[2.5] Essence Drain Build Options (HC Uber Atziri/Shaper Viable)

inc criticisms on guide...

you don't need to hide every section that has a paragraph or less (in other words, every single section), especially when your guide is already so lacking. you only have three recommended skills, and you don't even have all the links mentioned in your videos on here. what about curses? cwdt? what are some good options for generating frenzy charges? you don't even mention frenzy charges here. what about movement skills? ascendancies?

i use guides by referencing them frequently throughout the leveling process, and videos are the worst way to do that. the text guide should come first, then you can summarize in a video (or even extrapolate in a long one, for the few who are interested). your videos are also not named well and have a lot of overlap and cross-referencing. basically, you force people to watch every video to get even the fundamental info.

thank you for putting so much effort into organizing the build guide. i don't understand why it sounds like you're reading from a script in the videos and with clear bullet points, yet none of that has been copy+pasted in the text version. are you trying to force people to watch as many videos as possible? do you have cash incentive to do that?

Very goodlooking build. Many thanks for such a detailed guide!

I decided to use it for my second char in Hardcore Essence league. My possbile starting budget is not too big - less than 100 chaos. Have already started to lvl a Shadow and I'm a CI-fan.

But I faced two dilemmas.

FIRST
Would it be a solid option to buy white 6 link bow and boost it with Essence of Woe to obtain nice Spell damage buff? As a quiver I'm going to use Soul Strike.

So the Pros will be: Cheap 6 link which can have GGGGBB much easier than vaal regalia and great additional survivability from fast ES recharge start. Blink arrow for movement.

But Cons are: No poison from dagger and no WB-movement. Less total ES, no block and other stuff good shield can provide.


SECOND
Curseses were nerfed in bossfights and Heretic Veil is very expensive, so I thought about next trick if I take bow and soul strike.
1.Equip Essence Worm ring to have Discipline Aura.
2.Use Mirror Arrow with curse on hit to apply 2 curses. Mainly needed on bosses, trash mobs can be done without any curses I suppose.
3.Grab some mana nodes including Weave the Arcane accendancy and take MoM.
4.Use high lvl clarity. Or use Clear Mind and no clarity.
5.Use some 1-2 manpotions. Probably abuse Divination Distillate for better loot.



Would greatly appreciate any advice.

P.S. Why I took Trickster and not Occultist which brings the maximum output from soul strike? Played as a Witch many times in many leagues, but only few hours as a Shadow. also want more itemization flexibility Trickster provides.

hello guys!

i have been following this build guide with my new essence league char and it is going great.
i am level 78 (filthy casual, ik) at the moment and i am using the life version of this build.

since i got really lucky with chancing me some skyforth which i sold afterwards, i have some currency at my hands in order to go for the lowlife version.

my big problem now is: i couldn't find any shavs with ggggbb socket and bought a shav with different colors, thinking i would be able chrome those colors on it. as you guys probably guessed it didn't work out. what can i do to get them ggggbb coloring on the shavs?

i would be glad if you could give me some tipps on that issue. thanks in advance!

greetings

@RaveHeart1985

Useful calc LINK


So for Shavs you should just Vorici 3G

thanks a lot.

yesterday i was lucky to trade my shavs with someone else.
in the end i paid around an ex more, which is a bit more than the currency i would have had to pay for the coloring. i take it as learning currency. ;)

since i am only lvl 79 and i made the switch to lowlife it feels a bit clucky and rippy.
i guess it was to early for the high life to ll switch, but i didn't want to wait. :)

do you guys have any feedback on my acutal char?


greetings

"

RaveHeart1985 wrote:

thanks a lot.

yesterday i was lucky to trade my shavs with someone else.
in the end i paid around an ex more, which is a bit more than the currency i would have had to pay for the coloring. i take it as learning currency. ;)

since i am only lvl 79 and i made the switch to lowlife it feels a bit clucky and rippy.
i guess it was to early for the high life to ll switch, but i didn't want to wait. :)

do you guys have any feedback on my acutal char?


greetings

You are lacking a lot of ES on most of you current gear, especially on shield. You should try to get 450ES+ shield asap and maybe consider Crystal belt for even more ES. Also i have noticed you are not running energy from within near melding so i would recommend getting that.

Also noticed you only have 2 ascendancy points, once you get to shade form it will help a lot.

As you gain more levels and increase the effect of your curses you will also notice big improvement for both survivability and damage. Dont forget to get 20% quality on the most crucial gems (blasphemy, curses, ED, Contagion, wither and and ideally all the main support gems).

Besides that you seem to be on the right track. I am also playing the lowlife version of this build (with some adjustments) on esc and it is a lot of fun. Clear speed is decent enough and i was able to do pretty much all bosses except shaper which i am still working on.

my current gear:

Hey all, Having a ton of fun levelling this build. I am still quite poor and I was wondering what would be the optimal use of GCPs. Further, I have a Consuming Dark atm, but I was wondering what uniques I should consider picking up first. I am life build so Shavs is not necessary yet.
Edit:
Current Gear:

wow! those were really helpful tips!! thank you very much.

shield and jewel were a bit expensive but with 6 asc. points + lvl 83
i am now at 8.5k es => way more tankier! :)

wasn't sure if should ascend frenzy charges, but chose the es route.
i will use the 7/8 point for frenzy charges if i ever make the uber lab.
that could take a while :)

greet community as always. thats also why i love poe!

I'm thinking about this (low life shav's CI) build, but I'm freakin' love the Evasion.

Could be better the flat ES from items, or evasion/ES hybrids can make better effective 'life'.
For example (flat eva/ES):
~300/150 from gloves and boots
~440/260 from Heretic's
~100 ES from belt
~700/450 from shield
~30-30 from rings
~400 from Shav's

Also I must take the Deflection part of the tree as soon as possibl cuz it's a huge boost in this case.

"

KisBali wrote:

I'm thinking about this (low life shav's CI) build, but I'm freakin' love the Evasion.

Could be better the flat ES from items, or evasion/ES hybrids can make better effective 'life'.
For example (flat eva/ES):
~300/150 from gloves and boots
~440/260 from Heretic's
~100 ES from belt
~700/450 from shield
~30-30 from rings
~400 from Shav's

Also I must take the Deflection part of the tree as soon as possibl cuz it's a huge boost in this case.

It works, you dont even have to stack too much evasion.

I went with trickster which is 500 then Heretic another 400+ and also 460+ from Voidwalker which puts me at over 3k evasion. Then i am running Jade and stibnite flask (witchfire brew) with which i get to 17k+ evasion - around 57% chance to evade, on top of that i am standing in smoke cloud from stibnite which halves all enemy chances to hit you and Enfeeble reduces that chance by another 49%.

If you do get hit then shade form kicks in 20% more chance to evade. It works very reliably against big packs and even some bosses have hard time hitting you. I dont think investing into evasion on shield and other items is worth it over getting more important stats.