[3.7] New Player Friendly Option- 2h Impale Perforate Champion- 10mil+ single-target DPS

The most important thing in the helmet slot is the Perforate enchant. Going from 6 spikes to 8 both boosts your area coverage in Sand Stance and is also a (theoretical) 33% more damage in Blood Stance. This enchant is insane, and enchants such as barrage have been nerfed when they add this much to a skill. So get a Perforate enchant helmet!

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/eRGvkyWUL

This link will give you a helm with either an OK life roll or room to craft a life roll yourself. If you're getting a rare, also look for any needed stats or resists. It would be a good spot to get a high Int roll.
I use an Abyssus which I bought for 1 exalt. Abyssus is completely optional, and I wouldn't even necessarily recommend it. It is the most damage you can get in the helmet slot, but it also makes you extremely squishy to physical damage. This is fine if you plan on doing Shaper/Uber Elder as their damage is mostly elemental, but every Legion faction has very high physical burst, and Abyssus will get you killed against this.

This is the priciest part of the build. As an attack build, your DPS is GREATLY affected by the weapon you use, so if you have limited currency, this is the spot to spend it!

I recommend you craft your weapon. Mine cost about 14 exalts to craft including linking, and it has a lot of room for improvement. Buy an Exquisite Blade of at least itemlevel 80 (this allows it to roll the level 20 Fortify mod). Then spam alterations on it until you get either: Gems are supported by Fortify, tier 1-3 flat phys (hold ALT to see a mod's tier), tier 1 or 2 attack speed, tier 1 or 2 crit, or the Elder mod with attack speed if you've killed recently. Use an Augment if needed, then cross your fingers and try to annul any bad mods. Metacraft what you're missing to finish it off. You want all of the following stats and 1 stat + quality craft. It will cost: 2ex for multimod, 1ex for attack speed/crit + quality, 4c for the flat phys, and 3ex for hits can't be evaded. Hits can't be evaded isn't mandatory, but I will go into that later.

This is the part where I talk about the bad things about Perforate. It feels TERRIBLE without a lot of increased AoE. The Sand Stance attack is tiny, and the Blood Stance won't get many multihits without a lot of AoE. For this reason, I think a Carcass Jack is mandatory for the build.
If you don't have much currency to work with, you can get a cheap one here. If you have more money to spend, look for a well rolled one! It will feel better. As you can see from my chest, it doesn't need to be 6-linked. a 4 link will do, or you could just use a Jeweller's Touch prophecy.

I use Haemophilia because the explosions help improve Perforate's subpar clearspeed. This isn't mandatory, however. If you have some money to burn and are so inclined, you could buy a nice pair of spiked gloves. Alternatively, you could buy a pair of Haemophilia gloves corrupted with Vuln on hit. Congratulations, you're richer than me.

I like dodge boots. Since Legion mobs drop them, a decent pair is very cheap, and they have some nice defensive bonuses.

I bought mine for 2ex. The stats you are looking for are flat phys, crit chance and multi, attack speed, Int, and any needed resists. The Maximum Total Recovery per Second from Life Leech is nice, but not necessary, it basically amounts to 4% life regen. Attack speed can only be gotten from an Elder base or corruption. You will need some Int if you are wearing a Carcass Jack!

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/q92DBddtg
Adjust the numbers upwards or add in more modifiers if you have a bigger budget.

Mark of the Elder is pretty much the most damage you can get out of the ring slot. That requires that your other ring be shaped. As you can see, mine is pretty bad, doing nothing but adding some life and filling in resists. If you want something better and don't plan on using Vuln on hit Haemophilia, you can use an Assassin's Mark ring.

Mine sucks. Life. Resists.

If you want something better, you can either buy one of these or fossil craft your own.

You need a staunching life flask, no ifs ands or buts. Either seething or bubbling is fine. Here is the link to buy one, but flasks are easy enough to craft that you can do it yourself for about the same price as buying one.


Since we leap slam everywhere rather than walk, think of a silver flask as your quicksilver flask. We need freeze immunity on one of our flasks, but not necessarily here. A well rolled Chemist's gives us 2 uses.

This link will get you a nice silver flask with either freeze or curse immunity.


Since we are crit based, a diamond flask is our best DPS flask. We need one. Crit chance during flask effect is nice, but you can also just use it for freeze or curse immunity if you want. I like Experimenter's for uptime during boss fights.
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/lJaLGphV


This flask is both nice, because MORE DAMAGE, and awful, because the knockback will screw up your single target on anything not immune to knockbacks. I still think it's worth the hassle, though.
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/yYmeuR
If you can't afford one/don't want one, you can just use a basalt flask instead. I like alchemist's basalt flasks best because they offer the most phys reduction, and you can use the suffix for any immunity you choose.


This one is a bit of a wildcard. I use it because the regen and crit chance from consecrated ground is nice, and the 40% increased damage from the flask itself is nice too. Again, Experimenter's for uptime on bosses. Again, you can craft it yourself if you feel like it.
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/d8keX85FJ

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This is the 6-link I run. Remember to put it in your sword so it's also supported by Fortify. Of course, I have explained why Impale is necessary. Close Combat is a huge more multi, and gives you faster leap slams, which is neat. I like Rage for mapping because of the extra attack speed for leap slams, but I switch it out for Pulverise for bosses because maintaining rage is finicky and remember, more AoE = more damage. You can use Pulverise for mapping if you don't mind going a bit slower and don't want to swap gems.

