[2.6] CI Blight Tanky Trickster - New League, Budget, and Beginner Viable (SSF and HC TC WIP)

"Now that was Fun!"



Introduction:

I have been playing POE from the beginning and old old days. I Don't get to play like a crazy person ( as much as I'd like) Because I work full Time and Have a family as I am a Bit old myself =) I have never come up with anything I thought worthy to create a build guide for but here is my first attempt so please be gentle. This toon has a funny name for a caster build but I converted a melee shadow I had so I would not have to start from scratch. This is my project for a Trickster using Blight and Chaos Inoculation. I have been using the Path of Building application to help me along the way.

With decent ES gear we should be able to go CI at around lvl 65-70 with very little Re-spec (5 points) for optimum effect we can upgrade our Flame totem using Rapid Decay or an Added Chaos Damage gem as soon as we can get our hands on a Heartbreaker Royal Skean.

What I expect at around level 90 :

Spoiler
For Defense (Without Flask) we should have around 1k ES regen and 13k ES. Including 5-18% physical damage reduction, 27% evade, 28% block, 21% Spell Block, 5% to dodge attacks and spells.

Our offence includes Abyssal cry ( for exploding the screen), A Poison, Culling, Flame Totem doing 4.8k DPS and our 1.6K blight DOT (we like to chew bubble gum and melt faces and we are all out of gum.)



This post will be updated as I move forward. Currently I am lvl 75 in Legacy SC. I Look forward to getting at least to 90 then trying this out in HC and SSF.

There is no required unique gear but I will list those that I believe optimize the build for leveling and end game.



Pros:
Spoiler
Budget to start - great for beginners and league starters
Highly Scale-able for min maxing in end game
No reflect worries
Great Solo and appreciated in parties
Great Clear speed


Cons:
Spoiler
Middle range leveling 30-60 can be a struggle solo
98% Chaos Damage and DOT Damage requires patience and clever play until high levels when we can (Melt)Face tank.




Leveling Guide:

Spoiler
We will be Leveling as a Hybrid Life / ES and rely on our gear to give us a chance at surviving as we go on a crazy wild chase around the passive tree that will seem at first like total insanity =) but there is a method to our madness.


Bandits :
Spoiler
Kill all x3



Helpful leveling Unique Items:
Spoiler
Lifesprig
Crest of Perandus
Wanderlust
Goldrim
Wurm's Molt
Atziri's Foible
Tabula Rasa



Acendency:

Spoiler
Step 1. Weave the Arcane
25% increased maximum Mana
50% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
20% chance to Recover 10% of Maximum Mana when you use a Skill
Reduce damage taken by 8% if you have spent a total of 200 mana recently.

Step 2. Ghost Dance
20% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge
5% chance to Dodge Attacks
5% chance to Dodge Spell Damage
10% increased Movement Speed while on Full Energy Shield

Step 3. Shade Form
+500 to Evasion Rating
+250 to maximum Energy Shield
20% increased Attack and Cast Speed if Energy
Shield Recharge has started Recently
20% more chance to Evade Attacks while not on full Energy Shield

Step 4. Patient Reaper
30% increased Damage over Time
60% increased Recovery Rate of Life, Mana and Energy Shield if you've Killed an Enemy affected by your Damage Over Time Recently


Leveling Tips :

If you are playing your first character, please skip this section and explore the game on your own. You won't get a second chance for a first impression.

Spoiler

But if it’s not your first character and you just want to get to endgame faster its been said that you can get a new char to merciless dried lake in about 7 hours of play (But that's just Crazy.. Right?). Here’s how to speedup leveling:

Spoiler

You need to move fast. Prioritize getting 2 quicksilver flasks. Do Medicine Chest quest (first side quest) for a flask if it’s your first character in a league. Learn to always be under the effect of these flasks. As you will kill monsters flasks will recharge. Id blue boots until you get a movement speed bonus on them. If you come across any spare quicksilver flasks you can use them to create or upgrade your movement speed boots by vendoring a white boots (create)/blue boots with move speed (upgrade) + Augmentation Orb + Quicksilver Flask. If you leveling your second+ char buy him Karui Ward unique amulet and WanderLust unique boots.
Don’t kill everything. You need to prioritize running forward over killing stuff. Try to kill only enough stuff to be around 4 levels lower that the zone you are currently running. Don’t waste time killing rares, try to aim for killing as much monsters per skill use as possible. If you fall behind in levels you might catch up in zones with high mobs density like act 2 Northern Forest and act 4 Dried lake.

