[2.2] Vigilant Strike Gladiator /Insane dmg/no budget/Immortal (Hc Viable)

So the first question is,why use vigilant strike in the first place,the skill has a cooldown of 4 seconds and to surpass that you need to consume an Endurance charge,so why go through all the trouble to use that skill?

Well let's have a look at vigilant strike

With the skill sitting at 203% base damage at lvl 20,it is second to none in terms of base damage percentage,also vigilant strike can't be evaded,which means you don't have to play Resolute Technique or focus on accuracy and you can easily play Crit for more damage

So that is all good,but again comes the question how do you sustain endurance charges enough to enable the Vigilant strike to be spammable like any other skill

1-Enduring Cry :Having to stop and cast it every while isn't efficient by any means


2-Warlord's Mark : Good,but it's still a chance so still not so reliable


3-Endurance Charge on Melee Stun : and that's the main source of generating the needed Endurance charges to sustain using Vigilant Strike


However it would be lame if you'd have to waste a link on using that gem instead of using sth that boosts your dps,and that's why i play 1h/shield,using reckoning/vengeance/riposte with Endurance Charge on melee stun,along with Warlord's mark+blasphemy ,now you have endurance charges 100% uptime for spamming vigilant strike.



Full Build
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAQCAQHnBIcFLQY5BosKJgxfDPcS4RNME8kUIBRNFHEV7BfhGJEaPhpVHKcg4yb4J-0oKikuLlMvzDB3Mk426DwtPQ89_ECgR35OMlBHUWBTpVhjWf5fP1_aYSFi7GRSZU1lp2hlcql07XYrdn92rHk5eu97dHuMfLh-4H7igIqCB4Nfg8yExITZhO-K8ItPjM-PmZHOkn2S95d5mG-bap5Xns2i6qcwqZWsr62NrlCvp7aKtz65HbvtvJ-9Nr6nwL_BgsGjxPbGrsqQz37SIdNv2L3ZfNrB3CPiYeRR5c_pRunV6hjvDvIv8kHzBvPd9kj3MvdN-AL46_uq_Ev-Cv5r


Core Build
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https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAQCAQHnBIcFLQY5BosKJgz3EuETTBQgFHEV7BfhGj4aVSDjJvgn7SgqKS4uUy_MMHcyTjboPC09Dz38QKBHfk4yUEdRYFhjWf5fP1_aYSFi7GRSZU1lp2hlcql07XYrdqx5OXrve3R8uH7igIqCB4NfhNmE74rwi0-Mz4-Zkc6SfZL3l3mYb5tqns2i6qcwqZWsr62NrlCvp7aKuR277b02vqfAv8GCwaPE9sauypDPftIh02_ZfNrB3CPiYeRR5c_pRunV6hjvDvIv8kHzBvPd9kj3MvdN-AL46_uq


Bandits
Spoiler

Normal : kill all
Cruel : Help Oak (+16% physical)
Merc : Help Kraiten (+1 frenzy)



Current Gear,Not optimized by any means and i still faceroll any content
Spoiler


Flasks
Spoiler


Build Setup
Spoiler

1-use blood rage
2-use enduring cry on the first pack to get you endurance charges goin
3-1 shot every pack


Ups
Spoiler

1-90%physical damage reduction
2-78% to block attacks/spells
3-lots of regen
4-very decent leech
5-you 1 shot any pack,DPS doesn't really matter here caz all you care about is how much does 1 single hit do,,DPS is usually around 120k with avg gear and that's execluding the dmg riposite/reackoning/vengeance do


Downs
Spoiler
you can't do bosses that have no pack with them in the room with the skill,so just swap it with molten strike or heavy strike just for these cases,if the boss has a pack,u go in,enduring cry,get ur 5 endurance charges up,and just smash him,that is usually around 7-8 vigilant strikes if you don't generate any other charges and that is more than enough to take any boss down


Gear Choices
Spoiler

weapon(Axe) :Aim for sth with high bottom and top damage,don't just look for DPS,you wantt sth that does big burst of damage in 1 hit not just constant DPS ,Also look for Sth with Crit on it..
also why axe? you can find good ones cheaply,prolly that's my main reason :v

Helm (Abyssus) :gives you Damage /attributes that are needed/also lots of Crit multi

Shield(Lioneye's Remorse unless you find better) :life/armor/block

Chest:Armor/life/Strength and 5l will do the trick,6l is always better

Gloves : Strength/Armor/Physical damage/life

Boots : Strength/armor/Movespeed/Life

Belt : Rustic sash/Strength/Armor/life/Weapon elemental damage

Ammulet (anvil) : while a rare ammy would def. give you a huge boost for damage as it could have physical damage/WED/Crit chance/Crit multi but anvil would help you be block capped and givin a 3% max to block chance,also up to 500 armor and would be perfect if you get an anvil with +1 to frenzy charges

