Bloodseeker Dual Strike
Gladiator Build

for Patch 3.20

The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo

Bloodseeker Unique Claw has one very special property - the Life Leeched from this weapon is instant. You don't have to worry about total Recovery per second from Life Leech or Maximum total Recovery per second from Life Leech because it doesn't apply anymore. These restrictions are usually limiting to the regenerative capabilities of Leeching Builds - that's why the pre-nerf Vaal Pact was so good, it worked in a similar way to the Bloodseeker. With instantaneous Leech, it is possible to survive the aftermath of every hit that doesn't kill you, given that you're capable of landing a hit. The only limiting factor to its regenerative potential - besides its melee nature - is the fact that only 10% of your maximum Life can be recovered on hit, thus Attack Speed is the most important end-game statistic. Patch 3.20 buffed the Claw significantly, and also improved Strike Skills via new Notable for extra Splash Damage.

Dual Strike has a low base Attack Speed - only 70%, you can switch to other Attack Skills such as Cyclone if you value survivability over the damage. If you have high enough Attack Speed, your character will be able to survive Shaper's beam for an extended period of time, but that's not really vital for the overall performance. By attacking with Dual Strike the leech will be instant for both weapons. The protecting layers of this build consist of Gladiator's impressive Block Chance for both - Attacks and Spell Hits, relatively high Armour, Fortify, Steelskin, Phase Acrobatics, and the Arctic Armour from The Perfect Form, Life pool at around 5k, and of course instant leech. With all these features it's really hard to kill this character. Your Damage will come mostly in form of Cold Damage due to easily obtainable nodes on the Skill Tree. For maximum efficiency, it is recommended to swap Ancestral Call and Inspiration/Fortify Support when fighting bosses. You can even use two different weapon types if you've found an interesting weapon that's not a Claw - there's a Dual Wielding Mastery and Quick and Deadly Notable from Cluster Jewel just for that.

You can also check our other Path of Exile builds: Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List

1. Gameplay

Use Whirling Blades to rapidly dash between packs of enemies to gain Fortify and use Dual Strike to deal with them. Use Enduring Cry to generate Endurance Charges. At maximum - that is three - you will take 10% less Physical Damage, and it also heals you. Steelskin is your Guard spell to use whenever it is off cooldown. Ancestral Warchief will boost your damage during challenging fights, while Frostbomb and Frostbite Curse it applies will decimate enemies' Cold Resistance.

This video was recorded on a level 93 Gladiator with slightly over 5 Attacks per second (a stat that's very important if you want to sustain instant Leech vs. Shaper's beam for example) and around 3kk full buffed single-target DPS - not much, but it was possible to farm all the Bosses thanks to it being such a tanky build.

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

It's a basic Dual-Wielding Claw-using Elemental-Damage-dealing Gladiator. The best approach is to use two weapons right from the start, later in the game, the character will specialize in Claws. Frost Blades are one of the best options here on lower levels. Initially, you can just focus on getting high base Physical DPS on your one-handed weapons of choice, as thanks to Frost Blades you will easily get nearly 100% Damage conversion just from Passives and the Skill Gem. Below you will find the recommended Skill setups and early-level equipment.

Suggested leveling Gem setups:

Frost Blades setup
	Frost Blades - An AoE Attack which has good base damage and hits multiple enemies with Cold Damage.
	Elemental Damage with Attacks Support - A great boost to Elemental Damage.
	Added Cold Damage Support - Adds Cold Damage to your linked Skills offering a high DPS bonus.
	Elemental Focus Support - This Gem grants a high Elemental Damage multiplier but makes Frost Blades unable to inflict ailments.

Whirling Blades setup
	Whirling Blades - One of the fastest Movement Skills for Claw wielders.

Utility Gems
	Hatred - The best Aura for this build which grants more Cold Damage and Extra Cold Damage Conversion.
	Herald of Ice - Herald Spell that increases your Cold Damage and causes AoE Explosions when you kill Frozen enemies.
	Frostbite - A Curse that lowers Cold Resistance which fits this build perfectly because of it being a 100% Damage Conversion build.
	Frost Bomb - A Spell that lowers Cold Resistance via powerful Cold Exposure applied in its area.

