Level 94 Dominating Blow Guardian^3.21

Notes

The Passive Tree is set to 'High Level' by default.  There are additional options for 'Start', 'Low Level', and 'Mapping Start' to help prioritize what to go for in batches.
(Based mostly around when you woudl acquire Dominating Blow, when you're about halfway through the campaign, and when you're starting mapping)



Abbridged Leveling Explanation:

Kill Hillock, get Smite, get Raise Zombies, clear mud flats + get  your quicksilver, get Holy Relic + Ancestral Call (and Frostblink).  Slap your way to prison, get Melee Splash for 
zombies, NOT minion damage (they already die too easy).  Kill Brutus.  Pick up Flame Dash and Vitality to boost survivability, and get a Molten Shell now or later (not important right this second).  Get to Level 12 Gems, pick up Absolution; Weapons 
should be sceptres so you can Smite + Absolution (Smite gives a damage aura and activates Holy Relic to keep minions alive).  As for your skill tree, you want to follow it out to Resolute Technique, and then go get all of your minion nodes whilst 
getting whatever life nodes are available along the way.  Flesh Offering can also be picked up now if you have plenty of currency.  Go to Act 2, take Herald of Purity for now, and if you're
still lucky with currency you can get Desecrate now as well.  Pick up Controlled Destruction from Silk and give it to Absolution, but be ready to swap it over to your Holy Relic at 28.  Continue on; in my experience, everything on a 2-link cleared just 
fine at this point.  In Act 3, pick up Determination (don't use it yet), Vulnerability, and Convocation (get the minion mastery that reduces the cooldown, and then use it a lot).  When you kill Gravy-sauce (Gravicius) and get Dominating Blow, socket 
Melee Splash AND Ancestral Call into the links.  Last damage link can be Melee Phys or Minion Speed; one will feel better for bosses, the other will feel better for clear.  At this point, you drop Herald of Purity for Determinations, and ditch your
 zombies.  Holy Relic and Dominating Blow are all you need now, with one additional minion joining later.  Get rid of Smite as well, if it wasn't obvious, and along the way you want to pick up Pride (as well as Desecrate, Flesh Offering, and Molten Shell
 if you still haven't). At this point, you also drop your sceptres for a 2-hander (better range, 4-link, chance at +2 Melee Gems mod (THIS IS HUGE!  YOU WILL LEVEL MUCH FASTER WITH ANY +LEVELS!)).
Continue on into Act IV and pick up Carrion Golem from the first quest reward.  Give it Maim, and maybe some defensive supports to help keep it alive down the line; an Animate Guardian can ultimately replace this if you're comfortable using one. 
When you beat Kaom and Daresso and get the final tier of supports, replace Melee Splash with Multistrike.  Sentinels of Dominance have an AoE attack they can use to help clear without Melee Splash, but if you drop Ancestral Call, you will have a 
very, very hard time keeping Sentinels up at all.  This support is replaced much later in mapping with the +1 Strike modifier from searing influence on your gloves slot.  That said, Multistrike gives you the attack speed you need, and your asendancy 
gives you onslaught; Minion Speed is now significantly less mandatory if you want to run another, punchier damage support.  Most of the leveling from here on out is filling out your tree and adding things in as you go.  The Templar Reservation 
Efficiency Nodes + Mystic Bulwark and the Mana Mastery will let you run Determination + Pride comfortably, which will result in a big damage boost.  Mystic Bulwark can be dropped at higher levels when you have more mana to work with.  
Getting more Life, Armor, and Maximum Resistances will likewise help, and will be the majority of your tree progress from Act 6 onward (by this point, you've likely filled out all your minion nodes on the top side of the tree).  The build goes from 
heavy item independency to heavy item dependency at this point, and the focus of early maps should  be getting a +2 Melee Gems 5-link weapon (or better!), as well as the minion damage craft from Betrayal (not specific to any member, just 
do Betrayal and hope for veiled weapon drops; it's not rare).  A +2 All Minion Gems Helmet and Bone Rings are luxury items, and shouldn't be prioritized.  A +1 All Minion Gems helmet should be, however!  1 Bone Ring with damage + attack speed
for your minions will be very, very powerful.  The second may sacrifice too much EHP (over a Vermillion Ring), as well as make getting resistance capped tough.  Helmets go up to +2, but +1 may be available even relatively early in the campaign, 
so keep an eye on those helmet mods, because a +1 All Minion Gems helmet would make your leveling life very, very easy.

A playlist of me doing the levelling experience can be found here in full: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0Ur_dQEb5Gyo8o41gfAQbU5OI9ya7ZEE
This was done in 3.18, but the game hasn't changed much as far as the levelling method described here is concerned (we're rather unique in this regard after many of the changes they've made recently)



Vaal Domination - It looks really good, there's not much else to say.  It's probably worth as much as a Level 21 gem, which gives us another ideal outcome on corrupting a Phantasmal Dominating Blow.  If there's one thing 
Dominating Blow maybe lacked, it was a way to turn up the gas when you had a narrower window to attack, so Vaal Domination will probably feel best against melee-hating bosses like Maven, or minion-hating bosses like Veritania.  
It will not be necessary for leveling, although will probably feel nice to use if you can acquire one easily.



