http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAAA5YEswW1DH0QfxGWFE0XLxmFGYoaOBqPHNwdFB2qIuokPCSqJLAnqSftLYMvbzGeMgkyiTWSNuk7KDwtRnFJUUrITeNVxlXWV-JZ81pSWm1gQ2TnZp5sRm49bqpvnnC7cmxyqXflfNl9dX_GgKSDCYbRiPGPRpBVkyeXBptdm7WiAKZXpwinXKeEqJqpbqxZrKq0DLXytz64k7vjwBrDOsSixPbGnsauykrN6s9l0NDTftQj2RPhiONq52Po1uw48B_yl_Pd9tr60vsJ_gr-j_66

12,447 dps
"
"
DelightfulD wrote:
I'm quite sure that ST does not shotgun. Hitting a boss with all 3 projectiles will do nothing for you. The only thing that's relevant for your damage output is whether the returning blade will hit again.


So you're saying that there's no difference between hitting with with all three projectiles and hitting with just one? I find that hard to believe.


The third official GGG post in ST feedback thread indicates it:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/547108/filter-account-type/staff

If you find it that hard to believe, just test it for yourself. Find a big boss, go far away so you only hit with 1 blade. Then go to face and hit with all 3. You'll find that your killspeed is the same. Shotgunning it would mean three times the damage output, so this should be easy to see even without accurate measurement tools.

Once you're past the idea that ST can shotgun and think of it as waste compared to skills like Fireball, you'll see the potential to always kite and never have to go to face with your enemy unless you want to.
"
DelightfulD wrote:
"
"
DelightfulD wrote:
I'm quite sure that ST does not shotgun. Hitting a boss with all 3 projectiles will do nothing for you. The only thing that's relevant for your damage output is whether the returning blade will hit again.


So you're saying that there's no difference between hitting with with all three projectiles and hitting with just one? I find that hard to believe.


The third official GGG post in ST feedback thread indicates it:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/547108/filter-account-type/staff

If you find it that hard to believe, just test it for yourself. Find a big boss, go far away so you only hit with 1 blade. Then go to face and hit with all 3. You'll find that your killspeed is the same. Shotgunning it would mean three times the damage output, so this should be easy to see even without accurate measurement tools.

Once you're past the idea that ST can shotgun and think of it as waste compared to skills like Fireball, you'll see the potential to always kite and never have to go to face with your enemy unless you want to.


I believe there is a .3 second delay between the time you get 1 hit from a ST salvo until you can get another hit from the same salvo.

What I have noticed is that when a boss is at less than max distance, each salvo hits 2 times, once out and once back. I have done enough bosses to get a good feel as to the pace of life drop once the boss is getting hit by both outgoing and incoming throws at the same time. However, when I put the boss at max ST distance, the health drops much, much faster. I believe that this is due to the time spent hovering at max distance. So middle projectile hits boss at front of hit box, .3 seconds later same projectile is at back of hit box hovering and hits the second time, then .3 seconds later the same projectile hits front of hit box during return to me. For this to be possible, there would have to be .6 seconds between the time the projectile reaches the boss, until it passes the same point on the way back. I think this is reasonable and it is even possible that the projectiles are hitting 4 times.

I do not believe that 2 or more are hitting at the same time (shot gunning) in either direction.

Last edited by Daarknight on Jan 29, 2014, 1:07:44 PM
Hitting at max distance is indeed more powerful. But also quite hard to achieve consistently, at least when playing solo and without freeze or other crowd control. Especially with projectile speed, which makes the blade go to the edge of the screen. For that purpose having no projectile speed could actually be beneficial; but then again that would really harm the maximum pack size spread across a screen you can attack. I think it's an interesting game mechanic to hit more than twice at max distance, but not one that's very practical as long as you play this build solo.
Just wanted to say that I have found this thread and the build very helpful, as I am relatively new and this was my second character. Yesterday I was finally able to achieve all 5 auras and 75% capped (its a little more for fire and lightening) all resists, plus a decent chunk of evasion at 37% chance to evade. I feel much stronger and have good dps / survivability. All in all I'd say the build has only cost me 4 exalts so far.

The only things I've done differently is I use Whirling Blades instead of Leap Slam, as its easier to roll the colors to link with evasion gear and I find that I desync on mobs much less.
I also use Double Strike instead of spectral throw on my culling + mf boots because I find it easier to finish off mobbs with, due to how fast it attacks.

Thank you for this build, I've learned a lot from it :)
"
Daarknight wrote:
"
Melkrow wrote:


Can u link your gear/gems and the tree, AS IS, so I can do the math on that and see if I actually get your correct DPS.

Because the same math I did for my lvl82 shadow got my DPS correct within 10 points (minor rounding issues).




http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAAA5YEswW1DH0QfxGWFE0XLxmFGYoaOBqPHNwdFB2qIuokPCSqJLAnqSftLYMvbzGeMgkyiTWSNuk7KDwtRnFJUUrITeNVxlXWV-JZ81pSWm1gQ2TnZp5sRm49bqpvnnC7cmxyqXflfNl9dX_GgKSDCYbRiPGPRpBVkyeXBptdm7WiAKZXpwinXKeEqJqpbqxZrKq0DLXytz64k7vjwBrDOsSixPbGnsauykrN6s9l0NDTftQj2RPhiONq52Po1uw48B_yl_Pd9tr60vsJ_gr-j_66

12,447 dps


Awesome colors on pure evasion gear. Especially on the shield :D

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info