Level 95 Earthshatter Champion^{3.26.ruthless}

Notes

big thank you to Seiki for providing the basis for this build - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3788889/page/1

Notes below will assume you're playing SC Trade Ruthless - this build is not SSF starter friendly

Pros:

- 200%+ ms with no extra inputs (you just press Defiance Banner instead of your qs flask)
- Does more dps than your common or garden zerker slam build for the small price of having to press an extra button or two every 5-10s
- capped spell suppression with extra damage reduction from suppressed spell hits
- can achieve 65/65 block with 700-1000 life gained on block (though usually only active during bosses or extra content)
- Heal 61%+ max hp whenever you place a banner at max valour
- High regen on top of leech
- 20% chance for enemies to phys explode on death
- Debiltates enemies most of the time
- Excels at mechanics where you have to kill monsters in a circle (that's like 70% of them), bosses, maven invites
- Lots of scaling potential, lots of avenues of growth to get excited about

Cons:

- you have to press an extra button or two every 5-10s
- will have to learn to manage banner uptime, end/frenzy charge duration is a good indicator for this, or align using them with the warcries we selfcast
- attacks slower than zerker slammers
- needs Autoexertion the same way LazyTasty needs to RMT 

How it works:

- We generate 10 valour per warcry (5 from mastery gets scaled 100% from small passives increasing valour gained) which lets us get to our max 105 valour in about 6 seconds (we also get about 4 valour per second from hitting stuff and 60% of our spent valour back if we leave its area)
- Our banners last 21-30s (depending on whether you use more duration support), allowing us to have all 3 up vs bosses all the time after a brief period (vs most pinnacles this can be done before the boss is active)
- Our banners also have massive aoe, making them easily cover entire boss arenas and stuff like ritual encounters, ultimatum, breaches, delve nodes, etc.
- War Banner gives us massive extra phys damage and accuracy, letting us hit Precise Technique threshold with just Precision
- Defiance Banner makes us move at turbo speed and gives us capped suppression with extra flat damage reduction for suppressed hits
- Dread Banner gives us massive block chance (which we convert into some spell block with Versatile Combatant) and massive life gain on block
- While mapping, leaving our banner area makes the effect of the banner linger for 3 seconds and we get 60% of the valour we spent on it back, so we can instantly recast that banner as soon as the linger wears off. This helps us sustain 200% ms while mapping
- You should have enough dps to clear most packs without War Banner even with lack of accuracy and 1/3rd of our potential dps, so you can focus on maintaining Defiance Banner for movement speed and just drop War Banner on stinky rares, bosses and during extra content.
- While using our banners means 3 extra buttons we automate most warcries, this build still has less buttons than the melee builds I used to play before ancestral totems were removed. 
- Maintaining Defiance Banner while mapping is basically like pressing your QS flask except it has 5x the effect and gives you giga suppression
- Note that you don't get the Inspirational valour refund if you manually remove a banner or let it expire, this effect is mostly just for giving us banner uptime while mapping
- We use Earthshatter to kill stuff because it synergizxes best with our warcry spam and it's also just the best slam skill period for 3.27
- Before you get Autoexertion you will be limited to using less warcries simply due to the button bloat, this will also probably mean only using Defiance + War Banners in practice as you will likely not have the valour generation to sustain all three (and that would be yet another button)
- You can always throw down banners faster with less than max valour if you want some survivability buffs as you move around maps

Leveling:

- Probably easiest to do generic Sunder leveling (would have to mule from marauder), however if you want to respec less you can go for banner + Earthshatter angle immediately. Notes below will apply to that.

Gems: 

- Mule Ground Slam from a Marauder, just kill Hillock for this.
- Mule a Duelist to Brutus for Blood and Sand (Mud Flats) and Intimidating Cry (Kill Brutus)
- On your main Duelist, pick up War Banner (Mud Flats) and Precision (Kill Brutus). Grab Earthshatter once you enter Merveil cave.
- While you have less warcries, remember that you can blow up Earthshatter spikes with Ground Slam as well.
- In Act 2, rush to end of Chamber of Sins to complete Intruders in Black quest and get Seismic Cry.
- In Act 3, after completing Lost in Love grab Rallying Cry.
- First Siosa gem should be Vulnerability. Second should be Defiance Banner, third should be Battlemage's Cry.
- Will also need to acquire Infernal Cry + General's Cry once we have Autoexertion, and Dread Banner. Planning to trade for these, worst case scenario you burn a few hours muling a marauder for them (probably need to go to Siosa)
 
Tree:

- You can path to Precise Technique early on but there isn't much else we want from that area initially so the per-point value for it is weaker, also makes it harder to get more life.
- Measured Fury is high priority early on for more Intimidating Cry hits, I would then take Admonisher so you can use multiple warcries comfortably. Warcry mastery for 15% life gain is nice as well.
- Stick with just War Banner until you have 2nd lab, grab the 3 end/frenzy charge Defiant Stand wheel first and the warcry mastery. This lets you quickly charge up your banner and gives you a burst of extra damage and tankiness after placing it.
- Taking Inspirational first will give you the ability to recast War Banner at max (50) valour upon leaving it after one warcry rotation, so it's available for basically every rare mob. Can also do this will Defiance Banner for movement speed uptime.
- This then lets you take Worthy Causes for 2nd lab which lets you fully sustain War Banner vs bosses while leveling and Defiance Banner while moving around areas.
- Take Fortitude 3rd lab to get tankier in preparation for maps.
- Can take First to Strike, Last to Fall from Uber lab, later on can respec this for a Bloodline node (more on this later)

