Blade Blast Bladefall Poison Assassin Build Guide (PoE Expedition 3.15)

GhazzyTV

111

INTRODUCTION

Being one of the most prominent choices for both SSF, hardcore as well as trade leagues this build brings very enjoyable clear speed as well as efficient bossing to the table. The generic play-style of the build consists of casting Bladefall Bladefall and connect that cast with a cast of Blade Blast Blade Blast which will detonate the blades lingering from the Bladefall causing massive explosions and poisoning the enemies. This allows you to reach full stacks for your Plague Bearer Plague Bearer ability which allows you to literally run through enemies til it depletes.

Since this is a very niche play-style I would strongly recommend watching the video linked below to see if it’s something you’d find enjoyable to play.

Below you can see the build in action from my YouTube Guide. Do note that the video might be outdated in terms of information, and you should always look at this guide to make sure you have the updated version.

BUILD OVERVIEW

In this section I will outline the pros, cons, & the general play-style. This will allow you to determine if the build is for you or not!

PROS

+ Speedy Gonzales – The build offers a very effective clear speed where you mostly run through packs of enemies thanks to Plague Bearer.

+ League Starter – The build truly doesn’t require any specific Unique items to function well in the end-game, so it works very well as a league starter build.

+ Bosser – Thanks to being mainly focused on Poison damage, which can stack infinitely, it does very well versus single target boss fights.

+ Unique Play Style – For the best efficiency you are forced to have lingering blades on the ground for the Blade Blast to perform the best. This requires you to cast Bladefall to create such lingering blades, which are then exploded/consumed by the Blade Blast which creates your damage output. This is a similar play-style to the ED/Contagion with a very different visual look & feeling to it.

CONS

– Unique Play Style – Due to the nature of this build’s play-style, it is a build that not everyone will find enjoyable (I strongly recommend watching the gameplay video before starting this build)

– Dodge-Based – The defensive aspect of the build is heavily focused on dodge & evasion, which can make the build feel somewhat squishy, however it works very well in Hardcore despite this. So it comes down to actual player skills in the end.

PLAYSTYLE

For bosses, this build is very straight forward: you cast Bladefall Bladefall and connect that with Blade Blast Blade Blast to generate a ton of explosions & poisons on the boss. Depending on your character’s gear/budget, you might have to cast this a few times before the boss dies.

When it comes to clearing maps it’s a bit more advanced:

  • You start a map of with killing 1-3 packs using the above-mentioned method. This will bring your Plague Bearer Plague Bearer stacks to a maximum.
  • Once this happens, you are supposed to enable Plague Bearer and literally be able to run through enemies and they will die from the Poison damage provided by the Plague.
  • Once it has depleted, you’ll have to kill the next 1-3 packs with BF/BB and proceed to use the Plague again. Rinse, repeat, profit.

DAMAGE SCALING AND DEFENSIVE LAYERS

The build focuses entirely on the damage over-time provided by the poison applications you put on enemies, making it very straightforward in terms of scaling the level of your gems as well as damage over time modifiers. Any sort of Physical & Chaos damage that you can bring to the table is always effective for this build.

Defensively the build will land around 5000 Life with Acrobatics combined with Phase Acrobatics. This should be more than enough to safely handle even Hardcore league environments.

PoB. PASSIVE SKILL TREE, AND GEM LINKS

The PoB community fork created by Localidentity is the only version being kept up to date, so make sure you have the correct version: PoB Community Fork.

Here is the Blade Blast Bladefall Poison Assassin PoB:, and for a quick glance over the finished skill tree for this version, check out this link.

For high budget the above linked PoB includes the possibility of using a Cluster jewel set-up. I personally didn’t like that approach and kept the “low budget” tree and simply focused on upgrading my gear pieces instead.

You can find more information about the passive skill tree, as well as the build’s gem links on our dedicated page.

PoB, Passive Skill Tree, and Gem Link Page

GEARING

A lot of the end-game gear can easily be crafted, to learn how to craft as well as learn how to craft specific items check out my crafting guides here.

You can read more details about our gearing recommendations on the dedicated page, but for now you can see a summarized version below.

