Cheap melee faceroll build end game viable?

Yo

Haven't played for years and I have an itch for diablo-like stuff.
I like cheap sword and board builds that faceroll all difficulties unless you really screw up.

On Grim Dawn I loved s&b witchblade
On D2 I loved frost zealot paladin
You get it, I like to spam autohits while just using auras/buffs/novas and see everything die.

do you know any cheap solo build guide that covers it?

- Melee hit based
- No skill shots
- S&B or DW
- Budget (but gets better with high end gear)
- End game viable

Thanks

Dunno if there is a budget melee that can face tank red tier map bosses with bad mods, and still do respectable DPS. As in, the fight doesn't drag on for a whole minute. The more overtuned mobs get, the less viable melee gets. The bar for gear, and defensive options for melee to be able to face tank shit seems to increase with each expansion/update. Whereas ranged just keeps getting better and better.

Well, not necessarily easy-tanking red tier map bosses with bad mods but let's say not to sweat too much up to the last boss of story mode.

Find a build that uses Bringer of Rain. It's kinda like an alternative *budget* 6L. You might be able to roll some kinda sword and board BoR tank that does enough dps to beat the story. Find a 350 pdps 1h.

Do you plan to play in Softcore or Hardcore?

I have a build that I took to level 90 in Hardcore but it relied quite a bit on Bringer of Rain, which cost me 4 Ex in Hardcore but costs 1 chaos in softcore leagues. In terms of SC fair market value I believe I managed to get to something like level 92 or 93 using a total of like 40c net worth.

I'm no good at writing build guides but I wrote one for when this character was in 2.6 mode: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1904797/page/1

Since then I switched out the Scaeva for a ~4-7 ex sword but the DPS didn't really jump that much, maybe 20-30% more DPS than before. Has no problems facetanking Tier 14 Rigwald with Scaeva - tested that recently and I can dig up the video if you'd like.

The tl;dr of the build is that you use Gladiator, get Bringer of Rain, Advancing Fortress in main hand, and Scaeva in offhand so you can build crit and have the implicit bonuses of dual wield whilst having just about as much block as a shield-based build. Bringer of Rain helps bring that block amount up and gives a cheap 6-ish-L (7L but one support is for tankiness rather than DPS, and two of the supports are less than 20/20%, and you get a bit of flat phys to make up for cheaper weapons). Then you fake dual-wield so that you get bonus block from Scaeva AND hidden dual wield bonus whilst losing no DPS... Lacerate doesn't allow Claws, so the DPS is same as if you were dual-wielding Scaeva + a rare sword with Scaeva's DPS. (so, kind of like 2x Scaeva). Gladiator of course for the block chance and block applied to spells.

Current iteration of the build on my profile is RespectableMatters. You can pretty much copy-paste him, swap out the offhand foil for a Scaeva, and he'll perform just fine in T15 maps (a bit slow on bosses) and should cost 40c or less.

How's that gladiator build for uber lab?

Honestly I haven't taken him for Uber Lab in a loooooooong time but from what I can remember, he handles traps fine, and I believe he could run most 4-key sets, just not the very worst ones (such as full charges + essences). You make me want to try it out and report back, though.

Molten strike. Life gain on hit.

"

SuicideAll a écrit :

Molten strike. Life gain on hit.

This.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2125173

"

Aim_Deep a écrit :

"

SuicideAll a écrit :

Molten strike. Life gain on hit.

This.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2125173

Yeah... I'm not going to delude myself into thinking my build could compete with that for efficiency. Grelwoods are apparently only like 5 chaos, and pretty slammin' for Molten Strike. I didn't expect Tombfist to be so cheap, either - enemies take 10% increased damage is solid, although I guess you could sub gloves for that in my build, too.

Not sure how soon (cheaply) that build can get 56% block, though. Seems like you might get annoyed by burst DPS and feel one-shotted by swarms of spells once in a while, before you can get decent block.

In any case, someone asked about one of my builds which is a rarity, so have ye some videos (Scaeva, not my fancy sword):

1 gear hover overs and izaro 1

2 run lazy through a trap gauntlet (as a Life build with decent regeneration, 2 flasks = you can be the worst trap runner in history and still survive any trap gauntlet)

3 izaro 2 full charges fail to die (I wanted to get full-charges Izaro to hit me once but he missed all times until I Riposte'd him to death...gr)

4 izaro 3 short work (I have Acceleration Shrine because I forgot Darkshrines last the whole lab... so it's kinda an unfair fight)

5 fail to die even without block buffers (I wanted to get full-charges Izaro to hit me once, I think he did, and you can see I survive without even flasking or using main attack skill... again Riposte him to death without him getting a second shot in >:( )

6 izaro 3 bit slow without Chill (this one is kinda underwhelming, I tried to tank some hits while under the "Take Increased Damage" sentinels but it was surprisingly hard to get him to land one on me. There are some scary moments where I'm deliberately running into the blade spinners while under "Take Increased Damage" and I tank fireballs from the Goddess as well, AKA tanking everything you're supposed to manual dodge, but flasking through is arguably no problem)

Overall I would rate my build "Good" for Uber Lab running, but it's all about what you compare it to... my "Good" could very well be someone else's "Unplayable."