Dual Claw Duelist Build

This is by no means a solid build yet. I am posting it here to get some creative feedback and critiques from peopleI who have played this game longer or maybe see something i don't.

I'm going to ocpy paste from another thread then add to the end.

I'm playing a duel wield claw duelist in default. It's a total experiment, i don't care about deaths. Here is my build so far at level 60.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgQAAdwB5wPbBLEFtQyNDUkUIBv6Iuol3yaVKjg2ezboOuE_J0BVQ9JFCkZpR35MYE3jTudQR1M1U99VS1ivWNtgS2VNbWxte26qb1dyu3TteA1674TZhO-I8Y2_koCZK5oXm4ObtaQZplenMKlurFmuk7GztMW1SLXyvoq-vMM6ykrKkMtBzNvo1usU7UH0xve-_o8=

I get around 4k dps on dual strike, 1k dps with lightning strike, 500 dps with whirling blades. Whirling blades has blood magic, life on hit and life leech linked to it. My duelist has around 2k health (my issue). The problems i run into are the fact its hard to get good resists, if im not attacking or using whirling blades im spending my time dead.

Pluss sides. I can face tank kole in cruel without popping any flasks or moving. I can face tank merviel in normal/cruel/merciless the same manner. If i had lightning resist i could face tank piety in cruel too. Same goes with vaal in cruel. But the problem with my build is, its so easy to kill me fast. I deal massive dps and if i get the first strike i have great survivability. But the problem is when there are too many mobs around (or lightning attacks cuz my resists suck currently at -36% in merciless) i simply can't out heal the dps being dealt to me.

But when it comes to 1on1 targets, there is rarely a single mob no matter what stats or conditions that can take me down when i am using blood rage + warlords mark + enduring cry with 3 frenzy charges and 3 endurance charges. The only downfall to that is. If you do that, your basically making an oath that either your char or the mob/boss your fighting is going to die in the end and your committing to man-mode. Then you have to quickly pop a portal and heal.

I find myself using tons of portals to heal myself in maps because i simply can't kill large groups in a easy way. I have to assassinate everything and ninja around, or spend hours slowly killing everything with whirling blades (since it heals so much when i use it due to my gear + passives + 4link).

In future levels im going to get more life nodes, then go to the marauder tree for more damage/survivability. Then this build is finished.

My gear consists of 2 claws with high physical damage and 6% life leech each. While everything else is purely life + resist + life leech. Armor and all that stuff isn't very important my goal is to simply heal more damage then i get dealt and be able to face tank just about anything. In one on one fights that is, not entire groups of mods.

This is my current gear.

One thing you might consider doing is respec out of the 2 4% and 1 10% melee damage nodes near the Vaal Pact keystone, and either contribute them to making your way to the Marauder resistance/Diamond Skin cluster for future benefit, or you can immediately put them into the nearby Might and +18% resist fire/cold/lightning nodes. You say your DPS is massive - you get 18% damage for 3 nodes currently - with Might you would get 6% melee damage and 3% life, and 18% resist fire and either cold or lightning for 3 points.

Concerning your inability to deal with groups, word is there are new aoe skills coming specifically for either claws and/or dual-wielding. I would chalk up your aoe inefficiency as a lack of skills to use, not your build.

Totally sweet build though, I love the man-mode vibe you took with Vaal Pact \m/ - most people consider that to be suicide, but it looks like you made it work!

yea your right. im gonna respec those melee damage nodes and go for the might + resistances. That would help alot actually. Thanks.

I have a dual claw duelist in act 3 cruel, and I don't think I would recommend it to others. It was great fun and easy throughout normal, but the DPS just doesn't seem to scale that well through Cruel.

One of the issues is the amount of Intelligence you need for the higher level claws - 110+ - that means you have to spend points going for the few int nodes in the tree and have to use gear that gives Int, which restricts things a bit.

My build differs from yours - originally I went to the right to get Arrow Dodging and the chaos resist, as well as extra mana for auras, then journeyed up a little to get Alchemist, block chance and Crystal Skin, but respecced back to have more points for +HP.


At the point my duelist is, I think an elemental over physical build would work better for most claws (at least, all the life on hit ones).

But, mine failed, so take all that with a grain of salt.

agreed intelligence is a problem. That is why i am forced to wear this amulet that gives 50 intelligence. I am looking to replace it with something a bit more useful.

I have died many times working on this build. But DPS is not a problem it even scaled nicely from cruel to merciless. Being able to live long enough to leech + deal the dps is the problem.

