You describe it
Type what you want to play, like "lightning minion build for a monk, 5 div", or pick it with the buttons. Whetstone reads damage types, kinds of skill, ailments, weapons, classes, ascendancies, skill names and budgets ("5 div", "300 ex", "league starter"), and shows you exactly how it read each word before you forge.
If nothing can match everything you asked for, it doesn't give up. It loosens the request one step at a time (first how strict the theme is, then the ailment, the weapon, the damage type, the kind of skill, the class) and tells you what it changed.
The search
Two rounds, run side by side on several copies of Path of Building:
- First pass: every skill that fits your idea, on every weapon it can use, with crafted gear at your budget. No passives yet, just raw power, so weak options drop out fast.
- Second pass: the strongest few skills on each ascendancy, now with full passive trees. When no class is chosen, the best skill is tried on all 23 ascendancies first to find the few that suit it.
Builds are scored on maps and bosses together: a build that clears well but can't kill a boss (or the reverse) scores lower than one that does both. A themed build, like bleed or poison, is scored on its theme, and one that gets too little of its damage from it is dropped.
You watch this as the leaderboard on the workbench.
Four anvils
The winner is forged four times at once: Leveling (level 55), Early maps (75), Mid maps (90) and Endgame (95), each capped at your budget. Each stage goes through the same steps:
- Gear: a rare is crafted for every slot from Path of Building's affix tables: the best base, then damage and defence affixes, then only the resistances still needed. A unique replaces the rare when it scores clearly better and its poe.ninja price fits your budget.
- Passive tree: one point at a time, the engine tries every passive within reach and takes the one that adds the most damage and toughness per point spent. That's the "brain" you watch on the workbench, and why the order it took them in is the order to take them.
- Supports: every support gem is screened on your skill, then the best combination is built up one gem at a time, following Path of Building's own rules on what can support what.
- Spirit and utility: auras, heralds and buffs that fill your spirit, plus curses, marks and banners, are kept only when they raise your damage. A second skill goes on weapon swap when it hits bosses much harder.
- Every skill kitted out: auras, curses and your movement skill get their own supports too, and each support gem is used once in the whole build, as in game.
- Mapping and bossing: gear and passives are built for mapping, then a bossing setup (a support swap or a boss skill) is picked against a pinnacle boss.
Stages appear on the page one by one as they finish.
Checks and the rating
The finished build is checked against what you asked for (a bleed build should really bleed), and the endgame stage is rated 1 to 10 on damage, clear and toughness against reference builds for every ascendancy at the same settings. Builds tuned for a theme, speed or loot give up some raw numbers, so they rate a little lower, and that's expected.
Your build
- The passive tree, drawn on the site, with every point numbered in the order to take it and your ascendancy in the centre.
- Gear in buy order: line 1 is what to buy first, with affix tiers, unique prices and a "Find on trade" link that opens the official trade site with the stats filled in.
- Every skill with its supports, the damage mix, the gear cost, and a Path of Building code if you want it in PoB.
- A share link and a PDF, so you can keep it or send it to a friend.