Post by Admin on Jan 18, 2019 2:05:59 GMT
PoE 3.5 Triple Herald Impalor Builds
This develop is based on Shattering / Lancing Steel as most important ability. I use Champion to enhance the harm of enemies taken as a lot as you possibly can and make use of the Herald of Purity to help my damage. With the organic tankyness of Champion this create really should be actually strong!
Pros & Cons:
+ High dps (shotgun bosses)
+ Very high movement speed with whirling blades
+ Strong clear speed (feels a bit like Frost Blades)
+ Strong defence as Champion
+ Budget friendly (most important uniques 2x Beltimber & Haemophilia gloves you get all together for about 5chaos. For my endgame gear I invested about 260 to 300 chaos orbs... a bit more than two exalted.)
+ fast and fun playstyle
- needs some uniques to work
- it is hard to reach more life than 6k
Ascendancy:
1) Master of Metal
2) Conqueror
3) Worthy Foe
4) Inspirational
Bandits:
Kill them all for two extra passive points.
Pantheon:
Soul of Solaris
Soul of Tukohama
Leveling Guide:
In generell look for following stats on gear:
- Life
- Resistances
- Damage to attacks
- Life / Mana gained on the hit
- Armor / Evasion
On the weapon look for:
- High physical damage
- High attack speed
Try to get skill setups to show in the guide above as soon as possible.
Here a few uniques which might help you while leveling: (required level)
- Tabula Rasa (1)
- Wanderlust (4)
- Thief's Torment (30)
- The Nomad (48, also our endgame belt)
- Oni-Goroshi (1, can be your leveling weapon which is also viable for endgame)
- The story of the Vaal (35)
- Terminus Est (51)
Level 1 to 15
Skills:
Molten Strike + Ancestral Call + Onslaught
or
Shattering Steel + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Onslaught
War Banner
Ancestral Protector
Leap Slam
Skill Tree lvl 15 - tinyurl.com/ybfhnmho
Level 16 to 30:
Skills:
Molten Strike + Ancestral Call + Onslaught + Faster Attacks / Added ... Damage Support
Dread Banner
Herald of Agony
Herald of Purity
Ancestral Protector
Leap Slam / whirling blades + Faster Attacks
Skill Tree lvl 30 - tinyurl.com/y767gwvu
Level 31 to 45:
Skills:
Shattering Steel > Greater Multiple Projectiles > Vicious Projectiles > Maim > Slower Projectiles
(Normally at this level you should have a four linked item. Depending on the colors you need to find a good skill setup. I would not invest anything into coloring early on)
Herald of Agony
Herald of Purity
Dread Banner
Ancestral Protector
Leap Slam / Whirring Blades + Faster Attacks + Fortify
CWDT + Immortal Call + Enfeeble
Skill Tree Level 45 - tinyurl.com/y9f7bn8o
Level 46 to 60:
More or less just improve your gear with the items you find on the way. After act 5 you will need to work on your resistances because of the debuff you get (-30% all res). I normally try to avoid to balance my whole gear while leveling and use Purity of Elements (instead of one Herald) and also a Bismuth Flask. With level 53 you can use Terminus Est. I would recommend to buy it because it will help you a lot. Somewhere between level 60-65, I would recommend to make the second lab and go for "Conquerer".
Skill Tree lvl 60 - tinyurl.com/yalgztu5
Level 61 to 75:
Normally at this level, I would recommend improving your gear, skill setups, and level up. When I reach the blood aqueduct I always farm a few levels to get stronger. Before I do the final boss I normally go shopping and spend the currency I found while leveling mainly for rare gear with high life and resistances rolls to cap my resistances. Then I do the third labyrinth to get "Worthy Foe". And after that with level 72 I killed Kitava and started mapping. Depending on who experienced you are and how good your gear is you can do the lab earlier.
Skill Tree level 72 - tinyurl.com/ya2agbyf
Video:
Triple Herald Impalor
Shattering Steel -
PoB Link:pastebin.com/NMjN8ZTn
Skill Tree:tinyurl.com/yaehf49s
PoE 3.5 Rusty Poisonous Steel and Herald of Agony Pathfinder Builds
Lancing Steel is usually a projectiles talent, which fires a superb number of projectiles per attack. The theory is: escalating number of projectiles to shotgun bosses while keeping superior clear speed with pierce. Poison with Shotgunning + Attack Speed + Pathfinder means a greater variety of poison application, increasing harm immensely.
Pros & Cons:
+ None to minimum performance impact on low-end computers.
