





INTRODUCTION



This build is a gimmick build. It's fun, and it works well. It clears maps effectively and easily and can do most mods. That said, if you are looking for the absolutely most powerful, fastest clearing build for your budget then this build is not for you.



However, if you like the idea of controlling 100-200 insane minions and going nuts then this build may be right up your alley!



I'm far from the first person to make a dominating blow build, and I'm sure others have done lowlife dominating blow as well. That said, it's not a concept that I've seen explored in depth before so I figured a guide might be appreciated.



The main weakness of dominating blow is that it can take a while to get going. When you first start a map or any time you enter a side area or go back to town, you start with 0 minions. In most dominating blow builds you do very mediocre damage yourself, so it can be really slow to get started. This build attempts to address that weakness through using lowlife, blood rage and elemental damage scaling off auras to both give you better up front damage, faster mobility through leap slam and also to help boost your minion damage as well.



Another cool thing about this build is that it's highly customizable. The absolute core of the build will take you up to the low 60's, but after that you can do what you want. Want to boost your minions further? You can! Want to boost your own dps? No problem! Want to boost your defense? Easily done! Take my core build and get creative! I'd love to see what you all come up with.





Videos



Gorge run, character level 73

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NM0kkEgyoQ



Note that my play in this video is not anywhere near optimal. I did this in one take rather than cherrypicking a good run. The monsters in this video are pretty much the worst -- skeletons, rock monsters, quill beasts etc. All of these are slow melee and among the worst minions you can get.



Still, it should give you a taste of what the gameplay is like.



Note that my play in this video is not anywhere near optimal. I did this in one take rather than cherrypicking a good run. The monsters in this video are pretty much the worst -- skeletons, rock monsters, quill beasts etc. All of these are slow melee and among the worst minions you can get.Still, it should give you a taste of what the gameplay is like.





Defensive Concepts







This build doesn't have anything special going for it defensively. You can get 5-6k ES pretty easily plus some evasion and block. If you want you can customize the build to be more defensive. I would strongly recommend doing so if you plan on playing hardcore.



That said, the build does have one very strong thing going for it defensively: ludicrous numbers of minions. If you have ever played a summoner you know how good it can be to spread enemy damage out between a few zombies and spectres. Imagine that and multiply it by 10 or 20. Once you really get going you can easily avoid most damage. If you need to, you can leapslam away from dangerous enemies and let your minions clean them up for you.



Some minions provide a lot of additional defense as well. Proximity Shield rares and evangelists give you bubbles to hide in. A wide variety of enemies freeze/chill or use useful defensive curses like Warlord's Mark, Enfeeble, and Temporal Chains. The best thing you can get though are rare monsters with powerful auras. The speed aura makes you move even faster than you already do, and the energy shield aura easily boosts you up close to 8k max ES.



There is a downside to the minions though -- it makes AOE difficult to see. This is particularly true for things like poison clouds and burning ground as your minions are likely tossing their own poison/fire.



The build makes you want to go fast. The faster you go the more minions you will have at a given point in time. When you are in an area that might be dangerous, just slow down and play carefully. You can avoid a lot of deaths that way.



SUSTAIN



The biggest defensive question that this build faces is sustain. You don't have much max health, but blood rage does degen you. You easily get 10-15% leech from blood rage, but most of your damage is elemental so it's very hard to actually leech a lot.



Your ES will never regenerate naturally while BR is active.



Using only blood rage I found that I could usually outpace blood rage but not by much. Luckly I often found myself taking very little damage from monsters but in situations with lots of degen clouds or large amounts of AOE I could easily get into a situation where I was basically screwed -- if I stand and fight I take more damage than I can handle, or if I back off I stop leeching and dig myself into a bigger hole. Again this didn't happen often but most of my deaths did come from similar situations.



Eventually, I focused on a couple of different strategies for solving this problem and all of them are viable:



1. Life Leech gem. This is the easiest as it will give you plenty of elemental leech. The problem is that it comes at the cost of a lot of damage, so I prefer to find a different solution.



2. Zealot's Oath. This solution takes more work but is the best cheap solution imo. You can pick up a little regen on the tree easily, but it's not enough. From here you can go two routes: invest a lot of points in getting more regen or use The Blood Dance boots. I'll discuss these options in the gearing and passive tree sections. Note that if you use Zealots Oath you won't regenerate life naturally so you will want to pick up a tiny bit of life gain on hit or life gain on kill to ensure you can cast whatever blood magic skills (Blood Rage, Convocation, Flesh Offering) you are using.



