[3.2] Insuppressible Gladiator | Max Block, Full Life, Sunder/TS, Super Tank, All-budget

Hi Vealor,
Thanks for the build! I have yet to ever try the Gladiator ascendency or any block-build so I'm quite excited about trying yours.
I have a couple of questions if you don't mind:
1. I see that you're picking Iron Reflexes. I'm not entirely sure I understand how it works, but is there any benefit to Iron Reflexes if we don't stack Evasion via gear or Grace? Is it good on its own?
2. You recommend linking Blasphemy + Warlords Mark + Hatred. Am I right in thinking that Hatred doesn't need to be linked with the other two?
Tala Moana!

@Vealor

It does, thanks. I have several other questions. What of Using Alpha's Howl for possible mana reduction freeing up additional rings since not having to owrry about frozen or frost resistance.

Also, what would end game life regen look like (assuming you even get hit) roughly how fast can we see regen peak at?

@LordGuanYu
I look forward to hearing what you think of it as you play through! To answer your questions:

1. I put Iron Reflexes on the build so that as you are leveling up and acquiring gear, you can still reap some kind of benefit from having something with Evasion (such as while you are using Crest of Perandus from lvl 8). If you have all armour gear at endgame and have 0 evasion, you could in fact remove those nodes and that keystone in favour of more life! Also, if you have so little Evasion that it isn't worth it to you, then you could also give it up and go for more life. I have found that sometimes I can find cheap 5L or 6L Evasion body armour early on and I don't have to worry about it being useless due to Unwavering Stance because I have Iron Reflexes. This cuts down on build costs significantly until you can afford something else! :)

2. You are correct, we don't need Hatred linked to those. Blasphemy goes with Warlord's mark and Hatred can sit alone.



@Roulce
Although Alpha's Howl would be nice, we want to save the helm 4L for one of the other 4-links we need instead of using it for auras. Another problem with that helm is that it gives us only a bit of cold resistance and no life. We would be much better off with altering our flask setup in order to get immunity to freeze when required.

With high tier gear (from the non-ridiculous Path of Building pastebin) we would have about 1000/s regen (assuming you have consecrated ground beneath you from either Commandment of Light glove enchantment or with a sulphur flask, else it would be only be around 650) and has about 1200 life leech. This I believe doesn't take into account the 5% recovered life from blocking with the shaper shield. This build is sitting a bit over 6000 life.



I hope I was able to answer both your questions enough, let me know if you need anything further!

Really appreciate your answer! Everything is clear now! Thanks again.

Alright, I'll see about expanding my mana pool as the pitiful amount I'm seeing at the bottom definitely is going to be looked at, almost to cruel lab and so far I'm enjoy the increase that anvil brings in terms of block rates. It's noticable but not quite up to where I'd like to see, aim to have max block around mid 70's.

@LordGuanYu
No problem!



@Roulce
I'm glad you've noticed the difference in block rate. I definitely agree that it feels good. When you get your Merci Lab done, you'll also have the +1% block rate each time you block, so you'll be able to get to 82% really easily!



BTW everyone, I've been playing with Tectonic Slam and it is really enjoyable! I find that the AoE range is not as far as Sunder, but it is wider which makes hitting specific mobs/packs easier.

Note: Tectonic slam is completely viable, and actually better imo than sunder. I pulled a charge gain on block shaped shield and tectonic is breezing through maps now.

@Roulce
Fantastic! Glad to hear it, I'm really looking forward to pushing with tec slam. I'll update the guide sometime this week hopefully for tec slam. Don't forget the "Recover #% life on block" for your shield too.

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Hello! Awesome guides! I love tanky builds like these as I suck at the game and it helps me not die so much :P.

I do have a question though. What would replace CWDT if we have portal? It doesn't work with Warcry like rallying cry as I understand it so it seems like a wasted gem. Is there an alternate 3l setup you would recommend to replace this setup all together? perhaps a passive cwdt + molten shell + whatever? or i guess molten shell could just replace the portal? I guess my other confusion is what rallying cry is for. Is mana that hard to come buy in late game? I feel like I'm missing something obvious LOL

Thanks in advance!