[3.9] Blade Vortex Poisonous Pathfinder - 1.4 Mil SDPS on a 5L (Low Budget)



On a budget and can't follow someone's build since they're using GG gear? Like to see everything melt before your very eyes? Want good clear speeds and excellent life/mana sustain as a spell caster? Can't manage flasks well and spam them all day long?

Look no further!


Changes

[3.9] No Changes


Pros/Cons:

Pros:
- Smooth mapping. Poison proliferates to nearby mobs
- Budget-friendly which scales with more investment
- 195% increased maximum life from the passive tree
- Spam flasks all day, every day
- Freeze and shock immune
- Bleed immune when you spam flasks
- Can do "no leech / no regen" maps

Cons:
- Relies on Evades/Dodges which can feel iffy
- Playstyle is not everyone's cup of tea
- Can fail poorly placed Blight encounters but that's where Vaal Blade Vortex comes in
- Can't do phys reflect maps
- Poison avoidance maps are doable but take longer to complete
- Indigon + Mana flask interaction will likely be nerfed next league

Videos:

[3.8 - Blight League Videos]
Tier 12 Boss and Blight-6L run: https://youtu.be/AoNG59cECeg
Tier 15 Blight-6L: https://youtu.be/u8JbDgnpXys
Tier 15 Full Map Run-5L run: https://youtu.be/Oudz0xoV07g

Sustain and Regen 1500 life and mana per second:

Spam Flasks Be Happy!
With the new mods and buffs to mana flasks in 3.8, the Indigon and an Enduring mana flask will help you sustain both life and mana at an incredible rate.

Esoro explains it extremely well in his video: https://youtu.be/bIcsDnISkxE
I did not discover this interaction nor did I make the video explanation.

If you do not use the Indigon and Enduring mana flask combo, Atziri's Promise and Siphoning Charges will provide you life leech of 1000+ per second. As for mana... you'll need to rely on a mana flask.

Why Pathfinder? / Ascendency Points:

Best in class for spamming flasks AND the class provides a great boost in damage.

Flask charges generation on crit, Poison damage & poison spread during flask effect, and movement speed.

Nature's Adrenaline > Nature's Reprisal > Master Toxicist > Master Surgeon

Path of Building Links:

BUDGET 1.5 MIL Shaper DPS (Level 90) - https://pastebin.com/eCbGVFNn

Current Setup, 6L 3.2 Mil (Level 93) - https://pastebin.com/aFa8AHe3

Bandits:
Kill All or Help Alira

Pantheon:
Whichever you want

Gem Links:

Max all gem levels unless stated in pink.

Vaal Blade Vortex 5-Link:
Vaal Blade Vortex (lvl 12) - Unleash (lvl 38) - Poison (lvl 31) - Unbound Ailments (lvl 8) - Deadly Ailments (lvl 18)
Vaal Blade Vortex 6-Link:
Vile Toxins (lvl 38)
*Unleash is there to help maintain your Blade Vortex stacks and can be replaced with Void Manipulation for even more damage*

Wither Spell Totem 3/4-Link:
Wither (lvl 10) - Spell Totem (lvl 8) - Multiple Totems (lvl 38) - *OPTIONAL* Increased Area of Effect (lvl 38)

Auras/Other:
Malevolence (lvl 24)
Herald of Agony (lvl 16)
Vaal Grace (lvl 24)
Vaal Blight (lvl 1)

Curse 4-Link:
Despair (lvl 24) - Curse on Hit (lvl 38) - Cast when Damage Taken (lvl 38) - Storm Brand (lvl 12)
*Keep Cast when Damage Taken at level 1 to proc frequently and Storm Brand at level 8 to ensure it gets cast when you take damage*

Steelskin/Golem 3/4-Link:
Summon Chaos Golem (lvl 34) - Steelskin (lvl 4) - Cast when Damage Taken (lvl 38) - *OPTIONAL*Increased Duration (lvl 31)
*The level of Cast when Damage Taken is optional. I prefer to keep Cast when Damage Taken at level 11 (Chaos Golem at level 13 and Steelskin at level 16) to proc every so often. Increased duration helps keep your steelskin active longer*

Movement 2-Link:
Flame Dash (lvl 10) - Arcane Surge (lvl 1)
*Keep Arcane Surge between level 5-10 to proc arcane surge consistently*

Other Gems to Consider:

Flesh and Stone (lvl 16) - For the blind aura that increases your evade chance significantly
Arctic Armour (lvl 16) - Reduced Physical and Fire damage since we don't have physical damage reduction.
Enfeeble (lvl 24) - For further damage reduction; replace Despair if needed.
Summon Flame Golem (lvl 34) - For increased damage


Uniques/Items:
Required Items:

Indigon (Hubris Circlet)
Coralito's Signature (Diamond Flask)
Atziri's Promise (Amethyst Flask)
Disintegrator (Maelstrom Staff)
Divine Mana Flask with the Enduring Prefix

Recommended Uniques:

Blasphemer's Grasp (Assassin's Mitts) - Provides good life and damage over time multiplier for MAXIMUM DAMAGE; Replace with Fingerless Silk Gloves if you need the resistances and better life.

