Blade Vortex of the Scythe Slayer (PoB + full written build guide in description) [PoE 3.29]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This PoB contains two different loadouts: 1) Defensive Setup which we focus on and the text/guide refers to. 2) Higher Damage Setup which is much more min-maxed and you'll need a much higher budget for that. For this version I'll add some separate text at the end of the guide / bottom of the notes. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For better orientation: GREEN = general information RED = Defensive Setup build-specific information BLUE = Higher Damage Setup information >>> Foreword & Build Idea <<< I already had a Slayer Lv 100 in SSF and wanted to try something uncommon and different. Initially, I wanted to play normal BV but AoE is really terrible (esp. without explosions), so I thought why not test the transfigured version? The transfigured version has much better AoE (and also can be scaled easier). It only has one total max blade (with higher base damage) at a time and higher cast time but much less duration and we don't need any seals/unleash to build stacks. The skills damage and AoE scales really hard with gem levels (1684 to 2526 at lv 20 vs. 5060 to 7590 at lv 30 >> triple damage). Getting crit chance up is also relatively easy without investing much as we got some changes in 3.29: - base crit increase from 6 to 10% - base damage increase - almost 100% more effectiveness of added damage - quality now gives AoE instead of 20% more damage The higher cast time, hit-cap and duration also means that we don't need to spam the skill all the time for damage, this is esp. good for our mana pool but comes with the downside of only hitting once every 0.6 seconds. It's really fun and strong (also relatively fast) for mapping and okayish for bossing (due to hit-cap and getting charges up first but you can always invest more and go for the higher damage setup). All Pinnacles can be done easily. Some Ubers like Shaper, Cortex or Uber Uber Elder are also doable but for most of them you need either more life + regen (as we are always in melee range) or damage. Damage-wise it's definitely not a top-tier skill with that amount of investment. Yet, I think it's still viable and also really tanky. >>> Slayer & Defences <<< Why Slayer? Mainly for defence reasons. 7 endurance charges, lots of armour, block chance, overleech and damage reduction while leeching. To push defences further, we have 100% suppression, freeze (with spread), chill, Temporal Chains as an aura, Maligant Madness (reduces action speed + damage by 10%), ailment immunity, life on kill, phasing, (Vaal) Molten Shell with high uptime, high chaos res, flasks, pantheon and you also can move while damaging which is good for bosses. Bleed and CB immunity come from the life flask. If you're fighting Sirus or something that inflicts CB, take either the Pantheon for flask charges or throw in a CB jewel. Stun immunity also comes from a Corundum flask (which is more than enough for mapping). Of course this also has some downsides: - Duelist starting area isn't the best for casters >> no optimal pathing - Raw life pool isn't super high - Small Slayer ascendancy nodes offer no value and are basically dead mods - As we play with all three charge types, we rely heavily on them and it can take some time to get them all up (but this is mostly the case for bossing as we have charges on kill for mapping) >>> A few things to mention before we deep-dive <<< - This is the setup I personally like playing. There are a lot of things you can change and play different - more in detail about this and alternatives below - For more information about playstyle, mechanics etc. scroll down to 'Skill Gems, Mechanics, Duration & Playstyle' (there's an important text which I colored orange) - The gear shown is what you want to aim for but you can always start with worse gear. Note, that gem levels are a huge damage multiplier (if you take off 2 levels from wand/shield, that can be roughly a million DPS) - Damage will not always feel this high because we "only" have 60% chance to invert resistances - Generally, the build is really tight on suffixes as you need resistances and a lot of attributes but also passive points. This means currency and levels are needed before you can make the build feel good in juiced content. - I didn't min-max every piece of gear as some of them can be hard to craft or rely on some luck. It also makes the build more realistic and accessible. As always: you don't need the exact same stats on each item and can play around with how you reach certain requirements. - I also left some attributes and crit chance open so you can see what's the minimum needed and what you achieve with this gear (for example, I didn't include any stats besides the notables on cluster jewels which you can use for attributes) - In case you still want to transition as early as possible, I made a separate PoB for progressing: https://pobb.in/RdNOuLNv51-r (check notes!) >>> Before going over the gear, pay attention to: Attributes, Resistances, Suppression and Ailment Avoidance <<< 1) Attributes & Resistances: As said before, I left some attributes open, so you can see the minimum requiremens which are: 164 Str (from body armour) and 151 Int (from Zealotry). This is with a min-roll Replica Dragonfang's Flight. Dex requirement is no deal at all. Normally, I'd just use a Elegant Hubris to solve attributes easily but we're already too tight on points to fit this in efficiently. Getting resistances capped, high chaos res and needed attributes can be a bit annoying, that's why I mention it before you go over the gear, so you have an eye on it. If you have any struggles or miss some stats, you can do the following until you can fix them: - change Bandit to Alira for resistances - use jewels (we have 5 clusters) - skip damage mods on your ring (also easier to craft) - use a lower level Zealotry - skip Runegraft of the Fortress (lowers attributes) - take +30 Str/Int notable - get resistances on boots implicit (exarch) - instead of getting the jewel slot near Harrier in the middle you can travel to a different jewel slot and get attributes Also: you can swap resistances via harvest bench. In Allflame League there also was a way to swap attributes. I don't think this will go core in its current form but maybe they introduce some other way to flip attributes instead. 