Assassin 2.2.0 - Varun-assass-quake (Varunastra/Earthquake/CI) - 90%+ crit @ 444% multi' w/videos
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Hey everyone!
I've been playing a crit', Earthquake, Inoculated Assassin this league and thought I'd share it here since I haven't seen it elsewhere. Varunastra is one of THE most interesting uniques to come out in a very long time AND Earthquake is also super interesting, since it really breaks the DPS/APS char builds that we always see. So after Varunastra and earthquake were was spoiled I knew I had to somehow combine the two since 'most interesting' + 'super interesting' should = 'most-super interesting'. Or more likely, just another janky, crap build... But, whatever, 'cause this one turned out pretty good. AND functions faster and differently from other quakers. This thing: ________________________________________________________________________________________ Pros and Cons and Other Pros - Fun build, that's reasonably unique! I've seen sunder, spectral throw and dual strike with this sword but not Earthquake! - Uses a bunch of the 'new things' and the revamped Less Duration - End game viable with a good clear speed (T14 maps at this point) - So. Many. Crit's. Turn on screen shake :) - Satisfying to play, since timing and positioning are important it's a very active build. - Quite survivable with a big emphasis on vaal pact leech. With a bit of investment can probs get 7.5k ES. - With potions up, is very durable and inoculated - Can build into MF - Can do most maps quickly and efficiently - Visually sexy ground Ker-splosions! - Atziri Viable (quick until you get to her) - Other than Taste of Hate this build can function for about 30c - You get to have a forwards sword AND a backwards knife!!!! Cons - Phys' Reflect... A rare with this is ok, just need to potion up, but a map with this is better left alone or re-rolled. - No meaningful resistance to phys Damage other than potions - Build starts at level 68 - inoculation sometimes sux... we rely on leech a lot - does not kill some bosses as fast as other builds - Also, Varunastra does not have its own 3D skin :( - Prob's not a HC build, I have Australian internet that drops out 5-6 times a day... So I couldn't play HC if I wanted to, anyway. :( _________________________________________________________________________________________ Theory and Application
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Ok, so what we are going to do here is:
- Of course abuse Varunastra's multiple weapon tag to aggressively build into crit' chance and crit' multi' in an attempt to one shot mobs and DoT heavier ones. - Use the fact that Varunastra is Earthquake capable, to 'southpaw' an appropriate crit' weapon. - Use Chaos Inoculation, since building HP on the shadow side is limited. AND this means we can use Life Leech (from the Soul Raker and Blood Drinker nodes) and Ghost Reaver to restore massive chunks of ES. - Take the assassin ascension class since we're crit'ing (more later). - Build lightly into item find. - This is all so Earthquake can one shot mobs (including most rares) leading to a decent clear speed. And kiting heavier bosses while chunking down their health and applying poison, ignite and bleed DoT. - Earthquake: It's made up of a small shockwave and then this lays a larger, delayed 'secondary wave'. there can be only a single second wave queued at any one time, so if one is waiting to trigger you can't lay a another 'secondary wave'. If the first is a crit', then the second wave is a crit'. MORE the second wave is based on the 1st's damage, so since we're using 'Ambush' from the Assassin ascendancy this will technically affect the damage of the second wave. - This is NOT a DPS build. This build is about learning the timing between the 1st and second wave. Our aim is to be laying another secondary wave as the previously layed one goes off. AND positioning the next wave to catch new and remaining enemies. - When we crit' Adder's touch, Herald of Ash and Mark of the Doubting apply large DoT. As things die Herald of Ash applies ignite. Taste of Hate shatters stuff. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Skill Gem Setup
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- Earthquake: Earthquake -> Melee damage -> Melee damage on Full Life -> Less Duration -> Increased AoE -> Added Fire Damage.
