[3.10] Unencumbered Brawler | Hollow Palm Technique | No Weapons/Gloves | High DPS



Intro:
This is a Hollow Palm Technique Physical Impale Cyclone (can work with other skills too though) build. Uses no gloves or weapons. This is a very strong build with crazy damage scaling. After much interest has been shown from the preview I'm writing a full guide. It's still a WIP. I don't have an example of every single item yet, or the best version of every item yet, but I'll be updating as I go through the league. As it is a WIP, please feel free to give helpful suggestions for the build.

More to come. I need to get some mapping and recordings done to upload though, and this isn't the only build I'm currently working on. Please mention if you want something specific added. And thanks for the input so far!

Basic Concept:
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Hollow Palm Technique gives 14-20 Added Attack Physical Damage per 10 Dexterity while we have no gloves or weapons (as well as some other bonuses) so we pump dex up to ~900 (~1,260 - 1,800 base damage) and add damage from there.

This guide is for cyclone, but this concept would work Infernal Blow, Smite, etc.

I went with Slayer because it's got a good mix of damage, survivability, and increased AOE. Champion, Juggernaught, Zerker, Raider, Pathfinder, and Assassin should all work as well. Again, this will be preference.


Pros and Cons:
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Pros:
+High DPS, fun
+Crazy OP leveling
+Can run all map mods besides no leech (or it would at least be difficult)
+Overleech
+Layers of defense | Fortify + Acrobatics + Evasion + Brutal Fervour + Soul of Steel


Cons:
-HP isn't GREAT, up to about 5.5k depending on items selected
-Can get expensive min/maxing


Updates & WIPS:
last update: 03/28/20
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March 28:
-Made small adjustments to leveling section
-updated some PoBs

March 25:
-Added weapon swapping explanation to Dancing Duo
-Currently Updating PoBs

March 23:
-Updated some gear sections
-Added Mana Cost Reduction section
-Added updates & Wips
-Adding a Dancing Duo Option in Gear
--Still updating PoBs and need a few items to link, including a good Elder ring 6 link +crit chest and a good vulnerability ring.


Mana Reduction/Management:
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There are a lot of questions regarding this and a lot of different approaches. So, as well as explaining them in each section I'm going to give a breakdown of options here.

First thing to know is to completely remove the cost of Cyclone you need either -8 mana cost (channeling/all) for 6 link or -6 for 5 link. A few ways to do this:

1) -8 Rings:

Get it done with 1 ring. This means either a Praxis or Elreon ring with -8mana cost reduction. This allows for the best buffs and body armour. Elreon is better as you can get more useful stats, but is more expensive. Here are the poe.trade searches for both: Praxis and Elreon


2) -15 Chest:

A -15 mana cost (for socketed skills) chest works well, but can get expensive especially to 6 links. Advantages are free range to do what you want with your rings and your buffs.


3) Ring Mana Cost Crafts & Amulet Annointment(only for non-crit):
You need 2 rings with open prefixes and a non-corrupt amulet with Lucidity anointed (currently Amber, Violet, Silver). This can't work with a 6L crit version and Rigwald's is always corrupt.


4) Nothing:
This actually is an option, and one that I kind of like. You can drop Pride, add Maim to Flesh and stone and then add Purity of Elements with a source of mana leech. This gives you more than enough mana (especially if you craft at least 1 ring with -3 mana cost) and gives you a lot more freedom with your gear and on your tree, and is obviously a real money saver. You'll lose ~8% dps this way, but that should be easily made back up by the freedom of gear/passives.


Uniques:
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Must Have:

Build Revolves around it.

Highly Recommend:

I'm adding Rigwald's Curse to "Highy Reccomend". It's NEEDED for crit (max dps) builds, but not needed for a base build.

Nice to have:

Praxis only if you don't have -mana cost chest and don't want to drop a buff.



Videos:
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Atziri Run
Still only 84 (I've been slacking), gems aren't 20 and still not qualitied, and I know I suck at mapping, but don't judge the build for it ;p Still the basic overview is there before I post high level bosses.