+ Most forgiving on bad connection with lag spikes.
+ Hit & run build, encouraging fast and enjoyable pace while clearing.
+ Have all the different kind of nodes available, allow picking best and most efficient ones.
+ 100% uptime for flasks.
+ Cheap to moderate unique items. With upgrade potential for rich guys.
+ Immune to reflect at endgame (Almost!)
+ Can go Dual curse.
- Main defense is RNG based.
- Need more Int & Strength via items.
- Poison damage is hard to scale at early levels.
- Require constant upgrade to both weapons during leveling.
- Knowing when to swap supports can be elusive.
- Actual dps never show on the character sheet, it needs PoB.
Planned Key active skills:
Lancing Steel/Herald of Agony/Herald of Purity/Despair/Whirling Blades/Summon Ice Golem/Wither/Vaal Blight
Support gems priority for Projectiles Scaling (Early starting tree):
Slower projectile
Vicious Projectiles
Pierce (replaced once we get the pierce node from the tree)
Maim
Damage on Full life
Support gems priority for Projectiles+Poison Scaling (mid game):
Vicious Projectiles
Void Manipulation
Lesser Poison (Replaced once we get Fatal Toxins wheel from the tree)
Maim (Replaced as we get 'Innsbury Edge' for the weapon)
Damage on Full life
Added Chaos damage (Get it as the 5th link, or even 4th if you are confident and have the currency to buy)
Support gems priority for Endgame pure Poison:
Vicious Projectiles (Will be replaced once we stack so many poisons with good duration and attack speed plenty from skill becomes hindering)
Void Manipulation
Added Chaos damage
Damage on Full life
Unbound Ailments
Vile toxins
Deadly Ailments (Replace Damage on Full life)
Skill Tree:
+1 million dps Tree: pastebin.com/67pf16dP
23 Points: Finesse-Aspect of the Panther-weapon Artistry-Toxic Strike Wheel-Heart of Oak-Primal Spirit-Ballistic Mastery.
43 Points: Herbalism-Brutal Blade-Swagger-Fatal Toxin Wheel-Piercing Shot
== Now you can replace pierce for more important supports ==
70 points: Acrobatic-phase Acrobatic-Aucity-Dirty Techniques wheel-Ambidexterity-Golem's Blood.
== Around this point we will be doing Cruel lab and getting "Nature's reprisal" which will help immensely to sustain Virulence charges, and start shaping the build into real poison stacking.
== Gradually, Projectiles hits will be insignificant, and we can switch to more ailment/poison supports.
== Once we have enough currency, we should get "Spreading Rot" and slam it in the slot above Blood Drinker on Top Right of tree. It's great debuff for bosses as long as we use Vaal Blight.
From here, we go Fatal Blade, and the rest of life and crit nodes, and add some sockets if we have good jewels. Adding accuracy is also an option to counter all the dropping of accuracy in late levels.
Pantheon:
Major: Soul of Lunaris
Minor: Soul of Gruthkul
Alternative:
Minor: Soul of Yugul (If you still do a significant portion of your damage as physical in early/mid game)
Video:
T12:
T16 (Hydra):
T16 Minotaur:
PoB Link:pastebin.com/67pf16dP
Skill Tree:tinyurl.com/y9fqhfpm
PoE 3.5 Vulpix0r's Shattering Steel Champion Builds
Pros & Cons:
+ Superb single target damage with the shotgun effect
+ Cheap and possible to start with no gear fresh in league
+ Sword based so lots of nice uniques to bring you even to read maps
+ Gear is cheap
+ Decent clear speed
- Heavily dependant on positioning
- Trying to hit more than 6k+ life is hard
- You need to be on your feet during syndicate fights
- Build feels weak until you get Greater Multiple Projectiles
- Unable to use a lot of awesome flasks like Taste of Hate, Atziri's Promise, etc.
Playstyle:
This skill thrives on projectiles. More projectiles, the better. Beat point blank range, fire away at the tough monsters. Make sure to manage your flasks properly, and enjoy the massive number of projectiles. Do note that shotgun is a thing for this build.
Leveling Guide:
Keep your Chance to Bleed gem after killing Hillock, then level with whatever skill you want like Molten Strike or Cleave, grab Maim as well. Remember to grab Lesser Multiple Projectiles and War Banner. After hitting Merveil’s cave, you will get access to Shattering Steel. At this point, your links will be:
Shattering Steel + Maim + Chance to Bleed.
