Contagion/essence drain HELP..

I'm doing great damage.. But i feel super squishy.. Any ideas on what i can do passive wise or cheap gear wise to help my survivability?

You're using Tabula. /thread



But on a friendlier note, squishy and tabula go hand in hand imo

There seem to be two ways people are doing defense on ED chars atm. One being to travel to Acrobatics/Phase Acrobatics and scale evasion, dodge and spell dodge. This can be considered the budget route, as you are very flexible in what gear to use. A lot of those playing with bow go this route. If you do, get as much dodge/eva/spell dodge as you can on your other gear without sacrificing life.

Another option is to scale ES, evasion and spell dodge. You will get higher eHP, be tankier against spells, and more vulnerable to attacks. To achieve this, you pretty much have to use The Perfect Form. If you scale your defense like this, a shield and wand is a good combo to get some more evasion and energy shield.

The second method is my favourite, as it allows me to use shield charge as a movement skill. Most players go bow.

EDIT: took a look at your passive tree. Drop Blast Radius, get Phase Acrobatics. If you want some more damage, get a proper damage link in your Allelopathy. Like this.

Once you decide what route to take for defense, just keep upgrading your gear one item at a time until you feel everything lines up well. With your current gear, my focus would be getting close to max life rolls on stuff while still maintaining res cap, get enough strength to drop your str. nodes in the passive tree (you just need 114 on an ED character, movement skill doesnt need to be fully leveled), then scale eva/ES/dodge/spell dodge depending on what route you choose.

I have a thread for one of the tankiest ED tricksters around while still maintaining good damage:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2581551

Even if you don't follow it, it's a good read to be familiar with some defensive options available to you.

Have fun!