[2.5] Explosive Gladiator - Blade Flurry / Max Block - One shot T15 bosses!
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EDIT: Added a quick video of how Vaal Breach works on bosses, and a leveling/progression section to help with getting the build going on a budget.
This build started as a meme, but has been surprisingly fun and effective, so I thought I'd share. It uses and the gladiator's Gratuitous Violence passive, to turn breach mobs into walking bombs. Bleed explosions start at 10% of monster's health, but with area damage, physical damage, generic damage and vulnerability, we can scale that above 50% of a monster's health dealt to everything around it on death.This makes for very fast clear speed, and with enough mobs stacked, the ability to one shot bosses... and it gets better on monster health maps ;)
Defense Mechanics
along with placed in the Marauder area for very point efficient max block, and spell block thanks to Gladiator. The tankiness from that combo allows us to use Vaal Cyclone to make sure explosions are stacked on top of bosses/rares. Clearing breaches has never felt so satisfying. Even though it's life based, we can tank hard hitting bosses like Chimera very easily.
Offense Mechanics
Varunastra gives us access to very efficient passives (By the Blade and Deadly Dilettante), give us huge 1H damage, for only a couple clusters investment. It's very cheap now, and performs similarly to a 350 DPS 1H, which are very expensive. Mana gain on hit also means we can use a single mana leech affix on gear or a jewel to sustain Blade Flurry. Cospri's gives us an additional curse, bypass hexproof and free poison. We have a lot of double dipping stats that also apply to our poisons, so this is a huge DPS increase. BladeFlurry feels really good once you get in the rhythm of releasing before packs die, allowing the last burst to pop the pack into a chain of explosions. Cyclone can also work here. Key is a fast attacking skill we can use to target trash.
Current Gear
This gear isn't particularly cheap. In order of priority, Surrenderer and Varunastra should be first. Next would be Cospri's (5L is fine to start, drop void manip). Devoto's is a nice QOL for attack/move speed, and Death's Door is nice for bleed immune and one more endurance charge, neither are required for this to work. Witchfire brew is an option for flask, but I prefer not relying on flask charges, because Vulnerability is so much of the damage for this build. Also worth noting that Curse Effectiveness and Increased AoE do NOT apply to the flask. We need a lot of INT, I recommend a 70-80 int amulet. If you're using all these uniques, resists will be tough to balance. Rare boots can help a lot with that, for cheap.
Leveling / progression
This was my league starter, respecced from Slayer EQ. Leveling with 2H as gladiator with Molten Strike/Sunder should still work well, until 68/70 when you can equip Surrenderer / Varunastra.
Bandits: Oak, Oak, Oak or Kraityn Getting it started is not expensive. Only required slots are Varunastra (low as 35c), Surrenderer (about 50c). Use Doedre's Damning for second curse if you can't affor Cospri's. That will be ok for farming currency in T10-13. Get a Red Nightmare (most expensive part - 4-5ex) as soon as you can afford it, and a 5L Cospri's Will (40c). A high dex roll Devoto's (<5c) helps with getting that Cospri's on. Drop the doedre ring for one with phys or chaos dmg, and you should be good to start farming higher content. Death's door are not required, neither is Devoto's with BF enchant. Those are QoL upgrades you can squeeze in later if you're on a budget. You will have a hard time capping resists and getting enough dex/int with all the uniques on. Take some 30 point nodes while leveling, and you can also use something like For resists, dex and easy colors for your curses. I used these until 91.
Jewels
Red Nightmare near marauder start gives 14% block, for very little investment. Damage, Physical Damage and Area Damage all scale our Blade Flurry as well as bleed explosions. Damage and Area Damage also double dip on poison.