Reached act 2? Great! Grab Herald of Purity for a nice damage boost, Vicious Projectiles, and Blood Rage. Enduring Cry if you can afford it but it’s not a priority. You should try to get a 4L with 3 green sockets and 1 red, for this combination:
Shattering Steel + Vicious Projectiles + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Chance to Bleed
What your tree should roughly look like:https://tinyurl.com/yamyfp7h
In act 3 now? Grab Haste or Grace depending on your preference, or just get both and level them until you have decided which you like. We will also be grabbing Dread Banner. If you don’t mind doing the Library quest in the Imperial Garden, you can grab Fork to level. If you can afford the intelligence, purchase Increased Critical Strikes to level, Blood Magic to connect to your leap slam.
Finally in act 4? Grab whatever golem you want, it doesn’t matter as we’re not going to use one since they are pretty stupid. Once you’re done killing Kaom and Daresso, grab Brutality ASAP and replace Lesser Multiple with Greater Multiple Projectiles. The links you have at this point should be:
Shattering Steel + Brutality + Vicious Projectiles + Greater Multiple Projectiles
What your tree should roughly look like at this point: tinyurl.com/y82wkljr
That’s all for the guide for the crucial gems. The above setup should work flawlessly.
Gems Link:
Main
Before getting dual Beltimbers:
Shattering Steel + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Brutality + Maim + Vicious Projectiles + Fork
If you’re on a 5L, leave Fork out.
After getting dual Beltimbers:
Shattering Steel + Brutality + Maim + Vicious Projectiles + Fork + Increased Critical Strikes
Do note that Fork for some reason increases your single target damage due to the nature of the shotgun-ny nature of Shattering Steel.
Herald and Aura
Grace or Haste, Herald of Purity
We will be running Grace (or haste for more speed), it’s a great way to boost your evasion as we’re depending on both our armour and evasion to survive, along with our granite flask to mitigate the big Phys hits.
Herald of Purity is the only one worth running that will give us additional flat physical damage.
Movement
Leap Slam + Blood Magic + Fortify + Faster Attacks
Nothing special, just use whatever you like, even Whirling Blade.
Utility
Blood Rage + Dread Banner + Enduring Cry
I think it’s quite straight forward, blood rage for frenzy charges and attack speed, the dread banner for that sweet impale, enduring cry to generate endurance charges.
Cast when Damage Taken + Immortal Call + Enfeeble
Ancestral Warchief + Melee Physical Damage + Culling Strike
PoB Link:pastebin.com/FHA99sVM
Skill Tree:tinyurl.com/yagocu4y
Video:
16 Minotaur Run:
PoE 3.5 Steel Embrace Pure physical Budget Friendly
Builds
The damage shown in path of creating is per projectile so multiply it by your projectile count. With my current create I have 10 projectiles having a Shaper DPS of ~2million. With the new concentrate mods I use Shock nearby enemies for four seconds on a ring to shock enemies.
Pros & Cons:
+ High dps Due to shotgunning (all projectiles hitting the same target)
+ High mobility speed with Leap Slam
+ Good Clear speed
+ High defense with champion + vaal grace. (40,000+ Armor)
+ Budget friendly
+ Unique Play style getting up close to shotgun the closer the better
+ Very high leech (2500/s)
- Struggles With life plateauing at around 5.5-6k at level 90
- Need to be super close (read inside) bosses to do max DPS
Ascendancy:
1) Conqueror
2) Worthy Foe
3) Inspirational
4) Master of Metal
Bandits:
Alira Makes gear cheaper (+15 all res 20% crit muiltiplier 5mana regen)
but, Kill them all for two extra passive points is better overall.
Pantheon:
Soul of Arakaali (life leach after Immortal Call)
Soul of Tukohama
Skills:
Main Attack:
Shattering Steel - Vicious Projectiles - Brutality - Maim - Slower Projectiles - Chance to Bleed
You could also use Power charge on critical or pierce support.
Pierce support smooths out mapping but bleed support is slightly more damage.
There is the debate on if fork support double shotguns and could be added instead of pierce/bleed support
Mobility Skill:
Leap Slam + Faster Attacks - Fortify
Power Charge Generation
Cast When Damage Taken + Orb of Storm + Power Charge on Critical + increased Critical strike chance
Immortal Call Setup
level 2-4 Cast When Damage Taken + level 4 Immortal Call + Molten Shell / increased Duration
Mana Reserved Skills:
Herald of Purity
Dread Banner
For Defense use Vaal Grace OR Purity of Ice (for shaper/Elder fights)
For general mapping use Vaal Haste.