Bandits:

We recommend killing all the Bandits for two additional Passive Points

Leveling Skill Trees:

35 Points Skill Tree
Priorities: 1) Master of the Arena 2) Golem's Blood 3) Fangs of Frost 4) Blade Barrier 5) Swagger

86 Points Skill Tree
Priorities: 1) Primeval Force 2) Thick Skin 3) Twin Terrors 4) Claw cluster

Recommended leveling items:

Wurm's Molt - A pretty good Blet with all the important stats.

+(25-40) to maximum Life +(20-30) to Strength +(20-30) to Intelligence +(10-20)% to Cold Resistance 0.4% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life 0.4% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Mana

Goldrim - One of the best Helmets for Leveling that grants a ton of extra Resistances.

+(30-50) to Evasion Rating 10% increased Rarity of Items found +(30-40)% to all Elemental Resistances Reflects 4 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden)

Tabula Rasa - Body Armour that's the optimal choice to get through the initial stages of the game with.

Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden)

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

120 Points Final Skill Tree (does not include Thread of Hope configuration)
123 Points Path of Building (PoB) link 

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in that order:

1. Painforged
2. Versatile Combatant
3. Violent Retaliation
4. Outmatch and Outlast

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 Gruthkul 1% additional Physical Damage Reduction for each Hit you've taken Recently up to a maximum of 5%

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Dual Strike
	Dual Strike - Dual Strike is the Attack Skill this build uses due to Bloodseeker's interaction with it - the damage is Leeched from both Claws, not just from the Bloodseeker. If you need more Attack Speed switch to Cyclone and adjust Support Gems accordingly.
	Ancestral Call Support - Great for map clearing, but if you plan a long boss fight, switch to  Inspiration Support. You can also use  Fortify Support instead.
	Elemental Damage with Attacks Support - Grants a high increase to your Elemental Damage making it one of the core Gems for this setup.
	Multistrike Support - Makes supported Attacks repeat themselves with increased Damage and Attack Speed.
	Hypothermia Support - Increases your Damage against chilled enemies, making it one of the best Supports for Cold-oriented builds.
	Ice Bite Support - Generates Frenzy Charges which adds extra Cold Damage to your Attacks.

[UTILITY] Whirling Blades and Blood Rage
	Whirling Blades - Due to your high Attack Speed it's the best movement Skill for this build.
	Enhance Support - More Quality will increase Attack Speed from Blood Rage and Whirling Blades.
	Blood Rage - More Attack Speed, Life Leech, and Frenzy Charges on kill. You don't need to link it to anything, just find an empty socket for it and cast it manually when needed.

[UTILITY] Totems and Guard Spell
	Ancestral Warchief - While you're near this Totem you deal more Melee Damage.
	Ancestral Protector - While you're near this Totem you deal more Attack Speed.
	Multiple Totems Support - Allows you to place both Ancestral Totems at once.
	Steelskin  - The most suitable Guard Spell, it blocks a huge portion of incoming damage.

[UTILITY] Frost Bomb
	Frost Bomb - Cripples defenses such as Life and ES regeneration of your opponent and reduces their Cold Resistance by applying Cold Exposure
	Frostbite - A Curse that reduces the enemy's Cold Resistance by a lot, an obligatory Skill when fighting Bosses
	Hextouch Support - Frost Bomb will apply Frostbite on Hit.

[UTILITY] Auras and Herald
	Precision - An Aura that provides you with more Accuracy and Critical Strike Chance that will be needed to reach close to 100% Chance to Hit.
	Hatred - The best Aura for this build, which grants More Cold Damage and can convert Physical Damage to Cold Damage by Watcher's Eye affix.
	Herald of Ice - Herald that grants you more Cold Damage and causes AoE explosions when you kill frozen enemies.
	Enlighten Support - Reduces the amount of Mana that the linked Skills reserve.

[UTILITY] Arctic Armour
	Arctic Armour - Since you can have it for free thanks to your Body Armour, it's a good opportunity to link it with a lot of useful Support Gems, it makes you take less Physical and Fire Damage, and slows down enemies by approximately 60% for a short duration.
	Bonechill Support - Enemies that are Chilled by linked Skills (Arctic Armour) take more Cold Damage.
	Elemental Proliferation Support - Increases the Duration and of Chill that now spreads among enemies.
	Unbound Ailments Support - Chill and Freeze are now vastly more powerful in terms of Duration and effectiveness. You can use Awakened Unbound Ailments for better effect.

