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

3.25 Expensive Upgrades #2

Hi Fellas,

I've made several changes:

1) Switched Flame/Flesh from: Headsman > Fortitude. These are MUCH cheaper and make us tankier.

2) Switched Carnage Heart > The Eternal Struggle. This restores the losing Culling Strike from Headsman, and gives us some Mana Reservation Efficiency.

3) Switched Anointments from: Brutal Skewering > Charisma, and Ambidexterity > Whispers of Doom, as it's just not possible to get +1 Curse on Eternal Struggle.

4) With the additional Reservation Efficiency from Eternal Struggle and Charisma, we can now fit in Flesh and Stone, which restores some of the DPS lost when we switched from Ambidexterity/Brutal Skewering (while in Blood Stance), and makes us tankier (while in Sand Stance), which combined with Fortitude feels very nice!

Basically, these changes were made to help with the cost of Headsman Flame/Flesh, and also to address getting one-shot whenever Blocking happened to fail.

Here's how the gear looks now:



And the PoB Export of this setup: https://pobb.in/u/corosou/325SSGLAD

GL!

Here are some helpful Links to searches for future use just because these things can be hard to search for if you haven't done so before

These are set to standard so make sure to change the league when using these links for searching in the future

Searing Exarch dominant The Eternal Struggle
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Standard/KMPJKyRh5
You want to find an amulet with more Exarch implicits to get the culling strike to proc


Two Handed Damage Large Cluster Jewel
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Standard/EMbvg5Yc5
While two-handed damage is how this particular cluster search is set up, because this particular unique weapon for the build you can also use other cluster types like axe damage, dual-wielding damage, or even physical damage to achieve near the same results with some passive notables being potentially different

Forbidden Flame/Flesh Jewel Pair - Fortitude
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Standard/PDkzvM7iL
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Standard/Yq5BXVDiY
The Fortitude Ascendancy Notable from the Champion ascendancy affords a high level of mitigation to the build that was lost when swapping from that ascendancy to Gladiator instead of using the previously preferred Headsman passive and is also considerably cheaper to purchase


Chance to impale with Pride Watcher's Eye
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Standard/P29KgksL

"

sirswears 님이 작성:

스포일러

You might consider adding this to the base post for this build guide

Links to searches for future use just because these things can be hard to search for if you haven't done so before

Make sure to change the league when using these links for searching in the future

Searing Exarch dominant The Eternal Struggle
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Standard/GMP39rZHb

Two Handed Damage Large Cluster Jewel
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Standard/EMbvg5Yc5

Headsman Forbidden Flame/Flesh
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Standard/mjElZrwT6
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Standard/XDyrKmRUP

Chance to impale with Pride Watcher's Eye
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Standard/P29KgksL

I've considered it before, especially for confusing things like Eternal Struggle, but I don't wanna hand-hold every step of the process...

Also, speaking of confusing, the thing about selecting "Greater" for Exarch,
is it will now ONLY show you "Greater" ones and no others, so it's better to just explain that you just need to look for the Exarch's number in () to be higher than Eater's, as highlighted below:



Also, I wouldn't recommend people get Headsman anymore, Fortitude is a much better and cheaper option.

You did a fine job, I think this is enough.... If anything, if you could edit your post, remove "Greater" check for amulet, change Flame/Flesh to Fortitude, and also use the "URL" option for the links, so they are clickable.

Either way, thx! Much appreciated :)

GL

hey can i go champion and not gladiator?

"

andreyisme 님이 작성:

hey can i go champion and not gladiator?

Why?

it was champion you changed it to gladiator and then skill tree is outdated i cannt get it

"

andreyisme 님이 작성:

it was champion you changed it to gladiator and then skill tree is outdated i cannt get it

That is because I am recommending Gladiator now.

Every league is different, the build needs to adapt and Gladiator just works better this time around.

If you're a new player I can understand how that may seem overwhelming/confusing, but we're just talking about farming/using some Regret Orbs to switch.

You can switch Ascendancy by running Normal Lab.

Just compare your tree vs what I posted and make the changes.

Also, there are older Champ PoB Exports on page 59.

GL

Just reporting in with my own experiences and what's worked for me!

From the start I had planned on league starting Splitting Steel of Ammunition (it is my favorite skill, and I've played this build for the past few leagues as well), except I wanted to try it on a Slayer instead of a Glad or Champ.

I started off with a 2H Axe build, grabbing Sinvicta's and then Replica Wings of Entropy, and it worked like a charm. Regarding Slayer vs Champ, I grabbed Headsman and Endless Hunger for cull/leech. I was expecting a little more damage than Champ and a little less tankiness. I do think that looking back, Champ would have also had more damage thanks in part to Master of Metal.