Don’t waste your time in town. The less you are looking into vendors and organizing your stash the faster you will get to endgame. Also minimize picking up items and going to town to sell them. Do it only to get orbs you need to do your vendor recipes or potential upgrades to your current gear. You will get a lot more currency farming dried lake if you get to it fast.
Skip all side quests. except the ones that give you more passive points. You can do them later when you have faster movement and can ignore mobs because you’re over leveled.
Skip all masters. You get masters ex based on the zone level master is in. So doing your first mission in merciless can instantly set your master to level 2-3.
Skip doing lab until you are over leveled by 10+ levels at least. If you feel your surviving/killing while your leveling is ok and don’t need a boost don’t bother with the lab until merciless dried lake.

Keep your life flask up to date. Selling 3 of the same flasks will give you flask of 1 tier higher.
Use 4L for your damaging skills as soon as you can.

Keep your weapon up to date.
Use any rares or unique you have to increase spell damage, area of effect, and cast speed.
If you have no good rare or unique wands you can create Wands with (10 to 29%) Increased Spell Damage by selling Blue or Rare Chain Belt + Blacksmith's Whetstone + a Normal or Magic Wand, This Recipe always makes a magic (Blue) item. The rarity and ilevel of the Chain Belt determines the % roll: Magic (Blue) the "Apprentice's" mod (10-19%) and rare (Yellow) the "Adept's" mod (20-29%).


This is a good video guide to quick leveling as a caster:
Still works great in 2.60



If you want to level with Blight from the start here is my Leveling Gem Setups guide for this build:

Spoiler
lvl 1-3 Blight // Fire Trap

lvl 4-7 Blight // Flame Totem // Fire Trap.

lvl 8-17 :
2 Link = Blight - Void Manipulation
3 Link = Fire Trap - Multiple traps - Added Lightning Damage
2 Link = Flame Totem - Blind
Flame dash (at 10)
Clairity (at 10)

lvl 18-23
3 Link = Blight - Void Manipulation - Controlled destrcution
3 Link = Fire Trap - Multiple traps - added lightning damage
3 Link = FlameTotem - Blind - culling strike
Flame dash (at 10)
Clairity (at 10)
Arctic armor (at 16)

lvl 24-30
3 Link = Blight - Void Manipulation - Controlled destrcution
3 Link = Fire Trap - Multiple traps - Added Lightning Damage
3 Link = FlameTotem - Blind - Culling Strike
Flame dash
Clairity
Arctic armor
Vitality

lvl 31 - 37
3 Link = Blight - Void Manipulation - Controlled destrcution
3 Link = Fire Trap - Multiple traps - Added lightning damage
3 Link = FlameTotem - Blind - Culling strike
Flame Dash
Clairity
Arctic armor
Vitality


lvl 38 to end game (use auras and enlighten as you can afford it while getting your mana reserve nodes and riches)

Weapon / Shield
3 Link = Flame Totem + Poison + Culling Strike (until Heartbreaker then Added Chaos or Rapid Decay)
3 Link = Abyssal Cry + Increased AOE + Void Manipulation

Body Armor:
4 Link = Blight + Void Manipulation + Rapid Decay + Increased Area of effect (Swap to Concentrated Effect for bosses)
5 link = + Controlled Destruction
6 link = + Faster Casting

Helmet: Mix and match the below to work with your tree and play style.
3 link = Blasphemy + Vulnerability + Enlighten (lvl 2 +) until you have enough reserve from tree
1 link = Flame dash
or when you have enough mana reserve from tree
2 link = Blasphemy + Vulnerability
2 link = Flame dash + Faster casting
or If you can get a Heretics Veil then :
1 Link = Vulnerability
3 link = Flame Dash + Faster Casting + Added Burning Damage or maybe even a lightning warp set up ( LW + LD + FC)

Gloves: Again this will depend on your tree and mana reserve
4 Link = Arctic Armor + Discipline + Vitality + Enlighten (lvl 2 +) or Fun Vaal spell or Portal or Meh?!

