Spell Blade Skill Tier List & 40D Setup

Tested pretty much every hit based spell I could think of and tried my best to rank the skills based on my setup. This doesn't account for how certain skills become much stronger with specific adjustments and is only testing them with extremely minimal changes(grabbing ancestral bond 1 passive respec for totems/runebinder for brands ect). This combined with using whichever support gems I believe are optimal, most likely a few skills I didn't use the correct links as I am not perfect, for the full test run you can check the vod linked below as well as the vod from the day before to see me test the skills. After the tierlist I break down a 40d cost setup which I can recommend at the budget as the build was still quite strong at that investment level.
Character Profile for manual checking character
www.pathofexil...
40D gear assembly vod: twitch.tv/videos/1926185148?t=8h14m45s
This will show gear crafting/buying to get that number of cost for build showcased here.
MANDATORY for POB: pathofbuilding...
PoB: pobb.in/ERL4Lz...
/ captainlance9 Streaming Sometimes, good place to ask me questions about builds or PoE concepts or leave a comment and I'll try and respond.
/ discord Discord server community of exiles who enjoy making fun and unique builds
#TrialofTheAncestors #PathofExile #PoE

[@vail2367]

S+ tier: Awakened Spell Cascade

[@phennexion]

Yep I been using it and it's so good!!

[@HB_arialn]

To any crackling lance enjoyers: It was initially in A tier for really good damage and okay clear, but his brother CaptainLance moved it down to B tier to spite Twitch chatters

[@TheGabrielbowater]

Nice, I've been playing a similar build but on Inquisitor with CL and it's great. Occasionally you need to specifically target a white mob the beams missed but that's whatever

[@GE_Photon_Lord]

Based 😅

[@slouch186]

​@@TheGabrielbowateri will never understand why GGG decided to give crackling lance the ability to completely miss things in its AOE. such a bizarre feature lol

[@AquaticSkipper]

If he used the same links for all skills, crackling lance would underperform since intensify is always #1 support

[@eternalerror1]

Bladefall being S tier was a happy surprise because it always felt such a good spell to me.

[@niuage]

I wonder why we dont see more bladefall-only builds if it's that good. People just assume it's not good I guess and can only be played with bladeblast?

[@spiritkid9109]

I made a build in Sanctum that used Original Sin and stacked power charges to get ~1bil DPS on paper with all the overlaps. It's really strong with Spell Cascade.

[@BonyaDK]

@@niuage the reason why bladefall is good at this particular setup is specifically because of energy blade + spell blade interaction since spell blade adds 20-5k flat lightning damage for each hit, bladefall using woke spell cascade and intensify makes knives overlap resulting in immense DPS. In 99% of other scenarios this spell is similar to EK in terms of dps. P.S. I wonder if DPS would be much higher if Lance could sacrifice some of his gem slots to slot in 4L bladefall with 6L blade blast, I assume it could be disastrous DPS

[@niuage]

@@BonyaDK I see, thx.

[@Memebrain777]

Same, bladefall feels great. Favorite skill next to lightning strike personally

[@nd3078]

For anyone making a budget version. I went from a 90% reservation crown to a +2 socketed gems glimpse of chaos. The +2 level on enlighten makes up for the reservation. 1div glimpse compared to the 7div 80%. Currently at 8.8k ES with energy blade on. Not a tank at all, but every upgrade feels rly nice

[@SmokeMaxxx]

Would be cool to have timestamps for each skill in the vod (assuming you streamed the tests). In any case, thank you for this amazing compilation. Seeing firestorm so up high is surprising to me, maybe I'll give it a shot again some other time.

[@CaptainLance9]

I do not have timestamps sorry, I did them over the past couple days on stream

[@Alexman208GR]

WOOOOOOOW, that's like... the PERFECT video for me as I'm doing a spellblade AND battlemage build!

[@sober667]

That Hovees tease XD TBH Hooves sound like premium taget for spelblade memes

[@Dohwan2]

I enjoyed your build. Thank you :) This is short comment on what I played just for reference. Bladefall : Obviously, S tier. Good Mapping, Good Bossing. Reap : It's not working. When blood stacks, required life is increased. so, cannot use spell. If I adjust the life reservation, it could work but damage should be going down. Cracking Lance : A Tier. Good damage. Arc : B or C. Single target damage is quite bad. I was happy with this build!

