[2.6] Essence Drain Progression - Life to CI to LL
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Guide is being further updated exclusively on the Shadow forums in 3.0, due to a focus on Mind over Matter.
Hello witch forum! I have maintained an ED guide on the shadow forums since 2.3. Over time I have played so many iterations of ED characters that the guide now also includes Occultist and Necromancer versions. I figured I should post it here as well, so those of you who are on the fence about ED ascendancy or build can get some extra info. I will update the main thread alongside the original one, but I will most likely be answering most questions on the shadow forums. Good luck and stay safe! 2.6 Update: Nothing has really changed for Essence Drain in 2.6. There are some minor changes, like Zealot's Oath keystone getting moved. We still use the same amount of points to grab it though, so the trees work the same way. There are a few more minor changes to the passive tree that are of interest to us, so I will leave a comment on that in the tree section eventually. After the curse changes in 2.4(?) and also the introduction of the Witchfire Brew unique flask, I am no longer running 3 curses off my mana. I don't really see much point in running Vulnerability at all once your map clear speed gets comfortable. This means that for the Low Life tree, we can both drop aura nodes and stop using Heretic's Veil as our go to best in slot head item. This is very interesting in 2.6, as it opens up for a lot of interesting uniques to be used instead. Items like The Gull, Brinerot Whalers and Voidwalkers are now easier to fit into the build while still maintaining 169/170% elemental resists. As the new league progresses and we get to see how the new and buffed uniques play out, I will get back to this and rebuild the gear sections. I will also play on softcore for legacy, so chances are that I can post some updated videos that are not from standard with cheesy gear. Necromancer ED gameplay from 2.6: Merciless Dried Lake - level 67, a few hours into Legacy, 198m xp/h Shaper LSC Uber Atziri LSC ------------------- There are a ton of Essence Drain builds and guides out there, but all of them look so slow and clunky to me. Since most people use Consuming Dark for their ED builds, it is natural to use whirling blades with that as well. Personally I dislike whirling blades with Consuming Dark, since you have poor control over distance, and the attack/movement speed is very poor for casters. This becomes more of a problem for Essence Drain, and especially the Low Life versions of the build, as we have so few gem slots available to us. Personally I feel that this version of the build is vastly superior to some of the other ED builds when it comes to Uber Lab farm, as well as being very powerful for other content. My version of a fast ED char therefore utilizes more pots and flame dash to keep the speed up. I will link my gear and a few videos showing off how the build plays. Hopefully this will give you guys some ideas on different ways to play ED (Also 70k tooltip). Have fun! This is also a great build for the start of a league. It can be played self found up to red maps easily, and has an extremely high damage potential as you convert to Low Life. For more in depth information on ES based ED, check out Nat's guide.
Class - Occultist vs. Trickster (vs. Necromancer)
TL;DR: Trickster clears maps like a champ. Occultist kills bosses and runs though fire pits. When it comes to the class pick for an ED character, both Occultist and Trickster are very strong. Both ascendancies have mechanics that help our ES recharge as well as damage increase, but they work quite differently. I will first list all the stats the different choices gives us, then discuss the implications of them. Trickster - Patient Reaper, Swift Killer, Ghost Dance, Shade Form. 16% increased energy shield 16% increased evasion 16% increased attack and cast speed - 36% if recharge has started recently 40% damage over time 250 energy shield 500 evasion 5% spell and attack dodge Trickster temps us with some extra dodge and evasion, but for this comparison we will ignore everything that is not purely energy shield related. Trickster survivability relies entirely on Patient Reaper. This node gives 60% increased recovery rate of energy shield for 4 seconds after a kill. This might not seem like a huge deal, but let's math it up a bit. On the extreme end of DPS, my current trickster has over 70k tooltip DPS. ED regenerates 0.5% of the tooltip damage it does. We now apply ED to a monster in a pack of 20. The first enemy dies, giving us 60& increased recovery and 19 enemies with the ED DoT. We get 350 ES/sec per enemy, 6650 ES/sec from all 19 enemies, then we simply add the 60% for 10640 energy shield regenerated per second while we are fighting a realistically sized pack of monsters. This is a room of monsters on the way to Uber Atziri to show the regeration. Even with lower tooltips, tricksters gets a massive boost to regeneration while enemies are alive. Offensively Tricksters get frenzy charges on kill. We get 1 charge from Swift Killer and one charge from bandits, giving us a total of 5. This grants 20% more DPS and 20% increased attack and cast speed. Combined