[Expedition] PoE 3.15 Duelist Lacerate Gladiator Starter Build

This PoE 3.15 Duelist Lacerate Gladiator Starter build is a combination of easiness to play and being able to do all endgame content at a high efficiency thanks to it's fast clearspeed and bossing capability. It's an all-round build designed to do your daily stuff like mapping, delving, simulacrum, uber labs, endgame bosses, etc. efficiently

Quick Jump

Pros & Cons

Skill Tree

Ascendancy: Arena Challenger -> Outmatch and Outlast -> Painforged -> Versatile Combatant

Pantheon: Solaris and Ryslatha

Bandit: Kill All

Passive Tree & PoB

40 -> 50 -> 60 -> 76 -> 90 -> 94 -> 98

Notes:

• Until we get a Soul Taker, we need to use Life and Mana Leech node and respec it after we get it.
• If in need of Intelligence or Dexterity, pick +30 to Intelligence or Dexterity nodes.
• These passive trees are made for playing without a cluster jewel and Thread of Hope, mostly for levelling. When adding a Cluster Jewel or Thread of Hope, please refer to passive trees in Path of Building links of Required Gear or Meta Gear up above.

Path of Building Link

Required Gear (lv92): https://pastebin.com/MZ8r1BqD (3.2m Shaper DPS, 6.0k life)

Meta Gear (lv98): https://pastebin.com/s8bPfHCB (6.45m Shaper DPS[9.46m with Berserk enabled], 7.0k life)

Gems Setup

Lacerate - Melee Physical Damage - Brutality - Multistrike - Impale - Fortify

Vaal Ancestral Warchief - Melee Physical Damage - Brutality - Maim

Aura: Pride - Blood and Sand - Dread Banner - Arctic Armour

Blood Rage - Increased Duration - Enhance

Cast when Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Increased Duration - Vulnerability

Movement: Leap Slam - Faster Attacks - Endurance Charge on Melee Stun

Leveling Setup

We need to get a Paua Amulet from Nessa at start to help with mana regeneration. We need Perforate from Tarkleight at start and use it until level 12 where we can get Lacerate after The Siren's Cadence quest. Before Leap Slam, we will use Dash we get after Breaking Some Eggs quest with Quicksilver Flask until level 10, where we can get Leap Slam after The Caged Brute quest. Get movement Speed on boots(also to more item slots if possible) and use Quicksilver flask coupled with Leap Slam. We need to add Faster Attacks support to Leap Slam in Act 2 after Sharp and Cruel quest. For single targets, we'll use Double Strike until level 28, then switch to Vaal Ancestral Warchief. For buffs, we need to start using War Banner and Blood and Sand at level 4, after Breaking Some Eggs quest in Act 1 and stay in Sand Stance until we get Vaal Ancestral Warchief. Then get Herald of Ash at level 16 in Act 2. We also need to replace War Banner with Dread Banner at level 24 after Lost in Love quest. Change Herald of Ash with Pride at level 40. Our buffs will be Blood and Sand, Pride and Dread Banner. From that point until we get our mighty Soul Taker, Life and Mana Leech node on passive tree will help with replenishing mana. At level 59, we can get Soul Taker and add Arctic Armor to buffs. We don't have to get Soul Taker as soon as we hit level 59, build will run fine with Blood and Sand, Pride and Dread Banner buffs for enough that we'll be able to buy a Soul Taker easily. Add Impale as 5th gem to Lacerate and Fortify as 6th gem. Don't forget to overcap your resists to at least 109 for Elemental Weakness map mod.

Gem Links When Levelling

Act1 End:

GGR: Lacerate + Onslaught + Chance to Bleed
GRR: Double Strike + Maim + Ruthless
Others: Blood and Sand, War Banner, Dash(Leap Slam)

Act 2 End:

GGR: Lacerate + Onslaught + Melee Physical Damage
GRR: Double Strike + Melee Physical Damage + Maim
RG: Leap Slam + Faster Attacks
Others: Blood and Sand, War Banner, Herald of Ash

Act 3 End:

GGGR: Lacerate + Faster Attacks + Onslaught + Melee Physical Damage
RRR: Vaal Ancestral Warchief + Melee Physical Damage + Maim
RG: Leap Slam + Faster Attacks
Others: Blood and Sand, Dread Banner, Herald of Ash

