[3.29] PhazePlays Bleed Slams Slayer — Ground Slam of Earthshaking

PhazePlays' Bleed Slams Slayer for Path of Exile 3.29: Curse of the Allflame!

This build is a fantastic mapper with screen-wide coverage. It's a blast to play, has enormous damage, huge overleech life recovery, and unmatched damage uptime — and it's even better this league!

Bleed Slams will remain fantastic heading in to 3.29!

Bleed Slams Progression (changed this league):

Progression has been split into V1 and V2

• V1: Sunder— 1-button playstyle, less socket-pressure
• V2: Sunder + Vaal Ground Slam — 2-button playstyle, higher socket pressure

Follow whichever variant you prefer, and ignore the other

• Campaign: Sunder
• Maps / Earlygame: (V1) Sunder — or (V2) Sunder + Vaal Ground Slam
• Midgame / Lategame: Vaal Ground Slam of Earthshaking + Vaal Ground Slam (or stay Sunder if you prefer)

Loot Filter (Mapping-Only)

• Follow: 3.29_BleedSlamsMaps_PZ on my PoE Profile

Loot Filter (Campaign)

• Recommend gpAttackSlams filter: HERE once it gets updated
• This requires a text-to-speech soundpack to function, it won't load otherwise

The Slams

Sunder

• Long and narrow, gets wider as it travels
• Up to 5 enemies hit within each wave send out shockwaves which shreds dense monster packs
• The shockwaves can aggravate bleeds
• Only one Sunder can be activate at a time (though all Sunders travel for at least 2 waves)
• Excels at long and narrow maps (such as Silo), Uber Bosses where extra range is valuable (Uber Sirus, Uber Exarch), or content with tightly-packed dense monsters (Blight, Expedition, Harvest, Hive Fortress)

Sunder + Hydrosphere tech

• Battlemage's Cry + Hydrosphere + Sunder = 1 extra hit on single target for an extra 60% hit damage and also grants another chance to aggravate bleed
• Static Strike becomes droppable while running this setup
• 79 intelligence is required for level 1 Hydrosphere
• Minus mana cost rings are required otherwise mana will quickly run out, even while leap slamming
• • -Mana ring craft is found in Tier 14 Wasteland Map (top left of the atlas)
• Need enough sockets for this (usually 6 socket weapon and chest)
• If you swap to Ground Slam of Earthshaking, both Hydrosphere and Battlemage's Cry are no longer beneficial, drop them

Vaal Ground Slam

• Huge omni-directional AoE slam that's basically spammable. This skill feels great to press
• 4 charges, 15 souls per use, 1 second soul gain prevention
• Can be Exerted (Seismic Cry) unlike every other Vaal Slam

Ground Slam of Earthshaking

• Wide frontal cone slam with Huge Aoe and a higher chance to stun
• The bread and butter for mapping
• High damage effectiveness, fantastic for both clear and single target

Perforate of Bloodshed

• Alternative Bossing skill, does require being in melee range
• The damage numbers aren't impressive on paper, but in practice this skill is quite good as it provides multiple life leech instances, can quickly aggravate bleeds, and simplifies gameplay a bit

Bleed Mechanics

• Bleed deals physical damage over time
• There can be infinite bleeds on an enemy, but only the biggest bleed deals damage at any given moment
• For this build, Bleed lasts for ~4 seconds in the Early and Midgame, and ~6.5 seconds Lategame

Aggravate

• While a bleeding enemy is moving they take triple bleed damage
• A stationary enemy can be forced to be considered moving by aggravating an existing bleed
• Sources of Aggravate on this build:
• • 25% from the "25% chance to Aggravate Bleeding on targets you hit with Exerted Attacks" Bleed Mastery
  • 10% from Vulnerability quality
  • 10% from Bloodletting if you have it
• Static Strike hits rapidly to help aggravate bleeds
• Alternatively, Hydrosphere paired with Sunder grants an extra hit on each attack for a better chance at aggravating

Mapping

• Maintain Blood Rage
• The main mapping goal is to alternate back and forth between your primary slam and Vaal Ground Slam, the placement and timing of the slams is important to avoid running out of Vaal Ground Slam charges

Bossing

Bossing Opener / Priority List:

1. Vulnerability
2. Static Strike (non- Sunder)
3. Rallying Cry
4. Tincture
5. Slam!

Turn off the Tincture after ~5 seconds to avoid running out of mana

As our attacks can have a huge damage range variance with Ryslatha's Coil and Volatility Support, the more times you hit the better. Each hit gives you an opportunity to roll a higher bleed, aggravate an existing bleed, and add an additional 10-second Slayer life overleech instance

Ascendancy Order

1. Bane of Legends
2. Headsman
3. Brutal Fervour

For the 4th Ascendancy, there are a few options:

• Impact 60% increased Area of Effect while mapping and a bit of extra hit-damage
• Endless Hunger 20% attack speed, stun immunity, and bleed immunity — also frees up 2 passive points: the bleed moving mastery, and Unwavering Stance
• That didn't happen! from the Delirious Bloodline is a lategame option that grants a large defensive boost at the cost of a bit of damage. This is unlocked by completing Simulacrum which can be surprisingly difficult if you aren't prepared
• The new Brine Rot ascendancy node from the Velka Bloodline