[UTILITY] Petrified Blood
(optional)

Petrified Blood - This new Skill Gem could be an interesting addition to your build. With some tweaks, you can go for Pain Attunement Keystone and benefit from Low Life. The gradual Life loss won't be a problem at all for this character, but the damage from single powerful hits will be now slightly more likely to one-shot you, even when you take only 60% of the damage instantly. We've decided not to use it, but if feel like you need more damage, go for it.

5. Gear Setup

The build - as the title suggests - is mostly based on a cheap Unique Claw called Bloodseeker. The other Unique Item is Body Armour - The Perfect Form. The rest of the build is pretty simple to compose - you look for Maximum Life, Attack/Cold/Claw/Melee Damage, and Critical Strike mods. Elemental Resistances are important, but over-capped Cold Resistance will grant you more Evasion Rating - converted to Armour with Iron Reflex. The build is overall on the cheap side, but due to the number of useful affixes, it can be upgraded to be really strong, much stronger than the one presented here. Redeemer-influenced items are usually the ones offering you the best choices. To convert Damage to Cold you can go for multiple mods from Cold Mastery, Gloves, and Watcher's Eye, or just use Hrimsorrow Gloves.

Using this opportunity, we would love to invite you to visit our Path of Exile Marketplace where you can buy cheap PoE Currency in case you can't afford all the items for your character. You can find 

Our recommended items will:

1. Cap your resistances 
2. Give you enough DPS/Life to start mapping

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - Try to score the highest amount of Life and Elemental Resitacnes, it's also a good place to look for Accuracy Rating and at least one affix from the list of optional affixes.

Min. requirements: 90 maximum Life 80% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Nearby Enemies have -9% to Cold Resistance Freeze Enemies as though dealing (30–50)% more Damage Accuracy Rating Melee Strike Range

Helmet enchantments: 15% increased Dual Strike Attack Speed 90% increased Dual Strike Critical Strike Chance 40% increased Dual Strike Damage

(Weapon) Bloodseeker - The instant Life Leech is one of a kind mod and the build is certainly based around it, use Bloodseeker combined with another claw for the stats on this weapon are unimpressive.

1.6% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life (200-220)% increased Physical Damage Adds 25 to 30 Physical Damage 5% increased Attack Speed 1.2% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life 5% increased Movement Speed Life Leech from Hits with this Weapon is instant

(Weapon) Rare Claw - The list of useful mods goes on and on, this gear slot is a sponge for your currency, but the most important mods are - increased damage, preferably Physical, and Attacks Speed - for faster Life Leech.

Min. requirements: 150% increased Physical Damage +20% Attack Speed Optional affixes: Adds Physical Damage Adds Cold Damage Critical Strike Chance to Maim on Hit Chance to Block Attack Damage while Dual Wielding Accuracy Rating increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills Damage Penetrates #% Elemental/Cold Resistances Gain #% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage #% of Physical Damage Converted to Cold Damage

(Body Armour) The Perfect Form - Mandatory Unique for this build, not only does it grants you Acrobatics, it has the potential to give you tons of Armour. It allows you to run Arctic Armour off-charge and increases your base stats as well by a solid amount.

(10-15)% increased Dexterity (80-100)% increased Evasion Rating +(70-100) to maximum Life -30% to Cold Resistance Arctic Armour has no Reservation Evasion Rating is increased by Overcapped Cold Resistance Acrobatics

(Boots) Rare Boots - Life, Resistances, and Movement Speed are at most important. Boots also offer some of the most unique and luxurious mods for the more invested players, Tailwind being the most notable.

Min. requirements: 70 Maximum Life 70% Total Elemental Resistances 25% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: You have Tailwind if you have dealt a Critical Strike Recently chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill chance to gain Elusive on Critical Strike Gain #% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage Freeze and Chill immunity

Boot enchantment: 16% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you've Killed Recently

(Belt) Rare Belt - Look for Hunter's or Redeemer's influence for some unique mods that could be really helpful. A good Stygian Vise could be really expensive but it offers you a lot of flexibility due to the Abyss Jewel slot.

Min. requirements: 100 to MaximumLife 100% Increased Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Maximum Life % Attributes increased Cold Damage

(Amulet) Rare Amulet - Basically some Life, Resistances, and DPS bonuses can be found here. Look for Strenght and Intelligence since some of it will be required. Also, search for Redeemer's mods since almost all of them are useful for this build.

