[3.10] Dance with Death Cyclone + Varunastra Assassin | Tanky, Fast, high DPS | All Content!
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Hello and welcome to this unique assassin cyclone build that dual wields Varunastra, a weapon nobody uses, and utilizes Dance with Death, a key stone nobody likes. Combined with the Assassin ascendancy, it becomes a build that is very fast, very tanky, and can do all contents with a decent budget (6-8 ex).
 Dude is like: What happened to my hair???Videos first
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T16-Maze of Minotaur run. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0UT5ttiQLM&feature=youtu.be This one didn't have impale at the time so DPS was lower. Build Mechanics --- Please Read First
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1. First of all, what is Dance with Death? It is a keystone passive skill which make both Critical strike chance and damage with Critical strikes Lucky, at the cost of disallowing the use of Helmets and causing Enemies' critical strike damage to be Lucky against you (from wiki). It comes from the Timeless Jewel Brutal Restraint with the modifier Asenath. The Lucky crit chance and crit damage offers about 60-80 MORE damage, and the downside is negated by Assassin's MistWalker, preventing us from taking extra damage from crits all together. No helmet hurts, but you are also investing less into the build b/c of it. 2. Now why use Varunastra? Because Varunastra counts as all One Handed Melee Weapon Types, we can take full advantage of the good Claw/Dagger/Sword damage nodes on the right side of the skill tree. Also we get to use the Unique Jewel Tread of Hope in a very sexy way (detailed info in Gearing). Also, Varunastra is cheap and lonely. 3. Why Assassin For the Mistwalker Ascendancy which prevents us from taking extra damage from crit, mitigating the side effect of Dance with Death. Also Assassin Acendency gives so much movement speed, making cyclone feel very smooth. 4. Last but not least, why Cyclone? Because Impale Cyclone is broken right now and better ride the wave before it ends. Expect a 20-30% LESS damage from Impale next League. Although without Impale this build will do just fine, as shown in the video. POB
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Currently at level 92. https://pastebin.com/SBVt7JeF The bottom left socket is where you put the timeless jewel, which would transform Iron Grip into Dance with Death. Pros & Cons
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- Super tanky with just 5K life. Huge damage mitigation + dodge + big Leech - Not too expensive to get started. Will do fine on a 5-link. - Fast Moving and clearing is good for the Delirium mechanic - 1.6 to 2 M sustained Shaper DPS, without any flasks! - Can do all map mods except for physical reflect maps. - Leveling might not be that easy, or at least I am not familiar with leveling melee Assassin. You need to have some experience with Shadow. - Don't have 10M+ DPS as other cyclone builds with mirror-tier gears. It is just not my thing. 1-2 M DPS is all you need to beat the game. - The timeless jewel is expensive early league. At least we don't have to divine the crap out of it. - Not a league starter. I could be wrong it just wasn't my league starter. - The worst of all, your fancy Helmet skins got no use here. But you should be grateful we are not playing Templar. Change log
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3/27/20: Build Guide Posted Contents I have done with this build
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- Awakener tier 6 (1 death) - Simulacrum all 20 waves + bosses, with Wave 20 having both bosses - Red Elder - 100% Delirium Rare T14 Map. It was insane. Died many times in that one. Gearing, Skill gems
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My Current Gear
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Core Uniques
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Armor: Belly of the Beast: one word, life. Weapons: Varunastra: Cheap and good. Timeless jewel: Must has "Asenath" in the text. Socket it on the bottom left of the skill tree, transforming Iron grip into Dance with death. You can divine it to get more stats from the nearby notables, but it is not necessay. Thread of Hope Must be Medium. Put in right next to Golem's blood. Then allocates Disciple of Unyielding, of Slaughter, Harvester of foes and Hatchet Master. See POB as an example. Amulet + Ring: Good rare with life and crit multi/accuracy. You need +3-400 accuracy from gears. At least two -3 mana cost to channeling skills. The Elder mod "+ life gained on hit" is super good for cyclone as well. Flasks: Personal Choice really. I like having 2 life flasks to be very safe. Gloves, belts, boots: Life, resist, attributes. Shouldn't be too bad to fill these out. Note: Ryslatha's Coil would be very synergistic with Dance with Death, but it is too expensive right now and gives no stats besides life. Gem links
