In this guide you’ll learn exactly which traits are best on your gear no matter the build or setup! If you don’t want to read the boring details, click here to jump directly to the table outlining best traits: Best Traits.

Since the trait names will be referenced plenty of times in this guide, here’s a table reminding you exactly what they do!

Armor Traits

Weapon Traits

 For armor, you will never want to craft items with Sturdy, Training or Well-Fitted, and equally useless are Charged and Training on weapons.

Which traits to use?

The biggest thing to consider is that not all items receive the same benefit from enchants. As an example, enchanting a V12 belt will give you around 45 health, while a same Veteran Rank headpiece can give you well over 100 health. Therefore, armor trait “Infused” giving you a stronger benefit from enchants is preferred on item pieces which give you the largest amounts of stats so the Infused trait will scale even further.

On nearly all item setups and skill builds Infused trait is preferred on your head, chest, and pants. If you decided to enchant all of these slots with bonus health you would get about 370, and with Infused traits another 50 or so on top of it is a big difference. For tanks using heavy armor Reinforced is best used on Shoulders and Boots, unless you are looking to overcharge your armor further and want it on Head, Chest and Pants as well.

Divines trait (increasing the effect of Mundus stones) is equally beneficial no matter which stone you prefer using. Gloves and belt slots give very little armor and enchants on them are not nearly as potent as on some other equipment slots, so they should always have the Divines trait on them.

The table below will give you a basic breakdown of how your armor traits should look in a majority of setups:

The table assumes you are using heavy armor for tanking, and light and medium armour for damage dealing.

As for weapon traits, almost all damage dealers will opt to go for Precise, increasing their critical strike chance. Alternatively you may see some with Sharpened or Weighted, though it’s considered sub-optimal currently. Tanks will likely want Defending if they’re still not overcharged with Armor and Resistances. In some cases Infused, Powered, Sharpened, or Weighted can be used as well.

This guide also doesn’t take PvP into account where Impenetrable trait is often a popular choice as well. Shoulders, boots, gloves, and belt slots are best with Impenetrable trait, and you should nearly always have it on gloves and belt.

Have any other questions about best traits in ESO? Shoot them in the comments below!

I based the build on the Duelist class, but you can also adapt the skill tree slightly to work with Marauders, Templars, Scions and even Rangers.

Contents:

• Why Dual Strike
• Build Strengths
• Build Weaknesses
• Passive Skill Tree
• Skill Gems
• Recommended Equipment
• Bandit Quest Rewards
• Flasks
• Gameplay Videos
• Closing Thoughts

Why Dual Strike

Pre-release Cleave was my main damaging ability, but it got nerfed significantly and Dual Strike used with Melee Splash came out on top as the best replacement. Dual Strike deals massive single-target damage, and linked with Melee Splash even in a cheap 5-linked item deals over 10k AoE damage. This setup doesn’t necessarily even need a 6-linked chest early on to be effective, so you can farm your way through lower level maps until you’re ready to purchase one.

The Shredder build used to be a lot stronger before 1.0.0 patch but it’s still viable if you want a physical dual wielder. It gets increasingly powerful as you obtain better gear (duh!) and it does enable you to solo almost any content in the game.

As a side note, other AoE abilities don’t work as well for this build. Cleave, Lightning Strike, Reave, or any other 1-hand skill linked with Melee Splash gem doesn’t deal the same damage. Cyclone is just as good, but it causes huge desync (lag) issues so I stay away from it.

Build Strengths

• Not extremely dependent on gear: you don’t need any specific expensive unique items to make this build work. There are a couple that help greatly but they aren’t necessary to make the build viable, and you can start farming endgame maps with average rare items.
• High survivability: with just a few health points in the skill tree you can easily reach 4,000 health and more. Paired with high armor, lifesteal, life regeneration and Endurance Charges you’re unstoppable.
• Great mobility: using Leap Slam and overall having lots of movement speed helps you get into fights quickly, and if necessary jump out of harms way even faster.
• Can’t get stunned or frozen: by using my skill tree and one fairly cheap unique item you’re completely immune to stuns and freeze, making sure you’re always dishing out damage regardless of who you’re fighting against.
• Adaptable: skill tree is designed in such a way that you can easily pick up extra health or resistances if needed, and easily overcome the lack of defenses on your gear with just a few points.
• Versatility: you can do any kind of maps; you are virtually unaffected by reflect which is the bane of many other builds. Blood Magic + double Reflect + Multiple Projectiles + Vulnerability… bring it on! Even Chaos damage doesn’t hurt you nearly as much as it does other builds.
• Fun to play: obviously everyone enjoys different things, but dying constantly isn’t fun for me which is why I prefer this build. Also shredding everything in your path with over 8 attacks per second is unbelievably entertaining to watch.

Build Weaknesses

• Needs high health and resist gear: fortunately these are the only two stats you need to focus on. If you desperately need a specific resistance you can always put one or two points into the skill tree.
• Needs one mana leech item: you will need gloves, belt, ring or amulet with 2% mana leech. It’s not hard to get but you may have to sacrifice more useful stats because of it.
• Half regen maps: you might have somewhat decreased DPS in half-regen maps due to the inability to leech mana at a normal rate (funnily enough “no regeneneration” maps can be done without issues).
• Low IIQ/IIR: it’s hard to get Increased Item Rarity and Quantity on equipment for this build, but then again nearly every build except dual Spark totem or summoner has the same issue.
• Best gear is expensive: to be the most efficient it does require a 6 linked chest, Alpha’s Howl and preferably a Soul Taker.

Passive Skill Tree

The build is not updated for Forsaken Masters expansion, so the links below are broken. Here’s a screenshot of the old build if you need a starting point.

My current build: 109 points (level 90). It’s optimized for my own equipment based on my resistances, health and weapon types.  If you’re lazy you can use it as-is, but it will work best if you adapt it to your own gear. As such, remove sword and axe damage nodes if you don’t use those weapons, remove bonus resistances if you’re already over-capped, and add some extra life nodes if your life is low.

• Why 5% reduced mana reserved: because then I can reserve 99% of my mana and use three auras: unless you have a Soul Taker (and Alpha’s Howl) it won’t be possible, so feel free to redistribute those points elsewhere.
• Why no Blood Drinker: I have plenty of life leech on equipment. When leveling you’ll probably want to have a point in Blood Drinker at all times.
• Why +6 to all elemental resistances: very efficient point and just enough to push me over the cap.
• Why no Bloodless: 8% more health is great, but I can’t afford the extra points.
• Why no Fencing: efficient node, but don’t have enough points for it.
• Is 2% to maximum resistances worth it? Yes.
• For other questions, see FAQ below.

My own build is provided just to give you an example how you can adapt it. Unless you have the identical items as I do, use the build below.

Recommended endgame build: 110 points (level 87-90).

This is a generic build designed to work the a variety of different equipment, and can easily be adapted to overcome any lack of stats on your gear: extra dexterity or intelligence is just 1 point away, as is extra health or resistances. If you lack certain elemental resistances (which is common for new players) simply remove a couple of points from damage nodes. Spending a few Orbs of Regret is better than not having your resistances maxed!

You’ll notice the build goes from Duelist to Marauder starting points and can be used by either class. Scion or Ranger classes can work as well, only 3-4 points need to be redistributed which I’m sure you can figure out by yourself (in other words I’m too lazy to create builds for those classes, besides it’s pointless: just connect the build in shortest way possible).

Skill Tree Progression

• Duelist: 10 points (Leather and Steel), 16 points (Water Dancing for +dex, Steel Skin), 26 points (Blood Drinker), 32 points (Resolute Technique), 43 points (Warrior’s Blood), 55 points (Iron Reflexes, Unwavering Stance), 66 points (Thick Skin, Finesse), 70 points (Weapon Artistry, Aspect of the Panther). Keep taking health, resists or damage as needed, possibly in that order.
• Marauder: 12 points (Diamond Skin), 24 points (Blood Drinker, Resolute Technique), 36 points (Master of the Arena; you might need to pick up Quickness for extra dexterity along the way), 43 points (Water Dancing, Leather and Steel), 52 points (Iron Reflexes, Unwavering Stance), 60 points (Thick Skin, Finesse), 74 points (Weapon Artistry, Aspect of the Panther, Berserking, Sentinel). Fill out other nodes as needed, focus on resistances and health first, not damage.

Don’t bother planning your skill tree with 120 points, you’ll never have that many! With other classes, just follow the starting points and connect to one of the skill trees provided above in the closest way possible, and work your way to important keystones and notable passives that give you most bang for your buck.

There’s no clear benefit to playing either of these classes early as each one has its own advantages: Marauder can get to resistances and Resolute Technique earlier, Duelist can pick up more damage and some much needed early +dexterity. I recommend you play whatever class you prefer, you can get to most important skill points early enough to enable the build to work well with either one. These builds are also made for softcore leagues: if you play on hardcore you will surely want to pick more health nodes earlier to be on the safe side.

Note that the skill point progression is more of a suggestion or a guideline rather than set in stone. If you need extra health or resistances while leveling don’t be afraid to go for it, it’s always just a couple of points away. If you need extra Intellect you can also pick up Hard Knocks or Wisdom of the Glade earlier, and you can always remove the points if you don’t need them later on. A huge upside to this build is its flexibility, and you will get about 15 respec points throughout leveling from quests which will be more than enough to fiddle around with a few points as you see fit.

