Path of Exile Champion Build - Powerful Tank Support

Dual Strike Champion Build 2019

Champion is made to be more of a supportive class. He focuses on tanking minions and bosses, debuffing enemies, and buffing allies. The class is very good at taunting, impaling, and using enhanced banners and intimidating debuffs which reduce opponents' defense stats. The champion has an ability to increase his own defense by having permanent fortify buff on him, or when his life reaches the critical amount, he can gain a burst of adrenaline which increases his defense and damage output. Let's get into Path of Exile Champion Build.

His skill tree can increase evasion rating and armor which is a very nice boost to survivability. Thanks to that, you can build champion as a pure tank, or use his potential and create a tanky/dps hybrid. This class is very good at using banners and other buffing abilities. Thanks to his passives, banner skills will not reserve mana and give additional bonuses for you and your allies. As every duelist ascendancy class, the champion is based on physical type of damage. It means that you will be able to do almost all map mods without any problems.

The taunting ability helps you clearing bigger groups of mobs and additionally increases your survivability. Thanks to adrenaline buff you are basically immune for ailments like burning or freeze and have increased damage output. Thanks to embedded impale skill, you are able to inflict debuff which increases your physical damage for each hit you deal to your opponents. The class is perfect for newbie players because of the fact that it is very easy to play and builds are not expensive. Almost every build is based on cheap unique items which cost some chaos orbs. While playing the champion class you can use dual swords or sword combined with a shield. Now, I will introduce the most powerful champion ascendancy passive skills and shortly describe them. Later in the guide, I will show proper itemization described in detail.

Champion passive skills

Inspirational - a buff passive skill which increases the effects of banner skills. The first improve it gives is no mana reservation for banner skills. Then, every buff skill you use has a 15% increased effect. What is more, placed banners gives you 0,5% life regeneration for each stage the banner has. It provides very nice buff for you and your allies survivability. Additionally, your banners increase 12% of movement speed for you and your friends.

First to Strike, Last to Fall - the second buff passive skill which makes your attacks intimidate opponents when they are on a full life. Additionally, it provides adrenaline buff when you are on low life if you don’t have adrenaline from a different source. What is more, when you gain adrenaline, every negative aliment effects are removed. Very good passive, especially in the end game on t16 maps.

Unstoppable Hero - a passive skill which effectiveness is based on Fortify buff. It grants 10% of attack speed, 30% of melee physical damage when you have Fortify activated. Why is more, when Fortify buff is on, you are immune for stuns and gain an additional 1000 armor and evasion rating. Perfect passive skill if care more about survivability than about damage.

Fortitude - a buff skill which gives you Fortify buff permanently.

Conqueror - a passive skill which grants you taunt ability and gives additional bonuses when enemies are taunted. Thanks to this passive you have 100% to taunt opponents on hit. Additionally, taunted enemies deal 6% less damage to you. Also, when you taunt opponents, you gain 2% maximum health regeneration. What is more, taunted enemies deal reduced damage by 10% against other targets.

Worthy Foe - worthy foe is worth having a passive skill which increases physical damage by 20% dealt towards taunted enemies. Additionally, taunted enemies can't evade your attacks what is very important especially when fighting with bosses with high evasion.

Master of Metal - a passive skill which increases your armor and physical damage dealt. When you impale an enemy, you and your friends gain 1000 additional armor which is a strong boost to your survivability. Additionally, impale lasts 2 hits longer on opponents. Furthermore, you gain 20% to inflict Impale on the opponents with every attack you deal. Also, you and nearby allies gain 8 physical damage more for each impale stack on the opponent.

Passive skills play a very important role when building your character. Every build needs a different skill set in order to work properly. For each class, passive skills are characterized by different bonuses and additional ailments. The champion skill tree is very balanced. It boosts your damage but at the same time your survivability. Because of that, we do not have to be worried about having any damage in the late game or no defense stats to survive even the easiest bosses. In this part of the guide, I will write the pros and cons of Double Strike build.

POE Champion Advantages

Mixed damage and survivability - the champion passive skill tree is mainly focused on increasing your survivability. If you use proper gear, you can mix this survivability with high damage output which comes from the equipment. Thanks to that, you will be able to clear uber lab and even facetank bosses like shaper or atziri.

