10 Best Shadow Builds in Path of Exile Necropolis 3.24

Do you want to lay down damaging traps that help you propel your character from zero to hero? How about playing a character with high amounts of evasion so that you have a great chance of avoiding their attacks? Do you need a comfortable cushion against devastating hits with some energy shield as well?

If the answer to the above questions is yes, then you need to try the Shadow class out. It is one of the more popular classes in PoE right now, mainly because of the more advanced classes it can ascend to.

With Path of Exile: Necropolis League in full swing, you might be setting your sights on a new character. If so, might we interest you in one of the Shadow’s ascendancy classes?

In today’s article, we will divulge the current best Shadow builds in the game. We are going to explain their mechanics so that you understand what makes a particular build great.

Why Choose the Shadow

The Shadow is another hybrid class in Path of Exile that possesses a balance of Dexterity (DEX) and Intelligence (INT). This class starts at the upper-right corner of the passive tree, where you have easy access to evasion and energy shield nodes, as well as spell suppression.

In terms of the more offense-oriented passive skills, the Shadow has easy pathing towards nodes that provide increased damage with wands, claws, and daggers. You also have the option of taking increased attack speed or cast speed nodes to cater to your build’s specific needs.

After completing the first labyrinth, the Shadow class can ascend into three different advanced classes, such as:

Assassin

If you like to inflict critical strikes, then you might be interested in going for the Assassin. This ascendancy class has access to plenty of nodes that have something to do with critical strikes.

Ambush and Assassinate is one of the most powerful nodes available to the Assassin. Taking this node gives you a huge boost to your crit chance and critical strike multiplier, making your attacks more effective against any monster you come across in PoE. Furthermore, your critical strikes have a culling effect, where you instantly kill enemies that are below 10% of their maximum life. This helps immensely with improving your map-clearing speed.

If you are thinking of creating a Power Charge stacker, the Assassin is a good choice for that. That is because of Unstable Infusion – a notable ascendancy passive skill that raises your Maximum Power Charge by one. For those who do not know, a single Power Charge grants a 50% increased critical strike chance. If you have 10 Power Charges, for example, that is a 500% improvement just by having the said charges alone!

You can take things a step further by grabbing Deadly Infusion as well. This node amplifies the effects of Power Charges by providing +5% to critical strike multiplier per charge. Additionally, you gain +1.5% increased crit chance if you are at Maximum Power Charges, which is quite easy to do if you have this ascendancy node allocated.

Mistwalker is quite amazing in terms of improving your survivability. When you are able to land a critical hit on the enemy, you gain the “Elusive” buff that grants a 15% chance to avoid all damage from hits, and 30% increased movement speed. 

Now, if you have plans of taking the Assassin well into the endgame, the Opportunistic ascendancy node grants you a considerable 25% more damage against rare or unique enemies. On the other hand, if you are surrounded by at least two rare/unique enemies, you take 20% reduced damage thanks to notable passive skill as well.

The Assassin has access to a couple of nodes that are helpful if you are into builds that apply poisons to kill enemies. Noxious Strikes and Toxic Delivery make poisonous attacks more potent. If you are into inflicting poisons that slowly but surely kill enemies, you might have to grab these nodes too!

Saboteur

The Saboteur is the perfect ascendancy class if you are using traps or mines to destroy the enemy.

Explosives Expert provides a few different bonuses depending on the elemental ailments your enemies are suffering from at the moment. These bonuses are:

• +40 to Critical Strike Multiplier Against Burning Enemies

• 80% Increased Critical Strike Chance Against Shocked Enemies

• Damage Penetrates 10% Elemental Resistance Against Chilled Enemies

Do you know what’s interesting about Explosives Expert? If you are able to apply Chill, Shock, and Ignite on your foes, you can take advantage of all the effects this notable ascendancy skill provides.

There are plenty of reasons why some PoE players use the Saboteur as the ascendancy class of choice for their league starters, and one of them is due to Born in the Shadows. This ascendancy node allows you to blind enemies on hit. But more importantly, you take reduced damage from blinded enemies, thus helping you survive during the main campaign better than other ascendancy classes (at least, relative to gear and notable ascendancy passive skills).

Mine skills in Path of Exile have an inherent aura effect. The Pyroclast Mine, for example, is able to deal more fire damage depending on the number of monsters that are close by. That said, if you take the Demolitions Specialist from the Saboteur’s ascendancy passive tree, your mines get a 150% boost to their aura effect.

Pyromaniac is another popular notable ascendancy passive skill for those who opt to use the Saboteur. Why is that? First of all, this ascendancy node makes you fully immune to Shock and Ignite. In case you are wondering why this is a huge deal, these two elemental ailments are problematic to deal with even at higher levels. Being immune to these helps you survive longer on the battlefield.

