[2.6] Molten Strike Set the World on Fire

- Leveling is simple, as you use the same skill all the way through, but you will need to be careful and keep your gear up to date in Merciless, same as any melee.

- When choosing your ascendancies, do not go straight for Aspect of Carnage. You will die a lot. Instead it's better to go for the leech nodes, and pick up AoC after you have enough survivability to use it (I.E. bosses will not 1-shot you, even if you take a bit more damage). This allows you to get rid of your mana potions early on, and run more life or defensive flasks to keep you alive.

- Get your first Razor of the Seventh Sun ASAP. The sustain it provides is amazing. After that, it's your choice if you want to go for a second Razor, or get your two core rings (Emberwake and The Taming). Emberwake + Razor(s) will give you sustain, The Taming will give you the biggest damage boost, after the first Razor. (Disclaimer: I do not yet have an Eye of Innocence, so I cannot comment on that DPS boost.)

- Yes, when you equip your Razors, your DPS tooltip may drop. It doesn't mean you're doing less damage. The increased physical vs. ignited mobs is not reflected by your tooltip, nor is the damage added by The Taming, or ignites (which are a huge portion of your damage).

- Do not neglect your Cast When Damage Taken links. They are vital to your sustain. More ignites = more life gain from your Razors.

- Stack as much life as you can. The tree here doesn't quite have enough for high tier maps or uber lab without somewhat expensive gear. I would consider tweaking it a little to get more life, even at the cost of a little damage, in order to survive longer. All the Razor healing/leech in the game won't save you if you get 1-shot. I personally don't feel comfortable on melee characters in uber lab without ~6.5k health. Even that is kind of low. Eventually, as you start to get more expensive gear with more life, you can respec your tree to remove a few life nodes if you're comfortable with it to pick up more damage.

- I had been using Leap Strike on this character until tonight. In general, I find Leap Strike is better for getting around (I play in lab a lot), but Whirling Blades I find to be better for dodging bosses (this is what I usually use on characters). After talking with stickman4 and dying twice in Uber Lab because Leap wasn't working for me, I prefer Whirling Blades. I also saw an increase in clear time on linear maps with W.B.

- In the transition stages, where you don't have as much health as you should as a melee, it is vital that you keep Fortify up at all times while fighting bosses. Fortify lasts ~5 seconds, so every 4 or less you should be using Leap Strike/Whirling Blades to reapply the buff. It makes the difference in my character currently being able to facetank uber Izaro and not being able to.

- If the mobs in the map you're in tend to be resistant to fire, try swapping in Fire Penetration instead of Weapon Elemental Damage or another red support. I find in my 5L, I have a faster clear time this way.

- With Infernal Blow, against bosses with lots of adds or in lower tier maps, sometimes it's worth keeping Melee Splash in for the boss fight. Group the adds around the boss, blow them all up at once, and watch the boss drop to half health. Sometimes it's better to keep the mobs alive so you can ignite them with your CWDT, and get life off them. You'll have to experiment with the different fights and see what works best for you.