Please Critique Build [Chaos Wander Assassin]

I have been playing this game in standard for a while now and have managed to mess up my first character and wasted my passive tree reset. So I started looking around for build ideas for my new character and came across a couple of similar builds that look promising to me. This is my first attempt at theorycrafting a POE build and I'd appreciate any critiques or recommendations on how to improve it. FYI this is for standard only at this point.

Concept

Chaos/crit barrage wander assassin variation based on these 2 builds.
------------------------------------------------------
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1680870
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1513844

Fast attacks with tons of crits and DOTs left over for tough mobs that don't die right away.

Uses Barrage with 3x volley fire gems to give 16 projectiles and better spread without giving up mana or damage by using GMP, LMP, fork, chain etc. Pierce can allow it to kill mobs off screen as well.

Uses chaos damage instead of elemental, plus lingering stacks of poison DOT (also chaos damage).

Assassin crit and poison nodes would yield enough damage to compensate for dealing chaos over elemental damage.

Generally tanky enough to survive, should cut right through any reflect map.

Pros:
Should be able to run any map mod.
Doesn't sacrifice life for damage, still has 160+% life from the tree.
Barrage with the volley fire jewels lets us clear packs quickly.

Cons:
Probably expensive
Not much room to change out gear, many pieces are necessary.

My first attempt, call it v1
Spoiler
My concerns:

- No one takes a character all the way to level 100, not sure what to leave out. Need help prioritizing leveling between 80 and the higher levels.

- I am not as familiar with high limits of rare gear and what might be available that is effective and cheaper than the uniques I have laid out here. Queen of the Forest, Alpha's Howl, Snakebite and Prism Guardian are necessary for the build as designed. Probably Victario's Acuity as well. I already have Queen of the Forest and Atziri's Step.

- Assassin vs. Trickster? First time playing a shadow so I welcome discussion on this. Seems like it breaks down to DPS vs Survivability, that so? Also considering Trickster here for Shade Form (+500 Evasion and +250 Energy Shield), Patient Reaper (+30% DOT) and Swift Killer (15% chance to gain frenzy charge on kill).

- Will I have enough crit to make this all viable? How do I calculate if I am at the crit cap or not? Critical Chance/Multiplier Support in my 6L?

- Enchants, corruption? What is the most effective to add to my gear? Worth taking a shot to corrupt high end gear that is critical to the build?

- No Immortal Call in my CWDT setup. Did not see any non-curse that fit well here and did not do physical or elemental damage. (Rejected Molten Shell, Tempest Shield, bladefall etc. I am already using Assassin's Mark for charges so I can't use enfeeble/temporal chains like most people do.) I decided to go damage instead, contagion fits with the build's focus on chaos damage and will not reflect.


Level 80 Passive Tree

http://goo.gl/JcwHrS

Level 100 Passive Tree

http://goo.gl/t8fM5A


Gear

Headgear

Alpha's Howl (80-100% evasion, 20-30% cold res, 25% to avoid chill, Freezeproof, +2 to level of socketed aura gems, 8% less reserved mana) {Evasion}
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Alpha%27s_Howl


Chest

Queen of the Forest (240 to 380% increased Evasion Rating, 60 to 70 to max Life, 6 to 10% to Fire Res, 26 to 40% to Cold Res, 11 to 25% to Lightning Res, 25% reduced Movement Speed, 1% increased Movement Speed per 450 Evasion Rating, -50 to 40 Physical Damage taken when hit by Animals) {Evasion}
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Queen_of_the_Forest


Belt

The Retch (60-80 life, 24-50% cold res, .4% dmg leeched as life, 60% flask duration, 15% movement speed while on flask, 200% life leeched as chaos dmg)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Retch


Gloves

Snakebite (150-180% evasion, 60-70 life, 6% accuracy, +2% attack speed/ frenzy charge, when at max frenzy charges, attacks poision) {Evasion, Energy Shield}
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Snakebite


Boots

Atziri's Step Slink Boots (180% Evasion, 55-75 life, 30% movement speed, 14-16% spell dodge) {Evasion}
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Atziri%27s_Step


Shield

Prism Guardian (+12% to all Elemental Res, +2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems, Socketed Gems have Blood Magic, Socketed Gems have 25% reduced Mana Res, 20 to 30 to Dex, 25% to all Elemental Res) {Armor, Energy Shield}
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Prism_Guardian

