[3.12] PoE Heist Assassin Blade Blast Shadow Starter Build (PC,PS4,Xbox,Mobile)

This PoE 3.12 Heist Assassin Starter Blade Blast Build have enough damage to decimate end game bosses and clear maps extremely quickly. In addition, high HP and multiple defense mechanisms make us can tank facing many challenges. What's more, it is very friendly to starter.

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Pros & Cons

Core Mechanics

Offense

Bladefall leaves a number of lingering blades in the ground. Blade Blast detonates these blades dealing lots of damage. We support Bladefall with Unleash + Spell Cascade to generate a large number of blades (up to 40 with a single cast). Bladefall is not used for damage at all. Then scale Blade Blast's AoE so that it overlaps as much as possible. We scale large amounts of crit and cast speed to supplement this large base damage and smooth out the mapping experience.

Defense

We have lots of damage avoidance from Elusive, Blind and Acrobatics + Phase Acrobatics. Additionally, Divine Flesh gives us an enormous amount of elemental and chaos damage reduction. We can also run Forbidden Taste so our life recovery is instant. We are vulnerable to physical damage, so the Endurance Charge annoint helps us a bit there. 

Skill Tree

Ascendancy: Mistwalker -> Unstable Infusion -> Deadly Infusion -> Opportunistic

Bandit: Kill All

Passive Tree & PoB

Path of Building Link: 

~40 ex: https://pastebin.com/bwhvyL6g

100c mega-budget: https://pastebin.com/2Ky4KfGD

Gems Setup

Blade Blast

Blade Blast - Energy Leech - Awakened Brutality - Awakened Controlled Destruction - Empower - Awakened Increased Area of Effect

You can use Intensify instead of Awakened Increased Area of Effect

Support Gem priority order: Energy Leech > Intensify/Awakened Inc. AoE > Brutality > Controlled Destruction > Empower

Bladefall

Bladefall - Unleash - Spell Cascade - Concentrated Effect

Unleash and Spell Cascade are mandatory. If you are having mana issues, use Blood Magic as your 4th link. Otherwise use Concentrated Effect. Keep Spell Cascade at a low level, we want our Bladefall as concentrated as possible.

Auras

Flesh and Stone, Herald of Purity, Pride

CWDT

Immortal Call - Cast when Damage Taken - Increased Duration

Misc

Vaal Grace, Blood Magic - Fortify - Shield Charge - Faster Attacks, Flame Dash

Gear Setup

There are no required uniques used in this build. If you're going Divine Flesh, look to get Chaos Resistance on your gear. Harvest makes this very easy as many pieces of gear can deterministically hit chaos res with Chaos Aug crafts. Use poedb.tw to see what mods you can roll. You do not need to have gear that is exactly like mine. These are just guidelines to follow.

This gear is not fully min-maxed. This is merely a jumping off point. Use PoB and poedb.tw to see what mods you can squeeze in to further min-max your character.

Weapon

Look for a wand with some combination of:

• Cast Speed
• +1 to level of Physical Spell Gems/All Spell Gems
• Spell Damage
• Crit Multi
• Crit Chance for Spells

You can choose to go a staff instead, but I don't think its worth. You will gain more damage, but lose a lot of mobility and defense when dropping the shield. If you choose to go staff, look for similar mods as above as well as influced mods such as Socketed Skills Deal 20% more Spell Damage or are supported by Power Charge on Crit.

Offhand

You can choose to dual wield wands, but I strongly recommend a shield. Refer to the Crafting section below for a guide on how to easily craft your own. Look for a shield with some combination of:

• +1 to level of Physical Spell Gems
• Spell Damage
• Critical Strike Chance to Spells
• Cast Speed
• Life
• Maximum Chaos Res/Maximum All Res if going Divine Flesh

Helmet

Crown of the Inward Eye is a good budget option. A Redeemer helm with +1 to number of Unleash Seals is for Bladefall. Refer to the Crafting section below for a guide on how to easily craft your own. Otherwise look for:

• Life
• Res/Chaos Res
• Physical Damage Taken as X Elemental Damage

There aren't any helm enchants that are amazing for us. The best helm enchant are any 15%/30% reduced mana reserved for our Auras. This, combine with an Enlighten 4 can allow you to run a War Banner for a small damage increase. Otherwise Blade Blast AoE is good, and Blade Blast damage is a bit worse than AoE.

