[1.3.1] Woolen Socks: A Guide to 2-Handed Sword Static Strike
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This build had 2 goals from the outset. 1) Make 2 handed swords high-level useable, especially considering that Doomsower just got released, which offers us a top-quality starting base for high level mapping.
2) Put static strike through it's paces. You don't need me to tell you how good static strike is, but this build is performing much better than expected considering the extremely low pricetag of this build - it was my first character in the league so it had to be cheap, and it was - and it has been a joyous romp with 20k tooltip dps with only a 4 link at level 67. You don't see that every day...
Core Uniques
Zip. Nothing to see here. It's why we're so cheap ;)
Uniques to Consider
Doomsower: VERY good sword. Difficult to get great rolls for, but the one I snagged for like 2 chaos has 450 pDPS, and the inc AOE modifier helps greatly with static strike. The added fire is just gravy on top. Easy enough to get a 4 link - this is where our main skill goes.
Belly of the Beast: Great chestpiece, and covers our shortfalls quite adequately while we're in that awkward 65-75 level range. Carcass Jack: Bad base, but great chestpiece. It'll do if you don't have anything better. Ming's Heart: hard to pass up that extra phys damage addition, but this ring doesn't offer us much in the ring slot and our rings are pretty important. The gearing requirements for this build are fairly average, but the more uniques that eat up these precious slots, the better the rest of the rares need to be. (besides - this is a cheap build, and Ming's ain't cheap.) Meginord's Girdle: Flat damage, %max life, we have a huge amount of phys damage multipliers, so that is going to go a looooong way. Abyssus: About that flat damage...yea... You get the idea. It's a very versitile build. Use what you have, it'll adapt :D
Gem Setups
Assuming we're running Doomsower, our Static Strike will be in our weapon. Typically run in a 4 link, a 5 link is preferable but not necessary. Static Strike + Multistrike + Melee Physical Damage + Weapon Elemental Damage. (+ Faster Attacks 5L) (+???Lifeleech Maybe? 6L) Our attack speed isn't going to be breaking any records, but it's fast enough to run multistrike without issue. Faster attacks is relegated to a 5 link requirement because it doesn't scale our damage nearly as well as the other 2 multipliers, and static strike/multistrike are required for any sane amount of life quality.
Not necessary, but I'm fond of running a vaal skill, and there are a choice to 2 predominantly to pick from. Vaal Molten Shell (because we're running Unwavering Stance, we do get hit a lot) and Vaal Lightning Strike (because we have a buttone of weapon elemental damage.) VMS is easy enough to support, Inc duration and you're probably good to go. VLS is a bit more complicated, and I elected to convert it to more of an AOE lightning spell by adding Phys-to-Lightning, Lightning Pen and multistrike to it. Weapon Elemental damage and Melee Phys damage would be added in a 5 and 6 link setup respectively. It's oddly effective against strongboxes with exiles or rares, as well as any kind of boss with regular add spawns who you don't want to sit right next to for a few moments with all his friends about. Not to mention is just generally hilarious. The CWDT setup is your bog standard CWDT/EC/IC/ID. Nobody gonna be jizzing themselves over this one... Our Aura setup is Hatred + Herald of Ash + Reduced mana + Ele prolif. Because HoAProlif is funny as all heck, and the static strike pulses proc it, meaning we can get a very silly amount of overkill damage with not too much effort. If you're running VMS and don't need the chestpiece link setup, you could run this in the chest with Inc Burning damage as well for some extra giggles. We have more than enough mana sustain to operate with maximum mana reservation, so the extra multiplier on HoA doesn't hurt us much. And for our final link setup, we have Vengeance + Curse on hit + Curse-of-your-choice + Inc AOE if you can get the blue slots for it. My personal curse of choice is Enfeeble, with Temporal Chains coming a close second. I don't like offensive curses in this build because of the full-spectrum nature of our damage, and as a 2 hander, getting as many defensive aspects nailed down is pretty required in the current meta. Act 4 promises to shake things up a lot, so we'll keep an eye on this defensive balance.
Bandits
Help Oak, Help Oak, Kill All. Arguement can be made for helping Cruel Kraitin, but I'm not sure if that 8% attack speed goes far enough compared to that 18% phys damage. It's a close call, honestly. Pick your poison.
