

So, play with your pens more."

-- A fancy scion lady who uses pens to destroy monsters. XD



Side note on 20170118:

This build utilizes multiple new mechanisms introduced in 3.1 and Abyss League. It provides a refreshing experience that doesn't exist before. Currently all mechanisms work in good synergy. If you want to experience something new, it can be a good time to do so now. Some mechanisms may get changed after the league. But it is worthwhile to try it out given its low cost and hyper fun.



Side note on 20170205:

This build can be played as Inquisitor as well. Just pay attention to the attack speed. If you don't have any "cooldown recovery" gear, you need to make sure your full buffed Attack Per Second is below 3.88 (or 0.26 attack speed), otherwise you will lose some Pen's proc and severely reduce your actual DPS. Check OP's gear for reference. The "Faster Attack" gem was intentionally set to that particular level.





======Background======

Spoiler

OP is a casual player who doesn't like to farm repetitively and therefore usually doesn't have big budget for gearing. At the same time, OP enjoys end-game boss fights which typically call for strong builds that require some investment. Therefore, OP likes to play with the game mechanisms to theorycraft builds with three criteria in mind:



Budget. Powerful. Fun.



The builds should be budget enough to be affordable for a casual player, yet powerful enough to finish all end-game contents, and most importantly, fun enough to spend time on.



An example of such builds was published here:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1744618



It was a pleasure to see the build got quite some positive feedback from the community. The build was such a fun experience that OP still misses it from time to time. The down side of the build is that OP didn't come up with new builds that were fun and satisfying enough (for OP's personal taste) and therefore has been AFK for a few leagues.



Until OP eventually got this build.



This build is completely opposite to the aforementioned Debuffing Pizza build in terms of the play style. It utilizes multiple new mechanisms introduced in 3.1 and therefore offers a refreshing experience which works out well. In addition, it meets the three criteria. OP used the build as the league starter in the Abyss League, cleared all end-game contents, and had much fun. Therefore OP would like to share it here.

OP is a casual player who doesn't like to farm repetitively and therefore usually doesn't have big budget for gearing. At the same time, OP enjoys end-game boss fights which typically call for strong builds that require some investment. Therefore, OP likes to play with the game mechanisms to theorycraft builds within mind:The builds should be budget enough to be affordable for a casual player, yet powerful enough to finish all end-game contents, and most importantly, fun enough to spend time on.An example of such builds was published here:It was a pleasure to see the build got quite some positive feedback from the community. The build was such a fun experience that OP still misses it from time to time. The down side of the build is that OP didn't come up with new builds that were fun and satisfying enough (for OP's personal taste) and therefore has been AFK for a few leagues.Until OP eventually got this build.This build is completely opposite to the aforementioned Debuffing Pizza build in terms of the play style. It utilizes multiple new mechanisms introduced in 3.1 and therefore offers a refreshing experience which works out well. In addition, it meets the three criteria. OP used the build as the league starter in the Abyss League, cleared all end-game contents, and had much fun. Therefore OP would like to share it here.



======How does this build differ from other Poet's Pen builds?======

Spoiler

There are two main differences: the offensive mode and the defensive mode.



From the offensive perspective, this build is a dual-main-skill build, which does DPS with TWO main skills, at the same time (Glacial Cascade and Firestorm, which is a perfect fit for the current Ice and Fire theme MTX). On the contrary, in a typical Poet's Pen build there is actually only one main skill. The second Pen is used to support the main skill. For example, Volatile Dead is used in one Pen, while Unearth on the other Pen to provide corpse. In this case, essentially it is still a one-skill build.



There is a "DPS delay", or "setup time" for the "VD + Unearth" combination when mapping. In other words, the instant you click the button is not the instant you kill monsters. This make it feels clunky for OP's taste. In the "VD + Unearth" setup you actually need to cast TWICE for each encounter when mapping. In the first cast only the Unearth is triggered because there is no corpse to detonate yet hence VD is not triggered. In the second cast the VD starts to detonate the corpse produced in the first cast and start to do damage. The delay between the first and second cast is typically 0.25 sec (if you don't have any cool down gears). And if you really try VD by yourself, you will notice that after the VD detonates corpse, there is another delay before it doing damage: you need to wait for the balls to search for monsters, and travel to them and explode. The two delays together make it feel a little clunky for OP's taste. TBH this character was initially theorycrafted as a "VD/Detonate" build. But after trying the skills OP re-designed the build to this current one.