This is the ideal 6-link. If you got this, you could level Precision a bit. But it is not necessary at all. I am only using a 4-link with Flesh and Stone and Pride linked to Enlighten. You really don't need Enlighten at all, but it lets you attack the air for a few hits, which is nice. And you weren't going to do anything with the gem slot anyways.
Make sure you link Flesh and Stone to Maim support! It makes enemies take an additional 14% physical damage.


These go in the gloves, helmet, or boots. These don't need to be linked to Enlighten, but Dread Banner is VERY important for the impale effect and it costs nothing, so why not?

Blood Rage gives us faster leap slams and frenzy charges. It is also my only source of leech, but if casting it during boss fights annoys you, you can easily get leech on a jewel.

Ancestral Protector gives us some more damage. You could add in Vaal Ancestral Warchief instead if you wanted, but that's too many buttons for me.

I use lightning golem for, you guessed it, faster leap slams. It also is the best golem for us DPS-wise. It is really not a big deal though, I am considering dropping it just because it occasionaly will hit a boss and NOT apply an impale, which would cost me 6 to 12 phys damage. So yeah, not that important.

I use Molten Shell because it blocks more damage than Steelskin. Molten Shell is certainly the best guard skill to use if you take Iron Reflexes, and is still probably the best one to use if you don't. Try it out and take some damage in a controlled setting, and see how much damage your Molten Shell blocks. If it's less than around 700, you're better off with Steelskin, but anything higher and Molten Shell is better. My Molten Shell blocks around 2000 damage.

Leap slam is linked to Blood Magic and Faster Attacks so we can use it faster, and for no mana.
The Purity of Ice is used linked with Blood Magic to trigger the Champion's First to Strike, Last to Fall node to get Adrenaline, which grants us 100% increased damage, 25% attack and move speed, and 10% phys damage reduction. We just tap the button during a boss phase animation and turn it off immediately, and we get some big buffs at the cost of having to use our life flask once. Keep in mind it doesn't have to be Purity of Ice, any aura that reserves 35% mana will do. Pick whichever one is cheaper to chrome!

I have a simple question that I ask myself every time I make a build.
Am I a hit-based crit build?
If yes, help Alira.

If no, kill them all.

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/pY2MWJC0
This jewel, when put in the socket near Marauder, gives us a whopping 70% crit multi. That's good. It also gives us 4% phys reduction, which is nice. If you can't afford this one, go for a Tempered Flesh. If you can't afford that, just use one of my regular jewels.

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/OyWk98TE
This goes in the bottom left socket on the tree, and replaces Iron Grip with Second Sight. It's only useful for you if you have crafted hits can't be evaded on your weapon. If you don't have hits can't be evaded, give this one a skip. If you don't have enough currency for this one, unspec Iron Grip and put in another regular jewel. This jewel can potentially add useful mods such as crit chance, attack speed, or even onslaught on kill onto Blade of Cunning and Dismembering, but mine doesn't. If you have money to burn, try to buy them until you get some good mods on your 2 notables.

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/30ee7KU5
This one is a luxury. It's about 10ex and it is not at all necessary, but if you can afford one, the damage is huge. If you can't get one, just use a regular jewel.

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/LgBXzBXcn
This is required. This is the easiest place to get mana leech, which we need to continue attacking more than a couple of times.

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/6zomJmkcG
For these ones, you're looking for crit multi, damage, and attack speed. You can optionally get life leech on one of these if you don't want to use Blood Rage during boos fights.

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/3.7.4/AAAABAQDAQUtBiAGogm7DjwUTRRxFHUV7BfcGJEY2xpVIWAj6iP2JP0ppSyULlMwcTB8MbAyfjQ-NZI26DfUOkI6UjsUQKBGaUd-SdVKfUt4TZJRR1b6WK9hIWIXZU1noGhla9RvO3SgdO108Xasd9d4DXrvfyuCB4MuhJSE2YTvhY-GYIdqh3aI7YrwjX2Nv5Bskn2TD5cImG-fiaHZqSepbqmUqs218rkdvJ-9Nr6nwBrKkMv1z37QLNNv1CPUUti92Xzawdwj3Izcvd2o4e_jn-XP5w_nVOlG6hjsXOxx7T_uevJF82_z3fcy-Ov6GPxL_gr_3g==
The next few levels will mostly just be filling in life.

You got level 100? You go!
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/3.7.4/AAAABAQDAQUtBiAGogm7DjwQ8BRNFHEUdRXsF9wYkRjbGlUbqiFgI-oj9iT9KaUslC5TMHEwfDGwMn40PjWSNug31DpCOlI64TsUQKBGaUd-SdVKfUt4TZJN41FHVvpYr2EhYhdlTWegaGVr1G87dKB07XTxdqx313gNeu9_K4E6ggeDLoSUhNmE74WPhmCHaod2iO2K8I19jb-QbJJ9kw-XCJhvn4mh2aZXqSepbqmUqs2tjbXyuR28n702vqfAGsqQy_XPftAs02_UI9RS2L3ZfNrB3CPcjNy93ajh7-Of5c_nD-dU6UbqGOxc7HHtP-568kHyRfJa82_z3fcy-Ov6GPxL_gr_3g==

If you are using the Doomsower instead of a hits can't be evaded Exquisite Blade you will want to change up your passive tree a bit to get some accuracy.

That's OK! Just level using rares that you find. Look for boots with movement speed, and keep looking for weapons that are upgrades from the one you are using. At level 65, you can use your Doomsower, and you will be set until maps!