PoE 3.25 Earthquake Gladiator Build

With the sweeping changes to most melee skill gems in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, you are probably looking for a build that utilizes one of those skills for the Necro Settlers event. If that is the case, you are in for a treat!

The Earthquake Gladiator is a top contender in that regard. With the ability to slam the ground and cause enemies to bleed profusely, this build has no problem hitting hard; no matter who (or what) is trying to oppose it!

Why Choose the Earthquake Gladiator

Earthquake is one of the skill gems that got buffed massively in Patch 3.25. It now has a significantly higher base damage of 229.3% (from just 150% previously) at the expense of a higher mana cost.

When you use the PoE Earthquake skill, you slam the ground so hard that cracks will form immediately after. Similar to its real-life counterpart, this skill causes aftershocks to occur, which deals even more damage with hits and ailments to enemies across a wide area.

To supplement your damage, you are going to use Vaal Earthquake as well. This also prompts you to slam the ground with powerful force, albeit you create more cracks as your character moves. These cracks result in aftershocks that will deal up to 437% more damage to monsters within your vicinity!

While Earthquake is quite damaging by itself, it is just used merely as a tool to cause enemies to bleed. Why? Because you will be employing the services of the game’s resident bleed specialist, the Gladiator!

With the Gladiator’s Gratuitous Violence node, you are given the power to create bleed explosions when enemies die. Allocating this greatly enhances your clear speed, which is the main reason why it is always taken as the first ascendancy notable.

In Patch 3.25, Grinding Gear Games implemented a new damage mechanic called “Aggravated” bleeds. To put it briefly, this causes bleeding enemies to take three times more damage at all times. This effect is the same as if the affected target is moving.

Although you can choose Measured Retaliation and utilize the new retaliation skills like Eviscerate or Crushing Fist, you are better off going for the “block duo,” namely Determined Survivor and More Than Skill. The former boosts your equipped shield’s block chance, while the latter effectively makes you block more attacks and spells.

If you are to play this Earthquake build PoE, we highly recommend that you take the notable ascendancy passive skills in this order:

1. Gratuitous Violence
2. Determined Survivor
3. Jagged Technique
4. More Than Skill

The PoE Earthquake Gladiator needs any of the following modifiers on gear to improve its damage:

• Added Physical Damage
• Increased Physical Damage
• Increased Damage with Bleeding
• Damage Over Time Multiplier
• Physical Damage Over Time Multiplier
• Increased Area Damage
• Increased Melee Damage

Playstyle

When it comes to physical damage builds in PoE, the Earthquake Gladiator is one of the easiest to play. For the most part, you will only use a few buttons for Shield Charge, Earthquake, and then Vaal Earthquake.

If you need more damage, may it be because you’re fighting against the pinnacle bosses in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur or the formidable bosses in T17 maps, you can drop your War Banner to gain a physical damage boost.

The duo of warcries—Seismic Cry and Intimidating Cry—can be used to get more area of effect and the ability to deal double damage, respectively. Utilizing these warcries also exerts your next attacks, causing your next application of bleeds to become more lethal!

After using the aforementioned skills, if you still feel that your damage is not up to par with your standards, then cast Vulnerability. This curse weakens the enemy’s defenses against physical damage, which is quite useful considering the bleed in PoE deals physical damage over time. Don’t forget to coat your weapon with the Blood Sap Tincture for good measure.

Earthquake Gladiator Gear Recommendations

The ability to inflict pain and make enemies bleed profusely are just some of the hallmarks of the Earthquake Gladiator. If you need more convincing, this build can work with self-found gear, making it an incredible choice for SSF Leagues.

With that said, the vast majority of items on this build are self-crafted and only a handful of them are unique. You can go killing enemies with mostly crafted gear until you have the PoE Currency to purchase the unique items.

Weapon

Bleed is a lethal ailment in Path of Exile that is administered by using damaging skills like PoE Earthquake. Enemies that are affected by bleed take physical damage over time. This is the reason why you need modifiers that improve physical damage if you want to maximize your primary skill’s potential.

For a good weapon to start with, go for the Wrist Chopper at level 42 and then use Essence of Contempt. The goal here is to get at least two physical damage mods, as well as increased attack speed.

As soon as you are able, grab an ilvl 82+ Reaver Axe and utilize the Horticrafting Station’s physical reroll. The objective of doing this is to acquire the three damage mods, including added physical, % increased physical, and the % increased physical/accuracy hybrid.

