PoE 3.25 Blade Vortex Assassin Build

Mapping in Path of Exile pretty much takes up the bulk of your time if you have completed the game's main campaign. While the past leagues have been dominated by Deadeyes and Pathfinders, you probably want to try a build that uses one of the least popular ascendancy classes right now, the Assassin.

In this article, we will talk about the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin and why it is worth your time. Upon our testing, it is definitely one of the fastest mappers in the game. Its unorthodox playstyle is a breath of fresh air, especially if you have been playing bow builds for the past few leagues.

If you want to know how to create this character so that you can try it out for yourself, then read on. This is our comprehensive build guide for the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin!

Basics

So, how does the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin work? The main skill for this build is the new Transfigured Gem introduced in 3.23 Affliction League, Blade Blast of Unloading.

Unlike the base version, Blade Blast of Unloading synergizes really well with Blade Vortex (BV). After obtaining at least five stacks, you detonate them using the new Transfigured Gem that was just mentioned. This results in an expanding nova that obliterates enemies about two screens wide!

Blade Vortex is left at level 1 as it is just utilized as a setup for Blade Blast of Unloading. So, how do you gain stacks for your BV quickly? Well, you link Blade Vortex with Arcanist Brand.

Arcanist Brand is a spell in Path of Exile that allows you to create a Brand that you can attach to enemies. Every time it activates, the Brand provides you with one stack, and when you use Brand Recall, you gain an additional stack as well. This means that if you have three Brands attached to different enemies, you will get a total of six stacks every time you recall them back to you. Really interesting stuff, right?

The default version of this build utilizes physical damage and impale to destroy enemies with ease. As you accrue more PoE currency, you can transition to the 100% phys-to-cold-damage conversion for even more damage! But, the original version is already so good that transitioning to the cold damage version is just optional.

Look for these modifiers on your gear to improve the damage of the build:

• Flat physical damage
• Increased physical damage
• Increased spell damage
• Increased critical strike multiplier
• Increased Area Damage

Playstyle

The Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin requires some setup in order to maximize its potential. When you enter a new map, cast Arcanist Brand a few times and then Shield Charge to look for huge packs of monsters. Pay close attention to the BV stacks as you move around. When you have acquired at least five stacks, use Blade Blast of Unloading and watch the enemies go bye-bye!

What's interesting here is that the Blade Blast's nova expands outward for about two to three seconds. Use this window to Shield Charge to another screen. Doing so will kill any enemies that you may find! Don't forget to cast Arcanist Brand once every two Shield Charges to ensure that they are always up while mapping. Once you get used to the playstyle, you can clear a single map in less than three minutes for sure!

When you take on the pinnacle bosses in PoE, you simply attach multiple brands on the enemy, wait until you get 10 stacks, and then detonate them all using Blade Blast of Unloading!

Ascendancy

This build can actually work with the Saboteur, but we went with Assassin for this guide simply because this ascendancy class is just better in terms of clear speed and damage scaling, especially in the endgame.

Upon completing the first labyrinth, you will get Opportunistic. This allows you to kill rare or unique monsters with ease. This is a pretty useful node early on in the campaign.

Next, you will take Mistwalker. This notable ascendancy passive grants you the "Elusive" buff when you deal a critical strike. The buff grants you a 15% chance to avoid all damage from hits, thus greatly improving your survivability. What's more, Elusive gives you a 30% movement speed boost that wanes over time. This node is even more reliable as soon as you have a higher than 50% critical strike chance.

The third notable ascendancy passive to acquire is Unstable Infusion. This gives you a consistent way of obtaining Power Charges, so getting to 100% crit chance in this build is pretty doable. Plus, it raises your maximum Power Charges by one, so you have at least four charges now without relying on gear!

For your final ascendancy node, you will take Deadly Infusion. This basically gives you a considerable boost to your crit chance and critical strike multiplier for every Power Charge you have active.

While the assassin's notable ascendancy passives are great, you can heavily improve the feel of the build by purchasing Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with "Perfect Crime" as the matching modifier. This notable ascendancy passive skill comes from the Saboteur, which allows you to summon invulnerable Triggerbot minions that follow you around.