Links
Main 5/6L (in order of importance)
Blade Flurry - Melee Physical - Faster Attacks - Inc AOE / Conc. - Added Chaos - ( Void Manipulation if on 6L) Curses Blasphemy - Vuln - Temp Chains - Enhance Movement Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Fortify - Blood Magic CWDT CWDT - Immortal Call - Tempest Shield Vaal Cyclone should be linked to Fortify, Inc AoE or Faster Attacks optional. I put Warchief in the shield, so the supports also boost Reckoning's damage, but it's optional
Screenshots of stats, if you're into that sort of thing
Unbuffed, in HO  Buffed (missing retaliation buffs)  Defense unbuffed  Defense Buffed 
Videos
T13 High Gardens boss vs Vaal Breach and Vaal Cyclone. Tanking her beams, Xoph fire and all the mobs (degen still hurts though) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxPMh1pDHQ Props to user Symbiosis, who posted about Surrenderer / Nightmare / Gladiator combo on reddit. I had to try, and it's the most fun life based build I've played in quite a while. Last edited by Icaros on Jan 10, 2017, 5:03:56 PM Last bumped on Feb 24, 2017, 5:42:23 PM
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How do you perform in party play? What bosses did you do with this build? What's your current hp? :-)
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hey can you post ss of yuer of dmg and def whit out buff
seems alot of curnncy to put in . i want to know if this build worth it |
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Is this build good at surving t15 maps with hard mods? I wanna know if the build is worth investing the huge amount of ex in it
Last edited by AdventAngel153 on Jan 8, 2017, 1:02:29 PM
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" It behaves like any BF build in a party. I've done all the Guardians, haven't attempted Shaper but I don't think it'll handle all the degens well, we need to block things. Uber Izaro is a complete joke even buffed up. Current HP is about 5.7k. Could be over 6k but I started dropping life nodes for damage/utility because it feels fine without them. "
Screenshots
Unbuffed, in HO Buffed (missing retaliation buffs) Defense unbuffed Defense Buffed This doesn't account for the DPS that Vulnerability and Temp Chains give us, in addition to bleed/poison. This isn't a tooltip warrior build, but it puts out awesome damage in practice. " Yes, probably the most tanky life build I've played. It's still a life build though, so if a one shot slam gets through all your layers of defense, it's possible to be one shot. With buffs up while mapping, it feels almost immortal to everything except degen, which is why I'm wearing Death's Door. Getting it started is not expensive. Only required slots are Varunastra (low as 35c), Surrenderer (about 50c). Use Doedre's Damning for second curse. That will be ok for farming currency in T10-13. Get a Red Nightmare (most expensive part - 4-5ex) as soon as you can afford it, and a 5L Cospri's Will (40c), drop the doedre ring for one with phys or chaos dmg, and you should be good to start farming higher content. Death's door are not required, neither is Devoto's with BF enchant. Those are QoL upgrades you can squeeze in later if you're on a budget. | |
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Would it be possible to show more videos of end game bosses with hard mods? Build looks great so far but I'm just curious. I already have the Varunastra and the Sheild but I don't have the Red Nightmare Gem yet, Nor do I have cospri and Deaths door. I do have a Devoto from a long time ago lol
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I've been looking for a Blade Flurry/Varunastra build, and really want to try this! I just dropped a Surrender shield (had to buy the blessing), so i'm even more excited to try this.
So, I have a question about the skill tree allocation. You spend 4 points to pick up Skittering Ruins. I get the idea behind the increased curse effects (since you are running 2 curses), but is it worth the 4 points versus speccing into something like Beserking (18% attack speed), or into one of the weapon wheels on the left side (lots of added damage/attack speed)? Just curious as to the thought process. Thanks! | |
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Nice build
but would it be alright if u cud make a video with some better end game bosses such as rigwald in dark forest or the guardians? thank uuu |
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" Vulnerability triple dips on bleeds. It's a more multiplier on the initial phys hit, then it scales the damage over time AND even further because it's also physical damage. It double dips on poison as well (initial hit + DoT). Temp chains extends the duration of both bleed and poison, but they each deal the same damage per second. That makes it a huge damage multiplier, in addition to working defensively by making even turbo Izaro's attacks easy to dodge manually. All of this is multiplied by curse effect. You really cannot have enough when running 2+ curses. And Cospri's makes sure we're not gimped by hexproof. You won't see the result on your tooltip, but it's a massive upgrade for phys/DoT builds. " Leveling another char right now, but once she starts returning some maps I can try to capture more vids. Should be noted that breach/cyclone won't work on bosses with invincible phases like Daresso and Malachai. So far my highest boss one shot was T15 Overgrown Ruin with monster life and boss life. I've heard others claim to have one shot Guardians. Might need to work in Abyssal cry to do enough damage for that. Also, Red Nightmare, cospri's aren't required to get this going. Death's Door are pure QoL, and a pair of EV/ES two toned boots will be a good way to get your resists capped and have colors for curses in the mean time. | |
" Icaros, Thank you for the explanation! That makes sense. I'm still learning the mechanics of the game, especially the "double dipping" type of stuff with bleed and poison. Do you think these boots would be a good option? Adds Chaos damage and resist, and a bunch of strength. Last edited by wde97 on Jan 10, 2017, 7:17:31 PM
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