[2.4] Fairgraves' Drinking Blade Vortex (life build, Shaper deathless)

EDIT:
16.10 Twitch deleted videos after 30 days, need to make new ones
21.09 Damage resistance information, added some more map and flask help
12.09 Shaper deathless, Frenzy added
11.09 2.4 update, Shaper and Vaal Temple done. Added Shaper video.
28.03 Confirmed infinite flasks with Master Surgeon.
19.03 Decided that I'm ready for Tier 15 Colosseum with pretty hard mods. That was my worst nightmare for flask sustain. Was bloody easy and quick.
14.03 Added forgotten rings and amulets. Every map up to Tier 14 completed. Added some mapping information.

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This is an end game build capable of going against any bosses in the game (Shaper, Guardians, Vaal Temple for example) and clearing high tier maps and going through Labyrith quickly. It is very tanky, but still having enough dps and movement speed to speed run when necessary. Clear speed is good, but not close to the quickest clear speed builds there are. I personally hate dying and love high tier maps, so this is geared towards that. This is also a life build. Most similar builds are ES builds and I used to always make ES builds. Now I prefer life builds and made it that way. If you want an ES build or low-life build then look to other direction.

I don't know any game effect except for reflect when not having flasks up that can actually kill this build when it is face tanking /well maybe a combination of many). And of coarse Shapers blue balls that automatically kill anything they come close to during Zana phase. I did even face tank Shapers beam.

This is a crit build which can get charges quickly and take as much effect from Master Surgeon as possible.

Many items I use are now legacy items, but pretty much any can be changed to current versions without losing much. Without legacy Vinktar one does need Vaal Pact and need to use rare boots.

This is a flask build. So if you hate flasks then skip this totally. Although no-one who hates flasks will be doing a Pathfinder.

What makes this build strong then? Here are some of the elements of why does it survive so well (stats under flasks and auras):

- Able to do any content in the game
- Elemental resistances (93/93/89), picking the low resistance according to map (non-legacy will have 92/92/88)
- Chaos resistance 74%
- Spell block 75%
- Flask effect 50%+
- Flasks without refills will last for 20 seconds (either 2 long uses or 3 shorter uses)
- Infinite flasks with Master Surgeon
- Instant very high life leech and mana leech (mana leech without legacies is non-instant)
- 87% of phys damage taken converted to high elemental resistances and having 7k armor to mitigate that 13% left over (when using Rumi)
- 30% evade chance
- 6 Frenzy charges giving high life regen (nothing without legacies, although this is just a bonus), not needed. Other choise is 5 PC and 4 FC (respec bandit and 2 points in tree.
- Very high movement speed and quick Whirling Blades
- Immune to Elemental Status effects (Master Alchemist).
- Every non-immune monster is Shocked before getting hit
- Enough mana regen to cover 20 blades before bosses.

Cons

- Does not kill all monsters on the screen immediatelly (Increased AoE helps)
- Active game style with flasks
- Reflect if not having flasks on
- Only 5,3k life, but that seems to be well enough with phys, spell and ele mitigation of the build.


DPS

Cast time 0,25 sec, 15,5k tooltip dps without flasks.




Character Sheet

Offense (without Flasks and Charges and etc.)

Defense (with PoF and PoL)

Misc



Links

BV
Spell Echo - Increase Critical Strikes - Physical to Lightning - Added Fire - Culling Strike
It's hard to get 4 blue sockets on Coil, so Culling Strike is a pretty good compromise with damage, cast speed and culling, best of the green supports.

Aura links
Purity of Fire, Ice and Lightning + Enlighten lvl 4.
Purity of Fire can be changed to Herald of Ash when not needing another purity (PoL is needed because of my lightning resistances).

Curse links
Enfeeble/Assassin's Mark - Enlighten lvl 3 - Blasphemy - Vaal Grace
Vaal Grace for emergencies. Enfeeble against Guardians, Shaper, Vaal Temple.

Whirling Blades
Fortify - Faster Attacks

CWDTs
Tempest Shield - Culling Strike - Ice Golem
These don't do much. Use what you want.

Utility
Orb of Storms - Power Charge on Critical - Frenzy
Blind is the old choice. Changed it to Frenzy to keep up with frenzy charges against Shaper and Guardians.


Items

Chest
Lightning Coil. This is where we get lot of our physical mitigation. I've also used Carcass Jack a lot, but it's less durable against high end bosses and this build can really get the most out of LC.


Boots
The Blood Dance or Rare Boots. Blood Dance gives us Frenzy Charges and life regen. Also it has good movement speed. I'm more after the Frenzy Charges here. Without it would need some other way to generate them. Rare boots would be about movement, life and resistances.


Gloves
Rare gloves or Maligaros. I use Rares to get life and resistances.


Helmet
Rare Helmet to get life and resistances


Fairgraves' Tricorne (anymore only if using Veteran Bowyer and Master Herbalist. This is a bad helmet, but can only get Cannot be Shocked from here or from flasks. As our flask slots are in heavy use I use Fairgraves. And there are some fishy interactions with this helmet. So I'm pretty proud with having an endgame build Fairgraves'. Have been calling it my signature item :)


Belt
The Retch (or Magnate, Faminebind or Feastbind) or a rare belt with high life and 17%+ Reduced Flask Charges used and high Increased Flask Effect duration.


Shield
Saffell's Frame. This gives us our spell block and higher maximum resistances. Really useful with this build. Aegis Aurora is another choice, but then would need a bit more ES (current ES 122) and some other small chances, but was going to try this some day. Aegis gives 5% max cold res. Could use another weapon or a Rathpit for example to get higher dps. But I did build this around high maximum resistance.


Amulet and Rings
Resistances and Life are most important. After filling resistances Crit is nice.



Weapon
Rare spell dagger or Divinarius. Want a dagger for high crit and Whirling Blades. Rare is better than Divinarius, but Divinarius is also ok and has more area. Can't go wrong with that. High ilvl Kris daggers are best with 80% innate global crit. Did craft my own dagger and have quite a many good ones crafted also, just using the best of them.

Mods to look for:
Spell Damage
Critical Strike Chance for Spells
x Damage to Spells
Global Critical Strike Multiplier
Amulet and Rings
Rare versions are the best ones.
mods to look after:
High life rolls
Resistances (especially Chaos)
Mana regen (and mana)
After you have enough resistances: Crit, Spell Damage, Cast Speed, Rarity

Jewels
3 x Life and damage (phys, spell, area) are best mods. After that mana mods are also good.
1 x Conqueror's Potency

Flasks
Vessel of Vinktar, Taste of Hate (these are the 2 most important parts)
Rumis to take Spell Block to 75%
Ruby Flask with Staunching mod (sometimes Amethyst flask with Staunching). I really feel that Staunching is still necessary because of BVs high hit rate (Master Surgeon only removes bleed when using a flask).
Life Flask to help in emergencies when not life leeching and also in Labyrinth.
Diamond flask against Guardians and Shaper.
In some maps 2nd Vinktar is a nice backup (some Guardians for example).
When there are no mana regen it's nice to only use 2 auras and take a mana flask for accidents.
Doedre's Elixir has also good use with charges. But it's really a secondary choice when compared to those other choices. You only basically gain endurance charges and have an easy charge generation.

Only VoV and ToH are with me always. Otherwise I really do change flasks from time to time.

Here are flasks I'm currently using:





Bandits

Life/passive/Frenzy Charge


Passive Tree

Here is Passive Tree for lvl 94, which is my target tree. If not using legacy Vinktar you need to drop 4 nodes and get Vaal Pact.
Duration and Flask Nodes are the most important nodes to get. They are worth their salt in this build. Also get high life, some frenzy charges. This is a crit build so crit nodes and spell/physical damage helps BV. Also trying to get at least one of the Area node places. Would like to have more AoE, but really can only get the Witch ones easily enough.
If you want more duration, then drop Cruel Preparation and Deep Thoughts and 1 spell damage node near Witch.
Will get nice mana regen from Arcane Chemistry, Druidic Rite and Primal Spirit. My BV costs 44 mana with Echo so aim is 88 mana reg (I have just that)

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAIDAABeAO4EBwVCBbUILgj0DlwRLxUgFr8ZjiL0I_YknST9JpUqCypNLJws6TB8MZ41kjY9N0w31DpYOuE9Xz7PPydBlkQNRX5KyEyzTZJN41BCUUdSU1M1VIJVS1WFVa5VxlltXfJfKl-YYeJiWmKsakNqjGr6bAtsjG0ZbqpwUnX9fXV_gIPbhG-Gs4nTjDaNfY2Sjb-TJ5eVl_SbjZ2qnrehL6LZo4qj76XLpleus7DYtMW1SLXyvOq95r6KwFTC7MedyBTI8M8y0B_Q9dN-1ELYvedU62Pr5O0_7YPuDu967-vxbfJF9W_2o_c9_gr-j_66_xD_3g==?accountName=Iceclad&characterName=Alianar



Damage resistance

Damage resistance

Here are some figures about how durable this build is. I'll do some straight comparison to ES builds which makes the figures more comparable. I did count some damage situations in game and turn them to how much ES would compare to my life amount in that situation. Gives some easy comparisons. I'm too used to ES so these did help me at least.
In any case it's not wrong to say that this build doesn't die when flasks are up and you are leeching.
These don't figure out any evasion (I have 4k), block, spell block or Enfeeble. Just straight up damage taken.

Comparison against ES with 84% resistances and Taste of Hate
Physical damage: 17,5k ES
Elemental (my 93% res): 12k ES
Elemental (my 89% res): 7,7k ES

Comparison against ES with 75% resistances
Physical damage: 28,5k ES
Elemental (my 93% res): 19k ES
Elemental (my 89% res): 12k ES

Here are same damage comparisons when enemy has 10% penetration to elemental damage
Comparison against ES with 84% resistances and Taste of Hate
Physical damage: 10,5k ES
Elemental (my 93% res): 8,2k ES
Elemental (my 89% res): 6,6k ES

Comparison against ES with 75% resistances
Physical damage: 15,5k ES
Elemental (my 93% res): 11k ES
Elemental (my 89% res): 8,9k ES



Mapping

Mods to reroll:
No leech
Be very careful mods:
Ele reflect (be very careful, use Life Leech gem just in case or Warlords on Blasphemy)
Max res (weakens defenses a lot, be careful with Touch of God and Teleport Slam for example)

Only no leech is a nightmare. Have done all of the Guardians with all other mods except No leech. Only need to pick which Purities and which auras (or non in blood magic) to use and which flasks to take with you.

Other mods are not that bad. Bad combo of Be very careful mods can also be rerolled. Always check combination of mods just in case and evaluate your chances. I normally run all maps with 80%+ Quantity and do pick hard combinations. Build can survive very hard damage mod combinations.

In Hall of Grandmasters you can change Spell Echo to Concentrated Effect and Culling Strike to Block reduction. After these changes you can kill everyone.



Video

Need to make new videos. Didn't know Twitch deletes videos after 30 days.



Credits

Personally I started playing around February 2013. Have had many builds and many characters in between. Also had some time when I was on a break. So I've had the hours to play the game and gather some wealth to make new builds. Although I tend to waste everything on new builds I make.

Initial inspiration for the build was the first Blade Vortex video. Blade Vortex is the most fun skill I've used so far in this game.

For my first BV builds I was influenced by different builds by MatrixFactor. He makes the most well thought out builds. Some ideas were also gathered from Aim_Deeps BV build in 2.1.
Also Ceryneians Tiurakh's Ascension and xMustards BV build has had some influence.

All of them seem to know their game and mechanics well.
IGN Eilonway
IGN Daynendas
Last edited by Iceclad on Oct 16, 2016, 11:51:39 AM
Last bumped on Oct 16, 2016, 10:45:38 AM
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IGN Eilonway
IGN Daynendas
I'm playing a similiar version of this in Perandus SC atm. It's pretty much Nugiyen's build I'm using. I'm lvl 76 right now (my Profile is open) and i can say this kicks ass and is so enjoyable to play (if you are not pissed using flasks every few seconds). I don't have Lightning Coil or Rumi's yet (and ofc no Legacy Vinktars), so I'm using only ToH and a Granite Flask for defence, which is actually enough at this lvl. I didn't skill into VP yet because I'm not feeling I need to atm. But i have to at a higher lvl I guess, which isn't a problem at all. Luckily I bought a legacy Vinktars like 2 hours before Patch notes were released (lucky me). I definetly think this is viable without a legacy Vinktars. I'm pretty hyped right now ^_^

PS: Perandus League is awesome and hella lot of fun to play
Your build looks good. Never watched Nugiyen's stream so don't know exactly what kind of BV he is using, but your build looks quite close to one of my initial Ranger build from last set (used to try with Witch, Scion and Ranger in last set). It's also a good route to go through Templar side. Get's more AoE. I decided for more damage and crit from Assassin side. Your build is probably better for fast clearing.

It could be that Rumi's is just over the top in my build also, but better be safe than sorry. Have thought about taking hard bosses without Rumi's and see how it goes. Still like the idea of a Granite Flask as that armor helps a lot after initial mitigation.

Have to admit that Vaal Pact is only necessary once damage starts to be higher. Before that one doesn't need it. It only starts to pay off later on. Big packs on reflect maps and also when damage starts to be very very high is it needed. Before that there's really on use.

I'm lucky to also own a legacy Vinktar. But it's definitely not needed.

BV is so fun to play. It's the most enjoyable skill to use atm :)

IGN Eilonway
IGN Daynendas
Yeah I really like the AoE radius of BV with the templar nodes. I didn't feel like i need to get more crit so I just went to templar area. i got about 37% crit Chance atm which i can push to around 40+ using better items easily. I think so too, BV is so fun to Play. Clear speed in maps is also very nice. With all the increased Flask effect nodes it is also very fast while moving. Just pop a nicely rolled Quicksilver and nobody is faster than you, not even Whirling Blades ;). Needless to say the flasks are always up with all the Flask nodes.

Most enjoyable build I've played since I joined 2013.
up !!!!!!!!!!!!
that is quite tanky. i'd like to hear about your experience with master surgeon's, how helpful it ends up being for you and such.

does master surgeon's make the retch more desirable for the longer duration in order to gain stacks? i still imagine the rare belt with duration/less charges used would still be better, as it charges faster and with 3 uses will ultimately outlast 2 uses of the retch.......or does it?
Have to say that it's been really surprising that I actually don't run out of charges in long boss fights. At least not so far. I've now been to every single map up to tier 14. My dps is not even close to highest dps Blade Vortex builds and have been playing a lot in bigger parties with low dps characters and still haven't ran out of charges. For example Conservatory where some party members hide takes some time to kill. Have gone through 5-6 rounds of flask charges with Master Surgeon.

Although that's not the best example as there are also some adds. I've used Warbands mod in all high tier maps as they have huge hp pool and also "dodge" a lot. That might be a better indicator of charges holding.

I think the real test will still be tier 15 Colosseum. After that can be pretty sure if Master Surgeon is enough.

My theory is that high duration from flasks is better for Master Surgeon, even though in other situations a good rare is better. Reduced flask charges gained doesn't affect Master Surgeon (at least to my knowledge), so longer (10 seconds) duration adds more efficiency to gain those extra charges from Surgeon compared to a Rare which has Reduced Charges used.

In any case it has been surprisingly good. Thought it would be worse with 10% Master Surgeon and nerfed Blade Vortex.
IGN Eilonway
IGN Daynendas
Added forgotten rings and amulets and some mapping information. Completed all maps up to Tier 14 at least once. All with at least 80%+ quantity.
IGN Eilonway
IGN Daynendas
Nice looking build!! I am going to try it for sure!

how did you level? did you use BV to level?

thanks !

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