Illusionist Archetype

A Meta Skill, with all white links which could potentially be limited in number to keep its power in check (depending on whether similar effects like Cospri's, CoC and PP are). Except for those self-hit builds, this node by itself is mostly defensive/utility, but the two next nodes turn it into a powerful offensive option.

Clearly most effective for builds with channelling skills that are used for damage too, the cooldown reduction of Trump Card makes it valuable for other Trigger setups as well.

Quite self explanatory. frees up a flask slot and makes Trump Card an offensive option for Cast on Crit builds.

Three options to choose from. this selection will mostly be based on the build and how badly it needs defences or damage. The Damage reductions require minimal attention only if used with appropriate builds, but most players will be able to reliably mitigate one form of damage.

Some more Crit for the ascendancy, both for spells and attacks. Keep in mind that PoE2 will have different ascendancies available, so Assassin won't be available as the "default Crit ascendancy" to new players. The Illusionist covers the role, while giving it a more interesting twist.

grants the Meta Skill that is described. the modifiers to projectiles, area and duration only affect skills that already have those tags, it does not add projectiles to skills that do not fire projectiles. It's like a Vaal gem, but with a longer cooldown, no soul requirement, and with any normal skill. For obvious reasons, minions, totems, channelling skills, and skills which already have limited uses can't be used with Grand Finale.

This gem can be used right from the start, which means simplicity is a must. It introduces players to the three projectile modifiers in a "random" way, similarly to Elemental Hit or Wild Strike. From this, players have a preview of the effects of Pierce, Chain and Fork applied to this gem. Any modifier that is added (E.g.: Pierce support) comes AFTER the mark proc.

It is worth noting that, for end game, the first hit should be enough to clear most packs, so the randomness of the selection shouldn't affect builds too much.

As with other "random effect" skill gems, Threshold jewels could be introduced to limit one or more effects, although from my experience with new players, many like the random effect of the gems, and it only becomes a concern for more experienced players trying to juice their build to the fullest.

A bit of an unconventional one, promoting the "big hit" play style. The objective behind this gem is to bring to the table something that's worth waiting for. unlike Earthquake, which rewards lowering the delay, this gem's delay cannot be modified and instead it gains massive damage the more Cast Speed the players have.

Since it is a ground targeted Spell, it does work with Spell Cascade which, if nothing else, leads to quite a show.

Trying to distinguish this from blade vortex and winter orb was quite the challenge, but i think the result has potential. This skill is meant to be a strong single target mid-range spell, a kind of Blade Flurry for spells if you will.

Assuming a full 20 stored blades, it takes 2 seconds for them to drop on the enemy, allowing players to move freely and focus entirely on defence, and half as much time to reload back to full. Cast speed affects both times.

As described, the stored blades "follow" you around. They do not have a duration and will target any enemy inside their range (which, like Herald of Thunder, is affected by Inc. Area). If no enemies are nearby, they'll just hand out with you and be chill. Priority can be set by attacking or casting with the cursor over an area (much like minions), but most of the time non-priority targets should die relatively fast. the blades would also "smartly" choose targets like Volatile Dead to avoid overkill since their attack time is so short.

Supported spells gain a bonus to their base damage which is based on the base damage of your weapons. This is the recurring mod that characterises the archetype. The value is probably a bit low, but its hard to say for certain the effect of this mod on any generic build.

Applies Attack Speed to spells and Cast Speed to attacks. Just to be safe, I've excluded Travel skills from gaining the benefit of the gem to avoid potentially ridiculous situations. I'm not sure whether this support gem would allow Attacks to be supported by spell echo for the bonus cast speed, but my guess and intention would be no. I would like to point out, however, that this gem doesn't only convert "Increased" bonuses, but "More" as well, so challenger charges would grant BIG Cast speed. It's also worth mentioning that action speed does not double-dip, since it's applied after all modifiers are added together.

This gem uses the "two stance" mechanic from Blood and Sand. Smoke Stance protects from attack damage, splitting a single big hit in two independent ones to be managed individually. This improves the reliability of chance based defences, and allows Spell defence to mitigate a portion of Attack damage.
The Mirror Stance grants additional Spell Dodge, good against those Spell heavy fights, and a potentially devastating damage source. Of course, you would still have to take those massive hits to reflect them, but... imagine Shaper slamming himself to death lol.

Last but not least, an Aura to arouse those 4 and a half supports reading this. This aura is effective for Hybrid builds as it is, but can really be capitalised on by building a support around it. All buffs only take the main weapon into account, freeing the second hand for shields.