3. Shavronne's Revelation. The build doesn't need mana at all, so this ring is very powerful. You can easily combine this with ZO for insane regen or just use it to cancel out Blood Rage's degen. The problem is that the ring is quite expensive, especially on temp leagues.



4. Vaal Discipline. This is a great "Ohh Shit" button that will boost your max ES through the roof and allow you to regen very rapidly. The problem is that you actually have to cast it -- it's not instant like a potion -- and it requires souls to use. I think this is a great option but personally I don't think its enough on its own especially if you don't have godlike reflexes



This build doesn't have anything special going for it defensively. You can get 5-6k ES pretty easily plus some evasion and block. If you want you can customize the build to be more defensive. I would strongly recommend doing so if you plan on playing hardcore.That said, the build does have one very strong thing going for it defensively: ludicrous numbers of minions. If you have ever played a summoner you know how good it can be to spread enemy damage out between a few zombies and spectres. Imagine that and multiply it by 10 or 20. Once you really get going you can easily avoid most damage. If you need to, you can leapslam away from dangerous enemies and let your minions clean them up for you.Some minions provide a lot of additional defense as well. Proximity Shield rares and evangelists give you bubbles to hide in. A wide variety of enemies freeze/chill or use useful defensive curses like Warlord's Mark, Enfeeble, and Temporal Chains. The best thing you can get though are rare monsters with powerful auras. The speed aura makes you move even faster than you already do, and the energy shield aura easily boosts you up close to 8k max ES.There is a downside to the minions though -- it makes AOE difficult to see. This is particularly true for things like poison clouds and burning ground as your minions are likely tossing their own poison/fire.The build makes you want to go fast. The faster you go the more minions you will have at a given point in time. When you are in an area that might be dangerous, just slow down and play carefully. You can avoid a lot of deaths that way.The biggest defensive question that this build faces is sustain. You don't have much max health, but blood rage does degen you. You easily get 10-15% leech from blood rage, but most of your damage is elemental so it's very hard to actually leech a lot.Your ES will never regenerate naturally while BR is active.Using only blood rage I found that I could usually outpace blood rage but not by much. Luckly I often found myself taking very little damage from monsters but in situations with lots of degen clouds or large amounts of AOE I could easily get into a situation where I was basically screwed -- if I stand and fight I take more damage than I can handle, or if I back off I stop leeching and dig myself into a bigger hole. Again this didn't happen often but most of my deaths did come from similar situations.Eventually, I focused on a couple of different strategies for solving this problem and all of them are viable:1. Life Leech gem. This is the easiest as it will give you plenty of elemental leech. The problem is that it comes at the cost of a lot of damage, so I prefer to find a different solution.2. Zealot's Oath. This solution takes more work but is the best cheap solution imo. You can pick up a little regen on the tree easily, but it's not enough. From here you can go two routes: invest a lot of points in getting more regen or use The Blood Dance boots. I'll discuss these options in the gearing and passive tree sections. Note that if you use Zealots Oath you won't regenerate life naturally so you will want to pick up a tiny bit of life gain on hit or life gain on kill to ensure you can cast whatever blood magic skills (Blood Rage, Convocation, Flesh Offering) you are using.3. Shavronne's Revelation. The build doesn't need mana at all, so this ring is very powerful. You can easily combine this with ZO for insane regen or just use it to cancel out Blood Rage's degen. The problem is that the ring is quite expensive, especially on temp leagues.4. Vaal Discipline. This is a great "Ohh Shit" button that will boost your max ES through the roof and allow you to regen very rapidly. The problem is that you actually have to cast it -- it's not instant like a potion -- and it requires souls to use. I think this is a great option but personally I don't think its enough on its own especially if you don't have godlike reflexes



Offensive Concepts







No cooldowns.







With flasks up but no Vaal Haste.



There are basically two stages to this build offensively: Buzzsaw and Steamroller



In Buzzsaw mode, you are basically doing a poor man's version of ele buzzsaw. You use wrath, anger, hatred and herald of thunder to give yourself a lot of flat damage to stack up on a relatively fast hitting weapon. The build absolutely requires Soul Taker because of the insane mana cost on Dominating Blow. Luckily Soul Taker hits pretty quickly, although not as fast as a nice foil or corsair would.



