Hello,

Wanted to share my freshly updated PoB guide for 3.29 for my all-rounder Frost Blades / Lightning Strike Warden that I've been playing, iterating on, and sharing here over the past few leagues.

I've had a lot of requests over the past few days to update this, so I assume others are enjoying the build as well which is awesome!

Updated Pobbin and PoEDB Links for the build for 3.29 (Pobbin has been having issues with not working lately, so I included both links)

Video of my FB build last league (3.28)

Video of my LS build in Keepers league (3.27)

There are loadouts for each act in the campaign for skills, items, passive tree, and config, and these loadouts continue for different levels of investment through endgame. Make sure to check these out in the top right corner of the PoB.

The notes section is extremely detailed - I've spent several days meticulously including everything I could think of that a new player to the build might need. Build mechanics, scaling vectors, league mechanics that the build excels at, different upgrade paths, personal preference options, loadout details, and a crafting guide are all included.

This variation of FB/LS Warden uses Tinctures and Aura-stacking as its core package for scaling damage and defensives. The build runs 5 different 50% auras, in the late game it also picks up Purity of Fire for melding scaling to 90% all res.

If you do not want to press tinctures, then I want to make it abundantly clear that this is absolutely not the build for you - they are an integral part of the build and not easily replaced.

Note that all of the loadouts do not have major conditionals ticketed - Molten Shell, Warden's Unbound Avatar, flasks, and full 50% shock are not allocated. These things all have 50-100% uptime while mapping and should be considered when evaluating the build, but I didn't want to tick them to mislead anyone on the numbers.

Defensives package overview:

• Fortify Spell suppression

• Instant leech

• Life-gain-on-hit from claw

• Screen-wide permanent freeze for most content

• Ailment immunity

• Automated molten shell that is capped out with investment

• Armour that scales to 100k+

• Evasion that scales to 70k+

• Scaling up towards 90% all res

• PDR that scales quite high in addition to the armour values

• High elusive effect (chance to avoid all damage from hits)

• Easy-to-cap resistances on league start with Purity of Elements and Alira

Offensives package overview:

• Screen-wide projectile coverage with additional strikes and pierce on both Lightning Strike and Frost Blades

• Fast-moving gameplay with high movement speed and whirling blades

• Cheap and strong scaling vectors via Tinctures for elemental penetration, attack speed, crit chance, and % increased damage.

• Flat elemental damage scaling via Wrath and Anger

• % increased damage scaling via stacking armour and evasion with Perseverance, Determination, and Grace

• Layered scaling vectors that make each upgrade feel impactful

Pros to the build:

• Smooth leveling after Act 3

• Massive damage after Act 7 and through early maps with dirt gear

• Can clear the entire atlas on 1-2 divines worth of gear (mostly rares)

• Fast-paced movement and attack speed

• Smooth progression, can zero-to-hero from Day 1 to the end of the league

• Extremely detailed guide to hold your hand through most or all questions

• Tight passive tree with lots of great synergies

• Great clear

• Good all-rounder, can do any content with moderate-to-excellent success depending on the chosen content

• Doesn't require a ton of uniques

Cons to the build:

• Have to press tinctures frequently. This is the #1 turnoff to the build for most people

• On league start it has the damage but lacks significant defensive layers for pushing hard content fast, which means it can feel squishy early until you make upgrades and work towards grace and determination

• Can feel frustrating to level with in Acts 1-3 without obtaining a good weapon

From last league to this one, the main change is that GGG did not re-add Screams of the Dessicated unique belt to the game, meaning we go Perseverance and Flasks and Avatar ascendancy instead of tincture effect runegraft, 3rd ring slot ascendancy, and the shrine belt. However, the new crafting system looks sick for this build since we run so many rares, so I think progression will be a lot cheaper and smooth.

I am currently thinking of doing betrayal and either essences or mercenaries as my league start strat. I typically start abyss, but with the rework, I think everyone will be doing that. My 2nd strat will be maven witnessing with interference scarab, and my 3rd strat will be 4-5 deli orb strand maps (as always, since they're fun and bring a lot of challenges to the build that causes me to iterate on it in order to fix them.)

Let me know if you have questions - feel free to comment or DM them to me. The notes should address a lot of questions, but I'm always happy to answer more. I'm also considering starting streaming this league, let me know if that's something anyone would be interested in for watching gameplay/progression of the build and being able to ask questions in real time.

Good luck on league start!