3.14 Unnerfable Molten strike / Ele claw Pathfinder
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Firstly i'd like to thank all the people who have posted molten strike guides in the past. From inquisitor to pathfinder-- the dozens of builds i've studied and theory crafted around are why such a strong molten strike build can still exist today.
A couple in particular I will never forget:
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GornoDD's Ele claw inquisitor: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1971701/page/1 This guy single handedly broke the game with his builds core. He was a huge inspiration to many people, including ggg apparently. (The very next league MS was finally nerfed but not by as much as people think.) Despite this being inquisitor and very very out dated, it can still shine to this very day. Keeping in mind it functioned on a 3l back then. The core is so strong that it probably doesn't matter what ascendancy you slap it on, there's a way. Not to mention-- I don't care what anybody says. This build is unnerfable. There is an entire galaxy of ways to enhance it. Eathb's elemental molten strike builds: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2061931 Not many people even know this guide ever existed apparently. This fella was beyond simply "intelligent." His ability to theory craft is on a top tier level. It's a shame he doesn't have a proper changelog as the things he went through to get there are mind boggling. Keeping in mind back in abyssal/bestiary we barely had anything to work with and almost nobody was theory crafting pathfinder aside from the barrage/kb cliche squishy crap that wasn't much different either way. Big big shout outs to these two. I would have never been able to come close to a build like the current if not for their work they put in before me. It might just seem like "irrelevant out dated info" but... Well... No. It's not. There aren't any builds that just magically become 100m dps when they get to red maps. They all require some level of investment. No build survives major changes without accommodating those changes. In the end "budget/starter friendly builds" start out that way. None of them stay that way without hitting a hard ceiling. Thus I am here to exclaim the following to finish up this section: This build IS budget friendly, it IS starter viable, whatever ceiling exists is so high I can't see it, like any build it requires hefty investments end game! Pros:
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+ Mirror tier can achieve 3x++ my current dps (like 120m++) + Has a lot of room for QoL, personal preferences, and general adjustments. + Almost unkillable in SC (Given you play it correctly.) + Community neglected ascendancy with a non-current meta build. + Easily SSF up to yellow maps with no issues + Extremely fun to play + Mostly budget friendly + Definitely league start viable + Versatile, it can do nearly anything as is. + Very fast clear speed + post mapping setups can use a white claw on 3l and still burn through the game. + New player friendly + Has variations provided already Cons:
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- Very expensive to upgrade post red maps - Very very active play style, almost nonstop flask usage - Requires Yugul + sibyls lament or jewels to do ele reflect - High int and str requirements with few options there - People think MS is bad now for some reason (it's not.) Update notice: Added evasion 2.0 which might help people find cheaper/easier routes. Somehow misplaced hybrid three pob-- rest in peace hybrid three. Added more clarity to the jewels section and a list of useful notables for megalomaniacs to help people find the cheapest but most useful routes. I will later organize it in a top to bottom priority list to make it easer to look at. New Player Friendly Guide:
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What is POB?:
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POB, otherwise Path of Building. It is a program that makes it easier to create, reference, and save builds. In particular new players can easily use POB to reference builds. It's mostly about following the skill tree in this scenario. However, it has other functioning roles such as; being able to review the specific gear, gems, and flasks used at different periods of this build. I highly suggest to any new player to become familiar with POB. Even if you're not into the idea of making a build, it's one of the most useful reference tools we have and virtually all builds rely on it. A link to the community fork version of POB: https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding Another link that contains a bit more useful resources you might like to look into: https://pathofexile.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Path_of_Exile_related_applications Act 1 / Level 20:
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https://pastebin.com/dLbW7UQD The text guide is contained in the above POB's notes Act 2 / Level 30:
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https://pastebin.com/PPyxE7FU The text is guide contained in the above POB's notes Act 3 / Level 40:
