[2.3.X] THE VINKTAR SLAYER - 2H static strike

The build is using Static Strike to damage enemies, and instant life leech as primary life recovery source.
It heavily relies on gameplay skills, and assumes that you have a decent knowledge of the game, more specifically what hurts and what doesn't.
Not for beginners, you've been warned.
If you really feel like you need to see how it looks before reading any further, check the VIDEOS section below.

ADVANTAGES

> mobility
> offense/defense balance
> tanking potential

DRAWBACKS

> not noob-friendly (close range melee, technical gameplay)
> not gear-friendly
> not cheap

SIGNIFICANT

> up to 40% increased movement speed
> +2 to melee weapon range
> 100% chance to hit
> pure elemental damage (cold+lightning)
> 20% culling strike
> Onslaught when killing a rare|unique enemy (20s duration)
> melee splash damage (50% effectiveness)
> 360° AOE damage (60% effectiveness)
> up to 30% increased AOE (Static Strike)
> 40% chance to dodge attacks
> 30% chance to dodge spell damage
> 76% maximum fire resistance
> up to 13% less physical damage taken while stationary
> up to 12% less fire damage taken while stationary
> 6 maximum endurance charges (13.6s duration)
> Fortify on hit with Leap Slam (up to 5.4s duration)
> up to 4.4% instant life leech
> 40% increased life recovery from flasks / 20% increased flask recovery speed
> stun immunity
> freeze immunity
> shock immunity
> life leech immunity
> bleed immunity while attacking
> physical damage immunity with Immortal Call (up to 4.168s duration)
> no critical strikes
> no block
> no spell block
> no evasion
> no life regeneration

STATIC STRIKE

The initial hit is single target, but the Slayer ascendancy will provide the splash damage to surrounding targets, at 50% effectiveness.
Additionally, every time you hit something, a delayed 360° AOE nova is processed, at 60% effectiveness.
The nice part is that the novas stack, making your APS & DPS pretty big at the end.
Basically, you will use Static Strike in 2 different ways :

1) monster pack with no priority target
Just hold Shift and your mouse button together, and Multistrike will do the rest.

2) priority target
To ensure a quick death, it's better to actually "namelock" the target, without using Shift.
Otherwise, Multistrike will randomly attack everything in range, causing the desired target to take splash (reduced) damage too often.
As soon as it's dead, just hold Shift again if some trashies are still around.

Using 1) & 2) appriopriately requires a bit of practice, but becomes instinctive quite quickly.

LEAP SLAM

Main movement skill, but also used to provide the Fortify buff.
Fortify lasts around 5 sec, which means you must not forget to refresh it regularly.
Prefer multiple small range jumps, cause clicking too far away will cause your character to walk (movement speed) before jumping, and it can become dangerous when you need to escape fast.

ENDURING CRY

That is something you must manage properly to be at max endurance charges as often as possible.
There are some specific bosses where you definitely want to be at max charges before entering the boss room, cause of the lack of trashies inside.

IMMORTAL CALL

You won't have to use that often, but in some situations, you may die without it (typical example : a large blue pack of porcupines in a high map with many damage mods).
Due to how Enduring Cry works, you can manage to be physical immune for long periods by alternating both skills, when surrounded by enough enemies.
It is usually not a good idea to cast it during boss fights, cause once the duration is over, you'll usually have some trouble to generate charges again fast enough.

ARCTIC ARMOUR

Defensive buff, pretty reliable to mitigate physical & fire damage when stationary.
The chilled ground effect is useful aswell, especially against bosses (Leap Slam triggers it quite effectively).
Active in all circumstances, Blood Magic maps excepted.

HATRED

Offensive aura, which adds decent cold damage.
Active in all circumstances, Blood Magic maps excepted.

WARLORD'S MARK

With a significant life leech boost, it's great when tanking bosses, but also allows you to handle reflect mobs safely.
The chance to stun is quite useful against all non-boss mobs aswell.
Automatically casted when you take damage.

I won't provide any specific per-level stuff, so you'll have to adapt to your environment when leveling.
You'll probably want to focus on the keystones, while allocating some offensive/defensive points here and there, in a balanced way.
The leech nodes from the Duelist area may be a priority aswell.
The following trees are sword-oriented, so you might need to alter them a bit if using another weapon type.

REGULAR KAOM'S HEART

0 socket
1 socket
2 sockets
3 sockets
4 sockets

LEGACY KAOM'S HEART

The following is a 4-sockets base that allows you to reach about the same life pool as with the regular version (which is enough IMO, if your gameplay follows).
For the remaining points, it's up to you.

legacy

IMPACT - 2 points - 1 labyrinth

Your top priority.
Allows you to hit & leech multiple targets at once before the novas actually start to spawn.

