[3.12] Memoria's Storm Brand Assassin [All content Deathless, 7mil+ Shaper DPS, budget included]

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Memoria_Gaming wrote:

Hello and welcome to Storm Brand Assassin build guide!

Feel free to join me Twitch or Discord if you have any questions or want to see the build in action.

Discord: https://discord.gg/NgZTgBs
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/Memoria_gaming

Path of Building

Spoiler

https://pastebin.com/8GcjQkDv
You will need PoB Community Fork: https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding

3.12 changes

TLDR;Build is completely fine, minor nerf to crit (rougly 5-10% dmg loss)

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Deadly Infusion Notable now grants +1.5% Critical Strike Chance while at maximum Power Charges (from +2%) and +5% to Critical Strike Multiplier per Power Charge (from +8%).
The small passives which grant Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier now grant +10% to Critical Strike Multiplier (from +15%).

This will decrease our damage, in my PoB it's only 7,7% though so not a major difference. You could remove 4 points and get Throatseeker giving us an increase of 5% in dmg versus 3.11 version and 13% versus 3.12 version.

Conductivity
Curses applied by casting this spell now gain 10 Doom per second.
Now causes Hexed enemies to have 25% chance to be Shocked at all gem levels (from 10% at gem level 1, up to 14% at gem level 20).

This is a buff for use increasing our shock chance across the board.

3.11 Brand changes

Spoiler

Below are the 3.11 changes to brands, most of us saw this as a nerf but what does it really mean?

Storm brand has higher crit chance and higher activation frenquency but slightly less dmg and lower duration. On the tree and cluster jewels we get in total 75% increased duration on the brand to counter the use of the new swiftbrand support gem that decreases the attached duration by 65% and increases activation frenquency by up to 70%. This means our damage while attached is significantly higher than before, this is a huge buff. Downside is that you will need to put out more brands and can't refresh duration with brand recall. We also improve the attachment range by a whopping 160% which really helps with the clear.

Spoiler

Added a new Intelligence Support Gem - Swiftbrand Support: Supports Brand skills, causing them to activate more frequently, but reducing their duration.

Brands have had their detached durations reduced, and these durations are no longer refreshed by Brand Recall.

New Brand playstyles are now supported through new passive skill tree clusters, keystones and support gems, as well as a suite of new Brand skills.

When an enemy dies while a Brand is attached, the Brand will return to its original position (ie. wherever it appeared when it was first cast) or recalled position.

Brand Recall
No longer refreshes the duration of recalled Brands.
Now spends 20% of each recalled brand's mana cost to activate them when they are recalled.
Now has a cooldown of 4 seconds (from 3).
Now gains up to 40% increased cooldown recovery speed at gem level 6 (from 50%).

Storm Brand
Now has a base critical strike chance of 6% (from 5.5%).
Now has an added Damage effectiveness of 30% (from 40%).
Now activates every 0.5 seconds while attached (from 0.6 seconds)
Now has a detached duration of 6 seconds (from 10).

Videos
Deathless Sirus A8: https://youtu.be/vaNQ2hrWlko
T16 Forge of the Phoenix: https://youtu.be/KFt1jxhwWII

3.11 Content Cleared
Awakener Lvl 8 deathless
Harvest Boss deathless
Uber elder deathless

Update log

Spoiler

2020-04-14: Added budget gear section

Pros/Cons

Pros

+ High clearspeed
+ High single target (6mil Sirus DPS)
+ Easy to scale with power charges
+ Void battery is cheap, no other necessary uniques & easy craft


Cons

- Brands are not for everyone
- Even though our leech/ES + life recovery is high it's not recomended to go HC with life version.
- Min-maxing will be expensive (badge of brotherhood etc)



How the build works

Spoiler

Stacking power charges and scale it with our gear. Storm brand is both clear and single target and we use Orb of Storms for additional clear as well as to shock since we use Elemental Focus on Storm brand.

My version is pretty expensive but Storm brand is really good at low budget too and I will update with a budget section later on.

Offense/Defence

Spoiler

Offense
100% crit chance, 400+% crit multi, 6mil Sirus DPS.

Stacking power charges (I have 10) and increase damage based on this. In total we can get: 340% increased spell dmg (Void battery 500% total - 160%), 20-140 flat added lightning on rings, 80% crit multi, 2% crit chance from ascendancy, +80% dmg, +50% crit multi, +80% crit chance (Disciple of the forbidden wheel)

4x grand design, 4x Brand loyalty + Runesmith = 50% increased dmg taken on enemies with 2 brands attached. 160% increased attachment rate for clear.

