[3.22] Hidden Blade Corrupting Fever Ascendent: Automated Fever Stacks, Tanky and minimal Clicking!
 Hay All! I wanted to post some current information on my current WIP experimental build focusing on Ascendent applying Corrupting Fever as quick as possible - enter the Hidden Blade! We got Build of the Week :) Thank you for those who have shown interest! I've been working IRL a lot so haven't updated the guide as much but some new information is below including specific ordering for which gear to acquire as you are pushing endgame and this build! I've also updated the PoB with a LOT more information on potential trees and how I worked upto the build in its current form including ALL of the gear I have in game Like Vampire Survivors? You'll like this build :) The build concept is simple; Stack projectile speed and added projectiles ( where possible ) into a Corrupting Fever build and Map with ease! Utilising Returning Projectiles support we have no downside of the 'reduced damage' element of the skills as the focus is to apply CF stacks as quickly as possible which Returning Projectiles massively assists with! We can zoom through a map focusing solely on applying Vulnerability Curse and occasionally using Reap / Vaal Reap on more tanky Rares / Uniques / Bosses. ------------------------------------------ Currently my build works as follows
 Some general gameplay - only our self cast curse being clicked! And I've recorded some quick T16 Wandering Path Gameplay you can check out on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diA9o9SID4c ------------------------------------------ The Mechanics We rely on the Unseen Strike Skill that comes from the Heist Unique :Hidden Blade! but we don't actually care about scaling its damage. It's main focus is to cover the screen in blades to apply our corrupting fever debuff onto enemies by maximising the number of projectiles and speed of these projectiles ( including returning ) to get to max Fever stacks ASAP! We utilise Reap / Vaal Reap for additional boss damage and cast our flame dash / vulnerability curse while supported by lifetap to spend enough life to maintain the Corrupting Fever skill effect. The playstyle makes for a relaxing and Console / Steam Deck friendly playstyle even in juiced maps as we solely focus on our curse and movement abilities; letting our unseen blade apply our CF stacks! The goal of this build was to provide an alternative method of the traditional Corrupting Fever style build not solely relying on Exsanguinate and Reap combination and to leverage some of the changes from the patch notes. ------------------------------------------ In term's of scaling the build. Initially we focus on scaling DoT and Physical Damage across our tree and fitting in enough Auras. We path across two axis in our passive tree so we can get the relevant Armour and Physical / Life Cost Wheels and also to reach Eldritch Battery. We utilise EB on tree until we can acquire a Skin of the Lords with the correct links and EB on it. From here, we can then do a major respec of our tree and focus on Physical and Physical Damage over Time and Auras / Curse Clusters / Megalomaniac to push this builds damage further! Further details on how to scale this through item acquisition can be found later in the post. The final question... why Ascendent. The Hidden Blade relies on perma phasing and through Ascendent we can take the Ranger and Gladiator ascendancies first and then opt into utilising Forbidden Flesh & Flame jewels for the Berserker class. As we do Attacks we can gain Rage and add this as an Eldirch implicit on our gloves to enhance this for some extra QoL in terms of Movement Speed, Leech uptime, Stun Immunity with higher rage and, ofc, the flat 15% more damage! The benefits of being an Ascendent in the endgame of this build without it just being typical PoB ticking all of the things
------------------------------------------ I'll be adding a fully endgame setup shortly and alternative tree is WIP in the PoB ( at the bottom of the post ) with the goal of being a fully tattoo'd tree for additional damage, defences and QoL benefits! This will be added to one of the reserved posts for true Endgame targets ------------------------------------------ I'm also working on a levelling approach for the build which follows a similar progression to traditional Exsanguinate / Reap / CF style builds so it is straightforward to switch into this build once you can acquire the Hidden Blade which will be added to one of the reserved posts
Current Pro's and Con's of the Build
PROs
------------------------------------------ CONs
Endgame Gearing
The build isn't too difficult to gear up in the first instance but it does REQUIRE the Hidden blade in the first instance. All other
Weapons
First and foremost the key item in this build is The Hidden Blade Support the Unseen Strike skill with Greater Multiple Projectiles == Greater Volley == Returning Projectiles This will fire an automated barrage of projectiles around the screen in a Nimis style effect! Making applying our Corrupting Fever Stacks practically automated! ------------------------------------------ Cold Iron Point Cold Iron Point is a great weapon for this build until you can self craft a BIG dagger upgrade that can replace it. The easier and cheaper early option is to self corrupt CIPs for the Damage Over Time Corruption ------------------------------------------ Offhand Weapons It's heavily recommended to have some basic offhand wands / daggers with another flame dash or movement skill socketed in so you can turn 'off' unseen blade when sitting in hideout :) ------------------------------------------ Late Game Self Crafted Dagger Later in the league it may be possible to craft something like this as a theorycrafted item to replace Cold Iron Point  Another possibility is to leverage something like the Infernal Blade from Heist base due to the following implicit " where flame dash level 30 is automated and link it with the following Vulnerability == Lifetap == Increased Area of Effect / Enhance So you cast your Curse and you automatically move and it lets us support our Curse with AoE or Additional Quality!
