Hi all,

I've been playing Bladefall of Trarthus + Blade Blast build for a while now and wanted to share my build here. I have played this build all the way from 20d to my current roughly 550d worth character. I've killed 5/7 ubers so far and have yet to try the last 2. It plays like an autobomber during most mapping with a Blade Blast for single target on tankier mobs and bosses. Here's my current character to start off with. Lower budget versions are included at the end of the post. https://pobb.in/XGaRNmOzbAex

Here's a showcase of The Feared on my current character: https://youtu.be/3Hpzd7ABec4

Here's a random T16 settlers rush map showcase on my current character: https://youtu.be/pBwh70uyd-w

Here's a T17 and Uber Sirus showcase where I'm doing a ~100d version in the T17 pre boss, swapping to my current version post boss and for Uber Sirus. The only reason I died in the T17 was because I accidentally lost all my energy shield due to the agnostic when removing the timeless jewel and in Uber Sirus due to a laggy instance. The lower budget version I used uses the Traitor keystone to cap res through flask, however if you can properly fix the res on gear or clusters you'll be able to run a much better flask setup without Traitor for better speed while mapping (ms suffix, onslaught flask, armour flasks and suffix). Both versions will be included at the end of the post. https://youtu.be/pBwh70uyd-w

Onto the explanation of the build. I might make a video explaining the build later, but I wanted to get it out there in text form to hear thoughts and feedback first.

Unlike regular Bladefall, Bladefall of Trarthus automatically fires volleys of blades for a % mana cost per second. This allows us to automatically spawn blades for Blade Blast and even better allows an autobomber playstyle with Bladefall of Trarthus with Blade Blast for added single target. You only need to activate Bladefall of Trarthus at the beginning of the instance and it will continue to cast as long as you have mana. I decided to scale the build mainly through mana so I'd be able to play it as an autobomber and to get a ton of blades for Blade Blast.

By default a volley of blades falls every 0.7 seconds for an average of 7 blades per second, however we get 2% increased volley frequency per 100 maximum mana. By scaling mana to around 18k I'm getting 6.6 casts per second for an average of 33 blades per second. This is not an exact number. More is better. This allows me to hit a lot of enemies per second to play like an autobomber and Blade Blast a lot of blades per second for single target damage. In my pob I'm estimating with 20 blade hits per second, but it could be more or less depending on overlaps. It's there for reference and testing upgrades. I don't need an accurate number. The damage is plenty.

I'm scaling energy shield based on mana. I've got 20% of mana as extra energy shield from Hierophant, 15% from helmet and 9% from watcher's eye for a total of 44% of mana as extra maximum energy shield. Add a little bit of energy shield on top from gear, passives and discipline and I get a decent energy shield pool while being able to mainly invest into mana. I'm also getting int wherever possible since that scales both mana and energy shield and on the high end you can get a damage per int amulet like mine for a lot of extra damage.

I'm then converting part of that energy shield into damage with energy blade. Energy blade (with enhance 4) gives 39% less maximum energy shield in exchange for replacing your weapon with a lot of flat added lightning damage. This means your original weapon doesn't do anything other than sockets. I'm using one with an abyssal socket. I'm then using spellblade support and battlemage, from inquisitor forbidden jewels, to get a lot of flat added lightning damage to spells from my energy blade. At this point I've actually got enough base lightning damage that archmage isn't actually worth using due to it's heavy mana cost. I can't sustain Blade Blast cost with archmage on single target and since I already have so much flat damage it's actually not a big loss to get another more multiplier instead. I'm using awakened increased area of effect instead and depending on overlaps it might actually even be better, however it's difficult to accurately test overlaps.

Like mentioned in the previous part it's rough to sustain mana cost if you'd use archmage, but it's similar for Bladefall of Trarthus. On my proper 4l it would cost 11% of mana per second. At the same time my Arcane Cloak also costs about 8% of mana per second. Combined that's 19% of mana per second. You'd need around 3.5k mana regen to sustain that. I'm closer to 2.5k regen. I opt to use Item Rarity instead as my 4th link since it doesn't have a mana cost multiplier while still being usefull and thus reducing the mana cost per second to 8% for a total of 16% which is still around 2.9k. In the end if you don't fully sustain the mana cost you don't run out of mana, since Arcane Cloak is based on current mana so you'd balance out somewhere around 30-70% mana or something, but you would run out if you use archmage on Blade Blast. The main problem with not sustaining is that you have a weaker Arcane Cloak shield and less mana to defend against chaos damage through Ivory Tower. This is a non-issue during mapping where you get mana on kill, but I'd prefer more regen to sustain it fully on single target.

