Updated for Patch 3.16
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Estimated budget: medium to low
Guide notes |
August 28, 2021 -Build created November 23, 2021 -Build updated for Patch 3.16 |
Facebreaker is a very unique pair of gloves - you gain up to 800% increased Physical Damage with Unarmed Melee Attacks. It's really a lot, but with no weapon, you will have significantly reduced flat damage - the actual numbers that you want to increase. There are a lot of ways to obtain Flat Physical Damage, mostly from your gear. It's a Pure Physical Build, as most Champion builds are - Champion specializes in increasing the effectiveness of Impale, Fortify, Banners, and many other utility buffs. In this build, the most effective Ascendancy Keystones are Master of Metal - for added Flat Damage and Imaple buffs, Unstoppable Hero and Fortitude for permanent Fortify, Stun Immunity, 20% Attack Speed, and 500 Armour and Evasion Rating. Inspirational improves the effect of Banners and Auras.
Impale mechanics works great on pure Physical and quickly attacking builds such as this one. You don't have to worry about Critical Strikes and Accuracy Rating - you will be using Resolute Technique, which allows you to focus more on other stats. Base Critical Strike while unarmed is non-existent so it actually makes a lot of sense to take this Keystone. The build is very tanky - your Maximum Life can reach 7k with a casual player's budget, the damage you take from hits is significantly lowered - you have a lot of Armour. The build isn't expensive, but if have currency to spend on it, there's a lot of ways to improve it, mostly by getting better gear, Cluster Jewels, and Facebreaker with a higher damage bonus.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
This build is a complete no-brainer. You spin around Maps killing everything on your path. You occasionally can cast Ancestor Totems, Blood Rage, and Enduring Cry for their buffs, but in most cases, that's just needed against Bosses. You should also use Steelskin as your primary Guard Skill (Molten Shell can also be used if you have over 10k Armour Rating) and should be socketed under your left mouse button which makes you it basically auto-triggered skill. You should apply your Curse via Ring affix. Overall, it's really a self-explanatory build that you can't go wrong with.
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PROS |
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CONS |
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Equip a Facebreaker at level 16, use Lycosidae Unique Shield before you can equip a better shield or after you allocate Resolute Technique. Iron Rings or any items with added physical damage will be great. We recommend getting some Essences of Contempt and using them on your Amulets and Rings as you go through acts and your first maps. As for a Skill, use Ground Slam, Earthquake, Earthshatter, or Sunder at first and switch to Cyclone later on, after your build is already set up to deal a lot of damage with Impale.
Suggested leveling Gem setups:
Ground Slam setup | |
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Ground Slam - It's a decent Attack that deals AoE Damage, it sends a wave that deals damage, and the closer the enemies are, the more damage will they receive |
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Melee Physical Damage Support - it increases your Melee Physical Damage |
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Maim Support - before you reach act 3, there is hardly any better Support Gem that you could use, it's useless after you use it with Flesh and Stone in Blood Stance |
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Added Fire Damage Support - despite being purely Physical Damage build, at first you can use this Support Gem for more damage |
Curse setup | |
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Vulnerability - one of the best Curses if you're focused on dealing Physical Damage, it causes enemies to Bleed and take more Physical Damage |
Aura and Banner setup | |
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Pride - use it to deal more Physical Damage, especially against enemies that stay in your proximity for a long time |
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Dread Banner - a Banner that increases the effect of your Fortify and Impale |
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Blood and Sand - more AoE or Area Damage, depending on Stance |
Warcry setup | |
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Enduring Cry - Warcry that regenerates a big portion of your Life rapidly |
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Ancestral Warchief - this Totem grants you more Melee Damage as it stays active |
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Dash - probably your best choice for a movement Skill if you don't use any weapon, you can switch to ![]() |
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Lifetap Support - use Lifetap so you won't spend Mana on linked Skills |
Bandits:
You should kill all three Bandits for two additional Skill Points which is the only viable option for this build
Leveling Skill Trees:
31 Points Skill Tree
Take this path to a Resolute Technique Keystone
68 Points Skill Tree
allocate Call to Arms and look for More Maximum Life and Physical Attack Damage, then seek the nodes that increase your Fortify and Impale effectiveness
Recommended leveling items:
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+(10-20) to maximum Life +(120-160) to Armour +(30-40) to maximum Life Your hits can't be Evaded +(3-5)% Chance to Block Adds 250 to 300 Cold Damage to Counterattacks |
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Adds (2-5) to (7-10) Physical Damage to Attacks (5-10)% reduced Enemy Stun Threshold (150-200)% increased Armour +(50-70) to maximum Life +(20-30)% to Fire Resistance 25% increased Movement Speed Unaffected by Burning Ground |