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https://pastebin.com/fZATxWeT The text guide is contained in the above POB's notes Act 4 & 5 / level 50:
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https://pastebin.com/Xcuq5hkc The text guide is contained in the above POB's notes Act 6, 7, & 8 / level 60:
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https://pastebin.com/LWMGAgBW The text guide is contained in the above POB's notes Acts 9 & 10 / level 70
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https://pastebin.com/CDpeJrme The text guide is contained in the above POB's notes List of Finalized, tested, and working POB's in 3.14:
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The evasion version(s) (Original/Easy to start):
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Original/simple version:
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https://pastebin.com/ZidBPxk9 This one is the basis which i've already tested. Without the cluster this build is a very good new player friendly approach to the build. It's very forgiving with just about everything since it grabs a neutral balance of everythnig the build needs. Many of these things can be varied to the other builds with very few reset points and gear changes. Evasion 2.0 (Detailed, more freedom, indepth explanations):
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https://pastebin.com/ZdeYg70v This build simply offers more options to move forward with evasion based survivability while explaining more about the tree, pob, and gem changes. The armour version (Advanced user version):
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https://pastebin.com/S34MRZaD This one is not league start viable. It might be difficult or confusing for new players as well. (You basically rely on slowly building up your damage mitigation so that a strong life flask alone can sustain you against practically anything which is really only as abuseable on pathfinder with the ryslatha pantheon.) It is a way to scale this builds defensive potential further. I figured some people would like completely different ideas using similar mechanics and the same general path. I would like to credit Deathbeam pathfinder builds for my ideas on this one. It was surprisingly easy to adapt those ideas to my own build using entirely different things. In all fairness i'm sure these are common picks due to being so strong anyway. This versions potential is truly an up to date version. It's so fast it's crazy. This build is a start towards adapting this to 3.15 hc. In current form it is NOT hc viable. I still need to rack my brain and do a lot more research to fine tune the numbers properly. Not to mention many things need completely rearranged to properly account for the average party composition in HC. Hybrid One (The forgiving route):
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https://pastebin.com/4rq0PkTD This one is evasion based but includes strength of blood to be moderately bulky. Doesn't sacrifice anything except a little life from tree. (And of course life leech which we don't technically need on pathfinder but it is a nice thing to have for ultimatums and bosses with phases that cant be bypassed.) All-in-all this one might be overall better than the basic evasion core. This can be adapted if you really need some extra bulk going forward at around level 80~ by simply scrapping the clusters in the build. That dps won't be super important until very late game so this is a viable option for new players to branch off into early into mapping. It's much more forgiving over-all for an inexperienced player than the core evasion build. Can legit stand there and let mobs slap you on most juiced yellow maps and blood rage does more than the mobs. Hybrid Two (The all-in dps route):
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https://pastebin.com/pAU8GpCW This variation is NOT viable for league start. This version opts in for even more damage reduction. It sacrifices a chunk more life from the tree to include a 2nd large cluster. This change opens up the potentially infinite god tier dps this build is capable of. With proper gear upgrades and adjustments this build is truly outstanding. However achieving 3 different +1 projectile clusters can be difficult depending. Thus this is a path i'd only recommend for experienced players going forward from level 90+. If you have the currencies and/or this isn't your first character of the league: By all means take this route as soon as possible. This is a continuation of the ideas in both evasion and hybrid one. I would suggest including a large cluster with disorienting display and smoking remains if you have any late game survivability issues on this build. The only likely weakness is lack of evasion scaling later on which is totally eliminated by having a significant blind chance. It's a very strong and perhaps even broken debuff. Hybrid Three (Yikes somehow I lost one of my best pob's):