With lowlife and Blood Rage (combined with enhance and quality blood magic if you can) you will attack very, very quickly. You will easily tear through packs of whites and blues and chop down most rares/exiles easily.





Once you have gotten up to 30-40 minions you will quickly snowball it to "steamroller mode" where you just plow through the entire map clearing close to movement speed. The best part is that your minions scale automatically to the content you are doing. Unlike spectres, your dominated monsters will be the same level as what you are fighting. You might normally hate fighting evangelists, tentacle miscreations and plumed chimerals but when you play this build they will become your best friends. Of course, it doesn't hurt that your pals all get Hatred, Anger, Wrath, and Haste to help turn the damage up even higher.



The only minions that are relatively useless are slow moving melee dorks like zombies and some skeletons. They pretty much don't do anything useful other than absorb damage.



Useful minions include: anything ranged, anything that leaps/flickers, anything that casts curses, anything that gets around quickly



Rares are fantastic, of course.



Once you get the steamroller going you will be close to unstoppable. You pop rogue exiles without even realizing they were there. The only thing that tends to provide a meaningful speedbump are map bosses, which are something of a weak point for the build. Many bosses aren't a problem but the big baddies like map versions of Piety and Dominus are a challenge as they combine a lot of health with massive AOE which clears out your minions pretty easily. These bosses are doable -- I've done double piety and double necropolis merveil so far -- but it's definitely a weakness.



One thing that can be helpful against bosses is minion instability. Exploding minions hit quite hard, and bosses tend to actually kill your minions quickly. I've seen map bosses knock off most of their health bar in seconds when letting lose their AOE.



No cooldowns.With flasks up but no Vaal Haste.There are basically two stages to this build offensively: Buzzsaw and SteamrollerIn Buzzsaw mode, you are basically doing a poor man's version of ele buzzsaw. You use wrath, anger, hatred and herald of thunder to give yourself a lot of flat damage to stack up on a relatively fast hitting weapon. The build absolutely requires Soul Taker because of the insane mana cost on Dominating Blow. Luckily Soul Taker hits pretty quickly, although not as fast as a nice foil or corsair would.With lowlife and Blood Rage (combined with enhance and quality blood magic if you can) you will attack very, very quickly. You will easily tear through packs of whites and blues and chop down most rares/exiles easily.Once you have gotten up to 30-40 minions you will quickly snowball it to "steamroller mode" where you just plow through the entire map clearing close to movement speed. The best part is that your minions scale automatically to the content you are doing. Unlike spectres, your dominated monsters will be the same level as what you are fighting. You might normally hate fighting evangelists, tentacle miscreations and plumed chimerals but when you play this build they will become your best friends. Of course, it doesn't hurt that your pals all get Hatred, Anger, Wrath, and Haste to help turn the damage up even higher.The only minions that are relatively useless are slow moving melee dorks like zombies and some skeletons. They pretty much don't do anything useful other than absorb damage.Useful minions include: anything ranged, anything that leaps/flickers, anything that casts curses, anything that gets around quicklyRares are fantastic, of course.Once you get the steamroller going you will be close to unstoppable. You pop rogue exiles without even realizing they were there. The only thing that tends to provide a meaningful speedbump are map bosses, which are something of a weak point for the build. Many bosses aren't a problem but the big baddies like map versions of Piety and Dominus are a challenge as they combine a lot of health with massive AOE which clears out your minions pretty easily. These bosses are doable -- I've done double piety and double necropolis merveil so far -- but it's definitely a weakness.One thing that can be helpful against bosses is minion instability. Exploding minions hit quite hard, and bosses tend to actually kill your minions quickly. I've seen map bosses knock off most of their health bar in seconds when letting lose their AOE.





Passives and Bandits



Bandits

Kill ALL the bandits!





The actual passive tree setup for this build is extremely flexible. This is what I consider to be the absolute core of the build, although please note that you might do a somewhat different pathing depending on your eventual plans:



https://www.poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgUA-d2LjEqYzGaUXMBmpwi4k-vuKPqCx-q6DXxXybQMRnH-SR2q4Ygaj_ba-wkZipu1wzrKSm-egwmboY9G99cc3JMnIvRsCw2NbRlLrhsl2VvpAi9v2RNwu-wYwcV_xhFQpys1ucNtXGuESPrSHRSApGTnFy9CoySwxp4Qfwx9X2rb50cG0NCP-nzZ9zJyqUVHMtFmnsAaWfOsqg==



It's basically just a bunch of aura and ES nodes along with Resolute Technique. You want RT because you really don't want to crit with this build. Freezing mobs is bad because if you shatter them then they don't become minions.



