[3.9] Somayd's Blade Vortex Assassin | Map zoomer | All content | Endgame Farmer | Video Guide

Watch Somayd Live at : www.twitch.tv/somayd

Sup guys I'm Remi, presenting you somayd's infamous bv assassin build.

Ok before I start, this is Somayd's build, full credits to him. I'm making a more in depth guide in this forums for those who are in budget and have more questions about this build. Note that the video guide doesn't cover the budget build version.

3.9 Update : Although this build received some buffs, due to the boss damage and hp have been increased by significant amount, on top of that the mandatory items for the build are increased by 500% due to the success of the build, as much as we hate to say it WE DO NOT RECOMMEND this build to anyone for now.

Reasons :
1. Too much investment for a little return
2. Not suitable for doing metamorph, easilly 1 shot
3. Monsters are buffed, unable to trash magic or rare monsters


Update 2
I haven't touch this build guide for a while, but I've seen some people solved the of lack of damage issues, basically it's just our budget. So this build is about 5ex starting, so it is now about 20-40ex depending on the market. For the chest look for explody chest, others are the same and no change at all, and you will get the same result from 3.8

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Video Guide - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4jOIiM7vcw
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PROS :
-> FAST
This build clears and walks extremely fast, you could clear a whole map with less than 20 times of you casting your blade vortex. You could clear maps with ease, just cast and walk, then you already completed the map. The only thing will slow you is picking up items

-> BEGINNER FRIENDLY
This build is very easy to build, you just need to follow the tree, know which gear to get then done. Playstyle is extremely simple, as long as you have 1 finger, you could destroy all the bosses.

-> STRONG
With about an average of 2-7 Million Shaper DPS (Of course scales from your build), you could clear bosses with ease. This build is also known as "DEATHLESS UBER ELDER FARMER". Also this build is able to reach delve 1000 depth too!

-> ALL CONTENT
Delve, Incursion, Cortex, Uber elder, anything you name it. All of it can be done WITH EASE.

CONS
-> Reflect
This build cannot do any reflected maps, that goes with physical and elemental. The reason is blade vortex is a physical based damage build. We scaled it to elemental so we can't do both reflected maps.

-> Budget
In order to reach it's maximum potential for this build may be costly. It requires 2 void batteries and a synthesis ring - circle of fear with 2 specific stats. Some people will complain about "how is this even a budget build if you need these much?" well worry not, I have ready a budget build for you complain queens.

Pob Pastebin
Spoiler
- Build guide build
https://pastebin.com/nAYFnnBR
- My own version (Requires lower budget)
https://pastebin.com/cX3qVr4q
- Budget build
https://pastebin.com/PjX7BT77

3.9 Update = because badge of the brotherhood is a blight exclusive item and it is around 10ex, void batteries are about 5ex each, this made the build super expensive. So here is a new pob that is way more budget but don't expect to do T15 maps metamorph with it or any endgame content like Sirus.

*note (edited) - In the PoB I just linked, please check the notes there, it contents how the build is leveled. Please avoid asking the same questions that have been answered in the PoB or in this forum, thank you =).

- New PoB (budget ish, polished)
https://pastebin.com/vQ74Z0gB


videos
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Build guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4jOIiM7vcw

Somayd's version, deathless uber elder

https://youtu.be/XeHeXbRLH-o

Poorjoy solo clear (my variant)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH6eEwccqJM&

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Gearing
Note : This build have 3 mandatory items to start with, without these items, you will need to look for a different variation of this build.

Overall budget for somayd's version = 7-10ex
Overall budget for my version = 3-6ex
Overall budget for budget version = 1-3ex
Note : budget of the build includes the avg price of the item, no matter they are self found or not. Price may change overtime based on the market.

Here is how the pricing works here.
1-10c falls into the category of CHEAP
11-80c falls into the category of MODERATE
80c or above falls int into the category EXPENSIVE

Gears
Gears

Weapons
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No doubt these are the best weapons that it can offer to our build.

Dual wield them for maximum potential

There is no other competitors that can compete with this weapon for this build. It's about 3ex but if you look at other multi modded items, it's way more expensive compared to this build. You don't need 8ex sceptre or anything like that, just a 3ex wand will help you clear all content.