2) Suppression: Most of the suppression is coming from the tree and the Magebane keystone. To get capped with this setup, you still need one T1 suppress roll on gear and a max-rolled Foulborn Ancestral Vision. I also used 5 suppress tattoos to achieve this (check in-game value, as this can be slightly off and you maybe need less or more). Here are some more options to get suppression for (temporary) fix: - if lucky, you get suppression on your body armour (this is why it's the first gear piece you want to get) - shield implicit (on an evasion/ES shield) + also possible to get as a suffix (but can't roll spell/cold damage or gem level) - bench-craft on shield or body armour - small suppression cluster (There's also a notable which gives you 20% ailment avoidance. If you do this: change tree pathing on the right side to have access to 'Thick Skin' and respec 'Herbalism' to achieve ailment immunity) - any Dex will increase your suppression via Magebane (1% suppress per 15 dex) - can for example get this on jewels - take small suppress nodes - use a Watcher's Eye with phys to cold conversion and get suppression on your gloves as an eldritch implicit instead - relocate Unnatural Instinct to the socket on the right side (see 'Uniques' for more information) 3) Ailment Avoidance: - 50% coming from Ancestral Vision (with capped suppression) - 25% from Eldritch implicit on boots - for the last 25%: craft on either boots (suffix), shield (suffix) or body armour (prefix) >>> Gear, Crafting & Order <<< In the following I'm going over each gear slot, give you an idea on what to prioritize and, as I'm usually crafting everything myself (often cheaper), I'll give some tips and advice for crafting. I didn't include Allflame crafting as I don't think this will go core in its current form. If they introduce something similar in the future you can of course use that to make some crafting steps easier (regals, exalts, fractures, ...). When it comes to items with influence where you have to choose the influence-type (like Hunter or Shaper on body armour), check your options if you want to use a Bound By Destiny jewel or plan to change to the higher damage version later. (For the best jewel options, see 'Uniques' below) For resistances, remember you can swap them via harvest bench (can also use this tech to get max rolls). If you're about to ex slam to finish a craft, also think about using a foulborn ex if the item is really good and worth it. Order: I'd go with Body Armour + Shield first as those are the ones you have the least control over. They need some luck for crafting and you maybe hit resistances/attributes. Then the gear that's relatively easy and safe to craft like helmet, boots and belt to get as much res/attributes as possible. And finally the gloves, ring and clusters/jewels, so you can see what you're missing and fill up remaining stats. 1) Body Armour: You want the two conqueror mods, high armour/evasion, no life and a crafted mod on this. Everything else is just a bonus on top. If lucky and you hit T1 or T2 life, you can respec the life mastery. You don't even necessarily need to elevate the crit mod (further information about crit chance below). Crafting: First, get a Conquest Lamellar (iLvl 84+) base with a high base defence value and either Shaper/Hunter* or Redeemer influence. Can also look for quality over 20%. You can also change the influence type via harvest. *(both influence types can roll spell crit and otherwise have a decent modpool but I'd go with Shaper for the chance of hitting +1 gemlevel) The other base (which gets destroyed) doesn't matter but needs the other influence. Roll both mods with alterations (crit can be forced via harvest) or just buy with the mods. Make sure those are the only influence mods on the item. If you want to elevate the crit, you need two influence mods on the item, use an Orb of Dominance and pray. Use an Awakener Orb to combine. The outcome is based on pure luck. There are different cases and options to proceed: a) If you get a trash item with full prefixes and suffixes, you need to annul and hope to remove a prefix. If you hit one of the suffixes, you need to start over. b) If you haven't elevated the crit mod, you could just Awakener Orb over and over until you have a good one. c) If you hit trash but have one open prefix and suffix, you can lock suffixes and scour. You can then go safe with multimod (maybe need to divine). d) If you have full prefixes but an open suffix, you can beast-craft 'remove a prefix and add a suffix'. e) If you have an open prefix with full suffixes, lock suffixes and harvest reforge defence (this can take a few trys and also may fill up prefixes so you need to annul). Alternatively, lock suffixes and use a veiled chaos orb. You can repeat this if you hit trash and should still be cheapre than crafting with a veiled ex. But be aware that this can "brick" your craft if prefixes fill up (and you get nothing). Craft hybrid defences+life BEFORE unveiling. Unveils you're looking for: ailment avoidance > attack block > %life. You also want one open prefix to bench-craft anything. One thing to mention: if you only have the two suffixes and use a veiled chaos orb, you should theoretically be able to get an item with only 3 mods if lucky (I haven't tested this yet - not sure if the usage of a veiled chaos orb always fills mods up to at least 4). If this is the case, you also can just go safe with multimod. Use Divine Orbs to roll values and high crit chance. Optional - before doing sockets/links: if you have a really good craft, consider spamming some Tailoring Orbs and try to get anything useful. 