[HC] 2.5 Gladiator Concept - Max Block, Bleed, Blade Flurry

The idea is simple. Blade flurry is insanely powerful, requiring very little damage scaling to be effective; therefore, we use it on an incredibly tanky max block champion to create as strong a character as possible.

However, we still need damage scaling, or else our damage against bosses will leave something to be desired. To this end, we scale bleed, which has many applicable nodes in the duelist starting zone and in the champion ascendancy tree, and which and which has many opportunities for damage scaling through double-dipping.

Update:
gear so far in Hardcore Breach:


Decided not to take "fending" passives, just using Lion's Roar instead.
Chose to use Hatred instead of Grace - need the extra damage, and the extra tankiness is not really needed. Not yet running AA - will need to test and see if mana becomes an issue with 75% reserved. As of right now I'm facerolling through maps in HC breach.

The new unique shield introduced in 2.5 is also really good for this build, basically an upgraded Lioneye's without an MS penalty. use it if you can get it; I'm not, yet.

Planned passives tree by level 80:


Continue into this:



Bandits:
Oak(+40 HP)
Oak(+16% physical damage)
Kraitlyn(+1 frenzy charge)


Equipment:
Lightning coil (For the Physical Damage Reduction)
Lioneye's Remorse (For the Armor, Life and Block Chance)
High pDPS Dragoon Sword (because of the %chance to bleed)
The Anvil (For the block chance); eventually upgrade into +1 curse corrupted version
Rare items for the rest. Make sure to get at least one of both life and mana leech items.


Mana reservation:
Arctic Armor(25%)
Hatred (50%)

Defenses:
Block: in the passives tree we gain a total of 27% increased chance to block with shields. Add Tempest Shield and the Anvil on top of this, and the increase is at 40%. Lioneye's remorse has a 30% base chance to block, putting us at 70% chance to block attacks and spells; when Painforged procs, this goes up to the absolute maximum (with The Anvil's 3% increase) to 78%.

Of course, we pick up tons of life and life regen, as well as endurance charges, in the left side of the tree. Lightning coil reduces our physical damage taken by 22.5%, Blood in the Eyes by 6%, endurance charges by 20%. We also have good armor value, not only from our rare equipment and Coil, but from double scaling the armor on Lioneye's Remorse with shield defenses nodes. Combining evasion rating from rare items and Coil with Grace and Enfeeble (once we get +1 curse Anvil) gives us pretty effective evasion chances as well. Finally, degeneration damage is countered by our insane life regen values, which can reach over 8%.


Offenses:
As stated above, the build is centered around scaling Bleeding damage. This is the reason a lot of choices that may strike readers as odd (such as Oak in cruel, Grace over Hatred, and Fending) are taken.

Gem Links:
Blade Flurry
Faster Attacks
Melee Physical Damage
Fortify
Increased Area of Effect / Concentrated Effect
Rapid Decay

Even before bleed, we have quite respectable damage with Blade Flurry, clocking in at 364% increased area melee physical damage with swords from the passives tree.

If we combine the bleed chances from Gratuitous Violence and Blood in the Eyes with the 8% chance for melee attacks to cause Bleeding near Bloodletting and a Dragoon Sword's passive, we get a total of 70% chance to cause bleeding on attacks. In addition, Fending pushes enemies back, moving them forcibly and thus causing more damage.

We then scale this bleeding damage with...
30% increased damage against bleeding enemies (Gratuitous Violence)
30% increased damage against bleeding enemies (Blood in the Eyes)
32% increased physical damage (Path of the Warrior, small nodes in Ascendancy Tree)
50% increased physical damage over time (Bloodletting cluster)
24% increased physical damage (Rustic Sash)
20% increased area damage (Amplify) (Yes, this does double dip.)
16% increased physical damage (Cruel Oak reward)
45% - 3 Jewels with %Physical damage mods; ideal jewel is a 3/4 prop with this mod, life, and 1 or 2 more damage mods

39% more damage with damage over time (Rapid Decay)
16% more damage (4 frenzy charges)

... Leading to a total of %398 increased Bleeding Damage against ordinary mobs (in other words, about five times the normal damage with bleeding). Keep in mind that we're also forcing movement with Fending, causing the 50% DoT instead of the 10%.

Against bosses, we also use Concentrated Effect and Vulnerability, leading to 762% increased bleeding damage, plus the buffed base damage leading to stronger bleeds, even when the reduced effect of curses against bosses is taken into account. Lightning trap could also be used to create shocked ground, leading to a total damage increase of about 1058%, but that's a bit too involved for my taste (and probably not necessary.)

