[2.2] MorgNThorg's level 100 all rounder melee berserker - uber / core / grandmaster map capable
 I thought I would share my main dude's build with you. The main goal I had in my mind with this build was to create an all round character which is capable of every map mod combination, has great defenses while maintaining good damage as well. The build is also capable of clearing the Alluring Abyss, the Core and the Hall of the Grandmasters maps. Generally this is a crit melee 1H + shield life based character. In 2.0 some base types gained higher base crit such as one handed thrusting swords so now there are multiple good base weapon types the build can be done with. Of course they have their own characterictics, advantages and disadvantages and available skill choices which I will discuss a bit. ATM I'm using a sword version, but used a dagger and a sceptre version earlier.
General features
+ decent life pool (6k life + 600 ES for aegis buffer) + high block & spell block (62% + 47%) + high armor (12.7k) + not stunnable + 6 endurance charges + flexible with auras/buffs can be adjusted to different situations + high damage (179k dps static strike with 148% multi Abyssus, will be even higher with my new one) - needs high level character - quite expensive - unique items in many slots, few rare pieces remain for meeting requirements (dex, int, resist, accuracy, life) - especially hard to get chaos resist
Passive tree
Bandits
oak, passive, oak
Gear setup
Despite it's downsides I really like abyssus. It just gives soo much damage that you can have quite good dps even with mediocre weapons. Lightning coil offsets the weakness of abyssus. (Non legacy coil is absolutely perfect.) Typical item combination. (Non legacy AA can also be used.) High crit chance, high pdps weapon, crafted by AXN. ATM I think this is the best possible weapon for this build. While acuity is really great, it's not necessary for the build. Actually the build is absoultely viable without any leech in most cases. A surgeon's eternal and a seething divine/hallowed can do the trick on the rare occasions the character's life drops. Also you can get some nice bonuses like crafted 2% block on rare gloves, but acuity hepls a lot in meeting the int requirements. Remaining rare slots. Actually there are a lot of requirements that should be satisified on these items. The build has really high stat requirements (155 int for purity of lightning, 212 dex for foil), also you need cap resistances, accuracy, mana leech and as much life as you can get. If you meet the requirements on the other slots you can go more flexible on the jewels. I opted for life, chaos res and crit chance as they are generally good for the build, but you can fill in gaps on resist/stat, add block chance or just pure damage/attack speed. My general flask setup.
Gem setup
Main attack. The build is really flexible here, you can use nearly any melee attack skill. I prefer static strike as it has some built in AoE (however it's weak for general clear speed) and has very good single target dps. Mobility. Counterattack with auto cursing and power charge generation. Enfeeble is my favourite curse for this build but there are many other usefull curses. An alternative for this setup can be vaal lightning strike (extremely potent boss killer skill). In this case we can use manual cursing and place the curse gem in place of the golem. Auras and buffs. Typical setup. Other usefull setups: A more defensive option. Atziri setup. All of them can be socketed in a RGBB item. Auto activating buffs. Cry and golems.
Stat screenshots
 
Gameplay videos
79 village ruin bosses (extra dmg, extra dmg as cold). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-1EIc2YYQI 78 palace dominus kill (-25 max, vuln, extra dmg, extra dmg as fire, power charge). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KoEd9iN7ug 80 Wasteland map run. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arFKT96TfEQ A simple 78 palace run. Got an accelaration shrine, which is quite hilarious with whirling blade :) http://youtu.be/mgkXSoFlzN8 An Apex of sacrifice run. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYh-94sws0s [2.0.3]Video proof for deathless fullclear of the Hall of the Grandmasters map https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IL2tMw8P8s [1.3] Solo deathless fullclear run on the Hall of the Grandmasters map - dagger variant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y870WqAFkXA ATM only one hall is accessible on the map, I'll record a new (2.0) run when the other two are added back.
Tactics against Uber
thrash mobs
Vaal soldiers can hit really hard so it's generally more safe to swap static strike for a pseudo ranged attack skill like ice crash or reave. I also use an aoe gem for this phase. This vaal lightning strike setup is very usefull for dealing burst damage in each boss fight: I fill 3 VLS gems to store more charges. To have an easier time for filling them I swap in these jewels for the thrash mob phase:
Vaals
For vaals I use Saffel's frame and a +1 max resist stone because my spell block is already capped without the +4 block on the original one. My auras are the usual ones: I use this flask setup: Generally there are 3 things I should keep in my mind here: - kill both of them nearly at the same time to avoid enrage - avoid vaal smash - quite trivial :) - have a topaz flask up when they are shooting with lazers
Trio
For this fight I use the following flask setup: Aura setup: Tactics: This fight is very dangerous while the titty bitch is alive. It's practical to lure a mob near the entrance and enter with endurance charges up. Then trigger them on you and lure the melee ones to a corner and whirl back to the titty bitch. If I whirl through them I'll have fortify up. Then pop the granite + topaz + ToH, hit her with all the charges of the vaal lightning strike (this should be done before the other two come back to avoid wasting VLS charges on them due to multistrike auto targeting. Then burn her down while the flasks are on. Then I back up and wait for another clean moment to attack again with the 2nd round of flask charges. This should be enough to kill her. If not, then I usually circle around the room and only whirl on her for single (triple) attacks because her spike rain can't be outleeched without ToH reliably. For this I swap in vigilant strike in place of static strike. It cannot be evaded, hits much harder and static strike's explosions only trigger when I already moved away. When she's dead comes the dual striker. I whirl around till the cycloner is shaked off and the dual striker doesn't have his flame cloak up. He can be bruned down this way easily. Then the cycloner can be dealt with, here I should have the granite of staunching up all time (should be no problem because of the ads). The most important: keep endurance charges up always in this room!
