Path of Exile Ranger Molten Strike Crit Dagger Build
Path of Exile Ranger Molten Strike Crit Dagger Build by MollariGaming
This build was created to take advantage of the amazing damage scaling through critical strike and to use the ability Molten Strike. The damage through the trio of Bino’s, Abyssus, and Maligaro’s is really crazy. While this build doesn’t look tanky it has quite a bit of survivability through Bino’s regeneration that scales with damage. With my specific setup, 2 seconds after landing a killing blow with the melee portion of molten strike (not the projectiles), I gain around 2500 life per second for 2 seconds depending on the critical damage. This means unless I desync really bad, I would have to get 1 shot to die basically. This character is built around flying through maps and is even able to conquer normal Atziri. As with any build that focuses on damage and is not built around huge defenses, I would recommend this exact version be for softcore leagues only. You can make a hardcore variation of this build if you so desire and have great success. The current version has 120k DPS tooltip with charges and 170k with Atziri’s Promise + Vaal Haste up. Keep in mind that the projectiles are not factored into the tooltip so after projectiles the damage in this build is pretty crazy!
Video(s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN42ujMefOw – 78 Courtyard
The Specs
You can start Ranger or Shadow as they are basically the same and you will end up near the starting of each.
Bandits
Normal: Life
Cruel: Physical damage
Merc: Power charge
Leveling
You are able to level using this build all the way through. At level 20 you can use Ungil’s dagger and then switch to a Mightflay dagger at 35. Mightflay will last you all the way until lower 50s when you will have to then find a decent dagger to last until 65 when you can get a Bino’s. This build is built around having a Bino’s so you will have to likely change points around to add survivability if you are not going to use Bino’s or use the Atziri crit gloves.
Playstyle
This build is build around Bino’s dagger. The reason this dagger is so good is because upon killing an enemy that is poisoned (which we poison targets upon crit through the Adders Touch keystone) we gain a scaling life regeneration buff for 2 seconds. With my exact setup I gain around 2500 life per second for 2 seconds (based on damage so yours will be different but not terrible far off). That is is HUGE! For this build you will use Molten Strike as both your single target and AoE ability. The beauty of Molten Strike is that you can buff the projectiles through buffing the melee ability as the projectiles are taken directly from a % of the physical component. Using Multistrike it gives us 9 total projectiles instead of the normal 3 because we gain an extra 2 swings. With these projectiles are do not need to use a support gem like Melee Splash because the projectiles take care of the AoE for us. Also keep in mind that because Molten Strike converts a portion of our physical damage to fire we are able to stack a lot more crit and crit multi without reflect becoming a problem!
Gearing
Weapon: Bino’s Kitchen Knife is the weapon required for this exact setup unless you have access to Atziri’s Acuity which drop from Uber Aztiri only. Since they are way more expensive then the Bino’s you are better off just getting the Bino’s. Very good damage, very high crit chance, and the regen proc, make this the go-to weapon for this build.
Shield: Crest of Perandus is going to offer the best bang for the price. You are more then welcome to use whatever you would like but the 40% base block is extremely good. With the life, lightning res, and life leech, this is a very good shield.
Helmet: Abyssus helmet all the way. Do not be turned off by the Increased Physical Damage Taken mod because that will get negated through our block% and the fact that everything will be frozen from the Hatred cold damage. This helmet is an INSANE amount of DPS. Damn near 50% of the overall build’s damage comes from this helmet. The all stats also save a few points throughout the tree.
Chest: Voll’s Protector is the way I went with this build. It essentially gives us 7 links as the power charge on crit from this chest trumps the gem by a lot. The Power Charge on Critical gem only can proc 1 power charge be cast where as the chest is on every crit. 5L Volls is perfectly alright but keep in mind you will probably be dropping 30ishk DPS depending on gear. This build needs either a 5L/6L Voll’s or a 6L chest to work. A 5L rare chest would not get the job done. A 6L High life, good res chest is probably best but that will be a lot more expensive than a 6L Voll’s and might even allow you to drop Purity of Elements altogether allowing you to add Purity of Fire to the build. Tabula also works out just fine as a good starter chest because you can link in Power Charge on Crit and run Molten Strike off mana.