Gear Page

Item Slot Item Name Rarity
Head Life then res/attributes as needed (For high budget you can get a Hunter influenced modifier “-9% to nearby enemy chaos resistances”) Rare
Amulet Life then Res/Attributes as needed Rare
Chest Life then Res/Attributes as needed Rare
Gloves Life then Res/Attributes as needed Rare
Boots Life then Res/Attributes as needed Rare
Belt The Torrent's Reclamation The Torrent's Reclamation (Rare with life if Torrent’s is too expensive) Unique/Rare
Rings Life then Res/Attributes as needed Rare
Weapons 2x Cold Iron Point Cold Iron Point Unique

ASCENDANCY, BANDIT & PANTHEON RECOMMENDATIONS

You can read about the recommended Ascendancy, Bandit choice, and Pantheon Power recommendations for this build on our dedicated page.

Ascendancy, Bandit & Pantheon Power Page

LEVELING

Blade Blast works best when you have lots of lingering blades being spawned by Bladefall, due to this we would prefer to wait with enabling this when leveling until we can use Unleash Support Unleash Support linked to Bladefall. This means we’ll be looking to level with other abilities up to level 38.

BEFORE YOU ENABLE BLADE BLAST

The best way to start of leveling would be to equip yourself with a bow and use Caustic Arrow Caustic Arrow linked with Pierce Support Pierce Support ( You can get the Pierce support gem by creating a level 1 Ranger and dump the gem in the the stash after Hillock is dead).

Once you reach level 12 you are able to purchase Toxic Rain Toxic Rain which will be the new leveling ability that we’ll be using to level 38, however, instead of shooting this we will be making it in to a mine ability with the following links:

The Aura decision comes in Act 2, which is when we enable Summon Skitterbots Summon Skitterbots as well as Herald of Agony Herald of Agony for optimal damage output.

For more general leveling advice, we recommend the following guides.

QUESTIONS?

To guarantee that my guides are tools you can utilize to enhance your experience in Path of Exile, all you need to do is post your question in the comments and I will personally attend to them as soon as possible.

FINAL NOTES

As much as I love making build guides, it is very crucial in a game like Path of Exile that you play the game the way you enjoy playing it. With that said, if you’ve made any tweaks to the build compared to what I’m showing in this guide I would love if you’d posted it in the comments! It’s an effective way to show other approaches and it helps me grow as a build guide creator!

I hope you found the build guide useful and I wish you all many Exalted Orb Exalted Orb drops!

Changelog

  • Build was checked and updated for 3.14 Ultimatum (no major changes needed).

  • Build added.

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  2. bozowantfood

    Posts
    2

    Do the changes to the Assassin nodes hurt this build much? At least we get like 10% more dodge I guess?

  4. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    615

    @bozowantfood:

    Sorry I missed your question last night, somehow..

    The nerfs was absolutely noteworthy, however, we are getting Harvest back which literally counters the nerfs very effectively for us in terms of damage output :)

  5. bozowantfood

    Posts
    2

    On 14/01/2021 at 6:18 PM, GhazzyTV said

    @bozowantfood:

    Sorry I missed your question last night, somehow..

    The nerfs was absolutely noteworthy, however, we are getting Harvest back which literally counters the nerfs very effectively for us in terms of damage output :)

    So far so good flying through the atlas

  7. ninjabanana420

    Posts
    1

    Liking this build so far (currently Lvl5), but still a bit new to following these types of guides.

    I know it’s asking A LOT, but if it’s possible, could we get a lvl by lvl guide, or like 1-5, 5-10 with some more simple and clear cut info (I know, your info is good, but for people who just want a quick glance / easy to read sort of thing)

    Something like Lvl 2: Skills – Caustic arrow w/ pierce support Weapons – Bow with 2 green link Chest – whatever with x x x x link Boots – whatever with x x x x link
    and so on?

    I’m sure it’s a bit of work, but it would greatly help new people get through what’s needed and what to look for, anything like that would be greatly appreciated, point form for ease of read even more so.

  8. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    615

    @Ninjabananana42:

    Well, the links shown in the leveling section are listed in order of importance so as an example: Caustic Arrow with Pierce, now these 2 links don’t have to be in a specific item which is why I can’t have that in the guide cause you can have these 2 green sockets linked in any piece on your gear except the off-slot weapons. If they are linked in your bow or your helmet makes no difference that is! :)

  9. Scoben

    Posts
    4

    Really like the build. However, i’m at the early stages and the mana sustain seems heavily reliant on the mana flask. Am i doing something wrong or is this normal?

