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.

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.

Below are a majority of most popular builds that players use on Witches, so if you need a head start on what skill gems and skill points to use this should point you in the right direction.

Dual Spark Low-Life Righteous Fire Build

This build isn’t for everyone, as it does require you to actually pay attention. Once you get the hang of it though and get the required items, you’ll easily be able to farm literally anything by yourself which is the biggest upside to this build. I recommend you check out the forum topic linked below and read more about this build and how to best make it work.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build: level 31, endgame

Dual Spark Chaos Inoculation Build

Another variety of the dual-totem build, this one based around Chaos Inoculation passive skill node (you have 1 health, but are immune to Chaos damage). As all dual totem builds it has great AoE damage, and since you’ll be using Spark there’s a chance to shock monsters for increased damage as well.

This build is a bit slow when leveling through Normal difficulty and even a bit in Cruel, but once you get the right passive skills you’ll be able to farm whatever your heart desires.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build: 25 points (Normal difficulty), 45 points (early Cruel), 52 points (late Cruel), 63 points, level 93

Dual Totem Ice Spear Build

Unlike dual totem builds with Spark, Ice Spear’s goal is to freeze everything on your screen and dish out insane amounts of AoE damage. For single target damage you can use Bear and Fire Traps, and for particularly difficult monsters Conversion Trap can save your day.

This is a pretty low-risk and versatile build capable of dealing with any map in endgame. The author included three different variations of this build, but I recommend the Spectre one.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build

Dominating Blow Melee Witch Build

This is one of the few Witch melee builds that isn’t too gimmicky and might actually be fun to try. I wouldn’t recommend this for your first character as it does depend on a few gear pieces to be highly effective but if you’re looking for something unusual this is probably it.

It’s based around using Dominating Blow skill gem as the main attack which creates minions from slain enemies.

• Forum topic
• Passive skill tree

Cold Crit Chaos Inoculation Build

Cold Crit Witch basically locks down multiple enemies permanently with Freezing Pulse. The author does a really good job of going through every detail about this build so if you’re interested be sure to take a look at the forum topic linked below.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build
• Alternative topic for basically the same build

The list above doesn’t of course cover every Witch build but only the most popular ones. You can take a look at the list below (taken from this thread) for a more comprehensive list of Witch builds.

Cold Witch Builds

• A Cold Crit Witch Guide (The basics and everything you need to know to get started)
• Hardcore Frost Witch Guide (Updated for Open Beta)
• [HC] Xinryu’s Life/ES Cold Witch
• [Cold-CI-Build] Freenzy Pulse !
• Delaile’s Chaos Inoculation [END GAME] Cold Crit Witch Build
• CI Cold Witch (Full CI at lvl 40!) – A build by iNotSure – [Updated on 19-02-2013]
• ICE WITCH GUIDE (CI + FREEZING PULSE with LIFE LEECH 0.25 Cast Spd Per Pulse.)

Fire Witch Builds

• Improved Fire Witch! 18k+ Dps Molten Shell. (Video, User quit playing.)
• Righteous Fire Witch (player having problems with build later in game, Act 3 normal?)
• Delaile’s Fire Build Video Guide Double Curse Fireball Action
• Incinerate Pain Attunement witch build

Lightning Witch Builds

• BitchyWitches’ Lightning CI Witch

General Elementalist Witch Builds

• The Ailment Elementalist (Freezer / Shocker / Double Curser) (Note: Player stopped playing, but not because of the build.)

Summoner Witch Builds

• Heavy Summoner Arc Witch Guide [ Video Included ]
• The Summoner Compendium
• Lord of the Dead. (Witch Summoner Build) Currently level 76
• 7 Aura EB Summoner
• Brixtan’s Pure Summoner Build
• The Spectrel Gods ( A Summoners Build ) [SoftCore]
• My poormans witch HC solo build I use to clear maps
• My Summoner Witch (Completed Merciless on SC)
• Ryan’s all-round Summoner Build
• [0.10.0] HC Necro-Witch Guide | How to survive and progress as a pure summoner
• My level 77 Summoner Build! Duel Totem Duel Curse!
• [0.10.1] HC Necro-Witch Guide | How to survive and progress as a pure summoner.

