Level 89 Hybrid Blade Vortex Elementalist^3.26

Notes

Chronic_Painless's Guide to League-Starting with Cold BV:

Date/Time of Export: June 12th - 9AM EST

If you're reading this, please accept my apologies for the spammy "Read the Notes Section" everywhere else in this POB, but also please trust me that it was all too necessary. 

--------------------------------------------
------- THE BASIC OUTLINE ---------
--------------------------------------------

Get through acts 1-5 however you like, if not with the recommended Stormblast Mines, then ideally with a cold skill like Freezing Pulse and/or Wintertide Brand.

Get the "Elemental Overload" Keystone ASAP, then start pushing down towards the "Potency of Will" cluster in the center of the Passive Tree,
Your tree will be within easy respec range of what's needed for Cold BV (doable with the Respec Points you'll naturally get from completing the quests for Passive Points + Twilight Strand)

After completing the Twilight Strand and the Labyrinth, swap to Blade Vortex with 100% Physical to Cold Conversion via Hrimsorrow Gloves. 
	Take advantage of Shield Charge + Faster Attacks for more clear speed. 
	Use Frostblink + Bonechill as a damage boost against beefy targets. 

Get Vaal Blade Vortex ASAP, as it provides numerous benefits.

Get the "Liege of the Primordial" Ascendancy first, and add Flame/Stone/Lightning/Chaos Golems for damage, survivability, and even faster shield charging. Link 1-3 of them to Culling Strike if you ever have a spare link. 

This should get you to the end of the campaign easily, and you should be even be a little bit overleveled due to BV's constant damage output while running through the various zones. 

Get the "Bringer of Ruin" Ascendency from the Cruel Labyrinth and add Herald of Ash. 

Get the "Bastion of Elements" Ascendency from the Merciless Labyrinth for increased survivability, or the "Shaper of Storms" Ascendency for more DPS, depending on which you feel you're currently lacking due to your gear. 

Invest Passive Points in Increased Freeze Duration to enable freezing even beefier enemies.

Continue using Elemental Overload. This build will get you to at least Yellow Maps. 

At approximately Level 70, unspec from Elemental Overload and invest in critical strikes, specifically with the addition of Ice Golem, Assassin's Mark, and eventually Brittle Ground boots. Remove Chaos Golem to make room. 

Get a Cluster Jewel with the Blast-Freeze notable for a massive survivability/clear speed boost. 

Use Obliteration Wand to increase clear speed if you can still reliably freeze enemies while using it (gear/level dependent).

This should easily level you into Red Maps, and with a 5-link and about 5-15 Exalts spent per gear slot, this build will easily kill non-Uber end-game bosses and do the basic Maven's Invitations, creating a strong foundation for farming currency. 

Get whichever Ascendency you didn't take earlier (Bastion/Storms) from the Eternal Labyrinth

Add Grace by investing in mana reservation efficiency. 

Look for Armour/Evasion items with high Spell Suppression, and use Eldritch Implicits to turn them into end-game viable gear. 

Get to ~100% Spell Suppression by getting as much as you can on your gear, and then grabbing the Instinct cluster to unlock the mastery that makes your chance to suppress lucky. 

Replace Obliteration with a Crusader Explode Chest for better explosion scaling. 

Stack skill gem levels to maximize damage, with a secondary focus on Power Charges, Aura Effect, and Critical Strike Multiplier. 


--------------------------------------------------------------
---------- OVERALL KEYS TO THE BUILD ----------
--------------------------------------------------------------

1. Damage output is almost completely contingent on maintaining 10 Blades, since BV scales exponentially with the number of blades you have out. 

2. Maintaining 10 Blades is easy and comfortable if the following conditions are met:
		a. You have 4 maximum Unleash seals (creating 5 blades on a max seal cast)
		b. Your Skill Duration for BV is at least ~1 second more than TWICE the time it takes to generate maximum seals. 
					USE THIS EQUATION:    Skill Duration - 1 >= 2*MaxSealTime 
		c. You cast BV whenever you are at maximum seals or within about a .5 second window
    
	This principle is referred to as the "Skill Duration :: Seal Generation Ratio" 

3. Until you can afford to tank up, the best defense is a good freezefense.
		Blast-Freeze and full Cold-Conversion with Increased Freeze Duration will enable you to freeze even extremely strong enemies with relatively low investment. 
		X% Increased Freeze Duration is essentially "Freeze as though dealing %X more damage" (different sources of duration stack additively, but the total then acts as a "more" multiplier on your maximum freeze threshold) 
		This build starts out as a not-quite-glass cannon that largely relies on freezing and/or killing enemies before they can do anything to you, but can easily be made a lot tankier with a little investment. 

4. Golems are spectacular in the early part of a league, because the effectiveness of their buffs isn't contingent upon gear at all. 
		Simply getting the Elementalist ascendancy and the Golem Commander notable will provide a substantial boost to offense and defense no matter how well geared you are otherwise. 

5. Stacking a lot of +Skill Gem Levels is almost always the most efficient way to scale damage, especially thanks to the most recent change to BV's damage numbers from patch 3.23
		BV scales exponentially with more levels (up to Gem Level 30), and bigger base numbers mean that this exponential scaling is even more dramatic at the top end.  

6. Blade Vortex gets +1 Base Radius at Gem level 22 and again at Gem Level 29. 
		This can be massive, especially with Vast Power, Flame Golem and/or other large sources of increased AOE. 
		Keep this in mind especially when deciding to use Empower Support or not in high-end versions of the build.