BRUTAL FERVOUR - 4 points - 2 labyrinths

Even if it's quite expensive just for the bleed immunity, that's something that will make things a lot more comfortable against Bloodline or Nemesis mobs, especially considering how fast you will hit.
Also, the 2 small nodes on the way are pretty good for your leech.

BANE OF LEGENDS - 2 points - 1 labyrinth

That thing is really juicy for boss fights.
However, Impact & Brutal Fervour go first if you ask me.

NORMAL : help Kraityn (all ele res + 10%) - more flexibility on tree/gear
CRUEL : help Kraityn (atk speed + 8%) - mobility important with this build
MERCILESS : help Oak (max end charges + 1) - stable physical mitigation + extra resistances + longer Immortal Call

WEAPON

The hardest part.
You gonna need a fast 2-hander there, preferably a sword, with high base physical damage.
Speed goes first, cause you're gonna have to use Multistrike.
If you're not familiar with that, you need to know that if you're too slow while using it, you might lose enough mobility to be unable to escape dangerous attacks|spells in time.
5 linked sockets are an absolute minimum.

recommended base : high attacks per second and physical damage

important explicits : attack speed , physical damage

CHEST

Kaom's Heart
The build is totally life-based, and the tree was designed to work with that chest.
Not saying something else wouldn't work, just that it would definitely require a different approach.
A regular one will do the job, but if you're lucky enough to own a legacy one, you will have access to better flexibility.

HELM

Fairgraves' Tricorne
Shock hurts in this game, and you definitely want to use your Vinktar flask(s) without killing yourself.
Try to get one with 30 lightning res if you can.

GLOVES

recommended base : armour

important explicits : attack speed , maximum life , resistances

BOOTS

recommended base : armour

important explicits : movement speed* , maximum life , resistances
*30% highly recommended, see SKILLS section for details about Leap Slam

notable enchantments :
> increased attack and cast speed if you've killed recently
> damage leeched as life and mana if you've killed recently
> damage penetrates enemy elemental resistance if you haven't killed recently
> chance to dodge spell damage if you've taken spell damage recently

BELT

recommended base : Rustic Sash (offensive) | Leather Belt (defensive)

important explicits : weapon elemental damage , maximum life , resistances

AMULET

recommended base : Lapis Amulet (or any other that boosts intelligence)

important explicits : intelligence (and/or all attributes) , maximum life , resistances

RING

Dream Fragments
The freeze immunity is an important part of this build, cause your life is mostly recovered by attacking.
Try to get one with 30 cold res if you can.

RING

recommended base : Coral Ring (or something that boosts resistances)

important explicits : intelligence (and/or all attributes) , maximum life , resistances

BEERS

Vessel of Vinktar
Your ultimate tanking ticket.
Things start to be comfortable with 2 of those (1 is enough if you have the chance to own a legacy version).
The penetration variant would be the most effective for this build, but any other will do the job.
Basically multiplies your DPS by 1.5, and provides an unreal leech with Vaal Pact.
Usually good to drink when facing blue packs, but sometimes you'll have to save your charges for difficult encounters (more for the leech than for the damage).

Taste_of_Hate
A significant damage boost, especially in combination with Vinktar.
Try to get one with 30% extra cold damage if you can.

For the other slots, i personally recommend focussing on instant life recovery flasks ("Seething Hallowed Life Flask" prefered), cause they tend to help a lot in panic situations.
Other flask types are ok, but keep in mind you have no life regen.

JEWELS

important explicits : attack speed , maximum life , resistances
Again, attack speed better than damage, for mobility purpose.

GEMS

As far as requirements go, strength & dexterity won't be a problem at all.
For intelligence, it can be a bit challengy to have enough of it just with gear.
If you're really missing some, you can either sacrifice a few passive points, or stop leveling your gems.
It's up to you to see what gives best results.

R STATIC STRIKE
R melee physical damage support
R multistrike support
R weapon elemental damage support
B elemental focus support
B physical to lightning support
Note :
If you only have 5 linked sockets, you can skip either Melee Physical Damage, or Elemental Focus, with a similar damage loss.
G Faster Attacks Support is also an option if you really feel like your Multistrike duration is too low to be safe, or if you have some trouble getting the right socket colors.