Adrenaline buff - thanks to embedded adrenaline buff, you gain more physical damage, attack speed and movement speed without any additional gear. It will make your mapping a lot faster.

Can do all map mods - thanks to physical source of damage you are able to make all map mods. Also, your passive skill tree is helping you with mapping thanks to increased stats and taunts.

Cheap itemization - every piece of gear cost around 20-30 chaos orbs. It means that you will not need to spend thousands of hours to buy proper itemization. Even required high-end uniques are rather cheap, so the build is perfect for casual players.

Permanent Fortify - thanks to the passive skill tree you have permanent fortify effect. Because of that, received damage is reduced basically for free. It will be very useful in the end game when minions and bosses deal crazy amount of damage.

Banners do not reserve mana - because of banners no mana reservation you can use additional heralds which will increase your stats even more.

Perfect to play in the party - the champion is a support class which will be useful in every party. You can taunt enemies, buff you and your allies, or support with additional damage. All that makes this class perfect to play in a party or to be a solo farmer.

Very good league starter – the build is made of very cheap items. What is more, thanks to cheap starting itemization you can easily farm currency for further item parts. Also, the build is very easy to play and deal tons of damage to opponents. All these factors make champion class perfect as a league starter.

Stuns immunity – thanks to the passive skill tree your character is immune for stuns when fortify buff is on. It will help you when doing higher tier maps like t15 or t16. Also, making uber lab will be much easier for you.

Tons of AoE damage and single target damage – by using double strike skill you gain nice attack speed and also very nice mapping potential due to high AoE damage. Also, when fighting with bosses, your damage is just insane. With the high-end build, you basically melt bosses and minions.

champion Disadvantages

Abyssus helmet – in order to increase your damage output you will have to buy abyssus helmet. It not only boosts your damage but also increases damage received from minion by 50%. This might be lethal for you in some situations. Because of that I highly recommend having starakonja’s helmet in the inventory.

Melee playstyle – unfortunately, the champion does not offer various playstyles like a duelist. The champion focuses on melee damage so you will have to be careful when fighting because if you launch out it may cause serious problems and probably lost experience.

Equipment

Items play a very important role in every champion build. Players always have problems with choosing the right itemization for a particular build. Because of the fact that the path of exile has thousands of items, you will have to be prepared to learn some basics about them and choose the proper one for your build. Without good itemization, the build won’t offer enough clear speed or your champion will be not tanky enough to survive when fighting on maps or with bosses.  The Path of Exile is a typical grinding gear game, so you should keep in mind that you will swap your items very often. Below, I will introduce proper items for Double Strike Champion Duelist build which is absolutely the best one for this class. I will familiarize you with early and end game itemization and shortly describe each item.

A) Weapon

In this build, you can start with two kinds of weapons. The first one is claws which deal nice damage but only when you have low life. The second one is the one-handed swords. I prefer using swords, especially in the early game because they are cheap and deal nice damage, even on a full life. For perfect game starting sword, you should look for The Princess Sabre.  You can use it at level 10. This sword increases your physical damage by 50% and attack speed by 15%. Also, it converts your physical damage into cold damage what will perfectly cooperate with Hatred buff. Use two of them in order to maximize the damage output.

Then, at level 28 you switch your current swords for Lakishu's Blade Elegant Sword. It boosts your damage output more and supports socketed skills with multistrike. Thanks to that your ability will be automatically repeated with no mana costs. Wear two of them. When you reach level 32, switch your swords for Ephemeral Edge Dusk Blade. This sword gives you 150% more physical damage which is an enormous amount in the early game. Furthermore, it increases your critical strike chance by 50%. An additional advantage of this sword is damage conversion for mana. Thanks to that you will not have problems with it in the early game. You will use it to level 47.

