[3.14] Exsanguinate Necro | 10M+ DPS | ES/Life/MoM/Block | All Content | League Start->Endgame

The Exsanguinate Necromancer is a Hybrid Life/Es/MoM/Block build that uses Low Life with Petrified Blood and a bunch of instant health/es/mana recovery to become nearly unkillable when mapping/ultimatums while dealing a huge amount of DoT-based damage through Exsanguinate and Corrupting Fever.

I league-started this build for 3.14 and found it worked great as a league-starter, however I play a lot at league start which allows me to get a lot of the more expensive uniques for cheap, so your experience here may vary. I did find the build worked well in early maps without the expensive uniques however, and I have gear/trees in the main PoB that represent this state of the build and our DPS still hits ~700k using the Spellslinger setup (4l), or 1.3m using a 6l exsanguinate, all before going Lowlife. You'll have much less sustain without the unique jewels/flask/clusters however, so follow my gearing guide and get them ASAP!

If you have some currency to burn and want to try out Exsanguinate, I definitely recommend this build as its ceiling is quite high for a DoT build, and higher than the common Ascendant necro/glad version IMO.

Not recommended for beginners as gearing the build is somewhat complicated. If you are a beginner and want to run this build however, feel free to ask questions!


For those interested, here's my twitch channel with some live gameplay/commentary: https://www.twitch.tv/playswitsquirrel

A8 Sirus: https://youtu.be/oqv8aNPJ1kQ

The Feared: https://youtu.be/TMIJEz505G8

Maven (a bit rusty on this fight): https://youtu.be/gp_s42xNrvo

Grandmasters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn1jwRBXil4 (excuse bad audio/lag, obs acted up)

More to come soon.

Following vids were done with gear costing ~14ex total:

T16 Lighthouse W/ blight, breach, & ultimatum: https://youtu.be/Sx3ckCIzYM0

Shaper Kill (1 death): https://youtu.be/cZl7GlgUI4Q

lvl 80 inscribed ultimatum (40 regrets): https://youtu.be/Xrjv-v-uVNs

A6 Kill (1 death): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1000166536

Synthesis invitation (Deathless) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1000199385

General PoB: https://pastebin.com/k9Ck8693
Check notes for league start leveling tips
Two sets of gear, GG & budget, as well as trees for Clusters vs No Clusters & leveling.

My Character's PoB: https://pastebin.com/WaPhr03v

Ascendency: Commander of Darkness -> Plaguebringer -> Mistress of Sacrifice -> Corpse Pact

Bandits: Kill all

Pantheon: Major: Solaris. Focus on upgrading Solaris' Vision and Erythophagia. Minor: Garukhan/Shakari (Ryslatha isn't needed as panicked already heals to max hp without it).

Pros:

Insane sustain due to brush with deaths & cinderswallow urn & kitava’s teachings, plus overleech and solid base regen. As long as mobs are dying and you keep moving, you will not die — unless you get one shot by explodey shit or a slam.

High Damage that starts strong and scales well with investment — can hit 1M DPS easily and up to 10M+ with BiS gear/gems (full stack corrupted blood/exsang).

DoT build so upkeep time on DPS is high — the DoTs deal 90% of our DPS.

Not reliant on flasks to do damage

One skill build once you get a trigger wand.

Commander of Darkness gives 30% all res and we get 34% from tree (46% before thread of hope), which makes gearing much easier especially during league start.

Close to max block (75% attack block/60% spell block). Can get max spell block but will be either very expensive or sacrifice DPS.

No need for targeting, just right click in the general direction of enemies and they and their friends will all die.

Very high effective HP for a caster. PoB places our Phys Effective HP at 40k+, all elemental damage at 110k+, and chaos damage depends on gear but with 0% it’s 15k+. (flasks/steelskin up).

Cons:

One shots do occur though infrequently. This can be dealt with in a HC setting by adjusting DPS to Tankiness ratio with regards to gearing and passive tree allocation

Dots are scary, as we don't have that much regen and our life pool is pretty low

Chaos damage is a PITA unless you prio chaos res on gear

Need to be competent at crafting to push the build far, and also not mind spending dozens of ex to craft BiS gear.

Reliant on on-kill effects/flasks for much of its tankiness, which makes bossing in particular not as smooth as mapping/ultimatums. Still can hold up to big/multiple hits quite well without flasks however if you invested decently into ES gear.

