[2.2] Varunastra/Prismatic Eclipse DW Beserker

The idea of this build is to use Varunastra with the Earthquake skill, scaling damage and defenses with the Prismatic Eclipse sword. The build also takes advantage of the fact that you can get decent damage off the passive tree with little investment, allowing more investment into defenses.

A 4L will easily take you into maps, and the build scales well into T15 maps, and has killed Atziri.

Damage Scaling

Varunastra has high damage but slow attack speed. This makes it ideal for use with Earthquake. I use a 3 red socket Prismatic Eclipse in the off-hand to further increase damage, as well as provide the more attack speed and damage bonuses you get from dual wielding.

When you need it (bosses etc) you can use the Ancestral Protector totem to buff your attack speed.

Passive Tree

As well as the damage scaling from dual wielding, the weapon benefits massively from the Deadly Dilettante and By the Blade clusters, which means if we pick up these then we can focus mostly on defensive nodes, taking plenty of endurance charges, life, and some curse effectiveness to buff blasphemy-enfeeble.

Passive tree link

Ascendancy Class

I've chosen the Berserker class for its raw power. Juggernaut, Champion and Gladiator would also work, but I think the best other option would actually be Slayer for increased AoE, stun immunity, and leech buffs. If you're going to take Champion or Gladiator you'll want to take Unwavering Stance and Iron Reflexes.

Ascendancy points taken are Crave the Slaughter -> Aspect of Carnage for huge damage buffs and Rite of Ruin to offset the increased damage taken and for (nearly constant) stun immunity.

Leveling

Leveling the build was super smooth, I took enough 2h melee passives to one-shot my way through the game; Marauder starting melee nodes, Butchery and Destroyer. Specced out of these once I bought Varunastra.

You want to go straight for Resolute Technique through the Marauder melee nodes, then up to Templar to get increased area of effect. Then down to Duelist to pick up leech. From there keep getting life nodes and you'll want to pick up endurances charges in merciless/before maps (generate charges with Leap Slam + Endurance Charge on Melee Stun, and/or Enduring Cry).

Bandits

Oak (life) - Kraityn (faster movement skills) - Oak (damage reduction)

Skills

I primarily use Earthquake, linked to Melee Physical - Less Duration - Added Fire - Increased AoE- Fortify. Fortify is slightly less damage than Weapon Elemental Damage, but is a smoother play style.

Leap Slam is linked to Faster Attacks - Blood Magic - Endurance Charge on Melee Stun. If you can't fit fortify on your main skill them you can replace ECoMS with Fortify.

I have an Ancestral Protector totem that I use for more attack speed when needed, and to cull bosses.

Cast on Damage Taken (Max level) - Stone Golem (Max level). I like the extra regen but feel free to use Chaos Golem for the damage reduction or Fire Golem for Damage.

Auras/buffs are Enfeeble with Blasphemy and either Hatred or Herald of Ash + Arctic Armour.

Gear

Gear should prioritise capping resistances, adding life, and if you want to scale damage further, flat phsyical damage. The build gets a little bit of armour scaling off the tree so go for armour over evasion where possible.


Jewels

Another really cool thing about this sword is the possibility of using jewels that affect weapon types other than swords, so you can make use of sword speed + mace phys jewels if you like.

Map Mods

Physical reflect - I swap to using Sunder - Melee Physical - Multistrike - Added Fire - Physical to Lightning - Foritfy, no issues.

Eelemental reflect - I turn off my elemental buffs and replace Added fire with Melee Phys on full life.

No leech - the only mod this build can't do.

My IGN is DaveTheKaruiAssassin, any feeback/questions are welcome either here or in game.

Look like a neat idea, would you use a soul taker in off hand and add herald of ash.

Keep prismatic eclipse offhand, any other high attack speed weapon only boosts the tooltip dps value, but doesn't actually increase your DPS. If you use your main hand weapon, it uses your main hand weapon's stats. But tooltip always averages it out and may not be accurately. Only prismatic's global increased to attack speed will help.

