[3.25] Splitting Steel Gladiator - All Uniques, Cheap League Start, Explody Mapping

"

deviantek wrote:

Spoiler

"

corosou wrote:

If anyone wants to be tanky AF:

1) Keep Spell Suppression Nodes in tree
2) Swap to your amulet to Defiance of Destiny
3) Acquire a Progenesis
4) Switch Curse from Vulnerability > Enfeeble
5) Know your limits

GL

OP:

While I appreciate your acknowledgement and reply, this is the only helpful bit of your reply, the rest was aggressive, condescending, elitist in nature... So thanks for that!

For what it's worth, I enjoy playing HC, and have only ever played HC. While I may not ever be an expert player, that's why I visit these forums and look for generous people and build guides. With the apparent lack of activity on POE forums these days (and I've played since PoE came out), your guide looked like a viable approach... Advertising it as beginner friendly with the uniques, etc.

I'm OK with dying, and restarting, and I thrive to take a character as far as I can before that happens in a league. I don't need to get the best items, or feel like I need to be in the touch-no-grass club. It's OK.

Thanks for trying to help, I know that was your intention, but it did not come off well. I think you may have NPD, and as a result I'll not continue to engage any more similar replies.

Cheers,
dev

OMG... I say don't take it personally and that's exactly what you do. It's not about you as a person, it's about your choices in this game, and my opinion of them.

Also, not sure what NPD has to do with it. If it were about me, I wouldn't have disclosed ahead of time that I was about to be harsh.

Either way, it's OK to not be polite 100% of the time, as long as there's a reason.

And the reason is you've posted several times already with the same pattern, and that, in my book, warrants a bit more forceful wording:

"I am so confused by Crit.." - bro... you Crit or you don't, what is there to be confused about? Try them both, pick whichever feels better FFS.

"I am so confused by Replica Wings" "Is it good? Is it better than my Rare? Should I upgrade? Should I not?" - Dude... Try them both and pick whichever feels better!

"I'm squishy, please fix it for me" - My suggestion is to watch Ben_ stream and learn from the best HC player in the game, because I assure you, no one that is posting or reading this thread is, including myself.

Feel free to keep posting or not, makes no diff to me... I get absolutely no benefit from writing guides.

GL

3.23 Gear Update: MF Setup

Hi Fellas,

So... I heard that MF is pretty popular this league ;)

And it being the case we have enough DPS to sacrifice, I tested/fine-tuned an MF setup all this week, and here's what it looks like farming a T16 Cemetery + 10k Empowered + Abyss + Enraged Strongboxes + Deli):

YouTube: T16 Cemetery - (10k Empowered, Double Abyss Spire, Enraged Strongboxes, Delirium)

These are the Sextants/Scarabs and Atlas I'm running:




And here's the gear:



So, with this setup we're at:

52 IIQ: 20 Boots + 12 Flask + 10 Gloves + 10 Ring

220 IIR: 70 IIR Supp. + 67 Flasks + 44 Ring + 39 Tincture

Which is pretty damned good and just look at the loot explosions you can get from a single map:



I'm not going to go over the prices, because nothing is cheap.

To get started, you don't need any of the nice corruptions on MF gear. Most MF gear is quite cheap, and if I am able to farm T16s with my GG gear, you can certainly farm T7s with starting sets.

You also do not need a 1k PDPS axe; I tested with Replica Wings and it's just as good, if not better for this MF setup.

As a side benefit, I'm hoping this video showcase and gear example can help answer people's questions about how tanky this build can be. Because if I am able to farm Empowered T16 Abyss Spires with MF gear, you can certainly be as tanky with non-MF gear.

There is one pending issue remaining to really optimize this setup, and that's re-acquiring a source of Additional Curse, because as you can see on Beidat, without that, Single Target DPS can sometimes be a bit low, but unfortunately, Corrupted Defiances go for 60-100d! *Fixed 175d

Finally, here's the PoB export for this setup: https://pobb.in/RaC6i8WbGlbe

GL

Hiya folks! I played this build, and this build alone this league, and now that my journey is basically finished, I thought I'd share some of my experience and thoughts on how much you need to juice this build if, like me, you main goal every league is to do as many challenges as possible.