Low-Tier Baran + Map Boss Preview
low level, low gems, cheap gear

First Syndicate Safehouse
Janus' comment at the end made me giggle :p

More to Come


PoB:
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I'm using the Fork version of PoB for more accurate calculations. I would suggest using it as well, although it is not needed.

Cheap Gear Non-crit: (has leveling tree)
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https://pastebin.com/3kKbGt2Z


Mid-Range Crit no Clusters (current gear): (still WIP)
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https://pastebin.com/d9Jzt60L
What I've done here is drop Pride and replace it with Maim on on Flesh and Stone and Purity of Elements. I know it sounds crazy, but Maim replacing pride only loses 6-8% dps which is more than made back by (a lot more) gear and extra passives gained from the increased resistances. It let's us drop Praxis and pick up another ring as well.

-You can drop health or dps for Phase Acrobatics if you'd like. This is just my preference for a mix of hp/dps/avoidance.


Crazy Min/Max non-crit:
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https://pastebin.com/2NT7SZdR
Thanks to Pandabankie for this verion! It uses split personality jewels, which are crazy expensive (multiple ex's per), but the results are amazing. 6.5k HP, crazy DPS, very strong.


Crazy Min/Max crit:
WIP

Elemental Build:
WIP


Gems:
Spoiler
Chest 6 Link:
(Vaal) Cyclone - Impale - Fortify - Infused Channeling - Brutality - Pulverize or Melee Physical Damage
Melee Physical Damage offers about 10% more dps, but I still prefer Pulverize as (being unarmed) the extra AOE doesn't hurt. It's just preference though.

Helm:
Flesh and Stone - Blood and Sand - Pride - Dread Banner
Can drop pride, add Maim to Flesh and Stone and add Purity of Elements, this allows for much easier gearing and opens up passive points while only droping ~8% dps (which should be more than made up for with the gear and passives).

Boots:
Vaal Ancestral Warchief - Culling Strikes - Dash - Vaal Grace
Doesn't have to be dash for movement skill. I was just trying it and I don't mind it.

You can also drop Culling Strikes, and Vaal Grace and go with CWDT - Immortal Call or Steelskin


Gear:
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Updating with more item links as I get them. Some links are from live or other players, as I have multiple builds I work on and don't have the currency to max them all out. Thanks to everyone who has provided links!

Weapon:
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There is actually a weapon you can use with this build and that is this:

Once Rampage gets going it will detach itself and you are unarmed again. The advantage of this is that you get rampage. I link utility (blind, culling, minion speed, faster attacks), some people link damage.

Weapon Swap:
First of all for clarity: you don't need to weapon swap to make this item work. It unequips itself after a certain number of kills (read wiki for more info). There are times where you want to weapon swap though. i.e. You've lost rampage and need to kill a boss.

To weapon swap from Dancing Duo, you will need to equip weapons that you normally couldn't. i.e. something with strength or int requirements that you don't meet (or gems in the items with reqs you don't meet). Equip an item that allows you to meet those requirements that you wouldn't normally wear, equip the weapons, then switch whatever piece you used back.


Pros:
-Rampage: helps with clearing via increased movement speed and damage
-Utility (if chosen): Blind and Culling Strikes don't hurt
-Looks awesome


Cons:
-Takes a second to get Rampage going at the beginning of a map, easily made up by speed of clearing if you can keep Rampage up



Body Armour:
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-15 mana cost 6L chest is extremely expensive (I bought one in standard just to have a link for it). Which is why I'm currently using the Dragon Salvation and a Praxis ring instead. If you can afford it, the -mana cost chest + curse on hit vulnerability ring will definitely be more damage/HP though.

P.S. Wildwrap is another option, but they aren't cheap and you still have the mana issue of needing a Praxis or dropping a buff


Boots:
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Garukahn's are really nice overall. Tons of evasion and +Health once you've ramped up your dex, immunity to chilled, shock and burning ground is a nice QoL improvement too.

If you need more resists (which is very possible), you might need to go with yellow boots. I would suggest something with 30 % run speed (I went with 25 for now, resists, good hp and 30+ dex.


Helm:
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Rares work great for stats, resists and some utility. I like Starkjona, if you don't care about HP then Devoto's works too.