In addition, Pyromaniac allows you to regenerate up to 10% of your maximum life per second for each trap/mine you have triggered/detonated in the last four seconds. For the most part, you are getting the full effect of this node because you will set multiple traps or mines to deal with the enemy anyway.

If you play builds that require you to have a high cooldown recovery rate (aka CDR), then you will find great value in “Like Clockwork.” This increases your CDR considerably, giving you a much easier time to achieve certain breakpoints for Cast on Critical Strike Support.

Trickster

If you have been playing Path of Exile for at least a few leagues now, then you know that the Trickster is one of the most played ascendancy classes in the game. It consistently ranks at the top 5 and there are plenty of reasons why that is the case.

The Trickster is an incredible option for taking care of defenses on a budget. The combination of Escape Artist and Spellbreaker ensures that you have evasion, energy shield, and spell suppression to mitigate as much damage as possible (or avoid getting hit entirely).

This ascendancy class is also able to leech energy shield per hit thanks to Soul Drinker. The said notable passive skill is akin to the Slayer’s Brutal Fervour in that energy shield leech is not removed even though your energy shield is filled to the brim. On top of that, you get a nice 20% increase in attack speed and cast speed while you are consistently leeching energy shield from your enemies. Pretty amazing, huh?

Path of Exile has enemies that dispense pain in a number of ways. You could get hit by a devastating attack, which would kill your character if you do not have the proper defenses put in place. There are also monsters that apply multiple effects that deal damage over time; Corrupted Blood comes to mind, but so does Ignites and Bleeds.

Fortunately, the Trickster has an abundance of notable passive skills to address the situation. Aside from the ones mentioned above, you have the Heartstopper as well. Every 10 seconds, you gain a huge 40% damage reduction against hits and damage over time effects. This works in conjunction with the other defensive nodes, making the Trickster a tough hero to beat.

The notable ascendancy passive skills mentioned thus far make the Trickster a great defensive character, but what about its offense? Does it lack what it takes to be a potent killer in this game? No, this ascendancy class is capable of killing any monster in PoE thanks to a few notables.

One Step Ahead ensures that your action speed is always 8% higher than the other ascendancy classes in the game. Conversely, nearby enemies suffer a considerable reduction in their action speed, especially if you are able to amplify that with Temporal Chains.

Do you want to try builds out that require you to have as many Frenzy Charges as possible? The Trickster’s Swift Killer node grants you two additional Frenzy Charges right off the bat. This works really well in conjunction with Badge of the Brotherhood and Replica Badge of the Brotherhood, allowing your Power Charges and Endurance Charges to be equal to your Maximum Frenzy Charges, respectively.

Best Shadow Builds

With all the three ascendancy classes fully explained, it is now time to turn to the best Shadow builds in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League. So, without further ado, let’s get started!

10. Armageddon Brand of Recall Saboteur

+Interesting interaction with Brand Recall makes this build exciting to play

+Provides a smooth mapping experience

+Can work with a modest budget

-Brand playstyle may not be to everyone’s liking

-Average bossing capability

Brand skills in Path of Exile prompt you to apply a magical brand on an enemy that will pulse frequently, dealing damage depending on the properties of the Brand itself. The first build on this list actually uses one of the newer Brand skills in the game.

The Armageddon Brand of Recall Saboteur uses a transfigured version of the Armageddon Brand that deals more damage compared to the original. When the Brand activates, it calls forth a fiery meteor from the sky and lands in the target’s location. It only comes with a downside in that it deals 80% less damage with hits against enemies the magical Brand is attached to. It sounds strange, right? Why would you want to use this skill if it has a rather noticeable disadvantage?

Well, the less damage penalty can be addressed by using Brand Recall as part of your main rotation. So, whenever you use it, the Armageddon Brand of Recall will be attached to another nearby enemy, thus allowing it to rain down a meteor without the huge damage penalty.

This process might seem clunky on the surface, but that is actually far from the truth. The reason why this build still plays smoothly regardless of the mechanics at play here is that you are going to link Brand Recall to the newly introduced Automation Support. By doing so, you do not even have to think about using Brand Recall yourself because the said support gem will do that for you.

The interactions between the main skill gem, Brand Recall, and Automation Support synergize really well with the Saboteur’s “Perfect Crime” ascendancy node. You see, Perfect Crime lets you summon a couple of Triggerbots, whose primary function is to cast your triggered spells twice.

While Brand Recall does not necessarily trigger your main skill gem, it does count as being “triggered” specifically because you have linked it with Automation Support. Hence, the bots are going to trigger the Armageddon Brand to rain down additional meteors upon your foes.

