[3.15] Essence Drain 6.6 Mil DoT DPS | Very Beginner Friendly

Not sure your understanding what im saying, I know this is not a melee build...from what you are saying ..I think its too gimmicky of a playstyle and not quite enjoyable..the OP stated that its not a tank build and is subject to taking huge damage from boss slams...but it appears to be subject to more than that...all mechanics aside...build just doesn't seem to be able to take a hit at all...unless its something to do with my pathing or gear..which is what you should have looked at before offering your advice...

I pretty much used the same gear when soulrend was viable and didn't recall that build being as squishy..My main Shadow build is a CI vortex trickster which is extremely tankier but clear isn't as fast as essence drain..S8 viable with the potential to grind to 100...don't see this happening with this build..unless u wanna sink tons of currency in pure runs...

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xmasbby78 wrote:

Def not criticizing but I feel too squishy as well..wanted to try essence drain again to put build together again but constant deaths make playing unpleasant..i get the whole energy shield regen thing..but appears you have to keep killing to survive..or lets not not mention what happens if u have porcupines on a map..if u don't kite or cast skills then backtrack your dead...Orchard map boss..get zapped by the green laser beam and dead in seconds..granted I have some more leveling to do and more nodes to grab...damage isn't the issue..its survivability..currently at 6518 es which is low for now..can grab more nodes upon leveling..but rate of deaths seems to much..and I understand the playstyle and mechanics..perhaps if/when u have time u can look at my build and see what im doing wrong maybe..

https://pastebin.com/qtC4nmiK

Hi
Upon inspection of the Pastebin, I noticed you only have 6100 Energy Shield and 20% Chaos Resistance.
This is the issue.

I also noticed you are only using an Essence Drain level 18, which you should be using a level 21. (Your DPS goes from 1.3 Mil to 1.9 Mil with this upgrade)
You also are not using a Vaal Righteous Fire (these will only help -slightly- with survivability, with how much extra damage they give you which causes you to leech more from Essence Drain)

I definitely never said it was an "Unkillable" build by any means..
I have had a lot of others that have come to me from "unkillable" builds version of Essence Drain that come to me and for help because they do not feel unkillable, nor do they do any damage.

I mean we are a caster so we aren't supposed to be super tanky, but I NEVER have any problems with porcupines or the green laser beam

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xmasbby78 wrote:

Not sure your understanding what im saying, I know this is not a melee build...from what you are saying ..I think its too gimmicky of a playstyle and not quite enjoyable..the OP stated that its not a tank build and is subject to taking huge damage from boss slams...but it appears to be subject to more than that...all mechanics aside...build just doesn't seem to be able to take a hit at all...unless its something to do with my pathing or gear..which is what you should have looked at before offering your advice...

I pretty much used the same gear when soulrend was viable and didn't recall that build being as squishy..My main Shadow build is a CI vortex trickster which is extremely tankier but clear isn't as fast as essence drain..S8 viable with the potential to grind to 100...don't see this happening with this build..unless u wanna sink tons of currency in pure runs...

I'm not sure if this playstyle is for you then which is fine if you think it is gimicky.

You mention your "CI" Trickster is extremely tankier.. You do know CI is Chaos Immunity, right?
You only have 20% Chaos Resistance.
You also are not using any Catalysts on your items

You also should should get an uncorrupted amulet, once you do that:
First, you should use 20x Prismatic Catalysts on your Presence of Chayula, which will give you 12% Chaos Resistance, and then you need to replace something, probably your boots because the Energy Shield is low on that.
Next you should annoint your amulet with Tranquility.
Also make sure to use Prismatic Catalysts on your rings for extra resistance.
Here is a new pastebin, I only made a few changes https://pastebin.com/WA0fA4jv

I definitely would have no issue getting to 100 on this build.

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Viktranka wrote:

P.S. From the top of my head about your pastebin: pick growth & decay and probably path to it from the shorter side, you get regen (thanks to zealot's oath), rush unnatural calm asap for more ES, get escape artist, not sure why the lvl 100 pastebin has swift killer over escape artist but the lvl 90 pastebin with all the levelling trees has it the other way around, but if survivability is the issue, get escape artist, other is only a small damage buff from frenzies. Get uncorrupted Chayula so you can anoint it. Get boots with more ES.

Escape Artist only gives 4% Evade Chance which is not a whole lot.
However, if survivability is an issue, I would definitely recommend switching to Escape Artist.

Here is the new tree I made, I posted it above but here it is again, I did not make much changes
https://pastebin.com/WA0fA4jv

I totally did not notice that they had a corrupted Chayula, thank you so much for pointing that out

And thank you so much for responding and helping!