Weapon

Obliteration (26-32% increased Critical Strike Chance, Gain 13-15% Phys Damage as Extra Chaos Damage, 20% chance enemies explode on kill dealing chaos dmg) <---------- This can be replaced with a rare wand that has high crit, high attack speed and + chaos damage.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Obliteration


Amulet

Victario's Acuity (16-24 str and dex, 30-40% ltg res, 8-10% chaos res, 10% chance to gain frenzy/power charges on kill, 5% proj spd/frenzy charge, 5% proj dmg/power charge)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Victario%27s_Acuity


Rings (Use one of the below with a rare ring with Evasion, Accuracy, Life, 40% Fire res. http://poe.trade/search/otisikeyasirin)

Gifts From Above (20-30% Global Critical Strike Chance, 30-35% Global Critical Strike Chance, 10-15% increased Light Radius, Consecrated Ground on Critical Strike, 40-50% Rarity of Items Dropped by Enemies killed with a Critical Strike) <---------- Use for most situations
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Gifts_from_Above

Lori's Lantern (8 to 10% to all Elemental Res, +10% to all Elemental Res, 6 to 8% Movement Speed when on Low Life, 31% increased Light Radius, 20 to 25% Chaos Res when on Low Life, on Low Life, Enemies are Unlucky when Damaging you) <---------- Use for added survivability
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Lori%27s_Lantern

Ming's Heart (9 to 13% to Chaos Res, 15% reduced max Life, 15% reduced max Energy Shield, 40 to 50% to Chaos Res, Gain 20% of Phys Damage as Extra Chaos Damage) <---------- Use for chaos damage heavy boss fights or maps (Museum map boss, Jungle valley map boss, Maligaro etc.)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ming%27s_Heart


Gems

4x VOLLEY FIRE JEWELS:
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Volley_Fire
Barrage fires 1+1+1+1 projectiles.
Each jewel adds 2 to the first and last shots yielding 3+1+1+3 projectiles.
Each jewel adds 4 total projectiles.
4 jewels add a total of 16 projectiles.
Barrage gains a total of 20 projectiles for sick damage and a wide spread without the need to increase mana cost and lower damage by using GMP, Fork, Chain etc.


Skill Gem Setup

Chest 6L

Barrage + Pierce + Critical Chance/Multiplier + Added Chaos Damage + Void Manipulation

Gloves 4L

Frenzy + GMP + Curse on hit + Assassin's Mark

Used to generate charges and make mobs easier to kill.

Wand 3L

Frost Wall + Vaal Grace/Vaal Haste + Increased Duration

Use Frost Wall against tough bosses in order to keep them at bay while aiming your shotgun at their face. Keep the gem lowish in level to prevent high mana costs. Vaal Grace/Vaal Haste can be switched out based on need for more offense or defense.

Shield 3L

Empower + Clarity + Arctic Armor

Helm 4L

Grace + Vitality/Discipline + Summon Stone Golem + Enlighten

Situationally use Vitality/Discipline based on party makeup and/or map mods. Use Stone Golem's regen to help keep up in slow recovery maps and help in labyrinth runs.

Boots 4L

Cast when Damage Taken + Controlled Destruction + Void Manipulation + Contagion

Keep CWDT low level to let it trigger more often. Level 1 CWDT supports up to level 10 Contagion. Controlled Destruction + Void Manipulation can level up freely for more damage.


Build v2
Spoiler


My concerns:

- Arrow Dancing worth 2 points? If so, what should I lose to make room?

- Enlighten for AA and Grace or Fortify for my Stone Golem in my helm? Basic choice comes down to 6% mana reservation or hefty damage minion that is nearly unkillable. Both are QoL imo. Opinions?

Level 80 Passive Tree

http://goo.gl/ygwek2

Level 100 Passive Tree

http://goo.gl/xSglfj

Gear

Headgear

Rare with Evasion, Life, Resists. Corrupt: Minions deal (15 to 20)% increased Damage
http://poe.trade/search/usetitositonom

Chest

Kintsugi (100 to 120% Evasion Rating, 60-80 max Life, 30% Fire Res, 20% less Damage taken if you have not been Hit Recently, 50% increased Evasion if you were Hit Recently)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Kintsugi

Addresses some of the 1 shot concern with Life-based Evasion builds.

