[2.6] [WIP] Life Crit BF Scion

Assassin/Slayer

Assassin gives us the power charge generation and bonus crit that our build will be based around, while Slayer gives us Culling Strike and extra leech.

Normal lab->Dex/Int node, passive
Cruel lab->Assassin, passive
Merciless lab->Shadow start, Dex/Str node
Uber lab->Passive, Slayer

Normal: Oak
Cruel: Kill all
Merciless: Alira

Level 100 tree should look something like this: http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAREQEwCGvrz0xkUKNdYxnqZXOuHyRf4K2L01kv6PTeOw2KLZyBT1b2qMFr91_YRv1EK1SCaVYeJVS4w2idNwUioLXfIOSBGWY0Py4UcG2-dsCPGKtMUV_Y2BwaB4GW9X2Ha5PqxmLOF948LsBbWNv9QjMHHdqEt4OkJRR-dUJP3_3jfU7T8wfI19I_ZNkqOKsbMMc5VmA4cbrdN-AF4Zju2DCC59df666NYi6jIBshnPeud0k5CaF5KAAQm42d1If8aiow_EO3y4ytDQj_pcQFS9Fe2Wi9W5YqxsjJ2qSsiKr5ARguR7w3BWmhPb1DY962MRL8M6m7WExc3qJ6mxW6YyAwSocqlI0ugCX6QMYN6ouwAAAAAA

It's worth noting that we respec at least 16 nodes after Merciless lab where we can then start at the Shadow nodes.

As stated earlier, Varunastra is special in that it gets the benefits of all one-handed weapon types. In this case we're going to be focusing on claws and daggers, since we'll be using crit heavily.


Unholy Might gives 30% additional physical damage as chaos damage. We're always going to be critting so this is always going to be up. As a side note, since we'll be picking up the Slayer Ascendant perk we'll also be getting a lot of power charge generation.


200% of life leech applies as chaos damage. We'll be using Blood Rage along with the Soul Raker and Blood Drinker passives to get a large amount of life leech going on, adding a nice amount of chaos damage to our attacks.


The amount of extra phys damage and crit multi this gives is absurd, and we want as much as we can get.


Voidheart has basically everything we want, poison, bleed, phys. The downside is that we're using a lot of uniques and need to cap our resists elsewhere.


I'm not completely sold on this being the best armor choice here, but it's got a lot of nice aspects to it. The increased life leech makes playing without Acuity's or Vaal Pact feel much better, it has a high life roll, and of course the huge increased chaos damage is nice.

Some other chests we can choose from are:

Gives us endurance charges, basically 100% onslaught, and also even more leech which in turn gives even more damage for our Retch.

And of course Cospri's, which I don't have yet this league.

For the rest of our gear we're looking mostly for life rolls and to cap our resists. We get 36% all res from passives on our tree which helps out the fact that we're using so many uniques that don't have any resists.

Main Damage 6L GGGBBR
Blade Flurry -> Faster Attacks -> Melee Physical -> Added Chaos -> Increased AoE -> Void Manipulation

Movement 4L GGRR
Whirling Blades -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify -> Blood Magic

Curse 4L (depends)
If you're running Cospri's you should run a blasphemy setup
Blasphemy -> Enfeeble -> Vulnerability -> Enlighten

However, if you're running something else you have more varied options. You can make a Curse on Hit setup in combination with CWDT or you could have something like Herald of Ice trigger Curse on Hit.

CWDT 4L RRRG
CWDT (level 1) -> Immortal Call (level 3) -> Increased Duration -> Ice Golem

3L Miscellaneous GGR
Arctic Armour -> Vaal Haste/Grace -> Increased Duration

3L Single Target
Use a totem of your choice here and whatever else you want. Remember to have a Conc Effect gem somewhere on hand to change into your 6L.

Doing this setup in particular as Assassin requires tons of investment into travel nodes in order to get the same amount of life. You have to go down into the Duelist section of the tree and then up to the Marauder start with very little options for damage nodes in between. It is of course possible to do this build as Assassin, as it gets the HUGE benefit of Toxic Delivery, but the tree is somewhat odd. I made a sample Assassin tree that would use all the same gear and links and I'm curious as to how much the performance would differ.

http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAQcWEwCBsNii2cgU9W9qjBa_JpVh4lVLjDZ1_YRv1EK1SInTcFIqC13y62M2PZ2qbIxirLTFES_C7AW1jb_UI1FH51Qk_f_eMHyNfSP2TZKjirGzDHOVZgOH0359df66AF4Zju2DCC4brTfU7T_uDvzFDY2Hdkp9Z6Djn1uvTipM_0Mx2sF07QUteu9XlxHVY3BgQb6nZU29Nkd-hNnb50cG2Ha5PqxmLOF94xX9jYHBoHgZb1cwcd2oS3g6QgHcd-OpbnlowQRfPxQg7w5QR-RR8uFjQ5d5KCqLTw5IEZYBCbjZ3UhsCPGKLlPTb8AabztwVpoT29SEogeZWfBMjjIyEJLZhrxvAAAAAAA=