[3.7] Essence Drain/Contagion Trickster (the best one)

I've reached all my goals for this build so I figured I'd share. This is my high level content version of the ED Trickster. At lvl 94 I have 5800 health and 2k ES, 65% evade, 42% spell dodge and 1.5M Shaper dps. Here's the PoB: https://pastebin.com/F1ZPqCcE

Here's my gear:



I run two six-links, ED and Vaal Blight, along with 2 curses (Despair and Enfeeble), Aspect of the Spider, and Malevolence for 100% mana reservation. Contagion gets an AoE bump from the glove prefix so one-shotting legions is pretty easy. I've also done Uber Elder a dozen time deathless and am farming T15/16 maps with a sub 4 minute average time.

There's a few places I think the build could be even further min/maxed, like adding chaos % damage to the rings and belt, or getting something fun on the quiver (movement speed or increased AoE). And a double Malevolence WE with NaCDoT and life/ES rate would be really nice but super expensive. Same thing with getting 21/20 on all ED support gems or jewels with two damage mods and life. Each of the damage improvements I mentioned are between 10-25k dps, so if you did them all the total dps could go up another 100-200k.

Let me know what you think!

Just found this thread. Made some changes from the other ED threads I found with taking blood and sand, the ascendancies and your helm advice and a bit more ES focus and it feels much better now, thanks!

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HarryBolls wrote:

Hey

Probably a dumb question, but does Hunter's Gambit node work when you have ED in a bow?
It says "Increased Damage over time with Bow skills"

As ED isn't a bow skill, I guess it won't improve ED's damage?

it wont

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

I run two six-links, ED and Vaal Blight

When do you use Vaal blight?

I have my 6l bow and just trying to figure out what to do with the other 6l armor.

Manually casting Vaal blight seems like just adding a second inferior damage skill to the contagion/ED set up?

Bane, as much as I prefer it for leveling, isn't great for Legion. I could use it for applying Despair but witchfire brew just seems easier for that.

I can add a couple gems to Contagion but not sure what to add to the standard intensify/increase AOE/fast casting gems...maybe spell cascade?

I could add in a Temp Chains or Enfeeble aura but then I would need to pick up an extra curse somewhere for when I use Witchfire brew...

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Kelmain9 wrote:

When do you use Vaal blight?

I love having Vaal Blight in my pocket for bosses or big groups (like when an abyss opens or during delve nodes). Basically I use ED/Contagion for groups and regular Blight for stragglers and barrels/vases/etc. Then pop Vaal Blight when I find myself surrounded or if I'm up against a boss I don't want to stay close to. Vaal Blight effectively applies maximum stacks of Blight with a single cast so it's way safer than channeling regular Blight.

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Kelmain9 wrote:

I have my 6l bow and just trying to figure out what to do with the other 6l armor.

Manually casting Vaal blight seems like just adding a second inferior damage skill to the contagion/ED set up?

I had the same quandary since I got an early 6L Perfect Form before I realized the meta was to craft a bow. Once I had the bow and my 6L chest I tested a bunch of stuff. And basically the only second 6L setup that makes any sense is self-casting Blight.

Now that being said, the damage boost to Blight is significant and now plays a major part in my build/playstyle. According to my PoB, Blight does just under 150k DoT dps per stack and 6 stacks per second. Which means every second you channel Blight onto an enemy you're doing 900k DoT dps.

So that's..... a lot. Especially when you consider channeling against bosses for more than a second can go up to 20 Blight stacks and it combines with ED's DoT. Very few things in the game stand up to my 1.5M ED DoT plus a 3 second Blight channel (or Vaal Blight instant max stacks) adding another 1-3M DoT dps.

Last point about self casting vs. totems, I tried the totem version of Blight and hated it cause you lose the ability to break barrels and it takes the totem more time to hit stragglers than it does for the self cast version. Also you can't use infused channeling which increases the dps for ED and is pretty easy to maintain in boss fights.

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Kelmain9 wrote:

Bane, as much as I prefer it for leveling, isn't great for Legion. I could use it for applying Despair but witchfire brew just seems easier for that.

I never used Bane, even to level. Did just fine using ED/Contagion from lvl 20 onwards.

Ok Witchfire. I have a love-hate relationship with it. On the one hand it's a super efficient flask since it saves the gem link and gives the 40% damage boost. On the other hand I feel like I never have the charges when I need it and it runs out half way through hard boss fights.

