[2.2] Dual Strike Claw Viable? Need help.

Back in the days (God I sound old) I played this kind of character. It was during the Onslaught League when I was still able to run 5 aura's thanks to EB and such.

Now with the new league and update incoming I decided to start playing PoE again and tried to make a similar build.

This is the tree I came up with: https://goo.gl/u0Cp4C
The idea is to use 2 high phys claws and Dual Strike. I will link Dual Strike with Melee Splash, MultiStrike, Melee Phys, Added Fire. I might change up Dual Strike with Double Strike. Not really sure about that one.

Next to that I will run 3 Aura's: Hatred, Herald of Fire and Arctic Armour
For quick movement I will just run Whirling Blades with Faster Attacks.

This will leave me open for some extra skills and setups. Would be happy to get some tips here.

For the Ascendancy I will go for Fortify. I havent decided yet on the other 2 points.

Now the big question is: Will this build work? I tested this build with an old char and had about 20K DPS, 20K Armour and over 5K life.
Maybe someone can point out flaws in this build or come up with big improvements or a different setup with my main attack.

As I said it is based of from my build I made during Onslaught. I had a thread back then, feel free to read it to see how I made this build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/423538

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Maybe someone can point out flaws in this build or come up with big improvements or a different setup with my main attack.

The flaw is not in your build, its in the game, that punishes player that need to facetank any mob/boss.

Dual Strike as a skill is dead.

The only skill you can really play reliable are the skills with the build-in AoE.

Namely: Reave, Ice Crash, Sweep, Sunder, Ground Slam...etc.

Thanks for your reply.

But this has always been a thing in PoE, even during Onslaught.
Still managed to have alot of fun with it and reached lvl 78 only to die because of desync.

I know that in-your-face-melee builds aren't the best and safe builds out there but for me they are the most fun. Would love to get some input on the build as I planned it out :)

I don't know about the viability of claws right now but the tree at least takes a nice path, and has a lot of health. Seems to be lacking a bit in accuracy though, and I also don't think you'll end up needing that many nodes for mana.

Try this link: http://poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwQBAF4A7gOHBS0F-QguCVgMcw-rEdUS4RUgFfAV_Ra_GYoZjhm0G60hYCP2JIsmlSmlKjgqTSyFLOktgy5TMZ4yCTWSNe82PTrtPs8_J0MxRfRHfkrISxxNkk3jVP5VS1WFV5daGl85YEFhmGHiYqxjcGSvZU1r1GxGbIxtbG6qb1dybHTtdPF673sUe9SBQYSUhMWE2YTvhrOJcYo4ivCNgY_BlLiVZpXMlwabLZu1naqi6qOKpcumV6rNsKuxs7TFtUi18rkdvTa95r6nwYvDM8M6xILTb9N-0_zWB9i92sHbp-lG7FztP-2D73r2o_lj_o8=

At the very bottom I put a Champion spec I think might be good for your survivability; it used up 6 points of the available passives though. I reworked things to yield less life, but includes IR, more block chance, 3 frenzy charges, 1 end charge, 3 extra jewel sockets (6 points total). I removed your aura series, as I think you could do without it. I believe this spec also allows for significantly more DPS potential than what you have. You had a Claw cluster I didn't like, which increased life leech rate (inconsistent with VP). I added dual wielding nodes by the duelist tree and Fangs of the Viper by the shadow tree, as well as many useful nodes by the ranger for life, evasion, and DPS.

You may want to consider running warlord's mark on an aura in conjunction with hatred. You could also go Gladiator instead of Champion, and can have 100% of your block chance be for spells, plus chance to gain End and Frenzy charges on kills. Strongly recommended. I think the biggest issue with this build is dealing with stuns from big hits, so I recommend using Cyclone for any time you're worried about this. Just some thoughts for you. Good luck with your build.

Interesting changes. However you used all skillpoints, whilst I have 20 still to spend (14 if you count in the ascendancy points).
Might use some of your changes.

About the mana(leech), you might be right that it's a bit too much atm. If possible I will spec out of these but out of experience I know that I need it in the beginning of the build.

Thanks for your input, I will look some more at it when I get home from work.

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iNotSure wrote:

Interesting changes. However you used all skillpoints, whilst I have 20 still to spend (14 if you count in the ascendancy points).
Might use some of your changes.

About the mana(leech), you might be right that it's a bit too much atm. If possible I will spec out of these but out of experience I know that I need it in the beginning of the build.

Thanks for your input, I will look some more at it when I get home from work.

Yeah, like I said, that tree used 7 of the available points for the champion spec at the very bottom (pan all the way down), so it is a bit misleading. Still in that 90-95 level range, but I used a number of points just to demonstrate what's available. Also, consider specing out of Berzerking series and into the Duality one right next to it; should be slightly more DPS.

I feel you on needing some mana leech early on. In my experience that's usually easily attainable with a fairly minimal amount of mana leech on gear or perhaps just 1 or 2 nodes early that I can spec out of later.

I usually plan my tree out till around lvl 80 and after that it's all into what I think I need (block, dps, etc.). But you gave me some nice directions on nodes I never thought about.

The question remains if I should stick with Dual Strike or switch over to Double Strike for the defences on a shield (res + life + eva/ar).

I once did a Double Strike character as you can see in my OP. But the difference in DPS is huge and I'm not really sure if the benefits of carrying a shield outweigh the benefits of alot more DPS.

Any thoughts on that?

Yep, I considered that. My main issue with it is, like you said, your DPS will really suffer unless your main weapon is some ridiculous DPS machine. Dual-wielding I believe might yield better results for end game because of the circular relationship between clear speed and tankiness that can become tough to manage after a 75+ level maps or so. I tried to work a number of things out in the skill tree, but it seems it would involve investing too many points into shield defenses and block, leaving not enough points for the kind of DPS needed to handle mid-high to higher tier maps. If I went block, it would probably be with some sort of crit dagger so that I could be confident in my clear speed.

The dual wielding option with claws allows you to return more life from leech and other means on a continual basis though, while still allowing you to stack up a nice amount of life from the tree. The tree I linked had considerably less life than yours, but with 4 jewel sockets you can make up 28% of that while also being able to boost your DPS or sustain a bit with other stats. So I would recommend more than anything trying to incorporate more jewels into your builds because you had 3 easy sockets I grabbed with 6 points. Frenzy charges are good right now too, and I think you would probably be happy with this build if you went Gladiator for the easy frenzy/end charges, and helped Oak on Merciless. You'd have a very respectable 6 frenzy charges and 5 endurance charges most of the time, which could work well with any party of those Guardian templars that give Conduit to allies.

Very interesting. I will play with it a bit more tonight and post an update then.

Anything on the gems and links Im going for or does it seem allright? I could also swap out added fire dmg for faster attacks.

Also any options for my remaining sockets in the gear?
My chest will be used for Dual Strike.
One claw will be used for my auras (herald of ash and hatred)
Maybe one cast on dmg taken?
And Im guessing enfeeble as a curse?

So basicly I need some help figuring out what gems to use. Alot has changed since onslaught :)

pretty much ALL dual wield melee builds are dead now, 2h melee or ranged/caster are the way to go sadly, a bummer as i love dual wield.