Trinity Spectral Helix
Raider build

Updated for Patch 3.18

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Spectral Helix is a Skill Gem that creates copies of your weapon, spiraling away from you and dealing your weapon's damage at 250% of its value. It's a Projectile Attack that's actually very similar to Vaal Spectral Throw - it shares the same tags and it's the modern take on this forgotten, but cool-looking Skill. To make it more viable - the blades now bounce off the walls up to three times (unless you use the Divergent version of the Gem). Thanks to this feature it's useful in enclosed maps with a lot of walls such as the Pen or Cells. The skill is very simple in the mechanics, it's just a regular Attack that fires Projectiles. It makes it very versatile - you can create a lot of builds based on it.

Raider seems to be the best candidate to make full use of this Attack - it's an ascendancy that specializes in the use of Frenzy Charges, Dodging and Evading Attacks, and high Attack and Movement Speed - its fast-paced playstyle is really fun. The core defense of this build consists of Maximum Life - 5 to 7k. On top of that, the character has a lot of Evasion Rating. The ascendancy Notables to take are Avatar of the Veil and of the Chase, it grants you Phasing, Evasion Rating, Elemental Damage, less Accuracy Rating of your Enemies, and more Chance to avoid Elemental Ailments while Phasing. The offensive aspects are Elemental Exposure applied to nearby opponents (for all Element types) and permanent Onslaught with at least twice its original efficiency. Exposure lowers the Elemental Resistance of your Opponents by 20% while Onslaught Grants 20% increased Attack and Movement Speed. The fact that the character is really efficiently lowering Elemental Resistance makes it natural to use Elemental Damage. With Trinity Support the potential for damage grows, but it requires you to balance all three types of Elemental Damage now - it can be done by acquiring a proper weapon and having Heralds and Support Gems that will match the rest of the build.

You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List

1. Gameplay

The only Attack that the build uses to deal with opponents is Spectral Helix. The damage is good enough to kill bosses and the AoE of the blades makes it not a problem to kill the pack of mobs - it's actually a really safe playstyle since you can cast the Attack while away from them, and after a while the spinning weapon will reach the target. The mobility Skill will be Whirling Blades - an Attack that can be used with Claws. From time to time it will be required to cast Blood Rage for more Attack Speed, Life Leech, and Frenzy Charge acquisition. Use Vaal Haste or Vaal Grace, and Ancestral Protector during tough fights for more Damage. You will also be able to use Tornado Skill to increase your Damage.

This video was recorded on a level 93 Raider on Standard with approx. 500 Elemental DPS Claw - if you are looking to invest more, you can easily get 20% more DPS for less than 20 Exalted Orbs on Expedition, but that's up to you and your personal budget

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

Spectral Throw is a great substitute for levels 1-12, and after that, you can start using Spectral Helix. You won't use Trinity Support until much later in the game, and it leaves you with some other options. We recommend specializing in Cold or Physical Damage as you level up - you will be easily able to reach Cold Damage Clusters on your Passives Skill Tree, and it will be more efficient at first. When you notice you lack in damage - respec the points and switch to a proper build. Use Claws with Shield. For the Cold Damage variant, you can use Essences such as Essence of Hatred on Weapon and Jewellery or Essence of Suffering on Jewellery. For Physical Damage use Essences of Zeal.

Suggested leveling Gem setups:

Spectral Helix setup
	Spectral Helix - the Skill Gem that will be used since you reach level 12
	Nightblade Support - If you're using Claws or Daggers, which you should, use Nighbalde for More Crit. Chance, Multiplier, and Elusive Buff
	Increased Critical Strikes Support - grants you much more Critical Strike Chance
	Added Cold Damage Support - Adds Cold Damage to your Attacks, making you able to Chill and Freeze

Whirling Blades setup
	Whirling Blades - the best movement Skill for Claw-wielding characters with high Attack Speed
	Lifetap Support - makes your Whirling Blades cost Life instead of Mana

Utility Gems
	Frost Bomb - applies Cold Exposure, lowering the Cold Resistance of your opponents, it's useless after your 4th Lab where you take Avatar of the Veil
	Herald of Ice - more Cold Damage for your Attacks
	Precision - increases your Accuracy Rating and Critical Strike Chance, both of which are important
	Frostbite - the Curse that lowers the Cold Resistance of  your Opponents, cast it manually or link with Hextouch and Frost Bomb in a separate setup

Bandits:

You should kill all the Bandits and take two more Passive Skill Points

Leveling Skill Trees:

34 Points Skill Tree
exit the starting location by taking Evasion and Life, take Heart of Oak, Herbalist and follow the path to Claw nodes and Blood Drinker

