[2.6] Toxic Aegis - CwC Chaos Flurry Gladiator

This is a Life Based Block build that uses Aegis Aurora for defense and the power of Chaos Damage, Bladeflurry and Cast while Channeling as offense.

The build uses the Gladiator Ascendancy mainly for the block to spell block from the Versatile Combatant Ascendancy Node, while the other ascendancy points provide nice buffs to block and damage.

Updated for 2.6 - no major changes - just a little Pathing in the Sai Tree

The Basics in Detail

Defense:
Aegis Aurora is a unique Shield that replenishes our Energy Shield by 2% or our Armour Value on block.
To use this we will get maximum Block and Spell Block and a high ammount of Armour.

The Energyshield is not the focus of the build, we just get some of it and lots of life under the ES buffer.

As we get 35 - 55k Armour 1k - 1.5k Energyshield is enough to make Aegis work well.

With 600 - 1000 Energyshield on Block and 75% Blockchance we are near unkillable exept for oneshots and unblockable damage like DoTs.

Offense:
We use Bladeflurry for Cast while Channeling and use support Gems and passives that will enable dealing good damage with both, the Flurry and the linked Spell.

To achive that we use the added Chaos Gem, Void Manipulation and Poison Support and scale mostly pure Chaos damage on the tree.

We also add Chaos Damage to attacks with our Rings and Weapon.

Bladeflurry and Blade Vortex both get a more damage muliplier per Stage/Blade that will scale the added Chaos damage really well.

For normal mapping we can use Bladefall for the better AoE, Bladevortex can be used for higher singletarget damage.

To further improve the Damage we can also use a Essence of Delirium crafted Decay Weapon to add another Chaos DoT to the mix.



Video Guide + High level Gameplay

Weapon Test Part 2

Quick Breachlord Test after 2.5.1 Bladevortex fix

Weapon Check - Comparing the Weapon Options - Breachlord Tull Kill

T16 Abaxoth (Lair of the Hydra)

More Weapon Talk and Cospris Will Impression

First Impression

More Videos comming soon!



Pro
- Very Tanky
-good damage for a Aegis build
- Physical + Chaos Damage - does not need to worry about enemies resists much
- Can do Atziri, Breachlords, Uber Lab, Guardians
-Nearly unkillable
- Easy to level
- can be done on a budget

Con
- Needs a 6L
- Damage isn´t as high and fast as most Meta builds
- You can die if you lack knowledge about things that can kill you
- high end gear can be expensive - on a budget the damage will be worse

For those that want a really Quick Overview here is the Atlas of Build



There are 2 Options for Endgame Weapons that this build can use - Sai or Gemini Claw. With Sai we need less block, but some Mana Leech, with Gemini Claws we need more Block but no Leech.

LvL 90 Tree for using a Sai

LvL 90 Skill Tree for using Gemini Claws




Bandits: Oak - Kill all - Kill all

Ascendancy:
Normal = Painforged
Cruel = Versatile Combatant
Merciless = Gratuitous Violence
Uber = Violent Retaliation

Leveling Trees will be added as well as variant trees



Mainhand Weapon

We can use Claws, Daggers or Swords. High Attackspeed and a usefull imlicit Mod are the most important criteria to choose a weapon.
In my oppinion for Endgame there are 2 Options: Sai Dagger for the 6% Block implicit or Gemini Claw for higher Attackspeed and Life + Mana on hit implicit.

No matter which weapon is used, it needs a flat added Chaos Damage roll and a attackspeed roll.

The best Weapons in my oppinion are Sais with Attackspeed, Delirium and CHaos Damage or a The Scourge Claw.

The Budget options are very close in speed in singletarget but normal mapping feels more fluid with Scourge or Delirium+Chaos. (See Video Section, Video "Weapon Test Part 2")

Gemini Claw example:


Sai Dagger with Delirium Mod Example:



A Gemini Claw with Chaos Damage Mod can be aquired very cheap via the "Rabid Roa" Divination Card.

Its a very common drop and cheap to buy a set.

Once you got the Claw you augment it, then Regal it and hope for a high Attackspeed roll.

If you did not get a Attackspeed roll, craft one with the Vagan Bench. If you got a Attackspeed roll you can add the Damage over time Mod with Leos Bench.


To get the Decay Mod you need a Essence of Delirium.


You then need a Sai or Gemini Claw base with Itemlevel of 83 or higher to roll the "Malicious" Mod for the added Chaos Damage.