Now, Automation Support reduces the cooldown recovery rate of the active skills it is linked to. This means that Brand Recall takes a bit longer before it gets used again. For this reason, you will take the “Like Clockwork” node to give you a huge 30% increase in CDR.

The Armageddon Brand of Recall Saboteur is a great and effective mapper. However, its single-target prowess leaves a lot to be desired. You are going to have issues fighting against Path of Exile’s Uber pinnacle bosses. So, to give your character a bit more oomph against such enemies, you will use a Mine skill, preferably the Pyroclast Mine of Sabotage.

Unlike its original counterpart, the Pyroclast Mine of Sabotage has a debuff aura that causes nearby monsters to take increased fire damage from the mine’s mortar projectiles. If you recall, the Saboteur has Demolitions Specialist – a notable ascendancy passive skill that increases the inherent aura effect of mines by 150%.

Thanks to Demolitions Specialist, the Pyroclast Mine of Sabotage is given enough power to defeat even the most challenging foes you might encounter.

While the build requires a bit of time to get used to, the Armageddon Brand of Recall Saboteur provides an interesting way to play a character in Path of Exile. If you want to try something new, then be sure to put this build on your radar.

9. Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Saboteur

+A different take on the DDCR skill gem

+Pretty much everything is automated

+Incredibly tanky

-Not suited for those who want a more active playstyle

Among the Transfigured Gems that were introduced a league ago, the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction (DDCR) is one of the most popular. Compared to the base version of the skill gem, it causes the nearest corpse to detonate, and then it is followed up by a sequence of explosions depending on the number of corpses in close proximity.

Having said that, the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Saboteur has a different take on how the skill gem is utilized. For example, the Inquisitor version relies on Cast on Critical Strike support to trigger DDCR.  However, the Saboteur uses a different support gem: Cast When Stunned Support.

As the name of the support gem implies, Cast When Stunned Support will automatically use the skill it is linked to, provided that you are completely stunned by the enemy. Stunning in Path of Exile requires your HP to fall down a particular threshold, so if you have plenty of health, you need to be hit numerous times before you get stunned in the process.

The good news is that there are certain things that you can do to aid you in that. The Skyforth boots have a unique effect, where your stun threshold is based on your mana instead of life. This is used in conjunction with the Blood Magic keystone, which effectively removes all of your mana. By taking advantage of this tech, your character will get stunned easily when you take a hit.

Getting stunned in this game will not result in a good gameplay experience. That is why you have to use the Immutable Force – a unique jewel that allows you to recover quickly from stunning hits. Purchase one from the trade website that has at least 961% increased stun/block recovery so that you will not notice the feeling of getting stunned.

You can also supplement the Immutable Force with Bloodnotch if you have the PoE Currency. This jewel makes it so that you recover a considerable amount of life after taking a stunning hit.

The main skill gem for this build naturally deals fire damage to those who get caught in the blast. However, the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Saboteur converts most of that to chaos damage with the help of The Consuming Dark. This unique dagger converts 30% of fire damage to chaos damage. Besides that, your chaos damage has a very huge chance to inflict poisons, dealing damage over time.

Because DDCR is triggered by a support gem on this build, the Perfect Crime is definitely a must here to take full advantage of that. Expect to see multiple explosions occur when you move around the map.

If you are still not convinced about this build’s offensive capabilities, the Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Saboteur can include another damaging ability. Most players would often use the Cremation of the Volcano to fire projectiles at random targets within the area. Unearth is also a nice addition to the build as it summons a corpse with a higher HP, resulting in a more devastating explosion when DDCR is cast on it.

This build is incredibly tanky because of its high HP and spell suppression. Taking Born in the Shadows from the Saboteur’s ascendancy passive tree improves its survivability by blinding enemies on hit.

The Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction Saboteur provides a smooth playing experience. Its laid-back playstyle is perfectly suited for those who just want to run around the maps while corpses are spawned to explode on the monsters’ faces. Give this one a try!

8. Penance Brand of Dissipation Assassin

+Power Charge stacker for guaranteed crits

+One of the better ascendancy classes for this skill

+Boss-killing potential is off the charts

-Average mapper

-Requires a lot of investment to take off

Penance Brand of Dissipation was one of the best skill gems in the previous league, so much so that a sizable portion of the PoE community used it in various ascendancy classes. The Assassin version of the build is more on the offensive side; capitalizing on the ascendancy class’ access to critical strike nodes.

Before anything, the Penance Brand of Dissipation is another Brand skill in Path of Exile that attaches to an enemy, applies energy on each activation, and damages enemies until it is attached to another monster. This skill deals a lot of damage per activation, making it a potent boss killer. Use it on any of the Uber Bosses and you will find them dead in a matter of seconds.

