Lacerate Gladiator League Starter Build Guide - 3.30 Covens of Umbra

Dual Wield with Rigwald's Command is better than Axe + Shield. It gives us more damage but requires slightly more investment to cap block. Using Rigwald's Savagery was the intent of the build early on but a rare Reaver Axe is just better by a lot. The 10 to maximum rage is not enough to compensate. ############################################# FORTIFY ################################################################## Early On you might have to use Fortify Support instead of Cruelty until you get the Eldritch implicit on the Body Armour. Even though we block a lot of the hits making sure you can survive a few hits if you get hit is important, hence the over maximum resistances + fortify + physical damage reduction. It is possible to get Fortify on hit as a corruption on Rigwald's Command. The sword is usually cheap on trade so this would allow you to use Pride Aura Effect on the body armour (see Dual Wield Giga) ############################################# CAMPAIGN GEAR ########################################################### Make sure to cap your elemental resistances and get chaos resistance as much as you can. Life on every piece of gear possible and damage where you can. Slowly work toward the gear in the Dual Wield Endgame gear set. Then change to Dual Wield Giga and strive for that. ############################################ SKILL TREES AND GEAR SETS ################################################# The way I make my PoB's is as follows. Every gear set in the equipment tab has an equivalent in the skill tree tab, which you can also select in the equipment tab (see video for visual explanation). For example, if you are following the Dual Wield Passive Tree, make sure the gear set you use is either Dual Wield Endgame or Dual Wield Giga, depending where you are in your progression. ############################################ ANNOINT ################################################################## The annoints used on the amulets given as example are mostly cheap but quite good. Here's a list of good annoints in case you don't have the right oils: DAMAGE - Berserking, Savage Wounds, Master of Blades, Veteran Solider, Acrimony THICKNESS - Discipline and Training, Constitution, Blood Drinker, Purity of Flesh, Soul of Steel. I would go with damage ones personally as I feel defense is good where it's at. The fact we can now get cord belts, which I use in the guide, gives us another annoint on top of the amulet. This also makes Talisman more enticing to use overall. With this in mind the use of a spider crab or scorpion talisman is also viable, at the cost of an annoint. Ryslatha's Coill is probably the best in the end so using it over a cord belt or stygian vise is preferable if you can get enough resistances elsewhere. ########################################## CLUSTER JEWELS ########################################################### The tree taht uses Cluster Jewels gives slightly more damage and saves 2 skill points but is by no means necessary. It requires a thred of hope and an impossible escape. The medium cluster jewel also gives some chaos resistance which is nice. I give it as an option but I would probably not use it myself. You do get more jewel sockets this way however so it could be a good way to min max. ######################################### LEECH ##################################################################### We get mana leech from the Spirit of War notable. Life leech can be on a jewel, ring or gloves. But using Blood rage to have life leech is usually more than enough. ######################################## LEVELING ################################################################### You start by using slippting steel and a 2 handed weapon. One handed + shield is fine if you get a really juicy weapon. At level 12 you get Lacerate. Use it until you can either farm lab or trade for the alternate gem. Using Fortify support is a slight loss of damage but a nice defensive boost. You stop using fortify once you get the eldritch implicit on the body armour or you get a fortify imbued gem corruption, which is late endgame. ####################################### IMBUED GEMS (7TH LINK) ######################################################## We are getting the currecny we had in Mirage league where you could corrupt a level 20 gem and give it a random support gem effect at level 1. I have no idea how rare or common, or expensive or cheap they will be. They are not included in any of the gem links for that reason. I will however mention a few useful ones. I have listed from best to worse. Fortify Support - Free Fortify and damage, freeing up an implicit on the body armour while making fortify more reliable. Chance to bleed - just damage Swift Affliction - Damage Maim - Damage but not as good as others. Cruelty - Fine choice as you get the Cruelty Buff and some damage. Don't forget to swap the gem for Chance to Bleed if you use this Efficacy - Damage Faster Attack - Feel Good Support and some damage, not ideal but better than nothing and could be cheap. ######################################## ENDURANCE CHARGES ####################################################### Generating these charges is a bit weird on this build While mapping you won't have a problem since we get them on block using the Deflection Notable. We get endurance charges even if we are dual wielding but not the block bonus. On Bosses using Enduring Cry at the start is a good idea. Eventually they will be up because we block a lot. ######################################## SPELL SUPPRESSION ####################################################### I HATE Spell Suppression. The investment to cap it is too high for my taste so I don't bother with it when I can avoid it. Spell block will carry a long way and the over cap resists will help as well. You could try to get Spell Suppression if you want but you would need to remove either life nodes or damage nodes on the skill tree to get some. Maybe even annoint Inveterate. I don't use it on this build and I don't believe it to be necessary. Unless we can get a lot from the Wickerman new league mechanic I would advise not to invest in it. ####################################### HELMET ################################################################## Mana reservation efficiency will allow you to use Malevolence on top of Pride and Herald of Purity. Malevolence requires a lot of intelligence but is worth the trouble. You use an essence of loathing to get the suffix on the helmet (and or body armour if you want) as well as an eldritch ichor for the Eater of World Implicit.