10 Best Shadow Builds in Path of Exile 3.25

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 the enemy’s 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: Settlers of Kalguur 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 PoE 3.25. 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 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.

Sadly, the Saboteur is the least-played Shadow ascendancy class in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. This does not mean that the Saboteur is bad; it just means that the other ascendancy classes have aces up their sleeves, which makes them more appealing to use.

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 them. 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 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 in PoE 3.25

With all three ascendancy classes fully explained, it is now time to turn to the best Shadow builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League. So, without further ado, let's get started!

10. Seismic Trap Saboteur

+League starter

+Can kill pinnacle bosses on a modest budget

-Not the fastest mapping build

-Leveling is hard without the right gems

The first one on the list has stood the test of time. Although this is not as popular as it once was due to the proliferation of other, more powerful skill gems, the Seismic Trap Saboteur is still great, especially for those who want to play a character that can deal damage on a medium budget.

What makes this build appealing is that it can work on a minimal investment. Seismic Trap itself is a Trap Skill in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur that deals physical damage to nearby monsters. It covers a considerably large area, making it quite amazing when you are surrounded by enemies.

Now, despite Seismic Trap being a powerful skill on its own, it does have one drawback in that it has a default cooldown of eight seconds for three uses. So, to help you eliminate map monsters, you are going to supplement this build with Exsanguinate Traps as well.

Exsanguinate is not a Trap Skill, per se, but when you link it to the aptly named Trap Support, it turns into traps that you can throw on the battlefield. After a short period of time, enemies that are within the vicinity of Exsanguinate Traps are hit by blood tendrils that deal physical damage, as well as physical damage over time.

Because you can throw multiple traps on the battlefield, you will use Exsanguinate to decimate anything and everything in your path. Do not forget to use Seismic Trap whenever you encounter a tough cookie.

Although this is a league starter, the Seismic Trap Saboteur eventually deals chaos damage as it can easily be scaled with the right gear. When you are ready for the transition, you could obtain the Dendrobate to have your Seismic Trap be supported by a level 10 Chance to Poison.

In addition, Seismic Trap is a physical spell skill gem, which means that its damage scales really well with gem levels. For this reason, equipping two Cold Iron Point unique daggers is a must. Given its low popularity in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion, you should not have any problems obtaining them.

You could also grab a couple of unique rings, namely Anathema and Ming’s Heart. The former allows you to use more than one curse spell on the enemy, while the latter gives a huge "% Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage" modifier.

So, why the Saboteur? The Saboteur, for a long time, has been the go-to ascendancy class for those who want to utilize traps and mines. Chain Reaction is an incredible node that significantly increases the area of effect of your Seismic Traps.

Remember what we said earlier about Seismic Trap having a relatively long cooldown? Well, its cooldown is reduced thanks, in large part, to Like Clockwork. This ascendancy node basically increases your cooldown recovery rate by 30%. As an added bonus, nearby enemies also have their CDR reduced by 10%.

For defensive purposes, you have Born in the Shadows and Pyromaniac. The former allows you to inflict Blind on monsters. When they are blinded, you receive 15% reduced damage from their attacks.

The latter, on the other hand, makes you immune to Ignite and Shock — two elemental ailments that are quite problematic, especially in the late game. Besides that, you regenerate a lot of HP for each trap that is triggered in the last four seconds.

The Seismic Trap Saboteur is a well-rounded Shadow Build in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur. However, it is bested by the other ones on this list.

9. Soulrend of Reaping Assassin

+Fill the screen with multiple projectiles

+Amazing map clear

+Surprisingly Tanky

-Average bossing potential

Do you want a fast mapping build in PoE 3.25 that can destroy anything in its path with ease? If so, this next entry on our list is the right one for you!

The Soulrend of Reaping Assassin is actually one of the most popular Shadow Builds in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion and for good reasons. For one, unlike its base version, the Soulrend of Reaping has more damage, damage effectiveness, and critical strike chance. However, this comes at the cost of not being able to deal damage over time. This is where the Assassin comes in.

You see, the Assassin has the Noxious Strike ascendancy node, which gives you a huge chance to inflict poisons on hit. Furthermore, you will take Toxic Delivery — a notable passive skill that lets you deal more damage if you are able to inflict poisons on enemies with critical strikes. Both of these nodes pretty much make up for the lack of a damage over time component on the Soulrend of Reaping.

Interestingly, you do not cast Soulrend of Reaping yourself. Instead, you use another Transfigured Gem called the Lancing Steel of Spraying, which is linked to Cast on Critical Strike Support. With this tandem, Soulrend of Reaping will be cast every time you deal critical strikes with Lancing Steel of Spraying.

The reason why Lancing Steel of Spraying is used here is that it allows you to throw a lot of projectiles at a time. This is even more pronounced when you factor in Returning Projectiles Support as well.

With all of the mechanics at play, you will essentially inflict poisons on every monster you come across. To improve your damage on this build, you will need some pieces of gear.

One of the biggest upgrades you could take later down the line is a crafted Jewelled Foil with a veiled modifier that grants increased chaos damage and skill effect duration.

Additionally, putting your main gem setup into The Covenant allows you to deal even more chaos damage thanks to the body armor's unique effect. Do not worry about the life cost associated with wearing The Covenant because that can easily be rectified by life leech.

When you have enough PoE Currency, you can invest in Olesya's Delight. This converts all your Frenzy Charges into Affliction Charges. These special charges grant 8% more damage with ailments per Affliction Charge.

Make sure to include Ralakesh's Impatience as part of your upgrade so that you will still gain the effects of Endurance Charges and Frenzy Charges, despite the latter being converted to Affliction Charges.

Although the Assassin is not typically an ascendancy class known for its defense, the Soulrend of Reaping Assassin is surprisingly tanky. Much of that comes from the Replica Badge of the Brotherhood. By stacking Frenzy Charges, your maximum Endurance Charges will be the same as well.

Because you are using Awakened Cast on Critical Strike, you will need to include some CDR as well. This is to increase the trigger rate of Soulrend of Reaping. So, for your final upgrade, you can purchase The Balance of Terror with the following mods:

• % Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate if You've Cast Temporal Chains in the Past 10 Seconds
• Inflict Withered for 2 seconds on hit if You've Cast Despair in the Past 10 Seconds

Since that particular The Balance of Terror is pretty popular in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, you must save up a ton of PoE Currency just to obtain one.

Having said all of that, the Soulrend of Reaping Assassin is an awesome mapper that you can be proud of!

8. Lightning Strike Trickster

+Insane damage potential on a medium budget

+Immune to chaos damage thanks to CI

+Awesome mapper and bosser

-Requires certain items to maximize energy shield

-Certain upgrades need a high investment

Grinding Gear Games buffed a lot of melee skill gems in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League. Lightning Strike, in particular, got an insane damage boost at the top end. More specifically, it now has its effectiveness of base and added damage increased from 225% to 456% at gem level 20! Although it loses its innate added lightning damage, that is something that you can easily rectify through gear.

Having said that, the Lightning Strike Trickster is an awesome build that you can very much take well into the endgame. Unlike other ascendancy classes in Path of Exile, the Trickster is in a unique position to be a lot tankier than the others. This is due to the nodes available to this ascendancy class.

But before that, due to the Shadow's starting point on the passive tree, you can easily take one of the most overpowered keystone passives in the game, Chaos Inoculation. When you have this keystone allocated, you are virtually immune to chaos damage. The only downside is that your maximum life is set to one. That is why you need to improve energy shield in any way possible. And, as you can already tell, the Trickster just has the right stuff!

Escape Artist provides a huge increase in energy shield depending on the evasion value of your equipped body armor. With the introduction of the new armor base types in Patch 3.25, you can gain heaps of evasion rating without a problem!

