Melee in 3.20 - Hiltless 6% Flask Ranger

UPDATE This build is likely DoA due to the following patch note: -Fixed a bug where the Flagellant Flask modifier was triggering from some types of reflected damage (which is usually prevented from triggering hit effects).

Hi! I’m currently working on a Hiltless build for next league and I’d like to theorycraft it with you. Note that I did not come up with this credit goes to Ruetoo, additional credit for the original PoB’s goes to Jaamon & AL (video links at the end)

Core Mechanics:

• Permanent Flask Uptime
• Permanent Adrenaline
• 30% Life Recovery each time all flasks are used together

Hiltless is a unique two-handed sword with the following line: Enemies you Attack Reflect 100 Physical Damage to you

Reflected damage counts as a hit from an enemy, and as such, this replenishes flask charges. In combination with the flask mods “Gain 3 Charges when you are Hit by an Enemy” & “Used when Charges reach full” we can trigger flasks at an absolutely insane rate so long as we are attacking.

Why would we want to do this? Besides permanent flask uptime, one of the main reasons we are doing this is to trigger the pathfinder node Master Surgeon that causes us to recover 6% of life when we use a flask, as our flasks are constantly using themselves, we are recovering 6% of life PER FLASK, constantly! I’ve tested this in standard and the amount of recovery is incredible, and its super fun to watch your life instantly pop to full after taking a hit.

Olroth’s Charge is a unique pair of boots that cause us to gain adrenaline for 3 seconds each time ward breaks. In conjunction with an Iron flask with the aforementioned mods, we are constantly gaining and breaking +200 ward, granting us permanent adrenaline uptime.

Downsides: We are forced to use melee attack skills, and a two-handed sword. This unfortunately heavily restricts the number of viable builds. We need to be attacking to trigger the reflect to be “Hit by an Enemy” to gain flask charges.

We are also forced to play Ranger if we want the recovery, which is not the best class for melee attack skills for me personally. At the very least, you will need to play Pathfinder to pick up Master Surgeon. Alternatively, you can play Deadeye or Raider, but you’ll need to pick up this node with Forbidden jewels. The best skills I have found to play here are: Flicker Strike (Impale) Molten Strike (Scaling Projectiles) or Lightning Strike (Personally not a huge fan) Frost Blades (Honorable mention as it’s fun)

Trinity wild strike, ice crash or others may also be good, but I haven’t been able to make them work as well as Flicker or Molten Strike in POB.

Build Links: ‘Relatively’ entry level work-in-progress Impale Flicker: https://pastebin.com/FxYGg2Ex

Same build, more expensive ‘minmax’ Impale Flicker: https://pastebin.com/FbbK7rmT

My current personal favourite, WIP Molten Strike Deadeye: https://pastebin.com/tZVjzEd6

Molten Strike revolves more around scaling the damage with the unique belt Perseverance by focusing on stacking as much armor and evasion as we can. This also grants us Fortify & Onslaught. 100% suppression, 87% chance to evade, 90% phys damage reduction.

The main downsides here is that it’s hard to gear, hard to get chaos res, damage is quite low when you don’t have snipers mark, smite & ancestral protector totems up.

This build could push very high numbers with the amount of projectiles we have but unfortunately the actual average damage is very low and I’m struggling to get more flat base damage.

I generally only get to level 93 so some of these trees are pushing it a little, too.

Molten Strike tree originally taken from Jaamon here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p23bXAcGjI

(First to Strike, Last to fall no longer functions as described in the video. Reservation Mastery is gone, and Lifetap, Divine Blessing auras also no longer function this way.)

Flicker Strike tree originally taken from AL here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKLB2k0Uin8

(Same as above, but we also lost hydrosphere melee splash overlap)

Any advice on how to push my Molten Strike damage, survivability, OR any better ways to start from scratch and scale this while keeping the core mechanics intact would be super appreciated!

I know I can push the damage and living by changing ascendancies but that unfortunately goes against the point of playing hiltless + master surgeon!

Thanks!