MASSIVE Damage Scaling - Steel Champion - League Start Build Guide

---------------------------------------- WARNING WARNING WARNING ---------------------------------------- Path of Exile 3.16 Scourge League is bringing some of the most MASSIVE changes to the skill tree that we have ever seen. I have done the best that I can to craft this PoB. Understand, that I will do everything in my power to properly update this PoB with information as we learn more about the new skill tree. If you have any issues or need guidance on this build join my discord, linked in the description of every one of my videos. Understand that I myself am not capable of helping so many people but the community is extremely helpful. That being said they are not there specifically to help you. They play the game just like you do and if you want to be successful in Path of Exile you have to put the work in. Don't expect them to be Google for you. --------------------- INTRODUCTION --------------------- Please check the build guide on my YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/c/bigducks Liking my Videos and Subscribing to my YouTube channel help me to keep bringing you more content like this, if you just grab the PoB please consider giving me a like to help me out, I appreciate all of your support! Keep in mind there may be multiple videos per build, always look for the most recent video. Splitting Steel -> Shattering Steel -> Splitting Steel / Lancing Steel This is a ranged attack build that utilizes a melee weapon. Although we have a melee weapon, generic melee stats do not scale our build. This build has unique scaling in that it can make use of certain melee weapon nodes as well as projectile / projectile attack nodes. This build is extremely fast with amazing clear. With a simple 1 gem swap we can transform into a solid bosskiller. This build also has ridiculous recovery layers and the changes to defenses on the new tree were overall a massive buff to our defenses, our current layers are as such: Attack Block Spell Block Armour Evasion Fortify Historically this build was very weak to damage over time due to being Petrified Blood Low-life. However with the advent of masteries and Lethe Shade we take significantly less damage from Damage over time. Sounds like the best build ever yeah? Well it is pretty damned good but there are some things to note about this build: - It is a 2 button playstyle, you only need to press the second button occasionally while clearing but will have to press it every 2-3 attacks while bossing. - There is a large transition that you have to make during maps from 2 Handed to Dual-Wielding and there is a lot of tree shifting. - You need to be very comfortable with how Auras work as we need to balance our auras and life extremely well to reach maximum power. - The low life Petrified Blood playstyle is very spooky sometimes and isn't for the faint of heart. ------------ RATINGS ------------ GOOD -> Clearing, Bossing, Survival, Movement Speed, Physical Damage Taken, Elemental Damage Taken, Chaos Damage Taken, Trade League, Softcore, MEH -> Cost, Playstyle, Damage Taken Over Time BAD -> Solo Self Found, Hardcore DIFFICULTY OF PLAY - HIGH This build is difficult to pilot properly compared to some other League Start options and requires being familiar with how auras and reservations work as well as juggling gem slots and resistances as you upgrade gear. ----------------------- CONFIGURATION ----------------------- The current configuration is set to reflect the damage you would do while clearing maps and then finishing off a map boss. It does not do any "PoB warrioring" and should reflect typical boss damage you could do during a map. You will need to adjust for any alt qualities that you don't have or your personal gem levels/qualities. There are a variety of settings that must be adjusted for the "Expensive" gearset, they are listen on the individual pieces that are relevant, such as Pride aura on the -Pride cost amulet. For accurate damage on a boss such as Sirus account for turning flasks on/off. Due to limitations within PoB you will have to manually assign the Watcher's Eye for the Expensive version of the build. Full DPS is significantly higher due to Reflections, when you swap between gear sets the reflections get reset. Make sure to set count to 2 and count in Full DPS. Herald of Purity - slot this wherever you have room, an unset ring, or somewhere else on your gear. If you cannot fit this in then simply use Pride instead of F&S / Herald of Purity. --------------------------------------------- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS --------------------------------------------- Q: Bandit? A: Kill All. --- Q: Pantheon? A: Brine King and Shakari --- Q: I can't find an item with those exact stats what do I do? A: You don't need the exact stats on every single item, Jewels are a big culprit for people getting confused. Get what stats you can and prioritize the stats in the defensive and offensive sections below. --- Q: The leveling skills are all level 1, do I keep them at that level? A: No, this is to signify that it is a leveling skill and you level it up as you go. --- Q: You're using Life Gained on Hit rings, whats up with that? A: Early on this build will utilize Thief's Torment to sustain itself in both mana and life. This should last you all the way into yellow maps and even some reds. At a certain point you're going to want to get different rings but you still need a source of life gain to make the build feel smooth. There are a couple ways to do this. Vitality Life Gain on Hit Watcher's Eye (This is GIGA expensive early on but is by far the best choice, it is also a solid investment as it will work on MANY different characters, however this build uses a different Watcher's Eye at expensive gear levels which will be almost impossible to get alongside the Vitality version.) Life Gain on Hit Rings + -mana cost enchants to sustain our life and mana. --- Q: How do I stop dying? A: BOSS SLAMS WILL KILL YOU ON ALMOST ANY BUILD. YOU CANNOT TANK BOSS ATTACKS IN PATH OF EXILE WITHOUT A *VERY* SPECIFIC BUILD. This build relies mainly on Block / Spell Block, Evasion, Armour, and massive recovery to survive. Put Molten Shell on left-click. That being said, Make sure you have the following: 75+ of ALL Elemental Resist (Resistances max at 75, having a bit over will help for ele weakness maps etc.) 50+ (Ideally 75+) Chaos Resist. Read the above question about Life Gain on this build. Don't skimp out on the Block nodes, they are very important. If you are still the 2Hand version and youre getting to red maps you should consider transitioning. Determination and Grace are VERY powerful this league. They provide INSANE defenses and they are super important for surviving. High tier Life roll on every piece that can have life Some pieces can have % Life on this build, such as Jewels, Belt, etc. Keep your Flasks up at all times while clearing. --- Q: How do I do more damage? A: This Build scales its damage through Impale, Critical Strikes, and added Physical Damage You will need to transition between the upper gear sets to improve your damage. --- Q: There are a lot of auras listed in the skills section, which ones should I use? A: During early maps you will want to use the "Early Auras" set. After transitioning to Low-life (look for Transition Section below or watch the video) you can begin using the Low-life Auras. --- Q: We are low life? What is Petrified Blood? A: Petrified Blood in the simplest terms allows you to trade a small percentage of your overall healthpool for the benefits of being on low life. It prevents 40% of damage taken from the bottom half of your life globe and then you take some of that damage over time afterwards. Without Petrified Blood if you start with 1000 health and take 500 damage you will be at 500 health. With Petrified Blood if you start at 1000 health that will be capped to 500 without flasks. When you take 500 damage you will sustain 200 damage bringing you to 300 Health and then you will take between ~75%-100% of the prevented damage (300) over 4 seconds. (depending on gem level / quality etc). At first glance this seems really bad but in reality our build has a ton of recovery and the damage taken over time is not too serious. We gain a few massive benefits from being on low life as well. - The ability to constantly proc "Adrenaline" from our Ascendancy when you use a life flask and only reserve 49% of our health. - "Overleech" if you only reserve roughly 49% of your health or less. If you allow a small buffer of health above your 50% threshold you will not be able to reach "full" health from any mechanic. This causes leech to not be removed as we never reach maximum life, allowing it to kick in at full effect the moment that we need it. --- Q: I'm having trouble keeping my mana up, what should I do? A: In patch 3.15 GGG massively increased all mana costs and added mana cost to triggered spells. Because of this it is far more difficult to maintain mana on pretty much any build. Early on you should be using a mana flask and trying your best to not reserve too much mana. As soon as you are able to use lifetap you should do so while leveling, put