gems on an essence drain build

Just use theese and skip the poison gem:



Poison gem is good for other stuff, but essence drain is a slow ass single target projectile skill. Contagion won't spread poison with the gem, only Bino's will do that, and you get the added benefit of healing.

The damage poison gives to ED is small compared to what slower projectiles will do to it. And it makes you stand closer to mobs so you don't miss while ED is slowly creeping in which in turn, gives you the benefit of healing because you're close to poisoned mobs.

Also, if ED isn't killing a random white mob instantly you're doing something wrong. So, "You need to kill that 1st mob as fast as you can" thing i don't really understand. ED destroys everything.

I can't cast ED and then cast Contagion to spread it, i don't have the time because ED kills stuff so fast i can't react. I have to contagion them first, and then cast ED. After that, i just walk in a vague direction the mobs were in and see them all fall to a giant chain reaction.

This is especially fun in fractured maps. If only the engine wasn't so bad that the FPS drops to potato levels, but that's another issue.

So no, poison gem isn't really that good for essence drain, and ditch Empower. That miniature boost you get to ED is not worth it, slot something else in there.

This is my ED setup, and it's not even 6l. I can't remember when i had to cast ED twice on a mob.


Essence drain is much more powerful if you use the "more damage" multiplier from the Slower projectiles gem instead of Empower and poison.

If i get a 6l chest i'll maybe support it with Added chaos damage or something, but really i don't need anything else with this setup. It's already destructive enough.

EDIT: If you have the money you can buy some 6l as a weapon swap and then slot ED and poison in there for "maybe" higher single target damage, but it really wouldn't be that much of a difference.