Bladestorm Berserker Passive Skill Tree and Gem Links

Out Of Date

March 5th, 2023, 15:41

Path of Building

Path of Building for this build is available here.

Included is the recommended set of mid-game gear, a full skill tree, and all the gem links needed to get the build to tick.

We use the Path of Building Community Fork for all of our builds, which is highly recommended. If you are encountering errors importing the build, please ensure you are using the Community Fork.

Passive Skill Tree

Click here to see our recommended Level 97 Passive Skill Tree.

Though there is typically not any vast amount of variance between melee skill trees, this build makes use of a few uncommon choices such as pathing towards and through Acrobatics. Instead of relying purely on Armour and Life Leech, this build takes a more evasion approach to defense, supported by vast amounts of Maximum Life and Life Leech.

Start out by picking up some Life and Physical Damage on the left side of the tree. This gives you a comfortable cushion of survivability that makes leveling feel like a breeze while snapping up enough damage to ensure you can roll over everything without any issues.

Once you have reached the end-game, the order of acquisition depends largely on whether you are league starting or whether you have currency available to you. Constitution should be a priority as you push through the 70s to add more survivability as you start maps.

Once you surpass Level 91 you can simply pick up more Life in the Constitution wheel in order to make the journey to Level 100 more safe. Kinetic Impacts can also add a lot of damage, but only once you are able to get the entire wheel, as the small passives leading towards it are fairly inconsequential. The total damage for four point investment is still very high, but most of it is weighted into the Kinetic Impacts notable itself.

Gems

Bladestorm is our main skill for both clearing and single target. This build uses a 2-handed weapon, but only a single 6-Link is required to get rolling. After you have some surplus currency you can set up a second 6-Link and run additional auras. Vaal Ancestral Warchief and Ancestral Warchief add millions of DPS each, and function perfectly well on a 4-Link.

Precision takes care of any accuracy issues, as Resolute Technique is not an option for a Critical Strike build. Blood and Sand is, of course, a necessity for Bladestorm to allow you to alternate between Sandstorm and Bloodstorm. For additional Impale chance and effect, we rely on Dread Banner. Herald of Purity adds a bit of additional Physical damage and feels strong on bosses, in particular. In fact, this aura is so strong in Blood Stance that the damage increase it provides (when supported by Maim Support) is almost exactly the same as a Level 20 Pride Pride gem, at half the Mana investment.

Bladestorm 6-Link

This is our main skill for both single target and clear. There are plenty of gems that provide similar DPS values to those we recommend, however, we have found this to be the most stable setup with the highest quality of life.

There are a few other options that can also be added to the build, though they generally require white sockets applied by Vorici in order to be effectively used, as they only have niche value:

Concentrated Effect Support: Can be swapped in for Pulverise Support on bosses for a modest damage increase
Multistrike Support: Has the highest potential damage increase but makes the skill very clunky and slows down mapping significantly. Can be swapped with Melee Physical Damage Support for bosses but is otherwise not recommended after the melee skills rework.

Auras 6-Link

Prior to having a 6-Link you can simply drop an aura, as you will not be able to run all auras without Enlighten Support — we recommend not running Dread Banner in the other link.

Pride
Herald of Purity
Maim Support
Blood and Sand
Precision (Level 1, or the highest level you can run it comfortably)
Enlighten Support

Vaal Ancestral Warchief 4-Link

On bosses you can use both Ancestral Warchief and Vaal Ancestral Warchief for huge amounts of additional damage. In end-game gear, each totem will do well over 2 million DPS each. In top-end gear, they can do far more.

If you have an Elder influenced helmet with the Supported by Concentrated Effect Support affix, it is highly recommended to socket this link there.

Culling Strike Support can also be used instead of Ruthless Support, which is less DPS for weaker targets but advantageous for bosses with very high Life pools (such as Sirus 8).

Utility/Mobility 4-Link

Leap Slam Version

Only the above gems need to be linked.

Blood Rage can be moved to another link (possibly replacing a Warcry), socketed in an unset ring, or dropped from the build entirely, based on your preference.

Cast when Damage Taken Support Version

This version is superior for late game if you are clearing tilesets that don’t require use of Leap Slam to constantly cross obstacles or gaps, as this build has high base mobility. This is also a great setup for delving.

Only Cast when Damage Taken Support and Molten Shell actually need to be linked, however, the other two gems should be Level 20 and will thusly be unaffected even in a 4-Link.

Cast when Damage Taken Support (Level 11)
Vaal Molten Shell (Level 16)
Blood Rage (Level 20)
Berserk (Level 20)

Blood Rage and Berserk Berserk are intended to be manually cast and are only part of this link due to space limitations.

Warcry 4-Link

Warcries should be used on cooldown. Enduring Cry allows for easy Endurance charge generation and quick defense, while Intimidating Cry offers massively increased damage potential. Call to Arms makes them instant, which is highly convenient.

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