From the defensive perspective, this build is built upon a newly added mechanism in 3.1: (practical) life-gain-on-hit for spells, which is as close to "instant VP" as we can get now IMHO. Other Pen builds either mainly rely on leech (by Warlord's Mark which performs poorly on end-game bosses, or by leech-mod Watcher's Eye which is quite expensive), or rely on hit-and-run (aka "mouse-dodge"). OP has heard a lot of complaints in our guild that Pen's builds are lacking in defense. This build tries to give an answer to those complaints. This build utilizes multiple layers of defense which enables the character to face tank in large packs of monsters. See more details in the Mechanism session.



If you like face-tank style spell caster and and like spamming fancy ice & fire spells at the same time, this can be the build for you. On the other hand, this build has very good group control (60%+ slow even for Shaper/Guardians). You can hit and run all you want if you prefer not to get hit.



Finally, this build does not rely on any Enchantment to work. Everything is designed such that the budget is as low as possible. But no worry, this build scales very well with your investment. If you have the budget, you can get 35% or even more damage than the presented stats.



(Side note: When the Abyss League just got started, the VD had an enchantment that doubles the DPS. It was considered as a bug and has been fixed now. As a result, effectively VD now deals 67% of the DPS it used to do as some VD videos show even if you have the enchantment, which still costs 8 EX now. Without the enchantment the VD DPS will be 25% LESS further.)





======Endorsement from Community======

Spoiler

Work in progress. Will add feedback here gradually. If you have tried the build and have any tips/suggestions/feedback please kindly share them. :D



Sorry for not being able to include all comments due to the limited space. Thank you very much for your feedback! Your sharing is much appreciated!



" pylsa Levelled an inq with poet's unearth/volatile, but got bored, searched for a new build to play with poet's and found yours - boy, am I glad I found your build, it's blast(cascade if you will) to play and I'm really it enjoying so far(level 71, while typing)!!!

" Pappas

... Just hit 90 and all i have to say that build is so satisfying to play. Being super casual player builds usually bother me around mid 80's. Then I start a new build. But not this one, I want to return and sweep through maps again and again....

" Jarex Reached level 70 and the survivability against packs is insane - ran into a pack of 15 cannot be damaged mobs ( shrine ) when my mouse disconnected for about 5 secs and my life bar barely moved...

" _Skittles_

...

All in all, this build is incredibly fun to play with the core gear alone, and gets better with putting some currency into it. Heya, been playing this build for some days and it's been a total blast. Right amount of chaos, lots of raining fire and works so well in many different map mod pools....All in all, this build is incredibly fun to play with the core gear alone, and gets better with putting some currency into it.

" Drvi34 Great build so far. I think nerf on his way :D This reminded me coc builds so much and i love it...

" JamP

I'm on level 80 now making red maps with some ease.

... The construction is incredible.I'm on level 80 now making red maps with some ease....

" Yusheex Really nice build. I made it to 82 and killed Atziri. I'm steam rolling all the content so far...

" BenKerkhofs

... Thanks for the build, I’m destroying everything while leveling :)!...

" MajWoody

Levelling was definitely a highlight with this build. I used volatile dead with gc and firestorm and it was so smooth, especially after I got the abyss helmet with the spirit bursts. Levelling was definitely a highlight with this build. I used volatile dead with gc and firestorm and it was so smooth, especially after I got the abyss helmet with the spirit bursts.

" pticouic

...

As this build inspired mine and I really do like it, I will post my variation....

" Cyrileo Been playing this, super fun ...





Work in progress. Will add feedback here gradually. If you have tried the build and have any tips/suggestions/feedback please kindly share them. :DSorry for not being able to include all comments due to the limited space. Thank you very much for your feedback! Your sharing is much appreciated!



======Pros and Cons======

A brief summary to help you quickly decide whether you want to continue reading.

Spoiler

Pros:



1. Unlimit "leech" cap. Your recovery capability scales with the number of monsters you hit, which is psychologically very satisfying when you actually play the build.

Spoiler

This is very different from the traditional leech mechanism. In a traditional leech build, your leech cap is a fixed number on your character (which typically is 20% of your max life, 40% if you take VP.) no matter how many monsters you are facing. Therefore, more monsters means more dangerous. This build, on the contrary, favors a large number of encountered monsters.



The more monsters surround you, the safer you are.



Do not underestimate this difference. It brings huge psychological advantage when you are facing large pack of dangerous monsters. It is very satisfying to jump into a large pack of monsters and face tank like a boss, knowing that the number of monsters actually serves as a buff to your recovery capability.



