[3.0] league starter sunder gladiator - cheap ulab farmer

This is my first own build and build guide. All your tips and suggestions are highly appreciated. (Sorry for my english btw)

The basic idea of this build was to use many cheap and powerful mechanics to achieve tanky league starter with intetnion of farming uber lab. And it worked out really well. With gear worth ~30c i started farming ulab around level 80 and i managed to clear some of the t14/15 maps. There is a huge upgrade potential and i'll go over it later.

pros:

+nice clear speed
+huge life pool
+block cap
+great attack speed (easy dodges)
+cheap

cons:

-struggles agains degen
-not a perfect boss killer
-kind of boring playstyle

Bringer of rain - cheapest way to get a 6l, huge amount of life, 6% block chance and endurance charges. I bought one in day 2-3 for 19 chaos.


Gratuitous Violence - Gladiator's ascendency gives us acces to this powerful tool that increases your clear speed by a lot. (it makes enemies explode so you basically oneshot packs)


Block - one of my favourite layers of defence for life based character. also mostly thanks to gladiator's ascendency


Blood Magic - The cheapest way to get a huge life pool.


Brutality - Since we are going for blood magic we will not use any auras. In this scenario, brutality fits this build perfectly because we deal pure physical damage.


Resolute Technique - thanks to this skill node you don't have to worry about accuracy on your gear.

Please note that I am a beginning player and I probably screw something up in tree pathing. If you can see something bad, please tell me.

For bandits, help Oak for phys damage, phys damage reduction and life regen.

first 48 points - take attack speed for the first 2 nodes if you prefer. Rush Master of the Arena, Art of the Gladiator and Resolute Technique. grab life nodes as needed. If you don't want to level with shield change the pathing for your needs.


86 points - at this point you're getting close to your bringer of rain and you should start getting these block related points. If you're already commited to axes get cleaving instead of strong arm.


My current, 110 points

Our ascendency class choice is Gladiator.



Gratuitous Violence - a lot of damage and huge clear speed. (which we talked about earlier)


Blood in the Eyes - another damage boost but this time with some deffensives. reduced damage taken and maim are huge.


Painforged and Versatile combatant. Huge chunk of block and spell block - core defensive points.


Order of picking these points is your choice. I took Gratuitous Combatant and Blood in the Eyes first to make my leveling smoother and then went for the defensive ones. But it's up to you.

In your helmet:

Sunder - Multistrike - Brutality - Concentrated Effect
It's the best dps option. If you want a little safer approach swith multistrike for Ruthless to make your dodging easier.

Ancestral Warchief 4L

Ancestral Warchief - Brutality - Concetrated Effect - Culling Strike

I decided to go for culling strike to make my boss fights easier. Izaro's third phase is the most difficult so it really helps. If you don't want Culling Strike go for Melee Physical Damage.

Curse applying

Tempest Shield - Curse on Hit - Curse of your choice

My personal curse choice was Vulnerability but you can go for Enfeeble or Temporal Chains. If you want to you can link this setup with Cast when Damage Taken so you don't have to activate your Tempest Shield by yourself from time to time.

CWDT setup

Cast When Damage Taken - Blood Rage - Golem of your choice

Level of gems in this setup depends on your preference. I kept my CWDT on level 10 and it works quite nicely. My golem choice is Flame Golem for mapping and Stone Golem for Uber Lab.


Movement setup

Leap Slam - Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Fortify

Pretty basic but i chose to use two movement skills because it's easier to dodge with Shield Charge and it's generally faster but i found Leap Slam quite useful in running ulab.
If you're going to use only one movement skill you can link Cast When Damage Taken to your Curse apllying setup.


If you can get an Unset Ring, put Vaal Ligtning Trap in it's socket. (it's useless in ulab so i wouldn't bother)

Please note that pieces of gear shown in this section are taken from my character and they are really bad.

Helmet - Bringer of Rain. Prioritize the life roll.


Weapon - your goal is an axe with as high pDPS and attack speed as you can afford. if your budget is really low you can grab Jack, the Axe. I bought one for 4 chaos in day 2 and cleared Ulab multiple times without any problem.


Shield - Lioneye's Remorse. Huge chunk of health and block. Literally perfect for this build.


Rings - Get high life roll on both of your rings, some int, dex and resitances.


Amulet - Look for Int/Dex base, High life and resistances as needed.


Gloves - Get a high life roll, some resistances and preferably attack speed.


Boots - Get a high life roll, resistances and a movement speed roll.


Belt - Look for Leather Belt or Rustic Sash base, get as high life and strength roll as you can and resistances/stats as needed


Jewels - You need two of your jewels to have +1% additional chance to block with shields in order to cap your block chance. Always try to get an increased maximum life preffix (preferably 7%). If you have troubles capping your resistances or getting enough int/dex, get some on your jewels.

Other useful affixes:



Flasks - As you can see in the first picture i am using 3 life flasks. To be honest that's just comfortable for me and lets me run lab with no troubles with traps.

You definietly want a Bleed and Freeze removal on your flasks. One Quicksilver flask with Adrenaline suffix is also appreciated.

Our best in slot damage flask is Lion's Roar. It gives you more melee damage but also knocks enemies back (that keeps you safe and make them recieve more bleeding damage). But it's definitely not needed.

Atziri's Promise doesn't boost our dps since we can not deal non-physical damage.

Currently I have 7.8k hp with shitty gear. This build can take care of literally all of Izaro's phases Combinations fairly eaisly. Fonts + Conduits / Charges + Gargoyles? You can survive his 360 mlg slash or ground slam even if you didn't dodge or block. Atziri is pretty easy but i recommend you dropping tempest shield for fight with her because of the reflect.
I cleared Dark Forst t15 map a few times and Overgrown Ruin t15 once or twice with gear shown earlier. It is pretty doable (deathless) even with rip mods but it's not easy. (these were the first t15 maps im sorry)

1. drop Bringer of Rain and get a high life/res 6L and high life helmet with Sunder attack speed/damage enchant
2. Get more stats and res on your rings (Steel rings) so you can use The Anvil that increases you max block chance.

3. Get high pDPS axe
4. Get maximum life and strength rolls everywhere
5. Get 21/20 or 20/23 gems
6. Change your tree to something like this

and get +1% Chance to Block with shields on two of your jewels.

You are going to end up with 286 % increased maximum life from tree so hitting numbers like 11k should be easy. I can't say if it's end game viable because i haven't tested it out, just wanted to show you there's huge potential in upgrading your gear.

Thank you for your time. If you have any questions feel free to ask them, i will be answering often. If you can see some wording, tree pathing or other mistakes please tell me! I am quite new to the game and that was my first guide so I am aware that there is a lot to improve. Thanks =)