I am aware of most of the things you guys were pointing out...ie...the corrupted chayula/no anoint yet...am aware on not using vaal rf yet...am aware that I can obtain more ES thru further leveling, node placement...its just that due to current performance at current level/items..unsure if I want to pursue any further or scrap and trying something else...don't like the idea of quitting though as I am a fan of the essence drain playstyle and it seems one of the few builds that likely will remain unnerfed...lol

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xmasbby78 wrote:

unsure if I want to pursue any further or scrap and trying something else...don't like the idea of quitting though as I am a fan of the essence drain playstyle and it seems one of the few builds that likely will remain unnerfed...lol

Well that's up to you, new league in 2 weeks you could try a different approach but for example the maxblock version just got "nerfed" by the announcement of the double block keystone (glancing blows) going away from legion jewels and into the tree on the templar side... So all the "maxblock" builds on trickster will not be as tanky as they were now, or would lose a lot of passive points (probably not worth picking though).

6k es seems a bit low to me though, it looks like you prio'd all the mana reserve nodes to fit all the auras, not sure if I'd do that at lvl 80 or rush more ES but tbh depends what content you're doing, I usually don't run maps that are higher level than my character, so that could be something contributing to squishyness feel too if you for example run a lvl 83 map on a lvl 80 character.

But yeah ED is a solid league starter but never really "OP flavour of the month" like for example archmage brand was this league start that you could get amazing results fairly cheaply. Same with miners really.

Hey, could you check my build and let me know why my DOT dps is so low? Other than the expensive jewel I think my gear is decent, but I'm not even getting 2mil dps, the build has 5mil. Where is all that dps coming from?

Made a few minor changes to setup and its feeling better..perhaps I was pushing a bit hard but that's me...lol...still working on it...figured if I master the gameplay and mechanics then min/maxing is the next step..playing in std so don't have access to jewels yet..

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xmasbby78 wrote:

it seems one of the few builds that likely will remain unnerfed...lol

I would recommend changing up the few items that I told you, but it's completely up to you whether you want to scrap it or not.

Yeah, Essence Drain is one of those builds where it seems like it would be touched much, which I love.
They tried to take us out with the multi-crafting nerf... BUT WE STILL HERE

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Reko1 wrote:

Hey, could you check my build and let me know why my DOT dps is so low? Other than the expensive jewel I think my gear is decent, but I'm not even getting 2mil dps, the build has 5mil. Where is all that dps coming from?

Hi!
I took a look at your tree, and you are getting 6.6 Mil DPS on Regular monsters, and 3.7 Mil (3 Mil without Frenzy / Power Charges)

It looks like you are actually missing a passive if I'm not mistaken? It says you have 90 skill points used out of 91.
I would recommend changing it slightly like this: https://pastebin.com/sgiVRPfK

This new tree has 7.1 Mil DPS and 4.2 Mil DPS on Shaper / Bosses.
In this Pastebin, I removed Lord of the Dead since it does nothing without Spiritual Aid.

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xmasbby78 wrote:

Made a few minor changes to setup and its feeling better..perhaps I was pushing a bit hard but that's me...lol...still working on it...figured if I master the gameplay and mechanics then min/maxing is the next step..playing in std so don't have access to jewels yet..

Yeah, sometimes you just really need high Energy Shield for some of the end game content, especially with Delirium out now.
The speediness comes from having high energy shield, and being able to Essence Drain monsters REGENERATING EVERYTHING along in the map.

This is why we max our resistances so we have the most survivability

Please let me know if you need any more assistance! I would be glad to help

Hello,

I decided to follow your guide for this new character in Standard League. I am relatively new to the game. The levelling part with the multicurse was of course an absolute BLAST.

Now that I am done with the acts though, I find I die more than I did while levelling, even using my STARTING gear. I can't afford much, and I am trying to follow your guide as well as possible, but here are my problems:

1. Essence Drain fires WAY TOO SLOWLY. I like to Contagion, Essence Drain right away, then quickly move out of the way. But with the way ED fires, I have to stand still for most of a second while waiting for it to go off. Well, I've replaced Controlled Destruction with Faster Casting in the Body Armor to counter this for now while I figure things out. What is your take on this really slow action? Am I missing something? Should I stand still for a second each time I see a mob?

2. Your POB lists 34% unreserved mana. Obviously there's something I'm not getting right with the auras, because both Malevolence and Zealotry reserve 50% each. I put an Enlighten support in there, since your build seems to have 3 free sockets?

@Horrux

Since you're still at the stage of playing life based with EB / MOM you can't reserve all the auras low life version could, because you can only reserve mana while low life can reserve mana and life pool. However you can freely reserve 100% of mana by 2 * 50% auras because you're using energy shield currently to fuel spells instead of mana, so you don't need any mana left.

If you die a lot, I'd consider buying some gear with higher amount of life until you can afford transitioning to the shavronne / low life version. 2k life is fairly low for maps.

I don't know about the slow casting issue, so hope Havoc can give you opinion on that.