- Movement: Whirling Blades -> Fortify -> Faster Attacks - Golem: Ice Golem -> Reduced Mana -> Minion Life - Auras: Assassin's mark (from Blasphemy) + Herald of Ash + Discipline + Vaal Discipline (with Increased Duration) + Enlighten (not necessary, thought) And the rest is really up to you another vaal skill, prob's vaal ground slam, lightning warp if you're super lazy. Etc _________________________________________________________________________________________ Gear Choices Compulsory Gear
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Of course: You will likely need a hybrid Armour/ES shirt since 4-5 red sockets is super annoying to get on a pure ES shirt. I picked this up for 1c: We need extra ES since our shirt will max out at around 500ES so this belt is good. Also not being frozen. Finally, because we don't have much HP, are inoculated and can't afford to be stunned: Recommended Gear
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The southpaw dagger I recommend is: We use this 'cause it gives us a chance to bleed and poison and has the highest implicit global crit' among unique daggers. On top it gives res all and a small bump to block. Why not Bino's???!!! Ah, well, we get less crit chance from it, and the poisoning is neat but not essential. The multi is nice. But the res and regen don't help us. It's probably a fine choice but I think 'Mark' is better (and cheaper). Because we are interacting with enemies... My Current Gear
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I've a small amount of MF on my rings and amulet. IF we wanted more it would be too hard to get on the rest of the gear, since we are not bound to multiple uniques. Flasks
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_________________________________________________________________________________________ Offensive Stat's
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At 5 Power charges, with all auras on and taste of hate up. The numbers look pretty unimpressive but hopefully the vid's do it more justice. 444% crit' multi'.  Defensive stat's
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With no potions up  With potions up  _________________________________________________________________________________________ Passive Skill Tree Levelling Guide
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Lv 40(ish) - Level using cheap uniques and Blade Vortex. Consider using life sprigs/spell damage wands, a phys damage sash and Blackhearts. Start Leveling Bladefall asap. Passive tree: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYBAA-rES8VIBa_GYokiySdJpUqCysKLEY2PTy9RXxJsVBCUzVVS13yYeJiWmKsbIxtbHBSidOMNpMnlwadqrVIwzrEotN-18_fmOtj73rviPaj-Tc=?accountName=Groinal_Fury&characterName=AssassQuake - This just builds into life and starts the 'Skill-grim-age'/traveling while skill points are plentiful Lv 40-67 - Switch to Bladefall at Lv40(ish) or when stuff starts hitting too hard. Again just keep phys and spell damage gear and link conc effect, spell echo and controlled destruction. This spell is nuts! Make sure you start leveling Earthquake and other needed skills at this time too. Passive tree: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYBAAAGDY0PqxEvFHUVIBX2Ff0WvxmKIvQkiySdJpUnqSoLKwosRizhLgg8vUV8RfRHBkmxUEJTNVVLVuhbr13yYeJiWmJ5Yqxkr2wIbAtsjG0ZbWxvV3BSd9d9435Zf8aCU4nTijiMNo_6kyeXBp2qn4KhL6xmtMW1SLk-vorBxcM6xKLP6dDQ037Xz9h22-fdDd-Y4JXrY-wY73rviPGK9qP5Nw==?accountName=Groinal_Fury&characterName=AssassQuake - So during this part the tree is starting to look like the final product, but we've not inoculated yet. Make sure you've taken the jewel slots but don't have Energy from within in them yet, we'll switch in energy once we inoc'. - Buy 2 energy from within - you should also be starting to purchase a pure ES hat, gloves and feet! Aiming for 120ES on both the gloves and boots and 300ES on the hat is a good starting point. Also, see the example shirt (chest armour) above. You want an Armour ES hybrid and it must have 450+ES. 4 sockets will suffice in this chest armour for up to about Tier 6-7 maps. - Rings with flat ES rolls help a BUNCH, and are V cheap, since we don't need much from rings, just res' and ES. - We're about to swap to Varunastra at our next level. So check the final tree below. - Once we've reached Lv68 - One final note, when we inoc (and this is up to you, I inoc'd at lv70), place the two energy within into the two appropriate slots AND unspec from Blood Siphon AND it's two neighboring nodes. This will give you the 4 points required to inoc properly, that is, take chaos inoculation AND the 3 points behind it (up to infused shield). - This left me with about 5.5k ES at this point. Now take Varunastra and start exploding stuff!!!!!! Once you've got a 5+link chest, pretty much everything is fair game!!!!! Since this build doesn't start until late game, I just leveled with Blade Fall. It's a great skill that requires little investment from the tree to be functional. The: Melding; Blood Drinker and Nullification nodes give us reasonable life while leveling. Also, take Blood Siphon nodes and respec' when you decide to inoculate, at maybe level 68-70. When we inoculate we also place the two energy from within Jewels into the tree. One above Blood Drinker and one to the south-west of Melding. These jewel sockets must already be taken when we inoc'. Once you've inoc'd, simply take ES or crit/damage/crit multi/increased area nodes depending on your needs, if your clear speed is fine, get into the witch's starting area and grab the ES OR if you're not clearing fast enough, grab the rest of the crit stuff. About the Tree
