Dual-Wielding Melee "Dream" GB Pathfinder — Possible in early access? (Leveling + early maps)

I have always been interested in off-spec melee builds whether it was dual dream sorc in Diablo 2 or the Dual Dreamfeather Ranger builds from the early days of PoE...

So my question is ... is a dual-wielding melee Ranger possible in early access?

Level 76 with Giant's Blood:


I noticed the ranger has access to some decent dual-wield and melee damage nodes straight downwards from their starting position, and isn't far from lots of attack speed. I plan to make good use of these, plus the nearby life leech nodes as a starting point. I have started my passive tree by taking the fast travel path downwards from the evasion rating start position, to boost early strength while heading towards that nearby cluster of melee damage nodes.

Note that we only have maces and mace skills to work with here when dual wielding - ie; usually the slower of the 1-hand weapon classes. I would way rather build this around swords or axes but they aren't out yet...

This build is very much a work in progress: constructive feedback is welcome, and I will post links to updates here:

Update 1: Level 28 update in comments below.
Update 2: Level 39 update in comments below.
Update 3: Level 54 update in comments below.
Update 4+: Level 70+ update on endgame + maps in comments below.

Once this build picks up Giant's Blood it gets a huge life and phys DPS increase and life leech really begins to act like a life siphon.



Gearing

We need:
- Strength
- Physical damage (weapons and gloves)
- % physical damage leeched as life (from about level 40)
- Attack speed (gloves)
- Armour & Evasion
- Resists
- Move speed (boots)
- Some solution for mana (mana leech, mana on kill/hit, or just lots of +mana)

Skill tree

Note you should level without life leech nodes until about level 40 and then respec into them only when you start seeing "X% physical damage leeched as life" stats on gear.

First Draft for skill tree here - v1
Deadeye Draft for skill tree here - v2 updated
Melee Pathfinder - v3 updated
Bleed and Rage Melee Pathfinder - v4 updated
Rage Melee Pathfinder - v5 updated
Early Mapping Melee Pathfinder - v6 updated




Leveling skill rotation (up to about level 30)

Dual Mace Strike - rage - martial tempo (this does huge single target damage and builds rage bonus dmg fast)

Armour Breaker - break endurance (our end endurance charge gen) - ruthless (just more stun)

Infernal Cry - premeditation (+dmg) - murderous intent (culling strike)

Boneshatter - impact shockwave - fire infusion - magnified effect (our big finisher attack that explodes the whole screen)

Herald of Ash - not enough spirit to support yet (as at level 30, will update)

Leap Slam - overpower - expanse (this is our opener - one large stunning aoe attack)

Best item I've seen so far is probably the Kingsguard Full Plate which will let our infernal cry heal us for 5-15% of our life, if we first generate some endurance charges via armour breaker's break endurance support gem. This is generally only needed for tougher enemies.

Midgame skill rotation

1. Leap Slam into the middle of enemies
2. Infernal Cry
3. Mace Strike / Armour Breaker until stun indicator appears
4. Boneshatter as finisher
5. Repeat or throw in some Rolling Slam / Volcanic Fissure / Sunders for fun

On bosses we just maintain broken armour and hit them with mace strike, which rapidly heals us as long as we continue to do physical damage to leech life. We can also throw in plenty of leap slams to try and get a shock bonus.

Midgame Skill gems

Dual mace strike - martial tempo - brutality - life thief (left click)
DPS: 4059
We focus on physical damage bonuses wherever we can get it on gear and the result is a fast attacking health siphon that hits harder than any of our other skills. Single target DPS.

Armour Breaker - break endurance - armour explosion - close combat (middle click)
DPS: 1120
For quickly breaking armour in one click, and triggering an explosion and giving you an endurance charge.

Boneshatter - impact shockwave - innervate - heavy swing (right click)
DPS: 978
Finishing move that explodes large groups of enemies. Sometimes gives us innervate if we've killed a shocked enemy.

Leap Slam - lightning infusion - conduction - cursing current (Q)
DPS: 941
Opening attack that hopes to inflict shock for a big damage bonus and innervate buff from Boneshatter. Sometimes I use this a couple of times to get shock, which spreads to the whole group at once due to cursing current.

Rolling Slam - Lacerate - aftershock - rage (W)
DPS: 668
Good for softening up a large group and generating some rage. Not used much.

Infernal Cry - Magnified Effect - Raging Cry - Premeditation (E)
Our main warcry and buff.