Difference between a traditional leech and this build:

Spoiler

Traditional leech:

1 v.s. 1: Yes. Eat my Barrage! (40% of max life regen per second)

1 v.s. 10: It's getting more dangerous. Let me find a better position. (40% of max life regen per second)

1 v.s. 100: Let me get out of here and switch to another skill. (40% of max life regen per second)



This build:

1 v.s. 1: OK. No problem. (40% of max life recovery per second)

1 v.s. 10: Try harder. (400% of max life recovery per second)

1 v.s. 100: Hell yeah! (Jump into the pack and swim like a boss.) (4000% of max life recovery per second) XD



It meant to be a joke but you get the ideal :D.



This feature is especially useful for Abyss encounters. Psychologically you can play like a Tank role in a MMOs group, who prefers to jump into the centre of large packs of monsters. Effectively, at the same time, you are doing DPS with fancy skills and destroy monsters like a real DPS role. It is fun.

This is very different from the traditional leech mechanism. In a traditional leech build, your leech cap is a fixed number on your character (which typically is 20% of your max life, 40% if you take VP.) no matter how many monsters you are facing. Therefore, more monsters means more dangerous. This build, on the contrary, favors a large number of encountered monsters.Do not underestimate this difference. It brings huge psychological advantage when you are facing large pack of dangerous monsters. It is very satisfying to jump into a large pack of monsters and face tank like a boss, knowing that the number of monsters actually serves as a buff to your recovery capability.Difference between a traditional leech and this build:This feature is especially useful for Abyss encounters. Psychologically you can play like a Tank role in a MMOs group, who prefers to jump into the centre of large packs of monsters. Effectively, at the same time, you are doing DPS with fancy skills and destroy monsters like a real DPS role. It is fun.

2. Play with multiple new mechanisms, which don't even exist before 3.1, in good synergy, in one build. It is a refreshing experience.



3. +40% all elemental resists passively, +8% movement speed, self-sufficient of Str/Dex/Int.

Do not ever underestimate the value of these stats. You need to pay for them, either on your gears, or on your passives, or even by auras in some cases. 40% all resist can literally save you multiple Exalts for gearing. No joke. If you play with a build that is stats/resist hunger, good luck with your budget... Besides, with the newly introduced Elder/Shaper items, many affixes are fun/powerful. With 40% all resist and sell-sufficient stats, you can afford to play with interesting affixes at low cost. (With 5-chaos level gears OP reached ~108% resists, which included an additional -20% resist penalty from an unique ring. If you choose not to use the ring you can easily push for 130%+ resist which is more than enough for Elemental Weakness cap even in red maps.)



4. Get the full usage of Scion's ascendancy classes. In this build, they don't feel like "the cheaper version" of the original ascendancy classes. Instead, they provide valuable features which are unique on their own, and arguably even better than the original ones in some aspects. Other than the apparent DPS boost, they give you automatic generation of Power and Frenzy Charges when mapping; 6% regen and effectively +2% Max Resist (or 8.7% MORE life against elemental damage assuming you sit at 75% max resist.) which are really sweat and convenient.



5. You can reach all the end branches of the tree and sort of "complete" the build at as early as Lvl 81. For the onward levels you just grape more life nodes. This can be a relief for a casual player.



6. 60%+ reduced monster's movement speed (applies to end-game bosses at no discount). Check the Mechanism session for more details.



7. Chain Freeze/Shatter packs of monsters when mapping, which is not only satisfying but also provides extra safety.



8. You can run "no leech", "curse immunity (no Warlord's Mark)", "no regen" maps.



9. The two uniques, Poet's Pen and the Watcher's Eyes, benefit not only this build, but also many other builds as well, especially during the levelling process. Get to Lvl 12 and equip the Pens and it is instant fun and OP. You can equip the Watcher's Eye at Level 24 when you get the Vitality gem. Then you can start using Righteous Fire. You Shield Charge into a pack and get instant recovery for over 100 HP. At that level it is like "10% HP instant recovery on hit". How does that sound? "Make the reroll process fun again ." This alone probably can already justify their price. :D



10. Ice & Fire skill build, which is a perfect fit to the current MTX theme.



11. The build and the character fit each other thematically. Scion, poet, pen, ice and fire... Could it get any fancier? :D





Cons:



1. Not a tooltip warrior. The tooltip numbers are so small (even in POB) that by just looking at them you feel like you are scammed lol. But no worry, the real DPS is high enough to clear Shaper/Guardian/Red Elder. Because of the new mechanisms used in this build, even POB cannot show the real DPS directly. You just need to understand the mechanism and do some calculation by yourself.



