[Ultimatum] PoE 3.14 Assassin Storm Brand Endgame Shadow Build

This PoE 3.14 ltimatum Shadow Storm Brand Assassin is one of the strongest builds in the entire game, excelling at virtually every activity the endgame has to offer, it is a fast/potent map clearer, an S tier Boss Killer, it can farm 100% Delirium and it's also pretty good for things such as Delving, Blighted Maps and Inscribed Ultimatums.

Gems Setup

6 Link Setup

Storm Brand - Swiftbrand - Divergent (or default) Inspiration - Power Charge on Critical - Concentrated Effect - Lightning Penetration/Awakened Lightning Penetration (6th Link)

This set up offers us the largest possible DPS output excluding Elemental Focus, however we prefer to shock targets both for the Shock damage bonus AND for Inpulsa functionality. 

Swiftbrand's duration penalty is countered completely from all the brand duration nodes we acquire and Inspiration support helps to alleviate mana costs.

Typically we run this 6 link in our Inpulsa's Broken Heart, however if you are running an Agnerod West early in the league as a budget option, it allows you to skip out on having a 6 Link Inpulsa.

When doing Delirious Maps or Inscribed Ultimatums, you can Swap Gems #1 and #5 for Penance Brand + Phys to Lightning Support

Brand Recall

Brand Recall - Flame Dash - Arcane Surge (Level 1) - Second Wind

This set up allows Second Wind's cooldown recovery to double up on both Flame Dash and Brand Recall whilst the level 1 Arcane Surge gives us access to the Arcane Surge buff every time we Flame Dash.

CWDT

Immortal Call (Level 1) - Cast When Damage Taken (Level 1) - Increased Duration - Portal

Cast on Death portal is the ideal way to run portal but we are starved for links, so this is ideal given the circumstances. Just be careful not to accidentally click the portal you generate.

Auras

Wrath - Flesh & Stone or Discipline - Level 4 Enlighten/Wave of Conviction - Vitality (Lower level)

Run Flesh & Stone until you obtain Asenath's Gentle Touch gloves, then you can swap to Discipline.

You should run Wave of Conviction here until you get a Headhunter/Badge. Making that swap requires freeing room up elsewhere for Blood Rage, this means dropping the 2nd CWDT link in wands and thus frees room up to move WoC there instead.

We run Vitality here to counteract degen and as an alternative to running leech. This is mostly important to have once you have a HH as Blood Rage will constantly degen you and it's important to have some means of counteracting it. You can obtain reduced mana reservation jewels in order to increase the level of your Vitality.

Vaal Buffs

Vaal Haste (Lower Level due to Dex Requirements) - Vaal Righteous Fire - Increased Duration/Assassin's Mark

This grants 6-7 second Vaal Buffs which is useful for nuking down Maven Invitation bosses and T14-16 Map Bosses. Prior to obtaining HH, you may alternatively want to fit Assassin's Mark in here.

CWDT #2 or Blood Rage/WoC: Wands

Budget:

Cast When Damage Taken (Level 1) - Wave of Conviction (Level 1) - Increased Duration

Badge/HH:

Blood Rage (Level 1) - Wave of Conviction (Level 1) - Assassin's Mark

Initially we run a second CWDT set up to apply WoC during ultimatums, it is a massive boost to damage output and thus survivability. We still hardcast WoC vs bosses via the WoC in our helm, but this auto cast is simply an ultimatum tech.

Once Badge/HH have been acquired, we need to free room up for Blood Rage for frenzy charge generation, at this point we dont need the extra CWDT setup, we can drop it to make room for Blood Rage and that also lets us drop the 2nd WoC gem we have in our helm for Enlighten 3/4.

Make sure to have a Portal Gem + Faster Casting in a weapon swap to leave maps faster.

