Inferno PL - Melee 3.0 | Destroyer 3 updated version

Shas_ · Post by **Shas_** » Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:25 pm

So what is this about now?
Pardon for starting a completely fresh post for it but this is way too sick to dump into a compendium.
Also, the step up from Melee 2.0 is worth years of progress- it just happens to come up in the same week.
It does combine a bunch of advanced Primalist mechanics and tricks. When you have little to no experience, Inferno may be quite a lot to learn at once and won't do well for you. Melee 2.0 viewtopic.php?t=114 is a gereat starting point for that.
This one simply combines the best of the best of the best but expects appropriate attention.
- Unfortunately, Beacon of the Drake does not work as advertised. Neither does it tick once a second nor does it accept raid cool downs. It is still a step up when played right non the less.

The philosophy:

Spoiler:

1) Bear's Fury takes A LOT of worthless points to unlock while not being all that amazing. In order to get double tick rates with it, you would need to fall back to Bloodletting which is a net loss on all fronts (Damage, fury push, buff values). This loss already cuts into the damage profits which Bear's Fury could promise. Instead, we simply run maximum Dex boni in Berserker and Ethereal Corruption, which is flat better than Bear's Fury.

2) Taking the same framework approach looking at the effective value of Thresher's Maw vs how many points and buffs it needs, the 210% buff from font of Bloodlust barely makes a dent. This is with 3 points (2 into Improved Font of Bloodlust and +1 just to reach 24 PL for the legendary socket) PLUs a legendary point for effectively <5% dmg gains. That is quite frankly pretty bad. A maxed out Font of Bloodlust only less than doubles the damage of Thresher's Maw.

Inferno is not completely running away from 2.0 but at this level, 3-4% is a lot.

We now happen to combine the best parts of almost all Fury Blast Builds. The only thing taking a cut is the target switch flexibility from Ethereal Corruption (But in the situation where Morbid Slash already passively spread Corruption onto close targets completely negate that only drawback of Inferno.) One could say Inferno PL is the first Primalist dps build that is not cutting corners and has net gains on all fronts:

- Better cleave and aoe after Prima dps is a meme for being either st or aoe.
- Better raw single target dps than anything else.
- Better disconnects (way less TM dependent).
- Better multi target (More support for keeping FB up on two targets+ Beacon).
- Best FB/Mw stat and buff support of all PL melees, only outclassed by HotPot.
- Interrupt.
- Best burst of all Melee PL and maximum Rotb value which lets you get the most out of smaller opportunity windows.
- Handles immune Phases better due to Beacon intervalls.

It is bis for the Isiel 1 Tank strat both on Vindicator and Isiel's intervalls (once people finally start to adapt that vastly superior strategy)

Again- the only Drawback is that Ethereal Corruption starts to take a gcd tax on chaotic target swapping. Everything else is a step up.

For dungeons and absolute casual- chaos you may still run ''Melee Cleave''. It's an ol' reliable and you can love it for it's lack of Bear's Fury alone.

: INFERNO2.jpg (228.96 KiB) Viewed 2313 times

Here is a first test with it. Before even testing anything and just playing with the concept i already knew Inferno is Bis material. A note to Beacon of the Drake: The tooltip says ''once a second'' but ticks 8 times over 15 seconds. It also ignores most external buffs (Flaring). This is very unfortunate; however, one point to get 4mil+ damage in one gcd/ minute is still worth it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvzoaPumTZ0
This is an unoptimized Character, missing 3.5% stats, not using double rotb because i have a life. I also handled the Spiritualism Mastery quite poorly. Better pov's and benchmarks will follow.

Macros:

Spoiler:

Typical pre pull routine of Primal Lord based builds which you should get used to:
(On Inferno, those steps are not optional anymore)

prepull:

Switch to anything with 21 Titan. Use the Primal Avatar: Ram to get 100 fury which will never reset. Switch back to Melee PL. This allows us to start from 100 fury.
(Scorpion Pierce spam can also grant fury which does not get reset but it can make Harmony of Life (20%!!) bug out and ends in just more effort vs switching specs.)

