Ludvator's DOOM BLOW - Kill One, Kill All [2.4; SC]

Build Concept and IB mechanics

This build was designed for solo mapping. The base concept is to scale Infernal Blow explosion damage and AoE to create massive AoE overlap, to kill whole packs including the bosses on killing one, weakest mob in the pack. To understand how I do that it is important to describe Infernal Blow mechanics.

Infernal Blow skill has two components, besides initial melee attack (50% fire converted from phys) there is a secondary part, dealing non-attack fire damage based on corpse’s max life. The important thing is also that the explosion is result of short duration debuff initial hit applies, which means that it does not matter what skill or damage killed the enemy, it will still explode if the debuff is present.

Some of interesting facts and numbers

• with my current setup, explosions deal by default 132% of corpse life to 42% fire resist enemy, 185% with Elemental Overload that is up very often. When I add Vaal Lightning Trap, damage can go up to 277% (to 42% fire resist Enemy)

• my radius of melee splash (if it has still 14 units base) is 29 units (similar to base Ice nova radius), it defines area where all the monsters explode. Any single target within this radius will always be hit by all the explosions

• The maximum AoE Coverage is 58 units, it is sum of melee splash and Explosion (assuming it has 15 unit base) radiuses

• My secondary single target skill (EA) on switch has 1411% damage multiplier, applying both to Initial hit and Ignite, 1975% with Elemental Overload

Videos

mapping
this is how most of the boss „fights“ look like
this is what I do against standalone bosses

Although AoE is the main theme, hardest maps are much safer when sacrificing AoE support for melee physical damage. This vid shows how it performs, it includes some embarrassing moments too like crappy navigation and trying to kill boss with default attack:)

enjoy

(All the vids are recorded from my actual gameplay. I included t15 Abyss map, which is the highest map Ive found so far. I dont have Guardians/Shaper because I havent reached that high yet. Not sure, but if they can be ignited I expect them to be doable with EA)

Offense

The goal here is to scale the explosion damage with the same modifiers as initial melee damage. Avatar of Fire enables me to skip melee/physical/weapon modifiers and rely completely on generic fire/elemental damage ones. The Berserker Ascendancy class was chosen for the same reason, more damage that scales everything. I used similar approach with support gem choices and choose the weapon specifically so that I am able to proc Elemental Overload reliably. AoE is very important for the overlap so I have all I can afford. Attack speed is a secondary priority stat, nice to have but nothing you would sacrifice fire damage for. Tooltip dps for IB (AoE setup) is 29k, 40k with EO, more with Onslaught and Crave the Slaughter.

Molten shell with chance to Ignite on high level cwdt is there to help against some packs, that have no weak mods, like packs of high HP magic monsters. Its hit damage is 24k with EO.

For the standalone single targets I have Explosive Arrow setup on switch, all the mods that apply to IB also apply to it (and also to its Ignite), which makes it very strong single target skill

Resource management

Blood magic passive takes care of mana costs, important to be able to run Explosive Arrow. The big reasons I took it are the life passives behind (and Auras not much important for this build). Life leech is granted by Pain Reaver ascendancy passive, which is perfect because it has no damage type restrictions. I have also some regen, but also no priority. Very useful life recovery comes from War Bringer ascendancy passive. the 25% life recovery is instant, is no affected by map life recovery mods and you can use it once per 2 seconds with no need to affect anything with the Cry. Great for the lab and longer boss fights.

Defense

The defense concept comes from the playstyle. I play with 2H and need to survive for the short time before first mob is killed. Thats why I choose high HP with Kaom's Hearth (7k life at lvl 90). I have some mediocre armour (16.7k with Granite) and maintain 6 endurance charges (it turned out to be safer than cwdt IC setup, especially against standalone bosses, and to counter elemental curses. For dangerous phys damage maps could IC be better though).

Another layer is blind from Stibnite flask, Enfeeble on cwdt and Vortex also on Cwdt to slow down mobs. Fortify comes from leap slam but I do not try to keep it up all the time. High movement speed also helps a lot and is very important for this build. especially for the bow part of it.

I like to have positive chaos resistance. My build has 39% chaos resist in Merciless, which I find good enough. Negative chaos res would lead to chaos bosses one-shots and annoying poison and chaos cloud effects problems.