This league, I completed all 40 challenges just with this Splitting Steel Champion, buying zero boosts in the process. Whatever gear I link here, or whatever you see equipped on my character right now, is all that was needed to get 40/40.

https://pobb.in/OFartmWiCFwd

General Overview

Splitting Steel Champ is quite the rush. Things feel a bit awkward before you get Nimis, but once that's in, all you've got left to do it keep buying straight-forward incremental upgrades.

I went for the Crit version of this build and stopped before our great buildmaker swapped to Headhunter and shuffled things around to fit Determination. It seemed like a bit too much work so I stuck with Chains of Emancipation and the "OG" auras (Pride, Purity of Elements, Precision, Herald of Purity and War Banner).


If you're checking the POB I linked, you'll see the number 102.5 million DPS against Guardian/Pinnacle Boss. Note this is both with max rage and Berserk active, among other things. Untick Berserk and other stuff in Config that you wouldn't normally bother keeping up when just mapping to get the realistic "map DPS". You'll also note I don't have "Is Banned Planted?" ticked; that's because I never bother placing it :D

Anyway, regardless of where you are in this build's journey, I'd say the most important piece to acquire ASAP remains Nimis. That's when your damage starts getting to where it should be. Prioritize that damn expensive ring above all else.

Gear Changes

Items I talk about are linked below, every few paragraphs.

You may notice I'm still running Wings of Entropy. If it works, there's no reason to change it! I have more than enough DPS to deal with almost the entirety of this game, so I didn't bother looking for some giga-tier axe as a replacement.

Additionally, I've swapped out Thrillsteel for a helmet that helps round out a lot of other stuff in the build. "Phoenix Horn", as they call it, gives a couple nice stats, some armor, but most importantly, more life, chaos res and enough reservation efficiency that I don't need to rely on the cost multiplier corrupt implicit. Additionally, the reduced mana cost of attacks ensures I comfortably spam Splitting Steel on just 50 mana.

You'll see in the Wings of Entropy sockets that I've got a 5-link Leap Slam. I did that because it felt fun. You can throw stuff in there like Vaal Arctic Armour instead if you want to tank some Uber Shaper beams, it's basically three free socket slots if you also take out Faster Attacks Support.



What about Thrillsteel's Onslaught, you ask? I found that, with my attack speed and amount of hits per second, I can get Onslaught consistently enough from the Tanu Ahi gloves' effect, so it felt aight to just swap it out.

Now, why am I hanging on to Dawnstrider boots? The DPS increase is great, and I felt Ralakesh's Impatience only really helps keep up Power Charges. Endurance Charges are easily grabbed with Enduring Cry, and Frenzy Charges are easily generated through Blood Rage as well as the Mark Mastery I picked up on my passive tree (10% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge when you Hit your Marked Enemy). For Power Charges, just spam Leap Slam on some giga-juiced boss and you'll get them in no time.



Let's talk curses. The official build combines Sniper's Mark with Vulnerability On Hit implicit from gloves. My Fury Valve doesn't have the "You can Apply an Additional Curse" corrupt implicit, and I was too lazy to stalk Trade for one with that implicit and also increased attack speed, which I'm quite enjoying. Ambidexterity is also a nice anoint to have, so I just didn't touch Fury Valve anymore. You'd get another huge chunk of damage with Vulnerability, but after doing 40/40, I'd say it's not exactly mandatory!

I also swapped out The Overflowing Chalice with a blinged-out Bottled Faith, because Bottled Faith feels a little more consistent to me and it's both a fairly cheap upgrade and deals more damage, so why not?



Last but not least, you'll notice I have Sinvicta's Mettle in my weapon swap slot. I don't actually use it to trigger Rampage. I'm sure I'd get more damage if I bothered, but it really hasn't felt necessary, even in T16 juiced Cemeteries.

Last but actual most, let's talk about That Which Was Taken. The elemental resists modifier is a godsend and helps me round out resists, projectiles dealing more damage as they travel farther is very necessary, more phys dmg if you dealt a crit recently (you did) is also JUICE, and then there's:

- Hits ignore Enemy Monster Physical Damage Reduction if you're Blocked in the past 20 seconds.

