[3.13] Lancing Steel Deadeye/Raider | Very Fun Playstyle | 4-50M DPS Easy Gearing Path

Version History

5. Updated with 3.13 PoB and some other 3.13 comments
4. Added a badly needed up to 3.12 PoB and updated for 3.13 new information as of 1.11.2021
3. Complete rework with detailed PoB and Raider endgame.
2. Improved passive trees for more DPS and life with same points. Added The Saviour as a good option.
1. Initial post.

3.13 Update

Earlier updates had not correctly updated ascendancy points; new update fixes this.

3.13 Details

According to PoB, this build got stronger across the board in 3.13. I think the biggest winner is Deadeye though. I'll outline what I think the most important differences are from my previous guide:

Deadeye Changes
This is the big one. Now that you can pick up +1 chain it's possible to completely drop pierce and use a more powerful 6-link. +2 projectiles is a massive DPS boost, especially early on. Keep in mind, the only real way for Deadeye to compete with Raider on damage is if you have reliable frenzy generation, which is now achieved with: Anomalous Blood Rage and Divergent Poacher's Mark.

On the other hand, Deadeye loses its best defense (life on hit) and only gets Wind Ward in exchange. This really isn't a great deal. Life-on-hit rings will be more important than ever.

Raider Changes
Really just more of all the stuff that made it good in 3.12. If you want a more defensive build, the updated Quartz Infusion is a good substitute for Avatar of the Slaughter, giving you some amazing flexibility in easily trading damage for survival.

Far Shot
This complicates the build a little since it comes on Beltimber Blade. This means that we want to drop Point Blank once we get Beltimber and move from a close-in playstyle to a long-distance playstyle at the limit of Pride's AoE (seems to be about 60-70 units, or something like 3/4 of the screen).

Open Question: Beltimber vs. Paradoxica
Again, with Far Shot being greatly improved, there might be a good argument for dropping Paradoxica+Point Blank out of the endgame build and just sticking with Beltimber+Saviour and a long range playstyle. I'll try testing it when the opportunity presents.

PoB:

https://pastebin.com/uwDkkZbq

Note: I have manually edited The Saviour to reflect the 100% more damage it provides
Note: Remember to select the correct skills, passives, and items to get an accurate picture for your build


This is now drastically updated from the previous version with extensive leveling information (ymmv; I havne't tested the low level stuff). Features of this PoB:
  • 7 passive point configurations from 1st ascendancy to level 100
  • 6 skill gem setups, starting at level 1
  • 3 item sets, for leveling through endgame


Overview

(3.12) Deleting Awakener 8 Veritania

(3.12) Clearing Wave 20 Delirium


First off, you will need one of these or else the skill will feel very clunky:


This build is all about abusing the scaling of Lancing Steel with added projectiles and these are the key items that help push this build into its very respectable damage numbers:

For late endgame, this sword is better on this build than any other I can think of:

Doing a little math, you'll find that a fully juiced Lancing Steel fires a solid 30 projectiles per attack. According to PoB, with my meager equipment I've got an attack rate of 4.42/sec. That means that when firing on all cylinders, this build can hit a whopping 100+ times per second. How do we abuse this? On-hit sustain effects:

With all the on-hit life gain available to us, that's somewhere over 10,000 life/second.

Pros & Cons


++++ Optimal play with no gem swaps
+ Very easy to gear from your first million DPS to your 50th
+ Great clear from the first map to the last
+ Straight up deletes bosses at higher gear levels
+ Enough life-on-hit to face tank almost anything that doesn't one-shot you
+ Does not rely on any special mechanics or weird gearing requirements to achieve good numbers
+ Very easy to tweak to your taste
+ Every mod except phys reflect doable because sustain is from on-hit effects


+/- This is NOT a one-button build; you'll need to be active dancing between attacks, Call of Steel and your preferred movement skill to get the most out of it
+/- Active playstyle, meaning you'll need to keep an eye on your positioning and dance around monsters
+/- Damage is "bursty" due to Call of Steel; this is good for fights where you need to reposition, very mildly bad where you can just stand there. This becomes a non-issue in late endgame where you can basically delete anything almost instantly.


- Only medium defensiveness that mainly relies on ridiculous life regen and high evasion
- No physical reflect


Deadeye vs. Raider

Both Deadeye and Raider of several points going for them, although I'm pretty confident that Raider will still be the best late endgame choice. I would definitely start out with Deadeye though and consider a move to Raider later on.