Keystones:

• Iron Reflexes: converts all your evasion rating into armour. It maximizes the benefits you get from both armor and evasion on gear, passive skill points that further increase it and Grace aura. Your physical damage reduction won’t be under 50% even with the worst of gear. I mainly prefer armor over evasion due to its consistency: it’s better to get hit for low damage than for high damage every other time. You can always react with flasks, Molten Shell or just run away if you’re taking too much damage, while with evasion you’re typically dead if you don’t dodge several times in a row. Don’t take it too early.
• Unwavering Stance: with this point you can no longer be stunned, and if you have Alpha’s Howl (pictured below with equipment) you can’t get frozen either. You’re literally unstoppable. Do not take it before you get Iron Reflexes!
• Resolute Technique: there’s no point in worrying about +accuracy and +critical on your equipment or worse in your passive skill tree. It’s a waste of stat, and potential damage you lose from not being able to critically strike is more than made up for by never missing attacks. Try to get to RT as fast as possible, it’s definitely worth it. It also makes sure your mana leech is consistent.

Other notes:

• You may need extra Dexterity or Intelligence for certain weapons or skill gems. +30 nodes are usually just a couple of points away so don’t be afraid to take them.
• Why no Blood Magic? Because we can’t run auras with it. Plus it’s not necessary as Mana Leech covers all ability costs.
• Unless you suffer from frequent stuns, don’t pick up Unwavering Stance and Iron Reflexes too early. Usually you’ll want to take it in late Cruel or early Merciless.

FAQ:

Why Resolute Technique? Why go Unwavering Stance? Why no Endurance Charges? Why no Vaal Pact? Why this, why that… If you feel any of the keystones are or are not useful, then do or don’t pick them up. I provided the full build I use which suits my play style, and after playing it for a year I’m sure it works — for me. It’s by no means the best or only build you can make! Experiment and decide for yourself.

Skill Gems

* Multistrike is not a frequent skill gem drop and you may have to purchase it (typically around 3 Chaos Orbs). As an alternative you can use Added Fire Damage until you can obtain Multistrike.

Gem rewards from quests

Some quest rewards were slightly changed in patch 1.0.0, so the table may not yet be 100% accurate.

Marauders have easier access to most skill gems you need so you may want to try my build with Marauders rather than Duelists. I hope the table helps you plan your quest rewards and figure out which gems to take. However none of these skill gems are expensive and you could buy everything you need for just a few Chaos Orbs.

Multistrike and Cast When Damage Taken are only rewarded at the end of Act III in Merciless difficulty, so you may want to purchase them from players earlier. Multistrike costs about 2-3 Chaos Orbs, Cast When Damage Taken (not really required early on) up to 10 Chaos.

Alternatives

• If you’re running a 6 linked chest you can use Added Fire Damage as an additional support gem, or even as an alternative to Multistrike if you for some reason prefer. AFD deals less damage than Multistrike but only slightly.
• If needed you can run Clarity aura for increased mana regeneration if you have problems sustaining your ability costs in half-regen maps. Keep it at level 10 or below, and you can even link it with Blood Magic gem since it uses a flat amount of mana/health rather than a percentage.

Cast When Damage Taken

This support gem has a lot of potential to add variety and survivability to your builds. You should typically just keep the gem on level 1, since leveling it further just increases the damage you need to take in order to activate skills. I recommend some of the following spells:

• Molten Shell – auto-casting Molten Shell means you constantly have additional armor and damage absorption, without the hassle of casting it yourself.
• Enfeeble – depending on the intelligence requirements you may not want to level this gem fully or at all, but even a level 1 Enfeeble curse reduces the damage of anything hitting you by 25%. Definitely a noticeable difference!
• Enduring Cry – gives you endurance charges without having to cast the skill yourself. Makes you even more durable, and it’s especially useful for hard-hitting bosses since every endurance charge provides a fixed 4% physical damage reduction.

Alternatively, Rejuvenation or Decoy Totems are also very helpful. And in case you want to be extra annoying in groups, add Portal. Worth mentioning because I was asked many times, spells linked to CWDT don’t require or consume mana when cast.

Level 1 Cast When Damage Taken, linked with level 5 Enduring Cry and Enfeeble is easiest and probably best for beginners to use. You can also add Increased Duration if you have a 4th socket available. If your sockets allow later on you can also add another high level (15-20) CWDT and link it with Molten Shell and/or Immortal Call, or even add another Enduring Cry.

Curses

Rejuvenation Totem and Molten Shell are definitely not mandatory in this build, especially once you start using Cast on Damage Taken. If necessary you can consider using some of the following curses:

• Enfeeble – affected monsters have reduced Accuracy, Critical and Damage. Even a rank 1 Enfeeble reduces monster damage by 25% so if you have trouble surviving in some situations or against particular bosses feel free to consider it.
• Vulnerability – increases your physical damage by 25%-34%. Be careful about leveling it fully as level 20 Vulnerability requires 151 Intelligence.
• Warlord’s Mark – you gain increased life and mana leech on affected monsters: 3%-7% life leech and 1-3% mana leech depending on gem level. You can easily level it to 20 as it only requires Strength. If you need extra life leech or can’t get mana leech any other way consider using Warlord’s Mark, although you should typically avoid having to resort to it.

Where to put all those gems?

Below is an example of how you want your skill gems set up in your gear. Socket colors are important, but you don’t necessarily need to use all of these skills or support gems to achieve the same effect.

You still end up with a few leftover sockets, enough to make all of these abilities work just fine.

Recommended Equipment

With my old build the item requirements were even less important. Now, the build can basically work well with just Alpha’s Howl, but a decent 6-linked chest and later on a Soul Taker are very recommended if you intend to tackle highest level content. Previously the build was extremely cheap, but now you can gear up any other build for the same price so take that into consideration.

Overall your main focus is to get elemental resistances and health on most equipment. One item is required with 2% mana leech, it’s not too hard to get but you may need to sacrifice more useful stats because of it. Avoid using a Mana Leech gem because you will find it much better to have an additional damage increasing skill gem link to your Dual Strike.

One item that’s almost mandatory for this build is Alpha’s Howl. Having a 6L chest helps greatly as well, but there is a fairly cheap alternative. Lastly a Soul Taker is recommended once you obtain riches beyond imagination.

Alpha’s Howl

The biggest upside to Alpha’s Howl is the freeze immunity. Getting frozen by bunch of caster skeletons is the number one reason why I died before getting this headpiece so set your goals towards obtaining this: it costs 3-4 Exalted Orbs with a maxed roll, but it’s priceless for this build.

Although it seems like a minor buff, the 8% reduced mana reserve cost is just enough to enable you to use a second aura on mana. You’ll be able to use Grace for additional defense or Hatred for a damage increase, and either of those will help greatly. As if that wasn’t enough, your auras will also get +2 additional gem levels and be slightly more powerful.

I definitely recommend you save any currency you have and try to purchase Alpha’s as soon as you can.

6-Linked Chest

6-linked chests don’t come cheap, but they do enable you to get extra damage on your Dual Strike. As a sidenote it makes no difference if you have a 4-link item for Dual Strike or a 5-link one: you can’t sustain Dual Strike + Melee Splash in a 5-link item with 3 damaging support gems without also adding Reduced Mana.

If you can afford the price and more importantly loss of stats on your chest piece, consider getting Tabula Rasa. It costs about 2-3 Exalted Orbs and will enable you to add Faster Attacks + Reduced Mana to your Dual Strike, thus increasing its DPS by about 25-30%. It’s up to you to figure out if you can play without armor, resistances and health provided by normal chests — it mostly depends on the quality of the rest of your gear.

Decent 6-linked rare chests are pretty expensive: the one pictured costs about 20 Exalted, and it’s far from being the best one. If you want to buy ANY 6-linked chest you’re probably not going to find one priced below 8 Ex.

Soul Taker

Not necessary by any means, but it does open up additional opportunities. By having this unique axe you can remove the Reduced Mana gem in your chest and add Added Fire Damage, further improving your damage to likely well over 20k (depending on your weapons).

Legacy Soul Takers are insanely expensive so it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get your hands on one any time soon, but a new nerfed one should cost you about 50 Exalted and it’s still decent. You’re buying it because of its “insufficient mana” effect, not because of the DPS. Soul Taker also enables you to reserve your entire mana pool, allowing you to use a 3rd aura.

Either way leave it as the last item to go for, and set your goals towards it. You can do without it, but can never improve your DPS substantially without one.

Leveling Gear

If you want to level up a bit faster you might want to consider getting one of these two items: Wurm’s Molt or Slitherpinch. They will help sustain your ability costs early on and are really, really cheap. If you’re just starting in the game you probably won’t even be able to afford these immediately, but generally they cost about 1 Chaos Orb.

I might be able to hook you up with these (on Standard league), just PM me in game (info below), or join my guild.

Bandit Quest Rewards

• Normal: help Oak and get +40 health
• Cruel: help Oak for +18% physical damage
• Merciless: kill them all (+1 skill point)

Flasks

I prefer using a setup of 2 health flasks, 1 hybrid (for cases if I run out of mana), 1 Granite and 1 Amethyst. You can see the flasks that I currently use below:

They aren’t perfect rolls (except the Hybrid one) but they serve the purpose. I think it’s very important to have one “instant recovery when on low life” flask for situations when you suddenly drop near death. You can never have enough Chaos resist so I recommend having an Amethyst Flask in case it’s needed: try to get one with increased armor or evasion on use so you can use it against physical damage as well. Hybrid Flask helps in case you happen to run out of mana and need to Leap Slam or use a Rejuvenation Totem, or in some instances when you can’t sustain Dual Strike on single-target monsters. Once you get Soul Taker you can switch Hybrid to Quicksilver or even another Granite Flask.

I prefer all my flasks to have either bonus Armour or Evasion on use which is further scaled with the passive skill tree. Doubling your armor for nearly 5 seconds with a Granite Flask is crucial to surviving hard-hitting abilities and enemies like Vaal or Kole.

