[3.24] 🗡The Nightblade🗡 Unholy Might : 100% phys converted to chaos

Hey rahsaan,

First of all this build is really fun. I played lightning trapper previously and this Nightblade is so much more entertaining.
Furthermore, thanks for all the comments on the build. They really help with what direction to go.

I'm at lvl 89 and still a bit confused about a few things. I think I got a pretty good deal on a 6 link scourged carcass jack for 45c (like you mentioned in a comment above) and I also lucked out on finding a +1 to blade flurry charges on my starkonja in the eternal labirynth.

I'm in the process of slowly harvest/fossil crafting my new daggers (I got ambushers ilvl 84 and 85), looking for a good amulet (to anoint Ambidexterity/Nightstalker) and saving money for a Ryslatha's coil.

I'm wondering what to do about boots. Is Atziri's Step still so good? I have 100% spell suppression so it would have to come after I switch my tree to the MinMaxed version with Magebane. Otherwise I see no point in it. How would you go about crafting good rare boots for this build?

I'm also a bit confused about the Onslaught. It seems perfect with this build but isn't mentioned anywhere. I've been using the Death Rush ring for some time now and I really like it, I think it fits in. Any reason why you did not include that option?

As a last thing I'm not sure about the auras. I'm barely managing to run Purity of Elements + Petrified blood + lvl1 Precision. I really don't know how you manage to squeeze into your mana reserve a fully lvled vitality or war banner or blood&sand.

Link to my profile

Once again, big love for this build :)

Hi,
thx and good questions.

* Death Rush is cool indeed. I've never included it in my recommendations but it's a good ring. I'm not sure it's enough for endgame, but why not after all ? All these acccuracy and chaos res are nice.
But sometimes, I'm just afraid to recommend too many things and that people get lost among all the options. Also, I don't think about every valuable uniques.
Finally, I'm glad when people doing my build find new options themselves.

* Btw, I have "Onslaught if summoned a totem recently" of a medium cluster jewel (Sleepless Sentries).

* I think the Atziri's Steps are good for white/yellow maps. But I've seen other build use them as part of their endgame setup.
Generally, I use the boots to cap elem res. I also want life, as well as chaos res if possible. You can also find Spell Suppression.
More expensive option : Tailwind. Other possible option : socketed gems are supported by level X Fortify, for the totems.
I'm bad at crafting tbh, I don't know what we would need for each of these options.

* Be mindful that several auras are reserved on the life pool with Arrogance : Vitality, Blood & Sand, War Banner.
Auras reserved on mana are Purity of Elements and Petrified Blood = 85% reserved. I try to squeeze a low level Precision in the remaining % so as to reach 100% hit chance.

About your character :
Widowmaker is nice up until you begin Atlas, but now at level 89, it's insufficient. You can test the Goblinedge instead, or find a good rare.
Boots are good, but they lack life. Same with the amulet : you want +life on it.
If you use Bloodthirst support, your character needs to be on low-life all the time = it need 50% of life reserved for auras with Arrogance. Otherwise, Bloodthirst is useless.
But Low-Life is more an endgame feature.

I will try to clarify the build about this.

Good luck and have fun :)

Hey there, I just wanted to mention that in the cluster jewels section it mentions that the small cluster jewel for Enduring Composure should be Life, but Enduring Composure only roles on small %armor cluster jewels

@Vundecat : ty, will correct it.

*

Non-detrimental implicits in scourged items

GGG likes to inflict maluses on you and see how you manage to get around them, or better yet, how you manage to turn them in your favor.
See the Keystones for instance : you want to cancel the malus and keep only the bonus.
E.g. Vaal Pact : life leech is doubled, no life regeneration --> you want to allocate it on a build that has no life regen in the first place.

It's more difficult with the scourge implicits, where you have detrimental effects that far outweight the beneficial effects in most cases.

> The idea is to find detrimental implicits that are not detrimental for us, e.g. : + Dexterity requirement.

You can find the full list of Scourge mods here : https://poedb.tw/us/mod.php (click a type of item then click the "Blood Crucible" tab).

You can start by searching an item with the right colors and a detrimental implicit. Then see if the beneficial effect is worthwhile.

Here are some suggestions for your researches. You will need to adapt them to your character.

Good luck and have fun :)

*

+ = beneficial implicit
- = detrimental implicit

Helmet :
Starkonja with :
- : +DEX Requirement | Nearby enemies take -9% increased fire dmg | Minions have % reduced max life |

/!\ A scourged Starkonja with the correct implicits AND "+1 BF stage" enchant will be expensive probably.

Gloves :
Shaper's Touch with
+ : an elemental resistance.
- : Your chaos damage cannot poison | Attacks cannot cause bleeding | Minions have less this and that (numerous options)...

When you think about it, having these gloves with some elem res is awesome !

Body armour :
+ : life, life recovery, elem res, Consecrated ground, Magebane Keystone, enemies explode, +DEX...
- : + DEX Requirement

Boots :
- : Brands Have Reduced Duration | Can have 5 fewer traps / mines | -2 to max number of Skeletons/Zombies | + DEX Requirement

Amulet :
- : Your Hits treat Fire Resistance as #% higher than actual value | Brand reduced duration |

Belts and rings : can't find any.

