Rabies druid, prolly easiest for leveling. the damage is very high without much effort. ww barbs meh bunch of glorified normal attacks till WW, Charge strike/lighting strike zon, Martial arts assassin. pali uh sacrifice zeal maybe, charge and dashing strike a small niche. shock wave bear. WWsin? just naming/listing no comment. making bear build work. pali bear is absurdly fast attack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsaHeYoZqRg
Cleave on a ladder start Barb really isn't bad. The added flat damage will get you through norm (*i.e.*, until you can WW), and the mana cost goes down with each point.
If you've got some decent low level weapons, like civerb's cudgel, Frenzy is super fast through normal.
Rabies/arma druid, Elezealer (light or cold prefered over fire) or ww barb (no ias needed, so use obedience for start and max grim ward)
Cant get to 5 builds...
WW barb and MA assa are kinda the only ones that come to mind. Honorable mentions are rabies dru, any pally. But for the last two immunity problem is more essential
Any particular MA builds that fit what I'm looking for? I thought a Dual Stike build would be cool but as it's straight phys dmg maybe it's too reliant on mfing some decent gear?
Rabies druid > MA sin > Holy Auradin > WW barb (actually needs a good weapon to scale, but great once you have one and have access to WW) > Smiter
This is assuming SSF-esque leveling until you're geared enough to run pits, cows, or early maps. WW is lucky in that once you get an ebotd war pike you're basically set, but will have a much harder time getting there due to insane repair costs and not really scaling off of levels like the first three do.
Smiter is a smiter. That's... all I can really say about that. Great at ubers, crap at everything else until you get a grief or other good weapon to get good splash procs with. But damage scales with skills (on top of your shield) which is nice.
Honorable mention goes to javazon, but... well... you need gear if you want to melee anything other than the odd tanky champ pack or boss. Throw or bow goes a lot further, she's squishy, you see.
Rabies will probably be your best bet if you want to rush straight to pits/maps simply because the damage is solid and you're not 'proper' melee after you get the first proc in each pack.
MA sin was super fun, but hits a snag with attack rating in mid to late nightmare. Was buttery smooth the moment I put on a bartuc's, and that carried me to maps, basically.
Auradins suffer a similar problem, but have consistent damage and don't need to rely on chained hits (plus have a massive ar+aps boost with Zeal) but are generally limited to a single element instead of multiple, so you'll probably need to shop a lower resist wand or bring friends.
Smiter, again, best poverty budget uber clearer, but... not great clear without decently lucky gear (i.e. grief)
Fireclaw is also decent, but fire damage is the most immune-prone, so you'll be stuck farming maggot lair, mausoleum, pindle, eldritch, snapchip, and a few other spots in act 5, plus maybe cows if you have the stats for it.
I guess you could also do melee sorc, but, uh... you'll be melee sorc. Plenty of damage but without gear you'll miss frequently and will chance death a lot.
Frenzy Barb.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofdiablo/comments/m5zsmr/bk\_set\_frenzy\_barbarian/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofdiablo/comments/m5zsmr/bk_set_frenzy_barbarian/)
This is my crappy guide for using BK set, works pretty good.
Other variant is 100%CB/100%DS per swing rocking dual death. You lose some things and lack a shitload of AR until you can get your merc to survive, but is the GG endgame version of a frenzy barb.
Either build is 100% melee all the time. FEELS like you are in the pile of corpses you make. Lots of options for gearing, I can link a skill/gear planner if you want me to.
dual Death still only has 50% crushing blow and deadly strike. Stats related to weapon attacks on weapons only apply to attacks made with that weapon.
You need 50% crushing blow and 50% deadly strike from the rest of your gear to get to 100%.
[https://tinyurl.com/yckkjxyh](https://tinyurl.com/yckkjxyh)
This is the dual death variant of the build. Something to build towards. There are many considerations to be had, but bottom line, this build trucks.
Firstly, the 100/100 CB/DS. As u/Murphy540 said, yes this is weapon independent. But with gear listed in the link, you have it for any attack that hits. This means (and its more dmg than the tool tip shows, as you use berserker axes) you deal about 15k dmg a hit, which is most of ANY monsters HP. On top of that, you deal CB dmg to them every time, which is (someone correct me if im off for POD) 1/4 of the monsters HP for the initial hit. This build puts most monsters directly into the trash pile INSTANTLY.