Plenty of players often use Quicksilver Flasks, but there’s no reason to with my build. You have plenty of mobility to get away or run towards someone faster, and if you really feel the need for speed you can get a bonus movement speed mod on any other flask.

Gameplay Videos

The video embedded below is a short and incomplete Jungle Valley, level 72 map run. The map doesn’t have any mods to increase its difficulty, but it does demonstrate how well the build works in high level content. Weaver/Spinner of False Hope boss fight shown in the end of the video is considered one of the most challenging ones, but as you can see this build doesn’t really struggle with it.

I didn’t even use Endurance Charges and the flasks used are more as a precaution rather than a necessity. If you have any specific map or boss fight requests let me know in the comments below and I’ll try to record them.

• Dominus kill

Closing Thoughts

Shredder is a very versatile build that has little weaknesses. It used to be much, much stronger but it’s still viable for grouping or even soloing endgame maps, however it does come with a steep price tag if you’re dabbling in highest level content without a group. To get the most out of this build you will need some pretty expensive items, and with the same amount of currency spent you’re able to make many other builds work just as well if not better.

But, if you like the gameplay of a physical damage dual-wield character, this is it! There are some other dual-wield builds but none of them that I like playing nearly as much as this one. The Shredder is great for beginners as well since it’s extremely easy to play, but be warned you will have to farm intensively if you ever want to get over 20k tooltip DPS. Even with the best of items Shredder is somewhat weak DPS-wise compared to many other builds, so take that into consideration if you intend to choose it.

You’re welcome to discuss the build or ask me anything about it in the comments below.

If you’re hoping for an item to drop for you then you’re in for a rough ride. Items which are worth over 10 Exalted Orbs are of course extremely rare and while they seemingly keep dropping for other players more than they do for you there is a way to increase your chances of getting one. Chance Orbs have a miniscule possibility to turn a white item into a Unique one, so using the orbs on particular whites can be a good strategy to maximize your farming time.

There are several high-value items that I almost always “chance”, and they include:

• Glorious Plate – Turns into Kaom’s Heart (value over 30 Exalted)
• Occultist’s Vestments – Turns into Shavronne’s Wrappings (value around 50 Ex unlinked, up to 80 if 6L); also chances in Infernal Mantle which is worth far less
• Siege Axe – can be chanced for Soul Taker, valued at 50+ Exalted depending on roll
• Spine Bow – Voltaxic Rift bow, valued at over 50 Ex

Note: approximate values are based on Standard league prices.

These are all some of the best items in game and highly valued by many skill tree builds, and rare enough to warrant their extreme prices. When farming Merciless Docks you should see at least 2-3 Siege Axes in a solo run, and Occultist’s Vestments are a bit more rare but still rather frequent. Glorious Plates and Spine Bows can drop in Docks or Lunaris as well but they drop more regularly once you get into 68+ map farming.

Other higher valued items still worth chancing are Hubris Circlets for Crown of Eyes, Nightmare Bascinets for Bringer of Rain & Devoto’s Devotion, Chain Belt for Auxium, Murder Mitts for Thunderfist, and Amethyst Ring for Ming’s Heart and Death Rush. All of these are worth between 10 and 30 Ex on average. There’s even more items you could try your luck with: Champion Kite Shield for Aegis Aurora, Sinner Tricorne for Alpha’s Howl, Gold Ring for Andvarius, Archon Kite Shield for Prism Guardian, Prophecy Wand for Void Battery, Slaughter Knife for Bino’s Kitchen Knife, Imperial Bow for Lioneye’s Glare and Sapphire Ring for Dream Fragments, though some of these may not be worth as much to make it worthwhile. Some of these items have certain iLvl requirements (see wiki), so for example to get Thunderfist as a drop you’d need iLvl 76: using Orb of Chance ignores these requirements so you could chance Thunderfist even on lower item levels.

It’s been said there’s about a 1:1000 shot to Chance a unique item. While I’m personally way beyond that number and have yet to see one, considering the ratio of Chance to Exalted (at the time of writing this 220:1) it’s a gambit I’m willing to take. Even if it was a 1:4000 chance it would at the very least be even in value, therefore making this a legitimate effort to obtain highly valued items. The probability of these Unique items dropping is likely not any better either, so you’re basically just doubling the possibility of getting them. Another upside to chancing is that you might even get a decent Rare item.

Tip: I usually carry 10-15 Chance Orbs in my inventory along with Wisdom/Portal Scrolls so I can immediately Chance the items and drop them so they do not take any unnecessary space.

The next time you pass by these Plates, Vestments, Axes or Bows consider the numbers and make use of all those Orbs of Chance you hoarded. There’s a possibility it will be worth it. And one day when your character is all shiny and rich be sure to remember to give me a cut of your profits. Or else.

Note that this build (which I named The Shredder) can easily be used on a Marauder as well with barely any adaptations. More on that below.

Important note: the build on this page is outdated. See this post for an updated version of the Shredder after the patch 1.0.0 nerfs to Cleave!

Contents:

• Why Dual Strike & Cleave
• Pros
• Cons
• Passive skill tree
• Recommended equipment
• Skill gems
• Bandits
• Flasks
• Gameplay videos
• Closing thoughts

Why Dual Strike & Cleave

Dual Strike deals massive single-target damage and doesn’t need a 6-link item to be effective. With fairly decent weapons my Dual Strike deals 12k DPS with only 3 support gems (no +quality). You can easily obtain 4-link items throughout leveling and you will quickly notice how fast and easy it is to speed through levels with this build.

My Cleave currently deals 8k DPS, also with only three support gems again without +quality. It’s a good AoE tool to dispense groups of monsters and you will be using it a lot.

I haven’t found any other abilities which would work even nearly as well as Dual Strike and Cleave.

Pros

• Not dependent on gear: you don’t need any specific expensive unique items to make this work. There are a couple that help greatly but they aren’t necessary to make the build work.
• No 5 or 6 link items required: that’s right, you can deal tons of damage without having to spend a single exalted on an expensive chest.
• High survivability: with Kaom’s Heart chest I currently have 5k health which is enough to survive in a majority of high-level maps. My resistances are maxed but with my build you can easily put just one or two points into specific elemental resistance if you’re lacking. I’m running Grace (evasion) and Determination (armor) auras and have 67% physical damage reduction at level 86, along with 38% block chance (dual wield).
• Defensive skill tree build: most points are put into defensive stats for increased armor, health and resists. If you end up hating the build for some reason you could easily change the build to something else entirely with 10-20 regrets.
• Great mobility: Leap Slam and +30% movement speed help you get wherever you want to faster, or even jump out of tough situations.
• Versatility: you can do any kind of maps; you are virtually unaffected by reflect which is the bane of many other builds. Even Blood Magic maps are easily done, you just need to be a bit more careful due to low armor (since you won’t be able to use Determination).
• Fun to play: obviously everyone enjoys different things, but dying constantly isn’t fun for me which is why I prefer this build. Also shredding everything in your path with 8 attacks per second is unbelievably entertaining to watch.

Cons

• Needs high health and resist gear: fortunately these are the only two stats you need to focus on. If you desperately need a specific resistance you can always put one or two points into the skill tree. Nearly all of your gear should have +health, until (or if) you get Kaom’s Heart at which point you can focus on anything else (chaos resist, damage, IIR/IIQ).
• Needs one mana leech item: you will need gloves, ring or amulet with 2% mana leech. It’s not hard to get but you may have to sacrifice more useful stats because of it.
• Half regen maps: you might have somewhat decreased DPS in half-regen maps due to the inability to leech mana at a normal rate (funnily enough no regen maps can be done without issues).
• Low IIQ/IIR: it’s hard to get Increased Item Rarity and Quantity on equipment for this build, but then again every build except dual spark totem has the same issue.

Of all the builds I’ve seen I have to say that this one may very well be the one with least downsides. You have plenty of damage, you’re incredibly durable, fast to level up, works great even with average equipment, and no particular monsters are a problem.

Passive Skill Tree

My current level 86 passive skill tree build (104 points). It’s for the Duelist class but as you can see it goes all the way to the Marauder starting points and can be used by either class.

Key points: take health, dual wield block chance, armor, and resistances. There’s only about 10 points into pure damage and regardless you will have more than enough of it. If you’re needing an extra few points you can always take away a couple from damage and put into a specific elemental resistance (next to Diamond Skin in Marauder section).

Skill tree progression

• Duelist: 11 points (Dervish), 28 points (Bravado), 35 points (Iron Reflexes), 48 points (Resolute Technique), 64 points, 70 points, 80 points, 90 points
• Marauder: 20 points (Resolute Technique), 30 points (Unwavering Stance), 51 points (Leather and Steel), 60 points, 70 points, 81 points, 90 points

There’s no clear benefits to playing either of these classes each one has its own advantages. Marauders can get to resistances and Resolute Technique earlier, Duelist can pick up Block Chance and more damage. I recommend you play whatever class you prefer, you can get to most important skill points early enough to enable the build to work well with either one.

Note that the skill point progression is more of a suggestion or a guideline rather than set in stone. If you’re needing extra armor while leveling don’t be afraid to go for it, it’s always just a couple of points away. If you need extra Intellect you can also pick up Ancestral Knowledge (Marauder) or Wisdom of the Glade (Duelist) earlier, and you can always remove the points if you don’t need them later on. A huge upside to this build is its flexibility, and you will get about 15 respec points throughout leveling from quests which will be more than enough to fiddle around with a few points as you see fit.

As a sidenote, if you want to maximize your experience gain read my leveling guide. With my build you won’t even need a group, they’ll just slow you down.

