[3.12] Aziire's Splitting Steel Champion - Impale Explosions! | League Starter

Awesome guide!

gona start to try out alternate quality gems.

more impales could work vs single target

Following this for gems, gearing and general strategy but invested into Axes on the tree and using a couple of decent rares.

Is it worth it at 86 to throw money at Regrets to spec into Swords?

followed this build for my 2nd char after my GC miner league starter. at level 44 i couldn't handle the how clunky the skill felt.

must be something wrong that i'm doing but the shard mechanic makes it feel really really bad.
max of 12 shards and lancing steel uses 4 shards per cast makes me feel like i'm playing a shooter with a 3-round magazine while others are running around with 300-round mags.

got a Lord of Steel with 100% reduction and it still feels clunky. after my 1st lab and having enough levels for the correct 6-link gems setup it just doesn't feel like the skill is worth building around.

even when i cast into a pack, the random nature of projectiles means that i don't 100% clear the whole pack 100% of the time.

Thank you for your build! I played max block/ HOA last leagues and the required APM fells refreshing.
Since this build already requires a lot of casts, what do you think about Atziri's Acuitiy + Increased Critical Strikes Support on the main skill? You already go into Heartseeker, so a higher crit chance + Multi might increase dmg.Eagle Eye might be another node one should take in this case. I'm currently running Daresso's Defiance and the crit chance is very low, while the multi is very decent. I don't think im getting the max out of it right now.

PARADOXICA WAS FIXED!!!

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2953721/page/1#p23557219

Build has been fun leveling so far, but haven't had much luck with actually blocking anything while at ~50%

Here's hoping I can survive in maps! Heists have been scary, and IC is the only saving grace that's kept me alive up until now.

I just killed Sirus A8 with not too much trouble, and who rewarded me with awakened vicious projectiles.

A few things to note :

- I went for a max block variant (75% with rumi's flask) and also snagged a nice large cluster jewel with 3 notables. Even then, with 5.2k hp, max res (except for chaos) and max block, I sometimes (often) get annihilated by mobs, most often in one shot or by being stunlocked and mobbed to death. I really don't know how to improve this...

- I can confirm that the saviour really boosts your DPS. I went with scaeva + ahn's might until lvl 92 and the map clear was pretty nice, aside from alva's temples and legion (I could barely kill anything). With Saviour, alva's temples get destroyed and I can kill more mobs in legion encounters though I haven't been able to clear more than 50% of a legion encounter during the countdown. Bossing (temple bosses, map bosses, sirus, syndicate people) is also still sub-par, I think mainly because of the lack of packs of mobs that enable some huge shotgun damage from call of steel.

- Until I got the Saviour, I was alternating between the 3 steel skills : splitting for the map clear, shattering for bosses with minions and lancing for lone bosses. Now, I only use lancing for lone bosses (especially Sirus) as it allows us to attack while running.

- I don't know how I can afford a unique armour, elemental resistances are a huge pain to deal with and I wonder if a max life/+% crit chance chest would be a better option as I feel like this build is sorely lacking in survivability

- I'm also wondering about using the Tombfist gloves as they'd allow you to have blind and taunt (if you also use a stygian vise with the appropriate affix jewel) and to spec into the upgraded fortify ascendancy.

Feedback would be much appreciated :)

I league started this build and I just wanted to say an amazing budget option before you get your savior is 2 beltimber blades, super cheap at~3-5c each; around 300~pdps, extra proj and far shot.

If you are doing this while you use the beltimbers you can actually take out greater multi proj for a damage link like bleeding or conc support.

ALSO BIG QOL, go get a sinvictas mettle, you can use it for your weapon swap, because we dont have any auras on our weapons, FREE RAMPAGE :D

Thanks for the guide.

I think you should add a quick playstyle blurb in the intro. Personally the build felt really clunky until I got the feel for it. Then it went much smoother. Something like:

Splitting Steel for mobs

1. Use call of steel for max shards when you enter an area.
2. use splitting steel once then call of steel so that it maximizes reflected damage.
3. get Lord of steel jewel asap to improve quality of life.

Lancing steel for single target

1. Use call of steel for max shards when you enter an area.
2. get max impales on bosses with lancing steel.
3. Use call of steel after max impales and as needed.


BTW Really fun build. always wanted to try an impale build. I've grown to like the active playstyle it involves.