2.4 Frostblades Pathfinder. (2.6 projection+raider option.)

Thanks for your critique. I redid the tree as you suggested and came up with www.poeurl.com/6Us - took Alchemist as yeah it's crazy not to as a Pathfinder, redid the Ranger start but kept Melding circle as I use Energy from Within in the nearby jewel node.

Yeah, a lot of the damage comes from the flasks and I consider their uptime to be 100% during normal mapping. I don't like Kiara's duration but need it for curse AND stun immunity.

STR will need to be obtained from gear and the 2x 30 STR nodes on the tree can supplement if needed.

Fiddled around with the gem links (FB-Multistrike-WED-MPD-MDmgOFL-IncCritDmg) and ended up with close to 400K dps! This is with Hatred, Ice Golem, 3 Power Charges, 4 Frenzy charges, Assassin's Mark and flasks. Frost Bomb and Ancestral Protector are not considered as one is on CWDT and the other is used situationally. We haven't even taken into account the 2 threshold jewels which I plan to use and also the buff to 1H weapons so dps should go even higher.

Will have trouble getting a vaal regalia with 5 off colours but can substitute a hybrid AR/ES with 500-600 es. By the way, it's more than 155% es due to 45% from int and 15% more from Infused Shield. That's how we can get to 8k es dual wield with little investment.

I did a 2.6 mockup by inserting a level 13 cold pen, which is equivalent to the 30% pen of the jewels, and also increasing the physical damage of the claws by 10%. This netted me 535K dps with flasks up! Dps with flasks down is only 150K so just goes to show how OP flasks are in the current meta, especially with Pathfinder.

I'll be going ToA Raider as a league starter, have a tree prepared based on your trees here, so thanks for this guide!

There is one thing that I can't decide on right now and that's the aura set up. I don't plan to run any Blasphemy because this is pretty much a ranged build and with all the changes to radius, I don't think it's worth it.

So just how important is Herald of Lightning for the build? I'm leaning towards Herald of Ice + Hatred. Since this build always had amazing AoE clear, I don't think we will need shock for trash and I doubt that Herald of Lightning alone is enough to reliably shock bosses. Thoughts?

I would use Hatred + Blasphemy-Assassin's Mark. Assassin's Mark is a huge dps increase, we don't have any reliable way of obtaining power charges and you will be in semi-melee range for the initial hit and against bosses, so will be within blasphemy range.

OP plays self-found so is unlikely to obtain a vinktars, which is how I shock.

I was thinking of running Herald of Ice + Hatred and use Assassin's Mark on CoH with the Herald. I guess it will have issues with generating power charges for bosses, but I'll solve that problem when I get there.

Completely forgot about shocking with Vinktar somehow, so yeah, I think that's what I will do.

yeah. most high end builds use vinktars for shock, and leech. As many note that thing trivializes poe endgame single handedly.
HoT is great for keeping shock up without vinktars. as well, as breaking pots. Pathfinder 20% chance to shock, or just general high crit rate, enables shock constantly with HoT alone.


AoE changes MAY screw with blasphemy. it WAS large enough before at higher levels, to ensure safety with enfeeble, as well, enable marks if you wanted that.
I prefer the defensive focus of enfeeble.

However, yes you can dual leech with warlords, or assassins-powercharge.
my build suggestion is frenzy+powercharge on crit+ms though. Periodic taps with that keep up charges easy. (multistrike is purely for autotarget/namelockbreak)
If raider, you dont need frenzy, so a second frostblades with pcoc would work well. enabling ranged pcoc.)

My build ideas do tend to focus around not dying. Stacking many defense layers. if you don't mind occasional oops, I died. you definitely can push more dps, by swapping out enfeeble for elem weakness, or hatred. fortify out for FA,mphys, or inc crit. or, throw high end gear at it in the same way.


offcolor regalia. yeah. I would probably not even try. Look at eva/es hybrid gear perhaps, or pure eva. Cospris maybe. Hyrris. Don't need life, so it not having any is not a problem,but it IS massive dps.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Hyrri%27s_Ire (2.6 has even more added cold.)
maybe new incandescent heart. make reflect even more trivial. added chaos. more leech.

Be sure to post the CI build, etc. I'd like to see. and others might as well. Ancestral protector is pretty easy to keep up. Unless using decoy in that specific fight of course.

blasphemy-curses.
http://poecraft.com/legacy/aoenerf

geeze, that is brutal.
old radius 39. new 29.

If you intend to use an offensive curse. assassins or elem weakness. I would suggest swapping to curse on hit. on a herald, means its not active vs bosses. unless you pull it off, and selfcast. Put it on ancient protector I suppose. CoH+ancientprotector+curse.

20% inc area node in front of charisma still only increases that to 31 radius. that is bad. it IS less then your FB melee range. and, does put you into range of being hit by enemies which are outside of your enfeeble radius.

I hope not buffing curse base radius is an oversight and this is addressed.
This aoe change wrecks blasphemy.

