Fulcrum Wild Strike Berserker

Greetings, fellow exiles. I've just finished playing the league and wanted to share the build I've been using. I have played most leagues since Betrayal and I enjoy creating off-meta builds and seeing how far I can push them, typically on the left side of the tree. This build is no exception.

Link to PoB: https://pastebin.com/fqRzDJcn

Summary

We're playing a Berserker using The Fulcrum to reflect elemental ailments back onto ourselves with Wild Strike as our 6-Link and a ton of life leech as our primary defense.

Overall, the build performed a lot better than I expected. The beginning of the league was a bit of a struggle for me as I experimented and figured things out, and I would not recommend this as a league starter as you will simply be a gimped wild strike build until you can spend at least 3 to 5 divines to get the prerequisites to be able to use The Fulcrum. However, once my unique items were all acquired, the build performed admirably. Move speed is fast and mapping is a lot of fun. I mostly ran alch and go, logbooks, delve, and some heist, but the build can do juicier maps and is surprisingly sturdy on bosses. Using this build, I killed Elder, Shaper, Maven (only the 2nd time I've ever killed her), Aul the Crystal King (first time, around depth 300), Uber Atziri, The Formed, and The Twisted. I didn't bother doing Exarch or Eater of Worlds as I was specced into the right side of the tree and I hate the Eater fight, especially as this build which will struggle during his damage-immune phase (no leech plus a growing degen field = bad times).

According to PoB I ended up at about 5m dps, 174% movespeed mod, 5k HP, and about 3.3k life leech rate.

Playstyle

Zoom zoom on maps, mostly. Ancestral Cry is instant and provides us with armor, rage, and clear speed. Hydrosphere is fun to yeet around the map, though you will probably only need it on tankier rares. Right click to unleash Wild Strike and watch stuff blow up. Big dps buttons are Berserk and Ancestral Protector, and once we're swimming in currency and have a level 4 Enlighten we can afford to run Defiance Banner which provides further defensive benefits, especially when planted near a boss or other tough spot. I run Flame Dash because I find its ability to dodge incoming attacks to be extremely valuable, but you could get away with running the move skill of your choice.

On bosses we literally stand on top of them and hold right click. As long as you don't stand in something like a shaper beam or other death mechanic, your leech will carry you through their attacks while you melt them.

Critical Items

We use a lot of uniques, but fortunately none of them are particularly expensive, you'll just need a bunch of them before the build really comes online which does give us a bit of a start up cost.

Inpulsa's Broken Heart

This is one of the most expensive uniques we use that is an absolute must-have to equip The Fulcrum, as it is the source of our shock protection. I think I paid 1-2 divines for mine and then 6-linked it myself.

Winterweave

This is what reverses the effect of chill on us, and is also 100% mandatory. It is, fortunately, very cheap.

Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame with Tasalio, Cleansing Water

This is how we prevent ourselves from suiciding with ignite and is also 100% mandatory. It also provides the added benefit of a ton of Fire Resist and boosts our life leech. I spent 1 divine on each.

Large Cluster Jewel with Feed the Fury and Fuel the Fight

Not a unique item but necessary for the build all the same and probably one of the first things you'll want to get. The life and mana leech from this cluster jewel is what sustains us. Cheaper variants are easy to get. Once you go for an 8 passive, 3 notable version with Martial Prowess, you'll be spending a few divines.

The Fulcrum

This is what brings it all together, and once you have all of the above, you can equip it and watch the build fly. Aim for one with a high phys roll and decent ele rolls, particularly cold. Wild Strike will take care of the conversion for us, so we don't need to worry too much about the ele rolls, but I'd still check what PoB says. I think I paid about half a divine for mine.

Other Items

Atziri's Acuity These gloves are absolutely fantastic for us and while they aren't mandatory, I cannot think of a reason you would not choose these. They double our life leech, they give us a much needed intelligence boost, they have max life, critical strike, a ton of armor - literally everything about these gloves is steroids for our build. Bonus, they're cheap.