2) Shield: On your shield, you optimally want: +1 phys or high spell/cold damage, high life, block, spell crit and 30% mana reservation efficiency. This can be really annoying to craft as mana reservation only has 'gem' as a tag and is available via Hunter or Shaper influence. There's no 100% safe way to craft this (at least as far as I know). The easiest is to just buy it. Crafting: The base needs to be at least iLvl 80 to roll that mod. But I'd go with an iLvl 86 to be able to roll T1 block (or at least 84 for T1 spell damage). Use the one with the highest base block chance. If you start with a non-influenced shield, make sure it isn't fractured. Choose the base type: - Raw Int Shields: will be the hardest to craft because they have the most prefixes and also a lower weighting of rolling block chance but damage mods (+1 skill and spell/cold damage) are only available on them. The best base is a 'Transfer-attuned Spirit Shield' as it has the highest base block + also sap on block. If you want to skip damage mods (at least for now), you can also use a hybrid or raw Strength shield for defences and an implicit like suppress. - Raw Str Shields: have the least prefixes and double the weighting for block chance. They can't roll any useful damage mods (also no spell crit) but will be easiest to craft. - Hybrid Int/Str: is pretty similar to Str shields with a few prefixes more and you can get spell crit on them - Hybrid Int/Dex: same as hybrid Int/Str but block chance weighting is as low as on Int shields For the actual crafting (damage shield), there are different methods you can use: a) recomb: either similar rare shields with the influence mod or alternatively alt/aug roll (or buy) non-influence bases and recomb until you have the 3 prefixes. After that lock prefixes, harvest reforge crit to force spell crit (caster on hybrid str/int!) and Hunter/Shaper ex slam (see c) b) fossils: are an option but I think it would take a lot of trys to hit the mods we need c) buy a rare non-influenced shield that has all the mods with 1 open suffix and slam a Hunter or Shaper ex. Hunter has better odds of hitting this mod but Shaper is usually cheaper and has a chance to hit %life on block (which is often desired). Make sure prefixes are full before doing that! Alternatively to buying a shield, you can make one yourself: use Defeaning Essences of Greed (life), Loathing (block) or Scorn (spell crit). Roll until prefixes are good (if you didn't craft with Scorn) and you have an open suffix. Lock prefixes and harvest reforge crit to force spell crit (caster on hybrid str/int!). Slam Hunter/Shaper ex and pray. d) Get both Hunter and Shaper influence on your shield for higher chances of rolling reservation efficiency. Alt/Aug until you have reservation efficiency and a good prefix. For this method you can also use beastcrafting (magic imprints or prefix<>suffix change when rare). Use (foulborn) Regal to make rare. If your regal hits something good, you can just finish with a multimod craft (for now). If the item has 2 nice prefixes or suffixes, you can lock prefixes/suffixes and scour the trash mods. e) Gambling: Get both Hunter and Shaper influence on your shield for higher chances of rolling reservation efficiency. Harvest reforge caster (for spell/cold dmg, crit or gem level) or alch/scour and test if luck is on your side. If you hit anything decent but also trash mods, you could try to annul off. Imporant Notes/Summary: - for non-influence shields: if you have all 3 prefixes, you can lock prefixes and harvest reforge crit (caster on hybrid str/int!) to force spell crit + try to slam the mod (best odds with Hunter ex) - harvest aug would be really helpful but can't be used on influenced items - don't use harvest reforge phys (unless you want +1 phys for recomb) as most of the time you'll get damage reflect - also: if you hit something nice but useless for you, you can just sell 3) Helmet, Boots & Belt: On your helmet you want as much reservation effiency as possible, high res, life and armour/evasion + a crafted prefix. Boots are pretty much the same but with high Movement Speed. We also want a T1 Spell Suppression roll on those (you can also get suppression on the gloves but this may make them much more expensive). Fyi: we will use Essences to force Int on boots or belt but it can also roll naturally on the helmet! Tip: if you craft Int on your belt and also get a high strength roll there, you can push them further with attribute catalysts. Crafting: Note: Eldritch implicits are always done last. 3.1) Helmet: First, get a Haunted Bascinet (iLvl 85+) base with a high base defence value. Can also look for quality over 20% and a fractured base (preferably suppression) which makes the craft easier. Spam Defeaning Essences of Loathing until you're happy with suffixes. After that, we use Eldritch currency to get prefixes done. For this, make Exarch dominant. Use Eldritch Chaos Orbs / Annulments in combination with normal exalts. Also: block hybrid life/defences via bench before ex slamming. Aim for T1-2 life and a decent armour/evasion roll. You want one open prefix to craft AoE. 3.2) Boots: This is pretty much the same craft as before but you want an iLvl 86+ base to be able to roll T1 Movement Speed. Spam Defeaning Essences of Spite (Int), Envy (Chaos) or any other for resistances (alternatively use harvest reforge) until suffixes are done. Then do prefixes with Eldritch currency. Tip: if you have a base with fractured life, you can lock suffixes and harvest reforge speed to force Movement Speed and craft Amour/Evasion. 