The Scorpion Blade Assassin

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Introduction



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Rest in piss!

The Scorpion Blade Assassin is one of my favorite builds, despite the changes to it over the years. It struggles during the leveling phase but begins to excel during mid game when you start getting more pierce and +skills. SSF can be a bit of a struggle once you hit mid game due to the rarity of a few gear pieces so keep that in mind.

End game is fairly decent with Scorpion Blade. I've killed Samael and completed T10 Lab, including Phoboss. Scosglen is fast, but not as fast as some other builds. If you're looking for an OP build, this isn't it. However, if you want a fun build that can complete all content in the game and challenge you to complete it, welcome (masochists)!




Pros



  • Fire and forget! You can blaze through trash mobs as the poison ticks them down
  • Assassin class, able to use Shadow Refuge and forgo investing into physical resistance
  • Avoid! Maxing Perfect Being brings you to 60% avoid
  • Scorpion Blade doesn't rely on Spell Focus or Energy so you can Vit dump after you've achieved your stats for gear
  • Fast farmer! Scorpion Blade excels at farming maps with mainly trash mobs like Fauzt, Triune, Dunc, etc. Your clear times will be quick.
  • Want to complete all content? This build can do it all (Nithogur excluded ;) )


Cons



  • Single target isn't the best. Bosses will be a slog until you get big pierce.
  • Assassins have low defense. Prepare to struggle a bit in places like Viz Jun and when dealing with Corrupted Barbarian in labs (screw that guy, for real)
  • Highly gear dependent build. Without rare items like
    Piranha Swarm
    Piranha Swarm
    Flying Knife (Sacred)
    Throw Damage: 59 to 61
    One-Hand Damage: 38 to 39
    Required Level: 100
    Required Dexterity: 473
    Item Level: 120
    Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
    Scorpion Blade: Always Explodes, Max Range -25%
    +(4 to 7) to Assassin Skill Levels
    +99% to Poison Spell Damage
    Regenerate Mana +50%
    Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
    +150 Life after each Kill
    50% Magic Find
    Socketed (2)
    and
    Zayl's Temptation
    Zayl's Temptation
    Bladed Shield (Sacred)
    Defense: (2035 - 2181) to (2430 - 2604)
    Chance to Block: 5%
    (Assassin Only)
    Required Level: 100
    Required Dexterity:     1100
    Item Level: 120
    Regens 15% Life Over 5 Seconds Upon Taking Weapon Damage
    +(4 to 6) to Assassin Skill Levels
    1% Base Block Chance
    -(11 to 15)% to Enemy Elemental Resistances
    Slow Target (15 to 25)%
    +(180 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
    Maximum Elemental Resists +1%
    Maximum Block Chance +10%
    Requirements +100%
    Socketed (6)
    , you're going to feel weak at endgame.
  • Super endgame requires Angelics to push further. I hope you enjoy being in Angelic Hell 8-)
  • Early game leveling with Scorpion Blade is very slow. I'd almost recommend going claw (unless you're a masochist like me)



Overview



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Skill Progression Plan


Way of the Spider → Lethal Incision → Perfect Being → Scorpion Blade → Shadow Refuge/Rush → Prismatic Cloak → Pinnacle

  • Scorpion Blade scales by maxing Way of the Spider. You get bonus poison spell damage and 1% pierce per base level. You want to max this as soon as possible.
  • Beware maxing scorpion blade too early as it will increase your mana cost. You'll also see that maxing scorpion blade also reduces it's duration.
  • Scorpion Blade gains an extra projectile every 5 base levels. This really only starts being effective during midgame. Don't bother maxing it till later.
  • After maxing Way of the Spider then start maxing Lethal Incision. Bosses are a nightmare without points here
  • Perfect Being is your goal next. You want high avoid as you approach mid game. Add a few points to Shadow Refuge and Shadow Rush but be aware of the short duration.
  • During mid game, start maxing Scorpion Blade. Finally, we max Prismatic Cloak for the massive elemental damage mitigation and life boost.
    This will help a ton during mid-end game content. Pinnacle rounds out our skills for a big massive boost to +all skills
  • Specialization helps us further scale Lethal Incision and Scorpion Blade. A point in Meditation is great for the leveling phase and late game. I am using the Hive scroll in 2.10 which costs an absurd amount of mana so that's why I continue to use Medidation in late game.


Skills and Gameplay



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Scorpion Blade is considered a throwing skill and not a spell, even though it deals spell damage. It scales on attack speed, capping at 60 IAS for max frames. Upon activating the skill, a multitude of poison daggers fly out and poison any enemy it touches. With the weapon
Piranha Swarm
Piranha Swarm
Flying Knife (Sacred)
Throw Damage: 59 to 61
One-Hand Damage: 38 to 39
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 473
Item Level: 120
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
Scorpion Blade: Always Explodes, Max Range -25%
+(4 to 7) to Assassin Skill Levels
+99% to Poison Spell Damage
Regenerate Mana +50%
Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
+150 Life after each Kill
50% Magic Find
Socketed (2)
, each blade detonates into a poison explosion at the end of its flight, regardless if it hits a target, as shown below.