Totem Builds

• Dominion’s Hardcore Dual-Totem CI Witch 0.10.0
• [Strongest Solo Variation: Projectile Madness Spectres] LMP/GMP Ice Spear 2x Totem 2x Curse 3x Traps
• Dragnar,s ( dual totem arc minoin build CI) Fast grinding MF build ))tuned for hc added vid
• Dual Totem Dual Curse EK Witch level 78 5.5k dps ( Video and Guide )
• Incinerate | 2 totems | CI | 2 curses | Awesome DPS with low gear requirement
• [0.10.3c] ChillFire Trix (the fun dual totem build featuring fire traps)!
• Avicularia’s Dual EK TOTEM ‡‡‡GOD BUILD‡‡‡ (Guide/Stream/Video’s)

Wand Builds

• [0.10.1] Dual wand Physical crit+AS+CI Witch
• @@ VESS CANNON BUILD (Phy Wand CI) @@

Misc Builds

• Hardcore lvl 84 – Mullet’s EK Tanky Mofo Guide – 20k bear traps
• (hardcore) ktbanh’s Fiery Blood Witch + Video (pvp,tanky,mobile,quill,range,explosive,dots,survival)
• The True Fire Witch: Explosive Arrow
• Derba’s Hardcore Ethereal Knives Witch [0.10.0][EB, IR, Unwavering]
• 0.10.2b || Tri-ele Chain-Discharge Build ||

I do hope these builds help you discover how powerful your Witch can be. Don’t forget to experiment with builds yourself and adapt and choose them according to your own play style as well: find a build you will like playing, don’t just copy a build because it may be more powerful than some other. And remember to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments below.

Nevertheless, if you want to play a ranged bow class leveling a Ranger isn’t necessarily a bad choice. You can still have a very effective character especially if you follow proven builds that most players use. I selected a few most popular Ranger skill tree builds below to help point you in the right direction, so make sure you take a close look at what makes them so efficient and see if it works for you as well.

Lightning Arrow Build

Lightning Arrow build is without a doubt the most popular one on bow Rangers. It has likely the highest DPS and it’s very good at clearing both single-target and multiple mobs at once. Lightning Arrow is usually linked with Lesser Multiple Projectiles, Weapon Elemental Damage and Life on Hit and Chain support gems, assuming you go for Blood Magic passive skill, and if you have a 6-linked item you can remove the Blood Magic node and add a support gem. For single targets most players use Frenzy or Elemental Hit, generally linked with the same support gems.

The build is basically fully defensive with barely any points in damage, which is usually how ranger builds work. If you have to keep running from every single monster or keep dying constantly then you’re not doing damage anyway. The upside to this build is that it simply does work well and doesn’t require any specific expensive unique items.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build: level 40, level 80

Rain of Arrows Build

Another hugely popular Ranger build is based around Rain of Arrows. It isn’t much different from the Lightning Arrow build in terms of equipment or points in your skill tree, so you can even switch back and forth and test both builds if you wish with a few Orbs of Regret. Even the forum topic for this build is the same as above, so go ahead and check it out as well.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build: level 40, level 80

Dual Wield Physical Sword Build

A simple and effective build based on dual wielding swords. Abilities used are Dual Strike, Flicker Strike, Cleave and Whirling Blades, so basically a mixture of single-target and AoE damage. My dual wield Duelist build is similar to this one and I must say that it works really well in both solo and groups, and the damage is pretty high.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build (91 points)

Dual Wield Elemental Cleave Build

This is pretty much a cookie-cutter elemental damage Cleave build a lot of players run with. Again like most builds this would likely work better for Marauders or even Duelists. A very good upside to this build is that it can be used effectively for a Lightning Arrow Ranger as well, giving you a choice if you want to switch your play style later on.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build (108 points)

I know this isn’t a vast selection of builds, but Rangers might be one class that I actually may have included a majority of viable builds. As mentioned at the start of the article most builds (even bow-based) are better on other classes, as building a glass-cannon simply isn’t viable in Path of Exile. I do encourage you to modify the linked builds and any other you may find to your own play style, but don’t forget to include a ton of defensive nodes in them.