When you reach level 47 you pick Innsbury Edge Elder Sword which gives you a strong boost to your damage and survivability. It increases not only your physical damage but also attacks speed which is a very important factor when using double strike. Additionally, it gives your life leech with each hit. It will boost the effect of atziri’s potion. In the late game, you can also use claws or two swords. The first option is Paradoxica Vaal Rapier which deals insane damage to bosses and minions. It boosts your physical damage, gives you a nice chance to deal critical strike or even inflict poison on hit. What is more, you always deal double damage when attacking with these swords. They are expensive (the cost is around two exalted orbs for both) but really worth spending some currency.

The second option is the claws. In the main hand, you should wear Bloodseeker Hellion's Paw which increases physical damage output and life leech. In the offhand, The Wasp Nest Throat Stabber is recommended. It increases your critical strike chance by 20%, attack speed and physical damage by 150%. Additionally, you have a 20% chance to inflict poison on targets which is a very nice boost to your dot damage. Claws are very cheap so I recommend using them in the late game. When it comes to the end game, switch those claws for Paradoxica rapiers. I guarantee that you will see the difference between these two weapons.

b) Helmet

The perfect helmet for league beginning should have a nice amount of elemental resistances and attributes. For this build, you will need strength and dexterity. You can choose between those two attributes. The rare helmet with increased elemental resistances by 20% and at least 30 strength or dexterity will do the job. The second option is getting Goldrim Leather Cap which boosts your survivability. Thanks to this helmet you gain an additional  35% of elemental resistances. It will be very useful in the early game. When you reach 33 level you can switch Goldrim for Deidbell Gilded Sallet. Such helmet boosts your survivability and physical damage. Also, it gives you dexterity which is necessary when leveling the gems. Remember to change Goldrim only when you have the possibility to get elemental resistances from other gear parts. If not, you can use Goldrim until the late game.

In the late game, you have possibilities of the helmet to choose. The first one is Abyssus Ezomyte Burgonet. As it was mentioned in the introduction, abyssus significantly boosts your damage output but at the same time, makes enemies deal more damage to you. If you will decide to play with this helmet, remember to play more carefully. If you will be too brave it might cause fast death. Additionally, it boosts all attributes which will be very useful to level up gems. The second option is Starkonja's Head Silken Hood. This helmet is a perfect option when you seek for balance between damage and survivability. It gives you 10% of attack speed and 25% for critical strike chance. Furthermore, it boosts your maximum health and evasion rating when your life is below the acceptable amount. The last option is the elder rare helmet with high elemental resistances. You should pick it only when you really need to make up resistance caps. This helmet should have the following attributes:

increased cold resistance (at least 35%)

increased fire resistance (at least 35%)

increased lightning resistance (at least 40%)

an additional amount of life (80 points would be nice)

nearby enemies take % more physical damage (10% will be enough)

c) Belt

In the early game, all you need are elemental resistances and an additional boost to maximum life. If you look for a unique starting belt String of Servitude Heavy Belt is a very good option. It is very important to seek for the one which will increase your elemental resistances. You can gain up to 50% of resistances from this belt. You can wear this belt to level 20.

When you reach level 20, change Servitude for Belt of the Deceiver Heavy Belt. It gives you a nice boost to elemental resistances. Also, damage received from critical strikes is lowered by 30%. In the late game you can keep Belt of the Deceiver Heavy Belt or switch it for Tempest Strap Stygian Vise which will decrease your damage but at the same increase your survivability twice. The perfect stygian vise should contain the following stats:

increased fire resistance (35% would be nice)

increased cold resistance (30% will be enough)

increased lightning resistance (40% will be nice)

increased all resistances (hard to get but it is the best scenario for this belt)

additional health boost (80 points boost)

d) Gloves

In order to get perfect stating gloves you should on the one which will increase your elemental resistances and if possible damage output by boosting attack speed. All these factors are required if you want to clear story maps faster. The best gloves options are Hrimsorrow Goathide Gloves  or Lochtonial Caress Iron Gauntlets. First gloves increase your elemental damage by converting 50% of physical damage into the cold type of damage. This factor will perfectly cooperate with hatred buff gem. What is more, you get high strength amount needed to level up gems and some additional health. The second gloves give you more offensive stats and increase your attack speed up to 15%.

