Endgame CI Infernal Blow Shadow - RT/VP/SoulTaker - lvl 95/OS

I've been asked to post a guide about my build so here it is.

Warning:this build is very expensive and is not advised for a first time build.


This build will show you a CI Melee Infernal Blow Shadow using Soul Taker Axe and Vaal Pact/Resolute Technique build. I think CI Melee is underplayed and undervalued, this build will detail the idea behind my spec. Being able to use Shavronne's Ring for a free 433.3(4%) ES regen for no downside is one of the best perks of this build.

Gear :
Spoiler
The gear required for this build to work at an endgame level is high. You will need soul taker and a hybrid chest that can chrome 6 red. High es pieces also help, and of course the usual uniques.



Running two Shock removal pots = key in my eyes. Also having a Ruby and a Topaz is very nice for elemental damage mobs. You dont need more than 2 granites anyway ever.



Why Should I play this Build ? :

Spoiler
Why not. You get an insane amount of energy shield, armor, free 4% regeneration, and you can use infernal blow and domination blow and other spells with soul taker that normally cost a ton of mana ( think dom blows around 380~). It's an extremely well rounded build with no weaknesses but blood magic.


Character Statistics :
Spoiler

Character Attributes :



Energy Shield/Mana after reserve :



Damage/Defense and Frenzy/Endurance Charges :




Spec :
Spoiler


BEST BUILD I CAN FIGURE AT THE MOMENT WITHOUT ME BEING ABLE TO TEST IN GAME, OPEN TO CHANGES! GL EVERYONE!

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-
tree/AAAAAgYBAecFtQYOCfYOSBB7ES8RlhLhFHEV1xfhGNsaVRrbG60eGiFgJa0n7SgqKLUppSo4Kwosvy9vMFQ26DiWPeI-z0CgQapDY0cGSO5OKlFHU99WY1b6WK9Y21j1WfNZ_luvX2phIWP9ZKNlp2aebthwu3FNcql08XzZf8aE2YTvhq6H24hrjb-P-pWbmVeZmprPm4OdxJ65n8ui6qZ_pzCnNKyqrK-xs7TFtUi297cXtzG3073mvjrAGsEAwcXC7MNt14bXy9kT2xrb590N4mHjhOtj7BjtQe4O707z3fVL9zL3vvjr-WP8xf-T

Spoiler
Out of Date:
There are a few ways you can run this build. The best choices I have found are these :

More Armor/Evasion: http://tinyurl.com/kevsz9x

More Damage: http://tinyurl.com/lq8slsk

More Energy Shield: http://tinyurl.com/l2oz7gx

Currently I am running the More Energy Shield version with splitting strikes ( you can also drop this and get more armor/evasion to couple with the ES nodes ). With this amount of damage you can solo or group is any map and still carry your weight. I can explode entire rooms when I solo in a few swings so the need to dump more points into damage over ES or Arm/Eva is silly in my eyes. Infernal blow is an extremely good gem in and of itself and really requires very little scaling from the tree to be poweful. Vaal pact explains itself, removing leech cap and giving instant leech is incredible. Using RT so you don't accidentally ever get a crit if someone curses is very nice and you also don't have to worry about accuracy on gear or talents. Alot of the builds strength lies in these two talents, stack ES, armor, Regen, and DMG with leech and you can tank mostly anything.


Leveling :
Spoiler

I would 100% recommend leveling as facebreaker as their is no better alternative. There's a ton of guides out there for this. I personally played spork up until mid 80's until I had the currency to switch to CI melee. This build is gear and skill point intensive if you really want to round your character out. This is a pure endgame build.

Bandits :

I recommend taking the physical dmg or all three skill points. I took the power charge because i was originally spark so I'm not 100% optimized there which sucks.


Maps :

Spoiler
The only map mods this build suffers to are :

1). Blood Magic
2). Minus Max

On the latter the correct response is to have a gem swap ready. I personally use Dominating blow in -max and replace my infernal blow. I also drop life leech and replace it with added fire to couple with the dom blow if I just want to do more dmg in the -max map or if it's not a difficult one.