3.3) Eldritch implicits On both items we want the Eater of Worlds implicits at least to be exceptional or higher. Roll the Eater mod with Grand Ichors. Then use an Exceptional Eldritch Ember + Orb of Conflict. Pray to increase the tier of the eater mod and lower exarch. Repeat this until Eater is done. Use Grand Eldritch Embers to roll the other mod. On the helmet and boots, you have some flexibility for the Exarch mod you get. - on helmet you can also use (if you can handle mana cost): damage, spell crit, AoE or Temporal Chains curse effect - on boots you can use: Action/Movement speed, ele/chaos res or drop ground 'XY' (instead of damage per endurance charge) 3.4) Belt: Stat prio: life, high resistances/attributes. Crafting: For the base you want an iLvl 85+ Stygian Vise (non-fractured!). Either buy one that already has all the stats (+ 2 open prefixes) or craft with Essences / harvest reforge. Slam a Redeemer Exalt to get damage against chilled enemies or cold damage (there only are a total of 3 prefixes that can roll). Alternatively, you could slam an Elder or Hunter ex and try to hit life (Hunter has better odds but Elder can also hit phys damage). Bench-Craft either damage or armour/evasion. Catalysts: life, attributes or resistances (as needed). 4) Ring: On the ring we want Elder influence (to get the bonus from Mark of the Shaper) and crafted mana cost. The rest is up to you. Crafting: Choose the base you want to keep (like Vermillion, Opal or Amethyst). This one needs to be iLvl 84+ and either have elder- or redeemer-influence (or any other if you play with BBD). The other ring (base doesn't matter) needs the second influence and be at least iLvl 80+. Roll both mods (elder: T1 crit multi / redeemer: T1 cold per frenzy or cold against chilled enemies) with alterations. Make sure those are the only influence mods on the item. Use an Awakener Orb to combine. The outcome is based on pure luck. If the result is trash, we "recraft" (= gambling) the ring. This can be a bit annoying, depending on what you need or how good you want it to be. Spam harvest reforge crit or use Essences of Scorn for the crit multi until the ring is good. Be aware that crafting a top tier ring like the PoB-one can take ten thousands of lifeforce. If this is too hard to get, skip the damage mods and just go for the ones you need. 5) Gloves: On the gloves you want high life, armour/evasion, damage against chilled enemies, damage conversion (crafted) and for remaining suffixes the stats you need at this point. The 'damage against chilled enemies' mod comes from Alva temple (or sometimes appears in Rituals). Unless you have this mod fractured, the crafting part would be really hard. This is why it's one of the last gear pieces we get. Buy gloves with decent suffixes. If there aren't any good, buy cheap ones and try to recomb on a good base. Crafting prefixes is pretty much the same as on helmet/boots (see 3.1 for that). Crafting Eldritch implicits is also the same as before (see 3.3). The damage conversion mod also is an Eater of Worlds mod. If you want to take this further, you can craft with veiled ex/chaos. But this can get quite expensive as you want T1-2 life, the veiled mod and one open prefix to bench-craft. So you either block suffixes, then use a veiled chaos and pray to hit life or (more expensive but a little safer) craft with eldritch curreny until you have life (alternatively block suffixes and harvest reforge life), then craft suffix block and use a veiled ex and pray to hit the crafted mod. Craft 'Physical Damage Reduction while Focused' BEFORE unveiling. There are two mods we can use: - AoE/area damage: if you hit this, bench-craft cold conversion (or if you already have conversion on Watcher's Eye craft damage while leeching). - Cold Conversion. if you hit this, bench-craft either damage while leeching or AoE/area damage. You also don't need 35% conversion on your implicit. 6) Jewels: Jewels are usually easiest/cheapest to just buy. The small and medium clusters can be crafted easily with alt/aug/regal/ex. We need one 2-passive small cluster with Enduring Composure to keep endurance charges up in boss fights (as we otherwise only have on kill and some chance to get one on block) and another 3-passive for mana reservation efficiency (Spiteful Presence). On the large cluster, you want Doryani's Lesson and Blast-Freeze. Make sure both nodes are on the front side. You need a cold cluster base for them. If you skip Blast-Freeze, you can also use an elemental damage base. I didn't put any crazy mods on the base jewels, so you can get a lot more out of them. Use them for whatever stats you need (can also get mana cost efficiency again on them). Prioritize life and on the abyss jewel get a T1 phasing on kill. For damage mods: you can use global crit multi or spell crit multi (elemental or specific element multi don't work) and on the abyss jewel both added cold or added phys spell damage work. If you're on console like me getting the right jewels can be painful due to the low playerbase (esp. large clusters), so I'm often crafting them by myself. So here's how I crafted them (even if its more expensive than buying): - For the large cluster alch/scour until you hit Doryani's Lesson or Blast-Freeze (or both). Use a fracturing orb and pray. Once you have this you can alt/aug until you have both mods on a magic jewel. Use a regal+ex and hope to hit any 3rd notable and check in