[3.0][HC] The Lazy Gladiator (Hidden potential max block + bleed leaguestarter)

We are using the unique jewel Hidden Potential to boost the damage from the explosions granted from our ascendancy's notable called gratuitous violence. This notable makes enemies that bleed from our attacks explode for 10% of their max health as physical damage.

This explosion is really hard to scale since general damage, area damage and general physical damage increases are very few in the skill tree. Hidden potential solves that problem by generally increasing the damage we do by 25% (at max jewel roll) for each magic item we wear. With 6 magic items we deal 150% increased damage. This means that the explosion from 10% of the monster's hp is boosted to 25%. With some tree modifiers we boost it even further and closer to 35%.

We also get 50% chance to bleed from our ascendancy tree and another 50% from our skill tree, making sure our adversaries bleed from each hit we land on them. Since we have 100% chance to cause bleed we also take crimson dance which makes us able to stack bleed 8 times. It reduces our bleed damage by 50% but since we can stack it up to 8 times now it gets a great boost once stacked. Great for increasing our single target damage. Oh, did i mention that hidden potential also increases our bleed damage since it is a general damage increase? Groovy.

This way, this build makes monsters go boom and us happier for watching the gore we create. :)

As you can see, we use 6 magic items to boost our hidden potential, 2 uniques and 2 rares. I will try to explain the reason for those choices bellow.

Hidden potential:



We use this jewel to boost our physical explosion, bleed and attack damage. Get one with 24-25% increased damage. I bought mine for 4 chaos.

Chest choice:



You generally want to buy a white, magic, or rare 5 linked astral plate from another player (for 5-15c) and then craft it with alterations until you get a high life roll (80-90) and a high resist roll (35-45). The reason we use an astral plate, instead of another chest, is because it has an implicit all resistance roll which we need urgently since we mostly have magic items and find it hard to cap or overcap our resists.

This build is meant to use a 5link. I was lucky enough to get a 6 link with 14 orbs of fusing, so i use that instead. You want to put the following gems in your chest (in order of importance):

If you aren't lazy enough and manage to get a 6link, you can use increaed area of effect gem (while swapping to concentrated effect gem for bosses) or damage of full life like me. It's a matter of preference really. Just don't use ruthless as you will die to the ruthless aftershock of earthquake on a reflect monster.

Here is a video of this build running a t12 map without using the 6th link (so it's like i am on a 5link) at lvl 90: https://youtu.be/TczbjVBFsYI

Helm choice:



We are using earthquake and the lab helm implicit for reduced earthquake duration is a must. Buy one with 30% roll and craft it until it is magic and gets a high life and intelligence roll (or craft it with masters like i did). We need intelligence for our auras. I bought the helm for 30 chaos in hhc (It will probably be way cheaper in non-hardcore leagues) at lvl 89. Up until that point i was using a self crafted helm without the enchant:



Weapon:



It's a unique one handed mace with 330 dps, low attackspeed (good for earthquake) and looks like a crab hand which is ridiculous. What else to say? Get a high rolled one and never swap it for anything else. I bought mine for 5c and it's close to perfect. (it costs way less in non-hc leagues so check your league's prices before buying)

Also, the can't knock enemies back mod helps if you get a Lion's roar flask since knocking enemies back can sometimes be annoying.

Shield:



Here we have a choice. We either craft a high life (80-90) and high block roll on a blue armor base shield with high life implicit or we get a rare one with phys damage, high life, resists and high block roll. The difference is 25% less bleeding damage, but because you can get resists and higher physical damage and block rolls with a rare i chose to go for a rare one. If you want you can use a magic self crafted one, just make sure it has at least 30% block.

Boots:



This time we have no choice. Rare two toned boots are just too good. Get a rare pair with as high resist, life, movement and intelligence rolls as you can (we need int for our auras). Get the es/armor or es/evasion base since it can roll intelligence. If not craft int yourself from haku's crafting bench.

Gloves:



Our choice of gloves are magic spiked gloves (that have an attack damage implicit), which we craft ourselves with high life and resist rolls.

Rings:


We use magic rings. Coral rings are very good for the extra life implicit but if you need more resists then craft resist based rings instead. Or just mix it up, like i did. Again we aim for high life rolls and resists with the rings. Dexterity rolls are also good but not needed. It just means that your dexterity based gems (faster attacks and riposte) are gonna be lower level than if you do get a dex roll.

Belt:



Get a magic rustic sash (the generic physical damage increase implicit increases the damage of our explosions as well as our attacks) and craft high life and resist rolls.

