PoE 3.25 Bleed Puncture Build

Grinding Gear Games has made sweeping changes to Path of Exile's skill gems in Patch 3.23 Affliction League. One of the gems that got buffed considerably is Puncture, which is why bleed builds are going to be a popular thing again in this league. The Gladiator has not seen the light of the day in the past few leagues. But perhaps, the adjustments made to Puncture will finally give the spotlight back to this long-forgotten ascendancy class!

In this build guide, you will learn how to create a character that feels awesome for mapping. You can make things work without heavy investment, but you can certainly spend more currency to take this build to the next level.

So, if you want to decimate enemies in a bloody explosion, then read further. This is the most comprehensive guide for the Bleed Puncture Gladiator!

Bleed Puncture Gladiator

Basics

The Bleed Puncture Gladiator works almost the same as the EK Ignite Elementalist except that instead of fire damage, you're doing physical damage.

The main star of the show is Puncture. This is a physical skill gem that prompts you to throw several projectiles that cause bleeding to the enemies that are hit. Bleed is a damage over time mechanic that can cause serious damage, provided that you know how to scale it. In Patch 3.23, this skill gem got buffed in that it now causes more bleed damage, making it so much more powerful than ever before. Puncture is primarily used to deal incredible amounts of damage to a single target.

For mapping, you will use Split Arrow. This skill gem is set up in a way that it will also inflict bleeding to enemies. To ensure that your damage output is enough to decimate any foe you encounter, put the following mods on your gear:

• Increased Physical Damage
• Flat Physical Damage
• Damage Over Time Multiplier
• Physical Damage Over Time Multiplier
• Increased Damage with Bleeding

Now, the reason why this build is a great league starter is that the items that can improve its damage are quite cheap. What's more, you can craft most of your gear using essences. If you're not into that, you have the option of using some unique items as well.

Playstyle

The Bleed Puncture Gladiator is very fun and quite easy to play. You simply enter a map and then just shoot at whatever enemy that is foolish enough to stand in your way.

Use Split arrow to destroy mobs in a bloody explosion when mapping. Then, when you come across tougher enemies, utilize Puncture to deal with them in an efficient manner. Puncture is linked to Snipe, which effectively turns it into a channeling skill. The longer you hold the skill button down (the hotkey for Puncture), the more damage it will deal.

You can use Flame Dash or Dash to move around the map. This build is also tanky thanks to Vaal Molten Shell and Determination. Bind Molten Shell on left-click and you're good to go!

Because you're going to get Arena Challenger as one of the notable ascendancy skills, you will use the Blood and Sand/Flesh and Stone gems to switch stances. Sand (Stone) Stance is best used for mapping to improve damage mitigation, while Blood (Flesh) Stance is perfect for bosses.

The Bleed Puncture Gladiator utilizes totems with Ensnaring Arrow as well. Ensnaring Arrow weakens enemies, making them take more damage. It also slows your foes down, which is a huge plus when kiting. If you don't like the totem playstyle, you can replace totems with a Manaforged Arrows setup.

Ascendancy

Although Puncture can be utilized by the Champion ascendancy class, this feels a lot better when you go for the Gladiator. The Gladiator possesses ascendancy passive skills that heavily improve upon the bleeding mechanic.

When you complete your first Labyrinth trial, you are going to take Blood in the Eyes. This empowers your attacks to have an improved chance to cause bleeding. This is quite helpful early on.

Then, you will take Gratuitous Violence for your next notable ascendancy skill. This will cause enemies to explode, dealing physical damage to nearby monsters. Do not be fooled by that measly 10% chance to explode because it actually feels like almost every foe you kill will die in a bloody mess! It is worth noting that the 20% "more" physical damage over time multiplier is huge, especially when such modifiers are calculated multiplicatively rather than additively.

For your third notable ascendancy skill, you will take Arena Challenger. When you have Blood and Sand gem activated, you will gain up to 10 Challenger Charges depending on which stance you are currently on. If you're in Blood Stance, you will have a chance to gain a Challenger Charge when you hit a rare or unique enemy. If Sand Stance is activated, you can get Challenger Charges on kill. That said, a single Challenger Charge provides you with 2% more attack speed and movement speed, up to a maximum of 20%. This helps with your clear speed and boss-killing potential immensely.