You should check poe.trade for Daggers that are allready crafted. This Essence is often used by Essence Drain Casters that want such a Dagger with Spelldamage, so the added Chaos is a bricked craft for them and they might sell them cheap.

With the Price of Delirium Essences this is the most reasonable way to acquire such a Weapon.

You can also use a Weapon with Physical Damage like The Scourge or even the advancing Fortress for all Defense.

Shield

We use a Aegis Aurora.



Notes about "The Surrender" are in the FAQ at the bottom.

Chest

The Chest needs very high Armour or Evasion. As we need 2 Blue + 4 Green Sockets a Evasion Chest is much better suited. We use Iron Reflexes anyway so it will get converted to Armour.



We also really want as much life as possible.

Ideal Prefixes would be: Flat Evasion - % Evasion - Life

For Suffixes we want elemental and chaos Resists, chaos is really important and you should get it where ever possible. In general Suffixes on the Chest are not as important as the Prefix rolls. You can get resists in other slots, but you can´t get as much AR/EV in other slots.

You can also use a Hybrid ES/EV Chest, the best base for that would be a Sadist Garb.

Keep in mind that high Evasion and Life is more important than ES.

We use ES and Life but have a focus on Life and Armour, we need only limited ammounts of Es to make Aegis work.

A Unique Option would be Cospris Will.


It lets us Poison without the Gemlink, enables a 2nd curse, has high Evasion and Chaos Res.
The downside is that it has no Liferoll.

In my Oppinion a Cospris is the best in Slot Chest for this Build.

We can use a Enfeeble as our 2nd Curse which more than makes up for the missing life roll on the Chest.

The free Gemslot can be used to switch between inc. Aoe, Conc. Effect and Controlled Destruction.

A 5 Link Cospris works just as good as a 6Link rare, so choose what ever you like more.

Helmet

We look for high Armour/Evasion + ES with Life here or try to get a good pure ES Helmet with a Life roll.

As Lab Runners mostly enchant Hubris Circlets, its alot easier to buy a Hubris with a good Enchant than it is to buy a pure Armour or Evasion Helmet.

A Hubris with Life as Prefix is also often cheaper compared to only ES Versions.

It can also be usefull for Socket colours as we will need 3B-1R in one Item if we Dual Curse with Cospris.

If you buy a Hybrid Helmet it does not matter if AR or EV as we use Iron Reflexes. Its a good Slot to get some ES. For resists its the same as the chest.

In addition we can get Accuracy here. As we don´t have the Points to get Resolute Technique we need some Accuracy to hit. Only Helmets, Gloves, Amulets and Rings can have Accuracy so you should plan to get at least one or two rolls on these pieces.



There is a Unique that is really interesting:


It can provide a ton of armour but has a low life roll and no ES or resists. If you want to use this helmet you should plan your other gear around it.

I would recomend using a ES+EV Chest with this helmet as you will lose ES and eHP and need a Slot to make up for that. The 200-300 ES a Sadist Garb can provide will come in handy.

Another Unique that could be used is a Vertex.


It provides very high ES + Evasion and also has Chaos Res. The +1 to Gems can be used to give a level to our Auras or Curses.

The downside is that we lose another life roll compared to a rare helmet.

Gloves

Again: Life, Armour/Evasion and ES.

We can also get Attack Speed and Accuracy here, which are both very nice to have.

As we don´t have the Points to get Resolute Technique we need some Accuracy to hit. Only Helmets, Gloves, Amulets and Rings can have Accuracy so you should plan to get at least one or two rolls on these pieces.

Boots

I guess you know it: Life, AR/EV and ES.

With Shield Charge i don´t feel like i need movespeed at all. Even without speed on boots i can keep up with other in party.

This makes it alot cheaper to buy boots as most players want movespeed in this slot.

As Suffix you want Resists as you need them.

Boots are a good Slot to get Resists as our other requirements for them are pretty low anyway.

Amulet and Rings



We want Resists and Life.

The Amulet can also roll %ES and % Armour/Evasion which is really nice to have.

We also will need some Int for our Gems and Weapons, the Amulet is a good Slot for this as it can provide 30 Int as implicit.

On Rings we can get flat Evasion and some attack speed beside the usual stuff.

Its important to get Rings with a open prefix Slot to craft on Chaos Damage with the Elreon Bench.

For high end crafting you could also try to get good rings with the % Chaos Damage mod from Essence of Envy.

Belt

We have a broad choice of belt bases, Leather Belts, Chain Belts, Crystal Belts, Rustic Sash or Vanguard Belt are all good.