it on basically all of your abilities. Once you obtain Thief's Torment your mana problems should be fixed for some time. After replacing the ring you will sustain off of mana leech and mana on hit that is provided by the tree / chestpiece. --- Q: What about Clusters? Aren't they pretty good? A: Not really for this build. --- Q: My question isn't in here, what do I do? A: Double check that you have looked through the video and this PoB. If you can't find it you can join my discord, linked in the description of all of my videos. Please remember that the people in the discord channels are very helpful but it is not their job to assist you. This is a knowledge based game and you have to put in the work to be successful. ------------------ LEVELING UP ------------------ Prioritize The Gems you need immediately, Main Links > Movement > Auras > Utility. Check the "Skills" tab for which gems to grab. Levels 1 - 11 || Splitting Steel Levels 12 - Endgame || Shattering Steel We will be using the Steel skills from level 1 all the way through the entire game, so get used to using that Call of Steel button! We level as two-handed through the campaign and early mapping, swapping to Dual Wield later on. Gearing - Focus on getting Movement Speed boots, Gear with the Links that you need, Life and Resists as well as Sapphire Rings for the Merveil fight. - Pick up Blue/Yellow items and sell them unidentified to the vendor for Transmutation Shards and Identified for Alteration Shards. - You will need to stay on top of your weapon, there is a craft that allows you to create a Melee Weapon with %Phys damage on it. Weapon of Choice + Rare Rustic Sash + Blacksmith's Whetstone = Weapon of Choice + Phys% mod. Use this every 5-10 levels to maintain your weapon damage. - Focus on topping off your resists early on and re-checking them after the Act 5 Boss and Act 10 Boss, grab as much life as you can. - Do not ignore links, if you feel your damage is lacking it is 100% because you are not setting up your links properly. Every ability is important, and you should be prioritizing links in softcore. You can run a few white pieces of gear with resists crafted on them from the bench in your hideout (talk to helena in act 2) with proper links until you can get your items together. - Don't ignore Essences, they can be very powerful for turning white pieces of gear that have proper links into resist / life gear. - Don't forget about your flasks, update your life and mana flasks consistently and make sure to stay on top of getting new flasks as they become available to you. There is a quicksilver flask available from both Mercy Mission (Act 1) as well as The Great White Beast (Act 2) A Silver flask is available from The Key to Freedom (Act 5) There is a Quartz flask available from The Silver Locket (Act 7) Tips - If you are having difficulty clearing make sure you are using Call of Steel consistently to replenish your Steel Shards. - Make ample use of Leap Slam linked to Faster Attacks to move quickly through the campaign. - You may be tempted to try and use Splitting Steel early on, but Shattering Steel is SIGNIFICANTLY more damage for a VERY long time. - If you need upgrades for your gear as you level remember that Expedition will be available from Act 6 Onwards. This is an excellent source of items and gear. ------------------------------ GENERAL PLAYSTYLE ------------------------------ The video guide will be MUCH better at showing how to do this but I will give you some basics. - Use your Steel Skill of choice while maintaining Steel Shards with Call of Steel. Call of Steel also will do significant damage to packs. - Don't forget to place your Ancestral Protector and use your Curses on tough enemies. - Use Leap Slam for crossing Gaps or for dodging boss abilities and such. --------------------------- BUILD TRANSITIONS --------------------------- A few separate times throughout your playthrough you will be required to transition between different skilltrees and different skills. I'll list all of the different transitions as well as when you should do them here. Splitting Steel 1 - 11 Shattering Steel 12 - Endgame Splitting + Lancing Steel - Once you obtain The Saviour, Legion Sword for your offhand as well as the Dying Sun, Ruby Flask. Two-hand 1 - 85~ Dual Wield 85+ (Or when you can afford The Saviour, Legion Sword) You want to try and stay 2H With Terminus Est as long as you can manage, and then swap to DW when it feels needed defensive wise. For the DW Transition you can use 2x Ichimonji or Ichimonji / Scaeva. However I feel that around this time you should be going low-life as