[3.24] 🗡The Nightblade🗡Nightshade Tincture | Incorporeal | New demo video up

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SliceFella wrote:

Thank you so much for the detailed guide. I am excited to use this for the start of 3.8! First time doing a BF build.

You're welcome.

These days, I'm reworking completely the first message. I'll post updates and infos while waiting for league :)

I'm beginning the transition to the new 3.8v of the build :
Ice Bite to freeze and get Frenzy charges + Aspect of the Cat + perma Sand Stance.

In this video, I use this new setup to venture into the breaches, from Xoph to Chayula :
#19 : The Five Breaches

Hope you enjoy the dynamic editing :)

Hello,

The video is set to private.

Looking foward to see what you've done with the build!

"

oOoYngvioOo wrote:

Hello,

The video is set to private.

Looking foward to see what you've done with the build!

Damn, that is the second time I do this mistake ! Thank you, it's now public.

I am currently looking at PoB with the new skill tree but it does not recognize the new "DoT multiplier" mods.

So I'll test directly ingame.
Perfect Agony may be a viable option now. I'll test it with Coralito's flask.

Let us know how it goes. Definitely have me interested in playing a poison version of the build.

Here are the defensive mechanisms we'll use in 3.8

*

We use a combination of effects and buffs that synergize.

LEECH

Life leech is easily capped at 20% of max life with Blood Drinker : 0,4% of atk dmg leeched as life.
For endgame, leech can be improved with the Gladiator's Perseverance cluster : up to 20% inc recovery/sec from life leech. You'll leech the same amount but x1.2 faster.

For mana leech, you can get the Mind Drinker notable on the tree. Or get the mod on any piece of stuff. Cap should be reached easily.

STUN

Any damage can stun the enemy, provided it removes at least 10% of his life per hit -see Stun. "Dealing at least 50% of maximum life will always stun."
As we deal huge physical damage, we stun small mobs all the time, and even rares. Phys dmg has stun bonuses over other damages, making it even easier. So this is the easiest one to get.

If you want to check how often you stun, you can set Endurance charge on melee stun support in your BF setup, and you'll see that you gain Endurance charges all the time.

> Additionnaly, by using the Ryslatha's coil belt, we get a lot more phys dmg and we gain life each time we stun.


EVADE

It's easy to stack a lot of Dexterity on the stuff and the skill tree to improve our chances to evade attacks.

We can use the Dread Banner, which reserves only a small portion of mana (10%). With this banner, enemies nearby have up to 21% less acccuracy rating, which is huge, and is cumulative with the blind penalty -see below.
(I never place the banner, but it can give you a more powerful Fortify effect for 2.5sec.)

> For endgame, you can get yourself a Brutal Restraint jewels, which will give you DEX on every small nodes in radius, increasing again your Evasion.

BLIND

When blinded, an creature has its chance to hit halved -see Blind. With the Sand Stance, all nearby enemies (in melee range) are blinded, meaning we get a lot more chances to evade their attacks.

> My current Evasion rating is ~10k. I have normally 34% chance to Evade. If the enemy is blinded, it goes up to 67% (PoB numbers).

Note that spells do not have an accuracy rating, so you cannot evade spells.

With the Farrul's Bite helmet, you'll get increased dmg against blinded enemies, as well as the Aspect of the Cat aura, which we use (see below -Invisibility).
But if possible, get yourself a Starkonja helmet (which has life, DEX, EVA, crit) and get the Aspect of the Cat crafted on another piece of equipment.

DODGE

Dodge may seem similar to Evade, but they are actually two separated mechanisms, like Armour and Energy shield for instance. You can have zero evasion and a lot of Dodge, or the other way round.
We get attack Dodge chance on the skill tree with the Acrobatics Keystone. With a Quartz flask, we can get 10% Dodge chance for spells and attacks.
Evasion is calculated before Dodge. So if the first fails, the second one is rolled -See Receiving damage.



ELUSIVE

This new buff has been introduced in 3.8 and is specially designed for the Assassin, as we now have an Ascendancy to buff it.
Elusive grants 40% inc movespeed and up to 20% dodge chance against spells and attacks. This buff decays over time, until its values reach 0.
With the Ascendancy, we get :
* 25% buff effect. So we actually get 50% movespeed and 25% spell/atk dodge !
+
* 50% chance to get Elusive on crit.

That's even 100% on crit with the Nightblade support, and 28% inc effect. Total : 25+28=53% > 61% movespeed, 30% atk and spell dodge.
With the new Withering Steps (WS) movement skill, we refresh the buff, then lose it when we use any skill.
Elusive granted by WS has 48% inc effect : 70% movespeed, 35% dodge !

So we can go like this : WS (gain Elusive) > Blade Flurry (lose the buff and get it again with crit).
Still have to test these to optimize the circle of buff and refresh.

CHILL and FREEZE

With Ice Bite support, we have chances to Freeze enemies and we generate Frenzy charges when killing frozen enemies.

REDUCED / LESS DAMAGE TAKEN

This mechanics is a bit trickier to get and is useful mostly for endgame. But GGG has pushed it in the last leagues and it's a subtle but very powerful layer of defense.
Why is that ?
In endgame, even if you have 6k life or more, you are still a glasscannon. Evasion cannot save us all the time, nor Dodge. And we have very few Armour and ES.
So we try to lower the damages we take = those that remain after all other sources of mitigation have been calculated. This is the real amount of damage withdrawn from our life pool -see Damage taken.
Ideally, if we'd get 100% reduced dmg taken, we would be invincible. But that's barely possible, or you have to sacrifice all your DPS -see this build for instance.
Fun for a YT video, but not realistic to play.

