[3.1] Detonate Dead Berserker - 9k Life, 500k Shaper dps

We use a setup with Poet's Pen (PP) - Unearth in one wand, Detonate Dead (DD) in the other. The special thing about DD is, that it scales from corpse life. The corpse life of Unearth corpses scales from its' gem level. This is where PP comes in handy, as it gives up to 4 levels - realistically 3 - to socketed active gems (sadly not to support gems, such as Empower).

rule no. 1: Unearth corpse level increases base damage and therefore is a big multiplier

When we attack, the first PP creates corpses with Unearth and the second PP detonates them. As we attack faster, the more often we detonate corpses. The spells triggered from PP have 250ms cooldown, so we aim for close to 4 attacks per second to get the best out of it. If you attack faster than 4 times per second you lose damage (up tp 50% in worst case), because we bypass the 250ms cooldown of spells in PP. An example for better understanding: let's say you attack faster than 4 times per second, at a rate of 240ms. So on your first attack, you trigger the spell, which then goes on cooldown for 250ms. On your second attack (after 240ms) you spell is still on cooldown for 10ms, so you miss the trigger. Only on your third attack (after 480ms) you'll be able to tigger socketed spell again for the second time.

With (rather expensive) Shaper boots and belt, that have increased cooldown recovery speed (CDR) you can decrease the cooldown of spells in PP. The rule for attacks per second is: 4 * (1 + total cooldown recovery). example: assume you have 15% CDR. 4 * 1.15 = 4.6 maximum attacks per second. CDR therrefore also is a MORE multiplier.

rule no. 2: Aim for 3.9 attacks per second, because server-client synchronisation may costs you some miliseconds as well.

Detonate dead has 2 parts that even result in 2 seperate hits per cast. The first (we call it spell part) originates from gem level and added damage, it is scaled by spell damage, fire/elemental damage, area damage and generic damage. The second part (corpse part) originates from the detonated corpses life (6%) and is scaled by fire/elemental damage, area damage and gerneric damage only. It can't be reclected. Also note that Critical strike chance for spells does not affect the corpse part of the spell, more about that in section "Why not crit?".

rule no. 3: Don't get spell crit/damage nodes on the tree or gear.

Pro:
+ very tanky
+ all map mods
> ele reflect: use level 1 DD (~40% less damage) TESTED
> less recovery/no regen/no leech: we have multiple forms of recovery
> no regen + no leech: support Frenzy with Bloodmagic or use default attack (but ughhhh)
+ can use Magic Find (MF) equip and still have 6k+ Life
+ can do most (36) challanges solo
+ probably Hardcore viable (can't say exactly, as I am a softcore peasant)
+ rather cheap helm enchant (+5 to Unearth corpse level); got Starkonja's for 1ex 3 weeks into league
+ no need for Abyss uniques/jewels
+ did Hall of Grandmasters and Putrid Cloister solo
+ did first Chayula ever with this build

Con:
- not top-tier clearspeed
- not SSF viable
- requires 2 PP and needs Kaom's Heart + helm enchant to feel good
- level 21 skill gems and level 4 empower come expensive
- got nuked by uber Atziri
- Berserkes attack speed bonus from Cloaked in Savagery is unreliable; same for Rite of Ruin

Deathless Phoenix, hard mods (level 93): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdCltPhYC_8
Xoph Breachstone (level 72): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65rcjb4OMp4
Deathless Hydra (level 89): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB3CG4_LbUY

required gear:
No corruption needed. the colors on the second one (RGG) are done best with Vorici 7 for 100 chromes.

We really need that enchant. Starkonja's is not necessary. We can get 3.9 attacks per second quite good without it. Can get Hrimnor's Resolve for extra damage bonus and Freeze/Chill immunity.

highly recommended:
Life and Fire damage, nothing more to say. We don't need sockets/links, as those are in our weapons. Can use Belly of the Beast or any other chest with high life rolls (some decent stat Elder chest might be BiS, but would be way more expensive)

endgame choice:
BiS for damage and life. It gives more life (with Kaom's Heart) than flat 100+ Life amulet.

my gear:


Flasks:
I go completely with magic utility flasks: remove curses, bleed, poison, freeze (if not Hrimnor's). I took a Sulphur for damage and Life regen, Basalt for Phys mitigation, Quicksilver for speed, a panic life flask for instant recovery and swapped ruby/topaz/sapphire/amethyst if needed.