7. Vaal Blade Vortex is absolutely essential and serves many purposes:
	a. Gives you an option to do damage from range, which is extremely helpful for very dangerous mobs and League Content like Heists or the Forbidden Sanctum where the mobs are lying in wait. 
	b. Two charges means a huge damage boost on bosses
	c. Enhances clear speed generally as you can use it to take out stragglers or spread out enemies. 
    d. Helps with League Content like Blight/Legion/Breach where it's good to be doing damage over a large area. 
	
	I would never consider using a level 21 non-vaal BV over a level 20 Vaal BV, no matter how tempting the 10% DPS increase on POB might look. 

8. Shield Charge provides a massive boost to movement speed, and is definitely worth learning to use even if it seems difficult at first. 
		Lightning Golem goes a long way towards making it feel better at lower gem levels. 
		Keep your cursor at the edge of the screen to avoid making stationary attacks.  

9. Ailment Effect is a sneakily strong source of damage up to a certain point, since it increases the effectiveness of Brittle Ground, the Shock from Shaper of Storms, and in some cases even the potency of Bonechill Support.
        In most cases, the chill from your BV will be stronger than the one from your Frostblink, and will therefore be used when Bonechill's effect is calculated. 
        It does not matter if the skill Bonechill is supporting is actually doing the chilling, since enemies can also be "In Chilling Areas from Supported Skills" for it to work
		The strongest chill on a monster in a supported Chilling Area will be used in the calculation, regardless of source. (Confirmed by GGG)
        The benefit of Increased Ailment Effect will be limited by the caps on the ailments themselves, which is 6% for Brittle Ground, 30% for Chill, and 50% for Shock.  

10. Blizzard Crowns are worse than a helmet WITHOUT ANY IMPLICIT in 99.9% of cases with this build.  Do not be fooled. Delete the implicit from a prospective helm in POB and check if your damage goes up. 

11. The progressive phases of the build are all designed to be relatively strong at BOTH Bossing AND Mapping, and so there are certainly trade-offs that could be made in favor of one or the other if you have a specific goal. 
        The balance currently being struck is meant to make mapping feel quick and easy, while also enabling you to handily defeat all invitations/pinnacle bosses as you naturally unlock them during the beginning of the league.

12.  Heatshiver can be a fairly strong item for the build, even after the nerfs, but it's also possible to add it in TOO EARLY
		The most important thing for the build early on, is making sure that everything is freezing. 
		Heatshiver will not help with this at all, since it only provides Fire Damage and minimal stats compared to a Rare Helm.
		Furthermore, killing frozen targets faster is really only impactful in a few situations such as Bossing or the Forbidden Sanctum, so don't be seduced by the boost to POB damage. 
		Maximizing the benefits of Heatshiver also means focusing on certain stats while taking priority away from others. 
		See this video for an even more detailed breakdown: https://youtu.be/uwZzUKZxBVY?si=GIhahUj857a1TfBF&t=331
        
13. The Brine King Pantheon is the best Major Pantheon, mitigating stuns and providing essential freeze immunity that protects us against ailment reflect. 
           Aberrath is the best Minor Pantheon because it provides huge ignite mitigation, enough that no further investment in that stat is needed. 

14. Sceptres are preferable to wands for end-game loadouts, as they will enable more Tattoos due to their lower Intelligence Requirement, and bolster the damage of explosions. 
		Spellbows are normally a very strong option as well, and have a very early power spike of damage, but mirror-tier weapons of all types are often very similar when all things are considered. 

15. Eldritch Battery is entirely optional when running Lightning Golem, and it has pros/cons/synnergies to consider:
             Best used when you can really get a lot from reserving all of your mana as opposed to having a little left over. 
                       This depends on what gear you have available, prices of mana reservation efficiency upgrades, and how much benefit you'd get from a low level precision/vitality aura or whatever aura is on the margin of the decision.
             Worst used when you're getting a lot of ES from something like a Carcass Jack and so it would be better to take advantage of the EHP/Max Hit benefits
             Inspiration Support is almost always one of the BiS support skills for DPS on paper, and it can't be combined with EB, but it's also not going to have 100% uptime at 5 charges unless you can get your mana cost extremely low overall
	

-------------------------------------------
------  BEFORE YOU START  ------
-------------------------------------------

Ignore Socket Colors in the "Items" section of this POB, and refer only to the "Skills" section or the notes below when determining which colors to target overall. 
This is left open because it doesn't matter where you put mines/orb/vortex/golems/auras/curses in your boots/helm/gloves/weapons, as long as the skill and support links are correct. 
You don't even need to put Blade Vortex in your Chest until you have a 5-link. 
In extremely high budget POBs, there may be socket groups that must be in a certain gear slot, but they will be called out specifically, and none are inlcuded in this guide. 

Finally, please keep in mind that the gear in this guide is meant to be extremely reasonable, and it's more than likely you'll have better gear than what's shown at each phase of the build. 
I'd rather have a guide that outperforms expectations than one that makes promises it can't deliver on or contains implausible gear.


----------------------------------------------------
---------  STEP BY STEP GUIDE  -----------
----------------------------------------------------


------ STARTING WITH STORMBLAST -------

Get three items with B-B-G / B-B-B links as fast you can.

