[3.10] Semanari's Cast on Crit Bladefall Cobra Lash Assassin REDUX
 3/16/2020 update: WE'RE GAMING LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, CoC BLADEFALL REDUX! Added Viper Strike as our new main 6L and utilizing Embalmer to make a 5L Cobra Lash for clearing, then we switch to Viper Strike to absolutely annihilate bosses 9/11/2019 update: Leveling guide, updated skill tree, build video, new gear 9/12/2019 update: Shaper kill, small PoB update to add Herald of Purity for builds with Curse on Hit Despair and slight tree changes 9/12/2019 update: Added pantheon & anoint choices, consolidated leveling trees WE'RE BACK BAYBEE! I remade this build last league using claws and it was pure shit. Bino's is just too good for this build to give up and the crit chance was atrocious, so less bladefalls. But now. We're back in business. Viper Strike is insane. The single-target on Viper Strike puts this build above and beyond, making bossing infinitely easier and more viable. I'm 84 so far absolutely trashing all content. This build speeds through delves like it's nothing and I demolish map bosses with viper strike. I changed around a lot of the supporting setups including our CWDT, totem and ancestral warchief setups and I removed a lot of unnecessary bullshit from them. It's so much better now. Pros- Cobra lash is wack Poison is wack Bladefall is wack Bino's Kitchen Knife is wack as hell So is Taproot I guess but not really, it's kinda ancillary Viper Strike turns bosses into absolute paste Cons- You're using evasion Like really dude? 5k life and evasion Damn So what exactly does this build do? It casts Bladefall on crit. With Cobra lash. yeah. So because Cobra Lash starts with a base +5 to chains, every time you hit an enemy it can crit a maximum of 6 times. And every time you crit it casts bladefall? Why bladefall? Because bladefall is wack, it's got some pretty cool base physical damage and it hits people a lot and does big aoe. And since this build has a bunch of leech from a dagger notable and also the classic Life and Mana Leech Node™ when you're casting bladefall on crit you're not doing nearly as much of your damage as chaos damage from your poisons and it sustains a lot better. So that's how you clear maps, run around and cast bladefall on crit. Sustainability on this build has gone up significantly once I took a good hard look at my CWDT setups and realized I was on meth when designing them, now we take Mistwalker and reset Elusive with a CWDT Withering Step, and also unnerve enemies with CWDT Blade Blast! This is a huge damage bonus to Bladefall and has made the build shred when mobs get too close. That and also I'm now using Plague Bearer for pretty much the same thing, it's super nice for boss clear as well. The Build
Path of Building
https://pastebin.com/1RYLsURr All the rares in this build are kinda unoptimized as you can see - you probably want steel rings over diamond rings by endgame but they're just not available to me right now. This isn't a good build to tell you exactly what rares to use, you kinda gotta use game knowledge. The first tree is using two cluster jewels that I crafted in game, there has to be some more optimized than these and I've only got 2 in it so far but here are the jewels (Can't figure out how to link them without taking them off, then they become invalid when I put them back on):   And here's the tree with them in  It's actually LESS DPS to use these cluster jewels I'm just experimenting with them right now trying to see if I can get some better ones in the future.
Bandits
I helped Alira, the reses are nice and so is the crit multi. It's a crit build after all.
Ascendancies/Pantheon/Anoints
Ascendancies Assassin -> Mistwalker -> Noxious Strike -> Toxic Delivery -> Opportunistic Dude literally just hit the boss and go elusive Pantehon Feel free to pick whatever pantheon you like but I prefer Arakaali for major god, Ryslatha for bossing and either Ralakesh for anti-bleed or Soul of Shakari since I never have soft cap chaos res. Anoints Ambidexterity is the go-to anoint for this build. SUPER cheap, really good dps and saves 4 points. Even cheaper than that, Gemini is a good early game get. Whispers of Doom and a curse temp chains on hit glove implicit is INSANE dps since it makes your poisons last way longer, but this is way more expensive than either of the two above options and is around 30% dps inc vs 10% from ambi, so it is a huge upgrade and definitely worth it for endgame.