[@DrevanTheHuman]

This looks rad. I've got an inquisitor I've been leveling with energy blade ghostwrithe stuff. Gonna build him into this. Cheers for all the testing, mate.

[@WIFFKING542]

scrolling up to reveal the HOOVES caught me off guard and made me cackle out in laughter

[@Keithdaeblah2566]

As some others have commented, I would be curious to know how blade vortex feels in that setup. Awakened unleash might be enough to keep up stacks but it might be somewhat awkward. The other skill I'm curious about is lvl 1 Stormbind. The idea is that the low level gem gives you the ability to charge runes fast since you only need 5 mana to improve a rune, using a separate high level gem to have a higher cost on rune blast. Of course it would require many adjustments since you would have to remove Blood Magic and also the life mastery that converts part of your mana cost to life. Since you are one of the few exiles to enjoy that skill I thought I would bring it up ^^

[@CaptainLance9]

I completely forgot about BV, my guess is it would be rough with no aoe scaling or explode :/

[@Eruerufu]

Played Impending doom Spellblade as a leaguestarter, and it just becomes that much better with some minor investment in curse-nodes. Definitely an S-tier skill with a little bit of specialization.

[@ZerkSees]

Alright well I’m sold! Been looking for something new to try and I think this is it! I want to give arc/crackling lance a try. Use arc for clear and then just swap in intensify and crackling lance for single target. Thanks for the video!

[@Sgt.Leonardo]

The second I saw your first post on this, I immediately thought about the HOOOOVES! Herald of Ice Autobomber.

[@alexk485]

Amazing as always thank you for making this

[@taiwanisacountry]

I did think that reap was going to be S tier, and I did expect bladefall to be at least top A tier. It is a really solid skill that is under utilized. Unearth do bave decent damage, because it is so fast. If there was a way to actually have it chain, fork or even return then it could be cool.

[@wintonafric5433]

Great video, what are the best links for Bladefall please ?

[@LetsGenocide]

can't find a part of the video where he talks about hooves, can anyone help? Or is it there just for the memes?

[@esportbets]

21:11

[@SCP42723]

I love stormbrand as a skill, could you please enlighten me on what to change on the PoB to play with that?. I'd love to be able to do sanctum with this character too If possible and I think stormbrand would be fine for that too, I'd really appreciate It. I love your build. I got about 55/60 divines saved up and have been looking around for something to play and this just looks super fun.

[@seventyfive1]

You gotta try lightning conduit of the heavens... makes it a 1 button playstyle. Could be better damage but it just feels awesome.

[@Crabunderscore]

Ah yes, the 3.23 nerf list

[@pzsolt93]

Exactly what nerf? lol

[@WeR2VEVO]

For those that want to make a Three Rat Talisman, I'm playing Manabond Hiero, so I also needed them; it took me 16 tries to hit even one, so keep in mind that if you're only going for Jorgin, you will be siphoning currency making lots of amulets until you hit, so please please also get aisling in research to offset this constant cost. Aisling is 3div right now, so that should be around as much as it costs you to make 2 good amulets to feed to Jorgin.

[@an-94abakan88]

This guy best in youtube poe! Real

[@koori049]

Did you just not mention the hooves? I must know!

[@ayemjake]

man at this point you might get two builds featured in build of the week.

[@EvilWeiRamirez]

I wish you did more with orb of storms, like an attack also. I always wanted to see how that would work. I also think orb with wave of conviction should have been the play, but lightning conduit makes sense too. I also wish you did other things with unearth, like cremation or vd. But damn, between you and bigducks repping firestorm, that's pretty cool.

[@crgjolicoeur]

I now have 14,700 ES and I have to say for me Arc of surging feels better than anything especially when supported by awakened spell echo

[@b74-ew8jk]

I am sad he didn't test storm bind, becuase SB is the only spell is good at lvl1(becasue of the mana cost), and since spellblade+battlemage gives so much added damage so lvl doesn't matter.

[@mikelezhnin8601]

As that one other person in comments wrote, I'd love to see discharge on this list.

[@ashenone33]

Is there a level where this becomes viable, or ok to level as and just grow into the build? Great work, as usual, CaptainLance!

[@ceckoangelov7449]

thats amazing to have build that can test👌

[@inciteful2216]

My first real build I made was coc blade fall poison assassin. Still one of my strongest all around builds to date. (Back when you could make your poisons last literally forever.)