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Lethal Incision is your single-target skill. It reduces the amount of knives to 1 but adds much more power. You can increase the amount of knives for Lethal Incision with
Relic (Scorpion Blade)
Relic
Required Level: 75
Lethal Incision: +1 Extra Blade
+(11 to 16) to Scorpion Blade
Poison Resist +(11 to 20)%
. Having two knives will allow them to STACK. This is great when bossing and for bosses that are large and allow you to hit both knives.

The duration of Scorpion Blade and Lethal Incision are short and only further reduced by adding skill points to Scorpion Blade. So unless you're rocking Poison Skill Duration bonuses, you'll need to keep flinging knives to keep up the damage.

Adding points into Scorpion Blade and Lethal Incision increases its mana cost! Early game you want to keep Scorpion Blade points down and just max Way of the Spider to maximize your damage and mana costs.

Shadow Refuge makes up our first utility skill. It maxes your physical resists at 50% and, with Shadow Rush, increases your movement speed. High move speed is critical on this build so can kite tanky mobs with Lethal Incision and speed farm through trash with Scorpion Blade. I like to add around 10 points to Shadow Refuge so I don't have to continuously cast it. This puts it at around 30 seconds. However, feel free to add less if that suits you better.

Assassins generally have low defense so Perfect Being is mandatory. This, maxed, will put your avoid at 60% which is huge. As a Scorpion Blade assassin, we need as many defensive layers as possible because outside of Life After Enemy Kill and Regen, we are relying on potions for sustain.

Way of the Spider is our big passive and the whole reason this build works.

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Each base point in Way of the Spider adds 1% poison pierce and bonus poison spell damage. Scorpion Blade deals damage partly based on the amount of points in Way of the Spider so this skill is the most important in the build.

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Our final important skills are Pinnacle and Prismatic Cloak. While under the Psionic tree, Pinnacle is an active skill that boosts our skill points, allowing for much more damage. It also boosts spell focus but Scorpion Blade does not scale with that. We also lose 50% total character defense but isn't really a big deal because we will have so little at the end of this build, anyway.

Prismatic Cloak is a Black Road passive and adds huge flat elemental damage mitigation and a bonus to max health. More defensive layers are always appreciated here.

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Once you have all of these skills, you will start by buffing with Pinnacle to add +skills and then Shadow Refuge. Throw on Lethal Incision next if you need to take down single targets and end with Bloodlust once you get
Shamanka
Shamanka
Long Staff (Sacred)
Two-Hand Damage: 56 to 58
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 203
Item Level: 105
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.15 per Dexterity)%
+(3 to 6) to Sorceress Skill Levels
45% Cast Speed
45% Hit Recovery
+(21 to 25)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(21 to 25)% to Cold Spell Damage
+(21 to 25)% to Poison Spell Damage
+(6 to 16) to Bloodlust
Maximum Life +(10 to 13)%
Fire Resist +(50 to 70)%
Lightning Resist +(50 to 70)%
Socketed (4)
. Very simple buff process.

Scaling Scorpion Blade



I feel like this is important and deserves it's own section. Scorpion Blade damage scales as follows:

  • poison spell damage
  • poison pierce
  • points in Way of the Spider
  • +skills
  • Poison Skill Duration

Here are some ways it does NOT scale:

  • Energy
  • Spell Focus
  • Poison Weapon Damage

Keep this in mind as you're developing your character. Also, feel free to check out Sio's excellent guide on Poison Mechanics: https://forum.median-xl.com/viewtopic.php?t=70559


Gear



Leveling (lvl 1-105)

► Show Spoiler


Mid Game (lvl 105-130)
► Show Spoiler


End game
► Show Spoiler


Uber Quests



Welcome to Hell

Now that you're in Hell difficulty, welcome to Median XL! Everything before this was just a warmup to help you familiarize your character and prepare for the journey ahead. The goal here is to steadily progress through dungeons and rifts while leveling and collecting charms dropped by bosses.

This section is dedicated to tips and tricks to get through dungeons and rifts and emerge victorious, even at Dimensional Labyrinth 10!

Very Easy

  • Butcher- Your first charm and first boss. Each boss will consist of you toggling on Lethal Incision and kiting or face-tanking your target. For Butcher, come in with some extra max fire resist and make sure your poison pierce isn't too lacking. It will take a minute but you should be able to kill him fairly easily.
  • Infernal Machine- This boss emits a blue pulse twice before releasing a blue flame nova. DO NOT get hit by this as it will hurt.
    Keep Lethal Incision on, being sure to take out the boss minions first. Take your time - boss is tanky and your damage will be weak until getting more pierce later.
  • Invasion 1- Super easy fight. Simply don't stand in the lightning circles and bring potions to heal the lightning bolts.
  • Death Projector- For this fight, you need to pull 2 boss enemies through the map to the Death Projectorin order to do damage to it. Ignore the enemies at the point and just focus on the Death Projector. Don't get caught in the lightning spiral and you should be fine.
  • Island of the Sunless Sea- First rift and first pain on this build. The enemies are invisible and hit extremely hard so take your time and spam Scorpion Blade around empty areas to scout ahead. Lethal Incision for the boss enemies scattered around. Cube 6 Angel Bags for the charm. Also, keep an eye out for the Sunless Crystal Bird to cube with your Angel bag. Shoot for -5 pierce, this is critical.

Easy

  • The Binding of Baal- Easy my ass. This fight feels like a level 120 fight and is incredibly difficult at a fresh level 110. Tal Rasha is invincible around his Horadrim minions so kill them first. These guys hurt and you want to kill them as fast as possible. Tal Rasha himself has multiple phases. Kill him once and he transforms to another form with different attacks. Beware the lightning circles, especially. Stay far away and fling Lethal Incision blades while kiting his attacks. His final form has a poison attack the HURTS LIKE HELL. Don't underestimate it, you may even consider coming here with poison length reduction on your gear.
  • Torajan Jungles- Another rift. Scorpion Blade can clear trash easily but the hulking trees wont even die quickly with Lethal Incision. Personally, I just ignore them as the reward isn't worth the time to kill. Akarat is one of the bosses in the area and he SUCKS HARD when you first meet him on a poison build because he regens insanely fast. I'm embarrassed to say that I came back at level 115 and killed him once I had some more poison pierce.
  • Jitan- Found in the northwest corner of Torajan Jungles, Jitan is surrounded by a horde of spear minions that cast guard tower. Kill all of them first using Lethal Incision and carefully kite Jitan while avoiding his fortress attack (it hurts).
  • Horazon's Sanctum- Super easy fight. Lethal Incision him down while killing the adds when they appear. Might take a bit to kill since your damage is weak at this stage of the game.
  • Assault on Mount Arreat- I usually don't do this charm until way later because it's about useless for this build and it's in Act 5. Feel free to skip until later. It's incredibly easy, too. Just Scorpion Blade the minions and Lethal Incision Bul Kathos.
  • Inquisitor of the Triune- This dude is tanky as hell. Potions are also reduced in effectiveness. Just pop Lethal Incision and face tank him. Watch our for shower of rocks and his invulnerability window. You might decide to come here later once you have more damage.
  • The Secret Cow LevelMy favorite place to level from 110 to 115. Watch out for the invisible ninja cows as they hit hard and can sneak up on you. Scorpion Blade should farm this place fast, Lethal Incision not required. Try to make sure you have some Life After Enemy Kill on to help survive because you can get surrounded quickly and stun locked to death. Also, keep an eye out for Shimmering shrines because we will need some when making crafts/blessing angelics.

Moderate

  • Rathma Square- The boss here is Primus. Ignore the annoying jumpers in the area and use Blink to get down to him. He should die pretty fast via Lethal Incision, just watch out for the jumpers (they near infinitely respawn).
  • Black Road Life After Enemy Kill makes this a breeze. Buyard Cholik can only be damaged in the fire circle but a wave of zombies spawns and allows you to kill a ton of them while also doing damage to him. Use potions because he can hit kinda hard at this point. Killing him unlocks Prismatic Cloak, a huge survivability skill for us.
  • Kurast 3000 BA- My favorite rift for level 115. Scorpion Blade does work here and you can blaze through here quickly. The spire totems do suck, though, and you'll need to Lethal Incision them down. Easy and safe rift to get to 120. Don't forget about killing the necromancers here for the charm.
  • Tran Athulua- This rift kinda sucks for us. We can delete the trash amazons with Scorpion Blade but the annoying pristesses like to run around and dodge our Lethal Incision. Personally, I'd farm the charm and go back to Kurast until 120.
  • Invasion 2- Whew, this is tough as a fresh 115. He's tanky and our pierce is still kinda low. Stay in the ice circle to dodge his attack and watch out for the lightning circles, they hurt. The Frozen Shamblers are annoying but not threatening. Shoot to kill the Riftwalker without taking damage by the rift storm circles to complete the bonus quest.
  • High Heavens/Library of Fate- Great rift for us. Scorpion blade clears the trash here effortlessly but you'll need to switch to Lethal Incision for the Avatars. Shoot for a 10% attribute
    Zakarum's Ear
    Zakarum's Ear
    Required Level: 115
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    (6 to 10)% to All Attributes
    +(6 to 15)% to Experience Gained
    Heroic Library of Fate
    Rewards: Angelic Items, Crafting Rares, Crafting Exclusive Uniques
    Tramsmute with a Perfect Gem to open with Area Level 125
    Tramsmute with 2 Angelic items to open with Area Level 130
    . Don't forget to come back here at level 120 to farm angelics in the Heroic Library of Fate.
  • The Veiled Prophet-Accessible from the Library of Fate, your goal here is to survive the nuns until the Crystal Ball becomes vulnerable. Once its dead, the nuns will become vulnerable and Inarius will appear. Watch out for the casters in the bottom corner, their Mind Flay hurts and deals lightning damage.
  • Heart of Sin - Azmodan is your target here, at the far west of the map. Beware the fire traps he sets and the constant bombardment of fire spells. His Fortress attack is the most annoying so make sure to keep some distance. Huge charm here with +2 Max Resists.
  • Legacy of Blood- Cakewalk. Can only do damage to Bartuc and golems while they are casting Wychwind. Dodge the fireballs and focus on Bartuc. Charm is pretty useless for us but trophying it will add some defense.

Hard

  • Judgement Day - Tough as a fresh 120. Come back after you've gotten some more pierce and damage because you need to kill Malthael and Imperius quickly to unlock the bonus (+40 attr). Watch out for the invincible Edyrem and Deathstrike. It may one-shot you if you take the full brunt. You'll need to kite away and fire Lethal Incision for this fight.
  • Quov Sin - Easy for Scorpion Blade. Just fire and kite back and forth, being sure to minimize damage taken from his Trinity Beam. Avoid the Bone Spear Nova skill to unlock the trophy, which is 10% spell damage (be sure to do this!!).
  • Twin Seas - Not too difficult but super annoying. Athulua likes to teleport around alot which is bad when Lethal Incision is like throwing a single dirty syringe at someone. Our avoid does work keeping us alive but with her incessant teleporting it will take a while.
  • Kingdom of Shadow - Desync land, happens to me constantly here. The goal is to navigate the map and kill Juris Khan for the
    Eternal Bone Pile
    Eternal Bone Pile
    Required Level: 120
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    +(1 to 2) to Sorceress Skill Levels
    +(1 to 2) to Paladin Skill Levels
    +(1 to 2) to Necromancer Skill Levels
    +(1 to 2) to Druid Skill Levels
    +(1 to 2) to Barbarian Skill Levels
    +(1 to 2) to Assassin Skill Levels
    +(1 to 2) to Amazon Skill Levels
    10% Movement Speed
    charm. Here's a map of the zone and here's a video of my favorite route to complete. Blink is your friend here as Jitan's Gate cooldown is balls.
    ► Show Spoiler
  • Banisher of Light - Kabraxis is a pain but easily doable on Scorpion Blade. Just like most bosses, kite around spamming Lethal Incision and avoiding the green Flamestrike. That can kill easily. He will pounce on you if you stray too far so just circle him till he's dead, using potions when necessary.
  • Teganze - LOVE this rift on Scorpion Blade. Between Prismatic Cloak and Perfect Being, its tough to die here and Scorpion Blade knives spread out and take care of the annoying Fetish enemies who like to spread out. Once your pierce is at 135, you should be able to one shot most enemies here and farm the essences and runestones for
    Umbaru Treasure
    Umbaru Treasure
    Required Level: 120
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    Cube with Essence/Runestone to Roll Stat
    +10% to Spell Damage
    Essence Slots: 20
    . Watch out for the boss in the middle, he goes invulnerable in bat form so just be patient and Lethal Incision him down.
  • Duncraig - Dunc is rough as a fresh 120. Unless your pierce is high, you won't be able to oneshot the mobs and will have to take it slow with Lethal Incision. Experience here is amazing, though, so definitely try to work on getting more damage. Assur is the boss here and requires you to farm 6 rings + Ring of the Five in the cube to create Assur's Bane. You'll need to Purify Assur but watch out because he has FIRE PIERCE. If you don't overcap your fire resist he WILL annihilate you if you stand still for too long.
  • The Triune- My favorite HARD rift on Scorpion Blade. Trash enemies all get one shotted by Scorpion Blade if you have some decent pierce by now.
    Crown of the Black Rose
    Crown of the Black Rose
    Diadem (Sacred)
    Defense: 870 to 983
    Required Level: 110
    Required Dexterity: 524
    Item Level: 105
    Orb Effects Applied to this Item are Doubled
    +(2 to 3) to All Skills
    +(20 to 30)% to Poison Spell Damage
    -(10 to 15)% to Enemy Poison Resistance
    +(14 to 20) to Black Lotus Strike
    +(90 to 150) Life Regenerated per Second
    Maximum Poison Resist +(2 to 3)%
    (25 to 50)% Bonus to Defense
    Cannot Be Frozen
    Socketed (4)
    has cannot be frozen and this is a life saver versus the frozen husks. Our goal here is to retrieve a
    Corrupted Wormhole
    Corrupted Wormhole
    Required Level: 100
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    from the boss. At the top right portion of the map you need to kill a boss that drops the Mind Control tome. Keep it in your inventory and head east to find Lucien and Malic. You need to Mind Control Lucien to take damage from Malic to get your charm. Spend some time here farming Cycles. My favorite is Large life and mana cycles. You can also use small life ones, too. Since we don't scale energy, maximizing flat life is the best use our time when developing our
    Corrupted Wormhole
    Corrupted Wormhole
    Required Level: 100
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    .
  • Toraja- I hate this place. The key here is to summon Edyrem in order to strip the enemies of their invulnerability. I recommend just bum rushing Lilith in the bottom right hand corner of the map and spamming Edyrem around her while also spamming Lethal Incision. Aim for a charm with max cold resist if you can.
  • The Mirror Temple- the Assassin Nemesis you need to kill doesn't always show up so just Blink around until you find her. The enemies here give almost no experience and the Sires are tanky as hell. The Mirror of Shadows that drops from your Nemesis can be cubed with your class charm to add +1 assassin skills and -5 physical damage taken.
  • Legion of the Damned- Our damage and survivability wont be amazing when we first get here so only destroy the far left and far right totems. This is a fantastic place to farm signets and oils.
    Bone Chimes
    Bone Chimes
    Required Level: 120
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    Gives stats based on the sum of your bonus damage to Undead and Demons
    30% added as Weapon Physical Damage (Max +150%)
    Current Bonus: 1%
    is pretty mid and not really worth trying to use right now.

Very Hard

  • Lord of Lies- Belial here is our target and you'll notice he has tons of clones of himself. The real one is actually a rat. He's very tiny and hard to see so do your best to follow him. At this point you should have around 5 blades of Scorpion Blade. As a fresh lvl 125, I just spammed Scorpion Blade because the huge spread of the blades was guaranteed to hit him and his clones. Once I killed a bunch of clones, I switched to Lethal Incision and pounded on him since it was easier to find him. Try to aim for 400+ life on his charm because flat life is important for our survivability right now.
  • Eve of Destruction- Baal is the same old pain we've been dealing with but now he hits harder and is a bit faster. Try to avoid standing in his black Defile skill because it can assist him with summoning adds. If he summons Diablo or Mephisto, he is invincible until you kill them so try to lure Baal away and hit hard with Lethal Incision. After killing him, you'll get a free relic. Hopefully it's
    Relic (Scorpion Blade)
    Relic
    Required Level: 75
    Lethal Incision: +1 Extra Blade
    +(11 to 16) to Scorpion Blade
    Poison Resist +(11 to 20)%
    !
  • Fauztinville- Great rift for us, provided you have around 135 pierce at this point. The Harpies have poison absorb and don't always die after the first volley of Scorpion Blade. Ignore the necrobot generals as they take too long to kill right now. Later on, we can farm them easily. Make sure you keep Shadow Refuge up the whole time because you'll be taking a ton of physical damage. Life after enemy kill will keep you going as long as your kill speed is decent.
  • Ghosts of Old Bremmtown- Pretty easy. Keep Shadow Refuge up and kite forward every few seconds throwing Lethal Incision on the Howling Spirits. If you don't kill them fast enough you will get overwhelmed. The Dark Star Dragon is in the middle of the map and melts like butter. Make sure you cube the charm and unlock the bonus 5% max health.
  • Yshari Sanctum- Navigate to https://median-xl.fandom.com/wiki/Maps and scroll down to Yshari Sanctum for maps of the areas. After completing each area and collecting the set, you'll need to equip it and prepare for a Purify fight against Valthek. Try to keep 1 or 2 of his minions alive and throw a Purify as soon as he pounces. The fight just takes patience but assassin is one of the best classes to do this with.
  • Xazax Very doable as a fresh 125. Just spam Lethal Incision and utilize the speed from Shadow Refuge to kite Xazax and avoid the invincible Penitents. Avoid the glacial spike nova and most of his other attacks are easily manageable.
  • Astrogha- This is straight up a gear check. Kill the totems to prevent spiders from spawning and make the fight a bit easier. During phase 2, Astrogha creates 2 clones of himself. Try to Lethal Incision him down as fast as you can because eggs containing Mantis enemies begin to spawn and will overwhelm you if your damage isnt high enough. Don't be afraid to come back later if you need to. However, this charm is huge for us with 500 life and +1 skills.
  • Nymyr's Light- Atanna Khan is tanky as hell and deals magic damage so you won't be able to mitigate her damage at this point. Avoid and potions will be key here. Your damage is likely mediocre and will take awhile to Lethal Incision her down. Be patient and bring extra potions. If your
    The Sleep
    The Sleep
    Required Level: 125
    Cube After Completing a Trophy Challenge to Awaken
    Disenchant to open a portal to the World Nexus
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    Maximum Fire Resist +(0 to 1)%
    Maximum Lightning Resist +(0 to 1)%
    Maximum Cold Resist +(0 to 1)%
    Maximum Poison Resist +(0 to 1)%
    charm is crap, you can transmute it to create a portal straight to Atanna Khan and try again.
  • Spirit World- I simply could not do this fight at 125-130. Giyua is invincible while nests are around him so you need to destroy these fast. I could not destroy them faster than he could create them. This dungeon is 100% a damage check. If you cannot kill the nests fast enough then come back when you get your pierce up. The upgraded
    Umbaru Treasure
    Umbaru Treasure
    Required Level: 120
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    Cube with Essence/Runestone to Roll Stat
    +10% to Spell Damage
    Essence Slots: 20
    is worth it.
  • Viz-Jun- A rift filled with fast and hard hitting robots. Having low defense here is a nightmare. There are poison absorb enemies here, too, which makes this place even more insufferable. Chaingun sentry attacks are insane and can kill you in a second if you're not careful, even with max Perfect Being. The goal here is the Master Control System and takes but a single Purify to defeat. Get the charm and get out of here, asap.

Extreme

Well, we've made it to the hardest content. Scorpion Blade is more than competent, with proper investment, at completing the next phase. Keep in mind the pierce caps as you begin the Extreme challenges. This is the best way to maximize your damage.
Image.

Ensure your max resists are also high, 85+ is ideal. 90 when we get to late Labs and Samael.

  • Scosglen- Massive and most immersive rift in the game. You'll need 85+ max resists to feel comfortable here. There are many types of enemies here but only 2 require Lethal Incision.

    -Sapling Guards- these guys are tanky trees that spam poison that hits extremely hard. They can also create clones around them. 85+ poison resist feels good against them.

    -Etherborns- these guys teleport around and use Cone of Cold and Chain Lightning. You'll need 85+ cold and lite resist to manage them easier. Lethal Incision does work on them.

    -The rest of the enemies you should be able to use Scorpion Blade against, though Scytheclaws have poison absorb so make sure you pierce here is at least 145 for an easier time.

    You may also notice these red wisps that float around and cause all enemies around them to turn dark. Killing these wisps spawns a corrupted druid. Scorpion Blade actually handles all of them really nicely, though Wolf can be a pain.

    -Bear druid is easy - just lure him across a moat or bridge and spam Lethal Incision while he runs around in place (lol).
    -Seer is cake with near 90 max cold and our maxed Perfect Being. Just kite him while dodging Hunting Banshee spam.
    -Hunter is the WORST. He constantly runs around and dodges Lethal Incision while his annoying tanky bear chases you and makes Shower of Rocks spam. Just be patient and try to pin against some trees so he doesn't move around as much.
    -Wolf is tough, but manageable. He pounces on you and spams Twisted Claw which hurts pretty bad. Make sure you've got Shadow Refuge up and kite him while flinging Lethal Incision. The mana burn is annoying, too, but shouldn't stop you from attacking.
    -Nature is also easy, provided you have 85+ max poison resist. Infected Roots hits hard so avoid the vines that appear beneath you. Easy kill as long as you're moving.
    -Owl is a freebie. Just dont stand in the spikes because that will kill you.

    After killing a druid, they may drop a tenet, as shown below"

    Image

    You'll need to cube one row of ingredients at a time. This is a very time-intensive quest and I didn't even do it this season ( :nope: )

    You'll also need the Dulra Aegis. Look for the 4 protected chests in Scosglen and cube them to make your Dulra Aegis. Locations below:

    Image

    After combining the 6 tenets and the Dulra Aegis, you get the
    Dulra Aegis
    Dulra Aegis
    Required Level: 140
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    charm. Cube it with a perfect gem to target specific bonuses. Visit https://median-xl.fandom.com/wiki/Charms#D%C3%BAlra_Aegis for full information.

    At the north-eastern section of the map, there is a boss called Eleventh Eye that has a chance to drop the Reality Piercer. Cube the Piercer with your
    Dulra Aegis
    Dulra Aegis
    Required Level: 140
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    spawn a portal to Sescheron's Destroyer. Honestly, I'm not too keen on the mechanics of the fight as I've never done it (I'm too lazy to farm all 6 tenets :-8 :-8 ). Here's an example of the fight from a 2.5 showcase https://youtu.be/WQVTEYAZUFE.

    Finally, here is an example run through Scosglen using Scorpion Blade. I have maxed resists and PR through Shadow Refuge and max avoid through Perfect Being. Use Scorpion Blade to clear trash and switch to Lethal Incision when Etherborns, Sapling, or Druids appear.



    Also note for these showcases I am using the Hive helm enchantment scroll that gives a 30 second duration Hive spell. It passively adds spell damage based on the current skill level. I was getting 82% poison spell damage while Hive was active, so keep that in mind. I was also NOT using Bloodlust this season (I am dumb and forgot an offhand).
  • Riftwalker 3- This guy is a tanky boi. Come here with as much max lite resistance as you can and plenty of potions because it will be a long fight. Lethal Incision him down while avoiding the lightning circles. The fight mechanics are the same as Riftwalker 2 except now here has an attack called Winter's Grasp. He becomes invulnerable for a short time and an icon appears above his head. When this happens, run or teleport on top of him to avoid the attack. If you don't avoid it, you might survive with enough health and avoid but don't chance it. The bonus quest requires you to cube the riftwalker's eye while avoiding all lightning circles and ensuring at least one Frozen Shambler is present. He also drops DImensional Labyrinth rift stone upon death.
  • The Void- Fascinating dungeon and one of the most unique in the game. You'll have to kill a boss in a unique way and travel the portal to the next zone to progress. Here's a breakdown on how to complete this dungeon from user AltoidDealer.

    -Sloth. Kill him repeatedly until he drops the scroll.
    -Gluttony. It takes a lot of DPS to kill him. Walk over the blue orb near where he spawns to temporarily reduce his extreme regen.
    -Greed. Boss will curse you with 0 Mana when you approach. There's a variety of solutions to overcome this... for instance you can cast a bunch of summons then walk in with them.
    -Lust. I don't think there's any special mechanics here, just find boss and kill it.
    -Wrath. Walk from one end of the path to the other, back and forth. Boss takes damage as you go. I think you just need good fire and physical resists, and decent lifepool. Wallk over blue orbs in wrath arena to receive a temporary regen buff.
    -Envy. You get cursed with extremely pierced resists. You just need to be careful to dodge the minions and the bosses attacks.
    -Pride. He only takes damage when his summons hit something. Best option is to cast tanky summons for his minions to beat up. If you can cast Banish on him, he will die very quickly, otherwise it will take a long time. If you don't have 90 lightning resist, you will take huge damage in his arena.
    -Inarius/Lilith. Need to lure Inarius to stand in the blood pools that Lilith casts. If Lilith dies, the run is over and you need to try from scratch. The orbs that appear will deal some damage to Lilith, you can walk into the orbs to make them go away. Standing in the blood pool pierces your resists, recommended to come to fight with 260 base fire res and 290 base poison res.
  • Nephalem's Sacrifice- This is a fun dungeon and fairly easy but time consuming on Scorpion Blade. Simply progress through each zone by killing a boss and traveling to the next portal. Watch out for Edyrem and their Deathstrike attacks as it can kill you if you take the full hit.

    Eventually, you'll reach Uldyssian. Absolutely nothing to worry about, just don't get by his star-shaped Deathstrike attack. It appears after the screen shakes 2 times. Cull the Edyrem with Lethal Incision and just keep hammering away at him and hope he drops a
    Neutrality Pact
    Neutrality Pact
    Required Level: 130
    Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
    +(1 to 2) to All Skills
    +(61 to 100)% Bonus to Summoned Edyrem Life
    +(2 to 5) to Purify
    with +2 skills.
  • Archbishop Lazarus- I won't be covering this Purify fight as I never do it but there are tons of videos out there of people beating him. If you want to give it a go, respec to traps and watch a few assassins tackle it.
  • Dimensional Labyrinths- Labs... there are 10 levels here, all accessed via rift stones. Stones 1-5 allow you open the portal immediately. Stones 6-10 require an Arcane Crystal and the stone, cubed, to access the portal.

    Each level, from 1-10, become increasingly difficult. There are modifiers that activate at each level that make the enemies stronger and you weaker. Notably, Lab 7 reduces your evade for a few seconds when enemies hit you. There's also a curse that pierces your resists if your health is more than your mana.

    The lockout timer is very short so survivability is paramount to success. You'll need 90 max resists, max physical resists, and a large health pool to make it through.

Surviving Labs with Scorpion Blade



Labs 1-5 are very easy and can be cleared with Scorpion Blade spam with Lethal Incision maybe required for Twisted Sires if your damage isn't high enough.

Lab 6 introduces a new enemy - Phoboss. This boss creates a nova of cold around you and pounces whenever you try to walk away. He also pierces your max cold resist by 1 after every lab. At Lab 6, you need 92 max cold. At Lab 10, you need 96 max cold to not get instantly annihilated by him. Best thing to do is pop firedance if you have it and just Lethal Incision him, while avoiding the ice bombs that erupt around you. He can drop up to two unique mystic orbs or even an effigy like
Breath of Thaumaturgy
Breath of Thaumaturgy
Occult Effigy

Cube Reagent
Cube with a Blessed Crafted/Rare Weapon/Armor to Add Bonus
Item can be blessed Again
+25 Required Level
.

There are a few other bosses to worry about:

-Garbaad the Weak- the same says it all, he's pretty weak and likes to teleport. Just spam Lethal Incision and avoid standing in the fire circles he spawns.
-Navigator- this guy has an aura he emits that slows your movespeed and likely attack speed. The main attack you need to watch out for is his ice rain attack. Keep moving while flinging Lethal Incision, being sure never to stand still. He drops rift stones after death so always kill him if you can.
-Unstable Anomaly- This wisp-like creature is a menace. You can absolutely get one-shot if you stand in the green flamestrike attack that he relentless rains down on you. There's also a life drain curse that it uses that makes you spend health to cast spells so watch out for that. Fortunately, Anomaly's attacks are well-telegraphed so just stay on the move and away from green fire or orange fire and you should survive.
-Corrupted Characters- you may run into corrupted versions of character classes. As Assassin, the only one you need to worry about is the Corrupted Barbarian.

Seriously, corrupted barbarian is a menace and complete shitter. He punishes low defense and pounces on you, constantly. In Labs 9-10, he can grind you into dust if you're not careful. Pop Lethal Incision and Shadow Refuge and kite this dude carefully away, flinging the occasional knife. If you're quick and have potions at the ready, it's doable but I'd rather run into T10 Phoboss than this shit head.

Once you hit Lab 7, I highly recommend you switch to
Dark Pact
Dark Pact
Circlet (Sacred)
Defense: 505 to 571
(Assassin Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 262
Item Level: 120
Bloodbath Is Active
Orb Effects Applied to this Item are Doubled
40% Combat Speeds
5% Chance to Avoid Damage
Maximum Avoid Chance +5%
Socketed (4)
. It increases maximum avoid by 5%, helping to counter the avoid penalty given by labs. Avoid is our main defensive layer so we want to maximize it's potential.

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Listerine
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Lab 9 and 10 are brutal, potentially spawning multiple bosses and massively strengthening enemies and crippling you.

I recommend you aim for a few prerequisites before going deeper:
-15k health - more health the better
-600% poison spell damage
-199 pierce, to deal with Phoboss and Anomaly
-90 max resists, 96 cold in T10 for Phoboss
-
Dark Pact
Dark Pact
Circlet (Sacred)
Defense: 505 to 571
(Assassin Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 262
Item Level: 120
Bloodbath Is Active
Orb Effects Applied to this Item are Doubled
40% Combat Speeds
5% Chance to Avoid Damage
Maximum Avoid Chance +5%
Socketed (4)


I can clear T10 fairly comfortably with these stats, albeit kinda slow because T10 hits extremely hard. Here's a showcase of T10 I did where I went against Phoboss and Corrupted Barbarian. The run is slow, focusing on caution and not overextending myself. I have 96 max cold here and you can see if I had any less I'd be dead. It's that important. Also, Star Chart 5 on first T10 Phoboss :lol: .

Snapshot of my character: https://median-xl.com/char/Listerine/2d11



  • Samael - Herald of the End- Samael is the ultimate challenge of this build (I'm not counting Deimoss or Nithogur). It will take serious gear investment, patience, and dodging skills to come out on top but it can be done.

    For getting to Samael and general Samael questions, check out Gamefan's Samael guide - https://forum.median-xl.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=82634.

