[2.1] Essence Drain + Contagion Budget (Nice DoT)
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How do you manage the rather slow cast speed without casting speed gems? It may be just me, but I feel it's awful slow.
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" Well you can use faster casting with gems but i prefer not because instead of increasing DPS of skill i prefer using slots to increase Dot of skills | |
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He there its great to see other people also play Contagion/Essence Drain.
Just some ideas from my side of view: Contagion -> i started linking it the same way as you but now im 73 and i think the dmg of contagion is not good enough to link it with dmg-support-gems. I linked it: Contagion - Increased AOE - Increased Duration - Faster Casting I only use it as the "Essence Drain Carrier", but even with this links its atm enough dmg at t1 to t3 maps for killing the normal mobs. Empower for Essence Drain is a good idea! But instead of Faster Projectiles or Slower Projectiles i prefer Increased Duration atm. I feel more save because i dont have to recast it so often at bossfight and i can kite more. Also i use a Wand with increased Projectile Speed to get the Essence Drain faster, maybe i also get the Nodes in the Shadowtree for this but im not sure yet. Atm i also use Vulnerability with Blasphemy and Increased AOE but i think in the higher maps i will use temp chains instead just to be save. For Wither i saw at a Stream that he was using a Spelltotem to Wither the Enemys. I really liked the Idea and will definitly test it. For myself i never liked ES Builds, so i use a EV IR Build and atm i maximize my defense with the "last nodes" to 80. Build: https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwYBAF4A7gUtBx4ILg2NDkgPqxEvEZYTbRQJFHUVIBa_GNsZjhm0IWAi4iSLJogmlSmlKk0rCizpLYMuIz8nQKBHfkfiSRNJUUp9SshLV1FMW69cQF3yX7Bh4mVNZ6BqjG-edPF1nnaCeu99W311hMWGs4d2h8uJ4I_6kx-TmZUum42btaLZpDmnm6xHsNi00bVItzC7nr02vqfA48M6yAzIFMpKzxXTft0N45_mWOtj7YPvevDV8bP1b_aj_ro= Char/Gear: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Stormi88/characters | |
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I've updated the gems I plan to use (note, I am only lvl 30 on this char right now)
Chest 5/6L: Essence Drain - LMP/Faster Projectiles - Void Manipulation - Poison - Rapid Decay - (Controlled Destruction) Hands 4L: Contagion - Increased Area - Stun - Blind Head 1+3L: Abyssal Cry - Blasphemy + Vulnerability - Increased Area Boots 4L: CWDT - Increased Area - Vaal Cold Snap - Vaal Summon Skeletons Weapon: 3L: Clarity // Spell Totem + Wither Shield: 3L: Lightning Warp - Faster Casting - Less Duration I am using LMP right now, just to be sure I hit something due to how slow the projectile moves. Also, on a lot of trash mobs, I need nothing other than Essence Drain, it kills them all by itself, even with LMP, so its a nice "quality of life" to use LMP. I may swap (even hot swap) to Faster Proj for end-bosses. Last edited by onlinegamer1 on Dec 16, 2015, 9:10:11 AM
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" No you DO NOT benefit from any added dmg, only the initial hit benefits from that. | |
" Finally a fellow exile running maps with this already... You pretty much got a good grasp on what is going on imo. I am running it in a similar way (73 lvl as of now) as far as skills are considered. As for defenses I choose CI (I strongly dislike MoM-EB combos on casters and there isn't much to choose from). Also I have Zealot Oath to make use of the regeneration but I will likely drop it soon as the buff from my ED does ridiculously small regeneration.... Wither - totem - aoe - fast cast Contagion - aoe - fast cast (- might add duration but not really needed) -> NOTE: Do not try to do damage with this crappy spell, it won't work. The only use is to spread anthrax through the crowds. ED - void manipulation - controlled destruction - rapid decay ... Those are a must and a definite 4 link setup. Then there is empower (haha, good luck lvling that one). Apart from that you can link faster projectiles but those do not really add damage. And yes, your damage will start to stumble in tier 4 maps with some mods. So you probably end up with slower prijectiles, those add hell lot of damage (even tough I would expect it only to affect the initial hit, it does affect the dot). This makes the playstyle even weirder