Despair is probably the most effective damage support this build gets, and not having it up all the time really sucks. And then there's the helmet enchant. If you have Despair as a curse aura then the helmet enchant "30% Increased Despair Curse Effect" is better than the "40% Increased Essence Drain Damage". I actually tested this on my PoB and it's like 10k dps (which isn't much but compare the prices of the two enchants).

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Kelmain9 wrote:

I can add a couple gems to Contagion but not sure what to add to the standard intensify/increase AOE/fast casting gems...maybe spell cascade?

Yeah don't do that. There is a version of this build that uses just Contagion to low-level farm but you'd need to put it in you bow to work. Other than that very specific build, increasing your Contagion dps actually hurts your playstyle. You don't want to kill things with Contagion before you can apply ED. So keep the dps down. If the AoE wasn't affected by the gem's level I'd run a 1/23 Contagion.

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Kelmain9 wrote:

I could add in a Temp Chains or Enfeeble aura but then I would need to pick up an extra curse somewhere for when I use Witchfire brew...

I found that running dual curse (by picking up the Whispers of Doom wheel on the passive tree) was the most effective combination of offence (Despair) and Defense (Enfeeble). Especially since I picked up a lot of curse/aura effectiveness nodes on the passive tree.

Regarding Enfeeble vs. Temporal Chains, when I was making this choice a lot of people seemed to be using Solstice Vigil and Temporal Chains, so I went with Enfeeble because the 21/20 gem was way cheaper.

I could also see running Flesh and Stone instead of Enfeeble if you don't want to follow my tree and pick up the nodes that reduce aura mana reservation. But for my build the aura effectiveness was better than anything else I could have picked up.

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rlauren2 wrote:

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

I'm running Perfect Form and Devouring Diadem, anyone tested whether three passive points for Wicked Ward is worth it?

Ultimately you will end up being the best test for whether this is worth it. In principle though, the harder the content, the more it's worth it. Additionally, the more ES investment you have in the rest of your build, the more it's worth it.

If you're primarily mapping in mob-dense areas, you likely won't need it. Patient Reaper, Feast of Flesh, and Ghost Shrouds will keep your ES up almost permanently.

I'd suggest not taking it and see how you feel. If you never run low on ES and never die, then you can invest them elsewhere. If you start diving deeper delves or bossing more and start feeling squishy, try it and see if it helps.

Thanks for the advice! I dropped it and haven't noticed any change in survivability. Just did UE for the third time deathless without Wicked Ward, so I'm officially stating it's not worth the points.

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

Now that being said, the damage boost to Blight is significant and now plays a major part in my build/playstyle. According to my PoB, Blight does just under 150k DoT dps per stack and 6 stacks per second. Which means every second you channel Blight onto an enemy you're doing 900k DoT dps.

So that's..... a lot. Especially when you consider channeling against bosses for more than a second can go up to 20 Blight stacks and it combines with ED's DoT. Very few things in the game stand up to my 1.5M ED DoT plus a 3 second Blight channel (or Vaal Blight instant max stacks) adding another 1-3M DoT dps.

Last point about self casting vs. totems, I tried the totem version of Blight and hated it cause you lose the ability to break barrels and it takes the totem more time to hit stragglers than it does for the self cast version. Also you can't use infused channeling which increases the dps for ED and is pretty easy to maintain in boss fights.

First off, thanks for the detailed reply. Some good points and definitely makes me thoughtful. Let me reply to a couple points that I am unsure of, such as the one quoted above...

Self casting blight sounds good on paper but the whole "standing still vs. bosses" thing doesn't seem like something I really want to do. Popping Vaal blight, ok. But channeling it sounds pretty slow and precarious, given that the build's playstyle revolves around DOT and manual dodge.

That's the main reason I like the blight totems. I can drop them and keep moving while ED does the work. It's not as much damage, ofc, but it's pretty safe. Considering doing 6L blight AND wither totems, though...

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

I never used Bane, even to level. Did just fine using ED/Contagion from lvl 20 onwards.

You can level with anything but Bane's insta-cast, fire and forget is really way better than ED early on, ime. Legion (and maybe Delve) are the main strengths of ED. Figured if I am EVER going to play ED/Contagion, this is the league to do it.

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

Despair is probably the most effective damage support this build gets, and not having it up all the time really sucks. And then there's the helmet enchant. If you have Despair as a curse aura then the helmet enchant "30% Increased Despair Curse Effect" is better than the "40% Increased Essence Drain Damage".

Interesting, just to double check, I assume when you tested the 40% increased Essence Drain enchant up, you ALSO had Despair on without the helm enchant?