Try to get high Life and Resists as priority in this Slot.



We can get loads of Life in this slot and this should be a priority.

All belts can also roll a pretty high armour roll.

For Suffixes its Resists and Chaos Res again. A Strength roll can provide additional Life.

Jewels

On Jewels we want the following Mods the most:

- % Life
- % increased Chaos Damage
- % increased Area Damage
- % Armour or Evasion

Other good Mods are:
- Damage over Time
- Physical Damage
- Chaos Res
- Attack Speed in all forms
- Spell Damage
- Accuracy

Chaos Damage and Area Damage are by far the best Mods for Damage as they double dip for the Poison.

Flasks

Flasks are very important for this build, as they provide protection from things we can´t block.

Mostly bleed and burning.



You need reliable Bleed and Burn remove Flasks, reliable means high duration and high ammount of charges.

Bleed is more important then burn as it is more common.

I recommend using a Sulphur Flask as Bleed remove and a Granite or Jade Flask as burn remove.

As Unique Flasks the Witchfire Brew, Sin´s Rebirth and Atziris Promise can provide a big Boost in Damage and defense.

The last Slot is taken by one instant Life Flask to heal up quick from hits that get through the ES and Block.

You should also have one Flask as "Switch Flasks" with different Version to adapt to different situations.

For example i have Granits/Jade Flasks rolled with Anti Burn, Anti Freeze, Anti Curse and inc. Armour to switch depending on Map/Boss.

For Tul you want a Freeze/Chill immune, for a LAb run with Curse Fonts you want a Curse remove.

You should never switch your bleed flask and allways have a bleed remove on a duration based flask.



Main Damage

Bladeflurry - Cast while Channeling - Bladefall/BladeVortex - Added Chaos Damage - Poison - Void Manipulation

In a 5 Link you can skip the Void Manipulation but it loses alot of damage. I highly recommend a 6 Link!

With Cospris Will you could drop the Poison Gem and use Controlled Destruction/inc. AoE for mapping and Concentrated Effect for Bossfight.


Mobility

Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Fortify

You can also replace Shield Charge with Whirling Blades. In my oppinion Charge works better because of the lower manacost.

Flamedash

Just unlinked to travel up and down ledges in maps.

Auras

Grace - Determination

We use this setup together with Iron Reflexes to get very high Armour. This is important to get the most out of Aegis.

It "heals" for 2% of the armour so we want 25k minimum.

25k isn´t hard to get with this Aura setup and even lots more with good gear!

Utility and Damage

Cast when Damage taken - Tempest Shield - Flame Golem

Tempest Shield caps our block and Flame Golem gives us a nice global damage boost. You can also add in a added Chaos damage to deal some damage with Tempst Shield procs.

Spell Totem - Wither - Faster Casting - increased Duration

Great damage boost for bosses or other hard singletargets. Its really a great damage boost, i also tried using warchief but With Totem does a much better job!

Reckoning - Curse on Hit - Vulnerability

Curse everything without reserving mana or doing anything yourself.

As 4th Link you can add increased AoE, added Chaos or Riposte.

If you use a Cospris you can add another curse.



Can you show your Gear?


Sure, her is the stuff that i am currently using.



My Skilltree including Jewels is linked in the Skilltree section inside the leveling Spoiler.

You can also check my Profile Page

Do you Stream?

I do sometimes stream and will try to do it more and on a regular schedule in 2017.

Feel free to drop me a follow so you don´t miss it when i decide to stream once in a blue moon.

Twitch

My Damage is low. What am i doing wrong!?

You should check the levels of your Skill Gems. Added Chaos and Bladefall/Vortex should be at the highest possible level.

Don´t hesitate to spend some Chaos on buying higher level Gems, once you get are lvl 70 you can and should use lvl 20 Gems of your Spell and added Chaos.

What about "The Surrender"?

I toyed around with Skilltrees for a Version with"The Surrender" but could not come up with something that would convince me.

Most of our Armour/Evasion comes from nodes that will also provide Life or other benefits so we can´t save much in that regard. The heal we get on block would be alot lower than Aegis and atleast with this version of building a block build we can´t reach any meaningfull ammount of more damage or life to compensate for that.

We could drop our Auras to get Hatred and HoA but we dont have mcuh scaling for that anyway so i don´t think it would be worth it.

Will you add leveling Trees and Gear Tips?