the skill tree if both mods are in front. - For the base jewels, just get a fractured base and use harvest reforge. If you have for example cost efficiency fractured, you reforge life for a higher chance to hit %life and do this until you get the 3rd stat you're looking for. For the 4th stat you just ex slam and pray. 7) Weapon: You want gem levels, high spell damage and spell crit on it. Preferably a rune dagger for the crit implicit. Don't use a wand because of the int requirement. To start with, you can get one with fractured +1 phys skills and spam Defeaning Essences of Woe until you hit hybrid-spell-damage or a T3+ added cold spell damage and T2+ spell crit. You can also force crit via harvest but this can quickly end up in a divine-sink. More budget-friendly: just bench-craft spell crit. If you have a somewhat non-fractured decent weapon with open stats, you can also consider slamming a conqueror-ex (check mods here: https://poedb.tw/us/Rune_Daggers#ModifiersCalc) Cast speed is a mod which you can neglect as it is only QoL for this build and does nothing for actual DPS. Crafting your GG +2 endgame weapon (can get expensive): You need a fractured +1 all skills base for this. Either buy or if there's none available, you need to make one yourself with fracturing orbs. The base needs to be at least iLvl 76 to be able to roll T1 spell crit. This mod is veeeeery rare and you usually alt spam until you have it but on a weapon it has the caster tag so you can also spam harvest reforge caster or just buy a random non-fractured base that has this mod. Also look for a base with either 24 or 28% quality. Important: you only want 4 mods on it to maximize your chances of fracturing. Once you have the fractured +1 all, spam Defeaning Essence of Woe for spell damage. You need an open prefix with no suffixes (craft prefixes cannot be changed and scour). Craft multimod, cannot roll attack modifiers and any suffix. Now you need to harvest aug phys. This forces +1 phys skills as all other mods are attack tagged. You can fail here and remove spell damage but changes are high you hit a suffix. If you hit spell damage, start over. Now prefixes are done. From here you have different options: - if you want to go safe: craft multimod + spell crit + any other mod you want - you can craft prefixes cannot be changed and harvest reforge crit. You can hit attack crit, crit multi or spell crit. Aim for a T2+ spell crit mod. The tricky part here is that you don't want suffixes to be filled up (at least if you hit crap) - else you have to annul and if unlucky hit a prefix son you need to start over. Once you hit spell crit, craft any other mod you want and fill up with a (foulborn) exalt (block any mod like attack speed before you do this). - third option: reforge crit as before, once you have this, craft prefixes cannot be changed, use a veiled ex and pray to hit the crafted mod. If you do, craft any damage over time multiplier mod BEFORE UNVEILING. There are multiple unveils which are usable: best is double damage or crit multi. Another good choice is damage per frenzy or endurance charge. If you got none of them, you still can get something with attributes that are quite useful. Lastly, craft the other mod + harvest enchant. Note: Conq Ex don't work on fractured items and veiled chaos are too much RNG imo. Finish the craft with divines, blessed orbs and harvest enchant. >>> Socket Colour Prio <<< Body Armour: Green (BV) > Red (Inspiration) > Red (for More Duration) > Blue (Crit Dmg) > Blue (Invert the Rules) > Blue (Arcane Surge) Weapon: Blue (Automation) > Red (Molten Shell) > Red (More Duration) Shield: none Helmet: Red (Arrogance), Blue (Sigil of Power) Gloves: Blue (Eldrtich Blasphemy) Boots: Blue (Frostblink) > Blue (Power Charge on Crit) >>> Uniques <<< - Replica Dragonfang: +3 to Blade Vortex, prioritize reservation efficiency and attribute requirements. Use attribute catalysts and don't forget to anoint. DO NOT divine it as this will change the skill! - Mark of the Shaper: get as high rolls as possible, use caster or life catalysts - The Light of Meaning: can use increased physical or cold damage. Cold is slightly better but phys is usually cheaper (depending on meta builds). If affordable, get one with corruption - Ancestral Vision: get a foulborn version with 10% suppression - Watcher's Eye: the one I put here is pretty basic (and usually cheap). Get one with at least two good modifiers. One of them should be mana cost (Clarity). There are a lot of mods you can make use of: - Clarity: mana cost - Determination: armour / block / phys reduction / crit reduction (can almost get crit immunity with this + crit mastery) - Hatred: added cold / increased cold / crit chance (can replace crit on body armour) / phys to cold conversion -> this would allow you to drop the conversion on either implicit on gloves (and get suppression or life leech instead) or bench-craft AoE/area damage or damage while leeching) - Precision: crit multi (need to fit in the gem) - Vitality: life leech (need to fit in the gem) - Zealotry: cast speed (QoL) / consec. ground: damage taken / consec ground: crit chance / Arcane Surge - Unnatural Instinct: this one is huge. We place it inside the radius of Light of Meaning and all the small nodes from Unnatural Instinct will also get the damage bonus from Light of Meaning. So we get a ton of damage from these 2 jewels alone (total 160% phys). Though, there are some options where you can put it (depending on what you need): - Middle, left side: this is best in slot imo. We get skill duration, mana, regen, damage, AoE, curse aura efficiency, cast speed - Middle, right side (near Harrier): is quite similar to the left side. Less damage (and no skill duration) but movement speed, more attributes