Sean's DW Blood Tanky DPS

What would be the best support gems for Lightning Strike in a 4L/5L/6L Chest?

I've been Cleaving since early levels, but I can see Lightning Strike being more useful now in Act 3 Merciless, as you can avoid a lot of damage by not needing to be in melee range to Cleave.


My current setup is:

Dual Strike - Life Leech - Faster Attacks - Added Melee

and

Cleave - Life Leech - Life Gain on Hit - Faster Attacks (will go with Added Melee when I get a 5L one)

OP's build is awful, I'm guessing this is for softcore right?

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mozart116 wrote:

OP's build is awful, I'm guessing this is for softcore right?

and what do you suggest is better instead of just bashing his? from what I know no melee build works in end game HC anyways so obviously it's SC.

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mozart116 wrote:

OP's build is awful, I'm guessing this is for softcore right?

Great post, would read again.

The OP actually has a nearly identical build to mine, althought I forgo axes for swords for reasons I think he's becoming aware of (accuracy) and also one he hasn't mentioned yet, which is that life on hit scales directly with attack speed, so using 1.7 atk speed swords ramps up the regen from LOH like crazy.

And yes, it is softcore. I think you'd be surprised to realize that, except for a few masochists, most people enjoy playing these types of games by pushing the envelope in softcore, not farming areas they drastically overlevel in hardcore so that they don't die.

After briefly watching Kripp's 'hardcore' Diablo 3 stream, I lost all respect for hardcore players. I could do that too, its not indication of skill. Its strictly a measure of grind tolerance... Since I have a job and have low grind tolerance I'll just push the softcore at or above my character level and eat the occasional death.

Just because he didn't give feedback doesn't mean he's wrong. When there's too many bad decisions it's easier to warn people instead of spending a lot of time explaining every mistake. Basically this is what's wrong :

Too many dps nodes, some without notables which is a waste of points. Bad pathing which also wastes points on insignificant nodes (6allres really?). Incredibly lack of hp and armor. Taking 8allres instead of 40hp. Going all the way to marauder without taking Elemental adaptation or resolute technique.

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Aggnog wrote:

Just because he didn't give feedback doesn't mean he's wrong. When there's too many bad decisions it's easier to warn people instead of spending a lot of time explaining every mistake. Basically this is what's wrong :

Too many dps nodes, some without notables which is a waste of points. Bad pathing which also wastes points on insignificant nodes (6allres really?). Incredibly lack of hp and armor. Taking 8allres instead of 40hp. Going all the way to marauder without taking Elemental adaptation or resolute technique.

This build is just a template build. You're supposed to take the concept of my build and make it your own. If you don't like something, change it. If you don't like the build, go somewhere else ROFL.

I giggled a little bit when you talked about bad pathing.

8% all resists over 40 HP? The resistances scale much better into end game. That 40 health will maybe give me 100 health? I don't see a situation where that would ever be a good idea. Besides, this builds main survivability lies in its high health sustain, which means you are mostly sitting at close to full HP. Meaning that +100 health does nothing, whereas the 8% mitigation is still useful.

I take very few DPS clusters that are out of my way, everything else is revolved around getting block chance or more survivability.

There's nearly 150% increased health and nearly 100% armor increase.

Elemental Adaption is only useful if you're pushing the resistance cap. If you are reaching that cap YOU CAN TAKE THAT POINT! Rofl.

I take all the 6% resist nodes because I wanted to buff this builds mitigation as much as possible considering the fact that I'm using DW instead of Sword and Board. Without the large armor mitigation you would normally have with a shield you need some kind of compensation. I got that compensation through several block nodes and focusing on resists as much as possible.

Thanks for stopping by, I don't mind criticism... However, next time perhaps you can offer some suggested improvements on the build.

@seanmcdn, you have already done a great job.
I am very new (around a week) to this game and such guides really help a lot. I am already Level 30 and can tank till act2 (just started act3).
To those who come here and rather assist in what could be done just start slamming didn't helped anyone but make u look fool, if you guys are that good then why not come out with out with your own guide which can beat this (i guess you don't have time).
And seanmcdn well-done again, hope to see more constructive comments here.