Keystones:

• Iron Reflexes: converts all your evasion rating into armour. It maximizes the benefits you get from both armor and evasion on gear, passive skill points that further increase it and Grace and Determination auras. Your physical damage reduction won’t be under 50% even with the worst of gear. I mainly prefer armor over evasion due to its consistency: it’s better to get hit for low damage than for high damage every other time. You can always react with flasks, Molten Shell or just run away if you’re taking too much damage, while with evasion you’re typically dead if you don’t dodge several times in a row.
• Unwavering Stance: with this point you can no longer be stunned, and if you have Alpha’s Howl (pictured below with equipment) you can’t get frozen either. You’re literally unstoppable.
• Resolute Technique: there’s no point in worrying about +accuracy and +critical on your equipment or worse in your passive skill tree. It’s a waste of stat, and potential damage you lose from not being able to critically strike is more than made up for by never missing attacks. Try to get to RT as fast as possible. It also makes sure your mana leech is consistent.

Other notes

• Expertise (+30 Dexterity above Marauder starting location): I needed extra +dex to equip a weapon: one of my weapons requires 212 Dexterity and this build doesn’t waste any points into it. If you don’t find the need for it feel free to put a point (or three) elsewhere.
• Just below expertise you can put a point into Ancestral Knowledge if you wish to level up your Hatred aura further, although it’s not necessary. There is already one +30 Int point, Wisdom of the Glade, which is necessary.
• Why no Blood Magic? Because we can’t run three auras with it. Plus it’s not necessary as Mana Leech covers all ability costs.
• Why Celerity (+8% movement speed)? It’s just one extra point and I like to move fast.
• Why 1 point into Lightning resistance? I’m at 68% lightning resistance currently so this point makes up for lack of it on my equipment.

Recommended Equipment

As mentioned very few specific items are required. Once you start farming maps focus on getting as much health as you possibly can and try to max out your resistances. If you need a mana leech item just buy a ring or an amulet for 1 chaos. Using a Mana Leech gem is a possibility, but it will drop your DPS significantly unless you have a 5/6-linked chest.

Two items which are amazing for this build are Alpha’s Howl head and Kaom’s Heart chest.

Alpha’s Howl

Once you get it you will be able to run Hatred Aura, but more important you can’t get Freezed any longer. Getting frozen by bunch of caster skeletons is the number one reason why I died before getting this headpiece so set your goals towards obtaining this: it costs 2 Exalted Orbs at most with a maxed roll, but you can purchase it for just over 1 Ex as well if you’re patient.

Another upside to this headpiece is that it enables you to use a third aura (Hatred) due to its 8% reduced reserved mana for auras, and it also adds 2 additional levels to auras you use in this item so your Grace and Determination are at level 22 and have increased effectiveness.

Kaom’s Heart

Pretty much the bread and butter of every melee build in this game, nothing beats a +1000 health chest. I got lucky and it dropped for me but otherwise you might need to spend even 25 Exalted Orbs or more for this item. It’s not a realistic goal if this is your first character so use a chest with high armor or evasion, high health, and resists. You could purchase one for far less than 1 Exalted, unless you want 5 or 6 linked sockets (which as mentioned isn’t necessary).

With several % health regen skill points and Kaom’s I have over 200 health regen/second in addition to life leech from items (and 2% from passive skill tree). 95% of the time I’m at max health, only in extreme cases you have to resort to using Flasks, Rejuvenation Totem, or escape the engagement.

Weapons

Any kind of weapons will do. Obviously you’ll focus on physical damage rather than elemental, but the upside is they are much cheaper if you want to buy them. Having lifesteal is helpful but not mandatory. I prefer swords (Rapier, Foil etc.) for their higher attack speed.

Priorities/summary

In general your equipment should prioritize resists, health, armor and evasion (in that order). Get one item with mana leech so you don’t need to use a gem, and try to save enough currency to buy Alpha’s Howl: the ability to use Hatred aura will increase your DPS quite a lot.

Skill Gems

* Multistrike is not a frequent skill gem drop and you may have to purchase it (typically around 3 Chaos Orbs). It can not be obtained from quests. As an alternative you can use Added Fire Damage until you can obtain Multistrike.

All the other gems are easily acquired from quests or drops, and if you happen to need one you can easily buy it for as little as 1 Orb of Alchemy.

Gem rewards from quests

Just now when compiling the list above I noticed how Marauders have easier access to most skill gems you need so you may want to try my build with Marauders rather than Duelists. I hope the table helps you plan your quest rewards and figure out which gems to take. However none of these skill gems are expensive and you could buy everything you need for just a few Chaos Orbs.

Alternatives

If you’re running a 5 or 6 linked chest you can use Added Fire Damage as an additional support gem, or even as an alternative to Multistrike if you for some reason prefer. AFD deals less damage than Multistrike but only slightly.

Also you may want to consider using Increased Item Rarity and Increased Item Quantity support gems on Dual Strike once your Cleave is strong enough for fast clears. My Dual Strike linked with Culling Strike + IIQ + IIR support gems still deals 5k damage, more than enough to finish bosses and rare monsters for noticeably increased drops.

At later stages when your Cleave reaches about 10k DPS or above and you get your Kaom’s, you can consider completely removing Dual Strike. Four added gem slots will enable you to switch Grace for Haste (or even Purity) aura in your head piece, and use Grace, Anger and Wrath with a Blood Magic support gem. That way you can run 6 auras for increased damage at the cost of only 600ish health.

As a bonus you can also run Clarity for increased mana regeneration if you have problems in half-regen maps.

Curses

Rejuvenation Totem and Molten Shell are definitely not mandatory in this build. It’s just the way I like to play but you could switch them with some curses if necessary.

• Enfeeble – affected monsters have reduced Accuracy, Critical and Damage. Even a rank 1 Enfeeble reduces monster damage by 25% so if you have trouble surviving in some situations or against particular bosses feel free to consider it.
• Vulnerability – increases your physical damage by 25%-34%. Be careful about leveling it fully as level 20 Vulnerability requires 151 Intelligence.
• Warlord’s Mark – you gain increased life and mana leech on affected monsters: 3%-7% life leech and 1-3% mana leech depending on gem level. You can easily level it to 20 as it only requires Strength. If you need extra life leech or can’t get mana leech any other way consider using Warlord’s Mark.

Bandits

• Normal: help Oak and get +40 health
• Cruel: help Oak for +18% physical damage
• Merciless: kill them all (+1 skill point)

Flasks

I prefer using a setup of 2 health flasks, 1 hybrid (for cases if I run out of mana), 1 Granite and 1 Amethyst. You can see the flasks that I currently use below:

They aren’t perfect rolls (except the Hybrid one) but they serve the purpose. I think it’s very important to have one “instant recovery when on low life” flask for situations when you suddenly drop near death, due to my low Chaos resist I like having an Amethyst one in case it’s needed, and the Hybrid one helps in case you happen to run out of mana and need to Leap Slam or use a Rejuvenation Totem.

I also like all my flasks to have either bonus Armour or Evasion on use which is further scaled with the passive skill tree. Doubling your armor for nearly 5 seconds with a Granite Flask is crucial to surviving things like Vaal’s smash and such.

With the high movement speed and overall mobility of my Shredder build I never felt the need to use Quicksilver Flasks, although I did notice that many players often use 3-4 of them for reasons unknown to me.

Gameplay Videos

I recorded several map runs so you can watch the build in action. My full gear at the time of recording it is here. As you can see besides the two unique items my gear isn’t anything special.

• Dunes (66) map solo run
• Crypt (66) map solo run
• Thicket (67) solo run (no-regen mod with physical reflect)
• Cells (73) group run

You can watch many more of my boring map runs in this playlist, also embedded below.

If you have any specific map run requests or something else let me know!

Closing Thoughts

From all the builds I’ve seen the Shredder is the most versatile in my opinion. There’s no monsters or skills you need to be afraid of and unlike many other builds it doesn’t require 50 Exalted Orbs to be viable, in fact it doesn’t require any specific gear. It’s very flexible while leveling and enables you to overcome shortcomings on your equipment with a few skill points into armor, resistances or health which are always conveniently placed. The build’s extremely high attack speed (I’m currently doing 8 attacks per second) is a thing to behold and you’ll probably spend the first few hours laughing your ass off at how ridiculous it looks.

In all my Wraeclast adventures I came across one or maybe two dual-wielding Duelists with (possibly) the same build so this isn’t extremely popular among players. If you’re looking for a fun, effective, fast leveling, low-cost melee build that isn’t used by every other player than this might be exactly what you’re looking for.

Questions? Feel free to ask me anything about the build and I’ll do my best to answer it.

Main contents:

• Skill gems & sockets
• General gameplay tips
• Skills
• Classes
• Items
• Combat
• Parties
• Instances

Skill gems & sockets

Sooner or later you will get your hands on some skill gems.

• Gems must be socketed in your gear to grant access to the skill.
• A gem will only go into a socket of matching colour
• Gems can be socketed and removed from sockets as much as you like. Right click a gem to remove it from a socket
• Sockets appear randomly on items. The rarity of an item does not affect how many sockets it has.
• Sockets can be linked. The links are shown as gold bars between the sockets. Support gems affect any skill gems in sockets that they are linked to.
• Gems you have socketed in gear you are wearing will gain experience and level up, even if you are not using the skills they grant.