  10. zerolife

    Posts
    8

    On 17/01/2021 at 5:44 PM, ninjabanana420 said

    Liking this build so far (currently Lvl5), but still a bit new to following these types of guides.

    I know it’s asking A LOT, but if it’s possible, could we get a lvl by lvl guide, or like 1-5, 5-10 with some more simple and clear cut info (I know, your info is good, but for people who just want a quick glance / easy to read sort of thing)

    Something like Lvl 2: Skills – Caustic arrow w/ pierce support Weapons – Bow with 2 green link Chest – whatever with x x x x link Boots – whatever with x x x x link
    and so on?

    I’m sure it’s a bit of work, but it would greatly help new people get through what’s needed and what to look for, anything like that would be greatly appreciated, point form for ease of read even more so.

    You asking this means you don’t really understand POE mechanic. Those 2 green link can be anywhere you want, it doesn’t matter if it’s on weapon, body, or wherever.

    If they specify more it just confuse newbie even more as they will think they needed to have that specific equipment.

  11. Edub5

    Posts
    2

    Can we get updated POB’s in the guide for 3.13?

  12. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    615

    @Scoben:

    That is sadly the case for this build indeed.

    @Zerolife:

    Yeah the problem with trying to be more specific is that I would risk making it even more confusing for people. I decided to keep answering questions on that topic rather than to include too much “wasted” text in my guides.

    @Edub5:

    They are updated, its just the PoB links just required people to press “convert to 3.13”, I reached the pastebin cap of how many pastebin links I can create within 24h, i’ve hit that cap every day since patch notes came out so tonight I’m sorting the last ones :)

  13. moovs

    Posts
    1

    The build looks fun to play and thanks for writting it. I have a quick question (i might be stupid and didn’t see it in the guide if that’s the case i apologize) but what skill do you use for dodging/movility?

  14. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    615

    @Moovs:

    My pleasure sir!
    Our mobility skills consists of Smoke Mine & Flame Dash can be seen here.

  15. Scoben

    Posts
    4

    Hey, I’m genuinely loving this build. Although it is quite a bit more squishy than first expected. One problem I have run in to is the single target dps. Is there a gem swap I am missing in regards to single target fights?

    Thanks!

  16. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    615

    @Scoben:

    Hey, glad you like it!
    This build is generally squishy and survives mostly thanks to the Phase Acrobatics & Acrobatics Keystones, it is purely designed to be a clear speed oriented focused build which is one of many reasons why it is to attractive & performs so well as a league-starter.

    There is no gem-swap required for this build, it is most likely a gearing issue as this build ramps poison damage very quickly. Have you bought yourself 2x Cold Iron Point Cold Iron Point daggers?

  17. Scoben

    Posts
    4

    @GhazzyTV

    Yeah, i’m fine with the squishyness. I usually play evasion based builds. I do have the daggers yes. However, I don’t currently have +1 dex gems on my amulet or the dot on gloves. Could be a possible cause. Still getting used to the playstyle somewhat. I find bosses that are more mobile than others are particularly tough!

    thanks for the reply! :)

  18. Scoben

    Posts
    4

    @GhazzyTV

    Yeah, i’m fine with the squishyness. I usually play evasion based builds. I do have the daggers yes. However, I don’t currently have +1 dex gems on my amulet or the dot on gloves. Could be a possible cause. Still getting used to the playstyle somewhat. I find bosses that are more mobile than others are particularly tough!

    thanks for the reply! :)

  19. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    615

    @Scoben:

    Those are big pieces as well, would strongly recommend looking to upgrade for them when you have the possibility to!

    Play-style is very unique, a lot of people don’t like it, I’m personally not a big fan but it was really cool once you get the feeling for it.

    Oh anytime, if you have any questions just fire away sir!

  20. NobleDaemon

    Posts
    2

    Hey Ghazzy,

    Very extensive guide, I’ve currently followed your build for league start and the map clearing speed is absolutely amazing! However, I do notice I run into issues with single target as well and whenever I run out of mana flask charges with no monsters nearby. My gear is looking pretty good and I got myself a really nice amulet with +1 to chaos and dex skill gems with + chaos DoT multiplier as well as the chaos DoT on the glove. I was wondering if you have any suggestions for end game replacements for the weapons to boost the dmg even more? I just feel like there’s gotta be some kind of big damage upgrade that scale better than cold iron point.. Any tip would be greatly appreciated!

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