Try Arcane Torrent (Mines ) / Meteor Star Pact 1.04 Bulid.
The video (Act 3 Bridge of Korsik inferno) & thread is here: http://www.diablofan...-bulid-w-video/
Thanks for contributing, I added your build to the op along with a quick description and a link to your thread/video. Let me know if I described it right or if I should add/remove anything.
Added TheDemonKin's archon build to the op as well as changed a little bit of the wording of the pros/cons
On a side note, it seems that all the amazing 2handers have recently disappeared from the AH lately. Even the super expensive ones.
Edit: Just grabbed a 2hander with some life steal at a small dps loss, but holy hell did it make a difference. Face tanking act 3 elites to death in archon, and ponyland is a laugh.
and now for the loooong loooong grind until I can get me one of them socketed, %200 crit dmg, 1500dps, %6 life steal, 400intel Skorns
Glad to hear that demonkin, I can't wait to snag up a weapon with a nice chunk of life steal and crit hit dmg.
I tried act 3 with the gear I have now and that spec, but without the life steal I just couldn't keep myself up. Might also have something to do with me having significantly less armor.
BTW did you choose prismatic armor rune because of the addition increase you'd get from being in archon form so often? and finally I think that I've read that crits done while in archon form have a chance to proc critical mass to lower its cooldown before it even wears off....can you confirm this?
The resistance bonus from Archon applies to your base resistance. Basically all bonuses stack that way for armor and resistances. What that means is you gain the same amount of resistances from Archon form whether you have prismatic armor or not.
This sounded weird to me, so i did some quick gear swapping and I think I understand it now.
All % modifiers are additive, so if your base resist was 100, and you had -%10 from glass cannon, +%40 from archon, and +%40 from prismatic the formula would be the following:
Total Resist = Base Resist - .1*Base Resist + .4*Base Resist + .4 Base Resist
170 = 100 - .1*100 +.4*100+.4*100
Glad to hear that demonkin, I can't wait to snag up a weapon with a nice chunk of life steal and crit hit dmg.
I tried act 3 with the gear I have now and that spec, but without the life steal I just couldn't keep myself up. Might also have something to do with me having significantly less armor.
BTW did you choose prismatic armor rune because of the addition increase you'd get from being in archon form so often? and finally I think that I've read that crits done while in archon form have a chance to proc critical mass to lower its cooldown before it even wears off....can you confirm this?
Does anyone know how Life on Hit works with disintegrate or Ray of Frost? Becuase I'm seeing some high dmg, affordable 2-handers that have a large chunk of both. I was wondering if I had enough if I'd be able to just stand in place and face tank everything while beam spamming with Force Armor up.
There seems to be a woeful lack of discussion of 2-hander builds on this board so here goes:
Pros
-Far greater arcane power efficiency with channeled spells
-Larger hits/more staggering effects
-Potential for higher Primary Stat rolls
-Gear is far cheaper to acquire at the moment, needs little to no Arcane Power on Crit
-Life steal rolls up to %6 making it a viable source of healing at a lower gear level than 1h+oh
Cons
-Slow attack rate means less chances to proc Critical Mass or Arcane Power on Crit effects (and everything else)
-Less potent Life on Hit for the reason mentioned above
-Less mobility due to longer cast time
-Loss of potential offensive/defensive stats of a shield or source
Focuses heavily on crit, crit hit dmg, and intel. If the elites live through archon, hydra is dropped and they are kited while their health is taken down in single large chunks in guerrilla-like attacks. The goal is to do as much dmg as possible in a single attack and then continue to move until you have time to cast another orb. Hit and run. Reflect dmg Annihilates me still. (but those 2.8iml arcane destruction crits are tasty)
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-Disintegrate, When farming act 1 with a slow 2 hander can be case for long periods of time
Once you reach the ~40k dps threshold fully buffed you can start farming act 1 with a 2hander as easy as if you were leveling up again in normal mode.
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Once you have farily high dps, armor, and all resist staying in archon mode with its %40 buff to both and very high damage becomes very attractive. With some life steal (~% or more dmg_>life conversion on a weapon) along with high weapon dmg, crit chance, and boat loads of crit hit damage it starts to become possible to tank things to death even in the later acts.
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A kiting build that uses Arcane Mines to both slow and do damage to enemies. While slowed and traveling over mines Star Pack Meteor is used to deal the damage. Star Pack itself is a great move for proc'ing critical mass as well so in addition to this build relying on Crit Hit dmg and Crit Hit Chance for burst damage, the crit hit chance also provides added survivability by finishing the cooldown on diamond skin and teleport.
