[2.6] Rigwald's Fury - Elemental Cleave Raider

Hi,

I'm having blast playing this character, so I decided to write this guide, perhaps someone will try this build and perhaps find some improvements to it.

So here's the build:

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# Intro
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This is second character I built in Legacy league. My league starter was EK nova poison dude, sadly he was not fun to play, stopped playing that character after I got enough currency to start this character (that was around 3rd week into league).

So I thought: Hey, these new threshold jewels are looking good, same with these new changes to passive tree around ranger / shadow area (I love what GGG done for elemental builds). Oh and these reworked old uniques ARE amazing, let's try some of those out.

Goals for the build:
- be melee - to see how bad it really is
- be life build, preferably without VP - same reason as above
- use some main attack other than Blade Flurry - don't like that skill, too limiting in weapon choices
- don't use any broken mechanic that is going to be changed (ES + GR + VP)
- be able to reach end game content and complete it if possible

Pros:
- is able to do any content there is
- is able to do any any map mod there is (only exception in cons)
- is very durable, while having great damage output
- has good clear speed
- rather cheap - bought my current gear for around 4-5ex - linking and coloring done by myself

Cons:
- can't do elemental reflect maps - single reflect mobs are not a problem
- starts to shine with 6L - 5L damage is enough to complete everything up to T15 maps
- requires some player skill - to know what and when to dodge, it's not invincible (slams hurt on maps with heavy damage mods, no problem on maps with only slight damage increase though)

Clarification of endgame claim above:
- Uber Atziri - Had just one try, which failed, but I managed to bring her down to 50% before final death. Sadly most of portals were wasted on trio, as I have little experience with their hard form (normal Atziri is easy and trio die nearly instantly) - Perfectly possible with enough experience.
- Shaper and Guardians - All 4 Guardians down, read post below for more info on those. I'll leave Shaper for some other day.
- Uber Izaro - Easy fight, I'm doing only full key runs. Only mechanic I don't skip are Fonts.
- Breach lords - Did not manage to get enough splinters for Chayula stone, but other 4 are easy to kill
- Twinned T15s are no problem (got Abyss and Core, both were easy to do and Decoy totem OP :))
- My current Atlas bonus is 120.

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# Build
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Passive tree:
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAIBAABeAdwDhwUtBfkILhGBEdUUIBR1FfAXJhjbGY4brSFgI_YoKi5TMZ41kjrhPL5AoEHQQzFEDUd-Sn1Nkk3jUEdU_lb6Vw1Xl1oaXz9fcGBBYetjcGOnZU1noGhlbbRvJ287dO108XfXd-N4DXloelN6hHrvexR9dX8rgayDbYTZhVKHdotPjX2NuY9glLiVZpXMl3maapsmm2qbjZzEo4qmV6luqXmtjbF8tfK3Ir02vea-p8AawQTDM8PmyPDPes9-0K3Tb9N-2L3Y1dlh2sHdRuOf5FHkauXm7T_tg-4O7w7vevJF85v5Y_1u_gr-j_66

I decided not to focus on any particular defense, because Coil and Vectors are both AR / EVA hybrids and I have not many passive points to spare to focus on anything and it would make gearing expensive.

The build has defensively:
- quite high block
- nice base evasion
- dodge
- permanent fortify
- status ailments immunity
- life regeneration
- increased flask duration and charges gained
- 6.6k HP

Offenses (PoE Builder numbers):
- Map clear (buffs + flasks) - 230k (274k with totem) dps
- Boss beating (CE + everything up) - 707k dps (with VH), 633k dps without VH
Offenses (tootips):
- Map clear (buffs + flasks) - ~150k (~190k with totem) dps
- Boss beating (CE + everything up) - ~315k dps (with VH), ~270k dps without VH


Bandits:
HP, AS (Point also possible), Frenzy charge

Acendancy:
Way of the Poacher -> Avatar of the Slaughter -> Quartz Infusion -> Avatar of the Veil

Leveling tips:
- Traverse the tree as soon as possible (up to the marauder socket where I have my Overwhelming Odds), then start filling up life nodes, then start filling up damage nodes.
- Get Winter Spirit just as you start with mapping or as soon as possible if you have Tabula and Elreon rings / enough leveling damage to sustain attacks.
- Get jewel sockets as needed to cap resistances and stats.