Speaking of charges, Outmatch and Outlast is going to be your last notable ascendancy passive for this build. This grants additional bonuses when you are at maximum Frenzy and Endurance Charges. You will gain 10% more physical damage when you've reached your Frenzy Charge cap. Besides that, you take 10% reduced physical damage while you're at maximum Endurance Charges. Since you are going to use a bow, meaning, you're unable to wield an off-hand weapon, you can still get Endurance Charges by using a Small Cluster Jewel with Enduring Composure on it.

When you have enough currency, you can purchase a Forbidden Jewel set with Fortitude as the matching modifier. This notable passive skill is from the Champion ascendancy tree that allows you to gain 20 Fortification stacks. Fortification reduces the physical damage you take by 1% per stack.

Notable Ascendancy Passives for Bleed Puncture Gladiator

Gear

The Bleed Puncture Gladiator is one of the best league starters out there mainly because it doesn't have mandatory uniques to make the build function as intended. In fact, you can craft your starter pieces using some essences until you farm up some currency to make better ones later on.

Weapon

Your main weapon is a self-crafted Citadel Bow. Among the many bows in Path of Exile, the Citadel Bow provides the highest flat physical damage. So, whether you are making your starter bow or one for the endgame, always use a Citadel Bow as a crafting base.

That being said, if you're still starting out, use Screaming or Shrieking Essences of Contempt to ensure that flat physical damage mod. This bow is not strict when it comes to mods, so choose those that benefit the build. Here are some suggestions:

• Increased Physical Damage
• Increased Physical Damage + Accuracy Rating
• Increased Attack Speed
• Physical Damage
• +1 to Level of Socketed Gems
• + to Maximum Life
• Accuracy Rating
• Resistances

When you have enough currency, you can craft your endgame weapon with all of the juicy mods. Before anything, get as many Deafening Essence of Contempt as you can so that you get a guaranteed T1 flat physical damage mod with each use.

With that out of the way, here are the steps to crafting the bow:

1. Improve the quality of the weapon by using Perfect Fossils. Aim to achieve 28% to 30% for better results
2. Spam the bow with Deafening Essence of Contempt until you get the three physical damage mods (% Increased Physical Damage, % Increased Physical Damage + Accuracy Rating, Flat Physical Damage (from Essence))
3. Head to your Crafting Bench and put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed"
4. Complete a Betrayal Run with Aisling as the Captain of Research to put an Aisling veiled suffix on the bow
5. Before you unveil, go to your Crafting Bench and put "(5-6)% Increased Damage Per Endurance Charge" to prevent similar mods from appearing
6. Go to Jun and unveil. You are looking for any mod that has attack speed on it, preferably "15% Chance to Trigger Level 1 Blood Rage When You Kill an Enemy, (12-15)% Increased Attack Speed
7. Head to your Crafting Bench and put "(18-20)% to Physical Damage Over Time Multiplier
8. For the final step, use a Warrior Exalted Orb for a chance of obtaining the suffix, "(14-16)% Increased Physical Damage, 15% Chance to Main on Hit

Crafted Endgame Bow

Quiver

For the quiver, you want to use the Heavy Arrow Quiver as your base because of its flat physical damage implicit modifier. In the early game, you just spam it with Screaming/Shrieking Essences of Greed for that HP prefix until you get attack speed, damage over time multiplier, and resistances (whichever you need).

When you transition to the endgame quiver, you're still going to use the Heavy Arrow Quiver as a crafting base, albeit you get one with an item level of 86. This is so that you'll have a chance of obtaining a Tier 1 "Increased Damage with Bow Skills" mod.

Anyway, if you are interested in crafting the endgame quiver, follow these steps to a tee:

1. Spam the quiver with Deafening Essence of Zeal until you get Tier 1 or Tier 2 "+% to Damage Over Time Multiplier with Attack Skills"
2. The attack speed and DoT mods are both suffixes, so if you get a third suffix while spamming essences, use an Orb of Annulment and hope that it gets removed
3. Next, go to your Crafting Bench and put "Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers." Then, use Exalted Orbs to obtain "+ to Maximum Life" and "Increased Damage with Bow Skills." Since this quiver is going to be your main one moving forward, aim to achieve Tier 1 or Tier 2 of these mods
4. Head to your Crafting Bench again and select "Remove Crafted Modifiers"
5. At this point, use a Hunter Exalted Orb for a chance to get "+% to Physical Damage Over Time Multiplier with Attack Skills"

Crafting the endgame quiver is quite expensive. So, if you can get one that is already crafted with the same mods on PoE Trade, purchase that one instead.