Jewellery
Amulet Current option on this item is a +1 Decent Helmet with DOT suffix and space to craft 'increase Damage while leeching' We can Annoint Beef or go for a +30 strength node and utilise the Honoured Tattoo of the Warlord for +1 to all Strength Gems Other Options may be the new Replica Dragonfang's Flight unique to boost Corrupting Fever levels and gain some Reservation Efficiency to save on some passive tree points ------------------------------------------ Rings Our first ring is a resist ring. Help us cap our resists Our second ring could be a self crafted ring OR a great option is Death Rush as it caps our Chaos Resist and provides almost perma Adrenaline ------------------------------------------ Belt Our belt slot is focused on finishing those resists and getting some life on a Stygian Vise. Later options would be a high rolled Darkness Enthroned with some great 6 mod, corrupted Abyss Jewels socketed in
Armours
In terms of Armour we focus on some key basics
And then we want to utilise Eldrich Implicits to get some general mods for the build. There are no specifics where links should go between Helmet, Gloves or Boots. Body Armour is just focused on high Armour ( Exalt Slammed +9% Cold Res KEKW! ) and life really. Endgame goal would be a Skin of the Lords with Eldrich Battery but these currently don't exist in league. ------------------------------------------ using Divine Blessing Malevolence in the build and Eldrich Battery so we can afford it! Defensive Implicits is useful here ------------------------------------------ Auras in the Gloves. Implicits, again have a lot of variety and I've settled on Increased Physical Damage over time and Projectile Pierce ( still testing this ) ------------------------------------------ Boots are just Movement Speed, Life and Resists. Ideally getting some sort of Tailwind or Spell Suppression would be ideal on boots if high investment
Flasks
Nothing too special with our flasks; we just want to automate them as much as possible!
Jewels
In terms of Jewels, Uniques, Cluster Jewels and others we have a few options we can apply in the build but these are not currently on my Character in game Some ideas which factors into the Future Testing
And some good rare jewels will be big DoT DPS Improvements also And some Uniques I'm testing
Tattoos
And some details on the tattoo's currently utilised on the build for some additional QoL :) Tattoo of the Ngamahu Warmonger  Currently we have 10% chance to Explode but may experiment with up to 20% here Tattoo the Ramako Sniper Currently have 5 Dex nodes set as this Tattoo for 40% increased Projectile Speed  Honoured Tattoo of the Warlord Anoint Beef for an additional +1 Strength Skills 
Scaling the Build
The benefits of a Physical Spell Skill Gem in Corrupting Fever is we have a few main ways of scaling the damage in the build as we push further and further in the endgame in the following order of ease of access / impact:
------------------------------------------ Upgrade Priority So a big component is how do you progress through your Atlas and ensure you are buying the right upgrades at the right time? Obviously, cost of these items is a BIG factor and entirely dependent on WHEN in the league cycle and the popularity of these items in the Meta so this is NOT a price based priority but more of a likely easy of access priority.
