[PoE 3.30] Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Assassin - My League Starter!

PLEASE REFER TO THE LOADOUTS TOP RIGHT, WHICH SHOWS TREE, SKILLS AND ITEMS AT DIFFERENT PROGRESSION POINTS. GENERAL NOTE: THE GEAR USED IN MY PLAYTHROUGH (UP TO FIRST VOIDSTONES) IS MY FRESH SSF START SO IT IS FAR FROM OPTIMAL, JUST WHAT I USED! ALSO WHERE I HAVE RECRAFTED RESISTANCES ETC IT'S UPDATED EARLIER PROGRESSION POINT GEAR, ALWAYS TRY TO CAP RESISTANCES ONCE IN MAPS! My "First Voidstones" loadout is what I used to kill Eater/Exarch simulating a fresh SSF run, this is making sure the build is league start viable on average gear! The Endgame SSF and Aspirational loadouts is what you should aim for :) ---First voidstone links--- Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation - Returning Projectiles - Sacred Wisps - Immolate - Trinity Kinetic Blast - Fork - Sacred Wisps - Immolate Tornado - Flame Wall - Sigil of Power - Arcanist Brand Precision, Flesh and Stone, Grace Flame Dash, Shield Charge - Faster Attacks Snipers Mark - Spellslinger ---SSF Endgame links--- Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation - Returning Projectiles - Sacred Wisps - Trinity - Increased Critical Damage - Added Lightning Damage Kinetic Blast - Fork - Sacred Wisps - Trinity Tornado - Flame Wall - Sigil of Power - Hydrosphere Precision, Flesh and Stone, Grace Flame Dash, Shield Charge - Faster Attacks Snipers Mark - Spellslinger Note: You can always swap out Kinetic Blast for something like an Animate Guardian/Raise Spectre setup. ----------------GENERAL MECHANICS---------------- For max single target, we want to stand directly on top of bosses. The damage is figured out roughly by figuring out the original projectile damage, combined with the snipers mark split damage: E.g. If you have 200k base DPS per projectile and fire 5 projectiles your base damage would be 1m. If you have 3 splits, this would mean each projectile would split 3 times, equalling 15 split projectiles through Snipers Mark. Because we use Returning Projectiles Support, these returning projectiles deal 66% less damage. So overall DPS formula would be: Total DPS = D x P x (1 + 0.34S) Where: D = Base DPS per Projectile P = Number of Projectiles Fired 1 = Base Projectile that hits S = Number of splits per projectile 0.34 = 34% damage dealt by returning projectiles So using the example of 200k base DPS per projectile, 5 projectiles and 3 splits 200,000 x 5 x (1 + 0.34 x 3) 1,000,000 x 2.02 = 2,020,000 DPS. If using Nimis and not Returning Projectiles, you would just drop the 0.34 and "1+" part of the formula (dependant on how the Nimis projectiles work): Total DPS = D x P x S This would be an absolutely perfect scenario and it's hard to calculate exactly, so conservative estimate could be 50% of this value. At every 50% increased mark effect breakpoint, each additional split from Snipers Mark is worth approximately 17% more damage, but you also get more than this because of the increased mark effect. By using this formula to give me a DPS figure, I've then amended the number of projectiles for KBoF to try and line up with this figure. ----------------EARLY MAPS TIPS---------------- - Add Kinetic Wands to your filter and alt spam until you have a t3 flat ele damage or t4 with good suffix, then regal and craft on a second flat ele. - Gamble Evasion/ES bases with Faustus until you get a 5 link, and then try to upgrade other armour pieces with good Evasion/ES bases. - To be accuracy capped you will likely need a bit of Accuracy on gear, along with a high level Precision and the Accuracy is equal to Intelligence mastery. - Try to shoot for a combined Life/ES pool of around 4k+ as soon as possible as this should help with early survivability issues before Evasion is scaled. - Once you have an OK amount of Evasion, I would use Grace instead of Anger for my aura. - Flat damage is super important on this build, so prioritise this on rings, gloves and amulet if possible. - Eye jewels can be very good from Abyss as well early. - I try to automate a Jade flask ASAP to help scale Evasion. Can also get a Granite Flask to help a little with Phys hits. ----------------GEAR RELATED TIPS FOR SSF---------------- Armour: - Make sure you have decent Evasion/ES gear in every slot, along with at least a 5 link chest. - To acquire the chest in SSF, on league start I send Wheat to Te Onui port at Kingsmarch which also gives Dex tattoos (hopefully mark effect). - To supplement this, I also gamble with Faustus until I hit a 5 link. These methods along with Breach is how I also push