[3.16] Konsta's Champion Double Strike Starter - Good DPS, good defenses. Starter.

Especially after the league start please ask questions in discord or Twitch, I don't have to check the forums often


Intro

Fastest way to reach me in case of questions is Discord:
https://discord.gg/WMg9bW8khz

Come to say hello, ask questions and hang out in Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/kyrpale

This Build is now updated for 3.16. Huge defense and DPS buff, and this might be the strongest iteration of the build.

Old updates



I designed this build for 3.9 Metamorph league. I dislike summoner or totem builds and I normally prefer bow or melee over caster. Since 3.9 was a bow league itemization was a lot more expensive for bows so I opted for melee. Double strike duelist is an old concept and I've started with similar build twice before. I can vouch that it is fast and effective on minimal investment. While not designed for HC, the defences are solid and a lot of content can be simply facetanked. I'm not a HC player myself, but anything is a HC build if you're brave enough :)

Update: due to defence boosts for 3.16, this build might be easily adaptable for HC. Let me know if you have any intrest and if so, I'll provide my idea for HC tree.

Target for this guide
The target of this guide is to provide beginner friendly, efficient and cheap started for all the fellow exiles. I try to provide as clear explanations for mechanics as I can to help out newcomers.

Design principles
-Cannot depend on key items:using only rares must be possible, no shaper / elder items since we don't know the rarity
-Needs to have hefty amount of damage. Offence is the best defence.
-Needs to be able to map on OK speed
-No completely glass cannon


Realistic DPS
Budget gear: DS: 2.6mil DPS + VDS: 1.2mil DPS = 3.8 Mil DPS
Mid price gear: DS: 4.5mil DPS + VDS: 2.4mil DPS = 6.8 Mil DPS
--> Not calculating in the totem damage. Check the POB for details.

Pro's & Cons
+Good damage with cheap gear. Millions of shaper DPS.
+OK map clear with fast leap slam turning into very good map clear
+Very cheap to gear as a starter. No required uniques, although some uniques do offer QoL

-Maximum damage requires two gem swaps before you allocate tribal fury, 1 gem swap afterwards. However, with decent gear you can complete all content without the gem swaps pretty easily.
-Cannot run physical reflect maps
-Melee - not the safest playstyle or quickest map clear

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Build Introduction & Overview

Explanation of Double Strike and Vaal Double Strike

Double Strike
Double strike (or DS) is a melee strike skill which hits twice a single enemy. In addition, it gives chance to bleed and adds hefty amount of physical damage to attacks against bleeding enemies. What makes the skill unbelivably effective is the added physical damage - which can easily double the DPS of mediocre weapon. Since the skill itself gives very solid buff on physical damage, we can easily concentrate on attack speed and crit chance / multiplier to boost the damage even higher. The downside of VD is the map clear speed. Since VD hits only one enemy by default, we need to use two supports to make the clearing fast. This in turn means that to maximize the boss damage, we need to swap these two gems.

Vaal Double Strike
Vaal Double Strike (aka "the Boys") is a vaal skill. Vaal skills are corrupted versions of normal skill gems. Vaal skill gem gives you both the normal version of the skill and the vaal version - which is in this case vaal Double Strike. All vaal skills need "souls" to be used, and you gain souls by killing enemies. This means that the vaal skills are not always usable, but at the current state of the game they are most of the time. Vaal double strike spawns two copies of you. They are immortal and will attack the nearest enemy with double strike. The damage of the clones will take into account of all your damage buffs, such as potions and vaal double strike support gems (unless otherwise stated in the skill gem). Since vaal double strike stores two charges you can get in total of four copies. The combined DPS of four copies and you is normally incredibly high, even enough to vaporize T16 bosses on cheap gear under a second.

Build Concepts
We are using double strike as our main skill for clearing and bossing. We will be solely focused on physical damage since physical damage is cheaper to scale that elemental. While the vaal skill provides nice occasional DPS buff, we are no way dependant for it beign up. Champion ascendancy will help us with survivability and damage. Increased aura effect with determination and defiance banner let's us easily stack absurd amount of armour, while the new mana reservation efficiency wheel allows us still to use DPS auras. We use petrified blood to change large amount of incoming damage to DOT, and then vitality + aura efficiency to mitigate the DOT via life regen. Since we are using petrified blood and reserving just under half of our life, life flask usage will bring us above "low life"-status and any incoming damage lowers on on "low life". Therefore keeping "adrenaline"-buff up is trivial.