Spellslinger Leveling

4 Link #1:

Spellslinger  - Arc - Wave of Conviction - Power Charge on Critical

4 Link #2:

Spellslinger - Storm Brand 
3. Power Charge on Critical
4. Swiftbrand

4 Link #3:

Frenzy - Blind - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Chain

3 Link #1:

Flame Dash - Arcane Surge - Faster Casting/Second Wind

3 Link #2

Brand Recall (Unlinked) - Assassin's Mark  - Increased Duration

Gear Setup

This will provide an in depth explanation of what items you can seek to acquire in each slot depending on your budget, goals and availability of these items. They will be accompanied with pre-filtered trade site links so that you can purchase these items easier. 

Helmet

Budget: Enchanted Helm with Life/Resists

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/o7wr7Khl

Storm Brand Damage Penetrates #% of Branded Enemy's Lightning Resistance

You can buy these really cheap in the first few days into a league typically. Once you obtain an enchanted helm, you can Scour+Alch/Essence it yourself until it gets good life & resists as it will maintain its enchant. This enchant is very powerful compared to most other BiS skill enchants. Ideally you want a Hubris Circlet base for the highest possible Energy Shield, however this isn't super important.

Midrange: +1 Power Charge Influenced Helm

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/XLX7DWFP

These will usually cost a few exalts but offer much more power than an enchanted helm.

Premium Option 1: +1 Power Charge/Added Lightning Damage to Spells Enchanted Hubris Circlet

Storm Brand Damage Penetrates 12% of Branded Enemy's Lightning Resistance
------------------------------------------------------------------
Adds 5 to 92 Lightning Damage to Spells
+1 to Maximum Power Charges
Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers
+(17-20)% to Fire and Cold Resistances
+(17-20)% to Fire and Lightning Resistances

Tradesite Link: N/A

This particular option carries a lot of power and can be made fairly deterministically. They are weaker in 3.14 however this helm is still great. The best and most cost efficient method to make this item is as follows:

• 1. Obtain a ilvl 75+ Hubris Circlet (or other base) with the 12% Lightning Penetration Storm Brand Enchant.
• 2. Apply a Hunter Exalted Orb to it.
• 3. Scour it and apply Metallic Fossils to it until it rolls the Tier 1 Hunter mod "Adds (2–7) to (88–93) Lightning Damage to Spells". Ensure the item has no other Hunter mods on it. It will take 7 Fossils on average to hit.
• 4. Obtain any Rare +1 Power Charge helmet that has no other Warlord influence mods on it. Item level and base type do not matter.
• 5. Awakener Slam them together, clicking the +1 Power Charge Helm first and the Enchanted Hunter influenced helm second. 
• 6. Craft "Prefixes can't be changed"
• 7. Scour the item
• 8. Craft "Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers"
• 9. Craft either two sets of double resists OR life and double resists depending on whether you have a spare prefix

Amulet

Budget: Ephemeral Bond

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Keye7jyU5

This option will cost 10-20c in the first few days of a league but will very quickly drop to 1c. It is one of the largest raw damage sources in the entire build and has virtually no alternatives. You should apply Turbulent Catalysts to this amulet, however it is acceptable to apply Prismatic Catalysts if you really need the resists (you shouldn't).

Premium: Badge of the Brotherhood

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/YpBymdrhY

This is our BiS for mapping ONCE Headhunter has been obtained and added to the build. Prior to obtaining Headhunter, you should be running Replica Soul Tether, doing so means you can fit a Legion Jewel into your build and that means you can run Militant Faith with Inner Conviction still. Inner Conviction + Ephemeral Bond is stronger than Badge of the Brotherhood. Eventually due to needing to drop Inner Conviction to run Corrupted Soul via Glorious Vanity, Badge becomes better than Ephemeral.

We use Blood Rage to generate Frenzy Charges while mapping, however we still swap back to Ephemeral Bond when bossing. Alt Quality Blood Rage is insufficient for generating Frenzy Charges, we don't get them fast enough IMO especially considering we usually phase bosses before we can hit 10 charges.

