Dual Wield Swords Chaos Innoculation Build: Video, Description and Feedback

UPDATE: I rolled a 6link after 200 fusings! And I only wanted 5 :o

This allowed me to add Faster Attacks and Concentrated Effect, which is frankly totally absurd with Cleave. I then revised the build to completely counteract the downside of Con. Effect, which only required remapping 5 points after I got 3 more lvls. The new build: http://tinyurl.com/88zfjnv

I now do 24000 DPS with Cleave, and 54500 DPS with Diamond up (which is most of the time). The build is able to carry a 6 man chaos leech, however a heavy frost monster comp still gives it a lot of trouble. And the gear still has massive room for improvement.

And here's my baby (it looks super stylish on a Ranger btw).

END UPDATE


Quick 5 min chaos canyon to see the build in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv1dDiIEmRU&feature=youtu.be

Someone was selling a very nice Corsair sword in global chat, which I bought. So of course I had to make a character to fit the sword.

Passives: http://tinyurl.com/7vu4apf
Gear at the bottom of the post.

After a couple hours on the passive tree builder, I really liked the idea of making a melee elemental damage build with Chaos Inoculation. Dual wield leverages flat elemental damage from gear, supports and auras very effectively with its fast attack speed and two weapons. Why Energy Shield instead of HP stacking? I wanted to see if it would work. Thankfully it does. The video is of lvl 70 in solo chaos though: it's much tougher at 60.

Main Skills: Dual Strike for single target, Cleave for AoE. DS has faster attacks, weapon elemental damage and added lightning damage. Cleave swaps out faster attacks for mana leech since I can't roll a 5 link to save my life :(

Warlord's Mark is the main curse, quickly recharging your flasks, giving you some mana leech and random endurance charges. Bloodrage gives you Frenzy Charges and makes for a sweet combo with Chaos Inoc.

5 Auras since you have so much mana: Anger, Hatred, Wrath, Discipline and Grace. The first four are self explanatory, and Grace is some very nice evasion even with no evasion passives (getting 35% from it and my AGI).

Playing it requires keeping a close eye on your ES and being ready to run off and let it recharge if it gets low. It took some getting used to that I could't get ES back in combat like HP. Also need to keep Granite up (in chaos anyways).

Your worst enemy is frost damage and stuns: thankfully Chaos Inoc has been made so that stuns/freeze bases off your pre-CI HP, but with this setup even that HP is quite low. Granite stops you from being stunned too much, but maxing out frost resist is imperative. It's one reason I didn't take AOF (also because I deliberately wanted to avoid it).

It's not a very lvling friendly build path and you have to make an awkward switchover from HP to ES at some point (late Ruthless for me). I wouldn't suggest trying it without at least some twinking. You'll also need massive stacks of chromatic orbs to get enough red/green sockets.

Feedback:

-I really love PoE's passive tree and the freedom it allows to try different stuff like this. Experimenting with builds is incredibly fun.

-I'm also glad melee ES is viable. However it is totally dependant on Granite flasks, otherwise you're just stuck in a stunlock. With character lvls right now I don't think there's a good way to passive build ES/Armor or ES/Evasion while at the same time getting sufficient damage.

-On the other side though, the reason I did this with a ranger is purely cosmetic. I could have done it with a witch, templar or duelist without appreciable difference in passive efficiency. Classes are very homogenous right now, and with a lot of builds your choice of class boils down to what character model you want.

-I'm really glad Dual Wield seems to be much improved from the last time I played in November, when it was way inferior to 2h.

Gear and Char Stats: I should have Enduring Cry socketed instead of Clarity but I had some fail chromatics and now I'm out.







Dualstrike: 17500 DPS
Cleave: 12500 DPS

5962 ES, 1998 Evasion, 20300 armor with the nicer Granite up. 801 mana, 214 free.

Very impressive. Have you tried concentrated effect with cleave? I've heard its pretty great.

This is pretty much the build I've been waiting on the sixth class to try.

The onyx amulet needs a Blessed Orb.
Is it doable in Hardcore?
I'm impressed you do so well without 5-6 socket items.

As a test, I'd love to see the damage boost you'd get by picking up Avatar of Fire and swapping +lightning for +crit damage (or getting a 5L +crit damage).

I don't suggest actually doing it because it diminishes such a cool character and I know you're avoiding it, but what do you think the difference in damage would be? 2x? 3x? 5x? I'm not sure myself, so finding out would be equal parts enlightening and saddening.


Anyway, the character looks like it does pretty well and has loads of style. Definitely trying this out soonish.

That video is insane, man.

I must say though, I really don't like how centralised the whole game has become around granite flasks and diamond flasks. I can't remember the last time I saw a level 60+ character that didn't have at least 3/5 of their flasks as those, except for summoners. They're a serious balance problem and will be even worse in PVP.

yeah! good idea and well done!
Diamond flasks are too much efficient for now, I agree.

one thing about the video is that it could have been cleaner without the items labels sometimes covering the entire view.

Interesting
Sadly you would be dealing at least twice as much damage with AoF. But you don't need more damage apparently and you don't need godly gear either. Quite impressive...

But this is a lvl 70 character against lvl 60 mobs. As always...

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scalymanfish wrote:

Very impressive. Have you tried concentrated effect with cleave? I've heard its pretty great.

I hadn't thought of that. Checked it out, and wow, that's intense. You really notice the radius reduction though...but this build is 8 points from +30% radius increase in passives!

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Khodar wrote:

The onyx amulet needs a Blessed Orb.
Is it doable in Hardcore?
I'm impressed you do so well without 5-6 socket items.

Good point, slapped a Blessed on it and got 20 to all stats. I don't know about hardcore, I don't play very careful so it's hard to tell what deaths are my fault and what is the build :)