Path of Exile Builds

Tectonic Slam Slayer Duelist [3.2]

Intro & build description

There are new skill gems in the Bestiary league in Path of Exile and this build is made around one of the new gems – Tectonic Slam. This build is a hybrid of Elemental conversion and flat scaling of physical damage to sustain life and mana leech. Tectonic Slam is a great AoE skill on the level with the ever-popular Sunder.

The build in this guide is pretty simple, and is a slight variation from other Tectonic Slam builds as it uses the Slayer Ascendancy as opposed to the Juggernaut.

Build Pros

  • Very cheap to start off and scales extremely well with some investment
  • Can be swapped from Axes to Swords/Maces with only minor Tree adjustments
  • Can be built very tanky while maintaining high damage output
  • Excellent Uber Lab farmer with some effort and gear

Build Cons

  • Elemental Reflect and No-Regen mods can be a pain
  • Somewhat expensive to get to top-end damage output, especially with a Kaom’s Heart

Passive tree(s)

Passive Skill Tree [115p]

Path of Building Example

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 Gruthkul – 1% additional Physical Damage Reduction for each Hit you’ve taken Recently up to a maximum of 5%

Bandits

Bandits Quest Choice
Oak

Ascendancy skill points

Labyrinths Skill point choice
Labyrinth 1 Headsman
Labyrinth 2 Bane of Legends
Labyrinth 3 Endless Hunger
Endgame Labyrinth Brutal Fervour

Skill gem setup

Helm

Hatred
Enlighten Support
Blasphemy Support
Warlord’s Mark

Your primary buff/Aura. Increases your Life and Mana Leech and provides endurance charge generation for Tectonic Slam’s increased damage, you also reserve slightly less Mana for Hatred, making it easier to sustain.

Gloves

Ancestral Warchief
Brutality
Culling Strike
Melee Physical Damage Support

You primary distraction skill. Dropping this in a pack of adds can certainly help reduce incoming damage and thin the herd of enemies a bit.

Boots

Leap Slam
Faster Attacks Support
Fortify Support
Summon Stone Golem

Your movement skill paired with a faster casting time for mobility. The Stone Golem will also increase Life Regen. The Fortify buff only kicks in when you hit an enemy, so keep that in mind when moving around.

2h Weapon

Tectonic Slam
Elemental Damage With Attack Skills Support
Melee Physical Damage Support
Chance to Bleed
Added Fire Damage Support
Physical to Lightning/Other

Tectonic Slam is your main DPS, with the added 18% bonus from Endurance Charges, you’ll want to generate those Charges as much as possible. Pairing this with some Elemental damage scaling and increased DoT really helps bypass enemy damage reduction as well.




Build Uniques / Example Rare Gear

Tip: Click on the item to view it on PoE Wiki or to view similar rare items in poe.trade.

In this section you will find all the suggested items for this build. We always try to include optional gear in our listing, or try your own assuming you get similar stat rolls. Aim for high-quaity Rares if you’re replacing Uniques.

Helmet

Devoto’s Devotion or Abyssus

Devoto’s Devotion is a great helm which is fairly inexpensive and gives you attack and movement speed. Abysuss is by far the best though

If you don’t want that, get a Rare helm with at least 70 Life and Tri-Res, add in some physical damage for a decent setup.

For the enchantment look for 40% increased Tectonic Slam damage or the 40% chance not to consume an Endurance Charge as an OK alternate. You won’t do as much damage with the latter, but you’ll be doing fine in most cases.

Body Armour

Kaom’s Heart

Kaom’s is best in Slot for this build mostly due to Life roll and Physical damage buff. It’s expensive so you’ll need to use something else while you farm for currency. A decent Rare 5-link won’t have issues with the first few Map Tiers, so farming for currency should be simple. A high life roll and Tri-res body armor is a great starter.

Min. requirements:
80 maximum Life
20% Fire Resistance
20% Cold Resistance
20% Lightning Resistance
Optional affixes:
Attributes
High Armour

Gloves

Spiked Gloves / Other armour based rare gloves

Ideally look for Spiked Gloves base for their implicit mod. If you have them, definitely do not use any glove enchantments from Labyrinth because they would be worse than implicit. If you can’t get that base, look for any other base with high Attack Speed and a Resistance buff or two to plug holes.

I threw an Aurseize on in the PoB example because I like having increased Rarity, although you can definitely find a better Rare.

Min. requirements:
75 maximum Life
20% Cold Resistance
20% Lightning Resistance
20% Lightning Resistance
Optional affixes:
increased Melee Damage

Boots

Two-Toned Boots / Death’s Door

Look for Two-Toned boots with high life, resistances and movement speed. Any Rare with these rolls is a good starter.

Because we are playing build with Endurance Charges, Death’s Door unique boots would be awesome for our build as well if you can afford them. They give us an extra Endurance Charge and immunity to bleeds which will help sustain the damage buff Endurance Charges grant to Tectonic Slam.

Min. requirements:
75 maximum Life
25% Fire Resistance
25% Cold Resistance
25% Lightning Resistance
25% increased Movement Speed

Left Ring

Voidheart to Level, then any ring with stats below:

Min. requirements:
70 maximum Life
15% Fire Resistance
15% Cold Resistance
15% Lightning Resistance
Added min. 7 Physical Damage to Attacks
Optional affixes:
increased Elemental Damage
increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills
Attributes
Attack Speed

But rings with any 4 of these stats will be very expensive for most of the league, so if you can, get the first 3 stats and get your resistances capped on other pieces of gear. Those stats will be a massive boost to DPS.

Right Ring

Look for the same stat rolls as the ring above. Perhaps go for a single Voidheart and then a Rare with those stat rolls to plug Resistance holes.

Belt

Any decent Rare with the following stats will work well enough. Belt of the Deceiver is a decent choice too.

Min. requirements:
95 maximum Life
30% Fire Resistance
30% Cold Resistance
30% Lightning Resistance

Amulet

Carnage Heart for Leveling, then switch to Rare

Capping your resistances will be easy if you aim for it on off slots like the amulet. However, if you put Resistance in other slots, you can keep Carnage Heart and be OK.

Min. requirements:
65 maximum Life
20% Fire Resistance
20% Cold Resistance
20% Lightning Resistance
Added min. 9 Physical Damage to Attacks
Optional affixes:
Added flat Elemental Damage to Attacks
Attributes

2Hand Weapon

Hezmana’s Bloodlust / Atziri’s Disfavour

Hezmana’s Bloodlust has pretty high damage and Blood Magic. The Life Leech on this build pairs well with that. Atziri’s Disfavour is by far one of the best in slot Uniques for these kinds of builds though. The only thing better would be a custom-made Mirrored weapon, that will be even more costly though.

Jewel

Jewel Stat Priorities

1.) Increased maximum life
2.) Increased physical damage / Area damage / Damage / Damage with 2handed weapons etc
3.) Mana/Life Leech
4.) Increased Attack Speed
5.) Resistances to plug holes for caps

Check the Path of Building setup for some example Jewels. Mana Leech is a pretty good choice. You should be able to keep your skills and buffs up as long as you keep attacking with the right Jewels. If you can’t get at least some decent Mana Leech, sub out Lion’s Roar for a Mana Flask as a last resort.

Flask

Flask Setup

Look for following flasks:

1.) Divine Life flask with instant recovery and bleed removal/immunity
2.) Divine Life flask with instant recovery and freeze removal/immunity
3.) Lion’s Roar
4.) Taste of Hate
5.) Atziri’s Promise

Feel free to share your insights and experiences about the build in comments section below.

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