[3.12] KissMeQuick's Gladiator Reave: REBORN — T19 100% Maps & A8 Sirus Deathless — Starter friendly

I played this build as a starter in Incursion. I am level 96.5 now, pushing for 100, with 34/40 challenges and i am still enjoying it quite a lot. It is surely the most fun build i have played ever in POE, but i haven't played that many builds overall - your opinion might be different.

I have cleared all tiers of elder including uber, shaper, all kinds of guardians and maps (besides HoG).

Seeing how many people post here asking how to improve their items or how to progress the character further, i decided to share my knowledge with you.

Let's start with some HONEST PROS and CONS for those considering the build.

PROS:
- one of the best builds for people who like to stick for a long time with one character and improve it
- fitting speed clear meta, but not required to go fast all the time
- extremally high damage with endgame gear
- extremally hard to be killed with endgame gear
- has a lot of room for improvements, both small and huge. You can invest in mirror tier items or start with 1ex upgrades and push your way forward towards being a bosskiller and speedclear demon at the same time
- can but do not has to utilize many uniques, you decide what you put on yourself
- extremally fast movement for rushing things if you need to
- lowend-PC safe, no massive explosions and lags caused by them

CONS:
- i can't imagine playing this build in HC, at least with its normal version. I have died about 50 times while leveling, and i still die from time to time in hard maps or vs endgame bosses. It is possible to kill everything, but losing your focus for a moment might be a deadly misstake. Shield version may be a lot more HC-safe but i haven't played it.
- forget those stories about 50kk dps - reaching that high numbers require literally tens of mirrors to spend. On the other hand - 5kk or 10kk is totally achievable and it is LITERALLY MORE THAN ENOUGH to kill anything in this game without struggle.
- killing shaper in 3 days of league start if you aren't either skilled speedrunner or have a lot of earlier experience with the build is impossible in my opinion.
- painfull leveling and gearing up process - build is endgame focused and starts to be super fun in endgame. If you have some currency to start up, it might be a lot more fun though.
- a little or not so little bit rng dependant (chance to blind, chance for onslaught, chance to shock, chance for unholy might, chance to block, chance to evade etc...)
- potentially easy to die to oneshot before you get high amounts of hp. On the other hand - massive numbers of normal mob attacks usually don't do anything to you. If you pay attention, you can dodge almost everything threatening you.

TIPS ON HOW TO GEAR AND IMPROVE (from most important to least):

0!!! - use POB to check if the item you are going to buy gives enough dps for the price it costs! i would have bought items that increase my dps by 50k for few ex many times if i wasnt using POB, and that would be a big misstake.

1. Abyssus is your best friend in terms of DPS - it can effectively double it, and at the same time triple your chance to die. Never use it if you are leveling above level 95, it will make you die, trust me. If you aren't leveling and just farming/killing bosses - invest in abyssus ASAP.

1.5 If you decide to go for Abyss uniques like me - abyss jewels are your second best source of defence and dps. Chance to blind is crucial! Chance to shock is HUGE dps improvement. Onslaught and unholy might are helpfull too. 2 Socket bubonic trail gives you:
-6% max life
- potentially up to 100 life
- potentially up to 40% increased damage
- potentially good 10% overall DPS improvement if you invest in abyss jewels

Which makes it almost as OP as a good body armor.

You can resign from many gems mentioned in OP post, check my gear at the end of the post for more details on it.

2. Your goal for a statstick is:
- 35%+ phys as extra fire
- 35%+ phys as extra lightning
additionally:
- crit multi (craftable if possible)
or for safe leveling version:
- 5% block chance while dual wielding crafted
Nothing more you need before getting a mirror tier statstick. Stastick like above should cost you anywhere from 3ex to 6ex and is a really good starting goal for farming. OFC - if you have no currency, go for double 30%, single 40% with multi, or just single 40%.

3. Sword/foil isn't that important - you can see it for yourself in POB. The most important part about it is getting 1.7AS+ - it will make your gameplay much smoother and fun.

After that, you either wanna go for:
-350pdps with crit multi or 10% phys as extra chaos or crit multi or both
-400 pdps, but with 1.7+ AS
Those might be a little bit pricy, especially on foil bases, but you can start with something cheaper, like 300pdps with crit multi and 10%phys as chaos, or just 300pdps with 1.9 AS. Anything will work here.

