Path of Exile 3.12 – Top Starter Heist Builds

I think everyone has already seen the announcement of the new league in Path of Exile – Heist and has already begun planning which build to play with. Considering that the main mechanic of the new league is concentrated on clearing heists, i.e. labyrinth with rooms, while it will be important not to raise the alert level, then most likely the builds with minions and totems will not be relevant. For the new league, builds that can quickly and efficiently clear rooms and packs of mobs are perfect, without dying from traps and AoE damage from mobs. Therefore, the list of starting builds for PoE Heist league has changed and looks like this:

Essence Drain Trickster

This build needs no introduction. A dozen leagues (if not more) players start their journey with this spell – Essence Drain. Chaos damage scales well with the level of the gem and is very conveniently located in the Passive skill tree, which allows you to collect enough damage nodes and capture life and defence nodes located nearby. The single target damage is impressive, and Contagion allows you to kill mobs without even hovering over them. Trickster has high life and mana regen, and MoM makes it even more tenacious.

Pros:

• Extremely fast levelling
• Great map clear speed
• Low budget start with possibilities to upgrade for end-game

Build Guide example – Ghazzy Essence Drain & Contagion Trickster

Volatile Dead Necromancer

For those who want to clear all the mobs on the screen, this build will be just right. All you need to do is spam Barrage and the Volatile Dead will find and destroy opponents on their own. Add in high HP and Bone Offering and you have a very tanky character that can survive even on difficult red maps. And this with a minimum cost weight – the best choice for starting in a new league.

Pros:

• Fast Leveling
• Quite cheap
• Lasy playstyle

Build Guide example – ShamefulPenguin Volatile Dead Spellslinger Necromancer

Bladefall/Blade Blast Assassin

One of the builds, which is able to clean up all the content in the game, while completely independent of unique or expensive equipment. Using the Bladefall combo (covers the selected area with Lingering Blades) and Blade Blast (detonates these blades) for one-shot packs and very fast killing of bosses, which makes clearing maps fast and efficient. Several defensive mechanics, such as Elusive, Blind and Acrobatics (with Phase Acrobatics), allow most mobs to be ignored. The only drawback is phys reflect maps, they will have to be rerolled.

Pros:

• SSF viable (uniques are optional)
• Excellent single target damage
• Very tanky

Build Guide example – Ahhcrying Blade Blaster Assassin

Lacerate Gladiator

It is impossible not to mention the melee builds, and there are a huge number of them. But if you want to diversify your gameplay and be able not only to clean maps, but also farm uber lab, delve and simulacrum, then this build is for you. High attack speed allows you to move around the location with incredibly high-speed thanks to the Leap Slam attack, but most importantly makes Lacerate look like a machinegun (also it auto-aims as well with Multistrike). High damage and Life Leech, so even 5-6k HP will be enough to calmly kill bosses and dangerous mobs.

Pros:

• Fast and fun to play
• Not meta (Cheap!)
• Can do all content

Build Guide example – PegasusRideR Lacerate Gladiator

Vortex/Creeping Frost Occultist

What if chaos damage isn’t for you (or it’s not the first time you’ve started your league as Trickster), but you enjoy DoT skills? Then self-casting Vortex together with Creeping Frost and Frostbolt (both linked with Spellslinger) will diversify the start of a new league. This build, like chaos builds, is great for fast leveling and starting map farming. However, if desired, it can be upgraded to the end-game version, although a decent amount of currency is required. But it’s up to you to decide, but even on SSF or with a low-budget version of the build, you can comfortably farm maps.

Pros:

• One Button build
• DoT Damage (and it’s cold, not chaos!)
• From starter build to end-game farming

Build Guide example – Clydehart Vortex Occultist

The new league looks very exciting and I can’t wait to get down to business! We hope these builds will help you get started in a new league, and at least give you the opportunity to farm enough currency to reroll into an improved (and expensive) build for clearing end-game content or quickly farming certain maps.