[2.4] Dual Wield Berserker Melee + Burn Prolif - ClearSpeed/RedMaps/Atziri/Lab-300K peak dps-Videos



I'm currently usign lacerate and having something like 73k tooltip dps on normal map runs, which means 146k single target (with 300 pDPS weapons) and over 300k single target damage with all tweaks and buffs up. I'm having >50% phys dmg reduction without endurance charges and 6.5k life with Belly of the Beast chest armour, capped (90%) reduction with 3 endurance charges and basalt flask of iron skin.

You can run this build with a bunch of melee skills, without having to mess with the tree or socket colours. I will write the guide with dual strike in mind and put some notes about wild strike, frost blades, cyclone, lacerate and reave at the end. Lacerate has overall better clear speed and let you kite dangerous foes while stil doing damage, also it allows ground click. Dual strike has overall better damage and boss killtime, and can be used in elemental reflect maps. Wild strike is also a very solid option, and can be used in physical reflect maps.


*Vulnerability increases to physical and burn damage not taken into account for damage calculations, it's something like 50% phys damage taken with curse effectiveness and enhance support, and we run elemetal weakness with damage conversion skills*

Pros/Cons:
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PROS:
Great synergies between Doryani's Catalyst, Melee Splash and Herald of Ash.
Fast Screen Cleaner
Pretty tanky, high phys dmg reduction and life, lots of life and mana leech
Excellent Labyrinth farmer
Passive tree versatile to many skills (dual strike, wild strike, reave, cyclone, cleave, lacerate, frost blades)

CONS:
Tricky herald of ash helm enchant is really appreciated (or you may drop inc. AoE)
Strongly gear dependent for damage (as every melee phys build)


Theory and playstyle:
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This build is tought as I feel POE builds shine: making different skills and attributes work together. The main point here is spreading damage trough the usage of Herald of Ash socketed into a Doryani's Catalyst (lvl 20 ele prolif) + increased bruning damage + inc. AoE (I was lucky enough to get 20% HoA reduced mana reservation as enchant on my helm so it reserves 47% mana). My main attack is Dual Strike + Melee Splash + Multistrike + Added Fire + MPD + Faster Attacks.

Melee Splash and HoA are a great couple. With Melee Splash, the damage is greater on the target mob, so it dies first (white mobs generally die with one 3-hit multistrike burst) and then the burn spread ensures all the surrounding mobs take a lot of damage aswell, with inc. burning dmg gem and up to +100% from Doryani's mod and inc. area + ele prolif, you will see the entire screen dying in one second. Literally, until maps like tier 7 (aside of doryani's i'm using a 300ish dps sword), its a one hit per screen build, if some mob remains you kill it with WB or LS as you move away. You don't feel at all the melee splash area damage penalty.

Blasphemy + Vulnerability increases both phys damage and burn damage, so its a must. 20% quality them both is a priority (vuln. can be hard to get to lvl 20 because of int requeriment, but its doable). Enhance support is welcome in that link.

We also use EC to generate endurance charges and Blood Rage for all the greatness it does: attack speed, life leech and frenzy charges.

Tweaks for optimizing single target damage:
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Actually, only applicable for master bosses like Atziri or separate room map bosses. Swap Melee Splash for Weapon Elemental Damage and consider running Hatred instead of Herald of Ash if the boss does not summon ads. For Atziri herself, actually run Herald of Ash without inc. AoE and Hatred, because she has curse reflection. For minor ads you can use Leap Slam to clear, like Malachai's worms.



Passive Tree:


Gear:
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Toughts About Gear:
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Main aspects:
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-Of course, stack as much life, armour and evasion as possible. (if you can go pure armor and respec 2 points of iron reflexes, why not doing it?)
-Of course, cap resists. If you can do it whitout your boots, equip Atziri's Step.
-As we get Resolute technique, we can have STR/INT/DEX and resists on our weapon without feeling bad.


