[3.13] Sweep Champion 2H Axe Physical - League Starter to M10 A8, SSF viable.

Here are the videos of my boss kills in Awakening 9 with the build. Have invested arround 50 Ex into the build atm (i do not count self crafted items in the build).
Actual gear in the videos :

Uber Itzaro :
Drox : https://youtu.be/oaWxnAPuZNA
Baran :https://youtu.be/B_W-vDTg334
Veritania : https://youtu.be/sGf37kuVHHU
Al-Hezmin : https://youtu.be/EGXVX7zliQM
Sirus : https://youtu.be/lEWtJy80ckM
Shaper :
Elder :
Uber Elder :
Maven invitation 10 bosses :
Maven invitation : The Formed :
Maven invitation : The Twisted :
Maven invitation : The Forgotten :
Maven invitation : The Hidden :
Maven invitation : The Feared :
Maven :
Simulacrum :
Delirium 100% T16 :

Just created a Youtube channel were i'll put all the videos about the build :
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtWbtdUyyghRcbX-cQPdZ5g

+ League Starter viable
+ SSF viable
+ Good Map Clearing
+ Steady enough to go on red map and bosses without huge investment (less than 2 ex for full gear)
+ No Unique reliant
+ Can be min-maxed to clean and crush the whole game (expet Atziri and uber Atziri)
+ Fun and simple to play (to me at last :P )

- Not such a good boss killer until you start to min-max (arround 30 Ex to crush Maven A9)
- Min-max could be stupidly expensive (could go above 500/600Ex)
- Lack of some layers of defences to facetank every things ! Not a dumb cyclone.
- Hard time through Hardcore
- Can be boring with mana until you get your main skill at 0 Mana Cost

We do use Sweep as our main and only skill.

Things to understand about this skill :

- It's an Attack
This mean that anything that interact with channeling, spells and any form of minions won't work on this skill and you have to use it yourself. You will have to go into the fray to deal damages.

- It has a cast time (a time when you have to stay still)
Sweep is not an instant or channeling skill (don't compare it to cyclone even if it can feel the same). So you'll have to stay still the time you use the skill.
This mean that you'll be vulnerable during this time but you'll be able to cancel the attack during a short period at the beginning of animation to move (mainly using a travel skill to move out of danger).
Our main way to deal with this to avoid bad situation is to stack a lot of attack speed through multiple ways (talent tree, gear, blood rage, totems, Frenzy Charges, ....).
This may be one of the most important part to understand when playing Sweep : increasing Attack Speed will increase your damage but more important your surviviability !

- It's an Area of Effect Skill
Since it's not a strike it will not get any bonus from "+# to Melee Strike Range". So any item like Daresso's Salute or bonus in strike range will be useless.
You'll want to stack as much as possible "#% increased Area of Effect".
At the same time it will allow us to benefit from "#% increased Area Damage" which is pretty cool since it'll easy up our gearing.

As Sweep won't allow you to move the time you use it you do not want to just jump into the fray and right after spam Sweep to clean the mobs.

Remember we are melee players who use a skill that have a cast time !

You'll then prefer go to the edge of a pack, using all your flasks and then use sweep to proc all your buffs and start clearing everything. From this moment on you only run and clic (like a run and gun but with a huuuuge AoE).

If you still wan't to jump into things and crush everythings try to remember to never use your attack right after your travel skill.
Every mob will try to follow your jump and start to cast spells and attacks to you where you'll land.
So to avoid being stuck where everything will hit you, you just make a litle move before Sweeping everything.
And keep moving between attacks or we'll just run into death.

We mainly play with the Sand stance active during the map and blood stance only when you are sur to survive a boss fight (the sand stance is a very powerfull layer of defense we need to survive !)

On bosses :

Remember to have your totem activ any time.
Remember to proc your blood rage.
Use your Berserk only when you'll have a dps window long enough to destroy the boss.
Do not hesitate to change stance frequently to avoid bad situations.

As a two handed weapon bearer we will lack a lot attack speed but we will have a lot more base damage.

So we will start to build our offensive layers by stacking attack speed and increased damage.

As Sweep as the tags “Attack”, “Physical”, “AoE”, “Melee” and we do use “Axe” we will profit equally from every increased damage in any of these tags.