The Reaver Axe is also going to be your endgame weapon, except that it possesses a trifecta of damage over time multipliers as shown in the image below:

Shield

The choice of shield does not matter, so long as it has armor and evasion on it. The evasion rating can be converted to armor by taking Iron Reflexes as one of your passive skills.

You have the freedom of using essences or the Harvest Bench to get life, elemental resistance, and a chance to block attacks/spells early on. Utilize the Crafting Bench to add any modifier that your character needs.

A well-crafted Cardinal Shield with two influenced modifiers is the best shield that you can wield for this particular PoE Gladiator build. Actually, you will need two for this crafting project, so go look at the PoE Trade for a Shaper- and Crusader-influenced Cardinal Shield.

On the Shaper-influenced item, utilize Harvest Reforge Life until you get “Recover (3-5)% of Life When You Block.” For the other shield, head to the Horticrafting Station again, though you go for Reforge Attack this time to obtain: “1% Increased Damage per 1% Chance to Block Attack Damage.”

Spend some Divine Orbs to merge the two shields together. This part of the process not only fuses the influenced modifiers but populates empty affix slots as well. Just hope that you get something useful like spell suppression or T1 maximum life.

When you have the right modifiers on the shield, you will have created the ultimate PoE Earthquake tank build!

Body Armor

A huge part of your defenses comes from the evasion rating on your gear. However, as we have pointed out earlier, you are not going to dodge the enemy’s attacks. Evasion rating, at least how it’s used on this Gladiator PoE build, is there only to increase your overall armor via Iron Reflexes.

The Conquest Lamellar is one of the item base types that GGG has introduced in Patch 3.25. It boasts the highest armor and evasion values on this gear slot, making it a solid choice for your endgame gear. The only problem here is that it needs a relatively high amount of STR and DEX to equip, so you will need to address this in one way or another.

Having said that, the mods that you need include life, elemental resistance, and physical damage reduction. You could also craft the Conquest Lamellar using Essence of Envy to guarantee the chaos resistance suffix, but focus on addressing the aforementioned modifiers first. If your elemental resistance is already capped, for example, you can then add chaos resistance without a problem.

Helmet

This gear slot provides you with a good opportunity to address your STR and DEX deficiencies. If you need a bit of a boost in Strength, utilize the Essence of Rage. On the other hand, if Dexterity is the attribute that you sorely lack, go for the Essence of Sorrow.

The rest of the modifiers can be anything that your character still requires. You should include some chaos resistance, especially if you are going to tackle some endgame content.

Gloves

Mods that grant percentage damage increases are only effective if you have a ton of base (or added) damage to begin with. That is what you should think about when crafting your gloves.

Choose the Wyvernscale Gauntlets for the highest possible amount of armor and evasion rating on this gear slot. If the attribute requirements of the said gloves are too steep, you can settle for any gloves that have armor/evasion.

The point here is to craft the gloves with Essence of Contempt for some added physical damage. Use the necessary amount of this essence to gain life, elemental resistance, and chaos resistance. You also have an option of rolling for spell suppression, though that is not entirely needed for this Melee Gladiator build in PoE.

Since Seismic Cry and Intimidating Cry are both part of your skill rotation, you might as well obtain the implicit mod: “Exerted Attacks Deal % Increased Damage.” Spend Eldritch Ichors to gain access to this powerful modifier.

Boots

Do you want to create the ultimate PoE Gladiator tank build? Well, you need to make sure that you are immune to harmful elemental ailments, most notably freeze and shock. Both of these, if left to their own devices, can kill your character easily.

To avoid getting neutralized by the enemy, craft a pair of boots using the Deafening Essence of Torment. Major emphasis should be put on the “Deafening” essence because you want to gain the full 60% “Chance to Avoid Being Shocked” as one of the explicit modifiers. You will need the remaining 40% on the implicit mod, which you can get by spamming Grand Eldritch Embers.

Using the Eldritch Ichor on the boots gives you access to faster bleeds on the enemy. Therefore, we recommend spending Grand Eldritch Ichors because that 7% faster bleeds means better overall efficiency.

Suppose you are like us and want to min-max every piece of PoE gear, then head to our ultimate crafting guide. There, you will find instructions on how to craft the Onslaught Boots.

Amulet

We recommend three good amulets for the Path of Exile Earthquake Gladiator. The first one is an amulet that is crafted with the use of Harvest Reforge Physical. This item contains added physical damage to attacks, as well as life and damage over time multiplier.

The Ashes of the Stars is a unique amulet that provides an immense damage boost to the Earthquake PoE skill. If you need a perfectly rolled Ashes of the Stars that grants an additional 30% quality of all skill gems, then head to our PoE Store right away!

