3.10 Bladestorm Impale Champion [All Endgame Content Viable] 3.7M Unbuffed Shaper DPS



I haven't seen a ton of Bladestorm Guides, and though I would provide the one that carried me to my highest level. This build excels at survival and dealing damage. What else do you need in POE?

This build carried me to endgame and completed all content except for blighted maps.

No major changes from Metamorph to Delirium. If you can get the node that gives +1 to impale hits, that could be a nice damage increase, but we are really good on damage at the moment.

Deathless Bosses:
Spoiler
Sirus
All Guardians
All Elder Guardians
All Conquerors
Uber Atziri
Shaper
Most Metamorphs.
(I would have gotten Uber Elder on here, but this league was my first time ever fighting him and I didn't get enough practice. Got him with 2 deaths on my third try)


Videos

Spoiler
I have more footage I never uploaded, so if you want to see something let me know and I can check to see if I recorded it. I'll be gradually adding to this as I parse through footage and upload to youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxKZiovZkYM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8NZRGG8NnQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNdhG9qMj1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CbaYhd2O4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmJkpOv93aw (I died here, it's not invulnerable! Figured I'd include anyways.)

Pros
- Excellent Surviveability
- Excellent Bossing DPS
- Good Map clear for Melee
- Inexpensive to start, easy to scale up. My final cost was ~13ex. but there is flexibility in gearing.
- Was offmeta, idk if it still is.
- NO GEM SWITCHES
Cons
- Active playstyle (I like this)
- Not a t1 mapper.
- Can't do Blighted Maps



POB and Skill Explanation

Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/5FxbjHGL

I tried really hard to make sure that I am providing realistic expectations of the build. The above POB link does not have any charges select, no flasks and no vaal skills. It is displaying damage using the regular version of Ancestral War chief and blood rage.

Bladestorm is a unique Melee Skill. You have two components. Component 1 is the attack. Standard melee stuff. Component 2 is the storm. Each attack leaves a storm that does damage for 3 seconds. (hits not dot) You can have a maximum of 3 bladestorms without an enchantment. In blood stance the storms make you attack faster and do higher damage. In Sand Stance the storms move, and give you increased movement speed, and have larger AOE. Generally Mapping = Sand Stance, Bossing = Blood Stance.



DPS

Spoiler
Damage varies with your flasks, vaal skills, and charges. Because of this, I will provide the low end (POB above) and then the high end. Recognize that you will fluctuate between these, as maintaining PERFECT conditions for DPS all the time is impossible. All values are for Shaper without any map modifiers. Keep in mind as well, this is for Bloodstorms, generally when mapping you will use sandstorms, so damage is lower, but the storms move.

On the low end

Attack - 1.3M DPS

Storms - 600,000 DPS (x 3 or 4)

Total 3.1M DPS. (3.7M DPS with 4 storms enchantment)

We are regularly generating all charges. Frenzy from blood rage, Power from Assassins mark, Endurance from leap slam and a tiny chance from the tree. With all 3 charges maxed, flasks up, and vaal ancestral call down, BURST damage is as follows:

Burst Damage - High End

Attack - 3.8M DPS

Storms - 1.9M DPS (x 3 or 4)

Total: 9.5M DPS (11.4M DPS with 4 storms enchant)




Defense

Spoiler
One of the things I took to heart was to make sure I had enough DPS and enough Damage for my build. I did not want to die often. This build is one of the best I have ever played in terms of Defense. I've never gotten to 95 before, but did here, because I was rarely dying.

Armor
I have enough to mitigate small hits, and help a little with big hits. End game I had 23315 Armor. I kept my molten shell so it proceed regularly, for a nice 3K shield. Vaal Molten shell gives insane amounts of extra EHP for bossing or metas. (I have it linked to CWDT. I've been told that makes molten shell override the Vaal Molten shell, but I never have a problem with it)

Block
The build has a 52% chance to block attacks so only 1/2 of attacks get through.

Tree
Soul of Steel and Crystal skin both help mitigate damage before it hits us. We grab some shield nodes to help with Defenses and block.


Gear

Spoiler


This is all the gear I ended the league with, that I grew into over time. None of this is un-achievable Mirror tier gear.
Chest:


I would recommend LoreWeave. The additional resistances is just too nice to pass up. It also helps with some attribute fixing. Another good option is Craiceann's Carapace Golden Plate. This is where Blade storm lives.

Helmet:

Abysuss. You need to get one with as low an "increased Physical Damage Taken" as possible. 41% or lower is ideal. I did use a 43% for a while until getting to red maps. The higher the Crit the better as well.

The enchantment I linked was expensive. 3.5ex, but it does add alot of damage. Buy it when you can, if you want a little more damage.

Weapon and Shield:


Highest PDPS sword you can afford. That paradoxica was 1 ex. A comparable Rare sword is next to it. (Ignore the multi craft I fucked up at end of league lol)

The Shield is super nice with high life and armor and it is very cheap.

Boots, Gloves, Rings and Amulet:



These are all rares. Grab as much life, resist, and any damage you can get. Some flat added mana is really good. Best is slot rings are the Steel Rings and best in slot Gloves are Spiked gloves, but they can get expensive.

ANOINTS:
I anointed Weathered Hunter get enough accuracy to get hit chance to 100%. If you can do that with your gear, below are some other good choices.

