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

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spartacusbringerofrain wrote:

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mallow wrote:

for general map clearing, test Sunder over Cleave and see what you think. same supports work

One word: Amazing.
Hmmm now you got me on that one lol. I almost used vaal haste at all times and lion's roar because it doesn't really knockback mobs long enough to stay out of range since sunder have much longer range than cleave. I might even consider using sunder at all times now, i'll test it even more against tough bosses. So far i'm impressed. Especially when i swap conc eff with inc area of eff gem, half of the screen was dead in a single hit.

Sunder with Lion's Roar is a great idea. I should include this on guide. With this, Knockback is not a problem at all when clearing maps. Still, for single target considerations, Sunder seems pretty low for me on highest tiers.

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RegulusX wrote:

So, here's my problem. I went this exact route all on my own, without realizing that others were doing it. I had a legacy BoR drop for me around a month before the nerf, and I've been cruising with it ever since. I don't know which attack skill to use now because I stupidly Vaal'd it, so I'm stuck with RRRW (white) now. Should I respec into Ancestral Warchief totems? I need something with huge AoE and Lacerate's too weak compared to Earthquake (20k vs 28k). With two totems, I'd have 40k (20k x 2). How good is Sunder?

RRRW colour combination is really great for all skill options discussed on this post. There's two possible colour combo needed: RRRB and RRRR. So both apply to your BoR.

Static Strike and Cleave works all the way through T16. Sunder has a truly great clear speed but in highest tiers is recommended that you swap it with any of the other two for boss fights.

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squ1shed wrote:

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for general map clearing, test Sunder over Cleave and see what you think. same supports work

Sunder has been superior for me over Cleave or SS in map clearing. The setup I run is...

Sunder -> Multi-strike -> Concentrated AoE -> Added Fire Damage
boss swap
Cleave -> Multi-strike -> Concentrated AoE -> Added Fire Damage

It's a one gem swap that makes fighting bosses that much better. The reason I've chosen Sunder over abilities with more flat DPS is the following.

1. Lion's Roar + Sunder = knockback while never having to stop attacking. It's basically having a free "force push" to force a boss into a corner or away from a teammate.
2. Sunder's reach means I can spend more time attacking and less time moving if enemies are spread out to any degree
3. Sunder's shockwave with concentrated effect makes your attacks so much more powerful to tightly grouped enemies. I definitely feel like a group of 4 or more grouped enemies goes down faster with Sunder than other abilities.
4. Having the option to attack a boss at a distance + Lion's Roar gives you some reprieve from melee unfriendly encounters

I'm still going back and forth on how to set up my curse casting. I'll have to give that more thought.

Seems like this is the proper use of Sunder. Hot swap with Cleave for bosses and most important, Lion's Roar synergy with no drawbacks because knockback is not a problem anymore.

I prefer hot swap with Cleave because SS + PtL can't apply bleed and after removing trigger gems there's no other way bleed can be spread.

This will be included on guide on next update.

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spartacusbringerofrain wrote:

BIG EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS:
I decided to try out something, you can call me an idiot or a fool but this seems pretty much good so far. I played few t14 and t15 without an issue and i had a lot of fun!

OLD SETUP:
4l: CWDT + Tempest Shield + Curse of your choice + Spell of your choice (i personally used Flame Golem for extra dps)
3l: Hatred + Herald of Ash + Arctic Armor

NEW SETUP:
3l +1: CWDT + Tempest Shield + Immortal Call and unlinked aura, choose between AA or HoA
I removed Hatred completely. So, this is better for reflect maps (i start suffering due to high dps)
3l: Blasphemy + 2 curses (pick what you want, Warlord Mark, Vulnerability, Punishment or Enfeeble)
So, with this experiment we have "free 2 curses that are cast simultaneously", it's true that we don't have 2 curses on enemies at the same time, but this is hella fun because enemies are both falling down fast due to Vulnerability or Punish and gives you leech from War Mark if you are using that curse.

ALTERNATIVE NEW SETUP:
3l +1: CWDT same or CWDT + Tempest Shield + Immortal Call + Increased Duration or Molten Shell
2l +1: Blasphemy + Curse of your choice + Unlinked Aura (AA or HoA)
Mana pool: 35% from blasp+curse, 25% AA, 25% HoA = 85% therefore we have 15% mana available meaning that we can remove blood magic from Blood Rage so we have new gem slot for anything we want (2nd Vaal Haste or Rallying Cry, or Molten Shell on CWDT etc, possibilites are huge).

I didn't see big difference in DPS since we don't have hatred anymore, but cursing from blasp and adding new gem of your choice seems like a good deal.

Opinions?

Didn't try yet any blasphemy configuration. Just one thing, you can get an additional slot linking a Q20/L7 Blood Rage to CWDT.

If you decide a final configuration for this modifications, please share your thoughts! thanks!

Hi

First of all i have to congratulate you for making this build, you are the only reason i ever played (and liked) duelists so far in my few years playing time. Much thanks!