and life - Right side (near Frenzy Charge): this is more of a 'starter' spot which can help fixing some stuff. No damage but 16% supression, lots of evasion, life, 50% crit chance, 8% ele res and life Important: Make sure all small nodes you benefit from are unallocated as they will get useless (e.g. if you put the jewel in the middle, right side socket, respec life nodes (and put elsewhere) and use the attack speed nodes to get to the socket. - Optional: Bound By Destiny I didn't include it in this setup but as we already have several influence-types, you can consider using one. The best options for this build: - 2x Elder: %life or Unnerve (can get damage per frenzy charge on gloves) - 2x Hunter: poison immunity or life reg - 4x Shaper: spell crit (can replace this mod on body armour) - 4x Warlord: endurance charge generation (can replace small cluster) - 4x Redeemer: frenzy on hit (can replace this mod on body armour) - 4x Crusader: power charge on hit - 4x Hunter: Movement speed - 6x bonus has strong mods like +1 gem level or +1 charges but it's unlikely we can make use of this (and also find the right jewel combo) >>> Anointment <<< I anointed 'Frenetic' (Azure, Silver, Silver) for an additional frenzy and endurance charge which both provides offence and defence. But you can take whatever you think is good or what you need. For example, 'Tireless' is good for life and mana cost, 'Disciple of the Forbidden' is nice QoL for power charge sustain or get something with suppression or reservation efficiency to fix any temporary problems. >>> Flasks <<< - Life Flask for Bleed/CB immunity - Corundum for stun immunity - Rumi's for additional block chance or Oriath's End for explosions while mapping - Taste of Hate for extra damage and a little more ele damage reduction - Quicksilver for movement Try to get 'charges on crit' or 'when getting hit' on them. If you have low chaos res, replace Taste of Hate for Atziri's Promise. For bosses you can replace the unique flasks for any magic flasks as you won't get charges for them. Other good choices: - Jade or Basalt with %evasion for extra armour (evasion gets converted) - Sulphur with curse reduction, extra resistances or crafted life regen - Diamond with crit chance (if you need help with crit-cap) (- Silver doesn't add much besides movement and a little cast speed) - Bottled Faith - Vessel of Vinktar (get one with spell lightning damage. Self-shock gets nullified via ailment avoidance) >>> Crit Chance <<< Getting crit chance capped isn't much of a big deal due to the skill gem changes in 3.29. To see all the used sources of crit chance, go to 'Calcs' (and hover over the crit chance). There are a lot of additional options you could use to help getting capped: - Diamond Flask / Bottled Faith - Assassin's Mark - Brittle Ground (boot implicit) - Precision - Bound By Destiny - Watcher's Eye (Hatred) - Frost Shield - Anoint (e.g. Assassination) - Unnatural Instinct socketed on the right side (- Aspect of the Cat) If you build a little different and get crit chance elsewhere, you could drop the medium clusters completely or change them to area clusters with Magnifier and Towering Threat (for damage, AoE and life). If you get crit from Bound By Destiny or Watcher's Eye, you can get something else on your body armour (e.g. explosions). >>> Area of Effect <<< BV already has a decent base radius, scaling per level and gets extra range with quality. Additionally, we have 3% per endurance charge, 10% on helmet, 4% from weapon enchant and 36% via Unnatural Instinct. For further scaling: - helmet implicit (instead of cost efficiency) - (Awakened) Incr. AoE support (~50%) - craft/unveil on gloves - Ascendancy (Impact) (50%) - Medium AoE clusters AoE also increases chilled ground and curse aura! Note: BV visual effect doesn't scale with AoE >>> Charges <<< We have a total of 7 frenzy + endurance and 3 power charges. - Frenzy Charges are generated via 'on hit' from our body armour + on kill from tree. - Endurance Charges are generated via Enduring Composure from cluster, on kill from tree and we also have a chance to gain one on block. - Power Charge generation is unfortunately not optimal as I did squeeze that in and we only have power charge on crit linked to Frostblink (with 'only' 75% crit chance and 70% chance to gain a charge on crit) but nothing else like on kill. But since we use it all the time and in combination with the charge mastery for 100% duration you shouldn't have any struggles to keep them up. If you find another way for generation you can change the mastery to damage per charge. For bosses, you can put Jaws of Agony with Blade Trap + Multiple Traps + Advanced Traps in your second weapon set to get them up before starting the fight (but need to reactive auras from shield + weapon after swapping back). >>> Life Leech <<< This mod is easiest to get on the large cluster jewel (Doryani's Lesson) but there also are some other sources: - Eldritch Implicit on gloves (need to drop conversion and get on Watcher's Eye) - Doryani's Invitation belt (as a temporary solution) - On a Watcher's Eye with Vitality (need to fit in the gem) - Amulet corruption >>> Block Chance <<< Depending on your shield, you'll sit at around 50% attack block chance. You can increase this further with the following options: - 2-3% on rare base jewels (prefix) - 5-8% on a Watcher's Eye with Determination - up to 12% from Rumi's Concoction (for mapping) - 1% from Str Tattoos (Valako Shieldbearer) - if you have enough strength - 5-7% as a craft on body armour (or 8-9% if unveiled) - Megalomaniac (see 'Further Upgrades') >>> Tattoos & Runegrafts <<< I used 5 suppress tattoos to get suppression-capped (check in-game value, as this can be slightly off and you maybe need less or