I have 25% chance to block, which sounds like I pretty much always end up blocking within a 20 second window. This mod, as far as I can see, makes getting "Overwhelm X% phys dmg reduction" redundant, which is always a nice boon.

[I don't know how to link from the passive tree, you'll have to find it manually!]

Passive Tree Changes

With enough damage to melt most foes in a second, I didn't feel the need to return to spell suppression nodes and whatnot. Having peaked at level 95 and not having the motivation to grind out another five levels, however, I made a few changes:

- First up, I've only got one cluster jewel.
- Instead of the expensive AF Forbidden jewels to allocate Headsman, I instead opted for the "Marked for Death" node that gives "Culling Strike against Marked Enemy", plus the mastery I mentioned above that gives me Frenzy charges against big bosses.
- You'll see my resistances are very tight, I barely managed to max most of them. That's why I didn't consider taking the two more +1%max res fire/cold nodes, and why I picked up +5% ele res in the top-left. With more points, I would be able to pick the right-side Projectile Mastery again, although I think I would actually just pick one of its minor nodes as I think it deals more damage.

Build / Personal Weaknesses

I'd like to talk about the very few, very minor issues I've had with this build. Some may just be a "skill issue", so they might not be an issue if you're more skilled than me!

Now, I haven't tried Simulacrum Wave 30 and I don't think I could manage, so there's that. I wouldn't say this is much of a weakness though, as Simu30 isn't exactly something any build can aspire to.

The only "regular content" I had trouble with was Ultimatum. Ultimatum values defense quite a bit, something this build struggles with. With the atlas keystone that reduces Ultimatum monsters & mods damage by 50%, in-map Ultimatums became manageable and fairly easy unless I had to pick sum bullshit like Razor Dance IV. Sure I'd lose to Ruin every now and then, but overall consistently doable.

I should also note I don't have Molten Shell linked to "Cast When Damage Taken". I prefer to activate it manually when I'm about to jump into some dangerous crap, and I think it's better to have control over it during Ultimatums.

Inscribed Ultimatums are a different beast. The keystone does not work there, so you don't get 50% less damage. My 39th completed challenge was completing 10 Inscribed Ultimatums, and I think I must've failed around 8. Not too great!

That's enough ranting about Ultimatum. What else did I struggle with? This is the section where things may be less "build isn't suitable" and more "just git gud m8".

This league, GGG asked me to kill 4 Uber Pinnacle bosses. I didn't try Uber Uber Elder, but I gave the rest a go. Here's how it went.

Failed:
- Uber Eats: Literally horrible for a build where you deal most of your damage by hugging the boss for, hopefully, 2-3 seconds, to get some proper damage in. His basic tentacle porn attack, however, was a one-shot hit 90% of the time. Terrible sustain!
- Uber Shaper: Listen, I just can't get around those damn purple balls. I might be too fast! With Vaal Arctic Armour, which I haven't tried yet, I think it could be doable though.

Succeeded:
- Uber Cortex: Quite easy, but it heavily depends on the random map mods you get. Being cursed with Temporal Chains will probably screw you. I had "monsters fire an additional... 5-6 projectiles?" and I somehow managed.
- Uber Searing Exarch: Listen, I can't handle the meteor phases when pressing the Leap Slam button has a 50% chance to Leap Slam twice. Nonetheless, I had more than enough portals to cheese through them and melt him down, so very doable unless you're playing HC.
- Uber Sirus: Sirus used to be the bane of my existence when I started playing in Delirium. Uber Sirus had the potential to be the same, but at 100 mil. DPS, he's not so bad! Definitely very deadly and unpredictable, but also doable. Actually ended up doing him a couple more times. If you've mastered his non-Uber version, Uber Sirus is pretty easy to deal with as a Splitting Steeler.
- Uber Maven: This lady only takes 50% less damage compared to her other Uber brothers, which is great for a build like ours that deals stupid amounts of damage with little defense. She was pretty quickly melted in all phases where she was easily reachable. The bigger problem with this fight is getting shat on by the random map bosses that spawn. It took a few tries but RNG was in my favor in the end!