Act 5 End:

GRRR: Lacerate + Melee Physical Damage + Brutality + Multistrike (Onslaught moves to Silver Flask here until we get Slaughter node on Passive Tree, then we need to change the flask to Sulphur.)
RRRR: Vaal Ancestral Warchief + Melee Physical Damage + Brutality + Maim
RRG: Leap Slam + Endurance Charge on Melee Stun + Faster Attacks
Others: Blood and Sand, Dread Banner, Pride, (Add Arctic Armour later when you get Soul Taker)

Fast Levelling Tips

Here are some tips for fast levelling:

Economy (What To Get):

Act 1: Scroll of Wisdoms(sell Blacksmith Whetstones and Armourer's Scraps / Orb of Transmutation(sell items unidentified)
Act 2: Scroll of Wisdoms(sell Blacksmith Whetstones and Armourer's Scraps / Orb of Alteration(sell items identified)
Act 3+: Scroll of Wisdoms(sell Blacksmith Whetstones and Armourer's Scraps / Orb of Alteration(sell items identified) and after item level 60 do Chaos recipe.

Zone Levels:

Level 1-16: Stay at zone level
Level 16-31: Stay 3-4 levels under zone level
Level 32-47: Stay 4-5 levels under zone level
Level 48-60: Stay 5-6 levels under zone level
Level 54-62: Blood Aqueducts is a good place to fast level and do chaos recipe
Level 90+: Do Beachhead rotas until level 94-95, then do Pure Breachstone rotas until level 100.

That's all about levelling this build, because Lacerate is one of the easiest skills to level with. We don't need to do anything special here. Build doesn't need any specific items for levelling, but here are some to make it even faster:

Weapon: The Screaming Eagle, Relentless Fury, The Gryphon

Helmet: Ezomyte Hold, The Peregrine, Deidbell, Devoto's Devotion

Body: Tabula Rasa, Briskwrap, Foxshade, Belly of the Beast

Gloves: Hrimsorrow, Haemophilia

Boots: Wanderlust, Victario's Flight, Shavronne's Pace

Belt: Meginord's Girdle, Feastbind

Jewellery: Blackheart, Le Heup of All, Praxis, Karui Ward, Carnage Heart

Note: Only use Praxis ring if you still have mana issues until Act 6, then change it with a rare ring.

Required Gear

Please read this one first before reading next one (Meta Gear version).

One Handed Axe
Quality: +30%
Physical Damage: 201-326
Critical Strike Chance: 5.00%
Attacks per Second: 1.61

175% increased Physical Damage
24% increased Attack Speed
+31% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
+19% to Cold Resistance
+65 to Accuracy Rating
Adds 17 to 30 Physical Damage

On main hand we need an axe that has 400+ physical dps and also having high attacks per second(at least 1.60). Global Critical Strike Multiplier mod is not needed here.

We need Soul Taker on off-hand to be able to use Leap and Lacerate indefinitely thanks to "Insufficient mana doesn't prevent your melee attacks" mod, also to fill mana reserve with Blood and Sand, Pride, Arctic Armor and Dread Banner. For SSF, easiest way to get a Soul Taker is chancing ilvl 59+ Siege axes. Soul Taker is the only unique Siege Axe so it's not too hard to get.

Helmet
Blood Rage grants additional 12% increased Attack Speed

+93 to maximum Life
23% increased Rarity of Items found
+35% to Fire Resistance
+29% to Cold Resistance
74% increased Armour

We're gonna use a rare helm having life and then required resists. Our enchant needs to be "Blood Rage grants additional %12 Increased Attack Speed". Easiest way to obtain a helm like this is to buy a Royal Burgonet or an Eternal Burgonet having the helm enchant, then craft on it doing alt+aug then regal. If going for a pure lab build we need Devoto's Devotion here for even more attack speed.

We need a 6-link Belly of the Beast and run Lacerate on it. We need Belly because we basically need all the affixes it has. We can use a 5-link until we get a 6-link and don't use Fortify gem until we get a 6-link. As well instead of a Belly, you can get a rare chest with at least %9 increased max life, +130ish max life, and needed resists(also free space to craft %Increased Maximum Life and Mana) as an alternative if you come across a cheaper one compared to a Belly or craft one instead.