[@alexsterling5788]

Having played Galvanic field, I can only assume you weren't getting big shocks on Uber Shaper (70% less damage taken will do that) which means yeah, it's gonna feel like trash since that's where all of it's scaling comes from. Outside of Ubers it should feel fine, I've played it recently with Voltaxic for the giga shocks but adding so much base damage should feels good even with significantly less shock. Working on it right now actually, energy blade with smite for clear and triggering shocks and Galvanic for rare/boss damage.

[@clyp3016]

He said the shock was not the problem it was the duration

[@alexsterling5788]

@@clyp3016 On my PoB (based on his but modified for an inquisitor) Galvanic takes about 2 seconds to do the same damage as a 10 stage flameblast, assuming with the same links. Flameblast is hitting without shock and Galvanic is at 50% shock. After 6 seconds that would be 3x the flameblast hit, and he ain't running a double six link so the gap will be even wider. I guarantee you as someone who's played Galvanic 3 league's in a row since it came out the duration is not the issue here. The story he described only makes sense on PoB if the shock is negligible.

[@tianyuanwang3961]

Great build! I followed your pobs and built my character today, damage feels amazing but I need to work more on the defense. Do you think we can opt out of Pathfinder with Mageblood setup?

[@strandwolf796]

damn, if that boss was with a brand skill it would have been destroyed, looking good in the budget setup

[@n0viceman]

Hi. Thank you for video! I like your build and will try to assemble it. Can you tell what skill did you link to Arcanist Brand? Thanks.

[@polymer5132]

Thank you very much for this. You are incredible!! How do you think these skills would fare on a totem build? Thanks.

[@ejswentura823]

Did ~140 Uber shapers and not a single sublime drop, and you get two, back to back, youre so lucky : D, I wonder what Has more chance, raw mirror drop or two sublime one after another

[@Trapp01]

Hi Captain, i was wondering if you could make a video of all the skills in action, like the uber shaper boss or a pinnacle boss. I'd like to see how they preform.

[@mikkelborby]

HOOOOVES

[@ulamss5]

Surprised to not see frostblink/ignite tested, it's also surprisingly smooth without any CDR investments

[@HOLLLLLYCRAP]

Chief how is he going to get lightning and cold damage to ignite as a scion without stormfire? Even with stormfire, frostblink has incredibly high base damage w/o great effectiveness of added damage. I'm sure you could shoe-horn frostblink ignite to work with this but it'd be lackluster as shit compared to a full elementalist one even if it would be infinitely more tanky.

[@kyleevans1129]

Ignite probably isn't viable, but I could see someone utilizing a movement skill here somehow. I'm not smart enough to figure that one out but I'm sure someone can

[@Blamjack]

The prospect of playing Bladefall is what sold me on this build. Love it to death so far

[@Evil_Arthas]

Should have use arcanist brand setup with Volatile Dead, would be an insane damage but chit clear

[@jurasickk1251]

Dude this is sick! i tried it but i was so frustrated to get it right. Seems it's not a good league starter but i hope you could find a way to get it down at 10 div budget XD

[@eugenebarrett]

Since your setup gives you so much added flat, try incinerate cwc bodyswap. They solve each other's problems, and you will still have enough damage - not sure how it will hold up at bossing, but it should be amazing for clearing.

[@Yakri]

This totally works on my version of the build, even with much lower investment. Although I'm doing crit inquisitor specifically setup for CwC/CoC. However this is possibly the worst visual mapping experience I've ever had, already starting to give me a migraine after 1 map because bodyswap never got the screen smoothing flickerstrike has. Also, you can do Volatile dead + Desecrate with CwC, which has about double the dps, better clear, and won't be physically painful. Remember you get 10 volatiles per trigger when doing PoB dps.

[@SimonMester]

Lightning spire is a seldom used skill, but the skill is not actually bad. It is WHOLLY reliant on getting enough area increases, then it becomes a monster of its own, but its not very easy or viable for most builds, so it feels meh for most builds.

[@winniethewhor]

Blade blast being low tier is because it has very specific requirements to have a high hit rate. It feels bad without lots of AoE on blade blast, and low AoE on bladefall.

