PoE2 Earthrend and Buried Blades: Duelist Ground Blade Guide

What are buried blades and Earthrend on the Duelist?

Buried blades are Jonathan Rogers’ name for swords driven into the ground that stay active after Earthrend. Earthrend creates blades that slice through the ground toward enemies; once embedded, those blades are not just visual flair—they are targets for other Duelist skills and stance modifiers. Rogers introduced the mechanic in the Grand Arena ruins segment as one of the class’s “tricks,” alongside stances and Cyclone storm interactions.

What can you do with blades already in the ground?

Rogers demonstrated four families of interactions: lightning charging, plunging detonations, Ready Stance density, and stance-wide Blade Plunge buffs.

Charged Slash and mini Tesla coils

Charged Slash’s basic form is a lightning-infused cleave. From Ready Stance it becomes a spin that sends out lightning projectiles (also listed on the Duelist skills list). Separately, Charged Slash can strike buried blades left by Earthrend; hits turn each blade into a mini Tesla coil that deals lightning damage to nearby enemies. In the footage, lightning jumped between buried blades and nearby enemies during the Grand Arena segment (Rogers did not name enemy types in that shot).

Blade Plunge explosions and held charge

Rogers showed a two-handed Blade Plunge that drives a blade into the ground and sends out three blades that explode. If Earthrend was used first, there are more buried blades on the field and Blade Plunge makes all of them explode, not just the three from the plunge itself. Holding Blade Plunge charges the swords further before they explode. GGG did not quote damage numbers for the charged versus tap version—only that the held version hits harder in the demo narration.

Ready Stance Earthrend wall

Using Ready Stance with Earthrend changes placement: instead of a single blade path, Rogers said it creates an entire wall of blades. That is the density setup for the “maximum damage” sequence below.

What is the maximum damage sequence GGG narrated?

Rogers called out a deliberate combo for peak burst on buried blades:

1. Enter Ready Stance, then cast Earthrend (wall of blades).
2. Hit the field with Charged Slash to charge the blades (Tesla coil lightning).
3. Finish with a held Blade Plunge for a massive explosion.

He immediately added that Blood Stance and Sand Stance also work with Blade Plunge to empower every buried blade on the field:

Rogers also mentioned Blade Conduit separately: it summons lightning to your blade and creates shocking ground, which Cyclone can pick up when you spin through it. That is not an Earthrend-only effect, but it stacks with Tesla-coil blades in the same arena fights.

How does the Bringer of Blades build spam Earthrend?

Mark Roberts’ developer Bringer of Blades build treats Earthrend as the bread-and-butter skill for rising blades from the ground. In the broadcast he paired it with:

• Kaom’s Madness (lineage support) to maximize blade creation efficiency—support details were shown on their tree setup, not explained numerically.
• Blade Conduit to charge blades with lightning, optionally with Astral Projector to trigger from range and place shocked ground under enemies.
• A second Earthrend link with Electrocute for crowd control on tougher packs.
• Sand Stance via Combat Frenzy and Sand Scour, then Sand Stance Blade Plunge so sand disks appear on every buried blade.
• Rain of Steel to call down more swords until the battlefield is covered, then repeat lightning refresh and sandstorm plunges.

Roberts explicitly tried to avoid uniques on that first build so the clip showed standard gear potential; it is still a developer-tuned endgame character, not a league-start tutorial.

What has GGG not confirmed about Earthrend?

The preview did not list gem requirements, cooldowns, blade duration, maximum blade count, or whether buried blades persist across zone loads. Ascendancy interactions were not shown; Roberts noted neither demo build was ascended. For launch timing, Earthrend ships with the Duelist on PoE2 1.0 / 11 Dec 2026—nothing in the video promised earlier access beyond the general 0.5.5 Forbidden Rites event patch discussed after the Duelist segment.

Sources and last check

• GGG Duelist Deep Dive, buried blades intro (~4:52)
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive, Charged Slash Tesla coils (~5:03)
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive, max damage combo (~6:11)
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive, Bringer of Blades Earthrend loop (~10:17)

Last checked 19 Oct 2026; this page covers what GGG showed before the 1.0 release on 11 Dec 2026 and will be updated when it changes.