Perfect Elemental Poison
Assassin Build

Created for Patch 3.25

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The newly reworked Perfect Agony Keystone is an immensely powerful addition to the Assassin arsenal. With this Keystone you will convert all your Critical Strike Multiplier into Damage over Time Multiplier for Ailments, but your non-Critical Strikes won't inflict Ailments. It greatly boosts the effectiveness of the already powerful Critical Poison archetype and makes scaling much easier, as Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier are commonly found on the same Notables. While this Keystone can be used by any Ascendency, the Assassin is by far the best choice. With the Ambush and Assassinate Notable, you are nearly guaranteed to land a Critical Strike on the first Hit you deal, even without other conditional Buffs like Diamond Flask, Power Charges, or Assassin's Mark. Without the Critical Strike, you won't inflict the Ailment you specialize in. It is not that important against Bosses, but it is essential for smooth Clear Speed. As an Assassin, you also gain 25% More Damage for Critical Poisons, another 25% More Damage while fighting a lone powerful Enemy, and your Poisons last much longer. It only lacks defense, which you will have to source from your Items. 

All Melee Attacks also received a massive rework, oftentimes resulting in doubling or tripling their Damage. In this Build, we will use a special Dagger obtainable in Heist, which allows you to inflict Poison with all Damage Types. Usually, you can acquire much more flat Elemental Damage than Chaos or Physical, not only on the Weapon itself but also from other sources, such as Auras or Support Gems. You will also make use of many Charges, further enhanced by Replica Badge of the Brotherhood and Olesya's Delight. The Frenzy Charges grant you More Attack Speed and Damage, provide extra flat Cold Damage via Ice Bite Support, and raise the limit of your Endurance Charges for additional defense. The Affliction Charges grant you even more Damage with Ailments. Thanks to the Ralakesh Impatience you will be able to benefit from all types of Charges at once. The Power Charges are also useful, as they increase your Critical Strike Chance. 

The main Skill of choice for this Setup is very flexible. We have chosen the Blade Flurry, a Channeling Melee Skill that deals a lot of Damage in short intervals, but you can use any other Skill you prefer as long as it is usable with Daggers. The right side of the Passive Tree offers you easy access to Notables that grant additional Strike Target, extra Projectile for Attacks, or additional Pierce. For AoE Skills such as Blade Flurry or Reave, you will be using Medium Cluster Jewels instead. 

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1. Gameplay

Channel the Blade Flurry to Attack nearby Enemies and accumulate Stages. You should release the Channel as soon as you gain maximum stages to quickly burst any Enemy left alive. Use Whirling Blades with Cast on Crit Setup to move around and automatically apply Despair Curse when you start the encounter.  

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

You can level up with any Physical Attack Skill you prefer, such as Reave, Viper Strike, or Cobra Lash. Avoid Blade Flurry at first, it requires a lot of Attack Speed and AoE to be effective. You don't need to use Daggers during the campaign, you should use whatever provides the most Physical or Chaos DPS and can be usable with your main Skill. Do not use Perfect Agony during the campaign either, as your Critical Strike Chance will be too low. You can also use Spells, such as Blade Vortex, or Bow DoT Skills such as Caustic Arrow or Toxic Rain. You can check out our Ranger Leveling Guide with Bows/DoT in PoE to see more tips!

Bandits:

Kill all Bandits to get an additional Passive Tree Skill Point, or help Alira to gain additional Resistance.

Leveling Skill Trees:
33 Points Passive Tree
Rush Passives that grant you a Chance to Poison. You will also need a bit of maximum Life and increases to your Poison Damage.

74 Points Passive Tree
Pick up Leech, Mana Reservation, and Accuracy Rating. You will also need maximum Life and Spell Suppression to improve your defenses. 

