PoE 3.25 Earthquake Juggernaut Marauder Build

Table of contents:

> Basics

> Mechanics

> Playstyle

> Class, Tree, Pantheon, Masteries

> Equipment

> Flasks

> Skill Gems

This build is perfect for anyone wanting a build both fast for clear and strong against a single target. Earthquake is a slam - one of the most well-known examples of this slow, yet powerful subclass of melee attacks. The vaal version of this skill makes you create aftershocks with each step, evaporating enemies around you as you run through content. For single target, we use Bladestorm - one of the skills most notorious for its super powerful bleeds.

Vaal Earthquake = Brutality = Pulverise = Lifetap = Melee Physical Damage = Faster Attacks

Bladestorm = Melee Physical Damage = Lifetap = Brutality = Chance to Bleed = Cruelty

https://pastebin.com/2vyUgYBw - paste this into Path of Building

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Basics

Bladestorm is a melee attack that has two parts. First we attack, dealing damage to anyone around us, then we create a spinning bloodstorm for a set duration.

Vaal Earthquake is a special version of the gem, which grants both the Vaal and the regular version of it. Vaal Earthquake functions similarly to regular EQ, but with much higher damage. On top of that, it imbues your character - making you create smaller aftershocks with each step you take. To be able to use it, you have to charge it up with souls of fallen enemies.

Pros and Cons

+ Really high damage.

+ High effective HP.

+ Huge defense against physical damage

+ Bleed!

- Socket-starved.

- Might require some tweaking around with your gear.

Mechanics Used

Vaal Skills: These skills cannot be spammed, unlike their normal counterparts. You need to charge them up with souls, which you get by killing enemies or dealing damage to unique enemies. To make up for that, these skills are usually MUCH stronger than their non-vaal counterparts.

Endurance Charges: These are the main defensive charges in the game. Each of them grants us 4% elemental resistance and 4% physical damage reduction. Normally, they can only stack up to 3, but we increase the cap with our passive tree and ascendancy.

Bleed: This debuff is specific to physical attack damage. It deals damage based on the base physical damage of the hit, normally being able to apply only one bleed at a time. Due to Crimson Dance, we can apply eight of them - at the penalty of it no longer dealing more (triple) damage when enemies are moving, and with a 50% less damage trade-off.

Fortify: A buff that lowers our damage taken from hits, with its effect scaling based off of the damage of our hits.

Useful Links and Path of Building

Path of Building: A powerful tool for planning/sharing builds. To have all info from this build compressed into one simple character sheet, use this link in the 'import' section.

https://pastebin.com/2vyUgYBw

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Playstyle and Leveling

Playstyle

For clear, we want to use our Bladestorm to stack up Vaal Earthquake souls, which is our main clear skill. Once we turn on VEQ, we run through packs to kill them with the aftershocks our steps create. Once this effect ends, we go back to killing enemies with bladestorm to stack it up.

For bosses, we want to ditch Earthquake - that's when we only focus on using our Blood Bladestorm. They will linger on our enemy, dealing damage and reapplying our bleeds constantly.

Map Mods

Physical Reflect! This mod basically instantly kills us, so maps with it are virtually impossible. Try to roll over maps that have this mod - as we don't really have a way of circumventing it.

Class, Tree, Pantheon

Tree

Passive Points

http://poeurl.com/dKlV· Tree for level 100

The main version of the build

https://pastebin.com/2vyUgYBw

Import this link to Path of Building.

Masteries

+3% to Damage over Time Multiplier for Bleeding per Endurance Charge
+50 to maximum Life
40% increased Physical Damage with Skills that Cost Life
Attacks with Two Handed Weapons deal 60% increased Damage with Hits and Ailments, 10% reduced Attack Speed
Bleeding you inflict deals Damage 15% faster
Defiance Banner has 100% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency
Determination has 25% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency
Melee Hits Fortify, -3 to maximum Fortification

Class

The Ascendancy (subclass) used in this build is the Juggernaut

Unstoppable (Normal): This passive prevents us from getting slowed below our base speed. That makes us basically immune to the most annoying type of debuffs - the likes of freeze, temporal chains, tar ground or chill are no longer scary! On top of that, it also makes us immune to stuns.

Unflinching (Cruel): This is one of the signature points of Juggernaut. All of its effects ensure that we'll always be at maximum endurance charges - making us much more resilient against elemental and physical damage.