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I've pasted the wrong pob link in here and totally saved over this pob. It was absurdly complicated so I can't say i'm in a rush to figure it out again. I already modified my gear and tree several times since then in-game as well due to testing other things. If it all just suddenly hits me and I recreate the tree and gems i'll repost it. How to properly calculate your Molten strike dps:
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Magma ball value, melee hit attack speed, and melee hit value are found in pob after setting up your configuration and enabling your flasks. ( As well as importing your own gear/jewels/tree.) Projectile count is found in-game. With my exact setup the count is 11. It is possible to have a lot more with or without the enchant via unique megalomaniac clusters, large claw damage clusters etc. Total magma ball dps is an imaginary number of "if every single projectile landed" Unlikely magma ball dps is the portion that probably won't actually hit the mob in a single target situation Thus this number must be shaved off the total. True magma ball dps is the realistic damage of the portion that is likely landing on the mob. The attack speed of the magma balls is based on your melee hit attack speed-- be sure to not use the magma ball attack speed as it's very inaccurate. Step 1: (Magma ball value)414,596 * 11 (Projectile count) = 4560556 * 8.16 ( melee hit attack speed) = 37,214,136.96 (Total magma ball dps) Step 2: (Spread and point blank modifier value) 0.47 * 37,214,136.96 (Total magma ball dps) = 17,490,644.3712 (Unlikely magma ball dps) Step 3: (Total magma ball dps) 37,214,136.96 - 17,490,644.3712 (Unlikely magma ball dps) = 19,723,492.5888 (True magma ball dps) Step 4: (Melee hit value) 735,150.4 * (melee hit Attack speed) 8.16 = 5,998,824 (Total Melee hit dps) Step 5: (True magma ball dps) 19,723,492.5888 + 5,998,824 (Total Melee hit dps) = 25,722,316.5888 __________________________________________________________________________ 25,722,316.5888 (Total true molten strike dps) A somewhat outdated calculator if the math is too much: https://moldydwarf.gitlab.io/MoltenStrikeDPS/index.html#zip_eJxtkV1vgjAUhv9Lr80Com72zsnQJXOYmcXrAqdSLT2kLTPLsv++2mGAzcv3eT84KV+kxuyRSRlXB0Knk2g+C0dXthZ2WTKVA6FhEHi8AQngs/PJ9D4ad3BRG0If7sJZh270t1ksjL3oVqaKUKsb8DJheleivTDOpHEwc2eYRGO1BlkRGrXk3Qh12AtZcKFhGN4woVYa5BmxGDop5/8MhhB/ui1Cx0Eb8/rvCa9NldoStMuNiKmLhBkLeqvxuILq5UP+9gdGb8LxncTzzUJnDAvt5wJ/YyKZOT1xftXPKtcLhP5UR3s7Di5R5d0jZ2jMGytE435W9P0Diwysig== Really yikes long link. Everything about it is accurate except the spread data it uses at the bottom. With good positioning molten strikes spread even on very small mobs is much more likely to land than it was back then. Not to mention the old molten strike setups included clear speed gems, mine fixates on single target dps. Thus whatever this calculator tells you your dps is-- odds are you do 10~% more. Keeping in mind dps is pretty specific. You won't do 25m damage instantly, it takes the full second to ramp up to the true dps. Sometimes 2-3 seconds to average the max potential depending on your positioning. The math formula isn't as complicated as it might look, I highly suggest anybody of any level of education to give it an honest try. I'm not exactly a math expert and i'm terrible at keeping up with numbers unless it means something to me. I just do equations one step at a time with a calculator. I have written it in a constructive way instead of in a proper formula format so that you don't even need to know the rules of algebra nor order of operations to figure out how to use the formula. The equipment:
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Incomplete but contains a good gist of the big picture. Claw:
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A very good claw is pretty mandatory late game, can be progressed in small increments for cheap early game. (Prioritize flat ele damage > attack speed > crit multi > crit chance in order of left to right) A useable one can be crafted yourself for 10~ chaos. A really good one slightly better than this one is probably 1-5 exalted mid league. With any luck you can craft one yourself for much much cheaper. It's a huge gap but you don't have to cross that gap until after red maps so this is definitely a budget achievable slot. Another good claw: Helmet:
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I've used all sorts of things from lightpoacher to alphas howl. I just ended up with rats nest for the movement speed and attack speed. Early game helm slot can just be whatever uniques, resist rare, or whatever you pick up. Late game you just need the +2 projectiles for molten strike enchant. Rats nest: (+3 is impossible in temp leagues ignore my helmets enchant here.) Starkonjas: Shield:
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Hits cannot be evaded is key here. Usually this shield isn't expensive anymore as very few builds use it. If it's too difficult to obtain, look into ornament of the east claw: Body Armour:
