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

How do you deal with Berrots? I managed to cap all my resistances+chaos while keeping my defenses and dps pretty high, but when I go to overgrowth ruins and Berrots is present he just destroys me in seconds, the other warband leaders are not a problem, I even killed the 4 guardians with no complications but Berrots keeps spaming this weird elementals and the totems all around the place and he anihilates my ugly mug.

"

poohateq wrote:

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.

Well, thanks for that!

I never used Vaal Lightning Trap, but seems like could be a really good improvement against hardest bosses. With Inc. Duration, you got 6.5 seconds for each trap, and skill got 3 charges, so at the end, you got 19.5 seconds of shocking ground to use against a boss.

INT restrictions are less than needed for Cleave/Sunder setup, so there's no problem there.

I will continue using this skill for some time and if works like it seems, I will include it on guide.

Thanks for your suggestion!

"

Proteusius wrote:

"

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.

At level 91 I got around 5.5K, now some little bit less because I'm messing with my gear testing some things.

About Poorjoy's for HC players: you have to be extra careful with mages. There's a lot of them surrounded with a lot of magic/rare monsters with +140% monster life map mod. Detonate Dead is an explosion that cannot be blocked, so if you stay over a loot of bodies from high life mobs, a simultaneous corpse detonation could and will kill you in one second. Worst, if you kill the map boss and happily decide to loot before mages are dead, a detonation on boss corpse will kill you instantly.

"

vbvan wrote:

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.

(
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.
)

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.

Glad you like it!

About your list, some comments:

- yes, explosions (volatile mod, detonate dead) are really uncomfortable. They cannot be blocked and facing high life mobs could be an issue if not prepared. Warchief sometimes help me dealing the final blow against a volatile mob that could be dangerous. Most important, a map mod with ele weakness or -x% ele resistances could make a high life volatile mob a one-shot sure death.

- DoT is dangerous too, but after increasing chaos resistance on char, my experience is that this is a lot more easier to deal with. Plus, I guess is not bleeding what probably kill you. Is corrupting blood, that stacks, look what wiki says about corrupting blood mod:

"

Attacker receives one charge of Corrupted Blood per hit, which is a bleeding effect (physical damage over time) that stacks up to 20 charges.

With 9 APS, you got 18 stacks of corrupting blood in just 2 seconds. Sure death if you're not prepared.

- In general, elemental weakness and -x% resistances, plus extra damage from some element are hard mods that you have to take extra careful when choosing flasks and dealing with mobs or map boss (depending on his attacks).

"

Merdento wrote:

How do you deal with Berrots? I managed to cap all my resistances+chaos while keeping my defenses and dps pretty high, but when I go to overgrowth ruins and Berrots is present he just destroys me in seconds, the other warband leaders are not a problem, I even killed the 4 guardians with no complications but Berrots keeps spaming this weird elementals and the totems all around the place and he anihilates my ugly mug.

Seems like I don't deal with him, because is not checked on Warband leaders challenge. I will try a few times more this map and look for him.

"

spartacusbringerofrain wrote:

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!

Prior to 2.4, SS setup on this guide was based on PtL for two reasons that you already stated: highest DPS output and easy swap with Cleave/Sunder. I will put back that setup as an alternative, because people that use Cleave/Sunder should count with it when some extra single target damage is needed.

But, it has a drawback and is related to 4th ascendancy point. Assuming you don't use anymore trigger gems, you can't bleed targets with a 100% elemental skill. So, explosions will not occur (useless against bosses), damage reduction will not be applied, but most important, 60% increased damage against bleeding targets will not be applied. So comparing Violent Retaliation with PtL setup against Blood in Eyes with SS setup having some physical damage:

- Violent Retaliation gives 80% inc. damage against bosses plus stacks from block. If no bleed is applied, then no inc. damage from Gratuitous Violence.

- Bleed attack with Blood in Eyes is 30%+30% inc. damage to bleeding enemies, plus 10% from middle ascendancy point to Blood in Eyes. That makes 70% inc. damage, almost the same as Violent Retaliation in every situation, not only bosses (not counting stacks from block).

What I trying to say here is that PtL setup seems to work best with Violent Retaliation, so, when using Cleave/Sunder and SS swap, seems Violent Retaliation a great choice for 4th ascendancy point. But when using RRRR Static Strike setup, Blood in Eyes sounds more appropriate. I will update guide with this, sounds great, even a little messy for those who will read this guide for the first time.