Rings : Crit/WED/Physical Damage/Life

Resists won't be much of a problem as you got much from the tree


Jewels
Spoiler

Get 3 Jewels with +1 chance to block with shield mainly ,physical dmg with axes and melee damage /crit are the secondary choices



Auras
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Hatred : For Damage obv.
Warlord's Mark + Blasphemy : for endurance charges+mana leech which solves all your mana probs /life leech is always awesome
Also cursed enemies have an additional 15% chance to be stunned which helps ur riposte/veng/reckoning +endurance on stun combo


Links

Spoiler

Chest : Vigilant Strike+Melee Splash+Multistrike+melee physical+added Fire+WED/Lifeleech

Helm:Riposite+endurance on stun+melee Physical+Enduring Cry

Boots :Reckoning+vengeance+endurance on stun+Blood Rage

Gloves:Leap slam/Faster attacks/blood Magic/Ancestrall Protector

Weapon : Hatred+warlord's Mark+blasphemy

Shield : Immortal Call+Vaal Haste +Increased Duration




Maps Mods,what it can do and what it can't
Spoiler

Blood Magic :close Aura's(you can still sustain endurance without warlord's

Curse Immune : put blood magic instead of sth with vigilant strike to solve your mana problem in the absence of warlord's mark mana leech

Physical Reflect : reflect can be blocked,also your armor reduce it by alot,you won't have any problems,if you do,swap vigilant strike with molten strike

Elemental Reflect : no problems

Temportal Chains : you only need 1 hit,slow won't affect you much

Anything else is ez



Atziri
Spoiler
problem caz there is no pack,so swap vigilant strike with molten strike and put fortifiy on your leap slam,easy,did it many times,you can always swap you lioneye's remorse with rise of the pheonix and just go facetank it,


IGN :XdasVigilante,if you got any questions,feel free to ask,hope i covered everything



Last edited by mazengamedawy on Mar 23, 2016, 2:39:55 PM
Last bumped on Apr 18, 2016, 4:47:54 AM
Can I use Varunastra with this build? I'm assuming I can just go with axe nodes and it'll count towards my blade, just wanted to be sure, and in terms of life and tanking how well off will I be?
Very interesting build, thanks for posting it
I've been trying to pursue a build/gem setup similar to this, but am just not getting it to work out against the hardest fights.

I have a character in Hardcore Parandus and began the game going with molten strike, then once I got to a 4-link, I was trying out Heavy Strike with melee splash. I really like the fact that so much of the damage is physical damage this way. With Molten strike's 60% conversion and hatred and the elemental damage on the weapon (and added fire damage or herald of ash if being used), so much is elemental and I feel like there are a lot of enemies with decent resistances, so the tooltip DPS of molten strike wasn't as good as heavy strike.

Starting around level 50 in Cruel, I would try to use vigilant strike, but I just couldn't keep up enough endurance charges. I got a 5-link and put endurance charge on stun in there with the vigilant strike to get more charges and that worked great. I could clear the trash monsters out super fast, with constant fortify, it was great. Until... I got to the Dominus fight at the end of Act 3. For the first part of the fight, I was stunning the monsters a bunch, but once it was just Dominus, he didn't spawn additional monsters enough and I wasn't stunning him, so I ran out of endurance charges quickly. I was able to flee through a portal and change up my gems and go back.

Same thing happened fighting Izarro in the Cruel Labyrinth, I was ok for a little bit, but he just didn't spawn his little minions enough to keep my endurance charges up. I tried to portal out since I was worried about dying, but for some reason the portal wouldn't let me flee that fight. So, I ran around for 4 seconds between each cooldown and eventually was able to kill him.

So, all in all, the hardest fights are the ones where the vigilant strike setup I feel like is not working for me. Maybe at higher levels/with better gear you can do ok in more fights, but I feel like the chances of "jamming up" are just too high to tolerate for HC play.

I'm going to keep at it, sort of deciding between molten strike, heavy strike with splash, or static strike.

(also, thinking about maybe going with a 4-link on molten strike or static strike to do trash/times I need AOE and then set up heavy strike with a 5-link and use it for single-target DPS on big bosses and stuff)
Made a fullblock aurora duelist, tried several melee skills including this one, based on your suggestions. Sustaining the charges is overall solid, if somewhat uncomfortable, so you can actually attack and wreck faces, which is good. The problem is that every time you attack you need to find a foe with your mouse, click him and then melee splash kills some minor area around him. At the same time you could've been using Earthquake, give no fucks about where to click or where enemies are, the entire screen will explode and you will leapslam into sunset because fuck all other melee skills, right GGG? Melee splash AoE needs to be at least twice as large as it is now to be even remotely competitive. Which is sad.
IGN: Zurgle. Steam ID: zuthuzu. I'm rarely online ingame, most of the time online in steam.
Feel free to add in either, if you wanted something checked out.

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