[3.7] SC/HC - ED/Blight Trickster - Up to 10k eHP, Layered Defense, 3m DPS

I love DoT! Love chaos! Love this build! Thanks a lot!

Played this in Bestiary and Abyss, would recommend this build and guide.

Added a small update for 3.5. I will playtest some changes when I get time and update the guide properly SoonTM.

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Nedieth wrote:

Added a small update for 3.5. I will playtest some changes when I get time and update the guide properly SoonTM.

Thank you :)

Following this build in 3.5, so thank you :)

Hey Nedieth, I am thinking about using a wand instead of breath of the council for the juicy new chaos damage over time mulitiplier mods. Since I won't be able to use shield charge or whirling blades, I will probably have to resort to flame dash instead, which is fine with me, but I probably won't use it as much, making weave the arcane less valuable for me, since it won't give me the cast speed bonus as often. Due to this, I think I might try getting ghost dance and escape artist instead of weave the arcane and swift killer, and not go MoM. Have you ever gone this route before? If so, what are your thoughts? I figure I might lose some cast speed and damage at max frenzy charges, but I will be able to use my mana pool for auras or curses, and gain some defenses. I might even use a haste aura just to make up for the lost cast speed. I think the tree would be pretty similar, but instead of picking up so many mana nodes, I would pick up ES nodes instead.

@MrChubms, I did play hybrid ED as Trickster in 2.3 or 2.4, so long before Trickster was as solid as it is now for MoM. It works just fine, and most of my problems should be fixed by the ES gained on kill Trickster has now. I am still not convinced that choosing Trickster over Occultist for an ES/life hybrid is the right choice. Depends how much you value layered defense i guess.

Using a wand is indeed a really good choice for us now if you don't mind losing the increased duration on BotC. We simply have many more choices now, so it is very interesting to see how we can mix and match the new mods for something fun. With Flame Dash being as good as it is currently, I am leaning more towards a staff. Depending on your weapon of choice, keep in mind that you still want enough duration and cast speed to be able to maintain a high/max stack of Blight while also moving and casting ED.

I was hoping to start looking for some fun ED gear to make up my mind between a Trickster or Occultist this league, but then my Loreweave decided to eat 2500 fusings and still not link, so the ED project is very much postponed for now.

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Nedieth wrote:

I was hoping to start looking for some fun ED gear to make up my mind between a Trickster or Occultist this league, but then my Loreweave decided to eat 2500 fusings and still not link, so the ED project is very much postponed for now.

Damn that makes me nervous lol. I've been trying to 6-link chest and already spent ~800 fusings with no luck. Was thinking about going on since "it can't be much longer given how much i spent", but reading about your experience i'm wondering whether i should just spend 4ex for a completed 6-link.

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Sinistrem wrote:

Damn that makes me nervous lol. I've been trying to 6-link chest and already spent ~800 fusings with no luck. Was thinking about going on since "it can't be much longer given how much i spent"

I've been tracking my link progress for some time. Since I began I've spent 21379 fuses for 17 links. That averages out to 1258 fuses/link with 4436 fuses spent on one link as the unluckiest streak. I've googled a study with 100k fuses used and exatly 100 items linked, which gives us 1000 fuses/link average. According to this, rng ripped me for 4379 extra fuses spent over average. Tough luck)

I know your Occultist from this league was not intended to be a build guide but I was looking at your skill tree and noticed there are a bunch of minion nodes taken. What do those minion nodes impact?