Vaal Blade Vortex Ascendant

Why Vaal Blade Vortex Ascendant?

+ fast
+ 1-2 million shaper dps
+ can delve to 600+
+ hc suitable: enduring, enough defence layers
+ ssf/budget viable, just not as good
+ great for leveling 12-100
+ can take t17 elder slam with 8k+ hp
- can't take t17 shaper slam with 8.4k hp
- expensive
- no leech is hard, doable but in hard areas it requires flasks and carefulness
- reduced curse effectiveness on boss (who already has it) fights without minions is harder


Jufda's achievments
Uber Elder service up in a few days after league start in 3.5 Bestiary SC
Delved to 540 depth in the first two weeks in 3.4 Delve SSF (2nd in depth, 8th in xp at lvl 97)
Got Demigod as Assassin in 3.3 SSF HC Incursion Flashback race event with v BV
Killed Uber Elder as block gladiator with 500k dps and 5.9k hp in 3.3 Incursion SC
Made first endgame character in 3.0 SC Harbinger: Freezing Pulse Elementalist
Tried the game first time in 2013-01 (closed beta), played halfway through the 2nd act

Videos:
Ghosted phoenix with RF jugger for comparision
Uber elder slam example showing hale negator bug
Random Uber Elder kill from my service

Skill tree, pob pastebin
Path of building: https://pastebin.com/wcjx34Ef
Example lvl 93 tree

Labyrinth: Ascendancy
Slayer + trickster for 115% (+pantheon) of max life leeched per second, (frenzy) and power charges
Slayer + Elementalist for overleech, dmg, reflect immunity (Jufda's choice for 3.5)
Pathfinder + Assassin for speed, power charges, flasks
Inquisitor + Elementalist for ele dmg (against resists)
Necromancer for skill effect duration, offering buffs

Labyrinth: Enchants
Helmet
BV duration is the best QoL, for mapping speed probably the best
BV Spell damage > BV crit multiplier per blade

Consider keeping these for budget/SSF build in a good helmet:
blood rage att spd gives shield charge speed
herald / hatred reduced mana reserved

Boots
added lightning damage is nice for bosses
att & cast spd is great for speed
leech counters anticurse areas excluding some bosses

Gloves
Whichever grinds your gears the way you enjoy most.

Pantheon (godly powers)
Major: 50% recovery rate after stopping taking dot in 4s (cwdt + blood rage + immortal call to have it up when needed)
Minor: Garukhan / Gruthkul or Ralakesh / Shakari, depending on what weak point needs most covering

Gear (betrayal) and explanation (stats explained in detail later), my gear and what to upgrade next
BIS
Helmet: Hale Negator for hard hitting stuff (the more abyssal jewels the better)
Rare with: 90+ comparable total flat life, t1 phys dmg added to spells, t1 area dmg
Gloves: Atziri's Acuity for Vaal Pact
Boots: 35% move spd, 80+ comparable total flat life, 10-15% skill effect duration, dodge, (resists)
Chest: Loreweave (+1 gems (with empower lvl4) / +2 aoe gems / +2 duration gems are the best corruptions)
Belt: 1. life, 2. life recovery rate, 3. dmg, resists
Amulet: 1. max life to max life leech rate, 2. dmg, 3. life, 4. resists
Ring1: Mark of the Shaper (about 15% total dps with elder ring in the other slot)
Ring2: Curse enemies with warlord's mark on hit
1h melee: Weapon that gives most damage is the best one. Search I used (shows the stat priorities, for my gear from early league, probably good approximation, but worth checking each weapon in PoB before buying/switching)
Shield: 1. life, 2. dmg, resists

life = +x to life + (% increased maximum life)*8 + strength/2 or so, how much % increased life actually gives you depends on the amount of flat life from items

dmg =
physical damage added to spells
% increased (spell / area) damage (while holding a shield)
crit multiplier
elemental damage added to spells


cheaper ("budget gear")
Helmet: Lightpoacher (Starkonja / Devoto / Rat's cage or rare with good life, but with less dmg / resists
Boots: Atziri's step, rares with 30% move spd + good life + some resists
Any rares that have suitable stats work well enough until you try really hard content in the endgame.


Flasks
Wise oak for 10% reduced elemental damage taken and around 10% total dps boost due to 15% ele pen
Atziri's Promise for around 15% total dps boost and 35% chaos res
Diamond flask (with crafted 80% increased crit chance for ~50% total dps) -preferably antifreeze
Stibnite flask with preferably flask charge on crit and anticurse for blind and high uptime (great synergy with dodge)
Quicksilver flask for speed, reduced charges / increased effect with (27-30%) extra move spd preferred, antishock and antibleed can be useful without optimal gear
Instead of Wise Oak, you can use basalt flask for 15% extra phys dmg reduction, or quartz flask for 10+10% dodges.

Jewels (Abyssals preferred)
for Hale Negator (and Lightpoacher),
best mods: life, phys dmg to spells (with shields) (only abyssals), crit multipliers
what else to get: onslaught (phasing is nice, but unnecessary with phase run), hinder enemies hit by spells is nice additional defence.

Bandits: Alira (could kill all, but Alira preferred because it has the exact stats that the build prefers)

Skill gems, links
V BV 21/20 (20/20 = -8% total dps) + Efficacy 20/20 (20/0 ok) + Controlled Destruction 21/20 + Physical to Lightning + Empower lvl4 (or increased critical strikes/dmg 21/20 check which one is best for your gear in PoB) + Concentrated effect for dmg (Increased AoE, or increased crit dmg/strikes for the middle way between damage and radius)

Tips:
If you import gear with "gain as extra damage of a random element", you have to edit it to say, for example:
Gain as extra Fire Damage

You can also use golems for little extra phys dmg reduction or damage.

FAQ:
Uber Elder service availability? Whenever I'm online.
Help with the atlas? karvarousku
Need help with build, or just want to interact with streamer? aaske
I want to watch something a bit weird, fun, educative and lovely: Enjoy zizaran
What's the best build in game? Apparently whatever the guy here plays (don't ask me, it's just how PoE works) mahtil
Is it not your build though, you do all content in the game easily and kill a dozen uber elders daily? (Asked nobody yet.)

Thanks to: Beforementioned streamers, asuzara for seemingly always positive streams, KissMeQuick for his max block gladiator guide, mbextreme for his youtube video about his similar build (my version should have much better movement, but it's not much different as a complete build, so if you prefer video version, check it out and get explained how this works, why it's expensive and so on

Since you scrolled this far, check out my stream: Jufda on Twitch