Introduction
Despite wanting to make a Crucible Gladiator farmer I made a full 180 while leveling Demolitionist. Why? I tried dual pistols. Turns out, they are hella fun. So I went with a Sorcerer Gunslinger.
Now I know there has been an uprise of gunslinger builds recently, some of them good, some of them not so. Why should you try my build then? Well, first of all, I came to this gear/skill/devotion setup through a lot of trial and error. I have tested a lot of different skill/gear setups, tried out all relevant pistols, played around with devotions and skill points. Everything is field tested, thru and thru. Secondly, build is quite easy to make. You don’t need a single piece of hard to farm/craft green (rare) gear. In fact, I believe my items choices are superior to the setups that use greens. Most of the items are not hard to get/craft. It’s a beginner’s friendly build, real People’s Gunslinger. 
Build Concept
you can find videos of gameplay at the end of the guide
Range Advantage
We feel quite comfortable at melee range but we really don’t need to close the distance. This build is a king of mid-range: demolishing hordes of white mobs/heroes that can’t even reach us being confused and running in wrong directions most of the time. Build also easily destroys any kind of ranged/casters bosses, or slow moving nemeses like Moosilauke or Zantarin.
The Speed and cc-resists
This build is fast. And I mean really fast. We have maximum movement speed and a lot of attack speed. Coupled with devastating AOE and very respectable cc-resists (60% stun resist/~80% slow resist/60% freeze resist) we are just literally running and gunning, never slowing down, leaving nothing but ashes and brimstone behind.
Huge AOE + very high single target damage with insane resists reduction coupled with decent crowd control
This build is proc galore, we are literally a walking fireshow. Due to very high attack speed and high OA (that is even more effective because of maxed Flashbang skill) we have procs procing procs procing procs, endless devastation and a lot of health returns. When it comes to single target damage we have so much RR (-89% to Fire Resist when all procs/skills kick in, + 30 flat RR and 20% reduction from Viper devotion), that even high hp bosses melt pretty quickly.
Three Circuit Breakers and Respectable Defenses
We obviously can’t reach the level of tankiness of shield based builds, but we can facetank most of vanilla bosses (except nemeses) and we have three “oh shit” procs/skills that can help us survive anything vanilla (or Crucible Challenger) rolls at us.
The Build
>>>>[COLOR=“DarkOrange”]GrimTools<<<<[/COLOR] *note the weapon switch for Fabius fight
(resists are actually capped but Grim Tools is not showing some of the gear bonuses that cover it)
Gear
I have tested a lot of different gear setups before coming to this one. Even tried building an exotic Iskandra set based gunslinger with Arcanum Sigilis as an off-hand (quite tanky but lacks the punch). The gear in the Grim Tools link above is the optimal setup, every single item contributes to the build and basically is irreplacable (unless you want to change couple of items with it).
I will go in detail about few items and basic guidelines on what to look for on the required legendaries statwise.
[COLOR=“DarkOrchid”]Ulzuin’s Avatar set[/COLOR] is the backbone of the build, mostly because it has important +skills/attack speed and flat damage bonuses. You have to craft helmet at Necropolis smith to get either Bleed resistance or Energy regeneration bonus.
[COLOR=“DarkOrchid”]Ulzuin’s Torment[/COLOR] belt is one of the strongest gear pieces in game. You have to get bleeding resist bonus on it, it’s relatively easy due to item’s moderate crafting price.
Look for maximum attack speed on chest, gloves and medal. Look for high Slow Resistance on pants and try to have higher resist rolls everywhere.
When it comes to weapons, look for maximum physical to fire conversion the Deviltongue and highest attack speed on Exterminus.
Update
To kill Fabius/Sentinel without kiting use alternative weapon setup that looks exactly like main setup except we use Haunted Steel component in one of the weapons. This adds ADTCH and Bloodthirster skill that enables us to facetank good old Fabius without much problem.
As for relic, [COLOR=“Cyan”]Ulzuin’s Pyroclasm[/COLOR] is a best-in-slot item here, no real competition here. Try to craft one with +Brimstone bonus because we have a steep flat damage increase from 20/16 to 21/16. I have tested Annihilation and found it really underwhelming.
All gear components are pretty much mandatory. We need two Devil-Touched Ammo components for maximum conversion and extra Demon Breath skill (yes, you get two separate skills from using two same components). Everything else is balanced around maximum attack speed and capping resists.
Skills and Devotions
Again, Grim Tools link is self-explanatory, but I will explain some skills assignment and devotion choices.
