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

Thanks for the detailed responses guys. I guess I just misunderstood the other post. I was under the impression that always channeling Blight is the best way to go (given that everthing else is up and ready to go). Glad I have been playing right then. I just got confused as there is a LOT of info about how each skill and gear works in this build.

How do you guys feel about swapping out ED and going full blight for bosses? Is it not worth dropping ED for the extra blight damage (utilizing 6 full sockets)? What if we use a full blight set up with a +3 chaos staff?

Didn't do the math, but I guess that the fact that you need to stand still and also in quite close range to the boss makes Blight really much more dangerous to use compared to ED.

Against bosses where you can facetank a hit or 2, this might work out, but against others I think that playing it "safe" with ED and appyling Blight only in certain phases is better.

Also ED provides significant life regen which you lose when going full Blight.

On swapping: keep in mind that with Allelopathy, you de facto have a 5L lvl 22 Blight setup + a 6L ED lvl 21 setup. Switching would lead to a 6L lvl 21 Blight and a 4L lvl 21 ED. So you gain less on the Blight than you loose on the ED.

But that's a very rough and quick assessment, not even napkin math ;)

Having said that, there are also full Blight builds - might work.

Thanks, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Seems like there is just no better combo for this build than ED/Blight.

I mean if you're just mapping, you could probably get away with losing blight (like 11-14ish range), but you do sacrifice speed when clearing bosses. Plus having Blight handy for stuff that your ED doesn't pass through is super handy and increases efficiency (ie minions that won't die).

I think I'm getting a much better understanding of the inner workings of this build because of all the lengthy and detailed explanations.

Sorry guys for the postponing of the updated video footage, schools has taken too much time!

So to respond to questions:


@Nedieth:

Damnit, you made me re-read everything to make sure I'm not incorrect here! (Well done btw).

When I said I'm not focusing on Blight is that I don't use 4 supports for it as the main design of the build was to be a fast map clearer that isn't supposed to run the absolute highest tiers of maps even though it can. This makes the Decay dagger with high spell dmg superior due to the duration not going to be needed as the bosses drops so fast in the earlier tiers. The second you step up to do the higher tiers, after double checking your calculations, you are 100% correct. (I also want to underline that I in no way want to stop discussions from going on my threads, I think it's great for not just myself but for everyone reading as points myself or others haven't thought about might be brought up and be of use!)

You're also correct on the pricings of the items, they were a lot cheaper before. Either way, the points you make are legit & valid and I can't do anything but agree.

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Surfinn wrote:

Thanks for the detailed responses guys. I guess I just misunderstood the other post. I was under the impression that always channeling Blight is the best way to go (given that everthing else is up and ready to go). Glad I have been playing right then. I just got confused as there is a LOT of info about how each skill and gear works in this build.

How do you guys feel about swapping out ED and going full blight for bosses? Is it not worth dropping ED for the extra blight damage (utilizing 6 full sockets)? What if we use a full blight set up with a +3 chaos staff?

Would put you in harms way as @Garyas mentioned.



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The updated video footage I've been tryin to get up for this build is me tweaking the build itself to make sure it is optimized, the points @Nedieth has brougnt up are correct and requires attention in the guide itself to be in an optimized state. I'll make sure to finalize all the tweaks for the video and then when it's done make sure to update the details inside the guide itself with all the tweaks I'm doing. I'll make sure post the tweaks here in the thread when it's done as well.

Not only is this (and similar ones) a great build, but I'd really like to say (again) that this thread and the people here also great! The level of detailed discussions and maturity of the people in doing so is just fantastic. If you compare that to the usual amount of insults and stupidity in other threads (not necessarily on the PoE forums, I have to admit that I limit my contributions pretty much to this thread - but in general in gaming related forums, e.g. that other game :) ) - it's just so much nicer.

So, thanks for that.

And after that initial disclaimer, now for something completely different: status update on my progress, aka something that is probably of no interest / boring for everyone else but me. But that's the internet, right? Full of public diaries no one cares about ;)

As mentioned earlier, this is my first serious char / build in PoE. Also, I started more or less with 3.0 (a few weeks ahead to get into the game) after trying it out shortly aftere release and admittedly not really liking it back then (most probably due to the high learning curve). Anyways, saying all that only to point out that I never did Guardians before, let alone shaper or the like.

