PoisonFlurry

[span color="#00c000"][b]Introduction[/b][/span]

This is my straightforward poison Assassin build made in 3.1 Abyss league. Not the best one I suppose, my gear could be probably better, but the build does deal its 1M+ Shaper DPS and 2M+ Mapping DPS, clears all maps without problem including guardians (not all deathless however :) - just clears), and I finally succeeded to kill Shaper with it which I've never done before :)

The build idea was simple - take new poison nodes and new poison items and try to build a classic Blade Flurry Assassin with all of them (and maybe try to use Viper Strike for single-target). However during leveling I realized that Reave is currently way better for clearing maps than BF. So I switched to Reave and used it all the way until Shaper and Guardians, where Blade Flurry's combined single-target and area capabilities really start to shine.

The only drawback is that it's not a tanky build, it has only around 5k life with evasion and dodge (acrobatics). The rest is OK for me.

[b][span color="#00c000"]Skills[/span][/b]

[b]Main skill[/b]

For bosses including Shaper: Blade Flurry / Added Chaos / Melee Phys / Deadly Ailments / Vile Toxins / Unbound Ailments.

For map clear you have 2 options:

1) use Blade Flurry and just change Unbound Ailments to Increased AoE.

2) change Blade Flurry to Reave and Melee Phys to Multistrike.

The best DPS with Blade Flurry is achieved if you not just hold the attack button, but if you repeatedly press it, wait until channeling reaches 6 stages, release and start over - at the moment of release you instantly deal roughly the same damage as during the previous 6 stages :)

[b]Totem[/b]

Ancestral Protector + Melee Splash + Maim + Melee Phys or Ruthless

or Spell Totem + Wither + Faster casting + Inc AoE

(gives more DPS boost, but hard to keep it up all the time)

[b][span color="#00c000"]Gear example[/span][/b]

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[b][span color="#00c000"]Gear[/span][/b]

[b]Off-hand: Wasp Nest[/b]

Best claw for poison builds after double-dipping was removed from the game. It deals additional chaos damage to enemies affected by 5+ poisons which basically means "to all enemies which weren't oneshot" for us since we are attacking 8+ times in a second.

And yes, we are attacking with our off-hand because of the "Ambidexterity" node at the bottom of our tree: +20% attack speed for us is better than +26% damage.

[b]Main hand: Breath of the Council[/b]

It gives us up to +100% chaos damage, some increased AoE and the ability to also use Leap Slam if we want to. It is slower than Whirling Blades, but allows you to jump over obstacles. I prefer Whirling Blades, but maybe someone else will prefer Leap Slam - who knows.

[b]Body armour: Cospri's Will or Dendrobate[/b]

- Shaper/Guardian DPS with Cospri + 2 curses and with Dendrobate + 150 int is very similar, with Dendrobate + 150 int + Temp Chains it is slightly better. - Mapping DPS is better with Cospri + 2 curses, and it gives us "Your Curses can apply to Hexproof Enemies" which is irrelevant against Shaper, but useful in maps. - Dendrobate has some elemental resistances so it's easier to cap resists with it. However, it has 150 intelligence requirement for extra poison duration, which we are also slightly short of. - Cospri has more evasion (2000) and some extra movement speed. Dendrobate has some ES, but it doesn't matter because with Acrobatics we only get 50% of it. - Both easily give us 100 % poison chance we need: Dendrobate via its pseudo-7-link, Cospri via 60% chance to poison against cursed enemies (we are melee, so the enemies are always near us, so they're always cursed). - Both chests have no +max life. It is the drawback of both.

I used Cospri and two curses (Temporal Chains + Despair).

[b]Gloves: The Embalmer[/b]

The Embalmer gives us a pseudo-5-link during the leveling process - with it we don't really need 5-link chest until we have a 6-link one. :) In fact I used it till the beginning of red tier maps and had no DPS problems.

It is hard to beat DPS boost of these gloves with any rare ones, so I don't recommend rare gloves - but you can try if really want to.

[b]Boots[/b]

Rare with evasion, life, 30 % movement speed and resists.

[b]Helm[/b]

Rare with evasion, life, resists and, if possible, strength and/or intelligence that we are missing on our tree.

I used Armour/Evasion "Nightmare Bascinet" - handy for coloring into 4R sockets and putting Ancestral Protector totem in.

[b]Rings and Amulet[/b]

Rare with life, resists, strength, intelligence, preferably some accuracy and some added physical damage - balance by yourself :) aim for at least 90 % hit chance and note that added accuracy may be better than physical damage sometimes.

[b]Belt[/b]

Stygian Vise of course - with life and resists.

[b]Abyss Jewels[/b]

With Abyss Jewels GGG had finally implemented my old idea - flat added life on jewels. It's really handy for this build because as an Assassin you have not that much sources of increased life... and you need at least around 5K to feel comfortably.

So, we use 3 abyss jewels (2 in tree, 1 in belt) with life (ideally at least +45 on each), flat added accuracy (helps to reach 90+% hit chance), and one of your three jewels should have 4-6% chance to blind enemies on hit which in fact helps your evade chance a lot. Besides that, aim for added phys/chaos damage with attack and/or claws.

[b]Flasks[/b]

I recommend using 2 Panicked Divine Life Flasks - one "of Curing" and one "of Staunching".

Besides that,

[b]Passive Tree[/b]

Start here with your Endgame Tree, which should be around level 90. Bonus points for you if you include leveling trees too.