I chose not to overcap Fire Strike line, except Brimstone. I have tested overcapped Fire Strike and found out that diminishing returns kick right right after 12/12, which is not surprising, what’s more important is that weapon damage increase is almost negligible and we get much more flat fire from overcapping Brimstone. Same goes to Explosive Strike and Static Strike. Brimstone, however, being high level skill, is a different animal. If you have +brimstone bonus on your relic, cap it at 21/12. If not, leave it at 19/12.
Everything else is standard. We need about 7-9 points in Mirror of Ereoctes for a Fabius fight, 1 point wonders in Arcanist tree are there to get some flat damage and Skill Energy Cost Reduction. Nullification is an amazing skill that helps us melting Heroes with nasty suffixes really fast. Reckless Power is a least important skill. You can choose to skip it altogether and put some more points elsewhere.
Gameplay
LMB - Fire Strike (with Elemental Storm from Rhowan’s Crown devotion)
RMB - Demon Breath (from Devil-Touched Ammo)
1 - Flashbang (with Meteor from Ulzuin’s Torch Devotion)
2 - Mirror of Ereoctes
3 - Demon Breath (from another Devil-Toched Ammo component, bind Eldritch Fire devotion to it, 51% chance to proc)
4 - Nullification
5 - Thermite Mines
6 - Blackwater Cocktail
7 - Bloodthirster (from weapon switch with Haunted Steel)
It’s a pretty easy and fun build to play in most situations, except fights with Fabius and Iron Maiden. You always open with a Flashbang (probably the best cc/debuff skill in game), it has a pretty long range, then as you get in mid range you release Demon Breath (one with Eldritch Fire). After that it’s a shooting gallery. Try to spam Flashbang quite often to proc Meteor and cover your screen in fire rain mayhem.
Against heroes and purple bosses you should start with a Flashbang, then release two Thermite mines and a Blackwater Cocktail (great debuff and additional damage). Follow up with Demon Breath and melt any villain in seconds. Versus some heroes/bosses (like for example shielded ones or ones with Maiven’s Sphere) use Nullification.
To fight Fabius or Sentinel just switch to weapon setup with Haunted Steel and facetank the crap out of these bastards.
Leveling and attribute points distribution
I suggest dumping everything on Physique. This build needs every last bit of health it can get, as well as some DA. I’ve put 10 points into cunning which I mildly regret. While I do have pretty high OA (close to 2,5k), it’s really not that important because we won’t be needing that much OA to crit enemies debuffed by our Flashbang.
As for leveling, Arcanist mastery is pretty easy to level. Use skills from fire components (searing ember or flintcore bolts) together with Olexra’s Flash Freeze. Veteran dificulty would be a breeze. After level fifty start shaping up the build (you can equip 2x Deviltongues by then and everything becomes really easy again).
The Showdown
This is a very fun and flashy build, it is beginner’s friendly and doesn’t require any hard to get rare items. You can farm vanilla content with it pretty comfortably and even complete Crucible on Challenger dificulty. With huge aoe (thanks to incredible amount of procs) and great single target damage (thanks to insane amount of RR) there won’t be a foe that can’t really stand up to our Gunslinger (except Fabius, but we can manage this little pest too). Despite looking squishy on paper we have capped resists, some very decent cc-resists, as well as 11% physical resist and 11% ADCtH (with few skills and devotion that have health returns), and even some racial damage reduction (versus Aetherials, Beasts and Insectoids/Arachnids). Add three circuit breakers and you got yourself a lot of cannon and very little glass.
Stats
Videos
10 seconds Cronley kill
Squashing spiders (Mad Queen Rashalga)
Grinding Down Fabius
Annihilation: waves 140-150 Crucible Challenger
Casually facetanking Fabius with a weapon switch setup !!!NEW!!!
Conclusion
This build, while not being Crucible Gladiator destroyer, took me quite a bit to figure out without using any of the hard to get green items. Being a min-maxing enthusiast (hello, ocd :p), I didn’t feel it was ready to be posted untill everything in it clicked. Surely, the concept of Sorcerer Gunslinger using similiar items is not new, but it’s my twist on it and I hope you are going to have fun with it.
Shout-Outs
Thanks to Kralw for leveling with me from level 1 to level 85. It was much more fun than doing it solo. Thanks to Seamann for pointing out that Entropic Coil ring is a better option than Sapphire of Elemental Balance.
Shout out to ABCbarbecue for showing what gunslinger can do with 1 Haunted Steel 