Use Frostblink and Frost Bomb to kill on the run.

Drop an Orb of Storms and couple Mines on magic packs. 

Youi can use Flame Dash if you prefer it to Frostblink, and also add Shield Charge if you can find the right links. 

Though BV is available as early as level 12, it feels terrible without Unleash Support which requires level 38. 
	I also don't recommend trying to level a BV gem in your weapon swap, as the dex requirement will be a major annoyance. 
	It's better to just wait and craft dex on the items you have when you're actually ready to run BV. 
	You'll make up the gem XP quickly with the sheer amount of extra killing that BV does by having constant damage output while you move. 
	I wait to swap until Act 6 because that's when all the support gems are purchasable (without needing to clear the Library),
	and it doesn't make sense to swap immediately at level 38 if you're in the middle of Act 5. especially with how good mines are vs. Kitava 

Get to Elemental Overload as soon as possible (passing through Lightning Walker)

Add Skitterbots and Herald of Thunder as soon as you are high enough level, and if you have spare sockets then start leveling Herald of Ice but don't activate it yet. 

For the Bandit Quest, the answer used to be Alira, but she's probably now the worst option and you're better off getting Movespeed from Kraityn or killing all for the skill point. 

For your next Passives, get the Crackling Speed Notable, but skip the Mastery. 

Then, get more Life with the Cruel Preparation Notable and the +50 Maximum Life Mastery.

Finally, get the Deep Thoughts Notable and the 12% Reservation Efficiency Mastery. This should enable you to actually activate Herald of Ice by the time you get to the A2 Boss.  

Once you hit level 24, add a self-cast Conductivity Curse for use on beefy enemies/bosses. 

For your next series of Passives, make the journey down to the Ash, Frost and Storm Notable. 

After this, you won't see much benefit from the passive tree until the swap to BV, so just start taking the points you'll eventually need like the Increased Skill Duration Nodes and Heart of Ice. 

This will get you through Acts 3-5, as there aren't any more gem changes needed until the swap to BV. 

Frostblink + Frost Bomb will do the majority of the killing on White mobs, with the Orb and Mines only being used on Magics and Rares. 

Take Unleash Support and a Golem for your Act 4 quest rewards, but stash or weapon-swap them for now. 
	It's possible to use a golem immediately, but without any investment in minion stats it will need to be manually resummoned so often that it's probably a net loss to campaign clear speed until after the Lab. 

Try to save any decent 4-Links or even 4-Socket items, as the swap ideally requires a variety of socket colors: 7 Blue, 7 Green, and 4 Red 

Thankfully, not all of these have to be linked in a specific way, and no R-B links are required. 

You will need these linked setups:
1. G-G-G-B  (for BV+Supports)
2. B-B (for Frostblink + Bonechill)
3. R-G (for Shield Charge + Faster Attacks)
4. G-X-X-X (for Culling Strike on as many Golems as you can link to it, the type of Golem doesn't really matter)
AND
1 Random Red Socket for Herald of Purity
2 Random Green Sockets for Herald of Ice and Hatred
2 Random Blue Sockets for Frostbite and Frost Bomb
1 Random Socket for whichever Golem isn't on Culling Strike


------ SWAP TO BV -------

Clear the Labyrinth and get the Liege of the Primordial Ascendancy. Add Stone/Flame/Lightning/Chaos golem, and link as many of them to Culling Strike as you can if you have the slots. 

You can also do the Lab after the swap to BV, but I recommend doing the Lab first, especially if you've been speedrunning, because the currency/loot from the treasure chests at the end can aid with the swap.

Clear the Twilight Strand to unlock all basic gems at Lily.

Ideally, buy Hrimsorrow Gloves (should be 1-5C). If you can't do this, skip ahead to the pink section below.**

Unsocket these gems: 
1. Stormblast + Supports
2. Orb of Storms + Supports
3. Conductivity
4. Wrath/Herald of Thunder
6. Summon Skitterbots

Buy these gems:
Act 6 - Cold Penetration, Hypothermia, Shield Charge, Faster Attacks Support, Frost Bomb (only useful for applying Exposure at this stage of progression, so you want a Level 1 Gem for the low Mana Cost.)
Act 1 - Blade Vortex
Act 2 - Herald of Purity, Culling Strike Support
Act 3 - Hatred, Frostbite
Act 4 - Bonechill and Golems (skip Ice if you are low on Chance Orbs)

Use your Respec Points to make the necessary changes to your Passive Tree. (remove all lightning nodes)

***Benchcraft dex/resistances as needed. 

Make sure you have the Increased Skill Duration Mastery, but don't worry about a 4th seal and the Skill Duration :: Seal Generation Ratio yet
	Low level Unleash Support won't have fast enough seal generation to make a 4th seal worthwhile, so the ratio math won't apply. 
	You'll need at least level 15 Unleash to actually make use of the 4th seal and constantly cruise with 10 blades. 

Add Hatred, Herald of Purity, and Herald of Ice.

Be sure to AVOID accidentally linking your Heralds to Support Gems that will increase their reservation, e.g. Faster Attacks on Herald of Purity

OPTIONAL PRO TIP: Try to avoid socketing the golems/auras in your weapons, so that you can bind the summon/activation hotkeys on your weapon swap hotbar and not have them despawn/toggle off when you swap back/forth.

Get Vaal Blade Vortex ASAP, even before you can afford gem quality. I immediately use every vaal orb I get, until I hit a Vaal BV or can buy one off of trade. 

