[3.25] White Wind Slayer (League Start/Versatile Budget Build)

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White Wind
Imperial Skean
Rune Dagger
Physical Damage: 18-73
Elemental Damage: (160-190) to (280-320)
Critical Strike Chance: 8.00%
Attacks per Second: (1.65-1.72)
Weapon Range: 1.0 metres
Requires Level 66, 95 Dex, 131 Int
30% increased Global Critical Strike Chance
Adds (160-190) to (280-320) Cold Damage
(10-15)% increased Attack Speed
+(1000-1500) to Evasion Rating
+(30-40)% chance to Suppress Spell Damage while your Off Hand is empty
(100-200)% increased Cold Damage while your Off Hand is empty

I've been hyping this item since before 3.19 when I made content for a Berserker based version of Frost Blades (and this version is immensely better) and I've seen it finally get the love it deserves from the masses this league. The drop frequency ensures this item is ALWAYS cheap at every point of every league. The massive flat cold damage pairs better than ever with the new buffed melee skill effectiveness of added damage while a huge chunk of suppression makes fully capping (no "lucky" gimmicks) it easy to manage with little to no investment. Despite disabling the shield slot entirely this actually enables a very tanky shell for the build when combined with Slayer passives. Every other mod on the item is relevant to our build design and just cherries on top.

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Frost Blades is a cold melee attack skill that strikes with increased range, then has the secondary effect of releasing projectiles behind the struck enemies.

Frost Blades will be the early focus of this build. Its biggest value to me is how well it can balance being a monster clear build on a budget while still having respectable single target which normally separates most builds into two fairly clear groups. The additional range and exceptional ability to freeze offers added safety for a melee skill. This build can serve as a great option for a league starter that can transition to an insane budget clear option for farming currency from high density content like Harvest, Expedition and Eldritch Altars. We league start with a focus on 2 handed axes which enable some juicy passives for campaign and early mapping. Just like with White Wind, we benefit greatly from the big flat elemental damage mods available to 2 handed weapons. This build will easily propel you all the way to early red maps on self found rares and a 4 link allowing you to forego any early investment. Next, we can invest in a 6 link, White Wind and a few other cheap uniques to transition to a crit based dagger build and take full advantage of White Wind's super budget efficient modifiers. This version will help finish establishing your map completion and push further into red maps, 2 void stones, and enough atlas passives to get set up for T16 alch and go farm with a targeted content in mind.

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Lightning Strike is a melee strike attack skill that converts physical damage to lightning damage. It has a secondary effect where it launches projectiles that deal damage based on the player character's weapon damage with each swing.

While Frost Blades excels at clear while offering respectable single target, Lightning Strike is effectively the opposite; great single target with respectable clear that can be compensated with gear and passive choices with more investment. It benefits greatly from additional projectiles and pierce so we lean on Frost Blades early and leverage the single target benefits for later content once we have some items and passives established. You're gaining an extra ~50% effectiveness of added damage on the skill itself, the ability to shock and to add Trinity, and the ability to incorporate Point Blank and benefit from the projectile portion of the skill for single target with proper positioning and both portions of the damage hitting the same target thanks to interaction with the "strike skills target 1 additional nearby enemy" mechanic, an interaction exclusive to Lighting Strike. Explained here by CrouchingTuna, this more than doubles your effective damage output. With a bit more investment and optimization this allows us to more easily overcome the other 2 voidstones and further optimize our T16 alch and go farm to start chasing some more expensive options.