I have solo'd every map barring a 77 with this build, it's very durable and no map mods should really scare you.

Gem Choices :


Spoiler
---My 6-Link Choice:

- Infernal Blow
- Melee Splash
- Multistrike
- Melee DMG on Full Life
- Melee Physical Damage
- Life Leech

---5-Link would be :

- Infernal Blow
- Melee Splash
- Multistrike
- Melee Physical Damage/Melee DMG on Full Life
- Life Leech

---4-Link would be :

- Infernal Blow
- Melee Splash
- Multistrike
- Life Leech

Prioritize quality on Infernal Blow for the increased radius, Melee DMG on full gives you MORE, same with Melee Physical so those are great to quality. Fill out the rest of your gems accordingly. Life leech quality doesn't matter, vaal pact OP.

You HAVE to run Life leech gem. Even though we get to use Blood rage as CI and get free physical life leech there, half the dmg is fire and the explosion is pure elemental damage. You will die without life leech gem. Melee DMG on Full Life is a very nice bonus of using CI and increases your damage tenfold.




I keep elem weakness/enfeeble/flicker/enduring in my helm usually. Your best dmg curse and defensive curse. Flicker is a great gap closer in addition to leap slam to get over walls/cells/etc. Enduring for the tank.



I choose to run Determination, Grace, Discipline, and Hatred as my 4 auras. You can alternatively run Purity instead of Determination. I can increase my armor tenfold through one aura and focus the rest of those nodes that i would be spending on armor or evasion and focus them into ES, which boosts my total pool and in turn shavs ring/etc. The extra elemental dmg resistance is a viable option as well though.



My boots are 4-linked with IIR/IIQR/Culling/Leap for quick culls when I solo on bosses in particular and some tanky rares.




Axe is linked with Blood rage, Increased Duration, and Immortal Call. Blood rage and Increased duration linked and max quality are VERY important and should be prioritized along with your main abilities. Immortal call is a nice spell to have but I don't often use it. Increased duration affects it which is nice when I do.




Single Target :
Spoiler

Dom Blow with Added fire. You can use Heavy Strike or another red gem if you prefer, I keep these 2 gems in my inventory and just swap when i need.



Videos(WIP) :
Very Easy Gorge:
http://www.twitch.tv/cooopes/c/2969581
More Coming soon....



This was my first guide and it's a work in progress. Please feel free to post here about questions or anything you might want to ask. Thanks for reading !





Edit: Sept. 21
HC IGN : COOPES 96 Shadow, 93 Ranger
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/525943 - Piloted during Onslaught Season
Last edited by Coopes#4911 on Oct 29, 2013, 12:35:21 PM
Nice Guide mate, seems like a damn solid Character can't wait to see it in action over in Hardcore when ONS ends :)
Twitch.tv/Baker
I love this character. I mapped with Coopse on one occasion and instantly wanted to make his build because the damage is stupid. It's cool because you can swap in almost any gem in place of Infernal Blow if the situation needs something different.
IGN: Aux
sweet build. will try it if I ever get enough currency. do you stream? can we get some gameplay vids? thanks!
IGN: Azuredrag, SpliTime

Fastest way to get a hold of me is in-game. Second fastest is through PM. I don't check on threads all that often since I prefer to play :)
http://tinyurl.com/mr84db3 is probably the best balance between your 3 trees. More int (energy shield) and Inner Force, which is a huge buff to Discipline, Grace, Purity, and Determination.

If you got the 10% reserve reduction next to duelist, you could also run Hatred.


On a different note, I'm wanting to make a CI Infernal build, but use Kongor's maul to avoid the inevitable one-shot on a single mob with a crit. Soul Taker isn't needed with mana leech and high physical damage and slower attack speed (2H). You would lose ES from not having a shield, but you can get about 8k which is plenty for me.