As a pure physical build and Champion class we will obviously focus on reaching 100% impale chance and increasing impale effectiveness since it synergises incredibly well with this skill.

Bleeding is an option but will ask way to more tweeks or even drop in some defensive layers to be useful so we only use it as a passiv little upgrad in our damage.

Later on we will add critical to the build as it is an easy way to push damages further and to trigger min-max affixes.

Our very simple and main way to increase our sustainability is through pushing our lifepool further and further.

Then come the elemental resistances. Chaos resistance will be an issue too especially in Ritual League with the chaos altars.

Being a Strength archetype our main defense will be armor but we won’t push it that much using only the base armor we will find on our gear (astral plate, titan greaves, spiked gloves, eternal burgonet that’s all).

As Champion our first way to mitigate incoming damage is the use of Fortify whether through ascendancy as much as through the support gem. It’s a great way to reduce incoming hits and we will easily find some increase in Fortify effectiveness in trees and gear. Since we can’t dual wield or hold a shield we won’t be able to use blocks as a defensive layer.

We will be able to add some layers as dodge through flask (Quartz Flask) and Vaal Grace but don’t count on this as a way to deal with incoming damage but more like something that only gives a chance to avoid little fails on maps.

Then we will stack as much reduced damage taken as possible through Immortal Call, Endurance Charges, Fortify, Enfeeble, Ascendancy. This will be our main focus to survive.

We will find through the tree and the gear a little of Life Regeneration but we won’t count on this as much since we will lose it on “Players cannot regenerate Life and Mana” maps it’s only a little bonus to sustainability.

Obviously as we will be able to deal a lot of damage we will use life leech (you’ll get it through Blood Rage) but as the life regen we won’t emphasise this stat any further through the tree or gear, having the possibility is powerful enough.

/!\ It's a community fork PoB /!\

You can get it here : https://pathofbuilding.community

Here is the PoB link, it's not finished yet (still missing leveling gear and alternative gems link and a lot of notes, like almost all the guide will be on notes so no need to have PoB + This guide open to follow everything)

Actual POB guide here :
https://pastebin.com/4genGarN

We start helping Alira :

+5 to Mana per second
+20% to Critical Strike Multiplier
+15% to Elemental Resistances

This will help a lot to deal with mana and elemental resistances early on.

Later on we use a Book of Reform to get Eramir's Favor (2 passiv skill points).
For this you sell 20 orb of Regret and 1 Onyx Amulet to any vendor.

I chose Champion as ascendancy since it provides a lot of useful bonuses and is, in my opinion, the best ascendancy for pure physical builds.
But you can consider using Slayer since it gives you the capacity of running reflect maps but this will ask you to tweak the talent tree. I’ll give later on a variant of the build using Slayer or even Berserk as ascendancy.


1ST LAB


Unstoppable Hero
20% increased Attack Speed while you have Fortify
+500 to Armour and Evasion Rating while you have Fortify
Cannot be Stunned while you have Fortify

This is one of the three mandatory notables. We take it in first since you should get Fortify Support in your main link right before doing your first lab. It gives us stun immunity and a lot of defenses early on (remember what i just said about attack speed : the more we have the safer we will be !)

2ND LAB


Inspirational
30% increased effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills
You and Allies affected by your placed Banners Regenerate 0.1% of Life per second for each Stage
Banner Skills Reserv no Mana
When you Create a BAnner, it gains 40% of the Stages of your placed Banner

I choose to take this notable in our second labyrinthe since at this moment we won’t have that much impale chance (should be around 60%) and it will simply help us dealing with mana and simply emphasise our Auras and Banner.

3RD LAB


Master of Metal
Impales you inflict last 1 additional Hit
If you've Impaled an Enemy Recently, you and nearby Allies have +1000 to armour
You and nearby Allies deal 6 to 12 added Physical Damage for each Impale on Enemy

This is the notable that will make our impales very strong and make us able to reach such high single target damage even with a skill like Sweep. It even gives a little bonus in defense through armor.