Gear & Links
Gear
Important note: The gearing literally hasn't changed at all except that an Embalmer is NECCESARY since you're using that to 5L Cobra Lash and now I use a Growing Agony jewel for Viper Strike What I consider Necessary Gear: Dendrobate (5L+) Bino's Kitchen Knife Maligaro's Cruelty Dendrobate is really nice for this build, all the buffs to poisons and reses help the build along really nicely, especially for bossing. Bino's kitchen knife is essential for blight content more than anything else. It's a free throw one cobra lash clear an entire line of enemies with the poison spread. REALLY good dagger too, the extra DoT and crit multi and crit chance are all amazing, it's just a little pricey early league, at least when I bought mine. It pairs well with taproot giving Bladefall extra poison chance but the taproot isn't super necessary, Bino's is the driving force. Taproot is super cheap anyway, so you should pick it up for offhand, or early game leveling. Maligaro's Cruelty is omega cheap. I got mine with 8% max life for 2c on day 1, just go buy one it's super good. The power charges aren't that relevant since we're already a crit assassin and generate them ourselves, but the frenzy charges and extra damage and duration is huge.
Links
Other than that, got some pretty good steel rings, but I would love to get one that gives me int so I can level my Wither up to full. That's about it as for new gear, everything else stayed pretty much the same. I also realize I never linked my jewels. These are generally some pretty decent jewels I found, you just want max life and increased damage. Path of Building thinks that using Abyss jewels with crit multi and added phys damage are way better though, and it's probably right. Link Prioritization You should prioritize: Viper Strike -> Deadly Ailments -> Unbound Ailments -> Melee Phys -> Multistrike - > Vile Toxins Cobra Lash Cobra Lash -> GMP -> CoC -> Bladefall Super straightforward, plus with get Vile Toxins from Embalmer which are SUPER good Whirling Blades Whirling Blades -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify -> Blood Magic Auras Just look at the PoB I socket all my curses in weapons to make CWDT setups easier Other Stuff CWDT -> Blade Blast -> Ice Golem -> Withering Step I Love This Link So Much, it's amazing
Levelling
Dude leveling this build on league start sucks don't do it. Embalmer and Maligaro's Cruelty and Bino's and Dendrobate all add SO MUCH to this build I can't fucking imagine going through the game again without them. You MIGHT be fine if you're not a complete idiot like me who went through basically the entire game without Viper Strike but I still don't know how fun this would be to level. Honestly once you get a 4L CoC Cobra Lash it's pretty fun wave clear but you need The Embalmer's Venom Strike links to really ever pop off. Once you get that you're cruising.