59 Points Skill Tree
first, take Trickery and then go down to pick up Longshot, and Thick Skin

Recommended leveling items:

Le Heup of All - more damage, Attributes, and Resistances are all you need to comfortably get through the leveling process

(10-30)% increased Damage +(10-30) to all Attributes (10-30)% increased Rarity of Items found +(10-30)% to all Elemental Resistances

Goldrim - Goldrim gives you a lot of Elemental Resistances which will be needed, especially after you kill Kitava

+(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)

Tabula Rasa - six-linked Body Armour with all-white sockets is a great option for leveling

Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden)

Prismweave - a unique Belt that grants all the Elemental Damage types for Attacks on top of increased Physical Damage and Elemental Resistances

(12-24)% increased Global Physical Damage Adds (7-8) to (15-16) Fire Damage to Attacks Adds (5-6) to (12-14) Cold Damage to Attacks Adds 1 to (30-34) Lightning Damage to Attacks +(6-8)% to all Elemental Resistances 30% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills during any Flask Effect 10% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills

Fairgraves' Tricorne - a lot of Evasion Rating, added Cold Damage to Attacks Lightning Resistance, and immunity to Shock are good stats for leveling with Cold Damage

Adds 6 to 12 Cold Damage to Attacks 70% increased Evasion Rating 15% increased Stun and Block Recovery +(15-30) to maximum Mana +(20-30)% to Lightning Resistance Cannot be Shocked

Hrimburn - a lot of useful stats for a COld Damage Attack build, it Converts Half of your Physical Damage to Cold, and makes your Cold Damage Ignite enemies

+(20-30) to Strength Adds (5-7) to (13-15) Cold Damage to Spells and Attacks +(40-50) to Evasion Rating +(20-30)% to Cold Resistance 50% of Physical Damage Converted to Cold Damage Reflects 10 Cold Damage to Melee Attackers Your Cold Damage can Ignite

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

122 Points Final Skill Tree
122 Points Path of Building (PoB) link

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in that order:

1. Rapid Assault
2. Avatar of the Chase
3. Quartz Infusion
4. Avatar of the Veil

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of the Brine King You cannot be Stunned if you've been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds

Minor God: Soul of Garukhan 60% reduced Effect of Shock on you

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Spectral Helix setup
	Spectral Helix - The Attack that is used to deal with all kinds of opponents, creates a projectile that spirals away from you and bounces off the walls. Increases in Attack and Projectile stats will affect this Skill.
	Nightblade Support - a mandatory Support Gem, it provides you with Elusive on Critical Strikes while increasing the Chance and Multiplier for them. It grants you more Movement Speed and Chance to Dodge.
	Trinity Support - As you hit an enemy, you gain Resonance for two Elements that didn't deal the highest amount of damage. If you have Resonance of all three elements (Fire, Cold, and Lightning) you deal more damage. Resonance stacks up to 50. It's vital to have the highest type of damage alternating with each Hit.
	Elemental Damage with Attacks Support - as this build is based on Elemental Damage with Attacks, it's an obvious choice for a Gem
	Increased Critical Strikes Support - the build heavily relies on Critical Strikes to conjure Elusiveness and overall increase the damage
	Inspiration Support - Reduces the Mana Cost of linked Skill, while increasing Critical Strike Chance and Elemental Damage. It's really obligatory to have it as your Mana pool will drain really quickly without it.
Added Cold Damage,  Added Lightning Damage, or  Added Fire Damage should be linked instead of  Elemental Damage with Attacks or  Increased Critical Strikes if you can't reliably create Resonances with  Trinity. It's the common solution to make Two of your Three Elemental Damage types somewhat equal. Lightning Damage has a huge range of damage it can deal so it should be in the center of your attention. Note that the Support Gems which adds Cold and Lightning Damage gives you a Flat amount of it, Fire Damage Gem grants you some percent of your Physical Damage as Fire Damage. That's why a lot of builds use  Anger Aura which gives Flat Fire Damage so the Damage output is higher and easier to manage.