2. Could be flashy, depending on player's taste. This could be a concern if you play in a party.



3. The price of Poet's Pen and the Watcher's Eye may not be as budget friendly as they used to be. You can run the build without the Watcher's Eye though, but you are recommended to get one.



4. You can still die.

Mostly if you die, you die to oneshot in T15+. It doesn't happen often though; and if you play less recklessly you can avoid most of them. To be fair, with instant VP being gone and 6.2k+ HP (can be pushed to 7k), most builds can die to oneshot as well. Heck, even the most experienced Hardcore veteran players die to oneshot on their 8k+ HP characters. The oneshot mechanism is an intended design and it has been part of the game since its release. So no hard feelings. It can be frustrating though. One millisecond ago you swim in monsters and then one millisecond later you die to bullshit oneshot (e.g. Detonate Dead totem and Rogue Exile corpse). It can be particularly frustrating considering how invincible your character normally be in this build. Besides, you need time to "ramp up" the full recovery capability against single target. During that time you can be more vulnerable than you normally be. So be cautious.



OP wants to point these out because OP doesn't like false advertisement and doesn't want to picture this build as an "immortal" one and hide the bullshit. OP just presents the full picture and let you decide whether you want to play it or not. That's it.



Solution: You can use Belly of Beast then you are sitting at ~6.5k HP. Since you only need 4-link on the chest, the price is more attainable (around 10c now). Besides, don't face tank everything. This character is very agile. With the 60%+ slow, chill, freeze, you can hit and run like a boss. And again, don't be pissed by oneshot bullshit. It is part of the game lol.

Pros:1. Unlimit "leech" cap. Your recovery capability scales with the number of monsters you hit, which is psychologically very satisfying when you actually play the build.2. Play with multiple new mechanisms, which don't even exist before 3.1, in good synergy, in one build. It is a refreshing experience.3. +40% all elemental resists passively, +8% movement speed, self-sufficient of Str/Dex/Int.Do not ever underestimate the value of these stats. You need to pay for them, either on your gears, or on your passives, or even by auras in some cases. 40% all resist can literally save you multiple Exalts for gearing. No joke. If you play with a build that is stats/resist hunger, good luck with your budget... Besides, with the newly introduced Elder/Shaper items, many affixes are fun/powerful. With 40% all resist and sell-sufficient stats, you can afford to play with interesting affixes at low cost. (With 5-chaos level gears OP reached ~108% resists, which included an additional -20% resist penalty from an unique ring. If you choose not to use the ring you can easily push for 130%+ resist which is more than enough for Elemental Weakness cap even in red maps.)4. Get the full usage of Scion's ascendancy classes. In this build, they don't feel like "the cheaper version" of the original ascendancy classes. Instead, they provide valuable features which are unique on their own, and arguably even better than the original ones in some aspects. Other than the apparent DPS boost, they give you automatic generation of Power and Frenzy Charges when mapping; 6% regen and effectively +2% Max Resist (or 8.7% MORE life against elemental damage assuming you sit at 75% max resist.) which are really sweat and convenient.5. You can reach all the end branches of the tree and sort of "complete" the build at as early as Lvl 81. For the onward levels you just grape more life nodes. This can be a relief for a casual player.6. 60%+ reduced monster's movement speed (applies to end-game bosses at no discount). Check the Mechanism session for more details.7. Chain Freeze/Shatter packs of monsters when mapping, which is not only satisfying but also provides extra safety.8. You can run "no leech", "curse immunity (no Warlord's Mark)", "no regen" maps.9. The two uniques, Poet's Pen and the Watcher's Eyes, benefit not only this build, but also many other builds as well, especially during the levelling process. Get to Lvl 12 and equip the Pens and it is instant fun and OP. You can equip the Watcher's Eye at Level 24 when you get the Vitality gem. Then you can start using Righteous Fire. You Shield Charge into a pack and get instant recovery for over 100 HP. At that level it is like "10% HP instant recovery on hit". How does that sound? "Make the reroll process fun." This alone probably can already justify their price. :D10. Ice & Fire skill build, which is a perfect fit to the current MTX theme.11. The build and the character fit each other thematically. Scion, poet, pen, ice and fire... Could it get any fancier? :DCons:1. Not a tooltip warrior. The tooltip numbers are so small (even in POB) that by just looking at them you feel like you are scammed lol. But no worry, the real DPS is high enough to clear Shaper/Guardian/Red Elder. Because of the new mechanisms used in this build, even POB cannot show the real DPS directly. You just need to understand the mechanism and do some calculation by yourself.2. Could be flashy, depending on player's taste. This could be a concern if you play in a party.3. The price of Poet's Pen and the Watcher's Eye may not be as budget friendly as they used to be. You can run the build without the Watcher's Eye though, but you are recommended to get one.4. You can still die.Mostly if you die, you die to oneshot in T15+. It doesn't happen often though; and if you play less recklessly you can avoid most of them. To be fair, with instant VP being gone and 6.2k+ HP (can be pushed to 7k), most builds can die to oneshot as well. Heck, even the most experienced Hardcore veteran players die to oneshot on their 8k+ HP characters. The oneshot mechanism is an intended design and it has been part of the game since its release. So no hard feelings. It can be frustrating though. One millisecond ago you swim in monsters and then one millisecond later you die to bullshit oneshot (e.g. Detonate Dead totem and Rogue Exile corpse). It can be particularly frustrating considering how invincible your character normally be in this build. Besides, you need time to "ramp up" the full recovery capability against single target. During that time you can be more vulnerable than you normally be. So be cautious.OP wants to point these out because OP doesn't like false advertisement and doesn't want to picture this build as an "immortal" one and hide the bullshit. OP just presents the full picture and let you decide whether you want to play it or not. That's it.Solution: You can use Belly of Beast then you are sitting at ~6.5k HP. Since you only need 4-link on the chest, the price is more attainable (around 10c now). Besides, don't face tank everything. This character is very agile. With the 60%+ slow, chill, freeze, you can hit and run like a boss. And again, don't be pissed by oneshot bullshit. It is part of the game lol.