with the attack and cast speed from the rest of the ascendancy, Trickster is quite agile with almost 40% increased attack and cast speed. The problem with relying on frenzy charges is for triggered fights like Atziri, Izaro and Shaper, where charges are long gone before we even start fighting. Occultist - Void Beacon, Wicked Ward, Vile Bastion, Profane Bloom 32% increased energy shield 30% faster energy shield recharge rate 10% chaos damage 100 energy shield When it comes to ES management, Occultist regenerates 2% ES over 4 seconds for each enemy killed. This means that Occultists get some regeneration while enemies are alive through Essence Drain, but also regenerates after the enemies are dead. They are also stun immune while on max ES and once ES recharge kicks in, it cannot be interrupted for 4 seconds. This leaves Occultist with quite a lot of options when it comes to the passive tree. Unlike Trickster, Occultist does not rely entirely on Zealot's Oath to regenerate energy shield as well as being able to drop stun immunity from gear. Since she does not need ZO, Occultist is also the natural choice for a hybrid life/ES ED character. In terms of offense, Occultist relies on Void Beacon which reduces the chaos resistance of nearby enemies by 20%. This is as far as I know the only way to reduce chaos resistance in the game, and can be viewed as a 20% more damage for most enemies. For chaos resistant enemies however, the damage increase from this node is substantially better, and provides the largest DPS increase of the two ascendancy choices. Profane bloom also makes cursed enemies take 10% increased damage. This is quite nice, but not as strong as it first seems. Wither and shock also share the "%increased damage taken" stat. With a fully debuffed enemy, Profane Bloom makes the damage taken go from 190% increased to 200% (140% from Wither, 50% from shock, not including Vulnerability). Comparison: When it comes to the pure defense of the two ascendancies, it is hard to proclaim a straight up winner. Occultists get more % increased ES, and Tricksters get more flat ES. The two interesting points to compare is the recovery mechanics of the two and offensive capabilities. The Trickster is the easiest one. You need Zealot's Oath, and with it you get huge bursts of ES regeneration while fighting enemies. Occultists does not have the 60% increased recovery, but they are able to keep regenerating energy shield for a while after enemies are dead, making Occultists ideal for ignoring fire pits in the labyrinth for instance. Since this ES regen does not rely on Zealot's Oath, Occultists can drop it from the passive tree and spend points for other nodes. Offensively, the Trickster feels very agile and smooth to play compared to the Occultist. As an occultist you can compensate by grabbing more cast speed from the tree, but that will hurt your ED DoT damage quite a bit. Fully buffed, the trickster will have 20% more tooltip damage than the Occultist, but the Occultist makes up for that and adds a bit more by decreasing the chaos resistance of nearby enemies. When the frenzy charges drop from the Trickster, the Occultist is the clear winner in terms of straight up DPS. The Occultist has a more flexible passive tree as well, due to being less reliant on Zealot's Oath and stun immunity than the Trickster. Lastly I will mention the Necromancer. If you have played Low Life ED before, and you are comfortable with the playstyle, you might want to give the Necromancer a try. It relies on dual wielding Consuming Dark and The Scourge, granting it over 200% increased damage from the ascendancy and a minor passive tree change. The Necromancer also gets extreme amounts of cast speed by abusing Flesh Offering, and is able to stack poison very well with 30% additional skill effect duration. The Necromancer offers nothing in terms of survivability, and you are a dual wielding low life character. This makes the build very squishy compared to the other two, and you need very good gear to even get close to 10k ES. A Necromancer tree has been included in the passive tree section for those who value speed above all else. This is not for you if you play ED for the first time.
Leveling - Bandits and Ascendancies
Bandits
Trickster: Kill all, kill all, help Kraityn Occultist: Kill all, kill all or help Alira, kill all If you intend to stay hybrid for a while, or are worried you might die while leveling, you should help Oak on normal.
Ascendancy
Trickster: While leveling, the Patient Reaper is amazing to help manage mana while also giving you some damage, so I would go Patient Reaper > Swift Killer > Ghost Dance > Shade Form. The last two are mostly focused on energy shield, so there is no rush to take them before you start accumulating a healthy ES pool. You might even want to take one of the last two nodes after your merciless lab, and then use 10 regrets to take Ghost Dance and Shade Form after you have gotten all 8 points. Occultist: None of the ascendancies are gamebreaking. Pick Void Beacon first if you want damage, or go for Wicked Ward and Vile Bastion first if you want to sustain your energy shield better. Grab Profane Bloom as you see fit. I personally do not use it, and just spend travel points for my 4th ascendancy instead.