What they do is take Blade Vortex from your Arcanist Brand and trigger the spell themselves, allowing you to get blade stacks even faster! You will still need to cast Arcanist Brand, of course, because the Triggerbots only take care of the "trigger" part of the mechanic.

Gear

The Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin, admittedly, uses an awful lot of unique items to work comfortably. However, every time you get your hands on each piece of gear, the build will feel even better, granting it enough power to be able to clear maps faster.

Weapon

Since the build is basically a Power Charge stacker, there is no better weapon to use than the Void Battery. This unique Prophecy Wand gives you 25% increased spell damage per Power Charge. If you are able to raise your maximum Power Charges to at least eight, you will definitely feel what the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin is capable of!

Shield

Malachai's Loop is the perfect complimentary piece to the Void Battery. That is because it not only increases your maximum Power Charges by two, but you gain even more spell damage depending on the number of Power Charges you have active!

Now, if you read the mods that are on this unique Harmonic Spirit Shield, you might be put off by the line that says, "Lose all Power Charges on Reaching Maximum Power Charges." Well, this can be resolved by another unique piece of gear that you are going to wear for this build. This will be discussed later in the build guide, so do not worry about the shield's downside.

Body Armor

Utula's Hunger solves a lot of this build's HP issues thanks, in large part, to its unique effect, where you gain up to 1,000 HP if there are no life modifiers on the other items you have equipped.

In addition, this unique Majestic Plate improves your sustainability by allowing you to recover 2% of your maximum life on kill. As mentioned earlier in the build guide, the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin is capable of deleting multiple screens of enemies with ease, so you will always gain the maximum benefit from the armor's unique effects!

Helmet

Get a corrupted or synthesized rare helmet with the implicit modifier, "+1 to Maximum Power Charges." This piece of gear can be very expensive, particularly when you acquire one with some really good explicit modifiers.

While you farm enough PoE currency to purchase the endgame helm, you can equip a self-crafted helmet to improve your defenses in the meantime. Use this equipment slot to sort out any issues you may have with your elemental resistances or attributes.

If you decide to go full 100% cold conversion, you must replace the rare self-crafted helmet with the Heatshiver. Yes, we know that this got nerfed in 3.23 Affliction League, but it is still quite powerful for cold damage builds in Path of Exile.

Gloves

Entropic Devastation is the main pair of gloves you will use for the physical version of the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin. This essentially gives your spells the ability to inflict Impale on enemies with critical strikes. It increases the effect of Impale for more damage as well.

If you transition to the cold damage version of the build, you must get your hands on 60% cold conversion gloves. You can purchase it on the trade website, but it will cost you a lot of currency to do so. Luckily for you, we have a comprehensive build guide that tells you what you need to do in order to craft this pair of gloves yourself!

Boots

Malachai's Loop has a pretty nasty downside where you lose all of your Power Charges upon reaching the maximum stacks. Fortunately, Grinding Gear Games has made a nifty pair of boots that can help address that problem, Ralakesh's Impatience!

This unique pair of Riveted Boots allows you to have your maximum Endurance/Frenzy/Power Charges at all times. This effect cannot be removed by any means, which is why you need to equip this for the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin.

Amulets

Just like the Void Battery, there is no better amulet for the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin than the Badge of the Brotherhood. The main reason why it is included in the build is that it makes your maximum Frenzy Charges equal to your total number of Power Charges. So, if you have eight Power Charges, for example, you will also have the same number of Frenzy Charges thanks to the amulet's unique effect.

On top of that, Badge of the Brotherhood works really well with the Assassin's Mistwalker notable ascendancy passive skill. What it does is it also increases the effect of the Elusive buff provided by Mistwalker by 7% per Power Charge, making you move a lot faster and able to avoid damage from enemy hits more effectively than ever!

Be sure to anoint the amulet with Infused (Crimson Oil, Silver Oil, Silver Oil) so that you can have one additional Power Charge.