My Gear & Gear Tips
Like I said above, Dendobate & Bino's are must-have. The rares are pretty much up to you. I'm using really really cheap rings, added phys damage seems to be really good for this build so I'd prioritize steel rings once they become available. Some of my gear is kinda expensive (like the belt and boots) but they're really just making up for my shit taste in rings. Really basic stuff, you want life and reses (duah), Starkonja's is amazing for this build since it gives great evasion, a ton of life and crit chance all the good stuff you want in a build. Just look at some of the stuff in the Path of Building for a better idea of where to go with rares, mine kinda suck. The flask setup I have is pretty optimal, Sin's Rebirth is a massive get and Atziri's promise is nice. Diamond flasks are for obvious reasons really good for this build, and just the classic spread of debuff removal you need for mapping. 9/11/2019 Gear Update I corrupted an INSANE The Embalmer to give me curse enemies with Despair on hit. That means that I'm now using Herald of Purity instead of Despair + Blasphemy. The added phys damage from Herald of Purity has been insane (bladefall and chains makes this build hit A LOT), but this is in no means necessary for the build to thrive. I also tidied up my Starkonja's links, having Enlighten is huge for this build since Cobra Lash costs a lot of mana, endgame I'd suggest crafting some steel Elreon rings as well as using enligten, it'd make the build a lot more consistent. I also realized I forgot to talk about jewels. I think the best jewels for this build are added phys damage + crit multi abyss jewels, the DoT jewels are nice and all but added phys damage is insane for this build, so I'm probably going to try switching to using them where I can buy them over regular jewels on the passive skill tree. Pretty sure the BiS jewel is still a Watcher's Eye with Precision crit multi and Malevolence deal damage faster. I saw one go up today and I'm pissed because the dude already sold it. 9/12/2019 Gear Update I got Fortify boots so now I get Fortify + Elusive from Whirling Blades. It's a slight bonus but worth it, probably wasn't worth the loss of movement speed in hindsight but I'm too cheap to buy ones with move speed, I might change the life to a MS craft. I also changed my steel ring craft to give a little more damage, I'm really not sure how much better it is with this craft, I'm probably going to replace it with an added damage sooner or later, just trying this one out. 9/12/2019 gear update This is it. The big one.  With Maligaro's Cruelty applying an additional curse it means I can now switch from the Herald of Purity setup to Blasphemy + Temporal Chains. I also swapped out my Atziri's Promise for a Witchfire Brew, which means that enemies around us should take a level 21 Despair (which is basically not possible for this build due to int constraints) AND a level 20-21 temp chains. Good shit. I'm going to try it out right now, should be a massive DPS upgrade for single target specifically, which is where this build fails the most. This section is under rework for new league and slight gear rework
Video
Showing off clear on a shaped t15 Primordial Pool (one of my favourite maps to do with this build) https://youtu.be/jCBV8tuDbsE T15 8-mod Canyon + Breach almost crashing my computer and killing me https://youtu.be/-RaZGCFsrWo Pillars of Arun - one of the hardest unique maps possible for this build https://youtu.be/0LxyGWUYx6A Shaper Kill https://www.twitch.tv/videos/480707415 If you want to see more of this build and probably others I make, check me out on Twitch; I'm probably going to start streaming a lot more https://www.twitch.tv/semanari More videos to come If you have any questions like if there's anything I didn't explain well enough in the guide feel free to leave a reply down below. Sorry if the guide is kinda scuffed, I'm still trying to learn how to use these forums properly so if there's any suggestions to make the guide look better let me know. Thanks for reading this, and good luck Exile ~Semanari Last edited by Culmoor on Mar 16, 2020, 9:25:18 AM Last bumped on Jun 17, 2020, 10:59:23 PM
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Do you stream or can post a video online to see how this looks ingame?
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I'm working on some videos right now of me doing some T15 and T16 maps
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Can you please add some leveling progression. Thanks!
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" Just added leveling progression and a video of the build! | |
" Thank you very much, just an FYI in case you did not know, you can add your leveling trees to the main POB. |
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Works very well so far (Lv 55), though I bought 2 Widowmakers at Lv 44.
Also, what Anointment do you recommend? I was considering Cloth and Chain for the start since it's cheap and gives free evasion and ele res. | |
" Ambidexterity is my go-to right now, SUPER cheap (like 5-10c) and a ton of dps, but Whispers of Doom might be better (but I think ambi is practically on par) if you get an Assassin's mark curse on hit ring. Obviously, that's super expensive and endgame so just go with Ambidexterity. | |
" Just did that, I didn't know that actually! I haven't really used build guides too often and when I do I kinda just always look at the max level build, so I didn't know you could embed multiple trees. Still keeping the other links because why not but I added the trees to the main PoB. | |
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Just leveling this build, lvl44 with widowmaker, and its fun so far.
But how do you get all the int for binos? I dont see any on your equipment and there is not enough on the tree. So i planed to get 2 of the 30 int nodes. I am to lazy to trade for rings with int... |