[@thugbeard9753]

WOW, great work

[@justinhowe3878]

I realize this probably isn't a priority for you, but I wonder if you'd be willing to throw together a Cast on Crit POB for something like Arc or Eye of Winter.

[@yefritzinedineperezgomez5120]

Can I make a similar build that uses spellblade and firestorm with under 5div? I'm just not efficient at all making money on this game lmao

[@fkaliases]

You probably should test galvanic field again in combination with storm brand, those 2 skills synergize really well if you can get storm brand to hit hard enough to set up a 65 shock. granted, i'm usually using the elementalists shock node to get around that problem.

[@robery4008]

Can you change to assassin's mark then? To get power charges

[@stanr8982]

@21:11 He talks about Hooves

[@SaintFranssoix]

thanks

[@kgldjkgur2046]

I always wanted to play pure reap build thanks for info

[@carlostrevisan1980]

57 uber shapers. The man change the endgame statistics by himself hahahahah

[@Woolfio]

Discharge has 600% damage effectiveness. Maybe it would work even if you don't scale any charges, although AoE would be shit.

[@taiwanisacountry]

Then it is easier to play any non trap/mine/2 button build. Even cremation with its excellent damage due to high up time is preferable to get charges and then detonate them for a single use of damage. In the same time you could have thrown down a couple of corpses and setup 3 geysers. You can even prepare your damage during the purple ball phase.

[@LlaroldLive]

Dude, hell yes.

[@Vandurman]

Hello. What do u think abound crit damage reduction tattoo? Is it good idea buy Rathpith Globe with crit reduction corrupt and 7 tattoos for becoming crit immune?

[@Kennethterkildsen]

Does your Magnum Opus RF work in 3.22? Are you gonna try it again. Would love to see your progression

[@christopherperez9666]

do you think this version is still a viable version to work toward in 3.23?

[@ThatDanishFellowPlays]

are freeze and stun immunity not picked up on purpose or am I missing something crucial? 🤓 (idk how stun works in terms of HP pools)

[@traviswilcox7530]

is lance streaming this from heaven? so bright white

[@spinalgrey3600]

Wait a second, hearld of ice will be good for clear speed? with that much flat spell dps this shoudnt pops screens?

[@FlippyK]

Flat spell doesn't apply to herald of ice explosions, only generic flat damage (such as ring craft)

[@Alexandra-hr8lq]

As someone who isn't very knowledgeable on support gems, what's the general setup for most of the skills?😅 More specifically I'd be most interested in Reap :3

[@Alexandra-hr8lq]

Oooh I just realized, I can just check the VOD!

[@stan780]

@@Alexandra-hr8lq if you got the info, can you pass it on please ?

[@satibel]

tbh when you have a 50+div build a 24 div support is fine imo. and you can play something else till you get it.

[@SnarkyLesbian]

So the things in S tier need a lot of divines to buy an awakened gem, and the high level to equip it. Hmmm...

[@yk808]

Anomalous Tornado could be pretty good with this set up, but then it won't be better than most other things.

[@wattser10]

Trying to see how this works but how do you cast abilities? as soon as i pick up Zealot's Oath and Coruscating flask goes off im at 1 hp and cant do anything

[@GCorndog]

Did you use Dark Pact on skeletons with chain? or cast on self?

[@FishofMuu]

Abberath's Fury + Shield Charge? It makes a big difference :P

[@Cke-tg3bq]

I am playing a CoC Spell Blade Inquisitor which obviously has some different interactions than self casting. Having said that Firestorm felt really amazing and could kinda contest with Ice Spear on single target (didnt optimize for Ice Spear tho). Dont think I will play anything else with this character.

[@niuage]

I'm always amazed at those who can withstand the look of firestorm ^^. I so much prefered the old version of it.

[@no21toedio]

@@niuage Base firestorm is horrible, but the celestial mtx makes it one of my favourites. Played it a few leagues back with wardloop, amazing damage and clear.

[@charlesdavis5772]

In all of your vids on this build, you don't talk about the base weapon. Not familiar with Spell Blade, so I just am not understanding something.

[@ZabbonRage]

If you could add a little 5 or so seconds clip of each build while you talk about them would make the video 10 times more interesting

[@Z1pZ1p3r]

Why the hell are awakened gems even part of the equation?

[@mitoygamingph8123]

What are the support gems for bladefall with Spell Cascade

[@KevLo64]

What about blade vortex? Did I miss it?

