"Vulcan's Exemplar" Proliferating Crit Molten Strike with Bino/Snakebite/Catalyst by wraithe_au
 " A single-target molten strike build that uses 2 Heralds to full effect. Ash-on-steroids for AoE obliteration and Thunder for auto-cursing. The build is centred around the synergy between 2 uniques: Bino's Kitchen Knife and Snakebite gloves and is all about smashing a single foe with heavy critical damage, the overkill damage then proliferates through the entire screen via Herald of Ash, which is boosted with added fire damage and burning multipliers. And the resulting poison damage gives substantial life regen. The result is a screen-melting explosion of hot lava, cast upon thine enemies like Vulcan himself, Deity of the Volcano. Showcased here are 2 versions of this build: The Normal Set 199k dps with full charges 142k dps with no charges 295k max solo dps The Advanced Set 420k dps with full charges 303k dps with no charges 626k max solo dps " The 3 essential pieces to this build. Snakebite We don't travel up the right side of the tree and we don't go anywhere near addler's touch, so the only way to poison enemies is to equip snakebite gloves. At maximum frenzy charges, these gloves start poisoning foes and activates the main uses of the Bino's Kitchen Knife. Bino's Kitchen Knife Bino's is a versatile weapon with mods that cater to poisoners. Although the damage isn't spectacular, it's the 2 mods relating to poisoned enemies that makes up the basis to this build. On killing a Poisoned enemy, nearby enemies are Poisoned On killing a Poisoned enemy, nearby allies Regenerate Life A poisoned foe receives 10% of the damage dealt per second for a total of 2 seconds accumulating a total of 20% extra chaos damage of the hit that caused the debuff. This 20% over 2s damage is then returned to us as health regen.  Since this build hits very hard for high critical damage, the poison effect and subsequent regen can reach over 6k per second. Poisoning foes is useful but unimportant, the massive regen is what we're after. 6k is like having a 120% life regen and is almost on par with a pair of Atziri's Acuity for sheer health multiplication. Doryani's Catalyst The Catalyst is an excellent weapon and has many different uses for this build. 1. Decent physical damage to scale with Ash 2. Enhances elemental damage of both the converted phys-to-fire damage created by Molten Strike and also the subsequent burn damage from Ash 3. It has a level 20 Elemental Proliferation gem built in to make it essentially a 4 link and houses the 4 link Ash gemset. 4. It has a global crit mod that boosts crit chance of both the dagger and the catalyst itself. 5. It is our only source of elemental life leech. Optional gear Abyssus + Lightning Coil Great synergy between these 2 uniques. One increases physical damage received, while the other converts that damage into lightning damage, which can then be mitigated by resistance. Here are the mechanics between the 2 uniques: Firstly, it is known that the physical damage received is first mitigated by armour. Confirmed here. This means that the 40%-50% increase in damage taken only applies to a fraction of the original damage. The physical damage received, after armour, from the worse possible rolled abyssus (+50%) totals 150%. The lightning coil converts that into 90% physical 60% lightning Our lightning resistance is at 75%, which then becomes 90% physical 15% lightning 105% total damage. Only 5% more damage than otherwise. The major difficulty of this set is maxing resistances. The 60% lightning resistance required plus the chaos resist to run blood rage will prove to be very tricky and expensive to juggle. Rat's Nest + Belly of the Beast The more defensive option. Life is raised by 420 but damage is down by 20%. The advantage of this setup is that resistances are easier to achieve (without the 60% penalty of the Coil), thus it is easier to equip more DPS orientated jewellery. "
Normal Set
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Equipment Notes
There is some slight difficulty in resistances in this build. Firstly, the coil requires an extra 60 lightning res. Secondly, blood rage is required for snakebites to function. To neutralise the 3.8% degen from the the chaos damage, with the 3.5 regen from the tree, we need +8% chaos (68% total) resistance. Since we get 20% from the tree, our equipment needs 48%. I have one ring with 27% chaos resist, together with the resist from bino's (8-12%). This leaves my total chaos resist at -5%. There is still degen, but it's about 20life/sec, which is manageable. 110 Point Tree
Parsed Tree
Health 153% increased maximum Life 72 to maximum Life 35% increased Life Recovery from Flasks 3.5% of Life Regenerated per Second Mitigation 54% increased Armour 50% increased Block Recovery 25% to all Elemental Resistances 24% increased Evasion Rating and Armour 21% additional Chance to Block while Dual Wielding 20% to Chaos Resistance 15% increased Block and Stun Recovery 8% to Fire Resistance 4% additional Chance to Block while Dual Wielding or holding a Shield 1% to maximum Fire Resistance Damage 310% increased Critical Strike Chance with One Handed Melee Weapons 125% increased Weapon Critical Strike Chance while Dual Wielding 35% increased Critical Strike Multiplier 25% increased Critical Strike Multiplier with One Handed Melee Weapons 60% increased Accuracy Rating 22% increased Accuracy Rating with One Handed Melee Weapons 125% increased Physical Weapon Damage while Dual Wielding 71% increased Melee Physical Damage 48% increased Physical Damage with One Handed Melee Weapons 28% increased Attack Speed with One Handed Melee Weapons 20% increased Attack Speed 20% increased Attack Speed while Dual Wielding 8% increased Movement Speed 20% increased Flask Recovery Speed Other 260 to Strength 190 to Dexterity 80 to Intelligence 30% Chance to Avoid being Stunned 14% reduced Mana Reserved 12% increased Radius of Auras 10% increased effect of Auras you Cast 10% reduced Mana Cost of Skills 8% chance to Avoid Elemental Status Ailments 8% increased maximum Mana 5% increased Effect of Buffs on You 2 to Melee Weapon and Unarmed range A +30 INT node was taken to meet the requirements for HoT. Finding 30 INT in equipment would give you 1 extra passive to spend. Bandits ALL OAK (18% phys) ALIRA (1 power charge) This version is the main focus of this guide and uses Bino's and Snakenite, as well as Lightning Coil and Abyssus.