Belt

The Retch (60-80 life, 24-50% cold res, .4% dmg leeched as life, 60% flask duration, 15% movement speed while on flask, 200% life leeched as chaos dmg)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Retch

Gloves

Snakebite (150-180% evasion, 60-70 life, +2% attack speed, +6% accuracy/frenzy charge, when at max frenzy charges, attacks poision) Corrupt: +1 to Level of Gems in this item
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Snakebite

Boots

Atziri's Step Slink Boots (180% Evasion, 55-75 life, 30% movement speed, 14-16% spell dodge) Corrupt: +1 Maximum Frenzy Charge
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Atziri%27s_Step

Shield

Rare with Evasion, Life, Resists. Corrupt: 17-24 Physical Damage taken from Attacks
http://poe.trade/search/yewomyoketomga

Weapon

Rare wand that has high crit, high attack speed and + chaos damage.
http://poe.trade/search/mohahiranitomk

Amulet

Victario's Acuity (24 int and dex, 39% ltg res, 9% chaos res, 10% chance to gain frenzy/power charges on kill, 5% proj spd/frenzy charge, 5% proj dmg/power charge)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Victario%27s_Acuity

Rings

2x Rares with Evasion, Accuracy, Life, resists. Corrupt: Adds 7-9 to 11-13 Chaos Damage to Attacks
http://poe.trade/search/noguhudoimonau

Gems

4x VOLLEY FIRE JEWELS (Each jewel adds 4 projectiles to Barrage sequence, 2 on first shot and 2 on the last for a total of 20 projectiles.) Corrupt: 1% increased Chaos Damage per equipped Corrupted Item
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Volley_Fire

Hungry Abyss (With 5 corrupted gear pieces, life leeches based on chaos dmg instead of physical.)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Hungry_Abyss

Skill Gem Setup

Chest 6L

Barrage + Pierce + Iron Grip + Faster Attacks + Added Chaos Damage + Void Manipulation

Gloves 4L

Frenzy + GMP + Curse on hit + Assassin's Mark

Used to generate charges and make mobs easier to kill.

Wand 3L

Frost Wall + Vaal Haste + Increased Duration

Use Frost Wall against tough mobs in order to keep them at bay while aiming your Vaal Hasted Barrage shotgun at their face. Keep Frost Wall lowish in level to prevent high mana costs.

Shield 3L

Lightning Warp + Faster Casting + Less Duration

Helm 4L

Grace + Arctic Armor + Enlighten/Fortify + Stone Golem

Boots 4L

Spell Totem + Faster Casting + Wither + Increased Duration

Wither makes the added Chaos dmg hit hard.

Version 3
My concerns:

- I would love to find more life

Level 95 Passive Tree

http://goo.gl/lONTGJ

Gear

Headgear

Rare with Evasion, Life, Resists.

Chest

Kintsugi (100 to 120% Evasion Rating, 60-80 max Life, 30% Fire Res, 20% less Damage taken if you have not been Hit Recently, 50% increased Evasion if you were Hit Recently)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Kintsugi

Addresses some of the 1 shot concern with Life-based Evasion builds.

Belt

The Retch (60-80 life, 24-50% cold res, .4% dmg leeched as life, 60% flask duration, 15% movement speed while on flask, 200% life leeched as chaos dmg)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Retch

Gloves

Snakebite (150-180% evasion, 60-70 life, +2% attack speed, +6% accuracy/frenzy charge, when at max frenzy charges, attacks poision) Corrupt: +1 to Level of Gems in this item
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Snakebite

Boots

Atziri's Step Slink Boots (180% Evasion, 55-75 life, 30% movement speed, 14-16% spell dodge) Corrupt: +1 Maximum Frenzy Charge
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Atziri%27s_Step

Shield

Rare with Evasion, Life, Resists.

Weapon

Rare wand that has high crit, high attack speed and + chaos damage.
http://poe.trade/search/mohahiranitomk

Amulet

Victario's Acuity (24 int and dex, 39% ltg res, 9% chaos res, 10% chance to gain frenzy/power charges on kill, 5% proj spd/frenzy charge, 5% proj dmg/power charge)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Victario%27s_Acuity

Rings

2x Rares with Evasion, Accuracy, Life, resists.