If you want to focus on bossing, you should swap HH/Badge/Glorious Vanity for the Replica ST/Ephemeral Bond/Militant Faith combo instead when bossing.

Annoints

Budget: Explosive Runes (Amber + Azure + Azure)

This provides a lot of early usability to your Storm Brand before you can invest in Cluster Jewels. It's obscenely cheap even on day 1 of a league

Midrange: Counterweight (Clear + Amber + Silver)

This annoint is very strong if you're using Agnerod West as a budget weapon. Although you can often just skip this annoint if you don't intend on using an Agnerod for long as it is not much cheaper then the premium choice.

Premium: Infused (Crimson + Silver + Silver)

Our best annoint, it saves us 4 points on the tree and doesn't even cost a Golden Oil making it a no brainer. There aren't many other alternatives to consider.

Weapons

Budget: Agnerod West

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/grwpv7IQ (5 Link)
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/greKwjFQ (6 Link)

This weapon is usually very cheap at the start of the league and should be your first upgrade upon transitioning from the lightning-slinger levelling set up. It adds alot of additional base damage to Storm Brand and grants a whopping 20% lightning penetration. Whilst this weapon is considerably weaker than Void Batteries, its price makes it an easy choice. It is advised to buy it as a 5 or 6 Link item since you will not usually be able to afford a 6 link Inpulsa's Broken Heart early in the league. The only rare items that are stronger than this are usually more expensive than our Void Batteries. One of the major benefits of Agnerod West is that it lets you take the powerful Staff nodes on the tree as shown in the budget PoB.

Premium: Void Batteries

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/XoayDeCP

Usually these wands cost 5ex at the start of the league, however by week 2-3 of a league they are already down to about 30c each. You will want to wait until you can afford two of these. Additionally, dropping your Agnerod West means you will now need to buy a 5 or 6 Linked Inpulsa's Broken Heart. Void Batteries offer an insane amount of power and are worth the price. 

Body Armor

Budget: Inpulsa's Broken Heart

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/wB2Wn9ib (5 Link)
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/3vJXpJF5 (6 Link)

The core of our build. Clear speed increases drastically upon acquiring this item as the AoE explosions carry our AoE damage.

As of 3.14 this is our BiS. If you want a dedicated bossing body armor, consult the God Tier Bossing PoB for an example of what it might look like, however do note that it is not needed at all.

Belt

Budget: Stygian Vise/Heavy Belt with Life/Resists

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/QZXYOwvtw

Not much to say here. These belts are always cheap enough and have room for an abyssal socket so that you can fit some additional stats in. We can use a Heavy Belt here alternatively to make it easier to hit our strength requirement for Agnerod West.

Midrange: Replica Soul Tether

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/903L2ZyTK

These belts won't even appear until 3-4 days into a league due to being only obtainable from Grand Heists, and they will cost 5-7ex, however they give us a ton of EHP via Corrupted Soul and make surviving easier. This is still great even with the corrupted soul nerf.

Premium: Headhunter

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/mKn0PZwH6

One of the best items in the game, this will set you back 80-100ex. This item offers tons of additional clear speed, in addition to making many league mechanics trivial (Legion, Beyond, Delirium, Harbinger, Ultimatum). Inspired Learning helps in case you can't afford one of these but this will be discussed later. This is our BiS.

Gloves

Budget: Sorceror/Fingerless Silk Gloves with Life/Resists

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/ZmnQr7zuQ

Always an extremely cheap option even from day 1 of the league. Gloves are one of the lower impact slots and the premium options aren't a major upgrade in the way that they are for other slots, so its pretty ideal to use gloves to obtain life/resists. It is possible to have a heavily min maxed character that still uses this option. Gloves being our weakest slot makes them perfect for a Life/Res stat stick type item.

Midrange: Ele Weakness on Hit Gloves

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/K86gornF5 (Rare)
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/5EPYMydsa (Hands of the High Templar)

One of the few ways to obtain offensive curses on hit is via glove corruptions. Earlier in the league you can obtain rare gloves with this curse reasonably cheap, however Hands of the High Templar tends to be a better option as it offers baseline Life + Resists and it can also have spell crit and some other things.

