[2.4]Solas's Slivertongue Bow Crit DoT Assassin Build/Theorycraft (WIP)
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For those that read this guide when it first came out, know that I changed Lightning Arrow out for Tornado Shot.
Hey everyone! This is my first attempt at making a build guide, so feel free to leave constructive criticism in the comments. As the title suggests, this is my Crit Damage over time Assassin build using the Slivertongue bow. This build is based off of old Voltaxic Rift/Windripper builds, but with a focus on physical damage and DoT rather than elemental. It has been a pleasant experience and I have gotten into tier 13+ maps. Ultimately, I am thinking about pushing to level 100 with this build. The Slivertongue bow was designed to work around chain, pierce, and forking projectiles. As such, it offers a great degree of flexibility in how one builds around it. I still have quite a bit of testing to do. At the end of this build guide, I will make a section dedicated to theorycrafting. If I find a more efficient way to build this character, I will update this guide accordingly. If anyone has experience with this kind of build or has a good idea to change it, comment it below and I will try and test it out! Now, for the build itself.
Skill Tree
Skill Tree ---- The skill tree is very similar to Reach of the Council builds that utilize damage over time and crit. There are a few changes to the tree that I am thinking about making- all of which will be discussed in detail in the "Theorycrafting" section below. The passives taken are fairly self explanatory. I left six points off the tree- they can be put into Vaal Pact, more DoT, or a number of other things. I have yet to reach that level, so I have not decided which one is "optimal" yet. It should be filled in as you need it- depending on your playstyle, available gear, etc. Likewise, leveling should largely be done by filling in sections of the tree that you need at the moment. For me, I generally find myself needing to take a significant amount of life prior to anything, with damage being the second priority. Certain passives can be taken and then respecced out of for leveling- the Essence Sap cluster, for example, is very useful until you get the life/mana leech near Duelist's starting area.
Gear
The gear, likewise, is fairly flexible. The only mandatory unique is obviously Slivertongue, but this build can be played (with slight changes) using any good Physical bow, including Death's Opus.
My Gear
What you want on your gear: ---- Bow- Slivertongue. Of course. Helmet- A rare helmet with life, resistances, and intelligence/strength. A strength base for your helmet is a good idea, as it will let you color the sockets easily for a CWDT setup. Chest- Your chest is one of the biggest defensive pieces of gear you have. The best options are probably one of the following:
Chest
-Kaom's Heart (500 life. Not really much to say, it just gives a lot of defense from all sources of damage. It should be noted, however, that using it means you will need a 4-link single target Frenzy setup rather than a 5 or 6-link one. I personally think the defenses more than make up for the lack of Frenzy damage, though. The downside is that you need a lot of Strength to use it.)
-Lightning Coil (A favourite among bow users. It gives a bit of damage and life, but also a ton of physical mitigation. I did not use it because I could not find enough lightning resistance on other gear to make up for the loss caused by this item.) -Belly of the Beast (Basically, a cheaper Kaom's Heart with sockets and resistances. It is certainly a good choice for any life-based build. Once again, more life means better defenses against ALL damage types.) -Kintsugi (A very good chest plate that goes well with the rest of our (primarily evasion) gear. If you use this item, it is a good idea to also take Phase Acrobatics. If you have even more skill points to spend, then investing them in Evasion would be a good idea.) -A rare chest piece with high life, evasion, and resistances. Gloves- Either Snakebite (for poison on hit and better Frenzy Charges), Shadows and Dust (for better critical strikes and the ever amusing Rampage mechanic), Facebreakers (for more damage on critical strikes) or a pair of rare gloves with life, resistances, and attack speed. Boots- A pair of rare boots with life, resistances, and movespeed. Quiver- Drillneck (For damage, as you will be piercing), Rigwald's Quills (for increased critical strike chance), or a rare Spike-Point quiver with critical strike chance/multiplier, life, resistances, life leech, or attack speed. Rings- Life, resistances, flat physical damage, life/mana leech, Strength or Intelligence (if you need it), attack speed, critical strike chance, or evasion. Amulet- Same as ring, but with critical strike multiplier as well (and no attack speed) Belt: A lot of life, Strength (if needed), resistances, and any mods affecting flasks. Flasks: Honestly, these are up to personal preference. I heavily suggest Atziri's Promise, though. Taste of Hate, Vessel of Vinktar, and Basalt or Granite flasks are also always nice to have. ---- Jewels are also just used to fill in whatever is lacking. A Static Electricity jewel can be put near Duelist start for a bit of extra damage as well.