Use Rage of the Beast early. It has a 1 minute cool down (Reduced by Ss and TM) and only 16 stacks.
So in theory RotB is already used up in 16 seconds, able to only affect two FB, use it early and have it's cool down running already. With good timing you can have two RotB active back to back, which gives you extreme boni for the first minute.
^ Using RotB early is very easy to do and has no downsides so better get used to it.

Singe Target opener and rotation:

Ideally we are at 100 Fury and Have Rage of the Beast somewhat at 25 seconds uptime left.

Open with Ethereal Corruption from 8m range. with some luck, Scything Strike procs now.
If Ss does not proc: use the #Spirit ogcd macro.
If it still does not proc: Use one Scything Strike #Ss
(If you are not at 100 Fury, use #Cleave x1 for Stroke of Brilliance then Ethereal Corruption, Cleave again for Stroke of Brilliance and #Ss. Now you should be at 100 Fury with a Scything Strike buff active.

> #FB macro x2 for Fury Blast and Stroke of Brilliance
> #MW macro x2 for Molten Wave and Morbid Slash
> #TM macro x1 for Thresher's Maw
> #Cleave macro x2 for Stroke of Brilliance and Underworld Shards
> If Ss procs now- > Fury Blast
> If not -> #Ss x1 for Scything Strike

Same but with only ability names and your scale position:
(100Fury)
[Ethereal Corruption]
(Scything Strike) +100 Fury Blast +0 Stroke of Brilliance +40 Molten Wave -60 Morbid Slash -100 Thresher's Maw +0 Stroke of Brilliance +40 Underworld Shards +100 > ( +100 Ss +100)

Repeat from Fury Blast

The catch:
While Rage of the Beast has stacks left and Ss procs at any other moment than on 100 Fury, we interrupt everything for #Beacon.
This way we are placing Beacon of the Drake with +100% dmg form Rotb and +120% from Ss which gives us +20% dps for 15 seconds. You could say, a properly used Beacon benefits you like an Omnox on demand.
-> If Beacon is ready, Ss procs at 100 fury but rotb has only some 5 stacks left, let Rotb use the Ss procc. Follow with a manual Ss FB.
~20% for one FB < not delaying Beacon for half a minute.

Easy enough isn't it?

You now have improved Underworld Shards, aoe Ethereal Corruption AND Beacon fo the Drake as passive cleave without changing anything in your rotation.
INFERNO does a great deal to fix the usually terrible aoe utility of Primalist dps while being a net gain for single target and flexibility. (Having one build being good at more things and not needing you to switch to dedicated sub specs is a huge win for flexibility in itself)
The only thing keeping Hot Pot in the race are the best FB buffs in the business (due to crit power boni and Scald) giving it an ever so slight edge on short, hard burns and ofc course its range.

Inferno is almost like every old standard PL ever but i would say, managing the opener with Corruption aswell as catching Ss with Beacon of the Drake plus casually catching Ss with Fury Blast is definitely more on the advanced side. And if you mess those up, Inferno will not perform as it should and you may aswell stick to a more simple build.
Who would have thought about cutting Thresher's Maw on a melee Pl?

Kalert:

The normal 120% Ss proc is the most important. While it is not taking an active role on trashy spam builds, it's already a feature for Melee Pl and the advanced HotPot. However on Inferno, it is mandatory!

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: SS.jpg (225.16 KiB) Viewed 2004 times

Credits to luisa for the oldest public Melee PL, Windymay for questioning literally every single common belief ever. Disterr for taking the time testing and reading my wall of dms.

Inferno? Dante's Divine comedy, book one: Inferno. The 9 gates of hell like the 9 ability rotation with different abilities mainly made up of Furious Fire, Molten earth, Underworld Shards, Corruption, Rage of ''The Beast'', Reaper's Scythe etcpp i found it fitting.

Precision bolt: You would sacrifice 5% from Guille of the Beast to get +10% for pretty much the same attacks. Meanwhile PB delays the rotation. On paper it would look like a gain but is a net loss (Diminishing returns on buffs while delays are a flat loss)

vexilla regis prodeunt inferni]

Any other ideas? Let us know!