If you have your own builds to suggest, or have any other questions or thoughts I’d appreciate if you left them in the comments below. Thanks!

Most duelists however choose either bow builds, or melee builds with dual wield or one-handed weapon and shield. Of course as with all other classes there isn’t a best choice and it’s entirely up to you how to build your character. Fun fact is that Duelists make better archers than the Ranger class due to easier access to some defensive skill points, so it’s no surprise many players choose this class over Rangers. Below you can take a look at some of the most popular Duelist passive skill tree builds which should help guide you in the right direction.

Lightning Arrow Archer

This is a fairly standard ranged build based around Lightning Arrow, a must-have skill gem that most rangers use. Besides providing plenty of DPS it also has just enough defensive skill points to help you survive almost anything. The build can also be easily modified depending on your current equipment or wishes, so you can choose to take a few more defensive points and increase your Evasion if necessary.

• Forum topic
• Passive skill tree build: 10 points, 20 points, 30 points, 40 points, 50 points, 60 points, 70 points, 80 points, 90 points, 100 points

For ranged duelists focused on bows you can take a look at our build choices for other classes and simply adapt them for Duelists with a few points.

Lightning Strike Build (With 7 Auras!)

Very fun build focused on taking down monsters with Lightning Strike as your main damage tool. Since it has such a long range it’s often much safer to use than Sweep or Cleave, in addition to maintaining 3 shock stacks on all enemies continuously. It’s fairly easy to play and flexible on equipment, but the end-game gear can be costly: you will need a 6-linked item to make the most out of this build.

Considering you’ll be using seven different auras (Anger, Wrath, Grace, Hatred, Haste, Determination, Purity) this is probably the ultimate group supporting build.

• Forum topic
• Gameplay video: level 68 Reef map, level 69 Shore map
• Skill tree build progression: level 20, level 35, level 52, level 70, level 80

2-Handed Lightning Strike Build

This is a very tanky build with significant damage output (10k+) based around Lightning Strike and a two-handed weapon. With proper gear your resistances should be maxed and your health pool over 5000 (obviously the numbers depending on your equipment). Kaom’s Heart (1000 HP chest) is almost a must-have with this build, as is a 6-linked weapon, so take into account that it may cost you a significant amount of Exalted Orbs to build this properly.

This build also used 4 different auras (Determination, Hatred, Anger and Clarity), and uses Dual Strike as a single-target main attack. It’s also possible to adapt it to work with dual-wielding if you prefer.

• Forum topic
• Gameplay video (level 71 map run)
• Skill tree build

1H+Shield Lightning Cyclone Build Guide

This build uses a 1-handed weapon and shield along with Cyclone as its main AoE skill and Double Strike for single target DPS. It has a good mix of damage and survivability with maxed resistances and over 50% block, enabling you to spin your way through packs of monsters, apply shock stacks and easily take them all down.

The build isn’t cheap and will take quite an effort to obtain, but it’s not nearly as expensive as some other builds out there.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build: level 30, level 54, level 70, level 90
• Gameplay footage (Temple map, also includes authors commentary on the build)

Tanky High DPS Cleave Duelist

Another build that uses 7 auras to support your damage output and survivability, but this one is based on using Cleave as your main damaging ability. Since it boasts up to 20k DPS and armor you’ll easily be able to clear maps by yourself. You can also (choose to) get Unwavering Stance, Inner Force, Iron Reflexes and Resolute Technique passive nodes which are all extremely useful.

