[2.4] Different Take on LL BV Pathfinder

Hey, just a quick guide of an alternate take I did on Low Life Blade Vortex Pathfinder. This is a build guide for my attempt to min/max my Pathfinder, but there are notes for temp leagues and relatively budget options at the bottom. This is my first time ever writing a guide so if I missed anything obvious please let me know so I can add it.

I sometimes stream at https://www.twitch.tv/equisscry, feel free to ask any questions you have there.

This build has done all available content deathless pretty easily. Shaper is a pushover, Uber Atziri goes down very easily. All T16 guardian maps go down very easily even with rough mods. I've died many times playing this build, but the number of deaths to non-guardians, uber atziri and shaper is 1, I lagged against Core Malachai. The build is very hardcore viable, just don't do content you haven't practiced in softcore repeatedly.

Videos:
Spoiler
FYI: This is the first time I've ever recorded any videos, so be gentle.
Uber Atziri: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lieUVcyWG6E
Forge of the Phoenix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNN7HpbV3Ms
Shaper(mic was muted accidently): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg6a-modOqI


Ascendancy:
Instead of Master Herbalist + Veteran Bowyer, I grab Nature's Boon + Master Alchemist. The primary reason for doing so is the immunity to elemental statuses during flask effect, which is effectively always. This allows us to not need a freeze/chill and shock immune flask, instead we get to use a 4th unique flask and a Quicksilver of Warding. The 4th unique flask is Dying sun which provides more than enough area to allow us to drop Increased Area of Effect support gem in favor of another damage gem.
Spoiler

Pros:
---8% reduced elemental damage taken(assuming 84% max resist with flasks, this is effectively another 1.28% max resist).
---20% chance for flasks to not use charges + 1 flask charge gained every 3 seconds. These don't sound like much but over long fights like Shaper, Hydra and Phoenix it really does help.
---20% increased flask charges gained is much better than the useless attack damage + increased damage over time nodes.
---Get to use dying sun, drop inc aoe, add controlled destruction support.
---Another flask suffix. I use Warding, Adrenaline is also an option.

Cons:
---You lose the poison, 10% added damage as an element and the 10% elemental penetration. This is a lot of damage, but is mostly offset by the fact we get an addition damage support gem since we don't need the Increased Area of Effect support gem.
---Lose 30% chaos resist during flasks.
---Don't get double flask charges when killing an enemy with an elemental status. This is not that relevant as the only time this build runs out of flask charges is when there are no small minions to kill.

If you're wondering why I keep saying that we only get to use Dying Sun with these ascendency choices: it's because if we don't take it we need to be both freeze(we're low life) and shock(Vinktar's) immune with flasks. This means we need 2 non unique flask suffixes. Our 3 unique flasks would certainly be Rumi's, Taste of Hate and Vessel of Vinktar.

By using these ascendancy choices we get a flask suffix of our choice. My choice is Warding for map content, but you can use adrenaline if you like to clear content even faster.


Passive Tree:
Tree is very typical, just note that I don't take Vaal Pact because legacy vinktar's. Obviously take this if you don't have one.

I also don't take Shaper(the 40% mana regen node). If my jewelry had less mana regen I'd pick it up probably, but I didn't really notice a difference when I dropped it.


My Gear:
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Flasks:
Spoiler

This build really is all about the flasks. We use 4 unique flasks all which provide insane bonuses. The 3 resist flasks allow us to easily hit resist cap in elemental weakness maps and bump us up to 84% maximum resist(85 lightning). Taste of Hate provides additional damage along with physical mitigation, Dying Sun increases our area of effect and Vessel of Vinktar is the backbone of the build providing both life and mana leech and shocking everything nearby.

However with that said, Rumi's Concoction is probably the best flask. A legacy roll of 35% or higher block will move your block from 25% to the 75% cap which is insane, while providing around 25-30% spell block. Even non-legacy Rumi's would be an auto-include for the build, but if you have an older one use it.