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# Gear
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I find these two beauties when I was looking for all league uniques I missed in the past and after short market research I found out they are rather cheap. They have everything one might want to have in weapons (great damage, large accuracy bonus, nice attack speed and good block bonus). As matter of fact, these were decision makers for the build. Frenzy on kill is nice addition, helps a bit with Vectors, you get to max charges fast.


This veteran needs no introduction. Main defense against physical damage, good life roll and bit of damage on top of that. What's not to like? I started with normal 5L version, when I had enough for top end roll of relic, I bought one and 6L it.


These are finally useful for frenzy focused characters. Very strong, no real downside with raiders frenzy duration (I have 14s duration). Also offsets much of Coils lightning resistance penalty.


Permanent Fortify, awesome! Nice AoE increase when in the middle of large pack of mobs, amazing (whirl to the center and you'll cover whole pack)! Originally I used two, double AoE increase is in fact quite noticeable. Since I try on most of my characters to get at least 0% chaos resist (not many sources of chaos damage, but f.e. the new Rogue exile can be nasty) I decided to swap it out and get another all resists / chaos resist jewel.


The Wise Oak is imho best flask there is in the game right now. More penetration, reduction of any incoming elemental damage. It also negates Elemental Weakness map mod with just slight resistance overcap (it's hard to overcap enough with Coil and if you want this flask fully functional).
Rumi's need no introduction. Great block bonus, some armor.
Promise also need no introduction, there's no better and more universal flask that boosts damage this much. Source of chaos resistance. I keep these three up nearly all the time.
During leveling I experimented with with different sources of instant life flasks and I find these the best option (both are great panic buttons).

Remaining gear:

- Primary focus is on getting gear to have all three elemental resistances equal, with nice life roll where possible
- Secondary focus is getting enough Int to run lvl 20 Elemental Weakness in Blasphemy
- Some WED mods would be nice, but it's nearly impossible to find such gear or it's gonna be incredibly expensive
- The +2 minion level mod on helmet turned out to be nice QoL for Golem and totem resistances.

Enchantments:
Helmet:
I think any Cleave would be nice. No luck for me and I don't keep my hopes high.
Gloves:
Commandment of Fury - It has 50% conversion to fire, so same percentage of conversion as on main attack. Boosted by Blasphemy, yummy. It actually oneshots white trash mobs.
Boots:
80% stun avoidance - great defensive option. Now that I don't have it, I do get stunned from time to time, if I don't forget myself in bursty AoE I have no problem.
16% attack speed - I currently use this one. More power to the people.
2% life / mana regen - Wasted 1 ex on Twice enchanted and did around 40 lab runs, did not get this one, might be good.

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# Gems
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Main attack:
Cleave - Multistrike - WED - Phys2Light - Inc AoE / Conc effect - Melee phys (6L)
- I use conc effect for beefier bosses, I'm lazy at easy bosses so I just go on and beat the crap of the them without it (still over 400k dps).

Auras:
Hatred - More power to the people.
Blasphemy + Elemental Weakness - Major damage boost, it's AoE covers area of cleave even in large packs of mobs (I think dual OO is actually tiny bit larger than this, no big deal).
- Swap Blasphemy for Herald of Ash for hexproof maps

Vaal:
Vaal haste - Boss beater
Vaal Lightning Trap - Great damage boost for any beefier fights (like hard essence mobs and bosses)
- Link increased duration to these both

Summons:
Lightning Golem - More AS never hurts.
Ancestral Warchief / Decoy totem - Warchief for more damage. Decoy totem is single most broken gem there is in game. Invalidates 99% of boss fights in game (makes Izaro joke, makes Malachai fight much easier).
I don't use decoy much lately, I know what to expect, but it can make life much easier in rippy maps or hard fights (such as though Atziri trio or Uber Izaro if you're not experienced enough with mechanics of their fights).
- Link both to Minion and Totem resistances so they are not that easy to kill in heavy elemental fights.
- Increased duration for totem (sadly it will also link to golem, so check out his mana cost).