Merc oak...eeeeeehhhh, do we really want that 4th endurance charge more than a skill point? Really?
Gearing Requirements
Flat Attributes: We have a significant amount of strength from the tree, and not quite enough dexterity, so grabbing dex here and there is a good idea. What IS quite important though is we miss out on a lot of intelligance, so snagging that on as many gear pieces as you can is paramount. The more you get on your gear, the less you need in the tree. Life/Resistances: Nothing special here. Important. Geddit. Flat Phys: We have a very large amount of %physical increases, so flat phys is extremely important. It's not as good as it would be on smaller weapons, as 2 handers are very high damage as is, but we do have a significant amount of %phys multipliers as is, so the more the better. % Phys: We hit like a bloody truck, so load up on as much as you can reasonably get to hit like a truck full of bricks. Weapon Elemental Damage: With Hatred, Herald of Ash, Doomsower and Static Strike all converting and adding elemental damage based on our physical damage, we end up doing significantly more elemental damage than we do physical. Only approximately 1/6th of our remaining damage comes from physical damage, so grabbing WED will make us hit like a truck carrying trucks full of bricks. Lifeleech: it's not important, but it helps. We do have insane damage, so a bit of extra leeching power won't hurt. Mana Leech: ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL! It doesn't matter where you get it from, or how much, even 1% is plenty (I run 1% and do just fine), but we NEED some mana leech in order to sustain our mana. Even with most of our phys converted away, we still do several hundred phys damage per swing, so even 1% is going to be enough to make back the cost of swinging. Static Strike's base mana cost is quite low.
Leveling
Pick up Static Strike at level 2 and use it all the way till the end of the game. No reason to swap it out. The skill is dope, and this build revolves around it, so run with it. Grab the highest dps 2 handed sword you can, run as many health/mana pots as you need and bash your way right up through to merciless. It's quite simple leveling, so just grab what you need as you go.
25 Point Tree
From here, there's really nowhere else to go. Grab whatever leftover lifenodes you need, pick up sword and elemental nodes where you can. End game, bichers. So far from what maps I've done, I've decided a few things. -No Regen maps hurt quite a bit if we don't have a lot of lifeleech. -Slower Regen maps hurt our mana quite a lot if we don't take it slow. -Phys Reflect maps do nothing to us. -Elemental Reflect maps suck. -Blood Magic maps hurt our DPS because we really can't afford to turn on our aura's anymore. That aside - it's fine. -X-Resist maps don't bother us because we do so much split damage, it doesn't matter if a mob is resistant to an element or phys. :D -Extra Damage maps are as risky as you would expect, but we are pretty loaded on defenses, so so long as we don't get stacking those damage modifiers, there's nothing alarming here. -Still think that Jungle Valley needs some work. That boss's unlimited flicker-spiders are rippy as balls even when you're immune to stuns. The Spinner herself falls over quick enough if you can survive long enough to reach her though. All in all, it's a generally solid defensive build, with a surprisingly effective damage output for non-crit, non-low life. Static Strike's 170% effective damage application really shows and it's Free AOE freeing up a slot and -damage modifiers in the form of melee splash is just the best thing. Might try Atziri once I pound out a few more levels. How hard can it be? :D "If you’re incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent. […] the skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is." ~David Dunning Last edited by TikoXi on Mar 3, 2015, 10:26:55 PM
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An endgame 2h sword tree generally looks like this: click me
Your tree skips a lot of important passives and notables, like art of the gladiator, warrior's blood, golem's blood and the entire 2h cluster under it. Also, you have only 130% increased life, which is too low, even for ranged builds. Whereas you go for nodes like celestial punishment/judgement which barely add anything at all. You also spend 8 points on getting cloth and chain and IR, which aren't worth the investment at all. I don't mean to be rude or anything, but an optimized skill tree goes a long way. For try, for see, and for know.
This is a buff | |
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Ether knows his stuff.
He made the tree in a 2H Sword Marauder I made, which is absolutely perfect for what I need. So many strikes within one breath.
But only one strike needed, for certain death. |
