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

@infectedmethod:
Just a quick clarification on Devoto's:
It has 10% less physical damage, not less physical damage taken. In other words you deal less physical dam. Which is no issue, but definitely not a plus of the helmet. 10% less physical dam taken would have been a huge plus.

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

Quick question, why don't you take the Chaos damage nodes in the skill tree (Method to the Madness, Corruption)? Wouldn't sacrificing some of the life nodes you take in exchange for more single-target damage be worth it?

It depends on your other items etc. If you feel that you can do without the extra life and lack damage, by all means, take them. If on the other hand you have issues staying alive, take the life nodes.

Typically, the life ones will increase your def more than you loose on the offense, simply because your increased life typically is about 200%, whereas increased damage is about 800%, so 50% additional increased damage results in a comparatively low net increase of damage (~5%) vs 50% additional increase in life is approx 20% more net life. Which is really significant.

Getting to Method to the Madness also means you need to take a bunch of stat nodes, which don't do a lot, so from a per passive point perspective, those nodes aren't that great.

@kazafz:

Didn't have time for a detailed analysis of your gear, but a few things I noticed:

1) The crafted "adds x Chaos damage to your attacks2 doesn't add value. It only buffs the damage of Shield Charge slighly, but as we are not killing anything with it anyways, it's not worth it. I'd rather enchant something more useful on that ring (didn't check what affixes are available for that particular ring, you can easily test yourself). Crit Strike Chance is also not of high importance for us. Overall I would probably ditch that ring. Yes, Chaos dam is nice, but other than that, the ring has very little to offer.

2) Likewise for the "Lightning damage" and "Phys. attack damage leeched as mana" affixes on your amulet.

3) Get boots with movement speed. Even if you primarily use SC to move around, SC scales from attack and move speed, so higher move speed improves your SC. Also when you are not charging, it feels just so much better with more MS.

4) Grats on the Allelopathies, max rolls on both DoT damage and Hinder duration. Also the 2nd ring (Tempest Knot) is quite nice.

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Garyas wrote:

@kazafz:

Didn't have time for a detailed analysis of your gear, but a few things I noticed:

1) The crafted "adds x Chaos damage to your attacks2 doesn't add value. It only buffs the damage of Shield Charge slighly, but as we are not killing anything with it anyways, it's not worth it. I'd rather enchant something more useful on that ring (didn't check what affixes are available for that particular ring, you can easily test yourself). Crit Strike Chance is also not of high importance for us. Overall I would probably ditch that ring. Yes, Chaos dam is nice, but other than that, the ring has very little to offer.

2) Likewise for the "Lightning damage" and "Phys. attack damage leeched as mana" affixes on your amulet.

3) Get boots with movement speed. Even if you primarily use SC to move around, SC scales from attack and move speed, so higher move speed improves your SC. Also when you are not charging, it feels just so much better with more MS.

4) Grats on the Allelopathies, max rolls on both DoT damage and Hinder duration. Also the 2nd ring (Tempest Knot) is quite nice.

Hey Garyas, thank you so much for your response.

I fully agree with your observations.

1. I found out about that after checking PoB and seeing there was no difference at all haha - will remove that crafted mod and look for a better one :)

2. Yeah, will need to upgrade the amulet soon. I guess I initially got it because of the "Spell Damage" and Resistances.

3. I agree as well - Will try to look for Boots that have nice Life + Res + MS - one further thing, is there any nice Enchant I should aim for on the Boots for this build too?

4. Was lucky with my Essence spam for that "Increased Chaos Damage" mod. Might try and get new ones and roll again for better Life + resistances on them!

Thanks!

You are welcome.

1. Things that come to mind: life, mana, resistances, ES. Life is already on it, so the others might be an option. Depending on what type of affix is available.

2. Yes, it has quite nice resistances (over 100 total iirc) and spell damage of course is nice. However, by the same rationale as in my reply to kevinbrightblade, those 20something percent do not provide a huge buff to your overall damage output, while a good life or mana roll could provide quite a boost to survivability.

3. as far as enchantments go: I currently use two-tone boots, since I needed some more resists (they are self-crafted using an Essence, btw). I also felt that the available boot enchants are not that great for our build (some are of course nice to have). As enchanting two-tones would overwrite the implicit resists, that's not an option for me and I cannot really give a recommendation here.