Premium: Asenath's Gentle Touch

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/m0OeT6

As of 3.14 these are our new BiS gloves. They provide more consistent explosions in conjunction with Inpulsa and they bring a high life roll in addition to Blind which allows us to sub out Flesh & Stone for Discipline. You NEED to allocate Whispers of Doom (which will cost 4 passive points) in order to continue applying Assassin's Mark.

Rings

Budget: Essence Worm

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/3qEku5

These are our go to option while building the MoM variant of the build that we league start with. Typically we put Flesh & Stone + Wrath into them.

Budget: Two-Stone Ring/Vermillion Ring with life/resists

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/LKGBz9Xun (Two-Stone)
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/5294VeJSa (Vermillion)

On a league start these should be your go to, and it would be worthwhile to buy these for a few chaos orbs as soon as you get to maps. Vermillion Rings will cost usually 5-10c but give a lot of extra life which is useful to have when you are just getting started and can't just blow up entire screens at a time. With Two-Stone Rings, using Prismatic Catalysts are the best option as they buff resists from both the implicit and explicit modifiers. Likewise, Fertile Catalysts suit Vermillion Rings for the same reason, they buff the implicit and explicit life modifiers.

Midrange: Lightning Damage Shaper/Crusader Vermillion Rings

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/m3yzj3BT6

These rings will set us back 10ex approximately but grant a decent amount of power in a post Harvest environment. The steps to obtaining these are as follows:

• 1. Obtain a Vermillion Ring and apply a Crusader Exalted Orb
• 2. Alteration spam into T1 "Adds (1-2) to (9-11) Lightning Damage per Power Charge" at an average of 200 Alteration Orbs OR Metallic Fossil spam at an average of 11 Fossils. However with fossils there is a chance to get multiple influenced mods which we DO NOT want, so keep rolling over it
• 3. Obtain a Shaper Ring of any kind with T1 "Adds (13–16) to (56–60) Lightning Damage to Spells and Attacks"
• 4. Awakener Slam the Shaper Ring onto the Crusader Vermillion Ring Base
• 5. Craft "Prefixes can't be changed"
• 6. Scour the item
• 7. Craft "Can have up to 3 crafted modifiers"
• 8. Craft life and/or resists as you see fit depending on whether there is a free prefix or not

Premium: +1 Maximum Power Charge Synthesised Rings

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/v03BRwMtE

Whilst these are insane in power, they're extremely rare and will be extremely expensive in 3.14 due to the fracture fossil nerfs. Settle for one of the above options instead of you can't afford these. Precursor Rings may be an option too but I expect them to be just as, if not, more expensive.

Ultra Premium: +1 Maximum Power Charge + Ele Weakness on Hit Synthesised Rings

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/853kz6bFV

This may not exist at all throughout 3.14 and if they do, they will probably cost multiple mirrors.

Boots

Budget-Premium: Two Toned Boots with Life/Resists/MS

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/32ad9jJs5

These are very cheap at any stage of a league, boots are by far the least important slot in your entire build so you should do your best to get the highest possible amount of resistances from this slot as you can afford. Anything with at least 15% movement speed will be workable. If we weren't resist and attribute starved, it would be more feasible to prioritise 35% movement speed boots, but we can do without at first.

Midrange: (Replica) Inya's Epiphany

Tradesite Link: N/A

We no longer use these due to them being a luxury we can't afford. The lack of resists elsewhere means it is typically better to just run high life/resist two-toned boots.

Watcher's Eye

Budget: Lighning Damage or Crit Chance with Wrath

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/OKBbBY0tE

You should plug these options into your own PoB to determine which is better for you, the lightning damage option is usually weaker for single target but it affects Inpulsa explosions making it better for AoE. Usually whichever is cheaper in a given league is probably the better way to go. There are instances where you can reach crit cap without even having a Diamond Flask or Bottled Faith and in that case, a Crit Watchers eye may not be right for you.