======Budget======

Spoiler

This build was used as the league starter for the Abyss League. OP built it up from scratch with zero budget. It requires two unique items (Poet's Pen and Watcher's Eye) to complete the build, with the Pen being mandatory. Both items were very affordable back then (~25c (or 0.5ex) for the Pen and ~30c for the Watcher'e Eye). The price may go up now though, but still attainable. (The Pen was around 35c which was even cheaper considering the exchange rate, and the Eye was around 1-1.5ex upon the release of this guide. ) If you are really tight on budget, you can skip Watcher's Eye and still do fine. There is a certain way to get around it. More details in the Gear session.



One good thing about the two required uniques is that, they are versatile items which also benefits many other builds. And they are for sure very fun to use for leveling up your other reroll characters. "Make the reroll process fun again ." This alone probably can already justify their price. :D



Other than the unique items, most of the rest Rare items, if not all, were bought for under 5 chaos at the early stage of the league. They are pretty mediocre and can be even cheaper now. As said before, OP is a casual player who doesn't have big budget. Therefore, the build presented is not based on crazy min-max gears. All stats shown are easily attainable. You can get higher status by simply upgrading gears here and there.



Side note:



When you check a build to figure out its budget, kindly be reminded to check the Accessory gears, namely, the Jewels, Amulet, Rings, and Belt. These accessories can boost a build quite substantially. In some cases they are even the bread and butter of a build. And they can cost A LOT (like more than 10 Exalts per Jewel.) You may only achieve a small portion of the DPS/Life/ES if you replace these slots with budget alternatives, which make you feel like playing a different build. So be cautious.





======Mechanism======

Spoiler

Caution: Small numbers count. In this build you will find many small numbers that are easily overlooked. However the implicit power of the numbers are remarkable.



Overview:

Spoiler

1. Dual wield Poet's Pen. Use Frenzy to generate Frenzy Charges to boost your DPS.



2. Utilize the mod "xx Life gain for each enemy hit by your spells", which is provided by Shaper's rare ring; and the mod "xx Life gain for each enemy hit while affected by Vitality" from the Watcher's Eye. (Caution: both "xx" numbers are so small they get overlooked.)



3. Glacial Cascade on one Pen, which is great for both single target and AOE. Firestorm on the other Pen, which provides insane INSTANT recovery under the effects of the two items mentioned in 2, while also giving great DPS.



4. Maim (reduced target's 30% movement speed) from Ascendancy, and Hinder (reduced target's 30% movement speed) from Abyss Jewels, and Chill at the same time. Unlike curses , all these slow effects stacks at no discount even on end-game bosses (Shaper/Guardians).



You may argue "Movement speed? That's lame." However, think about this: "What end-game bosses (where it matters) need to "move", in order to launch an attack"? Let's see: Phoenix, Hydra, Chimera, Minotaur, Vaal Temple Trio... Heck, even Atziri and Shaper need to "move" to position themselves to launch an attack from time to time. Wait, it seems all end-game bosses are affected by this debuff lol. With this debuffing capability, you can hit and run graciously.



