Settlers of Kalguur is here and it’s brought along with it a whole host of exciting new features. The new settlement management system is a welcomed addition, but for melee players, an even more exciting addition is the melee rebalance that’s made melee builds viable again. With that in mind, here are some of the best melee builds in Path of Exile.
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Best Melee Build #1️⃣: Vaal Lightning Strike Warden
The Warden is the star of the show in Settlers of Kalguur. It was introduced to replace the much disliked Raider ascendancy for the Ranger, and oh boy is it a worthy replacement! Especially if you run it with Vaal Lightning Strike.
This build focuses on three things specifically—Lightning Strike or ideally Vall Lightning Strike, tinctures, and most important of all, double hit.
📌Understanding Vall Lightning Strike
Lightning Strike has two parts to it, the projectile and the melee effect. Vaal Lightning Strike has an additional effect where it sort of creates another “melee attack.” The skill itself is not affected by melee boosters, so avoid those modifiers as they’re not very useful in this build.
The ranged part of this attack is the thing that is affected by double-hit, hence why you’d want to acquire it either via a skill or via an item.
🌟The Perks For This Build
For your Ascendancy perks you’re going to want to get the following:
- Avatar of the Wilds
- Oath of Winter
- Enduring Suffusion
- Experienced Herbalist
Those are the four perks you absolutely need to maximize this ascendancy’s potential, now let’s list some of the recommended perks:
- Wind Dancer
- Attack Mastery
- Accuracy Mastery
- Elemental Mastery
- Evasion Mastery
- Bleeding Mastery
- Critical Mastery
- Life Mastery
- Mana Mastery
- Spell Suppression Mastery
- Tincture Mastery
- Claw Mastery
👉Recommended Items For This Build
With your items try to go for modifiers that increase your lightning damage along with your attack speed and evasion. Something like this is the ideal setup:
- Imperial Claw
- Elegant Round Shield
- Nightmare Bascinate
- Triumphant Lamellar
- Dragonscale Gauntlets
- Dragonscale Boots
- Micro-Distillery Belt
- Agate Amulet
- Amethyst Ring
- The Taming Prismatic Ring
For potions, remember, the focus is on tinctures. The Potent Rosenthorn Tincture of Skill and The Potent Prismatic Tincture of Empowering should be your key potions. After that, just pop them whenever you get into an encounter and you’re all set.
Best Melee Build #2️⃣: Dual Strike of Ambidexterity Slayer
It seems as if the Slayer will always be a solid ascendancy no matter what, even more so now with the melee buff in place. This build in particular turns the Slayer into a walking tactical nuke with a massive alpha strike.
The whole idea behind this build is that you have to play it like a bruiser. Meaning, life leech perks and evasion items are your best friends. But before we get into that, let’s look at the prime skill itself.
📌Dual Strike of Ambidexterity
Regular Dual Strike just lets you hit with both weapons at the same time, with some added effects like the bonus crit strike against full-health enemies. Dual Strike of Ambidexterity is special in that it alters the skill to give you a flat-out damage boost as well as using the off-weapon attack time.
In effect, this means that each attack will use your off hand weapon attack time. So if you use a powerful main hand with a less powerful but fast attacking off hand, you’ll be getting the benefits of both with no drawbacks.
🌟 The Perks For This Build
Starting with the Ascendancy perks, here’s what’s recommended:
- Masterful Form
- Brutal Fervour
- Bane of Legends
- Headsman
Pretty standard stuff for Slayers. And here’s the recommended passive perks:
- Blood Magic
- Iron Reflexes
- Bleeding Mastery
- Leech Mastery
- Life Mastery
- Armour Mastery
- Armour and Evasion Mastery
- Attack Mastery
- Dual Wielding Mastery
- Physical Mastery
- Rage Mastery
- Spell Suppression Mastery
- Sword Mastery
👉Recommended Items For This Build
For this build, you need two items, a high damage main hand weapon and a fast attacking off hand weapon. Something like this is the ideal situation:
- Paradoxical Vaal Rapier
- Imperial Claw
- Armour/Evasion Nightmare Bascinate
- Armour/Evasion Triumphant Lamellar
- Armour/Evasion Dragonscale Gloves
- Armour/Evasion Dragonscale Boots
- Stygian Vise
- Agate Amulet
- 2x Chaos Resistant Amethyst Rings
With your potions, you’re going to want to focus on flasks that buff you or remove debuffs off of you. Things like Flask of the Tortoise, Flask of the Eagle, Flask of the Curlew, Flask of the Lynx, and a Seething Divine Life Flask of Alleviation. These will help keep you on your feet as you move through the encounters slaying everything in your way.
Best Melee Build #3️⃣: Vaal Ground Slam Slayer
Surprise surprise, it’s another Slayer build. It really can’t be helped though, as Slayer is one of the best classes in Path of Exile right now. This build focuses on enhancing the Ground Slam ability and generally has a lot more utility than the previous one.
Unlike the previous build, which is generally better at taking on powerful single entities. This build focuses on clearing large clusters of mobs while still keeping you viable against powerful single entities.
📌How Vaal Ground Slam Works
Usually, Ground Slam just creates a shockwave that travels in the direction you’re aiming. Vaal Ground Slam is different in that it creates a shockwave that travels all around you. What’s more, it does a lot more damage and it uses a soul system rather than mana to cast.
This effectively means that you can keep casting it so long as you’re replenishing your pool of souls, which in the case of mob farming is every other second.
🌟The Perks For This Build
For your Ascendancy perks, you’re going to want to get the following four:
- Bane of Legends
- Masterful Form
- Brutal Fervour
- Endless Hunger
And for your notable perks, there are only five perks that you really need. Those are:
- Magebane
- Precise Technique
- Attributes Mastery
- Life Mastery
- Physical Mastery
With the rest of your perk points, you’re going to want to spend them on unlocking specific jewel slots as this build heavily relies on them. Once you get those, you can use the remainder of your points to buff up your overall stats. The jewel slots in question are:
- Large Cluster Jewel
- Forbidden Flame Crimson Jewel
- Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel
- Forbidden Flesh Cobalt Jewel
- Ancestral Vision Viridian Jewel
- Watcher’s Eye Prismatic Jewel
👉Recommended Items For This Build
The great thing about this build is that you can run practically anything with it, however, for maximum efficiency it’s recommended that you run the following items.
- Atzir’s Disfavour Vaal Axe
- Nightmare Bascinet
- Briskwrap
- Garukhan’s Flight
- Dragonscale Gauntlets
- Cyclopean Coil
- Astramentis
- 2 x Two-Stone Rings
The final part of this build is the flasks, of which the following four are must-haves. Life Flask, Quartz Flask, Amethyst Flask, and The Lion’s Roar. With those four on your belt, you’ll become the bane of every squishy mob.