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Gear


Weapons
Dual wield any two swords. Ideally, you want to have high attack speed sword with good critical strike chance. On the beginning, dual wield any two swords you find (or any weapons before you take the sword nodes). For the end game, you want to have Jewelled Foil with decent attack speed and critical strike chance. Good options for extreme budget include Ahn's Might (make sure you DON'T have frenzy charges) and Scaeva. Dreadbeak is actually very decent & cheap sword since we are permanently on low life.

Body Armour
Wear any 6-link armour STR/DEX base for easy coloring. Aim to have as high evasion + armour from the body. Good unique options include "Daresso's Defiance" and "Belly Of The Beast". At the very end game you can also utilize

For leveling, use tabula rasa.

Amulet + Rings
I chose to use amulet + rings for resistance capping. Stats to look for are resistances and life. After those, luxury stats are: "Adds X to X physical damage to attacks", "+XX increased critical strike multiplier".


Belt
For belt, highest damage option is "Ryslatha's Coil". Another good option is to go with well rolled stygian vise to also get one more abyssal jewel slot or with well-rolled vanguard belt for high armour boost. Ryslatha's will be roughly 15-20% more damage.

Boots
For boots, get a pair of rares with high elemental resists and life. Additionally you can try to find a pair with INT roll to make reaching the required intelligence easier.

Gloves
For gloves you'll have plenty of good options. Good unique options are "Haemophilia" since these gloves provide bleed explosions for better clear. If you go with rare gloves, prioritize resists, life and attack speed.

Helmet
Abyssus is no-brainer since we mitigate almost all the phys damage. Best helm enchant is "double strike has 15% chance to deal double damage to bleeding enemies".


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Gems and links

All listed in order of importance. If you have less links than 6, just remove gems from the end. Most likely gem swaps will be needed only for T14+ maps - however that of course depends on your gear and setup.

Clearing - no Tribal Fury:
Vaal Double Strike > Ancestral Call > Melee Splash > Multistrike > Increased Critical Strikes > Lifetap

Clearing - Tribal Fury:
Vaal Double Strike > Melee Splash > Multistrike > Increased Critical Strikes > Lifetap > Brutality

Max. Single Target:
Vaal Double Strike > Brutality > Multistrike > Lifetap > Increased Critical Strikes > Bloodthirst

Auras
1. Pride > Determination > Petrified Blood
2. Dread Banner > War Banner > Defiance Banner > Arrogance
3. Precision > Vitality > Herald Of Purity

NOTE: level precision until just UNDER half your HP pool is reserved. You need to have 51% of unreserved life to activate "adrenaline" when you press life flask. Additional note: I'm too lazy to place the banners, I just use them for the aura effect. Feel free to place them also, but the placed effect is not calculated in the POB nor have I played with it.

Other
Ancestral Protector > Molten Shell > Blood Rage > Increased Duration

NOTE: you can bind molten shell to your "walk" button for easy automatic activation, if you don't want to activate it yourself.

Movement
Leap Slam > Faster Attacks > Lifetap
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Ascendancy order:
Master Of Metal > Inspirational > First To Strike, Last To Fall > Unstoppable Hero

Path of Building final skill tree:
Use LocalIdentity's fork of POB. Get it here:
https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding

NEW

NEW Champion Tree

NOTE: by the time of writing POB does not support the fortify ascendancy. Therefore the effects have been added as a flask.

