[PC,PS4,Xbox] PoE 3.7 Duelist Agony Cyclone Gladiator Endgame Build
This build is very flexible with what items you can use with it. The Coming Calamity, which is one of the core items, isn't even required to be able to run late game content.
This build uses Cyclone or Molten Strike with ~100% chance to poison to gain Virulence stacks, all while being extremely tanky thanks to 83/83 block, 90+ Life Gain on Hit, blind, and a decent life pool.
Quick Jump
Pros & Cons
Pros
- + Can do all map mods & content
- + You are immortal 83% of the time!
- + Works well on a budget
Cons
- - A bit weak to Degen damage
- - Not the fastest mapper
- - Getting all the corruptions can be hard/expensive
Playstyle
Lead the way for your Agony Crawler by going through packs and see how your personal Artillery Canon blasts everything around you. Use Tempest Shield and Convocation every now and then. The crawler is immortal and you are not far behind yourself.
Skill Tree
Ascendancy: Painforged -> Versatile Combatant -> Violent Retaliation -> Blood in the Eyes
Bandits: Kill them all
Pantheons
Major: Soul of Solaris provides many really nice defensive benefits for when you actually get hit
Minor:
Soul of Shakari. Poison Immunity.
Soul of Yugul (upgraded) 5% Reduced cold damage taken if hit recently. Good for Über Elder / Shaper.
Passive Tree (Low Budget)
PoB - Recommended High Budget (lvl 95): https://pastebin.com/shpAcf5T (~1.75m dps, 6.7k Life)
PoB - Low Budget / HC (lvl 90): https://pastebin.com/iWDNaDVx (~390k dps, 7k Life)
PoB - BiS Super High Budget (lvl 100): https://pastebin.com/5xf1pUKZ (~2.4m dps, 8k life)
Gems Setup
Body: Herald of Agony - Pierce - Damage on Full Life - Minion Speed / Minion Damage + Vicious Projectiles + Vile Toxins (45-50% more dmg) / Maim / Empower 4 / Added Chaos
Getting 5 Off-colours on the Calamity can be hard, which is why I've included multiple alternatives for the 6th link.
Gloves: Cyclone - Life Gain on Hit - Fortify - Withering Touch - Faster Attacks - Poison
Note that I get 2 links from my gloves. Poison is a REQUIRED gem so if you don't have the gloves then you need to socket it. Lesser Poison is also a good option until you get an extra 20% chance to poison from gear or jewels.
Boots: Cast when Damage Taken (lvl 1) - Desecrate (lvl 7) - Spirit Offering (lvl 8) - Convocation (must be lvl 6 or above) / Increased Duration
For mapping, recommend Convocation instead of Increased Duration as Proximity Shield mobs will be very annoying otherwise. I Sometimes recolour my boots for Increased Duration when doing Über Elder.
Helmet: Tempest Shield - Curse on Hit - Temporal Chains - Culling Strike
Here you can experiment if you like. I love Temporal Chains but the only thing that's required is really the Tempest Shield. Abyssal Cry is also a valid contender here, especially if you pick up the instant cast warcry cluster.
Weapon: Herald of Purity - Withering Touch - Minion Damage - Maim - Faster Attacks - Melee Splash
Shield: Shield Charge + Faster Attacks + Blood Magic
If you don't use a Curse + Culling setup then you can use the helmet 4L for Shield Charge and throw in Fortify.
Ring: Hatred
The medium budget build will use Determination here instead to get the watcher's eye block. If you want to run Elemental Equilibrium then you want to link Hatred with Generosity, so you doesn't give the enemies +25% to cold resist.
Gear
I recommend you to use the PoB links to get a guideline of what to aim for with the various budgets, the rest I leave up to you. In this section, you can find a list of gear alternatives and what affixes to look for on your rare items.
Weapon: In most cases a rare Gemini Claw will be the best option. However, if you are on a budget or playing SSF then the Advancing Fortress is a great option.
Prefixes to Look for
Minions deal #% increased Damage
% increased Physical Damage + (18–20)% chance to Poison on Hit (crafted)
Adds #x to #x Fire/Lightning Damage (to proc Elemental Equilibrium if you use ii)
Suffixes to look for
#% increased Attack Speed
#% chance to Intimidate Enemies for # seconds on Hit
+# Life gained for each Blinded Enemy Hit by this Weapon
Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill (great for desecrate & offerings)
#% chance to Poison on Hit
#% chance to Blind Enemies on Hit with Attacks
Curse Enemies with Level # Despair on Hit
Shiled: Lioneye's Remorse is one of the best shields you can get, especially if you can manage to get the +1 to maximum chance to block attack damage corruption on it. Any unique shield that has life and around 30% block chance will make a good substitute to the Lioneye's Remorse.
Prefixes to Look for
+# to maximum life
+# to maximum Life + #% increased maximum Life
#% additional Physical Damage Reduction
#% increased Area of Effect
#% increased maximum Life
#% to maximum Fire Resistance
#% to maximum Cold Resistance
#% to maximum Lightning Resistance
#% to all maximum Resistances
Suffixes to look for
+#% Chance to Block
Gain an Endurance, Frenzy or Power charge when you Block
Recover #% of your Maximum Life when you Block
#% additional Physical Damage Reduction
+# to Dexterity
+# to Intelligence
+#% to XXX Resistance
+# to Strength
Helmets: Any helmet with the "Summoned Agony Crawler fires 2 additional Projectiles" will work.
