[2.2] Blade Vortex FLASK MASTER. 88% All Res, 75/75 Block, 500-800k DPS, INSTANT LEECH

is that all maim is, seriously? where did you get that info? i was under the impression it would be a more powerful effect than bleed

if that is all maim is then i am severely disappointed...in a humorous way...im actually laughing. why would anybody stack those effects if thats all it gives? haha


edit: wow ya i see the description under noxious strike now. not sure if it was always there and i just didn't read it or what. that is HORRID.

Honestly seems Assassin would be better than pathfinder for this. Max out crit on blade vortex, do whatever.

I think a big difference for sub-classes is the end goal of the build.

Some want to level with tier 9-11 maps with high clear speed
Some want to kill tier 12+ bosses and Uber Atziri and etc. Possibly carry other characters along.

This is a bit simplistic, as there are as many goals as there are players. If I understood it right xMustard, you want high clear speed and chain quickly through tier 9-11 maps.

In tier 9-11 range Assassin is most probably the best sub-class. Well build BV with flasks will handle all damage (except maybe worst mods) well there, so highest possible dps is the way to go forward. Assassin should be able to get the highest "real" dps and single hits. Could be possible that Inquisitor (flasks+auras+PtL give huge elemental dps) might be able to rival that, but haven't made any calculations on that. Assassins high dps and the fact that there are no bosses which actually needs more flask charges to kill makes it a pretty easy and a safe choice.

My goal is to kill tier 12+ bosses without never dying (haven't gone to tier 15 yet, have saved those maps to ascendancy). Builds need more defense at those levels (for example Village Ruin, Excavation, Palace, Uber Atziri, Vaal Temple, tier 15 maps). For myself I count as a minimum that I can kill Village Ruin bosses without dying.

With very high dps and VoV one can be pretty safe as life leech will mostly take care of surviving and a very rare death doesn't matter that much. But when going for higher tier maps a simple mistake can get one killed. Even some rare monsters are able to one shot many builds. Sometimes a hit goes through Block, sometimes you make a mistake with flask uptime, sometimes you run out of flasks. With BV one is always in melee range and pretty much because of that has same disadvantages as most melee builds.

I've been playing BV with 3 different characters this patch (Witch, Scion and Ranger). Ranger is the only char that hasn't died once to some stupid mistake or anything else so far. Although it has been by far the most defensive build of those. Scion and Witch both had more dps. In Ascendancy I'll most probably be trying with Ranger and Scion. Witch Occultist sounds good also with more curses. In any case I will have more dps in Ascendancy, but will be losing a bit on defenses. Assassin doesn't add much to defensive side. That's why I think Pathfinder and Scion are better (still haven't calculated that Inquisitor) choices when going after very high tier content. I still won't say that I'm absolutely correct, but all my calculations point to that direction.

For reference I use this kind of gear in Standard with 4,8k life. It's not perfect on all accounts and am still using some gem slots on leveling gems. So there is still much to improve with the build, but didn't want to go through that before Ascendancy starts.

Iceclad nice post. I think what may hold you back from your goal is that

- Blade vortex is melee range
- life builds have lower hit points

I know going ci or low life is expensive, but you will still have high blocks but much higher hitpoints with ES.

You may also have to switch to ranged spell like Bladefall as well, just for better safety.

On these kind of maps you also need to worry about stun interruption, even when you block you can still get stunned which can be dangerous

The most dangerous boss I have found for a life build like this with high blocks that fights in melee range is Uber trio and Vaal Temple bosses. I have tried everything as EV max block + max spell block + max dodge and max spell dodges and without perma IC it is impossible to do these bosses in melee range on this kind of HP without dying at least once.

It is the physical spells that are lethal, especially a fast hitting spell like Aalai's rain. For Uber trio and Vaal Temple you will get stunlocked or one shot from Aalai's rain - even with CWDT+IC procs and instant leech - the damage is just too ridiculous for 5k life.

So getting high hitpoints (8k+ ES) while still retaining high blocks and inst leech would be better, AND/OR switching to a more range skill like BF.

One thing I did on my life lightning strike build that allowed me to easily do full Uber map deathless, and do Vaal Temple with 6 bosses is to incorporate Romiras + Voll's devotion and manually cast IC. I could maintain perma IC very easily this way. But IC duration was reduced and cooldown was increased so it doesnt work for my build anymore.

This could be PERFECT for your life bv build because you take inc. skill duration and also use a skill that hits very fast. If you can get a decent duration duration on IC such that you have time to keep recasting you will have an excellent build.

If you look at the quad sector of defenses you will be completely covered. Now if you add ES on top of that you can easily do all the content in the game.

Have to admit that it currently feels like I have way too much life compared to my old builds with 6k+ life.

LC changes 40% of phys to lightning
ToH changes almost 40% of phys to cold.
Both resistances are 93-97% (depending on which Purities I use atm, will drop lower in Ascendancy).
Then I have ~5k armor to mitigate that around 25% phys damage I take.
In addition to that I evade some 1/3 of hits.

Against spells I have 75% spell block and those resistances.

Only thing that actually really hurts is chaos damage and that's because of poor chaos res on gear. So need to change Rumi's to Atziri's Promise from time to time. With immune to bleed from flasks I can easily face tank Village Ruin bosses for example so that I won't even notice that they are around.

Still haven't found anything that could come even close to dropping that 4,8k life to half and then there's that life leech from VoV. In essence that's around 20k life against phys damage.

Durability is really not an issue.

Can I kill Core Malachai with my ~250k dps and survive for the whole time? I'm not sure. Will find out in Ascendancy. Same with Vaal Temple and Uber Trio. With Uber Trio it'll be more because of that degen.

With my old BV builds I did need to change to Bladefall for extra safety in some matches, but atm nothing has even touched me.

Well, I haven't looked at Core Malachai's stats yet but should not be a problem since the mechanics are easy. Other bosses easily have avoidable or tankable attacks/spells on that much life.

However Uber trio and Vaal Temple are a completely different story.

You can test it right now. Try running regular Atziri map with 1/3rd of your HP - say about 2k-2.5k life and a quarter your damage to see how it would feel on Uber. Vaal Temple really depends on the mods for the map as some mods can make it harder/easier than Uber trio. As reference point I've done Atziri map on about 2.5k life and it was EASIER than Uber map on my regular 4.5k hp.

As melee on 5k life it will be extremely hazardous to try, all monsters have nearly triple the damage and nearly 4 times as much HP as regular Atziri monsters. Even with LC and all the other stuff you use, you will die several times in melee range with these kinds of stats against these bosses.

See for more stats: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1140509

Bought the cheapest Vaal Temple map from poe.trade. Only had ele weakness and ele reflect and few other mods that don't matter.

Actually did die to my own mistake of not having flasks on and dying to ele reflect (ele weakness drops my res to 50-60% range.

Otherwise it was pretty easy in the end. Guess I should be decently happy with the result at least. Will need to take on it with harder mods some day.

Thanks for pointing out that thread about Uber Atziri. That's by far the best thread I've seen so far with some actual stats also. Really informative.

If this is just an ES blade vortex build, well, no shit you can get it to obscene damage when you have obscenely good gear. And yeah, I'd imagine pathfinder blade vortex at obscene wealth would be able to faceroll just about anything.

The more pertinent guide would be on how to get that wealth.

I think i'll try it.

Problem is taste of hate and lightning coil ( expansive ), i need coil cause im hardcore player and taste of hate is so fuc!#@$ expansive.