Second thing i was curious of ur opinion about swaping one vaal haste (in VH-VH-incr dur-HoA setup) for vaal lightning trap for bosses. Seems like great dmg boost on paper but i didnt played tier 13+ yet so i cant really judge how usefull it would be there.

Dont know if vaal light trap works with increased duration but if it makes the shocking ground longer its even better.

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mas_mariano wrote:

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spartacusbringerofrain wrote:

Well, LD was just some alternative, i personally like it. Still, Physical To Lightning gives by far the highest dps. And colors are the same as BoR setup, so it still seems like the best way to go if someone is not lazy enough to do this:
Cleave + MS + IAOE + AFD for map clear
then for the boss
SS + MS + PTL + WED (i made a mistake in one of my previous posts, i said SS + MS + PTL + AFD)

Just consider that SS + PtL is 100% elemental and hits with zero physical damage cannot apply bleed. If you still using Reckoning/Vengeance, you're fine.

SS + PTL is for bosses aka single target. Ysterday i tested Cleave/Sunder/SS on palace dominus, rolled only blue maps without any curse or hp mob buffs, just for testing purposes. SS + PTL is by far the fastest (took me around ~3s to kill 2nd dominus phase with it) but my BoR have 40% increased SS dmg. 2nd is cleave and Sunder on the 3rd place. But sunder is the most tactically oriented skill of those 3, for example when i fought twinned kaom's with ele weak + poison on hit + extra dmg map mods yesterday in t15 abyss, Sunder was the best choice due to it's awesome range, i could literally spam the flasks during whole time and be at the safe range from them charging on the side when they slam. With SS or Cleave i would take a damage and possible quick rip. I'm seriously considering Sunder to use at all times lol. SS is the worst imo, i never liked it but it's great for t16 bosses.

UPDATE: Oh one more thing, i'll switch ascendancy Blood in the Eyes with Violent Retaliation, seems like a good choice against t16 bosses, 80% increased damage is HUGE. And t16 bosses are the only issue with this build since dps is just not that great compared to BV for example. Going for Chimera now to test the difference and will post another update when i'm done.

UPDATE 2: Oh yes! Violent Retaliation is epic against t16 bosses. I killed Chimera like 2 times faster now. Also, map clear is great, especially if some aoe spells/attacks hits you and you block several times in a row (like blizzard in haku maps, or bv mobs), i reached like 20+ stacks of violent retaliation buff that way, move/dmg increased GREATLY. Going to keep it over Blood in the Eyes!

How much HP you guys have? Hit lvl 89 today in hc

edit: temple map was easy or what was your tactic?

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birdis0n wrote:

How much HP you guys have? Hit lvl 89 today in hc

edit: temple map was easy or what was your tactic?

I have almost 5.8k life with lvl 85. Dont know what you mean with temple map but i did poorjoys easy today and thats a temple map too.

I was mostly using totem builds before and this is the first melee build I try and it is surprisingly good :-)

Just want to share something which can kill you when I am doing maps.

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I use sunder most of the time for its clear speed, switch to cleave for T14~T15.
I use Violent Retaliation for its buff to damage and the 2% extra block chance.
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1, One of Master Catarina's mission is to revive 9 corpses. One possible kind of the revived mobs will denote other corpses when they die and if you are not prepared (like me), that can kill you because denotation can't be blocked.

2. It seems that the bull boss of racecourse map can reflect high portion of damage to you. This build can easily handle 15% reflect map, but when I attack the bull, the hp drops a lot, which I assume is due to high amount of reflected damage (I guess the reflection only happens when it is in certain stages).

3. One shot by Atoll's boss. The map had extra projectiles and I was face-tanking the boss. Maybe received too many projectiles.

4. One of the skill of Palace boss (the first phase) one shot me. I think it is lightning fist. I probably never noticed this skill before because I used totem build most of the time.

5. Really hate damage over time. Killed twice when I was distracted and didn't notice I was bleeding.

6. Sometimes the ice nova from strongbox deals lots of damage. Not sure about the exact condition, but I now always try to avoid it after opening the strongbox.

7. And of course, these mobs which will explode after death. Most of the explosions won't one shot me if the map doesn't have any mod, though. One shot in an unidentified rare map.

Hi,

Just to add to this thread - and thank the OP plus contributors - I'm running this build and it's been great fun. Steam rolled content to high level 50s (and also got an Exalt drop early in Merc levels!). AoE isn't great with Static Strike - but single target is high so everything goes down pretty easily.

I found that things slowed down in the 60s until I got bringer of rain helmet, and since then it's been plain sailing. I'm currently 72 and running low lvl maps (T1-5) using Sunder - I found that I don't need Cleave for end bosses yet. Also dropped static strike now since my helmet is set up for Sunder and Cleave.

For others thinking about trying this build - most of my gems are lvl 10-15, and I would say that I've spent about 40c getting Axe, Helmet and other gear. It's been a fun build (did Normal lab at lvl 32, which is the lowest I've ever managed) and despite preferring ranged in the past I'm really enjoying it. Now I'm using Sunder it's semi-ranged anyway - most mobs don't get close :)

Thanks again OP (and contributors!)