General gameplay tips

• Flasks recharge slightly every time you kill an enemy. So don’t be afraid to use flasks that are full to keep your life and mana topped up – your flasks are only replenishing their charges when they aren’t already full.
• Items with great stats might seem like the best choice at first, but don’t neglect sockets. As long as they are socketed, skill gems gain experience whether you are using the skills they grant or not, so keeping them socketed will mean they get more powerful sooner. A good socket arrangement on an item with mediocre stats is sometimes a better choice than a great item with bad sockets.
• Spend some time looking at the passive skill web, it can appear daunting at first, but it will soon become familiar. Skill points can be refunded, but refund points are hard to come by, so choose wisely.
• If you’re just starting out and are unsure how you wish to play your character, try to avoid specialising too heavily. For instance, stay away from skills that improve one handed weapon damage if you feel you might end up liking to swing a two-hander.

Skills

Skill Types

Skills currently come in two main varieties: spells, and attack skills. Any skill that uses your weapon damage counts as an attack skill, and everything else counts as a spell.

• Attack skills – Attack skills are dependent on your weapon, and so are affected by attack speed, accuracy, etc.. Bonus damage from rings and other gear is applied when using an attack skill.
• Spells – Spells do not draw their damage from your weapon in any way. They are affected by % cast speed, %fire/cold/lightning damage, %spell damage, and critical strikes. Integer damage bonuses on gear are not added to spells.
• Traps – Traps are very similar to spells, but are not affected by cast speed or spell damage mods. They are affected by % trap laying speed, and relevant damage mods. Integer damage bonuses on gear are not added to spells.

The only exception to this is Town Portal, which is not affected by attack speed, cast speed, or anything else.

Support Gems

Support gems only affects skills where it makes sense. For instance, skills that do not already do damage (such as Temporal Chains) will not benefit from Added Cold Damage. Skills that do not already have an area of effect will not benefit from Increased Area of Effect, etc.

Skill gem experience gain

• Gems get experience equal to 10% of the experience you earn.
• The number of gems you have equipped has no effect on the rate of XP gain. So having less gems equipped does not cause them to gain XP faster than if you had many gems equipped.
• Gems are not affected by the experience penalty when facing enemies below your level.

Classes

The main difference between the classes is their stating location on the passive skill tree. Classes also start with different amounts of attributes at level 1:

• Marauder: 30 STR, 14 DEX, 14 INT
• Ranger: 14 STR, 30 DEX, 14 INT
• Witch: 14 STR, 14 DEX, 30 INT
• Duelist: 22 STR, 22 DEX, 14 INT
• Templar: 22 STR, 14 DEX, 22 INT
• Shadow: Dex/Int: 14 STR, 22 DEX, 22 INT

Life/mana per level

All classes begin with the same base stats, and gain the same amount per level:

• 50 life, +6 per level
• 40 mana, +4 per level
• 50 evasion, +3 per level (including level 1)

Attributes

Attributes are required to equip gear and skills. The three attributes also grant some passive bonuses:

• Strength grants +0.5 life and +0.2% melee physical damage per point
• Dexterity grants +2 accuracy and +0.2% evasion per point
• Intelligence grants +0.5 mana and +0.2% energy shield per point

Therefore the +10 attribute passive skills effectively grant:

• +10 Strength: +5 life, +2% melee physical damage
• +10 Dexterity: +20 accuracy, +2% evasion
• +10 Intelligence: +5 mana, +2% energy shield

Life and mana regeneration

All classes have a base mana regeneration rate of 105% of their maximum mana per minute. For example, a character with 100 maximum mana will regenerate 105 mana per minute, or 1.75 mana per second. “Increased Mana regeneration rate” modifiers modify the base rate. For example, 20% Increased Mana regeneration rate would result in 105 * 1.2 = 126% per minute. Characters do not begin with any life regeneration, but it is available from gear and passive skills.

The regeneration rate of life gained from life leech is capped at 20% of maximum life per second. If you have 1000 maximum life, and leech 600 life with a single attack, it will take three seconds for that life to be applied to your current life. You always get the full amount of life leeched, it is only the rate at which it regenerates that is capped – if you leech a large amount of life during a battle, you may find that the regeneration continues long after the battle is over. Similar to flasks, the regeneration from leech will stop if you reach maximum life. The same is true for mana leech, although the cap is 12.5% of maximum mana per second.

Items

Attribute requirements

Most gear has attribute requirements that must be met in order to equip the gear. These requirements come from the base item type and are unaffected by magical modifiers, quality, or number of sockets. A complete list of gear and attribute requirements can be found here.

Level requirements

Some items have a level requirement that must be met in order to equip the item. There are two factors that affect level requirements:

• The level of the base item type. This is the level that the item starts appearing (and is separate from the itemlevel that affects which magical modifiers can spawn on it). See the item data link above for a list with all item levels. Some of the very low-level base items do not come with a level requirement.
• The level of the magical modifiers. The level requirement for magical modifiers is equal to 80% of the level of the highest-level magical modifier on the item.
• The highest level requirement of the two listed above is the one that appears on the item.

Drop rates

There is a penalty to the chance of currency items (scrolls, orbs, etc.) dropping in areas with a monster level more than two levels lower than your character level. For each additional level that you have compared to the area’s monster level+2, the chance of a currency item drop is reduced by 2.5%. So if you are level 30 in a level 20 area, you will see 20% less currency item drops on average:

2.5*(30-(20+2))=20

A level 30 character in a level 28 area will see no penalty. Currency item Drops are not increased or decreased in this way when fighting in areas above your level. For the purposes of this penalty, your level is never considered to be higher than 58. Therefore a level 70 character receives no penalty in a level 56 area.

There are two modifiers that affect drop rates in the game, increased item rarity, and increased item quantity. There are three potential sources of these modifiers:

1. the player (skills, passives, gear etc.)
2. monsters (such as bosses and champions)
3. party bonuses

Modifiers from the player stack additively with each other, and are subject to diminishing returns. Modifiers from the party bonus and monsters stack additively with each other, and are not subject to diminishing returns. The total player bonus stacks multiplicatively with the total party & monster bonus.

Increased Item Rarity

Increased Item Rarity % modifiers increase the chances of an item being magic, rare, or unique. For example with a total of +100% increased item rarity, you’d get twice as many magic items, twice as many rares and twice as many uniques from normal enemies. This modifier has no effect on the number or type of currency items, scrolls, or gems that drop. When in a party, only the modifier from the player who lands the killing blow on an enemy is counted. If one of your minions gets a kill, the minion’s IIR is added to yours and the total is used. Magic, rare, and unique monsters have an Increased item rarity modifier for drops.

Increased Item Quantity

This modifier increases the average number of items that drop from monsters and chests. It does not affect the type, quality, or rarity of item dropped, only the chance that something will drop. There is no cap on the usefulness of this modifier, as monsters can drop more than one item at a time. The base chance for an item to drop from a normal monster is 16%. This varies between monster types, and special monsters have higher drop chances. When in a party, each player in the party after the first gives the equivalent of +50% item quantity modifier on drops.

Quality

All weapons, armour, flasks and gems can randomly receive between +1% and +20% quality. This value can be increased by Whetstones, Armour Shards, Flask Quality Upgrades, and Gem Quality Upgrades, but is capped at 20%. The effect of quality depends on the item:

• On weapons, increased physical damage
• On armour, increased Armour rating, Evasion, Energy Shield, and Shield Block Chance
• On flasks, increased life and mana recovery
• On gems, the bonus is specific to each gem. For instance, Frenzy gets increased damage, while Cleave gets increased attack speed.
• On maps, increases the item quantity bonus from monsters in the map area.

Modifiers

Modifiers are split up in to two main groups, prefixes and suffixes. A magic item can have only one prefix and one suffix, never two prefixes or two suffixes. Rare items can have up to six modifiers, it is unknown if there is a limit on how many of these can be prefixes/suffixes. A randomly generated rare item (from a drop or Orb of Alchemy) receives between four and six modifiers randomly, with the following odds:

• 1/12 chance of 6 mods
• 4/12 chance of 5 mods
• 7/12 chance of 4 mods

All modifiers have a level associated with them, and will only appear on items whos item level is greater than or equal to the modifier’s level. Lists of available magical modifiers are available in the item data section. The “Culling Strike” modifier (found on some unique items) causes monsters to die if you strike them down to 10% or less life.

Modifier Stacking

In general, integer modifiers are applied before percentages. Percentage modifiers using the words “% increased” or “% reduced” stack additively with one another, while “% more” and “% less” modifiers stack multiplicatively. When dealing with weapons, some modifiers that are listed on the weapon itself are applied first, before mods from other pieces of equipment, skills, and so on. This includes anything affecting physical damage, such as increased physical damage, added physical damage, quality etc., and also attack speed, critical strike chance, critical strike multiplier, and accuracy. It does not include elemental damage mods.

Similarly, when dealing with armour, evasion, and energy shield on armour, any modifiers affecting those stats that are listed on the piece of armour are applied first. This includes quality and any other mods directly affecting armour, evasion, or energy shield amount. It does not include mods affecting the energy shield recharge delay or regeneration rate, only the amount of energy shield.

Imagine I have 100 life, and two passive skills that increase total life by 15%. The total bonus will be 30%, resulting in 130 life. Now imagine I am wearing boots that give +40 life, and have a passive skill that grants +20 life. The integer bonuses are applied first, giving me 160 life, then the percentage bonuses are applied to that subtotal, for a final total of 208 life.

Quality behaves differently on armour and flasks than on weapons. On armour and flasks, it stacks multiplicatively with other modifiers on that piece of equipment. Quality on weapons stacks additively with other % modifiers on the weapon.

Sockets

There are three types of sockets:

1. Strength (red)
2. Dexterity (green)
3. Intelligence (blue)

Sockets appear randomly on most equipable items. Higher level items can appear with more sockets than lower level items of the same type. The maximum amount of sockets that can appear on an item also varies by the type of item:

• Two handed weapons and body armour can have up to 6 sockets
• Wands, shields, and one handed weapons can have a maximum of 3 sockets
• Everything else can have a maximum of 4 sockets

One exception to this is the starting weapon that appears on the beach at the start of the game. Its item level is 1 but it always has one socket of each colour.