Gems

3x VOLLEY FIRE JEWELS (Each jewel adds 4 projectiles to Barrage sequence, 2 on first shot and 2 on the last for a total of 16 projectiles.)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Volley_Fire

Hungry Abyss (With 5 corrupted gear pieces, life leeches based on chaos dmg instead of physical.)
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Hungry_Abyss

Skill Gem Setup

Chest 6L

Barrage + Pierce + Faster Attacks + Void Manipulation + Slower Projectiles + Added Chaos Damage

Gloves 4L

Frenzy + GMP + Curse on hit + Temporal Chains

Wand 3L

Lightning Warp + Faster Casting + Less Duration

Shield 3L

CWDT(1) + Summon Stone Golem(4) + Blood Rage(7)

Helm 4L

Grace + Arctic Armor + Vaal Haste + Frost Wall

Boots 4L

Spell Totem + Faster Casting + Wither + Increased Duration
Otec CLAN
Last edited by gleamingthecube on Aug 10, 2016, 6:54:17 PM
Last bumped on Aug 10, 2016, 6:58:38 PM
Frost wall won't help barrage at all. Frost wall is for Kinetic Blast.

Barrage has decent single-target dps by itself anyway though, so you should be OK.

Since you don't need frost wall, you have space to socket cwdt+immortal call. ;)

PS: The Retch is awesome, but do you have one already? They are 4 ex + on standard, and basically unobtainable in Prophecy. Since it's not a pre-req for your build, maybe grab a rare belt instead?
Face it, all of your suggestions are worse than this idea:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/657756
Last edited by dudiobugtron on Jul 14, 2016, 4:45:18 AM
Frost Wall still keeps mobs at bay so they can't get to me, no? I know I don't need it to redirect explosions like kinetic blast but won't it still keep mobs outta my face? I'll consider losing it but I thought it might be a good defensive measure.
Otec CLAN
Last edited by gleamingthecube on Jul 14, 2016, 11:51:15 AM
Let's talk about your aura setup first. It seems that you want a hybrid Life/ES character. I really wouldn't do this because you've basically no ES on your gear and only 60% increased ES from your passive tree and intelligence. You would prbably end up with ~500-700 ES with Discipline. That's not worth it. You also want to use Clarity to fix your mana problems, but it would probably be alot easier to spend 5 points in your passive tree to get to Vitality Void, his should take care of all your mana problems and you get alot of life leech aswell, that way you don't need Vitality either (Vitality is never worth it tbh). Now there's only Grace and Arctic Armour left. I'll come back to this later.

Now the gearing. Obliteration and Queen of the Forest are good choices, even tho you should consider Kintsugi. It's basically free Fortify for ranged characters, which makes it a more defensive option than QoTF. I'd recommend dropping Prism Guardian since you don't need to reserve any life. Best in slot would a high evasion shield (1500+) with good amounts of life and resistances to get the most out of QoTF (more evasion = more movement speed). The Retch would be a solid option but a rare belt with Life and Resistances should do the trick aswell. Atziri's Steps and Snakebite are a must have for you. Victario's Acuity would be a good choice aswell, even though Bloodrage and/or Frenzy and Assassin's Mark + Unstable Infusion should be good enough to generate Power and Frenzy charges. The rings you listed would prbably work, but I'd recommend rare Diamond rings with Accuracy, Life, Resistances. These can get pretty expensive aswell. I would also choose a rare Helm over Alpha's Howl since you don't need the reduced mana reservation. Due to the 16% you get from the tree you can run Grace and Haste or Grace and Blasphemy + Assassin's Mark. You could even work in Arctic Armour, but you'd probably need Enlighten for it. Stats on the rare helm would again be Evasion, Life, Resistances. You could also use Devoto's Devotion or Rat's Nest as a more offensive variant.

As for Ascendency classes Assassin is definatly the way to go. The Power Charges alone should be pretty much sufficient to get you to crit cap (with Deadly Infusion and Crit Chance Support). Toxic Delivery is also a heavy damage increase.

If the jewel's range indicators on poeplanner.com are correct you'd need to get more dexterity at some points to make Volley Fire work (never used it so I'm not sure about the range).