Crafted Quiver (Endgame)

Body Armor

For the Bleed Puncture Gladiator, you have a few viable options when it comes to the body armor. In the beginning, you can wear the Ashrend unique Buckskin Tunic as early as level 17. This provides a significant boost in damage thanks to its unique effect, which reads: "(75-150)% Increased Physical Damage with Ranged Weapons." You are immune to Ignite when you're wearing this armor as well.

Once you've saved up on some currency, you can begin crafting your endgame body armor. This build takes advantage of spell suppression as part of its defensive layers. For this reason, you will craft on an item level 85+ General's Brigandine or Triumphant Lamellar as they provide both armor and evasion.

If you want to know how to craft the body armor, here are the steps:

1. Increase the quality of the armor by using Perfect Fossils. Again, 30% is the ideal to give you a higher chance of obtaining the mods that you need
2. Next, use Deafening Essence of Loathing for that "(9-10)% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills." Spam the armor with this particular essence until you get the following:
   1. Chance to Suppress Spell Damage (T1/T2)
   2. Chaos Resistance or Elemental Resistance
   3. Reservation Efficiency (from essence)
3. When you have these mods, go to your Crafting Bench and put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" and then use a Veiled Chaos Orb
4. Before you unveil, put "(5-7)% Chance to Block Attack/Spell Damage" from the Crafting Bench to prevent them from appearing
5. Go to Jun and unveil. Look for the mod, "(30-35)% Chance to Avoid Elemental AIlments, (30-35)% Chance to Avoid Being Stunned"
6. Head to your Crafting Bench one last time and put "(5-6)% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire/Lightning Damage"
7. If you still have an open prefix, use an Exalted Orb
8. For your implicit modifiers, use Grand Eldritch Ichors until you get "Malevolence has (25-27)% Increased Aura Effect and Grand Eldritch Embers for "(13-14) Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from Your Skills"

Crafted Body Armor

If there are no life modifiers on the resulting armor, you can allocate a point in Life Mastery that says, "15% Increased Maximum Life if There Are no Life Modifiers on Equipped Body Armour."

While the self-crafted body armor enables you to tackle whatever content you like in Path of Exile, you do have the option of equipping the Replica Farrul's Fur instead. This body armor, along with an Unset Ring that has the "Aspect of the Cat" mod on it, makes you sustain your Frenzy and Endurance Charges without a hitch. Replica Farrul's Fur is quite expensive because this body armor is used by Flicker Strike builds as well. So, unless you're willing to spend upwards of 50 Divine Orbs, you can stick with the self-crafted Triumphant Lamellar or General's Brigandine.

Helmet

With the removal of the helmet enchantments in 3.23 Affliction League, crafting pieces of gear that provide "% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills" is a must. Hence, you will craft on an ilvl 85+ Pig-faced Bascinet for the best armor and evasion values among other available options.

There is nothing fancy about the crafting process. You just have to use Deafening Essence of Loathing until you get Tier 1 spell suppression and other mods that can benefit the build.

For the Eldritch Currencies, use Grand Eldritch Ichor to get "9% Increased mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills" and Grand Eldritch Embers for "(23-24)% Reduced Mana Cost of Attacks."

Gloves

The Haemophilia unique Serpentscale Gauntlets is a great way to get things rolling early on. This item provides the following:

• +(20-30) to Strength
• 25% Increased Damage Over Time
• Attacks Have 25% Chance to Cause Bleeding
• (25-40)% Increased Attack Damage Against Bleeding Enemies
• Bleeding Enemies You Kill Explore, Dealing 5% of Their Maximum Life as Physical Damage
• 25% Reduced Bleeding Duration

Haemophilia's unique effect that causes bleeding enemies to explode is great for your map clearing speed. You do not even have to worry about its downside (reduced bleeding duration) because you constantly inflict bleeding anyway.

While Haemophilia can be used even when you take on yellow or early red maps, you will have to transition to a pair of self-crafted gloves at some point. The explicit modifiers on the gloves do not matter; what matters most are the implicit mods.

Get an item level 85 Dragonscale Gauntlets for a chance of obtaining Tier 1 spell suppression. Then, just spam it with any Deafening Essence of your choosing. Some suggestions are Contempt (Physical Damage to Attacks), Envy (Chaos Resistance), or Zeal (Attack Speed). The self-crafted gloves provide you with an avenue to resolve any issues you may have with your resistances.

