Fire Blade Vortex Assassin Passive Skill Tree & Gems

Out Of Date

March 5th, 2023, 16:02

Passive Skill Tree

You can find an optimized Path of Building here. Every build I release will use the community fork of Path of Building, which is maintained and updated in a much more regular fashion than the original one. You can find PoB’s Fork, by LocalIdentity, here.

If you are not comfortable with Path of Building, we also have a PoePlanner for you. Do note that PoE Planner does not support Cluster Jewels and some specific unique jewels and it is highly recommended you install Path of Building to follow builds most optimally.
For more information about the appropriate gear choices and their breakdown, please refer to our Gear page.

Gear Page

Progression Advice

This build relies on levels to build health. You cannot drop many of your Passives other than Life earlier on, therefore we recommend to take leveling responsibly. Try to do content that’s appropriate for your level, and don’t do too insane content while being low-leveled, as you do want to keep grinding that experience and not lose it!

Here’s a level 80 Path of Building and a PoePlanner to give you an idea of how your tree should look whenever you’re at about that level. This should carry you to the stages where you can afford some nice item upgrades!

Gem Links

Blade Vortex – Main Link (6-Link)

Since Awakened Gems are extremely nice, and some of them are really cheap, we decided to list them here. Obviously, before you have the currency to buy those, feel free to just use regular versions.

Disclaimer: If you opt to go for a level 21 Blade Vortex gem, this offers you a really big damage increase but it also makes it so you require a Dexterity roll on a piece of gear (which would have to be on a Cluster Jewel)

Movement

Since your Cluster Jewel only offers you Arcane Surge on Unique enemies, we link Arcane Surge Support here to get that up permanently! Dash Dash is chosen here because it feels absolutely great when you’re fast. Optionally, you can run a Withering Step here too as it resets your Elusive and makes you a lot tankier.

Debuff Setup

As mentioned before, you’re going to have to use Wave of Conviction on bosses once to apply Flammability and Combustion. These makes it so the boss has greatly reduced Fire Resistance and thus takes more damage. The Wave of Conviction choice is made because it naturally applies Element Exposure, another damage multiplier.

Herald of Ash

Herald of Ash is the primary Damage dealer in your build. It does incredible Damage to packs of monsters which then allows Inpulsa's Broken Heart to kill enemies with the explosions and thus chain. We link it to two supports to further help it deal damage.

Defenses

Since you’re squishy, you want to keep your Cast when Damage Taken setup rather low level. Since you’re linking an Increased Duration Support you’re also socketing your Vaal Righteous Fire here as it will last longer. Vaal Righteous Fire is to be used on bosses to melt them as fast as possible.

Cast when Damage Taken Support (Level 1)
Immortal Call (Level 3)
Increased Duration Support
Vaal Righteous Fire

Aura / Mark

Since you’re running the Small Cluster that grants you Lone Messenger, this makes it so all your Auras do nothing. Arctic Armour is not classified as an Aura and thus can still be run. It’s not the greatest of Auras, but besides Herald of Ash and Aspect of the Spider , it is the only thing we can reserve our Mana with so why not! On top of that, since Marks no longer compete with Curses, you might as well cast an Assassin's Mark on the boss while your blades are murdering it!

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