[3.17] strTrader Max Block Bleed Lacerate Gladiator -- League Start & End Game v3.17.03.17.22

+ All content viable (excludes Aspirational Contents)
+ Strong survivability
+ Low to medium budget (20-50 ex)

- Average clear speed
- Damage scaling is limited due to Resolute Technique
- Bleeding stacks take some time to kill end game bosses

Below are general assessments of league contents:

Gratuitous Violence enables bleed explosion and is our mechanic for map clear. With Lacerate's AoE bleed attack Gratuitous Violence will create chain explosion within a pack of monster.

Gratuitous Violence exploding a pack of monster, the other pack was not hit by our attack and therefore was not able to bleed and explode:

Crimson Dance allows us to stack our bleeding up to 8 times but at the drawback of 50% less bleeding damage. This greatly boosts our single target DPS. I advise having decent attack speed and bleeding damage before getting this Keystone. More discussion on scaling bleeding damage in a later section. As you can see below, majority of our damage comes through bleeding which means we will not one-shot bosses but they will bleed out quickly.



Resolute Technique allow our hits not to miss which is needed for bleed to be applied. There is also a crit version for Lacerate with Paradoxica and Abysuss but that is not the focus of this build.

Call to Arms is used to instant cast Endurance Cry.

3.16 Shaper with PoB gear

3.16 Maven with PoB gear

3.16 Conqueor & Sirus with PoB gear

3.16 Feared with PoB gear using Jack, the Axe and non-Awakened Multistrike

As briefly mentioned in introduction, we will be using axe as our weapon type since many axe skill tree nodes include bleeding modifier. This is the most important piece of gear.

In 3.14, bleeding mod 60% chance for Bleeding inflicted with this Weapon to deal 100% more Damage has been replaced with +(51–59)% to Damage over Time Multiplier for Bleeding from Hits with this Weapon. This was the biggest nerf for 3.14. Pre-3.14 Elder Siege Axe was (probably still is) the best in slot base for this build because of the base attack speed. More attack speed means you can apply more stacks of bleeding per second and more chance to roll higher instance of bleed:

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By default, only the strongest (the highest damage-per-second) bleed application will actually deal damage at any given time. If Crimson Dance is allocated the 8 strongest applications will deal damage at any given time. -- Source: https://pathofexile.fandom.com/wiki/Bleeding

Attack speed is not the only consideration for maxing bleeding damage, what is also important (if not more important) is our base physical damage.

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Potential damage from one bleed application is based on the base physical damage of attack that caused it: 70% per second... -- Source: https://pathofexile.fandom.com/wiki/Bleeding

Therefore you need to balance between attack speed and base physical damage in order to maximize your bleeding. As aforementioned, Siege Axe provides the highest APS, but Royal Axe provides the highest base (average) physical damage while other axe types fall in between. Testing using PoB yielded the same result; with the same weapon modifiers, Royal Axe produces the highest Combined DPS while Siege Axe the lowest Combined DPS. Yet, poe.ninja shows 77% of players use Siege Axe (week-6 snapshot, level 98+, sample size 30).



My conclusion to these observations is that in an ideal situation (i.e. hitting target dummy) Royal Axe beats Siege Axe. In reality during mapping and bossing, you are constantly moving, in order to keep 8/as many stacks of bleeding, you will need to have enough APS during the attack window. This is not to say Royal Axe is bad, we can still invest in attack speed to make it work (or work better).


Finally we can talk about what mods to look for on your weapon.

P Adds # to # Physical Damage
P #% increased Physical Damage
P #% to Damage over Time Multiplier for Bleeding from Hits with this Weapon
S #% increased Attack Speed

Culling strike is a quality of life suffix for bossing but absolutely not mandatory. We have the option to get it through weapon swap, linking Culling Strike Support to our Ancestral Protector or on our gloves. You also want as much quality on your weapon as possible. Keep in mind that 48% Quality is equivalent to 48% increased Physical Damage.

How the 3.14 axe was crafted:

1. Buy an Elder Siege Axe iLv 83+
2. Perfect fossil to 28%+ quality
3. Two options below and you are looking for 2 required prefixes (one of which must be DoT multipler) and a open prefixes to craft the missing one
a. Harvest reforge physical or attack (or any other reforge but less likely)
b. Fossil craft with Jagged and/or Corroded
4. Harvest reroll suffix until we have attack speed or reforge speed with prefix cannot be changed. If you are really feeling lucky, you can reforge attack with prefix cannot be changed hoping for culling strike and attack speed. Keep in mind, when reforging attack, you run the risk of getting 3 undesired suffix thus breaking the item.

We can also multimod our axe if the situation allows (like the one above).