Like all melee builds it requires decent equipment but nothing extremely expensive. Considering how easy it is to farm with this you shouldn’t have any problems getting good gear.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree (80 points)

Dual Wield Physical Cleave Build

Elemental damage my be superior, but that doesn’t mean physical can’t be good as well. This is a fairly simple build with a lower amount of damage nodes and mostly focused on survivability. You don’t need any specific gear to make this work well, and you just need to aim for defensive stats. The only great items you need are two high-DPS weapons; of course a 6-linked chest is always going to increase your DPS but it isn’t mandatory early on.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree: level 66, level 85

Glacial Hammer Build

Glacial Hammer isn’t a widely used skill gem on a Duelist, but this build can work well if you want to invest the time and currency into it. It uses Melee Splash and Multistrike support gems for Glacial Hammer making your attacks extremely fast and able to hit multiple enemies, as well as shatter them once they hit a third of their life.

• Forum topic
• Passive skill tree build: 20 points, 40 points, 60 points, 70 points, 80 points, 90 points

Dual Wield Dual Strike/Cleave Physical Build

This is the build I’m using myself after several unsuccessful attempts to have fun playing rangers, witches, tanks and whatnot. It features high damage with even higher durability and is extremely gear independent. Great for beginners or anyone else who want a dual-wielding powerhouse without spending any currency whatsoever to make it viable.

• Build details
• Passive skill tree build

The builds listed above are just some of the most popular ones that players are using, therefore if you need a basic guideline on how to build your Duelist it should give you a good idea on which skill gems and passive skill tree nodes to use. As always I recommend you to adapt everything to your own preferences, so if you don’t need insane DPS don’t be afraid to take a few +life nodes or some other skill points. Also Duelists and most of these builds can work well with multiple abilities such as Cleave or Lightning Strike so you should be able to adapt the build to your play style.

Be sure to comment on the builds and tell us your experiences below.

Below you can take a look at some of the more popular Templar skill tree builds in Path of Exile, so if you’re new to the game or class and need some advice on what works best this guide on popular builds should give you a good start.

Dual Wield Elemental Cleave Templar

This is a very simple but effective build based around Cleave gem and dual wielding weapons with elemental damage. You also get plenty of defenses by using Grace and Determination auras. For items this build doesn’t require any expensive unique items which is great if you’re low on currency or if this is your first character.

Additionally many things in this Dual Wield Elemental Cleave build are easily changed, such as gear or gems depending on your preferences. For example the author mentions you can easily replace Cleave with Rain of Arrows and still do amazing DPS, which is quite remarkable as you can switch from melee to ranged as necessary.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree builds: level 20, level 40, level 60, level 80

Righteous Fire/Low Life Freezing Pulse Build

First of all, this build isn’t for anyone. It has less survivability than most other builds and is very gear dependent, so if you decide to give it a shot be prepared to spend some orbs: you need two specific unique items to make this build work well. It also isn’t the easiest of builds to play so if it’s your first character I wouldn’t advise this.

The biggest upside to this build if of course the ridiculous damage output. I recommend you take a good look at the author’s forum topic (linked below) and decide if this build is something you want to go for. It looks incredibly fun, but as mentioned is has its drawbacks.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build (level 78)

Explosive Arrow Templar Build

An unusual path for a templar class, but the author claims you can deal up to 350k DPS. Chances are this will get significantly nerfed, but until then you’re welcome to enjoy killing everything with ease.

I wouldn’t recommend trying this build in Hardcore though as it’s lacking a lot in the defensive department and you might die more often than you’d like.

• Forum topic
• Gameplay video (level 69 shore map)
• Skill tree build

Dual Totem/Curse Elemental Equilibrium Fire Trap Templar

Despite its long and perhaps a bit confusing title, this build actually does work well if you’re looking for something out of the ordinary. This build is focused on high AoE damage as well as significant single-target DPS, while having pretty high resistances and health pool for added survivability.

The build also uses summoned zombies with Minion Explode, along with Elemental Weakness and Critical Weakness curses. Not only do you have two totems to tank for you but also several zombies, making sure you can stay as far away from danger as possible. As main attack you’ll be using the Fire Trap, one of the highest damage skills in the game. Auras used are Clarity, Grace and Discipline.