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Armor can be swapped to queen of the forest or whatever really. I went with bob because it was cheap way back when. There are countless viable options-- especially with how many new things we have this build doesn't even currently factor in. Tabula rasa or whatever random 4/5l you can get ahold of works fine for a long long time. A super budget 6l that can work: Amulet:
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You really just want an amulet with tier 1 crit chance and crit multi. EDWA helps a lot too, everything else is QoL at best. (Stuff just starts multiplying in cost by absurd numbers past that point.) On the other hand it's shockingly simple to self craft those two stats alone. I have not properly experimented with annointments yet, feel free to consider it QoL as well. Early league rushers might like to use charisma or soverignty as an option You can start using 3 auras before anybody even has an enlighten lvl 3. (With a little luck, work, and trade stalking.) Rings:
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Whatever you can get for rings to balance out is fine. These slots are very expensive to fine tune and don't make a huge difference after the core. I'd suggest trying to craft some rings similar to mine late game. Primarily focus on making your resists the exact same uncapped for wise oak. Obviously the strength and intelligence are kinda important but that's cheap without the crit and EWDA. You'll likely find junk that works just fine. The armour version requires 1 rotblood ring. Gloves:
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Attack speed, life, and resists are mandatory from this slot. Early game just worry about resists mainly, the attack speed isn't immediately important, life can help even if it's just a junk tier roll. End game we can't get around this slot in the armour build. I have found ways to use unique gloves successfully in the evasion build, it's just QoL and up to you if you're willing to put in the work to rebalance resists even further. Belt:
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The evasion version pretty much requires stygian vise for the blind chance: The armour version requires chains of emancipation: Boots:
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This slot is a real pain to get to an ideal state. Early game don't even bother with 30% movement speed let alone any QoL craft bonuses. Just fixate on the life and res. I had to sacrifice evasion just to get a boot like this affordably. Upgrade as you run out of cheaper options. Sadly I can't find any ways to replace this slot yet but the crafting options are much better end game now. Thus I don't think it's a big problem at all. The 2nd weapon:
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A problem I noticed my build had pretty early on was when there are no mobs and a hefty walk which a blink skill can bypass altogether. No brainer lightning warp, portal, and whatever gem you want to level in weapon. The flasks:
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Dying Sun: This flasks projectile count bonus is pretty much required now late game. Makes no difference until you get some ways into mapping. Feel free to use whatever in this slot until you can reasonably get one. Enduring Hallowed Hybrid flask of warding: This is my personal QoL. You can do whatever with this slot. I've even managed to take out life/mana flasks altogether with great success. (On builds NOT including strength of blood.) In strength of blood builds you might want to use a good life flask rather than hybrid. Healing from flask is quite important and can be expensive to get more of from clusters early on. I changed this to staunching in the armour version. Perma curse ruins berserk. Wise oak: After a lot of testing I have found wise oak is easily replaceable. If you're going for more survivability or just can't be bothered to balance resists to use this properly-- I'd suggest using quartz flask, sulphur flask, Atziri's promise, overflowing chalice, or really any QoL option if you so desire. The dps this provides is no longer necessary with things like arcing blows anointment and the possible end game option of a rare helm with "nearby enemies have -9% to lightning resistance" (Absurdly hard to get one since you'd likely have to run lab for the enchant yourself after crafting a good one from scratch.) But is entirely possible for fine tuning the dps end game in all builds here. Perpetual Diamond flask of staunching: Another vital part of the build, you can get a jewel with immune to corrupted blood and use warding for this slot if you prefer a utility flask over hybrid/life flask. I changed this to warding for the Armour version to compensate changing the hybrid flask to staunching. In general diamond flask is 100% mandatory in this build. Get one as soon as possible and always use it. Chemist's Quicksilver flask of adrenaline: If you use an armor like queen of the forest this slot can be whatever. Else with bob and the majority of armor options, this movement speed bonus is mandatory. Even in the armour based build including berserk you will find this movement speed bonus is quite important. (Even after including freedom of movement + quartz flask and flicker strike I find this slot is pretty much mandatory.) Bossing only setup: Wise oak Vinktar Dying sun Diamond Whatever you want (this setup is the hardest to balance resists for but the dps you can achieve is crazy pants level broken.) Gem link explanations:
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These are just cookie cutters. The POB's themselves vary from build to build. There are countless options you can change out in all of the 3l/4l pieces. I'm sure there are many things you can change molten strike to if you'd like to try that. This cookie cutter is mostly provided for people who don't care about variations and just want an easy to reference section for end game gems on the core builds. The evasion build:
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6l: Multistrike + added lightning damage + conc effect + elemental focus + EDWA + molten strike The bread and butter. This is the optimal single target dps setup for MS. 4l one: Ancestral protector + empower + Blind support + Blood rage Capitalizes on attack speed thoroughly while adding one of the greatest layers of defense this build provides. 4l two: Wild strike + Multistrike + ancestral call + EDWA The clear skill. Molten strike used to have a 1-2 gem variation to clear. Reality is this is better clear than MS ever was even on a 4l setup. I don't think there is a better option for this build, as this deletes packs in any shape, size, corridor, and opening. 4l three: Enlighten + Herald of Thunder + Wrath + Herald of Ice Optimal aura setup for capitalizing elemental damage. Can be varied in multiple ways for personal preference. 3l one: Fortify + Faster attacks + Flicker strike This one I consider mandatory for the sake of clear speed. If you absolutely hate it or your internet can't handle it use whirlng blades or shield charge. 3l two: Ice golem + CWDT + immortal call This ones a two sided dagger. It allows me to never have to keep up with ice golem at the cost of having a delay on immortal call. I have tried many things like putting immortal call on the upper left slot as well as removing ice golem altogether for enhance. I find it doesn't really matter in the end, our life pool is high enough to deal with the other side of that dagger and then some. One less button to press-- praise rng. Awakened gems aren't mandatory at all, simply QoL enhancements. Regular 20/20 gems late game are perfectly fine. Armor Build:
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6l: Molten strike + Multistrike + EDWA + Conc effect + Ele focus + Added lightning damage The single target dps 4l One: Wild Strike + Ancestral call + EDWA + Multistrike The clear skill 4l Two: Wrath + Enlighten + Herald of Ice + Petrified Blood The auras 4l Three: Berserk + Empower + Enduring cry + Blood rage Really tanky, really fast, and really strong all in one. 3l One: Shield charge + Fortify + Faster attacks The mobility skill you can change to whatever in this version. 3l Two: Enhance + CWDT + Immortal call Capitalizing immortal call the best we can with what we have left. 1l ring: Temporal Chains Required to curse ourself to generate rage for using berserk. Awakened gems aren't mandatory at all, simply QoL enhancements. Regular 20/20 gems late game are perfectly fine. Jewel explanation:
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In short all builds ultimately want jewels like: Fan of blades for projectiles, Wind-up for power charges, brewed for potency is just a nice extra bonus I got on a fairly cheap megalomaniac. A large cluster with disorienting display and smoking remains is HIGHLY useful on evasion builds. Other note-worthy passives you might want to look for on megalomaniacs:
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Spiked concoction (Really op buff to flasks) Peak vigour (life) Fettle (expensive life) Adrenaline (cheap life) Aerialist (Dodge) Agent of destruction (EDWA) Alchemist (Recovery from flasks and attack speed amazingly good one) Antivenom (Chaos res, chance to avoid poison, max chaos res) Basics of pain (Crit chance/damage generic extras) Battle hardened (Evasion and armor real damn good for the armor build) Blessed (Life and chaos resist) Calamitous (EDWA) Careful handling (generic life) Corrosive elements (EDWA/potential ele exposure) Dark messenger (herald boost, generic damage increase) Darting movement (Movement speed and dodge) Devastator (fun explosions.) Distilled perfection (Life flask recovery and flask duration) Dragon hunter (Potentially broken double armour proc.) Elegant form (Dodge) Empowered envoy (Herald buff, good kind.) Endbringer (some ok damage buff if using two heralds.) Enduring composure (Infinite endurance charges on armour build) Eye of the storm (generic crit chance) Eye to eye (generic projectile damage) Fasting (Flask charges and movementspeed while not using flask) Feast of flesh (Life) feed the fury (Leech/damage while leeching) Flow of life (generic/maybe pricy life.) Force multiplier (5% chance to deal double damage) Fuel the fight (attack speed/damage while leeching) Furious assault (attack