With Fortify support on the Whirling Blades setup (or directly linked to BF), we have 20% reduced dmg taken from hits (meaning : not DoT). So for 100 dmg dealt by the enemy, we take only 80.

With the Infused Channelling support, we take 8% less physical damage from hits.
With Sand Stance from Flesh and Stone, we take 10% reduced atk dmg from enemies outside the aura.

If we use the Unshattered Will shield, the Harbinger of Focus will give us a bonus every 8sec for 4sec : immune to stun and elemental ailment and 20% reduced dmg taken from hits and DoT : a more powerful Fortify buff, half of the time.

On the skill tree, two notable nodes :
Crystal Skin, for 5% reduced elemental dmg taken.
Silent Steps : 5% reduced dmg taken from blinded enemies (and remember, we blind all nearby enemies).

So, if a blinded enemy does elem dmg to us, we will take only 100-5-5 = 90% of his dmg.
If we have Fortify atm, only 70%.
If we have the Harbinger of Focus buff at this moment, 50%.
If we have the Bersek buff at the same time, 31%
etc.

> A third notable is on the tree : Bloodletting, same as Silent Steps but for bleeding enemies. It's a bit far-off to reach and we'd need reliable chances to bleed enemies, which would be complicated.

Additional sources of damage reductions include :
* The Berserk buff : 19% less dmg taken from all sources
* Immortal Call buff against phys dmg
* Ruby, Sapphire and Topaz flasks against fire, cold and lightning dmg respectively
* The Wise Oak flask.

INVISIBILITY
It is possible to get temporary 100% invisibility.

First, we need Phase Run. While it is active, we get 50% reduced visibility = enemies aggro range is lessened by 50% -See Visibility.

Then with Aspect of the Cat aura, we have two alternating buffs, one of which, Cat's Stealth, gives us another 50% reduced visibility. By phasing and getting Stealth at the same time, we become 100% invisible to enemies !

But be mindful : being invisible is absolutely not 100% chance to evade attacks.
It simply means that the enemies cannot see us, so they don't know where to attacks. Most of the time, you'll see them stand still or hit in thin air. And believe me, that is a fun and superb experience. Watch them totally clueless, while you prepare to channel your BF and backstab them properly !

> You can link your Phase Run with CwDT and keep it low level, as higher levels do not increase its duration.
In 3.7, that was my choice, but now, I prefer to raise it to lvl 20 and cast it manually. Up to you. Add Inc Duration support anyway.

*

So we can instantly stun, blind and freeze enemies, while evading and dodging their attacks, as well as getting short moments of invisibility, we are (relatively) safe. But beware, no one is absolutely safe in PoE, ever.
And as they say, the best defense is a good offense -that's especially true for us Assassins !

I'd been stuck to level 94 for almost a year now, so I decided to go to 95.

Farming Atlas was tedious, so I tried Uul-Netol's Pure Breachstones : fast indeed and it gave 6% XP, but expensive (3ex or more). Then, I switched to T15 Beachhead maps, which give the same amount and are cheaper.
With Ice Bite + Herald of Ice, they become quite easy. Here is the end of my levelling with the new version of the build :

#20 : T15 Harbingers' Beachhead

Hope you enjoy !

Next time : Uber Atziri.

3.8 NEW POB
https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding/releases

NEW POB plz

I want to start with this. Can't you release the 3.8 version of pob?

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creidne wrote:

3.8 NEW POB
https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding/releases

NEW POB plz

I want to start with this. Can't you release the 3.8 version of pob?

Haha, you're so hungry !

I like that.



Here you go :)
Poe planner : www.poeurl.com/cyiK
PoB : https://pastebin.com/0fwmju4g

Notes :
- PoB does not have the new skills. I intend to test Nightblade and Withering Steps.
- Tick the first life flask if you use Impale support
- I've taken the Frenzy node in the Ranger area to optimize my particular Brutal Restraint (4088/Deshret), which I've divined today. Adapt your own tree as you see fit if you use a Timeless Jewel.
Btw, I'd be very interested if people playing this build would show their own Timeless Jewel.

Expect a new version as soon as PoB is fully updated.

"

rahsaan wrote:

"

creidne wrote:

3.8 NEW POB
https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding/releases

NEW POB plz

I want to start with this. Can't you release the 3.8 version of pob?

Haha, you're so hungry !

I like that.



Here you go :)
Poe planner : www.poeurl.com/cyiK
PoB : https://pastebin.com/0fwmju4g

Notes :
- PoB does not have the new skills. I intend to test Nightblade and Withering Steps.
- Tick the first life flask if you use Impale support
- I've taken the Frenzy node in the Ranger area to optimize my particular Brutal Restraint (4088/Deshret), which I've divined today. Adapt your own tree as you see fit if you use a Timeless Jewel.
Btw, I'd be very interested if people playing this build would show their own Timeless Jewel.

Expect a new version as soon as PoB is fully updated.

Thanks, I'll start 3.8 with this build.

However, the contents of the two links uploaded are slightly different.

Assassin Passive tree selection is different.

PoE Planner seems to be correct.

Thank you for your effort.