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+(20-30) to Strength +(20-30) to Dexterity Adds 10 to 20 Physical Damage to Attacks +(200-300) to Armour 20% increased Melee Damage Cannot Leech when on Low Life If you've Warcried Recently, you and nearby allies have 20% increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed |
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+(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) |
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Adds 1 to 4 Physical Damage to Attacks Adds (5-15) to (25-50) Physical Damage to Attacks 30% reduced Attack Speed 15% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge when you Stun an Enemy |
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Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden) |
Final Skill Tree:
98 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Cluster Jewels)
112 Points Path of Building (PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
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 Garukhan: 60% reduced Effect of Shock on you
[DPS] Cyclone setup | |
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Cyclone - Cyclone is a Channeling Attack that allows you to move while dealing Melee Physical Damage around you, it has a very high Attack Speed making it most suitable for this build |
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Brutality Support - increases your Physical, but disables Elemental and Chaos Damage |
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Melee Physical Damage Support - at a small cost of your Attack Speed, it greatly increases Melee Physical Damage |
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Pulverise Support - more AoE, and Area Damage, slightly lowered Attack Speed |
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Infused Channeling Support - greatly increases the damage you deal with Channeling Skills, and decreases damage from Aoe, Hits, Channeling, Physical, and Melee Hits while Channeling |
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Impale Support - improves your chance to impale and the effect of this debuff on enemies |
[UTILITY] Warcry and Blood Rage setup | |
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Enduring Cry - use this Warcry to quickly regenerate around 2k Life in one second, with Call to Arms Keystone it won't interrupt your Channeling |
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Enhance Support - by upgrading Quality of Blood Rage you're able to get more Attack Speed |
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Increased Duration Support - increases the Duration of Linked Skills |
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Blood Rage - Blood Rage grants you more Attack Speed, Lifesteal, and generates Frenzy Charges as you kill enemies, it drains your Life as it's active |
[UTILITY] Auras setup | |
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Pride - It's the obligatory Aura for Physical Melee build for it makes enemies near you take more Physical Damage, and if the distance will remain close, the bonus increases even more |
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Dread Banner - increases your Chance to Impale, and Impale effectiveness, which results in a high DPS increase for just 10% Mana Reserved |
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Enlighten Support - if you have an Aura that reduces Mana Reservation of your Pride, you can use ![]() |
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Blood and Sand - it provides you with more AoE and less Area Damage, or less AoE and more Area Damage, depending on Stance |
[UTILITY] Dash/Steelskin setup | |
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Dash - Dash is the recommended mobility Skill, it's an instant relocation Spell that you can use at any time |
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Second Wind Support - stores an extra charge for Dash so that you can use it more times in a row |
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Lifetap Support - use Life instead of Mana on Linked Skill, Mana is reserved for more important Skills like Cyclone |
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Steelskin - use Steelskin as your Guard Spell to reduce incoming damage. It should be socketed under your left mouse button so that it's triggered automatically. You can also replace it with ![]() |
[UTILITY] Ancestor Totems | |
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Ancestral Protector - this Totem increases your Attack Speed if it stays active |
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Ancestral Warchief - this Totem increases your Melee Damage if it stays active |
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Multiple Totems Support - with This Support Gem you can have more Totems activated at once, so both Ancestral Warchief and Protector can stay up at the same time and grant their bonuses |
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The build isn't expensive, it can be even played as a Starter. The only Uniques that are really necessary are Facebreaker, and these are so Cheap that you can actually seek a specific Corruption on them - the most popular being Vulnerability Curse on Hit. It's obligatory to have this Curse in your build to boost your DPS and it's best applied by Ring affix or Glove corruption. Flat Physical Damage (numbers, not percentages) is by far the most influential stat - it can be found on almost any Rare gear slot so keep an eye on it. 155 Dexterity is required for this build to work properly (Blood Rage and Dash), and 111 Intelligence (Infused Channeling). You will need to seek these Attributes on Jewels and Jewelry.