From this point there are loads of things you can do! Here is my current build at level 85:



https://www.poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgUAA-4MfQ18DY0PqxB_EVAWvxcvGYoabBqPGyUc3B0UHaodviL0JLAo-i9vMtEzhzW5PC1Co0VHRnFG10cGSOdKmEuuUzVV1lcpV8lX4lnzXGtfamaebAttGW1sb55wu3GFcql35XzZf8aApIKbgseDCYRIi4yMdo9Gj_qTJ5Rcm6GbtZ2unjyly6cIpyusqrGztAy1SLcxuJPAGsBmwcXDOsNtxPbGnspKzGbQ0NkT2Vvb5-GI6QLquuvu7BjsOO0g7UH22vcy98H31_nd-ej60vsJ



Mostly what I have done is focused on increasing my personal damage through grabbing a lot of elemental damage nodes. Additionally I took Zealot's Oath and an extra frenzy charge to use along with my Blood Dance boots for sustain. I also grabbed Minion Instability for extra damage against bosses and one Skill Duration cluster to increase my minion duration and help out with Vaal Haste and Vaal Discipline. If I were to continue to level I might consider pathing down into the Shadow elemental nodes.





Another completely reasonable strategy might be to focus more on defense by grabbing nearby block nodes along with more ES.



Yet another strategy is to focus on scaling physical damage more, possibly grabbing the big axe wheel below RT.



You also might consider going crazy with minions and grabbing a bunch of minion damage nodes. We path right by all the best minion clusters so why not?



You could also path hard into the southern part of the tree going for as much regen as possible to pair with Vaal Pact. If you do this you can also pick up the other Skill Duration cluster and Unwavering Stance.



Last but not least, if you decide to go lowlife based on chaos resist rather than Shavs/Lorica, you will need to spend a lot of points picking up health. I might suggest something like this:



https://www.poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgUAA-4MfQ18DY0QfxFQFy8ZihpsGo8bJRzcHRQdqh2-IvQksCj6L28y0TOHNbk8LUKjRUdGcUcGSOdKmEuuVdZXyVxrX2psC20Zb55wu3KpfNl_xoCkgseDCYRIi4yPRo_6kyeUXJuhm7WdrqcIpyu0DLiTwGbBxcM6w23E9saeykrMZtDQ2RPZW9vn4YjpAuq66-7sGPba9zL3wffX-d356PrS-wnGrrc-QYfjahZv8NVJUUmx18_5N--I2L3-CjWSU1JFnZrgtfLPMlltX5huqg==



Please note that this is NOT rigorously theorycrafted. Please do not copy it unless you check to make sure it will work with your gear setup.





The actual passive tree setup for this build is extremely flexible. This is what I consider to be the absolute core of the build, although please note that you might do a somewhat different pathing depending on your eventual plans:It's basically just a bunch of aura and ES nodes along with Resolute Technique. You want RT because you really don't want to crit with this build. Freezing mobs is bad because if you shatter them then they don't become minions.From this point there are loads of things you can do! Here is my current build at level 85:Mostly what I have done is focused on increasing my personal damage through grabbing a lot of elemental damage nodes. Additionally I took Zealot's Oath and an extra frenzy charge to use along with my Blood Dance boots for sustain. I also grabbed Minion Instability for extra damage against bosses and one Skill Duration cluster to increase my minion duration and help out with Vaal Haste and Vaal Discipline. If I were to continue to level I might consider pathing down into the Shadow elemental nodes.Another completely reasonable strategy might be to focus more on defense by grabbing nearby block nodes along with more ES.Yet another strategy is to focus on scaling physical damage more, possibly grabbing the big axe wheel below RT.You also might consider going crazy with minions and grabbing a bunch of minion damage nodes. We path right by all the best minion clusters so why not?You could also path hard into the southern part of the tree going for as much regen as possible to pair with Vaal Pact. If you do this you can also pick up the other Skill Duration cluster and Unwavering Stance.Last but not least, if you decide to go lowlife based on chaos resist rather than Shavs/Lorica, you will need to spend a lot of points picking up health. I might suggest something like this:Please note that this is NOT rigorously theorycrafted. Please do not copy it unless you check to make sure it will work with your gear setup.



