GhazzyTV - Essence Drain & Contagion (or Bane/Soulrend) Trickster [SC/HC/Uber Elder/Shaper]

This has probably been asked before somewhere in the 135 pages, but

Why is it recommended to take Walk the Aether as the first ascendancy node?

If I'm not mistaken, DOT spells don't benefit from cast speed, and it's not like the build is lacking the mana to cast movement skills.

Hi exiles :)
Tnx to @Ghazzy, this is rly nice fast build and more important interactive forum guide :) I have found almost everything i need about the build in forum, but still have some questions:

Can you pls explain how to fight bosses? Where to place the totem and what skill should i use to kill boss (Blight / ED).

And if you have time, can you pls look at my gears? Any recommendations will be helpful, specially about my helm, using The Tempest's Binding.


Is there a way i can benefit Innervate / Ice Bite? or they are useless here?

Also i don't know what modes are best for jewels? I have crafted some but don't know are they good or not?

For bosses:
Totem placement depends on a lot of things. Which boss, what type of attacks he uses, how well you can tank him, does he have adds etc. If you can tank, then I like to place the totem on one side of the boss and fight him on the opposite side. So the totem does not get hit and most likely will survive.

If you need the totem to absorb a hit or 2, then place it well away from you and keep your distance to the boss, recast totem when required.

You need to try out what works for you and the specific boss you are fighting. There's really no generic answer for all cases.

As far as spells go: I typically cast totem, if there are adds then Contagion (can be skipped if no adds), then ED. If I can take a hit from the boss and there's no risk of getting one-shot, then I move in range and channel Blight. The latter does not always work, as some bosses have charge / slam attacks that might kill you instantly or very quickly. You need to know the attack pattern / mechanics of the boss. Blight has the "issue" that you need to stand still in close range for quite some time to do serious damage.

If you can, always try to apply Blight, as it is a very significant damage boost (particularly with specific damage gem setup in Allelopathy gloves).

Then rinse and repeat: recast totem when it runs out / gets destroyed, reapply ED (mine lasts for roughly 7,5s) etc.

To the mask:
I doubt that Innvervate applies to damage over time spells, but I never tried and therefore I'm not sure. Will probably work for the initial ED hit, but you apply that only every few seconds, so it's probably not doing much for you anyways.

The shock component works differently since 3.0, so you would need to apply a significant amount of lightning damage to make shock worthwhile, so that probably also does not help a lot.

Same for Ice Bite: you probably will not freeze a lot (initial hit only I guess as well).

In summary: I don't think this build benefits a lot from the stats. But no guarantee :)

Jewels:
depends what you need. One nice thing about jewels is that you can adapt them according to your current needs.

In general I would look for
% max life
% spell damage while holding a shield
% chaos damage
% damage over time
% spell damage
% damage

Maybe also % max mana

I typically search poe.trade for jewels with those stats and ask for at least 3 stats to be present. The good ones are ~50c. The ones with life tend to be more expensive. 3 damage stats + life easily about 1 ex or more.

"

Garyas wrote:

For bosses:
If you can tank, then I like to place the totem on one side of the boss and fight him on the opposite side. So the totem does not get hit and most likely will survive.

If you need the totem to absorb a hit or 2, then place it well away from you and keep your distance to the boss, recast totem when required.

You are right, that is my problem, if i cast Blight i have to face tank boss cause the range of blight is pretty low, and if i cast ED on boss, fight goes long like 3-4 min, is that usual, or i lake dmg or im doing something wrong?

"

Garyas wrote:

Maybe also % max mana

So i was thinking wrong, the % max mana is not that important, i just prioritize life and dmg rolls in search criteria.

@Garyas tnx for info and your help.

Killed my first guardian guys. Making progress.

I think I'm finally starting to learn the mechanics of boss fights.

"

HunterMoon wrote:

You are right, that is my problem, if i cast Blight i have to face tank boss cause the range of blight is pretty low, and if i cast ED on boss, fight goes long like 3-4 min, is that usual, or i lake dmg or im doing something wrong?