Bandits
Normal: Oak Cruel: Kraityn or Oak (I took Kraityn) Merciless: Alira or Kraityn (I took Alira) ---- If you take a Frenzy charge in Merciless, drop one from the tree. I have found that 7 Frenzy charges are too many for usage of Snakebite.
Gems and Supports
Main Attack: Tornado Shot/Greater Multiple Projectiles/Pierce/Increased Critical Strike Damage/Faster Attacks/(One of the following: Slower Projectiles, Life Leech, Physical Projectile Attack Damage) Main Single Target: Frenzy/Faster Attacks/Increased Critical Strike Damage/Pierce (If in a 6-Link, add on Slower Projectiles and Physical Projectile Attack Damage) Defensive Setup: Cast When Damage Taken (Lvl 11)/Immortal Call (Lvl 13)/Increased Duration/Vaal Haste Misc: Hatred/Herald of Ash/Blood Rage/Blink Arrow ---- If you are not using Kaom's heart, put Vaal Haste/Vaal Grace/Blood Rage/Increased Duration in a four link. You can then add a defensive curse to your defensive setup and some other misc gem to your auras.
Theorycrafting
Due to the fact that Slivertongue's mods are built to work with mechanics gained from other sources, there are many ways of utilizing its mods. The most important of its mods (for this build) is the bleed on pierce. To get 100% pierce, we use Drillneck (10%), Pierce Support (50%), and Piercing Shot cluster (40%). This means all of our attacks get bleed (along with 100% increased projectile damage from Drillneck!). However, there are several methods of getting poison, each of which are good in their own ways. I have yet to decide on a "best," so this thread is going to be a forum of discussion to try and figure out which one would be optimal. This section will get updated as we continue changing the build. First thing first- This build naturally gets 50% chance to poison on hit- 20% from Fatal Toxins and 30% from Noxious Strike (remember, we have 100% chance to bleed on attacks from Slivertongue). This means that it's definitely possible to simply not have any other source of poison and still deal lots of damage from DoT. If this is the case, then you should run Shadows and Dust, Facebreakers, or Maligaro's Virtuosity instead of Snakebite. This gives a lot of tooltip DPS and, because of these gloves' focus on crit, work very well with Toxic Delivery's extra poison damage on crits. I still run Frenzy as single target though, as Blast Rain doesn't bleed and Barrage doesn't generate Frenzy Charges. Secondly is Snakebite- a very good choice that forces you to use Frenzy every couple seconds, but gives your Frenzy Charges more benefits. If you want 100% poison, this is probably the best choice. However, as I said, since you have to use Frenzy every so often, this might sort of slow down your playstyle a bit. Otherwise, you will only have 50% poison. The final choice is Cospri's Will. I don't own one, so I can't test it, but it is easily one of the most offense-oriented of your chest options. However, this means that you will have to rely on killing stuff before it can harm you as your defense, as Cospri's has no other defensive mechanic. If you use Cospri's, I would use Barrage instead of Frenzy for single target. There are two options for applying curses to enemies- Firstly, Curse On Hit- In the four link that you have free (as you moved your single target into your chest piece), I would go Split Arrow/Curse On Hit/Vulnerability/Temporal Chains. You can swap out one of the curses with Poacher's Mark or Assassin's Mark for charge generation and damage. Both Vulnerability and Temporal Chains increases the DoT enemies take, but Vulnerability is more offense-oriented, as it scales your physical damage as well. Likewise, Temporal Chains helps your defense, as enemies will move and attack at a slower rate. The second option for applying curses to enemies for Cospri's is a bit more expensive- Instead of having a skill that you use to curse enemies, you can use a pair of curse on hit gloves (Vulnerability or Temporal Chains being the best choices). The four link you free up can be used for any number of things- golems, a self cast curse (probably the best choice of these. I would go Increased Duration/Increased Area of Effect/2 Curses that I could select from), Vaal auras, etc. WIP Last edited by AzierWill#6592 on Sep 26, 2016, 5:03:51 PM Last bumped on Nov 30, 2016, 6:45:00 AM
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Can you post a video? Also how does it feel compared to Reach?