Supports:
WB + FA + Reduced mana - General movement skill, easier to sustain with reduced mana
Enduring / Rallying cry - Rallying cry for some damage boost and mainly to sustain movement for longer distances. Enduring cry for where it matters (f.e. Guardian fights).
CDWT + IC + Incresed duration - Not really needed for porcupines (they just don't kill me even if I pop large pack of them), but better be safe than sorry. Alternative would be CDWT + Vortex + Inc AoE, it ain't bad, most of time it fires when everything is dead though.

Bringing gems to Q20:
Cleave -> Phys2Light -> Blasphemy -> Elemental Weakness -> Attack supports -> everything else you might feel needs Q20 (f.e. tankier Decoy totem never hurts)

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# The End
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Here's PoE Builder export if you'd like to see some exact numbers:
Spoiler
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KOha7Aq22PkadT3cNLx_Oqhh-y0KAyBoIccLAAGL3LRe4Ju5iRK3qQRbN9GoA2AHjC_JHnVRdi9aLwTWqu1FmgL2_Xtz_N9dfAzky6y-RXVdFfOHLC_1d-fm0RDcMy3KMfCMfZ20_EdIVyJfChG4glHlBohxilyo1HwSIcFwQLj0Ao58VwYeY24Y6tALKOKRh3TgrbdJG_6D1_yHdFSz1vwr8grlrtvhDHQ7fdoluLOa3cX0iQ7ZooDu14vA3TXwocjvczF3PtjrnsXgMBd3WVqA92vH3qdp53VKcOCHEklGGWY6dCEeiQAT3xOEBH4Q-szlVHPwIelFBLK5wDwAqD0onYOteb1dUZysVxONpgQHa5TLMnf4kMXKCXXFH2dpCoYXR8YSq5wK9PJdnCRVctA26FP0XLlBgu2gtxLOOSQG6wM24die2HGu0x9zoxPDdXdt_XNe67z1W2HZysK9Wz-teiu4QRzsduo2nSl1VyAcZgoG1RG6Yxfd9kC6S_1RfPcoErVqi0wmAM7gPFap3YC9PtF-PMEjwaC84cplUOBgZh5HQJ0vA60EC1zwSeDSWAmuCQHuYCIogWwGmQ6SyVre8rttYrRpEU-TPRM7hVKxgRFCUNUOqdsjXV3qiv5Zt0U-2SCA3H32Mcnwu-kPEt6ZHk3WWynsznQMxJrSgVgYU92mLdRHW9fiAfaTz-uyFLbU6srwACM3gMgoGBdSaaIiJaWGwI-xdF3se1xh7uMoMP0Z5AuXRgTcPNQBCXj7-QAn2zR18uKkoxPg2fCHPLyBLXX_4pMFtJ2Vk60_VcqyFUsxOBDA5drlkGmUb1EB7no4lcynY-cdUPHBiW1kbrBmqDNRSLEAJ-Ace8CLJY4EAQ4dyohR4MrAqUEF0gOtYBIIN4Ag6_sKYa3DdTbRyEpB2x_aaHTTpV1q09Si7w-f8QYT7Oq27Bou1o-1WWVbXQdP8cgtEHc9JX2XW9JzIHJdtPPTCdT3JdDoVo4CwKFOkZ6JP6aGF0QAtgyqT-76OpRCBZiCYXtAAAB_FSGKFcOQylAEPGCNv3nbu14nWxvntb1ZS6sDqE0ToI3jWb58HtPokFVd8A66jSuuvhnens1inG-q0eS-rpZ7rd7OjLdFU11Pat-Ih0w6J7kopqvm8LpHUAVE2hecRiGFYpKFkY8k8IVQaCkY0Z7rMxFoSky_UgcMUWl6MsCuJRPajda7kts9YheRboK0i9maG5BNN-DWiGs4l2WOH_xt57Br-72d4zrJFu-nLi7mLW5UELJ43W0ls7pXuZRCTanqDlrzOtvrnaoCaAzBfr8hjWsq2N3cS1XkNmS8ftM2rw8FW4_YkCIdi9eXwZdrb59o8TrEUhRvihorbq1IN2WqzTduvGDSta3GG1BLQbT9lOubo1s219Q43ra5xr0dzDaFFi8tLtHnHQeAuqsxC69foLRpxr7fnaVRfLfxbnVsX8Vtv4s9_HA0Gp50vYkNabliRzVZ3nHCLEu0SGtz2RyhzVNoGwtW72xzt0PQvBJePxh_flZzs8dyyNsCdmwx7LmV02I_M5dJF2e9uLw4WrxrWiP0am_9Tf__B0zxMk0=