• Forum topic
• Gameplay footage (Tropical Map, level 76)
• Passive skill tree: 9 points, 13 points, 32 points, 46 points, 56 points, level 67, level 74

Spellcaster/Summoner Templar

This is a great build if you prefer to solo the game. It’s based around having a bunch of zombies to tank for you while you dish out damage with Freezing Pulse. The build isn’t overly dependent on items, although as always it does help to have quality equipment. It can be played in Hardcore mode since it does have decent survivability as well.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build: level 24, level 45, level 60, level 90

Lightning Strike Physical Damage Templar Build

Lightning Strike is one of the most commonly used gems I see on Templars, and for good reason: it has a pretty long range and scales well with Physical Damage nodes. This build has extremely high survivability with high elemental resistances and significantly increased health pool, along with decent life on hit to top off your HP when you take damage.

• Forum topic
• Passive skill tree: 30 points, 60 points, 80 points

These of course are just some of the most popular builds and by no means the only ones you can go for. They seem to work for a lot of players so instead of experimenting with everything yourself, you can build your character based around these passive skill tree builds and make sure you don’t waste any.

As usual I encourage you to pick a build that fits your play style, so for example if you prefer to get in monster’s faces and bash their heads one by one then I don’t recommend you go for the dual totem + zombies build. Some players find it extremely boring so make sure you read the comments on all builds before you spend hours leveling a character.

And of course if you have any other efficient builds you want to share simply post them in the comments below!

Below I’ll go over a few proven builds that players have found to be effective. Most of them are equally good for leveling and at end-game, but some are more gear dependent than others. Be sure to take a good look at the skill tree builds listed and I’m sure you’ll find one that fits your play style.

Newbie-Friendly Melee Build

This is one of the best builds for beginners in Path of Exile as it allows for very easy and quick leveling and is very efficient in late game, even maps. It’s basically a cookie-cutter build built around Ground Slam gem, which doesn’t depend on great equipment to be effective. The build uses a 2-hand Mace weapon to mow down your enemies and extremely high life leech for sustain, also taking advantage of Blood Magic (abilities use health not mana), Unwavering Stance (can’t be stunned) and Resolute Technique (never miss attacks) skill nodes.

• Link to forum topic (contains a lot of explanations, gear examples, etc.)
• Full build (97 points)

Hardcore Endgame Rain of Arrows Marauder Build

As the build author explains, Rain of Arrows allows you to deal huge AoE damage and doesn’t require accuracy of expensive +Quality gems. It works better with Elemental bows, but can work with Physical ones as well. This build can also be used by Rangers or Duelists. It does require extremely valuable equipment if you want to get 20k DPS, but it’s well worth it!

• Forum topic
• 107 point Marauder build

Alternatively, you can take a look at Gh0un’s Point Blank Rain of Arrows build.

Immortal Call + Cyclone Build

This build attempts to imitate the famed Diablo II Whirlwind Barbarian, by using Cyclone as its main skill paired with Immortal Call when it hits the fan. The weapon it uses is a 2-handed mace which also consistently stuns monsters allowing you to spin through mob packs and live to tell about it.

The biggest upside to this build is that it’s not gear dependent. As you can see from this gameplay video the author has only 3000 HP, 850 armor and 420 evasion rating, with 82% all resist and 3% chaos resist.

• Forum topic
• Gameplay video (shows killing Kole and farming Lunaris Temple in Merciless)
• Full skill tree build

Explosive Arrow Elemental Equilibrium Tank Marauder

The main idea behind this build is to clear packs of monsters effectively by using burn damage from the explosion. Explosive Arrow doesn’t scale off of weapon elemental damage but only from projectile, fire and area damage, meaning it requires very little skill points into damage, and the rest can be put into defensive nodes. The build also requires using Quill Rain, a unique bow dealing three attacks per second.

