[Expedition] PoE 3.15 Mauarder Molten Strike Juggernaut Starter Build

This PoE 3.15 Mauarder Molten Strike Juggernaut is a perfect low budget league starter build. With good damage mechanism you have great clearspeed and decent single target.

 

Quick Jump

 

Pros & Cons

 

Explanation

Where the tankiness comes from?

• we scale lots of life from tree and gear
• capping resistances (OFC!)
• armor and endurance chargers to mitigate hits
• we get life from 3 sources: regen, leech and life gained on hit

 

Skill Tree 

Ascendancy

• Undeniable for damage, hit chance and attack speed.
• Unstoppable for QOL.
• Unbreakable for a lot of defense mods.
• Unflinching as endurance charges have more effect in endgame where physical damage is high.

Pantheons

The Pantheon List

Solaris and Tukohama

Bandits: Kill all

Passive Tree

PoB Link: https://pastebin.com/cP7F4wHi (community fork)

 

 

 

 

Gems Setup

Main Skills: Molten Strike - Multistrike - Combustion - Elemental Damage With Attacks

You get Immolate and Conc effect from the helmet's elder mods so they are automatically linked. For hard single targets swap Ancestral Call with Elemental Damage With Attacks.

Movement skill: Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify

*you dont need fortify if you got the corruption on the sword.

Auras: Anger- Herald of Ash - Enlighten

enlighten isnt a must, just makes life easier if you have a free gem socket.

NOTE: make sure you are in Blood stance (red icon) and not Sand stance.

Vitality

since 3.12 vitality is a flat mana reservation gem so we keep it at level 1 just so we could use the vitality life recovery mod from watchers eye.
if you dont have a watchers eye with the recovery mod, there is no reason to use vitality.
ideally you have fortify as a corruption on your sword.

CWDT: Cast With Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Summon Lightning Golem

The totem wont proc with CWDT, just there for the attack speed boost on bosses.

DPS boosters: Blood Rage - Ancestral Protector

both skills will boost the attack speed of the build.

you can link blood rage to the CWDT setup if you like, but it might be annoying for no regen maps.

Poacher's Mark

this is our curse, you "mark" the enemies to apply it.
note that since 3.12 you can only "mark" one enemy at a time so make sure you are targeting the bosses and rare monsters to get the most out of it.

 

Gear

Weapon 1: Grelwood Shank

The sword has a high attack speed and good physical damage, but it doesnt end there!

we also get +2 projectiles when hit, which is all of the time with a melee build.

Point Blank that increases projectile damage based on the distance from you, and as we know, we are always at close range with the enemies.
on top of that we get increased armor and Iron Reflexes while stationary, something that we want since its suites the build's playstyle perfectly.

this is the BiS weapon for the build, an upgrade from the is a good corruption like %attack speed, flat phyz or fortify on hit.

fortify corruption will allow you to drop the fortify support gem for something else like vitality.

Weapon 2

+40 to maximum Life
-----------------------------
+97 to maximum Life
+2% to maximum Chaos Resistance
+35% to Chaos Resistance
+2% to all maximum Resistances
+1 to Minimum Frenzy Charges
5% chance to deal Double Damage

we use a shield for higher defense.

ideally you would want a shield with +2% to all max res and\or +3% to maximum chaos resistance and high life roll, then anything else you need like chaos\elemental resistance.

those are expensive, but worth it for the big defense boost.

• all maximum resistances mod also applies to chaos res.
• all max res and max chaos res can spawn together on the shield.

for the lower levels and the phase before you switch to Divine Flesh, use: Lioneye's Remorse.

This shield has a very high life roll and with the implicit we can get over 200 life.

you can also get a rare influenced shield with life, resistances and the important mod "+#% to all maximum resistances".

