Three Blade Vortex builds for 2.1

I have whittled my ideas for Blade Vortex down to my favorite idea, the Blade-mancer:

  • Endgame skill tree - Obviously its point-heavy, but there are plenty of nodes I could take out.

By starting witch and taking Necromancer as my Ascendancy class, I get access to 30% increased Skill Effect duration, "Your offering skills also effect you," and some decent cast speed/damage. Maximizing Skill Effect duration allows for up to ~12 second Flesh or Bone offerings on 3 corpses (~23 seconds on 10 corpses), and 15 second Blade Vortex uptime.

Now, using Flesh and Bone offering means you get 35/34% Block/Spell Block, 30% Cast Speed, and 29% Movespeed. With all my cast speed I think I should be able to reach ~5 casts/second on Blade Vortex. Meaning in the perfect scenario there would be around 5 seconds where all 50 blades would be active.

While routing the tree, I found that I could pretty easily attain:

  • Lots of AoE. Pair with Carcass Jack for even more and Increased AoE support gem can be dropped.
  • Enough regen to go RF (with RotP and Purity of Fire)
  • Capped Block/Spell Block (with Bone offering up, Stone of Lazhwar, and RotP).
  • Some quick Minion Damage nodes. Allowing me to supplement damage with Animate Weapon (110 second uptime with all the duration increases)
  • Fending Cluster and 4+ easy Jewel sockets for Knockback Chance. Pair that with Empire's Grasp for perma vacuum effect while moving.

Now, for a weapon I thought Cybil's Paw would work best as long as I prioritize keeping up Bone offering (which shouldn't be all that hard). With 30-50 blades up while I move and vacuum packs in I should be gaining a lot of life.

I will also need 1-2 Elreon rings to negate the cost of Blade Vortex and prioritize mana consumption with other auras/skills. For auras I selected only Hatred and PoF. Hatred helps both Animate Weapon and Blade Vortex, and PoF is necessary to sustain RF.

Here are my ideas for skill setups:

  • Blade Vortex + SE + Controlled Destruction + Conc Effect + Inc Duration | Hatred
  • Vulnerability/Enfeeble + BM | RF
  • CwDT + Desecrate + Tempest Shield
  • Animate Weapon + Multistrike + Minion Damage + Increased Duration (+2 Helm)
  • Purity of Fire | Whirling Blades + FA + Fortify (Empire's Grasp)
  • Bone Offering + Flesh Offering + Inc Duration + BM

You might be wondering why I am using Controlled Destruction over Added Fire. The answer is simple. I don't want to crit since Hatred will shatter corpses meaning less uptime on my Offerings. The 100% reduced crit chance Controlled Destruction offers will lower my crit to 0% chance since I don't pick up and other crit.

I think my main issues will be burst physical damage that gets past my block/fortify, and losing Bone Offering if I'm going to slow. Damage seems promising. I really love the idea of the build and how it will revolve around weapons fighting for me as I whirling blades through packs.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns on my version! Like you, I know the skill tree could be changed, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed ;)

/r/pathofexile Thread