TbXie's Storm Brand Assassin Passive Skill Tree & Gem Links (PoE Necropolis)
Passive Skill Tree
You can find an optimized Path of Building here. Every build I release will use the community fork of Path of Building, which is maintained and updated in a much more regular fashion than the original one. You can find PoB’s Fork, by LocalIdentity, here.
If you are not comfortable with Path of Building, PoePlanner’s website offers you a non-PoB alternative to import the code from the above link. it is highly recommended you install Path of Building to follow builds most optimally.
Progression Advice
Since I don’t think this build should be played as something you’d do without currency, I highly suggest you seek out a set of leveling gear. If you do so, it shouldn’t really matter much where you put your points. Try to rush things like Runebinder & Brand Clusters.
Gem Links
Storm Brand – Main Link (6-Link)
Storm Brand’s base damage scales fairly hard with gem levels! Try to pick up a 21/20 as soon as possible.
- Storm Brand
- Swiftbrand Support
- Power Charge On Critical Support
- Ice Bite Support
- Inspiration Support
- Awakened Lightning Penetration Support
Recall & Vaal Righteous Fire
Brand Recall should be bound to left mouse button. As it is more redundant then ever, pressing it on cooldown by binding it to left mouse is just the easiest way to use the skill. Sure, you could optimize it by keeping very very close track of it to clear a map .1 second faster, but that honestly isn’t worth the hassle. Bind it to Left Mouse, link it to Arcane Surge so you have 100% uptime on that and be done with it.
Since you’ll most likely have a free socket here, this is where you get to socket Vaal Righteous Fire. Pop Vaal RF whenever you face a tough enemy as it gets you a surprising amount of burst!
Aura Setup
Aura-wise, you need a Wrath and Zealotry as it adds a ton of Damage. Additionally, I opted into a Defiance Banner and Determination but you’ll need a high leveled Enlighten as well as the necessary anoint, jewels & Helmet Reservation efficiency for that to feel good. Otherwise, you’ll be reserving a bigger chunk of your Mana which could lead to the casting of Storm Brand feeling a little clunky while mapping. Obviously, as long as you can cast 2 of them without going out of Mana, you’ll be fine on bosses as there’s little reason to have more on them. If you don’t have all of the Reservation Efficiency available, you can either drop a Damage Aura or Defiance Banner.
In a free socket somewhere else, use a
Utility & Movement Skills
I think Molten Shell is too good to pass up on in builds that have any amount of Armour. Therefore, pick it up, press it as much as you can, enjoy its added tankiness! The movement skill of choice should be Flame Dash here, since we’re stacking a fair bit of cast speed.
Orb of Storms
As you are a fairly passive build, you could easily drop an Orb of Storms on any boss if you so wish. This enables you to make use of your curses as well as activate an Innervate Buff. Drop this on mobs that don’t instantly die & bosses. For maximum efficiency, you should only link Orb of Storms to Innervate & manually cast the curse, but that requires a lot of button presses while dodging bosses abilities that it might not be worth it.
Orb of Storms
Hextouch Support
Innervate Support
Conductivity