My dual claw/energy shield solo build

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fire99966 wrote:

Since the stat wipe happened after an earlier patch Ive decided to switch over to your build. Before the skill tree reset Ive been using dual claw pure evasion gear. Im thinking about switching over to your build, should I go for pure ES gear? Considering that Ill have 1 hp.

Would this be a good solo build?

If you're getting CI, then pure ES gear is the best way to go. It does take a bit of getting used to watching your ES bar instead of your health pool, so expect to have a few deaths from thinking "I'm okay, I still have full health". I usually treat 1k ES as my "I'm low on health, time to retreat" marker, but life leech is able to sustain my ES most of the time. With just a pair of 6% claws and blood rage, you can get an easy 17% life leech, which should be more than high enough for most people to feel comfortable.

Thanks for the fast response! Im just quite uncertain what build to go into and what gear to focus on for end game results. Before the patch I mainly focused on pure evasion as my defences, although I solo well, evasion wasnt providing me enough defences even if my life leach was about 12% in total.

Ill probably go ahead with this build and start from level 42, collect gear and redoing instances for ES gear. Ill be using this character for end game farming to farm gear and test other classes.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this character solos quite well. It's probably not as fast as a cold witch or ground slam marauder who can LOLAOE everything, but with dual strike doing double dps, it's still fast enough, and I rarely die. Most of my deaths are from desync issues due to whirling blades or flicker strike and a crappy internet connection. 3-4k ES is enough for me to be comfortable in lower level maps, but I'm aiming for around 5k ES to be my final value.

I like ES a lot more than evasion, because I find evasion is just too random. And Chaos Innoculation giving such a huge bonus to ES as well as chaos immunity is awesome later on. If you're starting from level 42, I'd suggest holding off on getting the CI keystone until you have at least 1k ES without it, or when you start to notice notice that damage you take isn't touching your health pool at all without it.

Alrighty Ill take that into consideration as I find my gear. Your total ES shield also regenerates in a fraction of a second, along with all the lifesteal you will be getting. Wow this build has alot of soloing potential.

If anything goes wrong, I have my whirling blades chained to life leech and mana leech as my panic button xD.

Do you have a brief list on what skill and passive gems you use?

Just a curious question, why did you skip the delay nodes?

Whirling blades as a panic button is what kills me usually. it saves my ass for about 5 seconds, and then my client rubberbands me back into the middle of everything and I die, lol. But if you trust your computer to handle it without a desync then whirling blades is just about the best skill ever.

And yeah, the build is great for soloing, it's a good balance of offense and defense at all stages of the game. =D

I skip the delay nodes because most of my ES generations comes from lifesteal. While in combat, ES isn't going to regenerate naturally, and while out of combat an extra 1-2 seconds waiting for ES to fill up won't kill me, and just isn't worth all the passives I'd have to spend on it. I originally put in the delay nodes when 9.12 first hit, but I noticed that they just weren't doing me any good, and later refunded them out.

As for the skills:
Dual Strike: increased crit damage, melee physical damage, IIQ, IIR
Flicker Strike: melee damage on full health, IIQ, IIR
Whirling Blades: faster attacks
Blood Rage
Portal
And auras are all linked to Reduced Mana gems, listed in order of importance:
Discipline (energy shield)
Purity (resists) i have max resist on gear so I'm not using this right now
Grace (evasion)
Hatred (cold damage)
Anger (fire damage)
Wrath (lighting damage

Wow 6 socket chest huh. Wheres a good place to start farming gear? Im thinking of just boss running until I get decent gear, then Ill head back to my tier and continue leveling. Right now Im good on accessories and both my claws, just missing ES gear.

You can easily get by with your dual strike in only a 4-link with 3 damage supports (faster attacks, melee physical damage, melee damage on full life is probably best combination, I chose mine mostly just because the colors match). Any sockets more than 4 is just a luxury, =).

Boss runs are generally the best way to farm for gear, =)

I can finally sleep well set on this build. The nodes give your total ES a crazyyy boost along with lifeleeching your ES back.

Thanks again!!^^

Ohh!
One last request before I sleeeppp!!

Coould you get a screenshot of your skill setup keys? I keep running out of room of all my skills and buffs, how do you fit 3 auras in your hotkeys and have room for you skills too?