Gloves

20% increased Melee Damage
--------------------------------------
+30% to Fire Resistance
8% chance to Intimidate Enemies for 4 seconds on Hit
Strike Skills target 1 additional nearby Enemy
Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers
12% increased Attack Speed
+70 to maximum Life

The best option is a pair of hunter influenced gloves as they can roll the +1 target mod. this mod is important because when paired with "Tribal Fury" on the tree we get a total of +2 target which makes clearing so much smoother and more importantly eliminates the need to use Ancestral Call support gem so we are always using the best damage setup.

hunter gloves can also roll the intimidation mod, which is a really nice damage boost.

Amulet

Xoph's Blood

Pretty much BiS, every mod on this items is useful for us.

+(20-30) to Strength

10% increased maximum Life
+(20-40)% to Fire Resistance
10% increased Strength
Damage Penetrates 10% Fire Resistance
Cover Enemies in Ash when they Hit you
Avatar of Fire

We need Xoph's Blood also for "Avatar of Fire" mod that saves us points on the skill tree.

this mod convert phyz, cold and lightning damage to fire so we get more damage.

also this mod makes us deal only fire damage so phyz reflect maps are not a problem.

as for the anointment: Cleansed Thoughts or Tribal Fury.

Belt

Leather Belt

+40 to maximum Life
+99 to maximum Life
+38% to Fire Resistance
+26% to Cold Resistance
+25% to Lightning Resistance
17% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills

Rare belt with life, res and wed.

preferably stygian vise or leather belt to squeeze out just a little bit more life and damage.

For another layer of defense, you can use abyss jewel with blind on hit mod.

an upgrade would be an influenced belt, those mods are more interesting.
elder can give you mods like %max life, life recovery rate and other damage mods.

Boots

Damage Penetrates 10% of Enemy Elemental Resistances if you haven't Killed Recently
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9% increased Evasion and Energy Shield
+77 to maximum Life
+47% to Fire Resistance
+43% to Cold Resistance
+45% to Lightning Resistance
7% increased Stun and Block Recovery
17% increased Movement Speed
9% chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill

Rares with life and resistances, movement speed is really nice to have.

for enchant aim for the 10% pen, its more damage against bosses.
120% crit enchant is also nice for easier Elemental Overload procs.

if you feel you have enough crit, a tailwind pair of boots is a good dps boost and a nice QOL because of the attack and movement speed increase.

you can also use The Stampede. these will cancel out the grasping vines slowing effect completely.

they are also special because you can anoint them.
although capping res would be a challenge with this pair.

Body armor

Kaom's Heart. WAIT! no 6L!?

we actually get our 6L from the helmet.

we can do that with the elder mods to get another 2 gems in the helmet itself.

Helmet

Ezomyte Burgonet

45% increased Puncture Duration
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 20 Immolate
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 18 Concentrated Effect
+44 to Intelligence
17% increased Ignite Duration on Enemies
25% increased Stun and Block Recovery
20% increased Area Damage
+60 to maximum Life

you are looking for the "immolate" and "conc effect" mods with any other useful mod like life or res.

we socket our main skill (molten strike) in the helmet and it will be automatically linked with the elder mods, effectively making this helmet a 6L, just like an armor.
we do this so we could use the big chunk of flat life from kaoms heart since it has a very big downside of not having any sockets.

easiest way to find this helmet is with this search filter: Standard

change to the current league in the search options.

 

Molten Strike fires 3 additional Projectiles
----------------------------------------------
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 20 Immolate
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 16 Concentrated Effect
Socketed Gems deal 30% more Elemental Damage
14% increased Rarity of Items found
20% increased Ignite Duration on Enemies
24% increased Stun and Block Recovery
17% increased Area Damage
+70 to maximum Life

if you can afford it, there are ways to make the helmet even better.
the first one is an enchantment for more projectiles, the second is an essence mod for 30% more elemental damage.

Rings

you want as much life and resistances on your rings, preferably using Vermilion base for even more life.
chaos res is important, for damage aim for WED, proj dmg, %ele dmg, %fire dmg and so on.

