After GGG improved the melee skills, Duelist became very powerful. In addition to the cyclone, there are many good skills. PoeCurrencyBuy has prepared some poe 3.8 duelist builds (Slayer, Gladiator, Champion) for the league starter, cheap, fast and farming.

 

Quick Jump

Duelist Champion Builds

[3.8] PoE Tornado Shot Champion Starter Build

[3.8] PoE Cyclone Champion Cheap Build

 

[3.8] PoE Tornado Shot Champion Starter Build

  • + Clear speed
  • + Defense
  • + Single target
  • + Stun immune
  • + Great league starter
  • + High absorption Molten shell / Vaal molten shell
  • - Predictive mode is a must once you get fork, limiting HC viability
  • - Cant use Queen of the forest
  • - Laggy on lower end PCs
  • - Min-maxing can be expensive
  • - Arborix bow effect makes a lot of mtx look weird

 

This build pushes the limits of defense and DPS that a bow build can achieve. It is easily the strongest build I have ever league started as and the tankiest bow character I have ever played. Move speed bonus caps out around 200-240% without Headhunter making it fast but not quite as fast as some Queen of the Forest Deadeyes. If you are looking for bow build that is much higher in defense while still having insane damage this build achieves just that.

 

Gems Setup

Barrage > Impale > Brutality > Maim > Vicious Projectiles > Slower Projectiles

Tornado shot > Mirage Archer > Greater Multiple Projectiles > Impale > Chain > Brutality

the 6th link can be changed for fork if you do not have rigwald's quills and also for maim if you have headhunter.

Useful 4 links

Dread banner > Enhance > Blood rage > Dash

enhance grants more damage for dread banner, attack speed for blood rage and cooldown for dash

Pride> Precision (level 1) > Flesh and Stone > enlighten

Chances are your character will be too dumb for enlighten, mana is fine without it

CwDT (level 6) > Vaal Molten shell (level 13) > increased duration

I use a level 6 cwdt because if you press vaal molten shell when molten shell is not on cooldown it can proc while you still have a large vaal molten shell active, having level 6 atleast lets you get 5-7k damage from the VMS before it procs.

You can not use cwdt and self cast molten shell, I actually advise it for things like shaper and hall of grandmasters.

 

Path of Building Link: https://pastebin.com/GNjPPABR

 

 

[3.8] PoE Cyclone Champion Cheap Build

  • + Runs fast
  • + Has insane amounts of damage
  • + Clears bosses like its nothing
  • + Abuses OP mechanic
  • + Cheap
  • + Almost no Uniques
  • + Really versatile
  • + Spinny boy
  • + Vacuum Cleaner with Vaal Cyclone
  • + Slayer version so you can tank even more damage in maps
  • + Upgradable over a whole league
  • + Slayerversion can do all maps except for no Leech (Insanely rare)
  • + Utilizing new Timeless Jewels
  • - Not 100% certain the champion version is HC friendly (added Tanky versions tho)
  • - Lab doable but not a "I run into everything and don't die"-build
  • - Not many Uniques, so things can get pricy to max out

 

Gems Setup

Body Armour: Cyclone + Brutality Support + Melee Physical Damage Support + Impale Support + Close Combat + Infused Channelling Support

Other options:

  • Pulverise Support if you want more area, less damage tho
  • Fortify Support slightly less damage but adds defensive utility.
  • Rage Support Adds overall lots of damage for maps, mostly useless for bosses tho

Weapons:

Blood Rage + Flesh and Stone + Maim Support

Dread Banner - Pride - Blood and Sand

Helmet:

Vaal Ancestral Warchief + Phase Run + Increased Duration + Vaal Haste

Boots:

Leap Slam + Faster Attacks + Fortify Support + Endurance Charge on Melee Stun

Gloves (Vorici-Craft 4link 4R):

Immortal Call(11) + Cast when Damage Taken Support(9) + Summon Lightning Golem(11) + Punishment(12)

 

Path of Building Link

DPS Champion Version: https://pastebin.com/1X9uupKH

Tanky Champion Version: https://pastebin.com/NyRg45xM

 

Duelist Gladiator Builds

[3.8] PoE Bladestorm Cyclone Gladiator - Block, Crit, Impale 

[3.8] PoE Lacerate Gladiator Starter Build

 

PoE Bladestorm Cyclone Gladiator - Block, Crit, Impale 

Main Skill

Directly at the start you get Perforate (available lvl 1) which you will use until you get Bladestorm (lvl 28) as main skill.

Perforate + Melee Physical Damage + Fortify + Multistrike + Rage + Pulverise / Brutality

Bladestorm + Melee Physical Damage + Fortify + Brutality + Rage + Pulverise

Cyclone + Melee Physical Damage + Fortify + Brutality + Rage + Pulverise

 

Skill Tree

Click me!

First rush either to the leech nodes in Duelist area ("Vitality Void") or to "Resolute Technique" and pick all the good stuff on the way. Then travel to the ranger area and pick up all stuff on the way. When you feel squishy get some life nodes... when you need more damage dps nodes. When you start to go for crit you spec out of Resolute Technique.

Path of Building Link: https://pastebin.com/YKVJgYFZ

More Details: poeurl.com/cxK7

 

 

[3.8] PoE Lacerate Gladiator Starter Build

  • + Can do all content
  • + Budget
  • + Good survivability (Alot of Evasion/nice armor/a lot of damage reduction)
  • + Solid clearspeed (Reave looks like top tier, Double Strike a bit slower)
  • + Using crazy mechanics
  • + Great Lab Farmer
  • + Bleed it's main dps source but we still hit hard :) 
  • - Hard to Check real DPS (even PoB don't calculate Crimson Dance and Bleed properly)
  • - It's Still evasion build, you can get occasional one hit on crazy map mode.
  • - Maddening Presence visual effect (great buff but i hate that circle).