Carcass Jack (Varnished Coat)
5L it with The Jeweller's Touch Prophecy but beware, it will only have 5 sockets, not 6; the 40%+ increased area of effect provides the same amount of AoE as the increased AoE support gem

Cyclopean Coil (Leather Belt) - Become freeze and shock immune with the right attributes; Dex > Int > Str; Can be replaced with a Stygian Vise.

Optional Uniques:

Sin's Rebirth (Stibnite Flask)
Cherrubim's Maleficence (Triumphant Lamellar)

Ming's Heart (Amethyst Ring) - Reduces life but provides a damage boost and pushes your chaos resists to 60%+)

The Retch (Rustic Sash)
Impresence (Onyx Amulet)

Rare Item Mods Priority and Scaling Damage:

Gloves, Boots, Rings, Amulet:
55 TOTAL Intelligence / 2 TOTAL Strength > Life / Resistances > Chaos Damage / Damage Over Time > Global/Spell Physical Damage > Crit Chance > Global Crit Multi

Jewels:
Life > Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier > Damage Over Time > Area Damage > Spell Damage > Physical damage to spells

Use Defeaning Essence of Envy on Rings and Amulets for the increased Chaos Damage mod


Elder Amulets provide increased Area of Effect, gain Non-Chaos Damage as extra Chaos Damage, and Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier.

Elder Boots provide a spell totem mod which would free up a gem slot of your choice, chance to gain an Endurance Charge on Kill, and chance to dodge spell hits.

Advanced Players / Next Steps:

Confident in your flask management and want more life/damage?
Drop the Indigon and pick up a rare helmet with life and "Nearby Enemies have -9% to Chaos Resistance"

If you do drop the Indigon and decide to drop the mana flask, you'll need to find other means to sustain your mana. A couple of examples are:
- craft "Non-Channelling Skills have (-#) to Total Mana Cost" on your rings
- craft "#% Reduced mana cost of skills" on your rings
- craft "+(#) to maximum Mana / #% of Damage taken gained as Mana over 4 seconds when Hit" on your rings

With this, you can respec out of mana flask/flask recovery passive nodes and invest those into more damage. You can also consider respecing out of the "Master Surgeon" ascendancy node and take "Nature's Boon" for the reduced ele damage taken.

Amulet Anointment
Dirty Techniques is the best for damage, Discipline and Training for more life, Soul of Steel for better defenses.

Notes:

100% poison chance: Coralito's Signature (25%) + Poison Support Gem (60%) + Herald of Agony Gem (20%)

Minimum Required Attributes: 155+ Dex, 155 Int, 130 Str to equip and level everything. If you're using the Cyclopean Coil, make sure your Dex is higher than your Int and your Int is higher than your Str. If you're following the budget path of building build, you will only need to find 55 Int and 2 Str from your equipment.

Siphoning Charges: Increase the maximum number of siphoning charges per Elder/Shaper item equipped which would increase your leech, flat physical spell damage, and physical damage reduction, however, you will take increased DoT damage. I find the degen from 3-5 Siphoning charges manageable with the life regen from the mana flask.

Increased Skill Duration: You will notice that we are investing in increased skill duration in our passive tree and from Malevolence. This helps us keep our blade vortex stacks up lasting 8+ secs each cast.

Vaal Skills: Increasing duration also means that our 3 Vaal skills soul prevention duration increases. If you feel you need to utilize Vaal Blight and Vaal Blade Vortex more and don't mind the losing the extra dodge chance, you can drop Vaal Grace. What I like to do is only utilize 1 Vaal skill at a time for mapping so the Vaal skill used will be the only skill needing the souls.

Cast Speed? Unleash? Spell Echo?: This build does not rely on Cast Speed but rather Unleash to maintain our Blade Vortex stacks. Unleash doesn't affect our damage despite the "25% less damage while reoccurring" tag. I am not sure what the exact reason.


I will be updating this as I continue to play this build so the guide is prone to changes in the future.

This is my first guide! Please be gentle with your comments and feedback. Thanks!
Last edited by namifyme#1428 on Feb 17, 2020, 10:49:39 AM
Last bumped on Nov 2, 2019, 12:10:03 PM
Reserved
Would love a random mapclear video.

Been leveling a elemental bv pf for a couple of hours and really loving it.
But I've also been considering poison.
Will do! I have a map run that I would like to upload but my internet connection is extremely bad. It will take a while to upload.
Pretty solid build so far. Just leveled up to 88, made some minor changes to the build
Spoiler

managed to reach 4kk shaper dps in 4 ex investment
https://youtu.be/Yj1IkFrTwLk Haven't gotten to UE so I recorded shaper kill
EDIT: Just completed Uber Elder Deathless https://youtu.be/B7kyGQ7zyhY
Last edited by NarberalGamma#0288 on Oct 16, 2019, 2:52:27 AM
Nice, congratz!
I'm glad it worked out for you :D

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