[POE] Lacerate Bleed Gladiator - Melee Build Guide for Path of Exile 3.18 League

I stopped allocating points at level 93. If you get more levels, either allocate more life or another medium cluster jewel setup. ##################Support Gems################################ You can replace Change to bleed with Fortify. You get less damage but fortifications are easier to build. Since I still have not tried fortify with leap slam this league I can't tell how good or bad it will be. The no cluster jewels tree allocates steadfast and fortify on hit mastery, if you want to use chance to bleed for more damage. So there is no need to worry about fortify for a while. With the cluster tree, it is possible to allocate fewer life nodes and allocate instead steadfast + fortify on hit. Using the fortify support gem instead of chance to bleed is also an option. I will update the POB once I have tried it myself as this is my league starter. ################## ENDGAME AXE ############################### An axe like this one with comparable rolls would be hard to achieve. You can craft approximately the same axe even if it is not Elder influenced. There is a suffix that adds up to 20% damage multiplier over time. I don't think POB calculates the Elder damage over time modifier correctly as the DPS is lower than with the standard mod. Concentrating on %Physical damage as well as Flat added physical damage is best in my opinion. The damage over time multiplier is a really nice stat but does not increase the base hit. We need some base damage to leech enough health. HOW TO CRAFT: Jagged + Corroded Fossil if going for the DOT multi. Only Jagged can do for a starting weapon. Harvest reforge physical is good too. Once you have good prefixes and want either Suffix DOT Multi or attack speed, it is possible to use Harvest's keep prefixes, reforge suffixes until good enough suffixes. Another possibility is to use The Meta mod: CAN HAVE UP TO 3 CRAFTED MOD and add the %physical and flat phys. Everything depends on what roll you get first. SIDE NOTE FOR WEAPON. If it drops, or you are playing trade league, using Jack the Axe, the unique axe, is a good choice. This weapon gives you an aura (Thirst for Blood ) that gives insane life regen per bleeding ennemy. The axe also gives up to 35 DOT Multi. ##################ENDGAME body armor and Shield########################## Nothing too fancy here. You craft block chance unless you don't need it to get max block AND spell block with the Versatile Combattant Keystone. Crafting %Life as well. If you don't need the crafted block you can craft ailment avoidance instead. I added another =6 block chance since shield can roll up to 16% now. POB has just not been updated yet. If you manage to achieve this, you can either ditch the shield mastery that gives +1% block chance per chance to block on shield for 1 more free point. Or you can switch from the Deflection Cluster if you have no problem generating endurance charges and adding another medium cluster jewel. ##################Chaos Resistance############################# I did not bother adding chaos resistances on gear because resistances can be anywhere. Using an amethyst flask is a good idea to help with that. Capping Chaos resistance is not compulsory. Having around 0 is enough to deal with most content. #################Frenzy, Why?? ################################ The only time I use frenzy is to get frenzy charge against bosses. With resolute technique we need only 3 hits. Once we have them, we only need to refresh once in a while with frenzy. Blood rage and the Outmatch and outlast ascendency node take care of frenzy charges while mapping. Another possibility is to get +1 minimum frenzy charges on gear if possible. It can be crafted on rings and amulet with the crafting bench. Frenzy charges gives us a good chunck of damage because of the aforementioned node since we get 10% more danage at full frenzy. ################Auras######################################### There is a possibility to use blood magic and mortal conviction instead of using multiple auras. If you go with this setup, the auras used are pride and war banner. However with the new reservation system, I feel we are better off using multiple auras. Here are the auras used in order: -Pride -War Banner -Blood and Sand (Blood Stance) -Vitality (with the life mastery that grants vitality has 100% reservation efficiency,) Vitality is optional. If you don't take vitality, you get one more skill point since the life mastery that grants vitality has 100% reservation efficiency is not allocated. ###############Reckoning & Vengeance########################### The reason I use these gems is to help with rage generation. Again rage does not give that much damage but gives us mobility and attack speed. I also use life gain on hit becaue why not? Every hit you block counts as being hit as well as hits that are not blocked. The other option could be using a 4 link Rage Vortex for more damage against bosses. However I don't think the damage increase is good enough, I'd rather get hte QoL of counter-attacks. ###################Enchant################################## From what I can see 40% increased damage would be slightly more damage than the flat phys one. Both are fine though. ############# SKILL TREE ###################################### Following the different trees will give you a pretty good ideai of what to do and when. However, depending on gear and play style, you might want to get one thing before another. For example, I like to get Painforged before Outmatch and outlast