for a 6 link. - If you have a decent 5 link, I would start gambling your other armour slots if your gear isn't great here. - Once you have at least solid gear in every slot, prioritise gold for farming and send 300k value shipments to Te Onui. Weapon: - Make sure to add Kinetic Wand's to your loot filter to highlight them. - I found gambling for wands quite brutal as you don't hit attack based wands very often, so I prefer to save gold for other slots. - Early on I Transmute/Aug/Alt spam until I get an OK flat ele damage (t4+) with a decent suffix (Attack speed/crit chance mainly). - Then I just regal and craft on a second flat damage. This should be a good starter weapon. Make sure to block bad affixes like mana and try to exalt slam a decent 2nd damage prefix. - You can also use Orb of Binding's on white Kinetic Wand bases. - After this and a bit later on, I start collecting good t1 suffixes to try and recombinate with t3+ flat ele damage. Then apply same method as first wand, which should give us a t16 viable weapon. - You can also try to recomb your way up to a triple flat ele wand, and then veiled orb attack speed/crit suffix and craft on the other one. SSF Farming priorities: - Faustus gambling early - Sending off shipments to Te Onui for Dex tattoos for chance to blind and mark effect. - Breach for important uniques and target 6 link. For Breach tree, go in to Belts early to get Auxium and then swap focus to Amulets to try and get Badge of the Brotherhood. - Legion for 5 ways to get Glorious Vanity and Greater Fork - Some Blight to get oils - Harvest which helps with most things ----------------UNIQUES TO USE ON BUILD---------------- Budget/Levelling: - Piscator's Vigil - Auxium (Foulborn version better because of ES% per power charge) - Prismweave - Wake of Destruction Endgame: - Badge of the Brotherhood - Glorious Vanity - Ancestral Vision/Stormshroud - The Light of Meaning (any relevant mods) - Watcher's Eye (any relevant mods) - Atziri's Reflection - Nimis - Headhunter/Mageblood - Progenesis ----------------LEVELLING---------------- General important levelling notes: - Flat ele damage is key for this build! Also scaling attack damage, attack speed, accuracy is important. - Use gold frequently on wands to try and get good flat ele//attack speed bases, weapon upgrades are SUPER important for Wand levelling. - For defenses, keep trying to upgrade poor armour pieces to get Life/ES rolls to give us a better hit pool, along with resistances. - We go in to Crit quite early comparatively to most other builds, especially if using Power Siphon. - This will put us in a good position when we work in to power charge stacking and using Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation. - I only include Trinity support in the later acts as flat damages on gear may change throughout, only use this if hitting max resonance. ----------------Act 1---------------- Optional but recommended: Mule a Scion to pick up Prismatic Burst Support on the beach, this is really strong early and gives us flat damage. Shadow is the character we select. As we are playing a wander, I like to try and stick with that archetype all along! We pick up Kinetic Bolt once we reach the town, and link with Prismatic Burst (if muled) or Chance to Poison originally as that's what we drop on the beach. If we get a 3 link early we will run Kinetic Bolt - Prismatic Burst - Volley Once we reach the Submerged Passage, we pick Frostblink or Dash as a reward (personal preference). We then go to the vendor and pick up Snipers Mark and Flame Wall. When we pick up our support reward from making The Prison, we will pick up Added Lightning Damage Support (drop Volley) After killing Brutus, we get Ballista Totem support and link this with a second Kinetic Bolt setup for additional damage. We go with Kinetic Bolt - Ballista Totem support - Added Lightning Damage support. From Tarkleigh as a reward, we pick Precision to help cap our accuracy and then replace Frostblink with Flame Dash. Once we get to Merveil Caverns, we swap our self cast skill to Power Siphon and I drop Prismatic Burst for Added Cold Damage. Final Act 1 links: Power Siphon - Added Lightning Damage - Added Cold Damage Kinetic Bolt - Ballista Totem - Added Lightning Damage Flame Wall Precision Flame Dash Snipers Mark ----------------Act 2---------------- If not done in Act 1, run a shield and slot in Shield Charge w/ Faster Attacks. NOTE: Don't overlevel Shield Charge too much because of strength requirements. Alongside Precision I pick up Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder for extra flat damage and clear. Drop Added Cold Damage support for Sacred Wisps in our Power Siphon links as this is a great single target boost. In the Deal with the Bandits quest, either kill all or help Alira. Final Act 2 links: Power Siphon - Added Lightning Damage - Sacred Wisps Kinetic Bolt - Ballista Totem - Added Lightning Damage Flame Wall Precision, Herald of Thunder, Herald of Ice Flame Dash, Shield Charge - Faster Attacks Snipers Mark ----------------Act 3---------------- Once getting a 4 link, go with Power Siphon - Added Lightning Damage - Sacred Wisps - Increased crit damage Once getting Wrath, drop Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder. We eventually want to pick up Anger from The Library as the flat fire damage enables us to utilise the 100% inc. damage Fire mastery and Immolate Support later on. Pick up Kinetic Blast as a reward, and you can either use this or stick with Power Siphon for now as this is a consistent way to generate Power charges. Once we do our 1st lab, I would make the swap to Kinetic Blast however. Buy Fork from Clarissa in Act 3 for when we swap to Kinetic Blast Final Act 3 links: Power Siphon/Kinetic Blast - Added Lightning Damage - Sacred Wisps - Increased Critical Damage Kinetic Bolt - Ballista Totem - Added Lightning Damage - Increased Critical Damage Flame Wall Precision, Wrath Flame Dash, Shield Charge - Faster Attacks Snipers Mark ----------------Act 4---------------- Buy Wall of Force from the Act 2 vendor which is what we will use in our 4 link Arcanist Brand setup. As quest rewards in Act 4 we want to pick up Barrage Support for our totem setup and Tornado (which we will link with Arcanist Brand.) Replace Added Lightning Damage with Fork in the Kinetic Blast setup. Replace Added Lightning Damage with Barrage Support in the Kinetic Bolt setup. Buy Mark on Hit support in the Act 4 town and link to Snipers Mark. Set up our 4 link Arcanist Brand setup which is Arcanist Brand - Flame Wall - Tornado - Wall of Force. This helps with Kinetic Blast damage. At this point if we have no flat fire damage, use Anger instead of Wrath to utilise the 100% inc. fire mastery but if you have flat fire on gear use either. I like to try to craft flat fire damage where possible to help with ignites, and then run lightning damage mainly for better shocks. Final Act 4 links: Kinetic Blast - Fork - Sacred Wisps - Increased Critical Damage Kinetic Bolt - Ballista Totem - Barrage - Increased Critical Damage Arcanist Brand - Sigil of Power - Flame Wall - Tornado Precision, Wrath or Anger Flame Dash, Shield Charge - Faster Attacks Snipers Mark - Mark on hit ----------------Act 5---------------- No real change in Act 5 from the Act 4 links, so just keep trying to upgrade gear with higher Life/ES gear to improve overall hit pool. Also look to pick up flat damage and remember to at least keep some source of flat fire/lightning so we can ignite for the fire mastery and shock for increased damage. ----------------Act 6 onwards---------------- Once we get to Act 6 we do the twilight strand quest and buy 2x Immolate Support to replace Critical Damage in our Kinetic Blast and Kinetic Bolt setups. At this point I switch to Anger instead of Wrath so we can consistently apply burning for Immolate. I also craft flat lightning damage on other bits of gear to keep shocking enemies. ----------------Act 10/Entering maps---------------- As we get ready to switch in to Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation where Snipers Mark is very important for damage, we drop Flesh and Stone and go in to Spellslinger - Snipers Mark Skills to aim for towards the end of the campaign: ----------------Pre KBoF---------------- Kinetic Blast - Fork - Immolate - Sacred Wisps/Trinity (assuming flat damages are split and full resonance) Kinetic Bolt - Ballista Totem - Barrage - Immolate/Trinity (assuming flat damages are split and full resonance) Arcanist Brand - Tornado - Flame Wall - Sigil of Power Precision, Anger, Flesh and Stone (if you have around 100 unreserved mana after) Flame Dash, Shield Charge - Faster Attacks Snipers Mark - Mark on hit ----------------KBoF setup---------------- Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation - Returning Projectiles - Immolate - Sacred Wisps/Trinity (assuming flat damages are split and full resonance) Kinetic Blast - Fork - Immolate - Sacred Wisps/Trinity (assuming flat damages are split and full resonance) Arcanist Brand - Tornado - Flame Wall - Sigil of Power Precision, Anger, Flame Dash, Shield Charge - Faster Attacks Snipers Mark - Spellslinger