[2.2 / 2.3] [Video Build Guide] Mass Minion Maxblock Dominating Blow Gladiator [T15, 5ex, FUN!]

Offense:
• With 90% increased skill effect duration from passives only, we are able to control enemy mobs for 40-80 second after killing them. A dominated mob sustains all his specific mods, such as the super strong monster auras, buffs and effects. These mods will in return work for us and support our whole army. So the stronger the mobs get, the stronger our army becomes! Both we and our army benifit greatly from our Hatred & Haste auras. And when we pop our lvl 20 Vaal Haste the real fun begins!

Defense:
• While we chop up foes with 8 attacks per second, our Aegis Aurora shield replenishes 2% of our total armour value as Energy Shield per block. As we have up to 75% block chance, we proc this ES replenishment effect all the time, gaining us a full pool of ~4k life and ~600 ES at all time.
• We also deal ~2000 dps per block to all surrounding enemies by using Reckoning. Linking it with Curse on Hit and Warlord's Mark it both grands us a ton of life leech and constant endurance charges from mobs.
• We use two Cast When Damage Taken setups which both grant us defensive and offensive survivability. Firstly we recall ALL our minions to our current position when taking a total of 1000 damage. This greatly distracts enemies away from us. Simultaneously we summon a Stone or Chaos golem and trigger Immortal Call, which lasts up to 4 seconds (!) with out +% duration passives.
• Our second CWDT setup remains level 1. Whenever we take any hit of 530+ damage, we trigger both Desecrate and Flesh Offering. This grants our whole army 24% attack-, cast- and movement speed for 6 seconds.


This is how our block defenses look in action in a T10 map, when we not attack nor take any flasks:




Check this short introductional video for an overview of the gear, the character screen at level 80, the skill gem setup and ign playstyle. I will add a full commented build guide once 2.3 is out, as it is only 4 weeks from now.

Pros
• Super fun and endgame viable
• Makes all the mobs work for you, summoners will be jealous
• Makes use of unique monster mechanics and gets stronger with the content
• Very tanky because of 70%+ block & spellblock, a huge minion meatshield, constant ES replenishment from Aegis Aurora, 2,7% life leech and 58% phys reduction (75% with Flask)
• Affordable gear and beginner friendly leveling
• Easy to play as most skills are trigger-automated by block
• Incredibly strong if you got legacy BoR, Aegis and/or Soul Taker
• Unique build you don't see often and that is no subject to balance nerfs
• It just looks cool as fuck

Cons
• Very graphic intense, as the minions eat your GPU for breakfast
• Not very party friendly for this reason
• It requires some time & dedication to perfect this build if you're new (speaking gems & gear)
• Hardcore viability is yet to be tested
• T14+ bosses require a certain kind of playstyle (hoarding minions)
• No tooltip dps fetish, as most of the damage comes from your minion army
• Pure PVE, forget about PVP and normal/uber Atziri
• It is still a melee build, so you won't be able to play it with one hand in your shorts

Playing this build is pretty easy as we only got three usable skills: Dominating Blow, Leap Slam and Vaal Haste. Everything else is automated.

We usually Leap Slam into a group of mobs, hold the shift key to attack with Dom Blow in place and rotate until we converted all nearby enemies.

I prefer having my main attack (Dominating Blow) on the left mouse button and Leap Slam on the right. But it is completely up to you and just a personal choice I found convenient.

Our priority in T10+ maps is to convert rare (yellow) mobs first, as these often provide our whole army with strong monster auras. They also do a lot of damage due to Bringer of Rain, our linked gems and active auras. To kill rare mobs faster, use your Atziri's Promise Flask, Leap Slam onto the mob and pop Vaal Haste if you like. It will usually die in 1-3 seconds.

To fight bosses in T11 and higher maps, try to enter the fight with an army of at least 20-30 mobs. Then run towards the boss, leap on him for the curse, pop both your Basalt and Promise flask and Vaal Haste. Your minion army will follow you or be recalled once you take some damage. This build can handle most bosses until T13 pretty easy, there is just a few exceptions like the Village Ruin or Malformation bosses, but these are hard with most builds.

See the Videos at the end of the build guide for a detailed impression of the playstyle.

Note: The gems do not necessarily need to have quality, but it is quiete helpful, especially on Dominating Blow and Melee Splash! I recommend buying already leveled gems (with quality or without) while you level up. A level 19 or 20 Dominating blow with at least 14% quality is recommended. With level 70 is when you can switch from your leveling gear and passives to Dominating blow and your future gear (see leveling section below).

This build can be equipped for under 5 exaltet in Softcore Perandus League. I will add the current item prices to all three items which are mendatory for this build.

The Gladiator Ascendancy is great for this build, as it provides us with a lot of block chance, IAS and damage. As our minions distract mobs away from us most of the time, we benefit greatly from the +40% increased damage from Painforged (or +8% block when we got hit). Wit a total of 5 frenzy charges from Outmatch & Outlast, we can boost our damage and IAS again by a lot. Besides that we get 100% chance to block spells, from just one single node!





You can check out my character here

Note: As of 2.3 I suggest getting the Violent Retaliation ascendancy node too, as it just works perfectly with our high block chance.

Leveling is pretty much identical to any common melee build, such a Earthquake or Infernal Blow! Buy a high damage 2H weapon for 1-2c and smash everything with Sunder and Leap Slam. Instead of taking any shield related notes I recommend taking nearby 2H phys damage or life nodes instead and respec these at level 70, when you can use all of your future gear. Level 70 is when you can start playing with Dominating Blow.

With the following Guides and Video tutorials from these great streamers, who provided me with many great ideas and laughs over the years, you can not go wrong in leveling this build. Thanks and shouts to LiftingNerd, ItsYoji and the man Bockwurst for the inspiration!

• https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1596320

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikw7EME6sYE

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKQzTlzJX-E

Bandits:

• Normal -> Help Oak for 40+ life
• Cruel -> Help Oak for 16% phys damage or kill all for +1 point
• Merciless -> Help Kraityn for +1 to max Frenzy Charges

I am currently level 80 with this build and doing well in maps up to T13. This build can do almost all mods, also hard ones like phys and ele reflect, no regen and minus res. It can not do Blood Magic and Temp Chains is a complete pain in the butt.

T13+ is already viable at level 80, but I need another 5-10 levels to farm it efficiently. In T13+ I might switch Poison out for Increased Duration, to have more minions in boss fights (Excavation bosses took me quite long to kill without any minions).

But have a look yourself :)

Full 2.2.2 Video Build Guide

Tier 10 Volcano w/ beyond

Tier 11 Academy w/ phys reflect

Tier 12 Shipyard w/ phys reflect

Tier 13 Excavation w/ ele reflect

I will add a full commented build guide once 2.3 is out, as it is only 4 weeks from now.