Price : EXPENSIVE

Why this wand is the most suitable weapon?
Why void batteries

How this wand works?
-------------------------
We use this wand because of +1 power charge and +25% spell damage per power charge.
With the reduced spell damage, we will start up with a low damage first, but once we charged up to 9 power charge, it will give us 225% increase spell damage, and 145% increase spell damage after reduction, so dual wielding the wands will give us about 285% increase spell damage, which no other weapon in this game can offer us.

What is power charge?
Power charge is a charge exist in this game which give us 40% crit strike chance per power charge, making us almost critical striking everytime we hit an enemy.

If you still want more information, here is the wiki for this topic, I can't explain it 100% accurate here.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Power_charge



If you're on a small amount of budget, look for

This weapon is pretty good after you have at least 7 power charge. You can use this weapon after you have completed the merc lab and got at least 2 power charge nodes in your passive tree.

Price : CHEAP

Update : Now since Void batteries are super expensive, we will be looking for a "multimod" weapon. But Prioritize these stats first.

+1 to all Phys spell skill gems
+(95>) spell damage (excluding implicit)
Global crit strike multi
Crit strike chance to spells
(Phys / cold) damage as extra chaos

Body Armour
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Recommended chest piece is Carcass Jack


This should be pretty cheap, if you want a 5l, just go buy Jeweller's Touch (a prophecy) as it's not very expensive too.

Since BV have an area tag on it, we can scale BV area with increase area of effect and area of damage. This chest piece offers offensive options for both clearing and bossing.

Farrul Fur's is a good chest piece for this build, but it's specifically made for bossing. This is only for someone who have a lot of money to burn. Farruls is pretty good for bossing because you will have frenzy charge when you are bossing. (normally you won't get frenzy for bossing because icebite gives frenzy on kill)

For you ssf people, a decent body armour with life and resistance.

Price : CHEAP (non 6l)
Price : EXPENSIVE (6l)

Gloves
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Any rare gloves with life and fill resistance, it is highly recommended to have a cold conversion gloves. Here is an example

If you're buying a glove without the conversion, make sure there is an open prefix. The crafting cost 1 divine orb. Find a crafter if you don't have the crafting recipe available.

The crafted modifier (Physical converted to cold) is very important in this build, it gives us significantly increase the amount of damage by about 120k, just from a single modifier, which is insanely good.

Price : MODERATE

Update :
This gloves gives insane amount of dps, but beware running this glove will result in lost of defensive stats, this glove is viable for leveling and speed clearing lower tier maps

Price : CHEAP

Update 2 : An even more offensive option is

Use this when you have insanely good abyssal jewel for the build, arcane surge will increase your overall damage output, but this is a trade off for your defenses. I personally would against it but I can't stop you from using it :>
note : one socket tombfist is already enough.

Price : MODERATE

Boots
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Any boots with life and fill resistance, recommended to get as much movement speed as possible but it is not needed

Look for
+ Maximum life
+ (Any elemental) Resistance
CHEAP

Helmet
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[Mandatory item]
this item is needed to run all of our auras together. The eldritch battery also helps us because we would have 0 mana after we reserved all the auras.

If you are on ssf, you won't be able to reserve all the auras if you don't have this item, just drop some auras then you are good to go.

If you don't have a level 2 Enlighten gem, you can drop this item, after you get it you can run an extra aura.

Price : MODERATE

Amulet
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[Mandatory item]
This is 90% of the speed come from, this is classified as a mandatory item due to the benefit it gives and this build does feels bad on the absent of this item.

On anointment there are a lot of varieties you can choose from
Overcharge (+1 max power charge) - Saves 4 points
Disciple of Unyielding (+1 Min endurance charge, gain endurance charge on kill ) - More survivability

Price : Price : MODERATE

Rings
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[Mandatory item]
Herald of ice synthesis ring is the mandatory item of this build, without this ring you can not reserve all of your auras at once. You would want a minumum 36% reduced mana reserved and look for buff effect. Here is an example
Spoiler


Yes indeed it is quite expensive, so here is my budget ring that i am using

This cost me about 5c, dirt cheap ring. But you cannot reserve a high reservation aura like Zealotry. It also gives us a lot of spell damage.

The second ring you would want is a ring that gives you life and fill your lack resistance, if you are using Mark of the Shaper like me, you must use an elder base ring. Here is an example of the ring I am using


Note : If you use the synthesis ring, you don't need to go for elder, it's optional.