Blasphemy - enfeeble
Other Buffs:
Ancestral Protector
Blood Rage
Ice Golem
Map Mods:
Auto Skip:
If you see these reroll or be sad when it's already corrupted
- Reflect Physical
- Cannot Leech
Undesirable:
These mods are doable but they can significantly slow down or make the map more dangerous for this build
- Reduced Physical Damage taken %
- Reduced critical strike damage taken
- Added damage as X element (some bosses might 1shot)
- the reduced life recovery rate
- Cannot Taunt
Video:
Regular Red Map
Maze of the Minotaur
Lair of the Hydra
Forge of the Pheonix
Shaper
PoB Link:pastebin.com/WNf5Kxqv
Skill Tree:tinyurl.com/yclrakgn
PoE 3.5 Shattering Steel pure physical Builds
When GGG announced sword/axe abilities I believed they had been gonna be weak due to the fact I saw that they both lack melee tag, so I decided to skip them and begin with CwC Winter Orb/Ice Spear. It was only on the second char that I decided to attempt it even though leveling and noticed that Shattering Steel can shotgun. This made me attempt and make a creature with it. Just after testing different help gems on common I believed Pierce performs best with it, so went with Deadeye to have pierced from ascendancy. I wanted to benefit from new Impale mechanic so attempted to danger and go full Phys although phys->ele and phys+added as ele are superior for a long time already. It turned out pretty good. Uber Elder doable on 3ex spending budget (assuming you are going to 6link chest from fuse/jew drops)
Pros & Cons:
+ cheap to start
+ high clear speed, can't clear 1+ screens but super fast movement
+ can shotgun single target which means following in my setup that fires 10 projectiles:
+ 30 life gain on hit base from ascendancy = 300 life gain per skill use, with around 5 attacks per second feels like an old Vaal pact,
+ Impale massacre - each hit has 62 percent chance to impale and since projectiles fire in sequence, it means that if 1st projectile applies to impale effect, the next 5 will proc the damage in addition to having a chance applying another impale effect.
+ fast gain of the banner stack on the single target. Dread Banner gains stacks for each enemy impaled with a cap of 5 per second, Shattering Steel reaches this cap easily on a single target which means you can have fully stacked banned after 10 seconds on a fight like Uber Elder.
- to achieve max single target you are required to stand on a targets face ensuring that all projectiles are hitting him
- fortification encounter door are a pain in the ass if you are to close you deal no damage but if you move to far away the only portion of projectiles hit and doors are tough
- setup with Beltimbers requires you to use movement skill every 4 seconds, doesn't bother me at all, but some people might not like it
- can't run Phys reflect maps
Ascendancy:
First, you want to take Tailwind, you always take Tailwind on a Deadeye, it's that good.
Then you have a choice on Cruel, either you go for bleed nodes or pierce nodes. If you go for piercing you can swap out the pierce gem for something different, and if you go for bleed you should have hemophilia gloves to take advantage of bleedsplosion. I personally went with bleed nodes.
Merc lab you take what you didn't in the previous choice. Uber is when you take Fast and Deadly, at this level your accuracy should be dropping to ~90% so doubling it will probably bring it to 95%
Bandits:
Killing all is probably the best, but I'm stuck with Alira because I don't want to change a lot of gear to cap my resses. You also go Oak if you really want.
Gem Setup:
Main skill (chest):
Shattering Steel -> Chance to Bleed -> Brutality -> Vicious Projectiles -> Maim -> Increased Critical Damage
If you have a chest with supported by level 1 maim you add Slower Projectiles support.
If you don't have Pierce nodes from ascendancy you run with Pierce support instead of Vicious Projectiles
Cast When Damage Taken setup (gloves/helmet/boots):
Cast When Damage Taken(lvl1) -> Immortal Call(lvl3) -> Blood Rage(max lvl)-> Increased Duration(max lvl)
Vaal Double Strike steup (gloves/helmet/boots):
Vaal Double Strike -> Bloodlust -> Brutality -> Melee Physical Damage
Curse:
Vulnerability -> Blasphemy
Banner:
Dread Banner
Movement skill:
Leap Slam -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify
Totem setup:
Ancestral Protector -> Multiple Totems -> Culling Strike
Video:
T16 Minotaur map
T16 Defiled Cathedral from Zana
Shaper
Uber Elder
PoB Link:pastebin.com/9pFqq3tZ
Skill Tree:tinyurl.com/yabnqxn4
This develop is based on Shattering / Lancing Steel as most important ability. I use Champion to enhance the harm of enemies taken as a lot as you possibly can and make use of the Herald of Purity to help my damage. With the organic tankyness of Champion this create really should be actually strong!