Anyway, spam the gloves with your preferred essence until you get T1 "% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage." Other useful explicit modifiers are:

• Chaos Resistance
• Elemental Resistance
• Maximum Life
• Increased Armor and Evasion
• Flat Physical Damage

No matter what you do, leave a prefix slot open so that you can put "28% Increased Damage During Any Flask Effect" from the Crafting Bench.

For the implicit modifiers, use Grand Eldritch Ichors to acquire the mod, "7% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage." More importantly, spam the gloves with Grand Eldritch Embers until you get "(11-13)% to Physical Damage Over Time Multiplier."

Boots

You want to pump up your spell suppression chance and achieve 100% by equipping the right pieces of gear. That said, the cheapest way to get spell suppression without crafting is by equipping Atziri's Step. This unique Slink Boots provides a whopping 26% spell suppression chance and 30% movement speed. You can use this until you have enough currency to craft your boots for the endgame.

The reason why you still end up crafting gear, specifically the boots, is that you want to get the Onslaught mod, which is only available via veiled prefix. Follow these steps to craft the boots:

1. Get an ilvl 85+ Dragonscale Boots and improve its quality to 30% by using Perfect Fossils
2. Spam it Deafening Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) until you get T1 "% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage." If you did craft the body armor or you've opted to use the Replica Farrul's Fur, use Deafening Essence of Loathing for that "Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments" mod. The last suffix can be anything that benefits the build
3. Make sure that you have an open prefix so that you can put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" from the Crafting Bench. If you don't have one, use a Lesser Eldritch Ember followed by an Eldritch Orb of Annulment to safely remove a prefix modifier
4. When you're done putting "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed," use a Veiled Chaos Orb to obtain a veiled prefix.
5. Head to Jun and unveil. You're looking for the mod, "(25-30)% Increased Movement Speed, (13-16)% Chance to Gain Onslaught for 4 Seconds on Kill." Use an Exalted Orb if you still have an open prefix. Otherwise, proceed to the last step
6. Use Grand Eldritch Ichors until you get "(21-23)% Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments and Grand Eldritch Embers for "5% Increased Action Speed"

Crafted Boots

Amulet

For the amulet, the best-in-slot is Aul's Uprising. This allows you to activate one aura without reserving mana. Get one with "Pride (or Determination) Has No Reservation" as the unique effect, whichever is cheaper.

Since you will use numerous auras on this build, you must anoint the amulet with Charisma using a single Opalescent Oil and two Golden Oils for that "16% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills."

Rings

There are two sets of rings that you will use depending on what body armor you are wearing. If you equip Ashrend or the self-crafted body armor, you can use Amethyst Rings for extra chaos resistance or Vermillion Ring for more HP.

Craft the ring using any essence of your choosing, but make sure that you leave a prefix slot open so that you can put "Non-Channelling Skills Have -7 to Total mana Cost" from the Crafting Bench.

When you've accumulated enough currency, you can buy a Warlord-influenced ring so that you can get the mod, "Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on Hit." This is pretty easy to craft. All you have to do is go to your Harvest Bench and select "Reforge Caster." Do this until the ring is populated with other useful mods. Just make sure that you have an open prefix to craft the non-channeling mod mentioned above.

Since you are including Herald of Purity in the build, you can wear at least one Circle of Guilt, particularly one with the following mods:

• Herald of Purity has % Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency
• % Increased Physical Damage While Affected by Herald of Purity

Using the Circle of Guilt with these unique modifiers greatly reduces the amount of mana necessary to activate Herald of Purity. Not only that but the physical damage boost it provides is nothing to scoff at.

Now, if you are wearing the Replica Farrul's Fur, one of your rings should be a self-crafted Unset Ring that has the "Aspect of the Cat" mod on it. Use your preferred essence until you have the explicit mods that you want. Just make sure that you have an open suffix.

Once you're happy with the modifiers, buy an itemized Farrul, First of the Plains so that you can learn the Aspect of the Cat recipe. After that, head to the Menagerie, go to the center arena, put your ring and search for the said mod. Complete the mini-trial and your ring should now have Aspect of the Cat.

You're probably wondering why you specifically need an Unset Ring for this. Well, the Unset Ring is the only ring in PoE that has a gem slot. You will use this slot to insert the Less Duration Support. This support gem makes the alternating buffs provided by Aspect of the Cat cycle faster, thus giving you nearly permanent uptime of Frenzy and Endurance charges via Replica Farrul's Fur.