How I leveled and progressed in the Essence HC league + RIP video
This section might be useful for those starting an Essence Drainer in a fresh league, or for those who are simply curious to see how I choose to play the build. Normal: At the very start, I usually pick up freezing pulse or Etheral Knives to level with. EK is quite effective, as we start out grabbing some physical damage nodes in the tree. In the essence league, we get a lot of "Woe" essences in normal, so I quickly crafted 2 rather good rare wands to dual wield. at level 12, or when you reach Merveil's cavern, you get Essence Drain. I opted to level with ED, although it is EXTREMELY slow and clunky at this stage. Kill Merveil using ED, EK, Flame Dash burns and tears before you get to act 2 to get some support gems from Weaver. After Weaver is dead, you start to require more links than most early builds, which for me is the biggest headache when your stash consists of 4 Chromatic Orbs and half an Orb of Alchemy. Links for level 18: Essence Drain > Void Manipulation > Controlled destruction Contagion > faster Casting Wither > Spell Totem > Faster Casting At this stage, the build starts working reasonably well, but the tiny AoE is still an issue. I ended up helping oak in normal for the extra 40 life, just to be safe. Spam Quicksilvers, find big packs to kill and run to the library quest in act 3 as fast as you can. After the library quest, we get two key gems. Poison and Blasphemy. Use Poison as your 4th link on ED, and run Blasphemy + Temporal Chains, Arctic Armour and optionally Clarity for auras. We can now nuke bosses with poison stacks, but our DPS is still horrible, so you should grab a bleed flask for Dominus just in case. When I was farming Dried Lake some, my tree looked something like this:
Passive tree 40 points
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYAAAMeCPQOSBEvEZYWvx9BIvQmiCaVKwo2PT1fUlNVS13yYeJirGpDaoxsC2yMbRl2gn_GkyeXlZf0naqi2bDYtNG1SLcwwFTIDMgU6FrrY_Vv
Go for the boss where you have the best resist first, good fire resist is Kaom first, good cold resist is Daresso first. I managed to hit level 38 just before I killed both of them, so now you need even more gems and links. (My) links for level 38: Essence Drain > Void Manipulation > Controlled destruction > Poison Contagion > faster Casting > Increased Area of Effect > Abyssal Cry Wither > Spell Totem > Faster Casting Flame Dash > faster Casting Blasphemy > Temporal Chains > Arctic Armour > Clarity Lightning Golem > Blind - This is a very useful setup for bosses, as the Orb of Storms he uses blinds the bosses a lot. Cruel: In Cruel, the build actually starts working, and the speed drastically increases my priorities here was to max out my resists, start thinking about merciless resists, and consider how much travel I could get away with in my tree while still maintaining an ok clear speed. I opted to get dual curses as soon as I could, and swapped out Arctic Armour for Enfeeble. In Cruel, I also swapped out my Dual Wield wand setup for a shield. I killed all the bandits on cruel, although I would respec Alira to cast speed somewhere around lvl 95+. I usually run normal labyrinth once I get an instant flask on the Hallowed life flask base.
Passive Tree 71 points
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYAAAMeA-4EBwj0DkgRLxGWFr8YahzcHb4fQSL0JogmlSj6KwozhzY9Olg9X0WdTLNSU1KvU1JVS1XGWAdd8mHiYqxn_GpDaoxsC2yMbRl2gngvfOV_xoLHg9uPGo9GkyeXlZf0muCboZ2qotmnCKyYsNi00bVItzC4k7tNwFTIDMgU3V_oWutj6-71b_fX-eg=
At this stage, there is not much travel left to do in the tree, but both dexterity and strength starts to become an issue. You can get this from jewelry or the 30 str/dex nodes in the passive tree for the time being. These issues will go away as we start our way down towards ranger in the passive tree. Merciless: I was lucky with a few drops, and was over 50% on all my resists as I entered Merciless. If that is not the case, you might want to consider swapping out Enfeeble for Purity of Elements for a little while. On my way to Merveil in Merciless, I stumbled across a Drillneck, which I then traded for a Consuming Dark. They were roughly the same price, and nobody had enough currency to buy either. With a Consuming Dark in hand, I swapped out Poison for Rapid Decay, and cried tears of joy. I then ran cruel labyrinth once I had some good Divine flasks in my belt. Time to grind Dried Lake. End Game: By now my passive tree looked something like this:
Passive tree level 70, 91 points
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYAAAMeA-4EBwj0DkgOXA-rES8Rlha_GGoZihzcHb4fQSL0JIsmiCaVKPorCjOHNj06WD1fQYdFfkWdSRNMs1JTUq9TUlVLVcZYB13yYeJiWmKsZ_xqQ2qMavpsC2yMbRl2gngvfOV_xoLHg9uJ4I8aj0aTH5MnlwaXlZf0muCboZ2qotmnCKyYsNi00bVItzC3PriTu03AVMM6xKLIDMgU2L3dX9-Y5ljoWutj6-71b_fX-ej-CvJFOuGmVzWS_o9N4w==
At this stage, it is time to find Zana, start exploring the Atlas and get a 5-link. to make it as cost effective as possible, you should look for an evasion or evasion/energy shield base, as you want 2 blue and 3 green sockets. Any merciless+ base that is ilvl 72+ will do at this stage. throw 2-3 alch/scours on it and pray for a good life roll, a resist and maybe even some extra evasion/ES. A Tabula Rasa is not a bad choice, but I usually stay away from it. Flasks are also getting more relevant, as we finally have some flask nodes. I opted for 2x Divine Life flasks, Basalt, Jade and Quicksilver at this stage. Freeze/chill immune on Quicksilver, curse immune on Jade, reduced charges used and % evasion on Basalt, bleed/poison immune on life. As I was progressing through maps, I started disliking the hybrid life/eva/es setup more and more, and was itching to go CI. I decided I had enough currency to transition at level 85, so I prioritized the gear for the transition like this: Eye of Chayula > 5L ilvl 72+ Vaal Regalia for a tier 6 Woe essence > Shield with 350+ ES > Heavy Belt with reduced flask charges used to sustain flasks and the strength requirement > 25%+ movement speed boots/gloves/helmet with ok ES I transitioned to CI and went to respec my life from Oak to a passive point.
