[3.0] Fast Earthquake Berserker - 700k DPS (Shaper Viable)



7/2/2017 Update - Shaper Down!


I decided to revisit the build and update the thread after killing all the new shit since perandus. damage/life is much higher and the build is very endgame viable now.

3.0
The DoT changes do impact this build such that it has a weaker clearing speed/DPS, but comparable/better and more consistent single target damage.

After some testing, the best option seems to be to replace added fire damage with bloodlust, and to have maim on leap slam/warchief. Overall you lose about 30% clearing dps due to the less reliable nature of bloodlust and maim. You can mainlink maim over bloodlust and have similar hit-DPS as before, but single target is lacking due to the old reliance on bleed.

Overall, the DPS is still more than sufficient for clearing, and the single target has become stronger and more consistent with 3.0.



This is an earthquake build based around minimizing the duration of earthquake and liberally grabbing attack speed to make use of it. This squares out the offenses more than what is typically possible when using earthquake and allows for a very high speed and DPS at relatively little cost.

Overview
Character Page
Path of Building Code

Pros:
- Very High DPS and life pool
- Pretty much the most speed you can expect from a 2H earthquake build
- Can clear all content
- Solid Progression (Earthquake duration helm and warped timepiece are the only necessary items, all others can be replaced with the best rare you can find).
- Can easily run every map mod besides physical reflect, with minor alterations needed for elemental reflect maps
- Can easily be transitioned into from other melee builds

Cons:
- poor secondary defenses. relies on life pool, leech, and speed to survive
- no vaal pact, so you cant just facetank everything
- top end gear is pretty expensive




Stats

Tooltip Stats (For reference)
Defenses (No Flasks):


Tooltip Offenses (No Flasks):


Tooltip Offenses (with Flasks):


be mindful that the tooltips do not include a number of stats such as the aftershock, bloodlust, maim, or vulnurability, which all greatly improve dps.


Using Path of Building to calculate more accurate DPS Values:


General Clearing (reliable buffs, no totem, standard enemy, inc AoE)
No Flasks: 199,563
Flasks: 358,240

Standard Boss (reliable buffs, totem, Standard Boss, inc AoE)
No Flasks: 378,650
Flasks: 603,853

Shaper/Guardian (no kill-based buffs/enemy movement, totem, Shaper, Conc Effect)
No Charges/Flasks: 486,275
Charges: 570,173
Flasks: 738,820
Both (for ones with adds): 867,050

2.6 stats (for comparison)
General Clearing (reliable buffs, no totem, standard enemy, inc AoE)
No Flasks: 290,980
Flasks: 802,826

Standard Boss (reliable buffs, totem, Standard Boss, inc AoE)
No Flasks: 293,925
Flasks: 702,057

Shaper/Guardian (no kill-based buffs/enemy movement, totem, Shaper, Conc Effect)
No Charges/Flasks: 369,649
Charges: 457,706
Flasks: 571,362
Both (for ones with adds): 709,727


Obviously you can conditionally break 1M DPS with conc effect but its unreliable so i didnt include it. Warchief itself provided a lot of damage to single target enemies but also isnt included.


Passive Skills
Skill Tree:
Level 95 Skill Tree

Bandits:
I recommend Two Passives. Oak can be good if you build more defensively oriented and want how alternate stats, kraityn is good for speed. two passives will give the best dps though.

Ascendancy:
Berserker was chosen here for high damage and attack speed. Being an attack build without vaal pact, the leech nodes arent very useful, so we take the other four. I went Crave the Slaughter > Aspect of Carnage > War Bringer > Rite of Ruin.

Slayer, Juggernaut, and Chieftain can all run this build as well, and have better defenses in return for lower damage and attack speed.

Pantheon:
Personally I think Solaris and Gruthkul are the best for this build. Yugul can be used if youd like better reflect resistance. Brine king should be used if you arent using Kaom's Roots.



