[2.3 HC] Reflect immune Slayer Blade Vortexer. Budget, Tanky, All Map Mods. Video guide included!

This was my start build for the 2.3 Prophecy patch. It was designed for Hardcore play and is simply destroying maps. Currently I am level 88 and have cleared up to tier 10's maps with ease. I will update as I continue to level and I anticipate the build will only get stronger. I am currently using a 5 link pledge of hands and level 19 gems. This guide will provide you information on my build, as well as insight into other options and adaptations of the build. The beauty of this build is that it is very flexible and can drop defensive options for offensive ones, and vice versa. I got a lot of the ideas for this build from watching Pohx's stream and videos about his Assassin Blade Vortex character, so kudos to him. Feel free to leave any questions or comments below.

Pros:
-Cheap to start and gets much better with investment
-Tanky
-Reflect immune
-Flexible
-Potential 7 link
-Can run all map mods!

Cons:
-In Melee Range to do damage
-No whirling blades if you decide to use pledge of hands

Merciless Dried Lake (build is officially viable):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhspFk5e9w8

Quick Gorge Run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J09ZjmHVWbQ

Physical Reflect Torture Chamber:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdvE8Hpjqaw

Bazaar Run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liLNIfzhx3c

Twinned Overgrown Ruin with Vulnerability. (done with 4-link pledge and lvl 19 gems)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7KRxP1lvMk

Blood Magic: We run no mana reservation so this doesn't effect us. It does lower our effective HP pool however since we will not have any mana for mind over matter.

Vulnerability: We can easily run vulnerability just be a careful not to eat large chunks of damage!

Elemental Weakness: We can obviously run this if we overcap our resistances on our gear. However, if you are like me and don't want to invest in that you can just swap your quicksilver of adrenaline for a quicksilver of resistance in ele weakness maps.

Temporal Chains: We CAN do temporal chains but I highly dislike it. It makes us extremely slow and is overall not very fun.

Physical and Elemental reflect maps: We out sustain the reflect damage easily.

Elemental equilibrium: Hardly notice it. Free pack size!

Less physical damage taken: Sucks but doesn't slow us down nearly as much as temporal chains.

No life or mana regeneration: We can only gain mana back by the warlord's mark mana leech so make sure you are casting your curse on hit blade vortex or make sure it is triggering from your cast when damage taken set up. If it is on you hardly notice that it is a no regen map.

In general I just charge up about 10 stacks of blade vortex and start leap slamming into packs. I will cast a few more times in each pack to maintain between 10-20 stacks of blade vortex.
Try to keep up your granite, basalt, and Atziri's promise flasks up as much as you can.

For bosses I will pop vaal haste and vaal clarity to generate about 30 stacks of blade vortex before engaging the boss. Then you simply leap slam into the boss to get your fortify, pop vaal grace, and then just watch them melt. Continue casting blade vortex while dodging the boss attacks. You should melt most bosses in a matter of seconds. If things start to get sketchy just leap slam to a safe spot and build up your stacks of blade vortex again. If you find that your blade vortex is expiring too fast you can try using an increased duration gem, this will add about 3 seconds to the skill duration.

-5600 life at level 88 with Belly of the Beast
-1800 mana for Mind Over Matter
-Vaal pact with 2% leech from gem and 2% from warlord's mark
-3 Endurance Charges
-Chaos Golem
-CWDT Immortal Call
-15 second Vaal Grace
-Fortify

Blade Vortex
There are many different setups for Blade Vortex that I have found viable so far. In general my standard 4 link would be:

Blade Vortex- Spell Echo- Increased AoE- Increased Duration

For links 5 and 6 I would add more damage gems. Poison, Increased Critical Strikes, Controlled Destruction, Faster Casting, and Added Fire Damage. Are all viable options.

My current setup with a 5-link Pledge of Hands

I found that I was comfortable dropping Increased AoE and Increased Duration for damage gems but if you want to smooth out the it would be completely viable to keep them.

Auras
Hatred socketed into an essence worm ring (if running mind over matter) .

If you decide to drop mind over matter I would run hatred with a blasphemy curse if you want to be more defensive (either warlord's mark or enfeeble). If you want to be more offensive or are playing on softcore I would run blasphemy+vulnerability or herald of ash.

Helmet

Increased Duration-Rallying Cry-Vaal Haste-Vaal Grace

Chest utility set up

Curse on hit-Warlord's Mark-Power charge on crit-Cast when damage taken (level 1)-Blade vortex (level 1). The CWDT is simply because I am lazy/automation of the build. You could just self cast it on a 4-link if you want, or replace the CWDT with another utility gem.


Gloves

Immortal (Call level 9)-Summon Chaos Golem (level 9)- Cast When Damage Taken (level 7)-Increased Duration

Boots

Leap Slam-Fortify-Faster Attacks-Vaal Clarity

My level 90 Tree

Leveling Trees

We choose the Slayer ascendancy class for this build.

Normal Lab: Bane of Legends: I chose to get this first because it made leveling so much easier. The culling is amazing for bosses and helps progression a ton. The onslaught is a nice buff as well and a big dps and clear speed boost.

Cruel Lab: Headsman: Headsman is a huge DPS and AoE boost. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to play blade vortex on slayer. In addition we can run physical reflect maps with this ascendancy node and vaal pact.

Merc lab: Impact: Unfortunately this node has lots of wasted stats for us. However 20% increased AoE is huge and allowed me to feel comfortable dropping my increased AoE gem.

Uber lab: I have not completed the uber lab yet and I believe the last two points are fairly minor for this build. I would probably grab the extra leech from endless hunger but I would like to test the stun from overwhelm. Either way the choice is fairly minor and you should choose whatever you think is best.

I would just level with fire trap+freezing pulse in +1 to gem level wands until level 12 when we can use blade vortex. You can get these wands easily by selling a magic rarity wand + a normal rarity ring + an orb of alteration to the vendor. The type of ring dictates what type of wand you will get (ruby = +1 to fire gems, sapphire = +1 to cold, etc.) If you can afford two life sprigs and a Tabula Rasa you can just cruise with this all the way to maps.

For leveling with a Tabula I would link Blade Vortex-Spell Echo-Increased Duration-Increased AoE-Controlled Destruction-Added Fire/Increased Crit/Poison/Conc Effect.If you cannot afford a tabula I would just use a 4 link with Blade Vortex-Spell Echo-Increased Duration-Increased AoE. Reverberation Rod is a very strong leveling wand that lets you get spell echo at level 23. The prophecy upgrade, Amplification Rod, allows you to get a cheap "6-link" set up and can honestly carry you to maps if you want.

Go ahead and just use Flame Dash for movement until you get a dagger or staff, at which point you would use either whirling blades or leap slam respectively.

Once you get to merciless try to cap your resists and get as much life on your gear as possible. By level 68 I would grab my pledge of hands and replace spell echo for life leech (make sure to grab vaal pact at this point).

Normal: Help Oak for +40 life
Cruel: Either Help Oak for +16% phys damage or kill all
Merciless: Help Alira or Kill all (If you are going to use frenzy charges I would help Kratyn)

Personally I chose Help Oak-Kill All- Help Alira

Current Gear


Gear is far from optimal but it gets the job done. I could probably squeeze out an extra 400-500 life if I got really nice gear with max life rolls but this works perfectly fine. I would probably drop the Belly for a Lightning coil if you can afford it. Pledge and Essence worm are must haves if you plan to go Mind Over Matter. I highly recommend this as it makes you MUCH tankier and smooths out the gameplay overall because you will have extremely high mana regeneration.

Flasks

Ideally I would drop the basalt flask for a taste of hate once I can afford one. I would probably also swap the granite for a Rumi's.

I have tested out swapping the mana flask for a quicksilver flask and found that the boost in clear speed was well worth it. Rallying Cry + your natural regen should be plenty. If you find yourself taking a ton of damage just step away from the fight for a moment to regenerate your mana.


Jewels
Stats to look for on Jewels:
1. Life
2. Phys Damage, Area Damage, Spell Damage, Cast Speed
3. Crit, Crit Multi, Mana and Mana Regen
4. Resistances

If running mind over matter I highly recommend you use a Clear Mind jewel. It will boost your damage substantially.

Other gearing options