Reliant on clusters/unique jewels for efficient pathing, survivability, and damage.

Not one-shot bosses type gameplay, will take some time to kill them (compared to steel skills etc).

Does not move fast through maps like a raider/assassin.

Cannot do phys reflect.

Beware of the 40% less block chance map mod, very rippy especially in ultis.

While Ascendant Glad/Necro is a great choice for Exsanguinate (and the most popular one), I find that a pure Necro actually supports Exsanguinate better than the Ascendant does. Why?

1. Generic Damage everywhere. Alongside Commander of Darkness’ 30% generic, we also make great use of Necro’s minion damage increases found on every small node by using spiritual aid, which amounts to 40%. And with our Last Hope location, Spiritual Aid takes only 1 point to get.

2. 25% more damage. Just like Glad’s 25% more damage with damage over time, we get 25% more damage too, however it’s generic which also scales our hit. This damage is gained from Plaguebringer (10% more damage while a corpse is near, which we always have with Corpsewalker boots) & Corpse Pact (shocks enemy for 15% if a corpse is near, again which is always the case with Corpsewalker).

3. Skill duration. Necro gives 50% skill duration, which is HUGE for exsanguinate QoL. This alone makes Exsang last 50% longer, which helps a lot with dps upkeep on bosses (we get exsang to 1.92s).

4. Cast speed. Commander of darkness gives us 3% cast speed, and corpse pact gives us 2% cast speed per corpse consumed recently, which with Kitava’s feast we usually maintain ~8% from it, so 11% total.

5. All res. Getting 30% all res from CoD can make or break the bank when minmaxing for damage & survivability.

Then why do so many use Ascendant over Necro?

Ascendant can easily go pure life, which is easier to gear for especially at league start. It also has great access to Veteran Soldier, which is a fantastic phys multi node that is not worth reaching for a Necro. It hits max block easier and does not need a flask to do it, and it also has a 78% attack block cap rather than 75.

Overall, I would say the Ascendant is a smoother league start and much better for SSF, however it has a lower cap on damage and survivability while also being more clunky to play in the endgame due to low cast speed and skill duration (IMO, have not rolled an Ascendant myself).

Cast Corrupting fever at the start of a map/before a boss fight, flame dash/run around and cast Exsanguinate.

For bosses/ultimatums, what I like to do is stutter step like I’m playing ADC and cast Exsang in between movements, with the occasional flame dash in between.

If you don’t have a trigger wand, cast Bone offering every 10 seconds.

Body:
Exsanguinate(21/23 ideally) - Controlled Destruction (Awakened 20% quality is a big upgrade) - Brutality (Awakened not as big a deal) - Efficacy (anomalous is recommended for more skill effect) - Empower (only if it’s level 4, otherwise use energy leech)* - Chain/Swift Affliction (Chain for clearing either anomalous or awakened, Swift for bossing ideally Awakened)

Shield:
Herald of Purity (anomalous as it gives your minions chance to taunt, makes a big difference and isn’t expensive) - Maim (anomalous for a little more damage) - Arrogance **

Weapon:
Bone Offering - Tempest Shield - Vulnerability (anomalous ideally)

Gloves:
Flame Dash - Steelskin (20q is nice for cdr)*** - Arcane Surge - Second Wind (20q for cdr)

Helm:
Pride - War Banner - Petrified Blood(anomalous) - Enlighten(high level isn’t a big deal, ideally 4 but don’t spend currency to get one just level one up)

Boots:
Corrupting Fever (21/20) - Swift Affliction**** - Empower- Brutality

*I’d recommend doing a Vorici White socket on your Chest once you get Empower 4, as 3R2B1G takes quite a few chromes to hit on a Vaal regalia. Get your chest to 2R-3B-1G, get vorici in research/buy it from TFT and hope you hit at least one of your blue sockets to be white.

**Make sure when reserving your life you reserve AT MOST 49.9% of your HP. With my current setup you'll be reserving 49% of your hp (i.e. unreserved life = 51% in PoB). This makes Petrified Blood give you overleech as you can never hit max HP, so your leech instances are never reset.

Additional note: Use the Socket crafting method to get three reds on your shield. To do this: Once you’ve got the recipes from early delves, use the 2 socket craft on your shield then use the 2 red sockets craft. Then use the 3 socket craft, and if you hit a red socket you’re good, else use the 2 socket craft again and repeat the 3 socket craft. Keep doing this until you have 3 red sockets, it shouldn’t take long.

