[3.7] SC/HC - ED/Blight Trickster - Up to 10k eHP, Layered Defense, 3m DPS

As always, the guide will be updated with a comment as 3.2 patch notes hit. A few days into the league, I will post a more informed update on the guide and what new possibilities the new patch opens up for us. As of right now, I am nearly 100% sure that I will play on SC from the start of the league this time around, so we might end up seeing some changes in the build for more damage.

The new Trickster setup is extremely cool, but I am not sure what I think about the Prolonged Pain being as strong as it is. I have a hard time seeing any version of an ED/Blight character not using this. This means that if we were interested in getting Escape Artist (which is amazing), we would have to drop BOTH charge generation as well as Weave the Arcane. I was extremely excited about Escape Artist, however once I realized that it is next to impossible to be able to fit it into the build due to how strong Prolonged Pain is, I am not really sure any more.

TL;DR: Everything about new Trickster is cool, Prolonged Pain potentially ruins diversity for DoT builds.
Yeah i was thinking the same, which is why i asked about any changes to the build since there are just so many tasty things here now. While Escape Artist seems incredible, i'd rather keep utility of swift killer/weave the arcane since they are just that good, i can't imagine myself manually getting charges through other means and chance to get mana back on using movement skills with movement skills being free was godlike on no mana regen maps.

It feels like escape artist is there for non dot, skill based classes who spec trickster for harness the void. Since they don't need dot damage there are much fewer things to take in trickster tree, so i'd imagine them going Harness the void/Swift killer (was changed from dot damage per charge to pure damage per charge)/All the way to escape artist.
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Nedieth wrote:
TL;DR: Ghazzy's guide is great for some straight forward ED action, mine requires a slightly more active play style.

The two main differences between my guide and Ghazzy's is that he focuses a lot on raw power from ED, while I balance out the damage more between Blight and ED. Since I have more focus on Blight, my build also needs to be able to take a few more hits than Ghazzy's version. I solve this primarily through using The Perfect Form instead of recommending a +1 Tabula Rasa. The +1 tabula is pretty cheap, while a 6L Perfect Form is quite a lot more expensive and provides less damage as well.

My build makes up for this damage loss by having a full damage setup in Allelopathy, while Ghazzy uses the gloves for his Contagion setup. This results in my build having a much higher potential DPS as well as being more tanky. The downside to this is that you might be a bit overwhelmed with the playstyle to start out with. Below is an example of what I do vs. bosses compared to Ghazzy (not explaining reasoning in the following):

Nedi:
Place and keep Wither totem alive --> Precast Contagion while waiting for trigger/apply Contagion --> Cast ED --> Shield Charge into the enemy --> pop all flasks to blind/get evasion --> Channel Blight --> Reapply ED/Contagion every 6s or so while channeling Blight at least 4 out of 6s.

Ghazzy:
Place and keep Wither totem alive --> Apply Contagion --> Apply ED --> Run around and stay safe, reapply DoTs as needed, pop flasks as needed (Tap enemy with Blight if it gets close).


Personally, I feel that my characters has more room to grow and face the ultra end game than what you can expect from Ghazzy's guide, but his guide is more budget and new player friendly. There are many that could disagree with this, saying a +3 staff might perform similar to my build, but it all boils down to preference.

Hope that clarifies something for ya.


Thank you for your very detail reply.
For the new ascendancy, does "Hardness the Void" effects our skills?
Im curious about this too.Never played shadow before (ok, tried once but left on lvl40ish) and i really like this build.Will it benefit from the huge trickster buff or not?That harness of the void skill only benefits from non chaos dmg and we have only chaos dmg, dont we?
Last edited by slicchabib on Feb 27, 2018, 6:35:02 AM
Harness the Void does nothing for us. In general, the build has been buffed. We now get 15% more damage over time as well as some skill effect duration. This means that we are more flexible for our weapon slot since we can reach max stack of Blight more comfortably without BotC. BotC will now be more quality of life vs. bosses.
Last edited by Nedieth on Feb 27, 2018, 6:30:47 AM
Thx OP, one more question or 2. :D How much does the botc cost at the start of the league?I saw the build budget and its pretty nice, we dont need to have so much currency to build an op character.And how good this build in party play?Usually im playing always alone at the start of the league but later when im reaching lvl 90 i always change the solo to party play.Ohh and one more, act bosses.How good are we against them when we are leveling?
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slicchabib wrote:
Thx OP, one more question or 2. :D How much does the botc cost at the start of the league?I saw the build budget and its pretty nice, we dont need to have so much currency to build an op character.And how good this build in party play?Usually im playing always alone at the start of the league but later when im reaching lvl 90 i always change the solo to party play.Ohh and one more, act bosses.How good are we against them when we are leveling?

Usually BotC costs about 1-1.5 ex for bad rolls at league start, a lot more if you want a perfect / near to perfect roll.

ED builds are terrible in party play, sadly.

Leveling experience is easy with ED. You need a blight setup btw, at least on a 4L if possible, to speed up boss kills.
Hello there,

any thought on Trickster compared to the new Occultist ?
How much would you value the ci + curses vs life + mom and what are your thoughts when comparing both as LL characters ?
How much difference will 3 Curses (Witchfire+TempChains+Enfeeble) / high es pool make vs bosses when compared to MoM ?
Oh and for occultist would you drop void beacon, maldeiction or vile bastion ?
Really hyped but cant decide on which of the 2 to take :(

I know these are some vague questions and probably hard to answere (i red a shit ton of posts resulting in : it comes down to preference boss or maps) but you Would really help me out !

Thanks for your time and greetings form germany!

PS: dont mind my crappy englisch please
Last edited by PropagandaPanda1337 on Feb 27, 2018, 3:14:25 PM
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Hello there,

any thought on Trickster compared to the new Occultist ?
How much would you value the ci + curses vs life + mom and what are your thoughts when comparing both as LL characters ?
How much difference will 3 Curses (Witchfire+TempChains+Enfeeble) / high es pool make vs bosses when compared to MoM ?
Oh and for occultist would you drop void beacon, maldeiction or vile bastion ?
Really hyped but cant decide on which of the 2 to take :(

I know these are some vague questions and probably hard to answere (i red a shit ton of posts resulting in : it comes down to preference boss or maps) but you Would really help me out !

Thanks for your time and greetings form germany!

PS: dont mind my crappy englisch please

It's a matter of preference.

If you want clearspeed go Trickster.

If you want damage and boss efficiency go Occultist.

Occultist is insane in boss fights. High ES (10k+ as low life), high damage (20% chaos resistance reduction is huge, and so is the Profane Bloom + Malediction combo), high survivability (3 curses + reduced damage taken from cursed mobs + Wicked Ward is fantastic).

I would drop Vile Bastion when playing Occultist. You absolutely don't need stun immunity because you will go Low Life in the very endgame setup and Presence of Chayula is mandatory there for the huge flat ES bonus from converted life. The flat ES and regen are nice but not necessary. Maybe they are good if you are a hardcore player, but for softcore I feel they aren't required.

Trickster is a lot better for mapping. Charges + extra speed are always good, and nothing will stop you while mapping (Occultist still has a bad interaction between the Contagion spread and Profane Bloom, sadly, which reduces clearspeed a lot).
Last edited by djnat on Feb 27, 2018, 8:09:16 PM
Presence of Chayula is definitely going to get even more expensive though, now that Zana Breach is a thing of the past.

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