Of course, keep in mind that this is still all a function of your original attack damage, which is dealt with a one-handed, non-crit weapon. For this reason you have to find the highest pDPS weapon you possibly can; do not settle for less than 320.


Final thoughts: Shield Charge and Leap Slam for movement. You'd probably hardcast Bloodrage and Enduring Cry. Reckoning is a given, with some damage/leech links. Tempest Shield, Enfeeble, Molten Shell on CWDT. Flame golem if it won't be a liability (would actually buff your bleed some more, though I didn't bother to include it in the calculations). You could also try using The Scourge unique claw, though I'm dubious as to whether the 70% global damage is worth the terrible weapon damage. There's probably more that you can do to scale the bleeding that I haven't said here; figuring that out will be part of the fun of playing the build for me.

I look forward to the new league coming out so that I can try out this character.

Really want to try this, but I am curious how are you generating endurance/frenzy charges?

Edit: Nevermind I see it in the final thoughts. Not sure how I feel about using enduring cry with Blade Flurry, other than that the build seems very solid

What about the new shield announced today instead of Lioneye's Remorse:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyohXIWVIAA--ss.jpg:large

Also, in your second paragraph at the top, you said "champion" ascendancy tree, when you meant "gladiator" :)

When you said using vuln for bosses, did you meant just self-casting it? Or applying it some other way?

DAMAGE PLZ -screen

Why not use bloodlust instead of added fire for your reckoning/riposte support link?

rip @ 80, vaal cycloned a no-die aura breach pack, alt-F4'd when fps dropped to zero, logged back in to standard league. Feel free to continue to use the information here as a guide for your own characters further on, or even adopt the build (if you get further than me, you're welcome to post your own guide on the build and I'll take this one down :P ), but I'm moving on to new places.

I didn't follow this build but my character this league is very similar and I can vouch for its effectiveness. The explosion on killing bleeding enemies is very nice for Breaches, killing one enemy sets off kind of a chain reaction and you can kill huge packs pretty fast.

So I am using this build not the same layout but its working great, can facetank the 3 stooges frost/fire/lightning/Uber Izaro with no issue, Need more chaos res for chayula but have not tried the other 2 breach lords yet. Going to have to drop poison for 2 of the 4 shaper guards since immune to bleed/poison but should just be long fights.




Heres my gear:


I plan to drop BoR for 6l Tunic and get either Devoto's or Formless Inferno. Its really hard to get 3g on a Astral as well. The Surrender shield is amazing, and I swapped poison in for conc/inc aoe since I picked up aoe on tree near Templar. I might go crit when I get Varunastra and put pcoc on the shield since its going off nonstop. Definatly pick up Perservence for perm onslaught when using fortify, 20% move speed/attack is just nuts get 6 stack in 1.5 seconds.

"

Dorithe wrote:

So I am using this build not the same layout but its working great, can facetank the 3 stooges frost/fire/lightning/Uber Izaro with no issue, Need more chaos res for chayula but have not tried the other 2 breach lords yet. Going to have to drop poison for 2 of the 4 shaper guards since immune to bleed/poison but should just be long fights.

Passive Tree at 88

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAQCAAHcBIcEswUtBjkGiwomC2EM9xQgFHEV7BjbGj4aVSDjIWAoKimlLTAuIy_MMk41kjrhPAU8LT0APQ89_ECgRalGt0d-UEdRYFqfXz9f2mEhYuxlTWa2Z5toZWjybNhvO3KpdO108Xasd-N5OXloeu982X7igZuDX4PMhNmE74jtivCLT4zPj5mXeaIAqW6plan6rK-tja4-r2yvp7aKtz65HbuevTa-eL6nwBrAZsC_wQTBgsQVxFjE9sauypDPftNv2L3aweHv5FHpRunV6hjt1-8O73zwH_Iv8kXzBvPd9kj3Mvjr-6r-Cg==

Heres my gear:

I plan to drop BoR for 6l Tunic and get either Devoto's or Formless Inferno. Its really hard to get 3g on a Astral as well. The Surrender shield is amazing, and I swapped poison in for conc/inc aoe since I picked up aoe on tree near Templar. I might go crit when I get Varunastra and put pcoc on the shield since its going off nonstop. Definatly pick up Perservence for perm onslaught when using fortify, 20% move speed/attack is just nuts get 6 stack in 1.5 seconds.

how does it work that belt with iron reflexes? 0 dmg bonus? or max bonus?

Honestly I haven't checked just scooped it up quick while it was relatively cheap, and for the perm onslaught. I'll check tonight or ask Ziggyd since its his belt.