***Put Steelskin on your left mouse button so that it casts automatically while you move around. With an uptime of 2.4s and a downtime of 2.2s, Steelskin will be up more often than it’s not, and 2400 damage taken off a hit can mean life or death, so may as well have it up as much as possible.

***Note: I like to swap the Swift Affliction from here into my Exsanguinate setup when doing conquerers/guardians (and I’m leveling gems on my offhand weps). If doing endgame bosses (shaper/maven/uber elder/uber atziri/Sirus etc) then you’ll want Swift in both Exsang and Fever. I wouldn’t
bother getting an Awakened Swift for both, though, unless you’re minmaxed.

I have not yet fully geared my character, however this is my current gear:


Recommendation for upgrade path:

First get a decent wand and shield, and of course corpsewalker boots. Use the rest of your equipment to cap res/get defenses (life/es). Buy a Rumi's ASAP, the best one you can afford.

Try to harvest craft your clusters rather than buying them outright, just buy the bases (with the correct # passives) and keep them in your stash for when you come across harvests while mapping. The small cluster is the least important to get though it’s also the cheapest to buy outright. You don't
need perfect clusters; a two keystone large jewel is more than enough to start. Do try to get a two keystone medium jewel with one keystone being brush with death however. With harvest crafting this is surprisingly pretty easy (see crafting section below). Once you have good clusters you can respec your tree into them.

Spend most of your early currency on getting the unique jewels ASAP, as they only go up in price as the league goes on and they’re probably the most impactful parts of the build. I would buy intuitive Leap -> Thread of Hope -> Kitava’s Teachings in that order.

Keep a trade open for a phys leech ring. These can vary wildly in price, so sniping a cheap one during league start is a really good idea.

Until you get phys leech from some source, I do not recommend going low-life with petrified blood, as sustaining through degen will be difficult without leech.

Once you have your jewels & clusters, look to buy a Crown of the Inward Eye. Try to snipe a cheap 21% one (perfect roll). These are somewhat expensive early, but you can get a perfect one for less than 1ex in the first few days if you’re lucky. Within a week the low rolled ones become 5-10c, but a perfect roll remains somewhat expensive (~45c), so again I’d recommend just buying a perfect roll. It makes a pretty big difference in your total HP pool.

Your next big purchase should be a Cinderswallow Urn. This flask is insane for sustain, it's the equivalent of two brush with death's + mana recovery + a silver flask so it's already useful for the cast and ms. Look for the 50% chance to avoid stun version, as this gives you near stun immunity in combination with Arcane Swiftness notable & our life pool. Make sure to get a corrupted blood immunity rare jewel first though, try to get one with either phys multi or life/es, or ideally both.

I would recommend funneling the majority of your currency into crafting your chest piece, while also keeping active trades up to improve your weapon/shield/jewellery/gloves. If a good price comes up for one and it’s a sizable upgrade, snag it. Once your chest is crafted (will be rather expensive
to do), you can focus on crafting your weapon. Crafting information is found below.

Since corpsewalkers are so cheap, it’s pretty easy to buy a bunch and corrupt them for a decent corruption (+2 duration gems/ms). Remember that you can chrome, socket, and link corrupted items using the crafting bench, they’ll just have an extra vaal orb cost. If you wanna ball out, double corrupt a pair and hope to get both +2 duration and ms. You could also go for +2/+1 but be careful, because if CB has enough +levels you won't be able to use it unless have enough hp to cast.

Body:

BiS:
Vaal Regalia with +1 to socketed strength gems and +1 to socketed support gems, with two open prefixes and an open suffix to multimod and craft 10% of maximum life as ES* & %Increased energy shield. You can craft this using fossils — Steps are shown in the Crafting section below.

To start:
Any ES-based 6-link rare, ideally with life/room to craft %max life as ES* and some res. If this is league start, get any corrupted 6link ES chest with the right colours (BBBRRG).

*To get the %Max life as ES craft, you’ll want to unveil Gravicious’ veiled (prefix) chests of any ilvl.

Weapon:

BiS:
An Opal Wand with +1 to all spell gems, +1 to physical spell gems, Physical Damage over time Multiplier, Cast Speed, and Trigger spells*. You can craft this using Harvest — Steps are shown in the Crafting section below.

To start:
Any wand with +1 to physical spell gems, spell damage/phys multi (or both), and cast speed (not necessary but recommended). Make sure you buy one with a Suffix open so that you can craft Trigger Socketed Spells* later on.