Add Shield Charge with Faster Attacks Support. They'll feel a lot smoother once they're leveled at least a tiny bit, but use them as soon as they feel comfortable for you. 

Suggested Passive Point Allocation Priority: 
      1. Quick Recover, Discord Artisan, Breath of Rime, and Heart and Soul
	  2. Winter's Embrace
      3. Discipline and Training, Holy Dominion and Light of Divinity. 
	  4. Constitution
	  5. Arcane Expanse
This can be adjusted as needed if you find yourself lacking damage, life, or a particular attribute. 

Investing in cold ailment/freeze duration is very important, even though it won't affect POB damage, as it will let you freeze much beefier targets. 
	60% increased freeze duration is essentially: "Freeze as though dealing 60% more damage."   

Get a flask with Freeze Immunity before Act 9, as this is when Ailment Reflect starts to appear on mobs.

This set-up will get you through the rest of the Campaign. 

Early Gameplay Tips:
	1. Cast BV whenever you are at maximum Unleash Seals while running through Campaign zones
	2. On Bosses/tougher mobs, spam more BV casts to try to get to 10 blades
	3. Frostblink will create "Chilling Areas" that apply the Bonechill debuff to enemies. 
	4. Frostbite/Frostbomb will only be needed on very strong enemies. 



------ **IF HRIMSORROW ARE INACCESSIBLE -----

SKIP THIS SECTION, UNLESS YOU:
  A. Weren't fortunate enough to drop a few Exalted orbs in the early acts
  B. Are playing SSF
  C. Lack access to Hrimsorrow Gloves for whatever reason

Unsocket these gems: 
1. Stormblast + Supports
2. Orb of Storms + Supports
3. Conductivity
4. Summon Skitterbots

Buy these gems:
Act 6 - Physical to Lightning Support, Shield Charge, Faster Attacks Support, Frost Bomb (only useful for applying Exposure at this stage of progression, so you want a Level 1 Gem for the low Mana Cost.)
Act 1 - Blade Vortex
Act 2 - Trinity Support, Herald of Ice, Herald of Purity, and Culling Strike Support
Act 3 - Hatred, Elemental Weakness
Act 4 - Bonechill Support (and Stone/Chaos/Flame golems if you have orbs of Chance, but you won't equip these yet) 

Get the Cold Mastery "Convert 40% of Physical Damage to Cold Damage"

With this setup, your damage should be balanced enough to maintain full Trinity Resonance, but you may have to make small tweaks depending on your gear. Make sure to add "50" in the config for resonance in POB.

Changes to Consider:
	1. Swap Herald of Ice/Herald of Thunder/Herald of Purity  
	2. Move points around on the tree, out of or into lightning/cold nodes
	3. Hatred outclasses Wrath immensely in overall DPS, so swap them only as a last resort 

The Trinity setup will actually work into red maps if necessary, but balancing your cold and lightning damage is a hassle, so you'll still want to pick up a pair of Hrimsorrow Gloves as soon as you can afford them or find a pair.  

In the meantime, go back and complete the section above, starting with "Benchcraft dex/resistances as needed" ***



------ EARLY MAPPING ------

Equip the Silver Flask from the A10 Quest if you haven't already

Continue using Frost Bomb as a source of Exposure and Frostblink to apply Bonechill. 

Get the Bringer of Ruin Ascendency and add Herald of Ash. Use any spare mana on a low-mid level Vitality. 

Start working towards the second Cold Mastery. 

Add Culling Strike Support to 3/4 of your Golems in one of your 4-link setups if you haven't already. 

For your third ascendency, get Bastion of Elements if you need to shore up your survivability, or Shaper of Storms if you need to shore up your damage during early mapping. 
	This decision will depend on the gear you dropped during the campaign, i.e. if you dropped good Weapons but very little Maximum Life on your gear, consider getting Bastion of Elements. 
	I would personally lean towards Shaper of Storms if the decision is close. 

Definitely work Shield Charge with Faster Attacks support into the build if you haven't done so yet. 

Add Steelskin for emergency defense. I highly recommend not using CWDT for this, since unlike Molten Shell, Steelskin has to be leveled up to be effective and CWDT will not trigger easily enough.  

When you get a 5-link, use Added Cold Damage as the 5th link until the next phase of the build. 

Use the Brine King and Abberrath Pantheons for Stun and Ignite Mitigation. 
	60% Less Duration of ignites is more than enough mitigation, because if 40% of an ignite is enough to kill you, then the hit that applied the ignite probably would have one-shot you already. 

Upgrade the Brine King ASAP to get Freeze Immunity
	Try to run a flask with a freeze immunity mod in the meantime, as mobs that reflect ailments will freeze you for a long time without it. 

This will get you well into Yellow/Early Red Maps. 



------  LATE MAPPING (INVESTING IN CRITICAL STRIKES AND MORE) -------

At around level 70-75, you should have enough passive points to get to the Whispers of Doom Notable, enabling the addition of Assassin's Mark. 
	You can free up even more points by exiting the Witch starting location via the intelligence nodes instead of the ones that give negligible spell damage (as shown on the trees), but I wouldn't recommend doing that prior to this point.

Spec out of Elemental Overload.  

Always use Assassin's Mark on Bosses, and use it periodically while mapping (slightly more than once every 10 seconds) in order to generate Power Charges reliably. 