Note: If your poor and play this (this is my main char and 2nd character ive made) you have to spend all your alterations and stuff crafting blue items as temps, if your claws don't have 100+% on physical damage your not gonna be able to leech much health to make up for your lackof good gear.

ok so i did some math and calculations and learned there are alot of room for optimization in this build.

With dual strike my skills passives and claws i (without cap applied) leech 550-1800 life a second. With cap applied i leech a conssitant 440 health a second.

With whirling blades i leech 181 health everytime i hit a target.

From skills at level 62 i get 11% life leech. From passives i get 7%. So without even adding in gear or claws im already at 18% life leech. Add in the claws at 9% life leech im hitting 27% life leech from physical. Add some life on hit gems and life leech gems (you see where this is going).

Lots and lots of life leech accomulating for absolutely no profit or use. So the question is, what are the best claws for this build? Should i even use claws? If i take out claws from the build i lose 4% life leech from passives. THen i would love 9% life leech from the claws. That would leave me at 14% life leech with 0% life leech on any gear whatsoever.

Honestly, i think this has potential to work even with claws. So i leach far more then my cap allows me, not a big deal. I just need to make sure i kill targets faster then they can kill me. So maybe i can get rid of the warlords mark curese (6% life leech 4% mana leech with endurance charge chance) for maybe a curse like vulnerability?

Hopefully my build can run just as smoothe without the 3% mana leech + 100% flask recharge.

Hmm if you think you can drop Warlord's Mark easily, go for Enfeeble instead. Lowers accuracy, crit chance, crit damage and total damage by ~40% at max level. It's incredibly potent, and would definitely give you some breathing room when you're not able to leech; particularly with groups.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgQBAdwFhAthEuEUIBRSFHUXHRkuGbQb-iU_Jd8pLio4LOkyfjKUNYY2ujqzOuE9_Ed-Sn1N41BHVbVW-lcNWGNdAGBLYSFlTWebZ6Bs9m6qdEF07XfXeA15aHq4eu98uH8CguSE2YTvh3aI8YqvjX6QEZUFmy2dqp7NouqkGaTCplem4KcwqW6sWa6TtBq18rc-t7a5zbndvoq-p8EEwdjGrsbYytPNmNIh1I_ZYdnG3Q3exuLL4urnY-pi7w7vTvIv8kXynPe--rH8xf4K_o8=

I cam up with this build that uses the same skill set and gear choices as the claw build. Only difference is its ranged instead of melee.

I think people have to get it in their mind that playing melee (especially in HC) dosent meen you just jump into a pack of 30 mobs and faceroll. Positioning is ultra important and using some spells and or range to supplement some damage is a nice option.

Im currently lvling a dual claw duelist in HC. And so far its been really not bad. LvL 40 and just about finished act1 cruel I have some kick ass weapons for my lvl but the rest of my gear is really lackluster (nowhere close to max resists) I use fire traps to supplement some dmg for the aoe pulls and even sometimes to kite some dangerous mobs. Most importantly is to stay EXTREMELY busy and mobile. Im constantly either attacking or moving and I try not to sit in one spot spamming dual strike.

I think melee is just a bit different in this game and it can be quite unforgiving. Its great though! Finally a game with real choices / consequences.

Maybe melee is underpowered now but its still in beta, things adjust.

Agreed, Caloran.

I'm just starting Ancient Pyramid on Cruel, level 48 as a 2H Frenzy/Cleave/Flicker Ranger. Have some decent items, some pretty good, others I haven't found an upgrade for in like 15 levels :P Positioning is completely key to playing melee - I've gone for practically nothing but HP and resistance nodes for my entire build, and I still can't take on a pack of Glade Mambas without constantly popping life and Amethyst flasks. This is with manually dodging their attacks. Or any pack of elemental skeletons. Hell, I don't know how I'd even deal with huge packs of powerful mobs without Enduring Cry. That thing is a crutch! Using Cleave effectively requires heavy reliance on mobility. It's not the most powerful skill out there, especially compared to faceroll LA-Chain-LMP spam, but it's satisfying when you can cleave 5-6 guys in one attack.

Managing Frenzy and Endurance charges, constantly popping flasks, positioning for Cleave, flicker striking for mobility... melee has a lot going on. And this isn't a bad thing, I like being involved in playing a character. About the only thing I would recommend for melee is having less reliance on high attack speed/leech/endurance charges/massive armor. If we could tone down maybe one of those things, (prob End charges/Enduring Cry the most) we would see melee going for a support gems other than the typical Faster Attacks/LL-LGoH/add Fire-physical/Culling Strike.

And of course, having additional skill gems in the game will make the possibilities explode more than anything.