Ryslatha's Coil

This is particularly good for us due to the luck on shocked mod from The Fulcrum. A poorly rolled Ryslatha's will cost next to nothing. A well rolled one will cost a few divines.

Call of the Void

Very cheap unique ring for our 2nd slot that ensures we will be chilling and chilled all of the time, debuffs our enemies' damage, and deletes on-death effects like Toxic from the game.

Rare Items

Boots, Helm, and Amulet are our only rare items. You'll need to prioritize getting your dex and intelligence up to 155 or higher, getting your elemental resists capped, and good max life rolls. The Cannot Be Frozen craft for your boots is a must, but fortunately it only costs 1 ex and you can use The Brine King as your major god in a pinch. A nice but expensive boost can be had by getting boots with Onslaught as a synthesized implicit, which will allow you to ditch an onslaught flask and pick up Rumi's Concoction instead.

Nice to have Items

Medium Cluster Jewel with Astonishing Affliction and https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Eye_of_the_Storm_(passive_skill)

More dps, more chill and shock effect.

Watcher's Eye and Thread of Hope

Watcher's Eyes are kind of a no-brainer for any build, and you can get them as cheap or as expensive as you want. We make particularly good use of Thread of Hope (very large ring), hitting 5 strong notables with it and having Magmatic Strikes available as a 6th that I simply did not take in lieu of more max life.

Flasks

You'll want a life flask with immunity to corrupted blood and bleeding. Diamond and Sulphur flasks are good for us for dps, as is Silver Flask, but you can replace your Silver Flask once you get Onslaught implicit boots. I replaced mine with Rumi's.

Ascendancies

War Bringer, Defy Pain, Flawless Savagery, and Aspect of Carnage

I found War Bringer and Defy Pain to be the most critical for the build. Defy Pain in particular gives us a huge boost to armor and life leech, and with our decently high block chance, it won't hit cap too often.

Gems

Wild Strike - Fortify - Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks - Anomalous Hypothermia - Increased Critical Strikes - Trinity

This is our main damage link. Anomalous Hypothermia gives us more chance to freeze which is just fantastic to see in action. Fortify is a bit of a dps loss over something like Increased Crit Damage or Awakened Melee Phys, but a big survivability gain. We want as close to a 100% crit chance as possible so we are always applying our ele ailments, so Increase Crit Strikes wins over Increased Crit Damage.

Phantasmal Ancestral Protector - Enhance Support - Culling Strike - Berserk

Enhance boosts the extra attack speed buff from Phantasmal Ancestral Protector and also boosts Berserk.

Divergent Herald of Ice - Precision - Anomalous Hatred - Enlighten

Alternate qualities give us more chill and more freeze

Hydrosphere - Elemental Weakness - Hextouch - Bonechill Support

Zip that Hydrosphere around the map onto your enemies for debuffs.

Steelskin - Cast When Damage Taken

Ancestral Cry, Defiance Banner, Flame Dash, Blood Rage

Standard CWDT defensive setup. Blood Rage boosts our dps and gives us frenzy charges. Defiance Banner is a later addon for when you get a level 4 Enlighten but it's a bit of a defensive boost. Ancestral Cry is how we generate Rage with War Bringer and I found the other boosts it gives to be extremely helpful.

Of note, Tribal Fury on the passive tree is also a nice QOL buff similar to Ancestral Cry and I would not recommend the build without either of them.

Closing

I was pleasantly surprised with this build's performance and ended up having a lot of fun with it. I think this is the longest I've ever played a league before getting bored. You'll have to deal with melee playstyle which isn't for everyone, but I felt it had a lot of survivability and a ton of clear speed, and the QoL provided by ancestral cry and tribal fury make it pretty smooth to play. You will get popped if you're running rippy content, but as long as you aren't actively trying to level it won't matter. You run super fast anyway and Paradise Lakes are a really easy way to gain levels if you're trying to progress through your 90s.

I hope some people find this build interesting and this guide helpful.

Enjoy.

EDIT:

Had some people ask for video, so I put some clips together. Nothing amazing, just a couple maps and a 326 depth delve. Hope it helps show the playstyle a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMHFGiu8JA