Passive tree after CI transition, 106 points, level 86
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYAAAMeA-6nKw5IDlwPqxEvEZYWvxhqGYoc3B2-H0Ei9CSLJoihLyj6Kwozh8rT6QI9Xyy_RX73wUkTTLNSU1KvGmzqukuuWAdd8rQMYlq-imf8NblqjGr6bAsNfG0ZdoJ4L3zlf8aCxxslieCPGo9Gkx-TJ5cGl5WX9J2um6FXyaLZpwjZW7DYtNG1SLcw7Bi4k7tNEVDDOsSiyAzIFI_63V_fmOZY6FrrY-vu9W_31_noSVHw1ZUuBx4aj_ba-wlwuxXXhq5WY1xAh8unm3WezxXviPk3189JsQ==
I now started running Blasphemy > Temporal Chains > Enfeeble > Discipline as my aura setup, which left me with very little mana unreserved. I was very lucky in my Merciless lab run, and got leech on my boots, so on map clearing, mana was not an issue, and most bosses I managed to kill before the leech ran out. Once I was CI, I started grinding money for my Low Life setup. As CI we no longer need life flasks, and the sweet, sweet life of 5 utility flasks can start. At this point you have two options: running an armour/block based setup, or pure evasion. In hindsight, having a Rumi's might have saved me when I ripped, but that would still have been a very slim chance. I prefer pure evasion:
Flask Setup
Stibnite Flask with bleed immunity + prefix of your choice Basalt Flask with reduced charges used + % evasion Jade Flask with longer duration/reduced charges used + curse immunity Quartz Flask with reduced charges used + movement speed Quicksilver Flask with reduced charges/prefix of your choice + freeze/chill immunity I used to use a Silver Flask instead of the Quartz - and still do for Uber Lab, but the Quartz flask is amazing for clearing maps, killing porcupines, dealing with pesky "allies cannot die" packs due to our lack of 100% pierce, and making us look great. As CI with 10k+ ES, Atziri, Vinktar Square and Uber Lab all becomes a walk in the park. However, the dps isn't quite there to do the hardest 4 key run mods in Uber Lab before you go Low Life. After a couple of Vinktars, I was able to get my Heretic's Veil and upgrade some of my worse gear. At the end of day 3, I had bought my Shav's. I had hardly used any jews/fus at this stage, and was hoping for a quick 6S5L. 400 jews and 30 fus later, i had a 6L, and got GGGRBB colours in just 250 chroms (I know, I hated my luck as well). However, this being day 3 of the league, there were no empowers around, so I started using a Reduced Mana as my 6th link, and continued progression in the Atlas. This video is from day 5 I think, when we had a pretty good Uber Lab layout. I was still on my 5L+ Reduced Mana at this stage. Uber Lab farm, Essence HC My offslot empowers were leveling, and on the second lvl 2 empower corrupt, I hit a level 3. Then I managed to get hold of a +1 maximum curse Eye of Chayula, and swapped in Witchfire Brew instead of my Stibnite Flask. Then I died: RIP Essence HC, 5th on the ladder, 2% off level 95
Gem Priorities
Main link: Essence Drain > Void Manipulation > Controlled Destruction > Rapid Decay > Pierce/Slower Projectiles > Empower level 4/Slower Projectiles/Pierce Use Pierce or Slower Projectiles depending on what kind of utility you want. Slower projectiles gives you 10% more DPS, but Pierce adds some nice utility. Do not use Empower unless you have one in level 4.