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

91 Points Final Passive Tree  
120 Points Path of Building (PoB)

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in this order:

1. Noxious Strike
2. Toxic Delivery
3. Opportunistic
4. Ambush and Assassinate

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of Arakaali: 10% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time; +40% Chaos Resistance against Damage Over Time

Minor God: Soul of Ralakesh: 25% reduced Physical Damage over Time taken while moving, Moving while Bleeding doesn't cause you to take extra Damage

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Blade Flurry setup
	Blade Flurry - Channel to quickly Attack Enemies in front of you and gain stages. You release additional strikes when Channeling ends. For optimal DPS you should stop the Channel as soon as you gain all stages.
	Unbound Ailments Support - increases the Duration and Damage of your Poisons.
	Ice Bite Support - adds flat Cold Damage based on your Frenzy Charges. At lower investments, you can use Added Cold/Lightning Damage Support instead.
	Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Support - grants More Damage per Endurance Charge. Depending on your Gear you can also use Melee Physical Damage, Elemental Focus, or Added Damage Supports instead.
	Elemental Damage with Attacks Support - improves the Elemental Damage which your Poisons are based on.
	Increased Critical Damage Support - thanks to the Perfect Agony Keystone this Support grants almost 150% Damage over Time Multiplier instead.

[UTILITY] Aura setup
	Anger - an offensive Aura that grants you a lot of flat Fire Damage and enables various Watcher's Eye modifiers.
	Purity of Elements - a defensive Aura that grants you a lot of Elemental Resistance and makes you immune to most Ailments.
	Herald of Agony - a Herald Skill that grants you a bit of Damage. You can also use the Flesh and Stone to reduce the Damage of nearby Enemies.
	Enlighten Support - you don't need it to fit in all Auras, but having more Unreserved Mana is very useful for comfortable Tincture usage.

[UTILITY] Wither setup
	Withering Step -  grants you an Elusive Buff and applies a few stacks of Withered Debuff on nearby Enemies. Thanks to the Replica Badge of the Brotherhood its Cooldown is very low.
	Automation - triggers Instant Skills as soon as they are ready to use.

[UTILITY] Curse setup
	Assassin's Mark - a Curse Skill that increases your Critical Strike Chance against Marked Enemies. With the Perfect Agony Keystone, it grants you Damage over Time Multiplier instead.
	Mark on Hit Support - linked Mark Skill will be automatically applied to any Enemy you Hit with an Attack.

[UTILITY] Movement setup
	Whirling Blades -  you will have very high Attack Speed but low Movement Speed, so this Skill is the best Movement Skill left to use.
	Faster Attacks Support - makes your Whirling Blades even faster.
	Despair - your Damage is sourced from Elemental Damage, but Poison deals Chaos Damage, so you should focus on lowering the Chaos Resistance.
	Cast on Critical Strike Support - you can Cast your Curse manually, or trigger it by Whirling into Enemies.

[UTILITY] Guard setup
	Immortal Call - a Guard Skill that doesn't need Gem levels to be effective, as it provides a flat Damage Reduction for a short time.
	Cast when Damage Taken Support - triggers linked Spells when you take a set amount of Damage. Keep it on a low Gem level to trigger it as soon as possible.
	Enfeeble - a defensive Curse that lowers the Damage of affected Enemies. In this setup you can use 4 Curses, but automating them can be problematic.

[UTILITY] Plague Bearer setup
	Plague Bearer - stores a portion of your Poison Damage. You can activate it to release it as DoT effect similar to Righteous Fire.
	Empower Support - Plague Bearer deals a fixed amount of Damage based on its level.
	Increased Area of Effect Support - increases the radius of your Plague.

6. Gear Setup

You will need the Pneumatic Dagger to inflict Poison with Elemental Damage, and a Charge stacking setup for Defense and Damage. On your Rare Items, you should focus entirely on Defense and Utility, such as reduced Mana Costs or Attack Speed for the Whirling Blades and faster ramp-up time for Poison. The Critical Strike Multiplier is also useful, but it will be expensive to get without sacrificing defensive properties. It also overwrites any Damage over Time Multiplier you may get from other sources. You will need as much maximum Life as possible, Spell Suppression Chance, and plenty of Evasion and Energy Shield. You obviously also need to cap Resistance and get enough Strength to fulfill Gem Requirements. 

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - on the Helmet you should look for simple defensive modifiers, but it is also possible to get plenty of Mana Reservation Efficiency here. You can also use the Focus modifier to apply all your Curses at once.

