[3.5] The MeatBlender - Crit Blade Vortex Assassin | Uber Elder & All Content Viable

Skill Tree

PoE Character Profile

Path of Building

- Bandit choice is Kill for two passives skill points.
- Major pantheon is Soul of the Brine King, which helps in both Delve and against Uber Elder.
- Minor pantheon is Soul of Abberath because MoM builds don't like ground effects.

In most slots, I am giving several recommendations - this is all gear I've used with this build, and should give you an idea of some decent upgrade paths towards stronger gearing.

Weapon

A shaped dagger or sceptre is best, but any good spellcaster weapon is fine. Void Battery is very popular with Blade Vortex as well, though I have no experience with it. I paid 4ex for this dagger, which is about the cost of crafting materials - these weapons are incredibly cheap and effective.


Shield

Get a spellcaster shield with lots of life. You may dual-wield with this build, but you cannot get life on a weapon, so expect to be a bit squishier. This shield cost 1ex.


Armour

I am using a 6L Carcass Jack with my build, but this build is also very viable with Inpulsa's Broken Heart. Carcass Jack got a substantial buff in 3.5, and Inpulsa's was nerfed slightly (and made much rarer), so a Carcass Jack is a wonderful choice for BV.

For advanced DPS purposes, you can take advantage of the corruptions '+1 gems', '+2 AoE gems', and '+2 duration gems' - each additional gem level equals about 8% increased damage. A 6L Carcass Jack costs 3ex, and a well-corrupted one is about 10-15ex.


Rings

Since we are a MoM build, reserving mana is a poor choice. By using Essence Worm, we are able to run Hatred with no mana reservation. Your other ring should be a rare ring that provides life, resistances, and damage as allowed. Getting a well-rolled ring with 'Curse enemies with level XX Warlord's Mark on hit' would be excellent, though it's hard to find good rings with that particular affix. You are going to need several STR rolls on gear to make this build work, so try to get some on your rare ring.

Amulet

High life and damage, and additional AoE are great. With the availability of amazing talismans this league, gearing the ammy slot has never been so much fun. If you cover your other requirements on gear, you can use Bisco's Collar as an item swap while mapping.

Helmet

Lightpoacher is where you want to be, with two Abyssal sockets. Lightpoacher is MUCH stronger than the relatively weak Starjonka's Head, and with two abyssal jewels, we can get as much life with Lightpoacher. The Spirit Burst skill scales in the same manner as Blade Vortex, so it becomes a great source of additional damage.

Helmet enchant should be Blade Votex duration if possible, but any Blade Vortex enchant is fine. This helmet cost 2.5ex with the enchant relatively early in the league.

Gloves

Rare gloves with life, resists, and anything extra you can manage. There are a lot of synergistic mods available in the glove slot. Command of the Pit is a great alternative if you can afford it - gearing will be a LOT harder if you go this route.

Boots

Rare with life, 30% movement speed, and resistances. These boots cost 2ex (and I exalted the lightning res roll after purchase), though you can get mostly comparable boots for far less.

Belt

Get a Stygian with life and resistances. The better your belt is, the easier it will be to gear other slots. Headhunter is a viable option - it is very much a boon in delve, especially in Abyssal cities where there is a high density of rare mobs and a ton of loot.

Flasks

2 life, adrenaline, diamond, and Taste of Hate. You can also run Atziri's Promise (cheaper) or Dying Sun (mostly gimmicky, as our AoE is fine). No significant costs here.

Jewels

This build utilizes up to 10 jewels (12 if you are using Command of the Pit gloves). Since we get a Spirit Charge with every abyssal jewel, we want as many of our jewels to be Abyssal as is possible.
Put your Intuitive Leap jewel in the socket between Shadow and Witch so we can pick up the Overcharged node. A Watcher's Eye with Hatred mods is a good choice once you have the rest of your upgrades (though it is very costly). On other jewels, prioritize life, crit multi, spell damage, elemental damage, cast speed, crit chance, and 'X% chance to gain phasing on kill' - being able to move through enemies is a major benefit as a Blade Vortex build. Each jewel will cost 20c to 2ex, depending on relative strength.

Blade Vortex
Mapping Setup:


Maximum Damage:


Vaal Blade Vortex is a huge single-target DPS increase - effectively doubling your damage for a short time - it's better to have a level 20 Vaal Blade Vortex instead of a level 21 regular Blade Vortex, should you have to choose.

Spirit Burst (via LightPoacher)


The support gems need to be in your Lightpoacher helmet to support the Spirit Burst skill.

Movement Skill - Whirling Blades


CWDT #1 - Curse


CWDT #2 - Utility


Golem & Totem


Damage Aura


Hatred is socketed in our Essence Worm.