Belt
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Of course everyone knows it, best belt of the game is a headh-
nah, actually this belt will just helps you do the content you need, this belt gives speed for us to complete the map faster.


Price : MODERATE

For bossing, you could use a stygian vise like


Price : CHEAP

If you have a slightly higher budget, you could go for a shaped spell damage on flask effect like this belt


Price : MODERATE

Flask
Flasks setup

I drink my flask pretty often but i am not alcoholic, You would need
1 Divine Life Flask
Atziri's Promise
3 Utility flasks
Here is the flask i am using


For deep delve, I will drop atziri's promise and sulphur flask for Taste of Hate and Rumi's, you should prob have a good understanding of the game if you reached that point so you I don't need to give more guidance for you guys.

I don't have taste of hate atm but you know how it looks like

For you new players just go back to the flasks i am using, don't ask any more questions, deep delve is 1k depth +


Jewels
Jewels


[Highly recommended item]
First i recommend a cold conversion watcher's, it gives significantly high damage and defense boost.

This may be expensive for some players, but it's not mandatory
Price : EXPENSIVE

For those who only have 36% of reservation on synthesis ring, get this jewel

This is received by doing act 8 quest.

For rare jewels, aim for
- Spell damage
- Crit multi for spells
- Maximum life
- Increase cold damage

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Gems setup
Spoiler


All gem links
==================
Main 6L
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Links above are based on damage priority, but if you have badge of the brotherhood, you would want to have blood rage on you so you can generate frenzy charge.

For bossing replace intensify with conc effect.
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Helmet (My setup, for those who use mark of the shaper)
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If you are using the synthesis ring, replace Herald of Ash with Zealotry and Culling strike with a golem of your choice (recommended stone golem for health regen)

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Gloves
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Weapons (My setup)
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You can use whatever gems you want in the second weapon slot, for me i use

Keep immortal at level 3, wave of conviction at lvl 1-3 , and cast when damage taken at level 1

You could replace immortal call with level 20 steelskin but you need to activate it by yourself ( Lvl 20 Steelskin is extremely important for dealing bosses! Check playstyle section for more info )

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Boots (My setup)
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You can use whatever gems you want at boots, i personally use

as a curse support and

as a damage support

note - arcane surge does not work on this build


Bandits and Pantheons
Spoiler

Bandits
- Help Alira, gives us elemental resistance and crit chance.

Pantheons
Major God - Lunaris
Lunaris gives us a good physical damage reduction, dodge and avoid projectiles, it's a all round best defenses for us.

Minor God - Garukhan
I choose this upgraded version of Garukhan, mainly movement speed

Second choice Minor god - Gruthkul
Good physical reduction, it increases our survivability


Ascendancy order
Spoiler

1st - Mistwalker
2nd - Unstable Infusion
3rd - Deadly Infusion
4th - Opportunistic


Additional notes
Spoiler

Dangerous map mods are included
Elemental Reflect (hard skip, totally a no go if no reflect sextant)
Physical Reflect (proceed with caution, it is likely you will still get killed from your physical damage)
Monsters avoid ailments (flaccid clear, if you meet the porcupine guy, congratz your exp, if hc, say hello to standard)

If you make this build specifically for bossing, you can replace the body armour with Farrul's Fur

Yes this build can go CI, I will be convering on this later on, but currently I have no plans to add it on the build guide.

In deep delve you need to be careful with both the mobs and the mods of the node. I have experimented my build on another person's delve, I tried 1.5k, you are only able to take 1 hit before dying to the mobs. Damage in 1.5k depth still one shots the enemies (for my current setup).


Playstyle
Spoiler

General clearing
Cast 3 times your bv, make sure to move on each cast so intensify doesn't overlap, after the 3 cast, immediately activate withering step and go clearing, you need to recast your bv once every 4 seconds. Whenever you cast your bv, immediately go withering step.

Bossing
Good steelskin cast timing is very important as it may decides you survive the fight or not. Make sure to have a level 20 Steelskin so you won't get killed from bosses.