Pros & Cons:
+ High dps (shotgun bosses)
+ Very high movement speed with whirling blades
+ Strong clear speed (feels a bit like Frost Blades)
+ Strong defence as Champion
+ Budget friendly (most important uniques 2x Beltimber & Haemophilia gloves you get all together for about 5chaos. For my endgame gear I invested about 260 to 300 chaos orbs... a bit more than two exalted.)
+ fast and fun playstyle
- needs some uniques to work
- it is hard to reach more life than 6k
Ascendancy:
1) Master of Metal
2) Conqueror
3) Worthy Foe
4) Inspirational
Bandits:
Kill them all for two extra passive points.
Pantheon:
Soul of Solaris
Soul of Tukohama
Leveling Guide:
In generell look for following stats on gear:
- Life
- Resistances
- Damage to attacks
- Life / Mana gained on the hit
- Armor / Evasion
On the weapon look for:
- High physical damage
- High attack speed
Try to get skill setups to show in the guide above as soon as possible.
Here a few uniques which might help you while leveling: (required level)
- Tabula Rasa (1)
- Wanderlust (4)
- Thief's Torment (30)
- The Nomad (48, also our endgame belt)
- Oni-Goroshi (1, can be your leveling weapon which is also viable for endgame)
- The story of the Vaal (35)
- Terminus Est (51)
Level 1 to 15
Skills:
Molten Strike + Ancestral Call + Onslaught
or
Shattering Steel + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Onslaught
War Banner
Ancestral Protector
Leap Slam
Skill Tree lvl 15 - tinyurl.com/ybfhnmho
Level 16 to 30:
Skills:
Molten Strike + Ancestral Call + Onslaught + Faster Attacks / Added ... Damage Support
Dread Banner
Herald of Agony
Herald of Purity
Ancestral Protector
Leap Slam / whirling blades + Faster Attacks
Skill Tree lvl 30 - tinyurl.com/y767gwvu
Level 31 to 45:
Skills:
Shattering Steel > Greater Multiple Projectiles > Vicious Projectiles > Maim > Slower Projectiles
(Normally at this level you should have a four linked item. Depending on the colors you need to find a good skill setup. I would not invest anything into coloring early on)
Herald of Agony
Herald of Purity
Dread Banner
Ancestral Protector
Leap Slam / Whirring Blades + Faster Attacks + Fortify
CWDT + Immortal Call + Enfeeble
Skill Tree Level 45 - tinyurl.com/y9f7bn8o
Level 46 to 60:
More or less just improve your gear with the items you find on the way. After act 5 you will need to work on your resistances because of the debuff you get (-30% all res). I normally try to avoid to balance my whole gear while leveling and use Purity of Elements (instead of one Herald) and also a Bismuth Flask. With level 53 you can use Terminus Est. I would recommend to buy it because it will help you a lot. Somewhere between level 60-65, I would recommend to make the second lab and go for "Conquerer".
Skill Tree lvl 60 - tinyurl.com/yalgztu5
Level 61 to 75:
Normally at this level, I would recommend improving your gear, skill setups, and level up. When I reach the blood aqueduct I always farm a few levels to get stronger. Before I do the final boss I normally go shopping and spend the currency I found while leveling mainly for rare gear with high life and resistances rolls to cap my resistances. Then I do the third labyrinth to get "Worthy Foe". And after that with level 72 I killed Kitava and started mapping. Depending on who experienced you are and how good your gear is you can do the lab earlier.
Skill Tree level 72 - tinyurl.com/ya2agbyf
Video:
Triple Herald Impalor
Shattering Steel -
PoB Link:pastebin.com/NMjN8ZTn
Skill Tree:tinyurl.com/yaehf49s
PoE 3.5 Rusty Poisonous Steel and Herald of Agony Pathfinder Builds
Lancing Steel is usually a projectiles talent, which fires a superb number of projectiles per attack. The theory is: escalating number of projectiles to shotgun bosses while keeping superior clear speed with pierce. Poison with Shotgunning + Attack Speed + Pathfinder means a greater variety of poison application, increasing harm immensely.
Pros & Cons:
+ None to minimum performance impact on low-end computers.
+ Most forgiving on bad connection with lag spikes.