5. Get the full usage of both ascendancy classes. Every single aspect of the ascendancy is put to good use. The Assassin ascendancy provides Maim (on crit by Frenzy), and automatic generation of Power Charges which is REALLY convenient; the Inquisitor ascendancy provides +6% regen (which is a lot after instant VP being gong) and effectively +2% to max elemental resist when mapping, which is sweat. These features are so unique and powerful that they even outclass their original version in some aspects.





How powerful the Poet's Pen really is and how to get the most out of it:

Spoiler

1. The "+3 Level to Active Gems" gives 35%+ MORE damage, which by itself worth one link to many spell build.



2. You can use Frenzy to get full Frenzy Charges, which is normally unattainable for a spell build. This alone gives you 12% more (assuming 3 Frenzy Charges) damage.



1 and 2 together gives 51.2% MORE spell damage, which worth more than 1 or even 1.5 link for most spell builds. (For reference, "35% more damage" is consider a good link already for the 5th and 6th link on most spell builds. For example, if you use Lvl 4 Empower, which costs you 5.5+ Ex, at the 6-th link you get 35% more damage only.)



3. This is where it gets interesting. By using the Pen you can fire the spell for every 0.25 second, regardless of the spell's inherent cast speed. What does this mean? It means if you use a spell which has very slow cast speed, you get INSANE free cast speed.



For example, Glacial Cascade is a great skill, but it has the cast speed of 0.8s. Firestorm is great too but it has the cast speed of 0.9s. Why? Because they are so strong that they need to have a slow cast speed to balance the damage. However, if you insert them in the Pen, you can cast them as if their cast speeds are 0.25s. This is like 220% and 260% MORE cast speed for GC and Firestorm, which worth more than 20/20 Echo and Faster Casting COMBINED, and you don't have any penalty like Echo does. This is NUTS. This alone worth more than 2 links if you get the full out of it like this build does.



What's even better, the 0.25s can be further improved by the Shaper affix "increase cool down rate". It is a very expensive affix though. Therefore OP doesn't use it in this build. If you have the budget, you can boost 35% MORE damage than OP's presented stats.



On top of that, you can dual wield to trigger both Pens at the same time.



In sum, the Pen's apparent 3-link worths more than 6-link if you choose the right setup.





Layer of defence:

OP has heard a lot of complaints about how Pen's builds are lacking in defense. This build tries to give an answer to those complaints. It may feel "meh" when you simply look at each mechanism individually. But if you really try the build and see how they come together you will be amazed.

Spoiler

1. Large trunk of INSTANT recovery provided by "life gain on hit", which feels almost like "instant VP".



2. 20% leech AND 10% regen (on Consecrated Ground which is always up automatically when mapping), on top of the instant recovery.



3. Effectively +2% to max. elemental resist (or 8.7% More life against elemental damage) on Consecrated Ground, which is always up automatically when mapping or can simply obtained via a blue Sulphur Flask.



4. Chain Freeze/Shatter. Blind.



5. Maim and Hinder and Chill gives 60%+ movement speed slow even for end-game bosses.



Caution: Small numbers count. In this build you will find many small numbers that are easily overlooked. However the implicit power of the numbers are remarkable.OP has heard a lot of complaints about how Pen's builds are lacking in defense. This build tries to give an answer to those complaints. It may feel "meh" when you simply look at each mechanism individually. But if you really try the build and see how they come together you will be amazed.



======Tree and Bandit and Pantheon======

Spoiler

Bandit:

Help Alira for "20% Crit Multi + 15% All Resist + 5 Mana Regen"



Lvl 90 Tree:

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.1.1/AAAABAABABzc_o_-Cvv1-egI9MCa-d2oco8a8kXyHaI-7Ty86mpDFr_wH9i9q7o1ku988NVirOw40PVsjFgX6_Xr7sBmPEvrYzrhJpVVxuUZD8RmVCycuJPaYoLHsVs8LZSg2fzv64nTCaqpSJeV1aa5kwSzfIOaO1VLJy-MNkyzrfHDCa6zBUJBlhhd0uiiALc-tUi0OEV8AwSP-mh0plcHHn_GnaoqCxo4gpuio4Pbl5e4yp_fOtia4NhNg1-VLhEtjuk2PZBVGFaFe3BSYeI7fIuMMtEEByj6EZamMlF00B89X0GHRUc8BUWdXfJSU4PMTeNTUisKDkimmTpYES9JUQ==