On Day 3 I had about 3 divines, so I swapped to Beltimber/Paradoxica Dual Wielding, and swapped my tree to more of a dual-wield/crit setup, and I saw quite a big damage increase. This was accelerated even farther on day 6 or 7 when I had another 5-6 div to sink into crafting my own sword, which I crafted by buying the base and spamming Deafening Zeal essences. Crafted on it, slammed the exalt, and then enchanted with 50 War Runes to give me a pretty absurd weapon. The next upgrade I picked up was a watcher's eye with extra Impale Hits and some Spell Suppress with Grace, which was enough for me to swap to Grace. I have no clue why this was priced at 2d but I'm not complaining.



With all of the extra damage, I had the confidence to change to what I really wanted to play - Masterful Form Splitting Steel. The changes to Endurance Charges was the real reason I wanted to try this build on a Slayer this time, so I made the swap, removing Endless Hunger and taking Masterful Form, and swapping some stuff around on my tree to make sure I had my 7 Frenzy/Endurance charges. I grabbed some cute Precursor's Emblems to help out my Chaos res and give myself some extra defenses, and then eventually farmed enough for an Ancestral Vision to solve my Ele Avoidance and my Spell Suppression before crafting a second sword.



Ultimately that's where my character is at now - pob link, in case anybody is interested: - https://pobb.in/-5wWFXIG4R92

I had a handful of clear ideas on how I can upgrade further - e.g. clusters, Forbidden jewels (I'm thinking Fortitude, but eventually Master of Metal will be my long term goal), and then larger upgrades like Nimis and Headhunter, etc.
Regardless, if you have any direct ideas about how I can make this build even better I'd love to hear it! Just wanted to share my own experience with this build and thank OP for the great guide (even if I only followed it at the beginning, and fairly loosely even then o/)

"

arsonxisxfun 님이 작성:

스포일러

Just reporting in with my own experiences and what's worked for me!

From the start I had planned on league starting Splitting Steel of Ammunition (it is my favorite skill, and I've played this build for the past few leagues as well), except I wanted to try it on a Slayer instead of a Glad or Champ.

I started off with a 2H Axe build, grabbing Sinvicta's and then Replica Wings of Entropy, and it worked like a charm. Regarding Slayer vs Champ, I grabbed Headsman and Endless Hunger for cull/leech. I was expecting a little more damage than Champ and a little less tankiness. I do think that looking back, Champ would have also had more damage thanks in part to Master of Metal.

On Day 3 I had about 3 divines, so I swapped to Beltimber/Paradoxica Dual Wielding, and swapped my tree to more of a dual-wield/crit setup, and I saw quite a big damage increase. This was accelerated even farther on day 6 or 7 when I had another 5-6 div to sink into crafting my own sword, which I crafted by buying the base and spamming Deafening Zeal essences. Crafted on it, slammed the exalt, and then enchanted with 50 War Runes to give me a pretty absurd weapon. The next upgrade I picked up was a watcher's eye with extra Impale Hits and some Spell Suppress with Grace, which was enough for me to swap to Grace. I have no clue why this was priced at 2d but I'm not complaining.

With all of the extra damage, I had the confidence to change to what I really wanted to play - Masterful Form Splitting Steel. The changes to Endurance Charges was the real reason I wanted to try this build on a Slayer this time, so I made the swap, removing Endless Hunger and taking Masterful Form, and swapping some stuff around on my tree to make sure I had my 7 Frenzy/Endurance charges. I grabbed some cute Precursor's Emblems to help out my Chaos res and give myself some extra defenses, and then eventually farmed enough for an Ancestral Vision to solve my Ele Avoidance and my Spell Suppression before crafting a second sword.

Ultimately that's where my character is at now - pob link, in case anybody is interested: - https://pobb.in/-5wWFXIG4R92

I had a handful of clear ideas on how I can upgrade further - e.g. clusters, Forbidden jewels (I'm thinking Fortitude, but eventually Master of Metal will be my long term goal), and then larger upgrades like Nimis and Headhunter, etc.
Regardless, if you have any direct ideas about how I can make this build even better I'd love to hear it! Just wanted to share my own experience with this build and thank OP for the great guide (even if I only followed it at the beginning, and fairly loosely even then o/)

WOW... Impressive writeup and re-work! Thanks for sharing your take on the build; much appreciated you taking the time share your insight.

I too actually started messing around again with SS of Ammo, though I REALLY HATE how they made it use two Shards; such a harsh penalty when you have high attack speed, but the damage boost is worth!

I don't have any suggestions ATM, but if I think of something I'll let you know.

Thanks again, keep it up, and GL!

Hi,

Firstly thanks for you hard work on this build.

I have had a lot of fun thus far but I was wondering is there any way to not use Replica Wing and not be squishy ? I really like using a good old nicely rolled Rare 2H axe.

Any Suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks and have a nice day !