Belt

The belt slot is reserved for the Ryslatha's Coil. This is a pretty amazing unique belt for the Bleed Puncture Gladiator mainly because it increases your physical damage. Do not let the "attack damage" wording fool you. The belt's unique effect does affect damage over time as well.

The Ryslatha's Coil also grants up to 100 additional HP and up to 40 Strength, which is why this thing is pretty hard to beat for how inexpensive and accessible it is.

Flasks

• Jade Flask
• Granite Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Amethyst Flask
• Eternal Life Flask

The Jade Flask and Granite Flask helps improve your defenses immensely. Since a lot of enemies you encounter late in the game deal chaos damage, it is just fitting that you include an Amethyst Flask as well.

The Quicksilver Flask is mainly used for mapping. After all, the faster you can finish a map in Path of Exile, the better your bottom line will be.

Anyway, the last slot is actually pretty flexible. We just put the Eternal Life Flask on there because it allows you to roll the mod, "Immunity to Corrupted Blood." You can safely replace it with other flasks that you want.

For instance, you can use the Stibnite Flask or Basalt Flask to further enhance your evasion rating and armor, respectively. You can even put the Lion's Roar in there for more physical damage.

In the endgame, you can switch to a Bottled Faith for more offense or the Progenesis if you want to be able to take hits without dying.

For flask mods, go for:

• 14% Increased Movement Speed (... of the Cheetah)
• 60% Increased Armour (... of the Armadillo)
• 17% Increased Attack Speed (... of the Dove)
• 60% Increased Evasion Rating (... of the Impala)
• Immunity to Bleeding and Corrupted Blood

Jewels

There are no mandatory jewels for the Bleed Puncture Gladiator, but there are certainly some that you can utilize to make the build feel a lot better to play. For starters, get a Watcher's Eye with mods that are enabled when you have Malevolence or Determination active. Here are some recommendations:

• +% to Damage Over Time Multiplier While Affected by Malevolence (best)
• + to Armour While Affected by Determination
• % Additional Physical Damage Reduction While Affected by Determination
• You Take % Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes While Affected by Determination

The next upgrade you want to go for is an 8-passive Large Cluster Jewel with "12% Increased Physical Damage" as a base. There are three notable passive skills that you want on the large cluster, namely:

• Battle-Hardened
  • 30% Increased Evasion Rating and Armour
  • 35% increased Physical Damage
• Master the Fundamentals
  • +10 to All Elemental Resistances
  • 35% Reduced Elemental Damage
  • 35% Increased Physical Damage
• Force Multiplier
  • 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
  • 25% Increased Physical Damage

The above-mentioned passive skills have very low weighting, which means that you will need to spend a lot of currency just to get all three. However, you can do a couple of things to help you achieve that more efficiently.

First, you can go to your Harvest Bench (Horticrafting Station) and select "Reforge Physical" in the hopes of acquiring all of the passive skills. Second, you can roll the large cluster with Orb of Alteration and Exalted Orb.

Either way, you can anticipate that they are not easily obtainable, but with the tips we've just mentioned, you should get there at least a bit faster than other methods.

Aside from an 8-passive large cluster, you can add a Medium Cluster Jewel to the build as well. Get one with the "10% Increased Damage Over Time" as a base. This particular medium cluster can roll plenty of juicy passives. Here are our recommendations:

• Flow of Life
  • 24% Increased Damage Over Time
  • 4% Increased Maximum Life
  • Regenerate 0.6% of Life per Second
• Student of Decay
  • 25% Increased Damage Over Time
  • +13% to Chaos Resistance
• Wasting Affliction
  • 20% Increased Damage with Ailments
  • Damaging Ailments Deal Damage 5% Faster
• Brush of Death
  • +5% to Damage Over Time Multiplier
  • Recover 1% of Life on Kill
  • Recover 1% of Energy Shield on Kill
• Brewed for Potency
  • 24% Increased Damage Over Time
  • 10% Increased Flask Charges Gained
  • 20% Increased Life and Mana Recovery

Now, if you want to have a reliable way of getting Endurance Charges without spending a fortune, you can craft a Small Cluster Jewel with the Enduring Composure mod on it. Acquire a Small Cluster Jewel with "15% Increased Armour" as a base. Use an Orb of Scouring and Orb of Transmutation to turn it into a magic (blue) item. Then, spam it with Orb of Alteration until you get Enduring Composure. Finish the craft by using a Regal Orb followed by an Exalted Orb.