Swap ice bite and intensify for hypothermia and concentrated effect, pre cast when you face the boss, the recast is same as when you do clearing, make sure to time your steelskin attacks that you can't dodge them yourself or boss attack animations.
I cast remi - a very beginner friendly guide : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2866127
Support me if you want to! ttv/remicaster1
Last edited by Remicaster1 on Jan 26, 2020, 4:52:47 AM
Last bumped on Apr 2, 2020, 6:10:54 PM
-----------------------Possible QnA-------------------------------

"
Q: You said this build can't do reflect, but doesn't assassins ascendancy opportunistic solve it?


Spoiler

Yes it does help, but assuming that you have 100% crit chance, you won't have to deal with those. But since in this game we have capped 95% crit chance, so if we don't crit, we would take a savage hit. Due to the build doesn't have a large amount of spell leech, this build is not recommended to do reflect maps as it is inconsistent and annoying.


"
Q : I die a lot in this build, what did I do wrong? what can improve my defenses?


Spoiler

Here are my list of defenses that you can use in gem wise
Steelskin (highly recommended for farming endgame content, had to be self cast)
Immortal call
Curse setup
Withering step (active this whenever you finished casting your bv)

Aura options (aura swaps, hc recommended, swap with zealotry or herald of ash)
Spoiler

Flesh and stone (sand stance)
Arctic armour


Flask options :
Taste of hate
Rumi's
Flaskes that is effective dealing against certain bosses

Playstyle :
Timing your steelskin is extremely important, steelskin is able to mitigate a huge chunk of damage that is thrown on you. When you finished casting your blade vortex, immediately go withering step and walk around the bosses, do not facetank it because you do not have a great spell leech.


"
This build is squishy (a statement, not a question)



"
How do you generate frenzy charges

Spoiler




"
Is this build suitable for league start?

Spoiler

I would recommend to start orb of storm (OOS) with arc or OOS + Divine Ire because the tree is very similar, until you have the void batteries and the badge, you can transition into blade vortex.

If you are wondering how it works on a full in budget, here is your answer
https://youtu.be/XQ-BBs9UuHc


"
Is this build still viable?

Spoiler

Yes it is still viable, both the youtube and the forum build guide is still viable. The only thing about it is you have to invest a lot of currency into the build, making the build too much effort for a little return, and destroying the whole concept of this build which is zooming the map and bosses with a budget.

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I cast remi - a very beginner friendly guide : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2866127
Support me if you want to! ttv/remicaster1
Last edited by Remicaster1 on Dec 28, 2019, 4:55:35 AM
Guide says you can't do reflect, but shouldn't the Opportunistic node negate that with enough crit?
This build is very squishy (you will die a lot), and Somayd is very rude (including berating and belittling) to people who ask questions about his builds in his live stream (he perma bans people without warning for no legitimate reason other than asking questions he doesn't like). Given his history of silencing people in his stream who ask reasonable (and even good) questions about his builds, I recommend players exercise caution when following his guides.
All that and a bag of chips!
Last edited by Mooginator on Oct 29, 2019, 12:34:24 AM
"
Guide says you can't do reflect, but shouldn't the Opportunistic node negate that with enough crit?


Short explaination : Opportunistic does help prevent taking reflected damage, but this is inconsistent so I would highly not recommend running it.

Long explaination
Spoiler

These are all according to my knowledge
----------------------------------------
Assuming you have 100% CC (crit chance), then you would never take any reflected damage

But our CC is capped at 95%, so we still have a 5% CC that you would take a reflect damage. And of course, our build does not hit the capped CC.

Assume that the monsters does not attack, if we deal about 100k damage to the monster and it reflects 10% of the damage, so we would be receiving 10k damage, after mitigation (depending on the res) let's say we receive about 2.5k damage, and for a 5-6k build that would count as a savage hit. To counter the reflect, we would want to have a high life leech so we would be able to recover our health pool but we don't have that option in our hands.

Yes you still able to do reflected maps but I can not guarentee that you will not die from it. What if your rng is bad and you'd not critting? So that is why I'd say "don't do reflected maps"


Reddit reference for your question : https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/93t2zy/damage_from_your_critical_strikes_cannot_be/
I cast remi - a very beginner friendly guide : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2866127
Support me if you want to! ttv/remicaster1
"
This build is very squishy (you will die a lot), and Somayd is very rude (including berating and belittling) to people who ask questions about his builds in his live stream (he perma bans people without warning for no legitimate reason other than asking questions he doesn't like). Given his history of silencing people in his stream who ask reasonable (and even good) questions about his builds, I recommend players exercise caution when following his guides.


