[3.25][SSF] Trinity Smite Slayer - NO Rakiata's - tanky melee with full screen Vaal Smite nukes
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What is this?
My tried and tested Vaal Smite Slayer, which I have played for 3 leagues straight now and planning to play it again this upcoming league. In 3.25 it became much, much stronger thanks to various buffs. It used to be socket starved when totems were a thing, but now that they're gone we can afford a bunch of utility gems which make us both deal more DPS and tankier. Also 3.25 made it easier and comfier to play, with no need for totem spam. Good clear, fullscreen nukes with Vaal smite, good single target, over 14m DPS with SSF gear. Moderately tanky, with over 110k eHP without banner planted. Pros and cons
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Pros: + good for SSF + good single target damage + good survivability, rarely dies + good clear + only one unique is somewhat necessary - Perseverance, and it's a very common one + Armour, Evasion, 90% spell suppresion, Fortify, 4 endurance charges, Slayer super overleech Cons: - most of the debuffs are automated, but still a bunch of button pressing for bosses - pretty much the only source of Endurance charges is Enduring Cry, which will have to be clicked on cooldown - a good weapon can be moderately annoying to craft in SSF - Perseverance can just not drop for you in SSF if you're extremely unlucky, although that has never really happened to me quite yet. PoB:
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Basic version without Legacy of Fury: https://pobb.in/i6nA5plZIShQ Endgame version, the build I've ended up 3.25 Settlers league with: https://pobb.in/Ym28DKKF1bVN poe.ninja character link
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3.23 SSF Affliction: https://poe.ninja/builds/afflictionssf/character/100purified/CEOofTrinity 3.24 SSF Necropolis: https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolisssf/character/100purified/CEOofElements CURRENT LEAGUE: 3.25 SSF Settlers: https://poe.ninja/builds/settlersssf/character/100purified/CEOofMelee Uniques:
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Only really "necessary" unique for this build. And I say "necessary", because build will perform fine with just a rare belt, but this item is a huge upgrade over which makes us tankier, gives perma onslaught and just a huge chunk of damage in general. If you don't have Perseverance yet, you should just use an onslaught flask. BiS ring, but absolutely unnecessary. A well rolled rare ring will ofer very similar damage. This should be considered a luxury upgrade for SSF. These will significantly boost your damage, if you can afford the HP and resistances loss. This is a luxury upgrade. Map mods:
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Can do everything except: - ele reflect, - no leech. I usually avoid reduced recovery rate in the endgame, when because of atlas nodes it reaches like >80%. Example Gear:
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3.23 SSF Affliction gear:
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3.24 SSF Necropolis gear:
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3.25 SSF Settlers gear:
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Weapon mods are very simple to look out for - high flat elemental damage, crit chance and attack speed. Always choose Exquisite Blade base. Helmet - look out for Blizzard Crown which comes from Rituals. Always craft it so you have one prefix open, so you can craft +flat Armour on it - this gives +1% to max resistances from armour mastery. You can't have eldritch implicits on a Blizzard Crown base! OR Use one of the new high armour/evasion bases. A well rolled high defenses one along with Eldritch implicits for "attack damage/Elemental Weakness curse effect" is comparable in DPS increase to a Blizzard Crown along with providing much better defense. Every other armour piece should be STR/DEX base. Hunter body armour for that sweet crit chance and +1 curse. ELDRITCH MODS - +1 strike target on your gloves is absolutely necessary for comfy gameplay. Everything else is up to your liking. How to craft +attack crit chance/+1 curse body armour:
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1. Get a Hunter influenced high armour/evasion base of a least item level 84. 2. Use Harvest bench to Reforge with an Attack mod - this is guaranteed to include the "Attacks have +X to critical strike chance" mod. 3. Spam this Harvest mod until you get tier 1 crit and two other SUFFIXES of your interest (usually 2x resistances) and AT LEAST ONE open PREFIX. 4. Benchcraft "Suffixes cannot be changed" - costs 2 Divs. 5. Use Harvest bench to "reforge with a caster mod" - this guarantees +1 curse prefix. Ascendancy, bandits, anointment and Pantheon:
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Ascendancy order: Bane of Legends - Headsman - Brutal Fervour - Impact But you can go with any order you want, really. Bandits: 1 passive. Amulet anointment: Divine Fervour for early game (good and cheap). In endgame, either Forces of Nature or Disemboweling. Pantheon: Brine King for freeze immunity and chill effect, small pantheon is whatever you like. Quick leveling guide:
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Level with Frost Blades until you get Tectonic Slam. Then use that up until around level 60, when you can start farming Blood Aqueduct and get your Vaal Smite from Vaal side areas. DO NOT try to use regular Smite without Vaal Smite, it will be a miserable experience during campaign.
Early game links for your attacks: Faster Attacks, Elemental Damage with Weapons, Rage. Level 28 tree Level 50 tree Level 77 tree Videos:
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3.25 SSF Settlers, general mapping gameplay: https://youtu.be/LeEMF5TZMT4 Endgame mapping gameplay: https://youtu.be/lAfdkyqQ04o Sirus: https://youtu.be/zbE_s2cqRMM Maven: https://youtu.be/1oM6aDDjLSw Last edited by 100purified#0667 on Aug 8, 2024, 10:05:25 AM Last bumped on Sep 1, 2024, 5:37:11 AM
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How do you level?
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" Just your regular Ice Blades or Splitting Steel melee leveling. You can swap to Smite once you get Vaal Smite from a corrupted side area, best farmed in the aqueduct. |
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Is there a preferred leveling route in the tree?
When do you switch to vaal smite? (some early gem links and/or priorities?) This build really intrigues me, since I love the skill, but I am too much of a scrub to figure stuff out myself :P |
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Update: Half-way through act 2, got a quality +20 vaal smite, just using that. Pretty smooth so far, only thing is, mana is an issue (like most builds early on). Went for fortify node first, then life leech nodes, and guessing I'm going for rage and frenzy nodes next...
Last edited by Bl0rk#1206 on Jul 31, 2024, 6:45:14 AM
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" You can use anything for leveling really, but Smite doesn't feel that good in campaign until you get Vaal Smite. I've been using Tectonic Slam up to level ~65 until I got Vaal Smite. For early nodes, I advise grabbing rage nodes early, pathing to Primeval Force for elemental damage and then up to Finesse near ranger start. Afterwards you can start grabbing crit and life nodes. Just leave the onslaught wheel and +max resistances wheel for later. Also I've updated the endgame build PoB and posted my 3.25 poe.ninja character link. Tinctures are a huge boost and we can get more than 14m dps in the endgame now. Last edited by 100purified#0667 on Jul 31, 2024, 10:41:17 AM
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" Awesome! Thank you! Been doing it right then, ignored the res and life nodes for now so I could go for rage :D |
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Ubers viable?...
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" No idea, never tried with this build. I don't drop nearly enough t17s to even get the fragments to attempt an uber fight. You should have >4m uber boss DPS with this build, so it might be viable, but that remains untested. |
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Thanks for posting this build. I played Lightning Strike Slayer and didn't really enjoyed the skill, and Smite is my favourite. I am leveling up. I use "Endurance Charge on Melee Stun" instead of "Close Combat", so I don't have to press Enduring Cry, and I want to keep the distance anyway. The damage loss is around 10%, but QoL is better. What do you think?
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