Amulet: You can do whatever you would like in this slot. Life and resists are a must but you have the option to get crit, crit multi, phys dmg, wepon elemental damage, strength, accuracy, and ele dmg. My current neck as no DPS on it and I still have insane damage so it is completely up to you! Keep in mind that too much weapon elemental damage may cause some elemental reflect problems so be careful.
Rings: 1 of Death Rush / Ming’s Heart. Keep in mind that theDeath Rush ring may no longer be availible as it was no longer dropping in the 4 month leagues but it was a race reward recently. This would be ideal but if it is not available then the Ming’s Heart is a close second but has the minor drawback of the HP loss (in my exact gear it brings me down about 260 life). The other ring you want will be a rare ring with life and resistances depending on what you need. If you can get a physical roll or a weapon elemental damage roll then that would be preferred.
Gloves: Maligaro’s Virtuosity are great for scaling damage and the go to gloves for sure unless you can afford the ridiculously expensive Atziri’s Acuity from Uber Atziri. As long as you have a Bino’s then the Maligaro’s work just fine.
Belt: Here you will want a good rare belt probably with Rustic base for the physical damage bonus. Life and resists are a must with strength and weapon elemental damage a bonus.
Boots: You will be looking for a pair of high life, resists, and movement speed boots.
Flasks: I would highly recommend 1 Atziri’s Promise + 2 Seething Hallowed (1 freeze/chill and 1 bleed) + 1 Quicksilver + 1 Granite with increased armor. If you can roll generate 1 charge on crit then I highly recommend those as you will be close to crit cap (95%) so they will regenerate amazingly fast.
Running Molten Strike on mana
Molten Strike has the benefit like Reave where the base cost is extremely low. This allows for this skill to be run effectively on mana without requiring a huge pool to draw from. If you were using a non Voll’s chest (50% reduced mana) then you could run Molten Strike on 150ish mana with just 2% physical mana leech without running out of mana. If you choose to go the mana route then you will lose one of your 40% auras leaving you with 1 60% and 1 40%. Completely up to you and your preference.
Scaling Molten Strike
Molten Strike can seen confusing because it has two parts to it, the initial hit, and the projectiles. The main goal is to scale BOTH parts of the skill through support gems and scale the physical portion through the tree (which the projectiles are a %of the physical). We want to make sure we get the most bang for a buck without focusing on just one or the other. Support gems like Added Fire and Weapon Elemental Damage will scale on both parts of Molten Strike. Support gems like Melee Physical and Melee Physical on full like will make the tooltip higher but they DO NOT affect the projectile portion of Molten Strike. This is why Multistrike trumps Lesser Multiple Projectiles and Greater Multiple Projectiles because it adds 6 more projectiles (you gain 3 per swing and Multistrike adds 2 swings) because it adds projectiles while still scaling the melee portion where as LMP/GMP only adds projectiles.
Gems
The gem setup is pretty straightforward. If you have only have a 5L Voll’s generally Added Fire is the gem you lose but it could be Faster Attacks depending on your specific gear. If you do not have much chaos resistance then you may not want to level Blood Rage much. You gems will be a bit different in your chest if you use Tabula and run off mana instead of Voll’s. The Cast When Damage Taken linked with Enduring Cry, Crit Weakness, and Increased AoE can be leveled to your liking on the proc.
Faster Attacks VS Increased Critical Strike Damage VS Added Fire – The support gem showdown
This is going to depend on gear and WILL change if you are able to get to the gear I have. For the longest time Faster Attacks was MORE DPS than Increased Critical Damage and even Added Fire. After upgrading my last few items in this set it turns out that Faster Attacks became my least damaging support gem. This is when Increased Critical Strikes became more valuable than Faster Attacks and thus was moved in it’s place. The specific breakpoints will be totally gear dependent but it started Faster Attacks > Added Fire > Increased Critical Damage then with some gear went Added Fire > Faster Attacks > Increased Critical Damage and finally has ended up as Increased Critical Strikes > Added Fire > Faster Attacks. I know that is a lot to take in but the value of each gem will change through you gear progression.