Empower vs. Pierce as 6th link
Imported my Necromancer ED character to path of building. Ignore the DPS numbers, for this comparison we are interested in the percentages. This calculation is vs. Shaper with 20 Wither stacks and nothing more. It shows that even against a boss that has 50% reduced poison duration (and in perfect conditions), Pierce is better than Empower 4 as a 6th link on a boss. This is simulated DPS however, and in most "real world" cases, you will most likely be more comfortable with Empower 4. The important thing here is that you should not stress too much about getting Empower, and just stick to BBGGGG until you are swimming in currency.  Wither: Wither = Spell Totem > Faster Casting > (Increased Duration) Contagion: Contagion > Increased Area of Effect > Faster Casting > (Flame Dash/Abyssal Cry) Curses: Blasphemy = Temporal Chains > Enfeeble > (Vulnerability) With the introduction of Witchfire Brew, you can drop the third curse from your blasphemy setup and get it from the flask instead. Note that the uptime for bosses will be reduced, and you still need +1 curse from your gear to utilize all 3 at the same time. As life based you have 2 3-links (or 1 4L if you have Wither totem in a 3L), and as Low Life you have 1 3-Link and some unlinked sockets avalible, so I made the list below so that you can pick whatever you like for the last utility sockets. There are more options, but these are the ones I like the most. Personal Preference: Abyssal Cry > Increased Area of Effect Flame Dash > Faster Casting Cast When Damage Taken = Immortal Call > Increased Duration Vaal Lightning Trap Vaal Haste/Discipline/Grace > Increased Duration Enduring Cry
Playstyle
Keep Silver and Quicksilver flask up as you run from pack to pack. As you stop to cast, pop defensive flasks. You want to use Contagion first, then ED. On packs with high health and porcupines, flamedash into the pack after contagion, apply Abyssal Cry, dash out, throw an ED into the pack, get screen freeze. On bosses you apply Essence Drain, throw down Wither Totem, place a Vaal Lightning trap, and then spam Essence Drain or kite as needed. The kiting bit usually is not needed as everything dies after a few seconds. If you play with decay, there is no need to spam ED. One hit every 4-5 seconds will maximize DPS. Spend your time making sure the wither totem is active instead.
Passives
There are a lot of options on the Life version of the tree, but I usually prepare for CI quite early, and prefer to play hybrid life/ES. If you opt to stay hybrid, I would play as an Occultist instead. Occultists can regen life and ES at the same time, while also having a lot of other handy utility from their ascendancies. I take increased skill effect duration in all my trees. If you play with decay only, and you are not at all interested in poison, you can drop these nodes.
Life
If you want to play Occultist, you simply start out the path you prefer. Take the ES path for tankiness or the spell damage path for extra damage. http://poeplanner.com/AAIAAVRBQUlHQWdBQWU3RFlvdG5JRlBWdmFvd1d2eWFWWWVKVlM3VFJ5QXgyZ3JWSTYyTTJQWjJxYkl4aXJBTWVIMEVyQ2wzeURraTNNT2hhSm9nUmxnY2VsUzd3MVVsUmpfcGNRSWZMcDV0MW5zOFZmOGFUSi0tSS1UZlh6MG14YkFzaTlNQlVha050R1pmMFVsTTlYNWVWVExQUUgtX3JSWDRPWEdyNkJBZUQyMVhHT2xpc21QZlhVcS03VGQxZlpfeWJvUmhxZUM5ODVWZ0hqMGFuQ092dW11QkZuVk5TSE55UEdyaVRLUHFDeHgyLU00Y0Q3dm5vTXRGRlI4Qm1CTE9pQVBBZmFQSThCZTk4bjk5Qmg3Yy1fZ3JZdlRXU19vOU40NlpYT3VIeVJaeS1EUjg4S0FqMHZvcWhMeEV2a1VlQXN6eTIyanY1cEhEVVRJTjBnUT09ABBBQUFDQUFmUUFRSDBBUUFBAAA=
CI
Note that as CI the hardest part is to manage mana well. In addition to the aura reserve nodes, you should use Heretic's Veil and get some % mana regeneration on your gear. http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAPsmAAB7sNii2cgU9W9qjBa_tNHIDHaCtUjrYwMeH0ErCl3yDki3MOhaJogRlgcelS7w1UlRj_pcQIfLp5t1ns8Vf8aTJ--I-TfXz0mxbAsi9G0Zl_RSUz1fl5VMs9Af7-tFfg5cavr311Kvu03dX2f8m6EYangvfOVYB49Gpwjr7hzcjxq4kyj6gscdvjOHA-756L6KoS_ZWxslS67pAuwYLL8V14auVmMPqySLwzoZivsJ9toaj4ng5liTH0kTm7WExZcGxKLfmGJaV8kNfOq6tAzK0xEvEVA1uacrhEhca8NtHRT60vfBcLuRR4CzPLbaO_mkcNRMg3SBAAAAAAA= If you play Occultist, you can spend a few extra points connecting the two parts of the tree differently for a more offensive focus: http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAP8TAAB9sNii2cgU9W9qjBa_tNHIDHaCtUjrYwMeH0ErCl3yDki3MOhaJogRlgcelS7w1UlRj_pcQIfLp5t1ns8Vf8aTJ2wLIvRtGZf0UlM9X5eVTLPQH-_rRX4OXGr699dSr7tN3V9n_JuhGGp4L3zlWAePRqcI6-4c3I8auJMo-oLHHb4zhwPu-ei-iqEv2VsbJUuu6QLsGCy_FdeGrlZjD6ski8M6GYr7CfbaGo-J4OZYkx9JE5u1hMWXBsSi35hiWlfJDXwRLxFQNbmnK4RIXGvDbR0U-tL3wXC734rfsIIQj6ZEq1WuLJwRLXyDu_wVfsb3knR-oWnYfPAaSAAAAAAA