3.16 Champion - starter gear: https://pastebin.com/deswec5F
3.16 Champion - mid price gear: https://pastebin.com/fNB7UZT9

"

(OLD 3.15 Slayer tree)
Starting gear: 3.15 Slayer Tree: https://pastebin.com/9chncWTb
Mid price gear: 3.13 Slayer Tree: https://pastebin.com/dqKq5xGX (>7.4mil DPS)

(OLD 3.12 Gladiator Tree:[/b] https://pastebin.com/SFhMauJG)
(OLD 3.10 Gladiator Tree: https://pastebin.com/tZ5P8dBA)

DISCLAIMER: Adapt the tree based on your needs! If you feel that you are too squishy, pick more life nodes, they are readily available! Yo

OLD - TO BB UPDATED - Leveling trees & building tips:


Bandits:
-kill all

Pantheons
To be updated with POB

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Videos (3.9)
-T14 Elderslayer (Veritania) kill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lzSLLpGKLE
-T14 8-mod corrupted vault with full juice metamorph: https://youtu.be/df760-W-72Y
-T15 Channel Clear: https://youtu.be/I2FRKWeWCmQ

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Leveling tips

You can start using double strike from level 1. Try to buy the vaal gem, since the additional damage from Vaal DS does help you in bosses.

At start, your links should be "Vaal Double Strike > Chance To Bleed > Ancestral Call". Switch Ancestral Call to melee physical damage on bosses. Remove Chance to bleed only after you get "heamophilia"-gloves or other chance to bleed.

Good starting weapons include "Wildslash" and "Ornament of the east". Buy "tabula rasa" for chest. You can continue using tabula until maps.


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Nice build, I will follow un the future, thx

There's a map clear video?

"

BeeDark escreveu:

There's a map clear video?

I'll add it in 1h

Edit: added.

What would be the first improvements you'd make to the gear with larger budget, besides a max dps rare weapon instead of wasps nest?

"

heishe escreveu:

What would be the first improvements you'd make to the gear with larger budget, besides a max dps rare weapon instead of wasps nest?

-On top of my current gear, I'd prioritize everything in following order:
1. 6l elder or hunter body armour (pref. astral plate) with +120life & >10% life, +1.0-1.5% crit chance to attacks
2.Rare claw
3. Revamping of amulet + rings, preferably steel ring bases

Hi great build, do you know if (impale) champion ascendancy is better for bossing ? it's been 1 month since i'm thinking about doing a double strike but can't decide between this build or a champion one. Thanks !

"

OneT59 escreveu:

Hi great build, do you know if (impale) champion ascendancy is better for bossing ? it's been 1 month since i'm thinking about doing a double strike but can't decide between this build or a champion one. Thanks !

Hi, champion has better DPS but gladiator if faster and has much better clearing. Single Double Strike builds rarely lack damage - difference in most cases between champion or gladiator is that are you going to kill the boss in 1s or 1.2s - I would prioritize the clearing.

Pick champion if:
-You estimate that you will be piss poor for the good part of the league: no need to invest in accuracy in gear, higher baseline damage for bossing

Pick gladiator if:
-You also prioritize map clear speed
-You estimate that you can buy decent items at some point - the damage difference will become miniscule

Additional note: if you pick champion, I would go with swords. Since you need additional chance to bleed, sword nodes at right side will provide very convenient nodes for swords build for bleed chance.

DO u have any levelling tips?

"

konstaonkuningas escreveu:

"

OneT59 escreveu:

Hi great build, do you know if (impale) champion ascendancy is better for bossing ? it's been 1 month since i'm thinking about doing a double strike but can't decide between this build or a champion one. Thanks !

Hi, champion has better DPS but gladiator if faster and has much better clearing. Single Double Strike builds rarely lack damage - difference in most cases between champion or gladiator is that are you going to kill the boss in 1s or 1.2s - I would prioritize the clearing.

Pick champion if:
-You estimate that you will be piss poor for the good part of the league: no need to invest in accuracy in gear, higher baseline damage for bossing

Pick gladiator if:
-You also prioritize map clear speed
-You estimate that you can buy decent items at some point - the damage difference will become miniscule

Additional note: if you pick champion, I would go with swords. Since you need additional chance to bleed, sword nodes at right side will provide very convenient nodes for swords build for bleed chance.

Thanks ! I'll probably do a glad then, I've 6ex (and 42 divine orbs which will be sold when they'll cost more) hop it'll be enough to buy a good gear !