Low level Sceptres have been changed, and will have a much lower base attack time.  Consider the Faster Attacks support gem if this is a problem.  It is my hope that the higher base damage will make Smite
feel just the same at our very low levels, and if we're lucky, maybe even a little better.  It all depends on how the breakpoints for damage vs number of hits end up working out!



If getting a +3 Staff is difficult, or you're in SSF, you might want to aim for a +2 Socketed Melee Gems Staff to begin with, and just craft %Minion Damage on it.  This is much easier to do, as it's literally just one
mod you need to roll, and then a regal orb so you can craft %Minion Damage.  The weapon is more or less guaranteed once you alt into the +2 Mod.  Additionally, keep Flame Dash as a movement skill.  
Casting Spells regularly gives you 10% Spell Block due to your ascendancy.  (You get 10% Attack Block from Attacking, which you'll be doing constantly regardless).



The PoB currently simulates that you will have +1 All Minion Gems on your helmet slot.  +2 is obviously possible, but much more expensive, and this is a league starter, so it's planned around not having one.
If you keep Desecrate at Level 1, you do not need very much dexterity on this build (just 26 for Desecrate).



Ideally, a level 2 or higher Awakened Melee Splash is used for clear, as this imparts a +1 bonus to Strike skills with a +3 Weapon (Dominating Blow is a Strike skill!)  What's nice about this is that Awakened Melee Splash
it typically not the most expensive Awakened gem, so don't be afraid to hunt it out early if you have your +3 weapon already, as it can be a significant boost to clear speed.



If Brass Dome proves to be extra expensive, you may want to settle for a +3 or +4 All Maximum Elemental Resistance roll instead.  Divining these will be harder, and although the item itself hasn't been changed, it may have been removed to another
rarity tier in the unique rebalance.  A high armor roll with +4 is probably better than a low armor roll with +5 anyway.  Brass Dome is the most expensive 'mandatory' item in the build, but that's left-side survivability for you.  Higher tier maps **can** be
done without The Brass Dome, but you won't feel particularly comfortable in corrupted rare maps until you acquire it and the tremendous boost to EHP it brings.



If you're comfortable with Animate Guardian, it's likely a superior choice to Carrion Golem for your Maim setup.  Powerful unique options like Leer Cast can have it impart bonuses more significant than what the Carrion Golem does as well, although
this comes with certain, obvious opportunity costs (On death, Animated Guardians lose the items that comprise them forever in most situations.)



'Mapping Start' skill tree is there to show what you want mapped out before entering maps, and an 'Early' gear set to show the types of equipment you want to get going at the start of mapping (Super Easy Starter Weapon (TM) included).
For flasks, quite frankly, you can do whatever you want here.  The build 'solves' so much on its own that you could easily just run extra Quicksilvers or Life Flasks (whichever is appropriate).  Keep in mind that some flasks (Ruby, Sapphire,
Topaz, etc) can be extremely useful against specific bosses.  The build being flexible here is an asset for you to make use of.



Level 100 "Finished" tree available under 'Future' tree.

Alternative "Ideal" Belt, Amulet, Finished Weapon, Helmet, and Gloves available under 'Future' gear set.



There are further ways to push the DPS on this build in a big way...

Ashes of the Stars does incredible things with Phantasmal Dominating Blow, allowing for an additional 3 normal sentinels.
Set instances of damage on the Phantasmal Dominating Blow setup to 14 to reflect this.

Elegant Hubris at the northern witch Jewel slot can give you access to several very easily reached, very point efficient 80% Minion Damage nodes.

Ceaseless Feast unique Gloves can be used to reduce an enemy's armor to zero, but you need to annoint Tribal Fury for +1 strike if you do this (or path to an Attack Mastery - Not Recommended!)



Bone Rings aren't as good for our character's EHP, but the extra resistance is very nice on our minions.  Once you get your gear up to the point where you feel comfortably durable, these should 
immediately be swapped in over Coral/Vermillion Rings.  %Minion Damage is a relatively scarce stat compared to most sources of damage in the game, so it tends to be more valuable on minion
builds.



ON THE INCREDIBLY EXPERIMENTAL SIDE OF THINGS, A SUMMON REAPER **CAN** BE USED.

As of the time of this guide, it has not fully been tested, but will be tested within the league.  Please refer to the creator channel (youtube.com/cardboardbastards) for an update later into the league.
For those looking to test it themselves, Summon Reaper will replace Summon Carrion Golem.  Gems will have to be moved around, and Unset Rings may be necessary to fit everything, so that Summon
Reaper can be slotted into a 6-Link in the body armour (this is already a big increase in expenses).  

IT IS EXPECTED THAT, WHILE MORE ENTERTAINING TO USE, SUMMON REAPER WILL ULTIMATELY HAVE LESS THROUGH-PUT THAN JUST USING SUMMON CARRION GOLEM AS A BUFF/MAIM APPLICATOR!

**UPDATE** - Since the announcement of Vaal Domination, this is back to being a minor side project, as Reaper would likely influence the Vaal Sentinels negatively, which probably isn't worth it.