We totally understand if you do not like crafting items in Path of Exile. However, there are just so many things that you can do with a crafted item, which is why you may have to dabble in this sort of thing to get the most out of your character.

That said, get a Hunter-influenced amulet with an item level of 84+. Similar to the budget amulet mentioned above, go for Harvest Reforge Physical until you get T1 damage over time multiplier, as well as the physical DoT.

Spend an Orb of Annulment to remove the third (unwanted) suffix and then head to the Menagerie to add the Aspect of the Spider. This skill applies several spider webs on the enemy, which causes them to take 5% increased damage per stack. You can buy the itemized “Fenumus, First of the Night” beastcrafting recipe on PoE Trade.

From there, clean the prefixes by putting “Suffixes Cannot Be Changed” from the Crafting Bench and using an Orb of Scouring. Lock the suffixes again and then use Harvest Reforge Life. Do these steps until you obtain a T1 or T2 “+ to Maximum Life” modifier.

After that, you can just spend an Exalted Orb and bench-craft “% Increased Area Damage” to finish the crafting project. However, you could lock the suffixes again and use a Veiled Orb for a chance to get the improved area damage modifier. The choice is yours!

Rings

Do you want the PoE Earthquake skill to cover more ground than usual? If so, you can craft a Warlord-influenced ring to gain an increase in area of effect. You can either utilize the Essence of Contempt or Harvest Reforge Physical for this.

While you do have the option of wearing two crafted rings on the Path of Exile Earthquake Gladiator, you can have a unique ring on the other slot, specifically the Venopuncture.

Venopuncture is an amazing item for this build primarily because it grants a huge boost to bleeding damage. Not only that but it helps you inflict bleeds more consistently even without allocating similar nodes on the passive tree.

Belt

The choice of belt for this build depends on whether you want to wear a crafted item or a unique one. If you do not want to be bothered in making tough decisions, you could equip the Ryslatha’s Coil and call it a day. Just make sure that the maximum physical damage part of the belt has a higher percentage than the less minimum.

For the crafted item, get an ilvl 86+ Elder-influenced Rustic Sash. This is the preferred crafting base for its “(12-24)% Increased Global Physical Damage” implicit modifier.

The process of crafting the belt requires a bit of an investment, especially because you need a good amount of Pristine and Jagged Fossils on hand. These will greatly improve your chances of getting the desired modifiers, such as:

• (26-30)% Increased Global Physical Damage
• (31-35)% Increased Melee Damage During Any Flask Effect
• +(130-144) to Maximum Life
• (8-10)% Increased Maximum Life

Use the combination of fossils mentioned above until you get the physical damage, as well as the duo of life modifiers. Lock the prefixes and then go for a Harvest Reforge Attack to gain the increased melee damage mod. The rest of the suffixes can be filled with the help of Exalted Orbs and the Crafting Bench.

Flasks/Tincture

• Granite Flask
• Jade Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Divine Life Flask
• Blood Sap Tincture

Flask Mods

• 60% Increased Armor (of the Armadillo)
• 60% Increased Evasion (of the Impala)
• Regenerate 3% of Life per Second (of the Order, bench-crafted)
• Grants Immunity to Bleeding/Corrupted Blood (on Life Flask)
• Gain 3 Charges When You are Hit by an Enemy (Flagellant, prefix)

Jewels

To achieve a PoE Earthquake tank build using the Gladiator ascendancy class, you need to be immune to elemental ailments. The boots you’ve crafted earlier can aid you with that, but you need to get the Stormshroud to make that happen. This unique item essentially turns the “Chance to Avoid Being Shocked” modifiers to also apply to all elemental ailments.

With this Gladiator melee build, you have plenty of avenues to insert the Forbidden Flame and Flesh jewels. That said, the matching modifier you can go for depends on what you want to achieve.

Bane of Legends is a Slayer-only notable ascendancy passive that provides you with a hefty damage boost, as well as immunity to reflected physical damage.

If you want to take on a more defensive approach, you can have Fortitude from the Champion ascendancy tree. This node has been nerfed in PoE 3.25 because you now only gain 15 Fortification stacks. The maximum number of Fortification stacks is still set at 20, though the five additional stacks have to be gained through other means.

Because the Slayer is a top ascendancy class in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur and the Necro Settlers event, the Forbidden jewels are being sold at a steep price. Not to worry, you can have enough currency to buy anything you want! Just head to our PoE Store and get good deals!

