To be honest, I didn’t know the specific build I wanted to make before making a new build. But I knew for sure the new build had to have the new OP gloves - Tanu Ahi, Vengeant Cascade, the best damage aura in the game - Hatred and Heatshiver, which to my surprise the developers didn’t change in POE 3.21.
In addition, I decided it was time to try out the new league mechanic because I was totally ignoring it. But my new build should definitely have some weapons with very strong passive skills. I ended up realizing that my next build would be Spectral Shield Throw Deadeye with cold damage conversion.
Leveling
First, I want to talk about the most interesting and exciting part of Path of Exile, which is leveling.
I started with Caustic Arrow and was very surprised that at the very beginning, instead of useful Pierce Support, they gave us useless Momentum Support. However, it is not the most critical changes.
At level 12, it was time to choose a skill, which I will use until the end of the campaign. Originally, I wanted to try to nerf Poisonous Concoction because I was curious to see how much worse it got. But then, I remembered another skill that I’ve wanted to try for a long time and that is Rain of Arrows. Even though it’s not the beginning of the league anymore and I have access to twin gear (Wanderlust Wool Shoes & Goldrim Leather Cap) I decided not to use it and went through the ax as if it was a league start.
This was my first time playing this skill, and it pleasantly surprised me it has very good damage and I didn’t have any problems at all. So, I got through the campaign very quickly and comfortably.
In addition to Rain of Arrows, I used Artillery Ballista for single target damage. So, if you decide to make this build, I recommend you use exactly the combination of these two skills for a smooth leveling experience.
Items
After a few hours, the final boss is defeated and we can finally play the real Path of Exile game. But before we start testing this character on the maps, we need to go to the shop and buy some important equipment by using POE Currency. To get started, we need the following items:
Heatshiver is a unique helmet that actually doubles our damage.
Tanu Ahi is a new pair of gloves that will give us Onslaught and Adrenaline. To be honest, I’m not too sure about them, but I decided to try and see for myself if they’re worth adding to my build.
Emperor’s Vigilance is the best shield for Spectral Shield Throw, especially in POE 3.21 where they added weapon passives for it. I’m buying it without the open passive tree because like I said at the beginning of this article, it’s time to play league mechanic. Maybe I’ll get lucky and have something interesting in my shield.
The Princess is the best budget weapon for us.
Seething Fury is the must have unique jewel that gives us a lot of damage and of course 6-Link body armor.
Next is Vengeant Cascade, which is the best damage aura in the game.
Everything else is rare items with life and resistances. Like I said before in the beginning, I decided to make a budget version of the build and spent a little more than one Divine Orb to test it and see what direction I should go from here at the same time to show you how the basic version works because not everyone is able to buy endgame gear right away.
The Problem I Met
However, there is one problem here, and that is cold damage conversion. Since I’m using Tanu Ahi gloves, we cannot use Hrimsorrow Goathide Gloves for full damage conversion, so I had to buy a relatively expensive Watcher’s Eye, which in combination with Cold Mastery gives us 79% damage conversion.
I know it looks a bit scuffed, but it’s good for starters because the main goal of my article is not to show the final build which is worth dozen Divine Orbs but to show the progress so that you understand what to expect at each of the stages. Of course, you can always use Hrimsorrow instead of Tanu Ahi to avoid unnecessary expenses and problems.
The last purchase I decided to make was Taste of Hate. This is the perfect flask for us because it gives us damage and defense. So, I highly recommend buying it as soon as possible. Now, the character is definitely ready.
Test Results Of The Build
The process of map clearing is very fast and efficient and even with not very expensive equipment at level 70, we easily cope with T16 maps. And personally, I am very pleased with these results as for Tanu Ahi. Although we don’t have 100 uptime for Onslaught and Adrenaline, they significantly increase our speed and damage. But maybe in the endgame version, we’ll have to give them up afterwards.
The Vengeant Cascade is really broken. In combination with Fork Support and Sniper’s Mark, we get a lot of extra projectiles, which then come back and do damage again. This will go especially well with Far Shot when we complete our Uber Lab. But unfortunately, not everything is as smooth as I would like it to be because our single target damage is very mediocre.
I tested Sniper’s Mark with Vengeant Cascade. For maximum damage, you need to stand on top of the boss. Then, all extra projectiles will hit the boss. This may not be the most convenient gameplay, but it really allows you to increase your DPS.
Also, in some cases, I noticed that the damage is different under the same conditions: maybe not all projectiles that come back do damage or maybe you need good positioning. I also plan to test Assassin’s Mark. Maybe it will be better than Sniper’s Mark due to the fact that there will be no complicated interaction between Split, Fork, Pierce and Chain.
Still, we should keep in mind that this is the basic version of the build and we have many ways to improve our single target damage and make it much bigger. That’s why I think we won’t have any problems with the bosses.
Personally, I am quite happy with the first results, build easily copes with almost any map and does it very quickly. And if you are looking for a fast map clearing character, you probably should try Spectral Shield Throw Deadeye. We certainly have some problems, but they are very easy to solve.
