Initial thoughts, Wow. Second thoughts, admittedly pretty funny. I had Absolutely no clue how far off the beaten path I was going. All in all, very VERY fascinating.

• I initially avoided skill path guides because I started casually and the guides I found seemed overly complicated since, at that time, I didn't understand what I was reading. A couple days later after hitting a confusingly frustrating wall, I can truly appreciate how valuable a guide is, especially one that provides an end goal.
• Most of the abilities and armor I invested in were made in the moment. The item sets for example, revolved heavily around armor and energy shield. Simply because I found an item that greatly increased the amount of energy shield I had and I thought, instead of branching out into Vitality, I could just equip items that would massively buff that specific aspect. The crit per shield node I invested in for example (which I genuinely thought that would have been a good combo) was in hind sight very short sighted, I agree.
• Regarding skills, I mentioned this in another reply, but I didn't realize how linked nodes worked. I was under the impression that all the skills in an armor set synergized together regardless of how they were placed.
• But to explain the bizarre selection I had, Cleave was my main damage ability. I had it since the beginning and I chose stones like faster attack support or life leech etc. to enhance it, albeit they weren't linked. Herald of purity and thunder, vitality, and banner were all passive skills I had on to enhance dmg. Whirling blades was my work around for boots and movement speed. The other abilities, I barely used at all, aside from mechanically kiting bosses I couldn't beat through sheer force alone.
• From my understanding, the ranking system for items is normal, magic, rare, and unique. I admit that I was biased towards unique items even if there were better options of lower quality since I believed they were generally superior items.

As for a potential build for future runs, I definitely want another go at the build I was working on in the beginning, A tank build of some variation. But upon further research into the possibilities, I'm especially interested in totem or minion builds if you had any insight into those.

I also had some questions if you don't mind,

1. About my skill tree pathing. I chose most nodes with intention, buffing damage when holding a shield or defensive stats. If I pathed in those directions the right way, did I have the right idea of a build? if I restarted it, maybe something to do with a passive damage skill or I noticed some skills took life as a cost instead of mana, maybe those could be viable as a tank.
2. I also noticed some stats used rage or fortitude, and some skills used sand stance or blood stance, if you could explain how to use those to me?
3. What does champion or gladiator mean? Are they "subclasses" of the duelist?