Advanced Set
"  110 Point Tree
Parsed Tree
Health 149% increased maximum Life 72 to maximum Life 35% increased Life Recovery from Flasks 3.5% of Life Regenerated per Second Mitigation 54% increased Armour 50% increased Block Recovery 25% to all Elemental Resistances 24% increased Evasion Rating and Armour 21% additional Chance to Block while Dual Wielding 16% to Chaos Resistance 15% increased Block and Stun Recovery 8% to Fire Resistance 4% additional Chance to Block while Dual Wielding or holding a Shield 1% to maximum Fire Resistance Damage 310% increased Critical Strike Chance with One Handed Melee Weapons 125% increased Weapon Critical Strike Chance while Dual Wielding 35% increased Critical Strike Multiplier 25% increased Critical Strike Multiplier with One Handed Melee Weapons 60% increased Accuracy Rating 22% increased Accuracy Rating with One Handed Melee Weapons 125% increased Physical Weapon Damage while Dual Wielding 71% increased Melee Physical Damage 48% increased Physical Damage with One Handed Melee Weapons 28% increased Attack Speed with One Handed Melee Weapons 20% increased Attack Speed 20% increased Attack Speed while Dual Wielding 8% increased Movement Speed 20% increased Flask Recovery Speed Other 260 to Strength 190 to Dexterity 80 to Intelligence 30% Chance to Avoid being Stunned 14% reduced Mana Reserved 12% increased Radius of Auras 10% increased effect of Auras you Cast 10% reduced Mana Cost of Skills 8% chance to Avoid Elemental Status Ailments 8% increased maximum Mana 5% increased Effect of Buffs on You 2 to Melee Weapon and Unarmed range 1 Maximum Power Charge 18% increased Power Charge Duration The tree differs slightly from the normal tree as we drop 1 life passive to pick up the power charge in the templar area, for a total of 5 This version is the final build that uses a mirrored dagger and acuity. " Chest RRRRRB Molten Strike Melee Phys Multistrike Added Fire Weapon Elemental Damage Critical Damage Boots BBB G/R Herald of Thunder Curse on Hit Assassin's Mark Blind/Reduced Mana My boots are EVA based so getting BBBR would be challenging, i settled for BBBG instead with Blind in the slot. I have no mana issues without RM Catalyst RRR Herald of Ash Increased burning damage Reduced mana Elemental Proliferation Killing an enemy will burn surround enemies for the overkill damage which, with a combination of gems, passives and equipment, is multiplied by 261% Helmet RRRG Cast when Damage Taken (lvl 2) Enduring Cry (lvl 5) Immortal Call (lvl 4) Flicker Strike See "The Picard Maneuver" in the Notes section for the use of Flicker Gloves GR Hatred Reduced mana 2 free slots. I usually run Vaal Haste and Leap Slam for leaping over obstacles Dagger GGG Blood rage Whirling blades Faster attacks "
Normal set
Click picture for video link    (Dual strike testing)
Advanced Set
Click picture for video link      (Dual Strike Testing)"
Why molten strike?
Molten strike converts 60% of physical damage into fire damage, on top of this, the projectiles add even more damage. We utilise many increased fire and elemental modifiers that go well with MS. After all multipliers are considered, the damage ratios are around 88.5% elemental and 11.5% physical. This "spreading out" of the damage ensures that reflect of one type or another has a lesser effect. This allows for more aggressive and faster paced play.
