Dual DOT Dual Wield Gladiator

I liked the idea of a Gratuitous Violence / Blood in the Eyes build and, really, the best way to apply a bleed is with a hard hitting skill like Earthquake. Then, as I was about to switch away from spectral throw and spec into EQ I found a Ming's Heart. "Oh, yeah, poison is a thing", I said to myself and realized that seeing as I was scaling physical damage anyway, why not throw in some chaos/poison damage as well. Thus, bleed and poison = Dual DOT. Not exactly innovative, I know, but it turned out to be highly effective.

The next question was how to manage mana. I was doing enough damage that just one or two small mana leech nodes/gear pieces would have sufficed but here I was with a stupid high DPS axe, a 6 link chest, a Ming's Heart... why not another (formerly) expensive unique. Soul Takers have fallen in price precipitously and I'd never played with one before so I figured now was the time. I bought one cheap and used it in my off hand so that I could reserve all my mana for....

Defense!! Seeing as elemental auras were not really going to benefit this build I put all my reservations into defense. My typical setup was running Grace and Determination with Iron Reflexes for hella armor. That, along with a Granite and Basalt flask made dealing with physical damage very comfortable. Elemental damage could be a little dicey but, going into a map where I knew a specific element would be a problem I could drop determination and throw on a purity of cold/fire/lightning to be a little safer.

Offense was self explanatory. Take all the DOT, physical, and axe nodes possible and you're good.

Main skill
Earthquake, Melee Physical Damage, Less Duration, Fortify, Poison, Increase AOE (Conc Effect for Bosses)

Fortify could be swapped out for Added Chaos for more DPS and less defense but I'm pretty happy with this setup.

Mobility
Leap Slam, Faster Attacks, Curse on Hit, Vulnerability

Golem
Fire Golem, Blood Magic
Obviously a chaos golem is a good choice, too, for some extra mitigation but I wanted the damage.

Utility
Vengeance, Melee Physical Damage, Increased AOE, Endurance Charge on Melee Stun

A person could cast enduring cry manually but, for the most part I didn't find I needed it. This gives me the odd endurance charge when I need it - that is, when I'm actually getting hit. Again, the wise player might be a little more intentional about endurance charges.

Otherwise, really, this isn't a very gem heavy build. Just leap to a pack (applying a curse when landing), Earthquake once or twice and leap to the next pack.

This is where I stand at level 91. Any extra points will be spent filing in life nodes.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAQCAAHnBLMFLQthDjwOQxHVE0wTyRQgFE0UcRXsF-EYkRjbGlUb-iFgJd8m-CgqKaUuIzGeNZI26DpSPAU8LT0APfxAoEMxRalGt0d-TeNOMlBHV5dYY1oaWp9fP2BBYSFjcGRSZU1lp2a2aPJs2HKpdO108Xaseu982YGbggeDX4PMhNmE74VSivCLT4zPk5mXeZkrm2qiAKQZpletja5Qr2y2LLc-uR27nryfvTa9gb54vqfAZsMzxILE9sauypDNX89-02_Yvdlh2XzaweRR6UbqGO3X7w7vfPAf8kH2SPcy-Ov8S_4K_mv-jw==

Obviously, Blood in the Eyes and Gratuitous Violence are your main nodes here. For this build, as I'm not taking any block, I took Outmatch and Outlast for automatic Frenzy charge generation. But, with Prophecy coming and the promise of another two Ascendancy points, going to Versatile Combatant looks very tempting. I may spec out of the Soul of Steel cluster and into the Blade Barrier cluster along with Versatile Combatant. Would all that block chance make up for the loss of armor and the 4% flat reduction? I don't know but it's an interesting idea.

The main "gimmick" of this build is dual wielding with Soul Taker which allows you to ignore mana. Without that there are better options for this build (namely speccing into some block) but I've really enjoyed this variant. Mings Heart, as well, does take chunk of life but even with my only so-so gear I'm still up near 6k so that's not bad. Really, you just need to get armor, life, and resists and you're golden. Flat phys is a bonus if you can get it and crafting flat chaos damage would be sweet as well but they're just bonus.

Flasks are pretty important here. Atziri's Promise and Lion's Roar both give an amazing blend of offence and defense. Atziri's promise with it's added chaos damage (increasing my poison) and lots of leech. Lion's Roar gives armor and knockback plus a huge physical damage boost as well. Aside from these I like a seething and catalyzed life flask and then a final utility flask depending on what map I'm running.

Normal - Life
Cruel - Physical Damage
Merciless - Frenzy Charge

Atziri Run - https://youtu.be/ndHTw1BGeKM
This is a great build for Atziri. The flexibility to switch between max phys mitigation and elemental mitigation by swapping auras lets you be safe no matter which boss you're fighting. The damage, too, is high enough that you can kill things before they have too much of a chance to hurt you.

Twinned Waterways - https://youtu.be/dyE4k-pfNME

Palace - https://youtu.be/KeDRXEOhdjk