Atziri
For Atziri I use Saffel's and the +1 max resist amu again. Flasks: Auras: I swap the CWDT supporting blood rage for blood magic, so I can cast it manually at the start of the ad phase. Like the trio fight I also enter here with endurance charges up and try to keep them up all time. In her main phase I avoid her yellow storm call and the double flameblast. The other attacks can be tanked with the corresponding flask up. In the ad phase I swap in another body armor with an ice crash setup (tabula is perfect) I cast blood rage then kill them. I swap the body armor back before the end of the phase. In the split phase I position myself near one of them (not the mirror one ofc). When they become active I cast enduring cry and whirl to the other side of the clone. This way I usually avoid a flameblast and a spear and have fortify up. Then pop flasks and burn her down with vaal lightning strike and when the charges are used then with static strike. She should be dead before the VLS duration ends. The VLS gem can be swapped for another charged one easily when she changes phases.
Tactics on the grandmaster map
I had to make some tweaks in order to make the deathless fullclear on this map, now with 5 wings. I upgraded my chaos resist a bit and will increase it in the future, it's quite important for the poison arrow grandmasters. I found very usefull to bring myself a poison arrow setup as well in the alt weapon set It's very good against the Aegis grandmasters (except the CI ones of course), so I don't have to swap gems for them. (I usually switch static strike - multistrike - faster attacks for heavy strike - added fire - block chance reduction, also it's better to take out tempest shield and reckoning for them.) The biggest problem for me was this guy. He has insanely high energy shield regeneration, constantly casts enfeeble, warps away and leaves chilled ground. He is simply very hard to kill with a melee build. The solution for me was vaal lightning strike. I used it with this setup I gathered charges with a frenzy - pcoc setup, cursed him with assassin's mark, popped a warding and a heat flask and hit him with the vaal lightning strike charges and then used heavy strike. Last edited by MorgNThorg on Mar 14, 2016, 2:10:58 AM Last bumped on Jun 19, 2016, 10:46:41 AM
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Gratz on the grandmaster map clear!
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Very impressive mate !
It's the first time I see a "very end-game viable melee" character that have a great DPS and much more survivability than spell caster ! It's a very inspiring post, keep the great work ! Question : which skill is the best for map-clearing / for bosses ? | |
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Thank you :)
" I was mapping a lot with molten strike back in 1.2, but I think static strike outperforms it in most cases. They have similar benefits: - good single target DPS with built in AoE - the damage conversion comes in handy on double (map + rare) phys reflect (you may face problems with no conversion gems such as reave). This lets you to play more carelessly, which comes in handy when playing in rotations so you don't need to investigate thoroughly each map and swap gems in some cases. On top of that static trike has much better AoE (especially with 20Q), the lightning conversion gives you the ability to shock and the AoE explosion benefits from bonuses with 'melee' tag contrary to the projectiles of molten strike (a large portion of the DPS coming from the tree, strength and gems has the 'melee' tag). Against bosses you don’t want to facetank all the time I prefer viper strike for it’s DoT dmg. For example: - palace dominus - megaera with -max - summoner exile with minion instability - … I usually have a conversion trap + multi trap combo in my alt weapon set. I switch, convert 5-6 monster with 2 sets of traps, switch back, pop flasks, whirl in and apply a bunch of charges on the target. I chose to use molten strike in the grandmaster map video, because it scores more critical hits thus gives more flask charges. |
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Hey, thanks for sharing your build! It looks like something that I want to try out, so I have a question for you. What did the progression for your skill tree look like, what passives should I go for first, and what should I be going for last?
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" That’s not an easy question to answer :) As you can see my current passive tree is quite straightforward , there are not too many options. I was using a completely different one in 1.2 and opted to this with the free respec given at the start of 1.3. Most of the damage in the tree comes from the dagger nodes at the shadow area and you can’t take them only in late levels so I would level with another type of weapon, take some damage nodes, maybe resolute technique as well and spec out of them and go for dagger&crit at higher levels. Something like this (assuming you use 1H maces/sceptres):
21 points
transition to dagger&crit @101 points
Of course while you don't have the mind drinker notable you'll have to rely on mana potions or get some mana leech on gear. |
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Alright! Thanks for taking the time to answer my question and for creating the progression trees, I really appreciate it man! :^) Best of luck to ya!
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" YW :) I forgot to mention one more thing related to the best all-round mapping skill: If someone would prefer molten strike over static strike (or others) than it would be a good choice to get Iron Grip and Point Blank in the passive tree (only 3 passive points). |
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deserve more attention!!
nice guide! IGN: _AXN_ (standard Server)
MY SHOP: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/515441 provide mirror service on the best item only. (#1 crit bow, #1 crit staff, #1 crown of eye shield, #1 pdps dagger, #1 pdps 1hd sword, #1 ES/Armour shield, #1 belt, #1boot...and alot more) | |
" Thanks! Edited the original post and added a sceptre variant which I find even better than the dagger one :) |
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