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There's a few things to talk about here. - Vaal Pact and Ghost Reaver are amazing and most Quakes will refill us to full ES. - We get more than enough leech from Soul Raker and Blood Drinker. - The shape of the tree is about crit' multi', then crit chance and then ES. - If you have trouble getting the Str required for Earthquake, unspec' from the two 30Str notables and place an 'Inertia' jewel into the jewel socket to the west of Vaal Pact. - Just have a peruse through the tree and the choices should make sense! Ascendancy
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- We take 'Unstable Infusion' and then 'Deadly Infusion'. Deadly infusion is what allows this build to really get going. It's how we get 81% crit' chance at max power charges (not including Assassin's Mark). - With just 5 power charges Varunastra has a very respectable crit' base of 7.5% - AND our final points go into ambush, since most things we hit are hit on full life. This caps our crit' at 95% assuming the target is on full life. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Videos Gorge Map - T9 map
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It's just to show it's clear speed. My poor potato (the laptop I'm playing on) struggles a little with the capture software. So it's sorta frame-y. Also, note the flasks can have 100% uptime. https://youtu.be/-vvMu7F_G60 Also, I did go back and grab that orb of scouring ;) Overgrown Ruin - T12 map
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It's a pretty easy T12. I'd usually change to conc' effect to smack down the boss but I didn't want to get too close to Fidely-itis with ele weakness on. https://youtu.be/cKZcBtkf5H4 Let me know if you want more videos or request a particular map, etc. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Final thoughts - This is my first build guide! So please let me know if you'd like any other info or if I missed anything important. - I hope this doesn't seem like just another crit', combat character. You should find it plays very differently to a standard melee character and has a better clear speed too. - Also, please let me know if you have any improvements you think would help. Or just any comments. Look forward to discussing it with you guys! _________________________________________________________________________________________ EDIT #1: Title change to something more informative. EDIT #2: Added a short gorge (tier 9) run vid EDIT #3: Added an Overgrown Ruin (tier 12) vid Last edited by Groinal_Fury#3903 on Mar 26, 2016, 2:57:24 AM Last bumped on Jun 30, 2016, 5:56:24 PM
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Thanks for uploading vids, looks like heaps of fun!
Bandits? +1 power charge I assume... |
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Hey mate,
Has been a literal blast! XD Am still converting into a pure MFer. So can hopefully post an update soon that shows how you can 'blast-mine' mobs for gear! Bandits are: Normal: passive (use for more multi) Cruel: Oak (nice bump to damage) Merc': Alira power charge (correct assumption) Enjoy |
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Great build! Can you post a quick description on where to travel on the passive tree as you level up?
Thanks! |
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Thanks! I'll dredge up the hard copy of my build plan and post in the next 24 hours :)
Also, I'll update the stat's and some pointers too, have a few more levels since my last post. |
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Hey,
Have added a reasonably in depth leveling guide with a bunch of (hopefully) helpful tips. It's in the 'Passive skill tree' section under, you guessed it, 'leveling guide'. Hope this helps. Should have the stats updated in the next few days when i can find some more spare time. |
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Awesome! Thanks so much!
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Just found your thread and was excited to see that someone else did the exact same thing(Assassin + Varunastra + CI), so I'd like to show you one way to do this build.
Abyssus was something I wanted to use as badly as varunastra, so I had to get somekind of defenses to survive reflect mobs, handle harder maps with vuln + other nasty stuff easily, etc. So I decided to go for block, while also gaining stupid amount of ES from some of those nodes.
Current Gear
Jewels are whatever I could find with mix of ES%, physical/area/melee damage, ias for certain weapon type(juicy 8% rolls), critmulti
Passive @ 87
And then the numbers...
Offence
EQ - MPD - MFDL - LD - ICS - Inc. AoE No flasks, no vhaste, no ancestral guardian  EQ - MPD - MFDL - LD - ICS - Conc. Effect ToH, vhaste and ancestral guardian, for tougher fights 
Defence
No flasks, Tempest Shield active(stays up permanently with cwdt)  Flasks (ToH + Rumi + Jade with Armour% roll)  Now I'm just leveling my gems, trying to find even higher ES shield without hopefully losing any block from it, and obv. upgrading my varunastra at some point. For the passive tree, I'll take Adder's Touch and rest are ES% nodes. |
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Hey Mate,
Thanks for sharing!!! Good to hear someone else has done this and taken a different 'path' (get it...) I have a love/hate relationship with Abyssus, and I couldn't bring myself to use it for this build! I have been considering a shield for a while now when the maps get scarier AND it's a must with Abyssus. Looks like it works pretty damn well!!! I might try it, I think yours is gonna be a lot more solid and well rounded than mine... I wish i had a 6 link too!!!! (I 6'd a Carcass Jack for another build). Any chance you could link some vid's? I'd like to watch and maybe we can give readers a choice between our builds based them too? Thanks again! |
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Also, how's the stun threshold on skyforth? Do you get stunned much?
And you're free from running assassin's mark because you're using them! I like it! |
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