During my initial research I saw that lot of people whine on these forums how life is bad, how melee is bad and generally how this or that is bad, so I decided to try and see how things really are. I'm very satisfied with the result, it's not bad even without any broken mechanic. I very much like playing this character so, unlike my other builds, where I burn out around lvl 90, I decided to level it up to level 95... Currently on level 93.

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# 3.0 Thoughts
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I should be able to reach more than 7K HP easily, damage output should be same as now, depends on availability of extra frenzy charge, no changes in this tree in 3.0.
New bandit rewards are amazing, I'm torn between Kraityn and Oak, will probably go with Kraityn that seems more useful than what Oak offers (PoE builder says it's same damage wise).

Edit: Rewritten large parts of guide in preparation for upcoming rewrite of next post on my experience with Guardians. Also fixed some typos.
Edit: Did look into PoEB and properly checked what gems and effect I have turned on and updated damage numbers.
Last edited by peetrscz on Jun 23, 2017, 4:47:48 PM
Last bumped on Jun 22, 2017, 6:10:13 PM
I had beaten all 4 Guardians few times now. I also tried them in group of two with friends HoWA Ascendant for his Atlas. He has more damage, but much lower survivability. When he died, he stayed dead until last few % then came back.

Here are my thoughts:

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# Chimera
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Chimera himself is no threat at all, all his moves are jokes. Add phases are somewhat "dangerous". As in: my only death in 1st run came from my own mistake due to puncture (dog boss) I did not notice in time. Dogs got some serious damage going, but nothing Enduring Cry + IC wouldn't handle. Snake phase is joke as is goatman phase.

With some damage mods on map dogs become serious threat and snakes do some damage after all, Goatmen are still joke (they hurt only with leap, but that's so easy to dodge that it doesn't matter). Adds are dangerous only in large numbers (like 10+ at same time).

Flask uptime is slight problem, no adds during boss fights. With proper timing and shock from Vaal trap, it's no problem to beat him down to next phase just in time you need to refill them. I swap out Inc Duration from golem / totem setup for 2nd totem. Cast Warchief for boss fights, Decoy for add phases to reduce their initial large numbers safely. If map has no extra damage mods, use only Warchief.

Did not do this one in group.

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# Hydra
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I like this fight very much. Nice test of player skill!

She's not that dangerous, as all her attacks are telegraphed long time before she fires. The carpet bombing does average damage, I'm not sure that I got hit by barrage even once or it just did not do any considerable damage. Her fork mayhem shot is dangerous, this hits me for around 40-50% of life, so if you get unlucky and are hit by this and arena ball at same time it can kill you easily (speaking of two player damage). I did die few times to this (once when doing initial opening run, once when carrying my friend).

Arena balls are nasty, only truly dangerous thing in this fight. Eat three consecutive and you're dead (don't use WB often, that can get you killed easily).

Flask uptime is good here, as she keeps summoning them very often. Adds are easy to kill, vortexes can be safely ignored (you won't be standing in them for long anyway in this fight anyway). Use Warchief totem, Decoy is useless here.

