[2.2 Updated] Sasori's Spectral Throw Cast on Crit Pathfinder

Updated for v2.2 and later!

I created this build back in 1.3.1 but it lost a lot of its power with the shotgun nerf and seemed doomed into being one of those builds that "used to be good way back when". With all of the changes in Ascension I'm proud to say that this build is not only back with a vengeance - it is now large, in charge and better than ever!

Spectral Throw with Cast on Crit is your main attack with this build and trust, you will not need anything else. All you do is stand back, toss shiny daggers and let your COC spells blast your foes into bits. My original design used Vaal Pact, Life Leech and potions to stay alive - however with the awesome new Pathfinder class I have ditched the Life Leech for potions which will grant you some amazing augmented abilities and if played right, will rarely run out of charges.

But this build is *not* a glass cannon build. Your base defense will be Evasion and high movement speed, but your potions will give you almost maxed out block, damage reduction max resistance when needed. You will also make use of Blasphemy with Temporal Chains to slow down your foes so that you will take less hits as well as strike them first. In addition to this, Vaal Grace with Increased Duration will give you some much needed dodge for mobs and bosses. And if that is not enough, if you have the right gear so that you can add an additional curse, you will have a last line of defense with CWDT and Enfeeble to help keep you alive.

While kiting is always a good idea, it is not necessary with this build. Want to facetank Maegara, Kole or even Atziri? This build can do it if you manage your flasks correctly!

Pros: Very fast clear speeds, layered defense, can clear just about all map mods, fun as hell, Atziri capable.

Cons: Life is a bit low so you have to be careful for big one shots, Desync due to all the COC madness (might be a good idea to upgrade your crappy old computer), 5L minimum to survive on higher level maps, 6L recommended.


Videos


Current stats at Level 95:



Defensive Stats:





Misc Stats:



Atziri Viable:

Hardcore/Uber viable:



Passive Tree (Lev 95):


My Endgame Gear:



Flasks:

Main Flasks:



Alternate Flasks (Boss Fights/Atziri)



Bandit Quests:

Normal: Kill 'em all!

Cruel: Kill 'em all!

Merciless: Help Alira (Power Charge)

Gear Set Up and Discussion

Helmet:

Use whatever works early to mid game. Goldrim will work great with the high resists. For late game there is only one obvious choice – Rat’s Nest. It will give you everything you need for this build and can be purchased relatively cheaply.

Boots:

Same as above. For late game, Rainbowstride isn’t a bad choice, but I personally only use it on very tough bosses (like Atziri) since I do not like the loss of life. Any boots with 30% movement speed, high life and resists will work great. Aim for EV/ES if possible. Chaos resist is also highly recommended. If you have high enough resists on the rest of your gear, Atziri's Step Slink boots are a must have.

Gloves:

I skipped over Maligaro’s Virtuosity in favor of more life and resists. Aim for EV/ES…however you will want either your Gloves or Boots to support your 3 or 4 red gem CWDT setup so you will need to have either straight AR, AR/EV or AR/ES hybrid gear for one of these. Again, high life, resists and chaos are all good here. If you can sneak in some extra attack speed, go for it.

Armour:

Ditch the uniques late game go for a good rare. EV/ES is the best option if you want higher ES. If you can find a hybrid armour with at least 500 ES, you will be sitting pretty. Life and resists are very important and stun recovery isn’t bad either. 5L is very good, but a 6L will really take this build to a whole new level. The best set up I have found is three green sockets and three blue. This will allow you to use ST, GMP, CoC, PCoC and then two blue spells. I have found the best spell choices to be Freezing Pulse and Arctic Breath (or Fireball) but you can use and experiment with whatever Projectile spell you want.

Shield:

I found the Titucius’ Span to be amazing early, mid and even early late game shield. The extra projectile defense is very useful and combined with the Stone of Lazhwar it really helps with blocking projectile spells, many of which deal Chaos damage. Enemies like the much hated Devourers and Avians/Gulls will have a hard time hitting you with their powerful projectiles. Plus the extra life and armour are decent as well. But when you get into higher end game maps you are going to need even more defense and DPS to stay alive. For this reason I highly recommend the Rathpith Globe as you will get spell damage, spell block, life and even a little lightning resist. Not to mention a decent amount of ES too...it simply can’t be beat! However for some bosses and Atziri you’ll want to have a Saffell’s Frame. They are cheap and easy to get (non-legacy, anyway). Phoenix Rising is also a possibility here, but I haven't personally tested it.