When you reach 35 level you can pick  Meginord's Vise Steel Gauntlets. These piece of equipment gives you a significant boost to strength, 10% of physical damage and survivability. In the mid-game, there are no better gloves which will be that cheap. When you reach the late game you have two possibilities. The first one is Tombfist Steelscale Gauntlets. These gloves have abyssal sockets, same as a stygian vise. Thanks to that you can increase your damage output and gain Intimidate or Maim if you insert proper socket. The gloves itself increase your attack speed and % of your maximum life. It is important to look for already corrupted gloves to gain phys. vulnerability on hit.  The second option is elder rare gloves with the following stats:

attack speed boost (15% would be good)           

all elemental resistances boost (at least 40% of each)

dexterity and intelligence if possible (30-40 points)

increased physical damage penetration (5% will be enough)

e) Boots

In the early game, the most important factors are movement speed and elemental resistances. That's why you should look for the rare boots with increased movement speed by at least 20% and elemental resistances by 20%. There is also the possibility to wear Seven-League Step Rawhide Boots. These boots are very expensive especially for newbie players (1 exalted orb) but give you the biggest amount of movement speed in the game. Only more advanced players can afford these boots.

The more budgetary option of starting boots are Wanderlust Wool Shoes. Such boots increase your movement speed by 20%, dexterity, and regeneration of mana which will be useful when it comes to leveling up gems. In the mid game, you should invest in rare boots with additional elemental resistances and at least 30% of movement speed, or leave seven league step if you bought them in the early game. When you reach late game you should buy Kaom's Roots Titan Greaves or elder rare boots. If you choose kaom’s roots your survivability will be boosted by increasing maximum health and unwavering stance skill from these boots. The skill gives you immunity for stuns but at the same time disable evading minions and bosses attacks. It does not affect your dodge chance. It is very important especially on t16 maps and higher instances like uber lab or atziri. The second possibility are elder rare boots with elemental resistances and high movement speed. Such boots should have the following attributes:

Increased lightning/cold/fire resistance – at least 40%

Increased movement speed – at least 30%

Increased attack speed – 12% is a fair amount

Boost to your maximum life – at least 80

f) Armor

In the early game, the most important thing is to have armor which will be equipped with six linked sockets. The best option is when the sockets have no specified type. There is a possibility to get rare armor with specific sockets or get Tabula Rasa Simple Robe which is probably the best armor for early game. Having rare armor with specified sockets is expensive and not worth having because you will finally need to change it. Tabula Rasa armor can be worn until you reach late game, so the profit from it will be higher. Such armor is cheap and contains everything you need. Thanks to its sockets you will be able to modify your gem setup whenever you want. In the further part, I will show you which gems will be the best, but you are free to edit it and fit your playstyle.

The late game armors are a hard nut to crack. You will need to choose armor which will fit your playstyle the most. If you prefer “Rambo style” you take the offensive one which increases your damage, or if you prefer defensive playstyle, you take the one which gives you tons of survivability. The first offensive option is Loreweave Elegant Ringmail which highly boosts your damage output. It gives you increased critical chance, additional physical damage to attacks and increased elemental damage which will be useful when using elemental boosters like for example potions. The second option, this time defensive one, is  Belly of the Beast Full Wyrmscale which highly boost your survivability. Thanks to boost to your elemental resistances and increased maximum life, you will be able to survive stronger minions and bosses. If you need resistances, you should consider getting elder armor with the following stats:

Increased fire/cold/lightning resistance – at least 40%

Increased all resistances – if possible 12% is the maximum amount

Gems are supported with maim – an additional boost to survivability

% boost to your maximum life – 8% would be good

Increased maximum life – at least 80

g) Amulet

The early game, the best possible option for an amulet is to get the one with elemental resistances, attributes, and maximum life. Focus on having at least 15% of elemental resistances, boost to all attributes and some additional boost to your maximum life. You can use rare amulet with such stats or get unique Carnage Heart Onyx Amulet. This amulet is increasing your elemental resistances by 20% and give you a minimum 50 points to your all attributes. It will be very important when increasing the level of your gems. Furthermore, you gain additional damage when life leeching. It will perfectly work with atziri flask effect.