4TH LAB


Conqueror
100% chance to Taunt on Hit
10% reduced Damage Takent if you've Taunted an enemy Recently
Enemies Taunted by you deal 20% less Damage with Hits and Ailments against other targets

Here I chose this node ove Fortitude (the one that gives passively Fortify) since it results in way more tankiness and we will need as much as possible in end game content. You can easily use Fortitude over this one since you don’t focus on doing high end content or even when you get your min maxed gear since enfeeble will do the same thing and will allow you to run Maim Support or even Pulverise Support instead of Fortify Support and increasing your clearspeed or pushing further your damage.
/!\
If you chose this notable remember that you won’t be passively immune to stun ! You’ll need to trigger Fortify so you NEVER jump into the fray at the beginning of a map or a boss. You always want to proc Fortify once before running into enemies. Remember that every map and boss with "monster cannot be taunted" will take out this 10% less damage taken

The passive tree is pretty modular since there are a lot of points I use as min-max or even quality of life. And since you’ll very fast reach a decent amount of damage you’ll be able to trade offensive nodes for defensive one.

Mandatory nodes are :

Swift Skewering
Harvester of Foes
Rampart
Splitting Strikes
Bloodless
Harpooner
Juggernaut
Slaughter
Barbarism
Versatility
Born to Fight
Heart of the Warrior
Forceful Skewering
Constitution
Call to Arms

Nodes you can drop :

Hatchet Master
Dismembering
Brinkmanship
Bannerman
Crimson Dance

Nodes you can get if you lack of something :

Eagle Eye (for more Accuracy)
Weathered Hunter (during leveling and early mapping for more accuracy and elemental resistances)
Executioner (for more AoE before Cluster Jewels)
Wrecking Ball (for more Attack Speed before Cluster Jewels)
Soul of Steel (for more defense)
Inexorable (for more defense)
Escalation (for more Life Regeneration through Warcry)
Admonisher (for Ailments if this is a struggle)
Jewel below Scion with Unnatural Instinct (for more defense)

Keep in mind that anything which emphasises Critical will be good only if you got a decent Fleshripper as a weapon (8%+ Critical strike chance) and have the mod “Gain a Flask Charge when you deal a Critical Strike”. So this is a min-max part of the tree.
And everything which is non mandatory to the build is really up to you to pick or not to make the tree match your gameplay and gear.
Up to you to balance your damage and defense.

Actually we will play with two six link and every of our socket count.

You can modify some of the gems to make it match more your own style or even depending on the ascendency choice you made.

The more important thing here is to get as soon as possible your Sweep 21/23 since this skill scale very well with levels and quality.

6L - Body Armor - Main Skill

Sweep 21/23 - Melee Physical Damage 20/20 - Brutality 20/20 - Fortify 20/20 - Ruthless 20/20 - Multistrike 20/20

In our main link we put everything that gave us more physical damage and free attacks. If you choose to take Fortitude as ascendancy you can swap Fortify Support for Maim Support or Pulverise Support to increase your damage further.

6L - Weapon - Auras

Blood and Sand 7/20 - Flesh and Stone 20/20 - Pride 20/20 - Herald of Purity 20/20 - Precision 1/20 - Enlighten 4/20

We run all the physical auras we can. Precision is level 1 only to trigger the watcher’s eye and can easily be swapped for vitality if you have a vitality Watcher’s Eye.

4L - Gloves - Utility

War Banner 20/20 - Blood Rage 20/20 - Berserk 20/20 - Leap Slam 20/20

Simple you put here your movement skill which is Leap Slam (only when you feel comfortable enough with your attack speed. Before that you use Dash) and you fill with every gems who don’t need a link.

4L - Helmet - Totems

Ancestral Protector 20/20 - Vaal Ancestral Warchief 20/20 - Multiple Totems 20/20 - Enduring Cry 20/20

We run all totems that give us bonus in damage. Culling Strike Support is here only to shorten the bosses but since you can easily have it on a good weapon craft you can use the last gems for anything you want. I personally chose to use it for Blood Rage which allows me to put a Faster Attack Support on my Leap Slam. You can even put an Endurance Charge on Melee Stun if you feel the need to generate more Endurance Charges.

4L - Boots - Defensiv Setup

Cast When Damage Taken 7/20 - Immortal Call 9/20 - Vaal Grace 10/20 - Increased Duration 20/20

Our defence setup. You can let Vaal Grace go to use an Increased Duration Support or even put Berserk instead of Culling Strike Support to use a 4L defence setup with Increased Duration Support.

