[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Shadow Builds That Wreck Hard!

Shadows in this league, and in particular, Saboteurs and Assassins, have become the flavor of the month’s ascendancies, through several content creators hyping up certain builds as well as the overall damage output of the Assassin.

Here are some of the top builds for the Shadow!

5 – Velyna’s Poets Pen Blade Blast Assassin

Bladefall and Blade Blast against Sirius

A veritable rain of blades with auto-casting and auto-aiming that will melt your enemies where they stand. Cover your screen in deadly green blades and explosions and enjoy the lazy playstyle of this build!

What Velyna’s Poet’s Pen Blade Blast Excels in:

• Super smooth clearing;
• Low Budget to start with;
• Great damage;
• Screen-wide clearing.

Velyna’s Poet’s Pen BB full details:

• Poet’s Pen is a unique wand that auto-casts any socketed spells when you attack, and this build makes use of this combined with Cast on Critical Strike to cover the screen with Bladefall and then explode all the lingering blades with Blade Blast, dealing massive area damage;
• The build can reach over 5 million DPS and can clear most content without an issue. It isn’t the tankiest, but with several items that have life gained on attack/spell hit, you can pretty much brute force survivability;
• It is also 100% Spell Suppressed, Elusive with high effect, and can reach over 7k EHP in total, with Doryani’s Glorious Vanity jewel.

For more information, click here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3006353

4 – KissMeQuick’s Unleashed Reaper Assassin

Reap in a 100% Delirious Map

This build does it all. It has an absurdly high damage ceiling and you can clear maps quickly, without hassle, while being substantially tanky as well!

What KissMeQuick’s Unleashed Reaper Excels in:

• Over 7,5k EHP;
• Can reach upwards of 40 million damage in AoE when properly invested;
• It’s very flexible and can adapt itself to do any content;
• Good league starter.

KissMeQuick’s Unleashed Reaper Assassin full details:

• We make use of Awaked Spell Cascade, combined with Unleashed (Woke version too, if possible) to unleash 3-5 repeats of Reap in a star formation that overlaps, with each Reap dealing 4-5 Million damage.
• The gearing is completely incremental. There are no required uniques and nothing unachievable with proper farming. You can take it slow and get each upgrade after the other. The first major one is definitely Awakened Spell Cascade, which nearly triples your damage.
• When you’ve amassed a good amount of currency, a +3 Cane of the Kulemak is a great purchase, especially with Empower to further boost Reap’s damage.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3079012

3 – Qosmoz’s LL Eye of Winter Mines Saboteur

Maven Fight

In PoE’s recent memory, Miners have always been one of the best bosses, and this one is no different! Instantly phase bosses and kill most of them with cheap, starter gear is a no-brainer for this build.

What Qosmoz’s LL EoW Mines Excels in:

• Boss Deleting Machine;
• Easy and cheap to start with, great for SSF and League Start;
• Any map mods, since mines don’t care about reflect;
• Very tanky with full suppression, block, high evasion, and a big EHP.

Qosmoz’s LL Eye of Winter Mines Saboteur full details:

• Low Life means that you can achieve absurd levels of damage, due to being able to stack three more auras with Prism Guardian and the reservation mana changes that GGG introduced in 3.16 make it all that much easier to do;
• Any boss that allows you to pre-lay your mines makes it so they’re instantly deleted as soon as they’re damageable. For quick and teleporting bosses, use Swift Assembly!
• To give you even more damage, if you think it’s needed, you can also use Hydrosphere, Flame Wall, or Tornado. Each has a different reason, and Flame Wall triggers one of Saboteur’s Ascendancy node, that gives you Crit Multi on hitting burning enemies.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3155974

2 – LL CoC Ice Nova Assassin

Amazing Ice Nova coverage with Celestial MTX

This has always been a favorite build of mine, ever since Cospri’s Malice was introduced into the game, and a build I’m playing in this league as well, so I’m very familiar with it! With proper investment, this can do it all, and it’s remarkably cheap to start with it in this league!

What the LL CoC Ice Nova Excels in:

• Smooth as butter clearing;
• Over 5 million DPS with proper endgame gearing;
• Quite tanky, reaching over 20k Armor and Evasion, as well as 8k Energy Shield;
• Almost an aura stacker.

LL CoC Ice Nova Assassin full details:

• With the mana changes back in 3.15, we have to deal with CoC procs costing mana, instead of being free as it used to be. We do it by using some reduced mana gear and minus flat mana cost on rings;
• Cospri’s Malice is our utility setup while our body armor, Shavronne’s Wrappings (which enables Low Life) has the bulk of our damage. As always, CoC has certain breakpoints to achieve optimum DPS, and those, in general, can be hard to balance;
• Reaching over 8k ES, combined with the new Armor and Evasion changes, makes for a massively tanky build that can pretty much bulldoze its way through anything!

For more information, click here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3211730

1 – Seismic/Exsanguinate Trap Saboteur

Exsanguinate with Transcendence MTX

This is by far the single most played build in 3.16. It is the definition of ‘flavor of the month’, and it has most definitely earned that position due to how flexible and strong it is.

What the Seismic/Exsanguinate Trap Saboteur Excels in:

• Fairly tanky with several layers of defenses;
• Great Single Target damage;
• Respectable Clearing with Exsang.;
• Extremely budget and great for SSF and League Start.

Seismic/Exsanguinate Trap Saboteur full details:

• Traps, in general, can be jarring to get used to, but with Exsanguinate being auto-tracking and so good at clearing makes it for an enjoyable playstyle, with the occasional Seismic thrown at rare mobs or tougher packs;
• The BiS dagger is dual-wielding Cold Iron Points, to amplify both Seismic and Exsanguinate levels to over 28, with proper gear investment;
• The Devouring Diadem makes it so you have no problems with mana as well as enabling you to allocate all of your mana to reserving auras to further boost your defenses and damage.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3179858

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