Overview
This build turns the Gemling Legionnaire into a brutally fast dual-mace bruiser built around Sunder. The whole engine is attack speed: Sunder grants a large more-multiplier to attack speed on its own, and the Gemling’s alternate-quality gem support lets you stack even more on top, so by the time you layer in War Banner, Berserk rage and the reworked leech changes you are swinging an absurd number of times per second.
The ascendancy is the star. Gemling Legionnaire’s gem-quality bonuses let this build squeeze multiple stacked damage and action-speed rolls out of a single notable through Integrated Efficiency, while Gem-Studded removes the critical-damage downside of running a wall of red gems. The result plays much like a Path of Exile 1 melee bruiser — fast, physical and tanky rather than a one-tap glass cannon.
Defensively the build leans hard into evasion and deflection. Stacking deflection nodes plus Constricting Command (which boosts evasion when enemies are near) pushes damage prevention to roughly 49%, and the reworked leech keeps a ~3,000 effective pool topped off, so it can stand in juiced maps and trade blows.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Extremely high attack speed that snowballs near enemies via Constricting Command
- Strong layered defenses — heavy deflection, evasion scaling and constant leech
- Genuine all-content viability: clears juiced 6-mod T15 maps and has cleared endgame pinnacles
- Plays like classic PoE1 melee, which many players find satisfying
- Flexible — earthquake, perma-Hammer setups and Dance with Death are all on the table as upgrades
Cons
- Gear-gated: your maces must be master-crafted (high attack speed, +levels, flat phys) to come online
- Many moving parts — Blood Hound’s Mark, Herald of Blood triggers, banner and Hammer setup take practice
- Not a one-shot bossing build; single-target is solid but relies on the full loop
- Needs Constricting Command rolled to 4 (ideally corrupted to 5) to keep the evasion buff fully active
Key Skills
- Sunder — main attack, carrying Rage, Brutality and Bleed for both damage and a 100% bleed chance
- Herald of Blood — packs explode via bleed, magnified-area poison provides the pack clear
- Hammer of the Gods / Forge Hammer — the big committed slam, dropped via Zerphi’s Infamy for reduced glory cost
- Blood Hound’s Mark — applies Mark for Death and stun/armour-break setup against tough targets
- War Banner + Berserk — accuracy, attack speed and rage generation that fuel the whole loop
Gear & Anointments
The weapon archetype is twin maces (the creator tried Facebreakers first but found them too restrictive on a Warrior-skill setup) — you want +levels, attack speed, flat physical and leech, which generally means master crafting rather than buying. Key uniques include Zerphi’s Infamy (cheaper Hammer of the Gods), Duresso’s Passion (50% less glory for the banner) and an evasion helm such as Harri’s Eye to double evasion while not recently hit. The anoint is Fortifying Blood for increased leech and 40% increased evasion. Rings should roll flat physical and leech on both. Specific item rolls should be confirmed against the source video.
Endgame Notes
The creator has taken this into endgame pinnacles and farms juiced T15 maps with maxed (6-mod) rolls, so it is firmly an endgame build rather than a leveling project. Ascendancy priority is Virtuous Barrier into Advanced Thermalurgy, then Gem-Studded and Integrated Efficiency for the stacked-quality damage. On the tree, prioritise the deflection path and the Constricting Command radial nodes for the near-enemy evasion and attack-speed swing.
Credits & Source
Build credited to JorgenPOE. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage, tree and gear breakdown: Hyper Speed Dual Maces Sunder Gemling Build Guide.