2.1 "Unlimited Blade Works" Tanky Hybrid, Dual-Curse BladeFall/EK Build

Looks good, thanks for the work you put into it.
Are you gonna play this Char on the Hc or Sc league?

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Exile009 wrote:

bump

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Exile009 wrote:

bump

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Exile009 wrote:

bump

....Seriously ? Do you have ADHD to be "bumping" every hour your post ?

But let's get back to the business. The idea is nice but you might have some problems with mana. From what I get your aura setup, taken aura nodes and and mana increases gives you.... is something like that:

https://poe.mikelat.com/#4Oip9s/ENr_Vc

This leave you around 150 free mana and around 32,55 mana regen (21 * 1,55 increase).

We cannot be sure about final mana cost of this skill but considering the dmg output, casting speed, multiple hits etc. the closest categoty for bladefall would be "slow, heavy spells" like for the example ball of ligthning. Going by this example the final cost would be between 25-30 mana.

With the basic 5 link you proposed we should consider 2,3-2,5 multipler to the costs and something around 0,3 cast speed. This gives final mana cost between 172,5 to 225 per second.

Highest level of clarity, with aura nodes and your "natural" regen and tree will give you around 62. You need to get at least 400% (apart from your 55% you already have) mana regeneration increaeses from gear or tree to keep it viable... mana regen is not an option to you in my opinion. Maybe if you find a way to rise your mana to around 3000. Getting mana leech gem would be the easiest solution for you here. Or just totaly rebuild tree to get more cost reduction nodes from tree and jewels to at least half your costs. Otherwise your build will be heavily dependant on cursing everyone with warlord mark to be viable.

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Yalaka wrote:

Looks good, thanks for the work you put into it.
Are you gonna play this Char on the Hc or Sc league?

I plan to make it on Standard first to test it out. If it works, then I might make a version in SC Talisman. I'm not in favor of Hardcore, but the best does get a lot of survivability nodes. And has immediate access to many more (mainly ES nodes) if you take off some of the damage nodes.

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Alex_Lied wrote:

But let's get back to the business. The idea is nice but you might have some problems with mana. From what I get your aura setup, taken aura nodes and and mana increases gives you.... is something like that:

https://poe.mikelat.com/#4Oip9s/ENr_Vc

This leave you around 150 free mana and around 32,55 mana regen (21 * 1,55 increase).

We cannot be sure about final mana cost of this skill but considering the dmg output, casting speed, multiple hits etc. the closest categoty for bladefall would be "slow, heavy spells" like for the example ball of ligthning. Going by this example the final cost would be between 25-30 mana.

With the basic 5 link you proposed we should consider 2,3-2,5 multipler to the costs and something around 0,3 cast speed. This gives final mana cost between 172,5 to 225 per second.

Highest level of clarity, with aura nodes and your "natural" regen and tree will give you around 62. You need to get at least 400% (apart from your 55% you already have) mana regeneration increaeses from gear or tree to keep it viable... mana regen is not an option to you in my opinion. Maybe if you find a way to rise your mana to around 3000. Getting mana leech gem would be the easiest solution for you here. Or just totaly rebuild tree to get more cost reduction nodes from tree and jewels to at least half your costs. Otherwise your build will be heavily dependant on cursing everyone with warlord mark to be viable.

Thanks for the analysis. I'm not sure if you counted the effect increased mana itself will have on my regen. But yes, mana is my main worry. I've deliberately not gone for any cast speed for that reason (apart from Spell Echo, which is quite mana efficient). The base cast time of Bladefall is 0.8 seconds and I don't intend to mess with that much. Instead I'm building it to "hit hard rather than cast often". I do have some options for mana-related changes. For 4 points I can get the Witch mana nodes and the node above Dreamer for 34% increased mana and 40% regen. For 3 more points I can get the Thrill Killer notable for 23% increased mana. Beyond that there's just a whole bunch of 8% mana nodes. I could also make my way to the Ranger mana nodes for 23% mana and 20% regen rate for 4 more points, I guess. And then there's mana/mana regen on gear (especially Atziri's Foible ammy). And mana pots.