Well, wither totem is pretty crucial, ED should be cast anyways (doesn't take long, you can do it from a distance) and then only cast Blight if you know the boss is not going to perform a heavy attack or is focussing on your totem etc. Takes some practice I guess - I'm also far from good in this :)

"

So i was thinking wrong, the % max mana is not that important, i just prioritize life and dmg rolls in search criteria.

@Garyas tnx for info and your help.

Well, that's personal preference. Mana also helps with survivability. I just felt that I have enough mana, so I was looking for life and damage.

Hello all,

While I've been casually playing PoE for a long time this is the first time I've really gotten serious about a character and "followed" a guide, and boy has it paid off, my characters usually fizzle out before the end game so I'm excited to actually be trying maps now. Since I haven't been serious about a character before I think I've messed some things up and was hoping to get some quick answers.

Cast When Damage Taken: I've been leveling this like any other gem, which turns out to be the wrong thing to do? Lower level = more procs? Also the guide says to use Vaal Lightning Trap on page 1 (sorry I haven't read all 100+ pages yet) but I don't think it works. What should I be using instead? Any other gems I should leave lower level?

Gear: My gear is not great, except for the sockets. I'm only upgrading my gear if it has four linked sockets so I can keep using my skills. Should I sacrifice some linked skills for better gear while trying out maps? Literally started maps yesterday. My survivability in T1 maps has been fine for the most part, I know my resistances are low. Should I not be doing maps until I get better gear? I miss Shield Charge since I found Lifesprig and am looking for a replacement.

Trading/Crafting: Since I'm casual I have no idea about how to acquire some of the uniques that would be good for this build. When looting I don't know what items to pick up to vendor. Should I identify items before I vendor?

Thanks for the help, I'm sure there are more questions I'm not thinking of right now.

Hey guys,

Pardon the delayed responses, just been AWFULLY busy with the spectre changes :/

"

Zeus777 wrote:

I always like to see the infinite budget version of a build has anybody taken this build to the max to see what it can do?

If so can you link your char?

Putting this build to the extreme would mean the following big pieces:

* +1 Corrupted properly colored Skin of the Loyal
* Additional Curse corrupted good spell dmg/life/mana amulet
* +3 chaos staff for boss farming approach vs insane spell dmg Delirium dagger for map clearing (also works for boss farming, specially when pushing the limits tbh, I'd rather do the dagger if I went all in)

"

Surfinn wrote:

"

Ghazzy wrote:

3 seconds O,O woot?
With the Major god that should be literally impossible :S

Perhaps you are shield charging in to a little pebble on the ground stopping you after/before the stun? That shits annoying..

Thanks for your reply. I think I may be getting stuck on shit I can't see. I realized that when I died the other day, I was stuck on a fence that was like impossible to see, when surrounded or near lots of mobs.

Phew, glad I could help! :)

"

Lasagna220 wrote:

This has probably been asked before somewhere in the 135 pages, but

Why is it recommended to take Walk the Aether as the first ascendancy node?

If I'm not mistaken, DOT spells don't benefit from cast speed, and it's not like the build is lacking the mana to cast movement skills.

Well, thanks to the charge change I am leaning more towards starting with Swift Killer, basically it's just a clear speed enhancer which makes lvling much faster.

"

HunterMoon wrote:

"

Garyas wrote:

For bosses:
If you can tank, then I like to place the totem on one side of the boss and fight him on the opposite side. So the totem does not get hit and most likely will survive.

If you need the totem to absorb a hit or 2, then place it well away from you and keep your distance to the boss, recast totem when required.

You are right, that is my problem, if i cast Blight i have to face tank boss cause the range of blight is pretty low, and if i cast ED on boss, fight goes long like 3-4 min, is that usual, or i lake dmg or im doing something wrong?

"

Garyas wrote:

Maybe also % max mana

So i was thinking wrong, the % max mana is not that important, i just prioritize life and dmg rolls in search criteria.

@Garyas tnx for info and your help.

Looks like @Garyas got you covered :)

"

Surfinn wrote:

Killed my first guardian guys. Making progress.

I think I'm finally starting to learn the mechanics of boss fights.