Prefixes to Look for
+# to maximum life
+# to maximum Life + #% increased maximum Life
(depending on base type) Evasion / Armour
Suffixes to look for
+# to Dexterity
+# to Intelligence
+#% to XXX Resistance
Nearby Enemies take 9% increased Physical Damage
Nearby Enemies have -9% to Chaos Resistance
#% of Life Regenerated per second
+# to Strength
Armours: The Calmning Calamiy
Without the Coming Calamity getting a level 21 HoAg will become a higher priority. This is because at lvl 21 the crawler goes from 3% to 4% increased attack speed and 19% to 20% damage per virulence stack, adding 40% iAS and 20% damage in addition to the extra flat damage.
Gloves: Rare Elder Gloves with Chance to block Attack Damage.
Prefixes to Look for
# to maximum life
+# to maximum Life + #% increased maximum Life
Minions deal #% increased Damage
Suffixes to look for
#% Chance to Block Attack Damage
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Faster Attacks
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Poison
+# to Dexterity
+# to Intelligence
+#% to XXX Resistance
Socketed Skills have 18% increased Attack Speed
+# to Strength
Belts: Belt of the Deciever or a rare Leather/Stygian bel
Prefixes to Look for
+# to maximum life
#% increased Movement Speed
#% increased maximum Life
Suffixes to look for
+# to Dexterity
+# to Intelligence
+#% to XXX Resistance
+# to Strength
Boots: Any Rare one will do
Prefixes to Look for
+# to maximum life
#% increased Movement Speed
+# to maximum Life + #% increased maximum Life
Unaffected by Chilled Ground
Unaffected by Shocked Ground
+# to Strength
Suffixes to look for
+# to Dexterity
+# to Intelligence
+#% to XXX Resistance
+# to Strength
Rings: 1x Essence Worm
Prefixes to Look for
+# to maximum life
+# to maximum Mana (can help if you often run out of mana while cycloning)
# to Total Mana Cost of Skills
Suffixes to look for
+# to Dexterity
+# to Intelligence
+#% to XXX Resistance
+# to Strength
Minions have #% increased Movement Speed
+# Life gained for each Enemy hit by your Attacks
Amulet: The Anvil. Try to get one with the 4-5% chance to block attack damage corruption. If you are SSF aim for life & resists here.
Jewels: The Red Nightmare or a Watcher's Eye with +% Block when affected by Determination (reduced dmg from crits is a bonus here too) For the reamining rare jewels it doesn't matter much if they are regular jewels or Ghastly Abyssal jewels. Regular jewels can however be used to reach 100% chance to poison.
Prefixes to Look for
+# to maximum life
#% increased Minion Damage
#% of Life Regenerated per second
+# to maximum Life
Minions deal # to # additional Physical Damage
Suffixes to look for
Minions have #% increased Movement Speed
Minions have #% increased Attack Speed / Minions have #% increased Cast Speed
#% Chance to Poison / #% Increased Poison Duration
#% Chance to Block Attack Damage
+# to Dexterity
+# to Intelligence
+#% to XXX Resistance
#% of Life Regenerated per second while moving
Flasks
This isn't a particulary fast build by itself, so the one flask I strongly recommend to get is the Alchemist's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline. It'll make a difference for you while mapping.
Rumi's Concoction is a great option for 2 scenarios. Either when running a -#% block chance map, or if you haven't been able to pick up all block nodes and/or gear.
The remaining flasks can be any combination of utility & life flasks. Just make sure that you have Bleed / Freeze / Curse immunities on your non-instant flasks and you'll do great.
Leveling
Leveling your character with Herald of Agony from as soon as you could use it, even if it can be wise to wait for lvl 31 and the Poison Support before you try committing to it. Link Cyclone (or Molten Strike) with Poison Lesser Poison Life on Hit and get a Double Claw (Life & Mana on hit) with attack speed on level 36 and that will take you to maps. Herald of Agony should be linked with (in order of importance) Pierce Damage on Full Life Minion Speed/Minion Damage/LMP Vicious Projectiles/LMP
Leveling Trees
63 points -> 78 points -> 101 Points -> 113 points (completed low budget tree)
Feel Free to pick up the block nodes, more life nodes, or more minion nodes earlier. The Leveling tree's should serve as an outline to how you can do it, but depending on your gear and taste you can always go for what suits you better.
Up to level 55 when you can use the Coming Calamity, and after if you don't have one yet, you can go for any other body armour. The mana cost for Herald of Agony with the links found in 4.1.2. isn't too high even on a 6L, so if you have a tabula go for it!
The 3 skills and links I would get ASAP when leveling are
- HoA - Pierce - Damage on Full Life - Minion Speed / Damage (for bosses) - Vicious Projectiles
- Cyclone - Poison - Lesser Poison - Life Gained on Hit
- Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Blood Magic - Fortify
The remaining links you can pick up when you have the sockets & links for it.
I also strongly recommend to level 6 Herald of Agony gems in your off-sockets. Having a fairly good chance at getting at least one of them to lvl 21 + 20 quality will be very nice indeed.
Tips & Tricks
- Use a Rumi's Concoction to play -#% to block chance maps with ease.
- If you can get +2 Mana Gained on Hit on 1-2 jewels then is the Advancing Fortress an awesome weapon with its 15% block and 30-50 life!
- Try out the Gluttony belt and see if you like it. It is a pretty good belt, even if I prefer other options.
- Try fossil crafting your own weapon with: Jagged + Bound fossils. Go to https://poedb.tw/us/mod.php?cn=Claw to see available mods and experiment with possible fossil crafting outcomes.
- Not using Withering Touch? In that case is the fossil mod "Nearby enemies take 9% increased physical damage" better than the -9% to chaos resistance version.
- Vorici at the Syndicate Research Branch makes it a lot easier to gain the correct colours on your Calamity.