Jewels:
Aim for Life and 2 damage mods like area, fire or generic damage. Those can be expensive. I paid around 1-2ex each for those:

A vitality "Life on hit" Watcher's Eye gives you high life sustain and enables to do more map mods:


Magic Find:

We will have a very slow movement speed, but thanks to more skill sockets, we can use a 4-link Lightning Warp (Faster Casting - Less Duration - 20% quality Culling Strike). I did breachstones easily, but struggeled with Full sextanted shaped Vault, missing 3k life is hard.

Pen 1: DD - Concentrated Effect - Spell Cascade
I tested and confirm: Spell Cascade does explode 3 corpses at once on the same location, so it's basically a 107% MORE multiplier (200% for 2 additional corspes - [31% Less * 3])
Pen 2: Unearth - Empower - Volley/LMP
Create 3 corpses with a very high "body" level. For numbers on the corpses life see section "The Math".

Attack of Choice: Frenzy - Culling Strike - Blind (- Faster Attacks)
I chose Blind for defense. It works even better with Enfeeble as curse of choice. Quality on Culling strike gives us up to 10% attack speed. I didn't need Faster attacks, as I would have attacked faster than 4 times per second.

Aura: Vitality, Arctic Armour, Purity of Elements.
Vitality is amazing combined with Watcher's Eye Jewel. Having the mod "20-30 Life gained for each enemy hit while affected by vitality" is an awesome defense. Arctic Armour for raw defense, especially against physical hits. I chose Purity of Elements to cap resists in Elemental weakness maps and especially when putting on MF-equip.

Utility: Cast When Damage Taken (level 20) - Stone/Flame Golem - Immortal Call - Flammability
I guess i speakes for itself. Stone Golem is more defensive, Flame golem offensive. Flammability is offensive curse and can be swapped for Enfeeble.

Movement: Lightning Warp - faster Casting (- Less Duration)
I had no sockets left for Less Duration. But it can be used when putting on MF-equip.

Ascendant Assasin/Inquisitor for crit version: I tried to crunch a crit version in PoB and achieved 70% crit chance. Downside: Using Increased Critical Strikes/Damage Support makes you drop other More multipliers or even Spell cascade. Even with very decent crit equip I did hardly get the same damage numbers as with Berserker.

other possible chices:
- Raider for better movement and clearspeed and damage through frenzy charges. But the high attack speed might be a problem and hase to get overcome by Reduced Cooldown recovery on Belt/boots, which will be really expensive.
- Inquisitor for possible crit version, but it doesn't look very promising to me.

As mentioned before the corpse part of DD is not affected by critical strike chance for spells. Only generic crit modifiers, as from Diamond Rings or other rare jewellery affect it. Also class choices like Assassin, Inquisitor or Ascendant could potentially scale DD explosions into OK'ish levels, but my opinion is, that it's not worth it. Berserker offers the best More multiplier for this skill.

The best thing about levelling is, that we can use Poet's Pen through the whole game and don't require any other links to make things work. I would not use DD for levelling though (put it in weapon swap to level, if not already happend on your league starter).
Levelling Skills could be Firestorm and/or Magma Orb, but I would recommend Volatile Dead. The second Pen would then best go with Unearth of course.

Here are some levelling trees:
level ~20: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.1.3/AAAABAECAAYOCfYUIBkuJ-062D0PPfxQR1hjXz9nm3y7gpuMz6-nxPbG2NR81I_kUew47w72SA==
level ~50: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.1.3/AAAABAECAAN1BLMGDgn2FCAZLho4Jy8n7TLROtg8BT0PPfxFR0WdUEdTUlW1VkhXDVhjXwRfP2ZUfLuCm4V7jM-QVZErmjua4J2uns2fy6IApwinMK-nwGbBBMT2xtjSIdR82CTZYeFz6-7sOO8O73zwH_ZI
level ~75: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.1.3/AAAABAECAAN1BAcEswYOCfYUIBkuGjgc3B8CJy8n7SqNMjQy0TWSNsU22DpYOtg64TwFPC09Dz38RUdFnUbXSRtN41BHU1JVtVXGVkhXDVhjWfNfBF8_Y_1mVGhlcYVyD3rmfLuCB4Kbg1-DzIPbhXuHZYzPjxqQVZErmjua4J2uns2fy6IAplenCKcwrJitja-nr7e3PsBmwQTE9sauxtjPftIh1HzYJNi92WHhc-vu7DjsVe8O73zwH_Fs8kHyRfOb9kj-Cv6P