*You can get the Trigger socketed spells craft by unveiling Suffix-veiled wands/bows.

Shield:

BiS:
Titanium Spirit Shield with +1 Phys Gems and as much ES as possible. Ideally you get +12% chance to block spell damage as well. Everything else (cast speed/res/spell damage) is gravy. Probably best to just buy this, but could possibly craft using Harvest rerolls/alt and regaling/fossils. Remember that you can Harvest Aug whatever res you want using harvest as well if suffixes are open (guaranteed to get your chosen res, though the values will obviously vary), as well as cast speed using Aug Speed (also guaranteed), and spell damage using aug caster (small chance of getting +1 to a random skill type).

To start:
Any shield with decent ES and spell damage/+1 to phys gems, maybe a res or two if needed.

Helm:

BiS:
21% Crown of the Inward Eye with any Exsang enchant (Duration is probably best).

To start:
Any rare helm that tops off your res’ and gives you some life/ES.

Gloves:

BiS:
Hunter/Elder Fingerless Silk gloves with 16% Phys Damage Multi, High ES, & Res. If possible get life as well. May need to craft strength to reach strength requirements.

To start:
Any rare gloves (probably armour based as you’ll want at least one piece of gear with 4 red sockets) that has life, res, strength/dex.

Boots:

BiS:
Corpsewalker boots corrupted with +2 to duration gems OR movement speed (dps vs clearspeed).

To start:
Corpsewalker boots. They’re a 1c unique and you’ll want corpses around you at all times as a necro.

Rings:

BiS:
One Rare ring with Life/Es/Res and whatever stat you need (str/dex), with an open suffix to craft +1 to minimum frenzy charges.
One rare ring with 0.4% physical damage leeched as life, life/es/res/stats. Ideally has an open suffix to crat +1 min frenzy charges.

To start:
Same as above but likely missing a few or with lower tier affixes. You definitely want a phys leech ring, though they’re pretty expensive early on so don’t be too picky with it.

Amulet:

BiS:
Hunter/Elder amulet with +1 to strength gems/phys multi (or both), life/es (%max es), res if possible, stats that you need (str/dex).

To start:
Amber/Jade amulet with life / % increased max es, res, stats (dex/str)

Belt:

BiS:
Elder Stygian Vise with Global Phys damage, life, % max life, res. Place an Abyss jewel with flat ES, minion damage, and stats/res. Alternatively (as these stygians are now very expensive), Crystal Belt with Es, Life, Res OR hunter stygian with life/%life/res.

To start:
Any belt that gives life/es or both, res, strength.

IF price isn’t too high, can get a Doryani’s Invitation belt for the phys leech for early league.

Jewels:

Cluster Jewels:
There's some flexibility in the cluster jewels, the only passive you really want is Brush with Death and at least one passive that gives energy shield leech. I recommend using a spell damage Large Cluster over a physical one for the spell block/es leech passives, a generic DoT multi medium cluster rather than a phys multi cluster as they are easier to craft/cheaper, and an ES/spellblock small cluster jewel.

Make sure that all of your jewels have the minimum passive # possible (except medium) to save points (8 for large, 4-5 for medium, and 2 for small).

Large:
BiS: Conjured Wall, Essence Rush, and Mage Hunter/Practiced Caster | Conjured Wall, Sap Psyche, Mage Hunter/Practiced Caster (if you get ES leech elsewhere)

Medium:
BiS: Brush with Death, Blood Artist (if phys multi) | Brush with death, Vile Invigoration/Exposure Therapy (if generic multi)

Small:
BiS: Energy From Within/Brush with Death (ES) | Mystic Ward/Rote Reinforcement

Regular jewels:
ES/Life with Phys Multi. 3rd/4th mods can be stats, minion damage, phys damage, spell damage, dot damage, etc.
Get one jewel with the Cannot be Inflicted with Corrupted Blood corruption. Try to get at least life/es & phys mutli on this jewel as well.

Unique jewels:
Kitava’s Teachings is a small cluster jewel, so you won’t be able to use this until you are specced into clusters. It’s also quite expensive, 1ex+ at league start.

Intuitive Leap starts off somewhat cheap (~40c) and goes up in price as the league goes on, so try to get one early. You’ll really want one so that you can fit maim on your Herald of Purity.