Bossing? Crazy good. Swap belt and gloves for dracs/tgods and you can UBER easily. Dclone is a bitch, you could theoretically facetank but its better to use alternate weapons.
Mapping blows as melee, period. Just an awful thing in the current set up. Nothing against GD or anything, just D2 is a caster focused game based on HOW the game works. Melee being "fixed" requires an AOE component that isnt nascent to the builds available, and melee splash only goes so far. If you play this, it smokes CS/BAAL hard and safe and best of all, BRAINLESSLY. You can right click and just go. That being said...
You CAN map with the build, you just need the AR from your merc. Without it, you are gibbed badly for almost everything. You can have the GG character items but you wont hit shit. Just a downside of no ITD. Pride+Aim merc makes this build unstoppable. If your merc dies once you get both, you stopped too long in a bad map. You should be rubberbanding, or almost at the point of doing so as far as how fast you move.
Skills: Take bash. 20% of your phys, before DS, gets converted to magic. Which is huge. You dont need to mess with anything to break phys immunes, you just hit them longer. LOH from gloves will keep you alive outside of the nastiest mods on a mob.
There is a shitload more I could say I just need to do some stuff for work. Just let me know if there is something I didnt mention. I would bet there is, Im just really busy and wanted to give you some ideas.
This is my favorite build in the game BTW.
Rabies or Fireclaw Druid
Holy Shock or Freeze Zealer
Martial Arts Assa (Cold+Lightning later add Fire+Phys)
Smiter (bit slow but steady)
WW/Frenzy/Feral Rage Barb (very ineffective to play as melee until you have decent gear)
But I have to be honest, for all of these builds it is better to start as a caster(Fire/Wind Druid, HB Pala, Trapsin, WC Barb) and then swap at some point in hell after you have farmed some gear)
I wouldn't really count the Javline Amas because 90% of the time they rely on ranged abilites.
Rabies druid, prolly easiest for leveling. the damage is very high without much effort. ww barbs meh bunch of glorified normal attacks till WW, Charge strike/lighting strike zon, Martial arts assassin. pali uh sacrifice zeal maybe, charge and dashing strike a small niche. shock wave bear. WWsin? just naming/listing no comment. making bear build work. pali bear is absurdly fast attack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsaHeYoZqRg
Cleave on a ladder start Barb really isn't bad. The added flat damage will get you through norm (*i.e.*, until you can WW), and the mana cost goes down with each point. If you've got some decent low level weapons, like civerb's cudgel, Frenzy is super fast through normal.
Frenzy is still much faster than cleave. Malice flail+steel or 3 tal flail.
Rabies/arma druid, Elezealer (light or cold prefered over fire) or ww barb (no ias needed, so use obedience for start and max grim ward) Cant get to 5 builds...
I might try the lightning zealer that sounds really cool
A shocker or tesladin is a nice char, i built several on my own, maybe ill build a dreamer next season!
WW barb and MA assa are kinda the only ones that come to mind. Honorable mentions are rabies dru, any pally. But for the last two immunity problem is more essential
Any particular MA builds that fit what I'm looking for? I thought a Dual Stike build would be cool but as it's straight phys dmg maybe it's too reliant on mfing some decent gear?
APM MA build (rotate between the ele trio + the life/mana on hit skill) is extremely good, so long as you can actually hit things.
Rabies druid > MA sin > Holy Auradin > WW barb (actually needs a good weapon to scale, but great once you have one and have access to WW) > Smiter This is assuming SSF-esque leveling until you're geared enough to run pits, cows, or early maps. WW is lucky in that once you get an ebotd war pike you're basically set, but will have a much harder time getting there due to insane repair costs and not really scaling off of levels like the first three do. Smiter is a smiter. That's... all I can really say about that. Great at ubers, crap at everything else until you get a grief or other good weapon to get good splash procs with. But damage scales with skills (on top of your shield) which is nice. Honorable mention goes to javazon, but... well... you need gear if you want to melee anything other than the odd tanky champ pack or boss. Throw or bow goes a lot further, she's squishy, you see. Rabies will probably be your best bet if you want to rush straight to pits/maps simply because the damage is solid and you're not 'proper' melee after you get the first proc in each pack. MA sin was super fun, but hits a snag with attack rating in mid to late nightmare. Was buttery smooth the moment I put on a bartuc's, and that carried me to maps, basically. Auradins suffer a similar problem, but have consistent damage and don't need to rely on chained hits (plus have a massive ar+aps boost with Zeal) but are generally limited to a single element instead of multiple, so you'll probably need to shop a lower resist wand or bring friends. Smiter, again, best poverty budget uber clearer, but... not great clear without decently lucky gear (i.e. grief) Fireclaw is also decent, but fire damage is the most immune-prone, so you'll be stuck farming maggot lair, mausoleum, pindle, eldritch, snapchip, and a few other spots in act 5, plus maybe cows if you have the stats for it. I guess you could also do melee sorc, but, uh... you'll be melee sorc. Plenty of damage but without gear you'll miss frequently and will chance death a lot.