Otherwise, the build performs pretty amazingly in all other content. Ailment immune, bleed immune, curse immune and so on. Searing Exarch altars get heavily nerfed if you run Soul of Abberath and get burning ground immunity.

Closing Thoughts

It's a great build. If you're only looking to complete challenges, and like, 95% of all content in the game, don't be discouraged by later iterations that ask of you to get Headhunter and other ultra-expensive items. This build can scale a loooooooot, and you're welcome to do so, but know you can also stop at different points and still perform well enough to do almost everything! You don't need more defense to kill extremely hard stuff when you've got six portals!

"

Devastaetion wrote:

Spoiler

Hiya folks! I played this build, and this build alone this league, and now that my journey is basically finished, I thought I'd share some of my experience and thoughts on how much you need to juice this build if, like me, you main goal every league is to do as many challenges as possible.

This league, I completed all 40 challenges just with this Splitting Steel Champion, buying zero boosts in the process. Whatever gear I link here, or whatever you see equipped on my character right now, is all that was needed to get 40/40.

https://pobb.in/OFartmWiCFwd

General Overview

Splitting Steel Champ is quite the rush. Things feel a bit awkward before you get Nimis, but once that's in, all you've got left to do it keep buying straight-forward incremental upgrades.

I went for the Crit version of this build and stopped before our great buildmaker swapped to Headhunter and shuffled things around to fit Determination. It seemed like a bit too much work so I stuck with Chains of Emancipation and the "OG" auras (Pride, Purity of Elements, Precision, Herald of Purity and War Banner).


If you're checking the POB I linked, you'll see the number 102.5 million DPS against Guardian/Pinnacle Boss. Note this is both with max rage and Berserk active, among other things. Untick Berserk and other stuff in Config that you wouldn't normally bother keeping up when just mapping to get the realistic "map DPS". You'll also note I don't have "Is Banned Planted?" ticked; that's because I never bother placing it :D

Anyway, regardless of where you are in this build's journey, I'd say the most important piece to acquire ASAP remains Nimis. That's when your damage starts getting to where it should be. Prioritize that damn expensive ring above all else.

Gear Changes

Items I talk about are linked below, every few paragraphs.

You may notice I'm still running Wings of Entropy. If it works, there's no reason to change it! I have more than enough DPS to deal with almost the entirety of this game, so I didn't bother looking for some giga-tier axe as a replacement.

Additionally, I've swapped out Thrillsteel for a helmet that helps round out a lot of other stuff in the build. "Phoenix Horn", as they call it, gives a couple nice stats, some armor, but most importantly, more life, chaos res and enough reservation efficiency that I don't need to rely on the cost multiplier corrupt implicit. Additionally, the reduced mana cost of attacks ensures I comfortably spam Splitting Steel on just 50 mana.

You'll see in the Wings of Entropy sockets that I've got a 5-link Leap Slam. I did that because it felt fun. You can throw stuff in there like Vaal Arctic Armour instead if you want to tank some Uber Shaper beams, it's basically three free socket slots if you also take out Faster Attacks Support.

What about Thrillsteel's Onslaught, you ask? I found that, with my attack speed and amount of hits per second, I can get Onslaught consistently enough from the Tanu Ahi gloves' effect, so it felt aight to just swap it out.

Now, why am I hanging on to Dawnstrider boots? The DPS increase is great, and I felt Ralakesh's Impatience only really helps keep up Power Charges. Endurance Charges are easily grabbed with Enduring Cry, and Frenzy Charges are easily generated through Blood Rage as well as the Mark Mastery I picked up on my passive tree (10% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge when you Hit your Marked Enemy). For Power Charges, just spam Leap Slam on some giga-juiced boss and you'll get them in no time.

Let's talk curses. The official build combines Sniper's Mark with Vulnerability On Hit implicit from gloves. My Fury Valve doesn't have the "You can Apply an Additional Curse" corrupt implicit, and I was too lazy to stalk Trade for one with that implicit and also increased attack speed, which I'm quite enjoying. Ambidexterity is also a nice anoint to have, so I just didn't touch Fury Valve anymore. You'd get another huge chunk of damage with Vulnerability, but after doing 40/40, I'd say it's not exactly mandatory!