Rings

You will wear one unique ring and one self-crafted ring for the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin. That said, get a Circle of Guilt that has the mods "Herald of Purity Has % Increased Buff Effect" and "% Increased Physical Damage While Affected by Herald of Purity." If you are going to buy one from the trade website, make sure to get some cool implicit modifiers that can benefit the build, such as increased maximum life, some attributes, and reduced mana cost of skills, to name a few.

The other ring is a self-crafted one using a Warlord-influenced Two-Stone Ring (elemental resistance) or Amethyst Ring (chaos resistance) as a crafting base. Use Harvest Reforge Caster to get the mod, "Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on Hit." This ensures that you deal the most amount of damage without having to cast the said curse spell manually. Use this crafted ring to sort out your elemental resistances if you are still struggling to cap them.

Belt

Get an ilvl 84+ Shaper-influenced Stygian Vise and spam it with Essence of Rage (STR) or Essence of Anger/Hatred/Wrath (Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistance) until you get "(16-20)% Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate." If you still have an open prefix, you can add "(15-17% Increased Damage)" from the Crafting Bench.

If you swap to the cold damage version of the build, you will use Graven's Secret. This unique Cloth Belt can be acquired from The Maven. What this does is it converts all of your Power Charges to Absorption Charges, allowing you to recoup 12% of elemental damage taken as Energy Shield for every Absorption Charge you have active, significantly improving your survivability.

Now, you might be thinking that using Graven's Secret will dramatically decrease the damage output of the build. Well, that is just far from the truth! That is because when you transition to 100% phys-to-cold damage, this build's killing potential goes through the roof!

If you are not comfortable converting all of your Power Charges to Absorption Charges, you can opt for the Mageblood instead. Using this highly sought-after heavy belt solves all of your elemental resistance and mana cost issues!

Flasks

• Granite Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Sulphur Flask
• Silver Flask
• Eternal Life Flask

Flask Mods

• 60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)
• 65% Reduced Effect of Curses on You (of the Owl)
• 65% Reduced Effect of Shock on You (of the Heron)
• 25% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills (Bench Craft)
• Grants Immunity to Corrupted Blood (Life Flask)

Jewels

The Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin is a squishy build, which is why you want to bolster its defenses by using some amazing jewels. Get your hands on a good Watcher’s Eye with any of these modifiers:

• Vitality
  • Gain # Life per Enemy Hit
  • % of Damage Leeched as Life
• Zealotry
  • Critical Strikes Penetrate % of Enemy Elemental Resistances
  • % Increased Cast Speed
  • % Increased Critical Strike Chance Against Enemies on Consecrated Ground

This build also utilizes a couple of Large Cluster Jewels and Medium Cluster Jewels for maximum damage. Acquire some Large Cluster Jewels (physical damage) and use Harvest Reforge Physical until you get the following notable passives:

• Battle-Hardened
  • 30% Increased Evasion Rating and Armour
  • 35% Increased Physical Damage
• Force Multiplier
  • 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
  • 25% Increased Physical Damage
• Iron Breaker
  • Overwhelm 10% Physical Damage Reduction
  • 35% Increased Physical Damage

Get yourself several Medium Cluster Jewels; two with critical strike chance as a base and another two with area damage. On the crit chance-based Medium Cluster Jewels, use Harvest Reforge Critical until you get Pressure Points and Magnifier. On the area damage Medium Cluster Jewels, use Harvest Reforge Critical again to get Magnifier and Vast Power. Here is a rundown of their effects:

• Pressure Points
  • Your Critical Strikes Have a 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
  • 30% Increased Critical Strike Chance
• Magnifier
  • 10% Increased Area of Effect
  • +10% to Critical Strike Multiplier
• Vast Power
  • 20% Increased Area Damage
  • 3% Increased Area of Effect per Power Charge, up to a Maximum of 50%

Mana is pretty tight on this build. With the auras that you activate and the spells that you need to cast, you are going to run out of mana if you are not able to do something about it, which makes the build clunky to use as a result. One solution to this problem is by putting a Militant Faith Timeless Jewel (High Templar Dominus) on the passive tree, specifically one that comes with the mods, "4% Increased Area Damage per 10 Devotion" and "1% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills per 10 Devotion."