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Discussion:
What kind of success have you had in inferno in acts 3 and 4 using a 2hander? What build do/did you use? What kind of gear was needed to support it?
*Disclaimer* - No one is claiming 2handers have more damage throughput, nor are we ignorant of how arcane power on crit can keep 1h+oh builds going. This is purely for the sake of wanting to use a 2 handed play style.
Thanks for contributing, I added your build to the op along with a quick description and a link to your thread/video. Let me know if I described it right or if I should add/remove anything.
On a side note, it seems that all the amazing 2handers have recently disappeared from the AH lately. Even the super expensive ones.
Edit: Just grabbed a 2hander with some life steal at a small dps loss, but holy hell did it make a difference. Face tanking act 3 elites to death in archon, and ponyland is a laugh.
and now for the loooong loooong grind until I can get me one of them socketed, %200 crit dmg, 1500dps, %6 life steal, 400intel Skorns
This sounded weird to me, so i did some quick gear swapping and I think I understand it now.
All % modifiers are additive, so if your base resist was 100, and you had -%10 from glass cannon, +%40 from archon, and +%40 from prismatic the formula would be the following:
Total Resist = Base Resist - .1*Base Resist + .4*Base Resist + .4 Base Resist
170 = 100 - .1*100 +.4*100+.4*100
Weird stuff
I tried act 3 with the gear I have now and that spec, but without the life steal I just couldn't keep myself up. Might also have something to do with me having significantly less armor.
BTW did you choose prismatic armor rune because of the addition increase you'd get from being in archon form so often? and finally I think that I've read that crits done while in archon form have a chance to proc critical mass to lower its cooldown before it even wears off....can you confirm this?
Pros
-Far greater arcane power efficiency with channeled spells
-Larger hits/more staggering effects
-Potential for higher Primary Stat rolls
-Gear is far cheaper to acquire at the moment, needs little to no Arcane Power on Crit
-Life steal rolls up to %6 making it a viable source of healing at a lower gear level than 1h+oh
Cons
-Slow attack rate means less chances to proc Critical Mass or Arcane Power on Crit effects (and everything else)
-Less potent Life on Hit for the reason mentioned above
-Less mobility due to longer cast time
-Loss of potential offensive/defensive stats of a shield or source
Builds:
-Arcane Orb, hit and run:
http://us.battle.net...QmSO!XYU!aaYcZY
Focuses heavily on crit, crit hit dmg, and intel. If the elites live through archon, hydra is dropped and they are kited while their health is taken down in single large chunks in guerrilla-like attacks. The goal is to do as much dmg as possible in a single attack and then continue to move until you have time to cast another orb. Hit and run. Reflect dmg Annihilates me still. (but those 2.8iml arcane destruction crits are tasty)
_______________________________________________
-Disintegrate, When farming act 1 with a slow 2 hander can be case for long periods of time
http://us.battle.net...QmSO!XYf!aZYcZY
Once you reach the ~40k dps threshold fully buffed you can start farming act 1 with a 2hander as easy as if you were leveling up again in normal mode.
_______________________________________________
Archon Build (courtesy of TheDemonKin):
http://us.battle.net...jSOm!gbY!bYaZcb
Once you have farily high dps, armor, and all resist staying in archon mode with its %40 buff to both and very high damage becomes very attractive. With some life steal (~% or more dmg_>life conversion on a weapon) along with high weapon dmg, crit chance, and boat loads of crit hit damage it starts to become possible to tank things to death even in the later acts.
_______________________________________________
Arcane Mines (courtesy of Lunasky)(original thread/video below)
http://www.diablofan...-bulid-w-video/
youtube.com/watch?v=rbuQWXSufXQ
http://us.battle.net...QXiO!Xgb!bZYaac
A kiting build that uses Arcane Mines to both slow and do damage to enemies. While slowed and traveling over mines Star Pack Meteor is used to deal the damage. Star Pack itself is a great move for proc'ing critical mass as well so in addition to this build relying on Crit Hit dmg and Crit Hit Chance for burst damage, the crit hit chance also provides added survivability by finishing the cooldown on diamond skin and teleport.
______________________________________________
Discussion:
What kind of success have you had in inferno in acts 3 and 4 using a 2hander? What build do/did you use? What kind of gear was needed to support it?
*Disclaimer* - No one is claiming 2handers have more damage throughput, nor are we ignorant of how arcane power on crit can keep 1h+oh builds going. This is purely for the sake of wanting to use a 2 handed play style.