So, I just did my first two Guardians ever and things went really smoothly. Yes, I did once to Hydra and twice to Minotaur, but that was mainly because I didn't know what to expect and therefore was unaware of the mechanics of the fight. E.g. next time fighting Minotaur, I will bring a Flask of Grounding to get rid of the debuff of the Lightning wall. Somehow the stupid bull was on the other side of the wall, I thought that charging through the wall couldn't be that bad but I guess I was somewhat wrong :) The cast speed debuff got me in a real bad position and eventually killed.

Question: does of grounding indeed remove that debuff or is it a curse and warding works against it? Or simply nothing workds and you should avoid touching the wall at all cost?

Agaist Hydra it was my own stupidity (again), somehow stood still too long and got frozen / chilled and then hit by one of his more deadly attacks. Easily avoidable in principle, but well...

I do have a Chimera map and will either farm or buy a Phoenix. Will try the guy in the robe in the next few days then :)

@Garyas, minotaur slow/shock from the lightning walls cannot be dispelled. When you get more comfy with the fight, you can flame dash through without getting shocked. My suggestion is that every time you need to disengage the boss, you can anticipate that he burrows. Once they hear or see the animation for the burrow, flame dash trough the wall. Then you can set up Wither totem, and be ready to greet the boss with an ED and Blight as he walks through the beam to get to you on the other side. Keep fighting him there as long as you dare, and then disengage again.

@Ghazzy, sweet, I will continue to bitch and moan every time I see something I don't agree with that are not derived from flexibility or choices you do differently than me. It's both interesting and sad to me that while our guides started out completely differently, the current game has forced us to make pretty much the same build. While playing the same build with virtually the same tree, our priorities are very different on almost every aspect. Gotta love this game.

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Nedieth wrote:

@Garyas, minotaur slow/shock from the lightning walls cannot be dispelled. When you get more comfy with the fight, you can flame dash through without getting shocked. My suggestion is that every time you need to disengage the boss, you can anticipate that he burrows. Once they hear or see the animation for the burrow, flame dash trough the wall. Then you can set up Wither totem, and be ready to greet the boss with an ED and Blight as he walks through the beam to get to you on the other side. Keep fighting him there as long as you dare, and then disengage again.

Thanks! Right, good proposal to use Flame Dash instead of Shield Charge for that fight, as it's a teleport and "things" along the way don't hit / affect you. Will have to see how to do this though. I have Flame Dash only on my 2nd weapon set, so I will have to swap, Dash and swap back. I assume I need to get more used to the fight to pull that of correctly.

How would you rate the 4 Guardian fights in terms of relative difficulty for our build?

1 being easiest, 5 most difficult.

PS:
Q: What's the biggest advantage of a Skin of the Loyal over a +1 Tabula?
A: The fact that it does have a texture and doesn't look like some Gfx glitch ;)

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PS:
Q: What's the biggest advantage of a Skin of the Loyal over a +1 Tabula?
A: The fact that it does have a texture and doesn't look like some Gfx glitch ;)

A bit more def I guess -> "100% increased Global Defences"!

This rating is based off my current setup with heavier focus on layered defense and Blight. Note that I run both Arctic Armour and Temporal Chains.

Chimera - 2: Facetankable with flasks up, easy to dodge. Only danger is adds.
Phoenix - 3: Easiest guardian for me on a pure ED setup, but a Blight focus makes me greedier. Adds become more dangerous and the cyclone gets relevant.
Minotaur - 3: Always my least favourite guardian on a build like this, but being able to facetank for several seconds gives you the time needed to plan the next movement relative to lightning walls and falling rocks.
Hydra - 4: She has been very smooth for me all league, but I still rate her as the hardest one since we need to combo a lot of spells and focus a lot on positioning at the same time. With flasks up, she will not be able to kill you straight up.

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microbone wrote:

A bit more def I guess -> "100% increased Global Defences"!

I know, the above statement was meant as a joke. The white shirt "graphics" was getting on my nerves.

The def stat doesn't do too much for me though. Biggest change is approx 500 more ES, a slightly better evade chance and 2% phys mit instead of 1%. So.... nice to have, but not game changing.

@Nedieth: Thanks again!

I don't have AA and run Enfeeble & Vuln. from Witchfire.

So I did the 2 more difficult ones - nice to hear. I guess that it depends to a large part on learning the mechanics and knowing how to react.

Concerning flasks: I still "struggle" with proper flask management. I sometimes forgot to use them for longer periods of time (during mapping). Also a matter of getting used to it I guess.