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" I haven't played reach before. Compared to what I have seen in videos, the initial hit of the skill is not nearly as strong as Reach's. However, because of the focus on DoT, the enemies end up still taking a ton of damage. Also, Fraps isn't working on my computer, so I can't post a video. I will whenever I get it fixed though! Last edited by AzierWill#6592 on Sep 11, 2016, 4:33:40 PM
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" Try OBS - it's better than Fraps, imo. |
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I was going to try a build like this one aswell. I am however totally new to theorycrafting my own builds. I came up with this tree:
Spoiler
*Using drillneck, kinstugi and slivertongue. Gems are pretty much the same. When I compare it to your tree it seems totally diffrent. Could you help me a bit by explaining how you came up with your tree? Or tell me what I'm doing wrong? Thank you :D Common Last edited by CommonExplosion#5776 on Sep 12, 2016, 10:44:55 AM
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" Hey man! I took a look at your skill tree. It seems the largest difference between them is that I went and got the Scion life wheel for more defenses. In general, I took more life on the tree (and also Kaom's Heart rather than Kintsugi). Effectively, your tree focuses MUCH more on damage and evasion. However, that's a perfectly alright way to build. The one problem I see is that you go out of your way to get some of the bow physical damage nodes. A lot of people seem to consider them somewhat lackluster. In this case, I would agree- the Critical Strike nodes near Shadow start are exceptionally efficient- you want to prioritize crit chance and multiplier, as a large portion of damage comes from crit DoT. The physical damage gained as chaos is also a good choice, I just happened to not take it (once again, I took more life). In general, while most of your damage is physical, projectile damage is often a better choice for this kind of build due to poison's double dipping effect. Also, if you aren't using Snakebite, I would try to get 4+ power charges rather than frenzy charges, as that will work well with Deadly Infusion. Finally, you probably want to take the pierce chance near Acrobatics, especially if you are using Drillneck. |
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" Ty for the tips. ;) I will definately change the tree to include those crit and pierce nodes. If tried to calculate the amount of health your build would give. I found 5.5k (is that about right?) while mine gave 3.5k. I'll try to get that to (at least) 4k aswell. Anyway, the build guide you made is easy to follow and looks very nice. Congrats! :D |
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" Thanks for the compliments, fellow exile! My character is currently only level 87 (I can still get a couple life nodes on the Scion wheel) and has just over 6k life. Last edited by AzierWill#6592 on Sep 12, 2016, 3:19:32 PM
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How are the dps stats? How does it compare to lioneye or vs the classic rare 400+ pdps crit harbingers?
Last edited by silverdash#0964 on Sep 13, 2016, 9:58:40 AM
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" Its nowhere near the 400 pdps crit harbs which ar on pair with 280pdps Reach. And its probably better than lioneyes because it doesnt have retarded "Projectiles cannot be evaded". IGN: PojzonAbyss
[3.2] Immortal Indigon Poet's Pen Hirophant - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2129766 [3.1] Yamata No Orochi - Oni-Goroshi Jugg http://poeurl.com/bHB9 [2.4] The True Queen Of The Forest - Poison LA/BR Pathfinder http://poeurl.com/M6u [Retired] |
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