The reason why you need to have a Militant Faith that has new faithful converted by High Templar Dominus on it is so that the keystone passive in its radius is transformed into Inner Conviction. When allocated, this keystone passive provides you with 3% more spell damage per Power Charge, thus significantly increasing your damage.

One of the interesting unique jewels introduced in Patch 3.23 is That Which Was Taken. This can come with Charm modifiers that can benefit the build in multiple ways. That said, here are some of the Charm mods we recommend for the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin:

• % Increased Area of Effect per Power Charge
• % Increased Area of Effect per Endurance Charge
• % Increased Area of Effect if You've Killed Recently
• % Increased Effect of Onslaught on You
• Adds (8-12) to (18-22) Physical Damage if You've Dealt a Critical Strike Recently
• (14-20)% Increased Accuracy Rating if You've Dealt a Critical Strike in the Past 8 Seconds
• 2% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life and Mana if You've Killed Recently
• (6-8)% Increased Effect of Your Curses
• (130-160%) Increased Critical Strike Chance Against Enemies on Full Life
• (71-100)% Increased Critical Strike Chance if You Haven't Dealt a Critical Strike Recently
• (20-30)% Chance to Create a Consecrated Ground When You Hit a Rare or Unique Enemy, Lasting 8 Seconds
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier per Power Charge
• +% Critical Strike Chance While at Maximum Power Charges
• Critical Strikes Have Culling Strike
• Damage Penetrates % of Enemy Elemental Resistances
• % Increased Critical Strike Chance Against Shocked Enemies

Gems

The Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin is pretty tight on the gems that it uses, meaning, you can only swap one or two gems without breaking the build and that's it.

Body Armor

• Blade Blast of Unloading
• Increased Critical Damage
• Awakened Brutality
• Power Charge on Critical Support
• Increased Critical Strikes
• Empower Support

Our bread and butter for the build is none other than the Blade Blast of Unloading. This transfigured version of Blade Blast works perfectly with Blade Vortex, hence it is used over the base version.

Increased Critical Damage and Increased Critical Strikes ensure that you deal the most amount of damage every time you detonate the blade stacks from your BV.

Awakened Brutality is a support gem that dramatically improves the physical damage of Blade Blast of Unloading. It can also cause enemies to suffer from "Crush," which is a debuff that reduces their physical damage reduction by 15%.

Power Charge on Critical Support just makes it so that your Power Charges provide a 4% "more" damage multiplier for Blade Blast of Unloading per charge. If you do not know, "more" multipliers in Path of Exile are calculated multiplicatively rather than additively.

Now, being a physical spell skill gem, Blade Blast of Unloading can certainly become even more deadly the higher its gem level is. For this reason, a level 4 Empower Support is included to raise the level of this spell by three!

Helmet

• Petrified Blood
• Summon Skitterbots
• Shield Charge
• Faster Attacks Support

As mentioned earlier, the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin is a squishy build if you do not have its defenses sorted out. One of the ways you can improve your survivability is by activating Petrified Blood. This essentially reserves a portion of your life so that any damage you get below half of your maximum HP is prevented. Furthermore, a percentage of the life loss prevented this way is lost over a 4-second span instead, which gives you more than enough time to use a Life Flask to recover.

Summon Skitterbots is another aura that you need to activate. This allows you to call a couple of minions that inflict Chill and Shock on your enemies, making them take even more damage from your Blade Blast!

Shield Charge is an important part of your rotation as it "cancels" Blade Blast's animation, allowing you to move shortly after casting the spell. It is linked to Faster Attacks Support so that the skill will feel less clunky to use.

Gloves

• Blade Vortex
• Arcanist Brand
• Increased Duration
• Faster Casting

Arcanist Brand is a build enabler. It ensures that you get a lot of blade stacks for your BV in a short amount of time. This is further improved if you have the "Perfect Crime" ascendancy notable passive provided by the Forbidden Jewels.

Increased Duration is a support gem that makes it so that your Arcanist Brand lasts longer, though you will still need to cast it once every two Shield Charges.