Hey guys, following the idea of an Axes based build, i just made my own passive skill tree. I would like you guys to comment, maybe you will find good ideas in it that you can put in your own tree :o

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgQBmSvKkASxTGDM24TZWNtT35uDhO907XrvYEsFLWEhGlVkozboOlLfv2FSMglgiJ_LKLXvTijbQKAhYHTxnrkSIF6Lz_hHfqvFZU0UUliv4mEwd5WbZadrKf9h1BLf7x3KGNtDnMGLrOrT_A6tKaUUdTrtW6--p-_jNJNjcE4qdU4RHkMx0uqUrWXwZFIwT8GjE0yDfKgHZ4CHKdXt0k3AD90N_MVnoId2Sn06s7cXOJZ4DalutfI1hp2qrpNs9io4uc1dAE3jrFn-j8HYv9VEnrBz7Lbx9FO7plc64Yjx

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commonjunks wrote:

@seanmcdn, you have already done a great job.
I am very new (around a week) to this game and such guides really help a lot. I am already Level 30 and can tank till act2 (just started act3).
To those who come here and rather assist in what could be done just start slamming didn't helped anyone but make u look fool, if you guys are that good then why not come out with out with your own guide which can beat this (i guess you don't have time).
And seanmcdn well-done again, hope to see more constructive comments here.

I agree that he did great job however effectiveness of a build needs to be tested in endgame as this is where we are all going and as far as I know any melee DW build is struggling in Merc difficulty. unless you have access to very good gear or play in a group you will struggle later on.

I hope his build works thru out but would like to see a video of him clearing area of his level on Merciless. It is easy to do maps where mobs are 8 levels lower then you but it will show thru colors when playing same level area as he is.

Sean - any chance for a video like this ? just want to know how well your build is holding up when fighting mobs your level. Show your gear as well please.

I don't really see what is wrong with his build except for 1 thing: Taking the 1hand nodes in the mara area instead of just getting fencing for 2 points. Crit is worthless, esp if you dont go all in.

I would personally take those 3 1 hand nodes above the armor and toss them into the fencing node.

You can clear merci with dual wield builds. One of my duelists on SC can handle most things fairly easy; the only thing that hurts him are splitting voidbringers because his fire resist is low. Now he was HC and I died; so I dabble on SC with him when friends are on. I am currently lvling a 2h on HC and trying not to go to the mara area.

I clear stuff and maps just fine, and I cleave. Cleave sucks ass btw. I'm currently leveling a lightning strike gem to see how much better it would be, but my build is a little different then his; I dont even take armor nodes, and I took a couple endurance charges.

This game is gear based. As long as you have the gear check, you can do whatever you want. DW and melee's gear check is just a litle higher. As soon as my guy gets fire resist, he will probably plow on.

I do 4.8k dps on Dual Strike, and 3.3k dps on Cleave. He is lvl 68 (I actually have 3 duelists now lol, a 52 HC 2h, a 70 dead SC, a 68 dead SC). The reason they died was lack of fire resist farming the docks. The 2h will not fall into this trap. I plan on simply farming merviel for a very long time once he hits merci and can do it reliably. Both high level duelists died to void bringers on the docks. I have since done maps no problem, just those freakin mobs are stupid when you have to cleave.

I honestly think DW is better then 2h so far. I once thought it was worse, but DW block, when focused on(my 2nd guy focused on it)blocks a damn lot of stuff; you dont realize it till you have it. And suprisingly, I do a lot of damage.


Anyways, I'm sure he is farming ok. The only thing that ever gave any of my duelists any trouble whatsoever, is void bringers. Map bosses, no problem, other mobs, no problem. Void bringers though, rediculous. Mainly because I use cleave. If I would just quit being stupid and go lightning strike instead, I would mow them down just the same as the other mobs.