Path of Exile: Ark's Starter Builds I - Duelist

So this is something I thought I would do for fun. The new Path of Exile patch is out, and while I haven't been playing much because of work, I have respecced my Reave Duelist, leveled him up, and made a cool crib (Hideout).

Anyways, here's the deal. Path of Exile is a fairly "hardcore" game, in that it requires a substantial knowledge base on the part of the player. But as of Forsaken Masters, it requires less time invested to grind for crazy gear, because you can just use the masters to craft the missing mod. And the changes to life on level/life multipliers mean that GGG made it easier to get by with less life on your gear, because you're getting less out of it (and more life intrinsically).

So it's a better time than ever for newbies to get into Path of Exile. To that end, I've decided to post a build for each of the classes, that is meant to be unique and emblematic of the class. I will be soliciting help from the PoE Subreddit IRC, as well as other resources.


We'll start with the Duelist.



I'll call this the "Spartacus" Build, as it's a Dualwield Evasion fighter. I consider it representative of what it means to be a Duelist because a Duelist is a Strength/Dexterity hybrid, and that is what this class is. We are strong enough to wield swords, but our defense is our sheer agility and our uncanny ability to read

I would like to credit ColbyCheeze with the original idea for this build, as he ran it during a 2 week race a few months ago. To my knowledge, he has not updated the build for 1.2, but that's what we're here for!


Tree:
http://poeurl.com/yZ3qKGl

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgQAmSu9gUd-FFJlTYTZbmlY276nU9_STe_jm4PAD2NwhO80k3TttkF6704qYEtbrwUt3Q0Y2yzp_MXBixUgVvpnoNungUEi4ipNd9eHdglYNe9H4j8nfytKfVywbbTQgUrIMHzWitP8Ou2kOW6qUUeNfbXyjb8j9jWS3-8Ftd3nTZKjiv6P2L0o28Ls1CMb9kxgTeP-Ch3KtMUwcYO9BLGmV_JFYqzdqJVmMZ464Z2qbIxLeAOHNj06QnByG63jhNN-wJx9dac0_ro=

As you level your tree, you will start with grabbing Block, Life, and Dualwield nodes on the way to Ondar's Guile, Acrobatics, and Phase Acrobatics. You may wish to grab Mana Flows and/or Revelry for leveling purposes. The Duelist is a mana-hungry man.

Later on, you will want to grab nodes like Mind Drinker.

Feel free to grab 30 point Strength and Intelligence nodes as necessary.


Bandits: 
Oak/Oak/Kill

You can grab Kraityn in Cruel if you wish.


Gems:
Attack: Dual Strike/Melee Splash/Melee Physical Damage/Multistrike/Faster Attacks

For your other gems, you'll want to use Temporal Chains as your curse (get some Int on gear). Cast When Damage Taken will be linked to Enduring Cry, Immortal Call, and Increased Duration, as is textbook.

For auras, you will run Hatred for sure. I suppose Grace/Hatred is ideal, but this build will find it difficult to run Dualstrike on such a low mana pool without Resolute Technique (meaning that you CAN miss, which stops your consistent mana leech). So let's assume that Grace/Hatred is a bit of a pipe dream, which it is for this build.

Colby ran Hatred/Purity of Lightning in the race. Purity of Lightning is pretty much required if you plan to use a Lightning Coil. But if not, then you will run Hatred/Herald of Ash. 

You COULD link Blood Magic to your Dual Strike if you desperately want to run Grace/Hatred, but that is suboptimal. Better to get mana leech on rings (and Mind Drinker notable) and save the gem slot for more damage.

For the rest of things, you will use Leap Slam to get around, you can even link it to Culling Strike and Item Rarity. You can link Blood Magic to your curse, mobility, and utility spells if you want (I would) If you want to use a different Culling setup, link Cleave or Cyclone to Culling Strike/Item Rarity.


Gear:
If you are playing this in a Softcore league, you don't necessarily require any specific uniques. Currently, I'm playing an Evasion Melee build without a Lightning Coil in Softcore. And it's fine for the most part, just watch out for Ethereal Knives users.

The things listed below are recommendations. You can play around all of them, though it will cost you some DPS or survivability.

You'll want Life Leech rolls on a ring and an amulet, and 2% Mana Leech on the other ring (unless using Warlord's Mark as a curse). Slitherpinch is another option for leveling purposes. Once you get Mind Drinker and Blood Drinker, you can dump these requirements for whatever you want. You could play around this with linking Blood Magic to Dual Strike, or linking Life Leech to it, but either choice will cost you a gem slot. Better to get Leech on gear/nodes, and it's not that hard (especially with Masters crafting).

You'll want at least a 5L chest. A 4L is workable, but will slow your clearspeed down.

Aside from that, just cap your resists and get some life. Get some Int on gear if possible. Make sure your weapons have nice pDPS.

Uniques...Lightning Coil is required if this is a Hardcore build, to make you oneshot proof (as the physical damage you take will be converted into Lightning). Bringer of Rain (get it?) is a good option to take you close to the block cap. Wings of Entropy is a good choice for a weapon. However, this build can function without all of these.

Playstyle:
First, shout "I AM SPARTACUS."

Basically, cast Temporal Chains, run at people, and start Dual Striking. Use Leap Slam to chase or run, and use your Culling setup on rares and bosses. It's pretty basic, really.