A different take on Infernal Blow Hollow Palm ft. Dissolution of the Flesh

POB: https://pastebin.com/Hix7EnGa

Introduction

After playing this build twice during Delirium league as both Chieftain and Raider, I wanted to try a new version using the tech the community has learned over the past years and introducing some new flavor with the tools added to the game recently.

This build features higher DPS than the staple Raider variant and a more tanky experience even as a melee character.

Why Dissolution of the Flesh?

This powerful but misunderstood jewel was introduced in Siege of the Atlas and its used in this build to enable some great interactions and added survivability.

Pros:

• 30% more life, allowing the build to get rid of “Garukhan’s Flight’’ as the BiS boots to reach a decent life pool.
• Life sustains in a unique way that allows us to abandon traditional methods such as: Life flasks, life regeneration, life leech and life gained on hit.
• Enables us to take full advantage of the Eternal Youth keystone, this translates into 30%+ Life recharge per second consistently without investing in Energy shield recharge.

Cons:

• Receiving consistent damage destroys the build, this is much more noticeable with DoT.
• We need an additional 35% reserved mana for Petrified + a gem socket. If you have played Hollow Palm, you know how valuable a gem slot is.

How do we handle the cons of Dissolution of the Flesh?

DoT:

• Full elemental ailment immunity thanks to Raider, the passive tree and gear.
• Full poison immunity thanks to Essence crafted boots.
• Full Corrupted Blood immunity with a jewel.
• Conditional Bleed immunity with Steelskin
• Burning ground immunity thanks to the Soul of Abberath pantheon.

This can be taken further by crafting “unaffected by desecrated ground” influenced boots and building more chaos resistance.

Hits:

There are 4 mechanics that synergize with Dissolution of the Flesh, these are:

• Evasion
• Block
• Spell Dodge
• Chance to avoid damage from hits

In this build we use a combination of Evasion, Spell Dodge and Block.

Wow, wow, wow…Spell dodge? You mean the worse and less consistent spell suppression that requires more investment? Well…Yes.

While 99% of builds would rather build suppression, this build is stronger when you "don’t get hit’’ even if that’s a bit inconsistent. This is because we need a 2 second window for the un-reservation of life from Dissolution of the Flesh to take effect, and even though receiving less damage from spells is nice, this alternative unironically provides a better experience. The Magebane keystone and the high amount of dexterity we stack makes capping spell dodge a breeze.

Ultimately, this version of the build has the following defensive layers:

• 5K Life unreserved with Petrified Blood
• Almost 50K Evasion
• 75% spell dodge
• 42% attack block and 5% spell block
• Consistent 20 Fortification, even against pinnacle bosses.
• 7% less damage taken from all sources thanks to the Eater of Worlds "reduced damage taken per dex’’ chest implicit.
• Uninterrupted 1500 Life recharge per second

• All the immunities previously mentioned.

You’d be surprised how comfortable and reliable the 2 second window for Dissolution of the Flesh to un-reserved your life is after you achieve all these layers. It also promotes a very interesting hit&run playstyle (if you get hit, which is rare).

If you want more tankiness, there’s a lot to get from the scion life wheel. I played a variant with 6.2K life and felt unnecessary, so I just went into more DPS.

Ok, but tell me about the DPS?

We’re taking full advantage of recombinators to create a superior chest when compared to the classic Wildwrap or an influenced chest with %Dex (Although, both alternatives are 100% viable).

• This means transferring the Breach modifier for “1% increased attack speed per 25 Dexterity’’ to a desirable base and with better mods. FYI, my chest was a lucky craft and unnecessary, the previously mentioned chests will be more than enough.

• We’re also using two unique jewels to get ‘’Veteran Bowyer’’ from Pathfinder and an Impossible Escape for WindDancer to enable easy access to more elemental penetration. Elemental penetration is hard to get if you don’t want to sacrifice a gem in your 6-link.

• Recombinators also mean getting the ‘’Gain 10% physical damage as extra fire’’ essence mod with high flat dexterity on a ring is much easier. This also means unset rings and more reliable, reducing the socket pressure.

• The 1500 Life recharge per second allows us to easily maintain a Divine Blessing+Lifetap Hatred for almost 40% more damage

Final thoughts

• I’m happy with the balance between DPS and survivability and Infernal Blow never disappoints for satisfying clear.

There are still some bosses and mechanics that are instant death for the build even with all the layers previously mentioned. Some include:

• The Eldrich altar mods that makes you take 600 chaos damage per second after a flask use.
• The Mirage type-boss from Orchard, which can also appear in the Shaper fight and drains your life without counter play.
• All sources of ground degen outside of burning ground. This won’t instantly kill if you react fast enough and in 2 seconds your life will be filled again.
• Beyond bosses spamming dozens of spells per second.

So far, the build has taken:

• Uber Maven
• Uber Shaper
• All Maven invitations including The Feared

Unfortunately since the Uber Uber encounters were designed with lots of ground degens in mind, and this build heavily struggles with that, I wouldn't recommed it if that's your goal.

PD: I’ll upload some gameplay footage if there’s enough interest after 48 hours. Tell me in the comments what content you’d like to see.