Level 100 Crit Smite Champion^3.26

Notes

You can level as Smite all the way, though it isn't super good until act 2 when we get Herald of Ash, and +1 strikes from the tree. If you wanna go really fast, play Poisonous concoction into explosive concoction; problem with that though is you'll need to level smite and its supports in an offhand if you wanna play as smite in maps.

We don't get Smite as duelist, so if you want to level as it you'll need to mule it from Templar, who gets it as a reward for beating hillock.

Level 1-12:

Keep an eye out for magic/rare weapons of any kind, doesn't matter if they're a one-handed axe or a two-handed mace, as smite can use anything. We're looking for flat added damage or %phys. Two handed weapons are ideal though, so use one esp if it's just white.

Also be on the lookout for gear with the socket colours that we're looking for, which are:

I recommend using Spectral Throw + Chance to Bleed + Volley until you get ancestral call after mercy mission, as not having extra strikes makes the skill just kinda bad.

Our early setup for smite will be Smite + Ancestral Call + Ruthless

Smite is still kind of rough for single target, so you may want to keep Spectral Throw + Chance to Bleed (+ volley if you're swimming in links) to help. Using smite does give us flat damage, so it boosts spectral throw a decent bit.

Take Shield Charge after Breaking Some Eggs, which will be our main movement skill. You can also get Frostblink and Precision from the vendor, though you only really need to run Frostblink for now. If you're using a two-hander, you can have a shield on a weapon swap, or just use frostblink only and wait for leap slam.

Note about Precision: Only needs to be used IF your accuracy is lower than your life. Usually this isn't needed early on esp with weathered hunter/accuracy mastery, but later on as we get more life we may need to run it. Keep an eye on your character sheet and try to remember how much accuracy you have, as if your life is higher than accuracy
we lose benefits from Precise Technique, which is a ton of damage. Once you get Arrogance linked to it (usually from Lily in act 6), you can keep it on and level it some more as it wont take up our mana pool.

Red + Green: This is our Shield Charge/lLeap Slam + Faster Attacks movement setup. You can also link Momentum to it for a bit more speed, but it doesn't make a big difference.

We get Leap Slam after brutus. If you're using a two-hander, use Leap Slam. If you've got a good one hander, use shield charge. Generally 2H > 1H early on, but it's not a big deal and I prefer running 1h as shields are nice to have for res/life/etc.

Level 12-27:

After finishing Intruders in Black Act 2 quest, pick up Herald of Ash and Blood Rage. You should also grab Poacher's Mark for a nice DPS increase as well as mana/life on hit, which is super helpful on bosses.

Once you get the +1 strike mastery from Gladiators perserverance, you can drop Ancestral Call for Added Fire Damage. After Sharp and Cruel, Elemental Damage with attacks is better than added fire. Close Combat is even better if you have a RRG.

If you find a 4-link early on, there are a few supports that work well. Ideal is Smite +  Ruthless + Added Fire damage + Trinity. We need added fire support to proc trinity before we get anger. Instead of trinity you can run Elemental Damage with Attacks/Close Combat.

For Bandits, you can either help Alira for the +15% elemental resistances or get the +1 skill point by killing all bandits. I recommend Alira for most builds to start, as the res is a godsend for league start.

Level 27-37:

After completing Lost in Love, pickup Anger. You should try to run Trinity now. You can drop herald of ash if the mana is too annoying. Use Elemental Damage with Attacks/Close Combat over Added Fire damage if you were using it before.

I recommend Adrenaline for your first ascendency if you want to maximize speed, as we can use Corrupting Fever + Lifetap to put us at Low Life to proc adrenanline every 20 seconds. Corrupting Fever can be bought from the Act 2 vendor. The annoying part of this is that adrenaline is not refreshed if you use it early, so try to time it for every 20s.

Level 37-67:

After completing The Eternal Nightmare, you'll be rewarded with Multistrike which can replace Ruthless. You can also buy Mark on Hit for Poacher's Mark if you have a spare alchemy. At this point you should also have the Leader of the Pack wheel, and you can add back Herald of Fire if you took it off (not even that much dmg tho, can leave it off).

After clearing Fallen from Grace in Act 6, you can buy Arrogance for Precision to help with mana (you'll probably need precision soon).

For your second ascendency, I recommend grabbing Fortitude to help keep you alive. Worthy Foe is ok too if you just want more damage.

Once you've got more aura reservation nodes, you can slot in Flesh and Stone for improved survivability (stay in sand stance). Can drop Herald of Ash if mana sustain is annoying as well, or just not run Flesh and stone, no big deal. If you want gigadam you can run Anger + Wrath, but not worth the mana at this point imo.

Buy a Prismweave for 1-4c for a big damage boost early on.



Campaign Tips:

Try to avoid relying on your Weapon for links, since it'll get replaced more often than other pieces of gear, but sometimes you'll have no choice which is fine. Boots are similar, as you want as much MS on them as you can find.

Make sure to check the vendor in early acts for good socket links/ms boots/weapons, his inventory refreshes after every level up as well.