Undeniable (Merciless): This passive is our main source of accuracy for this build, since it will usually grant us more than +1200 to our Accuracy. On top of that, it gives us a small bonus to attack speed.

Unbreakable (Eternal): Doubles armor gained from our chest piece, while also providing us a sizable amount of life recovery (even though it may not seem like it based on the wording).

Pantheon

· Soul of Solaris: Further reduces elemental damage taken and makes us immune to bonus damage from critical strikes if we've been struck by a critical strike in the last four seconds.

· Minor god: Up to you. The choices I'd focus on are, however, Soul of Yugul (for shock reduction) or Soul of Gruthkul (for more physical damage reduction and enemy AS slows).

Anointments

For this build, we want to anoint the Wrecking Ball notable - as it grants us a high attack speed bonus alongside more stun duration and increased damage with hits and ailments from our hits.

Another choice could be the Dirty Techniques notable, but it's too pricey for the damage it offers.

Equipment

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Helmets

Note that we care solely about armor bases.

Abyssus is a good choice for when you're lacking damage early on. Our endurance charges basically offset the increased physical damage taken mod, letting us benefit from the huge added physical damage to attacks this helmet provides. We don't really wanna use it in the late game, as the increase to damage taken simply isn't worth it when we have access to more sources of damage.

Rare Helmet is what we ideally want to use in the endgame. We want to use an armor + evasion base in this slot.

Mods you should look for on rare helmets are:

- + to maximum life

- +% to Elemental resistance

- +% to Elemental resistance

- +% chance to Suppress Spell Damage

Enchantments you should look for are:

- +1 to Maximum number of Bladestorms

- Earthquake has 24% increased Area of Effect

Boots

Death's Door is a really solid unique. It's a drop unique to the Eternal Labyrinth - making it much more expensive due to low supply. It comes with an okay amount of movement speed and strength. However, the two most important mods on it are the additional maximum endurance charge and bleed immunity. Certainly an item to consider throwing in.

Rare Boots - another option is a pair of rare boots, which come with different mod combinations.

Mods you should look for on rare boots are:

- 25% or higher increased Movement speed

- + or higher to Maximum Life

- +% to one elemental resistance

- +% to another elemental resistance

- %chance to Suppress Spell Damage

Gloves

Haemophilia - this is the best choice for our build. They give us increased damage, chance to cause Bleeding and most importantly - it makes bleeding enemies explode, helping greatly with clear. If you have the budget for it, get a pair with Vulnerability on Hit.

Body Armour

Rare armor - this option provides us with more damage and maximum life, which is our main focus. The other important stat is armor, which we want to get as much as possible - to then further scale it with our tree and the Unbreakable notable.

The Brass Dome - a more expensive, more defensive option. The benefits of this armor are GREAT. No extra critical strike damage, huge armor and +5 to all maximum elemental resistances is a really strong set of stats this armor offers. However, it makes our strength not give us any flat maximum life, which we have to counteract by picking up more maximum life on the tree.

Weapons

Rare Axe is the best choice for this build. We want to use the Sundering Axe base, as it comes with a Bleed Damage modifier. Ideally, we want to get a weapon with high physical damage and extra damage multiplier for bleeding/damage over time.

Atziri's Disfavour - this weapon is the cheaper choice. It doesn't offer anything unique, just a hefty amount of damage, range and chance to bleed. Nothing to write poems about, but it might out-DPS a cheap rare weapon.

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Jewellery

Rings

Rings are a great way to fix our elemental resistances and lacking attributes.

Rare Rings - our default choice for filling up ring slots. You should seek those with some of these stats:

- + to maximum life

- + to strength

- + to chaos resistance

- + to [elemental] resistance

Kaom's Way - albeit inconspicuous, this ring packs a lot of power. It can grant us a bit of area effect and life regeneration based on the amount of Endurance Charges you currently have. However, don't use more than one of these, as that will seriously compromise our defenses.

Belts

Ryslatha's Coil - although expensive, this is by far the best belt we can get. High maximum life and strength are only a cherry on the top. The most important stats on it are the less minimum and more maximum attack damage stats. They can roll different values (rerollable with divine orbs). Minimum should be as low as possible, while maximum should be as high as it gets. Remember to use the Abrasive catalyst on it.

