[2.0] Molten Strike - Great Balls of Fire

Introduction
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This build was based on a 1.3 version that creates a well balanced character with no map weaknesses. I have multiple 70+ characters and this one got even higher than my 81 ranger with the greatest of ease.


Reasoning
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Why Marauder?
Well, you can also go duelist, but melee physical is not good! Don't be fooled, because it will increase your tooltip DPS, but not the balls of fire!

Why molten strike?
Everyone loves the new ice crash, but it's still just one hit on an enemy. Molten strike is one attack that hits multiple times for life gain on hit. Plus, it's good for both AoE and single target, so you save gem slots. It also gives mana on hit from the tree, so your mana problems are gone. With 42 life gain on hit and a modest 2 attacks per second, that's 672 life per second if each ball hits one enemy (they often hit multiple).


Passive Tree
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Level 83:
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwEAAdwB5wUtBjkM9w3NFCAUTRR1GJEY2xo4Gj4aVRuXG_ocziFgJd8nLygqKS4ppStQMk4yfjboOd06UjrYPQ89_ECgQ-dEnkZpR35QR1FgU7tXDVhjXz9hIWSjZU1oZXKpdO108Xasd-V5OXrvfLh8u3zZfuKCB4TZhO-FUocpi0-Mz5BVm2qezaQZpMKnMKmVrK-tja-ntiy8n702vqfAv8RYxLjE9sbYz37SIdX42WHZfNrB5FHp1eoY7w7yL_JB8wbzm_ZI9zL7qvxL_lQ=

Note that this does not have any weapon specific nodes. You can pick up some axe, sword, or mace ones if you get a good weapon later. Melee physical is bad, but physical with weapons is good.


Skill links
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Molten Strike - Multistrike - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Life Gain on Hit (or Weapon Elemental Damage if using a claw)
Also good addtions are: Added Fire Damage, Concentrated Effect, and of course Item Rarity

Reckoning - Vengeance - Added Melee - Added Fire
You block quite often, so use this for more damage

Auras:
Determination (for higher maps)
Hatred/Anger (easy content made easier)
Herald of Ash (always!)

Curse choices: Flamability (since you can't crit, you can ignite this way), Enfeeble, Vulnerability. I choose flamability, but most of the time it's not even worth casting since things die so fast.

Movement/Fortify:
Whirling Blades/Leap Slam - Fortify - Faster Attacks - Vigilant Strike
Sure, you could remove vigilant, but it has a nice duration that's boosted even more by the fortify support.

Now you get even more flexibility, because you have only used 4-5 items to get the skills you need. Options include:
1) Cast on damage taken (leveled up a bit!) - Molten Shell - Iron Will
This is a nice indicator for when you are taking a lot of damage. Your hps will be at max due to the life gain, so you won't know that you are taking 1k damage a second otherwise. Plus, with over 400 str, molten shell will do some good damage.

2) Blood Rage - Inc Duration - Rallying Cry/Enduring Cry
Enduring Cry is great for the tough stuff, since it goes so well with armor.

3) Chaos Golem - Cast when damage taken
Golem will die a lot, so not all that useful usually.


Final Thoughts
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I should update it with screenshots of my damage, but it just depends on blood rage frenzy charges and rallying cry. It can be between under 4k and over 10k depending on the weapon you get also, but that's just the tooltip. Each ball hits for about half of that (it loses melee phys, GMP damage, etc, but gains point blank and iron grip str). With a GMP molten strike, you normally hit a single target with 2-3 balls, so your damage is at LEAST double the tooltip. The bigger they are, the faster they fall. Some bosses get hit by all 7 and that means 350% extra from the balls, so x4.5 of the tooltip.

The most important part is to play like you have no fear. You die when you stop attacking, so get in there and shout WHO'S GOT THE BIGGEST, BALLS OF THEM ALL as you life gain as much as you can. You still have to play smart sometimes, but only dangerous bosses. You can even gain more life than a corrupted bloodline hits for, until you run out of enemies to hit. Then you better have a remove bleeding flask, which is where the smart play comes in.