It turns out this axe I crafted (which is worth 10ex mid-league) is beaten by a 7c unique (day-7) or 65c (day-1) as per PoB. Shout out to u/TheHappyEater and u/Botatua who asked about my opinion on this axe. The lack of attack speed was not too much concern and I recorded a couple of boss kills with this weapon. The gears used in the video has more flat damage from two Steel Rings (it was not done intentionally). You must wonder why I am not showcasing with the same gear and the reason for that is all the gears in this guide (gems and cluster/jewels) are stored in inventory to create linkage. It is extremely tedious to re-socket/un-socket and put them back in the right location (and it looks something like this).


I did kill Uber Elder with this axe as well but there were some interruption in between so I did not finish the full recording. If you are interested, I can record a new one.

Shaper

Sirus

Based on my testing and cost of Jack, the Axe, it is probably the best in slot for early to mid league.



The following section discusses the damage output and at what point does
a crafted axe surpass Jack, the Axe. Since there are multiple factors influencing the outcome (especially attack speed), interpret at your own discretion.

Surpassing Jack, the Axe:

The Surrender is the best in slot offhand. Our counter-attack deals double damage. The shield also gives us life and armor on block. The price of this shield has decreased dramatically over the past few leagues. In 3.14, I bought this shield for 8ex, but in 3.16 it costed only 2ex (at week 1). I think the main reason is the decrease in popularity of melee cyclone and Gladiators moving to more range based skills (SST, TS) which needed armor stacking shields and quivers.

Alternatively, we can use the following shields in white and yellow mapping.

Since 3.14, it is significantly cheaper to purchase helmet enchant on the right base. There are only 2 enchants we are interested in. Either will work and depending on your flat physical damage and increased physical damage, one enchant may be preferred over the other but only with marginal differences. I recommend getting the one with the better helmet base. The base you should choose is Royal Burgonet which gives the most base armor.

1. Lacerate deals (14-18) to (20-25) added Physical Damage against Bleeding Enemies
2. 40% increased Lacerate Damage

Level of Investment (cumulative):
T1 [50c-1ex]: Proper base with Enchant
T2 [1ex-2ex]: Elder base with Nearby Enemies Take Increased Physical Damage
T3 [5ex-6ex]: Awakened with Crusader Chance to Block Spell Damage
T4.1 [10ex]: Aisling unveil hybrid attribute or resistance (optional) -> Showcase Below
T4.2 [12ex]: Suffix cannot be changed and reforge life

There is nothing special about the chest piece, you can replace it with anything you can get your hands on with good life and resistance. If we are crafting ourselves, we should use Astral Plate.


How this chest was crafted:

1. Get the chest base, I got mine as an iLv 76 drop which blocks out many good influenced mods. We can craft something much better with a iLv 83+ base
2. Perfect fossil to 28%+ quality
3. Bench craft +18% quality (higher quality has higher chance of socketing and linking)
4. 6-socket and 6-link the chest
5. Split it to either sell or save as a back up
6. Essence craft with Greed until we have a good mixture of resistance (in the above example, T3/3/5) and a open prefix.
7. Crafted #% Increased Maximum Life/Mana
8. Harvest enchant

Mods for gloves are very competitive especially with (double) influenced bases. I chose Apothecary's Gloves because the implicit increases our bleeding damage while Spiked Gloves' implicit does not. Below is a list of mods from low to high budget.

P # to maximum Life
S Resistance
P Adds # to # Physical Damage to Attacks
S #% increased Attack Speed
S #% to Physical Damage over Time Multiplier (Hunter)
S Culling Strike (Warlord)


How 3.14 gloves were crafted:

1. Awakening orb with Hunter and Warlord suffix. Awakening orb with duo prefix or suffix is a prevalent crafting method after Harvest nerf in 3.14. You can still Harvest reroll suffix or prefix using this method. In our case if we get an open suffix, we can craft suffix cannot be changed and Harvest reroll Speed modifier to get attack speed.
2. Harvest reroll prefix until we hit desired mods.

Conservatively speaking, the gloves will take 6 ex to make: Awakening Orb 3 ex, gloves' bases 2 ex, rerolling for suffix 1 ex.

I must admit Culling Strike is what you think you need but it does not feel good once you get it. Yes it increases Combined DPS in PoB by 10% but that is only on paper. In reality during mapping, the monsters will bleed out the remaining 10% before you can hit them again. Keeping in mind when a monster dies from bleeding, Gratuitous Violence will trigger (and it is equivalent to an AoE culling strike which can also cause chaining reaction). Culling strike is more a quality of life for killing bosses. The benefit of having a Warlord influence is that you can hit a good prefix such as maximum Frenzy Charge or increased Damage over Time. Keep in mind the culling strike mod on the Elder weapon is much better since it also increases physical damage:

Hits with this Weapon have Culling Strike against Bleeding Enemies (30–49)% increased Physical Damage.

For 3.15, the I decided to run a defensive curse (Enfeeble/Temporal Chain) to improve survivability. I bought this pair for 4ex and it also gives me +1 level Enlighten which (more than) covers for the cost difference between L3 and L4 Enlighten.