[UTILITY] Aura setup
	Anger - An Aura that gives flat Fire Damage to your Attacks equal to the highest Tier of Elemental Damage on your weapon. You don't need to use it if you can create Resonances, but you can also use other Auras such as  Wrath or  Hatred (Hatred grants extra cold damage based on physical damage).
	Precision - use Precision for higher Critical Strike Chance and an additional Accuracy Rating.
	Grace - A huge boost to your Evasion Rating. Grace combined with Anger will reserve 100% of your Mana, if you don't have Enlighten Support at level 4, you should use a Herald Skill which reserves less Mana, such as Herald of Ice for example.
	Enlighten Support - lowers the Cost of mana-reserving linked Skills

[UTILITY] CWDT setup
	Cast When Damage Taken - you want to have this Gem at the lowest possible level so it will trigger more often
	Immortal Call - you take less Physical and Elemental Damage for a short duration of time. Keep this Gem at level 1
	Assassin's Mark - a Curse that increases your Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier against Marked enemies. If you don't have it on your Ring, you can link a low-level one here or just manually cast it against Bosses
	Increased Duration Support - Immortal Call and Assassin's Mark lasts longer

[MOBILITY] Whirling Blades and Torando setup
	Whirling Blades - as you use Claws and have a decent amount of Atack Speed, Whirling Blades will be the best movement skill for you
	Tornado - Creates a Tornado that can interact with your Projectiles similarly to Hydrosphere. It deals increased damage as you Hit it.
	Faster Attacks Support - this Support Gem will make your travel faster by speeding up the Whirling Blades Attack
	Lifetap Support - you will use this setup quite often, so it's a good idea to use Life instead of Mana for it, you won't have a lot of Mana to spare

[UTILITY] Vaal Haste and Ancestral Protector setup
	Vaal Haste - temporarily increases your Movement Speed and Attack Speed, similarly to Onslaught
	Ancestral Protector - it greatly enhances your Attack Speed so make sure it stays on during Boss fights
	Increased Duration Support - Ancestral Protector and Vaal Haste will last much longer

[UTILITY] Blood Rage setup
	Blood Rage - it will drain your Life while providing you with Life Leech, Attack Speed, and Frenzy Charge on kill
	Enhance Support - by enhancing the Quality of linked Gems, you gain much more Attack Speed from Blood Rage, and faster casting of Portal
	Portal - takes you to your Hideout, and you don't need to spend any Portal Scrolls

5. Gear Setup

There are no required uniques, you can gear up using only rares. You should look for Maximum Life, Elemental Resistances, Evasion Rating, Chance to Dodge, Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier, Attack Damage, Attack Speed, and Elemental Damage with Attacks. The final damage output should have at least two Elemental types of Damage at the same level to activate Trinity Support so don't put too much damage into one Element. Around 150 Dexterity and 120 Intelligence are required, it will have to be looked for in your gear. The generic nature of the build makes it easy to find discounted items on the market.

Our recommended items will:

1. Cap your resistances 
2. Give you enough DPS/Life to start mapping successfully

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - rare Helmet should be the best option as all the required stats can be commonly found there, namely Life and Resistances

Min. requirements: 70 maximum Life 70% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Accuracy Rating Nearby Enemies take #% increased Elemental Damage Global Critical Strike Multiplier Attributes

Helmet enchantments: Spectral Helix enchantment

(Weapon) Rare Claw - you will need to have at least two damage types at a really high tier added here as flat damage, all three would be of course better but you should instead focus on Critical Strike Chance and Attack Speed as well

Min. requirements: Adds 70 to 120 Fire Damage Adds 70 to 120 Cold Damage Adds 10 to 220 Lightning Damage Optional affixes: Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Attacks with this Weapon Penetrate #% Elemental Resistances

(Weapon) Rare Shield - while you're completely fine dual-wielding two Claws, it's a common practice to equip a Shield for better defenses

Min. requirements: 80 maximum Life 40% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Evasion Rating increased Attack Damage with Elemental Skills Chance to Block Accuracy Rating

(Body Armour) Inpulsa's Broken Heart - a generally good Body Armour that makes clearing maps really easy. It's not that expensive so you should definitely get one if you feel like you could use some explosions

+(60-80) to maximum Life (20-50)% increased Damage if you have Shocked an Enemy Recently (15-25)% increased Effect of Shock Shocked Enemies you Kill Explode, dealing 5% of their Life as Lightning Damage which cannot Shock Unaffected by Shock

(Body Armour) Farrul's Fur - that's one of the most expensive Body Armour in the game but it's worth its price - It gives you all the stats that matter to your build, except Phasing, you already have that from your Ascendancy. In addition to that, you will need a Source of the Aspect of the Cat. It works better in other versions of Spectral Helix builds for Raider

(100-150)% increased Armour and Evasion +(80-100) to maximum Life Aspect of the Cat Reserves no Mana +2 seconds to Cat's Stealth Duration Gain up to your maximum number of Frenzy and Power Charges when you gain Cat's Stealth You have Phasing while you have Cat's Stealth

(Body Armour) Rare Body Armour - look for Maximum Life and Elemental Resistances, there aren't many useful mods so try to score the highest tiers