Your gem setup looks pretty good. I wouldn't use Crit Multiplier though or I would at least make it the last priority.

You also should pick up the pierce nodes in the passive tree so you end up with 100%. You should also priorize Projectile Damage nodes over Damage over Time nodes because Projectile Damage will increase the initial physical damage, chaos damage and the poison damage over time whereas DoT nodes only benefit the last one.

That's all I can think of for now.
"
kahzin wrote:
It seems that you want a hybrid Life/ES character. I really wouldn't do this because you've basically no ES on your gear and only 60% increased ES from your passive tree and intelligence. You would prbably end up with ~500-700 ES with Discipline. That's not worth it.

Not really trying for ES, mostly evasion focused with dodge/spell dodge. More coincidental because some of the gear I was planning to use has ES on it and some of the passives are convenient and improve evasion as well but that was not really my intention for the build. I will look at the ES stuff and evaluate how I can maybe reach higher evasion and leave some of the ES out.

"
kahzin wrote:
You also want to use Clarity to fix your mana problems, but it would probably be alot easier to spend 5 points in your passive tree to get to Vitality Void, his should take care of all your mana problems and you get alot of life leech as well, that way you don't need Vitality either (Vitality is never worth it tbh). Now there's only Grace and Arctic Armour left. I'll come back to this later.

Not really trying to compensate for lack of mana, I just know when I have grouped with folks that run a high clarity it has been a nice bonus. Maybe I need more mana/mana regen so I can abandon clarity, I will look at this as well. Any recommendations on what levels of mana/regen I should shoot for?

"
kahzin wrote:
Now the gearing. Obliteration and Queen of the Forest are good choices, even tho you should consider Kintsugi. It's basically free Fortify for ranged characters, which makes it a more defensive option than QoTF.

I considered it but will likely stick with QotF since I have it already. QotF also gives almost double the evasion, no?

"
kahzin wrote:
I'd recommend dropping Prism Guardian since you don't need to reserve any life. Best in slot would a high evasion shield (1500+) with good amounts of life and resistances to get the most out of QoTF (more evasion = more movement speed).

This felt clunky to me too, was just trying to find a way to fit Grace along with AA and Clarity. I definitely don't need the armor. If I don't need those, I am freed up to branch out and get something more in line with the rest of the build. Originally considered Thousand Teeth Temu, which has pure evasion, life, life leech but I'll look at rares too since I likely need to make up some resists too with the loss of 37% to all.

"
kahzin wrote:
The Retch would be a solid option but a rare belt with Life and Resistances should do the trick as well.

I hear those are expensive so I will consider rares here too. I do have some exalts to spend though, so I will try to keep this if at all possible. I really like it for some reason.

"
kahzin wrote:
The rings you listed would prbably work, but I'd recommend rare Diamond rings with Accuracy, Life, Resistances. These can get pretty expensive as well.

The rings are a spot where I expected to hear that rares are better. That's fine, I need to get resists somewhere if I lose the Prism Guardian. 37% to all elemental resists is pretty good, wish they made an evasion version of that shield.

"
kahzin wrote:
I would also choose a rare Helm over Alpha's Howl since you don't need the reduced mana reservation. Due to the 16% you get from the tree you can run Grace and Haste or Grace and Blasphemy + Assassin's Mark. You could even work in Arctic Armour, but you'd probably need Enlighten for it. Stats on the rare helm would again be Evasion, Life, Resistances. You could also use Devoto's Devotion or Rat's Nest as a more offensive variant.

I chose Alpha's Howl for the 'freeze proof' ability, evasion and the reduced mana reservation. I mislike having like 10% mana to draw from and seems like every time I am frozen I die. I will look at alternatives and see how it looks. I do kind of like Devoto's Devotion as a possible replacement if I lose the Alpha.

"
kahzin wrote:

As for Ascendency classes Assassin is definitely the way to go. The Power Charges alone should be pretty much sufficient to get you to crit cap (with Deadly Infusion and Crit Chance Support). Toxic Delivery is also a heavy damage increase.

Check and check. I figured as much.

"
kahzin wrote:

If the jewel's range indicators on poeplanner.com are correct you'd need to get more dexterity at some points to make Volley Fire work (never used it so I'm not sure about the range).