Your main skill on this build is capable of applying up to 20 energy stacks on a single target for huge amounts of damage. But, due to its limited attachment time, you have to hasten the process by taking the “Runebinder” keystone as well. This allows you to attach one additional Brand to the enemy.

While the skill has been nerfed in Patch 3.24, it is still quite good nevertheless. You just have to find ways to recoup some of its power back. Thankfully, the Assassin is a great ascendancy class for this skill, particularly when you go the Power Charge-stacking route.

For the uninitiated, “stacker builds” are those that increase a particular stat, charge, or attribute as high as they possibly can. In this case, you are stacking Power Charges, which is also going to affect your Maximum Frenzy Charges due to Badge of the Brotherhood. In essence, these charges increase your damage, attack/cast speed, and critical strike chance against monsters to a significant degree.

With the Graveyard Crafting Mechanic in Path of Exile: Necropolis League, it is possible for you to get the “+1 to Maximum Power Charges” mod on your helmet and gloves. Just bury corpses that raise your chance of getting haunted modifiers. Because of this, having 10 or more Power Charges is pretty doable in the game’s current expansion.

By stacking Power Charges, you can get amazing benefits from the Assassin’s Deadly Infusion notable passive skill. The “+5% to Critical Strike Multiplier per Power Charge” is just too good to pass up.

It is important to note that the Penance Brand of Dissipation converts 50% of your physical damage to lightning damage. If you just leave it like that, you are not really utilizing the skill to its full potential. So, to maximize your damage output, you should craft a pair of damage conversion gloves to take care of the other 50%.

If you have enough PoE Currency, you do have the option of purchasing the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with Polymath as the matching modifier. This grants a significant damage boost, especially considering the number of different Masteries you will allocate on this build.

You can even take things a step further by buying the Balance of Terror as well. Get one that has the mod: “Gain % of Physical Damage as a Random Element if You’ve Cast Elemental Weakness in the Past 10 Seconds.”

Despite the changes made to the skill in the current league, the Penance Brand of Dissipation Assassin is still a powerhouse that is capable of deleting enemies from the face of the planet.

7. Blade Vortex Assassin

+Deals cold damage that scales much better than the poison version

+Can be built as a Magic Find (MF) character

+Impressive survivability for a build that does not use a shield

-Much more expensive to put up than the poison version

-You have to be up close to deal damage

Blade Vortex has been around the game for so long and it is quite fun to use. This is best for those who just want to run around the map, stay close to a pack of monsters, and see them die as your vortex of blades deals with them.

In line with that, the Blade Vortex Assassin has got a couple of variations. The poison version is a good league starter as it is capable of destroying enemies on a budget. However, the most popular version of the build actually deals cold damage by fully converting your physical damage to the said elemental damage type.

As to the reason why people are opting for the cold version rather than the poison variant, it is because elemental damage scales really well in the endgame. The support gems for cold damage, in particular, are quite useful in getting more out of Blade Vortex.

Bonechill Support, for example, allows you to considerably deal more damage to enemies that are in the chilled areas it creates. On top of that, Frostbite reduces the cold resistance of affected monsters, making them more vulnerable to your attacks.

Now, you would think that this build uses the tandem of Void Battery and Malachai’s Loop since it is a Power Charge stacker, but that is not the case here. Instead, this build utilizes a bow and a quiver with some useful mods.

The bow increases the level of socketed support gems by three, which is pretty useful in enhancing Blade Vortex’s damage. The quiver is a self-crafted one with extra cold damage and extra fire damage modifiers, giving more offensive power to the skill.

With Blade Vortex hitting targets at a pretty fast rate, the extra fire and cold damage really go a long way. This is even more so when you have the synthesized implicit modifier that causes enemies to explode on kill, but this is quite expensive and does require you to spend exorbitant amounts of PoE Currency to obtain.

This build is incredibly easy to play. Upon entering a map, you activate Blade Vortex and simply run around until you see a pack of monsters. Stay close to them and see them die in a matter of seconds. It is that easy!

Although this is a much more expensive version of the build, the cold damage variant of the Blade Vortex Assassin is definitely worth the investment.

6. Blade Blast of Unloading Saboteur

+Insane map clear due to the choice of Transfigured Gem

+Easy damage scaling with enough investment

+Capable of downing even the toughest bosses

-Requires some set up in order to deal the maximum amount of damage possible

-Glass cannon build

When you have reached the endgame of Path of Exile, most of your time will be spent running maps to farm PoE Currency. If you are into mapping that has enough power to eliminate even the pinnacle bosses in the game, then the Blade Blast of Unloading Saboteur is an interesting choice.