Ascendancies:
I like to choose Pain Reaver first, for sweet leech
Get Crave the Slaughter in Cruel Lab.
Aspect of Carnage is your choice after Merciless Lab.
For final ascendancy I'm not really certain:
- Cloaked of Savagery is very decent of course, but the attack speed is very unreliable and might get your dps into trouble. Might consider using War Bringer instead, either with Enduring Cry for defensives or Rallying Cry for a small (against bosses) damage bonus.

First of all big thanks to protocLOL for experimenting with corpse life of Unearth and giving us some numbers to calculate with. See this reddit-thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/7r0wun/unearth_experimentation_level_91_corpses_have/

Second: The base corpse life I calculate with might actually vary. so the final outcome of dps has higher variances.

Third: For the Math I calculate with lvl 20 gems + 3 levels from PP and lvl 3 Empower for realistic values. I will give you my estimated DPS with lvl 21 gems and lvl 4 Empower at the end.

Final Preface: I do not calculate with the enemy covered in Ash from Xoph's Blood (I'm not exactly certain about duration though), as it is unrealistic to be achieved against Shaper. I also consider effective dps mod vs shaper (his resistances).

Spell part:
average damage at level 23: 1392
total increases: 611%
total More: 107% (already consideres the less modifier from Spell Cascade)
1392 * 7.11 * 2.07 = 20,487 average damage

Corpse part:
corpse level of Unearth: 80 (base) + 3 from PP + 2 (Empower) + 5 (Helm Enchant) = 90
level 90 corpses should have around 30,000 Life
30,000 * 0.06 = 1800 base damage
total increases: 571%
total More: 107%
1800 * 6.71 * 2.07 = 25,000 average damage

-> 45,000 average damage per corpse exlosion
multiply by 3 because of Spell Cascade overlap
-> 135,000 per cast

multiply by 3.9 casts per second
-> 526,500 damage * 0.83 (effective dps against shaper) = 436.995 DPS
remember this is with level 20 skills (and supports) and level 3 Empower.

Now let me give you some numbers with level 21 skills and level 4 empower:
base spell part damage: 1537
base corpse part damage (level 92 corpses, estimated 35k life): 2100
putting it all together: 502,924 DPS

Currently I'm thinking about putting on a Malachai's Artifice with Orb of Storms for a 37,5% Resistance debuff on bosses. Effective dps mod should be positive then and result in a 1.2 Multiplier giving me a total of 727k DPS. Covering the enemy in Ash pushes the multiplier to 1.35 to 1.4, resulting in 818k+ DPS. I will lose some life on the ring slot and should come around 8700 Life then.

I also cosider using Purity of Fire and a Watcher's Eye mod with "Physical Damage taken as Fire damage" to be tankier. Might throw in Enduring cry to get additional phys reduction from charges.

With the changes to leech on Berserker and the Introduction of Rage, it's totally unrealistic to use this build like that only for the 40% multiplier of Aspect of Carnage.

The new Chieftain on the other hand seems promising. Fire penetration, a better option to cover bosses in Ash, life regeneration and Endurance charge generation seem to be very decent to make this build even better next league.

Of course we have to wait for patch notes, etc.

PP - Poet's Pen (weapon, wand)
DD - Detonate Dead (skill/spell)
EO - Elemental Overload (Passive Tree Keystone)
LMP/GMP - Lesser/Greater Multiple Projectiles Support (support gem)
SSF - Solo self-found (a harder game mode)
PoB - Path of Building (a powerfull build planning tool)
BiS - Best in Slot (best item you can get for that slot)
MF - magic find (equipment with increased Quantity/Rarity of items found)