Volcanic Fissure - Ignition - Fiery Death (R)
DPS: 556
Fun for spreading some flames around and hopefully triggering some explosions on death. Often paired with Sunder.

Sunder - Fist of War - Fire infusion (T)
DPS: 1411
Mostly used to cleanup enemies or when they are stuck in a bottleneck.

Herald of Ash

Scavenged Plating - splinter - persistence

Ascendancy

Pathfinder: has nice slow immunity and flask buffs or even just some extra passive points. Recommended ascendancy for giant's blood.

Endgame - updated

As far as I can tell, this build does NOT perform well in endgame beyond t5 maps (updated thread title to reflect this). This is due to the underpowered nature of armour and life in the current meta. Hopefully we see a patch to address this soon.

For now, I recommend picking up a Cloak of Flame to help you deal with one shots.

Alternatively, you can instead look at an Energy Shield variant of this build, which can be done with a Pathfinder or a Stormweaver using a Ghostwrithe.

Update: Approaching level 20, about 600hp, have all the dual wield nodes and going to hit some health regen nodes and life steal nodes next. I don't actually have any life steal on my gear yet, though. Feels like the missing piece for this build

I have just landed in act 2 and this build feels way stronger than my warrior at a comparable level — I'm just so much faster already with a few move speed and attack speed nodes. Using a lot of infernal cry so far.

Currently mulling over whether Resolute Technique is actually the way to go on this build. Feels like I kinda can't do an Iron Reflexes / dex / crit build here since we need str for maces, which means we will be lacking on dex/accuracy and the best way to solve that is probably just with RT?

Question for the community — do you think this build would benefit from Vaal Pact? Unwavering Stance? Bulwark?

Its also tempting to swap out some nodes for the endurance charge nodes we path beside, for +2 max charges ... thoughts?

I'm interested to see what you come up with

wouldnt gemling a better option?

adaptative capability (u dont worry about stats for gems anymore)

reduced stat req for gear (maybe u can even go giant's blood)

I think a Giant's Blood version of this build would be possible with Mercenary and Gemling. The difference in points on the passive tree would be only 3pts I think. However the Gemling ascendancy would really lend itself to giant's blood. 330 str seems to be the target for late game maces? That is tough with just the passive tree and no ascendancy stat bonuses (I guess 5 passive from pathfinder could add 25 str?? Or find a higher str passive to path to). Str is great because it gives us about 600 life and 1% damage per 15 str seems a smart grab on this build from the passive tree.

I do think there are some style points worth awarding for whoever can engineer the best melee ranger build rather than the (perhaps slightly better placed) Mercenary.

Here's my attempt at a Pathfinder with Giant's Blood

Hey mate any updates yet? :D I am doing this build myself, and just wanted some updates on gear specc talents etc.


Okay! Thanks fo the quick reply! :D. I'll try out the 2h mace (since theres no 2h swords yet :( )

"

Hey mate any updates yet?

At level 28 the build is feeling fine, I am about here on the tree right now. 800ish hp I think

One thing I have realised won't work is Deadeye ascendancy, since the frenzy nodes are pointless (there's not really reliable frenzy charge gen in the game yet)

That means Pathfinder is the better choice although after taking the passive nodes and flask nodes you don't have great options left, I guess the slow resist is probably decent?

Giant's blood does look attractive so that our ranger can dual wield 2h hammers. Haven't made it that far yet

In terms of skill rotation, so far I am mostly opening with leap slam, then infernal cry. Depending on whether anyone is already showing a stun indicator I will next hit them with dual mace attack (supported with increased stun) or armour break. I use herald of ash. Boneshatter is used like a finisher once stun indiocators appear, which usually clears whole sections of the screen combined with the explosions/ignite from infernal cry / herald of ash.

Its physical damage with a bit of fire thrown in.

Liked the idea of a ranger dual wielding 2-handed maces so updated the build to reflect that.

Looking at the tree it feels like it might be lacking on defenses - most of it comes from life steal, str, and flask nodes I guess. Might not be enough, I guess we'll see when I level up a bit more :)

Updated OP with skill rotation so far at level 30, including supports.

Following, after getting to act two on my war it just felt slow so I decided to see if I could also do a duel wield ranger, so far I'm killing things way faster than my war, I'm just level 10 though and headed down the same path you did passive wise. Since I'm new to POE I'm definitely working to learn abilities and there support gems.