[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Duelist Builds That Wreck Hard!

Updated:

05 Apr 2022

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Duelist Builds That Wreck Hard!

In Patch 3.17, we saw a resurgence of old builds after the new items and Eldritch Implicits were introduced. And though most buffs were for spells, there were enough changes for everyone! And here are some Duelist builds that only got better in 3.17!

5 – The Fortified Summoner: Herald of Purity Minion Instability Champion

Herald of Purity's Sentinels.

A Champion summoner, you ask me. Yes, though Necromancers tend to be the best summoners, followed by Guardians, the sheer amount of survivability and aura effect the Champion has access to makes it a fantastic choice for a cheap, unique variant of summoners!

What the Fortified Summoner Excels in:

Supremely Tanky
Respectable Clearing
Great Single Target
Unique, and thus cheap, to build
HC and League Start friendly

Fortified Summoner full details:

We are a Champion. That’s our defense. We can reach easily over 50k armor, 4k+ Life, we have permanent 20 stacks fortify, a bunch of minions as a meat shield, and using a great and unique shield, each time a minion dies, we get our life regenerated by 1% of their life. Since our Sentinels reach 150k and Zombies around 200k, we instantly are healed for 1,5~2k life all the time.
To deal with elemental damage, we use Divine Flesh, and get as much Chaos Res in the passive tree and equipment, reaching 87% Chaos Resistance. This, combined with our massive amount of armor and Fortify, and our insane life recovery, are essentially immortal and can withstand even Sirus Die Beam!
For our damage, we rely on Minion Instability, which means that when our minions reach Low Life (>50%), they instantly die, dealing 33% of their Max life in an area around them. And we can summon our Sentinels by attacking as quickly as possible, thus Cyclone, which also enables us to use a Cast when Channeling to summon our Tanky Zombies!

For a full breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2663727

4 – Versatile Combatant Impale Shield Crush Gladiator/Slayer

Shield Crush Optimal Overlapping Radius

While not directly buffed, with most FoTM builds being either Explosive Arrow or a spell-based build, Shield skills got essentially forgotten, which is fantastic as that makes everything much cheaper! And though this is a fantastic League Starter and can clear the whole game with a budget, you can scale it to the heavens if you so choose it!

What the Impale Shield Crush Glad/Slayer Excels in:

Insanely Tanky.
Great and Satisfying clearing with Bleed Pops (Haemo gloves.
Respectable Bossing.
Can do all content.
League Start, HC, SSF, Gauntlet Viable.

Impale Shield Crush full details:

Shield Crush works in two ways. First, it’s one of the few attacks that scales extremely well with levels, and as such, it’s a great league start skill to pick. Secondly, all the damage is based on your shield. The more armor or evasion your shield has, the more damage you’ll deal. Getting any 2k+ armor shield will carry your damage easily to over 4 million damage at late game, on a budget!
The choice between Glad or Slayer is simply due to what you want to do. Gladiator is much tankier and safer to play, while Slayer has a better single target due to his 20% Cull and Overleech. All in all, it’s a matter of preference, both are more than capable of doing all content.
Since our damage comes mostly from our shields, we can use a corrupted Prismatic Eclipse to boost our attack speed and get many other great bonuses, like Onslaught or Fortify on hit. You’ll need to learn to position well so you can overlap your damage, essentially doubling it. It’s a fairly forgiving zone, but you need to experiment with it.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3148278

3 – Blazer’s Flicker God

Blazer's illustration of Flicker Striker Gladiator

While not for everyone, Flicker is a fantastic clearing skill, and with the new influenced packs we can essentially get every map now, we can chain through the map in instants. And the best thing about this build is that we’re essentially immortal while doing so!

What Blazer’s Flicker God Excels in:

Fantastic Clearing.
Insanely strong Single Target (upwards of 25 million properly geared.
Mostly Immortal while mapping.
Can League Start and can do all content.

Blazer’s Flicker God full details:

Not cheap at all, but this build can take you to the endgame like you’re on a cruise instead! While you can use other chest pieces, even a non-Replica, the BiS is a Replica Farrul’s Fur, to both deal with Frenzy Charge Sustain and for Endurance Charge. That said, you can make do with other mechanics. Enduring Composure would take care of Endurance Charges generation, and you can get % Chance to Gain a Frenzy on Hit chest piece, and then supplement that with other things.
For weapon, there’s no escaping the Paradoxica, as it is the best weapon in the game for attacks, with her base double damage. You’ll want one with the most DPS possible, so 120% local Phys and 20%+ Local Attack Speed.
As for survivability, that comes from having insane amounts of armor, fully spell suppressed, lots of attack and spell block, and most importantly, % Life Recovered on Block.

For a full breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2908260

2 – Donkster5’s The Bright Knight VLS Champion

Lightning Strike Against Maven

Yet another skill that has dominated the meta lately is Lightning Strike. While most people prefer the Berserker or Raider variants for more damage and comfort, the Champion version beats them both in another aspect. Defense!!!

What Donkster5’s Bright Knight Excels in:

Insanely Tanky
Easily over 6million DPS
Fantastic Clearing
League Start, HC, SSF, Gauntlet viable

Donkester5’s Bright Knight full details:

Lightning Strike is the sort of skill that takes practice to be able to position yourself well to deal double damage, both with the attack and the projectile, as well as the extra strike. It’s a fantastic clearing skill, able to delete hordes of monsters way outside your screen!
We achieve our damage by stacking as much Critical Strike Multiplier, flat elemental damage from our claw with insane attack speed, and we make use of the busted OP Nightblade, which not only gives us a ridiculously powerful Elusive buff but gives us over 250 Crit Multi simply by attacking!
Our Defense comes from being a Champion, with great defensive scaling and Fortify! We have over 40k Evasion, 15k Armor, Fully Spell suppressed, and a hefty life pool!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3145653

1 – Hollow Palm Cyclone Slayer

Cycloning against The Feared.

As is the case with many other attack builds, we got buffed in lieu of being outside the meta, thus benefitting from lower prices. Not only that, but in 3.17, we saw the introduction of a fantastic new node that essentially grants us 40% MORE attack damage. For FREE!

What the Hollow Palm Cyclone Excels in:

Extremely Quick Clearing.
Great Single Target, can mow down bosses.
Simple to play.
You save up on having to buy gloves, weapons, and shields.
The smoothest leveling experience I’ve ever had.

Hollow Palm Cyclone full details:

Hollow Palm is a Keystone that comes from the unique cluster jewel, One With Nothing. This Keystone grants us 40% More Attack Speed, counts as Dual Wielding, and adds 14 to 20 Attack Phys Damage per 10 Dex while we are Unencumbered, which means no weapons, shields, or gloves.
As such, we want as much Dex as possible, hopefully reaching over 1,500 Dex, granting us easily over 3000 base Phys damage, which then gets scaled up muuuuch further! And with the new Precise Technique, we get another 40% more damage for free, as long as we have more Accuracy than Life (not a hard task as Hollow Palm!).
For defense, we are fully Spell Suppressed, with over 24k Armor, some respectable block chance, and extremely quick!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3251425