3.21 Ascendant Smite Armour Stacker

Not the best mapper, it's more for end game content. Build heavily relies on Mageblood, without perma flask uptime it's pretty shit. Positives: Great damage with around ~32m guardian/pinnacle dps (not including Totem, Berserk, Vaal Smite Aura and Vaal Haste) Tanky with 5k+ es, 90% lightning and physical damage reduction, 90% fire and cold resistances, fortify, chaos immunity, full es recovery on block Can clear all content without much issue Negatives: Susceptible to lightning DoT Requires Mageblood, too expensive No access to full ailment immunity Limited attack range Things I've ran into that deal lightning DoT: Shaper Beam (The Shaper's Realm) Counter-Thaumaturgy Ground Degen (Heist Trap) Mana Siphon (Rare Monster Modifier) Guardian of the South's Galvanic Flare (Vinktar Square) Touching Tentacle Mass (Volatile Eldirtch entity from Rampant Growth notable) Crusader Ground Degen (Baran the Crusader, Influenced map envinronmental hazards) Doing content like Heist, Abyss, and Harbinger where rares can spawn near you with the Mana Siphon modifier is pretty fucking deadly. It happens more often than you would think. Range on Smite is limited, so it's more annoying to deal with. You can sacrifice 6% aura effect and 10 int to get Lethe Shade on the tree, which is probably worth it. You'll go from ~32m to ~30m dps but that's ok. There could be other ways of getting Lethe Shade without sacrificing much like via Crucible. You can swap Jade Flask for Quicksilver to do content like Heist and just looting in general, though you're meant to get around with your high attack speed Leap Slam. Crucible trees on uniques are not hard to get, I highly recommend getting attack speed and attribute passives on Dreamfeather, and increased fire resistance / reduced lightning resistance on Aegis Aurora. I'm using corrupted blood immunity on shield because I can't find a -20% corrupted blood immune thread of hope on the market currently. Simulacrum can be shitty if monsters can apply Scorched. I generally carry a normal Bismuth Flask (can't use magic) and replace Bottled Faith to counter it for that wave. Freeze immune via Pantheon, Shock immune via Tempest Shield, 50% chill reduction via Pantheon. Searing Exarch is hard without a blink skill, so if you get a white socket on Dreamfeather you can replace Leap Slam with Flame Dash without having to use Chromes every time. Shaper is tricky, dodge beams or die. Try not to purely follow my pob, get multiple second opinions here: https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds?class=Ascendant&skill=Smite&item=Replica-Dreamfeather,Aegis-Aurora&sort=dps -- you may find cheaper and/or stronger setups.