Min. requirements: 100 maximum Life 70% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Chance to Dodge Attack Hits Attacks have +#% to Critical Strike Chance Evasion Rating Chaos Resistance

(Boots) Rare Boots - movement Speed, Maximum Life, and Elemental Resistances are the most important mods, Tailwind is a nice but expensive addition

Min. requirements: 25% Movement Speed 70 maximum Life 70% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: you have Tailwind if you have dealt a Critical Strike Recently

(Boots) Three-step Assault - These are the recommended boots, it's a huge increase in Evasion Rating and Chance to Dodge. Make sure that the lack of Elemental Resistances won't be a problem

+(25-35) to Dexterity (20-40)% increased Evasion Rating 100% increased Evasion Rating during Onslaught +(50-70) to maximum Life 25% increased Movement Speed 10% chance to Dodge Spell Hits while Phasing

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - Gripped Gloves have useful implicit that increases your Projectile Damage, you should get a decent amount of Maximum Life, Elemental Resistances, and Evasion Rating if possible

Min. requirements: 70 maximum Life 70% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Accuracy Rating Critical Strike Chance Evasion Rating reduced Attribute Requirements

(Belt) Rare Belt - besides the obvious defenses, try to get increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills - it's a lot of damage in form of a normal Prefix

Min. requirements: 70 maximum Life 60% Total Elemental Resistances 40% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills Optional affixes: Strength Chaos Resistance maximum Life %

(Amulet) Rare Amulet - Amulet can not only store a lot of Life and Resistances, but it's also a great source of damage, especially Elemental Damage such as is the case here

Min. requirements: 40 to Maximum Life 40% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Adds Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage to Attacks increased Elemental Damage with Attacks increased Global Critical Strike Chance increased Global Critical Strike Multiplier Attributes

(Amulet) Crystallised Omniscience - This Unique Amulet can be implemented into the build for a massive damage increase, just bury in mind it will completely change the rest of your rare gear as you will no longer need Resistances, but rather Attributes instead,

+(10-16) to all Attributes Modifiers to Attributes instead apply to Omniscience +1% to all Elemental Resistances per 10 Omniscience Penetrate 1% Elemental Resistances per 10 Omniscience Attribute Requirements can be satisfied by (15-25)% of Omniscience

Recommended Anointments: Charisma - for more Mana True Strike - for more Crit Damage Eagle Eye - for Crit Chance and Accuracy Fleetfoot - Evasion, Movement, and Attack Speed

(Ring) Rare Ring - Maximum Life and Elemental Resistances are the priority. For more damage seek Elemental Damage with Attacks. It's also most convenient to apply Assassin's Mark via a Ring affix

Min. requirements: 60 to Maximum Life 60% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills Trigger Level # Assassin's Mark when you Hit a Rare or Unique Enemy Attributes Accuracy Rating

(Jewel) Rare Jewels - getting 7% increased Maximum Life is probably the most important mod, you cal also try your luck by corrupting it - it's one of the few ways for a completely Corrupted Blood immunity

Recommended affixes: increased Critical Strike Chance for Attacks increased maximum Life increased Attack Speed Elemental Resistances increased Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage increased Attack/Elemental/Projectile Damage Attributes increased Evasion Rating

(Jewel) The Interrogation - You can use this Unique Cluster Jewel to gain an access to Secrets of Suffering Keystone. It will replace your default Elemental Ailments with the new ones, resulting in a big damage increase.

Adds Secrets of Suffering

(Jewel) Watcher's Eye - Watcher's Eye is an expensive Jewel that offers mods that increase the effectiveness of your Auras -  for example, Precision. Try to get mods corresponding to the Auras you're using

(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers>

(Flask) The Wise Oak - Wise Oak is an optional Flask that you can use to increase the Damage of a certain Element

+35% to all Elemental Resistances During Flask Effect, 6% reduced Damage taken of each Element for which your Uncapped Elemental Resistance is lowest During Flask Effect, Damage Penetrates (5-8)% Resistance of each Element for which your Uncapped Elemental Resistance is highest

(Flask) Bottled Faith - despite the recent nerfs, it's still one of the best Flask for Crit builds

40% increased Damage Creates Consecrated Ground on Use (20-40)% increased Duration Consecrated Ground created by this Flask has Tripled Radius Consecrated Ground created during Effect applies (7-10)% increased Damage taken to Enemies (100-150)% increased Critical Strike Chance against Enemies on Consecrated Ground during Flask effect

Other suggested Flasks: Experimenter's Jade Flask of Staunching (immunity to Bleeding) Bubbling Divine Life Flask of Warding (Curse immunity) Experimenter's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.