Thread of Hope (Large radius) is quite expensive early on, and never really gets much cheaper. It is, however, really important for this build as it saves us a lot of points on the tree, and lets us gets some very powerful nodes.

Flasks:

Mapping:

Rumi’s Concoction — Ideally you get a perfect Rumi’s, but on league start get the best Rumi’s you can reasonably afford.

Cinderswallow Urn* — Though expensive (~2.5ex near the start of a league), Cinderswallow an extremely powerful flask that gives crazy sustain. You will want this flask ASAP. Get the 50% chance to avoid stuns version, as this + the 20% from arcane swiftness makes you near
unstunnable considering we also have a decent amount of life.

Panicked Life Flask of Heat — Since we are on low life, a panicked life flask heals us to full immediately. Get Staunching over Heat if you don’t have corrupted blood immunity.

Experimenter’s Quartz Flask of Warding — Phasing is huge for Ultimatums and is just generally good for maps. You also get dodge chance, which is a very nice bonus defensively.

Experimenter’s Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline — The classic zoom flask. Even for bossing I’d want this flask, as movement is so important and we’re stuck with a pair of 25% ms boots.

Bossing:
If you can afford it, replace your Quartz flask with a Bottled Faith. This is one of the last upgrades I’d get, personally.

*Before you buy a Cinderswallow, try to get a corrupted blood immunity jewel. This is so you can drop a bleed flask while still having flasks to deal with freezing and curses without having to give up Adrenaline on your quicksilver. Use a Silver Flask of Heat until you get a Cinderswallow.

Trade Links:

Whenever you’re looking to craft an item, make sure to use Craft of Exile to determine how best to do it. Also make sure you buy the right ilvl bases in order for your desired mods to show up. Don’t be like me and waste 800c crafting on an ilvl 77 reedemer vaal regalia.

Crafting chest:

There are two ways to craft this chest.

Suggested way:

Ensure you have unveiled gravacious' max life as es mod so that you can bench craft it.

Depending on prices:
Buy an ilvl 80+ 6-link redeemer vaal regalia
Buy an ilvl 80+ 6-link vaal regalia and use a redeemer exalted orb on it <— probably cheaper

If you want 30 quality on the chest, use perfect fossils on the base, else you can use t4 hillock in fortification to get 30% (this can be bought on TFT).

Craft it using whatever is cheapest for fossils. Use craft of exile to find this out: https://tinyurl.com/3hse28s5. You’re looking for +1 to support gems & +1 to strength gems with an open prefix to craft %life as ES. IDEALLY you get 2 open prefixes and an open suffix, but don't fret if you don't get that. I would however keep rolling if you don't get an open prefix if you can afford to, as the 10% max life as es is a huge amount of ES to miss out on.

Here's an example of a chest that I crafted this league:



I got pretty unlucky and made like 20 attempts before hitting +1 str and support, but at least I got pretty lucky hitting an open prefix and +1 int as well. +1 int gives some damage but it's not huge, as it only affects your controlled destruction and efficacy. Ultimately I would have rathered an open suffix + 2 open prefixes, but I'm satisfied with this for now.

I'm rich AF way (gets you ~10% more damage but less defense, not recommended):

Do the same as above except get warlord influence on the chest as well using awakener orb.

Craft using fossils however you are trying to also get +1 to socketed active gems. This will take roughly 7x more currency to do unless you are lucky. You will also potentially have less energy shield as active gems takes a prefix.



Crafting a GG wand without breaking the bank:

First Method: Facture Prefix (The way I crafted mine)

We're gonna craft this wand:



This cost me ~11ex to make, however I started crafting it early (fracture pref cost 2.5ex from tft at the time) and I also hit +1 spell fracture first try.

Crafting Prefixes:

First you need to get an ilvl 64/65 +1 to all spell skil gems wand to fracture. ilvl 65 is actually recommended more IF you want to aug chaos for a suffix later on in the craft, as it allows you to potentially get a higher chaos res tier.

To fracture your wand, there's two ways:

1. Buy an ilvl 64/65 wand (ideally opal) with +1 to all spell gems and at least 1 other prefix, doesn't matter what it is. Craft a prefix so that you have 3 prefixes then use the prefix fracture in harvest. If it fractures the mod you want (spell level) you're good to go, else buy another one.