speed) Gladiators fortitude (damage/life) Haemorrhage (Generic crit chance) Heart of iron (10% of life added to armour) Heraldry (Really broken lightning exposure which almost always happens on bosses) Hit and run (Generic dodge) Holistic health (life) Improvisor (Attack speed) Lead by example (get onslaught from enduring cry on armour build) Martial prowess (Attack speed) Menders wellspring (Life flask recovery/charges/remove bleeding mega op) Militarism (Armour and life) Natural vigour (life and evasion) Overshock (One of the strongest dps notables you can get) Paralysis (Another strong dps notable) Peace amidst chaos (life and armour while stationary) Precise commander ( crit chance and multi) Precise retaliation (Crit chance/potentially multi) Pressure points ( crit chance and 5% chance to deal double damage) Prismatic carapace (+1% to all max res and +30% armour) Prismatic dance (+1% to all max res and +30% evasion) Prismatic heart (all res and edwa) Pure guile (Generic blind chance) Purposeful harbringer (Generic herald buff) quick get away (Crit, attack speed, movement speed) Readiness (Evasion and chance to avoid bleeding/impale) Repeater (Attack speed) rot-resistant (Chaos res) rote reinforcement (Pathetic 20 life) Sadist (Big EDWA) Savage response (Crit chance) Scintillating idea (Lightning penetration) Second skin (30% increased armour) self-fulfilling prophecy (Generic crit multi) Shifting shadow (OP blind and evasion) Skullbreaker (Generic crit multi) Special reserve ( damage during flask) Storm drinker (Very op lightning penetration) Stormrider (Insane edwa and good source of power charges) Student of decay (Chaos res) Sublime sensation (Life) Supercharge (Amazingly broken dps) Surging vitality (Life) Thunderstruck (Very good lightning damage bonus and generic crit chance) Towering threat (Yikes trade off of 8% life for increasing area of effect.) Unspeakable gifts (Fun explosions) Untouchable (Dodge and evasion) Vengeful commander (Somewhat significant wrath buff) Wall of muscle (Life) Winter prowler (Movement speed and max cold res) Also any previously mentioned: Smoking remains Disorienting display Fan of blades Brewed for potency Wind-up I've found that getting rid of corrupted blood and ele reflect is probably the most useful things we can do with the extra jewel slots. Else with any build you want at least 1 abyss jewel with 6% chance to blind on hit. With the evasion build you want as much blind as possible. Typically focus on blind jewels with flat elemental damage either to claw or neutrally. Else crit chance/crit multi/area damage/flat life/ life % are all useful as well. Reasons why you could die with this build: (Reworded and reiterated for clarity)
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Evasion build:
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To start this builds survivability is heavily based on killing things before they kill you. Life leech(Or life flask with strength of blood builds) + evasion/dodge stats + blind is how you survive aside from that. The dmg mitigation for this build is poor and nearly non existant. So without further ado: 1. Not using your ancestral protector very often. That blind support is VITAL. (Or otherwise not having a significant and reliable form of blind; i.e % chance to blind on hit abyss jewels, smoking remains/disorienting display large cluster, blind support linked to ancestral protector, etc. 2. Not keeping flasks up. You will lose a lot of survivability if flasks are not going 100% of the time you're in combat. Whether you rely on a life flask or not doesn't matter. Pathfinders gain immunity to elemental ailments among many other important buffs while flasks are active. 3. Standing there too long. This build is meant to move and keep moving. Eventually rng will result in you abruptly dying if you just sit still or try to attack something out of your range without flickering or walking to it. Nothing in this entire game should require you to stand still for longer than 2 full seconds on this build. Use that as a pointer as to when to reflicker or ignore leftovers and move on for optimal clear speed as well. ELSE I don't think it's easy to die on this build played right. I have never once died in all the years I have used this by anything except internet issues, computer issues, or doing very stupid things that result in obvious deaths. (i.E not knowing boss mechanics, positioning errors, flickering all your frenzy charges away, etc.) Armour build:
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You're not keeping your flasks going 100% of the time. Aside from that: Is it even possible..? I think only stuns can kill this build. In order to get stunned to begin with you need to make not one but a large series of mistakes. This build is like a flying castle. If you truly believe there is something wrong and it's getting you killed I suggest referring to "Reasons why this build might not do damage." It's likely one of those problems. If nothing here can explain why you're dying: It's a you problem. You either don't know the mechanics of a given boss, you aren't paying attention to be wary of elemental reflect mods, or you're otherwise doing something unknowingly getting yourself killed. However, very fortunately-- i'm not an elitist jerk. No matter what it is i'd be glad to help you figure out what's causing it. Feel free to pm me about any issues. I simply cannot account for the countless possibilities of things that can cause deaths in a single guide. Thus I don't directly address the most basic nor complex things here. Reasons why you might not do damage with this build:
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There are only two reasons this occurs. 1. You aren't in range. I chose flicker strike and assigned it to left click as my mobility skill because it really changes the "speed mapping melee" type of gameplay into something truly fast. More-over it puts you perfectly in range to instantly wipe out a pack with wild strike which does nothing at all if you aren't within melee range of at least one mob. 2. Your internet is having issues or you need to use an ethernet cable instead of wifi perhaps. I've noticed that if i'm using my wifi flicker strike causes crazy rubberbanding where the game somehow loses track of a lot of packets. You can actually die while being unable to do anything about it when this happens. Having a strong internet connection with a direct link makes this problem vanish until a stormy day or a server taxed league start. If it's not one of those two issues this build just deletes everything. There is no reason at any point in the game you should do "no damage" Unless you end up at red maps++ with basically trash gear. If you're thinking: "Molten strike has been dead for so long..." Well fortunately i'm here to provide some fun facts about that too:
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Molten strike never died, people just assumed it did without properly testing it. It still has insane potential. Some ascendancies have even higher dps potential than pathfinder. This one just has the all rounder feel good gameplay a high dps build needs for my tastes. If you want to use it as a league starter it's very doable considering it can reach 2-3m dps on 10-20c (easily ssfable up to yellow maps, nearly impossible to ssf going forward from there.) Update: I lied it can easily ssf all the way to sirus. It just needs a bit of rebalancing for accuracy which surprisingly isn't as difficult as I thought. I am taking another crack at finding an alternative to using lycosidae. If I am successful the dps increases here can be unbelievably huge. We might not even need projectile count afterwards. Lets not mistake this with some impossible build, it's a very strong and easy build to get going with. Is this HC Viable? No. But it will be in the near future and I have data on that too:
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1. Strength of blood + iron reflexes like the armour build basis 2. Definitely use starkonjas this thing synergizes so well with petrified blood it's unbelievablly good. 3. Bump up flask effectiveness/charges/duration heavily 4. Figure a source of mana to change to a sapping life flask (gemini claw works) 5. Change to solaris and ryslatha pantheons 6. Basalt flask/cinderswallow over dps options 7. Realize dps is a lot less significant than bumping up life 8. Include chaos res and possibly increase cap res 9. Keep a list of map mods that can get you killed 10. Run hc with experienced parties who can compensate your shortcomings. 11. Change the entire blind portion into defensive utility (Enduring cry/arctic armor if you can find a partially aura bot approach to incorporating it) Try to keep at least 1 6% jewel in the build. Even without evasion focus not being able to be targetted directly helps survivability a lot. 12. Give up herald of ice for petrified blood. (Truly the deciding factor for pathfinders versus hc from what I have researched-- there may or may not be other ways to go about this one.) After more research and minimal testing I can say petrified blood without a doubt is required to transition into an armor build at all. This gives us the room we need to be able to sustain on a very high life flask recovery alone. Without it you can never fully eliminate the random "1 shots". (Series of things that happen so fast or unnoticably that you just abruptly die in a half a second or less.) P.S I'm not an hc player at all I just figured i'd add this here incase it gets brought up. It's not an ideal hc build but it's possible and it would still be very fun. There are many ways to go about it. The above is just a short list of ways I know for a fact can make this build much much tankier. (At the cost of more than half the entire dps which can still be increased by a large portion.) Section update notes: One of the variations of the main build i'm working on is utilizing the majority of these things listed here. I'm positive it will be hc viable, it will not be hc league start viable though! It will be the last pob I work on for this guide so please give it time. I will have to experience hc first hand for myself to wrap that one up and it will be after 3.15 