Gear and Gem Links





Links:



[] = mandatory

<> = optional



Chest - [DOMINATING BLOW] - [MULTISTRIKE] - [MELEE SPLASH] - <Increased Duration> - <Faster Attacks> - <Minion Damage> - <Added Lighting/Chaos/Fire> - <Melee Physical Damage> - <WED> - <Life Leech>



For general clearing you want multistrike and melee splash for sure. Beyond that you should pick up to three of the optional gems depending on what colors you have.

Increased Duration allows you to build up a bigger horde. It's unnecessary but in my opinion it adds to the fun factor. If you are having trouble with lag I'd suggest not using this.

Minion damage boosts only your minion damage but it's a big boost.

Added X Damage, Melee Physical Damage, and Faster Attacks boost your damage and some of your minions as well.

WED increases your damage a LOT but does not affect your minions as most if not all monsters count as unarmed.

Life Leech is good for sustain but I'm not a big fan of it. You might need to use it while leveling.



If you are stuck in a situation where you need to kill a boss with your own DPS rather than relying on minions I'd suggest swapping out some of your gems for better single target. In my normal setup I use DB - Multistrike - Melee Splash - Increased Duration - Minion Damage - Added Chaos. For single target I'd take out melee splash, increased duration and minion damage and replace them with WED, Added Fire Damage and Added Lightning Damage. Hell, you can even swap out Dominating Blow for Heavy Strike if you want.



Auras:



[WRATH] - [ANGER] - <Empower> - <Vitality> (linked in PRISM GUARDIAN)



You can go for more offense or more defense (assuming Zealot's Oath).



[DISCIPLINE] - [L21 REDUCED MANA] - <Haste> - <Hatred> - <Grace> (linked in The Vertex or another +1 gem level item)



<L20 Reduced Mana> - <Herald of Thunder>



Pick two of Hatred, Haste, and Grace. I prefer Hatred and Haste on softcore, but YMMV.



The precise aura setup that I use requires a L21 reduced mana gem in a +1 gem level item (so L22 RM), but this is not mandatory. You might wonder why I don't just take another 4% reduced mana reservation on the tree (I intentionally skip a node). The reason is that if you take 34% reserve then Wrath + Anger + Empower in Prism Guardian won't put you on low life. In order to reserve enough life you need no more than 30% reduced reservation. Thus you need the extra levels on your reduced mana to just squeeze in.



There are two possible ways around this:



1. Use Vitality instead of Empower and run 34% mana reservation.



2. Drop Herald of Thunder



If you do either you won't need a level 21 reduced mana. If you just drop HoT you also have two more gem slots to play with.



UTILTIY:



[LEAP SLAM] + [FASTER ATTACKS] - I pair these with Herald of Thunder and Reduced Mana. I suppose these aren't strictly mandatory but they really help with clearspeed.



[BLOOD MAGIC] - [BLOOD RAGE] - <Flesh Offering> - <Convocation> - <Enhance> - <Increased Duration>



If you have quality Blood Magic it will add it's attack speed bonus to Blood Rage. I strongly recommend using Enhance here for even more attack speed, but if you really want you can use Increased Duration to boost Flesh Offering. Flesh Offering is tough to use as your kills don't leave behind corpses. Monsters that your minions kill do tough, and Flesh Offering is a sick ability to really turn up the heat when you have a big army. Convocation might be useful but I haven't tested it yet. It's not mandatory because monsters automatically teleport to you when they fall too far behind.



Your last three link is flexible but I like to use:



<Vaal Discipline> - <Vaal Haste> - <Increased Duration>



VD is great for defense/sustain and VH is an absolutely brutal damage and clearspeed boost.



Original Gearset







This is what I am currently using. The only item that is really truly absolutely mandatory is the Soul Taker.



This is what I am currently using. The only item that is really truly absolutely mandatory is the Soul Taker.



Comments on Gear



YOU DO NOT NEED A SHAVS FOR THIS TO WORK



There are two main ways to avoid needing a shavs, and I will discuss them both in detail below.



You do need a Soul Taker, and you *may* need some sort of stun immunity. I'm not sure if you do or not, I just kinda assumed that you do and have been using Eye of Chayula the whole time. It might work fine without it though.