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See Gearing section Leveling
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For leveling, I would use swords all the way, grab only sword nodes on the tree for now. Skill-wise, start out with Smite or Cleave, then Blade Storm or cyclone. If you really know what you doing do flicker strike for map clear. Very fast. Ascendancy
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Mistwalker -> Unstable Infusion -> Deadly Infusion -> Opportunistic Pantheon
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Major God: Soul of Lunaris Mminor God: Soul of Garukhan. Soul of Tukohama is also okay though we do move a lot. Bandits
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Kill all Anointment
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Forceful Skewering Helmet Enchant
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None. We got no helmet :( Important notes --- Please Read
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1. Need a level 3 Enlighten to reserve all those mana. If you don't have it for now, just drop dread banner. 2. Sand dance for mapping, blood dance for bossing. Cluster Jewel
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- None that I have found are good enough to spend that many skill points Concluding remarks
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I enjoy building around off-meta, unpopular uniques items and/or skills. Check out my Youtube to see if there is a build you like: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKjg_P-r0IfTZwF-bp8C2DA?view_as=subscriber Here are my other build guides: Occultist "Triple D"- DancingDuo/Doedre' skin (outdated) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2659375 Elementalist Storm Brand-Autobomber: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2666929 Lone Messenger HOA Fire BV Assassin https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2821501 Poison Assassin CoC Bladefall https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2785163 Dance with Death Cyclone + Varunastra Assassin https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2809746 All U Need is One Good SWEEP: Big Sweep + Shockwave JUGG https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2817450 Impale Stone Golemancer Build https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2841742 If you like the content, you can consider buying me a coffee:) ko-fi.com/wodekofi Thank you! Last edited by wodeljn on Apr 20, 2020, 9:30:57 PM Last bumped on Sep 17, 2020, 8:29:59 AM
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Daring and original, that's the kind of build I like.
Rahsaan's Workshop, a post to showcase a dozen of my home-made builds : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3432443
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Couldn't this build use the "Quick and Deadly" cluster notable ?
" Should work with Varunastra. Rahsaan's Workshop, a post to showcase a dozen of my home-made builds : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3432443
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" That is a tricky question, will have to test. However while this notable is good if it works, it still may not worth that many skill points to get to. | |
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I redid my assassin today to do this build, and I feel like I do no damage. In T8 Beach/T9 Fungal map I have to sit in mobs for 3-5 seconds to kill them even white monsters. Did I do something wrong?
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" I checked ur char, here are some suggestions: 1. Quality up your weapons. Make sure they have good damage rolls (buy from POEtrade). Level/quality up your support gems. 2. Prioritize taking the Dagger damage nodes. 3. Are you sure you dont have mana issues? Maybe craft -3 mana cost to channeling skills on your rings/amulet. Otherwise you maybe cylconing for a few sec then you are out of mana, especially for longer boss fights. 4. If needed you can get more DPS-orientated gloves but it shouldn't be necessary. Let me know if that solves the problems. Last edited by wodeljn on Mar 31, 2020, 9:17:34 AM
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Dude is also like :
- Repeat after me, this is Varunastra. V-A-R-U-N... That's some deep mystic stuff, dude. Shit's gonna open your chakras and all... Rahsaan's Workshop, a post to showcase a dozen of my home-made builds : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3432443
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" I dont see the channeling skills mod anywhere even on my undiscovered tab in crafting. Am I missing something? |
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" Full name is "Channeling skills have -3 to mana cost", unveiled mod. If you want ping me in game I can craft it for you. It is prefix on ring/amulet |
