2.2 Theorycraft/plan 2H Axe Earthquake/Sunder Champion

Earthquake - Inc Aoe - Melee phys - Less duration - Added fire - Weapon Ele

Sunder - Inc aoe - Melee phys - Added fire - Weapon Ele - Faster attacks/Multistrike

whichever turns out to be better after testing, gems in order of priority

Earthquake looks pretty damn good because you can swap in conc effect and turn it into a very strong single target skill

Hatred, Herald of Ash, Blood Rage, Vaal Haste, Leap slam and probably Vaal Lightning trap for shocked ground are going to be included

Some kind of CWDT - Imm call - Enfeeble setup is also prob going to be there

Ancestral protector if it turns out to be good is going to be second 6L, if not probably some kind of a single target setup

so far from streams whackamole totem seems good

Champion notables planned:

Fortitude for free gem link and more fortify mitigation, Inspirational for damage and movespeed bost

Gear Plans:

Kaoms Primacy into Crafted axe into Disfavour

Daressos Defiance because i'll need lot of dex and int on gear early on so fixing resists for Lightning coil is gonna be hard

Lightning coil is endgame option for sure

Rest of the gear: Life + armor or evasion

Flasks:

basalt, lion's roar, atziri's, taste of hate if going armor gear, stibnite if going evasion

swapping in elemental flasks for bosses as necessary

Endgame phys mitigation:

20% fortify + increased fortify effect for total of 24$
Basalt - 20%
Lightning coil - 22%
5 endurance charges - 20%

less damage from enfeeble
Armor or Evasion

7+k life

Passive tree at lvl 90~

lvl 90 tree

204% life + planned ~25% from jewel sockets

plenty of damage nodes and attack speed

even though attack speed doesn't affect earthquake that much it still matters because you can keep attacking before aftershock pops and it also reduces your attack animation and makes your leap slam faster, it's a pretty strong skill and aoe even without aftershock, aftershock just makes it even better

Main perceived issues:

Need ton of dex for blood rage and vaal haste

need decent amount of int for at least lvl 10 enfeeble

might have to spend some nodes for attributes early on

Main perceived benefits:

Biggest Aoe of any melee skills

Single target + AOE on 1 setup if going earthquake

Ancestral protector has the potential to turn some of the bosses into a joke fight as long as it has decent life - the life on the totem is going to make or break the skill, if it gets shit on by aoe attacks or oneshot it's going to be pretty much useless



overall pretty excited to play a 2h melee build after over a year, these skills look like the much needed AOE melee characters didn't have for too long

Lion's Roar buffs make it absolutely huge for melee builds since it's on a Granite Base