With the revelations of Path of Exile 3.7 and the Legion expansion, Grinding Gear Games has promised a pretty substantial rework of both core mechanics and the entirety of the melee skills segment. Part of that revamp is the introduction of several new build archetypes, one of which is the new Blood and Sand gladiator which uses a new skillset to swap between targeted damage and AoE attacks.
This switch is accomplished by the new Bladestorm skill, a melee skill which offers two stances, Blood and Sand. The skill itself is a vortex of destruction that spins around the player, spawning storms and other effects that rend enemies asunder. Both of these are reservations skills that use up 10% of your Mana on activation, so keep that in mind. Players can switch between either stance at-will simply by activating the skill again.
While in Blood Stance, the player gains a bonus to attack speed while also stacking bleeds on the enemies they hit. This can be paired with any number of bonuses, like life leech effects, to offer some sustainable tanking as well. It has a small area of effect though, so it’s more useful for targeted attacks.
Sand stance is a bit different, not only because it has a wider AoE, but also in the way it applies damage. It has a slower rate of damage application, and it will blind instead of applying bleed stacks. This can be useful as a defensive layer as blinded enemies have a harder time hitting the player.
Remember that I mentioned these being a reservation skill, well GGG has seen fit to include an optional modifier with another reservation skill. The other new skill, called Flesh and Stone, increases mana reservation by 25%, but offers much higher damage potential. The biggest change is the enemies are maimed in Blood Stance, this vastly increases the amount of physical damage dealt by the linked skill.
Check out the new skills in action in the video down below.
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