 

Jewels

Timeless jewel:

we use a Glorious Vanity jewel with the Xibaqua variant to get the Divine Flesh keystone.
the exact location for this jewel is in the POB, we convert Mind Over Matter keystone.

another good unique jewel is Watcher's eye, you can get different kind of mods for this build.
Anger mods are good for damage like phyz as extra fire, fore pen, %fire damage.

Watcher's eye

6% increased maximum Energy Shield
4% increased maximum Life
6% increased maximum Mana
30% increased Life Recovery Rate while affected by Vitality
Damage Penetrates 13% Fire Resistance while affected by Anger

for more defense a vitality life recovery mod is a good option since vitality is now a flat mana reservation gem and we can leave it at level 1.

the rest of the jewel sockets on the tree should be filled with rares.

those need to have %life, attack speed and another damage mod like projectile damage, fire damage and so on. also could be rolled with dex or resistances.

 

 

For cluster jewels you want a few of them:

One large cluster with Feed the Fury, Fuel the Fight, Smite the Weak and 2 jewel sockets, those are the best options.
you also want the jewel to only add 8 nodes.

Two medium jewels with Eye to Eye, Repeater and 1 jewel socket.
4 and 5 nodes are the same, try to avoid using a 6 node one.

One small cluster with Fettle for a nice life boost.

and the most important one- small cluster called Natural Affinity. with this jewel we get Nature's Patience (this is the best jewel slot to get corrupted blood immunity)

 

Flasks

Blood of the Karui

We have a very big life pool and normal flasks just wont be enough. the flask has a good recovery, but its real power is the full life refill at the end of the flask effect. (dont quality this flask, you want the duration to be as low as possible)

another life flask to consider is: Forbidden Taste. with the Divine Flesh setup you should have very high chaos res so the chaos degen from the flask wont be significant enough.

 

Sulphur Flask

40% increased Damage
Creates Consecrated Ground on Use
+19 to Maximum Charges
Immunity to Bleeding during Flask effect
Removes Bleeding on use

more damage.
consecrated ground give us more life regen when we are standing on it.
you want anti bleed flask for the rare case you get that 20 stacks of bleed.
most bleed effects wont have much impact on us and you probably wont even degen at all.

if you got corrupted blood immunity this flask could be upgraded to Bottled Faith for more damage and larger coverage of consecrated ground.

The Wise Oak

try to get a good pen roll on that.
you can also try to get your uncapped fire res higher than cold&light but its not a big deal if you cant manage it because we use the next flask the grant us +50% fire res and should fix that problem :)

Dying Sun

this flask gives us 2 more balls for a damage and tankiness boost.
you want to get a flask that consumes 30 charges or less so you can get 2 uses out of it. if it has the mod "increased charges uses" its not good for you.
you either want it to not have that mod at all or have the "reduced charges used" mod.
also try to get the lowest increased area of effect rolls, more area means less balls hitting the target.

Silver Flask

Onslaught
25% reduced Charges used
Immune to Curses during Flask effect
Removes Curses on use

Onslaught gives more attack speed which is very good for us.
you want anti curse mod on this one.
also you need the roll "reduced charges used" to be at least 23% to get 2 uses out of the flask.

if you manage to overcap your resistances to the point you are capped even in ele weakness maps, you can upgrade to Cinderswallow Urn. for more damage and nice recovery while mapping.

 

Leveling

Not much to say here, normal leveling items: Tabula Rasa, Goldrim, Lochtonial Caress, Wanderlust, Thief's Torment

Use Thief's Torment as early as you can get it. This ring can also be your endgame ring if you manage the res and dex.

I used Molten Strike from level 1 with ancestral call. You want to link it with faster attacks and multistrike later on.

You can add ele dmg w\ atks and added fire damage to the setup. Damage is high right from the getgo.

For a weapon, try to get a fast attacking claw\sword: The Princess, Ichimonji

when you get to lvl 68 you can equip Beltimber Blade. This is the closest to a grelwood while you are saving for the real deal.