well, and should be doing Dreadbeak / Scaeva or 2x Dreadbeak. You can also Transition to Low-life whenever you feel comfortable. At this point you can swap into using a Dreadbeak sword as well. The Low-Life Transition consists of swapping into a different set of auras and should be done around the time you are swapping to DW and get your 4th ascendancy point. Your goal is to reserve 49% of your life. ------------------- ASCENDANCY ------------------- Champion - Our ascendancy allows us to utilize the Fortification mechanic which is exclusive to melee characters while not actually being melee, and scaling our damage through Impale, Adrenaline and Fortify. Master of Metal - Allows us to Inflict an Additional Impale, scale added damage per impale, and provides us Armour. Unstoppable Hero - Gives us Stun Immunity, Attack Speed, and Armour / Evasion during Fortification. Fortitude - It gives you 20 Stacks of Fortification, all the time. First to Strike, Last to Fall - Allows us to Permanently Intimidate all enemies as well as enables us to abuse Petrified Blood for perma Adrenaline. -------------------------------------------------- CRAFTING AND OBTAINING THE GEAR -------------------------------------------------- REMEMBER that you can always just buy all of the final pieces from the trade website. Crafting most of the time is cheaper. Typically leveling items or items in the "Budget" section that are just Life / Resists and that are not hard to obtain will not be included in this section. There will be items that simply aren't in need of detailed crafting notes, I will mention that in those cases. Weapons / Offhands We use exclusively Uniques. Teminus Est - should be relatively cheap early on. Ichimonji x2 - should be relatively cheap early on. Dreadbeak - Prophecy Weapon that should be relatively available. Paradoxica - This WILL be expensive very early. It allows us to double any sources of added physical (we have a lot) You are mainly looking for Phys Damage and Crit (Blind tends to be cheap) The Saviour - Easily the best offhand for this build, it DOUBLES our damage (2 Reflections each doing 50% of our damage) and makes clearing with Splitting Steel insanely comfortable. This might be expensive early on depending on how many people are farming Sirus for Awakened Gems early on. Helmet - Mid-Tier Option - Obtain an Elder influenced helmet ilvl 85 MINIMUM. - Use 2 Socket Delve Resonators with Jagged + Pristine to hopefully land "Nearby Enemies take 9% increased Physical Damage" and a Decent Life roll, anything else is a bonus. Craft any resistances or other stats you might need. - Expensive Option - Obtain an Elder influenced helmet ilvl 85 MINIMUM - Use High Tier Life Essences (Greed) until you have 3 Prefixes you're happy with. You can alternatively get 2 good Prefixes and use a remove suffix add prefix beastcraft. - Craft "Prefixes Cannot be Changed" NOTE: PREFIXES MUST BE FULL (3). - Use a "Reforge" Physical harvest craft on the helmet. Gloves - Expensive Option - Awakened Orb together +1 Max Frenzy and Elevated Impale Gloves, if you get bad suffixes you can clean them by doing Prefixes cannot be Changed and Doing a variety of things (veiled chaos orb, reforge life [if you have open prefix], or anything else) Chestpiece - Expensive Option - Awakener Orb together Frenzy Charge on Hit and Attacks have +% to Critical Strike Chance (Astral Plate Preferred). Craft Suffixes cannot be changed and harvest reroll Caster. Hopefully you got good mods or room for life. Boots - Expensive Option - Elusive, Tailwind, Onslaught boots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNBjgqPcYhQ Belt Ryslatha's - Should be cheap due to expedition. Jewels - Corrupting Blood Immunity Jewel - This is a random corruption of any Jewel, it is rare and best that you buy a life / generic damage one with the mod once and use it the entire league. - Jewels - You do not need this specific Jewel, get jewels with Life%, Some damage modifiers and any resists that your build needs. ------------------------ FINAL THOUGHTS ------------------------ A super powerful all round powerhouse, can handle all content in the game with gear and is excellent for league starting. If you have suggestions or just want to hangout with the community make sure to join my discord linked here -> https://discord.gg/aDtqeDC Thanks for taking the time to read through all of this! If you enjoy the build make sure to let your friends know about my YouTube Channel / Twitch Stream and have them join the discord server! Thanks, have fun and stay safe out there in Wraeclast, and I'll see you all next time!! ---