Skill Gems
Earthquake + Less Duration + Melee Physical Damage + Increased AoE/Conc effect + Rapid Decay + Bloodlust/Maim
- The gems should generally be added in this particular order, with the exception of only adding rapid decay in the 5th slot so long as it makes a difference in how frequent your earthquakes are. In other words, only use rapid decay if you're attacking faster than your earthquake can handle.

Bloodlust gives the best DPS, but is conditional and relies on you bleeding enemies with leap slam or warchief, which pretty much makes it a nonfactor while clearing. Maim can be used instead for more consistent damage but will have a noticably lower top end damage.

Conc effect is a good swap in for Inc AoE for bosses if you feel it necessary (I only do it for shaper/guardians personally).

Here are some examples of how aftershock frequency increases with duration reduction:
Spoiler
20/0 Less Duration: 1.33 aps
20/20 Less duration: 1.48
20/0 with helmet enchant: 1.90
20/20 with helmet enchant: 2.22
Above with 12% warped timepiece: 2.77
Above with rapid decay (no timepiece): 2.96
Above with rapid decay and timepiece: 4 APS


Leap Slam + Faster Attack + Fortify + Culling Strike +(Maim)
- A mobility skill is vital, and fortify is too good of a buff to not include somehow. Maim should be on leap slam or warchief (or both), but do whatever works for you.

For the rest of the skills, links aren't particularly relevant, so organize and support them as you see fit.

Auras: Herald of Ash + Hatred

Utilities: my priority for the rest of the sockets are:
Blood Rage, Ancestral Warchief, Enduring Cry, Summon Stone Golem, CwDT+immortal Call

Those can be organized how you want. Personally, since I use Kaom's roots, I'm tight on sockets, so I combine the moveskill and totem in my chestpiece, use CDT+Immortal Call+Stone Golem+Temportal Chains, and then throw the auras+blood rage+enduring cry in a 4link. If you don't use roots, then consider beefing up the warchief with damage supports for single target.


Gear
The only gear that is particularly necessary is a warped timepiece and a helmet with the reduced earthquake duration enchantment, which unfortunately is pretty expensive in its own right. Aside from that, rares with decent life and damage are all you need, with the eventual goal of getting Atziri's Disfavour.

You will need to get mana leech on some piece of gear or a jewel, but otherwise you can focus entirely on life, damage, stats, and resistances on your rares.

For glove prefixes, you want either Commandment of Fury or Spite, or to vaal Vulnurability on Hit. For boots, you want either
My Gear




Flasks


Bleed and freeze immunity is necessary in some fashion. if you don't have things like kaom's roots or death's door, then you need the affixes on flasks. Curse immunity is the next most useful thing if you have an extra slot open. I prefer 2 life flasks but it's not necessary.


Jewels
In general you want to look for Increased maximum life, relevant damage, and attack speed so long as you haven't exceeded 4 APS after buffs.



Other Options
Things like disfavour arent at all essential, but is the ideal goal outside of absolutely stellar rares. A decent rare Axe or Hezmana's Bloodlust can be perfectly viable up to red maps.


Kaom's Heart will make you much tankier if you can stomach the loss of sockets. I like the slowdown/stun immunity from roots so I can't afford to run it


Duration reductions should only be added as they are needed, of course, or else they serve no purpose. You shouldn't concern yourself with rapid decay or warped timepiece until after you've gotten the helmet enchant, nor should you bother with the former until you have at least a 5-link.

Kaom's Roots are also unnecessary for general mapping due to Rite of Ruin, but I feel they are extremely useful against shaper. Rares or Death's Door also provide valuable speed and utility.


