[3.23] [Leaguestarter] Exsanguinate Ascendant - a great all-rounder

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Neunzehnhundert93 wrote:

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RealAmbush wrote:

Would like to try it in an SSF scenario. Is it a good idea?

Can be rough as the build uses 2x Cold Iron Point daggers for damage scaling. Infinite Heist or Logbook farming would be probably your best bet to drop the daggers in SSF.

Yeah, two CIPs will be rough in an SSF scenario, but I believe the build will work with something like +1 phys wands. The damage will be weaker, but it should let you beat T16s and Pinnacle Bosses (non-Ubers).

Also, we have a Divination Card for Cold Iron Point, it's called Broken Truce, according to PoE Wiki it drops from Jorgin in Betrayal, so maybe it is a way to farm it deterministically-ish.

Thanks for this good build!
Replaced Efficiency with speed of creation for greater comfort and mobility

Just a question on Ascendency choices:

Why Raider over Trickster or Berserker/Chieftain? Just for perma onslaught/phasing? PoB seems to think Trickster is nothing but upsides including about 800K DPS, and Berserker is giving about 1Mil more DPS but losing some tankiness.

Just looking for thoughts and opinions, Raider is definitely good for speed if nothing else. Thanks!

I had a question about unleash support. I see a lot of people using it over efficacy, and I know that’s because you instantly get 3 stacks of Exsanguinate plus 3 stacks of CF. My question is, does this make for better mapping, and is it only used for mapping? Or do people use unleash on pinnacle and Uber bosses too?

thanks alot for the guide and notes / leveling guide!

Hi. I wanted to say thanks for the build, it's very fun. I reached t16 and it's a blast, even with my gear/gems not even being that great. Also it was the first time I started using Whirling Blades and I didn't even know this existed. Makes you feel like a god, especially paired with flame dash. Are you planning to make any updates on the build?

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telethin wrote:

Just a question on Ascendency choices:

Why Raider over Trickster or Berserker/Chieftain? Just for perma onslaught/phasing? PoB seems to think Trickster is nothing but upsides including about 800K DPS, and Berserker is giving about 1Mil more DPS but losing some tankiness.

Just looking for thoughts and opinions, Raider is definitely good for speed if nothing else. Thanks!

Hi, thanks for the question!

I've decided to go Raider for a lot of QoL basically, perma phasing, 10% movement speed, 20% spell suppression, frenzy charges and onslaught. There's a lot in this ascendancy choice.

You can go Berserker/Trickster for damage, but you won't get Rage from Berserker (would be almost useless anyway) and we waste some ES buffs with Trickster. They are still viable options though.

That being said, generating Frenzy charges with Raider also grants us ~12% more damage, so I've decided to stick with it. Also, keep in mind that speccing out of Raider, you're losing means to generate Frenzy Charges. When comparing the DPS with Berserker or Trickster, you should uncheck the "Do you have Frenzy Charges?" box in PoB > Configuration. Then you will see the final result.

I've considered Pathfinder for flasks or Occultist for extra curse, but none of these beat Raider for me.

Nonetheless, I encourage you to mix some ascendancies together and see if there is something better for you. After all, that's the strength of being an Ascendant - the flexibility. I just couldn't resist all this QoL Raider gives.

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Sonof2tards wrote:

I had a question about unleash support. I see a lot of people using it over efficacy, and I know that’s because you instantly get 3 stacks of Exsanguinate plus 3 stacks of CF. My question is, does this make for better mapping, and is it only used for mapping? Or do people use unleash on pinnacle and Uber bosses too?

Hi, thanks for the question!

Yeah, I've also seen the Unleash being used as well. I believe it is mostly used on bosses to make keeping the stacks up easier. While mapping, I don't believe there's a difference as soon as you have enough damage to kill normals/magics with a single cast w/o Unleash.

There's an argument to be made between Unleash (less casting, easier uptime maintaining) and Efficacy (more damage, longer DoTs, but you have to apply them frequently). I opted to Efficacy and increasing both Skill Effect Duration and Cast Speed, and it feels fine to me. You can try Unleash, it might fit your playstyle better. Just be aware to have enough Skill Effect Duration, because you may end up with a situation when your Unleash stacks are on cooldown and your previous Exsang stacks are gone, essentially leaving you with less damage uptime, which beats the reasoning behind Unleash.

I think the right way to go with Unleash would be to go harder in Duration and sacrifice Cast Speed for it, but I would need to check it.

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CryingEnder wrote:

Hi. I wanted to say thanks for the build, it's very fun. I reached t16 and it's a blast, even with my gear/gems not even being that great. Also it was the first time I started using Whirling Blades and I didn't even know this existed. Makes you feel like a god, especially paired with flame dash. Are you planning to make any updates on the build?

Hi, I'm glad you like it!

In terms of movement skills - I am and (probably) always will be an advocate to use two movement skills - the attack one and the Blink one. In this case we can use Whirling Blades because we use daggers (yet another reason to stick with CIPs and not switch to crafted wands).
Attack movement skills doesn't have cooldowns which means you can spam them and blitz through the map with them. Blinks help you dodge some boss mechanics, teleport over obstacles or break grasping vines. That's my reasoning behind them.

Keep in mind that for the attack movement skill to feel good you have to have enough Attack Speed. This build uses Faster Attacks only for that reason, we get some Attack Speed from the Passive Tree (Precision, Dark Arts), from Frenzy charges, from Onslaught and from Dual Wielding bonus (10% more attack speed). That's what makes Whirling Blades feel good.

In terms of updates, I'm planning to keep this build updated for this league for sure, then we have to wait for patch notes and check if it still works. I'm planning to make some HC version and SSF version as well.

Love the build, thanks a lot! How would you go about using Reap with this build? Is it viable at all?