• Items are more likely to receive sockets that match their attribute requirements. So an item requiring only dexterity is more likely to have green sockets than red or blue sockets.
• You can only put a blue (intelligence) gem in a blue socket, red gem in a red socket, etc.
• Sockets can be linked. The links are shown as gold bars between the sockets. Support gems affect any skill gems in sockets that they are linked to.

Additionally, two skill gems of the same type can be used in separate socket groups, resulting in more than one usable version of that skill. Skill Gems are only affected by support gems in the same socket group. For example, imagine a piece of armour with 5 sockets. The first two sockets are linked in one group, and the remaining three sockets are linked in a separate group. If you put Cleave and Faster Attacks in the first group, and Cleave, Added Fire Damage, and Added Cold Damage in the second group, you would have two different versions of cleave available – one cleave skill that attacks faster, and another cleave that does bonus fire and cold damage. Small letters appear over the skill icons for each support gem you have attached to that skill. This allows you to differentiate between the different versions if you have more than one of the same skill gem equipped.

Item level

Each item has a level associated with it that is equal to the monster level of the area it dropped in. The monster level is shown on the map overlay. Rare and unique monsters have +2 to their level, and will yield items with an itemlevel two levels higher than other monsters in the same area. You can check an item’s level by picking it up on the cursor and typing /itemlevel in the chat box. This item level determines which modifiers it can receive, and how many sockets it can receive.

Vendor Item levels

Items obtained from vendors can have an item level up to character level + 1, but will not exceed the following maximums:

• Normal Act 1: 16
• Normal Act 2: 25
• Cruel Act 1: 31
• Cruel Act 2: 35
• Ruthless Act 1: 43
• Ruthless Act 2: 48
• Merciless Act 1: 50
• Merciless Act 2: 50

Item level needed for number of sockets (research ongoing)

• 1 socket : 1
• 2 sockets: 1
• 3 sockets: 15
• 4 sockets: 28
• 5 sockets: 35
• 6 sockets: 50 (lowest seen so far)

Combat

Level scaling

1. Effect of level on PvP Damage

Level itself does not affect any combat calculations outside of PvP. Damage in PvP is scaled based on level as follows:

damage multiplier = 1/(1+(attacker_level/8))

For example a level 30 character will have their PvP damage reduced by 79%, while a level 60 character will have their damage reduced by 88%.

2. Effect of level on experience

Level also affects the amount of XP you gain from killing enemies. There are two penalties that are applied, one when in a party, and another based on the relative level of the player and monsters. Both of these are applied at the same time if you are both in a party, and too far above or below the monster level.

The multiplier for XP while in a party is players share (Level+10)^2.71 divided by the total of all players shares. For example, if a level 10 player was partied with a level 30 player:

• Level 10 player’s share: (10+10)^2.71 = 3355
• Level 30 player’s share: (30+10)^2.71 = 21957
• Total Shares: 3356 + 21957 = 25313
• Level 10 player would receive: 3355/25313 = 0.132 = 13.2% of the XP
• Level 30 player would receive: 21957/25313 = 0.867 = 86.7% of the XP

The player also suffers a penalty to XP if they are too far above or below the monster’s level. There is a safe level range where no penalty is applied, which is equal to three, plus one for every sixteen complete player levels. Any additional level difference in excess of this safe range is called the Effective Difference.

The formula then applied is:

((PlayerLevel +5)^1.5) / ((PlayerLevel+5+(EffectiveDifference^2.5))^1.5)

So a level 24 character has a safe band of 3+1=4 levels. So from Monster level 20 to 28, there is an effective level difference of 0. At Monster Levels 19 and 29, the Effective level difference is 1. The Effective Difference matters in either direction. Here are graphs of the experience multiplier by monster level and by effective level.

3. Effect of level on currency item drops

See the drop rates section above for details on how level affects currency item drops.

Dual wielding

Dual wielding grants a +10% attack speed bonus, and a 15% chance to block. The attack speed bonus is applied multiplicatively with other attack speed modifiers. The default attack and certain other skills will alternate between each weapon, striking with each hand in turn. Some skills (such as Cleave and Dual Strike) attack with both weapons at once, while others only use the main-hand weapon.

Hit & damage calculation order of effects

There are a number of steps involved in deciding whether an attack hits or not and how much damage is done:

1. Avoiding the hit:

• At this stage there is a chance to evade attacks (accuracy vs evasion)
• Any chance to dodge from acrobatics or phase acrobatics is also checked here

2. Avoiding the damage:

• Blocking is checked

3. Mitigating the damage:

• Physical damage reduction and resitances are applied

4. Taking the damage:

• Non-chaos damage is removed from energy shield until it’s depleted.
• Any remaining damage (including all chaos) is removed from life.

Stuns

Whenever a player or monster takes damage, there is a chance they will be stunned. A stun interrupts whatever that creature was doing while a brief animation is played. The default length of stuns is 350ms. The duration of stuns can be altered by reduced block and stun recovery, increased stun duration, and similar modifiers.

The formula used for determining whether or not a stun occurs is:

stun_chance = 200 * damage / defender_effective_max_life

Where defender_effective_max_life is the maximum life of the creature being hit. Increases to monster life from a party of more than one player do not affect defender_effective_max_life. For a player with Chaos Inoculation, their defender_effective_max_life is whatever their max life would be if they did not have Chaos Inoculation. Reduced stun threshold modifiers reduce the value of defender_effective_max_life.

For example, 25% stun threshold reduction means you treat their maximum life as only 75% as much as it actually is, meaning you stun them easier. If the stun chance would be less than or equal to 25%, it’s ignored, so you need to deal more than 12.5% of effective maximum life to have a chance to stun.

Accuracy

Accuracy is compared to enemy evasion when determining if an attack hits or misses. The complete formula is below:

chance to hit = attacker_accuracy / ( attacker_accuracy + ((defender_evasion/4)^0.8))

Chance to hit can never be lower than 5%, nor higher than 95%.

Evasion

Evading an attack prevents all damage and other harmful effects from the attack. Only attacks and attack skills can be evaded. Spells cannot be evaded.

Blocking

Blocking an attack prevents all damage and other harmful effects from the attack. Usually, only attacks and attack skills can be blocked, but there are some passive skills that allow you to block spells. Chance to block is capped at 75%. When an attack is blocked, the game first calculates if the attack would have caused a stun were it not blocked. If it would have caused a stun, the blocking animation is played, stunning you briefly. If it would not have caused a stun, then you get a “free” block with no animation. Faster Block and Stun Recovery and Increased Block Recovery modifiers reduce the length of the blocking animation.

Armor / Damage Reduction

Damage Reduction reduces physical damage taken. Elemental damage and damage-over-time are not affected. The amount of damage reduction depends on the defender’s armour total, and the attacker’s attack damage:

reduction = armor / (armor + 12*damage)

The amount of reduction is capped, it cannot be more than 95%.

The fact that damage reduction scales with the amount of damage means it is difficult to know exactly how much damage is being reduced. An easy to remember rule of thumb is that to achieve 50% damage reduction, you will need an armour rating equal to twelve times that of the damage being dealt. For example, to achieve 50% damage reduction against a 100 damage hit, you’ll need 1200 armour.

Here are two graphical representations of the armor formula:

1. Effect of X Armour on Damage
2. Effect of Armour on X Damage

Energy Shield

As long as you have greater than 0 Energy Shield, you have a 50% chance to avoid stun. Energy Shield acts as an additional hit point pool on top of life. If you have any Energy Shield remaining when you take damage, the damage is subtracted from the Energy Shield first. Damage is only applied to life once all Energy Shield is depleted. The exception to this is Chaos Damage, which ignores Energy Shield.

Energy Shield will recharge if you do not take any damage for a certain period of time. The default delay is 6 seconds. This time can be reduced with reduced energy shield delay modifiers from passive skills and gear. The formula for the recharge delay is:

100 / ( 100 + reduction )

So 100% reduction is halving the delay, not removing it entirely.

Critical Strikes

Whenever you use a skill or attack, you have a chance to deal a Critical Strike. Critical Strikes are rolled on a per-action basis, not per-monster. So each time you use a skill, the Critical Strike roll is made once and only once. If you roll a Critical Strike, you will deal Critical damage to all enemies hit by the skill.

Critical Strikes do more damage than normal, based on your Critical Strike Damage Multiplier. All characters have a base Critical Strike multiplier of 150%, meaning a critical strike does 150% of normal damage. This multiplier can be increased with various skills and modifiers on items. For instance, with a multiplier of 250%, if you deal a Critical Strike with attack that normally does 100 damage, you will instead deal 250 damage.

The chance to deal a critical strike is taken from the weapon used to perform an attack or attack skill, and in the case of spells, each spell has it’s own critical strike chance, which is listed in the skill gem’s description.
This value can be increased by increased critical strike chance modifiers from spells and gear. For example, if you are using a weapon with 5% chance to crit, and you have 50% increased critical strike chance, you will have a 7.5% chance to score a critical strike.

Critical chance can not be less than 5% nor more than 95%. Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage Multiplier are calculated separately for each spell and weapon attack. All weapons and damage-dealing spells have a base Critical Strike chance listed on them. This only affects your chance to critical for attacks made with that weapon or spell. For instance the critical strike chance on a wand does not affect your chance to critical with a spell.

Damage Types

There are currently 5 main types of damage, they are Physical, Fire, Cold, Lightning, and Chaos. Fire, Cold, and Lightning are collectively known as Elemental Damage. Damage reduction from armour only affects physical damage. Each of the elemental damage types has it’s own resistance value (eg “Fire resistance”) which is viewable in the character sheet. Resistances reduce damage taken, and are capped at 75%.