Deadeye
  • Easy access to chain and +2 projectiles in 3.13; chain is really fun with this and this opens up more flexibility without needing pierce
  • Probably more powerful at lower gear levels
  • Needs to generate frenzy charges against bosses via Anomalous Blood Rage/Divergent Poacher's Mark

Raider
  • Much better evasion defenses
  • Most zoom-zoom you can get
  • A little more straightforward to build and play since everything is just more big numbers


Point Blank vs. Far Shot

This is an important new change for 3.13 with the changes to Far Shot. Previously, it was pretty much always good to have both (unless you exclusively off-screened things). The AoE distance of Pride becomes a factory in using Far Shot. Now, there's some debate what's the right combination, and I think it will partly come down to preference. Summary of my opinions:

Point Blank
  • This is likely to be the easiest and most consistent option for late endgame once you can swap to Saviour+Paradoxica. Just stay next to the enemy and you get maximum bonus from Point Blank and Pride.

Far Shot
  • This actually has the potential for higher DPS than Point Blank, but will be hard to pull off due to the range of Pride. One option here is to swap Pride out for something else and rely on the extra 30% from Far Shot to make up for it. Downside here is your damage will really suffer at close range.

Point Blank + Far Shot
  • This may be the easiest choice for people who don't want to worry about it. You'll always get some bonus, but it will be less than either option alone at their ideal distance.

The Data
I did some testing with Pride and some calculation for the new Far Shot + Point Blank. Here are the results:
  • Range of L20, 20% pride seems to be 60-70
  • Increase AoE support doesn't seem to affect pride (maybe a bug, since the UI indicates it should on mouse-over?)
  • Point Blank and Far Shot actually aren't totally bad together. They basically give you some amount of bonus regardless of distance when you take both. A mix of info from GGG with educated guesses and experiments:
  • Range 0 = 1.3 * 0.8 = 4% more
  • Range 35 = 1 (assuming the break-even point is set the same on both)
  • Range 70 = 1.6 * 0.9 = 44% more (still better than just Point Blank at range 0)
  • Range 150 = 1.6 * 0.7 = 12% more (this is way offscreen)


Gear

Rares
The only required uniques are the weapons, and they're not really required, just easy to get and a massive boost. Everything else is flexible to meet your needs, but the most general things to aim for are:
  • Life, the more the better
  • Resistances until capped
  • Flat physical damage
  • Crit
  • Movespeed


Weapon

Entry Level: Beltimber Blade x 2

This is the economy option. These weapons are really the whole reason this build scales so well even very early into mapping. Just make sure to keep the effect up by hitting that movement skill every once in a while.

God Level: The Saviour + Paradoxica

It turns out The Saviour is actually pretty cheap these days (probably because very few builds can really get the most of it). In fact, I don't think there's a single build in the game that benefits from The Saviour than this one does; it's effectively more than 100% more damage (more because your mirrors don't have to stop attacking to gain steel shards).

Rings

This is the second item in the list because rings are a huge part of our sustain. Ultimately, you'll want two rare rings with +20 life/hit and whatever other stats suit you:

Another very good investment is a ring with "Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on Hit":


Thief's Torment

This is actually the highest lifegain option available to us, but ultimatey it loses out too much on other stats (like the incredibly critical max life). Still, it's a great option for leveling and early maps.

Body Armor

There are many good easy unique options here depending on your preferences.

Lioneye's Vision

Not recommended for Deadeye. This is a decent option for Raider, but it's not an evasion base and you don't want the pierce with Deadeye. As raider you may not need the evasion to hit cap though. If you pick this as raider, you can swap your pierce gem for something more powerful.

The Perfect Form

This is a superb defensive option since it lets you drop 4 points getting to Phase Acrobatics and is really just packed with incidental bonuses. This is what I recommend as a go-to easy pick for endgame.

Kintsugi

This a go-to standard for evasion characters. Good one-shot protection, especially if you can max out evasion.

Helm

Crown of the Inward Eye

The stats on this are pretty decent for us, but the real benefit is that this is the go-to item for slamming Lab enchants on, meaning that it's very easy to pick up +projectile for Lancing Steel.

Belt

Ryslatha's Coil

This has everything we want: a huge boost to damage coupled with a decent amount of life. I don't think there's much anything that can compare.

The Nomad
Poor man's Ryslatha's Coil. Actually this is a really good option until you can gather the currency for the more expensive option.

