[3.12] Vaal Power Siphon Deadeye Revisited

https://pastebin.com/CghD2bxA -> under "ideal" conditions, we can manage to deal almost 4.4 million damage.

Coming soon

PROS

• Pretty good survivability. Tailwind, Acro + Phase Acro + Jade Flask of Reflexes makes up to 28K evasion making this a dodgy character
• High life pool (almost 6K HP)
• Excelent mapper. Very satisfying clear-speed (and crunchiness through Herald of Ice, that shatter sound is exquisite (?))
• Decent single target. Thanks to Shroud of the Lightless we have free elemental penetration. Some big bosses could take some time to get down but you'll have enough damage to do all content.
• Can work out on a budget, bosses will take some time to kill tho but the mapping will be awesome anyway

CONS

• Sadly, dodge is not everything. You can get one-shotted from time to time unless you invest heavily in attack/spell dodge besides Acro/Phase Acro
• Point blank. This leads to unexpected deaths as we want to be as close as possible to deal big damage.
• Not a budget-friendly. If you are willing to take end game with this character with comfort, you'll have to make a good investment. This is Awakened gems, a good rare wand, and very good abyss jewels alongside with other pieces of gear that boost up your damage. The gear presented here is enough to take end game in a decent way. You won't kill everything in 2 seconds, but it's enough to make it through.
• Definitely not a league starter. Is recommended to take the character as a second or third one as you may want to gain some currency first to build it up.

POB with all the trees: https://pastebin.com/Lyfu3mi7

To get a reference while leveling, follow the image:



On the marked dropdown, while using PoB, you'll find the different trees at certain levels. Trees are not mandatory, you can skip things if you want or follow a different path if you want. This is just a reference for you.

• You'll start using bows. Split Arrow and Burning Arrow from level 1 linked with Onslaught. At level 4 you can add Mirage Archer. Socket Burning Arrow somewhere else, as you want to use it for single-target in the earlier stages. Here you can grab Dash, Precision, and War Banner. Activate War Banner, Keep Precision gem at level 1, socket Dash somewhere too. At level 5, if you have it, use a Quillrain as you may find some issues with the mana sustain. Also, equip a mana flask.
• At level 8 link Added cold + Added lightning to your Split Arrow, stick with this skill until you get to level 12. Then replace split arrow for Rain of Arrows. Drop Onslaught for Elemental Damage with Attacks. Grab Herald of Ice at Act 2. Drop Burning arrow. Your links will be: RoA + Mirage Archer + Added Cold + Added Lightning + Elemental Damage with Attacks. If you feel that you can't sustain mana, drop Elemental Damage with attacks and keep RoA as a 4-link and keep Elemental Damage support socketed somewhere else to level it.
• Once in Act 3, grab Wrath and level it in your swap weapon in the meantime. Don't forget to do the Siosa mission (A Fixture of Fate), so you'll have unlocked many of the gems you'll need once you get to maps. Once you get that mission done, buy Kinetic Blast, Power Siphon, and Inspiration. Buy another Elemental Damage with Attacks and Elemental Focus. All these gems, if you have space, try to level them up on your swap weapons.
• Once you get to Act 4, you can start using wands. You may want to equip two Le Heup of All, and a Carnage Heart so in that way, you can cap your attributes and get some elemental resistances along the way. Drop your bow, equip two Storm Prisons, drop RoA, and socket Power Siphon instead. Keep the rest of the gems and socket Inspiration. This should help you with mana sustain. Grab Barrage Support, do not link it to your Power Siphon yet, and do your first lab. Grab Gathering Winds as your first Ascendancy points.
• From the start and onwards you only need to get life and stats along the way. Take care of your resistances and attributes, replace the unique with rares as long as you are good with stats and resistances.
• You'll keep everything as it is. Now your Power Siphon should be linked with Added Cold + Added Lightning + Inspiration + Elemental Damage with Attacks
• You'll get through the story. Once you hit Blood Aqueducts, you'll want to keep leveling here until you hit 69 or 70 when you can equip a good evasion shield and replace one of your Storm Prisons with a Piscator's Vigil wand. A non-corrupted one is fine until you can afford a corrupted one with "Damage penetrates #% Elemental Resistances" implicit mod. You can start using Kinetic Blast with Elemental Damage with Attacks, Inspiration (drop it from the PS links), and Greater Multiple Projectiles. Drop Added Cold from PS on your main link, socket Barrage Support, and socket Elemental Focus. From this point, you'll start using PS as your single-target skill. Kinetic Blast as your mapping skill
• From this point you'll try to grab jewel sockets, and crit/crit multi nodes. Before entering maps, do your second and third labs where you'll take Far Shot and Endless Munition to get one more projectile.
• Once you hit maps, you'll have replaced all your unique items for rare ones. Prioritize life, resistances, lightning damage to attacks, and stats if you need them. Gloves and chest will be replaced for Tombfist and the Shroud of the Lightless respectively. Otherwise, keep prioritizing life, resistances on your chest, evasion for more defense. For gloves, attack speed, elemental damage, life and resistances.
• Keep pushing end game and improving your gear from time to time.

Gathering Winds -> Far Shot -> Endless Munitions -> Ricochet.