Change up your support gems, probably dropping Added Cold Damage, and/or Hypothermia/Cold Penetration in favor of Increased Critical Strikes and Increased Critical Damage.
	Check POB because the damage output is often very close either way, and individual results may vary depending on gear. 
	If you're struggling with Cold-Resistant Monsters in particular, definitely keep using Cold Penetration support. 

Add Ice Golem, dropping Chaos. 
	You should be able to have a little bit of Chaos res from gear at this point. 
	Stone Golem's taunts and regen are absolutely essential 
    Flame Golem's AOE is too good to lose, and the damage bonus is quite effective
	Lightning Golem's Attack/Cast Speed buff is crucial for making the build feel less clunky in these early stages, so even though it has the least effect on POB numbers, it is the one you will actually miss the most. 

It doesn't matter which 3 of your 4 golems have culling strike, as they all "hit", so the socket colors for this setup in the Skills section are just suggestions. 

Use whatever surplus unreserved mana you have on an appropriately leveled Precision or Vitality aura. 
	Alternatively, you can also consider linking Herald of Ice to a support gem like Added Cold Damage or Increased Critical Strikes. 
	This can increase your clear speed substantially if you find that basic Herald of Ice isn't enough.

Gearing Priorities: 
     
     1. Cluster Jewel with Blast-Freeze
				This is one of the biggest upgrades in the entire build, providing significant defense via freeze proliferation and more clear for Herald of Ice explosions. 
				Blast-Freeze can be found on Large Cluster Jewels with Increased Cold Damage and Medium Cluster Jewels with Increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments. 
				Other good notables on the Large Cluster would be Doryani's Lesson, Blanketed Snow, Widespread Destruction, or Prismatic Heart. 
				On the Medium Cluster, try to get Astonishing Affliction as a second notable.
	 2. Mark of Submission
				Automating the application of your curse is a huge boost to clear speed.
				With the changes to curses in Patch 3.20, inflicting a maximum level Frostbite vs. the Level 1 you'd get from a Redeemer Mod makes a huge difference in DPS, especially vs. Bosses
				Plus, don't sleep on the benefit of a maximum Quality Frostbite with it's 20% Increased Freeze Duration. 
                Elemental weakness provides comparable damage while using Herald of Ash, but will be much less effective in terms of Freeze. 
     3. Boots with a Brittle Ground implicit
				Buy some or try to add a Brittle Ground implicit to your boots with Eldritch Embers
                It's relatively easy to apply this to enemies, as the normal way you'll want to do damage while avoiding hits is by running tight circles around beefy foes. 
     4. Corrupt Hrimsorrows
				Try to find a pair with Spell Critical Strike Chance, Maximum Life, or +Gem Levels. 
				Avoid Curse-on-Hit until much higher budget levels, the level one curse won't be worthwhile compared to a curse from a Mark of Submission.  
	 5. Jewels with Increased Freeze Duration
				These jewels are (historically) criminally underrated by the overall market, making them very easy to target as cheap upgrades while rounding out attributes/resistances/mana reserves. 
	 6. Cluster Jewel with Heraldry
				These can be hard to find in the first day or two of the league, but eventually become common. 
				Don't worry about a second notable if it's much more expensive. 
				Purposeful Harbinger is the only one that provides significant benefits, and the Heraldry/PH combo tends to be extremely rare/expensive. 
				This synergizes extremely well with either Mastermind of Discord or the Elemental Mastery that guarantees at least 18% Exposure, but those effects do not stack. 

When you do the Uber Lab, get either Bastion of Elements or Shaper of Storms, whichever you didn't choose last time. 

Carcass Jack is just a suggestion, but is certainly a very strong item for the build if you're focused primarily on DPS over survivability.  

If you get a 6-link, add Inspiration Support, but only if you're high enough level to use Gem Level 18+, as the mana cap for resetting the charges will be too low to reliably have 5 charges at lower levels. 
	If you're too low level, add whichever of these four (Hypothermia, Critical Strike Damage, Cold Penetration, Added Cold Damage) you're not using. 

This build should be strong enough to kill End Game Bosses and farm Alch+Go T16 Maps, even without the 6-link. 

WARNING: If this is your first time playing the build, you may find that after absolutely cruising through all content up to this point, doing juiced high tier maps can sometimes feel a little difficult by comparison. 

The key to making the build feel good at this stage is to avoid certain map mods that make it more difficult (or even impossible) to freeze enemies, as we are relying on freeze as our primary defensive layer until we can accumulate some currency and tank up in a more traditional fashion. 

I use the following criteria/system when deciding if a scouring orb is needed:

1. Monsters Action Speed Cannot be Reduced Below Base Value
2. Monsters Take Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes, Monsters Gain Elemental Resistance, and Monsters Have More Life
3. Monsters Have a Chance to Suppress Spell Damage and Monsters Have a Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments
4. Reduced Curse/Aura Effect, Cannot Inflict Exposure, Hexproof

Always reroll #1, as it is basically as bad as reflect for a build that can't handle reflect
One mod from #2 in isolation is ok, but a combo is much more deadly since they can be multiplicative to a monster's EHP
#3 are not the worst, but are dangerous when combined with one or two others on the list
I count two mods from #4 to be the same as one from #2

Also be wary if you have Increased Effect of Map Explicit Modifiers from Atlas Passives or if you are running a Memory series, as this can turn difficult mods into impossible ones.
	For example, with enough increased effect, 70% chance to Avoid Ailments becomes full on 100% Ailment Immunity.