4. Neck with 17-20% phys as extra fire/cold/lightning, life and flat phys dmg. Check for those often - you can find amulet like this under 50c, and be set untill you are ready to get 20ex upgrade. If you have no money for it, just go for 17-20%phys as extra element + life. Crit multi is nice also, but flat phys is more important.

5. Use your rings as you need to - you can either have huge amounts of life and resistances on them, or huge amounts of dps (flat phys and crit multi). Best ring combines all those stats, but you need to decide what you can afford at the moment. Best case scenario is decent res + life + flat phys.
I usually check endgame rings for 10+ flat phys, 70 life and 100 total res.

6. If you decide to not use abyssus because you want to be safe leveling up or you need more life - get a helmet with %chance to get power charge on kill. That is free 3 power charges that you do not even need to focus on getting. It just happens when you kill mobs. Helmet is also a nice way to get additional INT.

6.5. Dont save moeny on jewels - they are super important and usually alot better to invest into than other items (CHECK YOUR POB!).

7. 16% AS if you killed recently - this enchant on boots is a BIG dps improvement.

8. Your unique armor of choice will be most likely loreweave. It will give you:
- additional int
- can have decent roll of life
- big crit chance
- phys dmg (!!!!)
- max res 80% (!!!) so you can piss on -% max res maps because it will always be 80%

Loreweave is great for DPS and for defence. Tier under is belly of the beast, which gives more hp, but at the same time might cause lag (if you suffer from shit internet) because of gore effects, and doesn't really help that much in QOL, like Loreweave.

9. Flasks are super important to get as soon as possible. Learn to use them all the time - they will boost your DPS and save your life. If you suck with flasks - it's not a build for you (propably).

10. Get your pantheon set up for additional defences.

11. If you can't afford additional mod on jewelry, invest in 0.4% mana leech from passive tree. It will potentially save you a couple of chaos/ex. The same thing with 30int node.

12.Movement speed on boots is not necessary, but is really nice to have. If you want to go for it, get at least 25%. You won't feel difference with less MS.

Some final tips how to survive:

- Dont resign before you get some decent gear. It will get better all the time with investments.
- Dont constantly rush for top tier DPS - your health and defences are important too, and make the build feel better.
- Take OP post with grain of salt. Its not the easiest and cheapest build, but it is surely around top tier.
- Feel free to check my gear, tree and explanation on it.

MY GEAR (optimized for leveling up to 100):



As you can see, i am using:

-no curse like OP mentioned, i just have gloves with curse on hit. If you don't have those, you shouldn't bother using self-cast curse IMO. It's better just to invest in abyss uniques and abyss jewels and reduce ur gem slots. Normal tombfists are super-fine.

2EX

-Loreweave with less damage taken from crit - it's just another QOL improvements for leveling to 100. You will be totally fine with normal Loreweave.

7EX

-Bubonic trails with 2 sockets and an enchant. It might be expensive but it is worth it.

4EX

-Stygian Vise is propably BIS belt because of additional abyss jewel and being able to hit normal belt rolls like life, res and WED.

1EX

-Decent abyss jewels are so worth it that i would call them necessary for full optimization of the build.

50c-2EX each = around 5EX

-Not so good statstick and weapon i have, but those are a lot better anyway than what you need for easy endgame.

Both = 5-10EX

-Flat phys, life, res jewelry. Mana leech is QOL, you can spend skillpoint on it.

1-2EX each, = around 3EX

-abyssus with 40% more phys dmg (not more!!!) or rare helmet with nice life, and power charge on kill.

1EX MAX

OVERALL = around 30EX for totally capable of everything build including leveling to 100 and killing all endgame bosses. You can do it all just investing 5EX or 15EX, it will just get easier and smoother with every upgrade. You can also invest 500EX or 2000EX into it and make the game a joke. Thats what i love about the build. Theres always stuff to do and upgrade :)

SKILL LINKS:
- leap slam is huge - it makes many types of maps faster to run. You can link it with faster attack or just leave like it is.
- whirling blades with huge AS will be shitty and clunky unless you link them with blood magic. I use 4-link for it just because how good it becomes then.
- rest is the same as in OP's original post guide.