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

Love the build, and been playing something similar for the past few leagues! First time trying MoM though and enjoying it!

I'm in my mid-60's at the moment and hitting a survival wall. I'm looking to upgrade my gear with some cheap stuff to get me in to maps...

When I'm hunting for some basic rares, should I worry at all about armor/evasion/ES or should I really just focus on Life/Mana/Resists and ignore the rest?

Hey Guys,

i choose this Build as League-Starter and i'm not an Expert in PoE. I'm now Level 40 and my Char feels really squishy and Champions/Bosses die painfully slow. So far the Leveling-Process is not funny. What am I doing wrong?

I follow the Skilltrees in the first Post and use ED (just 3L) and Contagion (2L) with Shield Charge. Also Fire Golem, Clarity and Arctic Armor.

Any Advises? It feels, that I'm doing something horribly wrong or is it the Tabula Rasa, which change the whole Experience?

"

Skyrydexile wrote:

Hey Guys,

i choose this Build as League-Starter and i'm not an Expert in PoE. I'm now Level 40 and my Char feels really squishy and Champions/Bosses die painfully slow. So far the Leveling-Process is not funny. What am I doing wrong?

I follow the Skilltrees in the first Post and use ED (just 3L) and Contagion (2L) with Shield Charge. Also Fire Golem, Clarity and Arctic Armor.

Any Advises? It feels, that I'm doing something horribly wrong or is it the Tabula Rasa, which change the whole Experience?

I'm currently leveling this build myself as a league starter and I can tell you from my own experience that the damage lies mostly on having your gear properly linked. I'm at level 53 so far and had no problem with it, I'm actually pretty tanky and everything dies quickly. Was using 2 lifesprig wands and a 4L for ED until I hit level 50, now with a 5L for ED and changed the lifesprig wands for a dagger (heartbreaker royal skean 64% spell d) and a shield (53% spell d). Using whirling blades since it feels much faster than shield charge atm.

The only difference is that instead of taking 7 life nodes at the beginning I went for the Method to the Madness cluster which I'm still using (plan on respecing these later on). The nodes I left out for that cluster were the 4 life nodes for the Melding cluster and the 3 life nodes above Frenetic.

I'm also using Doedre's Tenure Velvet Gloves to further boost the damage. To counter the subtracted cast speed I'm using a lightning golem on a Brinerot Mark and also using Haste for the cast speed too (this just while I level up to equip the other gloves I got), and for ascendancy I took Patient Reaper first and plan on taking Walk the Aether next (and then Swift Killer after that).

As you can see I adapted the build a bit and I'm sure the damage output is better at these levels. Hope it helps ^^ It's an awesome build and I'm enjoying it plenty and for that I thank the owner for sharing!

Edit: Attaching my current items~

Gear:


Flasks:


Items I'll be swapping too soon:


I think I messed up the CWDT gem level, need to delevel it. And on bosses make sure to drop that totem, it's very important that the totem debuffs them.

7443560 interesting stuff you got there. I am using the same amulet and also victario's boots. I plan to use those boots or a praxis ring for endgame too. Damage taken gained as mana should be a great combo with mind over matter.

I went for a wand instead of dagger as those can have cast speed and projectile speed. Does culling strike on hearthbreaker work for the damage over time of essence drain or is it only in effect for the actual hit of the projectile?

So I played this in one of the 2 weeks between leagues, and was amazing. I choose to play it again this league, and the clear speed, amazing. How ever, my single target is absolutely brutal, even going more soft-core items and tree. If it wasn't for going for 40/40 I would be skipping most of them at this point. I wonder if there's anything else I can do to make that challenge a bit less agonizing, other then gem levels?

[Gear]

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/3.0.0/AAAABAYCAQPuBAcEswceCPQJIA5ID6sRLREvEZYTbRQJFr8c3B2-IvQkiyaIJpUo-isKLJwy0TOHNZI2PTpYOuE8tkGHRUdFnUlPSVFJsUyzTeNTUlVLVYVVxlq5XEBd8l7AXyph4mKsaPJqQ2qMbAtsjG0ZdZ52gnxLfIN_xoCzgseD24Uyh8uIWongiw6PGo_6kUeTH5MnlS6WdJctl5WX9JrgnaqhL6IAotmjo6XLplenm7DYtNG1SLcwtz64k7yqvOq-isBmwzrIDMgUy73PFdAf18_Yvdo75ljmgetj6-Tr7u-I7-vwH_DV8kX1b_k3-ej-Cv6P?accountName=kayklown&characterName=KannibleKlown_ED

"

kompaniet wrote:

7443560 interesting stuff you got there. I am using the same amulet and also victario's boots. I plan to use those boots or a praxis ring for endgame too. Damage taken gained as mana should be a great combo with mind over matter.