First of all, please DO NOT INSULT any other players in the forums, if you do hate certain people don't publicly insult them, I am not Somayd I am just a fan of his helping to make a build guide for this build where the video guide can't cover all / a budget build.

Secondly, banning people have a reason behind it, usually comes from backseatting him which he'd already stated in the chat rules. If you just do whatever you want in the chat, don't come blame people that he ban you without a proper reason. For the asking questions, it is usually a, stupid one to put in short words.

Also it is his stream, some streamers ban certain emotes or stuff that they doesn't like but you don't know until you'd get hit. He does what he likes only and if someone does something he dislike, why would he keep you in the chat?

For saying the build is squishy, I debunk that. It is based on how you build it and the defensive layer setup, I don't know how you build it but from my experience playing the build, so far my deaths are usually result in doing stupid stuff like doing avoid ailments with porcupines.

Please, kindly be polite and don't insult people here, if you want to, go to reddit, here is discussing the build not person.

Also, I made this guide, so this is actually technically NOT HIS OWN GUIDE, except the video which he made.
I cast remi - a very beginner friendly guide : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2866127
Support me if you want to! ttv/remicaster1
Last edited by Remicaster1 on Oct 29, 2019, 4:31:53 AM
"
For saying the build is squishy, I debunk that. It is based on how you build it and the defensive layer setup


Which defensive layers are you talking about? Without Mistwalker, there aren't really any other. This build does not stack high evasion, usually someone will end up with about 15% chance to evade. This build does not stack a high life pool. Usually someone will end up with 5.5k life max (due to the excessive use of uniques without life). There is no chance to blind, to doge attacks or spells etc. So this build, as written down in your description, will feel squishy. Nothing to argue imho.

Clear speed on the other hand is absolut great.

Some things i stumbled upon: I dont get why it is necessary to convert the 25% phys to cold with the gloves. My setup might be wrong, but POB tells me this is a net loss of dps. Doesn't sound much surprisingly to me, since we are not penetrating any ele resistances.

In the guide he talked about getting a crit chance Watchers eye. However, POB tells me that i am already at 100% chance to crit and unsurprisingly doesn't raise my damage. Maybe it is only me, but using a watchers eye to buff only HoI does not sound that good to me.
"
Which defensive layers are you talking about?


There is a lot but i didn't cover most of them, deaths on this build are usually from bosses.

The original build uses self cast Steelskin for a layer of defenses

Because I'm very lazy, i just go for a lvl 3 cwdt Immortal call with 3 endurance charge for that, with that setup it is still able to take a hit in 1.5k delve with double extra, flat added and penetration.

On the boots setup where i said it's free, you can run curse setup like enfeeble for that, example cwdt - enfeeble.

"
necessary to convert the 25% phys to cold

If i remove that craft, I lost about 117k dps. From what I think (prob) is your aura effects like Herald of Ice or Hatred, I don't really know but that's what I think the problem comes from. That goes same for the watchers, but I go for convert instead so I can't really debunk anything for that.

"
using a watchers eye to buff only HoI

Watchers doesn't buff HoI? I think that's a mistake you accidentally said. If you mean by Hatred it is very worth it because i gain about 200k dps from it just for 1ex, i have no complains for that.
I cast remi - a very beginner friendly guide : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2866127
Support me if you want to! ttv/remicaster1
Last edited by Remicaster1 on Oct 29, 2019, 6:43:12 AM
That might have happen. Thanks for pointing that out. However, i still think its a valid point to double check if the crit chance isn't already at 100% before buying the watchers eye. Otherwise that would only buff the HoI. And since the single target damage of this build is really nothing special that might lead to frustrating boss dps :)

Hromsorrow would be an option to fully convert phys to cold by using the hatred conversion watchers eye and annointing Winter Spirit. But that would be another unique without life
"
Watchers doesn't buff HoI? I think that's a mistake you accidentally said. If you mean by Hatred it is very worth it because i gain about 200k dps from it just for 1ex, i have no complains for that.


For clarification: I am speaking about the base crit Hatred Watchers eye. When you are already at 100% crit chance with BV, it will still buff your HoI, but obviously not your BV anymore.

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