 

Gems Setup

Lacerate / Double Strike (6 link)

Main Skill -> Rage -> Multistrike -> Brutality -> Melee Physical Damage/Fortify -> Ruthless

Auras/Buffs (4 link*)

1. Grace 50% (when you set up a dreamfather, you do not need it before

2. Blood and Sand 10% - (necessary to change stance)

3. Herald of Purity 25%

4. Vulnerability Curse Aura – Free (when we have Impresence Amulet)

Blasphemy Support + Vulnerability - Blood and Sand - Herald of Purity as 4 link. Grace will be placed in utility with Increased Duration to extend the time of Vaal Grace.

Movement (4 link*)

Whirling Blades/Leap Slam - Faster Attack - Fortify - Blood Magic

Free slot if you use Fortify in your main skill

CWDT Setup (3 link)

CWDT - Vaal Immortal Call/Vaal Molten Shell/Steelskin - Summon Flame Golem

I use maks lvl of gems for CWDT

Utility (4 link)

Blood Rage - Increased Duration - Phase Run - Vaal Grace

Blood Rage for Attack Speed and extra Leech.

Phase Run, additional dmg, speed and pass through enemy, We easily generate frenzy charge, thanks to that the buff lasts long when we use it at full charges.

Vaal Grace for additional defense

Utility 2 (3 link)

Berserk - Ancestral Protector

 

Path of Building Link

https://pastebin.com/tR7L06t9 -> Starter PoB (pre Perfect Form regular Dreamfeather, progress trees - 35/55/75/95/115)

https://pastebin.com/2UJGCSJ0 -> End game PoB (Perfect Form, Corrupted Dreamfeather)

 

Duelist Slayer Builds

[3.8] PoE Cyclone Slayer Shaper Build

[3.8] PoE Slayer Tornado Shot / Barrage MF Windripper Cheap

 

[3.8] PoE Cyclone Slayer Shaper Build

6L Mapping

Cyclone | Fortify | Melee Phys | Infused Channeling | Brutality | Pulverize

6L Single Target

If you have a white socket in your weapon, swap Pulverize for Impale

If you do not have a white socket in your weapon, swap Pulverize for Dmg on Full Life.

6L Fortify Weapon

If you are lucky enough to have Fortify built into your weapon, replace Fortify with DMG on Full Life

Boots

Enlighten | Pride | Flesh and Stone | Maim Support

Flesh and Stone blood stance maim's nearby enemies. Maim support provides us increased maim effect which is DEFINITELY worth it (600k+ shaper dmg at endgame)

Gloves

Leap Slam | Endurance Charge On Melee Stun | Faster Attacks | Blood Rage

For shaper, you could replace ECoMS with vuln and manually cast 21/20 vuln for ~7% More dmg if you wish.

Helmet

Ancestral Warchief | Impale Support | Blood and Sand | Dread OR War Banner

AW Totem boosting our damage and helping our Impale stacks. Blood and Sand blood stance providing more dmg. Dread OR War Banner boosting our damage as well. Here is how the Banners stack up and what you should pick, depending on your playstyle:

IMO it seems Dread banner is the best one to use while mapping if you choose to never really place it. However, War Banner is still best for single target at endgame because of the adrenaline you gain for 2.5~ sec upon placing it. After making the adjustments to the PoB in it's current state with the aforementioned values we've discussed, it seems the best PURE DAMAGE results are as follows:

  • #War Banner planted (78% More modifier/impale) with Adrenaline it's 10.7m.
  • #Dread Banner (110% More modifier/impale) it's 9.75m with or without the banner planted.
  • #War banner planted, no adrenaline is 9.31m.
  • #War Banner not planted is 8.98m.

So it's pretty clear, if you don't plan on setting a banner at all - choose Dread Banner. If you plan on setting the banner and taking advantage of 2.5sec of adrenaline at boss encounters, pick war banner. Again, these are just for damage values - defensive values use your own judgement if you want to take advantage of defensive banner traits.

 

Path of Building Link

  • Level 100 PoB Fortify Axe, 10.7M Shaper Dmg: https://pastebin.com/JeiK3a8R
  • Level 100 PoB Disfavour Axe, 5.69M Shaper Dmg: https://pastebin.com/30VrxdT1
  • Level 100 PoB Starforge Sword, 5.54M Shaper Dmg + 283 Life: https://pastebin.com/j9H5xTbG

 

 

PoE Slayer Tornado Shot / Barrage MF Windripper Cheap

+ Good clear speed and single target
+ MF
+ Satisfying explosion
+ Good for the league mechanics
+ Pretty cheap to start with
+ high damage

- Only 3.5k HP if MF
- Enchantments can be expensive
- Need some lvling uniques to start
- Cant do ele reflect mapmod

 

Gem Setups

Main Skill: Tornado Shot (GGGGBR)

Tornado Shot + GMP + Added Cold + Elemental Damage with Attacks + Ice Bite + Inceased Critical Strike Damage

Single Target Skill : Barrage (GGGRBB)

Barrage + Added Cold + Slower Projectiles + Elemental Damage with Attacks + Elemental Focus + Increased Critical Strike Damage

Aura: Wrath or Hatred and Herald of Ice

Herald of Ice seupt:(GGBB)

Herald of Ice + Onslaught + Curse on Hit + Assasins Mark

Movement Skill: Blink Arrow and Dash

Blink Arrow + Faster attacks

Utility: Blood Rage and Summon Ice Golem

 

Path of Building Link: https://pastebin.com/CjqkmpcZ

More Details: poeurl.com/cxK6