If you copy and paste the following string into the search of a vendor's inventory, it will highlight items that may be worth buying: ts:.+(?=(\S*r){2})(\S*b){2}|r-r-r|g-g-r|g-r-g|r-g-g|r-r-[gb]|r-[gb]-r|[gb]-r-r|nne|rint|Glint|Heav


Transitioning into Early Endgame:

Look for a Frostbreath with high ASP roll as that matters the most, should be able to snag one for 1-10c day 1 (depends on popularity as its a T4 drop), just keep a live search going. Once you've got Frostbreath, respec your passive tree out of Axe nodes and into Ribcage Crusher + mastery for all damage chills

Grab a Taming ring ASAP for big damage and lots of res. It can be a little pricy early on, but one trick you can do is buy a Berek's Respite, Berek's Pass, and Berek's Grip and do the vendor recipe, as it's usually a little cheaper and can net you a high roll if you're lucky.

You can keep using Prismweave as it's still good damage and all res, but you'll need to source ~50 strength from somewhere and belt is a good candidate. Can also get str on gloves/ammy/ring/helm/boots, but belt is usually cheapest esp w/ a heavy belt base. Stygian is ideal w/ flat damage abyss jewel.

Roll a Prismatic Tincture with Elemental Penetration and ideally inc effect as well.

Hopefully -mana cost on attacks is found early on in maps, which you can craft on your amulet & ring for easier mana sustain. Without it, you might want to run Inspiration or drop Flesh and Stone for more mana, though Poacher's Mark + leech + thrill of battle should be enough to sustain.

Try to cap Spell Suppression ASAP, it's not too difficult as we get 64% from the tree, so we only need 36% total from gloves/helm/chest/boots/shield. Can craft spell suppression on chest/shield as well.

We need a 300+ accuracy roll on helm/gloves/shield, or increased accuracy on jewels, to ensure we have more accuracy than life. Try to get ASP on gloves & boots if possible, but ofc focus on res capping first.

Chest can just be crafted with some res essences, don't really need armour/eva rolls tho they def help with phys max hit. Envy essences for chaos res is probably ideal. Can also grab a corrupted 6l chest with the right colors early on. 4R2B is ideal but hard to get on eva/arm bases, so 4R1B1G is fine. You don't actually need an eva/arm base however 
until you craft your own, so getting a corrupted 6l arm/es is fine too.

We get endurance charges on block which should be enough to sustain I'm hoping, but if not we can run either disciple of unyielding/endurance charge on kill ring/enduring cry merc.


Merc Setup:

This will change over time of course, but what seems super strong right off the bat:

Perquil's toe: Nearby allies have lucky damage is just 30% more damage, definitely worth using and should be (relatively) cheap as it's a common unique drop.

Legacy of Fury: Nearby enemies are scorched and increased scorch effect, super good for us.

Galesight: Especially good early on when we go crit, as if the merc can reliably apply brittle that is a ton of crit chance for us.

Crown of the Tyrant: A ton of added flat damage + -10% res to enemy. Probably gonna be very exp tho as it drops from Aul who is pretty rare.

Any Aspect of the Spider gear: Not sure how it'll interact with the merc, but if he actually uses the aspect then that's 5% more damage per stack he applies, big deeps.

Doryani's prototype: Stack the merc with -lightning res and this chest will be insane. -light res stuff can be pre expensive though.

Garb of the ephemeral: Enemies cannot crit, your action speed cannot be modified, very strong but likely will be expensive.

Kaom's Binding: Nice defensive belt, nearby enemies convert 25% of phys to fire, increasing phys max hit by a lot. Just be careful as now enemies will be igniting you, so get ignite immunity on a flask.

Lochtonial Caress: Shares charges with you, which if the merc is generating endurance charges selfishly then it can share it with us. I'm hoping we can get a merc that uses enduring cry frequently instead, which gives us end charges. Some ways to generate charges on merc: Accumulator wand, Precursor ring (end charge every second when hit),
Eldritch body armour with endurance charges per second (would need a high tier, at least 12s w/ endurance charge duration node)

Kingmaker: Crit Multi, Culling Strike, rarity. Pretty damn good, but also gonna be very expensive. The fortification doesn't do anything for us though, so not as good for us as other builds. Also the nearby range is very small, and mercs may not be sticking to use like glue, so may not get value out of it.


ENDGAME:

Paradoxica: Ele pen + Either Crit or ASP. ASP is better overall especially with better gear, but crit is useable early.

Yoke is a ton of damage, and is why we spend a point to grab some poison chance on the tree as it increases damage based on ailments on enemy.

Getting enough int is super rough, to the point where we even allocate the +30 int node on the tree. Ring is the best source of it, as well as getting it on an abyss jewel/jewels in general.

Shaper shield w/ recovery on block is amazing for recovery, definitely worth crafting one. Spam Pristine Fossils on an ilvl 77+ Shaper shield, ideally a Spiny or Spiked round shield for its 27% base block for easier block capping. Ideally we get 63% increased block chance to hit block cap. Should be able to get one in ~200 pristine fossils.
Can also use jewels/tattoos to shore up block chance and just craft 50% block instead, which will only take ~15 pristine fossils so much cheaper.

Crafting a really good Tincture is recommended, doesn't take that many alts to get a good one (inc effect + T1 ele pen).

Good Tattoos:

Str: Fire Res, Armour, Life Regen, block

Dex: Mark Effect, Cold Res, Spell Suppression, Eva Rating