The Base Jewels in Path of Exile are a great way to resolve any issues you have on the build. Some of the mods you can look for include:

• +% to Physical Damage Over Time Multiplier
• +% to Damage Over Time Multiplier
• % Increased Physical Damage
• % Increased Damage with Bleeding
• % Increased Attack and Cast Speed
• % Increased Maximum Life
• % Reduced Mana Cost of Skills
• Damaging Ailments Deal Damage % Faster

If you are ok with spending a bit more currency, the next jewels are "nice-to-haves," meaning, you can think of them as upgrades that you can acquire along the way. Do not feel obliged to get them since they are not required for the build to function.

That being said, you want to be immune to elemental ailments to improve survivability. To aid you in achieving 100% immunity, you can get Ancestral Vision. This unique Viridian Jewel grants "Chance to Avoid Ailments" based on half of your current spell suppression chance. Assuming you have 100% spell suppression, you can get 50% elemental ailment avoidance as a result. Only get this if you have equipped the self-crafted gear mentioned earlier in the build guide.

To greatly enhance your defenses, get the Forbidden Jewel Set that has "Fortitude" as the matching modifier. Fortitude allows you to benefit from Fortification stacks that reduce the damage you take by up 20%.

When you reach the endgame and you're thinking about challenging the pinnacle bosses in PoE, you must increase your damage even further. To do this, get an Elegant Hubris with "Commissioned (2000-160000) Coins to Commemorate Caspiro". This will turn a nearby Keystone passive into Supreme Ostentation, which basically ignores all attribute requirements on gear, gems, and skills. But more importantly, it will turn all passives within its radius into something else entirely.

Use the nifty Timeless Jewel Calculator to help you get these notable passive skills: Blood Savagery, Geofri's End, and Gemling Training . These passives grant you the following:

• Blood Savagery
  • Bleeding You Inflict Deals Damage 10% Faster
  • 30% Increased Physical Damage
• Geofri's End
  • 50% Increased Damage with Bleeding
  • Bleeding You Inflict Deals Damage 10% Faster
• Gemling Training
  • 80% Increased Physical Damage

If you find that there are some notable passive skills nearby that you just cannot allocate because you're unable to path towards them, you can also purchase the Impossible Escape jewel with the lines, "Passives in Radius of Iron Will Can Be Allocated…"

Gems

Apart from the Split Arrow, Puncture, and aura setups, the Bleed Puncture Gladiator is flexible when it comes to the gems you can use. For instance, if you do not like the totem style of play, you can opt for a Manaforged Arrows setup instead.

Weapon

• Puncture
• Snipe Support
• Deadly Ailments Support
• Vicious Projectiles Support
• Volatility Support
• Brutality Support

Puncture is your main skill for single-target damage. Use this whenever you encounter tough enemies or bosses. It is linked to Snipe Support, which increases its damage the longer you are able to channel the skill.

Deadly Ailments Support grants more damage with ailments. On top of that, if you increase the quality of the gem to 20%, you gain 10% increased damage over time as well.

Vicious Projectiles Support enhances Puncture by providing increased physical damage and physical damage over time multipliers. Brutality Support adds more physical damage too!

Volatility Support perfectly synergizes with Ryslatha's Coil. Aim to get one with a higher "more maximum attack damage" roll than the "less minimum attack damage" mod.

Body Armor

• Split Arrow
• Awakened Chain Support
• Volatility Support
• Cruelty Support
• Vicious Projectiles Support
• Brutality Support

Split Arrow is the skill that you should use often while mapping. It uses the same support gems as Puncture, except for two.

Awakened Chain Support is a must because it enables your Split Arrow projectiles to chain three additional times. While you can use the normal support gem, make sure to upgrade to the Awakened version as soon as you can to boost your map clearing potential.

Cruelty Support is a support gem that grants more damage over time. If you can inflict bleed to your enemies with Split Arrow, you will see them explode just a few seconds after getting hit!

Helmet

• Flesh and Stone
• Maim Support
• Vaal Haste
• Flame Dash

Flesh and Stone is utilized to change stances for Arena Challenger. You will improve its effect, "Enemies Mained by Supported Skills Take % Increased Physical Damage" by linking Maim Support.

