Top Six Storm Brand Builds in PoE 3.5 Betrayal

1. PoE 3.5 Lancing Steel, Shattering Steel Builds

Some individuals have managed to produce the construct function effectively. But the original plan of "pure Phy's league starter build" didn't work well. It appears the create performs much better for anyone who is elemental and/or uses some unique items which you can not use till you're leveled pretty high.

The purpose Deadeye is good is due to the fact you get a ton of project damage, Atk speed, accuracy, crit chance, and crit multi, all of that are necessary for this build. Also, the 30 life on hit is insanely very good since it operates for each hit, such as spells. Around the tree, I'm mostly taking life, project damage, Atk speed, global/Atk/spell crit opportunity, crit multi, and project speed. Due to the fact ice spear currently has 600% improved crit opportunity at baseline, you don't need significantly spell crit chance. Focus far more on Atk crit opportunity rather.

It is not MinMaxed at all. From right here on, I need to have much more levels, gem levels, additional life, diamond rings, and dodge chance. Notice the spell harm crafted around the sword. This applied to not be doable previously.

Pros & Cons:
+ Decent single target DPS
- Bad league starter
- Slow clear speed

Leveling Guide:
These trees are still rough. Alira for Bandits. Don't take crit nodes until after around LV60.

Main Skill Gem Minimum LV Requirements (Important ones in white):
LV4: War Banner
LV10: Whirling Blades, Leap Slam
LV12: Shattering Steel- Maim - Onslaught (main starting 3-link)
LV16: Blood Rage, Herald of Purity
LV18: Vicious Projectile, Faster Attacks, Damage on Full Life
LV24: Dread Banner, Projectile Weakness, Vulnerability
LV28: Lancing Steel
LV31: Fortify, Blasphemy
LV38: Brutality, Greater Multiple Projectiles, Increased AOE

Video:
Cast on Crit

PoB Link: https://pastebin.com/CpCQMMeC
Skill Tree: http://www.poeurl.com/cac0

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2. PoE 3.5 Triple Herald Impalor Builds

Pros & Cons:
+ High dps (shotgun bosses)
+ Very high movement speed with whirling blades
+ Strong clear speed (feels a bit like Frost Blades)
+ Strong defense as Champion
+ Budget friendly (most important uniques 2x Beltimber & Haemophilia gloves you get all together for about 5chaos. For my endgame gear I invested about 260 to 300 chaos orbs... a bit more than two exalted.)
+ fast and fun playstyle
- needs some uniques to work
- it is hard to reach more life than 6k

Ascendancy:
1) Master of Metal
2) Conqueror
3) Worthy Foe
4) Inspirational

Bandits:
Kill them all for two extra passive points.

Pantheon:
Soul of Solaris
Soul of Tukohama

Leveling:
In general look for following stats on gear:
- Life
- Resistances
- Damage to attacks
- Life / Mana gained on the hit
- Armor / Evasion
On the weapon look for:
- High physical damage
- High attack speed

Here a few uniques which might help you while leveling: (required level)
- Tabula Rasa (1)
- Wanderlust (4)
- Thief's Torment (30)
- The Nomad (48, also our endgame belt)
- Oni-Goroshi (1, can be your leveling weapon which is also viable for endgame)
- The story of the Vaal (35)
- Terminus Est (51)

Video:
Triple Herald Impalor

Shattering Steel

Triple Herald Impalor

PoB Link: https://pastebin.com/NMjN8ZTn
Skill Tree: https://tinyurl.com/yaehf49s

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3. PoE 3.5 Rusty Poisonous Steel Builds

Pros & Cons:
+ None to minimum performance impact on low-end computers.
+ Most forgiving on bad connection with lag spikes.
+ Hit & run build, encouraging fast and enjoyable pace while clearing.
+ Have all the different kind of nodes available, allow picking best and most efficient ones.
+ 100% uptime for flasks.
+ Cheap to moderate unique items. With upgrade potential for rich guys.
+ Immune to reflect at endgame (Almost!)
+ Can go Dual curse.

- Main defense is RNG based.
- Need more Int & Strength via items.
- Poison damage is hard to scale at early levels.
- Require constant upgrade to both weapons during leveling.
- Knowing when to swap supports can be elusive.
- Actual dps never show on the character sheet, it needs PoB.

Planned Key Active Skills:
Lancing Steel/Herald of Agony/Herald of Purity/Despair/Whirling Blades/Summon Ice Golem/Wither/Vaal Blight

Support gems priority for Projectiles Scaling (Early starting tree):
Slower projectile
Vicious Projectiles
Pierce (replaced once we get the pierce node from the tree)
Maim
Damage on Full life

Support gems priority for Projectiles+Poison Scaling (mid game):
Vicious Projectiles
Void Manipulation
Lesser Poison (Replaced once we get Fatal Toxins wheel from the tree)
Maim (Replaced as we get 'Innsbury Edge' for the weapon)
Damage on Full life
Added Chaos damage (Get it as the 5th link, or even 4th if you are confident and have the currency to buy)

Support gems priority for Endgame pure Poison:
Vicious Projectiles (Will be replaced once we stack so many poisons with good duration and attack speed plenty from skill becomes hindering)
Void Manipulation
Added Chaos damage
Damage on Full life
Unbound Ailments
Vile toxins
Deadly Ailments

Skill Tree:
+1 million dps Tree: https://pastebin.com/67pf16dP
23 Points: Finesse-Aspect of the Panther-weapon Artistry-Toxic Strike Wheel-Heart of Oak-Primal Spirit-Ballistic Mastery.
43 Points: Herbalism-Brutal Blade-Swagger-Fatal Toxin Wheel-Piercing Shot
== Now you can replace pierce for more important supports ==
70 points: Acrobatic-phase Acrobatic-Aucity-Dirty Techniques wheel-Ambidexterity-Golem's Blood.
== Around this point we will be doing Cruel lab and getting "Nature's reprisal" which will help immensely to sustain Virulence charges, and start shaping the build into real poison stacking.
== Gradually, Projectiles hits will be insignificant, and we can switch to more ailment/poison supports.
== Once we have enough currency, we should get "Spreading Rot" and slam it in the slot above Blood Drinker on Top Right of the tree. It's great debuff for bosses as long as we use Vaal Blight.
From here, we go Fatal Blade, and the rest of life and crit nodes, and add some sockets if we have good jewels. Adding accuracy is also an option to counter all the dropping of accuracy in late levels.

Pantheon:
Major: Soul of Lunaris
Minor: Soul of Gruthkul

Alternative: 
Minor: Soul of Yugul

PoB Link: https://pastebin.com/67pf16dP
Skill Tree: https://tinyurl.com/y9fqhfpm

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4.Vulpix0r's Shattering Steel Champion Build Guide

Pros & Cons:
+ Superb single target damage with the shotgun effect
+ Cheap and possible to start with no gear fresh in league
+ Sword based so lots of nice uniques to bring you even to red maps
+ Gear is cheap
+ Decent clear speed
- Heavily dependant on positioning
- Trying to hit more than 6k+ life is hard
- You need to be on your feet during syndicate fights
- Build feels weak until you get Greater Multiple Projectiles
- Unable to use a lot of awesome flasks like Taste of Hate, Atziri's Promise, etc.

Playstyle:
This skill thrives on projectiles. More projectiles, the better. Beat point blank range, fire away at the tough monsters. Make sure to manage your flasks properly, and enjoy the massive number of projectiles. Do note that shotgun is a thing for this build.

Leveling:
New character? Fresh from drowning? Here’s what you need for act 1!
Keep your Chance to Bleed gem after killing Hillock, then level with whatever skill you want like Molten Strike or Cleave, grab Maim as well. Remember to grab Lesser Multiple Projectiles and War Banner. After hitting Merveil’s cave, you will get access to Shattering Steel. At this point, your links will be:
Shattering Steel + Maim + Chance to Bleed.