Two players are pretty much same as solo, she just have more HPs.

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# Minotaur
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Big let down of Guardians, this boss has got exactly 1 dangerous move, nothing else. Facetanked him in both solo runs. I did not even got hit by the lightning fences, there was just no reason to go through them. Slam does some damage, but nothing that is not leeched / regenerated nearly instantly. His only dangerous move is burrow, as I found out during two player run. This should be dodged, but it's quite easy to spot and WB negates it.

Flasks uptime is great, adds are easy to kill and are summoned quite often in nice numbers.

Two players is where it got dangerous, as he kept changing aggro between us and thus burrowed quite often.

This Guardian, I think, becomes dangerous only with some serious damage mods on the map.

##########
# Phoenix
##########
I like this fight too, you have to show some skill and he's much harder than Hydra.

His standard attacks are not dangerous. His whirling charge does quite lot of damage with damage mods up, but can be pretty much ignored without those. His explosion is the dangerous attack, dodge it or die. Don't fight in fire cyclones, those can hurt in combination with damage from other sources in this fight.

What I consider the most dangerous thing in this fight are his adds. Sure, they are easy to kill, but their projectiles can be easily missed in all the fiery mayhem in the arena and they do lot of damage. Upside is he summons adds quite often so flask uptime is no big problem.

Use Warchief. Decoy is also good option for maps with some damage mods, it can buy you time to leech off adds or get flask charges back. Also spam Enduring cry, the heal from it is actually very useful here and more IC uptime is good too.

Two players and vulnerability is where the charge got dangerous. It did not kill me, but left me with dangerously low HPs.
Last edited by peetrscz on Jun 22, 2017, 6:24:28 PM
Hi! Really like the concept of your build.

just a few questions:

What is your tooltip dps on cleave with only aura/golem up? What about unbuffed? (town dps).I find it exetremely hard to reach 300k dps without flasks even on my gladiator wearing abyssus ;/

How is the clear speed on t13-15 maps?

Will probably be trying your build on my next character, thank you for the time writing everything down!
"
paulofbd wrote:
Hi! Really like the concept of your build.

just a few questions:

What is your tooltip dps on cleave with only aura/golem up? What about unbuffed? (town dps).I find it exetremely hard to reach 300k dps without flasks even on my gladiator wearing abyssus ;/

How is the clear speed on t13-15 maps?

Will probably be trying your build on my next character, thank you for the time writing everything down!


Hi, I'm glad you like it, I wasn't sure how it will turn out when I was developing the build, but it turned out to be surprisingly though to kill character with great damage.

To your questions:
I did not stated it's without flasks ;) I have 100% uptime of flasks in 95% of content. Lot of my damage is invisible on tooltip (res penetration)...
HO tooltip dps, that is Hatred and Golem, is 44k (67k with CE). Also don't forget this is frenzy Raider, so you need to count in 8 frenzy charges with all Raiders additional bonuses from them. You'll get all charges up very fast and don't lose them ever unless traversing map for long distances / time.

Clear speed is very good, not the speed of super optimized Shaped Strand build, I don't care for such build. Consider 90% movement speed and 8.1 APS for general map clear. WB is VERY fast when used on shortest distance and it is completely sustainable with Rallying Cry (17s duration).
The packs die mostly in 1 or 2 attack animations, up to T16. Of course this depends on map mods, you will get slower in maps with increased monsters life with additional ele/chaos resistances.
I can't really say how fast I run maps (around 5mins on T15), because I do tend to pick stuff up to chance or ID good base etc. Straight rushes on easy layouts, such as Shaped Quay, are fast.

Tried to measure it by in game clock:
Shaped strand (with minimal pickups, but with checking every corner for mobs, becuase of Bloodlines + Nemesis stones) - ~2mins
Shaped Underground River with Temporal Chains + Breach and Bloodlines stones - ~5mins

If I compare myself to friends BF HoWA Ascendant, we're the same speed.
Last edited by peetrscz on Jun 23, 2017, 5:05:45 PM

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