See below for comments on specific gear choices:



The Vertex

The Vertex is a solid choice because it provides a lot of ES while also giving you easy access to +1 gem level. You need a 4 link with +1 gem levels if you want to use the same aura setup that I do. You can absolutely use a rare ES helm if you want as long as you have +1 gem levels on one of your other 4 links. You can also use a rare helm if you are using a different aura setup (see gem links section for more info).



Do not use Alpha's Howl unless you are planning a VERY different gem setup.





Prism Guardian You don't absolutely need this, and some versions of the build might actually prefer an ES shield. If you are using Solaris Lorica I would actually recommend using an ES shield (see the "No Shavs" section for more).



That said I do really like PG because it gives a lot of resists and lets you reserve Wrath and Anger off life with Empower or Vitality, whichever you prefer. The +1 level to Anger and Wrath is gravy. Of course, the absolute nut would be a +1 gem level corrupted PG, but alas I haven't seen one of those yet.





Amulet

If you decide that you don't want to use Eye of Chayula, I'd prioritize WED, flat ES and %ES along with whatever suffixes you find useful. If you are doing a hybrid life/ES version you might want flat life instead of flat ES.





Rings, Belt, Gloves

Your number one priority is to fill out whatever resists and stats you need. Beyond that get as much WED and ES as you can. If you are going for a hybrid life/ES version you might want flat life.



If you are planning to scale more off physical damage then you might consider trying Ming's Heart.



I don't find freeze immunity to be necessary (a flask is enough), but if you are really paranoid about getting frozen then Auxium could be a reasonable belt choice.



Of course, the ultimate on-theme belt would be Headhunter. I would absolutely love to get one of these but I can't afford it on Torment. Of course if anyone feels like giving me one I'd be more than happy to record some awesome videos =)



For gloves just keep going for ES, stats, and resists although you can also get a chunk of attack speed and/or some flat elemental damage. Corrupted gloves with elemental weakness on hit would be very nice to have.





NOTE: If you are running Vaal Pact you probably want some life gain on hit or kill on one item. It doesn't need to be much -- just enough such that you can afford to cast flesh offering/blood rage as much as you need.





ES Boots vs. Blood Dance

I started off using rare ES boots and eventually switched to The Blood Dance for the leech. It just saves so many points on the tree and provides great sustain which is very important to staying safe. I went with a +1 gem levels corruption which only cost me 10 chaos to buy. +1 Frenzy charge would also be excellent.



If you do go for ES boots just get a pair with nice ES, movespeed and whatever other stats you want. Honestly movespeed isn't even all that critical as you use leapslam to move around a lot. Again if going hybrid you should consider getting life.





How to do this build without Shavs

There are two main options other than Shavs: Solaris Lorica and Chaos Resist Hybrid.



Solaris Lorica

The problem with SL is that it doesn't provide any ES. Luckily, you can make up most of the gap by replacing Prism Guardian with a really nice ES shield and placing a little bit more emphasis on ES rolls for the rest of your gear. Don't get me wrong -- this will never be a real budget build -- but you can make it a lot cheaper than I did.



In order to drop Prism Guardian you will need to change up your aura setup. What I'd suggest doing is running the following:



Blood Magic - Reduced Mana - Herald of Thunder - 60% aura



Reduced Mana - 3x 60% aura



Leap Slam - Faster Attacks - ???



Thus you have to choose one 60% aura to drop. I'd probably drop Hatred. I'm not sure what to use in that extra gem slot. Maybe an extra vaal gem or a life gain on hit support gem so that you don't need any on your gear (if using vaal pact).



Also note that you do NOT need a +1 gem levels item anymore, so you are free to use a pure ES rare helm over The Vertex if you can afford a good one.





Chaos Resist Hybrid

This requires a more profound change and I am really only theorycrafting here. I'm not entirely sure that it would work, but I think it can.



Chaos damage monsters deal very low actual damage. The reason why they hurt so bad is that you often have horrible chaos resist in Merciless difficulty. However, if you actually gear for max Chaos Resist you can get a lot of effective HP out of a low life HP pool.



If you have max chaos resist, each point of life that you have is worth approximately 6.4 points of life at -60% chaos resist.



Thus, to simulate a 4k life pool at -60% you would need 625 unreserved life at 75% res. To simulate a 5k life pool you would need a bit over 780 unreserved life at 75% res.