    Samael deals every kind of damage but poison, and deals massive magic damage which is very difficult to guard against. He also pierces your avoid by 10. To counter this,
    Dark Pact
    Dark Pact
    Circlet (Sacred)
    Defense: 505 to 571
    (Assassin Only)
    Required Level: 100
    Required Dexterity: 262
    Item Level: 120
    Bloodbath Is Active
    Orb Effects Applied to this Item are Doubled
    40% Combat Speeds
    5% Chance to Avoid Damage
    Maximum Avoid Chance +5%
    Socketed (4)
    with an
    Invisible
    Invisible
    Mystic Orb

    Right-Click to Apply
    12% Block Speed
    12% Hit Recovery
    1% Chance to Avoid Damage
    +10 Required Level
    UMO and another 3
    Invisible
    Invisible
    Mystic Orb

    Right-Click to Apply
    12% Block Speed
    12% Hit Recovery
    1% Chance to Avoid Damage
    +10 Required Level
    UMOs on the rest of your gear will completely nullify his avoid pierce. You've no idea how important stacking as much avoid as you can is here. Finally, if you die he will heal nearly 33% of his health back. Trust me, this sucks and you don't want it to happen.

    You will need 199 pierce to deal full damage.
    Gallowlaugh
    Gallowlaugh
    Amulet
    Required Level: 110
    Item Level: 110
    +1 to All Skills
    +50% Bonus to Poison Skill Duration
    -(20 to 30)% to Enemy Poison Resistance
    +1 to Sacrifices
    Poison Length Reduced by 50%
    and blessed shimmering angelics can help get us there.
    The Endless Light
    The Endless Light
    Mystic Orb

    Right-Click to Apply
    -2% to Enemy Elemental Resistances
    +100 Defense
    3% Bonus to Defense
    +10 Required Level
    on rings and amulet is very nice, also.

    Here's what you need to watch out for when you start the fight:

    -Pain worms- these guys sling ice at you and hit really hard, even at 90 cold resist. Avoid helps here but keep moving
    -Destruction- Samael will yell "Destruction" and a red pentagram will appear. You need to step in it or face insane damage or death.
    -Oblivion- Samael will yell "Oblivion" and a ghost will appear and start slinging bone spears. These things HURT and completely take over the arena. I recommend to stop attacking and focus on dodging if you're new to the fight.
    -The End has Come- When Samael yells "the end has come," a fire nova will appear. In a few seconds it will expand and take up most of the arena. The fire is painful but you should treat it like a minefield. It does more when you continue to walk in it. Best thing to do is teleport into it and stand still, especially if you're stuck in the center of it.

    Those are the main things to watch out for. Final tip - fill your Horadric cube with potions and throw the cube on the ground when the fight starts. All of your potions will pop out and be easily accessible to grab when you run out. Trust me, you'll need them.

    Video below was a tough fight for me. I died here halfway through but fought my way back in to it to clutch it out, my palms were sweating!



  • Deimoss- I didn't attempt Deimoss this season but I can imagine 0 pillars would be doable on Scorpion Blade. Probably cannot go much higher than that, to be honest. If anyone has on this build I'd love to hear about it.

End



I hope this guide enabled you to take Scorpion Blade as far as you could and had fun along the way. Scorpion Blade has a simple playstyle but it's I build I enjoy, even though it's not as strong as something like Deathstar.

Also, please let me know if I've given any incorrect information or am missing a critical build-enhancing solution and I will get it corrected.
#2
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Edited by Listerine 1 month.
Bijousek
Prowler
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Wow very impresive guide!
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sOleGs
Prowler
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Very-very good guide !!!
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rapcior
Thunder Beetle
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Wooow impresive. U spend do much time to make this guide gratz
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Listerine
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rapcior wrote:Wooow impresive. U spend do much time to make this guide gratz


I wanted to be as thorough as possible. Also, the guide was a way to challenge and push myself further than I've previously gone with this class. It helped me hold myself accountable (-:
#6
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akbugger
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Great guide.
I'm not usually keen on playing with poison, but I might give this a try after reading your guide. GJ!
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tempmail
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Listerine wrote:

Introduction




Lethal Incision is your single-target skill. It reduces the amount of knives to 1 but adds much more power. You can increase the amount of knives for Lethal Incision with
Relic (Scorpion Blade)
Relic
Required Level: 75
Lethal Incision: +1 Extra Blade
+(11 to 16) to Scorpion Blade
Poison Resist +(11 to 20)%
. Having two knives will allow them to STACK. This is great when bossing and for bosses that are large and allow you to hit both knives.


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Can someone explain to me how STACKING works? If I hit the target with 2 blades, it doesn't double my damage does it? I mean the target will not receive double poison damage?
#8
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BoneZone
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I'm assuming this is still viable in high labs as well?
#9
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Sabotazh
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How about
Skull of the Viz-Jaq'taar
Skull of the Viz-Jaq'taar
Skull Cap (Sacred)
Defense: 746 to 789
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 275
Item Level: 120
Scorpion Blade: +2 Projectiles
5% Chance to cast level 40 Scorpion Blade on Kill
+(0 to 1) to Assassin Skill Levels
-(21 to 30)% to Enemy Poison Resistance
5% Chance of Crushing Blow
-500 Defense
+50 to Dexterity
(11 to 20)% to Dexterity
20% Magic Find
Requirements -50%
Socketed (4)
? Is this artifact worth our attention?
#10
1 month
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