-------- TANKING UP (10-15 Div Budget) --------

Once you have about 10-15 Divines to invest in the build, you're ready to tank up.

Move Hatred to a Guardian Blessing setup on your Lightning Golem. 
    Only activate this sparingly on tough enemies
    Lightning Golem is the choice to sacrifice, because it's mostly effective for overall clear/movement speed as opposed to damage or defense. 

Next, get enough Mana Reservation Efficiency to enable Grace/Vitality/Flesh and Stone 

Buy an Amulet you won't mind keeping for a while, and annoint Charisma on it. (Gold+Gold+Opalescent)

Buy a Helm you won't mind keeping for a while, and craft a Grand or Exceptional Mana Reservation Efficiency Eldritch implicit on it. (or buy one pre-made)
	Consider using the Orb of Conflict method to save currency if the price is right (see the video pinned in the discord's Crafting Discussion channel for details).

If you need a little bit more, there are several options:
1. Get a jewel with an MRE explicit. 
2. Get a small cluster jewel with MRE implicit. 
2. Increase your base mana (ideally with ring prefixes, since its hard to make good use of these at lower budget levels) 
3. Spec into the Herald Reservation Efficiency nodes on the tree
4. Buy/craft a Helm or Body Armour with an Essence of Loathing mod

Add a Jade Flask in place of your Diamond Flask

Remove points from the left side of the tree, and put them in a Physical Damage Large Cluster Jewel with Iron-Breaker, Battle-Hardened, and ideally Force Multiplier. 
        Alternatively, clusters with Iron-Breaker, Battlehardened, and Master the Fundamentals will also have the same Notable arrangement. Don't allocate Master the Fundamentals though. 

For Spell Suppression:

First, prioritize freeing up some more points on the passive tree to enable taking the Instinct Notable Cluster.

If it's affordable, grab Awakened Unleash Level 5 so you no longer need Caster Mastery.  
	Prior to patch 3.20, this was a 1 Ex/1 Div gem, but it was almost 10 times more expensive than that during the early parts of Sanctum League, then only 5 times more expensive than that in Crucible, and has varied wildly between 2 Div and 10 Div in every league since then. 
	The most I would recommend spending on it at this stage of the build is 3-4 Div, 
	Anything more expensive and the currency can probably be better spent on other sources of eHP or DPS and your passive points can be reallocated accordingly. 
	Drop pure damage nodes like Discord Artisan, or some of the Life nodes near the center of the Tree

Once you have the points, Spec into the Instinct Notable cluster, and get the Mastery that makes your suppression chance "Lucky." 
	While Lucky won't get you to 100%, it will turn 90% into 99%, and the difference between 99% and 100% is only really a factor for hardcore players. 
	Losing a portal 1/100 times you get hit with spell damage that's between 100% and 200% of your max HP should be tolerable.
	I recommend going as low as even 96% effective suppression chance, which means needing just 80% total before the Lucky Mastery. 

For your gear, look for Armour/Evasion bases that have high Spell Suppression. 
	Spell suppression can only roll on bases with evasion, and you'll want as much base armour as possible as well to get more from your Chaos Golem. 
	Hybrid bases also will have significantly lower/more balanced requirements, which is an important consideration with the new base types added in patch 3.25 

If you can get max-rolled T1 Suppression on your Gloves, Helmet, Body Armour, and Boots, you can get up to 64% Spell Suppression from those pieces. 

With perfectly rolled T1 mods, and the Instinct Cluster, you will be at 86% total, or 98% when accounting for the Lucky Mastery. 
	You can make up any deficit from imperfect or lower tier rolls with a crafted mod on your shield that can add up to 10% suppression chance.

With perfect rolls and the shield craft, it's possible to get just under 97% suppression chance while skipping over the gloves, boots, or helmet. 
	I'd recommend skipping gloves, as you will need to buy/craft a pair that has the Eater of Worlds Physical to Cold Conversion implicit AND a crafted/unveiled Physical to Cold Conversion mod on them, 
	You will also need to Spec into the 40% Physical to Cold Conversion Mastery, in order to make up for the loss of conversion from Hrimsorrow. 
	Corrupt Hrimsorrows can also be quite strong overall.

I recommend aiming for 90% Physical to Cold Conversion at first (25% Exceptional Tier Eldritch Implicit + 25% Crafted Mod + 40% Mastery), since the cost of going for the 35% Exquisite Tier Eldritch Implicit or crafting gloves with the 35% Veiled Mod and Spell Suppression is significantly higher
	The main benefit of 100% conversion isn't the superior damage, but rather the ability to do Physical Reflect content, which is something of a luxury.

The best Eldritch Implicits to target are:
Exarch Helm - Physical Damage to Spells, Frostbite Effect, Damage Per Power Charge (Individual Results May Vary, Consult POB)
Eater Helm - Mana Reservation Efficiency 
Exarch Chest - Increased Aura Effect
Eater Chest - Increased Hatred/Grace Effect
Exarch Gloves - Chance to Unnerve Enemy on Hit
Eater Gloves - Phys to Cold Conversion
Exarch Boots - Brittle Ground
Eater Boots - Phys as Extra Cold, Life Regeneration Rate

For Tattoos, replace as many Intelligence Nodes as you can afford to lose until you have as little unreserved mana as feels comfortable, probably around 60-70. 
	Try to target a Sceptre as your weapon, since it will have a much lower Intelligence Requirement than a wand. 
	Start with the top right section of the Tree, since those nodes will be present in almost all future possible loadouts
	For DPS, get Arohongui Shaman: Increased Effect of Herald Buffs on You
	For Tankiness, get Rongokurai Turtle: You Take Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes 

In this state, the build should be able to easily farm Juicy T16s, Logbooks, Blueprints, or pretty muchanything else besides 100% Delirious Maps, T17s, and the Uber Pinnacles. 


