[Proof of Concept] Block + Bow Scion

Hi guys, just wanted share my own take on a random fascination I had of a few uniques and game mechanics.
As the title states, the idea was basically to see if i could make a bow user that utilised block. This was inspired by this unique:


What I've done so far:

Passive Tree:
Path of Building: https://pastebin.com/paUHxwus || Main site: Link

For the ascendancy, I chose Guardian and Gladiator for the 2x 5% generic block. Travelled to Templar's staff block nodes for another 12% block with credit to Lioneye's Fall Jewel (darn expensive). I also figured that if I'm using block, I might as well use point blank for the extra damage and see how well block compensates, which led me to the Duelist's area.
Keystones I grabbed were Resolute Technique, Iron Grip and Point Blank; all for dps.
The rest of the tree was just life and a bit of damage. All up it's sitting at around 200% life, i think something more aligned to a hardcore build although I don't play hardcore.

Gear

• Bow: Chin Sol - the obvious choice for point blank
• Body Armour: The Perfect Form - this was a late game choice that I found added another powerful layer of defence via Phase Acrobatics (30% Spell dodge) and free Arctic Armour
• Quiver: Rearguard - the core of the build, gives block and spell block
• Boots: Rainbowstride - supplement spell block since the Gladiator Ascendancy only adds 30% block applied to spell
• Amulet: The Anvil - more block for obvious reasons
• Rings: Rare - random drop, needed resists more than life at one point and haven't updated to get more life
• Belt: Rare - random drop, life and resists
• Gloves: Rare - random drop, life and resists. Could master craft 2% block but I don't have level 8 Haku
• Helmet: Rare - random drop, you get the drift. All my rares are not fantastic by any means
• Flask: Rumi's Concoction - more block for obvious reasons
• Jewel: Lioneye's Fall - (I don't know how to link from passive tree) for the staff nodes

Skill Gems
(I don't know how to link socketed gems from character page)

• Bow (Main Attack): Rain of Arrows + Faster Attacks + Brutality + Physical Project Attack Damage + Concentrated Effect
  > Nothing fancy, chose rain of arrows as AoE clear over Blast Rain because of Chin Sol's Knockback, despite Blast Rain showing better numbers.
• Helmet (Movement/Utility): Blink Arrow + Faster Attack + Culling Strike + Stone Golem
  > Movement skill and just slotted Stone Golem alongside with cull for some bossing QoL
• Boots (Utility): Projectile Weakness + Blasphemy + Arctic Armour (Purity of Elements is not being used)
  > Dps + survivability. Was short on resists some time ago so that's why I there is a Purity of Elements
• Gloves (Utility): Haste + Decoy Totem + Rallying Cry + Blood Rage
  > Dps buffs and Decoy Totem for bossing agro. Haste is used to offset the downside of the Anvil amulet. Honestly, these are tedious buff choices because I have to constantly use/maintain them, they were the main options I could think of.
• Body Armour [Utility]: Barrage + Maim + Pierce + Added Chaos + Faster Projectiles
  > This is just leftover skills from testing setups. I initially had a maim/curse on hit setup but moved to blasphemy and had left over space for this. It works alright as a single target skill, provides some extra dps from maim and is also a useful method of knocking back enemies a big distance.

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My Opinions
Currently, I've leveled a Scion to 80 in Softcore Harbinger league. Sitting at 5k life (209% from tree) but could be more with better gear. Got a passive 54% block / 41% spell block which goes up to 73% block / 59% spell block with my Rumi's Concoction up. Other relevant defences are 30% spell dodge from Phase Acrobatics, small portions of physical damage reduction and chance to evade; which both get up to around 45% with flasks up. Then add blind from stibnite flask which kicks chance to evade up to about 70%. I haven't truly capped block but at this point, I feel it's not worth the investment with all the other layers of defence I have been able to gain. I could be wrong though.

According to PoB, I'm hitting a fully buffed pdps of 33.8 k which I believe is pretty dismal in the eyes of some more hardcore min-maxers out there. Realistically it's lower because of Chin Sol's knock back which makes Close Range hits inconsistent.
Survivability is pretty good, although not a bright idea to face tank, I can handle big packs without too much stress. Dps is where I'm really lacking. Of course my gear not great and plenty of room for min-maxing. And considering softcore, life nodes could be swapped for some more dps.

This is far from refined. Gear could be improved. Passive tree might need to be refined. But so far, I'm pleased how far I have managed to get with this idea.

Other things to consider:
Gladiator
The block nodes in the Gladiator ascendancy and the shield/dual wielding block nodes in duelist's area don't apply to Rearguard or Lioneye's Fall. The only notable thing I can see that works is the "100% of Block Chance applied to Spells" node. I can't see any other way of getting better block chance. This is why I didn't choose Gladiator.

Necromancer + Bone Offering
A valid option which I haven't bothered to test. According to PoB, you could get better end game block/spell block than Scion but the passive tree looked like a hassle to work with to me. Finding ways to get the required dexterity and strength deterred me as well. I also couldn't figure out
how to get viable dps for this ascendancy choice too. Probably some Summon Raging Spirits shenanigans or whatever you use +3 to gem bows for, both of which I confess to know little about.

Bringer of Rain helmet
Also a valid option. I simply haven't spent time trying it in-game although I have tested it in PoB. My thoughts on this item is that you lose some pretty useful sockets, and the supports in the helmet aren't for bows. So while I'd probably just socket my current helmet setup (movement + cull + golem) into it, being capped at level 12 Faster Attacks kind of makes it sub-par.

Jewels The Red Nightmare or Reckless Defence
Forgot about them to be frank. I could slot that in somewhere if I can figure out how to make up for my intelligence requirements deficit. Ideally I think I'd only need one Reckless Defence to hit cap via rumi's. I'll probably look into buying one soon. As for Red Nightmare, I'm too poor for that.

Gifts from Above ring
Another item I forgot about because it was very expensive early on in the league when I looked it up. I can't really use it because of Resolute Technique but the tree can be respec'ed into the staff crit nodes alongside the melee crit cluster just below. Doing that would give you endurance charge on crit and the power charge on block becomes useful. Realistically, too many uniques, not enough life and resists.

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If anyone is interested in trying out/improving it this concept, I'm all for it. I think the bunch of layered defences is fine as is but the dps is what needs a lot of work.
Levelling is pretty standard for a bow character. Go with Shrapnel Shot or Lightning arrow, grab some twink gear to make it quicker. Start levelling the necessary skill gems on swap. Although you can technically start going into block when you can equip Rearguard and even The Anvil, it's not necessarily the quickest way to level.

I started a new character the other day and had this exact same idea. Even planned on using the same bow for the same reason. I got the build all planned out, but then saw the price of the lioneye's fall jewel this league and changed my mind. I did a windripper build a few leagues ago and picked one up for maybe 20c tops. They must be being used in one of the meta builds this league for them to be going for 2ex.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2004168

PoB link in my forum post too if you want to check it out. I went crit with my build theory using the staff cluster you mentioned for EC and PC generation. My build only got 51% block with flasks up so I planned on supplementing the PC gen with orb of storms / pcoc and a pair of inya's boots. Less block in my version, but higher dps. Without flasks PoB says 277K for barrage and 112k for Tornado shot. I also skipped evasion and went with iron reflexes. 64% phys reduction without flasks and 77% with Rumi's. Pathfinder for 1st ascendancy so flasks should be up most of the time. I didn't choose gladiator or guardian for the 2nd one because I hate reflect so I was going to go with Slayer.

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SmackyChan wrote:

According to PoB, I'm hitting a fully buffed pdps of 33.8 k which I believe is pretty dismal in the eyes of some more hardcore min-maxers out there. Realistically it's lower because of Chin Sol's knock back which makes Close Range hits inconsistent.

If you can make due without life or res on your gloves you could try Empires Grasp for the reversed knockback direction. That was my plan.

Moved on to something else now because of the lioneye's fall price. Still want a tanky archer, but skipping the block. Without those staff nodes I see no viable way to make a blocking archer.

Fair enough about the Lioneye jewel. I also thought they were still cheap coming into this league like you but I did a double take when I looked up the current prices for it. It's the Doomfletch Prism meta that's making it expensive I believe. Almost gave up until I got lucky with a few exalt drops so I could afford one.

I had a look at your PoB and gotta say the dps looks pretty neat although by the latest iteration, it seems block isn't really worth the investment. I've noticed you did a full level 100 tree which I normally don't do. I personally attempt to theory craft as realistic as I can possibly achieve, which is hitting up to about at most level 85 and 5L gear. Anything further than that and I get bored easy and just don't have the patience to go for level 90 or get best in slot gear.
I think my passive tree could stand to get more damage nodes by drawing inspiration from your tree.

Also, I've also just bought a cheap reckless defence and am now near capped in block and spell block with Rumi's

Some minor corrections:
Master crafting block on gloves requires Haku 7 and 2 divines. I have Haku 7 but don't have 2 divines

I tried making a block scion build this league with staves. Before the scion rework in 3.0, there wasn't much block on tree for scion or staves in general, but between guardian/gladiator, and the synergy of reckless defence, soul of solaris with the lady stormflay upgrade and avenger flasks, there would be enough to get ~50/50 block (or 60/60, with a properly corrupted anvil), which could go to 75/75 with rumi's.

Unfortunately, the build didn't work out as well as I hoped it would. The lady stormflay pantheon ability is only active for 4 seconds, so expect to get crit everytime you move between packs. Rolling added lightning damage and crit multi on maps was also very dangerous, because of shocks/one-shots. Having avenger flasks up a lot was nice, but you typically want seething/bubbling on hp flasks, so it only gives you good uptime on utility flasks.

The main reason build didn't work well was because the difference between 75/75 block and 50/50 block was unmanageable, since block works the same way resistance does -- every additional point is more beneficial than the previous. Of course, you could add additional layers of defence so that 50/50 block is enough, but given how much you have to invest to reach 50/50 block in the first place for a non-shield build, it's unlikely you'll have enough space left in your build to get more defences while also maintaining good DPS.

tl;dr, if you plan on going block, get 75/75 or take a bunch of flask nodes so you have permanent uptime on rumi's, because the difference between 75/75 block and 50/50 block is unmanageable. Also, the synergy between the lady stormflay pantheon power and reckless defence is not as good as imagined, since the time between packs is often > 4 seconds.