I also swapped out The Overflowing Chalice with a blinged-out Bottled Faith, because Bottled Faith feels a little more consistent to me and it's both a fairly cheap upgrade and deals more damage, so why not?

Last but not least, you'll notice I have Sinvicta's Mettle in my weapon swap slot. I don't actually use it to trigger Rampage. I'm sure I'd get more damage if I bothered, but it really hasn't felt necessary, even in T16 juiced Cemeteries.

Last but actual most, let's talk about That Which Was Taken. The elemental resists modifier is a godsend and helps me round out resists, projectiles dealing more damage as they travel farther is very necessary, more phys dmg if you dealt a crit recently (you did) is also JUICE, and then there's:

- Hits ignore Enemy Monster Physical Damage Reduction if you're Blocked in the past 20 seconds.

I have 25% chance to block, which sounds like I pretty much always end up blocking within a 20 second window. This mod, as far as I can see, makes getting "Overwhelm X% phys dmg reduction" redundant, which is always a nice boon.

[I don't know how to link from the passive tree, you'll have to find it manually!]

Passive Tree Changes

With enough damage to melt most foes in a second, I didn't feel the need to return to spell suppression nodes and whatnot. Having peaked at level 95 and not having the motivation to grind out another five levels, however, I made a few changes:

- First up, I've only got one cluster jewel.
- Instead of the expensive AF Forbidden jewels to allocate Headsman, I instead opted for the "Marked for Death" node that gives "Culling Strike against Marked Enemy", plus the mastery I mentioned above that gives me Frenzy charges against big bosses.
- You'll see my resistances are very tight, I barely managed to max most of them. That's why I didn't consider taking the two more +1%max res fire/cold nodes, and why I picked up +5% ele res in the top-left. With more points, I would be able to pick the right-side Projectile Mastery again, although I think I would actually just pick one of its minor nodes as I think it deals more damage.

Build / Personal Weaknesses

I'd like to talk about the very few, very minor issues I've had with this build. Some may just be a "skill issue", so they might not be an issue if you're more skilled than me!

Now, I haven't tried Simulacrum Wave 30 and I don't think I could manage, so there's that. I wouldn't say this is much of a weakness though, as Simu30 isn't exactly something any build can aspire to.

The only "regular content" I had trouble with was Ultimatum. Ultimatum values defense quite a bit, something this build struggles with. With the atlas keystone that reduces Ultimatum monsters & mods damage by 50%, in-map Ultimatums became manageable and fairly easy unless I had to pick sum bullshit like Razor Dance IV. Sure I'd lose to Ruin every now and then, but overall consistently doable.

I should also note I don't have Molten Shell linked to "Cast When Damage Taken". I prefer to activate it manually when I'm about to jump into some dangerous crap, and I think it's better to have control over it during Ultimatums.

Inscribed Ultimatums are a different beast. The keystone does not work there, so you don't get 50% less damage. My 39th completed challenge was completing 10 Inscribed Ultimatums, and I think I must've failed around 8. Not too great!

That's enough ranting about Ultimatum. What else did I struggle with? This is the section where things may be less "build isn't suitable" and more "just git gud m8".

This league, GGG asked me to kill 4 Uber Pinnacle bosses. I didn't try Uber Uber Elder, but I gave the rest a go. Here's how it went.

Failed:
- Uber Eats: Literally horrible for a build where you deal most of your damage by hugging the boss for, hopefully, 2-3 seconds, to get some proper damage in. His basic tentacle porn attack, however, was a one-shot hit 90% of the time. Terrible sustain!
- Uber Shaper: Listen, I just can't get around those damn purple balls. I might be too fast! With Vaal Arctic Armour, which I haven't tried yet, I think it could be doable though.