Min. requirements: 60 maximum Life increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills Global Critical Strike Multiplier Optional affixes: +1 to Level of all Cold Skill Gems Elemental Resistances Damage Penetrates #% Cold Resistance Hatred has #% reduced Reservation Attributes Gain #% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage #% increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments

(Amulet) The Pandemonius - Pandemonius is as powerful as a good Rare Amulet, so it's definitely worth considering. It's great with Cold Damage against Chilled opponents.

+(20-30) to Dexterity (20-30)% increased Cold Damage +(35-40)% to Cold Resistance Chill Enemy for 1 second when Hit, reducing their Action Speed by 30% Blind Chilled Enemies on Hit Damage Penetrates 20% Cold Resistance against Chilled Enemies

Recommended Anointments: Dismembering Disembowelling Claws of the Falcon Divine Judgement Frost Walker Heart of Ice Reflexes

(Ring) Rare Ring - You can get Curse on Hit here, preferably Frostbite. Generally look for Maximum Life, Elemental Resistances, and some form of offensive stats such as Accuracy Rating, Attacks Speed, and such.

Min. requirements: 70 maximum Life 60% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Frostbite on Hit Global Critical Strike Multiplier Attributes Adds Cold Damage against Chilled or Frozen Enemies

(Ring) Mark of the Elder - Adds a lot of Cold Damage to Attacks, but be sure that your other Ring is Shaper-influenced for even more Damage.

Adds (3-4) to (10-14) Physical Damage to Attacks 20% chance to Trigger Level 20 Tentacle Whip on Kill Adds (26-32) to (42-48) Cold Damage to Attacks (6-10)% increased maximum Energy Shield (6-10)% increased maximum Life (60-80)% increased Attack Damage if your other Ring is a Shaper Item Cannot be Stunned by Attacks if your other Ring is an Elder Item

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - Defensive stats are a priority, after that look for some other mods that'd be useful for your build.

Min. requirements: 70 maximum Life 80% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Accuracy Rating Adds # to # Cold Damage if you've dealt a Critical Strike Recently Physical to Cold Damage Conversion Attack Speed Added Physical Damage to Attacks Attributes

(Gloves) Hrimsorrow - You can use these Gloves to fully convert all of your Damage to Cold. It's good, but eventually, you may want to switch them to a pair of rares, and get the conversion from elsewhere.

+(20-30) to Strength +(40-50) to Evasion Rating +(20-30)% to Cold Resistance 100% of Physical Damage Converted to Cold Damage Reflects 100 Cold Damage to Melee Attackers

(Jewels) Rare Jewels - Try to get extra Life -  7% increased, and some Damage mods such as Attack Speed or Critical Strike. Try to get one with Corrupted Blood immunity.

Recommended affixes: increased maximum Life Optional affixes: increased Melee/Cold/Physical Damage increased Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Critical Strike Multiplier Attributes

(Jewels) Thread of Hope - Can be used to allocate some more Notables around Fervour, we recommend a Small Ring.

Only affects Passives in Small Ring Passives in Radius can be Allocated without being connected to your tree -(20-10)% to all Elemental Resistances

(Jewels) Watcher's Eye - look for a Jewel with Hatred and Precision mods. Getting Physical to Cold conversion is a must-have in order to Convert 100% of your Damage to Cold Element and have the highest possible DPS (if you're not using Hrimsorrow Gloves already).

(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers>

(Flask) Taste of Hate - On top of decent defenses, this Flask also grants you Physical to Cold Conversion which is very welcomed.

20% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Cold Damage during Flask effect Gain (15-20)% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage during effect 30% chance to Avoid being Chilled during Flask effect 30% chance to Avoid being Frozen during Flask effect

(Flask) Bottled Faith - One of the Best Flasks in the game for every build that uses Critical Strikes.

Creates Consecrated Ground on Use (30-50)% increased Duration Consecrated Ground created by this Flask has Tripled Radius +(1-2)% to Critical Strike Chance against Enemies on Consecrated Ground during Effect Consecrated Ground created during Effect applies (7-10)% increased Damage taken to Enemies

Other suggested Flasks: Bubbling Divine Life Flask of Heat (Freeze immunity) Ample Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline (Movement Speed) Experimenter's Diamond Flask of Warding (Curse immunity)

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.