We use only three awakened support Gem.

Awakened Multistrike Support : the most expensive awakened support gem but the one that will give the higher damage boost.

Awakened Melee Physical Damage Support : the first awakened support gem you’ll farm since she gives you 10% chance to Intimidate on Hit (at 20%).

Awakened Brutality Support : the last awakened gem you wan’t to farm since she doesn't give that much bonus. It’s basically the same but better.

We have a lot of alternative quality gems who can fit in the build.

Divergent Sweep : 2% chance to deal Triple Damage
This is the only alternate quality gem you really want and you don’t need to have it above 20% quality since it won’t upgrade further your chance to deal triple damage.
Anomalous Sweep : 10% increased Attack Speed
You trade Area of Effect for Attack Speed which is pretty insane since Attack Speed leads to more damage and survivability.

Anomalous Pride : Attacks Hits against nearby Enemies have 10% chance to inflict Bleeding
This one is pretty insane and almost a must have the moment you lose all your chance to bleed everywhere else on your gear.

Anomalous Flesh and Stone : Buff grants 10% increased Evasion Rating and Armour
This is a simple buff to defensiv layer but almost negligible. So don’t try to farm it just put it if you find it.
Divergent Flesh and Stone : Buff grants 20% increased Damage if you’ve changed Stance recently
A very nice alternate quality that emphasises the Versatile Stance node in the tree but will ask you to change stance right before a boss fight or during phases to get the most of it.

Anomalous Enlighten : 60% reduced Intelligence Requirement
Simple it just allows you to drop some intelligence on your gear. It’s only a matter of quality of life.

Anomalous Precision : 10% reduced Mana Reserved
Only if you plan to play with precision and level it when you’ll grind your last levels.
Divergent Precision : You and Nearby Allies deal 2% increased Damage
If you want to play with precision it’s a little bonus in damage. That’s a matter of min-max nothing else.

Anomalous Ruthless : Supported Skills have 10% increased Attack Speed
A very very good alternative quality gems that trade Attack Damage for Attack Speed.
Divergent Ruthless : Supported Skills have 20% reduced Attack Speed, Ruthless Blows with Supported Skills deal 20% more Damage
Could be an option but this will only buffs your Ruthless Blows so at the moment you trade your multistrike for an awakened version it’ll become pure trash.

Anomalous Blood Rage : Buff grants 2% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge when you Hit a Unique Enemy
Here we trade Attack Speed for possibility to sustain Frenzy Charges on long boss fights (hello Maven and Sirus) which is damn powerfull !

Phantasmal Leap Slam : 10% increased Attack Speed
More Attack Speed on the travel skill is always strong.

Phantasmal Ancestral Protector : 20% increased Buff Effect
This simple alternate quality gives you 4% more attack speed, very strong.

Anomalous Ancestral Warchief : 40% increased Totem Placement Speed
Just as Attack Speed is strong totem placement speed is damn powerful since it’ll lower the time you stay still and allow you better placement.

Anomalous Cast When Damage Taken : Supported Skills have 20% increased Skill Effect Duration
Simply increase the duration of Immortal Call which is really great.
Divergent Cast When Damage Taken : Supported Skills require 20% reduced amount of Damage taken to Trigger
Never used this one and I see different things from PoE and PoB so be carefull but if it works as said it’ll simply allow you to level it and immortal call further to get more potent defensive buffs.

Anomalous Immortal Call : 20% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate
This is very strong, allowing you to proc immortal call mor frequently and to be really more reliable.

The whole gear is build arround crafted rare item as high end gear and as starting gear to.
So i'll present gear with the base item you can look for followed by the influence you want and then the stats you look for with the minimum tier of each affixe, giving you the things you want into your final item in each slot.
Stats will be preceded by a P if it's a Prefix, S if it's a suffixe and a C if it's a crafted mod.

I'll show possible Unique that will made the trick before you get high end items on the slot we can use 'em or some that can be added but will ask you to find solution in the gear and tree to be able to put them on.

And i'll give you my actual gear on my champ that is for the whole majority handcrafted.

And i'll try to explain at the end of this section in which order you wan't to get your gear to make it easyer to get.