What to look for, in order of priority:
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All suffixes: resists, resists, resists, dont forget about chaos resistance too. Some INT/DEX may be needed on one piece. Weapon MUST and rings/gloves CAN have attack speed too.

Helm: some life, at least 500 defense points (ar/eva or hybrid), rarity. Devoto's devotion and Alpha's Howl can be used for some build variations, but they lack life. *reduced herald of ash mana reservation enchantment is much appreciated*

Chest: around 100 life, at least 1k defenses. Any ar/eva/hybrid base will do. use at least a 5L for mapping and get a 6L as soon as possible. Belly of the Beast is probably best in slot. *see leveling section about tweaks on using a 5L*

Belt: dind't found anything better than meginord's girdle. Great life and damage. No reason to not use. For standard play, legacy one is good and not so expensive.

Weapons: Get the highest possible pDPS Doryani's for main hand, thats the only needed unique for complete build. And get the highest possible pDPS offhander. I suggest a sword for using whirling blades. Best bases are Corsair Sword (low DEX req, high APS), Dragoon Sword (bleed chance) and a non crit, high pDPS Sai (block chance, tough I have not seen one at least 300ish pDPS Sai in standard yet). Jewelled foil is also great for pure pDPS, but lose for corsair and dragoon everywhere, except for things like mirrored Gale Bane. Aside for phys dmg and attack speed, resist and attribute are good. For same DPS weapons, prefer the one with more attack speed as Doryani's already fits the "slow but hard hitting" spot and you dont want to be rooted by multistrike animation. Any good axe or mace will work, double Doryani's will do so (but you loose whirling blades), and any non crit dagger. We don't get any weapon specific nodes in the tree.

Rings: Life, flat phys dmg, weapon ele dmg, attack speed, rarity. Resists or life bases are better ones.

Amulets: Life, flat phys dmg. luxury item may have inc. armor or eva, or rarity. Attributes bases are better (int/dex or onyx)

Boots: Easiest way is Atziri's Step, for great life, defense, move speed and plus some spell dodge. Corrupted implicit +1 frenzy charge is GG item. Equivalent rare will work and may have needed resists if not capped elsewhere (must not be hard to cap). Not having 30% movespeed isn't THAT bad because we run with WB, but feels odd because melee targeting requires some small steps all the time.

Gloves: the most vague slot in my opinion. You can have attack speed, defenses, life, attributes, resists, flat phys damage and rarity here. use your gloves to fill in the blanks of the rest of the gear.





My current Gear:
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Legacy meginord's girdle and +1 frenzy atziri's step aren't needed at all, but good improvements


Jewels:
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Look for life, attack speed and damage, in that order. You can use jewels to cap resists or get some INT/DEX if much needed, but thats not the most efficient. Any color of jewels is likely to be useful. I feel that having a lot of jewel sockets in the tree is less desirable to RT melee phys chars than for ones like spell crit or DoT, so I only took the nearest ones. Inc. armour and evasion is ok to have on jewels. I don't know any unique jewel that would be great. That jewel that converts STR into DEX can be useful to equip some kinds of sword.



Gem Links:
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6L: Dual Strike + Melee Splash + Melee Physical Damage + Faster Attacks + Added Fire Damage. Swap Melee Splash for Weapon Elemental Damage for very very hard single target situations.

4L: Blood Rage + Enduring Cry + Leap Slam + Increased duration. Increased duration can be swapped for blood magic, faster attacks, faster casting, enhance, any support gem you want for BR/EC/LS. Actually can be a 3L+1 or a 2L+2L but who cares?

4L: Flame Golem + Ancestral Protector + Item Rarity + Culling Strike. Great passive increase to drops and boss culling. I cast Ancestral Protector to help on hard bosses but it can be vengeance in that link too. Ancestal Warchief is also good but the damage boost is lesser.

4L: Whirling Blades + Blood Magic + Faster Attacks + Fortify. Remember to fortify yourself now and then. Can be a leap slam 4L also if it fits better your playstyle or weapon choices.

