Theory craft: 2h Vitality melee

Hello there, i “craft” a lot of charakters in the last few days, trying to get something viable for all contents, trying a lot 2h aether chars, but nothing seems work, now i try think about this guy and i need some advice from the more expiriencend players.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2jOnQlV

Armor is extremely low for a melee char, plus OA is on the lower side too.

I have theorycrafted a melee Ritualist, this is what I think it should look likein order for it to work.

This is the build I’m using on my conjurer. More of a DoT caster, and less melee focus. I was going to maybe do a full write up on him once 1.6 launches. https://www.grimtools.com/calc/w269OaKN

Thx for your ideas, interesting devotion routes, @Mad Lee: ist the stormcallers buff worth it? I mena the “only” thing are 43% crit damage, personaly i like the master of death from necro (yummy more oa/da), even the harbringer of souls (see the pic from a vamp in my mind, no, not the shiny ones!) seems to be bether (flat vit dmg, vit decay and life leech (vampire inc))! Are the +crit dmg realy worth it?

Yes, 43% crit damage is quite a lot. Master of Death can be another option, but I think in this case Stormcaller’s Pact is better. Harbinger of Souls is the worst option for this build since we convert very negligible amount of physical into vitality (just for Modrogen Pact if you choose to max it, weapon damage is full vitality already), it only adds vitality decay (again, not that good for a melee build) and attack speed (only good thing about it). We are going to have monstrous amount of leeching already.

Seems legit! There is just another point: ur build seems the only vitality build since aom release with manticore, is it still mandatory? I knew the older vit builds used him, but i don’t like that much wastet stats for about 30 flat reduction. U build my impression of a vit 2h hero :stuck_out_tongue:

Strongest part about Vitality damage is its ability to amass as much RR as possible. Otherwise it’s a bit weak compared to other damages. So not taking extra 30% rr here would be a mistake imo.

Stormcaller pact is inferior to Harbringer of souls in linked build.
With 3K OA you will rarely crit ~12% crit chanse against nemesis. That result in 4% more dps output from stormcaller pact - a waste of exclusive. HoS provide 10% more dmg from %Vitality modifier and 5% from attack speed and some ADCTH and some Dots at 372% WD.
BTW you need to add some points to spirit cause with linked build you cant equip jewelry. :stuck_out_tongue: And switch rings from Judicators to something more appropriate - Signet of the Fallen and Cursebearer.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/xZyoGyw2 This point distribution is more optimal.

Can’t check it right now and say for sure but I guess it’s ~18% crit chance… Not counting DA debuff.
Although not counting nemesis’ OA debuff :slight_smile:

check this
Even with 18% crit chanse 43%crit dmg from stormcaller provide less dps increase that just flat%vitality from HoS =)

Now i’m little bit confused, i prefer more something like this https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZoGagGZ

Check this : http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66104
I have a better pants now (more health and stun res). It works fine in the campaign, cruci 150 is possible but not reliable.

New Vit heavy set leaked on a dev stream looks interesting as well, though i still don’t understand the Soldier focus of it.

Ok, you’ve persuaded me :smiley:

12% against nemesis, yes, but this more of a campaign build, so crit damage is gonna be big in clearing out stuff like Roguelikes. Plus what kind of flat damage you are talking about, Vitality Decay? If anything, I would take Master of Death over HoS. Or just tune the build in a way it can have ~3200 OA to make more use of all that crit damage from SP.

And Signet of the Fallen and Cursebearer suck for melee build.

12% against nemesis, yes, but this more of a campaign build, so crit damage is gonna be big in clearing out stuff like Roguelikes.

Unless we manage to hit 40+% Crit chanse +%Vitality and attack speed from HoS would outweight extra crit dmg from Stormcaller.
As for Master of Dead it only push our OA to 3200 - merely 5% crit chanse. HoS is much better DPS-vise.

How come the lightning damage is so low? I had expected a build like this to be quite heavy on lighting from savagery due to there not being any gear to turn lighting into vitality (save for a scepter; that one could technically duelwield).

It’s a Vitality build, and Savagery does weapon damage + some amount of Flat Lightning. And Weapon Damage in this case is full vitality. Plus we are converting some lightning into vitality via helmet. But that’s a draft, as you can see, it’s not tested and there is an argument here on which exclusive skill is more EV. Which I can’t say for sure now, if I were to make such build, I would just test all options.

I use Manticore on my bleed/vit caster that is linked in my signature. I would not say it is mandatory, but it is still strong, especially if you have a second damage type.

Thank u all for ur input, i trying to make a charakter to rock the whole game, but i gues he isnt strong enough for cruci.

AA builds in general and 2h melee builds especially struggle in Glad Crucible. I’ve not been on the forums for a while but as I remember 2 of the 2h builds that were viable in Crucible (fire commando and lightning warder) are basically casters with 2h weapon. And I don’t remember any other 2h melee builds that can Glad 150+ reliably.