Badge of the brotherhood (optional) gives us 10 frenzy charges which adds 40% dmg/atk speed/cast speed

Defence
Storm Drinker - Lightning dmg leeched as ES
Doryani's Lesson - Elemental dmg leeched as Life
Watcher's Eye - 1,5% lightning leeched as ES
Elusive - Up to 30% dodge attacks/spells with badge of the brotherhood
Cinderswallow Urn - Insane recovery while mapping
Corrupted Soul - 20% of Life as Extra ES (Additional 10% Life as extra ES on chest enchant)

Ascendancy & Pantheon

Spoiler

Ascendancy

Opportunistic -> Mistwalker -> Unstable Infusion -> Deadly Infusion

Bandits
Help Alira for crit multi and res

Pantheons
Major - Brine King
Minor - Ryslatha for bosses, Shakari or Gruthkul for clear

Gear

Spoiler

Weapon

Helm

Mods to look for on rare
Life
Res
+1 to Maximum Power Charge
%# elemental damage
Area of effect + Innervate for 6L Orb of Storms
Enchant: Storm brand res pen


Body Armour

Other options
Rare chest with Life + Res

Gloves

Mods to look for
Life
Res
Spell Damage
Culling Strike
Unnerve

Belt

Mods to look for
Life
Res
Lightning/ele dmg (not to attacks, won't work)
Crit chance against shocked enemies

Boots

Mods to look for
Life
Res
MS
Tailwind

Amulet

Other Options
Rare with Life, ES, resist, Crit strike/multi, lightning dmg, + to lightning/int gems. Without the badge you can drop Frenzy on chest.

Rings

Mods to look for
Life
Res
Conductivity
Added flat lightning dmg per power charge
Crit multi
Lightning damage


Jewels
Life
Crit multi
Dex
Spell/area/lightning dmg

Glorious Vanity - Place either below Pain attunement or Mind over Matter. Gives Corrupted Soul (20% of max life as extra ES + 50% of non-chaos damage taken bypasses ES). This let's us leech ES and life at the same time.

Cluster Jewels
Large: Storm Drinker, Doryani's Lesson, Disorienting display and any other Elemental/lightning damage mod
Medium: Brand loyalty + Grand design
Small: Chaos res with anti-venom if needed, else Life with Brittle orSublime Sensation

Flasks

Budget Gear Shopping List - From 50C all gear

Spoiler

Helmet: 10c Storm brand enchant (Reroll life + res in harvest/fossil/essence - https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/BgmG9lWT8
Wands: 5c each - https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/KYG0pVDi5
Boots: 10c - https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/qKZmpWCg
Gloves: 6c - https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/pYOwYZS0
Rings: 4c each - https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/eG7eJ64IL
Belt: 7c - https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/v467PDSE
Amulet: 5c - https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/Y9EMK9XcY
6L Body Armour: 25c - https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/9dKmRvKTK
Large Cluster jewel: 1c - https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/z954gpLt4
Medium Cluster jewel: 10c Grand design - https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/wl8JwzQib

Upgrade order of importance: Void Battery x2 -> More crit/dmg on amulet + rings -> Curse on ring -> Medium cluster with brand loyalty + grand design -> Glorious Vanity -> Explode Chest -> +1 power charge helmet -> dmg per power charge rings

Gems and Links

Spoiler

Storm Brand - Swift brand Support - Controlled Destruction - Concentrated Effect Elemental Focus - Inspiration

Other options: Added Lightning damage - Lightning Penetration instead of Elemental Focus and Inspiration. With Elemental focus we need to shock with Orb of Storms instead.


Orb of Storms - Controlled Destruction - Added lightning damage - Chain

Wave of Conviction - Cast when Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Vaal Grace

If you don't have conductivity on ring, replace Vaal grace Conductivity

Enlighten lvl 3 - Wrath - Herald of Thunder

Flame Dash - Arcane Surge - Brand recall - Second Wind

Another options is to link lvl 20 Curse on hit - Wave of Conviction - Frostbite

Budget Shopping List Coming soon

Leveling Section

Spoiler

For Talent Points Allocation, check leveling trees in POB: https://pastebin.com/8LXNuMZL

Leveling Gear
Tabula Rasa, Goldrim, Lochtonial Caress, Wanderlust, Le Heup of all, Lifesprig, Axiom Perpeteum, Sacrificial Heart, Karui Ward (MS only)

Rare wand with spell/elemental damage, spell crit/multi, added flat dmg.

Leveling Gem Links
Start with Freezing Pulse - Onslaught - Added Lightning Damage
If you have tabula, get Added Cold damage and Arcane Surge.

At lvl 12: Storm Brand - Added Lightning Damage - Added Cold Damage - Onslaught - Arcane Surge - Faster Casting

At league start we'll get Storm brand at Act 3 Siosa, use Freezing pulse or any other spell of your choice.

At lvl 18: Storm Brand - Elemental Focus - Controlled Destruction - Added Lightning Damage - Faster Casting - Onslaught (Can be moved to Orb of storms instead)

At lvl 21 Get 4L Lightning spire as well for additional single-target damage: Lightning Spire Trap - Added Lightning Damage - Trap and Mine Damage - Controlled Destruction

Remember to get Herald of Thunder.

In Act 3 (Around lvl 24) you can get Spellslinger and get Arc + Ball lightning:
Ball Lightning - Elemental Focus - Spellslinger - Added Lightning Damage
Arc - Increased Critical Strikes - Spellslinger - Added Lightning Damage
Can be triggered with normal attacks or Frenzy linked to Faster Attacks.

Storm brand is an option if you prefer not to use Spellslinger. Swap out Faster Casting & Onslaught for Lightning pen & Conc effect

My other build guides
Herald of Ice BV Autobomber Assassin https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2899679
Storm Brand Archmage Trickster https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2803112
Icicle Mines Saboteur https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2638570
Scourge Arrow Slayer https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2525823
Blade Vortex Explode Chieftain: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2743315
Wintertide/Vortex Trickster: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2887634