Amulet:



The anvil is great. It gives 8% block, armor, life and mana when you block and max block increase. Even the reduced attackspeed works well with our build since we use earthquake. Get a corrupted one for 2 alchs. If you want to min max get a corrupted 4% chance to block one. I bought mine today for 130 chaos at level 90. It is totally not needed but if you want to min max it is one of the best options since it brings you closer to block cap.

Currently i have constant 74% block at lvl 90. It's gonna be at 75% at 92 with another jewel socket. When i get hit it always go to 78% (which is the max) for 4 second thanks to painforged.

Rare Jewels:



A block build's weakness are big hits. Since you block most of the hits you only have to worry about the few big ones that get through. Therefore we get max life rolls on our jewel and 1% chance to block with shields. After that you can chose between area damage, physical damage, resists, intelligence and dex (on that order of importance). If you play on softcore you can go for damage rolls before block and life ones.

Passive tree at lvl 90.

The tree is pretty is pretty straightforward. We get as much block, life and generic physical damage and aoe damage nodes as possible. The rest is put into efficient nodes that increase our bleed and physical damage with earthquake.

Bandit Choice:

We help Oak since we get 20% phys damage (which increases the damage of our explosion) 1% regen and 2% flat phys reduction for that. The alternative of 2 passive is not that lucrative.

Ascendancy:

For ascendancy notables, we first get gratuitous violence (with our first two asc points from the normal labyrinth) and couple it with red storm from the passive skill tree as fast as possible. We leave the bloody bludgeon cluster from the passive skill tree (which also gives bleed chance) for later levels (60-66) since we might use axes while leveling.

With cruel labyrinth points we get painforged and we get versatile combatant before kitava from the merciless labyrinth (which helps a lot on that fight with all the spells flying around). We leave blood in the eyes for the uber lab. 75% chance to bleed is good enough until then.

After completing uber lab and getting 100% chance to bleed, we get crimson dance. Up until that point it is really not needed. When you are doing red tier map bosses though, the extra bleed damage from all the stacks helps a lot.

Leveling skill trees:

Here are a few trees to help you orient yourself on the passive tree while leveling:

59 point tree

78 point tree

92 point tree

current 111 point tree

For leveling higher than 90, we first get a 2 point jewel socket near our starting area and more life to fix our build's flaw, which is low health buffer since we get max block. We can also go for hematophagy.
It increases how fast we leech life and brings our leech rate close to that of a slayer for only 3 points! It isn't needed most of the time since we block but it will make a great difference when we do need it.
So after 90, our tree will look something like this.

We have a slow attacking weapon, an amulet that reduces our attackspeed and we want our bleed to be very effective while we dodge boss attacks. Therefore we go for earthquake which benefits from slow, big hits with its aftershock which procs after a set duration. We min-max our attack speed from passive choices according to that aftershock so that it procs with each hit. With the helm enchant the aftershock has a duration of 0.54 which also happens to be our attack time. This means each hit will proc an aftershock. Get some quality on your less duration (10%+). It helps in case you get all your attack speed nodes before your less duration gem hits lvl 20.

Here are the Earthquake support gems in order of importance:


For auras we use blasphemy + enfeeble (which is a very potent defensive option) and purity of elements! Purity of elements is a very underrated aura but it's perfect for our build since it helps us cap or overcap our resists for elemental weakness maps. Alternatively we could use blasphemy + vulnerability for more physical (also increases explosion damage) and bleed damage. I like enfeeble since it pretty much nullifies non- boss monster attacks. The choice is yours.



We put these gems in our shield. The way we craft the colours is by using the vorici bench crafting option for at least one blue socket until we get the first two sockets blue. Then we use the vorici 3->2 and 2->3 socket options until we get all three blue. This way the first two sockets never change and we easily get 3 offcolour sockets on an item!

As you can see, we don't use any elemental damage auras and therefore are free to use the brutality gem support.

Counterattack gems deal a lot of damage so we link them with brutality and melee physical damage.



Ancestral warchief is a very good choice to increase our damage (ancestral protector increases attackspeed and therefore messes with our attack times so it's not optimal). What's more, with our attacks we have a 60% to proc maim and since we use the maim gem, the ancestral protector gets an extra damage multiplier if the enemy it attacks is maimed.



As a movement skill we use shield charge on a 4link! In this build i like to have a harder hitting shield charge since some low health monsters explode just from that.



For more utility we use rallying cry and tempest shield linked to increased duration in our weapon sockets. Rallying cry increases all damage dealt by us (explosion, bleed, normal attacks) and also gives us mana regeneration! We use it as a mana pot as well as a damage booster. Tempest shield increases our chance to block and refreshes itself on block. You can leave it at level 1 gem level. I leveled it up just because i could. There is no reason behind it. It just drains more mana when you level it.