Offensive:
- Heartseeker
- Rampart

Defensive:
- Steadfast
- Inexorable
- Sanctum of Thought

Curse Ring:

This is by no means essential, but it is super nice to have. It replaces the Blasphemy Assassins Mark set up I will talk about, and lets you get more damage by swapping Herald of Purity for Pride.

Belt:

Same as the rest of rares, get life, resists and anything else that you can. Best in slot is probably Ryslatha's Coil Studded Belt, but will require getting really good rare gear to make up for lost resists, and I never went for it.

Jewels:
Increased Life
Attack Speed
Crit Multi with one handed weapons (has the highest crit multi for gems)

If you can afford it, a Watchers eye can be really nice. Any of the Pride modifiers are good except for increased chance to impale (We have 100%)
Precision modifiers are good too.

Best in slot is Impales strike for 2 additional hits while effected by pride. This is a super solid damage boost, but also costed around 20-30ex in the meta league.




Cost

Spoiler
There is only 2 required uniques. A well Rolled Abyssus (Ideally 41% increased phys or lower) And the Shield Lioneyes Remorse. Loreweave can be replaced with a different chest for more armor but less ele resists. The Crab chest was something I considered but never implemented.

The initial Build for endgame is between 5-6EX. (Most of this price is in the chest) Before getting the Assassins Mark CoH ring, you can run Assassins mark on blasphemy, and trade out Pride for Herald of Purity. This is less damage, and harder to maintain, but is a HUGE way to save out until you can afford the ring. Once you get the ring, Bring in bride and drop the blasphemy set up.

Final Costs for the build were about 13.5 Ex. 5ex for the chest, 2 ex for the ring, 3.5 ex for the enchanted abysuss (I rolled it after purchase) and 1ex for the Paradoxica. ~ 2ex for the rest of the gear.

This can be gradually built, and scales nicely. Start out with the blasphemy set up, and just level with the best gear you can. First investment is the Loreweave. Then scale up for a Paradoxica (or other high PDPS sword) Finally grab the Ring. (upgraded the rest of the gear as needed.


Ascendancy and Pantheon
Spoiler
Master of Metal
Unstoppable Hero
Fortitude
Inspirational.

I used Solaris and Shakira by default since they offer great additional defenses, but I also swapped around if I needed something. (IE map with burning ground, grab Abberath.) Ralakesh is also a good choice as Physical Damage over Time is probably our biggest weakness.



Leveling

Spoiler
I leveled using a Spectral throw setup until I got bladestorm, but you can do whatever suits your fancy. I can post my leveling trees if someone wants them, but I basically just went and grabbed life and damage as I felt I needed each.


Conclusion

And that's about it! Since this was my first successful baby, nothing would make me happier than to have someone else enjoy playing it. I only have 700 hours, so there was probably a better way to do this, but this one is mine.
Champion Bladestorm Super Tank - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2785401
Last edited by GonzoHarratec on Mar 24, 2020, 10:47:07 AM
Last bumped on Jun 9, 2020, 10:18:19 PM
Thanks for your build!
Last edited by dxo2002 on Mar 14, 2020, 8:09:27 AM
Of course! Let me know if you enjoy it, or if you have any questions.
Champion Bladestorm Super Tank - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2785401
Hello, thanks for the build, can you recommend a weapon before can get a paradoxica


Basically just use the highest Physcial DPS sword you can get.

The two uniques above are generally not expensive, and I dual wielded them for leveling in the acts and into at least white maps. (Get a blue socket for mana leech if using prismatic)
Champion Bladestorm Super Tank - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2785401
Last edited by GonzoHarratec on Mar 15, 2020, 2:38:47 PM
hey sir, sup!

if we change to lacerate, with the same setup, you think we will have close to dps, but instead we are ranged ?

i wanted to do a boss kiler, but keep the distance, wich we cannot with bladestorm.

Thank you for the attention.
So I checked, and it looks like you would lose a little damage with Lacerate, but it's probably comparable.

However, Bladestorm has some advantages I personally prefer. Because the Storms stay in place, you can attack, and then move away while the storms still do damage.

Lacerate, although kinda ranged, will require you stand still to deal damage.

The build also isn't designed for bleed damage over time, so you would still be relying on just hits.
Champion Bladestorm Super Tank - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2785401
where is the passive tree? am i just missing it?? lol
It's under the Path of Building section:

https://pastebin.com/5FxbjHGL



Here is the Tree in the forums(I think):


https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAQDAAHcAecDXQSxBiAGogkzDjwUIBRxFSAX3BiRGbQaVRuqG60b-iPqI_Yl3ypjLJQs6S2DMHwxsDH7ND41kjboOlI64TsUPd094kd-SO5NklBHWK9fOV8_YhdjF2VNaGVvO3Sgdqx343gNeK55aHsUe9R_44IHgy6ElITZhY-GYIaziO2JcYrwjX2SfZMPlwiYb5stnyefiaHZo4qkGalurY2verGztfK8n702vqe-rcAawQTBB8qQy_XPftAs0TbTftRS137Yvdl83CPcveHv4izkUeXP5w_pRuoY7Fzsce567w7vevDE8kHyRfPd9qP3Mvjr-hj68f4K?accountName=GonzoHarratec&characterName=Zornius
Champion Bladestorm Super Tank - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2785401
Thank you! This build looks cool.

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