Low Life
This is the base line Low Life tree. There are several valid options to choose between. Grabbing Amplify will be nice for AoE clear and ranger projectile nodes are amazing for single target damage. Build your character according to whatever content you wish to focus on. http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAP8mAAB9sNii2cgU9W9qjBa_tNHIDHaCtUjrYxEvAx4fQSsKXfIOSLcw6FomiBGWBx6VLvDVSVGP-lxAh8unm3WezxV_xpMnXIrviPk3189JsXvXvoqhL8rTtAzqug18V8ko-riTHNyPGuvupwiPRpuhGGp4L3zlWAf311Kvu03dX2f8hEhca8NtbAsi9G0ZEVA1uacrl_RSUz1fl5VMs0V-Dlxq-tAf7-uCx_noHb4zhwPu2VsbJUuu6QIdFPrS98EPqySLwzqJ4OZYkx9JExmKlwbEot-YYlqhIvT4okAB0a_rN4Om6yymkNabtYTFkUeAszy22jv5pHDUTIN0gQAAAAAA As an Occultist, you have more options when it comes to the passive tree. You don't rely as heavily on Zealot's Oath as a Trickster does, and you can connect the tree differently by using both Witch start paths. A few examples of Occultist trees, first the one I usually use: http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAQMTAAB_sNii2cgU9W9qjBa_tNHIDHaCtUjrYxEvAx4fQSsKXfIOSLcw6FomiBGWBx6VLvDVSVGP-lxAh8unm3WezxV_xpMnXIp71w18V8ko-riTHNyPGuvupwiPRpuhGGp4L3zlWAf311Kvu03dX2f8hEhca8NtbAsi9G0ZEVA1uacrl_RSUz1fl5VMs0V-Dlxq-tAf7-uCx_noHb4zhwPu2VsbJUuu6QIdFPrS98EPqySLwzqJ4OZYkx9JExmKlwbEot-YYlqhIvT4okAB0a_rN4Om6yymkNabtYTF34rfsIIQj6ZEq1WuLJwRLXyDvoqhL7v8FX7G95J0fqFp2BpIfPAAAAAAAA== Energy from within in the jewel socket at Witch flask nodes: http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAP8TAAB9sNii2cgU9W9qjBa_tNHIDHaCtUjrYxEvAx4fQSsKXfIOSLcw6FomiBGWBx6VLvDVSVGP-lxAh8unm3WezxV_xpMnXIp71w18m6EYangvfOVYB_fXUq-7Td1fZ_yESFxrw21sCyL0bRkRUDW5pyuX9FJTPV-XlUyzRX4OXGr60B_v69lbGyVLrukCD6ski8M6ieDmWJMfSRMZipcGxKLfmGJaoSL0-KJAAdGv65u1hMXfit-wghCPpkSrVa4snL6KoS_qurQMytMI9MBUakMEB4PbVcY6WKyYNAo3ZiymkNZGcYMJsZAtqL6Au_wVfsb3knR-oWnYGkh88AAAAAAA Taking the templar AoE nodes for extra AoE clear speed: http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAP8TAAB9sNii2cgU9W9qjBa_tNHIDHaCtUjrYxEvAx4fQSsKXfIOSLcw6FomiBGWBx6VLvDVSVGP-lxAh8unm3WezxV_xpMnXIp71w18m6EYangvfOVYB_fXUq-7Td1fZ_yESFxrw21sCyL0bRkRUDW5pyuX9FJTPV-XlUyzRX4OXGr60B_v69lbGyVLrukCD6ski8M6ieDmWJMfSRMZipcGxKLfmGJaoSL0-KJAAdGv65u1hMXfit-wghCPpkSrVa4snL6KoS_qurQMytM0CjdmLKaQ1o9Gpwjr7hzcjxoRLXyDMtFFR8BmPAXvfJ_fu_wVfsb3knR-oWnYGkh88AAAAAAA Necromancer passive tree I used in 2.6: http://poeplanner.com/AAYAAP0zAAB8sNii2cgU9W9qjBa_tNHIDHaCtUjrYxEvAx4fQSsKXfIOSLcw6FomiBGWBx6VLvDVSVGP-lxAh8unm3WezxV_xpMnXIp715uhGGp4L3zlWAf311Kvu03dX2f8hEhca8NtbAsi9G0ZEVA1uacrl_RSUz1fl5VMs0V-Dlxq-tAf7-vZWxslS67pAg-rJIvDOong5liTH0kTGYqXBsSi35hiWpu1hMXfsIIQj6ZEq1WuLJy-iqEvj0anCOvuHNyPGhEtfIPsimvbuJMo-oLH0_v56B2-M4cD7lfJDXw3g6brLKaQ1h0U-tL3wZuKvk9Ijg3iFSeMseyD048AAAAAAA==
Weapon Setups
One of the most interesting parts of an Essence Drain character is the weapon setups. We have quite a few setups to choose between, and all of them provides excellent utility or damage for what we use them for. First I will mention the possibility of using a bow and the Soulstrike quiver. By using a bow it is quite easy to get both decay and +1 to socketed gems. This will result in the highest dps tooltip we can get within a reasonable budget. I do not have or like to use the bow setup, since it means you are locked to the bow (The bow will be your Essence Drain 6L, and you have to recolour your chest every time you want to swap to a different kind of setup). When it comes to one handed weapons, we have a lot of choice. There are two interesting effects we can apply on hit; decay and poison. Decay is a flat 750 DPS DoT that lasts for 10 seconds. Like Essence Drain, this effect does not stack. By comparison, our Essence Drain does 809 DPS at level 20, effectively doubling our DPS on enemies that we hit with our ED projectile. Poison on the other hand applies a very small DoT that lasts 2 seconds and deals 8% of the initial hit of Essence Drain per second. This effect does stack, and it "double dips" with our damage bonuses. This means that at low gear/gem levels, poison is pretty bad compared to decay, but as your gear improves, poison starts to catch up in terms of DPS. After I have gone through the different weapon