The final flask is a Quicksilver of Warding. For any bosses that you don't kill too quickly you can swap this flask out for one that better handles the situation such as a Staunching for Atziri Trio, Basalt/Jade for more physical mitigation or even an Atziri's Promise for additional dps.

Last note is that Dying Sun + any projectile glove enchant is hilarious. Commandment of Winter in particular clears entire packs by itself with 3 projeciles.



Gear:
Spoiler

-Uniques are Shav's and Skyforth.

-Gloves/Helmet/Shield: Get as much ES as you can, resists, int and mana(mana increases stun threshold) are nice too. Shield can get spell crit which is great. Helmet enchant of Blade Vortex Duration or Radius is nuts, try for that.

-Jewelyry
--All jewelry wants an open prefix for crafted %ES.
--Try to get some mana regen. I went overboard on mana regen and regret it, but at least a total of 80% would be a good idea.
--Amulet you want crit and crit multi.
--Diamond rings are ideal, but as you can see I don't even have them yet.
--Belt I highly recommend a crystal belt with as many flask mods on them as you can get(reduced charges used and flask duration are amazing).
--Also you'll need some strength for gem requirements on your jewelry.

-Dagger for whirling blade/faster attacks/fortify. Either buy a GG dagger or craft one like mine(hybrid spell damage + flat ele to spell 2 mod, then multimod spell damage, spell crit chance, crit multi).



Links:
Spoiler
Blade Vortex, Spell Echo, Increased Critical Strikes, Increased Duration are the mandatory starting 4 Link. There are fights where it would be better to swap the inc duration for Empower, but it's really not necessary.

5th link you add Critical Damage

6th link you add Controlled Destruction.

If you don't have Dying Sun you'll probably want to use an Increased Area Gem.

For certain fights where your flask charges are very important it's good to swap out Controlled Destruction for Concentrated Effect. You'll do more damage and trigger the 10% chance on crit to gain a flask charge more often. Shaper, Phoenix, Hydra, Minotaur, Uber Atziri come to mind.

For other links, just look at my items.


Stats Screenshots:
Spoiler
Defense: http://imgur.com/LK2igZ0

Defense with flasks: http://imgur.com/aHfBpJE

DPS just auras: http://imgur.com/Vbjq2Eq

DPS with flasks and charges: http://imgur.com/1ty1hEZ


Map Mods:
Spoiler
Skip Blood Magic. You can do no Leech, but roll over it on any boss where you rely on leech.

Every other mod you can do. You can do -max+ double reflect, just be sure your flasks are up when you hit things. For physical reflect you can swap in a physical to lightning for safety, but it's not necessary.

For no regen maps I tend to turn off Haste to give myself more unreserved mana. Turn off your blasphemy instead if the map is also hexproof though.


Temp League advice:
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I worked my way up into most of this gear, so I can assure you this build would work in a temp league and just get better as your budget expands. The primary problem would be leech on bosses, as it's basically impossible to maintain a Vinktar uptime with the nerf of 80-100% increased flask charges used. To fix this the leech boot enchant would cover you for 95% of content(however it's probably not enough leech to do double reflect). Swap a life leech gem in place of Increased Duration for any boss you can't maintain the boot enchant.

The other legacy items I use are Rumi's and Taste of Hate. These are both just slight number nerfs, still use them.


Budget concerns:
Spoiler
No Shavronne's Wrappings? You're CI, Auras are Hatred, Discipline, Herald of Ice, Clarity. Enlighten level 2 required at least.

No Skyforth? You won't be able to use Clarity on Blood Magic, Haste will need to be a smaller aura such as a purity or herald of lightning. Also use an Eye of Chayula.

No Dying Sun? You'll have to use Increased Area of Effect.

No Vessel of Vinktar? Leech Boot enchant, careful on reflect.
IGN EquiFire
Last edited by Equis on Oct 14, 2016, 10:12:33 AM
Last bumped on Oct 14, 2016, 10:10:50 AM

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