[2.1] Apathae's Flicker Poison Blade Vortex

"

TheDarklite wrote:

Well, I am going to try running this build again this league even with the Poison nerf, because honestly I think it won't make a huge difference anyway.

Either way, here are the trees simply updated for Ascendancy (no path changes).

Since I will be playing on softcore I will use his Offensive Spec. The part I am unsure of is Ascendancy classes. We could go Trickster or Assassin but I am a little stuck on which to go for.

If we go Assassin we could path to Assassinate then Toxic Delivery (or Unstable Infusion for quicker Power Charge generation). I don't think Blade Vortex can proc Noxious Strike as it is not an attack.

If we went Trickster we could probably play a touch more defensively and there are some cast speed bonuses in there. Probably take Shade Form and Patient Reaper or Swift Killer?

I think I will roll Assassin, but hard to say. Any input?

Thank you for taking the time to do this. :) I've been trying out a different spec this league and haven't really had the opportunity to try this one out with the changes.

Regarding ascendancy; Assassin may edge out some of the nerfs related to poison or the fact that you can't really run righteous fire off of bino's anymore. (Which honestly that shouldn't have been allowed to begin with lol.) The spec already did enough damage as it is even without RF; I didn't even use it during atziri and I still overkilled through her preset phases and had to wait for them.

As for nodes to take as Assassin I'd probably take Unstable Infusion; Deadly Infusion and Ambush. You may also get the power charge from the bandits instead of the frenzy.

Base crit is huge, and blade vortex already has a decent base crit for a spell. Since the skill changed mechanically to hit less but do twice as much damage as before; this setup would hopefully ensure a critical against any new enemy you encounter and effectively one shot them and if it doesn't the DoT will kill them.

I feel like I'd be more interested in trickster's ascendancy for this build for a few reasons.

Walk the Aether makes movement skills cost no mana i.e. Whirling Blades and Flicker Strike (assuming you have charges) You also get 20% cast speed after using them which is effectively always up. 20% cast speed is huge and will ensure you have more blade stacks at any given time.

Patient Reaper gives a little bit of DoT increase and a huge buff to healing from killing poisoned stuff; this would've been a huge boon for pre nerf bino's but it's still useful from a mana management standpoint making the mana flask use less prevalent (I'm aware a lot of people seem to be against mana flasks in general for some reason)

In the same regard; Weave the Arcane may just make the mana flask obsolete, as you get more of it, you get more regen; and you get a chance to recover a large amount on skill use, you cast constantly you're going to be generating mana this way for sure. That node may be enough to possibly avoid some of the two point mana nodes on the tree which could be placed elsewhere sooner such as more life, more cast speed, more AOE etc.

Swift Killer grants an extra frenzy charge which we all know how good those are. Plus you get a chance to get them on kill; since your clear speed is so good even at 10% you may be able to avoid having to use blood rage which would make regen either more defensive or less necessary to get.

In the end it's down to preference; I feel they'd both be pretty good. Assassin would definitely provide more damage overall and you may even consider taking the power charge from the bandits instead of the frenzy if you were going this route.

Trickster provides a lot of unique utility to the build that may help save a few skill points on the regular tree.