has been going for a little while. I have discovered a minimal amount of extra data recently which will benefit us greatly moving forward with this section in the future. I am starting to truly believe this can be strong in HC even solo used as a second and well funded character. Some of these things are almost too obvious in how strong it can be. Soon I will make a mock-up in pob with overly end game and heavily optimized/min-max gear/gems/jewels just to get a good idea on where the numbers will sit with the current ideas and whatever comes to mind while i'm into it. Final notes: I'm not sure if I have ever actually written a guide for POE before, I don't really expect it to reach a ton of people either. I just wanted to put this out there out of respect to the so called "dead content" i'm still enjoying to this very day. Last edited by Andrew090106 on Jun 19, 2021, 7:45:44 PM Last bumped on Jun 18, 2021, 12:47:19 PM
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Thanks for posting this! I recently started working on a MS Jugg build utlizing "Undeniable" with some accuracy/dex/evasion shenanigans, but Im a noob builder that play HC so needed some inspiration :)
I tried in the past to build around GornoDD's Ele claw inquisitor without much success. I had a quick look at your current build and just wondering. Why not use skitterbots instead of Herald of Ice? Also wouldnt Trinity be a good option since your doing 3 elemental dmg types? I will have a closer look when I get from work. Just wanted to say thanks. |
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This build looks really interesting, I'll probably try to league start it with the evasion version and transition into armour later.
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" I'm glad it has been useful already! In particular skitterbots would be a perfectly good option for any other ascendancy. Pathfinder's Master alchemist gives us the shock/freeze (and ignite) already. If anything though i'd say herald of ice is mostly for the fun of the shatters. Trinity is something I have completely overlooked without any testing so far. With a quick analysis I believe it could could be very strong synergizing with wild strike. This might even be a very great way to free up the flask slot for wise oak in general. The only con I can imagine is needing either a little more flat ele damage from some sources and/or a bit more elemental damage %. I will grab one to test later this evening and then calculate my findings, thank you for the idea! Update 6/19/21: Trinity is indeed better on wild strike but perhaps by an insignificant number. (We're talking 100K~ more dps and a 20/20 trinity is worse than a 21/20 EDWA.) As far as molten strike goes-- the lightning damage massively out scales the fire and cold on every single hit. It almost never generates lightning resonance. Cold in general is just extra total edps. It doesn't play a strong role by itself other than freezing/visually apealling shatters. Lets keep in mind that in order for wild strike to build resonance at all it requires hitting many mobs at once. Thus it can't be relied on for boss situations either. Trinity support is really not as good as it seems. Instead I found a much more specific and reliably simple way to toss out wise oak: Arcing blows anointment. (This isn't the only option but after calculating every elemental damage and elemental penetration anointment in the game I found this is the highest dps option. I also used Arcing blows in the tree build itself back in bestiary which scaled the potential beyond every other 'known' molten strike build in that time.) I would like to specify here: No matter what one tries to do with an elemental build-- lightning out scales everything tremendously. The only two cases where fire and cold are better by themselves is 1. where your builds focus is scaling ignites and 2. where your builds focus is converting either physical or elemental damage into one type. (Can't do either of these things with molten strike properly-- not including the fire to chaos route which would be astronomically different than the current builds in question.) In ANY other case lightnings flat edps value is unbeatable. Getting back to the special case of the fire attack projectile skill molten strike: The potential for scaling ignites is nonexistent, with a single target dps setup it cannot directly ignite. With a completely different setup its burdened by "Damage over time caused by projectiles deals 50% less damage." Converting lightning to fire results in a lot of wasted room in the build for no actual dps change. Converting fire or cold to lightning results in a lot of wasted room for even less dps. Thus we just take whatever flat ele damage we can get and prioritize the bonuses to lightning. Thus why it has a little fire/cold just sitting there. It's just a combo of free extras from mods slots that do nothing otherwise, the herald, and the skills flat values. Hope this info is in some way useful! Last edited by Andrew090106 on Jun 19, 2021, 12:24:49 PM
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