[3.8] Venom Gyre Assassin - All Content - Budget to Beefy - 15m Shaper DPS*

Introduction:
Assassin has long been my favorite ascendancy so with the poison reworks this league I decided to see what I could do with the new skills. Really enjoyed Venom Gyre and felt like it was the strongest option with a little investment so this is what I came up with. I'll do my best to include item progression options from budget to expensive and explain the reasoning for each.

Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_yzC0WAQsZ3-78p_6dHSHy90E4tQ_p_3

Pros:
-Clears all content handily
-Can run all but one map mod
-Fast
-Satisfying popping noises
-Very safe mapping

Cons:
-Manual and passive evasion are your main defense

PoB:
Passive Trees for 30/50/95
https://pastebin.com/sVLTu9Qp
(Shaper dps is unrealistic but it seems like every build guide has the PoB warrior tooltip included so I had to)

Venom Gyre vs Cobra Lash:
A lot of people ask why venom gyre over cobra lash. Honestly I think it comes down to personal preference, there is very little numeric difference between the two skills. Cobra Lash hits harder but Venom Gyre applies two poisons for a total of 1.25x damage. I haven't played with the Cobra Lash enchant but for me the clear on Venom Gyre just feels better. The build can be used for both skills, you'll just want to switch out the Lioneye's for something else if you're using Cobra Lash.

Your PoB includes Blade Flurry???
Blade flurry is still the best option for single target DPS and the tree and gear can be swapped to blade flurry with no changes. If for some reason you find yourself struggling with bosses this might help you.

Gear:
Helmet
Spoiler

For the exile with deep pockets you are looking for the "35% chance to keep caught projectiles" enchant on a rare helmet. There isn't much benefit from elder or shaper bases so just snag an i84 Lion Pelt with the enchant.

You'll want to craft it with Pristine/Abberant resonators and you're looking for +life +% life and -9% chaos resistance for nearby enemies. Something like the following:



For the budget version pick yourself up a Starkonja's.


Chest
Spoiler

If you've decided to play Venom Gyre get yourself a Lioneye's Vision. They're cheap and its an all around decent item with 100 hp and a free pierce support (saving us 3 points on the tree)



There are other options for chest armor such as Dendrobate, Cherubim's or Yriel's Fostering. You'll have to do the math yourself to see if the damage those add is worth more or less than 3 points on the tree. It is entirely possible one of them could be.


Gloves
Spoiler

To me the most important part of this build is the gloves. I honestly don't understand how these gloves don't get more use. Asenath's Gentle Touch provides several powerful bonuses to the build. It curses enemies with Temporal Chains on hit causing our poisons to last longer and the enemies to move slower. It blinds enemies that are near other enemies we've killed providing a powerful defensive boost to our build. Finally, it causes enemies that die near enemies we've killed to explode for a percentage of their hp, this is a huge augment to our clearspeed. You will absolutely notice the difference going from rare gloves to Asenath's.

I do not recommend switching to Asenath's until you have Impresence anointed with whispers of doom or some other source of +1 curse for your build. Don't waste money anointing a cheap amulet with whispers of doom just to get the gloves working.



If you can't afford Asenath's then find yourself a pair of rare gloves with attack speed, life, phys damage to attacks and an open prefix for you to craft chaos damage to attacks.


Boots
Spoiler

Not much to say about boots, get as much life and res as you can here.




Belt
Spoiler

Again, not a super interesting choice. As much life and res as you can get. A Stygian Vise is ideal but any belt will do. Crafting a belt with an Abberant fossil can get you a % chaos damage prefix and a Corroded fossil can get you a % damage with ailments suffix. The ideal belt would have life, 30% chaos damage, 40% ailment damage and an open prefix to craft the generic %damage bench craft.




Rings
Spoiler

Rings are pretty straightforwards, as much life, strength and res as you can get, flat phys is a luxury. Make sure they have an open prefix so that you can flex between flat chaos and -mana when you get your full aura setup going. I could probably pick up some damage by trading the diamond ring in for one with more res and getting a fossil crafted belt.





Amulet
Spoiler

The expensive option here is either Impresence or Aul's Uprising (Malevolence). Either will open up precision as a 4th mana reserving buff. Aul's will likely open up even more options. With either option you will need to anoint it with Whispers of Doom (Black/Golden/Golden) to allow Asenath's Gentle Touch to function.



The cheap option is any rare amulet with life, stats and as much damage as you can fit (flat phys, multi etc). You can anoint twin terrors for a cheap DPS upgrade (Clear/Azure/Black)

As mentioned above, I don't recommend investing into the Whispers of Doom until you have both and Impresence and Asenath's Gentle Touch. Anointing a cheap amulet with whispers of doom is a waste and Asenath's without +1 curse is also a waste.


Weapons
Spoiler

The expensive options is fossil crafting Imperial or Gemini claws with Abberant/Corroded fossils in order to get the '60% chance for poisons inflicted with this weapon to deal 100% more damage' mod. I used Corroded/Aberrant/Shuddering/Sanctified and got both my weapons in a handful of rolls. You can also just use Aberrant/Corroded/Metallic along with Orbs of Annulment to get poison/added chaos and multimod but that is a bit more expensive for not a lot more damage.




The budget version is two The Wasp Nest claws. The most important roll is the attack speed but try to get the best you can afford. The prices vary wildly depending on rolls so sometimes you can snipe a cheap one with good rolls if you're patient.


Flasks
Spoiler

Pretty standard stuff here. You could use a Bottled Faith instead of the Sulphur Flask but I didn't feel the relatively small dps increase justified the price tag.



If you don't have an Impresence swap the Sulphur Flask for a Witchfire Brew


Jewels
Spoiler

Here are the good mods:
% crit multi with one handed melee weapons
% crit multi while dual wielding
% attack speed with claws
% damage with poison
% poison duration/% chance to poison

Other mods are still good but these are the best in slot.


Last edited by Aeoliana on Sep 16, 2019, 2:03:04 PM
Last bumped on Jan 14, 2020, 12:48:00 PM
Hello! Thx for the guide
How is assassin compares to pathfinder with poison prolif?
Thx
Assassin is always going to do more damage, but I think with low gear level pathfinder might feel better to play in terms of how quickly you clear maps and deal with blights because of the proliferation mechanic. At higher gear levels I think assassin is better all around. That being said I haven't tried pathfinder so I can't say for sure!
Last edited by Aeoliana on Sep 15, 2019, 8:27:45 PM
Added videos, some are still uploading. Won't be adding more as I'm selling off the gear to make my next build.
Pantheon?
can i start league with this?
Hello fellow Exiles!

I just wanted to show you the new claw I crafted and I'm thinking about starting a mirror service if anyone is interested (or I might just sell for 200ex). 5 T1s and crafted 20% IAS. It has all white sockets, so it would be 30ex and the mirror, and you have yourself the #1 claw on the server.

IGN Ken__Kaniff




PS I am still divining to get a perfect roll!

Thanks and good luck out there!
IGN Ken__Kaniff
Last edited by Knightmare101 on Jan 15, 2020, 6:23:34 PM

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