+ Hit & run build, encouraging fast and enjoyable pace while clearing.
+ Have all the different kind of nodes available, allow picking best and most efficient ones.
+ 100% uptime for flasks.
+ Cheap to moderate unique items. With upgrade potential for rich guys.
+ Immune to reflect at endgame (Almost!)
+ Can go Dual curse.
- Main defense is RNG based.
- Need more Int & Strength via items.
- Poison damage is hard to scale at early levels.
- Require constant upgrade to both weapons during leveling.
- Knowing when to swap supports can be elusive.
- Actual dps never show on the character sheet, it needs PoB.
Planned Key active skills:
Lancing Steel/Herald of Agony/Herald of Purity/Despair/Whirling Blades/Summon Ice Golem/Wither/Vaal Blight
Support gems priority for Projectiles Scaling (Early starting tree):
Slower projectile
Vicious Projectiles
Pierce (replaced once we get the pierce node from the tree)
Maim
Damage on Full life
Support gems priority for Projectiles+Poison Scaling (mid game):
Vicious Projectiles
Void Manipulation
Lesser Poison (Replaced once we get Fatal Toxins wheel from the tree)
Maim (Replaced as we get 'Innsbury Edge' for the weapon)
Damage on Full life
Added Chaos damage (Get it as the 5th link, or even 4th if you are confident and have the currency to buy)
Support gems priority for Endgame pure Poison:
Vicious Projectiles (Will be replaced once we stack so many poisons with good duration and attack speed plenty from skill becomes hindering)
Void Manipulation
Added Chaos damage
Damage on Full life
Unbound Ailments
Vile toxins
Deadly Ailments (Replace Damage on Full life)
Skill Tree:
+1 million dps Tree: pastebin.com/67pf16dP
23 Points: Finesse-Aspect of the Panther-weapon Artistry-Toxic Strike Wheel-Heart of Oak-Primal Spirit-Ballistic Mastery.
43 Points: Herbalism-Brutal Blade-Swagger-Fatal Toxin Wheel-Piercing Shot
== Now you can replace pierce for more important supports ==
70 points: Acrobatic-phase Acrobatic-Aucity-Dirty Techniques wheel-Ambidexterity-Golem's Blood.
== Around this point we will be doing Cruel lab and getting "Nature's reprisal" which will help immensely to sustain Virulence charges, and start shaping the build into real poison stacking.
== Gradually, Projectiles hits will be insignificant, and we can switch to more ailment/poison supports.
== Once we have enough currency, we should get "Spreading Rot" and slam it in the slot above Blood Drinker on Top Right of tree. It's great debuff for bosses as long as we use Vaal Blight.
From here, we go Fatal Blade, and the rest of life and crit nodes, and add some sockets if we have good jewels. Adding accuracy is also an option to counter all the dropping of accuracy in late levels.
Pantheon:
Major: Soul of Lunaris
Minor: Soul of Gruthkul
Alternative:
Minor: Soul of Yugul (If you still do a significant portion of your damage as physical in early/mid game)
Video:
T12:
T16 (Hydra):
T16 Minotaur:
PoB Link:pastebin.com/67pf16dP
Skill Tree:tinyurl.com/y9fqhfpm
PoE 3.5 Vulpix0r's Shattering Steel Champion Builds
Pros & Cons:
+ Superb single target damage with the shotgun effect
+ Cheap and possible to start with no gear fresh in league
+ Sword based so lots of nice uniques to bring you even to read maps
+ Gear is cheap
+ Decent clear speed
- Heavily dependant on positioning
- Trying to hit more than 6k+ life is hard
- You need to be on your feet during syndicate fights
- Build feels weak until you get Greater Multiple Projectiles
- Unable to use a lot of awesome flasks like Taste of Hate, Atziri's Promise, etc.
Playstyle:
This skill thrives on projectiles. More projectiles, the better. Beat point blank range, fire away at the tough monsters. Make sure to manage your flasks properly, and enjoy the massive number of projectiles. Do note that shotgun is a thing for this build.
Leveling Guide:
Keep your Chance to Bleed gem after killing Hillock, then level with whatever skill you want like Molten Strike or Cleave, grab Maim as well. Remember to grab Lesser Multiple Projectiles and War Banner. After hitting Merveil’s cave, you will get access to Shattering Steel. At this point, your links will be:
Shattering Steel + Maim + Chance to Bleed.
