3.29 Vorana's March + Pearl of Tsoatha Memes

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7mMEm5_GiE

POB: https://pastebin.com/EFZ2jknf

POE.NINJA: https://poe.ninja/poe1/builds/allflame/character/Peekey-4893/VoranasBootlicker#i=0&search=items%3DVorana%2527s%2BMarch

I finished the league a while ago but figured I'd post this in-case Pearl of Tsoatha comes back at some point in time. This is by no means an optimized build guide. I struggled a bit as there were 0 people using Vorana's March when I created this and I usually follow guides.

I wanted to make a build centered around Arbalists doing 100% of my damage, no matter how good or bad.

Summon Arbalists is an ability attached to the Vorana's March boots. It summons 3* permanent Arbalist minions that are invincible. Their intended use (they're bad) seems to be to provide debuffs to enemies. With 3.29 changes, we can scale their damage meaningfully for the first time.

I went chaos damage with them because I felt it was a safe option considering a lot of unknowns. I chose Occultist as my ascendancy (with Forbidden Flame/Flesh Unnatural Strength from Necromancer).

Vorana's March has spot for 4 mods, chosen randomly. I ended up using:

• +1 to maximum Arbalists: Self-explanatory; it adds 50% more damage / better clear.

• 35% Chance to Deal Double Damage: A ton of free damage on a difficult to get mod elsewhere.

• 4 Additional Projectiles: Avoids me having to find a GMP support Tsoatha pearl. Also avoids the -% damage penalty from GMP (I think?).

• Projectiles Pierce 4 Additional Targets: Same as above but for pierce supp.

I think this is the BIS combo of mods. Attack speed is also good replacement to double damage but deals less overall.

The Pearl of Tsoatha rings introduced in 3.29 enables us to add support gems to our boots. We use the Nameless Bloodline to have an additional ring (sacrifice our amulet to do so). With 3 Pearl rings, we have 6 supports attached to the minions:

• Void Manip

• Withering Touch

• Crit Strikes

• Crit Damage

• Return Proj

• Unbound Ailments

If I had money (and could find them during the league), I definitely would swap out Unbound ailments with Minion Damage or Damage on Full Life (it works even though they're invincible according to POB). I ended up having some poison damage due to the pearl rings being very difficult to roll. I did not intend on going full poison, but here we are.

Their BAT (base attack time) is 1 attack per second. Not great. With Replica Maata's Teaching, we can modify their BAT to match our main-hand weapon. I tried Foulborn Moonbender's Wing which gives them insane attack speed, but Foulborn Severed in Sleep can't be beat for a chaos version of this build. Maybe with a different element you can make Moonbender's work with Maata's. In this case, I used the Maata's in my mainhand and Severed in Sleep in my off.

Mageblood fixes almost all of our basic defense needs that we do not get from using so many uniques. Unfortunately, I do not think you can skip using this.

Ancient Skull for the helmet with a Minions Are Aggressive vestigial implicit makes them feel great. It gives them a lot of crit chance, attack speed, and damage without the downside from the whispers DOT because they are invincible. Unfortunately, this DOES affect your Spectres/AG. My only suggestion is to get some regen on the tree, max spectre's gem quality, equip Doppelganger Guise on AG, and socket Controlled Destruction on them so they do not crit too often. Ancient Skull is definitely not a required unique, but it made them feel a lot punchier with their damage & aggression.

For the tree, I route to 3, 12-skill cluster jewels. With the jewels, I get minion damage and minion attack speed with Vicious Bite as a notable. I went energy shield with CI which may not be the best, but I did not feel like re-speccing to health.

Gloves and chest are rares and you can fill in missing stats there/stack ES or HP. I recomb'd 60% minion poison chance on my chest. If I had better Pearls, I'd drop poison entirely.

Spectres: Turtle, Warlord, Spectral Leader. I have a perfect tiger but do not have the willpower to continue grinding to get 4th spec. I'd probably replace the Warlord or SL with it if I was to continue playing.

AG: Leer Cast, Doppel, Kingmaker, rare boots/gloves with debuff eldritch implicits.

Overall, the build feels decent and can do most content, but it is 100% not worth the currency investment for what you get. You are locked to several unique items and have very little wiggle room if you want to maximize damage. It struggles on more difficult bosses.