-------- WHAT DO NOW? -------

In older versions of the guide, this section would be about how to get ready to swap to an Occultist, but I don't think that's really viable anymore for several reasons:
         1. Profane Bloom doesn't scale nearly as well as Physical Explosions from Crusader Chests. 
         2. We gain a considerable amount of Fire damage from Herald of Ash, especially now that we have tattoos in the core game
                   a. The Occultist does nothing to help this damage other than Forbidden Power's generic damage bonus. 
                   b. The Elementalist can add even more Herald Buff Effect, scales this Fire damage with Mastermind of Discord, and also has more possible generic damage bonuses from Shock, Convergence, and/or Golems
         3. Nothing the Occultist provides defensively compares to Bastion of Elements unless you're fully investing into Energy Shield (probably not even then), and it also enables us to do Ele-Reflect maps. 
         4. Considering that Forbidden Power is so vastly superior to the rest of the Occultist nodes, it's much better to be an Elementalist with a Forbidden Flesh/Flame that gives Forbidden Power, than an Occultist who can only steal one Elementalist node.

This is also the point where I'd guess that gearing up Mercs in 3.26 is going to start becoming a high priority, and it's too soon to try to say anything definitive about that. 

So... while a power charge stacking based loadout will still be the end goal of the build, the viability of doing so depends a lot on unpredictable parts of economy due to the uniques/gems/clusters that are required. 

I believe the 10-15 Div Budget loadout will be easily strong enough to farm quickly for whatever high-investment direction makes the most sense for you, whether that's a headhunter, power charges, Merc gear, or whatever else.

I'm going to cut the POB progression here for this guide, but also leave info about possible chase/interim targets below. I'll have more POBs to share as the league progresses. 


Power Charge Stacking Necessities:
   Gear -
      1. Forbidden Power from Forbidden Flesh/Flame
      2. 1-2x Medium Cluster Jewels with Vast Power and Towering Threat Notables
      3. Militant Faith Timeless Jewel with High Templar Dominus 
			Look for Aura Effect and Area/Elemental Damage per Devotion mods, and then use POB to check if it will ruin an important notable on the tree
			You can also use the tool provided by POB to find numbers that will work: just fill out your tree, check "Filter Nodes," then select "Total Devotion" in the "Search for Node" dropdown to find jewels that don't replace notables. 
			Elemental Resistance per Devotion is also a solid option. 
      4. Shield with +1 Maximum Power Charge Synthesis Implicit
    Passives - 
       1. Level 95
       2. Awakened Unleash Support Level 5 (replacing +1 unleash seal mastery)

Other Uniques to Target (in no partcular order, prices will vary):
     1. Circle of Ambition
			Best explicit is Herald of Purity Buff Effect
                  Ice/Ash Buff Effect and Phys/Fire/Cold Increase are often comparable, consult POB
                  There will be breakpoints with Buff Effect that depend on how much you have from other sources, so always check POB before splurging on a slightly higher % ring that may be doing literally nothing for you. 
          
             Best implicit is +1 Maximum Power Charges, then Spell Damage per Power Charge or Crit Multi
                  Other damage implicits are often close to comparable, consult POB

     2. Bottled Faith
			  Good not great, with maximum Shocks and Bonechill in play already, the Increased Damage Taken has already hit pretty substantial diminishing returns.
 
     3. Replica Dragonfang's Flight/Ashes of the Stars
	           Ashes is better for tankiness since it affects Defensive Auras and Golem Buff Effect as well, but RDF is almost definitely going to be more DPS due to the gem levels.

	 4. Watcher's Eye
			Best mods for pure DPS are: 
                 1. Hatred Cold Pen
                 2. Zealotry Crit Pen
                 3. Zealotry Increased Damage taken on Consecrated Ground
                 4. Hatred Crit Chance (if not capped)
            Note: Hatred Crit Chance gives base crit to all of your damage output, which enables explody chests and herald of ice to crit, despite those all having 0% base critical strike chance by default. 
                     If you care at all about exploding screens in juicy maps, this is basically a necessity. 
            
            Other mods like increased/added cold damage are usually significantly worse, but it may depend on the rest of your gear.  
            
            For defensive options, the best Grace mod is +Chance to Evade, since this is an additive bonus that applies after Evasion from other sources is calculated (similar to how Additional Physical Damage Reduction works with Armour) 
	        Spell suppression can be very useful as well, potentially freeing up another gear slot. 
	        
            Of course, Movement Speed is always good too. 

