S-TIER | BUILD MERCENAIRE GEMLING BLINK SPEED (@GL1TCH3D) | SAISON 5

Build Video

Build Overview

This gemling blink build from GL1TCH3D isn’t trying to kill faster than everyone else: it’s trying to cross a map faster than the game can render it. In the video’s footage, the engine simply skips the frames between two teleports, and the character lands in a pack before the monsters have even finished loading on screen. It’s the first Path of Exile 2 character to push movement far enough that the client itself becomes the bottleneck.

Movement relies entirely on Blink, and it’s the Gemling Legionnaire ascendancy that tips the mechanic over. Its Advanced Thaumaturgy node grants the alternate quality effect to every equipped gem; on Blink, that effect is the distance traveled. It goes from 5.5 meters per teleport to 11.6 meters. An Oracle casting at the same rate therefore covers half as much ground. On the video’s timed run, the gap is stark: just over 3 seconds for the previous record holder, barely more than one second for this Gemling.

The rest of the build serves two goals. First, stack cast speed, because every point of speed is one more teleport per second: new 0.5 alloys on the wands, focus and gloves, caster-quality essences on the jewelry, five-line jewels, The Shimmering, and a diamond-silver Mageblood that maintains 60% permanently. Second, survive its own speed, through a Zerphi’s Last Breath that grants Blasphemy for free, with Temporal Chains and Enfeeble as curses. The build comes in four variants depending on budget and preferred damage style.

Strengths / Weaknesses

Skill Gem Setup by Step

This build offers 4 progression steps from leveling to the final build. Select a step to see the corresponding gem setup.

Spark Version (Fastest) Dreamer Version (Best AOE) Despair Version (Cheaper / Easier to Play) « Budget » UNTESTED

Spark Version (Fastest)

11 skills • 40 gemmes

Virtuous BarrierVirtuous Barrier

Projection de sortilègesSpellslinger

BlasphèmeBlasphemy

Faveur de l'alchimisteAlchemist's Boon

Régulation des chargesCharge Regulation

Reliquats de ManaMana Remnants

TransfertBlink

Siphonnage des élémentsSiphon Elements

ÉtincelleSpark

Bombe de givreFrost Bomb

Frénésie du combatCombat Frenzy

Dreamer Version (Best AOE)

12 skills • 47 gemmes

Virtuous BarrierVirtuous Barrier

Déclenchement lors de CritiquesCast on Critical

BlasphèmeBlasphemy

Faveur de l'alchimisteAlchemist's Boon

Régulation des chargesCharge Regulation

Reliquats de ManaMana Remnants

TransfertBlink

Siphonnage des élémentsSiphon Elements

ÉtincelleSpark

Bombe de givreFrost Bomb

Remnants of KalguurRemnants of Kalguur

Explosive TransmutationExplosive Transmutation

Despair Version (Cheaper / Easier to Play)

13 skills • 56 gemmes

Virtuous BarrierVirtuous Barrier

Projection de sortilègesSpellslinger

ArchimageArchmage

BlasphèmeBlasphemy

Faveur de l'alchimisteAlchemist's Boon

DésespoirDespair

Régulation des chargesCharge Regulation

Chaînes temporellesTemporal Chains

Reliquats de ManaMana Remnants

TransfertBlink

OrageThunderstorm

Dards de givreFrost Darts

Explosion calamiteuseHexblast

« Budget » UNTESTED

13 skills • 56 gemmes

Virtuous BarrierVirtuous Barrier

Projection de sortilègesSpellslinger

ArchimageArchmage

BlasphèmeBlasphemy

Faveur de l'alchimisteAlchemist's Boon

DésespoirDespair

Régulation des chargesCharge Regulation

Chaînes temporellesTemporal Chains

Reliquats de ManaMana Remnants

TransfertBlink

OrageThunderstorm

Dards de givreFrost Darts

Explosion calamiteuseHexblast

Recommended Equipment

The grid above gives the exact gear profile by profile. Here are the pieces that actually carry the speed, as detailed by the author in the video.