2. Alt spam an ilvl 64/65 wand for +1 to spell gems (usually takes ~1000 alts). When you hit the mod, regal and if you hit prefix, you're good, else you can beastcraft "remove suffix add prefix" to get another prefix. Then craft a prefix and fracture the wand using the fracture prefix harvest craft. If it fractures the +1 you're good, else you'll need to recraft it and try again.

Once you have a good fractured wand, scour it so that you only have the +1 gem mod. Now there's two ways you can craft this, one takes more time the other less but will probably be more expensive unless you get extremely unlucky on the first method.

Cheaper/takes longer: Alt/aug spam the wand until you get either t3 cast speed or t3 dot multi, up to you. I think cast speed may be preferable just for QoL. Then regal and try to annul whatever suffix/prefix comes up (unless you get lucky and hit phys multi/dot multi/+1 phys gems). If you annul your cast speed/dot multi, then you'll have to go again. This usually takes between 100-300 alts, depending on your luck.

Here's what the wand should look like after this step:


More expensive/purely deterministic: Don't bother alt spamming, just regal then scour the +1 spell gem wand and go to the next step (harvest augs). Once you're done that step, craft multimod and craft cast speed. Multimod + cast speed will cost 3ex total, and will take away a suffix as compared to the first method.

First benchcraft the Cannot roll attacks suffix, then use harvest to aug phys twice for +1 phys gems and phys multi. You are guaranteed to get both mods because the ilvl of the wand means that it cannot roll the only other phys prefix when attacks are blocked, which is "gain % dmg as chaos".

Hopefully you get a decent tier phys multi -- I got lucky and hit the best, T2. If you're ballsy you can try to annul a bad tier then reaug it, but be prepared to spend quite a few ex.

You should now have a wand with +1 spell gems, +1 phys gems, and phys multi as shown above. If you didn't alt spam for cast speed, this is where you'll multimod as previously mentioned. Craft Trigger and if you want, aug chaos for guaranteed chaos res OR just close your eyes and exalt slam and pray for dot multi.

Finally, use harvest to Divine to perfection if you so choose. Phys multi/dot multi in particular benefit a lot of from perfect values

**remember that for harvest crafting you can buy the crafts from TFT discord to save time. Remember that you CAN get scammed so be careful and do your due diligence (ask for collat/look up their name to see recent vouches).

Second Method: Imprinting (Credit to Gryphenprey & his Ascendant Exsang guide for this method)

This method is likely to be cheaper than the above method as it is less punishing for bad luck, though you will not have an open suffix and 1% less cast speed, both of which aren't a big deal.

Similar to above, buy an ilvl 64/65 and alt/aug spam until you get +1 to all spell skills. Buy an imprint beast (Craicic Chimeral) and use it on the wand. Now you'll regal the wand and if you get a suffix, you're good. If you get a prefix, you'll need to use your imprint then rebuy the beast to imprint again.

With two open prefixes, craft Cannot roll attack mods and then Harvest aug phys twice to finish off your prefixes (+1 phys, phys multi).

Once you've finished getting your prefixes, craft Prefixes cannot be changed and scour. Now craft multimod and craft Trigger Spells and Cast Speed.

All together, this method will cost ~16ex at this point in the league (10 days in). The first method could be cheaper if you get lucky and fracture +1 spells on the first try or if you do the method at the start of the league, but at ~4ex per attempt and having to buy from TFT it also takes more time compared to just buying Craicic chimerals for .5ex and imprinting without having to recraft.

Up to you which one to go with, both methods will get you a GG wand but the first one also can get you some extra chaos res and a little more cast speed, just has a higher price ceiling if you're unlucky.

Crafting clusters:

Recommended to buy base clusters (make sure they are ilvl 68+), then craft them using Harvest, especially during league start.

Large: Aetheric + lucent + shuddering or just aetheric | Caster harvest crafts. Best bet is to use caster harvest crafts. Looking for conjured wall + mage hunter/arcane + Sap

Medium: Spam abberant fossils ~100 needed | defence/life harvest crafts. Looking for brush with death + artist/reinvigoration/flow/decay/exposure. Best bet is to use life/def crafts from harvest on your cluster while mapping early on. Can use either phys multi or generic multi, phys multi can roll blood artist which is big damage but may take longer to craft.

Small: Use Defense harvest rerolls.

**keep an active trade for each cluster, you can get them for cheap sometimes when people drop them.

OR

Large: If you want essence rush (more dmg) then get both mage hunter & conjured wall, then aug attack.

