[3.2] Spider Queen - CI Essence Drain / Contagion - All content, all mods

Already cleared red elder, shaper, uber atziri & HOTGM. Only uber shaper remaining - once i manage to make him spawn.

Pros:
- Good clearspeed, safe boss killing
- Budget friendly, no mandatory uniques
- Very safe, HC compatible, easy +10k ES
- Run all mods - yes, for real
- Hardware friendly, except profane bloom explosions maybe
- Profane BOOM BOOM (free chaos version of Herald of Ice)

Cons:
- Scaling DPS for end game content is a pain
- DoT gameplay, no facetanking

Farming red tiers (5L)

A full video guide is coming next week, as well as shaper's guardians farming deathless tomorrow.

My Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ObsoLeet

Ascendancy
Vile Bastion comes first, the most important defensive layer of the build
Beacon of Ruin next, increasing your DPS
Profane bloom last, to improve the clearspeed for map farming

Bandits
Kill them all

Passive skill tree
Full passive skill tree (lvl 94)
Order while leveling is explained in the appropriate section.
It's not like you really have a choice here, except for zealot's oath which is a "quality of life" choice since you can use Sorrow of the Divine instead. Don't pick this if you're aiming for lvl90 max.

MAJOR: Soul of the Brine King (for obvious reasons)

MINOR: Soul of Gruthkul which emphasize well with Aspect of the Spider, Temporal Chains and Chill from the Curse on Hit and the Hinder of Wither.

Weapon

+60% spell damage, Culling Strike, ES Bonus and the ability to use Shield Charge. And it's cheap af.
Here we're socketing our SC movement skill the "usual" way using fortify as an extra defensive layer

Shield

Any high ES rare shield with +% Spell Damage will do.
We're socketing CWDT along with Immortal Call as an extra defensive layer and our Fire Golem on "autocast" for a little extra +% Spell Damage.

Body Armor

You want this extra 40% spell damage as well as the high ES for boss killing.


Once you can 6L this one, it's better suited for farming and increase the survivability a lot: -15% global damage taken compared to the previous body armor & enhance Aspect of the Spider

Essence Drain will always be supported by Controlled Destruction, Void Manipulation, Empower & Efficacy, while you're gonna switch between Pierce (farming) & Swift affliction (boss killing)

Helmet

The Vertex have better ES than most of ES helmets, the evasion rating emphasizing our dexterity and other nodes from the skill tree, providing 20% evasion chance as extra defensive layer.
We're using the "+1 to level of Socketed Gems" to increase a bit Contagion's AoE, and since Contagion's Duration doesn't refresh when monsters dies we wants an Increased Duration

Boots

Any rare with high ES, movement speed & ele res will do.
Crafting Aspect of the spider on these was a mistake, aspects are Active Skills and can be supported by some gems (like Increased Duration or AoE) resulting in more mana reservation.
Fortunately it doesn't apply to the Curse on Hit we're socketing there, providing Shock, Chill/Freeze & Temporal Chains as debuffs on Hit.

Gloves

Any Fingerless Silk gloves will do.
We're putting here our Wither Totem which is the most important support for boss killing, so you want it on 4L with Faster Casting and Increased Duration


Gloves for HOTGM only, using Scorching Ray for full block heroes - we don't need the totem for them anyway

Belt

Cheap & effective for CI builds. Emphasize with other ES bonuses.

Amulet & Rings

We're looking for rares with +% Spell Damage, at least an Unset Ring to put our Discipline in, and if possible a +Str amulet to spare points in the passive skill tree - we need that extra strength somewhere to use Immortal Call and Increased Duration, i chose to put it on the amulet
Try to have a free prefix on the rings to craft Leo's "+% Faster start of ES Recharge"
Aspects should be crafted on a ring / amulet.


We don't need this extra damage for farming, MF is better suited for that

Flasks

Witchfire's Brew will greatly increase the clearspeed once you have Profane Bloom. You want bleed removal / immune on the mana flask since you can use it 4 times before depletion.

Jewels
- An Energy from Within if possible for the usual Melding
- Any Cobalt with +% ES, faster start of ES recharge and ele res / +% "pseudo" spell damage (could be "while holding a shield", "DoT" etc.)

You can see mines on the link of the passive skill tree.

MISC
- Any spell will do as long as you can't use Essence Drain
- You can start using ED as soon as you have it (during quest line)
- a 3L ED is enough for most of the story line, 4L for the end & white maps, 5L can do red tier maps but high HP mobs can means trouble so stick on yellow's if you're playing HC.
6L mandatory for safe farming t13+, red elder, shaper's guardians, shaper & uber atziri
- You want to wait as long as possible before switching for Chaos Inoculation (i did it in Act 8 and it's a little bit too early tbh)

SKILL TREE
You want first the right bottom part of the tree, aiming for life / ES / res nodes first, all the way to Method to the Madness & Void Barrier. It will provide Dex & Str as well.

Then you want to grab Atrophy, taking Written in Blood along the way, before moving to the top part of the tree and finally go for the bottom part of the tree (Melding, Foresight, Shaper).

GEAR
Until lvl65 ish, look for ES armors with ES/life/res mods, pick them for their sockets before their stats if you're making this char as a league starter.
As usual be careful of your ele res.


These are budget friendly and can carry you a long way.

- We're going to grab +14% chaos damage next level, everything after that will go for extra ES

- Trying to find a rare dagger with +50% Spell Damage at least, Attack Speed bonus & Decay on Hit. Yes, it's gonna cost a kidney.

- It may be possible to switch our dagger for Breath of the Council and use Leap Slam instead of SC as movement skill, +40% Chaos damage but we lose Culling Strike as well as the flat ES bonus.

- Simulating with PoB, Presence of Chayula doesn't improve the build that much, with a Watcher's Eye it may be possible to switch for a Low Life build I guess

09/04. I don't have my 6L Fenumus body armor yet for farming version :(