Belt:

Use whatever works early game. For late game you will want high life, resists (esp chaos if possible) and Reduced Flask Charges Used is MANDATORY if you want to unlock all of the power of this build. Increased Flask Duration will be extremely important as well. A belt is also a great way to get your Strength up if it is lacking as well.

Rings:

Diamond rings are hands down the best. If you can also get good life and resists, you’ll be set. Depending on your other gear you may need STR here, however. I personally only use one because I found another ring that had such amazing elemental resists (see my gear) I couldn’t leave my hideout without it.

Amulet:

Only one choice here – Stone of Lahzwar. If you are only using one curse, get one with elemental leech as you can buy one cheaply (this is also good for fighting Atziri). But if you can get your hands on a corrupted SoL with 1 Additional Curse it will work wonders with this build. They are a bit pricey, but worth every penny and then some.


Gem Set Up and Discussion

Set up #1 (Body Armour)

ST/GMP/CoC/Spell 1/Spell 2 – 6th socket if avail should be PCoC or Assassin's Mark

Important tip: Do not level your ST past level 10 to keep the mana costs down! Physical damage is not important to this build. Aim for a Lev 10 Q20 ST gem if possible. CoC should be L20 by endgame to get the cast chance up to 68% and Q20 will give you a little extra crit chance. Once your crit chance is around 30% you can add your first spell with just a 4L, but for end game you will want 2 spells with a 5L. If you have a 6L armour, PCoC or Assassin's Mark will give you tons of Power Charges instantly...PCoC is my best recommendation for a variety of reasons.

For your spells you will want to stick to projectile spells to take advantage of GMP. As mentioned earlier, my top choices are Freezing Pulse and Arctic Breath for the high damage and the ability freeze, shatter and even perma-chill some foes and bosses. Slowing down your enemies with freezing combined with your Temporal Chains aura is about as good as it gets in my opinion.

My other favorites are Ice Spear, Fireball and Ball Lightning. Ball Lightning is great for packs and is very effective for covering the screen but lacks power. Fireball does very high damage and with Q20 will give you a 30% chance to burn enemies which rocks. I leveled up all of these gems and I’d advise you to do the same. Test them all out and see what works best for you and your playing style.

Set up #2 (Gloves or Boots)

CWDT/Immortal Call/Inc Duration/Vaal Grace

Keep CWDT and IC at lower levels. Get Inc Duration to 20/20 if possible. Vaal Grace needs no explanation – it is extremely useful and combined with your Evasion and block chance will make boss fights much easier.

Set up #3 (Gloves or Boots)

HoT/HoI/Blasphemy/Temp Chains

Herald of Thunder will add some punch to your spell and shock opponents when you crit, and Herald of Ice will give you more chance to shatter your foes which is very nice to avoid getting nailed by corpse explosions or re-animated foes. Blasphemy and Temp Chains will slow your foes down so that you can freely pepper them with some COC...and it even works on Atziri without any reflect so you can swap out other curses to use on her (Frostbite comes to mind) if you want.

Set up #4 (Weapon)

Whirling Blades/Fortify/Flame Dash or Culling Strike

We've all seen this one before - WB is great for movement, avoiding damage and Fortify needs no explanation. You can sneak Flame Dash in here if you want...but Culling Strike is pretty useful as well for taking out bosses (I love to use it on Atziri).

Set up #5 (Shield)

Frost Bomb/Inc AOE/?

PoL, PoF, Reduced Mana (Tough bosses and Atziri with Saffell’s Frame)

This is one I'm still experimenting with. I used to put Lightning Warp here but I've since been experimenting more. You can add another CWDT setup, but Frost Bomb has some great features but I'm still tinkering with a way to put in a Frostbite curse here...more to come on this.

For very tough fights and against Atziri I recommend using a Saffell’s Frame with Purity of Fire and Lightning gems (Lv 20 for 4% max resist). In order to sustain this you will need to disable your Heralds.

Setup #6 (Helmet)
CWDT/Enfeeble/Ice Golem/Tempest Shield

You have some options here. I find Enfeeble to be very useful for survivability and Ice Golem gives you some extra crit chance which is always welcome. However, the newly added Lightning Golem is also a possibility here. Tempest Shield could be swapped out for another spell or Inc AOE but I haven't found it necessary...a good high level Enfeeble with quality will curse a lot of enemies on the screen.


Flask Discussion
COMING SOON

Map Discussion

COMING SOON

Dagger/Weapon Discussion:[/b]