Because you only have 1 HP, energy shield recovery is very important on this build. Thankfully, you have the Trickster's Polymath ascendancy node for that. With Polymath, you can recover mana and energy shield on kill. And, since you can have at least eight different masteries allocated, that translates to 8% mana and ES recovery!

Aside from being a defensive layer, energy shield for the Lightning Strike Trickster actually serves another purpose. You see, you will use the Ephemeral Edge on this build, which is a unique sword that grants added lightning damage to attacks equal to 20% of your maximum energy shield. Assuming you have 12,000 ES, you will gain 2,400 added lightning damage when you attack enemies with Ephemeral Edge equipped!

The Lightning Strike Trickster is also an INT stacker because you gain a 1% maximum energy shield per five points of intelligence. To help you with this, you will insert two Split Personality jewels on the passive tree. Just make sure to put them as far away from the Trickster's starting point as possible.

Another item you can incorporate here is Shavronne's Revelation. This unique ring, when slotted in the left ring slot, grants a considerable amount of flat energy shield. This is a good thing because it can scale well with "% Increased Energy Shield" mods from other sources.

When you have everything in place, you are going to have a tanky character that can take on whatever content there is in the game! It is no wonder that the Lightning Strike Trickster is one of the best Shadow Builds in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur!

7. 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

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 to the game.

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.

Now, the previous version of the build was a glass cannon, but that is no longer the case in Patch 3.25. That is due to the new unique shield called Svalinn. This shield has a line that says "Chance to Block is Lucky," which means that whenever an attack or spell is about to land on you, a theoretical dice will be rolled. The "Lucky" portion of the equation just refers to the higher outcome. In other words, you are more likely to block attacks or spells due to this specific effect alone!

On top of that, you can add a Glorious Vanity (Xibaqua) to take the Divine Flesh keystone. What this does is that it grants +5% to maximum chaos resistance, but at the cost of making all damage you take bypass energy shield. Moreover, another positive aspect of taking this keystone is that 50% of the elemental damage you take is converted to chaos damage

The defensive layers at play are further complemented by the Saboteur's Born in the Shadows ascendancy node. This causes you to take 15% reduced damage from blinded enemies.

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.

6. 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.

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 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.

Due to the nerf to The Adorned in Patch 3.25, we can no longer recommend the said unique jewel because you will be spending a lot of PoE Currency for a marginal improvement. Instead, you could invest in other items that can benefit the build, including a Mageblood, Oriath's End, Crown of the Inward Eye, and Unnatural Instinct.

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!

5. Flicker Strike Trickster

+Deals insane lightning damage

+Tankier than Slayer

+Can take on any content in the game

-Unable to deal critical strikes

With the Raider ascendancy class being replaced by the Warden, a lot of people in the PoE community thought that the Slayer was now the default when it came to using Flicker Strike. However, that is actually not the case because a new ascendancy class has emerged as a viable contender, and that is the Trickster.

The Flicker Strike Trickster brings something unique to the table. Instead of dealing cold or physical damage, this variation zaps enemies with insane amounts of lightning damage. This is made possible by wearing Doryani’s Prototype.

If you have the said unique armor equipped, you do not deal any non-lightning damage. On top of that, the lightning resistance of nearby enemies is equal to yours, so you have to do certain things in order to bring that value down to below zero.

To do that, you can use Melding of the Flesh, which can reduce your elemental resistance by as much as 80%. Putting a couple of Thread of Hope unique jewels is also a good idea, though you will need to sacrifice some jewel slots to accommodate them.

Aside from Doryani's Prototype, you will improve your lightning damage by equipping the Ephemeral Edge. If you have enough PoE Currency, purchase one that has Resolute Technique as one of its corrupted implicit mods. This makes it so that your attacks never miss, though this comes at the cost of not being able to deal critical strikes.

Don't worry about not having the ability to land critical strikes because, then, you can use the Voice of the Storm. This is a unique amulet in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur that not only increases your lightning damage, but makes it so that lightning damage with non-critical strikes is lucky. To put it simply, whenever you press Flicker Strike, the better damage output is always chosen between the two possible outcomes.

The core premise of increasing energy shield is similar to that of the Lightning Strike Trickster above. Basically, you take Escape Artist to get huge amounts of ES from your equipped body armor. For this reason, using the new Necrotic Armour as the crafting base is preferred. Use the Deafening Essence of Doubt to guarantee a good evasion roll on the armor to maximize Escape Artist's effect.

The Flicker Strike Trickster is a lot tankier than the Slayer for a couple of reasons. First, you have Chaos Inoculation, which is a keystone that makes you immune to chaos damage (direct and damage over time). Second, you have copious amounts of energy shield and you can leech and recover ES by allocating points to Ghost Reaver and Polymath, respectively.

Since Ephemeral Edge is a one-handed weapon, you have the ability to wear a shield for more defense. Some viable options include Aegis Aurora for improved block chance and additional maximum cold resistance, as well as Perepiteia for movement speed and heaps of ES.

If you've always wanted to try a version of FS that does not die easily, then the Flicker Strike Trickster is definitely a solid option!

4. Ice Trap Saboteur

+League starter

+Cheap to put up

+Excels at mapping

-Not as powerful compared to the top three builds

-Hard to cap chaos resistance

If you are looking for a very good league starter that can defeat even the Seismic Trap, then the Ice Trap Saboteur is for you! Yes, this is another trapper build in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, but what is interesting here is that it utilizes a skill that has good AoE right off the bat.

Ice Trap is a skill that prompts you to throw a trap in a targeted direction. After a short period, it explodes and deals cold damage to a relatively large area. Although it is a league starter, which means that it can run just fine without specific items, there are some uniques that you can get to further improve various aspects of the build.

For instance, the Carcass Jack is an incredible body armor for the Ice Trap Saboteur because it increases both AoE and area damage by a significant amount.

Tinkerskin is another viable option. This unique body armor allows you to recover life and energy shield when your Ice Traps are triggered. It also increases your evasion, energy shield, and cooldown recovery rate for throwing traps.

For the weapon, you can craft a wand or sceptre that has the mod, "+1 to Level of All Cold Spell Skill Gems." If you do not have an issue with survivability, you can equip two weapons with this specific mod. Otherwise, use a spirit shield in the off-hand to bolster your defense.

With a relatively high critical strike chance, especially in the endgame, you could wear the Heatshiver as well. This allows you to deal more damage when you freeze enemies using Ice Trap.

As for the notable ascendancy passive skills, you have Chain Reaction to further improve the AoE of Ice Trap. Then, you have Bomb Specialist for some more area damage. Explosives Expert is also a nice ascendancy node to take, particularly because this build is capable of inflicting Chill, and thus allowing you to take advantage of that 10% elemental penetration.

Although this build is one of the best league starters in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion, it is not without its shortcomings. Chief among them is that capping chaos resistance is a bit cumbersome to do without the proper gear. Besides that, its survivability leaves much to be desired.

However, if you are okay with its issues, the Ice Trap Saboteur is easy to recommend for being powerful on a budget.

3. Power Siphon Trickster

+Immune to Chaos Damage thanks to CI

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

+Impressive map-clearing and boss-killing potential

-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 Shadow Builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League all require a ton of investment to put up. However, every PoE Currency invested is definitely worth it.

Having said that, the Power Siphon Trickster in the current league is vastly different from the previous version of the build. This is because GGG has made a substantial change, where the line: "Increases and Reductions to Spell Damage Now Also Apply to Attack Damage from This Skill at 150% of Their Value" has been added to the skill gem itself. Because of this, you no longer have to rely on Crown of Eyes. However, this also means that the build is now played differently.

Instead of using Kinetic Blast and Power Siphon, you are now going to turn Power Siphon into a Mine Skill with the help of Locus Mine Support. This support gem also encourages you to throw your mines at the edge of your screen because you cannot detonate them if you are relatively near.

Now, you might think that this build is clunky to use given that you have turned Power Siphon into a Mine Skill, but that is just far from the truth. In fact, the playstyle of the Power Siphon Trickster is so smooth because the detonation process is automated by linking Detonate Mines with Automation Support. Just make sure to activate it before you head out on the battlefield.

Another important distinction between this build and the previous version is that this is now an INT stacker. This is to make sure that you have enough defenses to survive even in T17 maps. It also helps improve your survivability since Chaos Inoculation sets your maximum HP to one.

To ensure that you won't have problems with energy shield when tackling the pinnacle content in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, you will take Ghost Dance — a keystone passive that lets you recover energy shield equal to 3% of your total evasion.

The Power Siphon Trickster has got it all. It is capable of outputting huge amounts of damage and has enough defenses to survive encounters with the toughest bosses in the game. The only real issue here is the PoE Currency investment that's needed to acquire all of the pieces of gear. Other than that, you can never go wrong with this build!

2. 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 a couple of leagues ago, 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.

That said, the Penance Brand of Dissipation has not received any substantial changes in Patch 3.25. If anything, it only received a slight adjustment, where power is lower at the beginning but is then restored once this gem is leveled to 20.

What makes the Assassin variant so powerful compared to other ascendancy classes is that it has nodes that amplify the effects of Power Charges. Hence, this is built as a Power Charge stacker for maximum benefit.

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.

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%.

In Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, the Penance Brand of Dissipation Assassin now utilizes a couple of Call of the Brotherhood rings to convert a sizable amount of lightning damage to cold damage. This is complemented by Heatshiver because gaining the ability to freeze enemies enables you to get 30% of cold damage as extra damage from this unique helmet.

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.

Soul Drinker is not bad at all. This Trickster-exclusive notable passive skill allows you to leech copious amounts of energy shield just by using your primary skill.

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."

The Penance Brand of Dissipation Assassin is largely untouched in PoE 3.25 and it is still a powerhouse capable of deleting enemies from the face of Wraeclast!

1. Hexblast Mines Trickster

+Great league starter

+Easy to scale damage

+Impressive map-clearing speed despite having a Mine playstyle

+Better survivability compared to Saboteur

-Needs an Enduring Mana Flask early on

The Hexblast Trickster has taken the crown as the best Shadow Build in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur! Wait, isn't the Saboteur better in terms of utilizing Mine Skills? What gives? Well, there are some good explanations for that.

You see, for quite some time, it was believed that the Saboteur's Demolitions Specialist makes Hexblast Mines potent. However, with the right gear and the magic of other ascendancy classes, this is no longer the case.

Now, the reason why the Trickster is so much better than the Saboteur is that the former has access to ascendancy nodes that improve survivability. Escape Artist and Spellbreaker grant evasion rating/ES and spell suppression, respectively. Besides that, Polymath allows you to recover heaps of life and energy shield per kill.

Because you no longer have to rely on specific unique items just to survive, the Hexblast Mines Trickster has a lot of leeway when it comes to gearing. If you have the currency, you now have the power to equip synthesized items as well.

Let's talk about the skill itself. 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. This is circumvented by linking it with High-Impact Mine Support.

In case you do not know, 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 Prophecy Wand actually got buffed in Patch 3.25, where its base crit chance is now set to 10% ( from 8%). Because of this, the 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.

Since this build already has enough power when you equip the above-mentioned items, you can opt for The Restless Ward for your body armor. This increases your movement speed based on how many Frenzy Charges you have. It also grants life regeneration per Endurance Charge to help improve your survivability even further.

So, there you have it! There is no more debate as to which Shadow ascendancy class is better here. The Hexblast Mines Trickster has taken the crown as the best Shadow Build in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur 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. 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 12% 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!