       5. Impossible Escape Jewel with Necromantic Aegis or Magebane
               Gets you access to almost all of the Skill Duration bonus you need to maintain the ideal Skill Duration :: Seal Generation Ratio without wasting travel points
	           For the last bit needed, consider a Corrupt Belt Implicit

        6. Corrupt Hrimsorrows 
               Spell critical strike chance
               +Level of Socketed Gems (for enlighten setup)
               Elemental Weakness on hit (situational, will always be worse than a curse from Mark of Submission so only good to make room for GG rings) 

        7. Corrupt Heatshiver
               +1 Maximum Power Charges
               90% Cost and Reservation Multiplier
               See "Overall Keys to the Build #12" for more info

The ideal final shape of the tree includes the mana reservation nodes on the far left (Sovereignty Notable), and these nodes plus Enlighten Supports, plus another small cluster with mana reservation, should enable adding Zealotry Aura. 
	The level of Enlighten Support you need will depend on the tier of your Helm Implicit. You can also look for a mana reservation cluster with increased effect if you're just a bit short. 

The final tree also adds another Physical Damage Large Cluster, to take advantage of the strong notables: Force Multiplier, Battle-Hardened, and Iron Breaker, and to create room for more Medium/Small Clusters.

The best way to improve your movement speed (besides a Mageblood, of course) is to get Onslaught/Tailwind/Elusive boots, but this almost certainly means sacrificing Spell Suppression. 
	You can get Suppression back from the passives near Magebane if you have that version of the Impossible Escape.  
	O/T/E boots also definitely means sacrificing Brittle Ground, which means you will need a Hatred Crit Chance Watcher's Eye and likely a Diamond Flask to compensate. 
    A Shaper or Hunter Chest with +Spell Critical Strike Chance can be good as well. 


-------- THE END GAME --------

To improve the build beyond this point, I recommend choosing to either...

Go something like the extremely tanky route that I laid out in my Blade Vortex vs. Uber Pinnacles Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWd7PsxAkEw 
                                     OR 
Ditch Spell Suppression and pump DPS. It's definitely possible to get high enough DPS to essentially trivialize the Uber Pinnacles, even to the point where you can skip the generally skippable immunity phases.
                                     OR
Ditch Spell Suppression and pump up your explosions. Focus on increased "generic" AOE and "generic" damage (as opposed to spell AOE/damage). 

In my opinion, with the overall nerfs to defenses in 3.19 and 3.21, something closer to a Glass Cannon is looking more and more attractive as a top-end loadout than in previous patches.

I'll post more POBs with various end-game loadouts in the discord, as this guide is supposed to be as a well-rounded jumping off point for further specialization/investment, and already has enought loadouts as it is. 


-------------------------------------------------------
-------------- PLAYSTYLE TIPS -----------------
-------------------------------------------------------

1. BV's greatest strength as a skill is its ability to output damage while you are moving, so it can have the survivability/mobility of a DOT build, despite being hit-based. 
		With that in mind, only stop moving when you need to actually cast in order to maintain the 10 blade rhythm
		This is true whether you are mapping, bossing or whatever else. 
		Moving targets are 1000x harder for POE monsters to kill, so make yourself into one as often as possible. 

2. Flame Dash/Frostblink is an engagement tool first, and an escape tool second. 
		To do damage with BV, you have to get relatively close to your target. 
		The worst and most dangerous place to be is near an aggroed monster, but not near enough for your blades to actually be hitting it.
		The safest place is of course outside of a monster's Aggro range, but the SECOND safest place is right up in the monster's face (especially when using Freeze as a layer of defense). 
		This means you must prioritize your travel skills as a way to close the gap on Aggroed monsters. Get on top of them ASAP and let the knife do the work. 



--------------------------------------------------------
---------- RANDOM GEARING TIPS ------------
--------------------------------------------------------


1. Dexterity and Strength deficits will be your biggest obstacle while leveling your BV, so always be on the lookout for Str/Dex gear, particularly from Jewels/Jewelry

2. The only NECESSARY uniques for the build are the Hrimsorrow Gloves (until you can afford rare gloves with an eldritch implicit), and the Militant Faith Timeless Jewel for the Occultist. 
Other uniques in this POB are just suggestions, and can always be replaced by rare items. 


-------------------------------------------------------------
----------- POB CONFIGURATION TIPS  ------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

POBs new Loadout Manager (Top Right) should handle most of these issues, but just in case:

1. Make sure to check "Enemy is Shocked"  if you want to calculate the potential value of the Shaper of Storms ascendency, or it won't display the proper bonus.  
    Don't worry about leaving this config checked even if you're not applying shocks, since it won't boost your damage unless you actually have a source of shock that applies above the minimum threshold. 

2. Uncheck "Enemy is Unnerved" if you don't have the Eldritch Implicit on your gloves yet. 

3. Uncheck "Do you use Power Charges?" if you are looking at the pre-crit stages of the build or don't want to be bothered using Assassin's Mark while clearing maps as an Elementalist. 

4. Check "Is Enemy on Consecrated Ground?" if you get a Bottled Faith 

5. Check "Is Enemy Exposed to Cold?" if your only source of exposure is Awakened Cold Penetration or another conditional proc. It will be applied automatically if you have Frost Bomb or Heraldry+Herald of Ice. 

6. "Enemy is Chilled" should automatically be checked and stay that way, just in case. The chill effect is set to 30 to override the calculation being based on the chill from Vortex, which will almost always be overridden by your BV. 

7.  Uncheck "Is Enemy on Brittle Ground?" if you don't have that Eldritch implicit yet.

8. You can play around with the "Seconds of Freeze on Enemy" configuration to see what your ailment threshold will be BEFORE you inflict the first freeze.