or this link: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.1.1/AAAABAABABzc_o_-Cvv1-egI9MCa-d2oco8a8kXyHaI-7Ty86mpDFr_wH9i9q7o1ku988NVirOw40PVsjFgX6_Xr7sBmPEvrYzrhJpVVxuUZD8RmVCycuJPaYoLHsVs8LZSg2fzv64nTCaqpSJeV1aa5kwSzfIOaO1VLJy-MNkyzrfHDCa6zBUJBlhhd0uiiALc-tUi0OEV8AwSP-mh0plcHHn_GnaoqCxo4gpuio4Pbl5e4yp_fOtia4NhNg1-VLhEtjuk2PZBVGFaFe3BSYeI7fIuMMtEEByj6EZamMlF00B89X0GHRUc8BUWdXfJSU4PMTeNTUisKDkimmTpYES9JUQ==or this link: http://poeurl.com/bKgn



For leveling:

Spoiler Go to Templar area and grab some damage and life nodes (but don't go for Templar's starting branch nodes yet). Then rush to Assasin's starting area. Pick life nodes on the way when you need it.



Take the first Ascendancy as Assasin, then Inquisitor. After Uber Lab take the "starting from Assasin area" and respec the three nodes that connect the two isolated areas around the Witch area.



For skills you can go wild. Spark, GC, Detonate Dead. Use any skill you see fit. Just put them in the Pens and use Frenzy then you are set.



For Pantheon:

Spoiler Major: Solaris for mapping. Brine King for Shaper/Guardians.

Minor: Use whatever fits your style. Tukohama is great for mapping and face tanking Abyss. Ryslatha is good for Lab.



Bandit:Help Alira for "20% Crit Multi + 15% All Resist + 5 Mana Regen"Lvl 90 Tree:For leveling:For Pantheon:



======Gears and Links======

Spoiler









Explanation:



About Gears:

Spoiler

OP tried to be as budget as possible here. Basically OP got all the gears during the leveling process. Once everything is set, OP forgot about them. Casual player. :D Many gears are mediocre and they can be upgraded for sure. They are enough to take down Shaper/Guardians/Elder though. Ignore the Enchants. Those are irrelevant. This build does not rely on any enchants to work. OP just ran the Lab once to get the skill points and used whatever enchants obtained.



Some mandatory/recommended items are:

Spoiler

Poet's Pen:

Mandatory item. It is what makes this build.



Watcher'e Eye with the mod "xx Life gain for each enemy hit while affected by Vitality", and Shaper's rare ring with the mod ""xx Life gain for each enemy hit by your spells":

The bread and butter of the defence. The Eye is more expensive than it used to be now (around 1-1.5ex upon the release of this guide). If you can't afford it at the moment, you can equip two Shaper's rare rings. OP started running the build with the Eye only, with around ~24 LGOH in total and did very well. You can use two Shaper rings and achieve as much, if not more. You lose full-buffed damage without using the Malachai ring, but you free up Vitality and can use both Hatred and Herald of Ice so the damage lost is compensated a bit. The eventual damage should be still enough to take down end game contents.



Malachai's Artifice:

This is probably the biggest DPS boost ring for elemental build (if you are not Inquisitor). Insert the Lightning Golem in it. The Golem's attack applies a mini Elemental Equilibrium which reduces the target's Fire and Cold resist by 37.5%. For Shaper/Guardian fight, where the DPS actually matters, this is almost as good as the Inquisitor's "ignore enemy's resistance" which makes the whole ascendancy. In this setup only Golem has EE so your other skills won't mess up EE.



Pure Talent Jew:

Gives nice stats and decent DPS. It used to be pretty cheap but now the price goes up. If you can't afford it just use other rare jews instead.



Abyss Jews:

Get this affix on at least one Abyss jew: "x% chance to Hinder enemys on hit with spells". With the hit number provided by Firestorm, enemys WILL get hindered. This Hinder debut stacks with the Maim debut which is applied via Frenzy at no discount even for Shaper/Guardians. Together they slow down enemy by 60%.



Other Jews:

Get "crit. multiplier" + flat life / % life.



Chest:

You can go wild here. Belly of Beast is recommended for higher HP.



Other than the above recommended items the rest are pretty flexible.



One trick for Shaper/Guardian fight:

Spoiler

The Heartbreaker dagger can be used on the other set of weapon for Shaper/Guardian/Uber Izaro farming. The Culling Strike effectively gives you ~10% more damage (even more for Shaper and Izaro's 3rd phase). You need to switch the weapon set by pressing "X" to activate it though. However since the skills on the Pens does not occupy any hotkey slot, this trick does not mess up your hotkey settings. You probably only do this trick on Shaper/Guardians/Uber Izaro farming occasionally.