This build is typically going to reserve between 65% and 75% of your life depending on your exact aura setup. Thus you will likely need between 1785 and 3120 max life before reservation depending on how tough you want to be and your exact aura setup. IMO that kind of life total should be doable, although you'll likely want to gear differently and set up your passives differently. See the gearing and passives sections for some suggestions on how to do this.



The single biggest gearing difference, however, is that you get to use a rare ES chest. You can easily get 600+ ES from a rare chest, although it'll be a bit tougher if you want ES and life on your chest. You also get resists from your chest, which will be helpful in easing the stress on your other gear (as you now need to get a bunch of chaos resist as well!)



The Vertex remains a great helm choice with this option as it provides good chaos resist. You can also get a rare helm with chaos resist or consider The Broken Crown which will give you a damage boost and a LOT of chaos resist at the cost of some max ES.





Some additional notes on this playstyle: you will need to watch your life bar carefully and notice when you are taking chaos damage. If you are using Vaal Pact you will need life gain on hit or life gain on kill somewhere, particularly for maps that have a lot of chaos damage. Alternately you can run a life pot. Keep in mind that blood rage will be degening your life, so Vaal Pact might be a bad idea for this sort of build.





Personally, I would probably not choose this option as it makes gearing quite difficult and requires a lot more passive points to work. It also requires a lot of vigilance on your part.





There are two main options other than Shavs: Solaris Lorica and Chaos Resist Hybrid.





There are two main ways to avoid needing a shavs, and I will discuss them both in detail below.You do need a Soul Taker, and you *may* need some sort of stun immunity. I'm not sure if you do or not, I just kinda assumed that you do and have been using Eye of Chayula the whole time. It might work fine without it though.See below for comments on specific gear choices:



Comments on Flasks



I like Taste of Hate and Atziri's Promise a lot for the added damage and defense. Neither are mandatory though. Rumi's would be a great choice, I just don't happen to have one on Torment.



Beyond that just go with whatever suits you. I think it's important to take an anti-freeze flask and you probably also want anti-bleed.







Links:[] = mandatory<> = optionalChest - [DOMINATING BLOW] - [MULTISTRIKE] - [MELEE SPLASH] - - - - - - - For general clearing you want multistrike and melee splash for sure. Beyond that you should pick up to three of the optional gems depending on what colors you have.Increased Duration allows you to build up a bigger horde. It's unnecessary but in my opinion it adds to the fun factor. If you are having trouble with lag I'd suggest not using this.Minion damage boosts only your minion damage but it's a big boost.Added X Damage, Melee Physical Damage, and Faster Attacks boost your damage and some of your minions as well.WED increases your damage a LOT but does not affect your minions as most if not all monsters count as unarmed.Life Leech is good for sustain but I'm not a big fan of it. You might need to use it while leveling.If you are stuck in a situation where you need to kill a boss with your own DPS rather than relying on minions I'd suggest swapping out some of your gems for better single target. In my normal setup I use DB - Multistrike - Melee Splash - Increased Duration - Minion Damage - Added Chaos. For single target I'd take out melee splash, increased duration and minion damage and replace them with WED, Added Fire Damage and Added Lightning Damage. Hell, you can even swap out Dominating Blow for Heavy Strike if you want.Auras:[WRATH] - [ANGER] - - (linked in PRISM GUARDIAN)You can go for more offense or more defense (assuming Zealot's Oath).[DISCIPLINE] - [L21 REDUCED MANA] - - - (linked in The Vertex or another +1 gem level item) - Pick two of Hatred, Haste, and Grace. I prefer Hatred and Haste on softcore, but YMMV.The precise aura setup that I use requires a L21 reduced mana gem in a +1 gem level item (so L22 RM), but this is not mandatory. You might wonder why I don't just take another 4% reduced mana reservation on the tree (I intentionally skip a node). The reason is that if you take 34% reserve then Wrath + Anger + Empower in Prism Guardian won't put you on low life. In order to reserve enough life you need no more than 30% reduced reservation. Thus you need the extra levels on your reduced mana to just squeeze in.There are two possible ways around this:1. Use Vitality instead of Empower and run 34% mana reservation.2. Drop Herald of ThunderIf you do either you won't need a level 21 reduced mana. If you just drop HoT you also have two more gem slots to play with.UTILTIY:[LEAP SLAM] + [FASTER ATTACKS] - I pair these with Herald of Thunder and Reduced Mana. I suppose these aren't strictly mandatory but they really help with clearspeed.[BLOOD MAGIC] - [BLOOD RAGE] - - - - If you have quality Blood Magic it will add it's attack speed bonus to Blood Rage. I strongly recommend using Enhance here for even more attack speed, but if you really want you can use Increased Duration to boost Flesh Offering. Flesh Offering is tough to use as your kills don't leave behind corpses. Monsters that your minions kill do tough, and Flesh Offering is a sick ability to really turn up the heat when you have a big army. Convocation might be useful but I haven't tested it yet. It's not mandatory because monsters automatically teleport to you when they fall too far behind.Your last three link is flexible but I like to use: - - VD is great for defense/sustain and VH is an absolutely brutal damage and clearspeed boost.





