Description

Lightning Arrow, Frenzy, and Bear Trap - high survivability and high DPS!

Suggested Leagues: Default, Hardcore

Passive Skills

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• 10 Points
• 20 Points
• 30 Points
• 40 Points
• 50 Points
• 60 Points
• 70 Points
• 80 Points
• 90 Points
• 100 Points
• 110 Points
• 120 Points

Gems

Lightning Arrow

Lightning Arrow
Weapon Elemental Damage
Chain
Life Gain on Hit
Lesser Multiple Projectiles

Frenzy

Frenzy
Added Lightning Damage
Faster Attacks
Weapon Elemental Damage

Bear Traps

Bear Trap
Bear Trap
Increased Critical Damage
Increased Critical Strikes

Auras

Grace
Anger
Wrath
Reduced Mana

Bandits

Help Oak in Normal Difficulty - Rewards +40 to Maximum Life
Help Kraityn in Cruel Difficulty - Rewards +6% to Attack Speed
Kill all the bandits in Merciless Difficulty - Rewards 1 Passive Skill Point

Guide

This guide, build, etc. is written by AthenaUS from the official Path of Exile forums. All credit goes to him.

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NOTE: due to the recent buffs of the duelist tree, there is NO REASON to ever go ranger as an archer. Rangers a weak versions of archers in comparison to duelist now. Why?
-More projectile damage
-More attack speed (which is more damage and more fun)
-Access to same amount of survivability/static blows AND Inner Force

THE BUILD FOCUS:
-Lightning Arrow
-High Attack Speeds
-High elemental damage
-3 auras (grace, anger and wrath)
-Static Blows (shock stacks)
-Inner Force (18%+8% buff effect further increasing damage)
-HIGH LIFE/RESISTS

SPECIAL NOTES:

In order to run those 3 auras without eating away to much at your life (since your using the blood magic passive) you will need to 4 link an armor piece with 1 Green 1 Blue and 2 Reds. This will allow you to keep all 3 auras to 1 reduced mana on 1 armor piece making it efficient. Level 20 auras on all 3 gems should max out around 370 reserved life, which can be further reduced on a level 20 QUALITY reduced mana.

You will want to find a 5 link chest or bow (not totally necessary as I still dont even have one) These are your 2 main abilities:
-Lightning Arrow, Weapon Elemental Damage, Chain, Life Gain on Hit, LMP
-Frenzy, Added Lightning (or any of the other elements) Faster Attacks, Weapon Elemental
-Bear trap x2, Crit Chance, Crit Damage

Now finding five links is quite difficult and expensive, so what I do is I run a 4 link (LA+Chain+Weapon Elemental+LMP) and on those difficult maps, I will swap out the elemental damage gem for Life Gain on hit. You lose about 300=500dps but its not a big deal as chain LA as low as 500 DPS is still effective.

ABOUT THE BUILD

1. AS soon as I got beserking, I removed the 3 points spent in attack speed in the early tree as they were not needed. You do not have to get them, but I personally enjoy fast attacks while leveling. If you want to follow the same, as soon as you hit beserking, move those points into the elemental damage nodes to the right of them,

2.When I reached around level 65-70, due to my amazing gear and DPS I did not need Iron Grips bonus to physical damage from strength, so I removed those points and tried to rush inner force with them. At level 90 I WILL go back and regain Iron Grips (this is optional)

3.Depending on how your gear is will determine how fast you rush for static blows and inner force. All my gear was fantastic and I had tons of life, so I rushed for static blows early and started getting the rest of the HP nodes after. If your on hardcore and/or your life is low due to shitty gear, I do not recommend this. What this means is you may not see static blows until late 70s.

4.VERY IMPORTANT, do not, I repeat, DO NOT, get the lightning damage nodes above templar until AFTER level 90 when you have everything else. They are the LAST thing to invest in.

5. I spec into blood magic early, but the cost of LA, Chain, LMP and Weapon Elemental is quite high and will eat your life away. So I didnt use chain until 60s. Secondly, be prepared to spam potions for life until you have about 3500 life.

6. If you evasion is low which translates into low armor, you can spec out of a couple life nodes and grab the 8 and 24% evasion bonus nodes at the early part of the duelist tree to compensate. THe reason I dont have them is because I have 7000 armor and do just fine. Once I reach over 5000 life on my own, I will spec out of 2 life nodes and grab those 2 evasion nodes.

FINAL NOTE,
As I said before I have experience with a ranger (level 85 died on HC) and after playing this duelist to level 80, I can say I am quite happy I died. The duelist is far more powerful all the way from 1-end game and can support the same survivability.

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