Updated for Patch 3.20
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Guide notes |
August 28, 2021 -Build created January 26, 2023 -Build updated for Patch 3.20 |
Build overview | |||
Tags: [MELEE] [PHYSICAL] [IMPALE] [LIFE] | |||
Budget: Defenses: |
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Boss DPS: AoE: |
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Facebreaker is a very unique pair of gloves - you gain up to 800% more Physical Damage with Unarmed Melee Attacks. It's really a lot, but with no weapon, you will have significantly reduced flat damage - the actual numbers that you want to have more of. There are a lot of ways to obtain Flat Physical Damage, mostly from your gear. It's a Pure Physical Build, as most Champion builds are - Champion specializes in increasing the effectiveness of Impale, Fortify, Banners, and many other utility buffs. In this build, the most effective Ascendancy Keystones are Master of Metal - for added Flat Damage and Imaple buffs, Unstoppable Hero and Fortitude for permanent Fortify, Stun Immunity, 20% Attack Speed, Armour, and Evasion Rating. Inspirational grants an increased effect of Auras and bonuses to Banner Skills. Berserk is also a viable choice due to its powerful Keystones, but Champion is a well-balanced option with more Armour and Fortify.
Impale mechanics works great with pure Physical and quickly attacking builds such as this one. It's a Critical Strike build that uses some clever ways to gain more base Critical Strike Chance - it may result in a complete 100% Critical Strike Chance with the right Items and Skills. The build is very tanky - your Maximum Life can reach 5k with a casual player's budget, and the damage you take from hits is significantly lowered - you have a lot of Armour, medium Block Chance, and nearly 30 Fortify. The build isn't expensive, but if have currency, there are a lot of ways to improve it, mostly by getting better gear, Cluster Jewels, and Facebreaker with a higher damage bonus.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
This build is a complete no-brainer. You spin around Maps killing everything on your path. You occasionally can cast Ancestor Totems or Blood Rage, but in most cases, that's just needed against Bosses. You should also use Steelskin as your primary Guard Skill (Molten Shell can also be used if you have over 10k Armour Rating) linked with cast when damage taken. The Curse that's used is an Assassin's Mark. For Auras, we've used Determination, Pride, Precision, and Dread Banner. Overall, it's really a self-explanatory build that you can't go wrong with.
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PROS |
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CONS |
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A compelling leveling guide for this build can be found here: Duelist Leveling Guide using Melee/Impale. It's a guide designed to speed up the leveling process for the Duelist class, which also includes this Impale-focused build.
Bandits:
You should kill all three Bandits for two additional Skill Points which is the only viable option for this build
Leveling Skill Trees:
22 Points Skill Tree
Take this path to a Point Blank, Onslaught, Phasing, and Life. If you don't use Splitting Steel, don't take Point Blank.
61 Points Skill Tree
Allocate more Maximum Life, Resistances, Chance to Impale, Accuracy, Reservation Efficiency, and Damage corresponding to your specific weapon.
Final Skill Tree:
92 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Cluster Jewels)
122 Points Path of Building (PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of Lunaris: 1% additional Physical Damage Reduction for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%; 1% increased Movement Speed for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%
Minor God: Soul of Garukhan: 60% reduced Effect of Shock on you
[DPS] Cyclone setup | |
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Cyclone - Cyclone is a Channeling Attack that allows you to move while dealing Melee Physical Damage around you, it has a very high Attack Speed making it most suitable for this build. |
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Brutality Support - Increases your Physical, but disables Elemental and Chaos Damage. |
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Melee Physical Damage Support - At a small cost of your Attack Speed, it greatly increases Melee Physical Damage. |
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Pulverise Support - More AoE, and Area Damage, slightly lowered Attack Speed. |
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Infused Channeling Support - Greatly increases the damage you deal with Channeling Skills, and decreases damage from AoE, Hits, Channeling, Physical, and Melee Hits while Channeling. |
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Impale Support - Improves your chance to impale and the effect of this debuff on enemies. Consider the Anomalous version for an extra 10% Chance to Impale. |
[UTILITY] Warcry and Blood Rage setup | |
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Blood Rage - Blood Rage grants you more Attack Speed, Life Leech, and generates Frenzy Charges as you kill enemies, it drains your Life as it's active. |
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Enhance Support - By upgrading the Quality of Blood Rage you're able to get more Attack Speed, and more Damage from Assassin's Mark. |
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Assassin's Mark - Increases Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier against the marked enemy. |
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Mark on Hit Support - Linked Mark triggers automatically on Hit against Rare and Unique enemies. |
[UTILITY] Auras setup | |
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Pride - It's the obligatory Aura for Physical Melee build for it makes enemies near you take more Physical Damage, and if the distance will remain close, the bonus increases even more. |
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Dread Banner - It increases your Chance to Impale, and Impale effectiveness, which results in a high DPS increase for just 10% Mana Reserved. |
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Determination - Adds and increases Armour, it's particularly useful with the Abyussus Helmet. |
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Precision - Adds Accuracy Rating and increases Critical Strike Chance. |
[UTILITY] Dash/Steelskin setup | |
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Flame Dash - The recommended mobility Skill, it's an instant relocation Spell that you can use at any time. Keep it at level 1. |
[UTILITY] Dash/Steelskin setup | |
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Steelskin - use Steelskin as your Guard Spell to reduce incoming damage. You can also replace it with ![]() |
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Cast when Damage Taken - Automatically triggers Guard Spell after taking damage. |
[UTILITY] Ancestral Totems setup | |
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Ancestral Protector - this Totem increases your Attack Speed if it stays active |
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Ancestral Warchief - this Totem increases your Melee Damage if it stays active |
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Multiple Totems Support - with This Support Gem you can have more Totems activated at once, so both Ancestral Warchief and Protector can stay up at the same time and grant their bonuses |
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Maim Support - Enemies are Maimed, which makes them slower and more vulnerable to Physical Damage. |
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The build isn't expensive, it can be even played as a Starter. The only Uniques that are really necessary are Facebreaker, and these are so Cheap that you can actually seek a specific Corruption on them - the most popular being an Extra Frenzy Charge or Attack Speed. Flat Physical Damage (numbers, not percentages) is by far the most influential stat - it can be found on almost any Rare gear slot so keep an eye on it, but Abyssus is especially abundant with it. 155 Dexterity is required for this build to work properly (Blood Rage and Dash), and 111 Intelligence (Infused Channeling). You will need to seek these Attributes on Jewels and Jewelry.
