Eel Head's Holy Moly Vampire! Essence Drain - Tanky, easy and cheap

I'll start by saying, i am no expert on the mechanics of PoE. Your constructive criticism is very welcome, i want the best for the build.

This build, like the title says, is an Essence Drain build. You cast 2 or 3 skills, and watch everything die, while staying out of harms way. If that sounds like your cuppa, read on.

Pros


Cons


Current skill tree
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwUAA-4EswceDkgRDxEvEZYWvxhqHNwdviLiJogmlSj6Kk0rCi0fMtEzhzWSNj05UjpYOw0_J0GHQ8hFR0WdR-JJUUrITLNPBFKvU1JVxlgHWW1boFxAXfJfKl-YYeJn_GjybIxuqnRVdZ52gnwOf8aCx4Uyh8uPRo_6lSCVLprgm6GdqqIAoqOkOacIp1Wnm6yYrUq00bVItfK3MLc-uJPAZsHzyAzPFc8y0B_Yvdrd6FrrY-vu7-vwH_DV99f56P4K?accountName=eelhead&characterName=ManBroGuyDude

Planned skill tree
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwUATwRDyFugp1V8Dmjy8B-iAASzwGZFRzLR6-6a4IUyHNynCEWduJOPGtrdj0ZTUij6m6GCx_fXGGr56B2-rJhSrzlSQYczhzpYEQ90Va1Ku01YB7c-A-5VxjsNXypn_N1f_gqD2-_r2L3QHzWSTLO18i0fbqqVIErIaxfB8z8nvOqioypNX5jAVH_GR-JZbQj0akN-WRGWIuLPMg5IBx6kOV3ytzCVLisK6FoUCfDVES8miBNtj_pJUetjXEC1SDY9h8t2gp2qp5vIDGyMdZ600WKszxUWvw-rJpUki2HiwzpVS4ng5liTH0kTbRktix_HK3gsnA==

Bandits


As for gearing, i have some fairly rude equipment. Life, resist and the sockets i need are what i go for. Grab an Eldritch Knowledge jewel, they're cheap. Armour is the type of defence you want, this does make it a little hard to Chrome your sockets, as most of your gems are blue, a few green and red. Granite flasks of Iron Skin are cool! So are Seething Divine.


Skill Gems.

Essence drain/Controlled Destruction/Void Manipulation/Rapid Decay. This is my current 4L. For a 5L, i think, Iron Will would be the choice. 6L Empower, maybe?

Wither/Spell Totem/Increased AoE/Faster Casting.

Contagion/Faster Casting/Increased AoE/Increased Duration.

Blasphemy/Enfeeble/Temporal Chains. Vulnerability is also an option.

Whirling Blades/Blood Magic/Faster Attacks. Your Lightning Warp is far to slow, with the increased duration of skills in this build. Grab yourself a dagger, with spell damage on it.

Golem - I'm using a Chaos Golem. If you want more damage, you know what to do.
You have room for a CWDT. I have it linked with my Golem and Molten Shell, at the moment. There are plenty of options for that combo.

These skill gem set ups might not be the best way to do things, like i said "I am no expert on the mechanics of PoE"

If you wanted to run another curse, Zealot's Oath and Eldritch Battery are only 5 points off, i'm sure the life regen in this build would be enough. Essence Drain gives you a lot of regen, while on 10+ targets.

This is my first build post, sorry if its rough. Help me out.

1, poison as support gem can make ED's single target very solid, still need to kite a bit tho but solid.

2, Aoe radius is very important for spreading contagion, big enough a circle and you don't need to cast contagion again, would suggest get at least 30% from passive.

3, with enough ED damage and contagion spread, I don't see the necessity of taking both skill duration clusters, one cluster gives you 5sec ED 7.5 sec contagion, more than enough.

Thanks for your input.

I did consider Poison, but the way i understood it, it does 10% of the initial hit and didnt think it would be worth it. I seem to recall reading something about stacking DoT, with Poison. Maybe this would make the damage. I would have thought something like, Iron Will would be better for the spell damage buff, which would increase the DoT of ED.
AoE with Contagion seems to be good enough with a gem in it. I dont i really need any other support gems with that set up, the skill points might be better elsewhere.
As for the increased duration, in the passive tree, i like the sound of that and will tweak and see how that goes.

Thanks again.

PS: I will also try Poison, even if its just for swapping in and out.