Min. requirements: +10 to maximum Life +50 Energy Shield +10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage 50% to Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Mana Reservation Efficiency  % of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage Attributes  Trigger Socketed Spells when you Focus, with a 0.25 second Cooldown

(Weapon) Rare Weapon - you will need a special Pneumatic Dagger so your Elemental Damage can inflict Poison. It should have a very high Critical Strike Chance and Attack Speed, and an open Prefix so you can add a special modifier via Crafting Bench. It should also provide Elemental Damage for your Attacks.

Min. requirements: +400 DPS 10% Critical Strike Chance All Damage from Hits with This Weapon can Poison Hits can't be Evaded Optional affixes: Critical Strike Multiplier

(Weapon) Rare Shield - your Shield should provide a high amount of maximum Life and Spell Suppression Chance.  It may also grant you a bit of Resistance or Attack Speed.

Min. requirements: +100 to maximum Life +20% chance to Suppress Spell Damage  Optional affixes: Resistance Attribute Attack Speed

(Body Armour) Doppelgänger Guise - a very good starting Armour that grants you a lot of Damage Reduction against Physical and Chaos Hits, as well as Regenerates a lot of Life when you get any Damage.

Grants Level 20 Unhinge Skill (40-60)% more Critical Strike Chance while Insane Enemies Killed by your Hits are destroyed while Insane (40-30)% less Physical and Chaos Damage Taken while Sane Regenerate 10% Life over one second when Hit while Sane

(Body Armour) Rare Armour - on a Rare Armour you should look for tons of Evasion, Energy Shield, and Spell Suppression or Resistance. You can skip Life modifiers to benefit from the Life Mastery and save a lot of Currency. Use Eldritch Influence to get a bit of DoT Multiplier and shift portion of Physical Damage to be taken as Elemental instead.

Min. requirements: +2000 Evasion Rating +400 Energy Shield 15% Spell Suppression Chance Optional affixes: Chaos or Elemental Resistance % to Critical Strike Multiplier for Attack Damage % of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage Flask Charges

(Belt) Olesya's Delight - This Belt grants you additional Frenzy Charges and turns them into Affliction Charges, which grants you 8% More Damage with Ailments instead. In this Setup, they are slightly worse than regular Frenzy Charges, but thanks to your Boots you can have both effects at once.

(15-25)% increased Stun and Block Recovery +(600-700) to Evasion Rating +(40-60)% to Cold Resistance (8-12)% increased Movement Speed +1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges Modifiers to Minimum Frenzy Charges instead apply to Minimum Affliction Charges Maximum Affliction Charges is equal to Maximum Frenzy Charges Gain Affliction Charges instead of Frenzy Charges

(Boots) Ralakesh's Impatience - thanks to those Boots you can preserve the benefits of Frenzy and Affliction Charges at once. You also don't need to worry about generating or losing Endurance Charges, which provide most of your mitigation against Physical Damage.

+(15-25)% to Cold Resistance +(15-25)% to Chaos Resistance Count as having maximum number of Endurance Charges Count as having maximum number of Frenzy Charges Count as having maximum number of Power Charges

(Gloves) Replica Badge of the Brotherhood - all your investments into maximum Frenzy Charges will now also apply to Endurance Charges. It also significantly lowers the Cooldown of your Withering Step, which is very important to sustain all 15 stacks of this powerful Debuff.

+(16-24) to Dexterity and Intelligence Your Maximum Endurance Charges is equal to your Maximum Frenzy Charges +1 to maximum Fortification per Endurance Charge (7-10)% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate of Travel Skills per Frenzy Charge (20-25)% chance to lose a Frenzy Charge when you use a Travel Skill (20-25)% chance to lose an Endurance Charge when you gain Fortification

(Gloves) Asenath's Gentle Touch - with those Gloves you will automatically apply the Temporal Chains Curse on Hit and Explode Killed Enemies. The Explosion has a 0% base Critical Strike Chance so it won't inflict Poisons, but it still speeds up your Clear Speed considerably.  It is also fairly cheap to get a Corrupted Implicit that raises your Frenzy Charge limit.

+(20-30) to Intelligence +(60-80) to maximum Life +(60-80) to maximum Mana Curse Enemies with Temporal Chains on Hit Non-Aura Curses you inflict are not removed from Dying Enemies Enemies near corpses affected by your Curses are Blinded Enemies Killed near corpses affected by your Curses explode, dealing 3% of their Life as Physical Damage

(Ring) Anathema - with this Ring you will be able to use 4 Curses. Other modifiers aren't that useful, so at least try to get a Corrupted Implicit that grants flat Elemental Damage or Attack Speed.

