Intro & build description
Most of the Spectral Throw builds are based on elemental damage like Ele Buzzsaw or elemental Inquisitor builds but not this one. The advantage of physical damage over elemental damage is that bosses have elemental resistances but do not resist physical damage. With the 3.2, this build will be reflect-immune due to Slayer ascendancy revamp. The build itself is tanky, cheap to start off and scales well with investment – perfect league starter build for Bestiary.
Build Pros
- Cheap to start
- Tanky with more than 7k life attainable
- Moves quickly using Whirling Blades
- With some moderate investment can do all the content in the game including Shaper, Uber Atziri if you have skill for it, Uber Lab and so on
- Very strong leech due to Slayer ascendancy
Build Cons
- The Scourge claw will most likely be pretty expensive at the start of new league
Passive tree(s) and Path of Building
Skill Tree [116p]Bandits
Bandits Quest Choice |
Kill all bandits |
Ascendancy skill points
Labyrinths | Skill point choice |
---|---|
Labyrinth 1 | Endless Hunger |
Labyrinth 2 | Headsman |
Labyrinth 3 | Bane of Legends |
Endgame Labyrinth | Brutal Fervour |

Skill gem setup
Helm
Cast When Damage Taken Suppor (Level 9)
Immortal Call (Level 11)
Enfeeble (Lvl 5)
Increased Duration Support (Level 20 or 21)
Body Armor
Spectral Throw
Physical Projectile Attack Damage Support
Maim Support
Damage On Full Life Support
Greater Multiple Projectiles Support / Slower Projectiles (swap for boss kills)
Increased Critical Damage Support
Gloves
Whirling Blades
Fortify Support
Faster Attacks Support
Blood Magic Support
Boots
Summon Ice Golem
Blood Rage
Increased Duration
Vaal Haste
2h Weapon
None
1h Weapon
Portal
Faster Casting
Offhand weapon / shield
Hatred
Herald of Ash
Enlighten Support (as high lvl as you can get)
Build uniques / Example rare gear
Tip: Click on the item to view it on PoE Wiki or to view similar rare items in poe.tradeHelmet
Rare armour helm / Rat's NestLook for armour helm with at least 80 max life and high resistances.
If you want to go more offensive route, Rat’s Nest or Starkonja’s Head would be decent choices.
Enchantment-wise look for 40% increased Spectral Throw damage but it is pretty expensive enchantment.
Body Armour
Armour / Evasion chest or Belly of The BeastLook for rare body armour with as much life and resistances as possible.
Later when you can afford it, Belly of The Best would be better option but rare chest is almost just as good.
Gloves
Gripped Gloves / Other rare Evasion or Armour glovesIdeally look for Gripped Gloves with some life, physical damage to attacks and a resistance or 2.
Until you get Gripped Gloves, any rare evasion or armour gloves would work.
Boots
Two-Toned Boots / Other rare evasion or armour bootsOn boots look for as much life and resistances as possible. Movement speed is not that important for the build as we use Whirling Blades for movement.
Left Ring
Steel Ring / Diamond Ring / Other ringsIdeally look for Steel Rings with some life and physical damage to attacks.
Steel Rings like that can be expensive, so Diamond ring or other bases works just fine until you can afford Steel Rings.
Amulet
Any rare amulet baseOn amulet look for high life, physical damage to attacks and critical strike multiplier. Any resistances or attributes on top of that are good bonuses.
Belt
Stygian ViseLook for Stygian Vise belt with high life, resistances and if you can afford it – elemental damage with attacks.
Pair the belt with abyssal jewel that has flat physical damage, flat life, resistance or another damage mod.
1Hand Weapon
The Scourge / Wasp's NestThe Scourge is the best claw to look for, they have great damage and provide our with decoys in form of Spectral Wolves.
At the beginning they are going to be expensive so look for Wasp’s Nest claws. With dual Wasp’s Nests you can easily clear red maps and get enough currency for 2x The Scourge.