Reached act 2? Great! Grab Herald of Purity for a nice damage boost, Vicious Projectiles, and Blood Rage. Enduring Cry if you can afford it but it’s not a priority. You should try to get a 4L with 3 green sockets and 1 red, for this combination:
Shattering Steel + Vicious Projectiles + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Chance to Bleed

In act 3 now? Grab Haste or Grace depending on your preference, or just get both and level them until you have decided which you like. We will also be grabbing Dread Banner. If you don’t mind doing the Library quest in the Imperial Garden, you can grab Fork to level. If you can afford the intelligence, purchase Increased Critical Strikes to level, Blood Magic to connect to your leap slam.

Finally in act 4? Grab whatever golem you want, it doesn’t matter as we’re not going to use one since they are pretty stupid. Once you’re done killing Kaom and Daresso, grab Brutality ASAP and replace Lesser Multiple with Greater Multiple Projectiles. The links you have at this point should be:
Shattering Steel + Brutality + Vicious Projectiles + Greater Multiple Projectiles

Gems Link:
Main
Before getting dual Beltimbers:
Shattering Steel + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Brutality + Maim + Vicious Projectiles + Fork
If you’re on a 5L, leave Fork out.

After getting dual Beltimbers:
Shattering Steel + Brutality + Maim + Vicious Projectiles + Fork + Increased Critical Strikes

Do note that Fork for some reason increases your single target damage due to the nature of the shotgun-by nature of Shattering Steel.

Herald and Aura
Grace or Haste, Herald of Purity

We will be running Grace (or haste for more speed), it’s a great way to boost your evasion as we’re depending on both our armour and evasion to survive, along with our granite flask to mitigate the big Phys hits.

Herald of Purity is the only one worth running that will give us additional flat physical damage.

Movement
Leap Slam + Blood Magic + Fortify + Faster Attacks

Nothing special, just use whatever you like, even Whirling Blade.

Utility
Blood Rage + Dread Banner + Enduring Cry
I think it’s quite straight forward, blood rage for frenzy charges and attack speed, the dread banner for that sweet impale, enduring cry to generate endurance charges.

Cast when Damage Taken + Immortal Call + Enfeeble
Ancestral Warchief + Melee Physical Damage + Culling Strike

Video:
T16 Minotaur Run

PoB Link: https://pastebin.com/FHA99sVM
Skill Tree: https://tinyurl.com/yagocu4y

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5. Steel Embrace Pure physical Budget Friendly Builds

Pros & Cons:
+ High dps Due to shotgunning (all projectiles hitting the same target)
+ High mobility speed with Leap Slam
+ Good Clear speed
+ High defense with champion + Vaal grace. (40,000+ Armor)
+ Budget friendly
+ Unique Playstyle getting up close to shotgun the closer the better
+ Very high leech (2500/s)
- Struggles With life plateauing at around 5.5-6k at level 90
- Need to be super close (read inside) bosses to do max DPS

Ascendancy:
1) Conqueror
2) Worthy Foe
3) Inspirational
4) Master of Metal

Bandits:
Alira Makes gear cheaper (+15 all res 20% crit multiplier 5mana regen)
but, Kill them all for two extra passive points is better overall.

Pantheon:
Soul of Arakaali (life leach after Immortal Call)
Soul of Tukohama

Skills:
Main Attack:
Shattering Steel > Vicious Projectiles > Brutality > Maim > Slower Projectiles > Chance to Bleed

You could also use Power charge on critical or pierce support.
Pierce support smooths out mapping but bleeds support is slightly more damage.
There is the debate on if fork support double shotguns and could be added instead of piercing/bleed support

Mobility Skill:
Leap Slam + Faster Attacks > Fortify

Power Charge Generation
(if not using Kaoms roots)
Cast When Damage Taken + Orb of Storm + Power Charge on Critical + increased Critical strike chance

Immortal Call Setup
level 2-4 Cast When Damage Taken + level 4 Immortal Call + Molten Shell / increased Duration

Mana Reserved Skills:
Herald of Purity
Dread Banner
For Defense use Vaal Grace OR Purity of Ice (for shaper/Elder fights)
For general mapping use Vaal Haste.

Blasphemy > enfeeble

Other Buffs:
Ancestral Protector
Blood Rage
Ice Golem

Video:
Regular Red Map

Maze of the Minotaur

Lair of the Hydra

Forge of the Pheonix

Shaper

PoB Link: https://pastebin.com/Mwq38Sir
Skill Tree: https://tinyurl.com/yclrakgn

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6. PoE 3.5 Shattering Steel pure physical, Blood Magic Deadeye Builds

Let me start out by saying that this creature is pretty versatile. It can be achievable to go nonblood magic, champion instead of deadeye, the tree is also fairly modifiable.

When GGG announced sword/ax expertise I thought they have been gonna be weak considering the fact that I saw that they each lack melee tag, so I decided to skip them and commence with CwC Winter Orb/Ice Spear. It was only on the second char that I decided to attempt it though leveling and noticed that Shattering Steel can shotgun. This produced me attempt and make a construct with it. Immediately after testing different support gems on normal I believed Pierce operates greatest with it, so went with Deadeye to have pierced from ascendancy. I wanted to benefit from new Impale mechanic so tried to danger and go complete Phys although phys->ele and phys+added as ele are superior to get a long time currently. It turned out pretty good. Uber Elder doable on the 3ex spending budget.

Pros & Cons:
+ cheap to start
+ high clear speed, can't clear 1+ screens but super fast movement
+ can shotgun single target which means following in my setup that fires 10 projectiles:
+ 30 life gain on hit base from ascendancy = 300 life gain per skill use, with around 5 attacks per second feels like an old Vaal pact,
+ Impale massacre - each hit has 62 percent chance to impale and since projectiles fire in sequence, it means that if 1st projectile applies to impale effect, the next 5 will proc the damage in addition to having a chance applying another impale effect. That means in average 7/10 impale effects from one swing of a weapon, which are boosted from base 10% of damage to 15+ with banner and quality on Shattering Steel
+ fast gain of the banner stack on a single target. Dread Banner gains stacks for each enemy impaled with a cap of 5 per second, Shattering Steel reaches this cap easily on a single target which means you can have fully stacked banned after 10 seconds on the fight like Uber Elder.
- to achieve max single target you are required to stand on a targets face ensuring that all projectiles are hitting him
- fortification encounter door is the pain in the ass if you are to close you deal no damage (don't know why) but if you move too far away the only portion of projectiles hit and doors are tough :)
- setup with Beltimbers requires you to use movement skill every 4 seconds, doesn't bother me at all, but some people might not like it
- can't run Phys reflect maps

Bandits:
Killing all is probably the best, but I'm stuck with Alira because I don't want to change a lot of gear to cap my dresses. You also go Oak if you really want.

Gem Setup:
Main skill (chest):
Shattering Steel -> Chance to Bleed -> Brutality -> Vicious Projectiles -> Maim -> Increased Critical Damage

If you have a chest with supported by level 1 maim you add Slower Projectiles support.
If you don't have Pierce nodes from ascendancy you run with Pierce support instead of Vicious Projectiles

Cast When Damage Taken setup (gloves/helmet/boots):
Cast When Damage Taken(lvl1) -> Immortal Call(lvl3) -> Blood Rage(max lvl)-> Increased Duration(max lvl)

Vaal Double Strike steup (gloves/helmet/boots):
Vaal Double Strike -> Bloodlust -> Brutality -> Melee Physical Damage

Curse:
Vulnerability -> Blasphemy

Banner:
Dread Banner

Movement skill:
Leap Slam -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify

Totem setup:
Ancestral Protector -> Multiple Totems -> Culling Strike

Video:
T16 Minotaur map

T16 Defiled Cathedral from Zana

Shaper

Uber Elder

PoB Link: https://pastebin.com/9pFqq3tZ
Skill Tree: https://tinyurl.com/yabnqxn4