Claw Chaos Inoc+Vaal Pact+Ghost Reaver

This is my first attempt at creating a build from scratch using my own ideas. I did a search and didn't see another build like it, so I will be posting this and asking for productive feedback.

Here is the build


UPDATED 5/13

The design idea is simple. Instantly (using Vaal Pact) gain energy shield (using Ghost Reaver) while doing a ton physical damage.

To obtain a bunch of physical damage I am using the following gems...

Double Strike + Melee Physical Damage + Physical Damage when Full Life + Melee Splash

The build stacks a bunch of added physical damage passives.

Physical Damage when full life should always be up because of Chaos Inoculation.

Please let me know what I haven't thought of.

Added few touches to your tree. it's for lvl 71 now. I added Inner force as it is extremly helpful for auras and potions.


You have a similar idea as i had. But i would like to point out from my expirience as lvl 79 that melee splash radius require a lot of aoe nodes to be effective. I also used dual daggers instead of claws as i was doing crit build and with high crits leech from blood rage is enough. But for non crit build claws might actually be better. If you like to see my build and map solo video you can find a link in my signature.

Thanks for the suggestion on the auras. I will be using a bunch of them and 30% is nice.

Also for the Melee Splash gem, are you suggesting using the Blast Radius ability and 2 other nodes next to it?

If you positive you will be using melee splash you will need 20% quality gem and at lest 20% more from passive tree to make it 40% total aoe increase
I myself run with 56% increase and i will still take some more when i can.

Thanks for the feedback so far, here is the new updated build..



Gems are still going to be..

Double Attack + Melee Damage + Damage on Full Health + Q20 Melee Splash + Added Fire Damage

Looks very solid.
Consider Multistrike instead of Added Fire Damage.

In an ideal world I would have a 6l for my AoE Double Strike and a 4l with my single target.

6l - Double Attack + Melee Splash + Added Physical Damage + Added Physical when Full Life + Added Fire Damage + Multi Strike

4l = Double Attack + Added Physical + Added Physical Full Health + Added Fire Damage


I really like Hatred and Added Fire Damage in this build because it has so much Physical damage and is additive and doesnt replace it. The gems that replace a part of physical damage I dont like because of my mana leach and life leach based on Physical Damage done.

I'm a big fan of this build idea. What I have in mind for it is playing similar to dagger-crit-CI build, using flicker strike instead of double strike.

Reason for that is that physical damage hit is less and less damaging the more armor your opponent has, so using double strike, even though you hit twice, might do less damage in 2 hits than in 1 solid (although added fire and hatred mitigate that problem a bit of course).

Using flicker-crit combination is great with CI because you can keep Blood Rage on all the time and benefit from it giving you a frenzy charge on each kill and cast infinite flickers using those extra frenzy charges.

I like your idea of using Melee Splash for AoE on main hand attack, although as earlier, phys dmg hits need to hit hard to damage armored enemies. Then again, maybe it isn't as big of an issue as I'm thinking? I was thinking on using Cyclone or Lightning Strike as a main AoE skill.

Links would look like that:
Flicker Strike - Melee Phys Dmg - Melee dmg on full life - Added Fire - (Melee Splash/Crit Strikes/Additional Accuracy/Life Leech/Crit Damage depending on need)



and then either going for Iron Reflexes and additional Frenzy Charge down the right side of the tree or ES nodes in the middle.

I still need to find that OP phys dmg claw though... ;)

Link flickerstrike to multistrike and culling blow to keep your frenzy charges alive. Just a quick question how are you going to get the frenzy charges in the first place if you use 2x double strike as attack? I know you gain a charge when a mob dies with blood rage, but wont you just spend it straight away when you hit the next mob?

My build never uses frenzy...

Enjoying the build, it was a challenge to level up. Had to take some HP nodes then lose them later when HPs were not needed.