Vaal Haste is only used for the "Vaal" portion of the skill gem. Activate it while mapping to improve your clear speed.

Flame Dash is your movement skill for this build.

Gloves

• Malevolence
• Determination
• Pride
• Vaal Molten Shell

Malevolence and Pride are auras that greatly boost your damage. The former increases your damage over time, while the latter makes your enemies take more physical damage.

Determination is included in this build as a means of boosting your armor values. Aim to level it up to 21 by corrupting it with a Vaal Orb.

Vaal Molten Shell can be placed on the left click so you don't have to worry about manual activation. The "Vaal" part of the skill serves as your panic button. Use it whenever you're in a bind.

Boots (MA Setup)

• Frenzy
• Ensnaring Arrow
• Manaforged Arrows Support
• Herald of Purity

Frenzy gives you a reliable and consistent way to generate Frenzy Charges. Ensnaring Arrow, on the other hand, weakens your enemies, making them take 20% increased projectile damage from attack hits at the max level. Both of these should be linked to Manaforged Arrows Support so that they are cast automatically whenever you spend about 300% of their mana cost.

Herald of Purity is a buff that provides 12% more physical damage at level 20. It has an ancillary benefit where you spawn four Sentinels of Purity that take the enemy's attention away from you, giving you the freedom and space to shoot at them without a problem.

Boots (Totem Setup)

• Ensnaring Arrow
• Ballista Totem Support
• Focused Ballista Support
• Herald of Purity

The Manaforged Arrows setup only feels comfortable to use when you have a lot of mana to work with. Early on, however, you might want to opt for totems to fire Ensnaring Arrows more consistently.

Ballista Totem Support and Focused Ballista Support allow you to put totems down almost immediately, so it still feels smooth to use. The only downside here is that you don't have access to Frenzy Charges because this setup doesn't include the Frenzy skill gem.

Secondary Ascendancies

When you're still starting out, the Bleed Puncture Gladiator can utilize the Warden of the Maji to great effect. This secondary ascendancy has access to "Oath of the Maji," which gives you bonuses depending on your gear that doesn't have any socketed gems. For example, you can gain 30% increased movement speed if your boots do not have any gems slotted into it.

Ultimately, you will go for the Wildwood Primalist. "Might of the Bear" gives you some much-needed inventory space. However, the main reason why this secondary ascendancy is the best in the endgame is that it gives you access to three Charm slots. You can use these slots to put Charms with incredible modifiers on them. Some of the Charm mods we recommend are:

• +% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage
• Culling Strike
• % Chance to Gain Onslaught for 4 Seconds on Kill
• % of Leech is Instant
• % Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills
• Skills Fire and Additional Projectile
• % Chance to Gain Frenzy Charge on Hit
• Gain % Increased Attack Speed for 20 Seconds When You Kill a Rare or Unique Enemy
• 1% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life and Mana if You've Killed Recently

Passive Tree

Passive Tree

POB

Main Setup

Replica Farrul's Version

Final Thoughts

The Bleed Puncture Gladiator may have been overlooked in the past, but it has now been buffed significantly thanks to the massive changes implemented in Patch 3.23 Affliction League.

It utilizes bleed as the main damaging component, which you will enhance by putting damage over time and physical damage over time multipliers on your gear wherever possible. Puncture is your main single-target damage dealer, while Split Arrow is used for smooth mapping.

This is a very good league starter because it doesn't require any expensive gear to function. In fact, you can use whatever essences you have in the early game to craft your equipment.

Of course, you can splurge and get expensive jewels to make this build shine even more. The combination of Large and Medium Cluster Jewels is enough to make the Bleed Puncture Gladiator stand out. It is also quite tanky because you will utilize multiple defensive layers, such as armor, spell suppression, and damage reduction via Fortification stacks.

The Elegant Hubris with the right mods on it takes this build to the top. Fortunately, you are not forced to get it; just think of this as an upgrade that you can take whenever you have enough currency.

All in all, the Bleed Puncture Gladiator is surely fun to play. It is a fast mapper that can destroy enemies on sight. It is also a competent endgame boss killer, provided that you have the right gear, of course.

PROS

+Very good map clear speed

+Tanky build thanks to its many defensive layers

+Great league starter

+Gear easily obtainable through crafting

+See enemies explode in a blood explosion

CONS

-Needs higher investment to take on endgame bosses

-Gladiator ascendancy could be better