This build is extremely efficient at AoE damage and is decent at single target as well, all the while having high health pool, resistances and armor. It’s a bit weaker early game and more dependent on life on hit due to Blood Magic which is taken very early.

• Forum topic
• Exilepro build (more detailed explanations of the same build)
• Skill tree builds: 30 points, 50 points, 70 points, 91 points

Lightning Arrow Bow Marauder Build

Most bow builds currently are focused around Lightning Arrow, and of course Marauders are no exception. This build named “The Shocker” deals a ton of damage, shocks monsters consistently and since you’re starting in the Marauder tree you have access to a lot of defensive skills. It does require better than average equipment, but then again almost every build does.

The best part about this build is you can easily adapt it to your wishes and play style, and you can (and should) take a few more defensive nodes if you plan on playing this in Hardcore.

• Forum topic
• HC tree – tanky, Purity, Blood Magic support gem.
• HC tree – Blood Magic keystone, Grace, tanky.
• SC tree – Purity and more damage, less HP, Blood Magic support gem.
• SC tree – Grace and more damage, less HP, Blood Magic keystone.

Dual-Wield Elemental Ground Slam Marauder

This build basically takes the concepts of Elemental Bow Marauder and applies it to Ground Slam, the goal of which is to deal as much elemental damage as fast as possible, and to as many enemies as possible. With Ground Slam your aim is to walk up to or leap in a bunch of monsters and blast them with chain-stuns before they get the chance to fire off a shot at you.

The build also takes advantage of many defensive nodes in the skill tree, thus having high resistances, armor and life.

• Forum topic
• Skill tree build progression – Resolute Technique, Blood Magic, Amplify, Unwavering Stance, End-game (87 points)

Dual Wielding Dual Strike+Cleave Physical Build

This is the build I’m using myself after several unsuccessful attempts to have fun playing rangers, witches, tanks and whatnot. It features high damage with even higher durability and is extremely gear independent. Great for beginners or anyone else who want a dual-wielding powerhouse without spending any currency whatsoever to make it viable.

• Build details
• Passive skill tree build

The builds listed are of course just some of the more popular and by no means the only viable ones. I encourage you to go explore the forums or other sites and see if you can find something else that fits your play style better. And of course if you do find a good build, be sure to contact me and I’ll add it to the list (or just post a comment below).

Like every other class in Path of Exile there are countless ways you can build your Shadow character. Most people opt for melee DPS, but ranged damage dealing with a bow or even spell casting can be perfectly viable. If you really want to get the most out of your Shadow and maximize the effectiveness of every skill point I suggest you take a look at some of the skill tree builds I found and choose one that best fits your play style.

Powerleveling Build

This build is designed for one thing only: blazing through the first 20 levels as quickly as possible. It comes from Bzmode, a player who won PoE’s second one-hour hardcore race finishing at an astonishing level 20 in just 60 minutes of playtime. He mostly uses Fire Trap and Poison Arrow as effective area-of-effect damage to quickly dispose of monsters.

• Forum topic including tips and tricks
• Link to skill tree build

Aimlessgun’s Cold Caster Guide

Cold Caster is a Shadow build which focuses on using Freezing Pulse and Ice Spear as the two main abilities. Freezing Pulse has some of the highest AoE DPS in the game if you are up close, and Ice Spear has great long range single target DPS and freeze-locks enemies like nothing else.

The cold caster is a good all around build with high single target and AoE DPS, with additional survivability thanks to constant freeze. They are equally efficient in solo play as well as groups, and even in PvP combat.

• Youtube video demonstrating the build in action
• Another video with a cold caster Shadow build
• Full build at level 82 (and alternate more defensive version)
• Author’s forum topic, including skill gems and support gems, preferred gear, and plenty of other tips

Ethereal Knives Low-HP High DPS Build

Dr. Bubbles’ Ethereal Knives Shadow build uses a combination of unique items and support gems to turn himself into a low-life killing machine. In order to better understand how and why this build works I suggest you visit this forum topic and read a bit more about it.