Hello rahsaan,

thank you for this build - I am having a lot of fun and I am hitting first red maps right now. WELL DONE! I especially like the working together of low life, starkonja, petrified blood, bloodthirst ;D

If you have the time it would be very nice if you could have a look in my exported character and give some advice what I should upgrade next:

https://pastebin.com/SeJVMWuv

I know I am missing 4th lab, I will tackle this next.

THANK YOU

"

roman007 wrote:

Hello rahsaan,

Hi,
thx for your appreciation, it's always encouraging for me ;)

Good stuff overall.

Here's what you can improve :

- you lack hit chance (currently 94%), so you should allocate 3pts in Acuity to get 100%.

- your Spell suppression is >100%, so you can remove Quickstep. Also remove a point in the Fleetfoot cluster and the suppression mastery (prevent +2%), this will give you 3 points for Acuity.

- on the amulet, anoint Ambidexterity.

- get Sin's Rebirth flask

- 20% quality on Infused Channeling to get Infusion buff faster

Gl & hf !

"

Don't you struggle with a total of 22% reduced life recovery rate ? (life mastery + scourge on body ?)

(Sorry for the delay!) I'm not sure. It didn't feel terrible, but then again, I have a good chunk of HP (5k+) and wasn't reserving any of it at the time. But changing out that chest / dropping that mastery for a 7% life jewel allowed me to free up some leech points.

Since then, I've made the jump and have been trying out the PB/Arrogance setup you described for this league.

A few differences still:
- I'm running 21/0 Precision (Superior) instead of Vitality in my Arrogance links to make up for some missing accuracy. Divergent Precision with quality would be a little better but 21/0 Superior Precision was cheap.
- I'm running Dread Banner instead of War Banner. I rarely remember to drop the banner, so I don't get the full boost of either, but the extra defense from reduced enemy accuracy feels really good.
- I'm really valuing chaos resist this league. I'm not sure why exactly, but I've got it up to 50% baseline without Atziri's Promise. I'm sure this is a bit of overinvestment, but I'm not sure what other direction to go at the moment.
- Running Anomalous Purity of Elements instead of Superior for a few extra points of each res sacrificing the unused increased AoE.
- Magebane would overcap my suppression currently, so I'm holding off until I can figure out whether I want to go all-in with Magebane+Acrobatics (but this would hurt my Crit Chance obtained through Spell Suppression Mastery).

Current setup:
https://pastebin.com/cQwZykdC

Still working on improving/qual'ing gems, passive tree jewels (might consider clusters, but unsure what to drop) and rings, but so far so good.

Thanks again rahsaan!

"

rahsaan wrote:

"

roman007 wrote:

Hello rahsaan,

Hi,
thx for your appreciation, it's always encouraging for me ;)

Good stuff overall.

....

Hello rahsaan,

just to give you a short update - I implemented your suggested changes amd it really improved my Nightblade.

Thank you again!

Wrought_exile and Roman007 : thx for your feedback, glad you're doing well with the build.

*

Here is a new video, where I'm testing Spectral Helix.
/!\ Disclaimer : this is just a test, don't change everything with your character.

It seems it will be my champion skill this league, as I've successfully played it with the Energy Blade Hierophant, as well as my White Wind Raider since 3.15 and currently in Scourge league.


I wanted to test Spectral Helix with the Nightblade. Actually, I had a specific idea in mind : since I've failed several times the Hidden and the Feared encounters with Blade Flurry, I thought maybe another skill would help.
Spectral Helix throws spinning copies of your weapon, so it actually behaves like a AoE Dot, because it continues to deal dmg while you're away. Very safe playstyle.
And each hit is very strong, like 25% stronger than a 7-stage BF on release ! Even though the DPS is far inferior in PoB, the average dmg per hit is higher.

So here is a first test with it :
#2 : Spectral Helix

> The Elder, then some farming and the Formed fight (4 Shaper guardians).

I can strongly advise you to test this skill one day, whatever your character class. I'm sure it can be adapted to any kind of dmg, because having high dmg per hit means : strong shock, freeze, poison, bleed etc.

Good luck and have fun !

Hi Exiles,

here is my first victory against...

#3 : The Hidden

(the 4 Breachlords)

That was... bloody. As you will see, I do a lot of mistakes, like touching the exploding spikes of Uul-Netol. Only the tankiest builds could save me from these mistakes, so it's better to avoid them. But I've also learned several tricks, like attracting enemies in a side of the arena and then running to the opposite. It's essential to do this to avoid the giant shock nova from Esh and the ice tempest from Tul.

This fight is also a reminder why you ALWAYS put Culling Strike on your ancestral totems ;)

*

This was the last of my Maven's fights with the Nightblade, after The Formed and The Maven in 3.13, The Twisted in 3.14 and the The Forgotten in 3.15 .

The last one... well except the Feared which I've failed several times and that I hope to win eventually.
#crossfingers

Good luck and have fun, Exiles :)