[@MrFuerte92]

Could you make a melee/attack skill tier list as well? Or a Top 3 Clear - Bosser build, and If you like the idea you can make 3 budget groups, so you'll have more flexibility. for example 25 div 50 div and 100 div+ . Have a nice one!

[@dev.1004]

you missed the point of this tier list. it's for spellblade support. you're never going to be using attack skills with this build

[@bigchungus6827]

How do you even use reap comfortably on that setup? It costs life to use, and a lot of it.

[@yinongxu9355]

Anyone know why go for Scion instead of inquisidor? I mean inq have battlemage and shall have much better scaling with energy blade? Is it because of the flask sustain or am I missing something?

[@xXVintersorgXx]

I think it's because he's attribute stacking which scion does way better

[@yinongxu9355]

I think its because Scion does better in terms of scaling with life AND attibutes, where Inquisidor is good at scaling with attributes. BUT inquisitor has build in Crit and can double dip with battlemage they can do COC and be crazy about the damage. I have tried both and experimented a bit can I personally like inquisitor better due to the damage and being able to coc any spell (feelsgoodman)

[@katiegrayx3637]

:D HOOVES

[@n8doggy733]

Surging Thoughts?

[@wudude3545]

I need to see the hooves

[@ericlaplante4975]

hey lance, any reason you run self cast over CoC?

[@revoktorment440]

Sad that his budget version is more than I ever made in a league... Just can't play that much at league start then after a while stuff doesnt sell

[@proshore6431]

How does he fit in all his auras? i have corruption on helm but i cant fit discipline in the build? what am i missing, thanks

[@DK-qp4jf]

life reservation tattoos, an this build is really hard with no build guide you practically stumbling blind and it doesn't help that not having enough attributes gimps this build where you cant even do t16 maps

[@vladimira8211]

Tbh I will not recommend this build to anyone watching. Especially the 40d version - leveled it to like 91 with 40d-ish gear. The build turned out to be slow, very squishy as the only defence is ES which is not reliable at all, monster packs can easily put it from 10k to 0 in a couple of seconds. Also, the damage is not that insane. My gear is rather decent, but I really see no point in progressing any further as it's the pain. Summing it all up - I regret the time spent for this build, so I'm going back to my Tornado shot deadye ( which was like x10 better than this build with a 30d budget as a LA version ). It's a nice experiment, but doesn't worth the time and effort for sure. The build is far from stable.

[@mikeg8343]

Agree, new player I tried to get tanky and thought this was it because of all the energy shield, it wasn’t. I am liking blood magic lifestacking spellblock regen build

[@Peace_is_an_answer]

Vaal arc ignite explosion chieftain

[@m.h.4907]

Where can I check what support gems I need to setup for Reap?

[@MiguelCruz-uu1lk]

What are the gems for Impending Doom that you use?

[@MiktoTamirra]

Where is balde vortex?

[@kakkaohjus]

I'd bet it would go around B-tier with other Novas.

[@MiktoTamirra]

@@kakkaohjus It has insane AOE, best damage out of these presented, and it has Vaal which is even more AOE and DMG

[@issaalaa753]

@@MiktoTamirra blade vortex is garbage without explode. literally fucking heavy strike probably clears better than base blade vortex.

[@H1nted]

Gilgamesh build soon with bladefall

[@emarbeats6896]

Looking for my second build after farming 100Div. Think I found it

[@matthewdelbert1845]

By chance do you have a variant for Inquisitor?

[@stylusevans7343]

how do you sustain your HP with Blood Magic?

[@henry-ng]

Can you guy give a review about Lightning Conduit

[@Axs179]

How are your flasks permanently up?

[@shellshocktrophies2975]

I'd like to know this too

[@nathanielcoleman8195]

do we have a budget versionin the work s?

[@ultimosoneto674]

Hi. Bro, i can't find that spell blade weapon to buy. Where did you finded?

[@ultimosoneto674]

has an abyss socket tough@regigrenski8434

[@Senny_V]

It's a support gem* not a skill gem

[@miximus_op7696]

where can i see gemlinks for all skills in this tier list?

[@iAMxVV]

I've been cooking up a cold dot spell blade witch and was really hoping to see vortex and cold snap on here.

[@guyincognito7188]

can anyone explain to me why he takes eternal youth?