Reached act 2? Great! Grab Herald of Purity for a nice damage boost, Vicious Projectiles, and Blood Rage. Enduring Cry if you can afford it but it’s not a priority. You should try to get a 4L with 3 green sockets and 1 red, for this combination:
Shattering Steel + Vicious Projectiles + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Chance to Bleed
What your tree should roughly look like:https://tinyurl.com/yamyfp7h
In act 3 now? Grab Haste or Grace depending on your preference, or just get both and level them until you have decided which you like. We will also be grabbing Dread Banner. If you don’t mind doing the Library quest in the Imperial Garden, you can grab Fork to level. If you can afford the intelligence, purchase Increased Critical Strikes to level, Blood Magic to connect to your leap slam.
Finally in act 4? Grab whatever golem you want, it doesn’t matter as we’re not going to use one since they are pretty stupid. Once you’re done killing Kaom and Daresso, grab Brutality ASAP and replace Lesser Multiple with Greater Multiple Projectiles. The links you have at this point should be:
Shattering Steel + Brutality + Vicious Projectiles + Greater Multiple Projectiles
What your tree should roughly look like at this point: tinyurl.com/y82wkljr
That’s all for the guide for the crucial gems. The above setup should work flawlessly.
Gems Link:
Main
Before getting dual Beltimbers:
Shattering Steel + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Brutality + Maim + Vicious Projectiles + Fork
If you’re on a 5L, leave Fork out.
After getting dual Beltimbers:
Shattering Steel + Brutality + Maim + Vicious Projectiles + Fork + Increased Critical Strikes
Do note that Fork for some reason increases your single target damage due to the nature of the shotgun-ny nature of Shattering Steel.
Herald and Aura
Grace or Haste, Herald of Purity
We will be running Grace (or haste for more speed), it’s a great way to boost your evasion as we’re depending on both our armour and evasion to survive, along with our granite flask to mitigate the big Phys hits.
Herald of Purity is the only one worth running that will give us additional flat physical damage.
Movement
Leap Slam + Blood Magic + Fortify + Faster Attacks
Nothing special, just use whatever you like, even Whirling Blade.
Utility
Blood Rage + Dread Banner + Enduring Cry
I think it’s quite straight forward, blood rage for frenzy charges and attack speed, the dread banner for that sweet impale, enduring cry to generate endurance charges.
Cast when Damage Taken + Immortal Call + Enfeeble
Ancestral Warchief + Melee Physical Damage + Culling Strike
PoB Link:pastebin.com/FHA99sVM
Skill Tree:tinyurl.com/yagocu4y
Video:
16 Minotaur Run:
PoE 3.5 Steel Embrace Pure physical Budget Friendly
Builds
The damage shown in path of creating is per projectile so multiply it by your projectile count. With my current create I have 10 projectiles having a Shaper DPS of ~2million. With the new concentrate mods I use Shock nearby enemies for four seconds on a ring to shock enemies.
Pros & Cons:
+ High dps Due to shotgunning (all projectiles hitting the same target)
+ High mobility speed with Leap Slam
+ Good Clear speed
+ High defense with champion + vaal grace. (40,000+ Armor)
+ Budget friendly
+ Unique Play style getting up close to shotgun the closer the better
+ Very high leech (2500/s)
- Struggles With life plateauing at around 5.5-6k at level 90
- Need to be super close (read inside) bosses to do max DPS
Ascendancy:
1) Conqueror
2) Worthy Foe
3) Inspirational
4) Master of Metal
Bandits:
Alira Makes gear cheaper (+15 all res 20% crit muiltiplier 5mana regen)
but, Kill them all for two extra passive points is better overall.
Pantheon:
Soul of Arakaali (life leach after Immortal Call)
Soul of Tukohama
Skills:
Main Attack:
Shattering Steel - Vicious Projectiles - Brutality - Maim - Slower Projectiles - Chance to Bleed
You could also use Power charge on critical or pierce support.
Pierce support smooths out mapping but bleed support is slightly more damage.
There is the debate on if fork support double shotguns and could be added instead of pierce/bleed support
Mobility Skill:
Leap Slam + Faster Attacks - Fortify
Power Charge Generation
Cast When Damage Taken + Orb of Storm + Power Charge on Critical + increased Critical strike chance
Immortal Call Setup
level 2-4 Cast When Damage Taken + level 4 Immortal Call + Molten Shell / increased Duration
Mana Reserved Skills:
Herald of Purity
Dread Banner
For Defense use Vaal Grace OR Purity of Ice (for shaper/Elder fights)
For general mapping use Vaal Haste.