I tried to take less than direct pathing in my tree that gave me 50 dex in each gem's circle. Admittedly, I am a little unclear on how this works as well. Hopefully someone else can chime in and let me know if I need to rework this too.

"
kahzin wrote:

Your gem setup looks pretty good. I wouldn't use Crit Multiplier though or I would at least make it the last priority.

What is a good replacement? Should I use crit chance instead? Still not sure how to calculate the crit cap.

"
kahzin wrote:

You also should pick up the pierce nodes in the passive tree so you end up with 100%. You should also prioritize Projectile Damage nodes over Damage over Time nodes because Projectile Damage will increase the initial physical damage, chaos damage and the poison damage over time whereas DoT nodes only benefit the last one.

Noted, I will keep that in mind. I wanted to keep the pierce in there from the builds that I adapted from but I dropped it in favor of something else. Easy enough to put it back in as I rework things.

"
kahzin wrote:
That's all I can think of for now.

Thanks a ton for your input! Very useful feedback.
Otec CLAN
Last edited by gleamingthecube on Jul 14, 2016, 3:35:24 PM
I would generally agree that Trickster is more for survivability and Assassin is more for damage.

"

Not really trying to compensate for lack of mana, I just know when I have grouped with folks that run a high clarity it has been a nice bonus. Maybe I need more mana/mana regen so I can abandon clarity, I will look at this as well. Any recommendations on what levels of mana/regen I should shoot for?

Mana Leech is ridiculous for Attack builds right now. Attack Skills have naturally low Mana Costs at all levels, and lower right/lower part of passive tree grants leech for Attacks of all 5 Damage Types (Phys, Ele's, Chaos). All of my Attack builds that don't have any Mana boosts grab 1 single Mana Leech node and are set for Mana for the rest of the game.

If you build around Mana Regeneration you also get shafted on Less Recovery and No Regeneration map mods. Overall pretty cruddy.

"

I considered it but will likely stick with QotF since I have it already. QotF also gives almost double the evasion, no?


The power of Kintsugi is not in the Evasion. It's in the "20% less Damage Taken" mod, which is permanently up assuming you only get Hit at most once every 4 seconds. QotF doesn't have anything quite as comparable as that.

EDIT: So the reason 20% less damage taken is a big deal is that, in the endgame, assuming perfect Flask use and/or positioning (tactical retreat), the only thing that can kill you is one-shots. Evasion doesn't protect at all against one-shots; the only thing it defends against is Attack DPS. Since Energy Shield and Armour both defend against one-shots to some extent, Evasion builds are usually criticized for being one-shot more often. Kintsugi addresses this.

In the end, the decision probably comes down to whether you want more eHP vs Attack DPS + movement speed, or if you want more eHP vs (all-types) Damage per Hit.

EDIT2: A lot of top players make a big stink about one-shots, but I've personally found eHP vs Attack DPS and movement speed both to be pretty good, defensively. So it's up to you, IMO.

"

This felt clunky to me too, was just trying to find a way to fit Grace along with AA and Clarity. I definitely don't need the armor. If I don't need those, I am freed up to branch out and get something more in line with the rest of the build. Originally considered Thousand Teeth Temu, which has pure evasion, life, life leech but I'll look at rares too since I likely need to make up some resists too with the loss of 37% to all.


If I were making this build, I'd use only AA and Grace and self-cast Assassin's Mark, which leaves plenty of Mana available for Skill use. Personally I definitely agree with the rare shield assessment.

"

I chose Alpha's Howl for the 'freeze proof' ability, evasion and the reduced mana reservation. I mislike having like 10% mana to draw from and seems like every time I am frozen I die. I will look at alternatives and see how it looks. I do kind of like Devoto's Devotion as a possible replacement if I lose the Alpha.


Life-based builds generally don't have issues with Freeze as long as they have 1 single flask with suffix "of Heat." Preferably a utility flask so that you can consistently make use of the Immunity part. Stibnite is great if you're worried about running low on Flask charges; it only consumes 10 flask charges per use.

"

What is a good replacement? Should I use crit chance instead? Still not sure how to calculate the crit cap.

