[3.25] Divine Retribution Gladiator | From Twilight Strand to Uber Elder

Leaguestart theorycrafting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyKKuyfd0Qs&t=33s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fRjUg6pW_8&t=2s
First endgame update
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJptlHgidnU&t
Tier 17 update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5rL3uSm4IM&t
High budget gear changes
https://youtu.be/Raec3HtgkYg

Uber Uber Elder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_PlD6B1za0

Working around the retaliation cooldown is one of the most important parts of the retaliate archetype. There is different options to use.
1: Use retaliation skill as secondary skill
2: Chance when you use a retaliation skill for a different retaliation skill to become usable
3: Reduce the cooldown heavily
4: Use multiple cooldown uses
5: Chance for retaliation skills to remain usable and not consume a cooldown use

We do utilise option 3, 4 and 5 in different variations.
3: Generally we try to pick up a lot of cooldown recovery on the tree and some on the gear, where we have open suffixes for it. Belt slot is a solid option for this. Boots can be considered as well, though most of the time Death#s Door are the go to option. In addition Expert Retaliation can be used to half the cooldown after all reductions
4: Second Wind is a very good option for smooth gameplay. It does raise the mana cost by a lot however
5: A combination of the Ascendancy node Measured Retaliation and the No Forgiveness annoint make for 70% chance not to consume a cooldown. Combined with either Expert Retaliation or Second Wind makes for near full uptime during most encounters and mapping.

Pro's:
Extremely tanky
No gear requirements
Near infinite endgame scaling options
Very good clear (7/10)
Fluid gameplay most of the time
...


Con's:
Can not handle some content well like Legion and Blight due to enemies rarely hitting you
Some bosses refuse to play along
Lots of annoying map mods (Less CD, reduced flasks, reduce block, etc.)
Can feel clunky at times
Needs cruel lab to function as main skill well

Bandits
Kill all / Help Oak

Offensive Setups:
The main setup consists of these 5 gems you should use as soon as you have empower 4 and conversion gloves. Note the damage split explained in the glove section on cold/lightning for trinity.

For cooldown management use one of the following. You need either one for the build to feel fluid.

For single target or until you have level 4 empower, you could use conc effect over one of the others. However conc effect might not have great results on all enemies. See these tests: https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/1ekk95n/divine_retribution_overlap_calculations/

Before having the conversion gloves you need Physical to Lightning to go full elemental and for a big damage boost.

Movement
Shield charge + Frostblink. My most favourite combo. Also, shield charge uses the attack speed from the 12 point cluster, which makes it fairly quick.


Defensive/utility setups
Arcanist Brand with curse + hydrosphere provides a good damage boost against bosses. You will need lifetap on them, while not running EB

Enduring Cry provides a big boost in life regen and makes it easier to keep your charges during prolonged boss fights

Righteous Fire is a huge huge damage buff. As soon as you can sustain it, you should use it. You want about 300-500 reg above your degen to not feel like dying too much and feel stuck with damage taken.

Auras and Buffs
Your main aura setup consists of hatred, petrified blood, and purity of fire. You might want to check different slots for purity of fire, depending on your reservation capabilities. You might be able to run it through your life and get higher max res out of it. Viridi's Veil is a very good helmet to run a low enlighten with due to +2 levels. The Devouring Diadem provides huge reservation efficiency for socketed skills, so you want to put your big auras here.

Your second most important setup is Tempest Shield and Vitality. Both add crucial defenses to the build.

Buffs I have added when getting better gear and more efficient with the reservation were Arctic Armour for tons of defense and freeze immunity, and Flesh and Stone. For even more defense against hits.


Other setups
A guardians blessing setup can be a strong alternative when you are not able to run all the auras. It does require a megalomaniac however to keep your spectre alive for a bit. You want a perfect dark marionette for it to work smoothly. For me it was too annoying to keep up however, so I didged it.

Another interesting setup is an overcharge setup to apply big shocks on enemies. It did not result in big enough shocks for my tasting however. So I didged it also.

Going through the acts can be a challenge with the build, if u want to use divine retribution from the get go. While you do get the skill at level 16, I would advice against using it as your main source of damage untill after curel lab. You do want Determined Survivor, and Measured Retaliation before consider using it. I would recommend to get your replica dragonfang with the No Forgiveness annoint ready. It can be used at level 56, which should be around your cruel lab completion. From then on you are good to go.