Path of Exile Duelist Hardcore Racing Guide

Decided to write this guide after dieing at rank #4 nov 11 race. Because I entered the flicker strike cave and got raped by 30 black dudes ( yes, this sounds wrong, I KNOW ).

Passive Tree:

Brutus
Merveil
Vaal
End of Race

PATH of Exile:

This is how I play: I follow a certain path and only attack groups of 4+ monsters that are grouped up within my cleave range and I only kill certain unique monsters which you will read about here as well. Do not bother wasting time attacking monster that are alone! This is the path I take:

Normal:

1. Start with killing Hillock, nothing special.
2. Enter town, hand in quest quest reward and buy an iron ring from shop.
3. Rush lower passages ( take waypoint! ) and kill The Deep Dweller.
4. Teleport town, get the quest reward and make your way to Hailrake.
5. Kill Hailrake, Portal back to town and get Phase Run from quest reward.
6. Teleport back to the passages and make your way to Brutus.
7. Portal back to town when close to Brutus and buy medium life flasks ( need 3 ).
8. Kill Brutus and make your way to Merveil.
9. Kill her and make your way to town and stock up on large life flasks.
10. Kill the Great White Beast and teleport to town for quest reward.
11. Next get the baleful gem and teleport back to town again and hand in quest.
12. Next put a portal in front of the Weavers cave and head to Alira and kill her.
13. Teleport to town and take your portal to the Weaver and kill her.
14. Portal back and turn in your quests and make your way to Oak
15. Kill oak and teleport to crossroads and help Kraitlyn.
16. Teleport back to oak and make your way to Vaal and kill him.

Cruel:

Its pretty much the same, but now you kill every unique boss and rush Hailrake for Enduring Cry which is probably your most important skill for Cruel.

Gear:

Set 1: Dual Wield 1H Sword or 1H Axe ( or both )
Set 2: Dual Wield your 2 highest dps weapons ( mace, dagger, it doesnt matter! )
Highest armour armor you can find.
Two Iron Rings
Two Life Rings vs Chaos Damage
Two Cold Resist Rings for Merveils Cave and Merveil herself
Any Amulet
Life or Strenght Belt

Swap to build 2 against bosses and unique monsters to increase heavy strike dps
You can’t cleave with set 2 so only use against bosses and unique monsters.
This is for when you find a really good rare mace or dagger!

Flasks:

3x Life Flask
1x Void Flask
1x Mana Flask

Use your orbs on them to get the desired effects!

Endurance Charges:

These are VERY VERY important!
ALWAYS have 4 endurance charges up and running.
Cast enduring cry whenever they are about to run out.
You get 20% physical damage reduction and 20% all resists!
Lets say you normally have 60% damage reduction then you will get 80% damage reduction.
60% -> 80% = half damage! ( 100 damage -> 40 damage ( 60% ) or 20 damage ( 80% ), 20 is half of 40.. )

Skill Gems:

Act 1:
Hillock: Dual Strike
Medicine Chest: Phase Run
Glyph Wall: Anything
Brutus: Hatred
Merveil: Added Cold Damage
Great White Beast: Heavy Belt
Blackguard: Anger
Maligaro’s Spike: Added Cold Damage

Cruel:
Hillock: Enduring Cry
Medicine Chest: Item Quantity
Glyph Wall: Plated Greaves
Brutus: Determination
Merveil: Melee Physical Damage
Great White Beast: Cold Ring
Blackguard: Thorn Rapier/Spectral Sword
Maligaro’s Spike: Faster Attacks

Unique Bosses:

Act 1:
Kill – Fire Fury
Kill – Hailrake
Kill – Oozeback Bloom
SKIP – Kadavrus the Defiler
Kill – The Deep Dweller
SKIP – Kuduku, the False God
Kill – Ironpoint the Forsaken
SKIP – Chatters
SKIP – Sawbones
Kill – The Burning Menace
SKIP – Fairgraves Eternal
SKIP – Stranglecharm
KILL – Amarissa, Daughter of Merveil
KILL – Ambrosia, Daughter of Merveil

Act 2
KILL – Gneiss
KILL – Calaf, the Headstaver
SKIP – Aidan the Frenzied
SKIP – Nadia the Soothing
KILL – Archbishop Geofri the Abashed
KILL – Plague Retch
SKIP – Black Death
KILL – Fidelitas, The Mourning
KILL – The Great White Beast

Why is armour more effective then life?:

Sorry for bringing this up, but people HAVE TO realize this before trying dualist!
It’s the mean reason dualist doesn’t have many hp nodes but armour nodes instead.

IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW MUCH LIFE YOU GOT!
It’s all about how much armour, resists, reaction speed and how good your flasks are!!

Example:

Monsters hitting me and I have 2 builds:
#1 – 800 hp 70% reduction from armour.
#2 – 1700 hp 40% reduction from armour.

Monster is hitting me for 100 damage:
#1 will take 30 damage per hit.
#2 will take 60 damage per hit.

#1 will be able to take 26 hits before he dies.
#2 will be able to take 28 hits before he dies.

#1 will recover life at same rate as #2 but takes 50% less damage
#1 will survive about two times longer then #2 if the battle lasted untill both died.

These are all facts, so don’t argue with me. Ofcourse this doesnt apply to certain things which the next chapter is about.

So when should you consider getting more life?:

1. WHEN YOU ARE GETTING RAPED BY CHAOS DAMAGE! This never happened to me, the life I get from my strenght and other gear is enough IMO.

2. If you have a 3 second reaction time consider getting more life…

3. When you got really unlucky finding good armor pieces and can’t get high armour and resists. You will get raped by burst damage and it’s easier to get some more life by equiping a belt or some rings.

4. When your physical damage reduction is almost maxed out and you got 75% all resists you s hould also consider more life to increase the time you have to react to damage by drinking a flask as it will go down fast but will recover even faster!

5. If this game had no flask system

6. If this game had no armour system

7. If you are fighting monsters way out of your league.

Again: you would normally think that you need more life to survive burst damage, but the truth is you need better armour, resists and potions.