4. Got a really nice one myself with essence crafting (>100 life, some other useable stats), but as I needed significantly more resists from the ring slot, I sold it. Got 1.5ex which probably was underselling it at that point in time. The dude who bought it immediately put it up again for 5ex. Just checked and I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's still up for sale by the same guy at 10ex now, but with changed crafted stat.

If you want to invest several ex in this build, my first picks after getting the basic items would always be (in that order):
TR+1 or Skin of the Loyal
ED 21/20
Empower 4

And if you are super rich, a +1 corrupted Skin (essentially a +2 armor). Saw a few of the course of this league, from 60 to 80 to 100ex. Don't know if they were ever sold for that price - anyways way above my budget.

EDIT: the tricky part with the +1 Skin is getting the right colours. There are several at 8ex, but with wrong colours. There's currently one with 1r2g3b from the same guy who offered the others (maybe it's the exact same item) at currently 1 Mirror :)

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weppe1337 wrote:

are u suggesting that I should have 75% to all res. BUT when I want to run an ele weakness map I have to calculate resistances and then change gear to match it?

Nah, I doubt anyone could be arsed to do that...
I would recommend to do this:
1) If you can't afford proper res gear, then avoid ele weakness maps
2) If you can afford proper gear, make sure you're capped vs the highest lvl of ele weakness maps. This makes you avoid switching gear for certain map mods.


@Kazafz:

Your main issue right now is your glove setup, you lose TONS of damage for not having a Spell Totem - Wither up, it makes them take TONS more damage. The Blight is only to support your damage output when you have both ED, Wither and Arcane Surge/Contagion up.

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Reed2017 wrote:

Hi, I'm thinking about trying this build, since I never played ED,
how this build fares against shaper? (videos are from 2.6),
I.E. how long does it take to get shaper from 50% to 0% (3rd phase), assuming gear is high budget optimaized.
how fast does it clear maps? compared to bow build for example

Hey,

If you want to kill end-game bosses I would recommend using a +3 chaos rolled staff for the build instead of the clear speed approach.

Regarding clear speed:
It would depend on what bow build you're talking about, this build is among the fastest for the currency you invest. Though, a bow build scales better with more currency invested compared to ED/Contagion.

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Autrux_x3 wrote:

Could anyone look over my Char/Gear and tell me what i need to Improve to do High Tier stuff .. Im running T12-T13 Maps without any Problems but ive got the feeling i have some Sustain problems once i go higher

O,O With that gear you should simply avoid shield charging straight into packs (I know it's hard not to as the build kind of promotes it) and you'll be fine :)

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weppe1337 wrote:

I feel like clarity isnt needed for a very long time now. been trying temporal chains and other variations together with blasphemy as well.
what is a good substitute? Haste? Vulnerable?
i have 2.6k mana unreserved to use

Anything you prefer tbh, test different aspects till you find the one fitting your playstyle the best :)

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infectedmethod wrote:

Hey guys, did I just rob a bank?

I hate running labs and I've only ever done so to get my Ascendancy.
The first time I ran Uber and completed it - I enchanted the helm I had, I rolled the Lightning Warp enchant. I guess its pretty sought after? I've had some fun with it (since 75? now 91), but I think it was time to move on.

While I was running poe.trade - I came across the Devoto's Nightmare Bascinet. With 40% ED already attached. I ended up getting it for 25C, which seems like an incredibly incredibly good deal. Item age was only 22 hours.

Anyways, cons I check out about 250 life. I fall from 5000 to 4750 (still have 800 ES). All resists capped still capped but lightning cold fall from 109 to around 76-86. Problem would be with lowered resist mods. Plus side - gain tons of evasion (doubled with the Witchfire) - plenty of Physical reduction. Quicker movement skills (attack speed+movement). And most notably Chaos resist which my build lacks so much of.

1 - Did I do alright by chosing Devotos? It seemingly complements alot of elements my character lacks otherwise. I've only had it for a few hours.

2 - Given the choice, pretend both helmets had ED enchant. Which would you choose?

3 - What other cons might there be? I'm taking on Tier 15 maps no deaths most of the time. Haven't faced Shaper or Guardians yet.