Body Armour

A Crusader Chest with Enemies Explode when Killed is ideal for clear speed, but not necessary at all - clear is still very good without it. Getting the Frenzy Charge Redeemer mod is nice for extra DPS as well. If you're having trouble with sustaining Mana/ES via Eldritch Battery, craft gain % of Life as Extra ES.

Budget Unique Options:

• Loreweave (doesn't work well with Divine Flesh)
• Tabula
• Sporeguard
  

or a rare with:

• Life
• Res/Chaos Res
• Spell crit
• Craft Spell Dodge

Gloves

Gloves with "Socketed Gems are Supported by Faster Casting" are very nice, saving us a link in our Bladefall. Look for:

• Life
• Res/Chaos Res
• Craft Damage while Leeching

Boots

Tailwind boots are very nice, but not needed. Otherwise look for:

• Life
• Movement Speed
• Spell Dodge
• Res/Chaos res

Amulet

The Elder/Hunter mod % of Physical Damage leeched as life (note that % of Physical ATTACK damage will NOT work) is the most important mod here. It's not mandatory, but its the easiest way for us to gain leech. Otherwise look for:

• +1 to level of Dexterity/Physical Skill Gems
• Crit Multi
• Life
• Res/Chaos res
• Strength

Rings

A ring with Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on hit is ideal here. You can choose to get physical damage leech here from the Delve modifier instead of getting it on an amulet. Otherwise look for:

• Life
• Res/Chaos res
• Strength
• Cast speed
• Spell Damage
• Life gained for each enemy hit by your spells
• Craft minimum endurance charges

Belt

A Stygian Vise is ideal, but Soul Tether is a good budget option if you want access to overleech. Otherwise look for:

• Life
• Res/Chaos res

Flasks

You'll need to make sure you can get Heat, Warding and Staunching covered on your suffixes.

• If you're using Divine Flesh, use Forbidden Taste, otherwise a Seething Divine Life Flask of Staunching
• Quicksilver
• Quartz Flask
• Diamond Flask
• Sulphur Flask/Bottled Faith if you're rich

Jewels

You'll need a Glorious Vanity with the modifier "Bathed in the blood of (100-8000) sacrificed in the name of Xibaqua" if you want to run Divine Flesh. For rare jewels look for:

• Life
• Spell Damage
• Spell Damage while holding a shield
• Physical Damage
• Area Damage
• Cast Speed
• Cast Speed while Holding a Shield
• Crit Multi
• Crit Multi with spells

Leveling

Level with Orb of Storms/Stormblast Mine until 16. Grab a Blade Blast at 16. We won't be using it quite yet, but you'll want to be levelling it up in preparation for the swap later on. Use Wave of Conviction/Orb of Storms with a Herald of Thunder until 28.

At 28 you can begin using Bladeblast + Bladefall through the entire levelling process into endgame. Here is a rough guide on what supports to use while you level from 28 onwards:

For Blade Blast, start with, in order of importance, Onslaught, Controlled Destruction, Added Fire Damage, Faster Casting, Increased Critical Strike Chance, Increased Critical Strike Damage. As you progress through the campaign, swap in Brutality, Increased Area of Effect, Energy Leech (once you swap to EB) as you unlock them.

For Bladefall, start with, in order of importance, Spell Cascade, Faster Casting, Concentrated Effect. The only change you'll need to make to these links is at 38 when you'll want to put Unleash in. Unleash is a massive DPS increase, do not skip out on it.

For auras, I recommend running Herald of Ash and Flesh and Stone. Once you swap in Brutality in your Blade Blast, drop the Herald of Ash for Herald of Purity.

Once you complete the campaign, refer to the above Gem Links section for the endgame gem setup.