For the rest of the slots, you can put any of these jewels:

• Watcher’s Eye
• With life regen mod from Vitality and increased physical damage from Pride
• 8-Passive Large Cluster Jewel (Physical Damage)
• With Battle-Hardened and Master the Fundamentals
• Use Harvest Reforge Defense to craft this cluster jewel
• 4-Passive Medium Cluster Jewel (Physical Damage Over Time)
• With Circling Oblivion and Wound Aggravation
• Use Harvest Reforge Attack to craft this
• The Light of Meaning
• Specifically with “6% Increased Physical Damage” bonus

Tattoos

• Tattoo of the Kitava Warrior
• 5% Increased Global Physical Damage
• Tattoo of the Kitava Shaman
• Attacks Have a 5% Chance to Cause Bleeding
• Great for early mapping
• Replace with Tattoo of the Kitava Warrior after achieving 100% from gear and passive tree
• Tattoo of the Tukohama Warcaller
• 8% Increased Warcry Cooldown Recovery Rate

Skill Gems Setup

Body Armor

• Vaal Earthquake
• Fist of War Support
• Volatility Support
• Awakened Brutality
• Awakened Melee Physical Damage
• Awakened Deadly Ailments

Gloves

• Seismic Cry
• Intimidating Cry
• Urgent Orders Support
• Vulnerability

Helmet

• Blood Rage
• Automation Support
• More Duration Support
• Enduring Cry

Boots

• Eternal Blessing
• Pride
• War Banner
• Vitality
• Do not link with Eternal Blessing

Weapon

• Vaal Molten Shell
• Cast When Damage Taken
• More Duration Support

Shield

• Shield Charge
• Faster Attacks Support
• Frostblink

Pantheons

Major God: Soul of Arakaali

Minor God: Soul of Abberrath or Soul of Shakari

Passive Skill Tree

This Gladiator melee build in Path of Exile enjoys stun immunity via Unwavering Stance. Iron Reflexes should also be taken to convert all your evasion to armor.

Versatile Combatant reduces your maximum block chance by 10%. In exchange, you get to cap spell block chance just by improving your chance to block attack damage.

To alleviate the need for accuracy rating on gear, the Resolute Technique keystone must be allocated as well. Critical strikes do not matter for this PoE build in 3.25.

In addition, take the following Masteries:

• Bleeding Mastery
• +3% to Damage Over Time Multiplier for Bleeding per Endurance Charge
• Axe Mastery
• Bleeding You Inflict Deals Damage 15% Faster
• Damage Over Time Mastery
• 15% Increased Duration of Ailments on Enemies, 15% Increased Skill Effect Duration
• Physical Mastery
• 10% More Maximum Physical Attack Damage

Tips and Strategies

• Put Some Chaos Resistance: It can be a struggle to cap chaos resistance on this Gladiator Earthquake PoE build. However, even if you do not achieve 75%, you still have to aim for at least 30-40%.

• Introduce Phasing Somehow: Phasing enables you to move through targets without collision. This is ideal if you need to reposition yourself for maximum Earthquake coverage. The easiest way to gain Phasing is through the Quartz Flask, but Phase Run is also a decent alternative.

• Gain Some Spell Suppression: Since you are using mostly armor/evasion-based gear, you have the option of getting spell suppression for additional damage mitigation. Make sure that you have the important modifiers taken care of first before rolling for spell suppression.

• Allocate Wicked Blade: You need to have a high chance of inflicting bleed early on. Fortunately, the small nodes that connect to the “Wicked Blade” notable passive skill provide a 30% increased chance to bleed. Because you’re already spending two points on them already, you might as well take Wicked Blade for improved damage with bleeding.

POB

Earthquake Gladiator

Final Thoughts

Slam skills have gained a considerable damage boost thanks to the buffs GGG has implemented in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. This has made some once-forgotten skills like Earthquake become prominent again.

In line with the Gladiator rework, we present to you one of the best melee builds in PoE 3.25 that does not need a steep investment to work. Not only is this build capable of making enemies bleed to death, but it is also durable enough to withstand even the most brutal punishment.

Aside from that, the Bleed Earthquake Gladiator is SSF-friendly. If you intend to create a character in the Necro Settlers event, maybe you can put this PoE melee build on the list.

We hope that you’ve enjoyed our Path of Exile Gladiator guide. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments!

PROS

• Earthquake deals a lot of damage, which makes bleed equally deadly
• Insane amounts of armor through gear
• Easy to put up, making it great for Solo-self Found

CONS

• Chaos resistance is difficult to cap
• Struggles with damage over time
• Not a build that deals “direct damage”