Net crit is base flat crit * increases. So if your Obliteration wand shows 10.0% crit chance, and Increased Critical Strikes Support grants +2.0% flat chance, that's a 12% base. Then all of your Increased Critical Strike chance multiplies the 12%. Suppose you have 900% increased critical strike chance. This takes you to 120% crit chance, which then caps at 95%.

ICSS would likely be wasted on an Assassin ascendancy, unless you just really really like consistency.

If I were building this character, I would sub in Slower Projectiles instead of ICSS/ICDS for the More Projectile Damage bonus.

EDIT2: You have no Movement Skill! I would recommend Lightning Warp + Less Duration + Faster Casting, or if you're alright with giving up one of your 4Ls, tack on a Rapid Decay on there as well. Amazing distance and fast teleports.

If, instead, you end up wanting a lot of your gem sockets for other things, you can use Flame Dash by itself, or Flame Dash + Faster Casting.

EDIT3: Speaking of gem sockets, I noticed you didn't seem too excited about your CwDT setup. You could try it the way you have it. But you also have Totems and Traps available! Why not Wither + S. Totem + Faster Casting? Increased AoE if you'd still want it 4L.

Or maybe... Ranged Attack Totem + GMP + Void Manip + Slower Projectiles? Maybe Poison?

What about Barrage + Trap Support + Cluster Trap + Void Manipulation? Erase screens once in a while!
Need game info? Check out the Wiki at: https://www.poewiki.net/

Contact support@grindinggear.com for account issues. Check out How to Report Bugs + Post Images at: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/18347
Last edited by adghar on Jul 14, 2016, 5:32:45 PM
"
Frost Wall still keeps mobs at bay so they can't get to me, no? I know I don't need it to redirect explosions like kinetic blast but won't it still keep mobs outta my face? I'll consider losing it but I thought it might be a good defensive measure.

Yes, it is an awesome defensive measure. It works really well on Cast when damage taken as well. Sorry, I misread and thought you were using it offensively.

Note though that the further away from you a boss gets, the more likely your barrage projectiles are to swing wide.
Face it, all of your suggestions are worse than this idea:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/657756
I don't really think that mana regen would be enough to sustain your mana cost. As a wander with high APS you'll burn through your mana in no time. That's why I suggested mana/life leech nodes, they're extremely potent. Prism Guardian should only be used for hybrid or low life builds.

Quick talk about the crit cap: Obliteration has a base crit chance of 10.5%. Now add roughly 2% from Increased Critical Chance support, makes it 12.5%. With you tree and the assassin ascendency you'll have 6 power charges, adding 3% base crit again, so 15.5%. 6 power charges will also net you 300% increased critical strike chance, plus 180% from your passives that is 480%. 15.5% * 5.8 = 89.9%. So without any crit gear you'll already have 90% crit chance. That's why assassin is definatly the way to go.

I checked Volley Fire and it has a medium range. Mouse over the jewel slots in poeplanner.com. You'll see 3 circles around the slot. For Volley Fire you need to have 50 dexterity allocated within the middle circle. If you really want to use Barrage instead of Kinetic Blast you'll have to sacrifice a good amount of damage and/or life to make it work. Here's an example tree.

Using Alpha's Howl or not really comes down to if you need the 8% reduced mana reservation or not. Cannot be forzen is a nice add but a rare helm or Devoto's Devotion would certainly be better options.
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dudiobugtron wrote:
Yes, it is an awesome defensive measure. It works really well on Cast when damage taken as well.(...)

May you give a bit of explanations about why CWDT + Frost Wall is good?I've tried that setup for my Incinerate Inquisitor,and abandoned it due to lack of usefulness - mobs near to me still were able to swing over the wall,well it was somewhat helpful against ranged enemies,though.
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MasterBLB wrote:
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dudiobugtron wrote:
Yes, it is an awesome defensive measure. It works really well on Cast when damage taken as well.(...)

May you give a bit of explanations about why CWDT + Frost Wall is good?I've tried that setup for my Incinerate Inquisitor,and abandoned it due to lack of usefulness - mobs near to me still were able to swing over the wall,well it was somewhat helpful against ranged enemies,though.

I found that the frost wall always seemed to cast on a nearby enemy and push them back out of melee range. I used it with skeletons too, and so they would distract the enemies too. I'm not sure why our experiences differed so much!
Face it, all of your suggestions are worse than this idea:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/657756

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