[3.4] 2h Smite Jugg - 100% lightning damage - budget...ish

Introduction
This is my league starter in Delve league. Originally I wanted to swap into RF at some point, but I had so much fun with Smite that I just kept playing him as is. And then I never rerolled anything else because I really enjoyed him.

Budget and Limits
Spoiler
I'm more on the casual side, so I planned for a limited budget that can be extended with a couple key purchases once I find something valuable to sell.
This build can be done for ~1-2 Ex (I spent a couple more Ex, but this isn't required).

It will clear comfortably up to t16 or depth 300ish. Any map, any boss, anything except elemental reflect maps.
It's a Jugg, so of course he can also be used as a Lab Runner.

In late-lategame, just as a fair warning, things severely slow down.
Again, since it's a Jugg, we can still facetank and kill most of the guardians, but it takes some time to get them down without millions of sustained DpS. Flasks will run out, health bars will slowly move down.

Timed bosses like Shaper and Red Elder (in particular the "keep Shaper alive" phase) are where the build starts to struggle, these are much more comfortable to kill on builds with millions of damage, so you don't have to deal with their nonsense at all. If you are a better player than me, you can maybe still kill them, but I wouldn't recommend this build for the "Uber" part of the game.

But that's fine for me. I didn't even get all four Guardian maps to drop this league. I play a couple maps a day and only need a "tanky enough" build with just enough damage to oneshoot normal monsters, run around and loot stuff.


About Smite
Spoiler
I love this skill, it is very comfortable to play.
Due to its extended melee range, it's enough to click in the general direction of packs, similar to Sunder or Frost Blades.
And the pack clear is very satisfying once we use multistrike with sufficient attackspeed.

Similar to Frost Blades, the skill is lacking a bit in single target, but for any map boss encounter or other harder encounter, we simply drop two Vaal Warchiefs and two Vaal Double Strikes, and that more than makes up for this.

I built around pure lightning damage, more because of "style" or "the challenge". It's a bit harder to pull off than pure fire or cold damage or a mix of all elements, but I really like playing with some restrictions.


Path of building
Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/7NN2z7xm
(Feel free to enable flasks and Warchief and all)
~500k normal clear DpS (Blood Rage, Frenzy charges)
~1000k normal boss DpS (both Vaal skills, flasks and shit)
~470k Shaper DpS (flasks and normal warchief, no frenzy charges)


Skill tree
Spoiler
I use a pretty generic 2h tree as a base, that also takes a bit of elemental penetration in the templar area, and the Elemental Overload keystone for a solid damage boost.
I spend a bit more points on +dex and +int than I usually would, but we need 155 each for the pure Dex/Int gems like Wrath and Blood Rage.

Level 94

I take a lot of jewel sockets (7 in total) because I wanted as much "mace attack speed" as possible for leap slam to feel good, and there isn't really a good source for that on the skilltree.

Ascendancy
Jugg's stuff all sounds the same, so...
The Accuracy one so we never have to bother with that stat at all.
The Health Regen one and the Endurance Charge one because they make Jugg feel pretty tanky.
I swap between the movespeed one and the super tanky one from time to time. Feel free to take whatever feels better for you, I haven't decided yet.

Pantheon
Situational, but most of the time, I go for Arakaali for the extra life recovery and reduced shock effectiveness, and Ralakesh to pretty much ignore bleeds and blinds.

Bandits
Kill all (or Oak, if you really want).


Skill Gems
Spoiler

Main Attack (6L)
Smite
+elemental damage with attacks
+multistrike
+elemental focus
+melee physical damage
+lightning penetration or ruthless
Ruthless is higher DpS, but I prefer the more stable damage of pen.


Single Target (5L is fine)
Vaal Warchief
Vaal Double Strike
+Melee physical damage
+Physical to lightning
+elemental damage with attacks
These 4 temporary summons melt any boss below t16 within seconds.

Movement
Leap Slam
+faster attacks
+blood magic
+fortify

Trigger
Cast when damage taken (20)
+Blood Rage
+Immortal Call
+Lightning Golem
I'm super lazy and especially do not want to refresh my golem all the time, so I prefer to have them on a trigger.

Auras
Wrath
Blasphemy
Conductivity
Wrath is not worth the reservation of you do not have a Watcher's Eye with "20+% of physical damage added as lightning damage".

That leaves 2 free sockets to use for whatever you want.
I'd suggest 2 out of these 3:
Enduring cry
Vengeance
Phase Run (for Delves)


Items
Spoiler

Weapon

Brain Rattler is the obvious choice because of the free conversion and the 20% penetration. To beat that thing, you would need to spend much more currency.

Armor

Devoto's is mainly used because of the huge Dex bonus, but the other stats are useful as well.
Loreweave has nice offensive stats on top of the 80% max resists, but any other chest will do. I played most of the league with a very cheap rare 6L crusader plate.
Gloves and boots: Rares with life and resists, ideally movespeed on the boots, attackspeed on the gloves. You can easily craft stuff like this yourself. A crit enchant on the boots is pretty helpful to trigger Elemental Overload.

Jewelry

Rares with as much damage as you can afford. Also used to fill the the missing resists.
The belt is the only really expensive piece in my setup, but it isn't required to have these 100% increased damage at all. Just looks good.
Prismatic and metallic fossils help a lot in crafting for these slots.

Flasks

Nothing special here. A solid mix of defense and damage.
I'm using Wise Oak for harder content only (I have triple balanced resists), I replace it with the quicksilver flask for joyful mapping.

Jewels
Mostly rare jewels
%Life
%attack speed with maces
%damage or a resist

A Watcher's Eye with 20+% phys as lightning while affected by Wrath (and some other useless stat) is very affordable, I think I payed like 12c for mine. If you add another Wrath stat, they become stupidly expensive, I would rather not pay that.
3.5 build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2299519
Last edited by Peterlerock on Nov 9, 2018, 3:53:59 PM
Last bumped on Nov 9, 2018, 3:13:52 PM

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