U4GM PoE 3.27 Lacerate Gladiator Still One of the Best Melee Builds

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The Lacerate Gladiator in PoE 3.27 is a familiar and comfortable choice for players who like bleed-based melee builds that feel sturdy without giving up clear speed or boss damage. It sits in that sweet spot between melee and ranged play, letting you attack from just far enough away to stay safe while bleed damage and explosions clean up the screen PoE 1 Currency. This version works well on a budget, making it a solid league starter that can grow into red maps and endgame content as you put more currency into it.

Everything revolves around Lacerate and its strong interaction with bleed. You'll usually swap between Blood Stance and Sand Stance depending on what you're doing. Sand Stance gives you wider coverage for mapping, while Blood Stance focuses your damage for tougher enemies and bosses. Lacerate's sweeping attacks let you hit enemies without standing directly on top of them, which helps avoid dangerous ground effects. Since most of your damage comes from bleed rather than critical strikes, scaling physical damage over time and bleed multipliers is far more important than chasing crit stats. Gladiator ties the whole setup together by boosting block and turning bleeding enemies into explosive chain reactions that make dense content feel great.

Ascendancy choices lean into both offense and defense. Early points usually go into Blood in the Eyes and Gratuitous Violence, which give you maim, stronger bleeds, and the signature explosions that clear packs effortlessly. Later on, Versatile Combatant and another defensive node convert your block chance into strong protection against both attacks and spells. Once your gear is in place, this makes the character feel extremely hard to kill, which is important for a build that wants to stay close enough to enemies to apply Lacerate consistently.

On the passive tree, you spread out through the Duelist area and into nearby sections to pick up life, armor, block, and bleed damage. Physical damage over time and bleed multiplier nodes are high priority, along with the large life wheels that keep you comfortable in harder maps. Because the build doesn't rely on critical strikes, you can skip most crit clusters and spend those points on defenses or quality-of-life stats like leech and ailment avoidance. As your budget grows, adding cluster jewels that boost bleed and physical damage over time is an easy way to scale damage further without changing how the build plays.

Your main Lacerate setup focuses on maximizing bleed damage. Supports like Brutality, Deadly Ailments or other bleed-focused multipliers, Swift Affliction, and Multistrike are common choices, with flexibility depending on your mana and gear. Movement skills such as Leap Slam or Shield Charge help you move smoothly through maps, and Molten Shell pairs very well with heavy armor investment. Utility skills usually include Blood and Sand for stance swapping, War Banner, Vulnerability for tougher enemies, and a combination of auras like Pride and Determination, depending on how much reservation your gear allows.

When it comes to gear, the weapon matters most. A high physical DPS axe or sword will carry you early, and later upgrades with bleed or physical damage over time multipliers make a huge difference. You don't need anything fancy at the start; a solid rare weapon is enough to get going. For defenses, armor-based or hybrid armor gear with good life and resistances works well, combined with a shield that adds block chance. Jewelry should focus on life, resistances, and physical damage to attacks early on, with bleed or damage over time multipliers becoming more important as you progress. Over time, adding spell suppression, chaos resistance, or extra block helps smooth out the hardest content.

Mapping with the build is simple and satisfying. You usually stay in Sand Stance, dash into a pack, hit once or twice to apply bleeds, and move on while explosions and damage over time finish everything behind you. For bosses and tanky rares, switching to Blood Stance, applying Vulnerability, and keeping up your attacks lets bleed ramp up quickly PoE buy Currency. The build's defenses allow you to take a lot of hits, but you still want to respect major slams and dangerous ground effects, especially in endgame boss fights.

As you push deeper into 3.27, progression is mostly about refining what already works. Upgrading your weapon, pushing life higher, tightening up resistances, and adding layers like spell suppression all add up. Endgame gear options can further boost bleed damage or block, and with enough investment, Lacerate Gladiator is capable of handling T17 maps and even Uber bosses. It keeps the same smooth, explosive playstyle from early maps all the way to the top, which is why it continues to be one of the most popular melee builds in the current patch.