as you cast slowly and the projectile is also slow. But its viable in its own way... Auras: Blasphemy + temporal chains + vulnerability - temporal chains are the best one, pick ot over vulner, it solves problems with duration just by standing there and it gives extra safety. Vulnerability is in fact very WEAK! Its dmg increase equals approx 5 stacks of wither only :-/ Discipline - yea I am going this with CI so this is a must ==> those 3 auras are 105% reservation, you guessed it, gotta pick reduction (no worries, no enlighten here). As I said vulner is the weakest here, you can drop that. Other: Abyssal Cry - this is way better than it seems at first glance, read on below.. Golem - you can pick one, but really I hate it when it keeps dying every other second in high maps. Besides mobs will aggro on golem and make it harder for you to aim your slow projectile ED. Personal experience: I often play with my fellows and this is NOT a party build, long before you cast contagion and ED reaches the target (you aim for white ones) they will have the pack long dead... At least it seems so. Might be better with more ppl, gotta try that yet. Also you have average dmg even though you are on 5 link and every gem gives 30% MORE dmg (or ever better that that). 4 linked caster will outdmg you. Packs of mobs...they die, unless they are blue. That is your nightmare. Blue guys just don't want to die. And if they don't, you don't spread anthrax around. And this is where Abyssal Cry enters the scene! Usually you cast contagion, ED and totem for these packs (assuming its some tougher pack) and before it does you also cast AC. The chaos dmg it does is further boosted by your skill tree (guessing you picked chaos nodes anyway). It not anything supreme, but it surely helps a great deal! But then again, as long as you are levelling there is definitely no need for this. You start leveraging it at tier 4 maps which are magic (non trivial ones) and rare. Char/stuff I wear at the very moment -> https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Siliarus/characters Tree -> https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMBBAcHHgj0DkgPqxEvEVARlhNtFAkVUBXXFr8YahmKGmwajxslHU8i9CSLJognqSsKLL81uTpYPV9JE0lRS65Ms1JTUq9VxlZjWAdcQFxrXfJfKmf8akNsC20ZcLt1nnaCeC985X5Zf8aD24RIhq6Hy4ngj0aP-pMfkyeVLpeVl_SboZ2upwinK6ebrJi00bVItzC7TcBUwzrDbcgMzxXQH9gk2VvdX9-K5ljoWukC62Pr5OwY7-vw1fba98H31_sJ TL&DR: I wish someone proved me wrong with my experience because so far I am very disappointed. There are no alternatives to this build (no other supp gems you can really use), it doesn't scale with party and the playstyle is far from smooth. P.S. sorry for grammar/spelling but I was to lazy to double check the post :D | |
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Hello again
Somebody tested the Combination of Bino's Kitchen Knife and the Poison support gem? A poisoned enemy takes a lot more damage, and if you take this support gem and the passives, you're poison damage is increased by 245%. I have none of this right now and the poison looks pretty strong, even without gem and passives. Could be a great damage boost for the Contagion + Essence Drain combination. |
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" They had, I saw one thread on the forum, keep searching for essence drain build and it will pop up. But what do superior about that? I mean you can only inflict poison with initial hit of ED, and that would be: 1) poor dmg (10% of the initial hit, which is approx 1/3 of what dot does per sec) 2) very short (2 secs) I can see that the knife spreads it to nearby enemies...cool, but it will spread it with only short suration left. Besides you only usually cast one ED and then run around kiting. Poisons would require intense casting to stack it. Am I missing something obvious here? o.O | |
" It looks like far more than an only 10% Damage Boost. " Does increased duration not work? I mean 45% from passives + temporal chains + gem if you can get a 6-link |
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" Does work. In my case I am nowhere close to those passives in tree. Anyway linking a gem for this seems like a loss of dmg, but I might be wrong, cant see into it properly. I am likely abandoning the build anyway, I need something which can fit into a party of 2 or 3 people. And unless there is a way to spread ED without mob dying, there isn't much you can do in party. |
