Updated for Patch 3.16
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Estimated budget: high
Guide notes |
November 21, 2021 -Build created December 08, 2021 -Added gameplay video |
It's an Armour-stacking build that uses Replica Dreamfeather Unique Sword that increased Attack Damage per Armour. You will be using Smite that Converts half of your Physical Damage to Lightning Damage, and the two Call of the Brotherhood Unique Rings to convert Lightning to Cold. Smite also grants you an Aura to increase your Lightning Damage witch is especially beneficial since you're using multiple auras with their effect magnified many times over, this includes Smite's Aura. While Stacking Armour is relatively easy - you seek Armour or Evasion Rating to convert it later with Iron Reflex keystone, fitting all the Auras is a bit more tricky as it requires multiple sources of Mana Reservation Efficiency. To help with that you should use March of the Legion Unique Boots and Support your Auras with the highest cost with the Blessing Skill that this pair of boots provides - you pay the cost of the Skill Reservation once, and the Aura lasts for ten to twenty seconds and then you'll able to cast them one-by-one.
Smite is a short-range Elemental Strike Attack that should have a somewhat high Critical Strike Chance, for that use Precision; if your Crit chance is low, allocate Elemental Overload Keystone. you should also have Wrath and Hatred to boost your Damage. Your Block Chance should be high as you're using Aegis Aurora. You will use CI Keystone that makes you immune to Chaos Damage so you're forced to rely on Energy Shield only, around 3 to 7k depending on your gear. Character's Armour will be obviously very high, over-capping the Physical Damage Reduction easily, use Purity of Lightning, Fire, and Ice for extra Maximum Elemental Resistances, Discipline for more ES, Determination, Grace, and Defiance Banner for more Armour, Vitality for Life Regen, and Clarity for Mana Regen. It's a lot of Auras, some of them won't fit in your Mana Pool at level 20, and some might not even fit at all, but it should be your primary objective to do so. You will be also using as many Small Cluster Jewels with Introspection for increased Aura Effect, Voices are extraordinarily expensive, so use four Large Cluster Jewels with 8 Passive Skills.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
It's a very simple gameplay-wise build, use your Smite to attack enemies, Ancestral Totems to boost your damage, Molten Shell as a Guard Spell, Leap Slam as a Movement Attack, and most importantly - you will have to constantly enable your four Blessed Auras socketed in March of the Legion, the rest of the Auras stays on at all times. Your Curse can be applied by finding a Gloves' Corruped Implicit such as "Curse enemies with Elemental Weakness on Hit". Support your Smite with Ancestral Call Support to have a bearable clear speed.
Full gameplay video:
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PROS |
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CONS |
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Leveling Scion build such as this is especially difficult, the late-game Skill Tree focuses mostly on outer Sockets and Aura Clusters, and you can't level like that. Additionally, it's a Chaos Inoculation build, but you have to begin leveling with Life instead of ES, and later transition to Energy Shield. Your best option is to start with Smite Skill and link it with Ancestral Call, then focus on Attack Damage and Maximum Life. After you've allocated around 70 to 90 Passives, switch to CI and Energy Shield by respecing a lot of previously needed Life Passives.
Suggested leveling Gem setups:
Smite setup | |
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Smite - you can safely start with Smite, it's a good leveling Skill that's great with Ancestral Call |
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Ancestral Call Support - allows you to target more enemies, it significantly speeds up the leveling process |
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Melee Physical Damage Support - increases Melee Physical Damage of Smite Skill |
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Inspiration Support - more Crit Chance and Elemental Damage while the cost of Skill gets lower |
Auras setup | |
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Wrath - Wrath increases your Lightning Damage you deal with Smite significantly |
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Purity of Elements - Grants immunity to Elemental Ailments and tons of Resistances |
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Precision - higher Accuracy Rating and Crit Chance, you can keep it at a low level if you don't have high Mana Reservation Efficiency yet |
Curses and Leap Slam setup | |
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Assassin's Mark - killing cursed enemies restore Life and mana on Kill, your Crit Chance, and Multiplier against them is increased, and it grants Power Charges |
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Leap Slam - your main mobility Skill that you will use through the rest of the game |
Bandits:
Kill all three bandits and be rewarded with two additional Skill Points
Leveling Skill Trees:
34 Points Passive Tree
Get some Maximum Life and Physical Damage nodes
67 Points Passive Tree
Start allocating Mana Efficiency on Aura Clusters, get more Maximum Life, and Damage
Recommended leveling items:
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Adds 1 to 4 Physical Damage to Attacks +(10-30) to all Attributes (10-30)% increased Damage (10-30)% increased Rarity of Items found +(10-30)% to all Elemental Resistances |
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+(30-50) to Evasion Rating 10% increased Rarity of Items found +(30-40)% to all Elemental Resistances Reflects 4 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden) |
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Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden) |
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+(25-35) to Strength +25 to Strength Adds 5 to 15 Physical Damage to Attacks 10% increased maximum Life +(10-20)% to Cold Resistance 25% increased Flask Life Recovery rate |