types, I will get back to the poison and decay scaling. I will try to highlight the strong points of each kind of base item or unique item below and show the setups that I like to use: Bases you can use Essence of Delirium on: Daggers: Since we don't care about crit, we want the Sai base when we are looking at daggers. The Sai gives us 6% block, and more defense is good regardless of intent. The benefit of using a dagger is that you can use both Whirling Blades and Shield Charge with it depending on your offhand. Due to these two reasons, a Sai is the most versatile weapon you can choose. Even a bad Sai is a good Sai: Scepres: There are no implicit rolls on sceptres that we care about. The only reason to use a sceptre over a dagger is the possibility of getting cast speed when you use your Essence of Delirium. Sceptres are only used as an offhand to Consuming Dark or as a main hand when you move with Shield Charge. Example of a sceptre: Wands: If you are like me and prefer to run and use Flame Dash to get over obstacles, the wand is your friend. Opal Wands can get up to 42% spell damage as an implicit roll, and all wands can roll stats we want like cast speed and projectile speed in addition to spell damage and mana regeneration. Example wand: Uniques: Consuming Dark: The Consuming Dark dagger has always been a favourite for ED characters. It has high intelligence and spell damage, as well as a "free" 7th link by letting chaos damage poison on hit. This is the best way for us to get poison. You should always try to get a Consuming Dark for your character, even though you will most likely use Decay most of the time. Breath of the Council: This weapon is only used as an offhand, since it provides neither poison nor decay on it's own. Most players will opt for a shield instead of a BotC, but there are situations where it is highly desirable. It gives up to 80% increased chaos damage and 10% increased area of effect, which is nice on it's own. More importantly, it gives us 40% increased chaos skill effect duration, which increases the duration of everything we do. This is most relevant when it comes to stacking poison on harder bosses, and enables an ED character to pack a quite significant punch. There are other uniques that can be nice as well, but for end game it is these two that are most relevant. If you have a poor economy, a Divinarius might be a good choice for offhand before you can get a BotC. When you are choosing your weapon at the start of a league or while leveling a new character, the Consuming Dark is a natural choice. It provides good stats and effectively adds another link to your ED setup. While leveling and gearing up through maps, this dagger is significantly worse than a decay weapon, as you don't have enough increased damage to make the "double dipping" quite worth it. We still get it since it is relatively cheap compared to a decay weapon, and works well until you can get a substitute. Once you get hold of a decay weapon, you are able to spread your Essence Drain much more effectively, and might be able to rely less on abyssal cry to clear packs. This changes again when you get to the ultra end-game. When you have your 6L Shav's and level 4 empower, you should have so high increased damage that the poison DoT that Consuming Dark provides is half that of decay. Your damage should also be so high that you really don't care about DPS for anything else than map bosses, and poison stacking is interesting once again. It is here that you can try different kind of setups, whether it is dual wielding CD and BotC, CD or a decay weapon, or just a decay wand or a high ES shield. The latter is my favourite, and I use it for everything except Shaper. For Shaper, decay alone starts to get quite lackluster, and I opt to focus solely on stacking poison.
Gear and Jewels
The characters are on standard now. The hybrid gear section is my gear from Prophecy HC, and my Low Life gear is a mix from the ED characters I played in Talisman HC, Perandus HC and Essence HC. The ONLY mandatory part is Shavronne's Wrappings for the Low Life version of the build. As CI you also want to use Heretic's Veil if you want to use two curses and discipline at the same time. When it comes to jewels, you want anything that gives a lot of spell damage, projectile damage or chaos damage. % Increased Energy shield and faster casting are also nice stats.