Duelist's 2 starting nodes on the left apply for ATTACK damage, thus to both melee hits AND projectiles.

Your try is good, but i think your concept is a bit wrong. To get maximum benefit from Life Gained on Hit AND to forget about mana issues, one should use claws only. And for claws, you should probably choose completely another tree, like i did in my build (you can see a link for it in my comment).

Yes, claws are good and the first two nodes of duelist are not melee specific. But, I prefer to not be tied to one weapon unless there's a good reason. This build is quite different from your build for these reasons:

- I use armor instead of evasion/dodge (armor was buffed in 2.0 and wanted to try it). I get 70% reduced damage from armor (without endurance charges), although that depends on the incoming damage as we know. Endurance charges + armor is just so good though. Soul of steel is a permanent endurance charge. If you have 50% evasion to go with the 40% dodge, you have the same mitigation.
- I get almost no dex and high strength instead, because I can't miss. Dex is just for a couple gems and because I get iron grip, that 77% str damage is applied to the projectiles.
- I use a shield with high block (55% chance to block w/ tempest shield) instead of dual wield. This is to trigger reckoning and vengeance since I intend to get hit.

If you keep your accuracy high enough through gear, you will get better sheet damage through crits. It's solid, but both your defense and offense contains spikes. I don't die and the biggest issue with the build might be that content seems too easy. My health doesn't seem to move, so I have to use CwDT as an indicator as to how much damage I'm taking. Reflect does NOTHING, since my fire resist is 76% (barbarism) and my armor negates the small amount reflected.

My build is intended to be easy to play and very easy to gear. If you find a good axe or sword, go for it! A good claw is nice too (whirling blade is fun). Armor items make it easy to get those red sockets needed and because it's iron reflexes, you can use evasion gear to get a couple green gems where you want. I do use a Stone of Lazhwar for spell block, but it's not until high maps. You can also swap in a Saffell's for certain bosses and Rainbow Strides would be nice. Lots of options and they don't need to have crit chance to be good.

In theory, I could be stunned. I just have never seen it happen, so haven't bothered getting unwavering stance. I have amazing defensive options like grace/determination and enduring cry, but haven't needed to use them yet.

Greater Multiple Projectiles nets a big DPS loss, as was discussed in the original 1.3 build you based this from. Not sure why you'd used it.

Math for GMP:

normal hit is 1 melee at 100% and 3 balls at 60% damage. Total = 2.8
GMP is 1 melee at 100% and 7 balls at .6*.74=0.444. Total = 4.1

That's an increase of 46%, not to mention that each hit is still the full life gained on hit amount. So the only DPS lose would be when hitting a single target, it's less likely to hit with all of them unless the enemy is huge.

Fire penetration is also a good option if you want to hit a single enemy harder. I prefer to hit more often and gain more life. This is what would be a paladin in other games; can take a hit and heal himself.

I have different math for GMP and molten strike.
My attacks per second with molten strike and GMP: 5.65 Lets round it down to 5.
My attacks per second with molten strike and faster attacks:7.09. Lets round it down to 7.
And assume 50 life gain on hit.

GMP: 7 orbs per attack times 5 attacks per second is 35 orbs at -27% damage and 50 LGoH. If each orb does one unit of damage and GMP orbs do 27% less, the GMP molten strike does 25.6 units of damage per second. LGoH gives 1750 life per second if every orb explosion hits one target.

Faster attacks: 3 orbs per attack times 7 attacks per second is 21 orbs for 21 units of damage. LGoH gives 1050 life per second if every orb hits one target.

Faster attacks increases my tootip DPS by 4000. LGoH would give the melee attack 150 life per second extra if I used faster attack.

Its close, but I like the extra 550 LGoH per second and the slightly increased projectile damage more than the increased single target damage.

And that is rounding 5.65 down to 5.

please add a video, of high maps?!