Our recommended items will:
Stat priorities on items:
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Min. requirements: +80 to Maximum Life +70% to Elemental Resistances Nearby Enemies take 9% increased Physical Damage Optional affixes: Increased Effect of Fortify on you Chaos Resistance Attributes |
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+(20-25) to all Attributes Adds 40 to 60 Physical Damage to Attacks +(100-125)% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier (100-120)% increased Armour (40-50)% increased Physical Damage taken |
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Helmet enchantments: Cyclone Attack Speed/Damage enchantment |
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Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life +80% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: High Armour Rating Socketed Gems have 15% reduced Reservation Attributes Chaos Resistance |
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3% increased Movement Speed (8-12)% Chance to Block Spell Damage Adds (8-12) to (15-20) Physical Damage to Attacks (6-10)% increased Attack Speed +(50-70) to maximum Life |
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Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistances Attacks have +1% to Critical Strike Chance Optional affixes: Enemies you Kill have a #% chance to Explode, dealing a tenth of their maximum Life as Physical Damage increased Maximum Life You Can Apply Additional Curse Attributes |
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(120-150)% increased Evasion and Energy Shield +(50-70) to maximum Life +(9-12)% to all Elemental Resistances (40-50)% increased Area of Effect (40-50)% increased Area Damage Extra gore |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Maximum Life in total +80% to Elemental Resistances +25% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: Increased Armour You have Tailwind if you have dealt a Critical Strike Recently #% chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill Attributes |
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+30% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier 10% reduced Enemy Stun Threshold (600-800)% more Physical Damage with Unarmed Attacks Extra gore Optional Corrupted Implicits: #% increased Attack Speed #% increased maximum Life +1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges |
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(20-30)% increased Stun Duration on Enemies +(20-40) to Strength (30-40)% more Maximum Physical Attack Damage (40-30)% less Minimum Physical Attack Damage Adds 1 to (15-20) Physical Damage to Attacks +(80-100) to maximum Life Gain 50 Life when you Stun an Enemy |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Maximum Life in total +40% to Elemental Resistances Adds 12 to 22 Physical Damage to Attacks Optional affixes: Pride/Determination has increased Mana Reservation Efficiency Attributes Critical Strike modifiers |
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+(24-36)% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier +7% to Unarmed Melee Attack Critical Strike Chance Modifiers to Claw Damage also apply to Unarmed Attack Damage with Melee Skills Modifiers to Claw Attack Speed also apply to Unarmed Attack Speed with Melee Skills Modifiers to Claw Critical Strike Chance also apply to Unarmed Critical Strike Chance with Melee Skills Corrupted |
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Recommended Anointments: Panopticon Charisma Claws of the Hawk (with Rigwald's Curse) Soul of Steel |
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Min. requirements: Adds 9 to 15 Physical Damage to Attacks Attributes +60 to Maximum Life Optional affixes: Elemental Resistances Chaos Resistance increased Attack Speed Channelling Skills have -3 to Total Mana Cost |
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Min. requirements: increased Maximum Life increased Attack Speed Elemental Resistances increased Global Physical Damage with Claws or while holding a Shield Dexterity Intelligence |
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Allocates <Random Ascendancy Notable> if you have the matching modifiers on Forbidden Flesh Allocates <Random Ascendancy Notable> if you have the matching modifiers on Forbidden Flame |
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Commanded leadership over (10000-18000) warriors under (Akoya-Kaom-Rakiata) Passives in radius are Conquered by the Karui Historic |
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(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> Recommended Aura modifiers: Impales you inflict last 2 additional Hits while using Pride (40-60)% increased Attack Physical Damage while using Pride |
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Recommended Notables: 1 Added Passive Skill is Feed the Fury 1 Added Passive Skill is Fuel the Fight 1 Added Passive Skill is Martial Prowess 1 Added Passive Skill is Strike Leader 1 Added Passive Skill is Furious Assault 1 Added Passive Skill is Iron Breaker 1 Added Passive Skill is Master the Fundamentals |
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Recommended Notables: 1 Added Passive Skill is Basics of Pain 1 Added Passive Skill is Pressure Points 1 Added Passive Skill is Quick Gateway |
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+1500 to Armour Adds Knockback to Melee Attacks during Flask effect Knocks Back Enemies in an Area when you use a Flask 75% chance to cause Enemies to Flee on use (7-10)% more Melee Physical Damage during effect |
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40% increased Damage Creates Consecrated Ground on Use (30-15)% reduced Duration Consecrated Ground created by this Flask has Tripled Radius Consecrated Ground created during Effect applies (7-10)% increased Damage taken to Enemies (100-150)% increased Critical Strike Chance against Enemies on Consecrated Ground during Effect |
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Other suggested Flasks:
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If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.
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