Frankly, beyond that I don't know if it'd be worth it. I'd have already spent around 20 points just on mana by that point. And added Clarity to my auras (which isn't part of my original build). If the skill doesn't work at that point, it doesn't seem worth it. I could rework the whole thing to make it an EB-ZO char, I suppose, but that would require a complete re-planning of the tree. Not interested in doing that.

I'm hopeful, however, that this won't be necessary. GGG aren't going to make a skill unusable on mana even after you've taken so many mana nodes (I hope!). And Bladefall itself doesn't look like it's a "spammy" skill like EK or FP (or your example of Ball Lightning). It's more like Firestorm or Icestorm in that you cast it once-a few times on a zone and let it do its thing. That's part of the reason I chose it in the first place. Anyway, guess we'll see when the new patch hits. Cheers! :)

@Exile009

Yep, I include increased mana.

And yea, let's hope it is not so mana hungry. Firestorm have much lower dmg so that's why I didnt take it as role mode here, but maybe bladefall just have its total dmg showed and not "each blade" dmg.

If you want to make heavy hitting skill you can always drop spell echo and add some dmg boosting gem - it is always better than getting spell echo just to be forced into droping other gem for mana leech. But if you still plan on going for pure mana maybe try using this jewel:
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Healthy_Mind


Sacrificing 20% of life give you 60% increase. Some reworking would be needed but it is more effective than taking just mana nodes. With so much Mana you can also think about taking MoM or maybe MoM and corrupted energy. They also plan on increasing inteligence mana bonus so going for MoM with mana might be much better option after the patch.

If you consider going ZO-EB something like that should be nice (still, it needs some work)

It should rise it by another 40%.
Still, just ES and life is a bit low for defense in my opinion.

Updated passive tree link with one from the PoE site itself

Was thinking about going Scion EK since it got buffed to high hell, but you've inspired me. I got some good ideas from your build, so looking forward to it!

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JoeODanger wrote:

Was thinking about going Scion EK since it got buffed to high hell, but you've inspired me. I got some good ideas from your build, so looking forward to it!

Glad to be of help. If you're planning on using one of the alternate ideas I've mentioned, do post back about how it goes. :)

Any thoughts on using Ghost Reaver? As I am getting to the point where I have more ES than life, it would seem to be more beneficial. I was thinking that my final skill tree might look something like this.

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scisco wrote:

Any thoughts on using Ghost Reaver? As I am getting to the point where I have more ES than life, it would seem to be more beneficial. I was thinking that my final skill tree might look something like this.

Yeah, I agree with your choice. I already mentioned that you can take Ghost Reaver or Vaal Pact easily in this build. I've decided to switch to Ghost Reaver (along with Vaal Pact as I have no regen to lose anyway) myself and have updated the guides' tree accordingly. I also run an Atziri flask, btw, which is also great for leeching.

I've updated the Links section too. PTL is better than Added Chaos. And Enlighten isn't required (saves you quite a bit of currency!), although a low level Clarity helps (I have mine at level 1). Haven't tested Empower, but I doubt it's worth it considering the cost of a levelled one. Unlike some other skills, we already have a full loadout i.e. there's more than enough cheap support gems that add to our damage without needing to slap on Empower there. If you do decide to run Empower, the gem to replace would be PTL.

Regarding your tree, it looks fine. I noticed that besides taking out some life nodes, you've also removed two of the jewel sockets. While they are a luxury, they will add significantly to your damage, so I'd take them next. With max chaos resistance, you don't need life as much, but I still prefer adding to my base life pool rather than ES and so have the life cluster near Shadow (Blood Drinker) allocated. The 6% ES nodes in the Scion wheel and Unnatural Calm cluster would probably go further, but not by much. So I leave that call in completing your tree up to you. For what it's worth, more life = less susceptibility to stuns, although I don't really get stunned by mobs much (stun builds in PvP are a different matter :P)

I finished taking all the survivability nodes first rather than damage ones. So I'm currently sitting at around 11K HP+ES. Still doing over 22k Bladefall dps with just a lvl 17 Bladefall (and lvls 16-19 support gems) and not having taken the Force Shaper nodes (I'm lvl 79 atm, by 86 I'll have them), Witch starting spell damage nodes (next) Shadow starting phys nodes (after Witch) Master of Force cluster (last 4 points, assuming I actually take her to 100 lol) yet. So plenty of damage left to get. But right now she's already pretty damn tanky and still manages to clear well. :)