[3.3] Unstoppable Gladiator 78% Max Block/Spells. Best Low Budget League Starter

hi. what about to start this build in 2 week league? Is it enough fast for leveling to 85?

I thought it was pretty fast so far to 60. I will say I got mostly health early on. This made the leveling a bit slower. I hit a rough spot before i got my soul taker axe. But things seem to be rolling just fine now. Sunder is great but feels shitty (slow) until you get a ton of speed from the tree.

Used this build for legacy, moving some passives around. Worked out great with Cleave for DPS, and Sunder for clearing, and used a The Surrender shield (health on block). Got a foil BoR, farmed up currency for a quant gem with this guy, and got a well rolled soul taker. got ~100k cleave with hatred and herald of ash up.

Great survivability, literally face-tanked hydra and chimera (except the unique snake add, that guy hurt), phoenix was easy as long as I didn't eat an explosion (had AA on), minotaur was easy as long as you don't eat his slams/burrows, and be careful about extra damage/haste/aoe mods. Anything that spams attacks/spells made me significantly harder to kill.

Definitely planning on playing this again in 3.0.0. Love the rapid attacks.

For my 3.0 I'll be working towards brutality in the main link. Buying a +1 curse anvil. Dropping our aura's, and using arctic armor, blasphemy w/ enfeeble, and weakness. I'll be snagging int on both rings so we can up the curse levels. Might have to snag another 30int node, or those 2 nodes up north towards "devotion" grabbing that socket. On less threatening content I'll toss in punishment instead of enfeeble. This should hopefully amplify our damage while also making us a bit safer. I also intend to toss in maim with the warchief, so it applies the debuff for us.

Hi I still have more work to be done for my duelist, but can any of you check my character and see what can I improve from there for dps? I feel like im not getting enough dps

At least in Mayhem SC this is turning out to be a fairly expensive league starter.

14C for Lioneeye's Remorse, 18C for Bringer of Rain (down from 35C yesterday), 90C for Soul Taker.

"

Summoner wrote:

At least in Mayhem SC this is turning out to be a fairly expensive league starter.

14C for Lioneeye's Remorse, 18C for Bringer of Rain (down from 35C yesterday), 90C for Soul Taker.

Was like that for every race. This race more people are playing gladiator for the defense required mayhems.



Bought the only soul taker on the market for 2 ex on the second day - was tough scrapping minor currency for 2 exalts then (bought jack the axe for 30 chaos and used it till then), bought BoR for like 80 chaos, the gloves were 100 chaos, and don't ask how expensive was the +1 anvil was haha. The shield and flasks were like 20 chaos each.

"

jay5323 wrote:

Hi I still have more work to be done for my duelist, but can any of you check my character and see what can I improve from there for dps? I feel like im not getting enough dps

Can't see your characters but whats your level and did you spec into damage trees yet?

I've never done the beginning of a league before. It will be interesting. It'll take me a week to get to 70, real life, etc... Hopefully by then a few the items are not as insanely priced. Any advice on league start with this build? early weapons? or pretty much just whatever I can find and try not to spend currency except for final build items?

"

hellnhavoc wrote:

I've never done the beginning of a league before. It will be interesting. It'll take me a week to get to 70, real life, etc... Hopefully by then a few the items are not as insanely priced. Any advice on league start with this build? early weapons? or pretty much just whatever I can find and try not to spend currency except for final build items?

Yeah I usually solo-find until i get Jack the Axe and merciless lab for ultra budget. Early weapons would be whatever 1h mace/axe you can find until you are level 55ish (before axe nodes, maces are just as good for sunder). Should be easy just by id'ing or buying a cheap one for your level. After you go down the tree into shield-damage nodes, don't bother with 2-handed weapons (2 hands could be used for level 1-20). You should spec into damage first and life/defense nodes little by little (if they are on the way or 1-2 points away) - there is no/minimal death penalty for dying at level 1-50.

After 1 week, prices should have calmed down, so you won't have to worry. Also, self-finding into merciless is very easy with this build. I can usually find good axes throughout leveling (1-50) solo-find.

There is no suitable unique axes for leveling (may be some for unique maces though - those are ultra cheap). If you were not able to id a good axe, then i use the recipe: good base axe + magic/rare rustic sash + 1 blacksmith whetstone to get 40-60% increased physical damage magic axe - then finish with augment/vagan craft. If you do it on the best base available to you now, that alone will carry you to the end of cruel comfortably. After that, you should have picked up some currency to get a cheap good axe for your level, and continue id maces/axes.

Do you have the poetrademacro (or poe iteminfo script) to quickly find your axe's pdsp? If not you should get it - makes comparing things very easy.

You should really aim for jack the axe early league at level 65 (even tho expensive, should be around 10 chaos after 1 week). If there are 260 pdps 1h axes for cheaper, get it but jack the axe is the only unique axe that is suitable before soul taker. The gloves/boots/belts/shield (no lioneye yet, just rare shield with good resists) should be pretty cheap so no worries there.

So in short, I can manage by solo-finding and not buying stuff until level 55ish, then get a semi-good leveling axe with solo-found equipment (or bought for cheap just temporarily) - then jack the axe - then i go all out and buy everything i need before switching to BoR. Then finally soul taker and lioneyes.

I did this about 4 times league/race starts and other than flameblast totems this was the smoothest leveling.