Since I'm dealing lightning damage I'm using a doryani's prototype on my merc. By giving my merc -200% lightning res, nearby enemies all have -200% lightning res and I no longer need pen or curses. I'm using a Fallen Reverend with Wrath and Zealotry so I don't need to run them. I also gave my merc gear with wrath aura effect to boost it even further. This merc is mandatory for the way I built. You can start with a Wrath only merc while looking for one with Zealotry as well, but it's a big damage boost. You don't necessarily need to start off with -200%, but the closer the better. Perquils toe for lucky damage, asenath's gentle touch for a little bit of explode and cap res through helmet and boots. My actual merc gear can be found here: https://pobb.in/sjLtduKQLCp5

As for your own gear, just get a lot of mana, ele/chaos res cap, dex/str requirement, int (mana/es) and es on rares. Ivory Tower is necessary to survive chaos damage and allow low life for auras while also giving good stats. Mindspiral is best in slot helmet for it's 15% of maximum mana as extra energy shield. Make sure to get perfect roll on that mod at least. Atziri's foible is a very hard to beat amulet due to it's mana, mana regen and reduced attribute requirement. You'd need a high end amulet like my focused amulet (or even better an int stacking simplex) to beat it, otherwise keep atziri's foible all the way. Watcher's eye preferably with leech and mana as extra energy shield.

Most gear in the 100d pobs below is just bought gear, except for small clusters. For small clusters, either buy decent ones or just spam lucent fossils on an i84+ 3p mana cluster base until satisfied with it's notable + mana roll and preferably a bit of res on the suffixes. Make sure to have at least one small cluster with Stubborn Student notable for a lot of armour. Other than that Openness is the best notable for mana, but not mandatory. However the more you skip out on mana the less energy shield and damage you'll also have.

My endgame ring and amulet are self crafted. For the amulet you'd need to look up how to awakeners orb craft a focused/simplex amulet. I honestly don't even fully understand how it works myself (magic lock crafting), but for example captainlance has a video on how it works for simplex amulet which would explain it better than I could. My ring on the other end I self crafted and would be too much to explain here in detail. I'm still trying to upgrade to a perfect ring, at which point I'd probably make a seperate post. You don't need a ring like this, it's just high end upgrades. Just get similar stats like mana, int, chaos res, mana regen and es.

I think that's about it for how the build currently works. For the future, I'm still trying to improve the build a bit. Mainly defensively. Mana/ES on kill carries hard during mapping, but I'd like a bit more defence on single target to be able to afford more mistakes when my mechanics fail on me. For most softcore purposes the defence is good enough, but where possible I'd like to improve it. I could go block, but that's mostly for lots of hits during mapping but that's not a problem already. I could run triple ele flask for max res, but I think phys is a bigger problem so I don't want to drop the armour. If anyone has some suggestions I'm happy to hear them and improve the build.

I modified my own characters pob by dropping mageblood, end game ring and amulet to lower its budget to roughly 100d. I made a version with the Traitor keystone for permanent flask uptime to cap elemental resistance through flask, however it lacks the movement speed and onslaught from flask for fast mapping qol. I'd recommend trying to cap res on gear and clusters so you can use the non Traitor setup with better flasks. The non Traitor setup also frees up a jewel socket so you can use impossible escape for soul thief instead of anoint to get a better anoint instead.

Non Traitor setup: https://pobb.in/aHYvpgYoVztT

Traitor setup: https://pobb.in/NSBUag6Ch1gF

I realise that level 98 is a bit high for a pob, but I leveled my own character to 98 in regular alch and go mapping, so it's not that bad to get there. Anything below 98 just remove a few small mana nodes that aren't mandatory to get the notables and below that drop any mana notables that gives you the least mana or a small cluster. Shouldn't be difficult to find out in pob.

For those curious, here's how I played the build pre mageblood. This is the 23k mana setup. It's more of a meme to push for. The Ivory Tower energy blade spellblade setup is a lot better. This is without perquils toe on merc allowing to use a -lightning res amulet to make it cheaper. This is with mana problems on single target with archmage and more 'problems', however it worked fine for me to farm until mageblood. I've improved the build a lot since, but you could use it for reference on a lower budget if you really want to. https://pobb.in/rz-4b5gYVGMo