Jewel
Build's JewelsOn jewels look for:
1.) Increased maximum life or flat life
2.) Physical damage to attacks (Abyss jewels)
3.) Any critical strike multiplier mod that fits our build
4.) Any attack speed mod that fits our build
5.) Critical strike chance mods
6.) Resistances or attributes if you are lacking any
Flask
Flask SetupBuild’s Flasks:
1.) Divine life flask with instant recovery and bleed removal
2.) Diamond Flask
3.) Atziri’s Promise
4.) Basalt Flask with freeze removal
5.) Sin’s Rebirth / Taste of Hate or another life flask
What would you use to level with this?
I’d use rare Claws with Spectral Throw, LMP and GMP when level allows it, making sure I have mana potion on me all the time because until Soul Raker node there will be some mana issues.
Can you explain how the portal gem impacts this build? I understand the casting speed but how does that help in combat?
It’s not for combat, there are free slot for gem and it’s used for Portal in my case.
Thanks! Great build!
Im level 28 and only doing 250 dps, can you please tell me how to increase dps??
Hey! Use leveling uniques, for example Shiversting with spectral throw, it’s very cheap – http://poe.trade/search/ezuwosetonewoh
What would you suggest for leveling items, im lvl 43 rn. Kinda missing dps.
Get to lvl 44 and buy Rigwald’s Charge for an alch, that should give you enough damage to level for a while. http://poe.trade/search/uzukomotokougo
I bought a rigwalds, and it literally cut my dps in half…
If you already specced into claws, get the best unique claw you can for your level. The reason I suggested Rigwald’s is that I usually level all my Spectral Throw builds using 2-handers and it works quite alright.
Pantheon powers you recommend?
Yugul and Brine King are alright.
Hey, what about Rive ? Its budget alternative with pretty high dps . I think this might workout out , unless you get some currency to buy the scourge.
Sure, it could work as an alternative! But I’d recommend Wasp nest, it has bit lower dps but higher crit and since you stack crit multiplier, overall damage increase would be bigger.
This looks like fun… but do you think you could provide a couple different skill trees for earlier levels?
You don’t really need any specific order for the skills, just put points whatever you need like the most – damage or survivability. With some leveling uniques you could have 20 points unallocated and still wreck everything so focus on getting leveling items 😉
Any unique jewels in the passive tree that are essential?
For this build there are none.
I’m around level 43- and my tooltip DPS for spectral throw is only 5-700 max. I’m trying to level at innocence and Its just so slow to clear. Are there faster alternatives? I feel like anything is faster than how long it takes to throw them.
What links are you currently using? Are you swapping GMP for slower projectiles for boss kills? It is very important to upgrade weapons every 5-10 levels so your DPS is appropriate to content you are facing.
I’m using two mortem morsu’s, and i don’t do bosses anyway i get rushed for them. I don’t know a better equivalent right now than what I have. I have the first 4 recommended links on my body armor
Any reason that Enfeeble is left at lvl5 only?
Lower intelligence requirement.
ahh cheers! i’m needing 113 Int anyway for The Scourge/Wasp Nest anyway. Wasn’t sure if i was missing something else!
What skill gems were you going for under 1h Weapon? They do not show up correctly.
Now they should, thanks for pointing it out!
im doing level 5 maps and im just getting one shot by bosses and i pretty much have everything youve suggested. have no idea what im doing wrong lvl 73
How much life do you have?
2400
With 2400 life you shouldn’t even be near Tier 1 maps man.. Get your life to at least 4000 before you jump into maps.
Hey, given that the wolves benefit from skills in the Scourge, what would you put into the weapons? I see that you didnt really mention that! Also, where do you find all the intelligence from? You need on one or two of the rares?
I’d put the same skills listed in the build guide – wolfs are not impactful enough to scale with any support gems and are just used as a decoy. If there isn’t enough attributes in tree, we get them on gear.
I was thinking more along the lines of putting Minion Damage Support in there to benefit from the “Increases and Reductions to Minion Damage also affect you”. I am on my way to lvl 70 with the build so I haven’t had the chance to try it out yet but does it not add total damage to you with that gem?
answered my own question, misunderstood the descriptor…seems like a common misinterpretation for Scourge
Hey, would it be worthwhile to run a second CWDT attached to enduring cry and another curse? Obviously it would be at a lower level than the immortal call. That way you can generate endurance charges right before casting IC. Maybe you’ve tried this already and it doesn’t really help? Just thinking instead of the portal/faster cast…
oh damnit, enduring cry can no longer be cast by CWDT? shiiiiiiiiiiiiit
Trying to look at entire passive tree. Can’t see all of it.
That is very weird, build loads perfectly fine for me. Just in case – http://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAQBAX11df0UdedUZU3dSEp9YesFLV85ZK_veluvJpXjnxa_pMI31FVLjYF6U_DVYqzBoAAGmy1d8ngZZ6BtbL02shlOKkMxAQnrY-lGRfQV9v66wuxXl4nTGo1jcFFHuNkNje4ODkgAXnXL1geKOBGWtUgj9kd-eu9JUc96vqfawaZ_k5Cwq42_Ynno1jB8Bx7Egp2qIuqHdu0_b1d_-y5T7UGEbxHVCC5bJu2DKjiK8Iw2jX0yAWBBcFJh4pUu6mKjirTFdO1M_9RCGY7TfiT9mheSgAW153QqC__e1CMV_WyMTZLTbxEv_MWFp_VhsoA7toa0J5-lNQxw
Where do the bleeds and poison come from to proc the physical projectile attack damage support gem?
Nowhere, we don’t really utilise that part of the gem – the main part is “Supported Skills deal (30-49)% more Physical Projectile Attack Damage”.
Ok thanks…also does the double scourge give u the 70% damage twice..i thought scourge main hand affected offhand as well…figured it would be better to run wasp nest offhand so we can proc the extra damage on support gem.
Hi, i’m starting this build, and was wondering why are we not helping the bandit Kraytin ?
(6% increased attack, 6%increased movement, 3% dodge)
thx.
I feel like 2 skill points can give you much more value.
how do you sustain mana?
Soul Raker node.
I’m trying out this build and i’m super confused on where you get the intellect from to use the gear i’m currently 27 and can’t seem to use higher claws
Jewelry
Hi gems, thanks again for writing this guide.
This is my build so far – Added the passives to fit your build on PoE Planner, currently only at level 85.
I feel like I have hit a bottleneck and not sure where to ugprade, other than gems quality and some flasks.
When is it viable to upgrade my claws and what would be a possible upgrade?
Please see link to PoEplanner with my gear.
Currently only 5.5k hp with 39% Belly of the Beats which seems a little low.
https://tinyurl.com/y967zpw2
From what I see, you can get way more life on the items. Right now you can get more than 100 to maximum life on gloves, boots.. Steel Ring doesn’t have life at all. If you really have some currency for upgrades, get Gripped Gloves with at least 90 life and res, even attack speed. You can drop some resist to get some life instead, because you have way overcapped resists. Here are some examples of belts that would be huge upgrade for you – http://poe.trade/search/umanaresinikam . By getting belt like that you would get +60-70 maximum life from 1 item slot alone, imagine doing it for boots, gloves and the Steel ring.
Thanks a lot for your help, I never even considered upgrading my belt and getting life on my steel ring – Initially I thought it would be too expensive, managed to get a really good steel ring with +67 hp for only 15c and can still craft resist on it, got a belt with 134 hp and good tri-res for 45c. Next upgrade would be my boots, should be able to get really good life there too. Most expensive upgrade would be the gloves.
Is there any way of contacting you in-game?
I seem to get more damage with bloodseeker then the scourge. Could someone explain why the scourge is the wepon of choise? Seem to get higher dps with bloodseeker.
If anyone could post a level with this build doing high level maps i would be gratefull.
Thanks
The tooltip DPS might not factor in the 70% increased minion damage if you have hit recently. Scourge is ~20% better than Wasp Nest, hard to say about Bloodseeker.
Hi sir,
Have you been doing high level maps yourself with Bloodseeker claw?
Would like to know how your dps scales etc.
Would you mind explaining why you are using the portal gem? Does it have other properties besides porting?
Purely preference.