[2.6 / 3.0] BLADE VORTEX OBLITERATION
|
Patch 3.0
Ok guys, I'm finally trying to update this build (I've been busy trying out new stuff in the Harbinger league). With Patch 3.0 lots of things have changed and, as most of you already know, double dipping is no more a thing. This has been a big nerf to pretty much all build relying on those mechanics, but it also brought to us some new interesting skill gems, passives and uniques. I honestly believe at this point there are two main ideas to develop the build: either you play a totally hit based version (you just focus on scaling the hit damage of blade vortex, with no damage over time effect) or you go all in into DoT (poison to be more precise). Let's be clear, the playstyle has not changed that much and the clearspeed is pretty much untouched (obliteration damage is still the same and never relied on any dot interaction), what's changing a lot is how you deal with single target (which got nerfed in any case). Moreover both options are sacrificing some life to obtain high amount of damage, keep that in mind. Let's introduce briefly the two options, making use of Path of Building.
upfront damage version
This is not a creation of mine, it's actually the build vadash proposed into this thread few days into the new expansion. I'm gonna directly quote his post, but the main idea is to scale the upfront damage of blade vortex, investing in auras (hatred and herald of ice) and crit chance. Overall your damage is pretty high and it's going to be split into something like 40% phys, 40% chaos and 20% cold. "
DOT version
This second version is totally based on physical and more importantly chaos damage, like the original build, gaining more reflect protection. To achieve good enough single target damage we invest a lot into poison and ailments (poison is now considered an ailments, no more an effect; just to be clear, things like skill effect duration do not scale it anymore). The passive tree is kinda different, we avoid the witch area while moving south-east towards duelist and ranger, gaining the access to Acrobatics' cluster (nice defensive option). I'm gonna link the Path Of Building code here: https://pastebin.com/MRG6MipD The tree is probably not 100% optimised yet, I'm still testing stuff, but it does feel ok. NOTE. This version is a bit hard to itemize though, I'm not happy about it and I'm trying to improve it. The main problem is that Obliteration requires 179 INT to be used, while we barely get something like 54 int from the tree (with good gear it's not a problem, but it's a big deal when you are just starting out). The second problem is to cap resistances if you decide to use all the unique I'd like to use (potentially you can drop Atziri's Step and obtain resistances through jewels slots). The potential damage of this version is similar to the one above, but it does require some ramp up time to apply a good amount of poison stacks. If you have any ideas, if you tried or theorycrafted something, please let me know in this thread. I'd really love to bring this build back to the spot it deserves. Below this point, things might not be update to 3.0 yet and some interactions do not exist anymore (like double dipping). I'm working on updating the guide, but if you find something unclear, or need more explanations about some topic, feel free to post your questions on this thread. Hey guys, I'm here trying to make my first build guide. First of all I'd like to apologize in advance for my english and possible errors, since this isn't my native language, I'll try to be as clear as possible. I decided to create a guide of this build since I'm loving it a lot and I think it's one of the funniest I ever played. I haven't been able to find the same idea out there on the forum, so I hope someone else will try out this charcter and potentially improve it.
Preface
Have you ever thought something like: "Hey, Blade Vortex is such a cool skill, it offers so much single target damage and it's so smooooth.. But the clearspeed is.. meeeeh! The Aoe is a bit small, even with huge investments." Recently I played a standard Low Life Blade Vortex build, 6-linked Shavronne, flasks, high level and quality gems.. All those good stuff. The tooltip dps was amazing, single target was great, but the clearspeed was ok-ish. I mean, not bad, but for the investment it was a bit disappointing. You also have to keep flasks up, and all those auras and charges, and energy shield mechanic is so annoying for me. I wanted something different, I wanted to mantain blade vortex playstyle, but make it better, without sacrificing much at all. I also wanted a cheap build to start with, able to scale well, allowing me to farm up good amount of currency. Do you also like to be a little hipster? Do you like mixing togheter different mechanics this game has to offer? This is the build you are looking for! Table of content - About myself & POE - About the character - Pros & Cons - Build breakdown and mechanics (looong chapter) - Passive tree - Ascendency - Bandits - Gear breakdown - Gems - Scaling explosions - To curse, or not to curse - To MoM, or not to MoM - TLDR Following post - My Gear - Screenshot - Videos (Work in progress)
About myself & POE
In case you care about it, my name is Christian and I'm Italian. I'm 23 and recently graduated in energy engeneering. I've been playing this game since Domination League, mostly casually and without investing too much time and effort. My highest character is level 89 (pretty avarage indeed), it was a Voltaxic Sparker deeloped in the last League (Perandus). I do only play softocore, since my PC is pretty trash and I lag way too much and way too often to play hardcore.
About the character
There we go, let's start talking about serious stuff. The build uses blade vortex as main skill (actually it's the only skill used, not including movement and aura skill), scaling only physical and chaos damage. This is obtained by appropriate use of skill gems, passives and the unique wand Obliteration. The character, at least in my case, is a Berserker, exploiting the unique benefits this class has to offer. We scale Obliteration's explosion damage up to 100%, and even more, of monsters max life, allowing chain reactions to clears packs with ease. This build is not supposed to offer the same tooltip dps of a dual Void Battery Assassin stuff, nor to be able to facetank Core Malachai while eating pizza. The point is creating an effective and fun build, with an enjoyable playstyle (at least for me), able to tackle down most contents while using a budget setup; yet this is still able to scale really well with more advanced items and higher levels. Not to mention it's created with the specific purpose of being super lag friendly.
Pros & Cons
PROS: - fast clearing (I mean.. VERY FAST) - high single target damage (blade vortex stacking + poison) - LAG FRIENDLY (this is the most important point for me and my computer) - budget, great for solo playstyle and league starter - pretty easy playstyle - no charges to sustain (or you can invest in them, and use them.. up to you) - offers a wide variety of build paths - scale really well with just gems level - scale even with monsters level - pretty tanky to be a caster - almost reflect immune (with appropriate setup) - can run any map mod (some are just annoying, temporal chains, chilled ground and so on) - you don't need auras or curses to be effetive - huge and instant life leech (vaal pact) - can run any boss in the game (for shaper, guardians and those kind of stuff, Hidden Potential ruote is very reccomended) - you can farm uber lab with ease (you need to get used to deal with traps with vaal pact though) CONS: - levelling can be a pain (since you are essentially a caster-marauder) - fall off a bit in party - you may need a hybrid life/mana flask - you gotta like blade vortex playstyle - you can get 1-shot by hard hitting monsters/bosses if you are not careful - no life regen (as said above, vaal pact) - cruel labyrinth gives you pretty much nothing (however you can deal with it) - you use wands, you cannot use whirling blades and fortify - I would not play it in hardcore, maybe with some variations
Build breakdown and mechanics (open at your own risk)
First layer of damage scaling
As said before, we use the unique wandObliteration, which is super cheap by the way and offer us two great stats: - up to 15% physical damage added and converted to chaos damage - EXPLOSIONS (Enemies you Kill have a 20% chance to Explode, dealing 25% of their maximum Life as Chaos Damage). These are great for many reasons, first of all we can scale all of them with area damage (even the explosions) and with the starting points in the Shadow area (those give increased physical and chaos damage, and the chaos damage scale the explosions and the 15% added and converted from the wand). Then we can use the poison mechaninc to boost our damage even more (mostly for single target), which is scaled by area damage and chaos damage, and is based on the initial chaos+physical hit (and we deal only physical and chaos damage, and quite a good amount of them).
Seconds layer of damage scaling
We exploit Aspect of Carnage (which gives us 40% MORE damage, this is a multiplier for ALL our sources of damage) and the other scaling from the passive tree to scale the starting 25% of monster's life explosions (Obliteration effect) and let it reach at least 100% of the monster's life. This BOOMBOOM effect clear packs by itself when triggered by the first few kills, since monsters that stand toghter usually have the same life pool. This damage scales with monsters' life, this way we can keep our clear speed relevant up to high level maps. What else.. We pick a bunch of area of effect and area damage nodes (they scale everything we already use) and increase skill effect duration nodes (they scale blade vortex, vaal auras, poison and immortal call duration), boosting our offence, defence and utility.
Third layer of damage scaling + Defence
We can reach easily 5.5k+ life and 1k+ mana (which is not actually a lot sadly). Now you should ask, why would you even care about your mana pool? The simplest answer is that we need mana and mana regen to sustain our blade vortex. The more accurate answer is that we also take Mind Over Matter, which grants us more survivability. We can reserve no mana, using the unique ring Essence Worm and allocating in it a single aura (which is not mandatory at all for the build, it's just a cool stuff). This way we can use the unique jewel Clear Mind, boosting our damage by a good amount.
Fourth and last layer of damage scaling
We are almost at the end of the story. How can we scale our damage even more, without investing in elemental conversion (hatred, physical to lightning, added fire and so on)? We are a marauder, we already pick a lot of STR along the way, and we can look for this stat in our gear (we don't need cast speed, crit chance and multiplier, accuracy, attack speed and all the other suffixes, except resistances of course, on items).. We can make a good use of Iron Will then (this is not mandatory obviously, but gives you a lot of dps. Just to give you an idea, with something like 500 STR, it gives me an effective 28% damage boost, which is not bad in my opinion).
Optional scaling - Hidden Potential
The whole idea is to use hidden potential viridian jewel to gain massive amount of generic increased damage, boosting your blade vortex upfront damage, obliteration explosion damage, Commandment of blades damage and, lastly, double dipping on all the poiston DOT you are dealing.
Sustain stuff
We get a massive amount of life/mana leech from Pain Reaver (and, later on, potentially even more from Cloaked in Savagery), which allows us to sustain through anything that doesn't 1-shot us. As already mentioned, we also take Vaal Pact to leech life istantly. This also allows us to ignore the reflect mod (in some cases we might use potions to help mitigate the physical damage reflected, or to regenerate the mana pool faster). The mana leech portion is even more useful, since we use Mind over Matter, and we need to resplenish our mana pool easily and without much effort.
Utility stuff
We use both Vaal Haste and Vaal Clarity linked to increased duration (the first can easily last 15+ seconds and the latter 25+ seconds, depending on gems and supports gems level). We can use them to clear faster and safer, to cast a bunch a blade vortex stacks before going in a boss fight, and for whatever reason you may like. In our ring, Essence Worm, we can use Haste to improve our clearspeed (you can actually use whatever you want: Arctic armour, determination, a resistance aura, discipline, doesn't matter.. they are all good options, up to you and your personal taste). We are also allowed to use at least two CWDT setup, you can use Immortal Call, some Arctic Breath and/or Ball Lightning combo. To achieve the highest potential DPS, you should also use a Wither Totem setup, which is going to increase you chaos damage by a lot.
Funny & effetive combo
One of the most effetive way to increase the clear speed, actually probably the most effective, is obtained by having gloves enchanted with *insert degree* of blades on hit. Those stuff are projectile spells that deal pure physical damage and chain, which benefit from modifiers we already have, worth mentioning they also receive the 15% of physical damage added and converted to chaos (from Obliteration). They wreck packs that are miles away from you, and they can obviously proc the explosion on death effect of our wand. FU***NG STRONG. BEST ENCHANTMENT FOR THIS BUILD.
Phys reflect map mod
After doing some testing I believe you can deal with phys reflect in 90% of istances with no problem at all, though sometimes you need to pay more attention. I believe there are three really bad situations: - Lockboxes - Hitting a lot of monsters in the same istant (they spawn all togheter) can be VERY dangerous, you have good chances to 100-0 yourself without having any chance to leech back. Immortal call on CWDT is really helpful in these moments by the way. - "Allies cannot die" totems/rares - Similar to lockboxes, finding yourself in the middle of a big pack on monsters that cannot die is an easy way to kill yourself. Even worse than lockboxes, if you cannot kill the totem/rare in the immortall call duration, you are dead. That's it. - Sick combinations - You may die in reflect maps if you get hit by strong burst of damage, and you have no "mana shield" to tank it for your life (in reflect maps, your mana is going to be low pretty often). You have to pay particular attention to this kind of istances. In general I suggest a slower pace in reflect maps, mostly to allow your mana to recharge from pack to pack. Keeping up basalt/granite flasks in dangerous situations is also important and life saving.
Passive tree
Ok, we did the hardest part. Passive tree is pretty standard: - you start picking up some life in the marauder area - move towards templar starting area to get more life and AOE nodes 50 points At this point I suggest starting to use Blade Vortex (I don't think it's worth using it earlier) - move towards witch, for more life and AOE - complete your journey towards shadow starting area 103 points This tree is around level 80. Going beyond this level you can take whatever you need, more life, more jewel sockets, spell damage, chaos damage, cast speed, armour, I don't know. Try out whatever works better with you. Moving towards level 90 I think it's worth taking Unwavering Stance, if you are not using evasion based equip (not using Cospri's Will for example): 115 points, level 93 with Unwavering Stance If you are instead using an evasion based setup, for example with Cospri's and/or Hidden Potential ruote: 118 points tree idea note 1: pick up more life (full scion wheel and random nodes), duration nodes and damage when you feel like you are lacking them, it mostly depends on your gear and playstyle. Take Vaal Pact when you feel like you need it, I'd suggest level 70+. note 2: at level 36 you can equip Amplification Rod and link your Blade Vortex inside it, I think it's very effective to level up fast.
Ascendency
I believe Marauder-Berserker is best way to play this build, it offers everything you may need: strong damage, sustain, and defense (not much actually, but starting with a marauder offers tons of life by itself). - Pain reaver in Normal Lab - in Cruel Lab I suggest taking Rite of Ruin. We don't really want this after completing Merciless Lab, but untill that moment we gotta take what we can. - in Merciless Lab we respec the previous choice (Rite of Ruin), and with the remaining four points we take Crave the Slaughter and finally Aspect of Carnage. - Eventually, in Endgame Lab we can take Cloaked in Savagery (for crazy sustain and good damage boost), or we can also take the previous Rite of Ruin (stun immunity in most situations, and a little more defense). Up to you. If you like using a Warcry, you can also take War Bringer.
Other classes
I have not tested this build on any other class, but probably you can play some variation of this one with a Witch-Occultist (more focused around curses, and/or maybe a low life/CI stuff) or a Ranger-Raider (you gotta stack frenzy charges to make up for the loss of 40% more damage of the berseker, but phasing is super strong). Other options I can think about are Ranger-Pathfinder (free poison and crazy flask effects) and Shadow-Assassin (focusing on crits and scaling the poison damage, probably a really high damage route).
Bandits
Normal - Help Oak (+40 life), if you are playing a life versione of this build this is really good Cruel - Kill all (skill point), you can actually help Alira if you REALLY want cast speed (not a good idea and not needed by the way) Merciless - Kill all (skill point), you can take the appropriate additional charge if you invest in that type of playstyle
Gear breakdown
First of all I'd like to say that the only needed item is the wand, Obliteration (you can buy one for 1c or even less, super cheap, and use it at level 56+). Now I wanna say two words for every piece of gear and what you should look for:
Basic setup
Main hand
As said, you need Obiteration as your late game option. You can level with whatever you like, a Lifesprig is always nice for any caster.
Off hand
I think dual wielding Obliteration is the easiest way to play this build, it offers good damage and it's easy to obtain. If you want, you can try to corrupt yourself an Obliteration, trying to obtain Culling Strike as an implicit corruption. You need it on just one of your two wands (if you are dual wielding). Another nice option is to use Broken Faith shield; you can consider it as a cheap versione of the Sin's Rebirth flask. You can obviously use a strong armour shield (tankyness), or an energy shield base shield (spell damage and crit chance). In some situations you may want to use Saffel's Frame to deal with scary elemental damage bosses. You can also use a rare Decay wand (deal 750 chaos damage per second, for 10s, with your hits) for single target.
Body armour
Using a Tabula Rasa is a great and simple way to build our character. Later in the game, you have few options: Since 2.4 and following patches, after testing it myself in Breach League, I believe Cospri's Will is the best armour choice (5 link is all you actually need to start with, but getting the right colours might be a pain). Other cheaper options are Carcass Jack, or the new buffed Cherrubim's Maleficence and The Covenant .
Gloves
Nothing special over here, look for high life and possibly mana as a prefixes, STR and resists as suffixes. Try to get your hands on the right enchantment (Commandment Blades on hit), it will skyrocket your clearspeed. If you are using the hidden potential route, get a magic pair with just life and one resist.
Helmet
Same as gloves, read above (every blade vortex enchant is good, I prefer AOE or Duration, they are good quality of life improvements and you don't really need a little more damage). Some players enjoy using Devoto's Devotion for the huge movement speed bonus, paired with some good evasion and chaos resist.
Boots
You want a good rare pair of boots; life, 30% movement speed and mana as prefixes, resist and STR as suffixes. You can use Blood Dance to generate Frenzy charges and get a chunk of DEX (all other affixes as pretty much wasted), but it's not really needed.
Belt
You want a rare Heavy Belt, Leather Belt or Rustic Sash with the usual affixes (life, STR and resists). If you are going the hidden potential route, just get a magic one with life and one resist.
Rings & Amulet
If you wanna play this build the way I am doing, you want an Essence Worm. On the other two pieces of jewelry you want life, STR, resits and all the attributes you are lacking (you are gonna need DEX somewhere in your gear). Nice bonuses are cast speed, spell damage (crit chance and crit multiplier if you are going a more crit oriented route), but they are not needed at all. An offensive ring option is Ming's Heart, which offers a huge amount of extra chaos damage, sadly reducing our life pool. Cool item to use in softcore, not so effective in hard maps and hardcore (when life is more valuable than a bunch of damage). If you are using the hidden potential ruote, you get try to get all three pieces magic with life and resist/attributes you need. If you are focusing on curses, obtaining a good corrupted amulet with implicit +1 curse is the best option available.
Jewels
If you are not reserving any mana, you may want to use Clear Mind. Other jewels should give you what you are missing on your gear/passives: you should look for % max life, increased area damage, chaos damage, physycal damage and spell damage. You may need them to cap your resists too, or to gain the remaining attributes you missing (potentially DEX). In order of effective dps increase, the best mods are: - Increased damage - Increased area damage - Increased chaos damage - all the remaining (spell damage, spell damage while dual wielding, physical damage, damage over time and so on) Another good option is The Green Dream jewel, you can use in the witch area, to obtain a source of Frenzy Charges generation.
Flasks
Old setup (patch 2.3)
This is totally up to you, I like to have: - life flask with istant recovery and remove bleeding - hybrid life/mana flash with remove curses or freeze&chill (useful to regen mana faster in hard istances, or to precast a bunch of Blade vortex stacks before going in a fight, while you have no Vaal skill available) - quicksilver flask with anything you like (remove freeze&chill are really good on this flask, to ignore chilled ground) - Atziri's Promise good damage boost, additional leech and some chaos resist for hard hitting chaos bosses. - Up to you, Taste of Hate is obviously great (and very expensive), but you can use a Basalt flask or a Granite flask to help you against physical damage and reflect maps.
New setup (patch 2.5 and following)
- Witchfire Brew is pretty much mandatory right now, free blind and vulnerability curse, increased evasion (not that bad if you are playing with Cospri's Will). Depending on the league and other factors, it's a bit expensive for new players. - Quicksilver Flask with anything you like (remove freeze&chill or remove bleeding are really effective on this flask) is always really good; another option is a Silver Flask to gain onslaught. - Atziri's Promise offers you a good damage boost, additional leech and some chaos resist for hard hitting chaos bosses. Must have. - Sin's Rebirth is really strong (but also really expensive). In combination with Atziri's promise you are gonna deal insane amount of damage with these flasks up. - my last spot is generally a defensive flask, Taste of Hate is obviously great and offers you some damage too (but it's very expensive). You can also use a Basalt flask or a Granite flask to help you mitigate incoming hits against physical damage and reflect maps. Note. In some istances you may want to switch your flasks, adapting to the situations. To trivialize lab traps and trials of ascendancy it's really helpful to use 2 or even more life flasks (with a mix of istant recovery and long recovery affixes). To fight Izaro is also helpful to use a hybrid life/mana flask, this way you can precast blade vortex without losing any mana for the actual fight.
Hidden potential route
I have not personally tested this setup, but I've read and heard people having great success with it. It's a bit harder to itemize (you need to use many blue items), but your damage is going to be way higher than the standard version. The whole idea is to use hidden potential viridian jewel to gain massive amount of generic increased damage, boosting your blade vortex upfront damage, obliteration damage, Commandment of blades damage and, lastly, double dipping on all the poison DOT you are dealing. You can check other players' setups and builds in the following pages (8-9 and following), where they showcase their characters and gears. I really need to give credits to these players and what they achieved. If you follow this route, you do not have to worry about fulfilling the %increased damage for scaling explosions, since you are gonna have more than enough damage.
Aim_Deep setup
I quote down here Aim_Deep gear to show the endgame potential of this build, in particular his great min-maxing of stats and items, since I believe he played this build with many different approaches and setups over time (since I posted this guide). You can achieve similar or even greater results in min-maxing attributes (as other guys already did, showing their characters in this thread). "
Gems
I invite you to check the update spoilers, at the top of the guide, to look for the gem setups I find most effective in every patch. This section is not always updated to be the most effective way to use your links, it's mostly a guideline to give you a general idea. This is what I was using in patch 2.3, you can play around with it and try out different combinations and setups. As you may see in my gear showcase, I change setup often, trying out new stuff and combo. -6 link: Blade Vortex-Controlled destruction-Spell Echo-Added Chaos Damage-Void Manipulation-"last gem" (in order of importance, in my opinion); if you are not using Cospri's, you need to use the poison gem. -4 link: CWDT (lvl 1)-Increased duration (max lvl)-Immortal call (lvl 3)-"gem you like" (for example a curse with appropriate lvl, like vulnerability. You can also link another Vaal skill, at max lvl, which benefits from Incresed Duration) -4 link: Spell Totem-Wither-FasterCasting-Increased Duration -4 link: CWDT (lvl 1)-Arctic Breath (lvl 4)-GMP (max lvl)-"gem you like" (for example Knockback/blind/chain (max lvl to support Arctic Breath, or just another curse, in the case you are using multiple curses) -3 link: Vaal Haste-Vaal clarity-Increased duration -3 link: Flame dash-Faster castin-Flame golem -1 link: Haste (this is the optional ring slot, run whatever you like the most) Note 1: For hard single target fights you can use Concentrated effect, if you feel like it's worth the AOE reduction, in the place of Spell Echo (they are both blue gems). Note 2: The 6th link, "last gem", (while using a Cospri's) is totally up to you. Iron Will gives you some good damage if you have enough STR, Increased AOE or Increased Duration (many people like this choice) bring you some Quality of Life buffs, while Rapid Decay boosts your poison damage by a lot, but cuts the duration of Blade vortex iteself (I do not like it at all). I also tested a level 4 Empower, it's not really worth using it (it does give you the same damage of Iron will with 450 STR, but it's waaaay more expensive). Note 3: if you are using Cospri's and Witchfire Brew, you want to swap out vulnerability and replace it with a more defensive curse like Temporal chains or Enfeeble, this should give you even more survivability. If you Have the chance to run 3 curse (with a corrupted amulet), you are going to apply Vulnerability with the Witchfire Brew flask, while applying the other two with those CWDT setups. If you want a more reliable cursing approach, you can start reserving some mana and use Blasphemy+curses setups. Note 4: it's worth mentioning that if you want to achieve the highest possible damage output, you need to use the Wither totem setup for hard single target fights (you can also use it in just a 3-link without incresed duration or faster casting), while it's not necessary for general clear and most weak bosses.
Scaling explosions
We reached one of the most important and mathematical part of this build, you need to scale Obliteration explosion damage (25%) up to 100%. We can scale just with generic Area damage, Chaos damage and our ascendency point Aspect of Carnage (40% more damage). We could also scale with frenzy charges (each gives us 4% more damage).
Math alert (just a little, trying to make as simple as possible)
The tree (the one linked above) gives us: +50% area damage (additive damage scaling) +76% chaos damage (additive damage scaling) 40% more damage (multiplier damage scaling) 25*(1+0.50+0.76)=56.5 So we are dealing 56.5% of the monster's max HP as explosion damage. Assuming we are not using any frenzy charge, we need to reach at least 71.43% of monster life with additive damage scaling. In fact multiplying 71.43*(1+0.40)=100.002 (this 0.40 is the multiplier of Aspect of Carnage). We gotta solve a simple equation then: 25*(1+0,5+0.76+X)=0.71.43 (X is what we are looking for, the additive damage we need to obtain somehow). We can solve it easily this way: X=(71.43/25)-2.26=0.6 That's it. We need +60% incresed damage (area damage, chaos damage or generic damage); we can obtain it thanks our Flame golem and appropriate choice of jewels. If you cannot get to +60% incresed damage this way, it's not the end of the world, you are gonna clear just as fine (you may need two monsters exploding to clear a whole pack "for free", instead of just a single one, not a big deal).
To curse, or not to curse - To MoM, or not to MoM
I decided to write a specific topic about curses, because I receive a lot of questions about them. When you approach this build, you need to decide what is going to get your priority and what's your goal; I believe there are two main approaches, but you can mix them a bit at your own risk (or reward): - Curse reliant - MoM reliant (MoM stands for Mind over Matter) I personally prefer the MoM version, it's the cheaper option and it's designed to clear all contents in the game EXCEPT guardians and shaper (you can still kill them, but it becomes harder). You reserve no mana, you take MoM and the new mana points behind it (introduced in 2.6), you use Essence Worm ring and Clear Mind jewel. You are still using Cospri's as your endgame armour and two curses: Vulnerability applied with Witchfire Brew and a second curse of choice (Enfeeble or Temporal Chains) with CWDT setups. The other option is to go all in on curses. This version is designed to tackle the hardest contents in the game, using a combination of three different curses (two of them up all the time). As we already said, we want three curses, so you have to obtain a +1 corrupted amulet (or spend many points to get the additional curse in the witch area of the tree, or use Doedre's Damning while sacrificing a ring slot). As always, you apply Vulnerability with Witchfire Brew flask, but you use Blasphemy to cast both Enfeeble and Temporal Chains. You are reserving a lot of mana (70% with two blasphemy) so it's not really worth using MoM, neither using Clear Mind nor Essence Worm. This version offers also a more reliant cursing approach, guaranteeing the poison from Cospri's. As we said, you can invest in a mix of those two approaches. For example using just one Blasphemy while still taking MoM (if you end up with a good amount of unreserved mana). As always, I invite you to test your ideas and shares the results.
TLDR
This build focuses on Blade Vortex and Obliteration, the unique wand, which gives us insane clear speed (explosions). We scale physical and chaos damage and we use poison to maximize our dps. I also use Essence Worm, Clear mind, Mind over Matter and a nice life pool to have a good offensive and defensive setup. Vaal pact gives us istant leech, while the ascendency Berserker offers huge amount of damage and sustain. This build allows a super fast playstyle, running around maps while everything around you is exploding, but it's also able to deal humongous single target damage. I hope you may give a chance to this build, trying it out yourself and enjoy it as much as I did. I will try to answer any question, so feel free to ask and make objections. I also wanna thanks all the players that are giving their feedback and answers to this thread, helping myself and others to enjoy this build. If you wanna check the character, it's called ProphecyNaeH.
Previous Patches updates, just for the record
Patch 2.6 stuff
I'm slowly updating this guide to patch 2.6; you can still follow it, since there are not going to be major changes, just few tweaks (mostly regarding MoM). If you've been following this guide for some time, you'll notice few changes here and there, improving the guide and the informations contained. All in all I think nothing has really changed, except the fact that now you can use MoM while still reserving 35% of your mana for a blasphemy (you should have at least 10k unreserved mana). Another interesting option I've seen rising in popularity amongst other players is using the following setup: -Blade Vortex -Controlled destruction -Added Chaos -Void Manipulation -Concentrated Effect -Spell Echo (swapped for faster casting during single target fights) I'm not 100% sure about the best link setup for BV yet, they all offer some pros and cons, and you can test them and find what you like the most.
Patch 2.5 stuff
Nothing really changed in this patch; blade vortex mechanics got a rework, but it didn't actually affect out build that much. A bit less damage at low amount of stacks (still more than enough to clear everything with no effort at all), more damage at max stacks. Flask's refilling change doesn't affect us at all, since we are using neither Pathfinder nor crits. Overall I feel like this build is stronger than ever. I'm also gonna try the Cospri's Will version in the Breach league. In particular, the main setup I will be using is (in order of importance): -Blade Vortex -Controlled Destruction -Added Chaos Damage -Void Manipulation -Spell Echo/Concentrated Effect (for general clearing and easy bosses you should use Spell Echo or Faster Casting, they make the playstyle way smoother. For really strong bosses you need to use Concentrated Effect). They are also blue gems, so you don't have to change any colour or do strange things to adapt from one to the other) -Iron Will/Empower/Increased Duration or Increased AOE (they are all strong choices, it depends on your playstyle). Iron Will and Empower are the damage options: the first one gives you a lot of damage if you have 350+ STR, the second one is worth if it's level 4 (very expensive), otherwise is better using Iron Will. Increased AOE and Increased Duration are also good, they give you some utility and make your playstyle a bit smoother. The only problem is that you are using a pure evasion body armour (Cospri's Will) and you need 4 off-colours (on a 6-link, just 3 off-colours on a 5-link); it's not impossible or anything, but it's not even something you should expect to achieve with 5 chromatics. With the addition of decay weapons, which actually got introduced since Prophecy League (and a bit nerfed in patch 2.5), you can switch 1 Obliteration for a good rare wand with the decay bonus (your hits deal 750 chaos damage per seconds, for 10 seconds) for single target fights (a good rolled one shoud deal more damage than the obliteration). It's also worth mentioning that if you want to achieve the highest possible damage output, you need to use a Wither totem setup (Spell totem + Wither + Increased Duration + Faster Casting; you can also use it in just a 3-link without incresed duration or faster casting).
Patch 2.4 stuff
I've tried some different skill setups in 2.4 and possible tree changes, but I think this is still the best way to go. The only thing I would change is the gem setup for really hard single target fights: in those istances I would use (in order of importance, in my opinion): -Blade Vortex -Controlled Destruction -Poison -Added Chaos Damage -Concentrated Effect (for general clearing and easy bosses you should use Spell Echo or Faster Casting, they make the playstyle way smoother. They are also all blue gems, so you don't have to change any colour or so strange things to adapt from one to the other) -Iron Will/Void Manipulation (they are both really strong; Iron Will gives you a lot of damage if you have 350+ STR, but Void Manipulation double dips on your poison damage. VM also boosts just your choas damage, allowing a safer gameplay in physical reflect maps and a smoother one in Physical Reduction ones. The choice is up to you, keep in mind that Iron Will is red, while Void Manipulation is green). Note: I also find running Atziri way easier this patch with this build, using the setup listed above. I feel like I should definitely be able to kill Uber Atziri too. EDIT. I've also noticed in the last few months, many builds appeared on the forum using most of the mechanics I developed in this guide. I don't know if they have actually taken inspiration from my work or not (and that doesn't really matter), but the point is that it proves how good those synergies are. I am pretty happy and proud of it. Have a nice day and stay safe, Exiles. Abyssal Volatile Poet: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2057243 MagicBlaster Deadeye: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2115343 Fortifier Aurabot: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2084465 Last edited by lallalaus#3590 on Aug 23, 2018, 5:53:30 PM Last bumped on Nov 29, 2017, 12:47:13 PM
|
|
|
Table of Contents
Screenshots and videos were recorded in 2.3 but they are still valid in Atlas of Worlds (patch 2.4 and following ones), changes to Blade Vortex didn't really affect the playstyle. - My Gear - Screenshots - Videos (work in progress)
My gear in Prophecy League
This is the final gear I was using in Prophecy league, where I first created this build. I was also using the following jewels and flasks If you wanna check the character, it's called ProphecyNaeH.
My gear in Breach League
This is the gear I'm currently playing in Breach league with. This version of the build uses Cospri's Will and it's a bit more curse reliant. I am also using the following jewels and flasks If you wanna check the character, it's called BreachNaeH.
Screenshots (a bit outdated, made in patch 2.3)
Screenshots were made in patch 2.3 in prophecy league, they are a bit outdated as far as dps goes, since they changed blade vortex mechanics and, with it, the way tooltip is shown. They still provide some useful information about the character. I will update Breach League datas as soon as possible. Blade vortex tooltip DPS, Tabula rasa with Increased AOE support gem, Haste and Flame golem  Blade vortex tooltip DPS, Carcass Jack with Added Chaos support gem, Haste and Flame golem  Decree of Blades tooltip DPS, Haste and Flame golem  Commandment of Blades tooltip DPS, Haste and Flame golem  Defence in h/o, Tabula rasa  Defence in h/o, Carcass Jack 
Level 90 Screenshots
Blade vortex dps in hideout  Defence in hideout 
Videos
End game bosses
The following videos are made by Zabivalkin, you can check his tree and gear at the end of page 29. T16 Pit of the Chimera T16 Lair of the Hydra T16 Forge of the Phoenix T16 Maze of the Minotaur T17 Shaper Finally I managed to use the computer of a friend of mine and we did some gameplay video, the quality is not super great probably and I used a ... program to make them, so I'm forced to keep they copyright in the middle of the video. This sucks, I know, but at least you can now understand and see how the build works. I hope to be able to upload more videos in the future, maybe with better quality, higher level contents and without that annoying stuff. note: In these videos I had the old gear, with Carcass and stuff. Standard Gorge run, nothing crazy, Enfeeble and stuff. Gorge Run gameplay video, level 86 Just few fights in a Jungle valley and the boss fight, Blood magic is obviously not an issue. A bit of Jungle Valley and boss fight, Blood magic Normal Atziri run, I was pretty tired and at the end I stepped over the mirror split phase, dying in a stupid way. Anyway the run was pretty smooth and easy. Atziri run Short video showing the explosion damage can get scaled up to 100% of monster life, using just default attacks in normal Dried Lake. Explosion scaling demonstration I'll try to add some other gameplay video in the future, if I have the chance to or I receive any specific request. Abyssal Volatile Poet: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2057243 MagicBlaster Deadeye: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2115343 Fortifier Aurabot: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2084465 Last edited by lallalaus#3590 on Apr 10, 2017, 4:27:55 AM
|
|
|
For not speaking English your guide is very well made. How about a video of build in action?
Git R Dun!
|
|
|
As I was saying, my computer is pretty crap and i can barely play without laggin super hard. As soon as i find a solution, I'll try to upload one or few videos
Abyssal Volatile Poet: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2057243
MagicBlaster Deadeye: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2115343 Fortifier Aurabot: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2084465 |
|
|
London-Paris , via Madrid ...
|
|
|
Update 14/06.
I recently managed to purchase a 6-link Carcass Jack body armour; this way I can afford using the Added Chaos support gem, while dropping the Inreased AOE support gem. The difference in terms of AOE coverage is hardly noticeable, but I gained 2k tooltip DPS which is not bad. This way I'm also sitting at 5.6k life pool. I also manged to complete the Endgame Lab to get the last two ascendency points, and I took another jewel socket. Gonna update the main post soon; in the next days I'll try to upload some video of the build in action. Abyssal Volatile Poet: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2057243 MagicBlaster Deadeye: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2115343 Fortifier Aurabot: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2084465 Last edited by lallalaus#3590 on Jun 14, 2016, 10:15:16 AM
|
|
" If I understand you short message correctly and you are interested in making some serious discussion: I do kinda agree that in most situations is not actually worth travelling that much around the tree, but I feel like in this build it's not that bad. You pick up everything you need along the way, without really wasting too much; probably you are forced to take a bit too much INT, but it still gives you some mana which is one of the required stats this build need to work properly. You are not really sacrificing much, when you already have at least 5.5k life + MoM and istant leech, you have also enough damage to instakill stuff like Atziri's Vaals as they spawn (most build can achieve this obviously, I know, but I believe it's still something worth to mention, cosindering you can do it so little investment and without playing trap stuff) and clear maps effectively. You also take all the AOE and duration nodes you need, at least 4/5 jewel sockets at lvl 87. Abyssal Volatile Poet: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2057243
MagicBlaster Deadeye: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2115343 Fortifier Aurabot: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2084465 |
|
|
Update 17/6.
Finally managed to upload few gameplay videos, right now I have two maps (Gorge and Jungle Valley) and an Atziri run (this one is a bit longer, need a bit more time to upload, probably gonna need few more hours, wait for it). Hope to add more in the future. Abyssal Volatile Poet: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2057243
MagicBlaster Deadeye: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2115343 Fortifier Aurabot: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2084465 |
|
|
just I started this build. Any tips with leveling? which spells should be used for leveling?
|
|
" I suggest levelling using flame totem + whatever spell you like until level 35-40, when you manage to complete the first passive skill tree I linked (48 points, you have some duration and AOE nodes); at that point you can pick up blade vortex and start using it. You probably are going to need some DEX nodes early on, or find it in your items. You can also level as a melee character, using strong skills like earthquake or whatever you prefer, taking some melee damage node in the starting area (you respec them later, when you transition into blade vortex), if you find them useful. Abyssal Volatile Poet: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2057243 MagicBlaster Deadeye: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2115343 Fortifier Aurabot: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2084465 Last edited by lallalaus#3590 on Jun 19, 2016, 1:26:47 PM
|
|
