my writeup on why essencedrain/contagion sucks

I just contagion a pack -> lob an essence drain in their direction -> phase run to another pack and repeat.


I then tried bladefall and kept going with that instead.
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Lordzero2 wrote:

the problem with blasphemy for me is how short range the curse auras are.


Yeah you have to focus some of the increased radius stuff in the tree, but the contagion build (when done right) isn't a "apply poison and run around" kinda build like flame totem is. The build shines the best when you use contagion, then Essence Drain (i.e. the kiss of death) and then chase the wave of enemies as they are being poisoned down and continue to apply contagion and use wither on bigger targets.

It's a chain reaction build...kinda like stacking dominos and knocking over the first one. You want to be in the thick of it and continue the spread of ED with tactful placements of Contagion.

The most awesome thing about the build? Using Abyssal Cry as a "blow up" when facing high armor targets.

The synergy between all of the skills is awesome once you see it in it's full glory.
okay then how about how the builds worthless in group play? by time you have your combo on the enemy your groups killed them already.
Just have to say, I completely disagree that it sucks.

I'm loving it, its super ridiculously powerful too.

Just been running vuln+blasphemy for the curse aura to try it out. Starts as a very low AoE, but it is getting there. Tempted to change it to something like temp chains though actually, separate thoughts.

Basically just run around with contagion + iAoE + -eledmg+morechaos + -crit+morespelldmg supports (forgot those two name). Cast contagion, use essence drain on one (have the morechaos+morespell same supports, and running a fourth of faster projectiles atm). Stuff dies. If necessary, drop wither totem, and can spam the essence drain for a bit of extra chaos damage.

Been killing bosses ridiculously easily. This is a cast two/three skills, then kite build. Most other spells are a 'sit still and cast', or move and cast, this is just cast and then move, need to cast again in ~3 seconds which is a long time.

Imagine using spectral throw, but only throwing once every 3 seconds....


It melts white/blue mobs at my current level (just reached a3 cruel), has been melting since I got essence drain basically. Killed bosses like piety/dom with almost no challenge...




Who care about group play btw


I think that the build is good, it is a different build style, but the way that you can just get ZO + CI and use essence drain as a leech source is pretty cool. It is a combo build, contagion on its own is not that great, essence drain on its own is kind of average. Combined its the awesome wave of death as everything just dies.
I felt similarly as OP, until I started to properly use all 4 related skills of this build.

Using just Contagion & ED is kinda meh, good only against groups of white enemies and enemies without much life. For mobs with lots of life, Abyssal cry becomes a must and for bosses/rares you have to use Wither. Using all this stuff in combination, the build becomes really powerful (and fun!).

It's not your typical spammer build, but a tactical "combo" build. On my unfinished & gear lacking char in Talisman I use TC on Blasphemy (mainly for defense purposes, to curb down the burst damage) and self-cast Vuln. Close in on a group of mobs -> Contagion + Vuln and Abyssal cry for blue packs. Then just "nick" one guy with ED and watch the fireworks :) If there are other mobs nearby, you can "push the contagion wave" forward potentially clearing whole screens.

It's lots of fun and brings some tactical gameplay in the sea of one-skill spam. It reminds me of the good old days (pre CoC spam) Searing touch, burning prolif, self cast Discharge build. For tougher rares & bosses, you can lure in abyssal cried mobs and explode them on the rare. Or you can do vece-versa - lure a rare into other packs and explode him, he will one-shot everything with his high HP pool.

You can ofc argue that this stuff becomes superfluous when playing in a full party of spammers, but everything is superfluous and boring faceroll in party.

The only thing that is ruining the fun of this build for me, is the massive FPS lag spikes that I get when 20+ abyssal cry mobs explode simultaneously. :( It's really annoying and sometimes dangerous (being nearby "bearers" mobs when they explode -> freeze -> possibly get killed by bearer explosions in return)

Otherwise I'm loving it. Can't wait to properly gear my char in Talisman (5L!) and see how it performs in higher maps.
When night falls
She cloaks the world
In impenetrable darkness
i felt the same until i used this combo
contaigon + inc aoe + faster casting

the inc aoe is like 2 cast and halv of the screen is "debuffed" then just click in the general direction with essence drian and than run offscreen... due to the aggro of mobs you can often clear 2-3 screens with just 3 casts >.<
Is there a build somewhere I can take a peek at? I am attempting to construct a shadow using contagion, wither and essence drain, but really have no idea what I am doing. Reading someone's build and looking at a passive skill tree would be a big help.
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Is there a build somewhere I can take a peek at? I am attempting to construct a shadow using contagion, wither and essence drain, but really have no idea what I am doing. Reading someone's build and looking at a passive skill tree would be a big help.


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Remember, suffering is convenient.
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Strange. My first character was essence drain. I stopped playing it at 88, because it got too easy Lol. at 20k evasion +aa + cwdt enfeeble, it was very hard to die even in T12 maps. I did remove the gear from it for my other char but you can have a look at my tree. I used a 60Spell damage shield + a 90spell damage with 28 DoT Leo mod wand. I had 25k degen with 5L and lvl 19 gems (slower proj, not empower). I do think that slower proj butchers the skill but meh 9000% cheaper than lvl 3empower+ . Grace + AA + clarity were my auras. I actually manually cast wither , which is retrospect was too trihard lool.

ED +void manip + rapid decay + controlled destruction + slower proj, and the vector for essence drain :P Contagion + increased AoE + increased duration. With that setup I could obliterate several screens away leaving only loot as a sign mobs once roamed that land :D.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwYAAF4B0QMeBbUHHgguCPQOSA-rEQ8RLxGWE20UCRa_GYoZjhqNH0Ei6iSLJogmlSsKLR8yATY9Olg7DUkTSVFMLUyzUlNSr1VLVcZcQF3yXyph4mHrYlpirGf8akNqjGyMbRl0VXWedoJ6U311f8aD24TFh8uJ4I2_j_qTH5UglS6XBpeVl_SbJpuNm7WdqqEiokCio6LZp5usmK1Kr-uw2LIZtNG1SLcwu02747zqwFTB88M6xKLIDMgUzxXPetAf037UI91f35jmWOjW62Ptg-_r8NX0-PVv99f-ug==?accountName=JusJev&characterName=Jevessence

Last edited by JusJev on Feb 9, 2016, 10:00:47 AM
Got level 90 as ED/contagion this league, feels pretty great. You can check my character out if you want (Its_Nerf_or_Nothin). The real kicker for me was being able to get 6k hp, 1k es, and a decent amount of evasion while also having some ridiculous amount of regeneration from killing poisoned mobs- something like 5-10k HP/sec.

All you have to do is cast contagion on a pack of mobs, whirl into it, abyssal cry, and ED once. BOOM, pack is dead, move to next pack. Consuming dark + Bino's is insane. Poison does SO much damage right now. I don't even worry about wither, and I only curse on bosses or when I'm doing top-tier maps. I run haste and clarity just for convenience. I even put item rarity on contagion on a 4l just for kicks.

The only thing I would change is increase the cast speed and projectile speed of essence drain, and maybe the cast speed of contagion.

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