The other thing to consider is that Despair Aura has a range so it probably won't affect most of the mobs you hit from a Contagion/ED. But I suppose the counter point to that is that you don't need high DPS for most of those anyway.

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Kelmain9 wrote:

Other than that very specific build, increasing your Contagion dps actually hurts your playstyle. You don't want to kill things with Contagion before you can apply ED. So keep the dps down. If the

Of course you don't want to support with damage boosters but more supports to increase area/duration could be helpful. Not amazing...just trying to figure out what to throw in the 6l if I don't go manual Blight. Could always do 2 3-links and add CWDT/Steelskin back in or something.

Or 6L Blight totems?

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

I found that running dual curse (by picking up the Whispers of Doom wheel on the passive tree) was the most effective combination of offense (Despair) and Defense (Enfeeble). Especially since I picked up a lot of curse/aura effectiveness nodes on the passive tree.

Blargh, I have to commit my tree one way or the other. I was considering going the other direction and hitting spiritual aid to buff personal damage as well as totems. I noticed a fair number of top-100 tricksters doing that.

On using Perfect Form, I was thinking that might not be optimal with using Eldritch Battery (since Acrobatics cuts your Energy Shield). Thoughts? Was thinking Carcass Jack for Increased Area and Legion clearing speed.

wait, so i have a perfect form (and an essence worm) and yet when i use arctic armour i get a little of my mana pool reserved. Isn't supposed to be free with perfect form or is essence worm causing this mana reservation?
same goes with despair and impresence

what am i missing?

anyone else tried Doryani's Glorious Vanity?

50% of Non-Chaos Damage taken bypasses Energy Shield
Gain 20% of Maximum Life as Extra Maximum Energy Shield
(Comes from Glorious Vanity when sacrificed in the name of "Doryani")

pretty insane as your ED regen can be applied to HP
beats speccing into both MoM/EB imo

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Kelmain9 wrote:

Spoiler

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

Now that being said, the damage boost to Blight is significant and now plays a major part in my build/playstyle. According to my PoB, Blight does just under 150k DoT dps per stack and 6 stacks per second. Which means every second you channel Blight onto an enemy you're doing 900k DoT dps.

So that's..... a lot. Especially when you consider channeling against bosses for more than a second can go up to 20 Blight stacks and it combines with ED's DoT. Very few things in the game stand up to my 1.5M ED DoT plus a 3 second Blight channel (or Vaal Blight instant max stacks) adding another 1-3M DoT dps.

Last point about self casting vs. totems, I tried the totem version of Blight and hated it cause you lose the ability to break barrels and it takes the totem more time to hit stragglers than it does for the self cast version. Also you can't use infused channeling which increases the dps for ED and is pretty easy to maintain in boss fights.

First off, thanks for the detailed reply. Some good points and definitely makes me thoughtful. Let me reply to a couple points that I am unsure of, such as the one quoted above...

Self casting blight sounds good on paper but the whole "standing still vs. bosses" thing doesn't seem like something I really want to do. Popping Vaal blight, ok. But channeling it sounds pretty slow and precarious, given that the build's playstyle revolves around DOT and manual dodge.

That's the main reason I like the blight totems. I can drop them and keep moving while ED does the work. It's not as much damage, ofc, but it's pretty safe. Considering doing 6L blight AND wither totems, though...

Self-cast vs totems is definitely a choice of playstyle. However I've had a positive experience with my version, which is to cast ED, close with a boss, dodge their mechanics with flame dash and channel Blight, dash and channel, repeat.

When I ran the totems I found them to die too quickly to hit max Blight stacks, and it was another thing to keep track of. Whereas I start with ED and then channel until the ED wears off (you can see it happen when your leach buff goes away). Also I kept dying to Shaper/UE with the totems because I wouldn't have the bosses on-screen.

Channeling Blight keeps them at a medium distance, it's easy to switch back and forth between casting ED and channeling Blight, and you get the Infusion buff. Totems put you at long range to allow for concentrating on kiting, but I still kept getting one-shot by end game content from off-screen.

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Spoiler

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

I never used Bane, even to level. Did just fine using ED/Contagion from lvl 20 onwards.

You can level with anything but Bane's insta-cast, fire and forget is really way better than ED early on, ime. Legion (and maybe Delve) are the main strengths of ED. Figured if I am EVER going to play ED/Contagion, this is the league to do it.

Yeah agreed, I started this league planning to run Soulrend/Bane (hence my character's name) but when I realized how broken ED/Contagion is this league I stuck with it.