Fire damage

If you land a critical strike with an attack or spell that deals fire damage, the enemy begins Burning. Burning causes damage over time. Humanoids, Monkeys and Sea Witches will flee while burning.
Burning lasts 4 seconds, and the amount of damage over time is 1/3 of the fire damage dealt per second. So a total of 4/3 of the original damage, over 4 seconds.

Cold damage

Hitting an enemy with cold damage can cause the enemy to be Chilled. Critical hits with cold damage can also cause the target to be Frozen. Chilled enemies move, attack, and cast 30% slower, while frozen enemies cannot do anything except drink flasks.

Lightning damage

If you land a critical strike with an attack or spell that deals lightning damage, the enemy becomes Shocked. This can be stacked up to three times on one target. In this state, monsters or players take 40% additional damage per instance of Shock. Shock stacks additively with itself, for a maximum of 120% with a stack of three. The damage multiplier itself applies multiplicatively with your final damage, since it it increasing the damage the enemy takes, rather than the damage you deal.

Chaos Damage

Chaos damage ignores energy shield, reducing life directly.

Burning, Chilled, Frozen, and Shocked are collectively known as Status Ailments. The duration of the chilled, frozen, and shocked statuses is related to the amount of cold/lightning damage dealt.
If the duration based on the damage would be less that 300ms, it’s ignored entirely.

Charges

Some skills grant Endurance (strength), Frenzy (dexterity), or Power (intelligence) charges. Each charge lasts a short duration before it disappears. Gaining a charge resets the duration of all accumulated charges.

• Endurance charges are related to the strength attribute and grant +5% physical damage reduction, and +5% to elemental resistances (fire, cold, and lightning) per charge. The physical damage reduction stacks with the damage reduction from armour, so that they are both applied at the same time. For example, if a monster deals 100 damage, and you have 10% DR from two endurance charges, and enough armour to prevent 30 of the 100 damage, the incoming damage would be reduced by 40.
• Frenzy charges are related to the dexterity attribute and grant +5% attack speed and +5% cast speed per charge.
• Power charges are related to the intelligence attribute and grant +50% critical strike chance per charge.

By default characters can have a maximum number of 3 active charges of each type at one time. This maximum can be increased by certain passive skills.

Parties

The maximum party size is 6 players. In order to play with your friends, you’ll first need to finish the first zone called Twilight Strand (takes about 5 minutes). To group up with random players use the message board in towns, or open the social window (“S” hotkey) and click the “Public Parties” tab.

Monsters in party

Monsters gain 50% extra life for each additional party member after the first. For example, against a party of 3 players, monsters have double life. The original life amount is used for the purposes of determining the length of stuns and status ailments from elemental damage – this means monsters will not be harder to stun/ignite/etc. when fighting in a party.

Loot in party

Each player in a party after the first gives the equivalent of +50% item quantity modifier on drops. So a party of three will see twice as many drops as a lone character. Increased Item Rarity & Quantity modifiers are only counted from the player who lands the killing blow.

Experience in groups

For a description on how experience is shared between players, see the level scaling section above. Only party members actually in the instance count toward getting XP. If one member is in town he gets no XP. Experience is only shared with other players who are near you (roughly two screens). Monsters are still made harder by players elsewhere on the level. Being in a dungeon with a party member grants you a 30% experience bonus. Monsters give +50% base XP for every party member after the first.

Flasks in groups

Only the character landing the killing blow on an enemy will gain flask charges. The same is true for all +life and +mana gained “when you deal a killing blow” modifiers. Flasks have a +75% charge recovery bonus for each party member after the first.

Instances

All areas in Path of Exile are instanced. When you enter an area, a new instance is created. Once you leave the area, the instance will remain in its current state for 15 minutes – if 15 minutes passes with no players entering the instance, it will be closed. Entering the same area again will create a new instance with a new randomly generated map. Areas without side areas attached (any area with two or less exits) has a shorter timer, and will only last 8 minutes while empty.

Instances you create are private, and cannot be entered by other players unless they join your party. However, once a player has entered an instance, that instance remains associated with the player even if they leave the party. So it is possible to share an instance with non-party members in some circumstances. The exception to this is towns, which are always public, and cut-throat leagues, where all instances are public – meaning anyone can enter your instances at any time.

Some areas have waypoints. Once activated (by clicking on the waypoint), waypoints allow you to travel instantly to any other waypoint you have activated. Ctrl-clicking on a waypoint destination in the waypoint menu, or an area transition will bring up the instance management screen. This screen lists all available instances of the area you ctrl-clicked on, and the time remaining until they are closed. It also allows you to create new instances, and enter existing ones.

Using the instance management screen you can have more than once instance of the same area open at one time, and choose which available instance you want to enter.

I think it’s important to give newcomers guidance on what drops they should be paying attention to, and which aren’t worth keeping. This guide aims to do just that, offering a list ordered by pickup priority. It involves the obvious stuff (rares, uniques) but also the less immediate such as 3-color-links to trade into chromatics or max implicit jewelry.

Obviously, this guide assumes you want to pick stuff up for its general usefulness / market value. Your personal character needs at the moment should be max priority, and if you feel a blue (or a white) is an upgrade over what you’re wearing at the moment, by all means pick it up!

Understand this guide is a product of my own (limited) experience and doesn’t involve the endgame, just the route to MoC. If you have any suggestions or changes, feel free to post it in the comments =).

Priority List

So let’s say you are just born fresh (and soaked) into the world of Wraeclast. You might think that, just because you’re new, all the items you’re get are worthless. On the contrary! There are items of great value for newcomers too, that can be traded for high end Uniques. I recently got a +16% Whirling Blades gem in the very second area of the game, which sells for a substantial amount of high end currency. You should keep your eyes open!

In order to know what stuff is actually valuable, here’s my personal priority list:

Max Priority: Pick these all the time

1. All Currency items. Every single currency item is worth picking up and stacking, with the occasional exception of Scrolls of Wisdom and Portal Scrolls. These last two are plentiful so it is fine if you skip them every now and then. The rest should be picked without exception, as end-game “crafting” uses them in great quantities and they are all valuable. Even the less obvious ones (such as Orb of Scouring) are worthwhile and shouldn’t be left in the ground!
2. Quality Skill Gems. This is often overlooked by newbies, which leads to a lot of wealth wasted. Every time you see a skill drop, even if it’s extremely basic, take a second to hover your mouse over it and check if it has a Quality bonus. If it does, no matter how small, pick it up. These sell for high prices as they significantly reduce the number of Gemcutter’s Prisms you need to make them perfect, and high level min maxers will pay for them. They’re also good to use in place of the normal ones, even when underleveled!
3. Uniques. Some uniques are better, some are worse, but they’re generally helpful to the appropriate build, and some times they’re extremely powerful (such as Charan’s Tipua Kaikohuru). If you see brown text on the ground, don’t pass. Even if it’s low level, it may come in handy for your next character or a strange build. I’ve made a build that abuses Crown of Thorns, which has been called the worst Unique ever, so remember this: There will be someone out there buying the Uniques you get, even if you can’t figure out how to use them.
4. Three-Colour-Links. Knowing that you should pick 3CLs up is one of the best benefits of reading the Sales Recipe thread. 3CL is any item with one socket of each colour linked together (they may have more sockets). They are good because they sell for 1 chromatic orb, in one of the most direct recipes available, so it’s the equivalent to picking a (rather bulky) chromatic orb. Vendor it ASAP and collect your reward.

High Priority: You generally want to pick these

1. Rares. More often than not, you want to pick rares up. What you do with them is another issue that I’ll discuss in another section of the guide, but they’re useful material. Identified, they may turn out to be quite powerful and sell for decent amounts, or serve as gear for yourself or your twinks. If they turn out not too decent, they can be turned into Sale Recipes to get special orbs, or outright vendored for shards. Left unidentified they can also net you some orbs thanks to Sale Recipes. How to “spend” your rares will be explained later on.
2. Non-Quest Skill Gems. Many skill gems are awarded as quest rewards for the different classes. Others aren’t, and it’s a good idea to pick up the ones that can’t be easily obtained. You can probably obtain a list somewhere else in the forum, but quickly asking on the Chat will suffice. Having a couple copies of every non-quest gem is always good in case you roll a character that uses them, or a sale opportunity turns up. If they start piling up, you may want to skip some.
3. High Links. High Links are items with many linked slots. They won’t start appearing until late Cruel, so don’t worry about this at first. 5-links should be picked up without exception, and if you see a 6-link you better dive like crazy for it: they’re extremely rare. 4-links depends on you, and how much storage space you have. They’re rare enough to be convenient, but won’t sell for much.
4. Max Implicit Items. Some items (like Jewelry) have implicit bonuses: Those are the ones above the horizontal line before the magic stuff. Implicit values are important because they’re independent of the rest of the bonuses, so if you tinker with a piece of jewelry or belt that value will be left untouched, unless you use a special orb for it. This means items with perfect Implicit mods have an intrinsic value, as they are perfect tinkering material at any level (for example to twink characters). Since jewelry doesn’t take much space, picking up those 15% gold rings and 20 onyx amulets isn’t a bad idea.

