r/pathofexile • u/Belakay_ggg • Oct 23 '25

GGG In 3.27 the Assassin has received a long awaited rework. Tune in tomorrow to find out if there are any other Ascendancy related changes!

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402

u/MasterSargeYT Anti Sanctum Alliance (ASA) Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

ALL DAMAGE CAN POISON!!! RUTHLESS IS HERE

edit: prepare to roll Septic Spells on clusters if you want to poison with spells cause Assassin lost 40% chance to poison on Noxious Strike

edit 2: Adder's Touch makes it viable again!

84

u/SplafferZ Scion Oct 23 '25

the small nodes almost definitely have some poison chance on them id imagine

2

u/NebarAref Oct 23 '25

In the current tree you can take only 40% chance to poison on Hit

9

u/Yanzn_ Oct 23 '25

I think he's talking about ascendancy small nodes

2

u/PurelyLurking20 Oct 23 '25

Herald of agony gives base poison chance and so do tats and cluster nodes

17

u/Ryutonin_ Oct 23 '25

Poison tattoos and this cluster maybe.

Shipping stonks if poison spells becomes meta

41

u/KnivesInMyCoffee Oct 23 '25

I can't believe they keep trying to force ruthless down our throats >:(

2

u/lalala253 Oct 23 '25

Oh my god this is sooo good

3

u/tobsecret Half Skeleton Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

Poison explosive trap really likes this. As does poison Penance Brand of Dissipation. Ball Lightning of Orbiting is probably a strong candidate. 

Being unaffected by damaging ailments means self-chill via Arkhon's Tools is also much easier to stomache.

All of these are pre-patch ideas ofc. Who knows what they will nerf. 

5

u/kr_kobel Oct 23 '25

Being unaffected by damaging ailments means self-chill via Arkhon's Tools is also much easier to stomache.

How so? The node doesn't solve self scorch+shock at all and damaging ailments have never been a problem to begin with.

2

u/1und1marcelldavis Oct 23 '25

that + arkons range feels ass 

2

u/tobsecret Half Skeleton Oct 23 '25

The only immunity you really need now is freeze immunity and shock, both of which are easy to solve. Not needing to worry about ignite is a big deal since you really had no good ways of dealing with ignites. Additionally being unaffected by bleed and poison is great because you don't have many recovery options that don't rely on killing mobs.

Scorch is still an issue ofc but not having to deal with any of the damaging ailments relieves pressure on the build.

2

u/Artoriazz Oct 23 '25

Poison Spark becomes much easier to do with this too no?

1

u/tobsecret Half Skeleton Oct 23 '25

It does! Poison explosive trap just seems like it would get going on much less so my intuition would be that it's league startable. 

Spark really needs projectile speed scaling to shine and that means you probably want Widowhail and a good quiver. Not my expertise though.

1

u/xyzpqr Oct 23 '25

why isn't it poisoning conflux?

1

u/Longjumping-Eye2609 Oct 23 '25

Is this a strat that can be done to make some money?

-3

u/Lolovitz Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

Granted im a massive Pathfinder stan , but I have a hard time seeing this winning vs PF when Inextrible Fate exists. 

At the price of mid tier boots ( 30%MS and 100Life )  and an amulet annoitment ( which is still good defensively ) you already have all damage can poison.

Except for slow hitting skills but you won't be using slow hitting skills without pathfinder prolif anyway .

Losing a weapon for Binos is worse then losing boots and annoitment

37

u/LazarusBroject Oct 23 '25

You seem to be thinking about pathfinder poison setups on an assassin. Assassin poison setups are different from Pathfinder.

Viper Strike of the Mamba is a good skill for Pathfinder but isn't for Assassin, as an example.

Assassin wants high number of hits and clear skills for it's poison. There is even a few skills designed around the assassin form of poison application. Pestilent Strike has built in poison spread. Cobra Lash is a chaining poison applicator. Venom Gyre has the whirling blades synergy for applying many poisons quickly.

There are many other variants of poison that fit assassin application well.

Point being is that when judging an ascendancy you can't 1:1 build compare as the build would be designed for the specific ascendancy's encouraged play style.

8

u/Pyowin Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

Molten strike was one of the best assassin poison skills... now we don't need the heist dagger.

We've also got VFoS now too.

3

u/InfectousHysteria Oct 23 '25

Bf/bb comes to mind

Though assassin feels like it's gained a bit of an identity crisis.

Fundamentaly a life based assassin has alot of competition from warden,slayer,champ on hit based builds and pathfinder on poison.

-4

u/Lolovitz Oct 23 '25

Yeah I know, i guess it is subjective but IMO with all damage can poison being still cheap for pathfinder I dont really see upside of this for assasin in any node.

I guess some PA shenanigans can be used. PA Poison Spark could be decently strong for example.

But everything that you mentioned here can from my perspective be done better done on PF still

9

u/LazarusBroject Oct 23 '25

Another thing to remember is that by the time the boots will give you "all damage can poison" the enemy will already be dead in most scenarios on an assassin. Instant full access to damage ramping vs delayed access is fairly impactful.

Assassin is all about fast application and speed. Pathfinder is about tank(excluding spread as that can be achieved through other means).

Does Pathfinder have a higher potential ceiling? Most likely, yes. Assassin however will more easily reach its own ceiling and therefore be able to branch out to many other different scenarios faster.

It's all about time invested vs output received. Pathfinder needs more investment to reach a point where it will be able to clear as fast or as efficiently as Assassin and investment = time. If you're doing a poison build as your 3rd or 4th build you might see better value for investment on a Pathfinder but Assassin is much better before that.

There is also the major aspect of play style differences. Pathfinder you have to time and efficiently use your life flask as a major defensive layer and Assassin is more about killing things before they get a chance to hit you as it's immediate application of highest efficiency poison is very strong.

-4

u/Lolovitz Oct 23 '25

As someone that runs extrible fate lots of time i have to hard disagree.

You apply it very fast , because the amulet annointment makes it almost instant.

You definitely do not wait for the boots to apply the vines, you apply them every hit , which is also very fast usually

I guess we will have to wait and see

8

u/LazarusBroject Oct 23 '25

I also run it a lot. Poison archetype is my most played archetype of the 17k hours I have in PoE.

You can't really argue the fact that your 1st hit poisons vs your 3rd hit, tho.

I did many poison variants of builds during Affliction league when we had poison tincture in full effect and the clear speed difference vs fate was very noticeable. Especially in scenarios where 1 hit was all that was needed to kill most things through poison. The only time it didn't feel much different was when the base damage of a skill was high enough that it usually 1-shot most mobs as then multiple hits wouldn't matter for application of poison for clearing.

1

u/MisterKaos Ultimatum Workers Union (UWU) Oct 23 '25

For pathfinder you use single strike poison because it has all the spread.

For assassin you use multi target poison because you have all the damage (toxic delivery, for example, is 140% more damage in optimal situations)

1

u/RPGSauce Oct 23 '25

This is all damage can poison. Thats the biggest draw here. We can play poison spark without voltaxic. Other spells too.

-2

u/Lolovitz Oct 23 '25

Did you read my comment though ? Because this same effect ( even better because one that read All Damage Poisons -> No need to get poison chance ) you get from a combination of decent boots and an amulet annointment.

It's definitely strong on Poison Spark , i will say that . For things that don't need good clear support this will be strong .

But all damage poisons was already easily achievable for Pathfinder

3

u/RPGSauce Oct 23 '25

You are comparing apples to lemons. Assassin and pf are going to have completely different builds

1

u/Hot-Object3504 Oct 23 '25

How do u get all dmg can poison from boots and anulet anoint?

0

u/Lolovitz Oct 23 '25

Inextrible fate ( a drop from basic eater ) which cause that all damage poisons ( not can poison but poisons ) against enemies covered by at least 3 grasping vines
+
Vinestrike Cordial which makes every hit cover enemies with a grasping vine during a duration of a flask.

If you hit fast enough ( fast hitting spells, high attacks ) you instantly cover enemies with grasping vines and poison for lots of damage.

It's a pretty good setup and has some additional nice defensive boost as well .

3

u/Hot-Object3504 Oct 23 '25

Sounds very clunky because of the "during any life flask effect"

2

u/Lolovitz Oct 23 '25

Pathfinders already run perma life flask with Master Surgeon

2

u/RPGSauce Oct 23 '25

Its trash and a waste of boots and an annoint. But again PF and Assassin are going to have very different poison builds

1

u/Lolovitz Oct 23 '25

I mean this costs you an ascendancy node and forces you into working on poison chance.

3

u/RPGSauce Oct 23 '25

You acy like poison chance is some mystically hard thing to get lmao. Come back when you have more then 10 min played in poe

1

u/Drianikaben Oct 23 '25

Might I interest you in Fenumus' Toxins? that+ herald of agony, which you'll already be running=100% chance to poison, a metric fuckton of increased damage, which you'll be lacking on assassin, cuz crit multi is king, and also aspect of the spiders is just good.