Unlike the base version of the skill, Blade Blast of Unloading synergizes well with Blade Vortex. When used, the ethereal blades created by Blade Vortex will be detonated, dealing physical damage to those that are hit.

What makes this so much better than the original Blade Blast is that the skill gains more AoE depending on the number of blades that were detonated. Casting a movement ability like Frostblink will cause the Blade Blast of Unloading’s AoE to move in the direction you are headed. If timed correctly, you can obliterate map monsters in a jiffy!

So, how do you get ethereal blades fast enough to maximize the Blade Blast of Unloading’s potential? Well, you have to utilize a few mechanics. For one, linking Blade Vortex with Arcanist Brand takes care of the stacks of ethereal blades for you.

In addition, casting Brand Recall while the Arcanist Brand is up enables you to get one more ethereal blade in the process. Do you want to learn something cool? If you have the Saboteur’s Perfect Crime ascendancy node, using Brand Recall will net you an additional ethereal blade. Assuming that you have five Arcanist Brands on the map, Brand Recall will effectively give you 10 ethereal blades instantly!

The process of activating Brand Recall is automated thanks to the aptly named Automation support, which is one of the most useful gems introduced in Patch 3.24.

Since Blade Blast of Unloading is a physical spell skill gem in PoE, you can equip the Entropic Devastation unique gloves to inflict Impales on the enemy with critical strikes. The damage dealt by the Impales is amplified thanks to the increased effect granted by the said pair of gloves.

Even though this build has amazing damage potential, it does suffer quite a bit in terms of defense. You could say that this is a glass cannon build if you do not invest in the right items. Grabbing a Lightning Coil helps mitigate the physical damage you take by converting half of it to lightning damage. The copious amounts of life provided by Utula’s Hunger are a good alternative, though you have to make sure that there are no life modifiers on your other gear pieces.

You might need some time to get acquainted with the build’s mechanics. But once you have mastered its playstyle, the Blade Blade of Unloading Saboteur is a build that is quite enjoyable to play. 

5. Ice Nova of Frostbolts Assassin

+Fully utilizes the Assassin’s critical strike chance nodes

+More spell damage guaranteed from Pain Attunement

+Embodies the “Spin-to-Win” playstyle

-Uses an awful lot of unique items

-Must have knowledge about attack speed breakpoints to maximize the build’s potential

The Cyclone skill gem itself deals average damage. However, when it is used to trigger spells via Cast on Critical Strike Support, then the magic happens. This is the core premise of the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Assassin.

This build fully utilizes the critical strike chance nodes available on the Assassin’s ascendancy passive tree. Being a Power Charge stacker, this build deals insane damage with the help of Deadly Infusion.

Anyway, let’s talk about the Transfigured Gem. The Ice Nova of Frostbolts, when compared to its base version, can be cast directly on the projectiles created by Frostbolt. Why is this better than the original Ice Nova? Since monsters in Path of Exile are normally bunched up, allowing the Frostbolt’s projectiles to travel closer to the enemies enables you to hit more targets at once.

In the Necropolis League, besides the Assassin, the Ice Nova of Frostbolts is being utilized by the Hierophant and the Occultist as well. The Assassin version is similar to the Occultist in that it leans heavily on dealing critical strikes to proc the Awakened CoC to cast Ice Nova of Frostbolts. 

To get the most out of your main skill gem, you have to gain knowledge about cooldown recovery rate (aka CDR) breakpoints first. Without getting too technical, you have to achieve a 52% CDR by getting 34% from a level 9 Awakened Cast on Critical Strike Support, and another 18% from a self-crafted pair of Crusader-influenced boots. You can get the said support gem to level 9 by using a level 6 Awakened CoC and taking the “+3 to Level of Critical Support Gems” from the Critical Mastery.

That’s not all! You also have to make sure that your attack/trigger rate is at 10.10. Put enough “% Increased Attack Speed” mods on your gear to aid you with this. If you want to know your current trigger rate, plug your character into Path of Building (POB) to get a hold of this information.

The Hierophant version deals a lot of damage thanks, in large part, to the newly buffed Archmage Support. Because you are not stacking mana on this build, you cannot take the same route. So, you have to think about boosting your damage in another way.

Pain Attunement is a keystone that grants 30% more spell damage when you are at low life (or below 50% of your maximum HP). While the damage bonus is great, it is dangerous to forcefully get hit by the enemy as it can result in your untimely death. Fortunately, the Prism Guardian is there for you to use.

When you insert aura gems like Purity of Elements, Disciple, and Grace, the Prism Guardian allows you to activate them by reserving life instead of mana. This puts your life to below 50%, thus giving you a much easier and more convenient way to get a hold of that 30% more spell damage.

With most of your HP reserved for your primary auras, you have to make up for the loss by increasing your energy shield. The Presence of Chayula is an incredible amulet for that. You might as well equip Shavronne’s Wrappings to ensure that chaos damage, which is normally taken from your HP, does not bypass energy shield. This means that your energy shield will take care of any incoming chaos damage from your enemy’s attacks.

If you have saved up enough PoE Currency, grab The Adorned jewel that is as close to a 150% increased effect as possible. Expect this to be quite expensive, especially in the later stages of the league.

The Magic Jewels that you will use to complement The Adorned must have the following mods:

• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spell Damage

• 8% Increased Maximum Energy Shield

If you want to play a build that deals insane critical damage using one of the most popular spells in the game right now, then you must give the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Assassin a try!

4. Exsanguinate Mines Trickster

+Great build that you can play on a budget

+Physical build that is able to transition to cold damage later on for better scaling

+Can kill multiple enemies with ease due to the nature of the spell skill gem

-Mine playstyle is not apt for those who want a more “direct” damage dealing build

-Cold conversion is a must for the endgame

A league starter is a build in Path of Exile that can work with a minimal investment. The next build on this list fits the description perfectly and that is the Exsanguinate Mines Trickster.

If you have any knowledge about the skill gem in question, you might think that Exsanguinate Mines do not exist in the game. Well, you are actually right. Exsanguinate is a physical spell skill gem that releases multiple tendrils at the enemy’s location.

However, if you link it with High-Impact Mine Support, you essentially transform it into a Mine Skill where Exsanguinate is cast upon the detonation of the mine. That said, you are probably wondering why turning Exsanguinate into a Mine Skill is beneficial, especially if you want a much smoother playstyle.

You see, Exsanguinate has a 0.8 second cast speed. In a fast-paced ARPG like Path of Exile, 0.8 seconds feels like an eternity. By transforming it into a Mine Skill with High-Impact Mine Support, you circumvent the slow cast speed of Exsanguinate.

Moreover, you have the ability to set multiple mines at once before detonating them for a huge burst of physical damage. This is the recommended thing to do if you are fighting the pinnacle bosses in the game.

Now, the reason why the Exsanguinate Mines Trickster is a viable league starter is that you do not actually need specific unique items for it to work. However, you can certainly gain great benefits from using some.

At the start of a new league, search for the Hrimsorrow on the trade website. These gloves convert all of your physical damage to cold damage. By wearing the said gloves, you can easily scale your damage by putting increased elemental damage mods on your gear. 

In addition, you can equip the Heatshiver and use the Taste of Hate to get extra fire damage and cold damage, respectively. These are pretty cheap unique items that you can get for less than 10 Chaos Orbs.

If you like the build and want to improve it even further, you must craft a pair of damage conversion gloves, preferably with the Alva Temple mod: “% Increased Damage with Hits Against Chilled Enemies” for maximum damage.

The rest of your gear should consist of mods that increase the level of physical spell skill gems, elemental damage, critical strike multiplier, and mine throwing speed.

Most of the survivability of this build comes from the Trickster’s notable ascendancy passive skills. Spellbreaker and Escape Artist ensure that you have enough evasion, energy shield, and spell suppression to mitigate as much incoming damage as possible.

Polymath not only gives you a bit more oomph to your damage, but also helps you recover life, energy shield, and mana. You can even stack Frenzy Charges for more damage with the help of Swift Killer.

The Exsanguinate Mines Trickster is an awesome build that you can take from zero to hero with enough investment.

3. Power Siphon Trickster

+Immune to Chaos Damage thanks to CI

+Great utilization of Power Charges ensures maximum damage at all times

+Tons of energy shield ensure that you won’t get one-shot by any mechanic in the game

-Expensive to put up due to the nature of the build

-Needs specific items to work

The last three builds on our list of the best Trickster builds in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League all require a ton of investment to put up. However, every PoE Currency is worth it.

Having said that, the Power Siphon Trickster utilizes an attack skill gem that scales its damage based on Power Charges. For this reason, you want to raise your Maximum Power Charges in any way possible; mostly from your passive skills and some pieces of gear with the “+1 to Maximum Power Charges” corrupted implicit modifier.

Although the main skill gem itself does not inherently deal elemental damage, you are going to have some equipment that provides added lightning damage. This is so that you can inflict the Shock debuff on enemies, causing them to take increased damage from all sources.

In addition, if you use the Vessel of Vinktar, you shock nearby monsters for the duration of the flask’s effect. Get one specifically with the lightning penetration mod or added lightning damage to attacks if your budget permits it.

Aside from having plenty of Power Charges, the Power Siphon Trickster stacks intelligence as well. The reason for this is that you will use a self-crafted wand with the mod: “1% Increased Spell Damage per 16 Intelligence.”

But wait, isn’t Power Siphon an “attack” skill gem? That’s right, it is! However, by equipping the Crown of Eyes unique helmet, any increases in spell damage apply to attacks at 150% of their value. So as you can see, you gain stupendous amounts of damage simply by stacking Power Charges, INT, and spell damage!

At this point, your damage is way over the top that any more is unnecessary. That is why you are opting for the Trickster as the ascendancy class of choice here rather than the Assassin.

Because you allocate Chaos Inoculation on this build, which virtually makes you immune to all chaos damage at the cost of having only one HP, you will rely heavily on energy shield for your survivability, and the Trickster specializes in that particular layer of defense. With the combination of Escape Artist and Soul Drinker, leeching energy shield is not going to be an issue at all!

The only problem that may deter you from trying this build out is that it requires a ton of investment to pull off. You also need specific items for it to function in the best way possible.

Be that as it may, if you have an abundance of PoE Currency and you are looking for your next character in Path of Exile: Necropolis League, then we highly recommend the Power Siphon Trickster.

2. Hexblast Mines Saboteur

+Great league starter

+Easy to scale damage 

+Impressive map-clearing speed despite having a Mine playstyle

+Can change to Trickster for more survivability

-Pretty much locked up to use plenty of unique items in the endgame

Here we have another build that utilizes the High-Impact Mine Support specifically to circumvent the slow cast speed of the main skill gem. The Hexblast Mines Saboteur is an incredible build; one that you can be proud of as a league starter and even more so in the endgame, when you are able to purchase its much-needed upgrades.

Hexblast, on its own, allows you to deal chaos damage to enemies. It gets a lot stronger if the monster you are attacking is affected by any hex curse, such as Punishment, Frostbite, or Elemental Weakness, just to name a few.

The thing that may discourage a lot of people from trying the spell is that it has a very long casting time of one second. As previously mentioned (Read: Exsanguinate Mines Trickster), any spell that has a cast time of more than 0.5 seconds is quite clunky to use in a fast game like PoE. That is why they are often linked to specific support gems just to resolve this issue.

High-Impact Mine Support turns the Hexblast into a Mine Skill, which not only addresses the inherently slow cast time of the said spell, but makes it so that you can “preload” multiple mines before detonating them for a burst of chaos damage; useful when fighting against the pinnacle bosses in the game.

Having said that, Hexblast has an interesting property where its damage is resisted by the monster’s lowest resistance. This means that even though Hexblast deals chaos damage, if the target’s lowest resistance is fire, the spell uses that to calculate the damage it will receive instead of chaos resistance.

While the Hexblast Mines Saboteur can work with just about any gear with the right mods, you can take it to the top by equipping some unique items. A definite upgrade you can take as soon as you have enough PoE Currency is the Sandstorm Visage.

The Sandstorm Visage has a unique effect, where the base critical strike chance of spells is equal to that of the main hand weapon. If you are asking why this is highly beneficial for the build, it is because Hexblast has a very low critical strike chance to begin with. Equipping Sandstorm Visage helps you get a huge boost to spell crit chance, especially if you pair it with the right weapon.

Speaking of which, the Void Battery is the perfect complement to Sandstorm Visage mainly because it has the Prophecy Wand as the base. The 8% base crit chance of this wand works really well with Sandstorm Visage’s unique effect.

That’s not all! Void Battery increases your spell damage as well, which you can scale by raising your Maximum Power Charges. For this reason, you want to invest in unique items that have the “+1 to Maximum Power Charges” corrupted implicit modifier if you have the budget.

Profane Proxy is another item that you want to get your hands on as soon as possible. With Summon Skitterbots active, the Profane Proxy will force one of the skitterbots to apply a hex curse in an area depending on the gem you socket into the ring. Elemental Weakness is the gem that is usually inserted into Profane Proxy, but other hex curses are fine to use as well.

Now, there has been a long-standing debate as to which version of the build works better in the endgame: the Trickster or the Saboteur. Both of them are pretty good in their own right, to be honest. The Saboteur is a great way to start a new league because of the damage bonus provided by Explosive Expert, and the increased defense given by Born in the Shadows.

The Trickster version leans more on the defensive side of things, with Spellbreaker providing an easier time to cap spell suppression, and Polymath to gain life, energy shield, and mana recovery on kill.