Pros:
‣ League start:
This is a sub 4 hour campaign capable build that transitions to an efficient mapper. It's one of the best league start builds available currently.
‣ Budget:
Great throughput for your investment, no need to shop/craft claws and shields progressively. This allows you to focus on improving your other slots and saving for bigger purchases first.
‣ Clear:
This build has some INSANE clear potential for the amount of investment. Single target is respectable enough to clear all non uber content on a budget but the build really shines for fast mapping and making currency.
‣ Zoom:
Whirling Blades and Elusive with strike skills auto targeting/spraying the whole screen is going to give a naturally quick/fluid feel to mapping.
‣ Defensive Assets:
We get full elemental ailment immunity early on starting in Act 5 thanks to Purity of Elements and automated Steelskin for a 0 maintenance survival boost, with 100%+ reduced shock effectiveness to mitigate one shot potential after dropping purity and freeze immunity/reduced chill effectiveness with upgraded Soul of the Brine King. We convert all evasion to armour with hybrid or evasion bases for White Wind setups so we have a very healthy amount of physical mitigation when paired with both Determination and Grace. Fortify, Slayer leech + instant leech, endurance charge stacking and Elusive give us additional defensive layers. Vaal Molten Shell tech to capitalize on armour and provide an on demand boost to survival. Chill and Freeze everything on your screen while mapping which also works quite well on single target thanks to big cold damage and crit.


Cons:
‣ Melee:
You need to stop to deal damage. Full damage output is effectively quadruple if you line up max rage, position correctly for LS, and find a good window to use Berserk and Tincture. Many things we can outright face tank but some of the higher end boss mechanics like Uber Pinnacle fights and the more difficult invitations are going to be naturally much harder for this than a dedicated bosser with high mobility while doing damage. Knowing mechanics is invaluable for this type of content on a budget as melee. Research any higher end content you are unfamiliar with and save yourself some stress.
‣ Socket Pressure and Shield
Due to the nature of White Wind requiring you to not have anything equipped in offhand we're sacrificing 3 sockets and the ability to block, along with everything else that can come from the shield slot.
‣ Single Target Endurance Charges: Prior to Ralakesh's Impatience, we need to manually cast Enduring Cry to generate endurance charges. We're already socket starved so the cast is a bit slow without Urgent Orders.
‣ HC/SSF:
This build is optimizing for SC. While the shell is quite tanky, there are changes that need to be made to more properly approach HC. For SSF, I actually did my tests for efficiency in that environment and the build performed exceptionally well all the way to early reds on 4 link. With that said, further progression is directly tied to a unique weapon so keep that in mind.

Output listed is with proper PoB config. Flasks, Tinctures and guard skills are disabled. Rage is set to 36 but we have respectable rage generation and Berserk is disabled. Power charges set to 0 but we do have some generation for marked targets from gem quality. Elusive effect is set to average. Shock effect for LS set to minimum even though we're getting about double against pinnacle bosses. All pobs are using no more than T3 modifiers, no clusters, no awakened gems and no eldritch implicits. No uniques that cost more than 2c at day 2 prices. All of this is effectively a disclaimer that the numbers listed are budget, honest and not PoB cheese.
All gems and alternatives are covered within the PoBs!
You will NEED the PoB Community Fork.
To import these, go to the "Import/Export Build" tab in PoB then at the bottom find "To import a build, enter URL code here", copy/paste one of the following links, and click import. Additionally you can use the link to view the build in pobb.in.
PLEASE READ NOTES! The leveling PoB includes a full breakdown of everything for every act.

‣ 2H Axe Frost Blades Leveling
Merc Lab level 68, with early mapping respec tree, self found rares + 4 link, 100k unbuffed DPS + >2,5k life:
https://pobb.in/rWRcdClyBxVN

‣ 2H Axe Frost Blades Full Yellow Map Progression
Uber Lab level 86, self found rares + 4 link, >500k unbuffed DPS, >3k life:
https://pobb.in/JQI8TLVOCWxM

‣ White Wind Frost Blades Full Red Map/2 voidstone Progression
Level 95, <1 Divine budget + 6 link, >1m unbuffed DPS (~2m with Tincture, Diamond Flask, and Berserk), >3.5k life, >45k unbuffed armour (>75k with Granite and Jade flasks) and capped chaos resistance:
https://pobb.in/NKzIr4_7Ueso

‣ White Wind Lightning Strike T16 farm/4 voidstone Progression
Level 97, <1 Divine budget + 6 link, >1m unbuffed DPS (~4.5m with proper positioning, Tincture, Diamond Flask, and Berserk), >3.5k life, >45k unbuffed armour (>75k with Granite and Jade flasks) and capped chaos resistance:
https://pobb.in/SaLYV2ynQxxp