I did. Its in a Spoiler Tag in the Skilltree section of the guide.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask in this topic.
I get notified for each new reply and will answer as quick as possible.

Why don´t you use a Phys Weapon / Why not use X or Y instead of added Chaos / CwC?

This is a Cast while Channeling build. Switching out Cast while Channeling and just using a Phys Weapon is not this build. You can make a strong Phys Flurry Aegis, but there maybe are other Guides for that. This Guide is not one.

Why not use Rapid Decay as 6. Link with a Cospris?

With a Cospris you can´t use a Rapid Decay Gem, as non of the abilitys inherits the duration tag! You could only do that if you link Poison, which would defeat the purpose of using a Cospris.

Can it do Uber Atziri/Shaper?

Short answer: No

Long Answer:

Trash mobs, Vaals and Trio are not a Problem. Atziri herself is a Problem. All of her Attacks can potentialy oneshot use or put a very strong DoT on us. One failed block can mean instant Death.

It can be done with a combination of Luck and Skill in the Splitphase but i would not reccomend planning to farm Uber with this build or trying your first ever Uber with this.

Same thing for Shaper: Many big DoTs, Vortex fields really fuck up Block and overall not enough damage to end this quick enough.



Which Enchantments are good?

Helmet: Bladeflurry Damage, Bladefall Damage (or Blade Vortex Radius/Damage if you mainly use Vortex)

Boots: Stun avoid, Life Reg or Chaos Damage on Crit. (idk about the last one it seems to fir well and adds lots of damage but these "on taking a crit" mods just seems very random)

Gloves: "... of Fury" or "... of War" is what i would use. It helps spreading Bleeds and Decay around. Its not doing all that much so you could also just use Spiked Gloves for the Melee Damage implicit or corrupted one... overall the Glove enchant really isn´t important for this build.

If you want to check the Tree + Gear on my Character go to my Profile or this Thread

im gonna try this build, looks nice. Love gladiator block build.

What would you say is stronger before the chaos+essence weapon, a added Chaos or a Delyrium weapon? Also how was the clear speed with only one of these mods as the main weapon?

nice build am going to give it a try but will have to wait untill some decent 6links go on sale all around the 1k eva rating if you had that destiny for sale id buy it for sure then start asap but untill then have to wait ! but definatly doing this build seems so enjoyable and the tankiness !!!

@andy007
Let me know how it works out. All Feedback helps improving the guide and building the FAQ and leveling saektion :)

@valdivia1109

I never played with a Delirium only. I started with the Claw and then bought the Sai.
As it seems that the Bladevortex multiplier somehow scales the Delirium a Delirium only weapon would still be very strong vor singletarget with Bladevortex.

If i were to craft something to try it i would use a really fast base for it, as attack speed also helps alot in scaling the added damage from the support gem.

@suparasta

I crafted both with the Flat Evasion Essence.
I sold the Destiny to a Guildmate yesterday so that one is gone, sorry.

You can start with a lower one though even with my shity leveling 5link i used i had 20k Armour. (250 AR+ EV blue base^^)

You could also plan to use the Formless Inferno to get away with a lower EV Chest.

Sadist Garbs are often pretty cheap and can get good Evasion + ES going while the Helmet givs a ton of armor.

Updates to the Guide:

Added Order of Ascendancy to the Skilltree section.
Added Atlas of Build link to the Pro/Con section

thanks for the reply my net connect has been pritty bad last two days once its settled down ill start leveling this toon i already have ageis and i managed to get a 95+ life 1500 eva 6 link chest with 45 single res (lightining) and can craft another res on it about an hour after i posted that comment already have a tri res chain belt with 90 life sitting in stash i was going to use my level toon with will be a good gap filler untill somthing better pops along made head of new jewels aswell inc dmagae melee damage with one hands spell damage and spell damage with sheild and 5-7% life got lucky and i bought a eva/es helm with dual res 40 i think and 75+ life already managed to get a claw with chaos damage and 18% attack speed regaled it and got fire damage on it just need to find someone with leo + 3 for the dot mod probly wont get a essence weapon for a while i spent all my currency i have on the chest/sheild and such but i already have a good start to the build im excited to see this build in action my goal for it will be to farm uber lab with 3-4 keys as i can do it on my dual weapon totem but less keys this seems far far saifer and such i just cant wait i will have feed back for you in the next few days !!!!!

ps what amount of es should we aim for around 1000 es or a bit higher or lower bud ?

pss in regards to flasks could we also use a basalt and granite also or just stick to double eva flask setup ?