The good news is that you can transition to any of these ascendancy classes since you are playing the Shadow class anyway. You can try the Saboteur first and if you are not happy with it, then you can go for the Trickster version instead.

Despite the “Mine” playstyle, the Hexblast Mines Saboteur is capable of dishing out huge amounts of damage, especially when it is fully geared. If you want a league starter that you can use well into the endgame, this build will not disappoint!

1. Splitting Steel Trickster

+Absolutely great clearing speed

+Effective currency farmer

+Capable of deleting bosses from the face of the planet

-Must be very close to the target to maximize damage

As we have mentioned in the earlier parts of the article, we stated that the Trickster is the most used ascendancy class among the other ones available to the Shadow. It seems that people just love the Trickster’s easy energy shield scaling and sustainability, so much so that the last build on this list takes full advantage of that.

The Splitting Steel Trickster uses an attack skill gem that naturally deals physical damage. However, it goes a step further by adding some lightning damage to it by utilizing Ephemeral Edge.

You see, Ephemeral Edge has a unique effect, where attacks using this weapon have added maximum lightning damage equivalent to 20% of your total energy shield. And you know what the Trickster specializes in? That’s right, having copious amounts of energy shield!

To get the most out of Ephemeral Edge’s added lightning damage, you must craft a body armor using the Sadist Garb as the base. Spam it with the Deafening Essence of Doubt to guarantee a T1 evasion rating and increased evasion rating modifiers. Don’t forget to roll spell suppression while you are at it. The reason for the high evasion rating on your body armor is to take advantage of the energy shield bonus from the “Escape Artist” ascendancy node.

Alternatively, you can use the Necropolis League’s Graveyard Crafting mechanic to craft the body armor. Make sure to put a lot of corpses that grant a “200% Increased Chance of Defense Modifiers” and make the other mods scarcer. Add some corpses that provide a chance to fracture the defense mods for a much easier crafting experience with Essences (though this is optional).

In terms of the passive skills, you are going to allocate the Precise Technique keystone passive to avail of its 40% more attack damage bonus. Although this keystone prevents you from landing critical strikes on the enemy, the damage increase it provides cannot be ignored. You do not even have to think about your accuracy rating that much to satisfy the keystone’s requirement because you will take Chaos Inoculation as well.

If you are disappointed by the fact that this build is incapable of landing critical hits, then you have the option of wearing the Voice of the Storm unique amulet. Whenever you use Splitting Steel with this thing equipped, the skill’s damage is rolled twice, and the highest of the two is applied.

Let’s talk about the star of the show. Splitting Steel is a projectile attack skill gem where you fire a single projectile that splits upon impact. When you use Nimis, the split projectiles return to you, dealing maximum damage as a result. This is especially true if you have modifiers that increase projectile damage based on distance traveled.

Another way to increase your damage output is by using Anathema. Normally, you can only apply one curse on the enemy (two if you have Whispers of Doom allocated). But with the Anathema ring equipped, your curse limit is based on your Maximum Power Charges. You do not even have to scale your Power Charges to more than three because the ones that you are going to use are Elemental Weakness, Conductivity, and Punishment.

Triggering a few curses is quite cumbersome to do, particularly when you have Ancestral Protector to lay down while bossing. To help you automate the process of applying the said curses, you must put the mod, “Trigger Socketed Spells When You Focus, with a 0.25-Second Cooldown” on your helmet using the Crafting Bench.

So, how does this build compare to the Champion version? Well, it deals way more damage due to better elemental damage scaling, but the items required for this to work are exponentially more expensive.

However, if PoE Currency is not an issue, the Splitting Steel Trickster is an outstanding build to play. That is why it takes the crown for the number one best Shadow build in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!

Conclusion

The Shadow class in Path of Exile offers a lot of flexibility thanks to the ascendancy classes available to it. When you play a character at the start of a new league, the notable passive skills that the Saboteur has access to help you get enough currency to purchase upgrades early on.

Dealing critical strikes is always fun and the Assassin helps you with that. Even though this ascendancy class is not as popular as the other ones, you could still make it work by taking the appropriate nodes. Unstable Infusion helps you stack Power Charges even with a minimal investment. Mistwalker aids in your survivability with the Elusive buff on critical strike. Ambush and Assassinate, as well as Opportunistic, significantly boosts your damage without even trying!

Then, you have the Trickster. At the time of writing, this ascendancy class is being used by 10% of the builds in PoE. Although it does not have a ton of offensive nodes like the Assassin, it makes up for it with its insane energy shield scaling, easier way to cap spell suppression, and improved survivability due to Soul Drinker and Heartstopper.

You can never go wrong with any of the builds mentioned on this list. We hope that you’ve had a fun time reading this article to completion.

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!