[3.2][Slayer/Reave/Blade Flurry] Embrace the Madness [Oni-Goroshi/Budget to End Game]

New Slayer Ascendancy

Many thanks to JYshadow for the picture below

Overall I would say it's a buff for the build. Slayer loses stun immunity but Oni-Goroshi has it with Her Embrace so we don't care !
The only thing that could be considered as a nerf is Bane of Legends being moved after Headsman. This only means that we won't be able to level up with 20% life culling strike and free onslaught anymore. This will make leveling a bit slower but it's not that bad. Life Leech effects are not removed on full life has been moved to Brutal Fervour so we won't be able to have it as soon as before but it's not really a nerf since we still have it.
The buffs are :
Headsmand -> can't take reflected physical damage. Yay ! Now we can stop rerolling reflected physical damage on maps :)
Brutal Fervour -> 30% increased damage while leeching. Nice to have as you'll always be leeching so it's like a perma buff.
Endless Hunger -> immune to bleeding while leeching. We won't have to bother about bleeding during leveling !

This slightly changes the order I suggest you spend your ascendancy points in :
Endless Hunger -> Brutal Fervour -> Headsman -> Bane of Legends
(more details in the Ascendancy section)

Oni-Goroshi drop rate changes :

"

Bex_GGG wrote:

Oni-Goroshi is a whole lot harder to find

Needless to say, people with Oni-Goroshi can level up very quickly. At its 3.1.0 spawn rate, a popular strategy is to farm the Twilight Strand for four hours to get the sword, and then having an easier time with the playthrough.

We're happy with people doing this if they want, but it's going to take longer than four hours. We've both made it spawn a lot less often and also added a high degree of variance to it. It can spawn at lower levels than before, but it can swing up a lot higher than before. It's a very powerful item for levelling, so we both wanted to make it less common and also for its spawning to be less predictable (like other unique items).

Oh, and have fun with the 3.2.0 Uber Hillock fight when you do find him ;-)

Needless to say this was predictable. But that doesn't mean we won't be able to get the sword anymore. People will still be able to farm it and I believe it will still be easier (and cheaper) to get than any other 6 links "end game" weapon in the game.
For those who don't believe in our great lord RNGsus it could still be purchased for a few exalts I think. The build will then be more expensive than before but not so much.

The other changes from 3.2 patch notes don't affect the build.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Oni-Goroshi
Everything you need to know about it (and how to farm it) can be found on the wiki.
It's a nice 6 linked sword that grants a huge buff (Her Embrace) when you ignite an enemy. The only downside is while you have Her Embrace you take 0.5% of your total life and energy shield as fire damage per second per level. That is 45% of your maximum life at level 90.

+ good clear speed
+ amazing single target dps, melts bosses
+ invincible in uber lab
+ budget friendly because you get your 6L for free
+ Slayer ascendancy + Her Embrace makes you immune to almost everything
+ can do all content (99% of it)
+ very high leech will let you facetank a lot of things

- can't do these map mods :
- no leech
- no regen
- 60% less recovery
- elemental reflect
- physical reflect (unless you can equip Sibyl's Lament)

T14 Dark Forest With Elemental Equilibrium and Enfeeble (far less damage and leech than usual)
http://youtu.be/035ZBI6kkUc

Chimera (deathless) (Starkonja's + Grace instead of Abyssus + Hatred)
https://youtu.be/IVwt5zeSaMY
Minotaur (deathless) (Starkonja's + Grace instead of Abyssus + Hatred)
https://youtu.be/l6k9aphSwoc
Phoenix (deathless)
https://youtu.be/E6hpTNoxBqI
Hydra (deathless)
https://youtu.be/3Ymzrkgy0gg
(as you can see in the videos I made many mistakes during the fights because it was only the 3rd or 4th time I was doing guardians. It went really smooth though, the fights were easy and the DPS is good even without Abyssus)

My Gear

Budget Gear

For jewels I decided to go for abyssal jewels with life / increased attack speed if you've dealt a crit recently / blind
Try to hit the same rolls as the one in my belt. At least +30 maximum life, 7% attack speed and 5% blind (damage roll is not relevant because I don't use a staff obviously)
With 3 jewels (1 in belt and 2 in tree) you'll get at least +90 life, 21% attack speed (as the build is crit based it's up almost non stop) and 15% chance to blind on attacks (blind is a great layer of defense)
They're really efficient for the build and cheap. I got mine for 3 - 5 chaos. There might be some more powerful options but they might be much more expensive and I didn't want to go full damage because Blade Flurry already does a lot of dps.

Multi target

Reave -> Increased Critical Strikes -> Multistrike -> Damage on Full Life -> Melee Physical Damage -> Increased AoE

Increased crit is needed to get maximum uptime of Her Embrace. Damage on full life is better than Elemental damage with attacks because you will stack more physical damage this way and will have more dps against bosses. For those who ask : yes GGG confirmed that it works with blood rage even if you ingame life will appear lower than max. You will not benefit of the damage after a bug hit but your life will be full again in a second so it's not a problem. Increased Aoe helps clearing packs faster.

Single target

Blade Flurry -> Increased Critical Strikes -> Damage on Full Life -> Melee Physical Damage -> Maim -> Concentrated Effect

Almost the same as above but with conc effect to get a lot more DPS while login some AoE. As this skill is only needed for bosses AoE isn't really important.