Spiked Gloves
20% increased Melee Damage
Adds 6 to 10 Physical Damage to Attacks
Adds 1 to 2 Fire Damage to Attacks
15% increased Attack Speed
+87 to maximum Life
+20% to Cold and Lightning Resistances

Here we need Spiked Gloves having physical damage, attack speed and life, and then required resists. There's also another option, which I'll be telling in Meta Gear version below. Also don't forget to cap levels of your gems in your CWDT setup here like this: Cast While Damage Taken(lv3) - Immortal Call(lv5) - Vulnerability(lv7) - Increased Duration(lv20)

Titan Greaves
16% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you've Killed Recently

+78 to maximum Life
+41% to Cold Resistance
+48% to Lightning Resistance
25% increased Movement Speed
Non-Vaal Skills deal 60% increased Damage during Soul Gain Prevention

For boots we need needed 2 resist mods, movement speed and life. We also need the enchant "Increased Attack and Cast Speed If You've Killed Recently" because we'll be constantly leaping and killing. As for the crafted mod, we need "Non-Vaal Skills Deal %60 Increased Damage During Soul Gain prevention"(Jun mod) so this way we have %60 more damage when our Vaal Ancestral Warchief is active and soul gain prevention is running(those red chains appearing on skill logo, 9 seconds in total), which is a good improvement for Lacerate when boss killing. We can also get it on gloves to make it double.

Rustic Sash
24% increased Global Physical Damage

+379 to Armour
+98 to maximum Life
+22% to Fire Resistance
+29% to Lightning Resistance
24% increased Stun and Block Recovery
16% increased Damage

Here we need to have life, needed resists and then craft %Increased Damage on it.

Steel Ring
Adds 4 to 16 Physical Damage to Attacks

+30 to Dexterity
Adds 10 to 15 Physical Damage to Attacks
+45% to Fire Resistance
+37% to Lightning Resistance
+55 to maximum Life

For rings we need physical damage and life on both rings, and then needed resists. And then craft %Increased Damage on at least one of them. You can also craft attack speed for the second if you don't have a place for a prefix. But it'll be better if we can craft %Increased Damage on both.

Citrine Amulet
Allocates Discipline and Training

+24 to Strength and Dexterity
Adds 14 to 25 Physical Damage to Attacks
Adds 1 to 2 Fire Damage to Attacks
+88 to maximum Life
+34% to Fire Resistance
16% increased Global Physical Damage

On neck we need a rare amulet having physical damage, life with "%Increased Global Physical Damage" or "%Increased Melee Damage" as crafted mod depending on the situation of prefixes and suffixes. Anointment needs to be Discipline and Training. Here we can also get a Carnage Heart for cheap until we can get a rare amulet like this one.

12% increased Melee Damage
4% increased Attack Speed
7% increased maximum Life

We need damage, life and attack speed on jewels. If 4-mod, double damage. For cluster jewel, we need an 8 passive one having Feed The Fury, Martial Prowess and 2 jewel sockets. Also we need a Thread of Hope with Large radius and -10 or -11 to All Elemental Resistances. Please check Required Gear's Path of Building link up above to see how cluster jewel and Thread of Hope here are applied and passive nodes need to be refunded on the original tree for them. If you don't want to use a cluster jewel, simply follow trees listed under Passive Skill Tree section on this guide.

Meta Gear

It's mostly same with the cheap version having higher dps, more life, better and different items, better min/maxing, Vulnerability on Hit, Culling Strike, faster Leap setup, Watcher's Eye and some more differences. So I'll just tell the differences here other than telling the setup right from the beginning.