Midrange: Lightning Penetration with Wrath

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/JK6a7YOUl

Slightly better in most set ups than the budget options, and usually only a few exalts, this is a solid staple option.

Midrange: Lightning Damage/Pen/Crit Chance with Wrath + Leech with Vitality

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/w0X0vMrsb

Going this route is a very cost efficient and power budget efficient way to boost your survivability and damage without expending much. Usually these cost 1-3ex, but offer life leech at the cost of running a low level Vitality. This helps counteract alot of deadly DoT effects which will reduce deaths when mapping and bossing. This used to be a favourite of mine but you have to give up a gem slot somewhere else for it.

Midrange: Two Mod Wrath/Zealotry Watcher's Eye

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/mKRKKPRU6

Two mod options range from 2-20ex usually depending on whether you pursue 2 budget mods, 2 powerful mods or one of each. This helps you cram extra damage into your build but at the expense of needing to fit Zealotry in elsewhere which will require running a Hybrid/Mana Flask (since you have no room for Clarity) and will require a level 4 Enlighten + Possibly even some reduced mana reservation via jewels or passives. I only recommend this option for bossing, as you want to be using Brand Recall on left click so it is passively used whenever its off cooldown when spamming maps (using it as needed requires far more attention/brain power and this will usually result in faster burnout, additionally the playstyle will feel high maintenance as opposed to smooth and low effort)

Keep in mind that fitting Zealotry into the build is difficult on mana costs and also costs us defensive power, only do this if you know what you're doing and are comfortable with what you're giving up, otherwise only look for dual wrath eyes. 

Premium: Double Penetration with Wrath/Zealotry

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/qP6P4JpTg

Like above, I'd only recommend this for bossing, but it offers a hell of alot of additional damage vs bosses. It will usually set you back 20-30ex.

There is the possibility to obtain 3 mod watcher's eyes, but they still require zealotry and often if they don't contain both of these mods, they end up being weaker than the above watcher's eye anyway. Additionally, they are extremely rare, at the time of writing this guide, none exist on the trade site, and even if they did, they would likely cost 60ex+ whilst being weaker than this

As above, only obtain this IF you know what you're doing and are comfortable giving up defense (via loss of Flesh and Stone or Discipline + Vitality)

Flasks

Whilst you can order these flasks in whatever configuration is comfortable for your usual keybinds, I'm going to discuss how I feel you should fill each Flask Slot out given your options.

Slot 1: Quicksilver Flask of Heat

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Zmam0vYSQ

Quite simply, this flask slot will give 40% increased movement speed which simply lets you do content faster and helps to keep on the move which adds a lot of indirect survivability to a build which desperately needs it. The suffix also gives Freeze/Chill removal and immunity which will allow you to fearlessly interact with strongboxes (they will often freeze you when summoning mobs), it makes Delirium content less dangerous, it mitigates chilled ground and phys as extra cold map mods

Slot 2: Cinderswallow Urn or Quartz Flask of Adrenaline (Dodge)

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/yV0V6zjcR (Cinderswallow Urn)
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/oPJPzBwFl (Silver Flask)
Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/K848azqF5 (Quartz Flask)

Cinderswallow Urn provides onslaught in addition to Life/ES/Mana regen AND a suffix that either gives even more movement speed and stun avoidance, more life regen, critical strike chance or reduced mana cost. All these options are pretty good and whilst they will vary in price, the choice is up to you. Crit chance offers the most damage, the movement speed veiled suffix does not stack with the Adrenaline mod, and the only mod you want to avoid is item rarity. Cinderswallow will cost 1-2ex.

Please note that Cinderswallow requires a fire damage to spells jewel (or ring, but we usually can't get it on our ring), this is discussed in the jewel section below.