• Full build
• Video footage of the build in action (includes an explanation of the build as well)

Hardcore Shadow Fire Trap Build

Shadow class based on Fire Trap is a fun and mobile build that enables you to run around and dodge monster attacks all the while your Fire and Bear Traps deal damage. The build focuses on damage, mobility and taking large groups of monsters at the same time, and works well in both solo and group play.

The build also has added survivability with Spell Totem: Summon Skeletons as well as taking a lot of bonus health nodes in the passive skill tree.

• 94-point skill tree build
• Forum topic with a very detailed description and explanation of the build

Low-Life/Pain Attunement Caster Shadow Build

Low-life builds aim to keep yourself at 35% of your maximum health at all times in order to benefit from the Pain Attunement node in the skill tree, which increases your spell damage by 30% while below 35% HP. Constantly staying on a third of your maximum health is actually quite easy: you simply use a Blood Magic support gem (your linked spell uses health as resource instead of mana) with an aura gem that reserves a percentage of your mana. Just make sure you appropriately level up your gems to get 65% mana reservation. For defense this build mainly relies on building a high Energy Shield.

This build can go in various paths depending on your preference: fire, ice, or lightning as elemental damage , and Ethereal Knives if you prefer physical damage. Ice is likely the safest due to constant freezing of your enemies, while Ethereal Knives deals the most damage.

• Forum topic with detailed explanation of the build, including equipment, gameplay tips, linked gem tips and more
• Ethereal Knives build: 44 Points, 64 Points, 88 Points, 100 Points, 111 Points
• Ice caster build: 46 Points, 64 Points, 88 Points, 100 Points, 111 Points
• Fire build: 43 Point, 68 Points, 89 Points, 108 Points
• Lightning tree build: 47 Points, 64 Points, 88 Points, 102 Points, 110 Points

Eldritch Battery Ethereal Knives Shadow Build

This build focuses on building the Shadow around an unconventional HP/Str build as opposed to the usual CI/Int/ES build, focusing on HP, HP regen and Armour as defense and using ES as a mana buffer instead of the traditional protection purpose. It also used Ethereal Knives as the main AoE skill with Bear Traps as the main single target DPS skills versus bosses and in PvP scenarios. Defensive skills include Frost Wall and the curse of choice is Projectile Weakness.

• Forum topic with detailed explanation of every aspect of this build
• Gameplay video #1 (level 69 Plateau map run)
• Gameplay video #2 (level 67 Dark Forest map run)
• Full skill tree build per level: 30 Points, 44 Points, 53 Points, 61 Points, 95 Points (level 84 late-game build)

Ashgod’s Physical Bow Build

This build takes advantage of most stats in the game, making it fairly gear dependant, however with good gear the damage scales extremely well. It’s also pretty versatile and you can adjust your build depending on your current equipment. It also has insanely high single target DPS with 7 Frenzy charges. There are a few downsides to this build as well: it’s weak for leveling until you pick up a few key points, it’s gear dependent, and due to the high damage monsters with reflect damage can be tougher to kill.

• Forum topic with author’s explanation of this build’s strengths and weaknesses, skill gem choices, equipment recommendations and more
• End-game passive skill tree build
• Gameplay video showing the build in action

Invalesco’s HP/ES Spark Shadow Battle Mage

This caster shadow build is optimized for fast leveling and safety. It’s based on Spark + Fork skill gems. Since Spark can bounce off of walls it’s extremely good in indoor dungeons. It’s also very easy to play thus great for beginner players.

• Forum topic including full passive builds, equipment, skill gems, gameplay tips and more
• Skill tree progression: 31 Points, 46 Points, 60 Points, 80 Points, 111 Points (completed build)
• Vaal run gameplay video – showing how to kill Vaal on Merciless difficulty
• Brutus kill video – shows how easily you can kill Brutus with this build

I hope these builds point you in the right direction. There are literally countless ways to build a character but these are just some that I found which appear to be effective. If you have another or even your own build you want to share with everyone feel free to contact me and I’ll add it here.