Amulets:
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Rigwald's needed for crit builds, for base builds you are looking for +Dex, +%Dex (or attributes), +all attributes, resists and health.


Rings: (this gets tricky)
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A good -8 mana Elreon's is going to be best. Let's you go for a good chest piece and still gives you stats. Praxis works in it's place if you don't want to drop an aura and can't get a good Elreon ring. A curse with vulnerability ring is an option as well.

Regarding the Praxis itself: You need a -6 cost for 5L< and a -8 cost for 6L to remove cyclone's mana cost. I use a -7, because I got one for like 1c and with the regen from it, I never actually lose mana, unless there is a no regen map. At which point I you just drop flesh and stone for that run and turn it back on after.


Belts:
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Flasks:
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WIP

Want a Lion's Roar, Quicksilver Flask of Adrednaline and a Diamond flask for crit builds. Rest is preference. I'll link what I land on.


Gloves are obviously empty.


Class/Ascendancy/Bandits/Pantheons:
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Bandit:
Crit build - Alira
Non-crit - Alira or kill them all if you think you can manage resistances and mana.

Pantheon:
Greater: Solaris or Lunaris. Lunaris is better for clearing though.
Minor: Purely preference. I go with Gruthkul though for more physical damage mitigation.

Class:
As I mentioned earlier - I went with Slayer because it's got a good mix of damage, survivability, and increased AOE. Champion, Juggernaught, Zerker, Raider, Pathfinder, and Assassin should all work as well. Again, this will be preference.




Leveling:
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Same POB as as the "Cheap Gear", trees can be found there:
https://pastebin.com/3kKbGt2Z

I would definitely suggest getting the Praxis and One With Nothing for leveling. If you don't have One With Nothing you can still level with this tree to save on regrets later, just ignore the pure dex nodes. I highly suggest leveling with One With Nothing though it's crazy OP. Fluid Motion isn't needed right away.

If you aren't using one with nothing, I would suggest leveling with weapons instead of facebreakers as we don't take too many jewel nodes and don't stack +phyiscal at all outside of One with Nothing as it does near to nothing for us.

Ascendancy order: Impact > Endless Hunger > Brutal Fervour > Headsman
Bandit: Alira - Resists and Mana regen are worth it even w/o crit. If you think you have (and will have) the resists and you have a Praxis, I'd go 2x Passives instead.

P.S. I used a stone golem while leveling. The extra regen is nice, especially while doing trials, but it's absolutely not necessary.

Last edited by Gutum731 on Mar 28, 2020, 8:58:39 PM
Last bumped on Aug 21, 2020, 10:55:57 AM
Yes, please do a full build, this is so cool!
why not create a fake jewel for the PoB that give you the status of Dual wielding? should allow for PoB to calculate correctly.

Could you do a full write up? Ive been looking at playing it with infernal blow or smite. The damage scaling is bonkers
"
Tyandia wrote:
why not create a fake jewel for the PoB that give you the status of Dual wielding? should allow for PoB to calculate correctly.



I already added the stats onto the gem itself, but the dual wield part doesn't work "Counts as Dual Wielding" is accepted but doesn't calculate. If anyone knows the correct syntax (if there is) I would appreciate it :D

"
Joedkruse wrote:
Yes, please do a full build, this is so cool!


"

Could you do a full write up? Ive been looking at playing it with infernal blow or smite. The damage scaling is bonkers


I'll start putting something together :)

"
silentAltair wrote:
Could you do a full write up? Ive been looking at playing it with infernal blow or smite. The damage scaling is bonkers


I leveled with this and decided to go infernal blow until I got cyclone and it's supports, because I miss that skill so much (both it and smite are two of my favorites). I've never done a build that is so strong so early on. It's nuts for leveling.
This looks very interesting. Yes on the full build guide please! :)

And thank you in advance!
Hey man, here is a PoB for a work around to get Hollow palm working. (you just gotta swap out/delete the gear that is not the weapon/jewel)

https://pastebin.com/hkyD3Ety
Really interested in this
would love to get one jewel but I still haven't got to find a build to start this league lol, and the jewel keeps increasing in price :/

This jewel looks insane btw

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