Gem progression post-Acts:

- Focus on getting Autoexertion above all else, livesearch for it, hold onto some alchs for it.
- Pride is also very valuable to get ASAP as we scale its aura effect very well.
- If you can get both of the above you will want to Lifetap your Vulnerability + Battlemage's Cry links and Arrogance for Precision, you will also need some more reduced mana cost/skills cost life instead stuff on tree.
- Can add Blood Rage to Battlemage's Cry for life leech if you don't have another source, or Molten Shell if it doesn't conflict with having a Graft grant a guard skill
- Keep an eye out for cheaper supports you can grab from trade for Earthshatter, Melee Phys is for instance more expensive earlier on due to higher demand
- Gemcutter Prism priority is first Intimidating Cry then other warcries, then Earthshatter itself.

Gear Progression:

Anoint:

- Prioritize getting an Opalescent Oil ASAP for Deep Breaths. Best bet is to harvest flip a shitty oil until you get this, can also livesearch but probably overpriced early.
- Until then Battle Trance is best

Weapon:

- Standard big phys rare axe
- Slower axe will get more Intimidating Cry uptime but slower attacks feel shit and make you more vulnerable, go for whatever you're most comfortable with.
- Breach poop tree crafting might be good for getting upgrades for this (copium)

Helmet:

- Rare with life and ele/chaos res early, armour base. Flat int is also really good here.
- Enemies hit recently have less life regen implicit if you want to do any maven stuff.
- Formless Flame may be more obtainable this league. If it isn't changed, turns our overcapped res into massive armour boost.
- A giga endgame options is Echoes of Creation, need Determination from Turtle spectre to make this manageable

Body:

- Nothing special here early on, ele/chaos res and armour, if you get a good life mod then you don't have to take the mastery. If using hybrid here you need to spend a point for Iron Reflexes.
- On a good 5+ link you can use ichors/embers to get block chance and increase aura effect.

Gloves:

- Life, ele res, chaos res, rarity, etc.
- Attack speed + Impale implicits, can also get Intimidate on hit here if you don't have another source (Intimidating Cry is not a valid source!)

Boots:

- Armour, fire/chaos res, etc., 30% ms - we can settle for 25% or even 20% boots given that we get so much ms from banner
- Action speed implicit is nice here, Intimidating Cry cdr is very good. Sapped ground is good for further improving tankiness.

Rings:

- Amethyst rings for chaos res, get life, res and attriubtes here
- Can get mana/life leech here, we probably don't drop Spirit of War from the endgame tree though due to the cost reduction being valuable and needing a mana mastery, so mana leech isn't really important
- Vivinsect is a huge upgrade which can reduce the mana cost of our warcries if we can corrupt some of our gear, can also give us +5 levels to a banner of our choice (Dread Banner best for this) and an extra gem socket

Amulet:

- Start with the best life + res you can get, get some needed attributes here too
- Carnage Heart is a good relatively-common unique 
- Jinxed Juju is BiS endgame upgrade due to scaling aura effect, and it combos well with the Farrul Bloodline we're looking to pick for extra damage reduction.

Jewels:

- Can spend 2 points on a socket for a rare jewel if you find any good ones, useful for fixing res/attributes
- Very worth farming for a phys damage Light of Meaning
- Some good Watcher's Eye mods to look out for

Flasks:

- Don't need quicksilver flask, can use enchanted flasks like PoE 2 trinkets for stuff like freeze removal, granite flask on savage hit, etc.

Bloodline:

- Our 4th lab is pretty flexible since we aren't activating Adrenaline reliably and Master of Metal is only about 7% more dps (a bit more if we make use of the impale chance leading into it, still not good enough)
- Farrul Bloodline is best for us as it lets us use a Beast Spectre companion for extra buffs.
- Wild Will is best for QoL as it gives us attack speed and chill/freeze immunity
- Fertile Will alternatively gives more damage and lets us save a point on stun immunity
- Our banner effects (block, life on block, suppression, regen, massive ele res) will help make the beast unkillable on top of it having 3 modifiers which improve its toughness, plus 25% inc max life from the small node in the Bloodline. We also give it our Fortification.
- Can farm ritual for Turtle if we want to be tankier vs phys or for Tiger if we want Haste buff, Turtle is best if you want to run Formless Flame for armour
- Convocation on Battlemage's Cry lets us keep the spectre with us as we zoom around (it will not get the lingering 200%+ ms boost after leaving banner). This is however a white gem now so hopefully we can still buy it from Siosa.
- We can also run Animate Guardian maybe (I have never used this), should also be able to stay alive all the time.

Runegrafts:

- Runegraft of Time is effectively 20% more valour generation
- Runegraft of the Warp is amazing and should also make our banner buff linger for longer.
- Runegraft of the River is an extra layer of recovery, definitely worth it if you can spare another mastery + point

Breach Grafts:

- Not included here as not in PoB at time of making this guide
- Heart of Flame looks good as a guard skill, not sure if it shares a cd with our skills
- Return to Dust gives guaranteed Stun which is a very cool extra defensive layer
- Enervating Grasp saps enemies for us which is also good for survivability

Endgame farming goal summary:

- Farm ritual for Perfect Turtle, phys light of meaning, 6 link omen
- Farm Betrayal for Vivinsect
- Farm (Uber) Elder for Pride/Determ watchers eyes