Another cool thing about the build is you can use any red melee gem. Even LS or Glacial Hammer.
Last edited by riverwithin#1136 on Sep 21, 2013, 12:57:34 AM
"
Nice Guide mate, seems like a damn solid Character can't wait to see it in action over in Hardcore when ONS ends :)


Thanks, me too :)

"
I love this character. I mapped with Coopse on one occasion and instantly wanted to make his build because the damage is stupid. It's cool because you can swap in almost any gem in place of Infernal Blow if the situation needs something different.


Thanks man I enjoyed mapping with you too.
"

sweet build. will try it if I ever get enough currency. do you stream? can we get some gameplay vids? thanks!


I do not stream but I have played with nearly every streamer on POE at one point or another. I will try to record some solo map clearing vods later on tonight.


"
http://tinyurl.com/mr84db3 is probably the best balance between your 3 trees. More int (energy shield) and Inner Force, which is a huge buff to Discipline, Grace, Purity, and Determination.

If you got the 10% reserve reduction next to duelist, you could also run Hatred.


On a different note, I'm wanting to make a CI Infernal build, but use Kongor's maul to avoid the inevitable one-shot on a single mob with a crit. Soul Taker isn't needed with mana leech and high physical damage (2H). You would lose ES from not having a shield, but you can get about 8k which is plenty for me.


Interesting skill tree I like it. Would open up the very strong Energy Shield on Energy Shield nodes up by zealots oath. Definitely an idea to toy around with. Thanks and GL with your 2h build,
HC IGN : COOPES 96 Shadow, 93 Ranger
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/525943 - Piloted during Onslaught Season
Last edited by Coopes#4911 on Sep 21, 2013, 12:49:37 AM
*Reddit Cross-post, in case you don't see it there.*

I don't understand why Life Leech is one of your support gems. I've also made a very similar build, but had plenty of leech from Blood Rage. Life Leech has a cap, after all, and if you're doing that much physical damage, it's hard to believe you don't hit it with the 10% leech from Blood Rage. I'm sure you have a viable reason, and I'd like to hear what you have to say, but I believe Added Fire may be a better support to replace Life Leech. It's also easy to pick up leech on jewelery; I'm sure you know this. Again, not insulting your intelligence, just had me scratching my head a bit! Otherwise, great guide!

Edit: Saw you already mentioned in guide, nevermind!
IGN - Unhost
http://youtube.com/nativisions
http://twitch.tv/unhost
Last edited by Unhost#3337 on Sep 21, 2013, 1:11:51 AM
"
Unhost wrote:
*Reddit Cross-post, in case you don't see it there.*

I don't understand why Life Leech is one of your support gems. I've also made a very similar build, but had plenty of leech from Blood Rage. Life Leech has a cap, after all, and if you're doing that much physical damage, it's hard to believe you don't hit it with the 10% leech from Blood Rage. I'm sure you have a viable reason, and I'd like to hear what you have to say, but I believe Added Fire may be a better support to replace Life Leech. It's also easy to pick up leech on jewelery; I'm sure you know this. Again, not insulting your intelligence, just had me scratching my head a bit! Otherwise, great guide!

Edit: Saw you already mentioned in guide, nevermind!


Yeah guess you saw :P. Blood rage is only physical, each hit of IB is half phys half fire and the explosion is pure fire. I run life leech to not die to elemental reflect. And Vaal pact removes the limit of leech
HC IGN : COOPES 96 Shadow, 93 Ranger
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/525943 - Piloted during Onslaught Season
Dat gear...wow!

Nice build too! :p
To the OP:

Why Multistrike over Added Fire? I tried a similar build but found I often had phantom swings with MS post mob detonation. Do you run into this at all?

"
riverwithin wrote:

On a different note, I'm wanting to make a CI Infernal build, but use Kongor's maul to avoid the inevitable one-shot on a single mob with a crit. Soul Taker isn't needed with mana leech and high physical damage and slower attack speed (2H). You would lose ES from not having a shield, but you can get about 8k which is plenty for me.


Seems we think alike, I have been building out a very similar build right now. Konger CI Flicker, only in day 1 of testing, but clearing low 70's maps.

Its a nice change to use vaal pact and survive reflect packs above 70k dps melee. Will be posting it up soon.

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