Succeeded:
- Uber Cortex: Quite easy, but it heavily depends on the random map mods you get. Being cursed with Temporal Chains will probably screw you. I had "monsters fire an additional... 5-6 projectiles?" and I somehow managed.
- Uber Searing Exarch: Listen, I can't handle the meteor phases when pressing the Leap Slam button has a 50% chance to Leap Slam twice. Nonetheless, I had more than enough portals to cheese through them and melt him down, so very doable unless you're playing HC.
- Uber Sirus: Sirus used to be the bane of my existence when I started playing in Delirium. Uber Sirus had the potential to be the same, but at 100 mil. DPS, he's not so bad! Definitely very deadly and unpredictable, but also doable. Actually ended up doing him a couple more times. If you've mastered his non-Uber version, Uber Sirus is pretty easy to deal with as a Splitting Steeler.
- Uber Maven: This lady only takes 50% less damage compared to her other Uber brothers, which is great for a build like ours that deals stupid amounts of damage with little defense. She was pretty quickly melted in all phases where she was easily reachable. The bigger problem with this fight is getting shat on by the random map bosses that spawn. It took a few tries but RNG was in my favor in the end!

Otherwise, the build performs pretty amazingly in all other content. Ailment immune, bleed immune, curse immune and so on. Searing Exarch altars get heavily nerfed if you run Soul of Abberath and get burning ground immunity.

Closing Thoughts

It's a great build. If you're only looking to complete challenges, and like, 95% of all content in the game, don't be discouraged by later iterations that ask of you to get Headhunter and other ultra-expensive items. This build can scale a loooooooot, and you're welcome to do so, but know you can also stop at different points and still perform well enough to do almost everything! You don't need more defense to kill extremely hard stuff when you've got six portals!

What a write-up... Amazing!

You took the build and made it your own :) that's what I like to see; well done!

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience, much appreciated.

GL

I'd like to thank you for your build guide. It's been fun even though I'm using Scion from the start since I'm too lazy to create another character. Splitting Steel was intimidating when it's got Call of Steel attached to it so I've been holding this skill off until now. (Splitting Steel of Ammunition is much better once I got the hang of reloading down though)

I'm really slow when it comes to farming so to have a build going step-by-step is really helpful. I just got Nimis, and it feels much stronger but I need to get used to random projectiles.

It's got me to 31 challenges this league while my last league was 17.

Ascendancy: Slayer, Path of the Duelist (since I can just copy your passives this way) then Berserker (though currently trying out Deadeye instead to see if it works better).

Forbidden Flame/Flesh: Assassin for power charge on crit. (Plus it's cheap)

Wildwood: Went for Primalist earlier but it works much better when I've swapped to Warden for tinctures.

Edit (16/1/24): if anyone is actually using Scion. I would recommend using Berserker over Deadeye. The leech and stun immunity actually helps me survive much more.

"

coury wrote:

Spoiler

I'd like to thank you for your build guide. It's been fun even though I'm using Scion from the start since I'm too lazy to create another character. Splitting Steel was intimidating when it's got Call of Steel attached to it so I've been holding this skill off until now. (Splitting Steel of Ammunition is much better once I got the hang of reloading down though)

I'm really slow when it comes to farming so to have a build going step-by-step is really helpful. I just got Nimis, and it feels much stronger but I need to get used to random projectiles.

It's got me to 31 challenges this league while my last league was 17.

Ascendancy: Slayer, Path of the Duelist (since I can just copy your passives this way) then Berserker (though currently trying out Deadeye instead to see if it works better).

Forbidden Flame/Flesh: Assassin for power charge on crit. (Plus it's cheap)

Wildwood: Went for Primalist earlier but it works much better when I've swapped to Warden for tinctures.

Yo... Clever setup, nicely done!

I love that Tailwind! Kinda jelly of that ngl lol

Glad to hear you've progressed much further with this build than previously; that's what I like to hear :)

GL

I jut got my first-ever HH drop since I started playing the game with this build.

Can't thank you enough my friend.

"

speedline9395 wrote:

I jut got my first-ever HH drop since I started playing the game with this build.

Can't thank you enough my friend.

Holy shit... Grats homie!

Sounds like time to put that MF setup together ;)

GL

Do i kill all bandits or help Alira ?

"

Dumzor wrote:

Do i kill all bandits or help Alira ?

Kill all