[3.3] Here comes the BOOM! - Infernal Blow Chieftain

* Satisfying BOOOOMs.
* It's a melee skill and a game, it's fun to hit things in the mouth.
* Fast paced.
* Rock solid single target with Gem changes.
* Not a meta skill, so it's cheap to build (even though Mathil is trying to change that. Deserved Damnation).
* Designed to be quite Tanky (~20k armor) without investing in a lot of armor points.

* It's a melee skill, sometimes it isn't fun that you have to be in range of the mouth of an enemy.
* Especially if that enemy are a FU** TON of Vaal Constructs that have you in their sight.
* After many skill buffs (wink-wink Vaal Double Strike) Infernal Blow may seem to be slow in single target.
* Requires changing 2 skill gems when you have to fight a beefy Boss. Not necessary when fighting a Temple Room Architect.

https://pastebin.com/bXpdhdz9

Before I made this build, and in the last couple of days with Mathil, I've seen and heard a lot about Infernal Blow and the Support of 2 skill gems:
And all of that I heard and read sounds great, except when you face single target, and that includes Architects in the timed incursions. Why? Because when you look at it, Ancestral Call has LESS multiplier and Melee Splash adds nothing but area.

The combination is the main reason why the skill has the reputation it has. Which to me sounded a lot like the Ethereal Knives of Melee skills.

And because of that I started testing and what I found is by stacking as much damage as possible Ancestral Call is all you need to obliterate most packs at a touch. Which leads me to the Links in order of priority:

MORE Melee Physical Multiplier. Up to 50% MORE phys before it is converted to fire.

MORE Elemental Damafe Multiplier. Up to 54% MORE fire damage.

MORE fire damage, high chances to ignite and less fire resistance on ignited enemies. From 10 to 30% MORE fire damage.

Ignite proliferation and MORE fire damage multiplier on Ignited enemies. From 20 to 40% MORE fire damage.

All of the MORE multipliers not only affect the hits from Infernal Blow with Ancestral Call, they also affect the 3 explosions of enemies that die and the overkill explosions of ignited enemies, which is more than enough damage to wipe everything in most packs. It's also enough damage when dealing with architects. It's just not enough for most bosses, which leads us to the single target swaps:

From 75 to 95% MORE attack speed.

Hard to ignite a lot Bosses, so swapping Ignite Proliferation and it's MORE multi on ignited enemies for Elemental Focus gives you between 30 to 50% MORE fire damage.

15% of Physical Damage as additional Fire Damage. Burning Damage and additional fire damage with quality as added bonuses.

This one is a tough choice and depends on your feel for the character. Flammability is a bonus that's always there and it feels good. Punishment is quirky to put it mildly, but you can FEEL it when it procs. Between 25 to 35% MORE melee physical damage and between 10 to 20% increased attack speed. But it needs you to get hit to proc. Which you will, melee characters get punched in the mouth a lot, and it's going to be up for 4 seconds, but consistency is an issue. You could say that Flammability is the better alternative if you are playing safer.

The increased attack speed of Haste is good enough in terms of DPS to make me choose the skill instead of Anger, the addition of Vaal Haste for free made it a no-brainer. Architects and bosses are melted with the additional attack speed (between 35 to 49% with Essence Worm's +2).

I'm making this part to explain how Phase Run works and why the skill gems should be in this order. Phase Run consists of 2 stages, Phasing when it's triggered and a MORE melee phys multiplier when phasing stops. Phasing stops when you use another skill and the MORE melee phase begins. With Phase Run being the last skill triggered by CwDT, Molten Shell or Immortal Call can't stop the Phasing stage, meaning that you can use the additional move speed to run out of a hairy situation. This way, you only stop Phasing when you are ready to start using your MORE stage.

Required piece of gear, only way Herald of Ash, Blasphemy and Haste up all the time.
High pDPS two handed weapon. Maces are the simplest choice because rolling the gem colors is a lot cheaper (4 reds, 2 blues). My current weapon has 530 pDPS. GGG gear has North of 600 pDPS.
This boots don't have life, but they are BiS.
Life, up to 15% increased attributes, can't be Ignited or Frozen and increased damage per your lowest attribute, which is additional to what the added Strength is going to give to your Melee Phys (More than 50 Strength - 10% increased melee physical damage).
The better, more defensive, choice is The Formless Inferno because it gives you a TON of armor (with GGG gear above 20k) and converts an additional 8% phys damage taken to fire damage (one of the Ascendancies already turns 10% and this stacks to 18%). But, it's an out of META helmet and it's really hard to get the BiS enchant for Infernal Blow. Devoto's is a META helmet and you can find them with the right enchant, 15% of Infernal Blow physical damage gained as extra fire damage. In my current gear, I'm making the practical choice of running with Devoto's because it's a lot of damage, a lot of Dexterity (which is necessary for Haste), movement speed and Chaos resistance. Starkonja's a good option as well, and you can find the enchant. But the BiS is The Formless Inferno, hands down.

* Maximum life.
* Attack speed with 2 handed melee weapons.
* Dexterity/Intelligence.
* Melee Phys Damage with 2 handed melee weapons.
* Area Damage.
* Fire Damage.

Choosing between both orders is a personal choice. I went with the first order, because with as many Unique items that have no resistances, I found that I could use the 100% fire resistance that the Ramako point (3) gives you before I was able to do Uber Lab. But saying no to all the Leech the Hinekora (4) point gives, was tough. If this is your second character, or third or whatever, and you can do Uber Lab much faster, the 2nd order makes more sense. You just need the 100% fire resistance for the end game gear.

Bandits: Kill all or help Oak. I killed all.

Major God: Arakaali with Arachnoxia. 5% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time, 10% chance to Avoid Lightning Damage when Hit. 50% increased Recovery of Life and Energy Shield if you've stopped taking Damage Over Time Recently

Minor God: Tukohama with Tahsin. While stationary, gain 2% additional Physical Damage Reduction each second, up to a maximum of 8%. While stationary, gain 0.5% of Life Regenerated per second each second, up to a maximum of 2%

40 points:

70 points:

100 points:

Wideswing is the only necessary Unique for leveling, at 18 it's such a boost to your DPS that it's going to help you while traveling from Marauder to Duelist and Templar areas without taking damage nodes.

Another useful weapon before you buy an upgrade or before you get mana leech in tree and with items is Hezmana's Bloodlust.

Coming soon.

Coming soon.

The main reason is this chest. Running with a rare chest piece started to get risky at tier 10 maps, like most melee characters, enemies have no manners and try to hit you. The Brass Dome takes away one part of the risks by making critical strikes a lot less damaging. The other part is the protection of all the additional armor. If, and this is a BIG IF, I manage to find a Formless Inferno with the additional fire damage enchant for Infernal Blow (LOOOOOOONGSHOT!), the build with armor and Lion's Roar ends up having from 25k to 35k armor, it all depends on how much over cap fire resistance you can manage.

A slight problem of the build is that you have to change skill gems for bosses, and most of the time you will lose all endurance and frenzy charges. Carrying this boots solve the issue. Swap your boots for Ralakesh's Impatience, swap gems, equip your boots again and you are going to face bosses with charges.

You do have to drop Gangs Momentum boots, because the abscense of life in those boots is a killer with The Brass Dome. Elder Boots with Increase Duration with your CWDT setup is End Game gear.