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+360 to Accuracy Rating (180-220)% increased Physical Damage 20% increased Attack Speed (50-75)% increased Critical Strike Chance +10 Mana gained on Kill 10% increased Movement Speed Gain a Frenzy Charge on Critical Strike |
Final Skill Tree:
78 Points Final Passive Tree (doesn't include Cluster Jewels nor Thread of Hope)
128 Points Path of Building (PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of The Brine King: 1% You cannot be Stunned if you've been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds
Minor God: Soul of Abberath: 60% less Duration of Ignite on You
[DPS] Smite setup | |
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Smite - With this Strike, you Hit twice - once with an Attack and then with lightning to strike that deals area damage near the target's location, but one enemy can't be hit by both unless you can target more than one opponent to double-dip. Use one with Phantasmal Quality for more Attack Speed. |
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Cold Penetration Support - use it to penetrate Cold Resistance for your opponents |
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Ancestral Call Support - Strike skills target additional enemies, heavily recommended even for boss fights since you can strike them with the lightning component of the Attack for more damage |
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Multistrike Support - you repeat the attack with increased Attack Speed and deal more damage as the result |
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Elemental Damage with Attacks Support - Attack Skills deal more Elemental Damage |
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increased Critical Damage Support - increases you Critical Strike Damage, ![]() |
[UTILITY] Blessed temporary Auras setup socketed in March of the Legion |
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Wrath - adds additional Lightning Damage to your Attacks |
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Hatred - you gain Extra Cold Damage from your Physical Damage, and your Cold Damage is increased |
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Determination - increases and adds more Armour which is very important |
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Grace - grants you Evasion Rating which is converted into Armour |
[UTILITY] Aura setup preferably socketed in an item with +2 Level of socketed Aura Gems |
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Purity of Ice - increases your Cold Resistance, try to reach gem level 23 for extra Maximum Cold Resistance |
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Purity of Fire - increases your Fire Resistance, try to reach gem level 23 for extra Maximum Fire Resistance |
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Purity of Lightning - increases your Lightning Resistance, try to reach gem level 23 for extra Maximum Lightning Resistance |
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Discipline - you gain more Energy Shield and increased ES recharge rate |
[UTILITY] Aura setup | |
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Vitality - Vitality regenerates your Life, with Zealot's Oath it regenerates your ES |
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Clarity - it's the least important Aura so keep it at a low level, it helps to regenerate Mana faster |
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Precision - prioritize the gem level of Precision in this setup to increase your Accuracy Rating and Critical Strike Chance |
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Tempest Shield - enabling it grants you more immunity to Shock and Chance to Block Spell Damage, it's great when combined with Aegis Aurora |
[UTILITY] various Gems | |
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Defiance Banner - It increases your Armour and Evasion Rating while reducing enemies' Critical Strike Chance |
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Ancestral Protector - it grants you more Attacks Speed for as long as it stays active |
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Vaal Ancestral Warchief - it grants you more Melee Damage for as long as it stays active |
[UTILITY] Guard Spell | |
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Molten Shell - a Guard Spell that's more effective the more Armour you have which is especially good for this Armour-stacking build |
[MOBILITY] Movement setup | |
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Leap Slam - use it to jump over obstacles and to increase your mobility |
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Faster Attacks Support - you can use Leap Slam more often making you even faster |
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Build Requires specific Unique items, and it additionally heavily relies on Flasks to increase your Damage and Surviavbilty - use Evasion and Armour Flasks and aim for at least half a million Armour while these are active. To never run out of Flask Charges have a way to constantly gain these Charges back with items or Flask mods. Cluster Jewels are crucial as you can get increased Aura Effect, and Mana Reservation Efficiency on just one well-rolled Small Cluster Jewel, multiply it by eight and it adds up to an 80% increased Aura Effect and 48% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency just from these, additional sources are found on Skill Tree and gear. Look for Armour, and Evasion Rating that is transformed into Armour after allocating Iron Reflex. You won't need as much Resistance as normally since the Purity of Fire, Ice, and Lightning should provide 132% of Total Elemental Resistances. The more significant portion of your Armour won't actually come from gear but from Auras. Seek Elemental or Cold Damage with Attacks, Critical Strike Chance, and Attack Speed for more Damage, and Energy Shield for a bigger "Life" Pool. Grace requires you to get 155 Dexterity which you will need to look for, Strenght and Intelligence should be easily covered by your Skill Tree.