This is a current breakdown of my exact gear with the gem setup AGAIN YOURS MAY NOT REFLECT THIS 100% AND IS TOTALLY GEAR DEPENDENT
http://i.imgur.com/SzEEw6v.jpg
After mapping without Faster Attacks I cannot take it anymore. I just cannot bring myself to run Multistrike without Faster Attacks. Even though it is a DPS loss I am dropping Crit Damage and going after Faster Attacks again. My setup is 5R/1G Molten Strike (R) -> Multistrike (R) -> Faster Attacks (G) -> Added Fire (R) -> Weapon Elemental Damage (R) -> Blood Magic (R)
5L/6L
Voll’s
Molten Strike (R) -> Multistrike (R) -> Weapon Elemental Damage (R) -> Faster Attacks (G)/Increased Critical Damage (B) -> Blood Magic (R) -> Added Fire Damage (R)
Tabula or 6L non Voll’s chest
Molten Strike (R) -> Multistrike (R) -> Weapon Elemental Damage (R) -> Faster Attacks (G)/Increased Critical Damage (B) -> Added Fire Damage (R) -> Power Charge On Critical (B)
4L
Whirling Blades (G) -> Reduced Duration (R) -> Blood Magic (R) -> Blood Rage (G)
Cast When Damage Taken (R) -> Enduring Cry (R) -> Increased Area of Effect (B) -> Critical Weakness (B)
Reduced Mana (R) -> Hatred (G) -> Purity of Elements (B) -> Vitality (R)
3L
Vaal Grace (G) -> Vaal Haste (B) -> Increased Duration (R)
Cast When Damage Taken (R) -> Immortal Call (R) -> Increased Duration (R)
Auras
The auras are pretty straight forward. Using Voll’s and Blood Magic you are running Hatred, Purity of Elements, and Vitality. You can switch Vitality to Purity of Fire if you so desire (lol) but I found the added regen keeps Blood Rage degen from becoming annoying outside of the 2 second Bino’s heal window. If you are using a 6L rare/Tabula and running Molten Strike off of mana then you would only be using Hatred and either Purity of Elements, Purity of Fire, Vitality, depending on your personal preferences.
Curse(s)
With things dying so fast, self casting curses is quite pointless and would add to clear speed so just keep your Cast When Damage Taken that is linked with your curse at whatever level you feel comfortable at. Keep in mind that your crit% + the Critical Weakness curse should never go over the crit cap of 95% chance to crit.
Reflect
When solo, physical and elemental reflect are not a problem. A huge desync can cause a little problem with elemental reflect but 99% of the time there is no problem. Keep in mind that you may need to change your gems, IE Weapons Elemental Damage to something like Life Gain on Hit if you run with a Ele Buzzsaw or something with strong Anger/Wrath/Haste auras. If I run with Ele Buzzsaw my tooltip is over 250k DPS and elemental reflect becomes a huge problem. Physical reflect remains no problem though.
Map Mods
Half regeneration mods can be somewhat annoying but you can help counter these by switching Added Fire for Life Gain on Hit if you really want to run it. No regeneration maps I would genally skip all together unless you have Atziri’s Acurity gloves then the regen mods are easy. Elemental reflect can be annoying with desyncs so if you want to play it safe then switch Weapon Elemental Damage with Life Gain on Hit. Other then that you should be fine on all other mods. Do keep in mind that as more of a glass cannon, a lot of high damage mods may require you to play more carefully.
My Stats
Level: 92
Class: Ranger
Health: 4081
Mana: 5 (267 pre auras)
Molten Strike DPS (5 power + 4 frenzy): 120,174 tooltip (more with projectiles factored in)
Molten Strike DPS with charges + Vaal Haste + Atziri’s Promise Flask: 170,587 tooltip (more with projectiles factored in)
Crit Chance : 88.2% (4 power charges + an additional 7% if Cast When Damage Taken + Crit Weakness so we would be crit capped at 95%)
Crit Multi: 887%
Block: 50%
Spell Block: 0
Armor: 551 (5% reduction)
Evasion: 1366 (15% chance to evade)
Dodge: 30%
Res: 75 Fire / 75 Cold / 75 Lightning / -20 Chaos
Movement Speed: 27%
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