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

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Optaka wrote:

I threw together a leveling checklist to help out myself and the other peoples league starting this build.

General rule: Always be looking for movespeed boots at the start and items with more blue links. B-B-G is what you are looking for at the start of the game and as you level mo blue=mo better

Temporarily start as witch. Grab arcane surge from the beach. RIP to shiny new Murder Hillock.

Enter Lioneye’s watch. Sell all gear except wand and arcane surge and take blight for Hillock murder reward. Look for movespeed boots.

Start a shadow. Die to Hillock again. Take explosive trap. Equip blight with arcane surge as your trash clear and explosive trap as boss damage.

Go to tidal isle and RIP to Hailrake. Get quicksilver flask as reward. Take infused channeling and link to blight

Complete “Breaking some eggs” and take contagion as reward. Can now link contagion and arcane surge and drop this on packs as you run by. Explosive trap and blight provide extra boss damage. Alternatively, Frost bomb linked to onslaught is good for dropping on packs and getting the extra move speed from onslaught.

Grab the new dodge skill (dash or frostblink) for dodging nasty attacks and steelskin for when you can't dodge. NOTE: these are new so not sure exactly where you get them.

Make a +1 Chaos gems wand by vendoring one chaos gem (use your gems from the beach) with a blue wand in colors you want (G-B-B) if possible and socket contagion-blight.

Proceed to the prison. After killing Brutus take (G)Void manipulation and socket that into your +1 chaos wand. Links at this point should be Contagion-Blight-Void manipulation

Purchase flame dash and link to arcane surge. Also purchase wither and a second Void Manipulation. We can drop fire trap at this point. Wither won’t be used until we get spell totem from the library, but start putting experience on it now.

Upon reaching Mervail's caverns port back to town and get Essence drain.

At this point your ideal gem setups would be:

Spoiler

+1 chaos wand: Essence drain-contagion -Void Manipulation

+1 Chaos wand: blight-infused channeling-Void Manipulation

Wherever: Flame dash-arcane surge.

Most of the time you can still just drop contagion on packs and move along. Add in Essence drain and blight as needed for tougher packs/mobs. (NOTE: with the new monster health buffs in 3.7 this may no longer be possible) Essence drain and contagion combo is much slower to cast both so I avoid this until later when you have some cast speed.

After completing “The Root of the Problem” take Faster Casting and link it to your flame dash. Purchase 2 Controlled destruction gems, which should be linked to contagion and blight.

Gem links now:

Spoiler

+1 chaos wand: Blight-Controlled Destruction-Void Manipulation
+1 chaos wand: Contagion- Controlled Destruction-Void Manipulation
Wherever: Flame dash-faster casting-arcane surge
essence drain

At after completing “Lost in Love” take Bane as your reward and purchase the Malevolence aura and despair curse.

Ideal links are

Spoiler

+1 chaos wand: Blight-Controlled Destruction-Void Manipulation
Wherever: Bane-despair-void manipulation-controlled destruction.
Wherever: Flame dash-faster casting-arcane surge
essence drain

At this point Bane will be your trash clear and essence drain and blight will be our single target. Continue to level contagion in an off hand for now. As before, you can use contagion and essence drain if you prefer but I personally feel you need more cast speed first.

Once you reach the library and complete the quest there pick up spell totem and link it to wither. Efficacy and swift affliction are now good support options for your damaging skills.

After completing “Breaking the Seal” take the stone golem as your reward for more regen or flame golem for more damage. Linking this to a Cast When Damage Taken is nice quality-of-life improvement. You can also pick up Phase run at this point for more zoom-zoom.

Once you feel your cast speed is high enough to comfortably cast contagion and essence drain combo you can switch over to that and drop bane. Once you do this you will need a different way to curse enemies with Despair.

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Zalhan2 wrote:

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NetherShadow wrote:

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Psycomantje wrote:

Im having a hard time deciding between zizarans ascendancy choised and the ones from this guide.... anyone can tell me what they think the best pick is and why?

I'm wondering the same. For reference, this his build: https://pastebin.com/amXPKuAZ

The major skill tree difference is no MoM/Battery and Swift Killer+Shift the Arcane ascendancies instead of Patient Reaper and Prolongued Pain. Seems that would mean sacrificing damage for speed/quality of life, but would love to hear a more experienced/in-depth opinion on this.

I am curious too. I did Ziz last season and it was a beast. I am not to the point I can say I like it better since I am not 90ish yet.

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loki0609 wrote:

in the pastebin the area you had spreading rot jewel, has the tree changed and is there enough int to support it there now? i'm a noob.

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Iblowyoudry wrote:

Can someone suggest me what to do?
I just finished act 10 with this build, but now i can't even do tier 1 maps without dying.

I have low health and low ES (2.5k, 300) but i can't afford gear with higher health/ES without losing res cap .-.

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DamagePlanX wrote:

I have a few quick questions. First, I heard that in 3.7 ED+Contagion has pulled ahead of Bane. Is that true? I'm using Bane to level, is there a good time to switch back to ED+Contagion? Is it based on some sort of break point?

Also at what point does a 4L become more powerful than a +1 blue chaos wand for Bane or ED+C