[3.2+] Explosive Cleave / Lacerate Gladiator. Insane Clear Speed, Solid Defenses and Budget

@Dannlps

not really, because it would reduce your damage significantly (cleave is very underwhelming with a shield) and also both axes are quite essential to the build sadly.

Additionally you end up with significant mana issues if you don't use Soul Taker.

quite fun
i ran through act 3 and 2 (merciless) with only 10 fire res, 49 cold, 24 lightning, did a few maps teir 4 and 5, didnt even notice my bad res till i check my character screen in act 4, oops

btw cruel ascendency is such a huge dps boost, get that shit asap

@penguian

Ah nice work. Yeah, both normal and cruel lab provide a huge DPS boost.

Hi guys,

I've been loving this build so much, but as I got into the higher tier maps (10-14) I was having a hard time staying alive at the boss fights and/or if the map is not very open. Just for funsies I tried switching out the Jack,The Axe for my Varunastra so I could use Whirling Blades instead of Leap Slam, and oh my does it make the build better.

Yes I know the bleed doesnt apply as often, and I miss out on 2% leech, BUT Whirling Blades with Faster Attacks is just amazing at keeping my char out of heavy damage.

Before I made the switch I had trouble with doing Merci lab as I would get stuck on some shitty ledge or rock or whatever, and the spikes/roombas/what have you would kill me. Also the last bossfight was hard at times because even though I tried to leap away he would fuck me since I dont have as much life (4.1k).


Now I can always keep out of his dmg since I can just zoom around him.


So in conclusion, this build is amazing even without Jack, The Axe.

Im currently lvl 85 with 4.1k hp, 65k dps unbuffed in H/o with inc.aoe

Fully buffed with conc.effect (boss fight) I'm sitting around 151k dps.

@Whipthor

This is my alternate account, so don't be alarmed.

Try to get 7% maximum life on jewels so that you can hit 5k life, if you have some issues with survivability. It might be a bit more expensive, but life jewels are definitely worth the investment.

@Moarpizza Yeah, ive im sitting at 4.5k hp now, and I'm having no trouble clearing just about anything. My point was not that i lacked HP, but just to let people know that this build is super viable even with Varunastra!

Hello.

As you can tell I'm new to the game. Started few weeks ago. I am currently level 56. Have been following this guide from the begining and its great. As I am reaching 59 soon I had trouble with the following "Once you reach level 59, buy your Soultaker". What does that mean exactly? Is there a vendor that opens when I reach that level?

Once you reach level 59, head over to poe.trade (it's a website) and search for Soultaker. If this is your first character, you probably won't have enough currency though unless you got some lucky drops while leveling.

@Whipthor

Ahh k. Nice to know. Have fun!

@Maiev2000

Yeah you have to purchase the item from poe.trade. Try watching this video to see how to do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvnpqAAtq5Y

But yeah, soul taker costs around 16 chaos at the moment, so make sure you have enough currency to afford that. Note that other currencies can be converted to chaos (such as fusing 2:1 and Scours 2:1).