more). Besides that, I didn't include any other tattoos as we need the attributes. If they allow you to, you can fit in more tattoos (block chance/hinder). Theoretically (for min-maxing) you can use more suppression tattoos to overcap and then use additional other dex tattoos until you are at the minimum dex requirement for gear. Pro Tip with Unnatural Instinct: you can travel to attribute nodes in range, use a tattoo on them and then respec. This way you'll get the tattoo stats via jewel (only works with unallocated nodes). Runegraft of the Fortress is used for a good chunk of armour. >>> Pantheon & Bandit <<< Major: Solaris is a good choice for single targets and to counter crits Minor: Abberath for burning ground/movement speed, Ryslatha to counter life regen/life flask charges, Yugul for curse reduction or Shakari against poison If you have low chaos res, run Arakaali + Shakari until fixed Bandit: Kill all (or Alira if you need resistances). >>> Skill Tree and Levels <<< The tree is set for Lv 100. If you're lower, here are a few options: - take out block nodes (3 passives) - skip the jewel slot near Harrier in the middle (4 passives) or travel to a different jewel slot instead (3 instead of 4 passives) - skip the jewel slot on the right near Frenzy Charge (2 passives) - take out aura mastery (1 passive) Few other notable mentions & alternatives: - If you get reservation efficiency on jewels, you can save a passive point by using a 2-passive reservation efficiency cluster - Can get Art of the Gladiator + Bravery for extra armour and speed (instead of Herbalism) - Crit Mastery: Effect of Ailments / Crit Multi - Cold Cluster (right side): 2x cold damage nodes + ailment effect - Charge Mastery: Damage per charge - Iron Will (keystone): 1% spell damage per 5 strength - If you have life on your body armour, you can respec the life mastery - You could also respec some nodes (see above) and grab more life instead >>> Ascendancy & Bloodlines <<< Just take the four basic nodes allocated in the tree and you're good. Bloodline Alternative: Aul: Get 'The King's Might' instead of 'Headsman' (Culling). This will increase your average hit damage (and charge duration). Compared to the total DPS with Culling it's a bit weaker but if you get Culling Strike via Frostblink you're effectively on par. Other than that, I couldn't find anything useful among Bloodlines. Another thing you can do just for mapping and only if your damage is high enough: use 'Impact' instead of 'Headsman' which gives you up to 50% increased AoE. >>> Further Upgrades <<< - Better Jewels (+ Corruptions) - Any power charge on kill (or +minimum power charges) mod is a nice QoL for power charge sustain - Shield: there are a lot of nice mods you can get there (like life on block, +2 minimum power charges, ...) but will be really, really hard to get/craft - Megalomaniac: has a lot of nice options and you would want one with Enduring Composure on it to drop the small cluster but will also be really hard to get - Hinder as an additional source of slow (can get this from Int tattoos or on abyss jewel) - It's possible to get to 8 frenzy+endurance charges by using a Cobra Talisman (but need to path to Frenetic as they can't be anointed) - More expensive chase items like Headhunter, Mageblood, Progenesis >>> Skill Gems, Mechanics, Duration & Playstyle <<< Blade Vortex & Skill Duration: By default the skill has 0.8 seconds base duration and hits every 0.6 seconds. It has a cast time of 1.2 seconds. This means you would have to constantly spam the skill to deal damage once per cast. That's why we need to invest into skill duration to get a longer duration than it takes to cast. With the current setup we get close to 1.5 seconds duration, so we hit twice per cast. For mapping: I recommend using a Lv 21/20 (or 20/23, is the same) More Duration gem in a red socket. This brings you close to 2.2 seconds total (= 3 hits/cast) (drop Arcane Surge/Hypothermia or Empower). Alternatively to More Duration you can use either (Awakened) Increased AoE for more clear range or Annihilation for explosions. Another thing you can do (only for mapping and if your damage is high enough): use 'Impact' (ascendency) instead of 'Headsman' for additional 50% AoE. Don't forget to change everything back when running harder bosses (also see 'Flasks' for some options). If you don't like to swap/change anything, just leave as is. Skill Duration is not only good for BV but also increases the duration of chilled ground, Sigil of Power, Arcane Surge and Molten Shell. With the current setup we have 12 seconds Molten Shell duration and over 30 for Vaal Molten Shell. Arcane Surge vs. Hypothermia Arcane Surge grants a higher damage multiplier (35%) but you need the actual Arcane Surge buff to get that bonus while Hypothermia (30%) is a safe choice. Arcane Surge gem quality also gives some damage and the buff itself grants mana regen and cast speed. Cost multiplier is the same for both gems. To make this work, we link a Lv 1 Arcane Surge to Frostblink. Make sure you get the Arcane Surge buff after using Frostblink once (mana cost needs to be 15 or higher). There also is a Watcher's Eye mod for Zealotry which grants Arcane Surge. If you want to play completely without Arcane Surge, just use Hypothermia. Link Incr. Crit. Strikes to Frostblink for a 100% crit chance (power charge generation). But I do recommend Arcane Surge because of the mana regen and cast speed. Bonechill: Bonechill makes enemies in chilling areas take increased cold damage (by % of chill effect). The damage taken refers to the enemy's highest % of chill effect. This means we pop a chilled ground with Frostblink and inflict a higher chill with BV. Sigil of Power (optional): I put Sigil of Power in the helmet for