Weapon

One Handed Axe
Quality: +46%
Physical Damage: 203-371
Elemental Damage: 5-78
Critical Strike Chance: 5.00%
Attacks per Second: 1.74
Weapon Range: 11

43% increased Physical Damage
Adds 27 to 49 Physical Damage
Adds 5 to 78 Lightning Damage
Hits with this Weapon have Culling Strike against Bleeding Enemies
Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers
123% increased Physical Damage
16% increased Attack Speed
+16% to Quality

A main hand weapon here with higher physical damage(500pDPS) and Culling Strike as Elder mod(You can also get Culling Strike on gloves as Warlord mod). Here we put CWDT setup to main hand weapon because Vulnerability goes to ring as "on hit", meaning it will be applied permanently instead of when being hit so we remove Vulnerability gem. Also we move leap to gloves, because we're gonna make something special for leap on gloves. Soul Taker on off-hand is the same. Here we also change Increased Duration on Blood Rage with Berserk. We generate our Rage through Bloodscent on cluster jewel.

Helmet

Same Helmet as Required Gear, only having "Nearby Enemies Take %9 Increased Physical Damage" mod as extra. This mod is important because this is a pure physical build. We'll be needing an Elder influenced Royal or Eternal Burgonet and fossil craft on it with Jagged and Pristine fossils.

Same Body Armour as Required Gear

Glove

Here we need "Socketed Gems have %X More Attack and Cast Speed" mod on same Required Gear gloves and move Leap setup here. Because of "more" instead of "increased" this mod increases Leap speed a lot, thus clear speed. Here, life leech node is not needed since we already get our leech from Cluster Jewel. As support, we have Culling strike support for the 4th slot for %11 increased attack speed to leap to make it even faster. Also, if you don't have Culling Strike on weapon, you can kill the boss with a single leap when it's down to %10 health. To craft these gloves, we need to essence craft it using Essence of Insanity, or fossil craft it using Glyphic Fossil and Shuddering Fossil.

Boots

Here we have Two-Toned boots to be able to get some resists from the implicit, then pick two needed resists, life and movement speed and craft "Non-Vaal skills deal %60 increased damage during soul gain prevention" mod on it. You can also craft this mod on gloves to make it double.

Belt

Murderous Eye Jewel

Adds 5 to 7 Physical Damage to Attacks
+33 to maximum Life
8% chance to Avoid being Stunned
Adds 4 to 6 Physical Damage to Axe Attacks

Stygian instead of Rustic Sash here and an Abyssal Jewel inside it. Same life and needed resists with better rolls. Also %10 life(%12 with Fertile Catalysts) as a further improvement.

Rings

+16% to Fire and Lightning Resistances
+20 to Intelligence
Adds 10 to 18 Physical Damage to Attacks
+48 to maximum Life
+10% to all Elemental Resistances
Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on Hit, with 32% increased Effect
20% increased Damage

Rings with better rolls and increased damage crafted on both or attack speed on one depending on availability of a prefix or suffix. Also one having "Curse Enemies With Vulnerability on Hit, With %20-32 Increased Effect" mod. Here Vulnerability goes to "on hit" from CWDT setup, which makes us apply Vulnerability all the time. Here we can get/craft Essence of Contempt crafted rings to be able to have 11-17 Physical Damage to attacks instead of regular 9-15 max roll. Also left ring anointment is changed with "Fireball Towers Fire an Additional 8 Projectiles", which is much better than cheaper 2 projectiles version on Required Gear. Increased Fire Damage on right ring is not needed here.

Same rare amulet with better rolls/mods, this time with All Attributes.

Jewels

Adds 8 Passive Skills
2 Added Passive Skills are Jewel Sockets
Added Small Passive Skills grant: Axe Attacks deal 12% increased Damage with Hits and Ailments
Added Small Passive Skills grant: Sword Attacks deal 12% increased Damage with Hits and Ailments
1 Added Passive Skill is Bloodscent
1 Added Passive Skill is Feed the Fury
1 Added Passive Skill is Martial Prowess

Here we'll use jewels with double damage mods compared to Required Gear. For cluster jewel, we need Bloodscent node on top of Required Gear's cluster jewel. If you can't find it on trade or want to craft it, you can skip Martial Prowess at first and get Bloodscent and Feed the Fury. These are the most important two. You can get the one with Martial Prowess later on. And we need Thread of Hope again here with Large Radius and -10 or -11 to Maximum Elemental Resistances. Please check Meta Gear's Path of Building link up above to see how this cluster jewel and Thread of Hope are applied and passive nodes need to be refunded on the original tree for them. If you don't want to use a cluster jewel, simply follow trees listed under Passive Skill Tree section on this guide.