Our recommended items will:
Stat priorities on items:
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Min. requirements: |
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+(20-25) to all Attributes Adds 40 to 60 Physical Damage to Attacks +(100-125)% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier (100-120)% increased Armour (40-50)% increased Physical Damage taken |
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Helmet enchantments: Cyclone Attack Speed/Damage enchantment |
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Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life +80% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: High Armour Rating Socketed Gems have 15% reduced Reservation Attributes |
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3% increased Movement Speed (8-12)% Chance to Block Spell Damage Adds (8-12) to (15-20) Physical Damage to Attacks (6-10)% increased Attack Speed +(50-70) to maximum Life |
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Min. requirements: +130 to Maximum Life +70% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Enemies you Kill have a #% chance to Explode, dealing a tenth of their maximum Life as Physical Damage Maximum Life % You Can Apply Additional Curse Attributes |
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(120-150)% increased Evasion and Energy Shield +(50-70) to maximum Life +(9-12)% to all Elemental Resistances (40-50)% increased Area of Effect (40-50)% increased Area Damage Extra gore |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Maximum Life in total +80% to Elemental Resistances +25% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: Increased Armour You have Tailwind if you have dealt a Critical Strike Recently #% chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill Attributes |
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+30% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier 10% reduced Enemy Stun Threshold (600-800)% more Physical Damage with Unarmed Attacks Extra gore Optional Corrupted Implicits: Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on Hit #% increased Attack Speed #% increased maximum Life +2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems |
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(20-30)% increased Stun Duration on Enemies +(20-40) to Strength (30-40)% more Maximum Physical Attack Damage (40-30)% less Minimum Physical Attack Damage Adds 1 to (15-20) Physical Damage to Attacks +(80-100) to maximum Life Gain 50 Life when you Stun an Enemy |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Maximum Life in total +40% to Elemental Resistances Adds 12 to 22 Physical Damage to Attacks Optional affixes: Increased Armour Pride has 25% reduced Reservation Attributes |
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Recommended Anointments: Essence Sap Spirit Void Tenacity - if you have Mana Leech from another Source like Cluster Jewel |
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Min. requirements: Adds 9 to 15 Physical Damage to Attacks Attributes +60 to Maximum Life Optional affixes: Elemental Resistances increased Attack Speed Vulnerability on Hit (only if you don't have this mod from other sources already) |
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Min. requirements: increased Maximum Life increased Attack Speed Elemental Resistances increased Global Physical Damage Dexterity Intelligence |
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+(3-4) to Melee Strike Range while Unarmed Passive Skills in Radius also grant: 1% increased Attack Speed with Unarmed Attacks |
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Impale Damage dealt to Enemies Impaled by you Overwhelms 10% Physical Damage Reduction Call of Steel has (80-100)% increased Use Speed Call of Steel causes (40-50)% increased Reflected Damage |
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Bathed in the blood of (100-8000) sacrificed in the name of Ahuana Passives in radius are Conquered by the Vaal Historic |
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Recommended Notables: 1 Added Passive Skill is Feed the Fury 1 Added Passive Skill is Fuel the Fight 1 Added Passive Skill is Martial Prowess 1 Added Passive Skill is Strike Leader 1 Added Passive Skill is Furious Assault 1 Added Passive Skill is Iron Breaker 1 Added Passive Skill is Master the Fundamentals |
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(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> Recommended Aura modifiers: Impales you inflict last 2 additional Hits while using Pride (40-60)% increased Attack Physical Damage while using Pride |
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+1500 to Armour Adds Knockback to Melee Attacks during Flask effect Knocks Back Enemies in an Area when you use a Flask 75% chance to cause Enemies to Flee on use (7-10)% more Melee Physical Damage during effect |
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Onslaught Immune to Freeze, Chill, Curses and Stuns during Flask Effect 60% reduced Duration |
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Other suggested Flasks:
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If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.
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