As usual, thanks for your suggestions!

Happy happy joy joy!

Now 36 challenges completed and got my nice essence portal!

"

mas_mariano wrote:

Prior to 2.4, SS setup on this guide was based on PtL for two reasons that you already stated: highest DPS output and easy swap with Cleave/Sunder. I will put back that setup as an alternative, because people that use Cleave/Sunder should count with it when some extra single target damage is needed.

But, it has a drawback and is related to 4th ascendancy point. Assuming you don't use anymore trigger gems, you can't bleed targets with a 100% elemental skill. So, explosions will not occur (useless against bosses), damage reduction will not be applied, but most important, 60% increased damage against bleeding targets will not be applied. So comparing Violent Retaliation with PtL setup against Blood in Eyes with SS setup having some physical damage:

- Violent Retaliation gives 80% inc. damage against bosses plus stacks from block. If no bleed is applied, then no inc. damage from Gratuitous Violence.

- Bleed attack with Blood in Eyes is 30%+30% inc. damage to bleeding enemies, plus 10% from middle ascendancy point to Blood in Eyes. That makes 70% inc. damage, almost the same as Violent Retaliation in every situation, not only bosses (not counting stacks from block).

What I trying to say here is that PtL setup seems to work best with Violent Retaliation, so, when using Cleave/Sunder and SS swap, seems Violent Retaliation a great choice for 4th ascendancy point. But when using RRRR Static Strike setup, Blood in Eyes sounds more appropriate. I will update guide with this, sounds great, even a little messy for those who will read this guide for the first time.

As usual, thanks for your suggestions!

For some reason, i don't see any difference with bleeded t16 bosses (maybe they are immune to bleed or the bleeding damage is so small?). But i see huge difference with Violent Retaliation, fight is way faster. Btw, middle asc point before the VR also gives additional 5% attack speed which is around 10% dmg. And that VR buff with every stack gives you additional 8% dmg, it's hella lot of dps boost. Since i don't really care how different is dps with map clear (most packs die instantly with dps flasks active), the only thing that i'm currently focused are t16 bosses.
That Blasphemy experiment was a good attempt imo, but i reversed it back to regular setup i used, it's pretty much better. But, on the other hand i got another idea. I'll try unique jewel that gives extra curse, that would be great to test. So my previous blasphemy setup but with 2 curses active. Probably Vuln+Enf or Vuln+War Mark.

Gratz on 36. chal :)

Yes, you nailed it! After your reply I checked and that's why you see so much difference. All Guardians are bleed immune. So, that 60% inc. damage to bleeding enemies never applies.

This is more than enough to change 4th ascendancy point and go for Violent Retaliation. Goes on next guide update, thanks!

So I was able to defeat Barrots (only had to die a couple hundred times to him D:), this is the first tank I play with and I loved the build, it destroys most maps pretty easily, so here are the things I wasnt able to do yet:

Hall of Grandmasters: Terrible nightmare, I tried to do it a couple of times and I was able to clear all the wings except the last 2 of them, who had a ES tank guy that I just wasnt able to take down, I wasnt even able to make a dent on his energy shield so I ended up giving up. I'm assuming its just impossible with this build.

Uber Atziri: Haven't tried it yet, I clear normal Atziri pretty easily but with the problems Vaal Temple is giving me I don't think I will be able to clear the Uber version.

The Shaper: Haven't tried it yet, I have the 4 tokens from the guardians but I'm afraid to waste them and not being able to kill the shaper, so Im just waiting a little bit.

Vaal Temple: I went there and everything was going nice until I had to confront the trio bosses and they destroyed me completely, I was able to down 2 of them before I ran out of portals and then I died, it was a total nightmare (it was a pretty hardcore 8-mods map too so there is that, I'll have to try again with easier mods)

I had no problems with anything else, any advise on the previous maps I've mentioned?

I also wanted to ask, would it be a good choice to swap the evasion flask for a Taste of Hate or not worth it? I always loved that flask and I feel empty without it >.<

ps- Thank you very much for the guide, I love this build a lot.

EDIT: Just completed the 36 challenges by killing the last warband leader remaining (had to spent hundreds of chaos on overgrown ruins maps because I was never able to find a Hysteria essence... but its ok), overall amazing build.