Blasphemy - enfeeble
Other Buffs:
Ancestral Protector
Blood Rage
Ice Golem
Map Mods:
Auto Skip:
If you see these reroll or be sad when it's already corrupted
- Reflect Physical
- Cannot Leech
Undesirable:
These mods are doable but they can significantly slow down or make the map more dangerous for this build
- Reduced Physical Damage taken %
- Reduced critical strike damage taken
- Added damage as X element (some bosses might 1shot)
- the reduced life recovery rate
- Cannot Taunt
Video:
Regular Red Map
Maze of the Minotaur
Lair of the Hydra
Forge of the Pheonix
Shaper
PoB Link:pastebin.com/WNf5Kxqv
Skill Tree:tinyurl.com/yclrakgn
PoE 3.5 Shattering Steel pure physical Builds
When GGG announced sword/axe abilities I believed they had been gonna be weak due to the fact I saw that they both lack melee tag, so I decided to skip them and begin with CwC Winter Orb/Ice Spear. It was only on the second char that I decided to attempt it even though leveling and noticed that Shattering Steel can shotgun. This made me attempt and make a creature with it. Just after testing different help gems on common I believed Pierce performs best with it, so went with Deadeye to have pierced from ascendancy. I wanted to benefit from new Impale mechanic so attempted to danger and go full Phys although phys->ele and phys+added as ele are superior for a long time already. It turned out pretty good. Uber Elder doable on 3ex spending budget (assuming you are going to 6link chest from fuse/jew drops)
Pros & Cons:
+ cheap to start
+ high clear speed, can't clear 1+ screens but super fast movement
+ can shotgun single target which means following in my setup that fires 10 projectiles:
+ 30 life gain on hit base from ascendancy = 300 life gain per skill use, with around 5 attacks per second feels like an old Vaal pact,
+ Impale massacre - each hit has 62 percent chance to impale and since projectiles fire in sequence, it means that if 1st projectile applies to impale effect, the next 5 will proc the damage in addition to having a chance applying another impale effect.
+ fast gain of the banner stack on the single target. Dread Banner gains stacks for each enemy impaled with a cap of 5 per second, Shattering Steel reaches this cap easily on a single target which means you can have fully stacked banned after 10 seconds on a fight like Uber Elder.
- to achieve max single target you are required to stand on a targets face ensuring that all projectiles are hitting him
- fortification encounter door are a pain in the ass if you are to close you deal no damage but if you move to far away the only portion of projectiles hit and doors are tough
- setup with Beltimbers requires you to use movement skill every 4 seconds, doesn't bother me at all, but some people might not like it
- can't run Phys reflect maps
Ascendancy:
First, you want to take Tailwind, you always take Tailwind on a Deadeye, it's that good.
Then you have a choice on Cruel, either you go for bleed nodes or pierce nodes. If you go for piercing you can swap out the pierce gem for something different, and if you go for bleed you should have hemophilia gloves to take advantage of bleedsplosion. I personally went with bleed nodes.
Merc lab you take what you didn't in the previous choice. Uber is when you take Fast and Deadly, at this level your accuracy should be dropping to ~90% so doubling it will probably bring it to 95%
Bandits:
Killing all is probably the best, but I'm stuck with Alira because I don't want to change a lot of gear to cap my resses. You also go Oak if you really want.
Gem Setup:
Main skill (chest):
Shattering Steel -> Chance to Bleed -> Brutality -> Vicious Projectiles -> Maim -> Increased Critical Damage
If you have a chest with supported by level 1 maim you add Slower Projectiles support.
If you don't have Pierce nodes from ascendancy you run with Pierce support instead of Vicious Projectiles
Cast When Damage Taken setup (gloves/helmet/boots):
Cast When Damage Taken(lvl1) -> Immortal Call(lvl3) -> Blood Rage(max lvl)-> Increased Duration(max lvl)
Vaal Double Strike steup (gloves/helmet/boots):
Vaal Double Strike -> Bloodlust -> Brutality -> Melee Physical Damage
Curse:
Vulnerability -> Blasphemy
Banner:
Dread Banner
Movement skill:
Leap Slam -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify
Totem setup:
Ancestral Protector -> Multiple Totems -> Culling Strike
Video:
T16 Minotaur map
T16 Defiled Cathedral from Zana
Shaper
Uber Elder
PoB Link:pastebin.com/9pFqq3tZ
Skill Tree:tinyurl.com/yabnqxn4