The BEST Melee build for Scourge! - Quantrik's Earthshatter Berserker

LEVELING Levels 1-11 For early leveling there are 2 options based on player preference: Splitting Steel Optimal early links: - Splitting Steel - Onslaught - Chance to Bleed For this this set-up you will need to create a Duelist to get access the the splitting steel gem. There are quite a few benefits to this set-up over Ground Slam. 1. Safety of a ranged skill 2. Easier link transition to lvl 12 skill 3. Can use swords for Accuracy 4. Path through life nodes at start requires less regrets later Ground Slam Optimal early links: - Ground Slam - Chance to Bleed - Onslaught Ground slam doesn't particularly have any benefits over Splitting Steel except you don't need to mule. Levels 12-43 After a lot of testing I found Spectral Helix to be the best skill until we can have enough Warcry CDR/Speed to make Slams feel smooth. Optimal early links: - Spectral Helix - Onslaught - Chance to Bleed - (Cruelty) Levels 43-100 It's time to slam. Earthshatter is your best friend. At this point we should have the following Masteries and Notables: Warcry Notables: - Deep Breaths - Admonisher Warcry Masteries: - 10 Minimum Power - Cannot Exert Travel Skills DEFENSES Maximum Resistance (Elemental & Fire Focussed) This stat is important as this build does not have avoidance based mitigation. You will be taking a lot of hits so the focus is to reduce the damage taken from these hits as much as possible. We focus fire resistance to counter 2 deadly mechanics for Melee characters. - Martyr (Torment Ghosts with Corpse Explosion) - Molten Shell Goats Notables - Prismatic Skin - Soul of Steel - Barbarism Fortification (Elemental & Physical) Fortification gives us 1% damage reduction of Physical and Elemental damage per stack. This build acquires 26 Fortification stacks which is 26% damage reduction. Notables: - Steadfast Masteries: - +3 Maximum Fortification - -3 Maximum Fortification/Melee Hits Fortify If you are feeling not tanky enough it is always an option to drop Melee Hits Fortify and use the Fortify support gem which will provide an additional +3 Fortification. Armour (Elemental & Physical) Armour has been greatly buffed this patch along with the Determination aura. We use high Armour value items along with the Defiance notable of Berserker to obtain obscene amounts of armour. Molten Shell The best guard skill in the game and even stronger this patch. Molten Shell provides a shield based on your Armour that mitigates hits of ALL damage types. That means it will mitigate Chaos, Elemental, and Physical hits. By scaling our armour tothe a value of 40,000-50,000 creates a shield that can take 8,000-10,000 damage. PLAYSTYLE If you enjoy playing flask-piano you can now also enjoy playing warcry-piano. I typically use the follow WarCry rotations. While the bossing rotation is not entirely optimal as it is based on the old Seismic Cry (RIP) playstyle, the goal is to always be doing damage while pressing Intimidating Cry as much as possible. Bossing: Rallying -> Slam x2 -> Intimidating -> Slam x3 -> Enduring Mapping: Rallying -> Slam -> Intimidating -> Slam -> Enduring -> Slam POSSIBLE ANNOINTS Tenacity - Life & Best Damage Gladiator's Perseverance - Attack Speed, Leech, Damage Martial Experience - Leech, Damage MACE VS AXE I recommend Mace this patch as have the new notable All Damage with Maces and Sceptres Inflict Chill. Due to the high average hit of slams and the updated Ailment Thresholds of enemies we should be able to achieve a 30% chill on all monsters in the game providing a high amount of safety while losing a small amount of damage. WEAPON CRAFTING I find the Imperial Maul to be a compelling base as it offers a good balance of Damage & Base Attack speed that work well for slams from the numbers I've seen in PoB. It also offers a powerful implicit of 10% Strength that will scale our life pool as we stack strength on gear suffixes. Deafening Essence of Contempt (~750 PDPS Imperial Maul) 1. Use Deafening of Contempt (16 on Average) until we hit: - T6+ Hybrid Flat Phys If we do not have an open prefix we can either - Prefix->Suffix Beast - Annul If after this step Suffixes are full we can either: - Annul - Harvest (Reforge Keep Prefixes) 2. Craft Prefixes Cannot be Changed (2 Exalts) 3. Aisling & Pray for Prefix & Unveil Phys 4. Craft Attack Speed + Quality (1 Exalt) 5. Harvest Lucky Divine GETTING 100% CHANCE TO IMPALE Early on we can use a combination of - Harpooner (30%) - Merciless Skewering (30%) - Dread Banner (25% w/ Aura Effect) For the final 20% we can use: - Physical Mastery (20%) - 3 x Jewels (7% each) - Betrayal Weapon Craft Phys/Impale Prefix (18-20%) End game we drop Harpooner and use the following: - Hunter Gloves with (20%) - Vicious Skewering (10%) cluster jewel notable - 2x Jewels (7% each)