"Everyone knows how to die. Some just need a little nudge to get them started."

The Trickster is a versatile hybrid class that mixes high speed, maneuverability, and slippery defenses. It is well-suited for Shadows that deal damage over time.

The build is based on the Oni-Goroshi sword. When we ignite an enemy, we get Her Embrace what is a buff which makes us immune to stun, burning ground, freeze, chill, we additionally get 123% of physical sword damage as extra fire damage and a "second" Onslaught effect. The downside of this sword is a strong DoT while Her Embrace which can be reduced by fire resistances, etc

 

Mechanics

Offense

The damage is mainly scaled with physical, crit and then converted to elemental damage. The Oni-Goroshi gives so much damage on its own that we can focus on a high life pool and decent defense. 

Defence

The first line of defense is the cold damage which freezes most enemies before the even can hit us. After that we have a powerful evasion / dogde damage avoidance layer. This layer normally always prefents that we get hit more than once in short time. And our last line of defense is strong damage mitgation with Arctic Armour (13% physical and fire damage reduction) and pantheons Solaris (6% physical damage reduction if only 1 enemey is nearby, 8% elemental damage reduction,...) & Tukohama (up to 8% physical damage reduction).

 

Pros & Cons

  • + Very fast clear- & farmspeed
  • + Fun playstyle
  • + Safe mapping (freezing almost everything)
  • + High dps
  • + Easy Leveling with Oni-Goroshi
  • + Oni-Goroshi makes immune to nearly everything
  • + A speaking sword is kinda cool :)
  • + Can facetank most endgame content.
  • - The DoT effect of Oni-Goroshi can be annoying

 

Skill Tree 

Ascendancy 

Swift Killer -> Patient Reaper -> Weave the Arcane -> Harness the Void

Bandits: 

Help Alira

Pantheon:

  •  Soul of Solaris
  •  Soul of Tokuhama

Passive Tree

 

Skill Links

Frost Blades:

Frost Blades+Ancestral Call+Multistrike+Elemental Damage with Attacks+Increased Critical Strikes+Faster Projectiles

Molten Strike: 

Molten Strike+Elemental damage with Attacks+Multistrike+Concentrated Effect+Faster Attacks+Increased Critical Damage

Blade Flurry: (optional instead of Molten Strike)

Blade Flurry+Elemental Damage with Attacks+Concentrated Effect+Melee Physical Damage+Physical to Lightning+Hypothermia

Whirling Blades:

Whirling Blades+Faster Attacks+Fortify+Ancestral Protector

Cast When Damage Taken:

Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 2)+Immortal Call (lvl 4)+Warlord's Mark (lvl 6)+Frost BomB (lvl 11) (You also can use Enfeeble for more survivability)

Alternativly high CWDT:

Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 20)+Immortal Call (lvl 20)+Summon Lightning Golem / Summon Ice Golem (lvl 20)

Mana Reservation & Utility:
Summon Lightning Golem / Summon Ice Golem (Depending on which helm enchantment, accoriding to PoB Ice golem gives a bit more dps)

Hatred

Herald of Ice

Herald of Purity: (instead of HoI)

Arctic Armour (optional) With The Perfect Form)

Purity of Fire: (optional) Helps to deal with Her Embrace DOT

 
 

Gear

Weapon: Oni-Goroshi

The build is based on this weapon and it is just a really good and cheap weapon (~80chaos). Can also be farmed with a bit time investment. A high crit chance on the weapon will boost your dps quit a bit.

Body armour: The Perfect Form, Kaom's Heart or Belly of the beast

BiS for this slot is The Perfect Form. The advantages of the TPF are no weapon swaps required, free arctic armour and strong defense. When you take Kaom's Heart your will need two Oni-Goroshi swords for both main damage setups (Frost Blades & Molten Strike) and swap between them.

Helmet: Starkonja's Head, Abyssus or rare helmet

Gloves: Tombfist, Shaper's Touch or rare gloves

an other option are rare gloves with life, resistances and some damage mods.

Boots: Rare boots

Just look for high life, resistances and movement speed.

Rings: Rare rings

On rings you want to get life, resistances and if possible some additional damage mods. One ring with Poacher's Mark on hit will help you also with your sustain. Especially with MS you really will feel much tankier in bossfights.

Amulett: The Pandemonius, Carnage Heart or Rare Amulet

The Pandemonius and the Carnage Heart are both really good amuletts for this build. An other option would be a rare amulett with life, resistances and damage mods.

Belt: Stygian Vise

High life and resistances.

 

Flasks

  • Life Flask
  • Atziri's Promise
  • Diamond Flask
  • Stibnite Flask
  • Lion's Roar
  • The Overflowing Chalice
  • The Wise Oak
  • Dying Sun

Jewels 

We use two Fight for Survival threshold jewels for great clearspeed with Frost Blades. Watcher's Eye is really good when you can afford it. I use one for Hatred and Purity of Fire atm.

On the rare jewels look for following mods:

  •  life
  •  increases / adds physical damage
  •  crit chance /multipliers
  •  attack speed
  •  resistances / missing stats

 

Leveling Guide

The Oni-Goroshi sword can be used from level 1 to endgame. Eather you buy the sword or farm it yourself. The Oni-Gorosh can drop from Hillock in Twillight Strand act 1 but only when the character reaches lvl 7. Don‘t enter Lioneye‘s Watch before you farmed the sword (or better farm two for both main skills).

Leveling with Oni-Goroshi is preaty easy because this sword is really strong. The hardest thing is to deal with the DoT of Her Embrace, so always cap your resistances and use two healing flask to sustain your life. To proc Her Embrace you need somewhere on your gear „add # fire damage to attacks“.

  • Level 1: use Frost Blades
  • Level 4: use Frost Blades with ancestral call
  • Level 8: link Added Lightning / Cold Damage to the setup
  • Level 10: use Clarity
  • Level 16: use Herald‘s
  • Level 18: add Elemental Damage With Attacks to your MS setup

Try to get the gems for the final setup as soon as possbile... for early leveling you can use 

Frost Blades > Ancestral Call > Added Lightning Damage > Added Cold Damage > Ele Dmg with Attacks > Increased Critical Strikes

Usefull skills for leveling

  • Mana reservation:
  • Herald of Ash / Ice / Thunder
  • Clarity / Purity of Elements or Fire

Utility:
Summon Lightning Golem

Cast When Damage Taken:
Use CWDT setup with skills like Immortal Call, Enfeeble, Tempest Shield, etc.

 

Expectations