"Champion that which you love. He who fights for nothing dies for nothing."

The Champion is a defensive/support class that can act as a tank for their party by taunting and debuffing enemies, buffing their allies with an aura, or Intimidate enemies to reduce their defenses. 

This Champion build attacks with Viper Strike for applying as many stacks of poison as possible, but also supports chaos-based Sentinels of Purity, Phantasms, and an Agony Crawler.

 

 

Pros & Cons

  • + Easy to play. You only actively use two skills (Viper Strike and Whirling Blades/Shield Charge) and your minions are auto-summoned.
  • + Since the tree focuses on minions and since the equipped items don't all contribute to the same defensive stat, maximum life is a bit low. However, other defensive layers (e.g. permanent Fortify, reduced damage from Taunted enemies, stun immunity, 70%+ chance to evade, 50%+ physical damage reduction, high life recovery, minion meat shields, etc.) make up for this.
  • - The build might be difficult for new players or league starters as it requires/suggests very specific and potentially expensive items.

 

Skill Tree

Passive Skill Tree

Much of the tree focuses on minion, life, attack speed, resistances, and armor/evasion nodes. Be sure to pick up the Necromantic Aegis keystone.

Place one Growing Agony in either socket in the Duelist or Scion starting areas to improve your Viper Strike. The rest of the sockets are up to you (and you don't even need as many sockets as the tree suggests; it's really personal preference).

Ascendancy

Bandit Rewards

Go with Eramir's reward (+2 passive skill points). You can never have enough passive skill points for a melee summoner.

Pantheon

For the major god, use Lunaris to mitigate incoming projectile damage (primarily against projectiles that chain, which are deadly when you have minions). For the minor god, use Gruthkul to reduce the attack speed of enemies that hit you (or Shakari if your chaos resistances are low).

 

Skill Gems

Viper Strike + Multistrike + Melee Splash + Faster Attacks

We suggest this setup in The Embalmer. Combined with Herald of Agony and The Wasp Nest, Viper Strike will apply poison 100% of the time to a small area in front of your character. By placing this setup in The Embalmer, Viper Strike becomes further supported by Level 20 Vile Toxins.

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Herald of Agony + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Vile Toxins + Withering Touch + Minion Damage + Summon Phantasm on Kill

We suggest this setup in The Coming Calamity. The Agony Crawler from Herald of Agony will score most of the kills, so Summon Phantasm on Kill will trigger frequently. Both the Agony Crawler and Phantasms are supported by the linked gems. If you don't want to use Phantasms, you can switch to Minion Speed - the extra movement speed for your Agony Crawler helps it catch up to you and your Sentinels.

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Herald of Purity + Multistrike + Melee Splash + Withering Touch

We suggest this setup in your Helmet. Socketing Herald of Purity into a rare Elder helmet supported by Minion Damage and Concentrated Effect turns this into a 6-Link. Also note that Concentrated Effect will affect the Sentinels' AoE attack, as well as the AoE from Melee Splash.

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CWDT (Lv. 1) + Desecrate (Lv. 7) + Spirit Offering (Lv. 8) + Immortal Call (Lv. 3)

Desecrate must be socketed before Spirit Offering to ensure the correct order of casting. Spirit Offering is important for adding chaos damage scaled from physical damage to all of your minions. A low-level Immortal Call gives you brief moments of immunity to physical damage.

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Despair + Blasphemy + Increased AoE

Despair is the clear curse of choice for this build. Since Herald of Agony and Herald of Purity reserve most of your mana, a blasphemied Despair is managed through Impresence. Also note that Increased AoE will not increase the mana multiplier for Despair.

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Whirling Blades/Shield Charge + Faster Attacks + Blood Magic

This setup is for movement and you can use either Whirling Blades or Shield Charge - whichever boats your float. Link your movement skill to Blood Magic to avoid any troubles with mana cost (remember, most of your mana will be reserved by your Heralds).

 

Gear

Required Gear

The Coming Calamity: This item is an undeniable requirement for this build as it defaults each Herald to reserve 45% mana regardless of how many support gems they're linked to. Without this item, your Heralds would reserve far too much mana and basically make the entire build unusable.

Recommend Gear

 
 
* Impresence: Again, since most of your mana is reserved by your Heralds, this item is highly suggested for giving you a free blasphemied Despair.

* Victario's Charity: Combined with Necromantic Aegis, this item gives constant Frenzy charges to you and your minions.

* The Wasp Nest: The high attack speed, implicit 40 Life Gain on Hit, additional 20% chance to poison, and added chaos damage make it the perfect weapon for this build.

* The Embalmer: Turns Viper Strike into a 5-Link setup, but also gives additional chaos damage and increased poison duration.

* Rare Elder Helmet: Once more, a rare Elder helmet supported by Minion Damage and Concentrated Effect will really boost your Sentinels' damage.

The Rest Gear

The rest of your items should focus on core stats: Life, resistances, defense, etc. Craft rare jewelry with Deafening Essence of Fear for the increased movement speed for minions.

Flasks

We recommend having a Granite Flask and Jade Flask because the Champion scales both armor and evasion rating quite well. We also recommend at least one The Overflowing Chalice to help generate flask charges. The rest of the flasks are up to you.
 

Leveling Guide (simple)

There is a regrettable question here.Viper Strike is hard to use when leveling up a character, mostly due to the lack of AoE. In early levels, We suggest Caustic Arrow + Mirage Archer, eventually switching out Caustic Arrow for Toxic Rain after killing Merveil in Act 1. Viable leveling supports for Toxic Rain are Mirage Archer and Vicious Projectiles.

Toxic Rain is strong until Level 60 when you can equip The Wasp Nest. If you don't want to use Toxic Rain until then, you can start using Viper Strike at Level 28 with Lakishu's Blade - it's a cheap and easily acquired 4-link for Viper Strike. Viper Strike can then move to The Embalmer at Level 50.

When leveling, focus more on supporting Herald of Agony instead of Herald of Purity; Herald of Agony is far stronger for boss fights. Viable leveling supports for Herald of Agony are Lesser Multiple Projectiles, Vicious Projectiles, Pierce, and Minion Damage. Do not use Herald of Purity until you have The Coming Calamity.

 

Expectations