Early on, Impact and Endless Hunger are mostly interchangeable, use whichever you prefer. I usually run Impact just because big slams are more fun

Skill Gems

Support Gem Priority: Two 6-Links

Ground Slam of Earthshaking / Sunder

1. Fist of War Support
2. Fortify Support
3. Brutality Support
4. Melee Physical Damage Support
5. Varies:
6. 1. Cruelty Support (mapping)
   2. Damage on Full Life Support
   3. Volatility Support (bossing)

Vaal Ground Slam

1. Brutality Support
2. Melee Physical Damage Support
3. Cruelty Support
4. Damage on Full Life Support
5. Maim Support

Gem Quality Priority Order

Sunder, Seismic Cry, Vulnerability, Ground Slam of Earthshaking, Blood Rage, Pride, Rallying Cry, Autoexertion, Static Strike, Frostblink

Frequently Asked Questions

Mana

Mana will definitely be harder to manage this patch with 7 or 8 link skills

Ways to fix mana:

• Get two -mana crafts on rings (highly recommended)
• Helmet Implicit: % increased Mana Cost Efficiency (Exarch)
• Life Mastery: Skills cost Life instead of 15% of mana cost
• Attack Mastery: Attack Skills cost Life instead of 20% of mana cost at Brinkmanship
• Mana Flask with the Enduring modifier (Effect is not removed when Unreserved Mana is Filled)
• Lifetap Support
• Later on, Runegraft of Treachery and a Destructive Aspect small cluster will ease up mana reservation

Defenses in Maps

• Get a big Life pool, 4.5k minimum to comfortably farm T16 maps. Not only does it make you tankier, the more health you have, the faster you can leech life
• Overcap your resistances by at least 20 (80 max fire res? have 100+ fire res on the character sheet)
• • Curse can lower your resistances by 30+, causing damage intake to spike massively.
  • Optional: Take the "Your Elemental Resistances cannot be lowered by Curses" protection mastery
  • Exposure can also lower resistances by 25
• Get a high armour chest (aim for 2k+ armour early maps, 4k+ armour midgame) ideally with a Physical Damage Reduction (PDR) suffix 6%+
• "% of physical damage taken as fire/cold/lightning" Eater influence implicits on Body/Helm
• Slayer mitigation is highly reliant on maintaining leech, fortify, and endurance charges. If these fall off, you might die
• Triple resistance flasks (Topaz Flask, Ruby Flask, Sapphire Flask — used when full) are huge defensively while mapping

Farmable Content

This build can farm anything in the game comfortably, except Legion simply because there are better builds for it

• Expedition: Great (consider the Attack Mastery: Monsters Cannot Block Your Attacks).
• • Sunder is also strong here, I think they're unable to block the shockwaves but uncertain
• Blight: Good, consider Sunder for difficult blights or blighted maps
• Harvest: Great, try out Sunder
• Breach: Great
• Ritual: Ground Slam of Earthshaking
• Delve: Should be comfortable farming around up to 500-600 depth
• Others: Betrayal, Delirium, Ultimatum, Abyss, and so on are all smooth

How Many Buttons is This?

• Mapping: Two buttons, usually Ground Slam of Earthshaking and Vaal Ground Slam alternating back and forth
• Bossing: Maintain Vulnerability, occasionally ( Rallying Cry / Tincture), Slam

Tips

• For serious bossing, consider swapping out Vaal Ground Slam for more Static Strike supports: Maim Support, More Duration Support, Ancestral Call Support
• The "Non-Vaal Strike Skills target 1 additional nearby Enemy" mastery on Brinkmanship can be solid if you use Static Strike often and prefer easier usage
• Exarch influenced maps are typically better than Eater influence on this build due to the Eater mob spawn delay

Useful Uniques

• Ryslatha's Coil — this is huge damage, and is the only unique that's required later on
• • The most important roll is a high "more Maximum Attack Damage"
  • Quality it with Abrasive Catalysts (Attack)
  • It's generally not a great idea to run both Ryslatha's Coil and Volatility Support together as sometimes you'll low roll damage while mapping and an enemy will take very little damage. The combo is great for bossing however!
  • It's a Tier 1 Unique, so fairly rare but farmable. Easiest way to self-farm it this league will probably be targeting unique belts at the Breach Genesis Tree. The Divination Cards (The Offspring, 9/9) can also be farmed but it'll probably take until level 99 or so to farm a full set
• The Writhing Jar — alternative to a life flask, maintains your leech damage reduction and fortify when there's nothing around you to hit.
• • Also recovers mana which is really nice with tincture. Great for Bossing!
• The Light of Meaning (Physical Damage) — Maurauder jewel socket, huge damage jewel!
• Redblade Banner — Offhand this eventually
• • Put Enduring Cry in an offhand socket for instant maximum endurance charges
• Death Rush — fantastic early-midgame unique for speed-mapping
• Progenesis expensive lategame flask that adds a big chunk of mapping defense
• Oriath's End decent source of mapping explosions for Breach