+(15-25) to maximum Energy Shield +(30-40) to Intelligence (10-15)% increased Cast Speed (10-20)% chance to gain a Power Charge when you Cast a Curse Spell Your Curse Limit is equal to your maximum Power Charges

(Ring) Rare Ring - you can get plenty of Damage on your other Ring in the form of flat Elemental Damage, Critical Strike Multiplier, or increases to Chaos and Elemental Damage, but usually it is more important to focus on defense and Attributes. You can also lower the Mana Cost of your non-channeling Skills to make your Whirling Blades free to use.

Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life +45 to Strength +80% total Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Chaos Resistance Non-Channelling Skills have -(7-6) to Total Mana Cost increased Chaos Damage Critical Strike Multiplier Adds # Elemental Damage to Attacks

(Jewel) Rare Jewels - here you can gain a lot of Critical Strike Multiplier, maximum Life, and Attack Speed. It can also provide lacking Resistance or Attributes, or make you immune to Corrupting Blood.

Min. requirements: increased maximum Life Recommended affixes: Critical Strike Multiplier Poison Damage Attack Speed Resistances Attributes Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you

(Jewel) Large Cluster Jewel - the Overwhelming Malice Notable grants you the Unholy Might, which greatly improves your uptime on the Withering Debuff. The Unholy Grace is also a very good Notable that grants you Damage and Attack Speed. The third Notable should be the Wicked Pall or Unwaveringly Evil, other options are not that good.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Overwhelming Malice 1 Added Passive Skill is Unholy Grace 1 Added Passive Skill is Wicked Pall 1 Added Passive Skill is Unwaveringly Evil

(Jewel) Medium Cluster Jewel - if you use AoE Skill such as Blade Flurry you should get a Cluster Jewel that enlarges your Area of Effect. For Strike or Projectile Skills you will need relevant Notables on the Passive Tree, such as Attack Mastery or Piercing Shots.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Assert Dominance 1 Added Passive Skill is Towering Threat

(Jewel) Watcher's Eye - this Jewel you can give you tons of Critical Strike Multiplier when you use the Anger Aura. You can also include a level 1 Precision to get extra Attack Speed or Critical Strike Multiplier, but such combinations can be very expensive.

(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> Recommended Aura mods: +(30-50)% to Critical Strike Multiplier while affected by Anger Gain a Flask Charge when you deal a Critical Strike while affected by Precision (10-15)% increased Attack Speed while affected by Precision +(20-30)% to Critical Strike Multiplier while affected by Precision

(Jewel) Brutal Restraint - this Jewel can improve your Flask Sustain, grant you the Onslaught Buff during Clearing, and improve your Poison Damage or Attack Speed a bit. You can also use the Lethal Pride for Strength and Critical Strike Multiplier.

Denoted service of (500-8000) dekhara in the akhara of (Asenath-Balbala-Nasima) Passives in radius are Conquered by the Maraketh Historic

(Jewel) The Light of Meaning - this Jewel grants you an insane amount of Chaos Damage. It competes with the Timeless Jewel spots, so you will have to choose between pure Damage and utility.

Passive Skills in Radius also grant 6% increased Chaos Damage

(Jewel) Forbidden Flame&Flesh - you can borrow a Notable from any other Shadow's Ascendencies, which will grant you the defenses that Assassin lacks. The Swift Killer is the best choice that greatly boosts both your Damage and Defense.

Allocates <Random Ascendancy Notable> if you have the matching modifier on Forbidden Flesh Allocates <Random Ascendancy Notable> if you have the matching modifier on Forbidden Flame

(Flask) Poisonberry Tincture - a good Tincture can grant you tons of Attack Speed and Damage for Poisons. You should try to have at least 10% Unreserved Mana to sustain it for longer.

(60-90)% increased Damage with Poison from Melee Weapons Recommended modifiers: % increased Effect % increased Melee Weapon Attack Speed

Suggested Flasks: Life Flask  with Bleeding Removal Diamond Flask with bonus Critical Strike Chance  Quartz Flask with Curse Effect Reduction  Jade Flask with Evasion Rating bonus

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

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