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Spoiler

Keep prismatic eclipse offhand, any other high attack speed weapon only boosts the tooltip dps value, but doesn't actually increase your DPS. If you use your main hand weapon, it uses your main hand weapon's stats. But tooltip always averages it out and may not be accurately. Only prismatic's global increased to attack speed will help.

This isn't necessarily right, as it's situational depending on the amount of attack speed you have already. With a Fidelitas' Spike you can get more attack speed than with Prismatic, but it's marginal, and I think the block chance is more valuable. In any case I've actually switched to using a 3 red socket Prismatic, as better for scaling earthquake damage.

You're right in saying the tooltip is wrong though as it assumes the skill is being used with both swords not just Varunastra.

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coulombe123 wrote:

Spoiler

Look like a neat idea, would you use a soul taker in off hand and add herald of ash.

This is possible but I actually like Prismatic Eclipse better as a both offensive and defensive option. At the moment I'm using Blasphemy-Enfeeble-Enhance which leaves me room to reserve 50% more of my mana while still having enough to use skills. For most maps I use Hatred, for brutal red maps I go Arctic Armour + HoA.

So I have this build pretty fleshed out and its great.

Any obvious issue with dropping Blade barrier and Ambidexterity for Slaughter and Bone Breaker?

I've actually dropped the Blade Barrier/Ambidexterity cluster, and taken Bone Breaker (extra AoE!). Instead of Slaughter I would suggest taking Blade Master, as the attack speed scales your off-hand too.
I haven't taken Blade Master, as if you can get/craft them, good 3 property jewels can be better numbers wise.

Check out my current passive tree

Sorry I haven't finished this yet, I've got one more life node to take at 92, and will then post full guide with numbers etc. It's just I found a shavs so have been levelling a low-life freeze pulse build. So far not as good as this guy! Will probably update this weekend.

Since i can never ever find you online in game for some reason i wanted to ask something , since you put your MF build here ( idk why ) what would you recommend as of uniques im using a lightning coil as my chest right now , im wondering if i should try looking for a helm or other uniques , what is the purpose of prismatic eclipse i don't see it giving a whole lot of dmg any good replacements ?

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Shinnexer wrote:

Spoiler

Since i can never ever find you online in game for some reason i wanted to ask something , since you put your MF build here ( idk why ) what would you recommend as of uniques im using a lightning coil as my chest right now , im wondering if i should try looking for a helm or other uniques , what is the purpose of prismatic eclipse i don't see it giving a whole lot of dmg any good replacements ?

The reason you can't find me online is probably a timezone thing, I'm in NZ, and only playing 1-2 hrs a day at the moment.

I put my mf gear there because it was what I wore until around level 90. With decent mf setup I was happily one-shotting packs in T10s which was pretty cool. I'm about to ding to 93 at which point I'll call the build done and post full gear and stats.

Prismatic eclipse is pretty much BiS, with three red sockets (for a total of 75% increased physical damage with weapons) it increases my damage by 11% in my current setup, plus gives 8% block. Rigwald's Command would be even better if you're playing with a Varunastra that's RIPed to Standard... If you don't need the damage, then you could try the new claw Advancing Fortress for huge block and some more life?

In terms of other uniques, if you're wearing Coil you should consider wearing Abyssus for big damage boost. I've also considered using a Doedre's Damning to get a second curse in (since I've invested into curse effectiveness) adding in a CWDT (1) temp chains (5), instead of Vaal Haste. The Blood Dance boots would be a nice addition to generate frenzy charges and you could pick up the fourth frenzy near duelist. Some well rolled Redblade Tramplers would also be pretty cool.

Since i did not like the idea with the curses , cus i have enough survivability i am using both herald of ash and hatred and i was thinking about getting the axe wheel to cleaving for more damage instead of the curse nodes ( 4 pts total + 1 from the 30 int ) opinion on this change ? is it worth or not , what would you recommend for a non curse setup for this character , and why did you choose the 6% red damage + can't get stunned over life leech on the tree , are these choices worth it are they not why and why not if i wanted more dmg of the tree , or even more survivability for those 5 points im not going to use what would you recommend ?

Nice build, I'll try it! Thanks :D