Medium Priority: You may want to pick these

1. Magic Flasks: It’s always good to pick Flasks up and identify them, because some of their bonuses are valuable. Surgeon flasks sell for alchemy shards, and the ones that heal minions are decently rare. They usually aren’t trade material as most people seem to manage their own ones, but it doesn’t hurt checking them out.
2. Weirdly Coloured Sockets: This may be a personal quirk of mine but I like hoarding items with very unlikely socket colours. This could be, for example, a bow with four red slots, or an axe with five blues. These proportions are statistically very unlikely, and if there is ever a build that requires precisely that layout, chances are they’ll be paying a lot for it. Given how specific these would get, I only suggest picking them up if you have a lot of stash space!
3. Advanced Flasks: The weirder flasks, such as Resistance Flasks, Diamond and Granite Flasks are rare enough to warrant picking a 5-set of every one, if anything because they’re good to have around. I’d advise to pick them up until you have 5 of each, then keep them just in case.

Low Priority: You usually don’t want these

1. Whites without good sockets: There is little use for Whites without interesting socket layouts. Even if they have Quality, there is little point in picking them up, since Quality on a white is very easy to apply. Of course, whites with Implicit bonuses are subject to the Implicit criteria I explained above, but other than that, don’t pick them.
2. Blues (although you may to ID+Drop): Blues are very common and picking them up without any criteria will clog your inventory and waste your time and scrolls. This problem is very common with Diablo 3 players, since they’re used to blues being valuable. Here, not so much. However, you might want to pick up blues you might be interested in and drop a scroll on them to see if they have good mods. If they do, they might be good material for promotion into rares with a Regal Orb, but since an effective promotion would probably require some Exalted Orbs too, this is something you should probably be doing in the endgame.
3. Quest skill gems: Gems that are given as quest rewards are generally trash, unless you need them urgently.

What do I do with my Rares?

I am not going to replicate the Sales Recipe thread here, but if you haven’t read it yet, you really should =). There are plenty of useful recipes to be used. In my experience, the most interesting have been the 3CL one I explained before (which should be used whenever possible) and the Rare related recipes. There are recipes involving Quality Gems to get GCPs, but I think they offer a horrible return rate, so I wouldn’t advise to use that one.

When it comes to Rares however, there are many options to cash your rares in for currency even when they suck completely. So unless your Rare is actually good, or you happen to get the legendary quiver Skin Flute, which you should immediately send to me, prepare to turn them into useful stuff.

There are four recipes you want to aim for: Alchemy, Regal, Chaos and double Chaos.

Chaos is the simplest one if you don’t want to bother. Just stash those rares trying to keep different item types, and when you get a full set of gear, vendor it for a Chaos.

There is a twin for that recipe, which involves selling all rares unidentified. This will net you two Chaos instead of one, which is a great bang for your buck, but you won’t get to check whether the rares you got are good by themselves, which would mean they sold for more. It’s up to you. If you do want to farm Chaos orbs, I suggest farming a low level area (such as normal Fellshrine) and selling the unidentified rares in bulk. However, high level rares should be identified just in case.

If you want to put a bit more thought into your rare recipes (and also play a fun collection mini-game) you could aim for the Alchemy and Regal recipes. As you might have seen in the recipe thread, you are supposed to hand in Rares with the exact same randomly generated name, and this will give you rewards. 2 same-namers grant you an alchemy, and 3 give you a valuable Regal.

In order to match names effectively you need a strategy. Many people in this forum use a chrome extension to check for coincidences in their rare names. This is a good idea, but you can go even further.

I have a personal strategy that you may enjoy using: Pick a letter, or a set of letters, and gather rares that start with it, until your stash is reasonably full. This will make it easier to remember which rares you have to keep, but most importantly, you can comfortably buy in bulk. By asking on chat “WTB any bad rares that start with F, G and H” for instance, it will make it easier for people to look them up, rather than request specific names.

What do I do with my Currency?

Except for a very few cases, you do not want to use your currency items in your own gear. This doesn’t mean you should be stingy though. What I’m saying is that, until you reach the endgame, they’re better spend trading than enhancing.

Since the amount of currency items you have to sink to reroll a level 70 item is the same than for a 5 item, doing it on the latter means you’re wasting your currency potential. A spare alchemy every now and then when you absolutely have to replace a piece of your gear is okay, but don’t engage in addictive orb iteration when your base item just isn’t worth it.

Instead, actively engage in trades. It’s amazing how much more value you can get for your stuff by trading. An egregious example of this happened to myself after I started the game, back when I had no clue how valuable a GCP was. I sunk two GCPs on my Ice Spear gem to get a measly +2% quality on it, and then I saw someone in the chat sell a +10% Quality Ice Spear for 2 GCP. Silly me!

So remember: Unless you’re engaging in high-end “crafting”, or you are looking for something very specific, the value of the orbs is much higher when unspent.

Written by Falcord

Starship Weapons:

• [Acc] Accuracy +0.1
• [CrtD] Critical Hit Severity +20
• [CrtH] Critical Hit Chance +2%

Starship Shield:

• [Cap] Increased Capacity +10%
• [Reg] Increased Regeneration +10%
• [Pha] Phaser Damage Reduction +20%
• [Dis] Disruptor Damage Reduction +20%
• [Pla] Plasma Damage Reduction +20%
• [Tet] Tetryon Damage Reduction +20%
• [Pol] Polaron Damage Reduction +20%
• [AP] Antiproton Damage Reduction +20%

Starship Engine:

• [Aux] Thrusters give speed even when engines are disabled 25%
• [Spd] Increased Flight Speed ~ +15%
• [Turn] Increased Flight Turn Rate ~ +7.5%
• [Full] Increased Full Impulse Speed ~ +15% Full Impulse Speed is capped at 100, so often lose much of the benefit of this.

Starship Deflector Array:

• [Def] System: Starship Deflectors +10
• [DefD] System: Starship Deflector Dish +10
• [DefF] System: Starship Deflector Field +10
• [Spa] System: Spacial Anomoly +10
• [Em] System: Starship Emitters +10
• [TB] System: Tractor Beam +10
• [HS] System: Hazard System +10
• [ST] System: Photonic Theory +10
• [Sen] System: Starship Sensors +10
• [SenA] System: Starship Sensor Array +10
• [SenP] System: Starship Sensor Probes +10
• [Ast] System: Astrometrics +10

Personal Weapon:

• [Acc] Accuracy +0.1
• [CrtD] Critical Hit Severity +20
• [CrtH] Critical Hit Chance +2%
• [DoT1] Damage over Time, Physical 15 seconds 75
• [DoT2] Damage over Time, Radiation 15 seconds 75
• [DoT3] Damage over Time, Radiation Aura (AoE on Target?) 15 seconds 5
• [KB1] Knockback, chance & distance 5% 5 feet
• [KB2] Knockback, chance & distance 10% 10 feet
• [KB3] Knockback + Explosive Impact (AoE centered on Target?), chance & distance 10% 10 feet and 5% 5 feet

Personal Shield:

• [Cap] Increased Capacity +10%
• [Ene] Increased Energy damage strength, 4 seconds when take damage +10%
• [PBDmg] Point Blank AoE Damage enemies when take damage unknown
• [PBKB] Point Blank AoE Knockback enemies when take damage unknown
• [Reg] Increased Regeneration by Mark 0, +310%, +371%, +433%, +494%, +555%, +616%, +673%, +739%, 0
• [Rev] Damage Attacker when take Damage based on Damage Taken

Personal Armor:

• [Phys] gives a bonus to Physical and Kinetic Resistance, 4% each at Mk X
• [HP] Increased HP by Mark 0, 0, +27, +30, +32, +35, +37, +40, +42, +45
• [HPP] Adrenal Stimulator when take Damage by Mark 0, 0, +11, +12, +13, +14, +15, +16, +17, +18
• [RegHP] HP Regeneration per 4 seconds by Mark 0, 0, +1.9, +2.2, +2.5, +2.8, +3.1, +3.4, +3.7, +4.0
• [RegSH] Health to effects per 4 seconds by Mark 0, 0, +0.74, +0.87, +0.99, +1.1, +1.2, +1.2, +1.5, 0
• [PhaDis] Phaser & Disruptor Damage Resistance by Mark 0, 0, +1.1%, +1.3%, +1.5%, +1.7%, +1.9%, +2.1%, +2.3%, +2.5%
• [PlaTet] Plasma & Tetryon Damage Resistance by Mark 0, 0, +1.1%, +1.3%, +1.5%, +1.7%, +1.9%, +2.1%, +2.3%, +2.5%
• [PolAP] Polaron & Antiproton Damage Resistance by Mark 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, +2.5% (theoretical based on stats of Battle Group Omega Reward items)
• [Pha] Phaser Damage Resistance by Mark 0, 0, +2.1%, +2.6%, +3.0%, +3.4%, +3.8%, +4.2%, +4.6%, +5.0%
• [Dis] Disruptor Damage Resistance by Mark 0, 0, +2.1%, +2.6%, +3.0%, +3.4%, +3.8%, +4.2%, +4.6%, +5.0%
• [Pla] Plasma Damage Resistance by Mark 0, 0, +2.1%, +2.6%, +3.0%, +3.4%, +3.8%, +4.2%, +4.6%, +5.0%
• [Tet] Tetryon Damage Resistance by Mark 0, 0, +2.1%, +2.6%, +3.0%, +3.4%, +3.8%, +4.2%, +4.6%, +5.0%
• [Pol] Polaron Damage Resistance by Mark 0, 0, +2.1%, +2.6%, +3.0%, +3.4%, +3.8%, +4.2%, +4.6%, +5.0%
• [AP] Antiproton Damage Resistance by Mark 0, 0, +2.1%, +2.6%, +3.0%, +3.4%, +3.8%, +4.2%, +4.6%, +5.0%
• [Pha] Phaser Damage Resistance by Mark 0, 0, +2.1%, +2.6%, +3.0%, +3.4%, +3.8%, +4.2%, +4.6%, +5.0%

Source: forums.startrekonline.com