A quartz flask offers a move defensive option to this slot, granting Phasing + Spell/Attack Dodge. Quartz flasks are a good option until a Cinderswallow can be afforded. I would personally recommend waiting until you acquire a HH to upgrade to a Cinderswallow because the loss of phasing can be fatal if you don't have a lot of damage/tankiness in some situations. Flame Dashing into a pack of mobs will result in death.

Slot 3: Seething/Bubbling Divine Life of Staunching (Instant recovery)

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/Lapznv7Un

This Life flask allows you to chug flasks for instant recovery which can help you survive lots of situations you should otherwise die in. The staunching suffix can be beastcrafted on via Einhar if you're making your own flask and this helps remove bleed effects, a necessity in our build.

Slot 4: Bottled Faith/Diamond Flask (crit luck)

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/mk9R4gwf6

This flask tends to cost around 10 exalts at most stages of a league, however it provides an enormous DPS increase while active. This flask tends to be best when you're on the cusp of being able to kill Conquerors and Maven Invitation Bosses within 15-20 seconds as this will allow the flask to have a near 100% uptime as it drastically reduces boss kill time.

If you can't afford one yet, it is usually best replaced by a Diamond Flask. Diamond Flasks are a massive DPS increase when we have between 40-80% crit, but as we start to go above 85% crit, its benefit starts to diminish, adding a bottled faith in here will put you at the crit cap AND give you a 40% inc damage increase accompanied by enemies taking 10% additional damage (less due to unnerve and brand jewels)

Slot 5: Enduring Eternal/Divine Mana Flask of Warding

(Flask Effect is not removed at Full ManaFlask Effect does not Queue)

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/K84nmV6i5

Due to a number of changes in our new set up, mana is a little more uncomfortable once we switch to Corrupted Soul, this is a great flask while running MoM and even when we swap to CS, this helps us sustain mana a great deal. If you don't feel you need this, you can obtain one of the flasks mentioned below, however, the Warding component of this flask makes it invaluable for avoiding Curse based map mods which are usually extremely dangerous or slow down your clear speed (in the case of Enfeeble/Temp Chains)

Honorable Mentions:

Wise Oak

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/90pJroRTK

This flask requires configuring your resistances so that your lightning resistance is higher than cold/fire resistances when uncapped (the numbers in the bracket, i.e. the raw stat). It offers 10-15% more DPS if your resist penetration/reduction already brings a boss to zero, and much more if it doesn't yet. You should try to obtain these in a max roll.

If you can't configure your resistances to benefit from the penetration here, it is best to remove this and sub it out for a Silver or Quartz Flask depending on which option you didn't take for Slot 2. You can also slot an Atziri's Promise in here.

This flask can be min maxed by perfectly balancing resists however this is difficult, bothersome and often won't make much of a difference since this build tends to get one shot by most of the large sources of elemental damage present in the game anyway.

Atziri's Promise

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/PPKE8QGcL

This gives 10-15% additional elemental damage as chaos, which equates to roughly 10% more DPS. You should try to obtain a max roll on this mod. These typically sell pretty cheap from day 2 of a league and also provide some added leech and chaos resistance which are nice bonuses to have for free. This is a solid alternative to running a Wise Oak before you can afford one, or while your resists do not suit having a Wise Oak.

Timeless Jewels

All timeless jewels will go in the spot shown below for easiest access to a timeless keystone node, this position is located above the shadow starting area:

Budget: Militant Faith (Dominus) with random Devotion bonuses

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/woQ5WjKUb

This jewel provides us access to the 'Inner Conviction' keystone which allows us to gain 3% more spell damage per power charge at the expense of not having frenzy charges (we do not have frenzy charges anyway). Typically this jewel is worth 1 exalt at the start of a league, it becomes cheaper very quickly however. Be wary, you cannot reroll the devotion bonuses on these keystones, only the keystone.

Midrange: Militant Faith (Dominus) with Double Devotion Bonuses

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/LKG5dWGSn

Be aware that the above link only searches for dual bonuses and NOT for a Dominus influenced keystone. The reason for this is that it is usually cheaper during a league start to Divine Orb your jewel into a Dominus jewel rather than find one with the bonuses you want AND Dominus.