Our recommended items will:
Stat priorities on items:
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Min. requirements: 10% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills +40 to maximum Energy Shield Optional affixes: Armour Nearby Enemies have -9% to Cold Resistance Evasion Rating Global Critical Strike Multiplier Elemental Resistances increased level of socketed AoE Gems |
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<One to three random Synthesis implicit modifiers> +(25-30) to all Attributes (150-200)% increased Armour and Energy Shield Nearby Allies have (4-6)% increased Defences per 100 Strength you have Nearby Allies have +(6-8)% to Critical Strike Multiplier per 100 Dexterity you have Nearby Allies have (2-4)% increased Cast Speed per 100 Intelligence you have 2% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills per 250 total Attributes |
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+2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems (80-100)% increased Evasion Rating +(20-30)% to Cold Resistance 25% chance to Avoid being Chilled Cannot be Frozen 16% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills |
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Helmet enchantments: Smite enchantment mods |
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+475 to Accuracy Rating Adds (40-65) to (70-100) Physical Damage (5-10)% increased Attack Speed +(180-200) to Armour 3% reduced Movement Speed +(280-300) to Accuracy Rating 1% increased Attack Damage per 450 Armour |
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(300-400)% increased Armour and Energy Shield +10% to all Elemental Resistances +5% to maximum Cold Resistance +6% Chance to Block Replenishes Energy Shield by 2% of Armour when you Block (10-20)% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills |
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Min. requirements: +60 to maximum Energy Shield 20% increased effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skill Attacks have +1% to Critical Strike Chance Optional affixes: Elemental Resistances Attributes increased Energy Shield |
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+2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 25 Blessing (250-300)% increased Armour and Energy Shield +(12-18)% to all Elemental Resistances (20-30)% increased Movement Speed |
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(80-120)% increased Armour and Energy Shield +4 Accuracy Rating per 2 Intelligence +1 Life per 4 Dexterity +1 Mana per 4 Strength 1% increased Energy Shield per 10 Strength 2% increased Evasion Rating per 10 Intelligence 2% increased Melee Physical Damage per 10 Dexterity |
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Min. requirements: +40 to maximum Energy Shield 30% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills 20% increased Energy Shield from Body Armour Optional affixes: Attributes Armour Elemental Resistances |
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< 1 to 2 Random corrupted implicit modifiers> Implicit Modifier magnitudes are tripled Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden) |
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+(25-35) to Strength +(30-50) to Dexterity +(15-25)% to Fire Resistance +(15-25)% to Cold Resistance Magic Utility Flasks cannot be Used Leftmost (2-4) Magic Utility Flasks constantly apply their Flask Effects to you Magic Utility Flask Effects cannot be removed |
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+(10-16) to all Attributes +(20-30) to Dexterity, Strength or Intelligence (15-20)% increased Evasion Rating +(50-70) to maximum Life Nearby Enemies grant 25% increased Flask Charges Monster gives 25% increased Flask Charges on death (Hidden) <Random Dexterity, Strength or Intelligence aura> Reserves no Mana |
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Recommended Anointments: Charisma |
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+(12-16)% to Cold and Lightning Resistances +(15-25) to Intelligence (15-25)% increased Lightning Damage (30-40)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate 40% of Lightning Damage Converted to Cold Damage Your spells have 100% chance to Shock against Frozen Enemies |
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Recommended affixes: |
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Only affects Passives in Large Ring Passives in Radius can be Allocated without being connected to your tree -(20-10)% to all Elemental Resistances |
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4% increased Effect of your Curses Flasks applied to you have 8% increased Effect 3% increased effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills |
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(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> |
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Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Blanketed Snow 1 Added Passive Skill is Snowstorm 1 Added Passive Skill is Widespread Destruction 1 Added Passive Skill is Thunderstruck 1 Added Passive Skill is Prismatic Heart 1 Added Passive Skill is Disorienting Display |
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Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Introspection |
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Adds 3 Jewel Socket Passive Skills <Random empty passive skill node mod> |
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Suggested Flasks:
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If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.
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