[3.13] [SSF] Essence Drain Beastmode || Ultimate Guide to Solo Self Found

"

ruubel wrote:

we need a list what contagion triggers, what not ?

Gotta play this build a bit, just for next season as a practice: next league is a "crowd league", this build fits like a glove.

"

Mordath2018 wrote:

Hi!,

you have whispers of doom in the tree, however we are only using one curse, i.e. Temp chains. Mayne i am missing something?

"

ZeroCloud wrote:

Every league I like to play a new build and really start to tear into understanding it, especially optimizing in PoB. For this league ED/Contagion looks to be it.

First thing I do is compare the leading build thoughts and try and determine which is better, or better fits my style. I'm guessing you are always evaluating other builds for improvements to your own. In general, how would you compare your choices of the tree, bow, etc.. in comparison to some others like Ziz and Ghazzy?

Also, have you started playing with the idea of the the new cluster jewel notables? From what I can see there are a dozen potential candidates of value and once we get the new patch notes and updated PoB we can start min/maxing them versus current pathing choices.

"

ArtCrusade wrote:

In comparison to Ghazzy and Ziz's takes on ED/C, my build provides a lot more DPS and clear while retaining tankyness. The biggest difference is that I don't use Acrobatics and instead rely more on Ghost Shrouds.

In terms of the new cluster jewels, my personal favourites for ED/C are Wicked Pall & Unwaveringly Evil. I think the best combo will be one large cluster jewel with chaos nodes and 2 small ones with extra life nodes which saves us from travelling towards Scion/Templar life nodes.

Full patch notes will give more clarity. Appreciate all feedback in the meantime. :)

"

ZeroCloud wrote:

Keep in mind I haven't played Trickster or ED/C, but here are my thoughts from the patch notes and cluster jewels so far. I'm sure I will be wrong, but I'm ok with that if it means good discussions to improve builds. Looks like the build was not impacted by the patch notes. Solstice Vigil got improved though.

For the cluster jewels, after a brief look at your PoB it doesn't look like this build is a good candidate for using them easily. Your pathing doesn't normally go to an outside socket, so it appears the likely one to use would be below Whispers of Doom. So, you are wasting skill points to get to it and then have to get enough points to get through all the cluster wheel passives.

This will take more data from the cluster jewels (like how many passives each has and which is large/medium/small). Without getting completely drastic on the tree, some candidates for points might be dropping the path to Discipline and Training and losing the Revenge of the Hunted wheel (if I'm reading PoB correctly it only reduces the chance to evade from 83% to 82%). I don't see how you can get rid of the scion life wheel, it doesn't look like you can make up for that much life % with the clusters.

Assuming we can find a way to come out ahead using cluster jewels here are some getting my attention. You mentioned Unwaveringly Evil but I don't think that will be as good because there are others with the damage and more, and its ignore stun interruptions doesn't really help. Don't forget you will usually have a ghost shroud up and Escape Artist gives you stun immunity already.
- Wicked Pall looks great, but Brush with Death will actually give more DoT DPS in most cases and comes with Life/ES recovery on kill. I see Wicked as the boss choice and Brush as the mapper.
- Unholy Grace rounds out the top 3 for me on damage/utility.
- For a life/ES and damage combo I like Flow of Life and Vile Reinvigoration
- For life/ES alone, Sublime Sensation looks good for this hybrid build. It will probably be similar to what the Melding wheel does.

In regards to your comparison to other builds, you mention a lot more DPS but it seems that you have significantly less Area Damage. Does this mean your contagion propagation and clearing is less effective?