[3.4] 0piate's Wild Strike Gladiator - Thousand Teeth Emu Max Block

This is a Wild Strike build for the Gladiator, I call it a right side because you learn most your skills in the right hand section of the skill tree by the Ranger. It is designed as an all around efficient farmer. Can be used to quickly enter maps and start saving up currency, also a good league starter. It is a blocking build which makes it very good at getting to and progressing through maps. But the damage is somewhat weak for late game bosses. The tier 16 bosses are doable at a level 88 but it will take a long time to kill them. I never tried Shaper but I don't think I'm going to with this build. However, it's very good for saving currency for another character that can take you to and past Shaper and Elder.

The blocking chance will vary between 65% and 79% for both attacks and spells. There is nothing to mitigate damage over time so that will be your weakness as well as one shots. But life leech from Vitality Void is usually enough to counter damage over time attacks and there are only a few bosses that can one shot you which can still be countered if you can anticipate and dodge their moves. You can get your block chance up to 79% to 82% if you want to but I don't think it's necessary to invest that much into blocking. You're better off building more damage so you can clear maps faster.

Scaling your damage with this build is pretty straight forward. You are looking for buffs in physical damage, elemental damage, and critical strike. All three of those will boost 100% of your damage.

The damage for Wild Strike is unclear. The tooltip only shows you the damage (including physical) of the attack before it does it's conversion, but there is really no physical damage in your attack. The physical damage is converted to a random element then a secondary attack happens depending on the element chosen. Modifiers to elemental damage on your secondary attack will not be reflected in the tooltip. The damage from your Diamond flask is not shown either. Your amount of stacks from Violent Retaliation will greatly vary the amount of damage as well. 75K DPS(Damage Per Second) is on the medium to high end of your damage. But if you are in something like a Breach or Abyss and start taking lots of hits then your damage can easily go over 100K DPS. If you throw in things that aren't shown in the tooltip, such as elemental conversions, Diamond Flask, Totem, counter attacks, then I am guessing your effective DPS will be in the upper 100 thousands. Not bad for a one handed weapon that only cost you one chaos and a shield.

Any build using The Bringer of Rain Nightmare Bascinet helmet can be done for fairly cheap. It gives you three free supports which basically gives you a 7-link chain, so it eliminates the need for a 6-link armour or weapon. All of your items should cost between 1 and 10 chaos with the exception of the Ventor's Gamble Gold Ring which you will use when you switch your build out for currency farming. You may end up paying 20 to 40 chaos for this ring if you get one with decent mods. But even with your Item quantity gear and basic gear combined, you shouldn't have to spend more than an Exalt to build this character.

Bandits: Oak

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAQCAABeBS0F-QYgBosGogguCiYKmwz3DY0OQxGBFewV8BfcGY4blxutIOMj0yP2JJ0k_S5TL8wwfDGwMk431DiWOrM94j7PQKBDMUd-SO5KfUz_TUZNkk4qUUdbr15FX9ph62JaYuxjp2VNbydyw3SgdO14rnjrelN673sUfXWA4YTZhO-HdorwjX2PYJAKkvOS95S4mmqbJpstm42jiqR4qZWrC6yvsbO3F7kdvTa95r6nwL_BgsHVypDL9cwGzV_PetNv037UUtrB3L3dDd1G3vjiXucK5w_nVOlG7T_tg-96-AL5Y_zF_rr_3g==?accountName=0piate&characterName=ricanlovemommy

Path of Building: https://pastebin.com/XSWSdcdj

WHY WILD STRIKE?
I wanted this to be a right side Gladiator that could farm fast. So it's got to be a green skill gem and it's got to clear out maps fast. I tried Cyclone and Reave, both of those proved to be too slow. Wild Strike has a nice area and is good for inflicting all three ailments which will help you clear out mobs quickly.

WHY BLOCKING?
The blocking Gladiator is one of the easiest leveling and farming charactors in the game. Damage is generally low but you can level up into the maps with very few deaths. If you are looking for more damage then a dual wield or two-handed weapon build will suit you better. But those builds will not give you as good of defense and will likely take longer to get you into the maps. They also take a bit more experience and usually more currency.

