[2.4 HC MELEE] MASSIVE AOE DAMAGE + HIGH DEFENSES: CI CRIT PHYS LACERATE / BLADEFLURRY PATHFINDER

Weapon:

You want a high physical sword with high critical strike chance, as lacerate only works with axes or swords and axes have low crit chance.
Aiming for a 300+ physical sword with 8% crit is recommended or you will lack damage.
Best weapon type, in my opinion, is a Vaal Rapier. It has highest crit chance and decent physical damage. Using a Jewelled Foil is also possible. It has lower crit chance but higher attackspeed.



Helm:

High Energy Shield roll with elemental resistences and if possible accuracy.
Best choice for helm enchant should be lacerate radius, if you already have very high damage through your good gear.



Rings:

Alot of different stats are needed here. You want damage multipliers and defense.

Damage: added phys / weap ele damage / accuracy / attackspeed / crit chance (diamond ring)

Defense: The ring slot must have % maximum energy shield stat or an open prefix, so you can add it on elreon crafting bench (1 exalt cost)
Otherwise you are in search of total elemental resis, flat energy shield roll and Mana Leech.



Amulet:

This slot is perfect to increase your damage.
Crit Multiplier and added physical damage is must have here.
Bonuses are crit chance / weap elemental damage and accuracy.
You can sacrifice defenses on amulet slot for sure, if you manage to get an insane amulet with alot of damage, but try to get the % maximum energy shield roll.


Gloves:

High Energy Shield roll and it should have open suffix to add the increased attack speed roll.
Accuracy is useful too here, and for defenses elemental resis.


Boots:

Best choice here is Skyforth, as it fixes so many problems.
You will gain free powercharges no matter what and fix problems with stun on CI build.
Enchant = increased attackspeed.


Charges and Stun before Skyforth:



If you cant afford those yet, you will choose boots with high Energy Shield, high total elemental resis and movementspeed.


Belt:

Best in slot would be a Headhunter, for massive buffs inform of attackspeed / dmg auras / soul eater etc.


If Headhunter is too pricy, you will use a rustic sash with reduced flask charges used, weapon ele, total resis and flat Energy Shield.


Body Armor and Shield:

Pretty self explanatory: As high Energy Shield as possible with total elemental resis and if possible intelligence on top.

Tier 12 Mud Geyser Double Beyond (reduced phys EE)


Tier 11 Strand (double packsize, no regen, reduced crit)



Will add more soon.

Dps in hideout: 52670

Dps with charges and flasks: 221233

Dps with charges, flasks and vaal haste: 249672

Dps with everything and Headhunter buffs: only God knows

Crit chance: 85.36%

Chance to hit: 90% (2957 accuarcy)

Energyshield: 11723

High Level (currently Level 99 in Essence Hc)


Level 86:


Ascendancy Passives Order:

Your main setup for Lacerate.
Using faster attacks gem instead of melee phys is also a choice, because its safer versus reflect and if you are surrounded by enemies, its also better to attack faster.



Important Setup to generate frenzy charges and more flask charges.
The Herald of Ice explosions are hugely underrated and will increase your clearspeed alot.


Auras you are running are linked with lvl 3 or lvl 4 enlighten.
You need to have 12% reduced mana reserved (charisma wheel) with level 3 enlighten and skyforth. With level 4 enlighten and skyforth you need only 4% red. mana reserved and save 2 passives.


To have insane clearspeed, you need mobility skill inform of shield charge and of course linked with fortify for additional defense. Ice Golem increases your damage by some good amount and gains fortify here too. (colours are hard to get on energyshield item)


Standard defense cwdt setup with enfeeble


Utility for speed farm and additional defense for map bosses / exiles etc

Now the good part, we are Pathfinders after all.
We chose Pathfinder because her class will buff our flasks on so many levels and therefor buff our char through the roof. It will not be possible to get shocked from monsters or from the Vinktars flask usage and annoying stuff like chilled ground cant affect us either. Overall you gain more flask charges and your flasks will yield more damage, defense, area of effect and duration.


Gaining 84% max resis on all elements is huge for survival and taste of hate + basalt flask will prepare us for extreme physical damage incomming.
The leech from Vinktars is of course insane for surivial too and it will shock enemies from converting phys to lightning. With Dying Sun, our aoe will cover more than 1 screen.

Its possible to switch basalt flask with
for more dps / mobility



Switching Atziri Flask with
will yield you more (tooltip)dps, but the knockback can be annoying and it can screw up the effect of lacerate, where it hits with both waves for more damage.

Damage Damage Damage, nothing more to say here.
Crit multiplier in all forms, will be the best boost for dps and then get physical damage and attackspeed.

Otherwise you can fix your missing resis (need 169% in hideout) here
and get Mana Leech if you havent got it on rings or amulet.



Huge Energy Shield Pool Boost, apply in jewel socket under pain attunement in passive tree.

http://imgur.com/vwJpgzc

I optimized my Atlas, so it can only drop maps with good layouts.
Unfortunatly nearly all new maps or red maps have bad layouts.
Whenever a tier 10 - 15 map drops, it can only drop one of these and in some rarer chases neighbour maps:

normal = kill all for skill point

cruel = help kraityn for 8% attackspeed

merciless = help alira for +1 power charge

I recommend you to level up with Bladevortex, as its really strong to level with and you mostly stay on the outline of the later melee tree.

Level up in Dried Lake Merciless until you are level ~73-78.


Bladevortex Leveling Tree:


Bladevortex Gem Links:


Leveling Uniques:


Leveling Rares:


Leveling Magics: