[2.2] 700k+ Tanky Low Life Blade Vortex | HC/SC | Videos | Uber Viable?

Hey guys, I recently ripped to a twinned Springs with this build in PHC at lvl 94 (zzZZzz mindlessly grinding EZ maps and forgot about 1 shot corpse explode, just barely clipped me - RIP 50+ exa).

Planned to shoot for 100 with this build, and wasn't going to post a guide until at least level 97.

Dying when and how I did was REALLY disheartening (especially since I didn't get most of my challenges done first), but I did some continued testing on SC these past 24 hours and feel that this build is worth sharing!

My gear is in no way fully min/maxed, still missing some damage from passives, fully optimized jewels, a better dagger than *cough* Divinarius, could run a High ES + Crit/Spell Daamage shield (probably better in most situations), missing spell damage on neck, cast speed (or cold damage) on rings + Diamond base, etc.

I believe this build is capable or reaching close to if not exceeding 800k sustained DPS, with 10K+ es and insane defensive stats (with some more min/maxing)!

Pros

High Damage + High Mobility = Great Clear Speed

Currently around 416k sustained Dps on Increased AoE and 651k Conc Effect (with no Rallying Cry)

Insane Defensive Stats + 3.5% Insant Leech

Passive Power (6) + Endurance Charges(3)

340-350 total % ES + 40% increased Flat ES from Shield

5 Auras on with 3 Enlighten - Discipline, Hatred, Herald of Ash, Purity of Fire, Blasphemy (Warlord's Mark)

Very fun to play!

Cons

Cannot run certain Map Mods (Curse Immune, No Regen, -Max in T12+ can be sketchy cause of volatile, running vuln in T12+ also not recommended, Blood Magic, Phys Reflect is probably bad, but haven't tried it, etc.)

Somewhat expensive (20-25 exa to get going in PHC, maybe less if you can find good deals)

Requires a fair amount of micro management (if caught slacking in the wrong situation, you WILL die)

A lot of our defense comes from flasks which should be up AT ALL times.

With the alchemist notable, flask duration on belt, and the Pathfinder Ascendancy; there is no reason to not have 100% uptime on all flasks!

Videos!

Twinned Abyss first Kaom down in 6s Flat


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnnUhKLazqI&feature=youtu.be

This is when I was testing on Standard (started the fight with only Vaal Disc and no flasks up just to see how hard they hit, and never popped my ruby).



2 Minute Gorge Clear


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSb9vgv1lRs

Could probably make 90s if I tried a little harder... Possible to make whirling blades faster with a 1.5 IAS Dagger (also missing 3% AS from quality, and can get more from Jewels for speed clearing)



Normal Atziri Run + Uber Twinned Vaals and ZZZ RIP to Uber Trio


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-t_pBCm4VA&feature=youtu.be

Normal Atziri was obviously a snooze fest with this build.

Uber twinned Vaals were also very easy.

I died to the Trio, but I'm still very confident that this build is uber viable on HC.

This was my first time doing any of the fights on either difficulty, and I can't say that I did as much research as I should have before trying it.

Was very tired, and not really trying as hard as I should have been while doing this, mistakes were made.

I killed Y'ara'az first by mistake instead of A'alai - error #1

I didn't space flasks properly and ran out of charges + duration - error #2

Stood on the corpse of the first guy after he died and stopped leeching with no flasks up, which I'm pretty sure is what got me killed. - error #3

Should probably drop immortal call for Molten Shell, and Rallying Cry for Enduring Cry. An extra 12% impenetrable mitigation + molten shell is probably better here than no charges at all with a barely noticeable IC.

Will test again and upload a deathless kill when (and if) I can another Uber Set on Standard.




Skill Trees

Ascendancy+Bandits


Berserker THEN Pathfinder (the 1.5% guaranteed leech is needed vs Curse Immune packs)

Help Kraityn in Normal for +10 all Resist

Kill all in Cruel for Point

Help Alira in Merciless for Power Charge





Planned lvl 100 Tree


For me it was pretty much a toss up between Nimbleness and the Inc AoE at the start of Scion for the last 3 points, you could also opt for more ES, crit chance (not necessary), Trickery, etc.

Now that I think of it, those last 3 points might be best used by picking up the +20 Dex and 5th Jewel slot near the Shadow Power Charge (will also save us 1 point if we get +9 Dex on a Jewel). Going this route and speccing out of our +30 Dex node leaves us at 150, 21 Blade vortex requires 159.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAAAhnkzq9JxhWGDz56ILHKPodvlfJM4cNfDeDA-7quqbrtAwspsrTRnGycJDWvorhiIMJKlOTJ6EvHapvnn_G74h718pKnKSioyepflkRlvk3X7CHE8HzD8QHHg5I18-btXcHXIqVIDt8lS5d8uOESbHDOoTFLR-4yvDVKgsrCg3RGYoqOEyzj_pJUXBSES9jQ_sJrrNFftAfl5VCSyBu0NBcQOv162P22kGWDlzv61JThcVQMF9qVL3DCbVIGo8FQtD1avo9X5f0377bXhXtuZPUQiycbRmWi_IdhG8RUNlb1bl1_TW5GyUWv6crS67pAi-dFvMmPA==


Tree that I used for leveling (life based with MoM)


There is likely a more efficient way to go about doing this (one that will cost less Regrets later on). I had a fair amount of currency to play with and pretty much did my leveling build on the fly. This route will require around 59 respec points @ 70

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAALfWvrzbWYLkLaiQEbGQiq-DCUrIb55uqspK8bOcpLXyX7BLV4cTNZKbtcDjdwf-j9i9wzpN4_4KGYqmV_JFtz77CTrhQYf22vnoGo-Cxyj6Hb64kzOHHNwD7uvufIOa4IUyMtERLUWdRUcsnFNStQTAZgVC5CIEszwFQZYabNWmogDvfK6z0PU26fAfTLMkqgQHl5UgbhZvg9tSU1Aw42pVxj1fl_TbXjpYbRkI9MBUvOpqQ-vkXyo=




Gearing

Recommended Links


For early leveling slap Blade Vortex in a Lifesprig with something like Faster Casting and Added Fire

5L/6L - Blade Vortex - Faster Casting - Spell Echo - Increased Crit Chance - Increased Aoe/Conc Effect - Crit Damage

Running Crit Damage on a 5L over AoE/Conc will give better general use damage, but you miss the Radius while AoE Clearing, and the increased single target damage on bosses. I prefer to not run Crit Damage until 6L

4L x 1 - lvl 3 Enlighten - Purity of Fire - Hatred - Discipline

Prior to lvl 3 Enlighten, you can drop the Purity and run these Auras in a 3L, in that case you would bring the 3L CWDT Setup the the 4L and run either molten shell (if you can get 4 red), or something like frost breath otherwise. Just make sure to balance resists around having the Purity and don't run ele weakness maps until you do.

4L x 2 - Vaal Discipline x 2 - Rallying/Enduring Cry - Increased Duration

4L x 3 - Blood Magic (believe it needs to be at least lvl 17) - Blasphemy - Warlord's Mark - Herald of Ash

Before transitioning to Low Life (while leveling), you will want to run a second Blade Vortex setup here (or elsewhere) to generate Power Charges. Blade Vortex - PCoC - Faster Casting - Increased Duration. If you're on a 5L before transition (I was using a 5L Belly), then run Increased AoE in place of Increased Duration to match the radius of your main Blade Vortex.

3L Weapon - Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify

3L Shield - CWDT - Immortal Call - Increased Duration



Current Gear + Jewels


Ideally, you wouldn't be running Divinarius + Rathpith as your default setup.

Our IDEAL Dagger would be any well rolled 1.5 IAS Dagger (all have same implicit 40% crit)

Ideal Shield (for general use) would be a 400+ ES Crit + Spell Damage Titanium Spirit Shield.

Rathpith + Divinarius (or another GG Dagger/ Mirrored version of your own) would be on weapon swap for use in any high spell damage scenario (Megaera, Piety, etc.)












Flask Setup


I would recommend also running Surgeon's on the Basalt Flask (better for long encounters with few adds, like atziri). I had a hard time finding or rolling one, so I settled for reduced charges used (which is also acceptable since basalt has a base of 40/60).

Chemist allows you to get 2 uses out of a full charge on a Basalt Flask, but with how often we deal damage (and at almost 80% crit chance), Surgeon's is definitely the way to go.



This flask setup allows for a lot of versatility.

In any situation where we don't need freeze/curse/bleed immunity, but could benefit from shock immunity, we can simply swap out a flask!

For example - Freeze immunity is not necessary for Uber Atziri, but shock immunity can be benficial (we need the curse/bleed immunity from our other flasks)

So we drop our Basalt of Heat, for a Basalt of Grounding!



There are other situations where this can be done.

For Shrine Piety we would drop our bleed or curse immune flask for a shock immune, etc.



Ideal Stats for Gear+Jewels


Mostly listed in order of importance (prefixes, then suffixes)

Amulet

Spell Damage, % ES, Flat ES, Max Mana

Crit Multi, Crit Chance, x Resist

Rings- Diamond Implicit with GG gears, otherwise two-stone for ele weakness

%ES (Master Crafted), Flat ES, Mana - Resists until 109 to all in Merc

Chaos Res until +5 at least in Merc - Cast Speed - % Cold Damage - + Stat

Belt- Rustic Sash

Flat Es, Armor, Open Prefix (crafted move speed)

18-22% Flask Duration (Important), x2 Resists

Gloves

Maximum ES (if no hybrid %, +mana is a good substitute)

x3 Resists, + Stat

Shield- If not running Rathpith

As much ES as you can get on a Titanium Spirit Shield with 50%+ Spell Damage

x1 Resist, Block Chance, Spell Crit, x2 Resist, Mana Regen

Dagger - 1.5 AS Base

Spell Damage, Spell Damage + Mana, Cold Added to Spells (or other element, cold preferred)

Crit Chance, Cast Speed, Crit Multi

Jewels

% Maximum ES, Spell Damage While Holding a Shield, Physical Damage While Holding a Shield, Spell Damage, Physical Damage

Crit Multi for Spells, Crit Multi, Cast Speed While Holding a Shield, Cast Speed, Attack and Cast Speed, Spell Crit Chance, Global Crit Chance



Offensive Stats

DPS Calculation Notes - Increased Crit Damage vs Increased Duration


Too lazy to spreadsheet.

All Calculations done at 5.65 casts per second (This accounts for spell echo if I'm not mistaken, so we summon 5.65 blades per second)

*8.25s Duration (Helm Enchant + Passives) - Maximum sustained dps only achievable through continuous casting

Inc Aoe - 50409.19 - 415875.8175 Sustained

Around 100k consistent aoe dps if at least 10 blades are maintained while moving, damage will ramp up quickly against anything that doesnt die instantly.

+Rallying Cry - 54274.36

Conc Effect - 78956.95 - 651394.8375 Sustained

+Rallying Cry - 85158.68 - 702559.11 Sustained (Damage will decrease immediately when we stop casting, but again it ramps up faster with higher base damage + lower duration)

@ 11.95 Duration ( + 20/20 Increased Duration in place of Crit Damage ) - After 11.95s of continous casting (or otherwise reaching 50 blades + 3.1s of continuous casting), allows for 3.1s of no casting while maintaining maximum dps (can be primed about half way)

Calculations assume we are always reaching and maintaining 50 blades

Inc Dur + Inc Aoe - 38695.38 - 342436.9911504425 @ 50 Blades

Impractical for speed clearing, will likely be maintaining 15-20 blades which is about 100-125k DPS ( rough estimate.

+Rallying Cry - 42083.35

Inc Dur + Conc - 62175.71 - 550227.5221238938 @ 50 Blades

+Rallying Cry - 66481.92 - -588335.5752212389 @ 50 Blades

I don't feel that the lower base damage would hurt aoe clear speed that much, assuming you cast as often which will cause more blades to be active at any given time.

Each instance of Blade Vortex deals damage once per second, the tooltip DPS displayed is the damage of one instance of Blade Vortex * casts per second

Based on this, we know that we can find the average damage of once instance of Blade Vortex by dividing the Tooltip DPS / Casts Per Second

Tooltip DPS / Casts Per Second * Number of Active Blades (if 50 aren't being maintained) to find total dps.

I prefer running crit damage + helm enchant and no increased duration (seems much more practical, even on a fight like Atziri where 50 blades cam be maintained)



DPS Screenshots


DPS without Rallying Cry (also listed above) and @ 8.25s Duration (Helm Enchant+Passives only)

Inc Aoe - 50,409.19 @ 8.25s

Conc Effect - 78,956.95 @ 8.25s


54k Inc Aoe + Rallying Cry Screen






85k Conc Effect + Rallying Cry Screen








Defensive Stats

Total



10k+ ES Possible with a Titanium Spirit Shield. We have 40% increased flat es from equipped shield (Mind Barrier Cluster), and around 345% total scaling. so Another 200-300 Flat on Shield (+40%) x 3.45. We can also get another 500-1k ES from improving/diving other gear.

Would suggest a Titanium Spirit Shield with at least 400 ES and 50% Spell Damage to replace Rathpith for general use. Crit Chance is obviously recommended but not necessary to merit replacing.

Rathpith would then only be used for situations with high spell damage (Megaera, Piety, etc.)

Total Available HP/ES
(With Rathpith) - 131 + 8141 = 8,272

Resists - 82/82/86 - We take 18/18/14% of Spell Damage which is mitigated another 20% by Fortify. This brings our effective resist to around 85/85/88 if I'm not mistaken.

Block/Spell Block - 64/63 (Only 22 Spell Block without Rathpith)

Impenetrable Physical Mitigation - 38% (26% with no charges)

Armor - 4180 (adds 29% Penetrable Physical Mitigation for 67% Total)

+ Taste of Hate which onverts 26% of Phys Damage to Cold with the Alchemist Notable @ 82 Res

+20% Reduction (Fortify)

If our charges are up (38% Base Mitigation, excluding armor) we will take about 62% of the damage from a big physical hit that will likely penetrate most of our measly 4180 armor.

Taste of Hate is applied first (additional 21.32% reduction), and then Fortify (20%)

62 x .2132 = 13.2

We are now taking 48.8% of that initial hit which is reduced by another 20%.

48.8 x .2 = 9.76

With everything up we take 39.04% from a physical hit (or 48.8% without fortify and totally excluding armor).

Wondering if it's worth dropping Immortal Call for Molten Shell or something (to keep charges up at all times, we would lose a 3s Immoral Call)

Permanent Bleed, Curse, and Chill/Freeze Immunity

50% Shock Avoidance
50% Ignite Avoidance
169% Chill Avoidance
219% Freeze Avoidance




Defensive Stats Notes


I had initially geared around running Purity of Ice to get extra phys mitigation from Taste of Hate. At that point I was in High Tier Ele Weakness range (still over capped by about 10/10/30 with curse immunity).

I later decided to swap to Purity of Fire which I think is a better all around choice (especially for Abyss+Uber).

Just make sure to initially balance your resists off of whichever Purity you plan to run, and getting into Ele Weakness range will not be an issue.



Defensive Stats Screenshots


Without Rumi's or Belt @ 0 Armor


Our block and spell block will always be at 64/63 respectively, but can't display 0 armor with Rumi's up.

Movement Speed is cut off but it's at 34% (can get another 5% on belt for 39% total)





Defensive Stats with Rumi's + Belt @ 4180 Armor








How it Plays


All of my movement/casting is done with my right hand (Move only on left click, Blade Vortex right click, whirling blades Mouse Button 4), this leaves your left hand completely free to keep flasks up + cast vaal disc, rallying cry, or whatever else.

So right hand is designated to only movemeny, left hand is assigned to keys 1-4 and Q,E,R

You can hold down Whirling Blades (mouse button) the ENTIRE time regardless of what you're doing, as long as it's the first command.

Right Click (Blade Vortex) will cause you to stop for sustained DPS (As long as it's the 2nd command entered).

Left Click (Move Only), if entered as the 2nd command will cancer out whirling blades and cause you to move normally until left click is released.

The second command ALWAYS overrides the first, and the first command is ALWAYS resumed when releasing the 2nd command (assuming you're still holding down the button for command 1)

This makes for very easy and fluid game play, initially I thought it would be a bit much to manage until I got this down and my muscle memory kicked in.

So, assign whirling blades to a mouse button, hold it down the entire time. Left click when you want to move normally, right click to stop for sustained DPS, simple!

Our Pathfinder ascendancy gives us 50% increased flask charges gained, this combined with the Alchemist Notable and Flask Duration on our belt means we can EASILY keep our flasks up 100% of the time!

Power and Endurance Charges are passively generated (Skyforth + Warlord's Mark)

In any Situation where Endurance Charges cannot be generated consistently through Warlord's Mark (Atziri), I would recommend dropping Rallying Cry for Enduring Cry, and Immortal Call for Molten Shell or Something Else. This way we can maintain our 3 charges by casting EC once every 9s or so, without them being taken by Immortal Call (and the build is survivable enough to make due without it)

3.5% of Total Damage Leeched as Life (1.5% against curse immune)

2% of Total Damage Leeched as Mana (0% against Curse Immune, no biggie on single packs, cannot run curse immune mod)



Feel free to post any questions or comments!
Last edited by SithSide on Apr 14, 2016, 4:18:20 PM
Last bumped on Jun 3, 2016, 10:01:47 PM
Hey been following your guide for the last week or so, build is fun and i'm currently at 78 in PHC.

Thanks for sharing
Last edited by caarrion on Apr 25, 2016, 1:39:59 AM
Your Build looks good , but lol ... you did INSANE Mistake ... Just Pop Vaal clarity + Vaal haste when you see vaals comming up ,and stack 50 blade vortex . GG vaals down .

Trio : Again insane mistake . you should press vaal clarity + vaal haste and start stacking Blade vortex BEFORE Triggering Trio . ( with 50 stacks you just kill them in like 5 seconds :x )

Atziri : again , you can start casting Blade vortex EVEN in atziri room , without triggering fight.


Remember to use biggest adventage of BV : STACKING 50 BLADES :D


This build is uber viable , just watch other guys killing uber and repeat tactics
Last edited by mysterious11 on May 25, 2016, 1:23:04 PM
Could use something else instead of Skyforth?

Lose a lot? What would I have to change?
"
mysterious11 wrote:
Your Build looks good , but lol ... you did INSANE Mistake ... Just Pop Vaal clarity + Vaal haste when you see vaals comming up ,and stack 50 blade vortex . GG vaals down .

Trio : Again insane mistake . you should press vaal clarity + vaal haste and start stacking Blade vortex BEFORE Triggering Trio . ( with 50 stacks you just kill them in like 5 seconds :x )

Atziri : again , you can start casting Blade vortex EVEN in atziri room , without triggering fight.


Remember to use biggest adventage of BV : STACKING 50 BLADES :D


This build is uber viable , just watch other guys killing uber and repeat tactics


With this iteration of the build, stacking 50 blades isn't possible (no increased duration), but as shown in the DPS Calculations, the overall sustainable DPS is higher with this setup. The only downside to this is that maximum dps is only attainable while standing still and spam casting as it doesn't allow for any downtime before blades start falling off. Basically the amount of time spent not casting, is the amount of time that it will take to get back to maximum dps (assuming you were at cap when you stopped casting, which with this setup was around 43 blades I think).

I didn't have any experience with Atziri before this, and I was just fucking around in SC after the rip.I definitely messed up on the trio, killed the wrong one first and I stood in the ground aoe that they drop on death, was well past my bedtime.

"
caarrion wrote:
Hey been following your guide for the last week or so, build is fun and i'm currently at 78 in PHC.

Thanks for sharing


Thanks man, I was having so much fun with this build last league, Springs RIP pretty much made me salty enough to never play again haha.



"
brunopoke wrote:
Could use something else instead of Skyforth?

Lose a lot? What would I have to change?


It is possible, but I wouldn't recommend it. Would require sacrificing a lot of points to grab unwavering stance (or you would have to get stun immunity elsewhere i.e Eye of Chayula).

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