Poison Blade Vortex Assassin

Path of Exile: Heist has finally arrived. It’s still too early to truly know which builds will cut through the new endgame content like butter, but it’s better to have a few rough-but-working builds than none at all. A good example of that is Anton’s Poison Blade Vortex Assassin.

Pros:

• Affordable
• Can run most content with ease
• Fast clear speed

Cons:

• Can seem like it has slow DPS because of DOT
• Has difficulty running physical reflect maps

Passive Skill Tree

Here’s the Passive Skill Tree.

Gear and Gems Setup

• Body: Cospri’s Will for increased damage, evasion, chaos resistance, additional curses and application to hex-proof enemies, 60% chance to poison on hit against cursed enemies, and +2 to level of Socketed Warcry gems
  • Gem Setup (Core Skill): Blade Vortex with Vile Toxins, Unleash, Awakened Unbound Ailments, Awakened Void Manipulation, and Awakened Deadly Ailments support gems
• Weapon: Bino’s Kitchen Knife (Unique) for chance to gain power charge on critical strike, increased damage over time, critical strike chance and multiplier, chaos resistance, nearby enemies are poisoned when poisoned enemy is killed, 200 life regen for nearby enemies
  • Gem Setup (CWDT): Cast When Damage Taken with Immortal Call and Desecrate
• Off-hand: Mistwall (Unique) for increased movement speed, evasion, fire and cold resistances, elemental damage avoidance when phasing, maximum chance to block attacks for a long time after not blocking, gain phasing after recently blocking
  • Gem Setup (movement): Shield Charge with Fortify and Faster Attacks support gems
• Helm: The Devouring Diadem (Unique) for +1 level and 20% reduced mana reservation to socketed gems, Feast of the Flesh level 15 every 5 seconds, increased energy shield, chance to recharge energy shield after skill use, and eldritch battery
  • Gem Setup: Malevolence and Summon Skitterbots with Enlighten Support
• Gloves: Asenath’s Gentle Touch (Unique) for +2 to level of socketed aura gems, increased intelligence, life, mana, level 10 Temporal Chains to enemies on hit, non-aura curses inflicted are not removed from enemies after dying, enemies near cursed corpses are blinded and explode, dealing 3% of their life as damage
  • Gem Setup (Debuffs): Plague Bearer and Withering Step with Empower and Increased Area of Effect support gems
• Belt: Any Rare Stygian Vise with bonuses to life, elemental resistances, and flask life recovery.
• Boots: Any Rare boots with bonuses to elemental resistances, life, movement speed, dexterity, and immunity to being frozen.
  • Gem Setup: Herald of Agony, Despair, and Portal with Blasphemy support gem
• Accessories:
  • Impresence (Unique Amulet) for increased attributes, damage over time, chaos damage, life, chaos resistance, Despair’s mana reservation is reduced to 120% if cast as an aura, grants Maddening Presence after killing Rare/Unique enemy.
  • Circle of Nostalgia (Unique Ring) for increased life, light radius, bonus attributes, chaos damage and resistance, increased chaos damage while under Herald of Agony, but will cause 48% mana reservation.
  • Any Rare ring with bonuses to life, level 20 Aspect of the Spider skill, life, elemental resistances, area of effect, and chaos resistance.
• Jewels
  • 1 Watcher’s Eye (Unique) for increased energy shield, life, and mana; increased critical strike chance while under Hatred, increased DOT multiplier when under Malevolence, and increased energy shield recovery rate under Discipline
  • 2 Might of the Meek (Unique) to overwhelm 2% damage reduction, increased non-Keystones within radius but notable passives do nothing
  • Thread of Hope (Unique) to allocate passives not connected to your tree but within your radius
  • Rare Large Cluster Jewel that adds Overwhelming Malice, Unholy Grace, and Wicked Pall as 1 added passive skill each, 2 added passive skills are jewel sockets
  • Megalomaniac (Unique) for additional 4 passive skills but small passive skills grant nothing; Antivenom, Potency, and Unspeakable Gifts are as 1 added passive skill each
• Flasks:
  • Experimenter’s Quartz Flask of Warding for bonus chance to dodge attacks and spells, phasing, and curse immunity/removal
  • Atziri’s Promise (Unique) for increased chaos resistance, chaos damage leeched as life, and damages dealt as extra chaos damage
  • Surgeon’s Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline for increased movement speed
  • Coralito’s Signature (Unique) for lucky critical strike chance and increased chance to and duration of poison on hit; Perfect Agony during flask effect
  • Bubbling Life Flask of Staunching for life recovery and bleeding immunity/removal

Heist has just begun, and there’s no better way to kick the expansion off than as a crafty assassin that dabbles in poison.