OP tried to be as budget as possible here. Basically OP got all the gears during the leveling process. Once everything is set, OP forgot about them. Casual player. :D Many gears are mediocre and they can be upgraded for sure. They are enough to take down Shaper/Guardians/Elder though. Ignore the Enchants. Those are irrelevant. This build does not rely on any enchants to work. OP just ran the Lab once to get the skill points and used whatever enchants obtained.Some mandatory/recommended items are:Other than the above recommended items the rest are pretty flexible.One trick for Shaper/Guardian fight:



About Gem links:

Spoiler

Recommended link setup:



1. Glacial Cascade - Concentrate Effect - Cold Penetration

You can squeeze more damage out of GC by using Elemental Focus instead of Cold Pen. However the freeze/chill from GC is too good to drop.



2. Firestorm - Concentrate Effect - Increased Duration

Increased Duration doesn't give any direct number boost on your tooltip. However, since it increases the duration of Firestorm, it actually gives more damage per cast. A 20/20 Inc. Dur. will give 74% MORE damage per cast. Moreover, since the duration is increased, the hit per cast is also increased. Therefore, Inc. Dur. not only gives 74% more damage but also gives 74% more recovery per cast. It is a great gem for this build.



3. Herald of Ice - Icebite (for mapping)

Use Herald of Ice for mapping. Icebite is linked to it in order to proc the freeze/shatter chaining more reliably. The Freeze/Shatter chaining is very satisfying and improves the mapping speed.



4. Hatred (for Shaper/Guardians)

Replace HoI-Icebite with Hatred for Shaper/Guardians for more single-target DPS.



5. CWDT (Lvl 1) - Firestorm (Lvl 8) - Ball Lightning (Lvl 4)

Fit this link to your build no matter what! It may look trivial but it actually boots the defence substantially. It automatically provides hundreds if not thousands of HP recovery even when you are moving. Try it out and you will see its value immediately.



6. Lightning Golem in Malachai's Artifice ring to proc. the mini-EE



7. Frenzy (Lvl 1 for lower Dex requirement) - Faster Attack

Pay attention to your attack speed! Make sure your attack speed does not exceed 3.99 APS at 3 Frenzy Charges (assuming you don't have any cool down gears), otherwise your DPS will be halved. In order to proc the Poet's Pen more reliably, you are recommended to set the in-game attack speed at 0.26. If you push for too high APS the game sometimes skip some casts even if your APS is below 3.99. Check OP's setup for reference.

Fun fact: OP once ran four guardians and then later OP found the FA was accidentally over leveled by 6 levels... It meant OP actually only had half of DPS when took down the guardians.



The rest links it is flexible. For Shaper/Guardian fight, the Decoy Totem doesn't help much. You can replace it with other gems such as Life-Gain-On-Hit.



About Gears:About Gem links:



======Final Thoughts======

Spoiler

The Poet's Pen and the Life-Gain-On-Hit jew/ring provides such refreshing experience to OP. It's worth trying if you like spell builds and face tank play style. Since the passives are focused on generic DPS nodes such as crit. / elemental damage, you can mess with different spell setup and derive your own play style.



Hope you find something fun and different in the build. Feel free to ask questions and/or share any tips/suggestions/videos.



Good luck farming and have fun!

"Knowledge is power.So, play with your pens more."-- A fancy scion lady who uses pens to destroy monsters. XDSide note on 20170118:This build utilizes multiple new mechanisms introduced in 3.1 and Abyss League. It provides a refreshing experience that doesn't exist before. Currently all mechanisms work in good synergy. If you want to experience something new, it can be a good time to do so now. Some mechanisms may get changed after the league. But it is worthwhile to try it out given its low cost and hyper fun.Side note on 20170205:This build can be played as Inquisitor as well. Just pay attention to the attack speed. If you don't have any "cooldown recovery" gear, you need to make sure your full buffed Attack Per Second is below 3.88 (or 0.26 attack speed), otherwise you will lose some Pen's proc and severely reduce your actual DPS. Check OP's gear for reference. The "Faster Attack" gem was intentionally set to that particular level.A brief summary to help you quickly decide whether you want to continue reading. Last edited by loonger on Feb 7, 2018, 10:04:50 AM Last bumped on Sep 30, 2018, 4:12:46 AM