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Shield Crush Gladiator League Starter (Crit Variant)

Murderous Eye JewelViridian JewelSeething FuryBrutal RestraintThe Dark SeerEmperor's VigilanceDesert BrigandineSilken HoodHydrascale GauntletsUnset RingMoonstone RingTurquoise AmuletShagreen BootsStygian Vise
Divine Life FlaskGranite FlaskEternal Mana FlaskDiamond FlaskQuicksilver Flask

Hi All,

Inspired by Phreak's spreadsheet breakdown today, I decided to look into a Shield Crush Glad. I looked at POB Ninja's first week of gladiator builds and put a few ideas together and optimized the tree a bit to get the following result: https://pastebin.com/2iXzYL5b. I'll probably be league starting this until I know what the best build is for Sanctum farming.

This is a fairly standard Crit Glad build that should crush maps and have enough dps to get through t16s and the first set of bosses comfortably. Why Glad over Slayer? Glad has QOL(10% less damage at full endurance charges and automatic charge generation, bleedsplosions, maiming), speed(challenger charges), that make it a better league starter in my opinion. You also can be quite flexible in leaning more towards offense or different types of defense. This build goes for max spell suppress as the secondary defensive layer, but you could easily instead choose to invest more into life on block/spell block/max res.

The first unique you will need for endgame is a GGB Prismatic Eclipse. You'll use that until you can get a well rolled Viridian Jewel with a mana leech affix.

You rely on 3 items to speed progression past level 90 - Emperor's Vigilance as the shield. You can't go crit without it. Until then, I suggest taking a few bleed nodes instead and leveling that way with a pure armor shield. You will need a Seething Fury jewel as well when you go crit.

The next aspirational level of the build which is the *fun* part is going Dark Seer as your MH weapon with a Nasima's Brutal Restraint to give you Second Sight. You will also benefit from Malediction. You should consistently be at full frenzies and endurance charges from Enduring Cry, Outmatch and Outlast, Blood Rage and the Mark Mastery. You will likely be at ~2 Power Charges and crit capped as well with just Assassin's mark vs most non slippery bosses.

The build can be optimized further with every slot being upgradable other than the shield.

I want to stress that the build above is very doable in the first week, and the items are real items from someone's week 1 build, but obviously they are *good* items. This is what you are building towards. What you will be building towards, in order, is res capping, then getting hit to 100% - you can probably use some accuracy nodes until you get there. Then Spell Suppression to 100% (you have about 50% on the tree and can use the 12% mastery with eva gear until you are overcapped), then finish ailment avoidance. You can also choose to use Flasks and the new abyss jewels to get avoidance to specific ailments more easily.

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Life

5059

Mana

64

Energy Shield

1128

DPS

2M

Effective Hit Pool

92.96K

Chaos Res

-36

Fire Res

76

Cold Res

75

Lightning Res

75

Armour

25K

Evasion

4K

Block

75 | 36

Crit Chance

100%

Crit Multi

539%

Rage

0

Strength

253

Intelligence

75

Dexterity

212

Ward

0

Item Quantity

0%

Item Rarity

23%

Movement Speed

124%

Blood in the Eyes
Blood in the Eyes
Gratuitous Violence
Gratuitous Violence
Outmatch and Outlast
Outmatch and Outlast
Arena Challenger
Arena Challenger
Unwavering Stance
Unwavering Stance
Call to Arms
Call to Arms
Aggressive Bastion
Aggressive Bastion
Art of the Gladiator
Art of the Gladiator
Bannerman
Bannerman
Barbarism
Barbarism
Bastion Breaker
Bastion Breaker
Bloodless
Bloodless
Born to Fight
Born to Fight
Bravery
Bravery
Champion of the Cause
Champion of the Cause
Command of Steel
Command of Steel
Dazzling Strikes
Dazzling Strikes
Defiance
Defiance
Disemboweling
Disemboweling
Dismembering
Dismembering
Entrench
Entrench
Heart of the Warrior
Heart of the Warrior
Herbalism
Herbalism
Intuition
Intuition
Juggernaut
Juggernaut
Marked for Death
Marked for Death
Master of the Arena
Master of the Arena
Merciless Skewering
Merciless Skewering
Quickstep
Quickstep
Steadfast
Steadfast
Thick Skin
Thick Skin
Versatility
Versatility
Warrior's Blood
Warrior's Blood
View full passive skill tree

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louderpastures

Divinia collected this build from this reddit post.

Click here to claim it.