WHY EVASION?
Most Gladiator blocking builds are left sided, because you go over to the Marauder in the skill tree, so you get lots of strength, lots of armour. In this build we go the other way towards the Ranger. Here's why:

Less Chance to Take Damage
Most strength based, left side Gladiators have 68% to 78% chance to block with little to no evasion. Let's say your block chance is 75%, your chances of taking a hit with damage is 25%. Say you have 4000 hit points, your effective hit points with the blocking would be 16,000 because only 1 out 4 hits is doing damage to you.

4000/0.25 = 16,000

Now say we do an evasion build, right side Gladiator with the same 75% chance to block. We get our chance to evade up to 60%. Evasion is rolled before blocking. So if evasion fails, now you have a 75% chance to block. Combining the two gives us a 10% chance to take damage from a hit. Now we have 40,000 effective hit points as opposed to 16,000.

0.4 * 0.25 = 0.1
4000/0.1 = 40,000

The downside is your hit points and armor will be less when you do an evasion based, right side Gladiator. But you will notice a difference in defense between the 16,000 and 40,000 effective hit points when you are clearing out mobs.

One problem, a minor problem is if the evasion and blocking fails, then you have very little hit points and armour to mitigate the damage. So you are susceptible to one shoting. Certain bosses such as Argus in the Asscendancy, The Brittle Emporer in Wasteland, or the scorpion in Desert Spring map all have the ability to one shot you.

This doesn't necessarily make the build a problem, it just means you have to use more skill in those areas. The Scorpion in Desert Spring has an ability called Caustic Strike (I think), where he jumps in the air and does a slam attack which can kill you in one hit. But it's very easy to dodge if you know what to look for. When you see him pause and curl up his stinger, it means he is going jump up and do his attack. When you see it, run out of the way, let him hit nothing. He will jump and make a purple looking explosion. Then come right back at him and attack. Similar concept with Wastelands map, you have the boss that resembles Voll. He makes a growling sound right before he does his slam attack. Watch for it, or listen for it and run out of the way.

Critical Strike
On a left side Gladiator you won't find enough nodes for a critical strike build so your only option will be to use Resolute Technique, which puts a cap on your damage. A right side Gladiator, critical strike is no problem. It also procs your elemental ailments which is good for Wild Strike. So you will be using all three ailments which will help you clear mobs.

Thousand Teeth Temu Vaal Buckler
I always wanted to find a use for this cool shield. It is cheap and has very good mods; reflects 1 to 1000 physical damage, 10% of damage reflected gained as life, 90+ life, and 32% block chance. You can really only use this shield on a dexterity based, evasion character, so it is a good reason to go right side.

Helmet Socket Coloring Easier
A right side Gladiator allows me to use a green skill gem for my Attack. This gives me G > B > R > R for my skill chain on the helmet and requires on average 10 chromatics. You can calculate out the chromatic usage here https://siveran.github.io/calc.html. A left side Gladiator you would probably want a red skill gem for your attack. Giving you R > R > R > B, this would require 44 chromatics, maybe a lot more. This helps keep the cost down to crafting your items.

Start buying your items on pathofexile.com/trade. The Lakishu's Blade Elegant Sword is a great sword for leveling up.

Buy your main skill chain gems as soon as you can with a 10% to 15% quality on them and start leveling them. This would include your Wild Strike, Increased Critical Damage, Added Fire Damage, and Elemental Damage with Attacks.

When selecting your gear you are only looking for a few things. Max out elemental resists, only necessary when you reach Act 6. Around the same time check to make sure your mana regen is high enough so you don't have to carry a mana flask, can be adjusted with a mana regen mod on your ring. And make sure to get as much life as you can on all of your gear. The armour and evasion rating are not as important as your max life.

Acts 1 through 5 most my gear is just whatever I find laying around. After that I start buying my gear in phases. Start of Act 6 I will replace all my gear and max out elemental resists. I will do the same thing again when I reach level 70. From that point on I just start upgrading gear whenever I can afford it. At a level 88 you want to purchase all of your currency farming gear as explained below in the currency farming guide.

When leveling your tree, I would suggest getting your notables in this order:

Ascendancy:
Painforged
Versatile Combatant
Outmatch and Outlast
Violent Retaliation

Main Tree:
Master of the Arena
Bravery
Art of the Gladiator
Defiance
Golem's Blood
Beef
Wisdom of the Glade
Thick Skin
Quick Step
Finesse
Primal Spirit
Heart of Oak
Precise Interception
Weapon Artistry
Herbalism
Revenge of the Hunted
Testudo
Retaliation
Weathered Hunter
Two Jewel Sockets
Fervour
Survivalist
Aspect of the Lynx
Fatal Blade
Heartseeker
Acuity
Fencing
Forces of Nature
Vitality Void
Brutal Blade

Main Damage Chain:
Wild Strike > Increased Critical Damage > Added Fire Damage > Elemental Damage with Attacks.