• Body armour: Temporalis, equipped on three of the planner’s four variants. It is the piece that makes continuous movement possible
• Belt: Mageblood in silver and diamond version, for 60% cast speed maintained permanently. This is the most expensive and most structuring piece
• Spirit gem: Zerphi’s Last Breath socketed in Blasphemy. The reservation shifts from Spirit to life, which gives two free curses and puts the character into low life
• Wand and focus: transcendent alloy, up to 47% cast speed on each piece, versus a maximum of 35% and 32% in the previous league
• Gloves: swift alloy, 12% cast speed — an option that didn’t exist before 0.5
• Amulet and rings: Essence of the Breach for an extra 20% caster quality, then infusers to push it up to 30%
• Jewels: five guaranteed lines via Delirium crafting, up to 7% cast speed per jewel, multiplied by The Adorned (12% per jewel versus 10% before)
• Charms: For Utopia, Rite of Passage and Nascent Hope, identical across all four variants
• Flasks: one Lavianga’s Spirits to keep Alchemists Boon active permanently, which is worth an extra 44% cast speed

Gameplay Tips

• Let Temporal Chains do the work: the curse slows the pack down while you land on it. That’s what makes blind landings survivable
• Accept that you’ll overshoot your screen: the range regularly sends you beyond the loaded area. The reflex to build is to kill immediately, not to look around
• Avoid Necropolis: it’s the only city map the author flags as genuinely unpleasant with this range
• Keep it for solo play: in a group, you outpace everyone and the experience degrades for the others
• Target timed content: Sekhemas, Atziri rushing, ritual and lineage are where speed converts into loot

Advanced Thaumaturgy: the node that doubles Blink’s range

The entire build rests on a single ascendancy point. Advanced Thaumaturgy, on the Gemling Legionnaire side, applies the alternate quality effect to every equipped skill gem. On most spells, that’s a comfortable bonus. On Blink, that effect is the teleport range, and the gain changes the nature of the skill: 11.6 meters instead of 5.5.

That’s why an Oracle casting just as fast still covers ground twice as slowly. Cast speed determines how many jumps happen per second, while range decides how far each jump covers. The author explains that the moment he read this alternate quality, he knew his speedrun build would be built around this ascendancy.

The same node pulls double duty with Alchemists Boon, which grants cast speed while a mana flask effect is active. Since the Lavianga’s Spirits flask stays active permanently, the bonus does too: 44% free, all the time.

Stacking cast speed with the 0.5 additions

0.5 opened enough windows to make this speed ceiling reachable. Alloys landed on slots that previously had nothing to offer: the transcendent alloy pushes wands and foci to 47%, where the previous maximums capped at 35% and 32%. Gloves pick up 12% through the swift alloy, an affix absent from the previous league.

Jewellery benefits from the Essence of the Breach, which grants 20% extra caster quality on both amulet and rings; infusers push the total to 30%. Since cast speed is a caster quality, every point translates directly into more teleports.

Jewels, finally, moved on two fronts. Delirium crafting guarantees five lines, which leaves room to balance attributes without sacrificing speed, and pushes modifier effect to 60%. With the jewel quality from the Genesis tree, that reaches 7% cast speed per jewel. Adorned goes from 10% to 12%, and Voices opens up extra sockets. The author actually slots some jewels without cast speed there, to balance his attributes and keep the character pleasant to play.

Zerphi’s Last Breath: free Blasphemy and going low life

Zerphi’s Last Breath arrived two or three weeks after 0.5 launched. Socketed into a Spirit gem, it makes it reserve life instead of Spirit. Applied to Blasphemy, it makes both curses free in Spirit and mechanically pushes the character into low life.

Both effects are sought after. Low life unlocks access to the mechanics that depend on it, including Final Barrage. The curses handle the defensive side: Temporal Chains slows everything around you, Enfeeble reduces what monsters deal to you. On a character that closes into melee before he’s even seen what he’s attacking, that second of breathing room replaces reading the fight.

The four gemling blink build variants

The planner doesn’t offer a single gem setup but four profiles, selectable in the tabs above. The Spark version is the fastest, the one used for the video’s timed runs. The Dreamer version swaps the rare weapons for Runeseeker’s Call and Palm of the Dreamer — hence the name — to favor area of effect and classic map farming. The Despair version costs less and plays more easily, making it the sensible entry point. The fourth, advertised as budget-friendly, is explicitly flagged as untested by the author.

The choice comes down less to raw performance than to available budget and targeted content. The first three share the same backbone; only the damage skill and the support gems around it change.

Trial of Sekhemas: what the extra range unlocks

Trial of Sekhemas is the content where this gemling blink build pays off the most. The range of Blink lets you skip entire sections that other builds have to walk through. Those shortcuts, combined with raw speed, were enough to beat the previous league’s world record by more than thirty seconds.

Farming follows the same logic. The author says he’s stacked up several mirrors on this content, simply because the number of attempts per hour climbs with speed. The reasoning holds for every profitable strategy in the game: Atziri rushing, ritual farming, Atlas lineage. Speed isn’t a comfort, it’s a multiplier on how much you harvest per hour.

Skill Tree