4 - I'm still new to this game. In a sense. It's been awhile since I played. What typically would these 2 helmets go for? (with their respective enchants) ty!!

Thank you and thank you for this wonderful guide!


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Here is rest of my stuff

Hey,

My pleasure bro, glad you like it!

1,2) It honestly comes down to a matter of taste, I wouldn't chose it in hardcore but in softcore, sure.

3) Boss kills are somewhat slowish compared to using a +3 chaos staff, which you could get if you wish to make the build handle end-game bosses instead of super fast clear speed.

4) Price Checking can honestly only be done via poe.trade by comparing the item with others on the market of similar stats. If no similar item exists, either wing it or put it up without a b/o tag and ask for offers, if you get an offer you feel comfortable selling it for, then go for it.

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

Quick question, why don't you take the Chaos damage nodes in the skill tree (Method to the Madness, Corruption)? Wouldn't sacrificing some of the life nodes you take in exchange for more single-target damage be worth it?

Matter of taste again, if you feel that the damage would be valued higher than the eHP go for it :) I personally would skip them.

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Garyas wrote:

@infectedmethod:
Just a quick clarification on Devoto's:
It has 10% less physical damage, not less physical damage taken. In other words you deal less physical dam. Which is no issue, but definitely not a plus of the helmet. 10% less physical dam taken would have been a huge plus.

+1

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I skipped a few comments as they've been handled by @Garyas, thank you again for the help!

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Ghazzy wrote:

@Kazafz:

Your main issue right now is your glove setup, you lose TONS of damage for not having a Spell Totem - Wither up, it makes them take TONS more damage. The Blight is only to support your damage output when you have both ED, Wither and Arcane Surge/Contagion up.

Oh, nice catch. Didn't check all gem setups. But indeed, not having Wither means losing a net 2.4 multiplier (!) to your damage. Also can be used as a mini decoy totem :)

@Garyas & @Ghazzy:

Thank you both for the feedback!

1. Thanks for recommending a list of things to work on - ED 21/20, Empower 4, etc. Out of curiosity, have you used your character to complete Guardians/Shaper? - If so, what was your experience regarding DPS and survivability against them?

2. @Ghazzy: Great call on the Glove setup. I think it was a couple of months back that I saw someone use Spell totem on the gloves instead in this thread and I gave it a shot and forgot to ever change it back haha. So I ended up having Blight on the spell totem and manually casting Wither ><

And I saw your previous comment towards Reed2017 on getting a +3 chaos rolled staff instead if I wanted to aim for end game content which I might think about too.

Cheers

Edit: I changed the gems around to what you recommended and can achieve 105k dps with charges up now compared to previously at 86k. Yay!

I did 3 of the Guardians. Chimera was a bit of a problem, but primarily due to playing on really laggy hotel WLAN.

Will do Phoenix next and then Shaper.

Uber Lab is a joke with the build. I'm really bad at dodging the traps, but with that build, they are no problem at all. And Izaro dies real quick.

I think that there are probably quite a number of builds that can do Shaper much faster, but then again this is probably one of the safer builds for Shaper, since you don't have to stand still do deal damage.

I've read somewhere that ED builds are a somewhat popular choice for Shaper farming in HC.

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Garyas wrote:

I did 3 of the Guardians. Chimera was a bit of a problem, but primarily due to playing on really laggy hotel WLAN.

Will do Phoenix next and then Shaper.

Uber Lab is a joke with the build. I'm really bad at dodging the traps, but with that build, they are no problem at all. And Izaro dies real quick.

I think that there are probably quite a number of builds that can do Shaper much faster, but then again this is probably one of the safer builds for Shaper, since you don't have to stand still do deal damage.

I've read somewhere that ED builds are a somewhat popular choice for Shaper farming in HC.

Awesome - I've only completed Mino + Chimera and this was before I changed the gem sockets that was pointed out to me before. I'm going to attempt Phoenix and Hydra soon too and see how it goes. I'm going to try and read up on the boss mechanics first. I've not used this to farm uber lab as I have another farmer for that.

I'll check on PoB later today after work and see how the numbers look if I were to get a +3 Chaos Staff instead.