[2.5] CWC bladefall (crit + poison) CI assassin.

Just killed xoph and tul with this build totally amazing! thank you for creating it totally needs more attention.

I'm using this instead of vertex though.

Actually Vertex doesn't work for Auras, so it's a more cheap version of Heretics. Just for +1 to auras probably. Also it will work for Enlighten +1.

I'm trying this with Trickster (Shadeform and Patient Reaper)

Shadeform is a huge(HUGE!!1!) boost to survival, makes dual wielding much more viable in higher tier maps (though I still prefer a 300ES+ shield for the block and resists), and can potentially save you a ton of points on the tree or a ton of coin, depending on how comfortable you are with your ES after getting that 16% and flat 250 ES from it.

Patient Reaper helps with survival and mana a bit, and gives 40% increased DoT damage. Boring but functional, and not much dependence on RNGeezus, which I like.

Or you could go with Weave the Arcane and not worry about mana sustain and mana leach, EVER. Shit's so good, it let me keep casting a six-linked, 120 mana cost Bladefall as fast as I could click, with only 230 unreserved mana, leach or no leach. Alternatively, keep some leach/regen on gear/tree and actually be able to use Voidbringer gloves or Apep wand with no worries. Oh, and you get a nearly permanent 8% flat damage reduction at the same time.

Just a little history, the build started as a CI Assassin crit BV build. Got sick of the BV mechanics around level 70, switched to self-cast Bladefall. Then switched to Poison+Added Chaos on BF. Clear speed was better, survival was better because I could range, life was not bad.

Then I realized that I didn't need all those crit points, OR the Assassin bonuses. Switched to Trickster, put all those crit points (11) and ES points (12) and Mana/Regen points (4) into Phys/Chaos/Poison/DoT nodes, clear speed went up even more, though tooltip DPS took a nosedive (from about 23k in town, to 4k-5k).

With no power charges from tree or bandits to boost it, I sold my Void Battery for a profit. Tried Divinarius, a good 125% spell damage wand, and Bino's, all with a shield. Div and Wand showed quite a bit more tooltip, but Bino's just plain cleared faster (DoT bonus, and poison prolif) and usually burnt the bosses down faster too, especially if there were adds nearby dying and adding poison stacks.

Then I decided to give CwC/Wither a try. Even better, the Wither cast speed, chaos damage bonus, etc, just makes things pop. Now running Wither/CwC/Bladefall/Poison/Added Chaos/Void Manip, and like how it's working out. Tried swapping out Void Manip for either Controlled Dest. or Conc. Effect. Controlled Destruction gives good tooltip DPS, but doesn't double dip Poison (though it does scale the initial hit). Conc Effect is probably a slightly better pure DPS choice (its more damage bonus double dips with Poison too, and it's bigger than VM's) but the quality of life having 25% bigger Wither/BF AoE makes me favor VM more.

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GOSARN wrote:

Can you add leveling tree with life nodes before CI ?

I'll add the leveling tree tonight.

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pasakosak wrote:

Just killed xoph and tul with this build totally amazing! thank you for creating it totally needs more attention.

I'm using this instead of vertex though.

"

SkiminoKKK wrote:

Actually Vertex doesn't work for Auras, so it's a more cheap version of Heretics. Just for +1 to auras probably. Also it will work for Enlighten +1.

Correct. I'm using The Vertex because it's much cheaper, it has better overall defenses, its +1 gems boosts Discipline, and it also boosts the lvl3 Enlighten to lvl4, which lets me run a herald on top of discipline + blasphemy curse.

I'll add that explanation to the guide.

Great build.

Although I use Alpha's Cowl.

Cannot be frozen is a huge defensive benefit.
8% reserved Mana reduced and +2 to level of socketed Aura gems outperform any
other options I used and tested.



I am considering to respec into Trickster, seems like a viable option.

I actually run a very similar build as an occultist in Legacy

Occultist ascendancy works pretty well for this build :
- power charge generation on crit
- corpse explosion + an Obliteration wand helps a lot for clear
- a very nice -20% chaos resist
- some good ES synergies

It's a bit lacking in term of critical strike, but with better gear that should be OK.

Thanks for the build man, it was a good source of inspiration !

Can you run this with Cospri's Will?

That seems like a big hole in your ES pool, maybe with a life based variant

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ImaPanda wrote:

Can you run this with Cospri's Will?

You'll take a huge hit to your ES.

You can compensate that by running a very high ES shield and gloves/boots, but this will be really expensive, and you will lose a ton of dps from your offhand.

I can't really recommend this, but you're free to try it if you got a spare cospri's laying around.

I am trying this build out. So far so good (still leveling and do not have my 5 link, let alone 6 link as yet).

The two worries I have are leech (we do not seem to have much beyond warlord mark, and with the nerf to AOE, I am not sure that is cutting it).

I also worry about needing uber lab to get full power out of the build.

Is there any easy way to add bleed into the build (to take advantage of the bleed in the tree)?

It just drives me a bit crazy to have so many points wasted going to the 100% more poison damage on crit spot.

But so far so good (though switching to CI is going to be painful as I am not that rich).