Utility Skills:
- Ancestral Protector > Chance to Bleed > Faster Attacks > Ruthless
- Enduring Cry
- Frenzy > Faster Attacks > Fortify

Movement Skills:
- Whirling Blade > Faster Attacks > Fortify
- Charged Dash

Mana Reserve:
- Grace
- Arctic Armour

Golem:
Ice

For my combo I usually set totem in mob first, then Whirling blade in, Enduring Cry, Frenzy attack, then I start attacking with Wild Strike. You want to try and keep your Frenzy and Endurance charges maxed out to make use of the mods in Outmatch and Outlast. Your utility skills will change when you start farming for currency. Because currency farming you are more worried about speed and less worried about dying.

For the Auras I started out with Grace and Herald of Thunder with Curse on Hit and Poachers Mark linked. But when you get late into the maps you'll find curses do not work so well as many of the bosses are immune or resistant to them. So I switched it out with Arctic Armour. But I find curses work good for the lower tier maps. I was also using CWDT(Cast When Damage Taken) linked to Tempest Shield, which works good. But later in the game when you get Violent Retaliation, I find the Tempest Shield isn't necessary. Violent Retaliation will give you added blocking as you take damage.

Change Your Gear
When I get to a level 88 I like to switch gears and start grinding maps for currency. There are lots of creative ways to gain currency fast. Here is a good tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0cIN9l0lRA&t=134s. But we won't get into all of the tricks on how to gain currency, this guide is only about building your character.

You want your Item Quantity and Item Rarity mods as high as you can. As far as gear you want to look for Item Quantity modifiers, most your rarity can be modified with an Item Rarity Support in your damage chain. My choices for items are shown below. But you can see the entire list of items that modify item quantity here https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/List_of_items_that_alter_item_quantity

I have 50% to quantity and 92% to rarity.




Other adjustments to improve farming efficiently:
You won't need your totem since you typically run the lower tier maps when currency farming. A totem will just slow you down. Keep your movement skills and Frenzy attack the same.

Here are a few things I like to change:

Item Rarity
Switch out Increased Crit with Item Rarity



Multistrike
Switch out Added Fire Damage with Multistrike. Even though your damage is less, Multistrike helps clear the lower level mobs quicker.



Abyssal Cry
Switch out Enduring Cry with Abyssal Cry, the explosion will help with killing mobs.




Cast on Death --> Portal
If you die farming, this will let you get right back to where you left off.



Haste
Switch out Grace with Haste. But if you start dying too much, just switch back to Grace.


Rotgut Quicksilver Flask
Rotgut is a great fast farming tool. It will give you super fast speed for running between mobs. And onslaught to help clear them out. It requires critical strike and frenzy charges for it to work right. This character has both.


Filters
I use Neversink's filter. You can download here https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1246208 There are six levels of filter going from least strict to most strict. Acts 1 through 10 I just use the level 1 filter. When I get into maps I switch to the level 2 filter. When I change into my high Item Quantity Gear and the map Item Quantity is over 75% then I'll use the level 3 filter. I don't use the level 4 through 6 filters because I find I make less currency over time because I am just running around skipping over stuff too often. You need to find a balance between time spent picking up items and time spent running around to maximize how much currency you are collecting.

Finding the Right Maps
As you enter the mapping phase, start saving maps that have added quality on them. Run them later when you have your Item Quantity Gear and you have chisels that you can upgrade them further with. When you combine those things together you will have some nice drops. Also, set aside the maps that work efficiently for currency farming. You want to look for maps that are simple and wide open so you can clear them fast. Or they can be maps with some good card drops, Bazaar for example can drop cards worth about 25 chaos which aren't too uncommon. My preferred maps for farming currency are; Arid Lake, City Square, Bazaar, and Vault. When you save up enough maps and your character is at a high enough level(level 88 is good), fall back and put on your Item Quantity Gear, chisel the maps you have saved and run them. You will get a nice return in currency.

City Square with Item Quantity Gear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk5XiQTKjaA

Tier 16 map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU59GNQGvHU

Guardian of the Hydra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWPzdumcONQ