[3.0] The Azure Knight (Flurry/Frost Blades/Multi-class/Budget/Crit/Life/Conversion) Shaper/Uber

Hey there, I haven't really played since the vanilla launch version and I was wondering if you would happen to have a scion pathway for leveling up. I appreciate your patience for someone like me who is completely out of the loop in pretty much everything this game has to offer~

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mellonova wrote:

Hey there, I haven't really played since the vanilla launch version and I was wondering if you would happen to have a scion pathway for leveling up. I appreciate your patience for someone like me who is completely out of the loop in pretty much everything this game has to offer~

Do you know how to use pastebin for Path of Building? If yes, here is more or less the tree that I would use: https://pastebin.com/nC3a8dmk
If you don't know how to use Path of Building, don't worry. I would first come out through the attack speed nodes, grab jewel slot, Hired Killer, True Strike, then Assassination, Blood Drinker, Claws of the Magpie and Soul Raker, Revenge of the Hunted and then straight down and left past Duelist as all skill trees go.

For Scion, I would definately take Berserker, and either Assassin or Raider (Raider might be a better choice imo).

If you have any more questions, don't be afraid to ask :)

Hello, thanks for a really solid guide, have read it all.

We are just hours away from the new league and i was just wondering on what you would say the top 3 ascendancy's are for this build (now we have the patch notes).

In reading the whole guide my mind was rather bamboozled by the sheer amount of choice and i changed my mind multiple times throughout the course of the guide. To then confuse things further i begun to read comments, from what i can gather from the information you have given ranking is as follows:

Berserker = Best dps
Pathfinder = Close dps & solid defences
Raider = fastest play stlye & still respectable dps

Then all other ascendancies are pretty much inferior.


I wont be on until 2 hours before the start of the new league however i very much look forward to your response & i hope that you can help me make my mind up on this tough decision!

I'm off to work now so I cannot give you a longer response, I didn't plug in all the changes in PoB yet but since crit multi was nerfed and not things like attack speed/frenzy charges etc., Berserker, Raider and Pathfinder do indeed look strongest at the moment :) Depending on how big the difference is, I might start as a Raider myself.
That or either Caustic Arrow or Dark Pact, with a little help I got a skeleton totemancer build going. Still I think most people would want me to start off with this and update the guide with first hand experience, since it started to gather attention and I don't want to dissapoing anyone :)

Hello and thanks for guide.

i was thinking starting with this and going as berserker.
So what passives i should grap first in tree? Straight to winter sprit and then claws?

I finish work in about 2 hours so I'll double check and add the marauder tree, need to figure out priorities and most important nodes since you won't reach claw nodes f:very fast starting from the bottom left :)

I've been watching this thread for the last few days as my league starter and I am enjoying the amount of the work being put into it. I came here after reading your Death Knight thread (rip) and still wanted to play similar. Seeing as how the Berserker, Raider, and Pathfinder seem to be the best options for ascendencies, where does that leave the occultist and necromancer? Are they only just barely behind or are they completely suboptimal?

I had a long reply to some of the comments written and it got lost due to servers and constant Bad Gateway...

Ok, so here is information to some more common questions:
- I've updated stats section for now, using my (now standard) equipment (rare claws, curse on hit gloves)
- Found a better pathing/dps nodes for Raider/Pathfinder
- Pathfinder lost a lot of power due to flask changes
- I've reached my daily limit for pastebin use, so cannot post any today
- Once my client finishes updating, I won't be replying to comments for a few hours :D
- I've removed Elementalist and Gladiator sections, as I don't think anyone was interested in them
- Overall nerfs affected dps with Abyssus by about 25% (but if you played with Starkonja, you won't see that big dps hit, maybe 15% overall).

Dps power ranking:
Berserker
Scion (yes, it got buffed a lot, I think I posted pastebin already but I improved it later on)
Raider
Assassin
Pathfinder (flask nerfs hit hard)
Occultist
Necromancer (I need to double check it but so far it looks like it lost a lot of dps, don't know where from)

Survivability power ranking:
Occultist
Necromancer (debatable, could be at the top)
Raider
Pathfinder
Assassin
Scion
Berserker

I have to split my reply because for some reason I get an error while trying to post a longer message. Second part:



"Are they only just barely behind or are they completely suboptimal?"
What Occultist lacks in dps, is overcoming with increased survivability. Mapping dps is still quite high anyway.
Necromancer looks like took a massive dps hit (but I might have messed something up in PoB, will come back to it later). Best thing to do for now is to check stats section for comparisons.
Even though I was thinking about starting as Raider, since Occultist is losing in dps battle, I might start with her again due to added survivability (my laptop is shit, lag/freeze kills me quite often, so I need that extra protection).



"Hello and thanks for guide.

i was thinking starting with this and going as berserker.
So what passives i should grap first in tree? Straight to winter sprit and then claws?"
I'd path to Born to Fight, then Constitution, maybe pick Duality/Berserking (but spec out of them later), then straight to Winter Spirit, and possibly cut through Herbalism and go straight up past Acrobatics to pick up Claw wheel nodes. With quest rewards, I'd later fix the pathing to more optimal tree later.
Take this with a grain of salt, as I never played a Berserker, and trip to Claw wheel is quite long so you might find yourself taking a different approach.
I would post a skill tree but poeplanner seems to be down. It won't be much different from Assassin version :)

EDIT: Turns out I cannot post with quote codes... strange.

PSA to all following this build:
According to Path of Building, difference between a 250 dps Wasp Nest and 270 dps Touch of Anquish is very small, depending on gear, but it may vary from 0% to 10% difference (in favour of ToA).

Difference is price, however, is massive - 1-2c for decent roll Wasp's Nest, vs 70c for cheapest Touch of Anquish.

Let Frost Blades Raiders bleed themselves dry :)