There is also the possibility to get Daresso's Salute Citrine Amulet which mostly gives you a nice boost to your melee damage output, movement speed, and fire/cold resistances. In the late game you can still use one of the suggested early game amulets or switch for the rare one which will increase the following stats:

Increased all attributes – at least 20

Physical damage boost – it should add at least 10 to 25 physical damage to your attacks

Global critical strike multiplier – 15% would be nice

Increased all elemental resistances – at least 12%

Increased cold/fire/lightning resistance – 35% of each will be enough

In the end game, you can buy Solstice Vigil Onyx Amulet which costs around 3 exalted orbs. This amulet will significantly boost your damage output and survivability. The most important attribute it gives is Shaper’s presence for 10 seconds which increases all effects on you and your allies. So, it means that every kind of buff will expire slower.

h) Rings

When looking for the best starting ring, you should look for elemental resistances, all attribute boost and increased damage. The best starting ring should have at least 15% of elemental resistances, 15 boost to all attributes and boost to your physical damage. For the second ring, you should get Le Heup of All Iron Ring which is a perfect game starter. It boosts almost every stat which is required for the early game. It gives you a nice boost to all resistances, increase 30% of your physical damage, and all attributes which will be necessary to level up the gems. I recommend buying it at level 24.

When you reach level 45, change your rare ring with resistances for Sibyl's Lament Coral Ring. It increases your damage output even more. It is perfect combo with Le Heup and will help you to clear story maps faster. In the late game, you will need a combo of unique ring and shaper item. There is no better alternative if you really care about maximizing your damage and survivability. In the first ring slot, you will need Mark of the Elder Steel Ring which increases your physical damage, cold damage source, maximum life and gives you a chance to use tentacle whip which gives you an additional source of physical damage to the minions. What is more, you can increase your damage even more by wearing a shaper ring in the second ring slot. The shaper ring should have the following attributes:

Increased elemental resistances if you need to make up the caps

Increased dexterity

Increased intelligence

Additional physical damage boost

Boost to maximum health

i) Potions

For fast and efficient clearing maps, you will need proper gear, passive skills set and potions. Flasks are one of the most important factors when building your character. There are many different types of flasks. Some of them can increase your damage output, others will boost your survivability. There are also potions which are responsible for crowd control effects like for example fear nearby targets or knock up when the potion is used. In order to make your build correctly, you will need specific potions which will mostly boost your survivability. The Double Strike champion is very offensive build when it comes to equipment, so having some additional survivability boosters would be a very good idea. Below, I will show you the best set of flasks for this build and describe them in detail. If you have problems with finding the flasks in game, go to the path of exile market.

The first potion which is recommended for this build is a life regenerator with some additional attributes in it. The potion should not only regenerate your health but also remove bleeding and additionally grant temporal bleeding immunity. Such potion will be necessary for the late game when all minions and bosses have an ability to cause bleeding on our character. Here you have the best possible option of such potion: Seething Divine Life Flask of Staunching.

The second potion required in this setup is Sin's Rebirth Stibnite Flask. The potion is responsible for boosting our damage output while fighting with minions and bosses. The potion grant unholy might during flask effect which is a buff that converts 30% of your physical damage into additional chaos damage. The potion will perfectly work in combo with Atziri Promise flask. This flask will be also useful in critical situations when you will need a fast escape. When you use it, you create smoke cloud which inflicts blind on opponents.

When it comes to the third potion, you should look for Atziri's Promise Amethyst Flask. This potion is responsible for boosting the effect of sins rebirth flask and also our survivability by increasing life leech. It converts 20% of your physical damage into extra chaos damage. Furthermore, it gives you life leech based on your chaos damage dealt. When you use Sin’s Rebirth and Atziri potion at the same time, your life leech will be insane.

All of the potions mentioned above are rather damage boosters. In the fourth flask slot, you will need a potion which will increase not only your damage but also survivability. The perfect potion will be Lion's Roar Granite Flask. It is responsible for boosting your physical damage and armor. Additionally, the potion has a chance to cause monsters to flee which will be important in critical situations. The potion gives you 3000 of armor and 30% of physical damage. There is no better equivalent of this potion.

For the last potion, we will need the one which will increase our movement speed. Such potion will allow us to clear t16 maps faster. Here is the example of perfect movement speed booster: Experimenter's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline. The potion provides 60% of movement speed and stacks regeneration when you deal critical strike on the opponent. This potion is also mandatory for this build.

j) list of gems

In this part of the guide, I will introduce the best gems you can socket in your gear. It is important to fallow this gem setup if you want this build to work correctly.

armor gems

Armor – six linked sockets are mandatory for this build (four red sockets, one blue and one green socket)

Double Strike - a gem which allows us to use melee attack which strikes two fast attacks which deal physical damage to the opponents. This skill will be your main ability to kill minions with. It deals more damage to bleeding targets. It is important to increase the quality to gain an additional 10% of attack speed.

Increased Critical Strikes Support - a support gem which increases your critical strike multiplier for linked attack gems. It gives you 103% more critical damage when you deal a critical strike. If you increase the gem quality, you can get 15% critical damage multiplier more.

Melee Physical Damage Support - a support gem which increases your melee physical damage. It gives you an additional 50% physical damage to your basic attacks. Furthermore, it increases your damage against bleeding or poisoned targets by 50%. By increasing the quality, you can gain an additional 10% increased melee physical damage.

Multistrike Support - a support gem which repeats linked attack skill twice after using it. When we use our double strike we will hit the target 6 times instead of two. If you kill the target faster, the gem will automatically select proper targets to hit. Additionally, your melee attack speed is increased by 94%. By increasing the quality you gain 10% more physical damage.

Melee Splash Support - thanks to this support skill your main attack ability will deal are of effect damage, so basically you will transform single target attack to AoE ability. Because of that, you will be able to clear instances faster. By increasing the quality you gain an additional 10% AoE damage.

Ancestral Call Support - a support gem which increases your ability to deal AoE damage. It makes your attack skill target 2 enemies more and deal more splash damage. With the gem quality on maximum level, you gain 10% more of attack speed.

weapon gems

Weapon  three linked sockets are mandatory (two red sockets and one green socket)

Herald Of Purity - a buff gem which increases your physical damage with attack skills. It activates an aura which adds from 3 to 37 physical damage to spells and attacks. What is more, when you kill an enemy you summon sentinel of purity. Summoned minions deal 95% of your maximum physical damage and have 38% more life. You can summon max. 4 sentinels. By increasing the quality, your minions will gain 20% movement speed more.

Dread Banner - a banner gem which allows you to place a banner which provides Impale and Fortify skills effect. Additionally the banner decrease accuracy for nearby opponents. Impale buff gives you additional physical damage and Fortify gives you 20% of damage reduction. It is a perfect buff for our class because we can focus on the more offensive build when this gem boosts our survivability.

Hatred - a buff gem which supports you with an additional source of damage. It converts your physical damage into extra cold damage. It boosts not only your damage output but also your allies. Thanks to this gem, 25% of your phys. damage is converted to extra cold damage.

Second weapon - Three linked sockets  (two green sockets and one red socket)

The purity of ice - an aura gem which gives you additional cold resistance. It grants 41% more cold resistance. In this build, you will lack this resist so having this gem is mandatory. Additionally, your maximum amount of cold resistance is increased by 4% for you and your allies.

Blood Rage - a buff gem which increases your attack speed and life leech when active. It gives you 15% of attack speed and 1,2% of physical damage leeched as life. Furthermore, the buff can be refreshed after minion or boss kill. It also offers a 25% chance to gain a frenzy charge on kill.

Ancestral Protector/Cast when damage taken - in the last slot you can socket cast when damage taken which will activate blood rage when you get a certain amount of damage or get ancestral protector which is a buffing totem. It deals additional physical damage to the targets and gives you a buff which increases your attack speed.

Gloves - 4 linked sockets (two red sockets, one green, and one blue socket)

Cast When Damage Taken (LVL 20) - a support gem which activates buff skill gems when you get a certain amount of damage. In this case, it will activate Immortal call buff.