a little damage boost, lightning damage (for shocks) and incoming damage reduction at max stages. It's completely optional and, if any, only needed for single targets/bosses. Other good choices you could use instead: Frost Shield (crit), Vaal Lightning Trap (higher socks), Vaal Haste (speed), Vaal RF (damage) Playstyle: Basically all you need to do is cast BV and dash around with Frostblink + use Vaal Molten Shell when ready. Important: - As we play with resistance inversion, don't take anything that lowers enemies resistances (curses/exposure). Pen also isn't needed. - Phasing is coming from the abyss jewel - You can also put the gems in gloves into helmet and vice versa >>> Reservation / Mana Cost / Unreserved Mana & Auras/Curse <<< Reservation: As we run a lot of auras, we need a lot of mana reservation efficiency and also 2x Enlighten. You definitely need at least one Enlighten Lv 4. If you run 1x Lv 4 and 1x Lv 3, you'll need additional reservation efficiency on jewels. This mod is also available as a corruption, so you can also look for it on the unique jewels (might be cheaper than running 2x Lv 4 Enlighten) As a temporary solution, you can: - drop the curse aura completely and play with Assassin's Mark instead - get an Anoint with reservation efficiency If you get reservation efficiency on jewels in combination with 2x Lv 4 Enlighten, you can save a passive point by using a 2-passive reservation efficiency cluster. A higher level Eldritch Blasphemy also lowers reservation by a few %. As for the curse aura: either run Temporal Chains or Enfeeble (we can use 1 curse in total). Mana Cost: This depends on your BV gem level. You want flat -mana cost on your Watcher's Eye and also on the rare ring. You maybe also need 1-2x cost efficiency on your rare jewels and a decent roll on your amulet to have enough mana for casting. Check your actual mana cost, mana regen (with Arcane Surge on) and amount of unreserved mana to be able to cast and sustain. Make sure Frostblink costs at least 15 mana. As a rule of thumb you can aim for like 60-70 unreserved mana and ~50-60 mana regen. You want mana regen to be higher than the cost of BV. This is especially important for bossing because we take out More Duration, so you need to cast a lot more and also use Frostblink in addition. You maybe need to play around a little bit to find the balance between cost and regen. Some options to help with that: - increase Clarity level for more mana regen - get % mana cost efficiency on jewels - get +mana regen on abyss jewel (prefix) - there's a life mastery that converts 15% to cost life - change the value of -mana cost on the ring or Watcher's Eye >>> Shocks (not configured) <<< From my testing, the lightning damage alone from Mark of the Shaper was enough to inflict a low % shock against Pinnacle Bosses (5-10%). With Sigil of Power (optional) you can reach around ~15-20%. This can be scaled further with the crit mastery (effect of non-damaging ailments). You can also get some additional lightning damage on the abyss jewel. Other options without investing: Vaal Lightning Trap (20%+ shock), Vessel of Vinktar (10% shock) >>> Map mods to watch out for <<< Mods that are bad for the build (not each of them means that you can't play the map): - cannot leech (or reduced max. recovery from leech with increased effect) - monsters steal charges - reduced aura effect - auras affect enemies - ele reflect (can be played with Yugul pantheon + ele mastery) - less recovery (with increased effect) - less armour/reduced block - reduced suppressed prevented damage - monster ailment avoidance (if over 100% with increased effect -> can't chill) - monsteres take reduced crits (with increased effect) - cannon regen mana (need to use a mana flask) - less aoe (with increased effect) can be annoying - less cooldown recovery (slows your Frostblink cast rate which we use to generate power charges) >>> Higher Damage Setup <<< This version sacrifices some defences but doubles-triples your DPS. It shows what the build is capable of. I'm being honest: for this amount of currency, there are many other builds that can do better and reach higher numbers. If you want to stick with the skill/build and also want to dump currency for min-maxing in it, here you go. Or you could just take this for reference if you want to keep defences but are looking for damage upgrades. I won't explain everything in detail here as most of it is already written before. Just change the loadout (top right) to the Higher Damage Setup and the tree, skills, items and config will change. The concept is pretty similar to the other version but we drop the curse aura and and use Assassin's Mark combined with the mark mastery. This way we generate frenzy and power charges on single targets. For the flat crit chance we had on body armour before we now use a Bound By Destiny jewel. The one used also has Unnerve, so we can get damage per frenzy charge on the gloves. (For the best jewel options, see 'Uniques' above) The crit chance could also come from a Watcher's Eye but a double hatred one will be very expensive. For the helmet: just use a Haunted Bascinet as base. A Blizzard Crown doesn't really add much (due to inversion). You can take this further with a crafted gigachad Archdemon Crown and socket BV in there. On the body armour: you could also get block chance as an implicit which brings you almost to block cap. If you can find a way to build around, there is another jewel slot for 3 passive points you can get (pathing away from the middle to the right). For the large cluster you could also use a phys base and get Force Multiplier there (but need to get leech anywhere else or Doryani's Lesson on Megalomaniac). Freeze-spread is also available as a glove implicit (Exarch).