------------------------------------------ Further Experimentation I'm going to be experimenting with some other options on how to Automate the build further. One option I've seen is to utilise a Mageblood to solve Resistances and then utilise Asenath's Gentle Touch with a Vulnerability on Hit mod and go for +1 curse to fully automate curse triggering. Another popular suggestion has been to leverage Vortex on left click for even easier Corrupting Fever stack refresh ( with links to lifetap and more ) and finally also potential to use Whirling blades rather than Flame Dash ( your preference here really! ) I also think this build could be very fun with a Head Hunter increasing our Projectiles and Movement speed / Survivability Also, with the new Keystone tattoo's it would be possible to replace the EB Skin of the Lords with another option. More DPS / Less Armour == Dialla's with +2 corruptions / +1 socketed, Tankier option would be Magebane or Wind Dancer Skin The endgame Circle of Guilt provides more DPS but at the cost of the Adrenaline boost in dense maps so your preference here. ------------------------------------------ Easy Trade Links To help with some of the late item acquisition where specific Cluster Jewels or items are required you can find the trade URLs for them here Where possible we have put options together on what combination of items you may ultimately choose. For the Clusters, we do need to ensure we get a source of intelligence to help with later usage of tattoos and final build scaling. For Megalomaniac usage; getting the exact passives is exceptionally difficult so we've created a list of passives that work with the build; you can choose which one suits your budget ( if any ) and preferred approach. Endgame Cluster Links https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ancestor/P9Y3QBgHL https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ancestor/nBm8vylu0 Circle of Guild Endgame Trade Link https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ancestor/XEz8LrbIP Megalomaniac https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ancestor/ZLGj5L6SQ Ideal Jewels https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ancestor/6Q5n69kSG Timeless Jewels https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ancestor/Y85XYlDFY
Some build Specifics
In 3.22; Hidden blade actually received a noticeable BUFF due to its triggering timer being changes in the patch notes https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3409617 " While this doesn't seem like much at first it actually makes this build viable. Thanks to the Raider Ascendency we can now trigger Unseen blade every 0.5 seconds rather than every 1 second as previous. Essentially doubling our opportunity for applying Corrupting Fever stacks. Additionally, Returning Projectiles support makes a big change due to no downside ( returning proj dmg doesnt effect CF ) so we can take advantage of the 'pierce all enemies on returning projectiles' and them mechanically overlapping and providing multiple opportunities for applying our Fever Stacks. Finally we can take advantage of Projectile Speed sources to increase thie hits of our unseen strike skill. With an aim of doubling the projectile speed
Changelog
Next planned updates
Thanks very much for reading through the build showcase! I hope it encourages you to want to check out the build, provide some much welcome feedback or do some other fun things with Hidden Blade since it's update! The Path of Building is Being Actively Updated on my PoBB Profile here Last edited by Guitaraholic#3044 on Sep 19, 2023, 8:07:36 AM Last bumped on Jan 5, 2024, 1:26:00 AM
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I'm excited to see your updates. Keep this up!
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How do you level up on this character?
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" I levelled this Character using Ethereal Knives till act 4 then as the traditional Exsanguinate Scion adding in Corrupting Fever and Reap. I dropped Exsanguinate once I had my Hidden Blade and went from there :) If you check my PoBB profile I have an Exsanguinate Ascendent I've used a few times for Infinite Heist and still utilise elements of this tree while levelling with a few tweaks like masteries etc. My plan is to see how far I can push this build and then provide an Endgame variant as well as leaguestart & twink style levelling to go with it! Cheers Last edited by Guitaraholic#3044 on Aug 26, 2023, 4:45:27 PM
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Thnx for your reply. Good luck!
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What support would you use while waiting to get empower?
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" Low Level corrupted Empower currently going for 50 - 60c which can be a good start once it hits level 2 but Lifetap is a good 6th link option. I waited till I had the 6L for adding empower Last edited by Guitaraholic#3044 on Aug 26, 2023, 4:45:09 PM
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Please make more videos mapping and bossing, build looks good but needs more showcase
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