Steel Skills Still Strong Starter Guide | 3.14 Ultimatum

LEVELING DOC ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Get Splitting Steel at level 2 when you enter the town. Shattering Steel is level 12 at merviel, use this all the way to endgame maps while you're gearing up! Lancing Steel is 28 at Gravicius, level this up in your weapon swap. !!!!!Note: if you're ever thinking 'my mana is really bad right now' then drop auras or improve your mana flasks. Feel free to use two-handed swords or axes to level but eventually you'll want to be swords. Click on the dropdown "CLICK FOR LEVELING" on the bottom left of the Tree page for leveling trees. Starting Links: Splitting steel Chance to Bleed Onslaught <Green-Green-Red> Maim is an okay alternative to Onslaught, note that early on the bleed from chance to bleed can do a lot of damage when you switch to shattering steel. You can also link Maim to ancestral protector totem for more boss damage. ~~~~After Breaking Some Eggs~~~~ Dash - Use this for move skill til you get leap slam Ancestral Protector - eventually add Maim when you have links Warbanner - placing your banner can give you a burst of quick attacks and damage, REALLY good for bosses Steelskin - Guard skill protects your life a bit. You can use this when you expect a big hit, not mandatory for leveling but really good on left click in maps. ~~~~After Brutus~~~~ Leap Slam - Likely drop all Quicksilver flasks for Mana flasks, I like to use 2-3 Lifetap support might be good here for either your Shattering or Leap Slam, having a no mana cost movement skill could be good (untested) Use Vitality if you intend to Lifetap. Precision - try not to level this gem too much because it's reservation climbs with levels Enduring Cry - nice QoL but not mandatory ~~~Entering Merveil's Cave~~~~ Shattering steel at 12. Use primarily shattering from here on out. Shattering does 200% more damage at point blank so don't try to run and kite enemies, get in there and destroy them! ~~~~A2~~~~ Faster Attacks support link to leap slam Blood rage - keep this buff up for more attack speed for travel, also frenzy charges is more attack speed. Herald of Purity - decent buff that provides some minions to tank enemies ~~~~A3~~~~ Sniper's Mark - This Curse Marks one enemy and that enemy takes A LOT more damage. Use it on bosses to knock them down fast. Impale Support - comes from the quest A Fixture of Fate which is a side quest in the library. Probably worth replacing Onslaught with this for the damage. Dread Banner - replaces War banner for more chance to impale Grab a lancing steel to level in weapon swap most of these skills have innate impale so it should be easy to hit nearly 100% impale chance between ascendancy, support gem, banner, and passives. ~~~~A4~~~~ Brutality Support - Great damage support, be careful that now you do not benefit from elemental or chaos damage from your weapon anymore. Go run your first lab for Master of Metal ascendancy. ~~~~A10~~~~ Right before you go do Kitava run your Cruel and Merc Labs for Unstoppable Hero and Fortitude. I generally don't run Cruel Lab until I can run Merc Lab as well since we aren't naturally getting fortify from our non-melee attack. Also you really want a Terminus Est by now, high phys % and crit % is good. ~~~~Maps~~~~ By the time you make it to maps you'll likely be using a 4L setup Shattering Steel - Impale - Brutality - Vicious Projectiles is the best setup <Green - Green - Red - Green> When you get a 5L you can add Maim or Slower Projectiles depends on your setup. If you chose to get an astral plate 6L it can be hard to get 4 green 2 red so you can go Shattering Steel - Impale - Brutality - Vicious Projectiles - Maim - Chance to Bleed <Green-Green-Red-Green-Red-Red> until you can replace Chance to Bleed with Slower Projectiles. Ascendancy order: Master of Metal Unstoppable Hero Fortitude First to Strike, Last to Fall Having always fortify is nice because otherwise we have to rely on leapslam or some other move skill to get it Eventually getting an impale mod glove, cluster jewel, or SOME way to get +10% impale chance is probably going to be better than taking 110% impale chance. Reduced Mana cost jewelry is also really important and helps to make the build feel really smooth. Getting crit multi on ammy/rings is really good for damage. Flasks are really helpful, Bottled Faith is big damage and Dying Sun really helps you shine once you switch to lancing steel. If you need more help swing by my channel at twitch.tv/donthecrown