Faster Casting is another support gem that increases the activation frequency of Arcanist Brand. The faster its activation, the quicker you will get blade stacks for your Blade Vortex.

Boots

• Zealotry
• Divine Blessing
• Vitality
• Raise Spectre

Divine Blessing is a support gem that turns your Zealotry from an always-on aura into a buff that you can activate. Use it whenever you need to deal with tough monsters or bosses.

Vitality should not be linked with the previous two because you want this aura to be up at all times. This increases your life regeneration by a considerable degree, which can help you survive longer on the battlefield.

Raise Spectre is an interesting choice here. You will use it on a Dark Marionette because this particular foe will explode when it dies, adding to your total damage output. Its consumable corpse can be purchased from the new NPC, The Breaker of Oaths. You can find him inside the Viridian Wildwood.

Weapon

• Herald of Purity
• Arrogance Support
• Steelskin

Herald of Purity gives you more physical damage and several minions that will fight alongside you. Since you do not have enough mana to activate this aura, you are going to link it to Arrogance Support so that it reserves a small portion of your life instead.

Steelskin is the only guard skill for this build. This is primarily to make you immune to bleeding. The added armor is a nice bonus too!

Shield

• Brand Recall
• Enhance Support
• Empower Support

Brand Recall is an important part of your rotation. This allows you to gain a considerable number of blade stacks to use for your Blade Blast of Unloading as quickly as possible.

Raising Brand Recall's gem quality reduces its cooldown significantly, enabling you to use it again without having to wait that long. For this reason, you will add Enhance Support so that its gem quality is increased even further.

Empower, as explained earlier, raises the level of the main spell skill gem it supports. You see, when you increase the level of Brand Recall, you increase Arcanist Brand's attachment range as well. That is why its inclusion is somewhat mandatory for this build.

Secondary Ascendancies

Grinding Gear Games introduced secondary ascendancies in 3.23 Affliction League. Although there are three different classes you can choose from, you will ultimately go for the Wildwood Primalist because it gives you three Charm slots you can use to improve the build.

Charms are items that were also introduced in Patch 3.23. They are items that come with interesting and useful modifiers; some of which can greatly benefit the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin. Look for any of these modifiers if you are going to shop for Charms on the trade website sometime soon:

• % Increased Area of Effect per Power Charge
• You and Nearby Allies Have +% to Elemental Resistances
• Culling Strike
• Adds # to # Physical Damage if You've Dealt a Critical Strike Recently
• +% to Chaos Resistance per Endurance Charge
• Damage Penetrates % of Enemy Elemental Resistances
• % Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier per Power Charge
• Cursed Enemies You or Your Minions Kill Have a % Chance to Explode, Dealing a Quarter of Their Maximum Life as Chaos Damage
• (16-20)% Increased Life Regeneration Rate
• Recover (2-3)% of Life When You Use a Flask
• (130-160)% Increased Critical Strike Chance Against Enemies on Full Life

Passive Tree

POB

Main Build

Cold Conversion Build

Final Thoughts

The Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin is a great build that utilizes the new Transfigured Gem, Blade Blast of Unloading, to great effect. This new gem synergizes really well with Blade Vortex to unleash a damaging nova that literally deletes multiple screens of enemies on a single cast!

Although you will need to put some time and effort into getting used to the playstyle, this build rocks for mapping and is also quite capable of defeating the many different bosses in PoE.

Thanks to this build, the Assassin ascendancy class might rise to prominence once again!

So, if you are looking for an unorthodox build that is capable of destroying anything and everything you come across, then the Blade Vortex Blade Blast Assassin is surely a worthy contender!

Do try this build out for yourself and let us know about your experience. Good luck, Exile!

PROS

+Huge AoE nova can destroy groups of enemies across multiple screens

+Damage can be scaled to the moon the more currency you invest into the build

+Deals incredibly high single-target damage, making it a competent build against bosses

+Does not require manual aiming. Just attach Brands, garner BV stacks, and detonate with Blade Blast of Unloading!

CONS

-Requires some time to get used to the playstyle

-Squishy build (you must have a hit first, hit hard mentality)

-Needs a lot of unique items to work