[3.3] Assassin - Poison Blade Vortex

The main problem I had with BF/ST was how close you needed to get to your enemies to hit and the delay with being poison. This was a huge problem inside incursions full of spitters and other ranged monsters. Having no real leech to speak of and being agility/dodge based, it made for a real rough time. You also needed to hit everything that you wanted to kill since there was no prolif of any kind without using Bino's.

I was determined to make the assassin work though and remembered seeing Engineering Eternity's TS/Barrage assassin. I thought this would fix a lot of the problems I was having being pseudo melee. The switch to TS for clearing made a huge difference in overall feel. For the most part this variant did feel a lot better with the life on hit and mind over matter but I was still having some problems whenever I wasn't hitting things.

I settled on BV because it allows me to stay mobile and still do damage, Vaal BV is also amazing.

Assassin
Noxious Strike > Toxic Delivery > Unstable Infusion > Deadly Infusion

Arakaali/Shakari

Current Level 89 Tree
http://poeurl.com/b0rV

I'll be getting Profane Chemistry with my next 2 points.

I went with Alira, overall the bonuses are just too good.

Uniques:


Bino's for the poison prolif and whirling blades. Bino's won't help a ton for bosses so probably going to use a Heartbreaker to get cull and some extra mana.


I started with a Death's Hand until I could afford a Sin's Rebirth and switched to Breath of the Council.


The poison bonuses are really good and having lesser poison built in for 40% poison chance saves some points or having to get it from jewels. You could definitely use a Belly of the Beast if you needed though.


Everything about this amulet is good.


I didn't want to give up Despair, especially since it's free. The other stats are low, but still useful.


Since we're using whirling blades, we don't really need move speed on boots and getting stunned was a bit of a problem.


The freeze immunity frees up a flask slot for another unique flask. Overall though this is a pretty solid belt for the build. The only thing I'd swap this for is probably a nice stygian with flask mods.

Rares:

I had this helmet laying around from the temple and it actually fit the build quite well. Ideally I'd have a duration enchant but I'm too poor right now.


Only thing you need here is the Warlord's mark, anything else you can get is a bonus.


Kind of a floating space to fill resists/stats.

Settled on a hybrid flask because of needing both mana/life recovery. I also opted for panicked over bubbling because I liked having the burst heal if I was low.


Use a stibnite with freeze/curse immunity if you can't afford yet.


Gives us Perfect Agony, poison duration and it's a diamond flask.


Extra damage/leech.


Last slot is kind of a filler, I used an Overflowing Chalice prior to getting this. Soul Ripper is purely fluff but allows for basically permanent up time on Vaal BV/Clarity.

Watcher's Eye - % damage taken gained as mana. If you can get % mana gained on skill use too, that would be the dream.
Might of the Meek - to get a little more out of scion minors.
Rare: % life, resists, poison damage, poison duration/chance

Vaal BV > Spell Echo > Added Chaos > Deadly Ailments > Vile Toxins > Unbound Ailments/Increased Area

CWDT - Lightning Golem - IC - Blood Rage
Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify - Blood Magic(optional)

Vaal Clarity - Blasphemy - Despair
Spell Totem - Wither - Faster Casting

I didn't level as BV, but the tree is pretty generic until you get the poison nodes. I would level as BV until you get your cruel lab and switch over to poison then.

Atziri (x)
Elder Guardians (x)
T14 Elder (x)
Guardians
Shaper
Uber Elder