3L Doryani's: Herald of Ash + Increased Burning Damage + Increased Area of Effect. If you didn't get the HoA helm enchant yet, use Item Rarity instead of Inc. AoE. because it doesn't have mana multiplier and is always welcome.

3L: Blasphemy + Vulnerability + Enhance.




Leveling:
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Passive tree progression:
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Start with your way for Resolute technique, then go to duelist area and get dual wield points and constitution notable. at 70s start your way up on templar to get life and AoE, after 80s fill the constitution wheel. I consider the tree complete at lvl 88 (i'm at 89 now and I got one +30 int node to relieve pressure on my gear and further lvl up vulnerability gem)

For ascendancy tree, grab Pain reaver first, then make your way to Aspect of Carnage. 7th and 8th points should go for Rite of Ruin.

Further on (88~100), choose what fit your style, taking Lava Lash, Bloodletting and Rampart for luxury improvements, or going for more jewel sockets. if you still have life in range, that can be always good too.


Leveling gear:
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Dual Ungil's Gauche are good for dual wield leveling (dont spec into RT), but probably going 2H+RT until 50s are most efficient. Facebreakers are also one good option. I don't recommend using tabula as a 4L will be enough to your main skill until the 70s. If leveling dual wield, start with cleave, then transition to reave or DS + Melee Splash. If leveling two handed, use ground slam, heavy strike, sweep, whatever you may like.

With a 5L it's most effective to use reave(+Faster Attacks,MPD,AddedFire,Multistrike) instead of dual strike, but it feels a lot underpowered. If so, use a 4L dual strike(+FA,MPD,AF) for bosses, sacrificing support gems elsewhere, like inc. dur., culling strike, item rarity, etc and carry a vaal reave for massive AoE boost. Run Hatred or Grace and Blasphemy + Vulnerability in that case and also if you don't have Doryani's Sceptre its not worth using HoA.



Bandits:
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Oak (life)/ Oak(phys dmg) or Kraityn(attack speed)/ Kraityn (frenzy charge)

Cruel is the only place to think about. Oak is overall better for the build, but I got Kraityn just because I like the ultra fast style. Some people always say the passive point is as effictive as cruel bandit rewards, so feel free to take it, but keep in mind end-game wise the tree will lack of good points in range and you may want to regret-vendor for a bandit favour.


Other skills usage:
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Wild Strike:
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Very fun and ridiculous fast clear speed. Tooltip damage is same as main build, but the secondary attacks has different rules for scaling so may deal slightly less damage, which is not much noticeable. Just swap dual strike for Wild Strike and Melee Splash for Weapon Elemental damage. Run HoA with all supports like main build, but vulnerability is not worth it, so use elemental weakness.

You will walk screens away of your last attack and only find burning corpses, as any Wild Strike secondary damage will also trigger HoA burns. Try it! (gorge vid at the end of guide)


Reave:
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Great for AoE, not bad damage but does not synergise well with HoA proliferated burns. Just socket reave instead of dual strike and WED instead of Melee Splash. Good thing is ground attacking, you don't have to target anything at all. I suggest runing Hatred and Blasph+Vulne. Feels so "regular build" and isn't much fun. Carry a vaal reave in any socket to buff AoE, that's the only fun of this variation in my opinion. If reaving and not using HoA, you don't have motivation to stick with Doryani's sceptre.


Cyclone:
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Socket cyclone instead of dual strike, WED instead of Melee Splash and choose Life Gain on Hit or Fortify in place of Mulstristrike. Blood magic is not needed with 1% mana leech from any attack damage +2% if killed recently.

Use auras/curses exactly as in the main build: HoA/Blasph+Vulne everywhere, Hatred instead of HoA for master bosses.

As it improves survivability without any change in passives and sockets at all, using cyclone is doable for some content that you feel is most likely to kill you.



Lacerate:
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Use Lacerate + Weapon Elemental Damage instead of Dual Strike + Melee Splash. Single target damage is almost the same, with AoE slightly lower, but has good targetting. Synergises SO MUCH WELL with burn prolif, as mobs are hit in a staggered shape. It also allows for a more confortable and fluid playstyle with ground clicking and allows kiting. Currently the option I use 90% of the time.