My early expectations of ToA getting a larger dps boost then foils did not pan out.
In hindsight, I should have saw this coming.

Base weapon damage was buffed of various weapons.
Local added phys was buffed by 10%. This appears to only apply to magic/rare mods, and the odd specific unique like dreamfeather. ToA "Adds (40-50) to (130-150) Physical Damage" is unchanged.
Added Elemental did not change.
So, the best weapon will likely be a high added and phys % roll RARE.
I'm going to have to sit down later and really figure out which is "best".
claw passives, vs sword passives. claw has high a/s, and base crit. vaal rapier low a/s, high crit% and multi, eternal low crit, high raw dps. jeweled foil, little bit of everything.
Regardless, ToA will still be VERY good. and competitive. especially if you do not want to have to deal with rolling, crafting, or trading for a perfect roll rare.

2.5
Imperial claw
22-57 1.6a/s 6% crit

spiral foil
25-59 1.6a/s 5.5% 30% multi

jeweled foil
27-51 5.5a/s 5.5% 30% multi

harpy rapier
26-60 1.4a/s 5.7% 50% multi

vaap rapier
20-80 1.3a/s 6.5% 30% multi

corsair
16-63 1.55a/s 5% 18% acc

Eternal
32-52 1.5a/s 5%

2.6
Imperial claw
25-65 1.6a/s 6% crit 72dps

spiral foil
27-64 1.6a/s 5.5% 25% multi 72.8dps

jeweled foil
32-60 1.6a/s 5.5% 25% multi 73.6dps

harpy rapier
31-72 1.4a/s 5.7% 35% multi 72.1dps

vaap rapier
22-87 1.3a/s 6.5% 25% multi 70.8dps

corsair
20-80 1.55a/s 5% 40% acc 77.5dps

Eternal
41-68 1.5a/s 5% +475acc 79.5dps

Ok.

Majorly revised tree for 2.6.

1. ToA is great, but again, falls behind high tier physical weapons. (ToA is 264pdps, with 8%crit, 1.6a/s) A 300pdps+ claw/foil with 6-8%crit, and 1.6-2a/s will beat it.
2. Claws and foils are VERY close in dps. pick which you like. Claws give a solid amount of life/s on hit now. foils a bit more range.
(eternals and corsairs came in well under foil/claw dps.) spiral>jeweled foil seems fixed now. Jeweled foils #1.


Raider and pathfinder SAME TREE. just swap ascendancy. pathfinder is grabbing all the frenzy as well.
2.6 Sword foil.
/w vaal pact, scion life.
www.poeurl.com/71P

adds 2 more jewels. (alot of points for vaalpact+jewel)

points can be moved around for your preference. more scion life. more duelist leech.
Best dps clusters off this basis. #1 Dervish 2 points. dw damage+devish. #2. Berzerking. #3aspect of the panther.

2.6 claw
www.poeurl.com/71T
claws build, swaps sword cluster for claw obviously.
Claw cluster give dual leech, so does not need duelist mana leech. Also, claws of the pride gives 20% acc, so replaces the need for Acuity.
(not sure if claws need vaal pact with life on hit, and incleech/second.)

"

Casia wrote:

Ok.

Majorly revised tree for 2.6.

1. ToA is great, but again, falls behind high tier physical weapons. (ToA is 264pdps, with 8%crit, 1.6a/s) A 300pdps+ claw/foil with 6-8%crit, and 1.6-2a/s will beat it.
2. Claws and foils are VERY close in dps. pick which you like. Claws give a solid amount of life/s on hit now. foils a bit more range.
(eternals and corsairs came in well under foil/claw dps.) spiral>jeweled foil seems fixed now. Jeweled foils #1.


Raider and pathfinder SAME TREE. just swap ascendancy. pathfinder is grabbing all the frenzy as well.
2.6 Sword foil.
/w vaal pact, scion life.
www.poeurl.com/71P

adds 2 more jewels. (alot of points for vaalpact+jewel)

points can be moved around for your preference. more scion life. more duelist leech.
Best dps clusters off this basis. #1 Dervish 2 points. dw damage+devish. #2. Berzerking. #3aspect of the panther.

2.6 claw
www.poeurl.com/71T
claws build, swaps sword cluster for claw obviously.
Claw cluster give dual leech, so does not need duelist mana leech. Also, claws of the pride gives 20% acc, so replaces the need for Acuity.
(not sure if claws need vaal pact with life on hit, and incleech/second.)

You have to keep in mind the 30% (60% with DW) on ToA, as well as the chain for pack clearing. Looking at Path of Building, with the temp items I put in for a level 90, you'd need a REALLY good rare to beat out ToA.

The highest claw on Legacy as of the time of this post is only 333 pDPS. Strong, but almost identical in damage to a perfect ToA. (50 more DPS). You'd need to push into the 400 pDPS range to offer an upgrade worth losing the chaining for. The frenzy charges can't be overlooked either if you don't go Raider.