WEAPON

HELMET

BODY ARMOR

GLOVES

BOOTS

BELT

RINGS

AMULET

Very Simple you run only magic flasks and even can get rid of the Mana Flask when you reach 0 mana cost of Sweep.

You look for a Life flask that gives you instant Recover.
One Quicksilver Flask for the movement speed and you'll craft it with more movement speed.
One Quartz to get Phasing and increase our layer of defenses.
One Granite that you'll change for Lion's Roar, Granite Flask
One Mana Flask that don't remove on full mana that you'll trade for a Diamond Flask when you get a 0 mana cost Sweep.

The Must Have Suffixes on Flask are :
Of Heat Immune to Freeze
OF Guarding Immune to Curse

The really Important Suffixes you could want :
Of Curing Immune to Poison - Almost a must have before you cap your chaos Res
Of Dousing Immune to Ignite - Some Rituals gives VERY high fire damages to monsters who will just crush your life.
Of Staunching Immune to Bleed - Until you find a good Jewel with immune to corrupted Blood it's a mandatory Suffixe.
Of Guarding Immune to Shock - If you have a hard time dealling with the shocked ground this is THE solution.

The easiest way to Craft this is to use Einhar.

Very Simple here you look for Life and any stat that gives you damage ! Always more DPS !
You still want as early as possible a Jewel with Life and corrupted with on implicit : Corrupted Blood canot be inflicted to you

- Base item -
Crimson Jewel
- Influence -
None
- Stats to look for -
P #% increased maximum Life
P #% increased Attack Speed with Two Handed Melee Weapons
P #% increased Attack Speed witk Axes
P #% increased Critical Strike Chance with Two Handed Melee Weapons
P +#% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Two Handed Melee Weapons
P #% increased Damage with Axes
P #% Global Physical Damage
S #% increased Damage
S #% increased Melee Damage
S #% increased Attack Speed
S #% increased Area Damage
S #% increased Global Critical Strike Chance
S #% increased Melee Critical Strike Chance
S +#% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
S +#% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier

For your Abyssal Jewel on the belt here is what you look for something arround this.
Do not hesitate to use this slot to fill something you could lack of.

- Base item -
Murderous Eye Jewel
- Influence -
None
- Stats to look for -
P +# to maximum Life
P Adds #to # Physical Damage to Axe Attacks
S #% chance to Blind Enemies on Hit With Attacks
S #% increased Attack Speed if you've dealt a Critical Strike Recently
S Adds # to # Physical Damage to Attacks
S #% increased Attack Speed
S +# to Accuracy Rating
S #% increased Global Critical Strike Chance
S +#% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier

For the Cluster Jewel Swap you just go for thoses three. Here No real choice, just one to easy your gearing path.
The only choice possible is between Run Trhough (gives you the last 10% chance to Impale to reach the 100%) or Drive the Destruction (gives you life leech allowing you to drop 2 point in the tree and leech life until you get it on one ring or amulet)

- Base item -
Large Cluster Jewel
- Implicits -
Adds 8 Passive Skills
2 Added Passive Skills are Jewel Sockets
Added Small Passive Skills grant: Axe Attacks deal 12% increased Damage with Hits and Ailments
Added Small Passive Skills grant: Sword Attacks deal 12% increased Damage with Hits and Ailments
- Affixes -
P 1 Added Passive Skill is Bloodscent
P 1 Added Passive Skill is Run Through
S 1 Added Passive Skill is Martial Prowess
S Added Small Passiv Also grant : #% increased Attack Speed
S Added Small Passiv Also grant : #% to Chaos Resistance
S Added Small Passiv Also grant : #% to Elemental Resistances
S Added Small Passiv Also grant : +# to Intelligence

For the two Medium Cluster Jewels just go for whatever you want on suffixes, only the two prefixes are mandatory.

- Base item -
Medium Cluster Jewel
- Implicits -
Adds 4 Passive Skills
1 Added Passive Skills are Jewel Sockets
Added Small Passive Skills grant: 10% increased Area Damage
- Affixes -
P 1 Added Passive Skill is Titanic Swings
P 1 Added Passive Skill is Assert Dominance

ACT 1

ACT 2

ACT 3

ACT 4

ACT 5

ACT 6

ACT 7

ACT 8

ACT 9

ACT 10