[PHC]Vyvanne's Max block/spell block hybrid Life/ES Crit Claw Gladiator 220k+

Oh hi. Vyvanne here. Welcome to my max block/spell block hybrid Life/ES crit claw Reave build. Boy, say that five times really fast. This is a build I came up with that I've not seen anyone quite do yet, and it's an extremely fun and unique way to approach a classic build that has always been a staple in melee PoE. The build revolves around shield defense nodes, a claw for life gain on hit, Ghost Reaver for leeching ES, and the Gladiator block nodes.


-Pros-
-Max block and spell block.
-Dual source of sustain - life gain on hit (LGOH) and ES leech.
-No need to worry about mana problems thru Soul Raker.
-Very tanky through multiple layers of defense.
-Almost permanent Vaal Reave and Haste uptime.


-Cons-
-Rather gear reliant, though many pieces can be obtained fairly cheaply.
-Need accuracy on gear due to not having a whole ton of dex.
-Chaos damage is a pain since you won't be at max damage.
-Needs a shield with +chance to block to reach full block/spell block.


-How does the build work?-
By taking all the shield defense nodes in the duelist, ranger, and shadow areas, one can get a TON of defenses from a shield, up to 380% increased defenses. With a high armor/es shield, that can be easily 2000+ ES from one piece of gear.

We use a claw to be at maximum life almost permanently, which then allows us to use Melee Damage on Full Life, giving us a MORE multiplier for a lot of damage. Ghost Reaver allows our life leech to affect ES, so even if we take a huge hit, we're regaining our health and ES at the same time, allowing for a very rapid recovery.


-Skill tree-
Final tree, 119 points.
poeurl.com/BuM

Current tree at lvl 77.
poeurl.com/BuO


-Bandits-
Oak, skill point, Oak/Kraitin/skill point.

Personal preference, I like the extra endurance charge for additional mitigation, but all three are viable here.



-Gem links-



-Gearing notes-

Your main annoyance early on is going to be int, and then to a lesser extent, strength. A lot of those nodes won't be available until you climb up to the shadow side of the tree. I'll be adding a leveling guide and additional notes on how to deal with the early game. The tree gives us 124 int and 123 strength when all str and int nodes are taken. If you want to have a max level Enfeeble and Enduring Cry, you'll need 155 str/int (159 if you vaal them to be lvl 21), so that means you need a total of 31 int (35 for 21 gems) and 32 strength (36) from gear and jewels.

Reaching 169 to all elemental resistances after using a Lightning Coil can be difficult as you'll need specific resistance pieces to look for if you want to be overcapped for elemental weakness maps. You will have 3-5 endurance charges that can help with that if you're undergeared however. I like to be overcapped w/o it just in case I fail to keep up my charges.

On the plus side, with whirling blades, movement speed on boots is a luxury and not a necessity, so you can buy high res boots quite cheaply. Claws are also not a very popular weapon, so you can pick up high damage claws at bargain prices as well.


-Your shield-
The most important piece of your gear. This is what enables the build. The one requirement is to have as much energy shield as possible. The perfect shield will have flat armor, flat ES, armor/es % roll, +6 additional chance to block, and then some resists. Unfortunately there really isn't a market for armor/es shields, so a lot of them get vendored. Still, as with many other pieces for the build, when they are listed for sale, you can often get them for low prices.

Here's some examples of what you should be looking for.

The first three are ones I've used in PHC, the last is from last league.





-My gear-




-Stats screens-


Much more to be added soon! Leveling guide, further gearing notes/advice, flask choice reasons, gameplay video, screenshots of offense/defense/etc.

Oh hi Vyvanne. A really nice looking build you've got there. But the lack of stats and numbers is a turn off for me. Can't wait them to be added. The dps and defensive stats being especially interesting. :)

Posting those now!

When I'm done with work today I'll be adding some more to the guide. Got several things I still want to add to flesh out the guide more completely.

For now I'm adding a quick screenshot of my offensive and defensive stats with no buffs.

I followed a build similar to yours from a few months ago.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1405216

The concept/theme of the build was good, but it wasn't as OP as I would have thought it to be. Maybe my gear was lacking? I did it as an assassin to make up for the lowish crit chance and power charge generation.

Says 220k dps while tooltip shows 30k. Yeah, sure.

I've been too lazy to optimize my gear but with 5l, 3 power and 3 frenzy charges and without flasks I get 65k dps. My weapon has 330 pdps but only 6% crit. So I suppose this isn't OP build but it does get the job done. No idea what 220k dps would require. Even with 6l I only got around 100k.

Been extremely busy as of late, leveling a WI character after this one died, but I've still got the character and still intending to complete the guide.

"

ellsworth81 wrote:

I followed a build similar to yours from a few months ago.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1405216

The concept/theme of the build was good, but it wasn't as OP as I would have thought it to be. Maybe my gear was lacking? I did it as an assassin to make up for the lowish crit chance and power charge generation.

The build is pretty gear dependent. Accuracy and flat damage on jewelry will go a huge way towards boosting your damage. With guaranteed frenzy charges from Outmatch and Outlast and near guaranteed power charges from Blasphemy Assassin's Mark, your crit is quite decent.

A good claw is of course your main concern. My claw before I ripped was a modest 290 dps with low crit and base damage, the attack speed roll was alright. I bought it for 20c, you can get 300+ dps claws for fairly cheaply. With that claw I was running around in Standard doing t12+ maps, still clearing pretty decently, though the need for a new claw is indeed felt at this tier of map.

Swapping to the claw I crafted last league, it's quite a breeze.

"

pWn3d wrote:

Says 220k dps while tooltip shows 30k. Yeah, sure.

DPS is damage per second. Tooltip right now is 31785. Attacks per second is 7.52. 7.52 x 31785 = 23903.

"

Vyvanne wrote:

DPS is damage per second. Tooltip right now is 31785. Attacks per second is 7.52. 7.52 x 31785 = 23903.

Tooltip damage is Damage per second. This includes Attacks per second already.

Your DPS is 31k, not 230k.