R LEAP SLAM (0% quality prefered)
R blood magic support
R fortify support
G faster attacks support

R ENDURING CRY
R IMMORTAL CALL
R blood magic support
B faster casting support

R WARLORD'S MARK (level 5)
R cast when damage taken support (level 1)
G ARCTIC ARMOUR
G HATRED

> critical damage reduction
> physical damage reduction
> physical reflect
> shocking grounds
Absolutely no effect with this build.

> life/mana regen disabled
> life/mana/ES recovery penalty
> mob extra fire res
Barely noticeable.

> elemental equilibrium
> enfeeble
> mob extra cold res
> mob extra endurance charges
> mob extra lightning res
Will reduce your DPS directly, so try not to have too many of those at the same time.
Always keep in mind that with Vaal Pact, less damage means less life per hit.

> mob elemental status ailments resistance|immunity
Don't count on your Vinktar flask(s) to boost your DPS too much, only for the juicy leech.

> blood magic
That means no Arctic Armour, and no Hatred.
Therefore a bit less DPS, and higher physical & fire damage taken.

> chilled grounds
> temporal chains
Will reduce both mobility and DPS.
Not recommended in difficult maps.

> elemental weakness
> hexproof mobs
> max res penalty
Watch your life pool closely and don't hesitate to use your Vinktar flask(s) when facing reflect mobs.
If you were relying on your endurance charges to compensate the loss from Elemental Weakness, use Immortal Call with caution.

> mob stun immunity
Not to be underestimated.
Avoid being surrounded by too many mobs.

> extra ranged mobs
> mob extra projectiles
Not to be underestimated.
Avoid attacking from the same spot for too long.

> extra totems
Because you are usually close to corpses, look for detonation totems and neutralize them as soon as possible.

> extra rare mobs + nemesis
In maps with lots of damage increasing mods, be sure to check orange mobs before getting close, and skip them if you can read the word "Volatile".

> elemental reflect
> leech disabled
Not reasonable.

This section is there to give you a general idea of what you could reach.
Please keep in mind that my character is pretty high level, and it took me years to gather my current items.

TREE+ASCENDANCY+BANDITS

GEAR

Definitely not the best example of a realistic average setup.
Think of it as something pretty optimized for this build, not exactly what you need.












SCREENS

All were shot in The Dried Lake (merciless), with the following :
> Arctic Armour
> Hatred
> 6 endurance charges
> Onslaught
> 12% increased attack & cast speed from boots enchantment




The DPS you're seing here is for the initial hit of Static Strike, on the primary target, and if it has no resistances.
Now, let's take the nova into consideration.
We'll assume that i am constantly attacking for more than 0.75 seconds.
ALL TARGETS WITH +75% COLD & LIGHTNING RESISTANCES
> DPS on primary target : 77K (115K with Vinktar)
> DPS on splash targets : 53K (79K with Vinktar)
ALL TARGETS WITH 0% COLD & LIGHTNING RESISTANCES
> DPS on primary target : 307K (497K with Vinktar)
> DPS on splash targets : 211K (342K with Vinktar)


The physical damage reduction you're seing here is taking both armour and endurance charges into consideration.
Let's forget about armour and deal with stable mitigation only :
> 6 charges : 6*4 = 24%
> 6 charges + Fortify : 24+76*0.2 = 39% (moving)
> 6 charges + Fortify + Arctic Armour : 39+61*0.13 = 46% (stationary)

I was level 98 when i shot those, with around 6.8K life.

map - core
boss - the endgame labyrinth
twinned boss - wasteland
twinned boss - abyss

Why Static Strike ?

Believe it or not, but the damage potential is pretty good (136.6%*1.6=218.56%).
And since the nova uses the same damage tags as the original hit, it allows to focus on less things.

Why a Slayer ?

Basically, Impact is an opportunity to avoid having to use Melee Splash Support, which overall represents a great damage boost, especially on primary target.
With Static Strike, the nova more than compensates the reduced damage on splash targets.
The extra AOE, culling, and bleed immunity appear to be juicy aswell.

Why Resolute Technique ?

Less things to focus on.
Also, i prefer to do a bit less damage and see death coming (if you know what i mean).

Why Unwavering Stance ?

Because being stunned is a really bad thing when you primarily recover life by attacking.
No evasion ? too unstable endgame anyway (IMO).

Why Acrobatics & Phase Acrobatics ?

A reliable chance to avoid attacks & spells makes things a bit less unforgiving on the long term.
Armour cut in half ? too unstable endgame anyway (IMO).

Why Vaal Pact ?

Because it's the only way to fly.