Small: If you want Rote Reinforcement (end charges/block, more tanky) then use pristine fossils/harvest life rerolls on a spell block small cluster.


Crafting Ammy:

Buy an ilvl 84 hunter Amber/Citrine/Jade ammy with +1 to strength gems. Make sure this is the ONLY hunter mod on the amulet. Next buy (or craft) a warlord amulet with +1 to physical gems. Again, this amulet needs to have only this mod for Warlord mods.

Buy an Awakener Orb and use it first on the Warlord ammy, then on the Hunter ammy. This will give you an amulet with +1 to strength and +1 to physical gems, plus a bunch of other mods. Hopefully you get at least a decent prefix (or no prefix to craft one), if not you could try to annul the bad prefix but be prepared to recraft the ammy. Probably best to just sell it (probably for a profit) and try again.

As for the suffixes, you'll want to craft Prefixes cannot be changed and then use a harvest phys reforge, hopefully you get phys multi else you'll need to recraft prefixes cannot be changed and try again. Else you could just use harvest reforge keep prefixes, but you're less likely to get phys multi this way.

Crafting gloves:

Buy ilvl 80+ (ideally 84) Hunter Fingerless Silk Gloves and harvest spam phys reroll on it, pray to the gods of RNG.

Buy a pair. Doesn’t need to be fingerless silk gloves either, can be any ES base, silk gloves are just a bit more DPS.


Crafting Shield:

Probably best to just buy a shield with high ES and +1 to phys gems as they aren’t that expensive, but if you want to minmax (note: will be very expensive and time consuming most likely):

Buy ilvl 84 Titanium shield that has t1 spell damage and at least 1 other prefix. Craft a prefix on it and fracture, hoping to hit the t1 spell damage.
Once you have the fractured shield, scour then alt/aug for t1 spell block and then regal.

If you get a good prefix (high tier ES mods), craft a prefix then harvest aug a res that you need (chaos in particular is recommended). Then craft a suffix and use harvest aug caster. There's ~1/6 chance you hit +1 to phys gems. If you don't, try to annul and go again. If you annul one of your non-crafted suffixes, either scour, exalt slam, or beastcraft a suffix back. Repeat this process until you get +1 phys gems on your shield.

If you get a bad prefix, scour and try again.

If you get a good suffix (high tier res that you need/cast speed), craft a suffix then aug caster same as before.

A few choices to finish the shield:

1. If you have an open suffix and/or you want to bench-craft a prefix, aug fire/cold/lite/chaos for one of these res' and/or aug speed for cast speed.
2. If you have an open prefix and/or want to bench-craft a suffix, aug defense

***have not done this craft, it is theory. Be careful.

Belt (pending):

Buy a Hunter or Elder ilvl 85 stygian and fossil craft it. Use Craft of Exile to determine best fossil combo: https://tinyurl.com/25k8k22t. Should probably just be pristines.

If leveling as a second character, use freezing pulse until level 12 then use a Poet's Pen linked with exsang/efficacy/added lite(replace w/ controlled destruction A2) until 24, then do Spellslinger-Reap-Exsang-Efficacy/Brutality (or just dualwield poets, one with exsang one with reap).

Quick guide for League Start:

Depending on your skill level, I recommend looking into Tytykiller’s Caster Leveling Witch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmG0MwCrYJU, which teaches you how to level as a caster quickly.

Though you can use Exsanguinate before level 24, you’ll probably want to wait until you get spellslinger before using it as it has pretty poor clear without slinger/chain. This means using another skill or set of skills, such as Tyty’s frost bomb / storm mine setup. You can also do SRS, ED/Contagion, or whatever else you’d like. Even freezing pulse self-cast is decent until 24 if you want something simple.

At level 24 you get Spellslinger after completing Lost in Love. Link Exsanguinate, Reap, and efficacy with Spellslinger and attack with your wand to cast both skills at once. Do the Library quest to get Frenzy and use that as your basic attack skill. Use Herald of Purity as well, and add Vitality in and level it to around level 12. Once you get bruality, swap it in over Efficacy if you have the right colours.

This setup will carry you even through yellow maps on a 4l, though I personally swapped to self-cast on entering maps and buying a corrupted 6l chest.

I can post a more thorough leveling guide if people are interested, but I think there are better builds out there to walk beginners through the game. Again, any questions you have (including about leveling), ask away.

Note: The Main PoB has some info in the notes tab on leveling as tyty's caster build.