Auras/Support

Herald Of Ash -> Hatred -> Arctic Armor -> Enlighten (lvl 4)

Herald of Ash gives the fire damage needed to ignite enemies and proc Her Embrace. Arctic armor helps balancing the increased physical damage taken from Abyssus. Hatred gives some nice cold damage to freeze and shatters those dangerous packs of Porcupines and other nasty mobs (when you one shot a pack of Porcupines with Abyssus there's a good chance their spikes insta kill you). Enlighten is needed with all these auras to free up some mana (Druidic Rites in the tree helps with the mana too while giving a sweet bonus to your flasks)
Grace can be used instead of Hatred for more survivability.
Budget option : replace Hatred + Enlighten with Enfeeble + Blasphemy

Cast when Damage Taken -> Immortal Call

CwDT + IC is mostly here to proc the huge regen boost from Soul Of Arakaali (I suggest you don't lvl it too much)

Ancestral Protector / Blood Rage / Vaal Grace

Ancestral Protector gives us a lot of damage. Drop it while you're fighting a boss and you'll hit faster. That means you get faster to 6 stages of Blade Flurry and more chances to blind per second. Vaal Grace offers a nice layer of defense because a Slayer doesn't have much except his high leech

Movement

Leap Slam -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify

Leap Slam because the clear speed is better when you can jump pass obstacles and gaps. Fortify is another nice layer of defense. Jump into a pack and you get 20% reduced damage. Don't forget to use it on bosses too.

Build used to kill Guardians at lvl 93
https://pastebin.com/EPySZZ8C

lvl 93 http://poeurl.com/bJPw

- Get Frost Blades at first and use it with Ancestral Call + whatever support gems you want/need
- It's ok to have a single target skill in your swap weapon too
- If you have a Tabula put Ancestral Warchief in it with support gems you get from the vendor
- Reave is level 12, get it as soon as you can and start leveling it
- Upgrade/Add support gems as you level
- Don't invest in critical strikes too early because you won't be able to handle the damage from Her Embrace
- Always try to cap your fire resistance so Her Embrace does not too much damage
- I started the tree with all those useless points you need to take to get to the interesting ones :
http://poeurl.com/bJPU
- Mana and life leech are useless during leveling because your damage is too low get anything from leech. Use warlord's mark instead with blasphemy
- Then get life nodes (your 6L skill in sword will do enough damage to not care about taking damage nodes right now) : http://poeurl.com/bJPV
- Get Blade Flurry at level 28 in act 3
- Get the right colors on you Oni-Goroshi sockets in act 4 when you all the right support gems become available
- Do the lab as soon as possible, with the appropriate life pool and your dps it's really easy
- Now you have to take some damage nodes to get access to the other life nodes : http://poeurl.com/bJPX
- Get more damage and some mana/life leech : http://poeurl.com/bJPY
- From here get the nodes you need : damage if you feel your damage is low, life leech if you feel your damage will give you enough life or if Her Embrace does too much damage, accuracy if it gets under 89%...
- Don't get Vaal Pact before maps it's not needed, get crit nodes in the end when you ascendancy and leech can sustain your life even with high damage from Her Embrace

Alira for mana regen / crit multi / resists

For 3.1 :

Endless Hunger -> Bane of Legends -> Brutal Fervour -> Headsman

For 3.2 :

Endless Hunger -> Brutal Fervour -> Headsman -> Bane of Legends

1)Endless Hunger gives leech and bleeding immunity : great for fast early leveling.
2)Brutal Fervour gives a nice damage boost and more importantly leech effects are not removed on full life. When we get this it's time to increase crit strikes to proc Her Embrace more often !
3)Headsman gives a great damage and aoe bonus AND immunity to reflected physical damage. This is sweet for early mapping. Get this before you reach maps !
4)Bane of Legends is the cherry on the cake. Onslaught for 20 seconds when you kill a rare or unique plus 20% life culling strike for tough bosses. Get it as soon as possible.

Soul of Lunaris for the reduced physical damage taken and increased movement speed while mapping
Soul of Solaris will be great for bosses (particularly if there are no adds)
Soul of Arakaali for the reduced DoTs damage if your leech isn't high enough

Soul of Gruthkul with captured Erebix to reduce attack speed of mobs and bosses

Boots

Attack and Cast speed if you have killed recently (good all around)
Damage penetrates resistances if you haven't killed recently (only good for bosses)

Helmet

Ancestral Protector grants increased attack speed
Blade Flurry increased damage
Blood Rage grants increased attack speed
Or any reduced mana reserved to be able to drop Enlighten

Gloves

Pick one you like because gloves enchants are pretty much useless for this build (and I got spiked gloves so I don't want to overwrite the explicit on them)

Edit 1 : changed Pantheon options because IC won't proc the regen from Arakaali while taking damage from Blood Rage + The Embrace

Edit 2 : added videos of Guardians and PoB link showing the build used in the videos. Edited other sections according to the changes I made for these fights.

Edit 3 : updated the guide for 3.2 now that new Slayer Ascendancy and full patch notes has been revealed.

Edit 4 : fixed a mistake in PoB, pastebin link updated