Since we are running Resolute Technique, we do not need Tailwind/Elusive boots, but we can craft a good pair of bleeding boots.

Level of Investment (cumulative):
T1 [10c-50c]: Boots with life, resistance and movement speed
T2 [1ex-2ex]: Hunter two-toned boots with bleed modifier
T3 [5ex-6ex]: Elevated bleed modifier
T4 [10ex]: Prefix/Suffix cannot be changed and Aisling unveil hybrid attribute, resistance or movement speed -> Showcase Below

Detailed Crafting Process:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3222960

There has been a lot discussion on whether Ryslatha's Coil is the best in slot for bleed build. Let us see why this belt is worth the price tag of 6-8 ex at league start.

Ryslatha's Coil provides MORE maximum physical attack damage and LESS minimum physical attack damage. These two modifiers affects both hit and bleeding damage; they are also applied multiplicatively to our damage (which is preferable to increased damage). Since both modifiers have a range (30%-40%), let us look at what happens if you have the absolute worst rolls:

30% more maximum physical attack damage
40% less minimum physical attack damage

To use a generic example with x minimum and y maximum, we can conclude that Ryslatha's Coil will give you more damage if our maximum damage is at least 1.33 times of minimum damage.



Now if we look at the calculation (including y/x ratio) below, we can see that the ratio will always stay above 1.33x. Therefore our final damage with Ryslatha's Coil will be greater than without it (highlighted in yellow). I have also looked at the worst possible scenario on our gears and it turned out even the lowest maximum damage is at least 1.5x of the highest minimum damage. For example:

Axe (T2): Adds (17–24) to (36–41) Physical Damage
Amulet (T2): Adds (9–12) to (19–22) Physical Damage to Attacks
Ring (T2): Adds (5–7) to (11–12) Physical Damage to Attacks
Gloves (T2): Adds (3–4) to (6–7) Physical Damage to Attacks



The above calculation proves that Ryslatha's Coil is a value-add regardless of the rolls, but why is it our best in slot for bleeding build? It is because Ryslatha's Coil expands our damage range. Since only the strongest (stacks) of bleeding do damage, the low bleed rolls are discarded. The below summary shows with all else being equal if More and Less modifiers are moving by the same magnitude, the bleeding damage will increase. In terms of overall Combined DPS, Ryslatha's Coil will provide 10-20% increased damage.




For belt enchant, there are a few options to choose from. There is no absolute best, so take what is offered:

Enemies Blinded by you have 30% reduced Critical Strike Chance
+300 to Armour while you have Fortify
Enemies Maimed by you take 8% increased Damage Over Time

For amulet, you should be looking for key modifiers for this build: physical damage multiplier, physical damage to attack and maximum life. I put maximum life last because life is available on all gears while physical modifiers are more restricted. With higher budget you can add modifiers to gem level. I recommend with the following order assuming all other modifiers between the two amulets are the same.

1. +1 to Level of all Physical Skill Gems
2. +1 to Level of all Dexterity Skill Gems, drop maximum life


For amulet anoint, many people are still using Command of Steel. It does not benefit bleeding damage anymore so I opted for Growth and Decay.

With overall nerfs to this build since 3.14, we need the rings to provide more benefits than just resistance and attributes (although they are still the priority). Additional offensive power can come from Circle of Guilt (legacy version shown below) or Essence of Delirium.

u/Botatua suggested to look into Wasting Affliction (28% usage*) as an alternative to Rend (50% usage*) and the result is surprising. But before that, let us talk about how PoB arrives at the Bleed DPS because it certainly hid some steps and may be confusing to anyone trying to min-max their damage.

*Based on filters using Keystones and Ascendancy Passives in Ultimatum league.



As seen above, we start with our Total Base Damage then multiply by all the factors underneath. All numbers used are referenceable in the PoB. Rend is 0.12 (or 12%)* DoT Multiplier and Wasting Affliction is 0.1 (or 10%)* damage rate multiplier. We then can use those number to determine under what condition is one better than the other.

*Numbers based on pre-3.15 values, the mechanic is still the same.



The result is that we should pick Wasting Affliction as long as the following condition is true. This holds true for the PoB in this guide and will be under most circumstances because DoT Multiplier is a much more accessible modifier than damage rate multiplier.

DoT Multiplier > 1.2x Damage rate multiplier

You may wonder why such relationship even make sense. It only makes sense between Wasting Affliction and Rend. A more generic relationship of deciding increases between multiplicative factors is as follow.

MIN(Factor 1, Factor 2)

This means we should always choose the Factor that is the lower of the two. It is not hard to understand with the below illustration. If our damage is increased by (a)*(b) and we are given a choice of (a+x)*(b) or (a)*(b+x), we should always add x to the lower factor.



The above analysis ignored Wasting Affliction's 20% increased Damage with Ailments and reduced bleeding duration for simplicity.