because I want to cap my block and spell block. You can switch these ascendancy nodes if you prefer getting the damage first. Things that are the most important are: -Get Versatile Combattant once you have 75% block to get 50% spell block. -Take the Vitality reservation efficiency node only if you use Vitality and when mana is a problem. The final version of the build does not use Vitality. Might be usable only if we can get DOT Multi AND Determination Mana Efficiency on the same Amulet. -Allocate Crimson Dance as soon as you get 85% + bleed chance. I do it when I get first lab since the first ascendancy node gives + 50% chance to bleed. Before that getting multiple stacks of bleed takes too much time. - I take the Cleaving cluster quite late because I feel I have enough damage with other nodes. You could take this earlier instead of some life nodes. -Try to get Resolute Technique at around Normal Lab. JACK THE AXE VAAL HATCHET. This weapon gives 400 life regen per bleeding ennemy. This means we can ditch Blood Drinker and annoint something else. There's a lot of options. For life, Discipline and Training is what I would pick. For damage either Retaliation of Harvester of Foes are good nodes. I added a different tree for people that can't get mana leech on the same jewel that gives CB immunity and feel like mana is a problem. You just remove the Tireless Cluster, saving 5 points. You take 2 for a jewel socket and the others for life. 2 6% nodes near Bloodless Cluster and the others in the big life wheel (Constitution) Mana leech is a stat you cang et on ring but you cannot craft it. This could also be a solution to that problem. There is also a tree if you can't get block change on the shield and/or the body armor. The best case scenario would be to get enough block to get 50/50 block spell block without the Painforged ascendancy node. It is possible to take a shield mastery that gives +1% chance per 5% block on shield with a high block shield. For example, a shiled with 30% block would give an additionnal 6% block change with this mastery. Take Testudo instead of bastion Breaker for example. This all depends on your gear. You can get block chance on a chest and on a shield as a crafted veiled modifier. If you can achieve that, then instead of Painforged you can take Arena Challenger to get a bunch of movement and attack speed. I did not manage to get that last league though so that is not compulsory. ############## LEVELING ################################## I like to switch to lacerate as soon as I can because I like the skill and I am comfortable using it. You can however use shattering steel for a while. Other than that you Splitting Steel up to level 12, when you get lacerate / Shattering Steel. You need to keep upgrading your axe. Keep most of the rustic sash you find on the ground. You can vendor one blacksmith whetstone, a white axe and a magic/rare rustich sash to get an axe that as + % physical damage. Rare rustic sash gives a higher tier roll on the axe. You can even use the open suffix to craft resistances. ####################Prismatic Skin Tree Pros and Cons#################### Pros Corrupted Blood immunity without having to corrupt a jewel. Overcapped elemental resistances to 79-78-78 150% increased life from tree. Cons Boss damage a little bit low. Probably enough to do Sirus at Awakener 5 since this is DOT DPS. ##################Corrupting Blood Immunity Jewel Pros and Cons #################### Higher Damage Good leech without blood rage so no degen. Cons No Overcapped elemental resistances Requires a corrupted jewel for corrupted blood immunity. Since I am using this as a league starter to farm maps I am less concerned with Boss damage but my guess is that I will still do Sirus, Catarina, Atziri, Elder and even Shaper with that. I will try upload videos on my youtube to complement the build guide. I am however thinking that the damage might be too low for the Ubers and Maven. ################### Spell Suppression ################################# The only major change to the build is that I recommend going for Spell Suppression. You can use Hybrid Gear to get Spell Suppression, meaning Armour and Evasion base like a Nightmare bascinet. You can get Spell Suppression on Shiled, Body Armour, Gloves, Helmet and Boots. You can also take a few nodes on the tree. If you get your hands on the new Impossible Escape Unique Jewel, You could get Spell Suppression nodes while saving on travel nodes. There are 4 Spell Suppression Nodes to help near the Precise Technique Keystone. This Jewel Allows you to allocate passives in a radius around a specific Keystone. The Acrobatic Keystone also had Spell Suppression nodes close to it, so this one could work as well. I added a tree for Spell Suppression. Use this tree only if you cannot get enough Spell Suppression on your gear, if SS is something you really want at any cost. This tree as less damage by removing the Defiance and Hematophagy Clusters. Depending on your damage this might not be the best. Again, this build has been made mostly for mapping and not bossing so damage is not really an issue on that regards. I suggest you start leveling with the normal trees and only respec later on into spell suppression. This might not even be needed with good gear. You also don't have to take every small nodes. Take only what you need to get to a 100%. This is the reason I get in the cluster from the bottom. This way you cang et the notable with only 2 skill points. There is also the option of getting Spell Suppression as an implicit on gloves via the Eater of Worlds.