Marauder - [3.1] Meatball Meathead [MoltenStrike | Berserker Leech Tank | Guardian/Shaper Farmer] - Forum

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Build goal

Recreate the feel of playing a VP Berserker pre 3.1 in 3.1
Tanky character, with good damage and ability to shrug off most of what the game throws at you.

Stats and PoB

https://pastebin.com/YHuBKN0M
This is my current character in PoB. Shaper DPS per ball fully buffed is 326k. If we are greedy and assume perfect use of Ancestral Call and apply average chance of ball hitting (assumed 40%, 12 balls)+melee hit, we get 3.3mil single target. This is pretty realistic vs Guardians mid fight but vs shaper we remove frenzy and onslaught and have about 264k per ball, resulting in 2.7mil

Character sheet, flasked.

Pros/Cons

+Do all content (besides Grandmasters)
+Can do reflect, any corrupted maps except no leech
+High amount of HP
+High potential on budget
+Good damage
+All the advantages of instant leech like:
+Don't need a life flask
+Can only be killed by oneshot or your own incompetence
+Manlets will bitch about you using it
-Is a melee build and thus doesn't the reach bow/wanders do
-Some computers can't handle the balls
-Meaningful upgrades are expensive
-Comparatively less fun than other builds

Passives

This is what your tree should look like by level 97
poeurl.com/bK3J
This is what I used on entering maps at 70
poeurl.com/bK3M

Gearing, enchants and gems

Gear choices

Bloodseeker, core unique of the build. Decent attackspeed, enables instant leech, QoL 5% MS.
You'd want to acquire one with a Culling Strike corruption later on.

Simply the best option for off hand.

Tabula, a classic. Replace it with belly when you can.
Only alternative to belly can be an elder chest with 100+ life, 10%+ increased maximum life to match the amout of life Belly gives and any bonus mods like %phys taken as fire or regen/resistances would make it an upgrade. Or...

Shroud, the edge. Will result in slightly less life (It takes me from 8.2k to 8k) but gives you more freedom with jewel selection and means you straying from the AoF/Xoph path I took.

Meme Artifice. It gives me 38% more damage versus shaper.

Good unique choice for a helmet, decent life, freeze immunity and a decent chunk of damage increase. Rare helmet can do fine but for my preffered flask setup I needed 2 immunities dealt with. This dealt with Freeze/Chill...

...and this dealt with shock. This build uses 2 purities and watcher's eyes for purity immunities/%damage taken as are incredibly cheap for how useful they are. 30-40c and plenty available.

Exacelent choice to start mapping, but I advise replacing them with a rare pair as you'd want to benefit from blind on hit jewels.

Stygian, duh. Life, res, wed. Advise getting one with 16% or more reduced charges used and speccing into Arcane Chemistry - ups your flask uses to 3. Very beneficial.

Xoph, expensive fucker. Worth it tho. Shitton of damage.

A 10% more multi and more life than a rare glove would give with 2 good jewels.

...
These are not worth the cost. But if you got the money...

Adds 2 balls and defensive boost. 2 balls is 18-25% more damage, depending on enchant.

Good defensive flask.

There's no options for unique topaz for this build.

Be wise, use Oak.

Basalt for defense. Can be a Quicksilver if you want to go faster.

Encahnts
Enchant you want on your helm is definately 3 extra balls. It's worth the money.
You highly advise trudging trough merc lab a couple times to get a Decree of Ire on your gloves. Your instant leech is tied to your hits with weapon, couple this with Vengeance and Reckoning for discount CWDT firestorm unkillable experience of pre 3.1 VP zerker.
Example of why it's so good: https://clips.twitch.tv/DullDifficultStinkbugTTours
I can't count how many times I had similar situations where this enchant saved me.
Get w/e u want on boots, crit for more reliable EO, attackspeed, regen, fire damage, all good.

Jewels

2 wildfires, a must.
You want 1 jewel with blind on hit, extremely powerful defensively.
1-2 jewels with onslaught on kill.
You want life, flat fire damage. A 5% ias or 8% if you crit recently can substitude one flat fire roll.

Auras & Buffs
Your aura reservations are Purities of Ice & Lightning coupled with AA. AA fire damage reduction is pretty much equal to how much a purity of fire would give, but also comes with phys reduction. You will need a level 3 empower to run all of these.
Run Bloodrage, 20 ias and frenzy charges.
Enduring Cry for a defense boost.
Unlinked Ancestral Protector fot 20% more attackspeed on bossing is dope.

CWDT
You don't need Immortall Call. Just a 2L of CWDT+Curse is all you need. I just have infeeble there all the time but below T16 maps you don't need it so might as well use flammability.

Main DPS link
Molten Strike -duh
WED - duh
Immolate - I have shitton of flat fire from 11 abyssal jewels and boots fire enchant, Immolate is equivalent to 50% more damage for me. I am conteplating replacing it with Elemental Focus but unless you're on the same level of flat damage as me it's going to be your main source of damage for a LOOONG time. You get 15% ignite chance from the tree, with all the balls you'll be igniting shit reliably.
Ancestral Call - Must have, enables MS to clear packs. Also acts as more multi for single target, 70% more best case with lv21 gem but iy's unreliable and require positioning. Either be positioned close to boss but not too close to reach with melee hit or if it's a melee boss aim to the side of him.
Faster attacks - atm it's a 20% more multi for me, there are 40% multi alternatives but you definnately don't want to attack slower. Don't use multistrike, your clear vs pack will be the same but you lose control and can't properly take advantage of Ancestrall Call vs bosses.
6th link is either Fire penetration or Concetrated Effect. Untill you get the 2 pen nodes on tree, Xoph and Oak, penetraion is better.

My gear