Gloves

Fun Option: Mercenary's Lot

These gloves are particularly interesting combined with Sniper's Mark to help with clear. Since extra projectiles seems to apply to this mark, as well as our machine-gun fast main skill, Sniper's Mark will essentially fill the screen up with split projectiles. This can be a lot of fun, but doesn't work that well without these gloves.

Boots

Utility Option: Windshriek

Having an extra curse can be very nice on this build and you can choose between defensive or offensive hexes in addition to your mark. Aside from the additional curse, these provide some resistances and of course move speed. Sadly, the elemental damage is wasted on us. The alternative to get an extra curse is just to anoint Whispers of Doom, which is the path I chose.

Flasks

Fixed

The Dying Sun is a solid +25% more damage boost as long as it's up and survivability against fire damage to boot. Quicksilver Flask is obvious.

When Using The Saviour

Once you switch to The Saviour you're going to want to keep a minimum level of crit chance in order to reliably bring your mirrors up. This flask is pretty essential for that.

Optional

I'd recommend taking at least a couple defensive flasks depending on exactly how you're built.

Jewels

Watcher's Eye

You're mainly looking for:
* Impales you inflict last 2 additional Hits while using Pride
* Non-Channelling Skills have -10 to Total Mana Cost while affected by Clarity
The former is a huge DPS boost while the latter takes care of any mana problems you might be having (which would probably otherwise require a more restrictive ring choice).


Gems

Lancing Steel 6-Link


This one's pretty simple, just picking the best damage supports available. If you're not using Lioneye's Vision, you'll want Pierce instead of Slower Projectiles:


Mark 3-Link


Sniper's Mark is better damage, but Poacher's Mark is huge survivability (3000 or so life/second regen). You'll want to use both depending on the situation. Linked to Increased Duration so you don't have to fiddle with applying them too often. Another option for when you start using The Saviour is Assassin's Mark to help your mirror uptime:

Divergent Poacher's Mark
This is what you want if you're going Deadeye. Need a way to get those frenzy charges against bosses.

Auras


Pretty obvious, just extra damage and survivability here. Both modes of Flesh and Stone or worth considering, but the Deadeye version needs the blind more if you don't have another source of it somewhere else in your build.

Anomalous Blood Rage
This is a must have if you're going Deadeye. You just can't compete with Raider without those frenzy charges.

Defensive


Standard CWDT.

Movement Utility


I use Whirling Blades because it's smoother, but Leap Slam is another option. These are really the only options because we use this to gain Fortify AND apply Vulnerabiliy (assuming you have obtained the extra curse). With the Beltimber Blades loadout, our playstyle requires a movement every 4 seconds for top DPS anyway.

Others

Unavailable

This give us Culling Strike for another good boost to kill speed and our warcry for endurance charges and healing.


Any comments and suggestions are welcome! I'm sure there's a ton I'm missing and if I see something good I'll update the build to include it.
Last edited by immcintosh on Jan 18, 2021, 3:04:37 PM
Last bumped on May 3, 2021, 12:16:47 AM
Some items in this post are currently unavailable.
Have you killed any endgame bosses with this build
All the conquerors and Sirus deathless up to awakening level 5 basically just melt.

All the elderslayers, all the guardians. Killed the Minotaur many times so far and after dancing around the first time or two I discovered I can just stand still and face tank him until dead (he has really low accuracy it seems and the few hits that get through are instantly healed).

Haven't killed any of the "uber" bosses yet, but haven't tried.

I should probably make a git of melting some of the bosses and how good the clear is.
Last edited by immcintosh on Sep 30, 2020, 11:19:39 AM
Got any videos? Build sounds fun, would like to see it in action clearing a map or some endgame bosses.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2919821 - Impale Barrage Champion Build
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www.twitch.tv/madebyskinny
www.youtube.com/madebyskinny
I've never really set myself up to capture / edit videos, but I'll give it a go for this one. This build is a contender.
are u gonna post some lvling skill trees maybe?
I'm really not very good at leveling so I'm afraid any leveling skill trees I posted may disappoint. I may try to put something together eventually...
I uploaded a short video showing the build clearing a Colonnade (t5) map at lvl 71, here you guys go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOF1kjyttOU&feature=youtu.be
Might be a dumb question, but why use the lioneye's chest for pierce when deadeye has pierce in the ascendancy?
Pierce gives 14% more damage at level 15. It's a much more useful option for Raider though which is what I started the build on before switching to Deadeye and realizing how much more powerful it is.

On Deadeye though there are probably better options, I just haven't gone back into it to figure out yet.

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