@suparasta

If you need a lvl3 Leo you can ask me :)

My ES is 1.245 atm. I would not mind having more, the point is jsut to not sacrifice Life or Armour to get more.

Uber Lab works pretty well, did it yesterday with 4 keys several times. (Fonts + Gargoyles)

Traps are pretty easy with Life reg and ES recharge you can afford to bump into them quite often.

Itzaro can hit really hard when buffed so it can get sketchy with onehits. (when buffed with Charges+Ele damage)

Also you should use Blade Vortex for Itzaro, its really much better then Bladefall for single target.

For the Flasks i have Jades and Granits rolled:


And use them depending on the situation. my standard one is remove burn, for Tul i use Chill remove and for Itzaro Curse Fonts i use Curse remove.

I would not use a basalt, it only has one charge stored and does not make our armour higher.

I only use Stibnite because its the Witchfire, if i had no Witchfire i would use a second Basalt or Jade with inc. Armour rolld on it. You can then stack both (one Jade, one Granite for insane ammounts of AR)

Edit:

I just bought a Cospris Will to test this a bit.

It works really well and Enfeeble as 2nd Curse could make up for the loss of Life compared to a Rare Chest. (i lose 320 Life compared to my rare chest)

Curse-ing with Reckoning Curse on hit seems reliable enough as you don´t need to poions trashmobs anyway and if you need it and Reckoning does not trigger you can allways curse with Witchfire.

If i had a 6L on the Cospri my last link would be Controlled Destruction. It only scales the Spell, but its blue which means it can be switched out for a Conc Effect for Boss fights.

Could also test if its ok to allways use Conc or use inc. AoE for mapping and Conc for Bosses.. idk.. but a Blue socket would be the best in any case ;)

"

ZweihundertMorder wrote:

@suparasta

If you need a lvl3 Leo you can ask me :)

My ES is 1.245 atm. I would not mind having more, the point is jsut to not sacrifice Life or Armour to get more.

Uber Lab works pretty well, did it yesterday with 4 keys several times. (Fonts + Gargoyles)

Traps are pretty easy with Life reg and ES recharge you can afford to bump into them quite often.

Itzaro can hit really hard when buffed so it can get sketchy with onehits. (when buffed with Charges+Ele damage)

Also you should use Blade Vortex for Itzaro, its really much better then Bladefall for single target.

For the Flasks i have Jades and Granits rolled:

And use them depending on the situation. my standard one is remove burn, for Tul i use Chill remove and for Itzaro Curse Fonts i use Curse remove.

I would not use a basalt, it only has one charge stored and does not make our armour higher.

I only use Stibnite because its the Witchfire, if i had no Witchfire i would use a second Basalt or Jade with inc. Armour rolld on it. You can then stack both (one Jade, one Granite for insane ammounts of AR)

Edit:

I just bought a Cospris Will to test this a bit.

It works really well and Enfeeble as 2nd Curse could make up for the loss of Life compared to a Rare Chest. (i lose 320 Life compared to my rare chest)

Curse-ing with Reckoning Curse on hit seems reliable enough as you don´t need to poions trashmobs anyway and if you need it and Reckoning does not trigger you can allways curse with Witchfire.

If i had a 6L on the Cospri my last link would be Controlled Destruction. It only scales the Spell, but its blue which means it can be switched out for a Conc Effect for Boss fights.

Could also test if its ok to allways use Conc or use inc. AoE for mapping and Conc for Bosses.. idk.. but a Blue socket would be the best in any case ;)

thanks for info much appricated ive spent all i have to get gear for this toon so cospri is out of the question for me lol but if sucsessful this build will make alot of currency so could be a opyion later on down the line ( funny thing is i watach a vid of your CoC cyclone and the god of youtube pointed me to the videos for this build then i found the forum guide) thanks for replying bud i know my flask combo now atleast insta health 2 jade 2 granite

"

i know my flask combo now atleast insta health 2 jade 2 granite

Would not skip the Atziri Flask. Chaos Res can be really nice and it adds lots of damage to the Spells + Lets you leech like a LL Gem from your Chaos damage.

btw: i bought a Gemini Claw that has only Decay Mod, will make a Video comparing the 3 Options: Chaos + Decay, only Chaos, only Decay.

Another great option could be a vulnerability in a blasphemy set up and using gloves with temp chains on hit. This allows use to use Cospri's will for a 7 link and the added damage over time and helps scale the little bit of physical damage you do. Should try this out and let me know how it goes.