Mapping



This build can do most map mods. The only mod that you absolutely can't do is Hemomancy.



No regen and half regen are doable, just pay attention to how you are sustaining your ES pool.



Physical reflect, burning ground, poison ground, and shocking ground all act as an additional drag on your sustain. As long as your sustain isn't awful you can laugh all of these off.



Elemental reflect is painful. I personally avoid this map mod but have cleared ele reflect maps.





Many map mods are actively good for this build. Packsize, Magic Monsters, Rare Monsters, and Nemesis mods all actively help you by giving you more and more powerful minions. Inhabited by Demons is fantastic because tentacle miscreations and whipping miscreations make great minions. Fracturing is just ridiculous, and I've topped well over 200 minions in a fracturing map.



Other than that just use your best judgment.



My only other piece of advice is to plan when you are going to hit the boss. You should be able to kill most bosses, but it might be wise to skip some. If you decide to engage though be sure to gather up as big of a horde as you can and then hit the boss. Don't wipe up the whole map first as you will have fewer minions remaining at the end.



Another possible strategy for bosses is to change your gem links to focus on your own single target damage. See the gems section for more on this.





Leveling

I wouldn't suggest leveling with this build as it won't even work until you can equip Soul Taker. Level however you want. I personally went with elemental spectral throw, but I think minions, flameblast or even something like lightning tendrils would be fine.





FAQ



Q: Can I play this as a different class?

A: Absolutely. Shadow and Witch should both be good, and Scion is probably viable too.



Q: Why don't you go blood magic/mortal conviction?

A: Soul Taker does not work with blood magic



Q: Can I use grace instead of haste?

A: Hell yes



Q: Do I need Convocation?

A: No, minions will teleport to you when you move offscreen. That said, Convocation might be good, but I haven't tested it.



Q: Do I need Soul Taker?

A: Yes



Q: Do I need Shavronne's Wrappings?

A: Probably not. It's easier to pull off with Shavs if you can afford it but you should be able to do it with a Lorica or high chaos resist and more life. Note that these options are not trivial and require a lot of adjustment. See the gearing section for more information.



Q: Do I need Increased Duration gem?

A: No, but it is a lot of fun.



Q: This build sucks at the start of a league! What were you thinking?

A: Ya gotta find something fun to do late in a league too...

INTRODUCTIONThis build is a gimmick build. It's fun, and it works well. It clears maps effectively and easily and can do most mods. That said, if you are looking for the absolutely most powerful, fastest clearing build for your budget then this build is not for you.However, if you like the idea of controlling 100-200 insane minions and going nuts then this build may be right up your alley!I'm far from the first person to make a dominating blow build, and I'm sure others have done lowlife dominating blow as well. That said, it's not a concept that I've seen explored in depth before so I figured a guide might be appreciated.The main weakness of dominating blow is that it can take a while to get going. When you first start a map or any time you enter a side area or go back to town, you start with 0 minions. In most dominating blow builds you do very mediocre damage yourself, so it can be really slow to get started. This build attempts to address that weakness through using lowlife, blood rage and elemental damage scaling off auras to both give you better up front damage, faster mobility through leap slam and also to help boost your minion damage as well.Another cool thing about this build is that it's highly customizable. The absolute core of the build will take you up to the low 60's, but after that you can do what you want. Want to boost your minions further? You can! Want to boost your own dps? No problem! Want to boost your defense? Easily done! Take my core build and get creative! I'd love to see what you all come up with. IGNs



Standard: Gyakufu | Gyakufuu

Warbands: Tsukikage

Tempest: Yamakage