I haven’t written about Diablo 3 in a while mostly because I’ve been busy with work or just flat out playing Diablo 3. And when I play Diablo 3, I’m mostly adhering to my main guides for the most part. Thus far though, I did not put much effort into the Uliana build in terms of written stuff. Right now, I’m spending some time getting to know the basic play style and wanted to share my thoughts/experiences with this build.
This really isn’t a guide per say as my setup pretty much replicates various high end builds. Thus, if you’re looking for a perfect guide, you’re probably better off checking out DiabloFans or one of Quin69’s video guides. The stuff here focuses on limited game play as I dive deeper into this build.
The main two aspects of Uliana’s build centers around Exploding Palm and Seven Sided Strike. However, you’re given the freedom to use a generator in applying Exploding Palm rather than mixing spending Exploding Palm, a generator and Seven Sided Strike. You use Seven Sided Strike to detonate your Exploding Palm, which with the correct gear, pretty much triggers a massive chain reaction.
Outside of using the six pieces of Uliana’s set, you pretty much need Gungdo Gear for spreading Exploding Palm, Binding of the Lost for damage reduction, a cubed The Flow of Eternity for reduction in cooldown for Seven Sided Strike, The Fist Of Azturrasq for increasing the damage of Exploding Palm, the new season only Lions Claw for increasing Seven Sided Strike to 14 Sided Strike and finally a cubed Madstone for auto-applying Exploding Palm via Seven Sided Strike. Some people recommend Broken Promises and using a zero critical chance build since you’re mostly attacking with generators. Pretty much that’s up to you but I’ll explain the philosophy behind that in a moment.
Much of the game play is simple. You use your generator three times on your enemies and apply Exploding Palm. You want to do this for a huge group of mobs then set off the chain reaction via Seven Sided Strike. With a large number of mobs, you can clear huge sections of the screen within seconds.
While Exploding Palm is auto-applied via your generators, you want to place Exploding Palm with a rune on your action bar. Most builds go cold and in this case use Impending Doom. Pretty much with this setup you’ll be one-shotting many mobs right after activating your Seven Sided Strike since Impending Doom and the set with Seven Sided Strike just cause a tremendous amount of damage.
In my case, I’m still behind a few pieces of key gear. Right now, I lack the Flow of Eternity and have cubed my Fist of Azturrasq just to get the multiplier damage. Also, I use an Ingeom and Obsidian Ring of the Zodaic for some cooldown reduction (mostly Seven Sided Strike). I did read that the cooldown for Obsidian Ring though does not really apply to Seven Sided Strike, but I’m using it for Epiphany and Dashing Strike (which may not work in this case). For the most part, I’m still experimenting with this build. My In-geom, for instance, is actually a strength one but I’ve simply not had enough materials to re-roll the strength aspect.
I realize that The Flow of Eternity probably will make this build more than anything because of the high cooldown on Seven Sided Strike. Without that cooldown reduction, the build slows down tremendously. At least with an In-geom, you can reduce some cooldown in killing elites. Ideally, you shouldn’t be in that situation.
I do find the build to be squishy. Most of the time you’re hitting a ton of mobs while being surrounded and vulnerable. So your only real defense is either Epiphany, if you face tank mobs, or Dashing Strike, if really dangerous effects happen like Frozen. The belt helps a little but not by much. For myself, I use Simplicity’s Strength for some life on hit since I’m mostly using my generators. Even then I find my health dropping rapidly quite frequently.
But that’s where the Broken Promises ring comes into play. One alternative popular version of this build eliminates Critical Hit Chance through the Broken Promises ring’s passive, which you cube. By doing this, you can move stats around on your gear. For instance, going more CDR on spots you normally would take CHC.
The game play for me was a lot better once I understand the real mechanics behind this build. Originally, on the PTR I used the revamped Shenlong’s Fist weapons but didn’t handle the build correctly. So I was trying to spam Exploding Palm rather than utilizing the 2 set bonus. The gratifying aspect of this build is being able to trigger your Exploding Palm via Seven Sided Strike. Having tons of Exploding Palm icons up on your foes then flattening them with a single touch of a button is immensely satisfying.
That said, the thing I dislike about this build outside of squishiness is the slowness factor. Compared to Raiment, this set is very plodding. I suppose I’m still at a point where I need to figure out how to optimize my gear properly such as sacrificing CHC for CDR. But that aspect will require more scrutinization and hunting better rolled items. Getting CDR just is so critical at this stage since I’m missing out on being able to fly through mobs the same way a basic Whirlwind Barbarian can.
Now, I suppose once I have sufficient gear, I’ll be able to start tackling greater rifts. Currently, my focus is just getting enough gear to make it through the front door. Also, I’m still getting a better feel for how the playstyle works and want to take another pass on some mistakes I’ve made with rerolls. Until I get to that point, I probably will just continue farming T6.
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