The Devotion bonuses available are 4% brand/ele/area damage per 10 Devotion and 2% ele resist per 10 Devotion. An ideal tree only picks up 55 Devotion however, meaning you are only gettting 20% inc damage + 10% all resist or 40% inc damage. Either way, it will not cost much more to obtain a jewel with these bonuses, therefore you should pursue them over the budget option. Additionally, because Corrupted Soul is available via a Replica Soul Tether for bossing, I would personally recommend using this over the Premium Alternative.

Premium: Glorious Vanity (Doryani)

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/eR4Z3dbIL

This jewel gives us access to the Corrupted Soul keystone, similar to a Replica Soul Tether belt, it grants 15% of max life as extra max ES and allows half of the damage we take to pass through ES. This bonus increases our EHP by 15% basically.

This option is ideal once you upgrade from Replica Soul Tether to Headhunter, but only as far as mapping goes.

Jewels

This build typically has access to 5-7 small jewel sockets between our tree and medium cluster jewels.

Budget: Life + Resist + Str/Dex Jewels

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/E4WrRGyC5

The very lowest level of budget. These offer additional life, however the extra affix spots should be spent attaining Strength and Dex as needed for your build. If you're using Steelskin or an Agnerod Staff, your build will require additional strength and running higher dex means you can have a higher level Vaal Haste, although 103 Dex is the minimum required to wear Inpulsa's Broken Heart. These jewels are always very cheap.

Midrange: Life + 1x Crit Multi + 1x Damage Mod Jewels

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/YQlv70kIY

A large DPS upgrade for a jewel slot, these usually cost 10-90c, though its common to find them priced cheaper by mistake.

Premium: Life + Double Crit Multi Jewels

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/JK6WE0Rsl

These offer crazy amounts of increased DPS for a jewel, however they cost 2-4 exalts usually.

Ultra-Premium: Life + Triple Crit Multi Jewels

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/2qlpqG5hk

These jewels should be illegal. They can alone provide a whopping 10% MORE DPS per jewel which is insane considering that on your medium clusters they are literally a one point investment and you have access to several of these slots. They will cost 7-8 exalts each however.

Cinderswallow/Deli Jewel: Added Fire Damage to Spells + Flat Life

Tradesite Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/JZ9vpJasl

These jewels are used to give us fire damage so that we ignite in order to gain the 10% inc damage taken benefit from Cinderswallow Urn. 

League Start Progression PoB

Pantheon

The best major Pantheons are Lunaris for mapping and Solaris for Sirus. As for minor Pantheons, Gruthkul, Abberath and Shakari tend to all be good choices, whilst Ryslatha is good for running lab.

Bandit: kill all

LightningSlinger

https://pastebin.com/X7PXzzu7

We start off with this build and take it to approximately level 83 before actually transitioning to Storm Brand. The reason we use this build is because it allows us to spend the first day of the league at virtually under 5c worth of expenditures, we can self craft our weapons and we can get to red maps on a 4 link.

Use the drop-down tab at the bottom as shown in the levelling section to sift through the various stages of our passive tree.

Upon hitting maps, go to the Act 8/9/10 vendors and purchase Imbued Wands. Hit these with essences and/or alch orbs until you get one with a spell damage prefix and an open prefix. You can then craft "Adds (2–6) to (73–77) Lightning Damage to Spells" for 2 alchs per craft. This recipe comes from Act 7 Chamber of Sins level 1 and is equivalent to the natural T4 mod. These weapons are enough to get to red maps.

Fill out the rest of your gear with either 1C or self found/identified uniques to cap resistances and pick up some life.