These are my choices. If you need pierce, choose Powerful Precision. Rupture has no point as we don't deal with physical damage at all. Fast and Deadly would be a good option for more attack speed and accuracy.

• Help Alira. Otherwise, take the 2 passive points.
• Brine King + Garukhan while mapping. Soul of Solaris + Ryslatha against bosses as you don't want to run out on your life flask and the damage mitigation is good. Remember to always upgrade your pantheons.

Shroud of the Lightless for the win. It grants level 20 Elemental Penetration to our Power Siphon. And it grants good evasion, life and 1% increased life for per abyssal jewel affecting you. This is what you have on your belt, gloves, and in your tree. The corruption is not mandatory. I found this one pretty cheap (like 20C, IIRC), that's all. Good corruptions would be +1 to socketed gems coupled with generic "#% increased damage" mod, or pick the one you like the most.
Another option is Queen of the Forest if you want to go zoom-zoom only and don't care about bossing.

Links: Power Siphon + Barrage support + Awakened Elemental Focus + Awakened Added Lightning Damage + Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks.


I found Devoto's Devotion a great unique option. Attack speed, movement speed, some good evasion, everything in one place. The Reduced Global Physical Damage mod doesn't affect us as we use Piscator's Vigil as our main hand, it doesn't deal any physical damage. For rares, your best option would be a Warlord + Crusader base with +1 power charges, elemental damage, crit multi, 'nearby enemies take #% lightning' mod and life. Another cheap alternative is Starkonja's Head.
Always consider the Power Siphon additional projectiles enchant as an option.

Links: Kinetic Blast + Elemental Damage with Attacks + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Inspiration.


I choose Tombfist as my gloves with the Elemental Weakness corruption as they were very cheap. Also free Intimidate for 10% more damage against enemies.
If you pick a rare, consider life, attack speed, resistances.

Link: Wrath + Herald of Ice + Enlighten level 3.


Elusive boots. As we already have Tailwind, we boost up ourselves with Elusive for more spell and attack dodge. The movement speed helps us with clearing maps. I may say this is one of the best options. Life, movement speed, resistances, and Elusive. For enchantments, attack speed if you killed recently for mapping, elemental penetration if you haven't killed recently for bossing.

Links: CWDT + Immortal Call + Lightning Golem, Precision level 4.


Our main weapon will be a Piscator's with elemental penetration as an implicit mod. Nothing else to say here. It's a cheap option and powerful enough to take down all content. If you go for rares, consider one Imbued Wand with lightning damage, attack speed, crit chance/multi, and elemental penetration.

Links: Wave of Conviction (to apply lightning exposure) level 2 (this is important, keep as low as possible) + Faster Casting + Arcanist Brand. This is our support skill to apply elemental exposure. If you have mana to reserve, consider swapping Arcanist Brand for Spellslinger, for a better QoL.


We choose a shield with good evasion, life, and elemental resistances. A good alternative would be a Hunter, with mana reservation, life, and attack speed.

Links: Frenzy (to generate frenzy charges against bosses) + Flame Dash + Portal


For rings, lightning damage to attacks/spells and attacks if it's shaped, elemental damage with attacks.
For amulet, life, lightning damage to attacks, crit chance/multi. A good choice would be a Crusader amulet with lightning damage to attacks, life, lightning penetration, crit multi.
For belt, life, elemental damage with attacks, resistances.
Lastly, stats wherever you need them.


For abyss jewels, life lightning damage to attacks/to wand attacks, attack speed if you've crit recently, generic attack speed, crit multi.


For rare jewels, attack speed with wands, life, crit multi, generic attack speed.


We have some space for a small cluster jewel. Choose one that has Fettle on it. Everything else is up to your choice.


For flasks, Jade flask of Reflexes for good evasion, Alchemist's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline for more movement speed, anti-freeze Diamond flask, and anti-curse Silver flask. This is the setup I'm using while mapping.


I swap my Quicksilver flask and my Jade flask for a Wise Oak (because I've balanced my elemental resistances) and a Sulphur flask of Acceleration for bossing when facing Sirus or Conquerors.

Swap-weapon setup: this setup is by no means necessary, is only my personal choice.



I have a "+2 minimum frenzy charges" Redeemer's shield. Before entering battle I usually swap the weapon to get the charges to get a damage boost. The Prismatic Eclipse has a Vigilant Strike setup to get Fortify on hit to avoid random one-shots but I barely use the skill.

These are the items I consider a mid-budget set, that I was using during Heist league. Most of the gear was self-found and recrafted to suit my needs.
These are my options as I don't have the Power Siphon helmet enchant. For that, you must have a Dying Sun for additional projectiles. A rare amulet with the Prism Wave anointment, rare boots without Elusive, and my jewels most of them are rares, I have Abyss jewels only in my gloves and belt. As I was using Spell damage + Lightning damage wand, I decided to take the Wandslinger node on my tree and the rare jewels most of them have Spell damage + Attack speed with wands + life. Search for Crit chance if you can to crit more reliably.

Swap weapons to get Frenzy Charges. Swap again to your main weapon, cast your Arcanist Brand to attach it on the enemy, this will apply the lightning exposure. Hit the enemy with Frenzy to generate more Frenzy Charges, popup your flasks, and barrage the enemy with Power Siphon.