GhazzyTV - Essence Drain & Contagion (or Bane/Soulrend) Trickster [SC/HC/Uber Elder/Shaper]

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Voidstranger wrote:

Hi, is it endgame viable? Because 60k dps is... well, is not impressive.
I am level 43 now (after normal lab) and I have huge problems with Vaal temple. Mobs are too powerful.

This is definitely just a clearspeed build for efficient mapping / funding more endgame-viable characters. With the poison/decay nerfs, ED is really not good for single-target damage.

However, this build is my most common league starter and it's done especially well in incursions once your ED is properly leveled up. About 3 total ED + Contagions (with AoE nodes, BotC, and Allelopathy) can clear an entire incursion room now. I'm just mapping until I have about 10-15ex or so and then I'll figure out what build I want to fund/try next.

I am struggling with my last gem, can anyone help me?

The first 5 is straight forward: Essence Drain, Void Manipulation, Controlled Destruction, Swift Affliction and Efficacy

Empower level 3 cost to much now.

I have used pierce support - but the gems does not feel great, I don't know if the contagion does not spreads correct? Do anyone have the same feeling?

Poison support does not change any of the damage, is it not working with Essence Drain?

Decay is a good alternative I can probably use, only problem is that my Skin of the Loyal is 3 green and 3 blue gems.

Ozon_

@Odd, I would stick with Pierce. It provides great utility, and the other options are pretty much useless. Pierce does not affect ED spread or interaction with Contagion at all.

As for the end game viability, ED is just fine. Ghazzy's guide covers the basics very well, and it is a short leap to make it a strong build that can do everything. Video of ED/Blight vs. 83 temple as "proof": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU2zkQwIKBk

Welp, here I was preparing to respond to questions, but no, master @Nedieth got me covered! Thank you so much for helping out in keeping this guide & thread in the state of quality it is in right now. Much love <3


Note:
This thread is the most viewed thread of all threads that exists on this website and it's by default then the most viewed build guide on this entire website :) CRAZY!

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Nedieth wrote:

@Odd, I would stick with Pierce. It provides great utility, and the other options are pretty much useless. Pierce does not affect ED spread or interaction with Contagion at all.

Okay, then pierce support only feels different since it pierce object :)

Buy why does not poison and decay support change the DPS, chaos damage or chaos damage per second?
- Poison support, its only first a chance to poison, then ite deal 15 % more damage with poison?
- Decay support, inflict decay on hit, dealing chaos damage. But it's not shown in the DPS?

Ozon_

Both poison and Decay are separate effects to ED, and will not show up in tooltip. If you use Path of Building, you will see a new line popping up that calculates the damage of the secondary effects.

My reasoning for not using them:
Decay - no longer scales with spell damage. Since we get some spell damage from links, gear and the passive tree, it scales rather poorly. Once again, check the damage in Path of Building. A good decay dagger (with around 50-60% spell/DoT damage) is equal in total ED DPS to Breath of the Council. Using a sixth link for what equals 30-50% increased damage for one of our spells is pretty bad returns in my opinion.

Poison - It increases the total DoT of ED by a little bit, but now that we are better off channeling Blight over spamming ED, the total damage of the support is next to nothing.


Then lastly Pierce grants utility making the build more comfortable to play. Faster casting is also a better option than the other two just for comfort in my opinion.

Hi, what about new Omeyocan boots for this build? And what gloves can I use istead of the Allelopathy for vaal blight?

REmove please

What about resistance cap? Just finished act 10 and now i'm looking for gear. I checked POB and it seemed you seriously had like life + STR rings and such, no way you had res cap, is it really like that?
Nice build otherwise, really fast clearing. :)

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rouhea wrote:

What about resistance cap? Just finished act 10 and now i'm looking for gear. I checked POB and it seemed you seriously had like life + STR rings and such, no way you had res cap, is it really like that?
Nice build otherwise, really fast clearing. :)

Dont look at the PoB for that. Resistance cap is nr 1. on all builds. So yes, cap it!

Priority defence:
- Resistance, cap it
1. Life
2. Mana

There is not many unique items you need (I advice to get tabula and allelopathy first), so getting max res is easy!

Offensive Stats:
1. Chaos Damage, Spell Damage, Damage over Time
2. Increased cast speed - Ghazzy's guide does not say it. But get it on weapon, ring, amulet and jewels if possible. It helps so much with Essence Drain casting!
Search for "increased cast speed" on items

Ozon_