Intro & build description
Melee build with massive area of effect damage thanks to Vaal Reave. If hitting almost full screen of mobs while maintaining huge damage and insanely fast clear speed is something you would enjoy, check this build out. Works great as league starter as well. The only downside is, you will have to switch reave for blade flurry for certain highest endgame content like shaper, guardians or uber atziri.
Build Pros
- Satisfying to play
- Fast-paced action
- Very reliable damage and defense wise
- Shock immunity
- Budget-friendly
- Scales very well with currency invested
- Noobie-friendly
Build Cons
- For tougher encounters, you have to swap in Blade Flurry instead of Reave
Passive tree(s) and Path of Building
Leveling [45p] Leveling [104p] Full BuildBandits
Bandits Quest Choice |
Help Alira |
Ascendancy skill points
Labyrinths | Skill point choice |
---|---|
Labyrinth 1 | Nature's Boon |
Labyrinth 2 | Master Alchemist |
Labyrinth 3 | Veteran Bowyer |
Endgame Labyrinth | Nature's Adrenaline |

Skill gem setup
Helm
Leap Slam
Fortify Support
Faster Attacks Support
Blood Magic Support
Body Armor
Reave or Blade Flurry
Increased Critical Strikes Support
Physical to Lightning Support
Elemental Damage with Attacks Support
Multistrike Support or Damage on Full Life Support
Melee Physical Damage Support
Gloves
Herald of Ash
Hatred
Boots
Cast When Damage Taken Support
Increased Duration Support
Immortal Call
Vaal Haste
2h Weapon
None
1h Weapon
Vaal Reave
Ancestral Protector
Summon Ice Golem
Offhand weapon / shield
Blood Rage
Frenzy
Fortify Support
Build uniques / Example rare gear
Tip: Click on the item to view it on PoE Wiki or to view similar rare items in poe.tradeBody Armour
Inpulsa's Broken HeartInpulsa’s Broken Heart is used for very strong explosions we make once we kill monsters, increased damage if we killed recently and immunity to shock. Use any rare chest with elemental resistances and life till you get Inpulsa’s.
Gloves
TombfistGreat gloves for 2 extra abyss jewels and some damage. Use murderous eye jewel and searching eye jewels in these. If you can’t afford Tombfist gloves, use rare gloves or Maligaro’s Virtuosity.
Belt
Stygian ViseAt least 80 life, elemental resistances and increased elemental damage with attack skills.
1Hand Weapon
Rare SwordRare sword with high physical damage, high critical strike chance and high attack speed.
Offhand
Rare ''Stat stick'' SceptreTry to craft or buy rare Shaped sceptre with mod ”Gain % of physical damage as extra fire/cold/lightning damage”.
Jewel
Rare JewelsStats on rare jewels:
- Maximum life
- Increased global critical strike multiplier
- Attack speed
- Increased global critical strike chance
Flask
FlasksFlask Setup:
- Seething Divine Life Flask of Staunching
- Lion’s Roar
- Atziri’s Promise
- The Wise Oak
- Chemist’s Diamond Flask of Warding
what you leveling this with?
Frostblades or molten strike till level 12, reave onwards. At 28 lvl start using blade flurry for single target damage. Make sure to upgrade weapons every 5-10 levels since melee builds damage depends on the weapon you’re playing with.
What are you using for gear ? im curious as to the life pool im currently trying this build and feeling super squishy at 57 in act 8 with res cap, only 2.6k hp with decent gear , any fix for feeling mana starved ?
2.6k life @ 57 lvl is more than enough to survive encounters pre-maps. In the endgame, you will have around 5-5.5k life with decent gear. Lots of life comes from flat levels as well. As for mana, spec into Spirit Void if you feel like mana is a problem for now, later on with more reliable crits you won’t need it anymore and can re-spec these points somewhere else.
aye , thats what i ended up doing, the mana void , im 68 now and it feels much better, still only 3.4k hp, i dont feel quite so squishy anymore, although i still get rocked occasionally. thank you for the advice, im thinking i went wrong speccing into the elemental damage nodes off the rip
Does weapon have to be a sword? Or just a 1handed weapon? Also, when you say high (insert stat) what do you mean? Is that 90% of Max possible or what? Does the recommended jewel stats work on all jewels or should I been looking for 1 jewel with Max health, 1 for attack speed, etc. Also, as a suggestion, I removed increased critical support from the chest and replaced it with increased Area of Effect and concentrated effect with blade furry.
Also, you don’t specify the abyss jewel on the stygian vise.
You want to go for global critical strike chance, global critical strike multiplier, life.
Yes, because sword base has some very strong physical damage/critical strike nodes.
I am currently lvl 82 with this and it really does start to shine once you get into mapping (once you start using the Inpulsa’s chest). I just wanted to comment with some unique leveling gear suggestions that I found very useful until I can find higher level rares. For the gloves, Maligaro’s is sufficient (couldn’t afford a 2 socket Tombfist). For the swords, i’ve been using Hyaon’s Fury and Rebuke of the Vaal. For the head I’m using a Starkonja’s Head and for the boots I’m using Darkray Vectors. Belt of the Deceiver has been suiting me fine for a while, but i’m still trying to figure out if there’s a better choice. Rings and amulets are pretty much dedicated to stats (Res, life, phys damage). I also made a few slight tweaks to the tree just to compensate for my play style. Is there a real benefit to taking the Winter Spirit nodes? I’d assume it’s to mitigate any phys reflect, but i haven’t allocated them yet.
Also, I opted out of using Ancestral Protector (for time’s sake), Blood Magic on Leap Slam, and Frenzy. Instead, I linked Fortify, Faster Attacks, and Onslaught support on Leap Slam. For Frenzy charges, Blood Rage seems to do the trick on it’s own, but I also have a second CWDT setup with Poacher’s Mark and Ice Golem. Another addition I made was linking Life Leech and Culling Strike with Vaal Reave along with Riposte. The only caveat is once you have Acrobatics there’s a much lower chance of using Riposte.
Was wondering what Pantheons you ended up using? Is there a specific one you’ll always use? Or just swap for certain encounters?