MoM Storm Brand Transition

https://pastebin.com/nzhVX5hZ

eHP: ~4.8k
DPS: ~400k per Brand
Price: 5ex

At about level 83, we want to upgrade to Storm Brand, however we cannot do so until we obtain a handful of items and meet some requirements that will ensure that Storm Brand is actually stronger:

• 5/6 Link Agnerod West
• Inpulsa's Broken Heart
• Level 80-83 at least
• Level 18+ Gems
• Essence Worms
• A Medium Brand Cluster Jewel with the Holy Conquest Notable

Additionally, before we upgrade to the next PoB, we want to add the following things into our build:

1. Ephemeral Bond
2. Militant Faith (with Inner Conviction)
3. A Small Armor Cluster Jewel with the Enduring Composure Notable

This PoB also uses a drop down menu to guide you through these upgrades. We use Mind over Matter because it is relatively low investment defense that helps us get through the early days of a league

Corrupted Soul Transition

https://pastebin.com/JQiTuEh8
eHP: ~4.6k
DPS: ~1.1m per Brand
Price: 20ex

At about Level 92-94 we want to seek to transition into Corrupted Soul. This transition lets us drop the mana investment in favour of scaling HP and ES as a hybrid eHP pool giving us more points for Cluster Jewels. We have another checklist for this transition and it is as follows:

• Replica Soul Tether
• 4x Medium Brand Cluster Jewels
• Level 90-92 at least
• Storm Drinker + Vengeful Commander large clusters
• New Rings (Preferably Vermillion Rings)

Additionally, we want to upgrade to an Enchanted Storm Brand helm here, 8% is fine if you can't get a good 12% one. Energy Shield bases are ideal.

This PoB was nerfed to the tune of 150 ES via the corrupted soul nerf but is otherwise untouched and fine.

10 Power Charges (Void Batteries)

Non Headhunter: https://pastebin.com/u5XkmSFV
Headhunter PoB: https://pastebin.com/Kgha3D8Q (My Day 6/7 PoB from 3.14)
eHP: ~5.3k(Non-HH)/6.2k(HH)
DPS: ~2.5m per Brand
Price: 40ex

Once upgrading to the Corrupted Soul variant of the build we want to start working on obtaining our next 3 power charges and power charge scaling via our rings. Our upgrade list is as follows:

• 2x Void Batteries
• Upgrade to the Awakener Slammed Power Charge Warlord/Hunter helm as per the crafting instructions in the gear section
• Optionally pursue Shaper/Crusader Vermillion Rings as per the crafting instructions in the gear section. These are our lowest priority and can be skipped for life/resist rings

The HH PoB is a snapshot of my 3.14 character on Day 6/7, it has beaten all content in the game. Note that we use Blood Rage to generate frenzy charges for Badge of the Brotherhood when clearing maps, but vs Bosses such as Conquerors, Maven, Sirus, The Feared/Hidden, we swap back to Ephemeral Bond as the DPS is close and at present there aren't many good ways to generate FCs on boss fights. I tested Alt Quality Blood Rage and it felt really terrible.

God Tier POB

Mapping: https://pastebin.com/Lvj1TAxb
Bossing: https://pastebin.com/yEKQVSw5

eHP: ~5.4k (mapping) / 6.1k (bossing)
DPS: ~6.3m per Brand (mapping) / 9.1m per Brand (bossing)
Price: 200ex + Headhunter

Our BiS list is finally updated. I have included seperate mapping and bossing PoBs, the mapping PoB is perfectly fine to kill bosses with however I have included it for those who want it and also for those who perhaps wanted to create something in between.

The main changes in this PoB are the inclusion of Asenath's gloves and power charge rings in conjunction with the 3rd large cluster. Additionally the bossing PoB falls back onto the old RST/Militant Faith/Ephemeral Bond combo due to not needing the Headhunter as it yields better DPS and survivability.

Asenaths and Inpulsa should not work together however after extensive testing on stream and consulting a number of other high level SB players, we have concluded that for some reason this combo is actually quite strong and offers some of the best explosions in the game, at the same time, Asenath's gloves offer us a means of blinding without having to use Curse Clusters and also whilst letting us run Discipline.