Community streamer Zizaran is hosting a Gauntlet event where you'll find yourself racing to level up and kill challenging bosses in order to have a chance to win physical and/or microtransaction prizes. The Gauntlet is called "Runic Strife" and it offers a completely new and unique Path of Exile experience that you'll be able to compete in on September 27th. The Runic Strife Gauntlet will have a re-tuned campaign with some bosses being insanely strong. The main idea behind this PoE Gauntlet is to have an unpassable campaign, with mapping then being very easy and with pinnacle uber-bosses being extremely hard. Keep in mind, this event is strictly Hardcore—once you die, your character and all the gear are lost forever. It's also Solo Self-Found, meaning no player interactions like grouping or trading are allowed. Since the Gauntlet is so hard and a lot of people will be playing it, I've decided to curate some of the most popular 3.25 PoE Gauntlet starter builds to give you a chance at competing with the best!
Alkaizer's Juggernaut Earthshatter
You can pick between Juggernaut or Berserker for Alkaizer's Earthshatter build. Berserker does about 2-2.5 times more damage, but Juggernaut is practically unkillable, at least until Uber bosses.
If you're unfamiliar with Earthshatter, here's how it works: you hit the ground, causing spikes to erupt, and you can automate this process with war cries. Typically, you'll get around three spikes hitting a single target, highly dependant on the hitbox, which means it's good versus bosses. Small targets might only get two, while larger ones can get hit by four or five spikes. On average, you can expect around three spikes per hit. Alkaizer also made a leveling guide for Marauder which is used until you get access to the Earthshatter gem.
Pr3vy's BAMA Necromancer
"BAMA", short for "Blink and Mirror Arrow," revolves around using Blink Arrow and/or Mirror Arrow skills. These skills summon temporary clones of the player character equipped with a copy of the player's bow and quiver and are treated & scaled as minions.
Previously, BAMA builds utilized both Blink and Mirror Arrow base gems, each in separate six-linked setups and so this is where the build got its name. These days though, we have access to Blink Arrow of Bombarding Clones which makes this build much easier to understand and run. While it does require you to farm lab for the transfigured gem, you've got two options early on: level with rolling magma & firestorm until you get the gem or just run the build using regular Blink Arrow / Mirror Arrow instead. This build is very tanky and is mainly a boss killer, however the mapping is not too shabby either.
Pr3vy has written a very in-depth BAMA build guide that you can read about here, and here's the BAMA PoB link.
Ben's Lightning Strike Slayer
Ben played the Lightning Strike Slayer build in HC SSF this league and it is a build that features insane dps, and high survivability through overleech. It offers a perfect balance of offense, defense, and ease of use, making it one of the top choices for the gauntlet. It excels in both mapping and bossing, with a versatile setup that allows you to deal both ranged and melee damage, all while remaining exceptionally tanky. Slayer's over-leech mechanic, overcapped block, and evasion provide strong defenses.
One of the build’s standout features is its low-maintenance playstyle, relying mostly on Lightning Strike for both clear and single-target damage. The ease of gearing, with many necessary items being very craftable, ensures that you can scale your damage and defense consistently even on SSF. The build can handle tough content, including Uber bosses, without breaking a sweat. Although it has minor downsides like difficulty capping chaos resistance or handling some damage-over-time effects, the sheer power, flexibility, and tankiness make this Slayer one of the best league starters and potential build of the league.
Everseen's Sunder Bleed Gladiator
Sunder Bleed Gladiator is currently one of the most meta starter builds out there and will be excellent for the upcoming gauntlet. It features comfortable mapping and decent bossing and Everseen has been playing it in Hardcore Solo Self-Found (HCSSF) this league so it's a tried and tested setup that works from the start. The build excels at recovery on block, providing great sustain during maps and bosses, making it perfect if you're trying out Gauntlet for the first time.
The build has amazing clear speed due to Bleed explosions, reaches 90% block chance for both attacks and spells due to Lucky Block, while also having access to six endurance charges and tons of armor from Iron Reflexes, making tankiness not an issue. It also has no problems with gearing and bossing damage will scale up significantly once you get a decent amount of bleed multi.
Ben's Ice Nova of Frostbolts Archmage
In one of Ben's recent videos, Ben hinted at the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Archmage being his 3.25 PoE Gauntlet build. For those that don't know, Archmage Hiero got a big defensive buff this league! The build has insane DPS while maintaining high tanky-ness through a huge effective life pool (life, es and mana with MoM). It can do all the content in the game and it has insane map clear & single target damage. In this event it is however a build that will primarily be played by experienced players, since it requires careful planning in terms of gear and availability of gems. Archmage is usually leveled with Rolling Magma into Firestorm until maps, which can actually map pretty decently and is great versus bosses too. You'll have to then farm the lab to acquire either the Ice Nova of Frostbolts (bossing setup) or Ball Lightning of Orbiting (mapping setup) to get the build going.
