With POE 3.24 just around the corner, I wanted to share my league starter build to help you get off to a good start when entering Necropolis, which is Ground Slam of Earthshaking Berserker. I believe that all Softcore melee players must be very interested in this build. So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Overview
This build is a pure physical build that combines Impale, Intimidating Cry, Vulnerability Curse, and 5 offensive Auras for high damage. But I prefer Transfigured version because it has a higher base damage and attack range.
Although it has a low base attack speed, it makes up for it with Berserker. Berserker is an offense-oriented Ascendancy class that allows us to gain rage during combat, thus significantly increasing attack speed and damage.
This build is very tanky, with at least 86% Elemental Resistances, Fortify Effect, 5 Endurance Charges and lots of Armor. Honestly, this isn’t a quick build, but if you like non-meta, tanky, but slow melee builds, then this is definitely for you. I had one of the smoothest leveling experiences ever with this build.
Gear Selection
For gear, just use Two Hand Maces with the highest physical damage you can find, get your Leap Slam, and you’ll be able to advance quickly through the campaign.
I stacked as much armor as possible from my gear, using only pure armor gear. I don’t need any blue sockets since all my gems are Strength or Dexterity gems.
I use Tidebreaker Two Hand Mace as my primary weapon. This weapon is best in slot, because I can’t crit.
In Yellow Map, 4-link is fine, but when you get to Red Maps, you will need a 5-link. It provides a lot of physical damage, free Endurance Charge on Melee Stun support and some Intelligence.
Another unique item is Perseverance Vanguard Belt. Since it's hard to get decent attack speed at the beginning of the league, but Onslaught will help as long as you have Fortify. Additionally, its armor and life stats are also good.
For other gear, look for the following mods: Life, Resistances, Attributes, and Attack Speed. I recommend you prioritize armor gear as this build does not use Determination.
Lion’s Roar is a cheap, unique flask that provides a huge damage boost. You should be able to buy one at the start of the league for around 2 Chaos Orbs.
PoB
Now, let’s get into PoB of this build. I’ll show you gear for the early, mid, and late game so you know what to upgrade next.
First, equip Tidebreaker as soon as possible. It should take you to the endgame. Brass Dome is the best in slot body armor because it has large chunks of armor and maximum resistance. I have a 100% chance of avoiding being shocked by Abyss Jewels and Eldritch Implicit on the boots.
Then equip Stormshroud to get a chance to avoid all other Elemental Ailments. As for Cluster Jewels, besides its passive skills, Smite the Weak and Heavy Hitter are also good choices.
Skill Tree
As for the skill tree, I have different levels of the skill tree, so you know which nodes to grab first. Of course, you don’t have to follow it exactly, but this is how I leveled up, so I put it here for your reference.
The order of my Ascendancy nodes is this: first Crave the Slaughter, then Aspect of Carnage, Rite of Ruin, and finally War-Bringer.
Besides, Uniques can be upgraded if needed. Some are so generic that you don’t need them. But if you can get them, why not?
Gem Settings
As for the gems, they are pretty self-explanatory. I just want to talk about two things specifically.
First, in order to make our Warcries instant, what we usually do is take Call to Arms keystone passive. Intimidating Cry is automatically triggered when Call to Arms is activated. Call to Arms will be replaced and made into a support gem.
Another thing I want to talk about only applies to the late game. When you get to the late game, you will need to purchase Vulnerability on Hit Ring.
Currently, I don’t know how much POE Currency it will cost when the league starts, but if you can’t afford it, you can link Vulnerability Curse with Blasphemy Support to make it Aura. Of course, it reserves mana, so you can only use 2 or 3 other Auras.
One thing to note is that this build doesn’t have a lot of intelligence, so make sure not to boost your Blasphemy Support too much.
Because of Reservation Mastery here, I linked Vitality with Arrogance Support to retain some life. If I keep life and mana, all my maximum elemental resistances will be +1.
However, please note that you only need to keep it at level 1. You know you’re over leveled if you find that you have much less life than you should.
After getting Watcher’s Eye, you can replace Vitality with Precision. Same thing, just keep Precision at level 1.
How To Get Fortify?
As I mentioned before, this build uses Fortify, but you can get it from different sources. All I did was buy a corrupted Tidebreaker with Fortify Implicit.
Another method I also recommend is to use Overlord passive skill and then get it from Cluster Jewels. However, in the early days, when you don’t have more POE Currency, you can just use Fortify Support or get it from Fortify Mastery.
Unwavering Stance
I got stun immunity from Unwavering Stance early on, but I didn’t notice it until I got this Ascendancy node, Rite of Ruin. I feel like I will die more easily after assigning Unwavering Stance. Of course, you can still assign Unwavering Stance if you wish.
Mana Leech
There really aren't any mana issues with this build since we're carrying a Mana Flask. Then when I switched to corrupted Tidebreaker, I got some mana leech from my Cluster Jewel, Fuel the Fight passive skill.
But in fact we can easily obtain mana leech from ordinary jewelry. You can also obtain it from the skill tree, but the efficiency is relatively low.
How To Keep Owning Onslaught?
The cheapest way to continuously own an onslaught is to use Perseverance Belt. If you have a lot of maps, Silver Flask is also a good choice.
Alternatively, if you frequently summon Ancestor Totems, you can gain Onslaught effect via Sleepless Sentries passive skill on Cluster Jewel.
Farming Tips
Finally, this build is great for farming Breach, Abyss, Harbinger, Harvest and Ritual if that’s your thing. The farming strategy I would avoid in this build is Legion and Blight. Because Legion needs to be built quickly, but this build is not. As for Blight, I just don’t think a slow melee build would do it any good.
Well, that’s it for today’s Ground Slam of Earthshaking Berserker build guide. I hope you enjoyed it and see you next time!