I went for a wand instead of dagger as those can have cast speed and projectile speed. Does culling strike on hearthbreaker work for the damage over time of essence drain or is it only in effect for the actual hit of the projectile?

Thanks mate! I intend on getting a good wand later on too when shield charge feels better to use so I can get rid of whirling blades ! The culling strike doesn't work with ED DoT unfortunately, but regardless it's a great setup so far :] I could use a better amulet while I get the proper ascendancy for the Aylardex but since these levels are passing so fast I'm not really worried about searching for another decent amulet.

Wow, good guy Ghazzy responding to everyone. I really appreciate that! :)

"

Are you using a 4L or 5L?

I'm using a 6L, but one of the colors is wrong, so I'm not using the Efficacy support. I've got all the other ones, though.

"

Are the issues regarding boss kills or general map clearing?

It's a little bit of both, honestly. I have a hard time clearning blue and purple mobs, and killing each boss takes 1-2 minutes. Maybe I'm not as familiar with the skills as I should be, dunno.

This SHOULD be the link to my character (I've only got 1): https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Darrothan/characters

Also, I'm just wondering, would it be a good idea to replace the Increased duration support on the Wither Totem to a Faster Casting support or a support that increases the life of the totem (if there is one)? I don't seem to have many issues with duration --my totems die pretty quickly cuz the AI tends to focus it when I place it right in front of them.

Thanks again for the build and quick response! I just got my first exalted drop off a trash mob, too :D

"

kayklown wrote:

So I played this in one of the 2 weeks between leagues, and was amazing. I choose to play it again this league, and the clear speed, amazing. How ever, my single target is absolutely brutal, even going more soft-core items and tree. If it wasn't for going for 40/40 I would be skipping most of them at this point. I wonder if there's anything else I can do to make that challenge a bit less agonizing, other then gem levels?

[Gear]

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/3.0.0/AAAABAYCAQPuBAcEswceCPQJIA5ID6sRLREvEZYTbRQJFr8c3B2-IvQkiyaIJpUo-isKLJwy0TOHNZI2PTpYOuE8tkGHRUdFnUlPSVFJsUyzTeNTUlVLVYVVxlq5XEBd8l7AXyph4mKsaPJqQ2qMbAtsjG0ZdZ52gnxLfIN_xoCzgseD24Uyh8uIWongiw6PGo_6kUeTH5MnlS6WdJctl5WX9JrgnaqhL6IAotmjo6XLplenm7DYtNG1SLcwtz64k7yqvOq-isBmwzrIDMgUy73PFdAf18_Yvdo75ljmgetj6-Tr7u-I7-vwH_DV8kX1b_k3-ej-Cv6P?accountName=kayklown&characterName=KannibleKlown_ED

Wow your gear is way ahead of mine, what kind of content are you running atm? I'm only up to like tier 11 maps so far (haven't been playing a ton) but its been an absolute breeze. Bosses can take like 30-60 seconds depending on map level / how the map rolled.

I have a question about the weapon stat priorities since really the only requirement is that shield charge can be used.

Am i going with whatever has the highest spell power bonus that allows for shield charging?

Do crit rates (global crit) on daggers have any effect and if so is it really something that should be prioritized?

Also that act 5 passive tree gem reward offers that rot gem that gives 11%ish chaos damage (and other effects if within 40int range) would that be worth the two passives from killing all bandits way back when to hit that gem slot near MOM? I dont really see anything all that vital over near the templar area other than survivability....also your tree doesnt have MOM selected, i chose to go for it since my mana was excessive with good effect (thus far)

But as far as the weapon goes getting something like a scepter with elemental bonus wont increase chaos right? What about adding other elemental damage to spells modifier (have added cold damage to spells will that be added to the damage over time?)

Im really interested in how criticals effect cont and ED's DOT and if its even worth trying to get a high crit dagger with high spell power or just keep the high spell power mace or whatever im using now.

"

Wow your gear is way ahead of mine, what kind of content are you running atm? I'm only up to like tier 11 maps so far (haven't been playing a ton) but its been an absolute breeze. Bosses can take like 30-60 seconds depending on map level / how the map rolled.

I've completed my tier 15's rare corrupted, the bosses took easily 5-10 minutes in those. Right now i'm working on changing up my atlas to run shaped maps only. Till then it's tier 9 & any shaped maps that drop before i can remove other maps. there's a couple bosses were I often have to go to town to refresh pots to finish them off. but otherwise these one's aren't much of an issue. It's when I start doing red maps that the bosses become, is it worth it to kill them? not really, takes too long.