Rare Belt - this is the cheaper option which we plan to use until we can afford a Ryslatha's. Focus on Leather or Stygian belts.

- + to maximum life

- +% to one Elemental Resistance

- +% to another Elemental Resistance

- +% to yet another elemental resistance if possible

Amulets

Rare Amulet might be the best amulet for this build. It's our primary source of dexterity, which this build really needs. Make sure to get as much of dex and strength as possible (choosing Citrine base will help with that). If possible, pair it up with maximum life and resistances, increased area of effect or damage over time multiplier.

Flasks

Flasks in Path of Exile are different from other games. Not all of them are made for regaining life and mana - a lot of them are more offensively oriented. This build's setup looks like this:

Life Flask of Staunching - try to look for Eternal or Divine flasks, as they're the highest tiers of life flasks obtainable in the game. The mod we're looking for is anti-bleed, which makes us immune to bleeding, which is really significant - as it's the single deadliest ailment in the game.

Stibnite Flask - creates a smoke cloud on use, making enemies less likely to land an attack on us or evade our attacks. On top of that, it gives us a 20% more multiplier for our evasion.

Silver Flask - grants Onslaught, which increases our attack and movement speed. Due to how long it lasts, we should get an immunity to poison or shock mod on it.

Jade Flask - this flask gives us a high base evasion bonus. If possible, try to get one with bonus evasion during flask effect.

Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline - high movement speed is crucial for us, as it's our main way to move between packs or to dodge enemy attacks.

Jewels

Jewels used in this build are rare crimson jewels, as they're the ones that have bonuses connected to melee attacks. A perfect crimson jewel would have these modifiers:

- Increased maximum life

- Increased attack speed

- Increased attack speed with maces

- Extra physical/damage over time multiplier

Watcher's Eye - This unique jewel is a rare drop from one of the endgame encounters in PoE - it comes from the Elder encounter in the Absence of Value and Meaning. It comes in many variants, but the one we care about are the ones that interact with the Pride and Determination auras.

Look for mods that give us increased physical damage or more defenses during Determination.

Split Personality - we want to put this jewel as far from our passive tree start as possible. Try to find one with bonus strength and intelligence, as this is what we care about the most.

Lethal Pride - this jewel modifies passives around it, granting them an extra effect. You can reroll it with divine orbs, to find what suits you best.

Gems

Weapon 1

Bladestorm = Brutality = Melee Physical Damage = Lifetap = Chance to Bleed = Cruelty

This is our main single target skill setup. We use Lifetap to make it cost life instead of mana, which will let us use it as often as we want to. Bladestorm, by default, will be in the Blood mode - which means it will deal more damage with ailments and linger in one spot, letting us maximize our damage against bosses.

Body

Vaal Earthquake = Pulverise = Brutality = Melee Physical Damage = Lifetap = Faster Attacks

This is our main clear setup. Pulverise will greatly increase the area of effect of this skill. We don't intend to use the normal Earthquake, just the Vaal version. Instead of Faster Attacks you might use Less Duration, but I've noticed it can actually make clear worse due to the Aftershocks appearing to close to each other.

Helmet

Pride = Determination = Herald of Purity = Blood and Sand

This is our main aura/mana reservation setup. Pride increases physical damage taken by enemies near us, increasing its effect the longer the foes remain in our vicinity. Determination is undoubtedly the strongest defensive aura in the game, granting us a huge bonus to armor. War Banner makes enemies around us take increased physical damage, while Blood and Sand lets us switch between two stances - one of them giving us more AoE, the other giving us more AoE damage.

Boots

Cast When Damage Taken = Lifetap = Blood Rage = Immortal Call

This is our CWDT setup. Cast When Damage Taken automatically triggers linked spells whenever we take a certain amount of damage. Blood Rage gives us increased attack speed at the cost of a small physical damage over time debuff (which we mitigate nearly fully due to our impenetrable physical damage reduction). Immortal Call consumes our Endurance Charges, making us immune to physical damage and lowering the elemental damage we take.

Gloves

Ancestral Protector = Lifetap = Dash = Second Wind

This is our utility setup. Ancestral Protector grants us a more attack speed modifier as long as it's alive, which is why we intend to use it on bosses - which will usually focus on us. Dash is our movement skill of choice. We link it to Lifetap and Second Wind, to make sure we have it at our disposal as often as possible.