Extra life vs +1 curse and spell block

A little advice sought from the other players. Background - playing a Pathfinder which I got to Lv 96 with around 5100 life and 1700 ES. Lots of layered defense, dual curse with main one being Temp Chains/Blasphemy to help with mobs. Things are going well but I want to try to gain a few more levels and wanted to increase chances of survival so I decided to make some equipment swaps. Main and only attack is COC with Freezing Pulse and Arctic Breath (both 20/20). No idea what my DPS is but I mow down foes pretty quickly.

Here is my amulet which I have been using for a long time:



These are my other curses:



With the dual curse I was using Frostbite manually for resistant mobs and bosses...and the Enfeeble was used as a backup defense on a CWDT so it would trigger after a big hit. These days it rarely does and I don't use the Frostbite all that often. I really wanted my life to get higher so I got some new armour which raised it up to 5400 and then I decided to remove my corrupted SoL in favor of a good rare necklace:



Putting this on gave me about 340 life plus almost 200 ES (even with that crappy ES mod, lol). So now my life is up to over 5700 and ES up to 1900...and after running a few maps I am not really missing the extra curse...in the place of Frostbite I am using Frost Bomb which works okay. But the trade off is that my block is now 64/56 down from 64/75 with Rumi's (up all the time due to Pathfinder's crazy flask abilities).

So here's what I am trading off:

19% spell block
Additional curse

And this is what I am gaining:

340 life
200 ES
Plus a hefty boost to my basic stats

Does this seem like a good trade off? I've used my SoL with a lot of builds and its been with this one since the beginning in 1.3...but again my end goal is make her tougher. I'm a bit tired of always worrying about one shots...and while I'm nowhere close to being a tank...with 100%+ movement speed (up almost constantly from flasks), Basalt flask damage reduction and now 5700/1900 Life/ES I'm definitely a lot more durable.

But again, it's a trade off. Thoughts?

I would think a 20/20 enfeeble and 19% spell block would be better than the rare amulet (8% more eHP ish) if you wanted extra defenses, since that's the basic question. Against bosses it will give you much more survivability when it's up. If you have absolutely zero curse effect from amywhere then maybe the rare amulet is ok though. I guess it does depend on what you're worried about.

Rare amulet is better against:

Unblockable offscreen oneshots like DD totems
Ground effects
Standing in vaal smash or similar at the start a fight

Lazhwar is better against:

Pretty much everything else

If you're going down the enfeeble route then I'd definitely recommend a low level CWDT linked to low level firestorm with a high level curse on hit enfeeble. This will greatly increase the uptime at the cost of links since the level of CWDT you need to support a 20/20 enfeeble means it triggers basically never.

Hmm...appreciate the advice. I too agree that the extra life is probably not worth it. I had considered an Enfeeble set up like you suggested, or dropping a Herald to run Enfeeble via Blasphemy but so far it has worked pretty well even with a Lv 20 CWDT. My Ice Golem is also linked to it and he is up and running all the time. Since I have crazy damage reduction with Rumi's and a Basalt flask (Pathfinder flask mods are crazy) I get hit with big hits fairly often. So, what I've found is that a big hit will pass through my already layered defense, trigger the Enfeeble and weaken that foe or foes that may still be alive, giving me greater a little more edge against them.

This also allows me to cast a manual 20/20 Frostbite with AOE and Faster Casting which greater increases clear speed and taking out bosses. And if the Enfeeble triggers and wipes out the Frostbite, no biggie.

But I still like your Firestorm idea...hmm...will experiment a bit more. Thanks again!

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Deadpeng wrote:

I strongly recommend keeping the dual curse too.

It has been a long standing myth in this game that purely stacking HP is the best form of defense. This is not true as 9K HP marauders can die often due to lack of armor and other damage reduction mechanics. Without all these alternate defenses like enfeeble, surprise damage from monsters can simply take up the entire 9K HP.

9k is nothing if not backed up by mitigation or avoidance. Well, not exactly nothing but nowhere close to a truly solid defense. I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who has played more than a few super-high HP builds. Also, the difference between 56 and 75 spell block is huge. With 75 spell block you'll have almost double the spell mitigation. I wouldn't compromise that even without the additional curse.

I'm playing a Pathfinder CoC build as well, and I am using a +1 Curse Stone of Lazhwar as my amulet. Even though I have a mirrored amulet in my stash, I still chose to use the +1 Curse instead.

you are barely even using dual curse.

do the work. your 96? you do the work... do this work.

make the swap and use enfeeble manually... very often.
see a mob? enfeeble, fight a bit, enfeeble, fight more.

reenfeeble as the fight goes on, as new mobs join.

see a resistant one? frostbite... also manually. use two buttons
for your curses.

the dual cursing is only useful for map bosses. you know that.
your 96 because you did the work... so just do this work.

you know the answer... why are you doubting yourself?

The consensus is pretty clear...lol. Last night I switched back to my +1 Laz and manual Frostbite as I was noticing a lot more spell hits. The tradeoff is pretty clear and that old set up got me to Lv 96 as a solo player so yeah...if ain't broke, don't fix.

AgnosiousD...I like the idea of a manual Enfeeble...will give that a try. I can always try Frost Bomb instead of Frostbite...not nearly as good, but not so bad either.

Exiled_Wanderer...holy crap sir...your gear is insane...and all the Lv 100 characters is very inspirational.

I've unhidden my chars in case anyone wants to look at my gear/build.

Thanks again for the tips and advice, very much appreciated.

After some experiments I decided to ditch my HoT for my Enlighten gem and add Enfeeble to my Temp Chains Blasphemy set up. So now I've got the two aura curses and I'm using a manual Frost Bomb for a little extra cold penetration. Not nearly as good as Frostbite...but going for a third curse with my build wouldn't be practical at this point.

So far it seems like a great set up...slower, weaker monsters and lots of freeze and chill to slow them down even more. I like it.

And I can always swap in Frostbite to play around with...still tweaking some of my CWDT spells but overall, things are looking good.