Aside from that, prioritize life, capping resistances, having enough dex and int for your skills, and armor.
Last edited by Kavanaugh on Sep 2, 2017, 10:57:23 AM
Last bumped on Nov 17, 2017, 1:34:56 AM
Hello from another, fellow Earthquaker! :)
Playing a very similar build and also made a showcase of it even tho I do not use warped timepiece cuz I pref. more max. life and overcaping my res. for high tier ele.weak maps and such...
I've also tested Rapid Decay to reduced the EQ cooldown even further but I found and felt that a setup using EQ - Multistrike - Melee Phys - Less Duration - Added Fire - WED does way more dmg. for me.
Also GZ on that helmed if you happen to craft it yourself! :)

Cheers, Zahkriisos! :)
Trying to satisfy the whole PoE community is like telling a nymphomaniac to only have sex once in a week.

I think that's fairly accurate. :')
hi there, you got me curious on this max reduction instead of faster aspd for earthquake, and im interested to see whats your EQ's tooltip dps so i can quickly gauge it from there, pls&ty
"
Hello from another, fellow Earthquaker! :)
Playing a very similar build and also made a showcase of it even tho I do not use warped timepiece cuz I pref. more max. life and overcaping my res. for high tier ele.weak maps and such...
I've also tested Rapid Decay to reduced the EQ cooldown even further but I found and felt that a setup using EQ - Multistrike - Melee Phys - Less Duration - Added Fire - WED does way more dmg. for me.
Also GZ on that helmed if you happen to craft it yourself! :)

Cheers, Zahkriisos! :)


Funnily enough my original build before the helmet enchantments were datamined used multistrike for the same reason. However while it did a lot for the tooltip I found that the calculated DPS was a bit lower. I figure that with some optimization it could give better DPS, but I personally appreciate the mobility offered by foregoing multistrike, considering most trash mobs get instagibbed and being a berserker youd want to avoid as much damage as possible.

In general there are a lot of ways that this build's DPS could be improved (Hatred, Lion's Roar, Taste of Hate) that are foregone for the sake of survivability.

"
coruscated wrote:
hi there, you got me curious on this max reduction instead of faster aspd for earthquake, and im interested to see whats your EQ's tooltip dps so i can quickly gauge it from there, pls&ty


My tooltop with buffs is 88,264 DPS, but I am honestly unsure if it includes the aftershock at all so it may not make for the best ballpark unless you're aftershocking every hit (if you are, then you can multiply that by 2.79 to get a good estimate of your real DPS though).

"
Kavanaugh wrote:


My tooltop with buffs is 88,264 DPS, but I am honestly unsure if it includes the aftershock at all so it may not make for the best ballpark unless you're aftershocking every hit (if you are, then you can multiply that by 2.79 to get a good estimate of your real DPS though).




ayt thanks for the answer man, well i too think that the tooltip dps only calculates the initial hit of earthquake. gl
bump with more accurate damage calculation and some self-serving potential DPS calcs.
What is the 'best' helm for this build? Say, is devoto decent? Started this build yday, and got to merciless, but now I need a break soon. My next gear upgrade I assume would be the helm with the enchant, but I would like to go all in on it and get the 'best' helm.
"
Volch0k wrote:
What is the 'best' helm for this build? Say, is devoto decent? Started this build yday, and got to merciless, but now I need a break soon. My next gear upgrade I assume would be the helm with the enchant, but I would like to go all in on it and get the 'best' helm.


There's no unique that particularly stands out. Devoto's is fine since attack speed, dex, and movespeed are all great, but it also lacks life, and its definitely possible to reach a high enough attack speed without it. I think a well rolled rare is the best option.
And there is no point in having to much attack speed? Im new at this :D
I assume running purity + arctic is OK instead of grace?
Last edited by BatteryChris on Apr 1, 2016, 8:51:04 PM
Correct, it is actually detrimental if your attack speed is too fast, since most of the damage comes from the aftershock, and you don't want to attack before the aftershock goes off or else you won't start the timer for another one.

You can still manage it, I suppose, with proper timing, but that's easier said than done and the benefits are small.

You can run other auras, sure. Though it shouldn't be too hard to cap resistances and physical mitigation is generally harder to come by.

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