Passives

Ascendancy - Berserker - Crave the Slaughter, Aspect of Carnage, Pain Reaver, War Bringer
Keystones - Avatar of Fire, Elemental Overload, Blood Magic
Key tree modifiers - life, elemental/fire damage, AoE

my lvl 90 tree

Gem setups

main - IB + Melee Splash + Elemental Focus + Fire penetration + WED + AoE (melee phys)
quite simple, Elemental Focus and Penetration both affect attacks as well as the explosion. WED is the highest damage support for initial hit

6th link discussion - I prefer AoE, because it greatly improves coverage and AoE overlap, which results in boss being hit by more explosions. For the toughest content ( dangerous, or fire res/enfeeble rolls of T14+ ) Id suggest switching to melee phys instead, for the survivability reasons, because the longer it takes to kill the first mob, the higher probability of you getting killed)

movement - Leap Slam + Faster Attacks + Fortify
high level cwdt - cwdt + molten shell + chance to ignite + vortex
mid level cwdt - cwdt + enfeeble
one point wonders - Vaal Lightning Trap, Enduring Cry, Decoy Totem

quill rain on switch - EA + Accuracy + concentrated effect + chance to ignite + fire penetration

6th slot is for blink arrow (if you want to use 6th link for EA (faster attacks)) you would have to find a slot for Blink arrow somewhere else

gem quality priority - Melee Splash, IB, Explosive Arrow, Molten Shell

Gearing

Kongor's - the key item for this build that allows to proc Elemental Overload. It has decent damage/crit and very valuable "Hits cant be evaded" modifier, that gives 100% chance to hit without having to care about accuracy

Kaom's Hearth - life and fire damage

Devoto's Devotion - the most valuable is movement speed, dexterity, attack speed, evasion and chaos resist are also very useful

Rare boots - high movement speed and the crit enchant are the priorities, the enchant is super good for this build as it provides global crit that affects also the explosion and hits with bow.

Rare gloves - life + all the missing mods. get this piece of gear as the last one (together with the belt) to fill what is missing. attack speed mod is a luxury there. "of Spite" enchant would be nice but I do similar with cwdt vortex

jewelry - fire damage. I made the rings myself with essences. You can consider running an Aura instead of one ring (Essence worm) if you have enough of other stats (Id choose Anger to get 20-25% extra damage to initial melee damage)

belt - life, armour, resists

Quill rain - switch for Explosive Arrow
Rearguard - I found it suitable, block, armour, damage, stun recovery..

Flasks - Freeze immunity, Bleed removal


Playstyle

Run or jump from pack to pack, pop Stibnite/Granite when near monsters. Use EC both to get charges and heal. It is not always a good idea to jump in the middle of packs, much safer approach is to jump to the edge of the pack. throw vaal trap on essence monsters and bosses. use decoy totem on strongboxes and other suitable situations.

When there is a single target with no monsters around, switch to second weapon slot and use EA. it is good to have the skill on the same button as IB. Use Blink arrow for escape/distraction and heal with EC. This is where you appreciate high movement speed the most

High movement speed with Leap Slam and War Bringer allow very comfortable running through the lab traps.

Leveling

I started this char as the first in the league. Was using 2H mace with Earthquake and Resolute Technique. Ive switched to Infernal Blow once completing Cruel lab and took Aspect of Carnage ascendancy. At this moment Ive respecced from 2H/mace passives to fire ones and Avatar of fire, and started using first four links of the final setup, as well as warlords mark blasphemy

In second half of Merciless I specced into Unwavering stance. After getting Kongor's mace, respec from RT, get Elemental overload and Melee crit cluster.

When you finish Merciless lab and get Pain Reaver, warlords blasphemy is no longer needed, which means you can spec into Blood magic and get secondary Explosive arrow setup. At the same time, you can get Kaoms and Stibnite and get rid of Unwavering stance

Bandits: point, point (attack speed), Endurance charge

The Problems

Most of my RIPs come from overconfidence. I for example engaged multi-projectile Dominus in residence map with -max res. Not a good idea:)

Physical damage non-boss monsters are not a problem, in case you have granite/stibnite on. Dont forget poping those when stronger phys hitters are there.

The main weakness is obviously elemental damage. Combination of ele damage mods with crit or -res can be deadly and one-shots from volatiles and other big hitters can occur.

The only real undoable map mod is Ele reflect. Single reflect monster is not a problem though. from other mods -max res is the most dangerous, when in combination with ele mods or elemental boss. Doable with careful approach.

Allies cannot die can be a problem, but the hit damage is usually high enough to stunlock enemies. Focus on monster with aura or totem and you should be fine.
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Please leave the feedback bellow. Im very satisfied with my builds this season, so in case you like it, this guide is probably not the last one:)

reserved

bump

I know melee is out of fashion, but seeing no feedback is kinda disappointing

Looks fun, quick question, what did you do for bandits?

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xendoz wrote:

Looks fun, quick question, what did you do for bandits?

oh, sorry, forgot about that, edited OP

I went point, point, Endurance charge

Do you have your Passive tree mapped?

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Rockpog wrote:

Do you have your Passive tree mapped?

what do you mean "mapped" ?

If you mean the progression its somewhat described in "Leveling" section