Immortal Call - a buff gem which gives you immunity for physical damage for a short duration. The duration of this buff can be increased thanks to supporting gem or depending on how many endurance charges skill to remove. By increasing the quality, you will be able to cast the buff 20% faster.

Increased Duration Support - a support gem which increases the duration of linked buff gems. You can increase 64% more skill duration. Furthermore, if you increase the gem quality, you can get an additional 10% of the increased buff duration.

Summon Lightning Golem - a minion gem which allows you to summon buffing golem. Summoned golem gives you increased attack or casting speed depending on what class you are playing. What is more, the golem deals lightning damage and cast an aura which increases your lightning damage. By increasing the gem quality your golem gain 20% of maximum life and 20% more minion damage.

Boots 4 linked sockets (three red sockets and one blue socket)

Cast When Damage Taken Support (remember to keep it at level 1) - a support gem which activates buff skill gems when you get a certain amount of damage. In this case, it will activate Immortal call buff.

Immortal Call (remember to keep it at level 3) - Immortal Call - a buff gem which gives you immunity for physical damage for a short duration. The duration of this buff can be increased thanks to supporting gem or depending on how many endurance charges skill removes. By increasing the quality, you will be able to cast the buff 20% faster.

Increased Duration Support (remember to keep it at level 20) - a support gem which increases the duration of linked buff gems. You can increase 64% more skill duration. Furthermore, if you increase the gem quality, you can get an additional 10% of the increased buff duration.

Enfeeble (remember to keep it at level 3) - a cursed gem which decreases enemies damage, critical strike chance and accuracy. It reduces 19% of enemies accuracy, 25% of critical strike chance and damage output by 30%. A very useful gem in this build because it strongly boosts your survivability. By increasing the gem quality the effect of this curse decrease more accuracy and critical strike chance.

Helmet 4 linked sockets ( two red sockets and two green sockets)

Whirling Blades - an attack skill which will be our support ability to deal additional damage. When you use this skill, your throw series of swords which deal physical damage to the enemies. It deals 99% of your base damage. By increasing the quality you gain 10% of attack speed. The skill is mainly used to move faster through the maps.

Faster Attacks Support - a support skill which boosts linked skill attack speed. Thanks to that your whirling blades will be cast much faster. The gem increases 45% of your attack speed. By increasing the quality you can get an additional 10% of attack speed.

Blood Magic Support - a support gem which makes your skill use life instead of mana. Since Whirling blades do not require much mana to be used, you will not even feel that your life drops. If you increase the quality, you can get 10% reduced mana costs.

Fortify Support - a buff gem which increases melee physical damage of supported attack skills. Thanks to this gem you gain fortify skill on each hit and 44% of physical damage. Also, these gem increases fortify duration by 25%.

k) Skill Tree (also viable in Synthesis league)

Skill tree for Dual Strike Champion Duelist with the ascendancy

l) Bandits

If you want to maximize your damage output you should kill all of the bandits. Two additional points in your skill tree can change a lot when it comes to damage. If you prefer a more defensive option, help Alira. Helping Alira grants you a good amount of damage and survivability. Additionally, you gain mana regeneration so it is also nice for our build.

m) Pantheon   

main God - Soul of Lunaris - in the late game we will need survivability so the Lunaris blessing is the best possible option. It reduces received damage and your health regeneration. Also, movement speed is increased which will be helpful when mapping.                        

minor God - Soul of Gruthkul – in order to boost your survivability more you should choose blessing of Gruthkul. It will increase your resistance for physical damage and reduce enemies attack speed when they hit you. Blessing from Ralakesh can be also a good option if you are looking for maim and blind immunities.

n) Jewels

In normal jewels you should look for:

- Maximum health boost

- Added physical damage to hits

- Increased critical multiplier

- Increased damage when dual-wielding

- Attack speed boost

- Increased life leech

- Resistances if you need to make up the caps

In abyssal jewel (a jewel which is needed to tombfist gloves and stygian vise) you should look for:

- Increased damage when dual-wielding

- Physical damage boost

- Some boosts to life leech

- Boost to damage if you have killed

- Chance to cause bleed on target

- Resistances if you need