Use auras/curses exactly as in the main build: HoA/Blasph+Vulne everywhere, Hatred instead of HoA for master bosses.


Frost Blades
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Similar to Wild Strike, use it with weapon elemental damage instead of melee splash and with elemental weakness instead of vulnerability. It's damage is pretty ok now in 2.4, and this skill feels good as you dont have to actually click mobs with that ruge melee range. Clear speed is decent, single target is something like 8% lower, and it's my choice to play PvP (with hatred in this case) so I can attack from a distance. Can clear maps up to tier 10 without feeling bad.

PVP DISCLAIMER: with over 10 attacks per second unbuffed, and only 24% attack block and 16% spell dodge, this build is terribly bad for PVP.



Stats Screenshots [OBSOLETE]:
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ACTUAL STATS(no screenshot):
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6514 life
78k dps in town (no auras, golem and charges)
130K~137K dps on normal map play
198k dps with full buffs
over 300k dps single target full buffed
55% phys dmg reduction with no buffs
90% phys dmg reduction with charges and flask
Overcapped elemental resistances, chaos res around -10%

This is with legacy meginord and +1 frenzy boots.


Obsolete stats screenshots, with cheap gear:
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Offensive at hideout (hoa, flame golem and Blood Rage):
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Offensive max buffed (as above + 5 frenzy charges, Atziri Promise, Ancestral Protector):
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Offensive single target tweaked max buffed (as above + WED instead of Melee Splash, Hatred and HoA, with vunlerability real dps is bigger but numbers are less impressive):
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Defensive unbuffed:
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Defensive max buffed (3 endurance charges, granite flask of iron skin, atziri promise):
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Remeber ascendancy class gives this build 10% increased damage taken always and 6% reduced (so resultant 4% increased) if killed anything recently.



Videos
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Goofy Gorge runs with cheap gear (obsolete):
Dual Strike (better damage):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmjsWS5w99M

Wild Strike (better clear speed):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWn50P8r3ao

Atziri deathless with cheap gear (obsolete):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlJepVRPs6g
In this video you can see the fine tuning for some situations, flask usage, skill interactions, etc.
It's not hard to do if you avoid the oneshotting skills on the bosses. The trio is almost facetanked.

Atziri deathless with current gear:
https://youtu.be/ANNIuU84CqY
Only upgraded the belt after this vid, from regular to legacy meginord's. I open the character tab a few times to showcase DPS stats in this fight. I pretty much facetanked everything.


Uber Labyrinth:
https://youtu.be/A_lEuGJELyI

Last edited by opmanzano on Dec 23, 2016, 3:02:53 PM
Last bumped on Dec 23, 2016, 3:05:53 PM
reserved
What are you taking for the 4th ascendancy points?
"
noachr wrote:
What are you taking for the 4th ascendancy points?


Ascendancy points progression:

Normal: Pain Reaver (will make leveling so much easier)

Cruel: Crave The Slaughter

Merciless: Aspect of Carnage

Uber: Rite of Ruin
Can u add video of uber lab ?
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Adrszc wrote:
Can u add video of uber lab ?


Will do as soon as possible :) (i'm playing another char at the moment so I didnt ran uber lab with this one up to date, it still lacks 2 ascendancy points)

EDIT: already did the uber lab, it was a breeze walktrough, and got rite of ruin ascendancy notable :) video coming soon, also a deathless atziri run coming in vid
Last edited by opmanzano on Jul 27, 2016, 8:22:21 AM
posted vid of atziri with upgraded gear and uber labyrinth
What 5L setup would you run with this build?
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Smerte wrote:
What 5L setup would you run with this build?


as I tested on my char, removing faster attacks will result in the smaller loss of dps, like 50% the loss in comparsion with added fire. So you will need 4 red 1 green on that 5 link.
updated for 2.4

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