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Spoiler

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

Despair is probably the most effective damage support this build gets, and not having it up all the time really sucks. And then there's the helmet enchant. If you have Despair as a curse aura then the helmet enchant "30% Increased Despair Curse Effect" is better than the "40% Increased Essence Drain Damage".

Interesting, just to double check, I assume when you tested the 40% increased Essence Drain enchant up, you ALSO had Despair on without the helm enchant?

The other thing to consider is that Despair Aura has a range so it probably won't affect most of the mobs you hit from a Contagion/ED. But I suppose the counter point to that is that you don't need high DPS for most of those anyway.

Yes I had my gem setup with Despair as a curse aura static and just switched the enchant on my Devouring Diadem. The dps is essentially the same for a fraction of the price.

And yeah the only time dps matters is end-game bosses (Generals, Delve bosses, Shaper, UE and UA). Everything else dies with ED/Contagion or a fraction of a second Blight channel.

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Spoiler

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

Other than that very specific build, increasing your Contagion dps actually hurts your playstyle. You don't want to kill things with Contagion before you can apply ED. So keep the dps down. If the

Of course you don't want to support with damage boosters but more supports to increase area/duration could be helpful. Not amazing...just trying to figure out what to throw in the 6l if I don't go manual Blight. Could always do 2 3-links and add CWDT/Steelskin back in or something.

Or 6L Blight totems?

I couldn't figure anything besides the Blight setup that would be worth the 6L. Looks like most people settled for a 4L/2L or 3L/3L. So that's an option, but if you keep the 6L I think you have to do your Blight setup (either manual or totem). I'd suggest using your gloves for the Contagion setup and getting the crafted +1 AoE gems instead of trying to go past a 3 link.

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Spoiler

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

I found that running dual curse (by picking up the Whispers of Doom wheel on the passive tree) was the most effective combination of offense (Despair) and Defense (Enfeeble). Especially since I picked up a lot of curse/aura effectiveness nodes on the passive tree.

Blargh, I have to commit my tree one way or the other. I was considering going the other direction and hitting spiritual aid to buff personal damage as well as totems. I noticed a fair number of top-100 tricksters doing that.

On using Perfect Form, I was thinking that might not be optimal with using Eldritch Battery (since Acrobatics cuts your Energy Shield). Thoughts? Was thinking Carcass Jack for Increased Area and Legion clearing speed.

I've seen 3-4 builds that I consider as good as what I have, which is what I'm considering the vanilla flavor. Mine uses Perfect Form, Devouring Diadem, and runs end-game content. The points required to get Spiritual Aid aren't worth it for my build since there are a ton of better dps per passive point options. The blend of defense and offence I run enables all content and you're best off farming t15/t16 content when you aren't running bosses. If you want more info about how I sustain maps, my atlas setup, and the choices I made with items/passive tree then let me know.

The next best build I've seen is essentially what I'm running but the Low Life (LL) version. This is what you'll see on PoE ninja at the top of the dps rankings. You sacrifice a fair amount of defense, but pick up Pain Attunement and run the same number of auras I do without having to grab the nodes for reduction to mana reserved. So the tree changes and you run Shav's plus a slightly different gem setup. The end result is a significant dps boost, a slight decrease in defense and a lot of customize-ability. Also it's f*ing expensive.

There's a second flavor of the LL build that looks super fun but even more expensive. You use a Coward's Legacy and Atziri's Reflection to get the low-life status, which let's you allocate Pain Attunement without actually going low-life. Plus you get to keep Perfect Form instead of Shav's. No bow though, so you run wand and shield. Balancing resists and stacking health becomes an issue once you use uniques in your belt, shield, chest, amulet, and helm, which adds to the expense. It ends up being slightly less dps than the Shav's low-life variant (but more than my version) and wayyy more survivability for an increased expense (about 100ex).

Third on my list of viable builds is the low-level content runner. This version uses Carcass Jack, an AoE amulet, and targets AoE nodes on the passive tree. You then stack movement speed on items and run Glacier maps in 30 seconds to 1 minute per map, running from the start to the Legion, pop everything and farm shards, rinse and repeat. This build is probably the fastest way to get currency this league (averaging an ex an hour at peak efficiency). I found it boring when I tried it; it depends on what your league goals are.

Last but not least is the HH version, which uses Solstice Vigil, HeadHunter, whatever armor and helm you want, and is pretty close to my setup other than that. It's super customizable but without HH my version is better. And honestly if I dropped an HH I would roll another character to use it (tornado shot or cyclone, but not ED).