Right before patch notes, I figure I'd share another build I've been working on. One unlikely to get bonked, because it's so off-meta. Note that this isn't the final PoB, and more optimizations are in the works.

The question of "how many blades" can I generate per-second has always been a fun to explore with Venom Gyre. But recently, I realized I was asking the wrong question:

Just how many of the returning projectiles can I get to hit?

This build can hit a single solo enemies with approximately 84 Returning Blades per second.

Pob here: https://pobb.in/T-bi9JFyhsQ-

Explanation below.

###Basic skill mechanics

Venom gyre is a claw/dagger projectile skill that throws out a blade, and then creates a returning blade that flies towards the character.

If these blades get close enough to you, they are caught and stored. The next time you use whirling blades, the are released rapidly over the course of the movement. You can store 30 blades at a time.

Testing shows that approximately 30%, 9 blades to be specific, will reliably hit a single target as they are being released if you dash through them.

Of course, we're not satisfied with that number, but I'll explain that later.

###How do we generate the blades?

First of all, none of this matters if we can't get up to 30 blades in a reasonable amount of time.

There are several ways to increase the amount of blades generated per second, apart from attack speed:

1. Increased projectile count. The more projectiles we fire, the more return.
2. Projectile forking. When a projectile forks, the original is destroyed, and two blades are created. 2.5 with Split Shot, and with awakened fork, each projectile can split twice. Not as useful in single target, but in multi-target, it can act as a x6.25 projectile count multiplier.
3. Projectile splitting. When a projectile splits, the original is destroyed, and x number of projectiles is created.

Option 1 is workable, if we stack Fan of Blades on large cluster jewels and Megalomaniac. But that can be expensive. For this builds, We're scaling option 3 primarily.

The best source of split in the game is Fury Valve, but I'll explain the ultra clear speed build later.

A convenient source of split is Sniper's Mark. The amount of spit projectiles that sniper's mark creates reaches a base of 5 at gem level 21. It scales with effect of curses/mark.

Focal Point + Mark mastery + 3 Hound's Mark notables = 13 projectiles on split. +2 fan of blades from the large jewels, that's a total of 15 blades created per attack.

Anything more than that is excessive, which does have its place in PoE, but 15 is best for single target.

###How do we get ~21 blades hit on each whirling blade attack?

On average, 9 blades will hit targets we dash through.

If we dash through a tornado. In theory, that's another 9, but in practice, a good number of of those 9 were from blades thrown in front of us. Let's say we get an additional 3 hits instead.

So, a total of 9 direct hits, and 4 chains from the tornado.

But we can get more with Ricochet and Ulaman's gaze. Now our projectiles have a 50% chance to chain off the terrain. Of the remaining 18 projectiles, 9 will chain back to the enemy for their hit.

We are now at 21 hits on each whirling blade attack. Without tornado, it's approximately 19.5, but tornado will also be reflecting someone the damage we're dishing out.

###DPS?

So, we have 15 reliable blades generated on attack. With a helmet enchantment, we'll only lose 35% of our blades when we whirlwind. So, once we get up to 30 blades, we need only attack once to restore our blade count.

Venom gyre twice, tornado, then alternate between whirling blades and Venom gyre. Once tornado activates, just re-cast it.

At this point, our bottleneck is actually the attack speed of whirling blades. We manage to get it up to 4.4 attacks per second, which gives us time to cast our Venom Gyre between each dash. Technically this does mean we can only get off ~3.9 full stack whirling blades per second. But also technically, we are weaving in 4 Venom Gyre attacks, each of which can double hit for an additional 8 hits. But who's counting, ay?

To get some really good damage, we need to do the dirty thing, and equip Ashes of the Stars. The reason for that, is we need as much Anomalous Quality Venom Gyre as possible to reduce that damage penalty on returning blades all the way down to just 1%.

In the PoB, returning projectiles deal 156,587 damage, and poison for a total of 18,806 damage. 21*(156,587+18,806)*4 = 14.7m dps.

To sustain the life and mana costs of this, we use a Gemini claw to more than over-compensate thanks to the sheer quantity of hits per second we have (84, a lovely number).

###Uber clear

Edit: It seems that Fury Valve does not allow released projectiles to split, despite the fact that Sniper's mark does.

Just goes to show that you need to test every little interaction.

~~So, what is the funniest amount of projectile vomit we can create?~~

~~Well, let's say you instead went the projectile quantity route. Instead of Focal Point, you get endless munitions, and replace all your medium cluster jewels with Fan of Blades.~~

~~Then, we equip Fury Valve. We are now at a total of 10 additional projectiles, which will all split from enemies we hit.~~

~~We are generating 10 projectiles on use of Venom Gyre, 15 if we use a default sniper's mark. We socket Awakened fork, and now we're creating an average of 93.75 blades from a single attack.~~

~~Then, we use whirling blades.~~

~~30 projectiles are then created. I have done some testing on this, and believe each of those projectiles are capable of chaining, piecing, forking, and yes: Splitting.~~

~~On hit, those 30 projectiles will split into 300 projectiles. They will then fork, creating 750 projectiles on average, then 1875.~~

~~Despite the vast quantity of blades generates, each enemy can only be hit by a total of 30 projectiles. I.E, each of the ones generated. If there are 30 enemies on screen, then the 10 projectiles created will split towards the other 30 enemies, which can then begin to fork. So while it is possible that each enemy will be hit by those 30 projectiles, the number is likely closer to: 1 for their hit, 10 from their neighbors, and maybe another 8 from the forks. If we have +1 chain from deadeye however, then we can start to expect a number closer to 30.~~

Conclusion

This is the hit/damage version of the build. The medium cluster jewels could easily be replaced with ones that grant Herald of Agony virulence stacks, and all the damage shifted towards HoA. Get the golden rule, and you can easily inflict a total of 168 poisons per second.

I'm not sure if that's enough to sustain a maxed-out HoA. But that is probably more worth-while then using Ashes of the Stars and trying to scale the projectile return damage.

Still, work in progress, and nothing is set in stone until patch day.