Twink Leveling Uniques

• Seven-League Step / Wanderlust
• Thrillsteel
• Death Rush
• Le Heup of All
• Replica Karui Ward
• Meginord's Girdle
• Always try to have a strong weapon throughout the campaign

Dealing with Ailments

• Shock: 60% reduction from Garukhan Minor Pantheon
• • Earlygame: 40% Shock reduction from a flask suffix
  • Lategame: "40% reduced Effect of Chill and Shock on you" boot craft
• Freeze: Brine King Pantheon with your first Divine Vessel
• Chill: 50% reduction from Bring King Pantheon
• • Earlygame: 50% Chill reduction from a flask suffix
  • Lategame: "40% reduced Effect of Chill and Shock on you" boot craft
• Ignite: Leech through it at all stages of the game, because Slayer. If your recovery can't handle it, grab Hematophagy or Vitality Void, and possibly take the "25% increased ... Recovery per second from Leech" mastery if desired. Getting a bigger life pool also helps your leech rate
• Bleed: "Moving while Bleeding doesn't cause you to take extra Damage" Bleed mastery
• Corrupted Blood, multiple options:
• • Run a Life Flask with bleed removal
  • "Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you" Protection Mastery
  • Jewel corruption Implicit with Corrupted Blood immunity
  • Leech through the stacks like a man

Stances

• In campaign with Blood and Sand, always stay in Blood Stance
• Once you drop Blood and Sand, the "30% increased damage while in Blood Stance Axe" mastery still works as characters in PoE are considered to be in blood stance by default
• In maps with Flesh and Stone, always stay in Sand Stance

Bandit

• Alira (15 all resist) on leaguestart, swap to Eramir lategame (20x Regret, 1x Onyx Amulet)
• Eramir (+1 passive point) otherwise

Map Rolling Regex

• Tier 16 Maps:
• • "!s rec|er,|tip|on,|o al|hered|eche|uct|tal d|tiles$"

If you're in softcore with good gear, consider creating your own regex as this is mostly intended for early-mid league with lower-end gear or in hardcore

• The mods that should 100% be avoided on this build:
• • Monsters cannot be Leeched from
  • Monsters have a (20-50)% chance to avoid Poison, Impale, and Bleeding
  • Players have (20-60)% less Recovery Rate of Life and Energy Shield

Annoints

• Hatchet Master (Verdant, Teal, Crimson) is the perfect early-midgame annoint. Drop the Onslaught flask when you get this
• Inveterate (Black, Black, Gold) lategame if going for Suppresson cap
• Martial Experience, Relentless, Cloth and Chain, Sentinel, Quickstep are some usable cheap first annoints

Endgame Crafting

• 2H Axe: Sundering Axe is generally the way to go, Vaal Axe is also a lategame option
• • Earlygame: Betrayal and hope for veiled %phys, or try gambling
  • Midgame: Recombinate T1 Flat Phys with T1-T3 HybridPhys, craft Prefixes Cannot be Changed, Veiled Chaos, hope for prefix unveil. If it lands and you unveil % Phys, wipe suffixes, multimod, craft attack speed and physical damage over time multiplier
  • Lategame: Endgame 2H Axe Recombination guide
• Body / Gloves / Helm: Likely crafted using Fractured bases from the Breach Genesis Tree
• • Body can also be crafted using Dense Fossils but they'll likely be very expensive. If so, Harvest Reforge Defense may be the way to go
• Boots — Start with Life fracture
• • Essence or Harvest into T1 suppression, a resist, and an open suffix
  • Multimod, suffixes cannot be changed (or wild bristle matron), veiled chaos, block mana if possible, hope for onslaught/movespeed unveil
  • If it fails, suffixes cannot be changed and try again (multimod stays)
• Rings — 2 Options:
• • Genesis Tree from Breach (reduced attack, reduced defense, more resists, more chaos)
  • Harvest reforge Chaos until good suffixes, use a Wild Bristle Matron (cheaper) or craft Suffixes Cannot be Changed, reforge Life, repeat until satisfied
• Amulet — Recombinate attributes, life, damage over time multiplier
• Jewels — Harvest reforge Life until %life and good damage mods or maximum resistance
• Medium Clusters — 4 or 5 Passive Physical Damage over Time, i68+. Craft with Harvest Reforge Physical
• • Rend(mandatory), Wound Aggravation, Flow of Life, Circling Oblivion, Wasting Affliction
• Large Clusters — 8 passive Axe/Sword — i50-67 cheaper to roll, i68+ works fine otherwise
• • Harvest Reforge Attack or Speed, or possibly Chaos Orb, until Fuel the Fight, Feed the Fury, and either Martial Prowess or Heavy Hitter for the 3rd. Exalt and Annul can also be useful here, as well as "Reforge More Likely"
• Small Cluster — 3 passive Suppression cluster
• • Chaos Orb, or any elemental Harvest Reforge (fire/cold/lightning) for Aerialist, Untouchable, Elegant Form and 25% increased Effect

• July 22 — Updated for 3.29