Why not Point Blank?
Point Blank is great to increase the damage of the lava balls, but the projectiles themselves are only of secondary importance to this build. We produce heavy single target damage with Ash-on-steroids making up the AoE. The lava balls are a bonus to the attacks
Why Blood Rage?
Blood Rage is our only source of Frenzy Charges, which is necessary for the Snakebite's to operate and in turn, necessary for Bino's. BR also gives 10% life leech (13% coupled with Enhance)
Which Curse?
Ele weakness offers the better damage over Vulnerability but we suffer more ele reflect damage as a result. Vulnerability increases physical damage and therefore giving more life leech. Assassin's Mark enhances all 3 types of damage, ele, phys and chaos. It also grants a power charge, freeing up one gem slot (PCoC). I prefer Assassin's Mark, but curses are definitely a personal choice.
Overkill burn
This build has an 85% crit chance (94+ with assassins mark) so its very likely that the overkill damage will be a crit. This subsequent burn is then increased by these multipliers: +157% of overkill damage +15% fire damage from Ash +59% from inc burning damage gem +15% fire damage from added fire gem +15% from molten strike gem 261% total of overkill damage as burning What usually happens is the molten strike will kill a mob and the subsequent damage will essentially one-shot surrounding enemies up to and including rares. The bino's has the mod "On killing a Poisoned enemy, nearby enemies are Poisoned". This causes all of these burning enemies to also suffer from poison damage, thus making every single monster give health regen. The bino's health regen buff is usually constantly up no matter how many enemies are faced.
The Picard Maneuver
 The flicker strike is used as a way to close in on enemies and to dodge projectiles. With a quick 1-2 combo of Shift-flicker-MS, we instantly teleport into melee range of our target and strike. A lot of the time, flicker strike will crit the target and both freeze and shock.
Hatred and Ash
With high crit chance and the Hatred aura, the likelihood of shattering enemies as also high. Normally, this creates a problem with Ash as the overkill function requires a body. But there's a strange interaction between Ash and ele prolif that causes the target to indeed shatter, but only after proliferating the burn to surrounding enemies. This opens up the massive dps benefit of Hatred. On a side note, I perma-freeze Merc Dominus with bino's from the hatred damage alone.
Auto-cursing
This is currently the best way to curse targets without requiring to manually cast the curse. So effective is this setup that power charges are maxed all the time. If you kill a shocked enemy, lightning comes down striking targets around your vicinity. These lighting bolts are classed as "hits" so they work with the Curse on Hit gem. Every single monster within melee distance will be cursed as a result. At first, i overlooked this combo because there's no lightning damage in my main attack and i thought i wouldn't be able to shock them. It turns out that the "Adds #-# lightning damage to attacks" mod in the HoT gem, and the extra lightning damage from the Coil, boosted up by the Catalyst is enough damage to shock on crit every time.
Levelling Guide
21 points - Build foundation 54 points - Stacking Life We have the following stats: 82% increased maximum Life 2.5% of Life Regenerated per Second 25% block 25% to all Elemental Resistances 8% to Fire Resistance At this point, no specific weapon nodes are taken and no playstyles are established. From here its a choice between 2 paths: - You take Resolute Technique and have more equipment and playstyle choices. Equipping BoR and any 2x 1h weapons is a good option. We can save currency for critical gear and a decent rare dagger (or Bino's). - Go straight into critical pathing and build DPS, providing you have the equipment to back it up. One thing to consider is to run Hatred, HoA, and HoT, Sovereignty is required. You won't be able to collect these nodes until late game. But running just Hatred and HoA and a manual curse is fine until then
RT pathway
80 points - Completing the Ranger tree
94 points - This is the end of the RT path, not a single crit node taken! From here we drop RT and build in crit and hopefully have the equipment to back it up. Follow the main tree in the guide to complete. The order i'd follow is: 1. Twin Terrors 2. Swift Precision 3. Disembowelling 4. Deadly Precision + Cruelty
Crit Pathway
83 points - Taking all the major crit nodes 97 Points - Completing the Ranger tree From here we travel the final route up the Templar pathway, collecting Athleticism, the Purity of Flesh wheel and finally Sovereignty. So many strikes within one breath.
But only one strike needed, for certain death. |
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i have all this gear ove standard and rampage and i, myself, did a full elemental MS build this league with a Doryani and a Soultaker (yea, soooooo fun) BUT THIS, this has crit DPS which is much nicer than RT DPS but much different as I buffed my meatballs and not the initial hit- I prolif everything and its just sooooo fun.
SO yea, I am taking this out for a spin later!!!! so cool!! POE is life. POE is ♥.
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