The skill tree seems pretty good. Depending on equipment, overall that’s about the same build I’d recommend to most people. Depending on itemization it might be necessary to pick up a few more health points, so I guess new builds will have to be adapted to each individual player; which is actually a good thing, Path of Life Nodes was lame.

I should be able to revise my original build in a day or two once I’m more sure about everything, but seems both of us already figured pretty much the same things.

When the game was fully released I tried to make this build work out with 3 auras, but it was both difficult and didn’t seem worthwhile. After some reading/thinking it seems that 2 will have to do (grace (or determination) + hatred) and extra defense will come from Cast when damage taken (unleveled) + Decoy Totem + Enduring Cry + Enfeeble or something similar (idea from the Blender guide brought up by Cpt). Seems like Cleave needs to be replaced with Dual Strike + Melee Splash as well. Here’s my current passive tree plan. I’ve also created a little side-project Scion in Domination league with largely the same foundation except I’ll be using Spectral Throw with Greater/Lesser Multiple Projectiles support and a 2-handed weapon – planning to go for these passives. Both get about 160-170% life from nodes and it’s easy to switch out damage for life when necessary. I don’t like specializing weapon-wise so planning to take generic damage nodes only. I really like playing solo, fully cleaning areas and reading/listening to npc chats/lore so I’m moving forward rather slowly though. Maybe these trees (I haven’t tested either yet) can provide some inspiration to others. Would be very interested in any feedback or experience concerning them as well.

With Bringer of Rain (Dual Strike, Melee Splash, Added Fire Damage, Multistrike) my damage is 1k higher compared to when I’m using a 6-linked chest. BUT, I can’t sustain Dual Strike as the cost increases to 66 mana/attack, which is practically my entire mana pool after Hatred and Grace. Doesn’t work unless you also have a Soul Taker. I can sort of sustain it with mana by removing Added Fire Damage my but DPS drops by an additional 5k. Blood Magic would fix sustain issues, but not the damage.

The biggest upside to The Bringer of Rain is that it’s cheap compared to getting a 6-linked chest. Downside, you need Dream Fragments so you can’t get Frozen (another 3ex), and you will lose any defenses by not having a chestpiece. And Soul Taker ain’t cheap either.

Doesn’t do anything to help with lackluster damage.

I started with a new duelist (it’s annoying but what else can I do), I probably won’t have the currency to get the Bringer of Pain tho so I’ll be using normal gear to make it work…I can report as I come closer to merciless of how good it is.

Yeah that’s pretty much exactly what I’m going towards right now. My skill tree is a bit different, but basically lot more damage points than before, using Dual Strike + Melee Splash.

I’ll see if I can get a Bringer of Rain later today to compare DPS with and without.

Resistance wasn’t such a problem in my case it was the armor and the horrible DPS that I got (even after using a lot of points for higher attack speed and damage it was still lower).
I was thinking of trying something like this: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/491481
But I got no idea how gear dependent it is for now.

I practically haven’t played any other build besides this one for the past 7-8 months. It’s unusual but I just can’t explain how amazingly fun it was for me. Whatever else I tried was either not fun (dual totems seriously?) or just weak without insane gear.

I was also incredibly excited for the release patch, so when I logged in and saw my Cleave went down from 16k DPS to 8K in addition to having less armor and resists, it didn’t really motivate me to keep playing.

I liked the build as well, and like you I hope the revert at least the Cleave nerf. I’m not even sure why it was nerfed; possibly because of quick leveling for race events or strong Elemental Cleave damage, but neither of those two reasons should really affect lategame physical cleavers. Sad day for all of us.