Boots:
4 Link = Cast when Damage Taken (Max it out as you go.) + Immortal Call (match with CWDT) + Tempest Shield (match with CWDT) + Summon Chaos Golem (match with CWDT)



Gear Stat Priority:

Spoiler
Leech is worthless with Zealots oath so wait to take ZO at the same time you take the 4 CI nodes.
Ele Resits at 75 (make sure you do this as soon as you can once arriving at lions eye watch in Merc)
Energy shield and ES regen (Shoot for at least 7K ES and 700 ES regen before you go full CI)
Life Regen ( See ES regen)
Area of Effect
Area Damage
Damage over time
Chaos Damage
Spell Damage
Cast Speed
Mana
Item Rarity



End Game Unique Items set up example:

Spoiler
Heart Breaker - 1c
Rathpith Globe - 1c
Heretic's Veil - 10c
The Beast Fur Shawl - 4 link 10c, 5 link 30c, 6 Link 2ex
Le Heup of All - x2 4c up to 2ex (for both)
Bated Breath - 1c
Decent Rare ES Amulet - 10c
Decent Rare ES Sorcerer Gloves - 5c
Decent Rare ES Sorcerer Boots with 30% Movement Speed - 20c

So if we choose to go that route we are looking at needing about 62 Chaos at level 68 to have a great foundation. With about 5 ex later on we can update to higher standards of the above mix.



If We min-max I think the basics would be:

Spoiler

Weapon and Shield - 4ex
Should allways be Heartbreaker and Rathpith Globe. Get as close to perfect as you can.

Helmet - 3ex
Stick to Heritics Veil the best you can get.

Body Armour - 5ex
6 Link Beast Fur still a great option at 4ex

Amulet - 2ex
High Life regen, INT, and all the ES you can fit after resist are maxed

Rings - 5ex
I would stick to Le Huep Of All for both. Best you can get

Boots - 20ex
Shoot for 200 ES and 30% movement and any resists you need to fill the cracks

Gloves - 20ex
Shoot for 200 ES, INT, and any resists you need to fill the cracks

Belt - 1ex
Stick to Bated Breath the best you can get

So Look to spend around 60ex total to get this bad boy to elite status!


Recommended Flasks:
Spoiler

Sulphur of Warding and Staunching
Bismuth of Dousing
Rumi's Concoction or Granite of Grounding
Quicksilver of Heat


We will have 6 Jewel sockets so get stats on them in order of this priority:
Spoiler
55 total Strength ( an Efficient Training Jewel placed above and to the left of our starting area will take care of this nicely with a minimum of 66 Strength for just one passive)
Chaos Damage
Damage over time
Area Damage
Intelligence



For some Real Fun and tankyness or more damage you can get "The Anima Stone".
If you do this your endgame gear gems might look like this..

Spoiler
Weapon / Shield
3 Link = CWDT + Chaos Golem + Stone Golem for defence or Flame Golem for damage
3 Link = Abyssal Cry + Increased AOE + Void Manipulation

Body Armor:
4 Link = Blight + Void Manipulation + Rapid Decay + Increased Area of effect (Swap to Concentrated Effect for bosses)
5 link = + Controlled Destruction
6 link = + Faster Casting

Helmet: Must Be Heretics Veil
4 socket = Discipline - Arctic Armor - Vitality - Vulnerability

Gloves: Again this will depend on your tree and mana reserve
4 Link = Flame Totem + Faster Casting + Poison + Added Chaos Damage or Rapid Decay or Culling Strike if you don't have a Heartbreaker.

Boots:
3 Link = Cast when Damage Taken (high Level) + Immortal Call (match with CWDT) + Tempest Shield (match with CWDT)
1 Link = Flame Dash


Build Links:

Lvl 13


Lvl 22


Lvl 32


Lvl 40


Lvl 57


Lvl 70 - Time to go for CI


Lvl 80


Lvl 90


Lvl 100



If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.
Last edited by jesterx93 on May 16, 2017, 7:01:40 AM
Last bumped on Jul 28, 2017, 2:48:38 PM
"Now that was Fun!"
If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.
Last edited by jesterx93 on May 15, 2017, 5:40:22 PM
Great article,

Any chance you could please give 3.0 update. Seems like new blight jewels + new gems + trickster change could make this extremely viable (especially with all that frenzy charge move speed :D).

Thanks,
Tome

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