For flasks, use whatever you are comfortable with. I use the following:


A Lion's roar is probably gonna replace that basalt flask once i am not lazy enough to ignore getting it. When i get it i am gonna reroll one of my health flasks to dispel bleed instead of shock. Bleed removal is always needed in high lvl maps.

Update: I got a lion's roar so i am using these flasks now:

It's arguably a better setup. (It doesn't increase our bleed or our explosion damage. Just our hit damage. An alternative damage flask could be a Sulphur flask since it will increse our explosion,bleed and hit damage.)

For pantheon powers, we use soul of Lunaris and soul Ralakesh. Soul of Lunaris makes us even more tankier when charging into a monster pack and let's us avoid some projectiles and spells. Soul of Ralakesh is simply amazing. It let's us avoid bleed 25% of the time (which is important in high levels) and reduces physical damage taken while running, which helps us immensely agains labyrinth traps, bleeds and other physical degens.

Upgrade both powers if you can, leave the ralakesh upgrade for last though as it's not that important.

-IMPORTANT: Pick up all rares that drop while leveling. You are gonna need the alterations from vendoring those if you are gonna craft your magic items yourself (which you'll probably do since not a lot of people pick up magic items in high levels and even fewer in hardcore). If you run out of wisdom scolls, vendor transmutation, armourer scraps and whetstones for more scrolls.

-I already mentioned this, but in case you missed it: If you get the generic damage nodes before the specific mace ones, you can level with a random rare or unique axe until you get mace nodes.

-At lvl 2 until 12 you should be using ground slam (linked/ unlinked doesn't really matter). After lvl 12, use sunder with melee phys damage support and added fire/brutality (depending on what you can use). Then you can get earthquake from a3 gem vendor (after you kill gravicious). Links for earthquake now are melee phys and less duration. Add maim/ brutality if you can get a 4link.

-Here is a list of unique axes and maces you can use while leveling (use the one handed ones).

I recommend using Relentless Fury at level 29, Death's Hand at 56, then Cameria's maul at 60 and finally Callinellus Malleus, which you'll use until the very late endgame.

Before lvl 29 you should be leveling with whatever you find (axe or mace) and using the rustic sash recipe if you really need it (vendoring magic or rare rustic sash + whetstone + weapon = magic weapon with extra damage).

-A real nice shield for leveling is this one https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Crest_of_Perandus.

And https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Goldrim is a great leveling helm.
While https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Wanderlust and https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Seven-League_Step can get you moving faster out of those early levels.

Just remember not to get too comfy with all the unique items. You actually need life rolls later in the game. Especially in hardcore.

-You don't have to do this build (items and gems) exactly how it is right from the start. Although you can certainly do it, it might be hard if you are really new to the game. All you have to do is use purity of elements aura and pick up and identify blue items in order to find some with good res and life rolls while leveling. This can be done with sufficient intelligence (pun intended) and good item drops. It is probably better if you level up with rare or unique items and switch over to the hidden potential build once you have crafted most of the gear needed for it.
IMPORTANT: You get another -30% resistance penalty after defeating kitava in act 10. So, if you plan to switch before her, make sure you have at least 105% overcapped resists. If not, you are gonna have to look for more resistance gear after you deal with her.

-Feel free to not use brutality, purity of elements and blasphemy + enfeeble while leveling. You should have at least three brutality gems and one of each of the rest leveling in one handed weapons and shield in your weapon swap slots (you can view which key is used for weapon swap in your options, i think mine is on x) if you do not. If you don't have enough intelligence to level some of those gems, don't worry about it. Just remember to start releveling them once you do.

-If you do not use brutality, purity of elements and blasphemy + enfeeble while leveling, you are free to use hatred, herald of ash (as auras) and added fire damage (as a gem instead of brutality).

-I already mentioned this, but in case you missed it: Get versatile combatant before kitava from the merciless labyrinth (which helps a lot on that fight with all the spells flying around). Before that you should try and evade boss spell attacks and since you are new and don't know which attacks are spells and which are not, evade them all.

-I recommend using an ancestral warchief linked to faster attacks and melee phys damage to deal with some bosses like Avarius in act 5. Ancestral warchief is also a great indicator for how much damage a boss attack does. Let the totem get hit by the boss attacks (while you just run around evading everything) and watch how much health they take away from it. If it get hits for more than half of its health in one hit or in quick succession, you should probably avoid that attack.