Great! Glad to hear!

"

OrionALT wrote:

Hello all,

While I've been casually playing PoE for a long time this is the first time I've really gotten serious about a character and "followed" a guide, and boy has it paid off, my characters usually fizzle out before the end game so I'm excited to actually be trying maps now. Since I haven't been serious about a character before I think I've messed some things up and was hoping to get some quick answers.

Cast When Damage Taken: I've been leveling this like any other gem, which turns out to be the wrong thing to do? Lower level = more procs? Also the guide says to use Vaal Lightning Trap on page 1 (sorry I haven't read all 100+ pages yet) but I don't think it works. What should I be using instead? Any other gems I should leave lower level?

Gear: My gear is not great, except for the sockets. I'm only upgrading my gear if it has four linked sockets so I can keep using my skills. Should I sacrifice some linked skills for better gear while trying out maps? Literally started maps yesterday. My survivability in T1 maps has been fine for the most part, I know my resistances are low. Should I not be doing maps until I get better gear? I miss Shield Charge since I found Lifesprig and am looking for a replacement.

Trading/Crafting: Since I'm casual I have no idea about how to acquire some of the uniques that would be good for this build. When looting I don't know what items to pick up to vendor. Should I identify items before I vendor?

Thanks for the help, I'm sure there are more questions I'm not thinking of right now.

Hey,

Awesome to hear bro, glad you're enjoying it!

Let's start with CWDT:
CWDT LvL comes down to a matter of personal taste, I prefer the lvl 3 combo with lvl 5 IC to make sure it always procs vs Porcupines, however, be careful to not clear 2 packs of porcupines within too short time such as 2 packs connecting without being careful of your position as when CWDT is on CD you can one shot yourself via killing an entire pack of those iffy ****.

VLT:
Vaal spells doesn't work on CWDT which is why I've intentionally placed it on the CWDT as it is meant to be casted manually.

Gear:
The guide promotes a few things I would strongly recommend for LOW budget: "Heartbreaker" dagger which also allows for Shield Charge if you can't afford a Delirium/spell dmg dagger or a BoTC.
Tabula Rasa is super cheap till you can afford a corrupted +1 Tabula, which honestly is my personal choice in terms of body armour decision. It's also the cheapest route and imo the most effective DPS wise (better than cherrubim, by far).


Trading/Crafting:
These questions are VERY big so I will forward you to the sources you need to use to fully understand & utilize tools for this to work well:
poe.trade
youtube.com/GhazzyTV
https://discord.gg/XzDUaHT
PM "GhazzyTV" when I'm online or you see me streaming to get an invite to the guild which I think is the absolute best way to get some direct help in-game.

Basically the short answer to your question is that it comes with experience, PoE is the most complex ARPG on the market afaik so give it time, it'll come, and till then utilize any help you can get from videos to communities to guilds and streamers.

"

Ghazzy wrote:

* +1 Corrupted properly colored Skin of the Loyal
* Additional Curse corrupted good spell dmg/life/mana amulet
* +3 chaos staff for boss farming approach vs insane spell dmg Delirium dagger for map clearing (also works for boss farming, specially when pushing the limits tbh, I'd rather do the dagger if I went all in)

The +1 corrupted Skin of the Loyal (i.e. with +2 total gem levels) should be same (if not more) damage compared to +3 chaos staff, since:

assuming Lvl 21 ED, Lvl 4 Empower:

with +2 Skin:
4 Empower -> 6 Empower -> +5 Levels
21+2+5 = 28

with +3 Staff (which is +1 gems und +2 chaos gems)
4 Empower -> 5 Empower -> +4 Levels
21+3+4 = 28

So same level gems with both setups, which is the most significant thing for damage. But using Skin allows you to use either dagger or BotC + shield which probably will net you with more +spell / chaos damage compared to the staff + maybe Cherrubim's.

But ofc getting a +2 Skin with the right color sockets will be VERY expensive if available at all. The last one I have seen on poe.trade was 100+ ex and overall I have only seen 2 the whole time (might even be the same one).

Hmmm i like your build , i will try it