Hybrid
Low Life/CI gear
At this gem/gear level, I usually stick with Consuming Dark and a shield. Decay is a better option when you have 5L and low level gems. If you play Occultist, you might want to craft rings like these. To craft them yourself, you need Leo level 3 and Elreon level 8: As CI, mana is more of an issue since we want to run dual curse + discipline and hopefully a low level clarity off mana. This makes Heretic's Veil a strong option for the CI build:
Recordings
Here are some fights with this build. Most of the guardians are recordings from my first or second kill, so there are a lot of room for improvement when it comes to maximizing DPS. Some of these fights are from 2.4 and some from 2.5. The decay nerf decreases our DPS by about 10-15%, so I did not bother to re-record some of the fights (I also don't have the maps). Chimera Hydra Minotaur full clear - Poison only Phoenix full clear - Decay Shaper Deathless - Decay + Poison Shaper Deathless, no portals used - Poison only Uber Atziri Overgrown Ruin - temp chains, no regen, -16% maxres, turbo, tripple added elemental, power charges
2.3
I am also including a Waterways clear where i play with righteous fire, just as a proof of concept for the tooltip warriors (15-20 points respec from the Low Life tree)
4 key run in Uber Lab, Conduits, Portals and golden key. 8 min. Colloseum full clear. 4 min. Waterways as LL RF ED Gorge clear, 17 remaining. 2 min.
ED tooltips 2.3
Low Life:  RF: 
League Comments on ED viability pre 2.6
ED in Breach leagues
As always I rolled ED as my league starter. I am still playing Trickster as it has amazing survivability, but considering playing Occultist more and more for the higher damage output but slower pace (which could be compensated for by grabbing some cast speed in the tree). I ripped 2 times while leveling. Once to a breach due to uncapped resists, once to a one shot from Uul-Netol as I was getting ready for my CI transition, and the final time to Quay double boss corpse explosion. I decided to stick to CI this time around and not go Low Life at all. I got terrified by a Chayula breach, and Decided that I did not want to go Low Life before I could get the upgraded Chayula neck. I never got that far however. Gonna play around with other builds for the remainder of the league, but I will keep updating and helping people in this thread as questions arise. Below is both my higher level rips and my gear on the third rip. An average breach in a tier 14 map. Including "allies cannot die" and Haast. Stay Safe! Uul-Netol Instagib Quay Boss Instagib Last edited by Nedieth on Oct 9, 2017, 11:13:28 PM Last bumped on Aug 16, 2017, 6:54:39 AM
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Added a section at gem priorities > empower vs. pierce as 6th link.
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Excellent write up, I have a level 30 or so witch and am going to follow your guide. Hoping I have enough funds to get it there
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Excellent guide, very well written, and lots of alternatives and ideas to play around with. Thanks for all your help!
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Cheers! Will add a TL;DR section when I get more burned out on the current league highlighting the different playstyles and priorities of the builds. It seems like a lot of people get a bit confused what to do/prioritize when they have lvl 19 gems in a 5L regalia.
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Great guide! Been following the hybrid one. One thing though: I feel really squishy and have been close to dying several times even tho i play like lvl 5-8 maps. Phys dmg hurts like hell. Still got very budget gear, would you mind checking out my stuff and recommending what to get next?
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Your characters are private. If you are dual cursing in your hybrid setup, are you making sure most enemies are in range of the curses? blasphemy aoe took a pretty bad hit in 2.6, and you really need to play smart to make your curses be effective.
Also, flasks. All day, every day. | |
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Oh sorry, they should be public now. Im running temp chains in cwdt currently since i have been waiting to acquire witchfire brew. Been updating my gear some and doing t10-11 maps with relative ease. Im noticing that my damage is starting to slack off a bit though but my survivability is alright now atleast, and i havent done uber labs yet.
Cheers! | |
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So this is my current setup, gonna get witchfire brew asap. My goal with this character is to kill shaper since i started playing this league and want to experience all the content before 3.0. Any gear suggestions? Are the boots viable? | |
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all your gear looks just fine. My only concern is that your defenses will not be able to keep up for more challenging content like guardians and shaper if you choose to stay life based. The combination of both decay and poison is very nice, but my guess is that you need to invest quite a bit to be able to get through the game.
Back in Perandus, I did a a hybrid character like yours. I was able to clear all the tier 15 content (max back then) with relative ease, but guardians is a whole other ballpark. My recommendation would be to look into the CI option. It would leave you at lower DPS, but at least you would have the EHP pool to be able to screw up slightly on all the guardians and shaper. If you are OK with dying and getting the rest done on standard, you could just keep your setup as is (with potential upgrades). Once your cospri's is a 6L and you have level 21 ED, you have the tools you need to get through the game if you play it well. |