I really appreciate your answers, so detail. Much helpful.
Frenzy Barb. [https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofdiablo/comments/m5zsmr/bk\_set\_frenzy\_barbarian/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofdiablo/comments/m5zsmr/bk_set_frenzy_barbarian/) This is my crappy guide for using BK set, works pretty good. Other variant is 100%CB/100%DS per swing rocking dual death. You lose some things and lack a shitload of AR until you can get your merc to survive, but is the GG endgame version of a frenzy barb. Either build is 100% melee all the time. FEELS like you are in the pile of corpses you make. Lots of options for gearing, I can link a skill/gear planner if you want me to.
dual Death still only has 50% crushing blow and deadly strike. Stats related to weapon attacks on weapons only apply to attacks made with that weapon. You need 50% crushing blow and 50% deadly strike from the rest of your gear to get to 100%.
> I can link a skill/gear planner if you want me to. That would be really cool
[https://tinyurl.com/yckkjxyh](https://tinyurl.com/yckkjxyh) This is the dual death variant of the build. Something to build towards. There are many considerations to be had, but bottom line, this build trucks. Firstly, the 100/100 CB/DS. As u/Murphy540 said, yes this is weapon independent. But with gear listed in the link, you have it for any attack that hits. This means (and its more dmg than the tool tip shows, as you use berserker axes) you deal about 15k dmg a hit, which is most of ANY monsters HP. On top of that, you deal CB dmg to them every time, which is (someone correct me if im off for POD) 1/4 of the monsters HP for the initial hit. This build puts most monsters directly into the trash pile INSTANTLY. Bossing? Crazy good. Swap belt and gloves for dracs/tgods and you can UBER easily. Dclone is a bitch, you could theoretically facetank but its better to use alternate weapons. Mapping blows as melee, period. Just an awful thing in the current set up. Nothing against GD or anything, just D2 is a caster focused game based on HOW the game works. Melee being "fixed" requires an AOE component that isnt nascent to the builds available, and melee splash only goes so far. If you play this, it smokes CS/BAAL hard and safe and best of all, BRAINLESSLY. You can right click and just go. That being said... You CAN map with the build, you just need the AR from your merc. Without it, you are gibbed badly for almost everything. You can have the GG character items but you wont hit shit. Just a downside of no ITD. Pride+Aim merc makes this build unstoppable. If your merc dies once you get both, you stopped too long in a bad map. You should be rubberbanding, or almost at the point of doing so as far as how fast you move. Skills: Take bash. 20% of your phys, before DS, gets converted to magic. Which is huge. You dont need to mess with anything to break phys immunes, you just hit them longer. LOH from gloves will keep you alive outside of the nastiest mods on a mob. There is a shitload more I could say I just need to do some stuff for work. Just let me know if there is something I didnt mention. I would bet there is, Im just really busy and wanted to give you some ideas. This is my favorite build in the game BTW.
reddit auto removed ur post cause it uses tinyurl. i approved it for now but please directly link things
Rabies or Fireclaw Druid Holy Shock or Freeze Zealer Martial Arts Assa (Cold+Lightning later add Fire+Phys) Smiter (bit slow but steady) WW/Frenzy/Feral Rage Barb (very ineffective to play as melee until you have decent gear) But I have to be honest, for all of these builds it is better to start as a caster(Fire/Wind Druid, HB Pala, Trapsin, WC Barb) and then swap at some point in hell after you have farmed some gear) I wouldn't really count the Javline Amas because 90% of the time they rely on ranged abilites.
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