Chaos DoT Finally Getting Some Love in 3.26?

The title says it all. I previously shared a heartfelt plea about the state of Chaos DoT builds, but never received a proper response. Maybe this time we'll see some long-awaited attention? Here's hoping 3.26 brings a well-deserved boost to Essence Drain, Contagion, and the rest of the Chaos DoT arsenal.

I wish, but I am not sure, if this is even possible without a new support gem or full enemy HP rework.

ED/C + Blight was decent last league until you meet something big. The 15% damage buff was noticable and made it more than decent until late game.

One would either need a way that these skills do damage 80% faster or something or give them an intrinsic multiplier against beefy enemies.

Compared with e. g. Toxic Rain, which scales with Damage, DoT Multi and Attack Speed (potentially also with number of Ballistae, Area of Effect or Number of Projectiles), ED or Blight scales only with Damage and DoT Multiplier... Cast speed does not do much, Blight is capped at 15 stacks. Eventually x² is outclassed by x³...

And ED/C + Blight takes away 11 - 16 sockets.

I started PoE with ED/C and I miss it since Expedition =(

I miss ED+C too. Hope it gets buffed so its viable for endgame bossing. I'm not even asking for it to have uber-boss dps, just decent dps to kill all the other normal bosses in the game. Its such a fun build to map with, but its single-target is always what keeps me from playing it for years now.

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Probiotenmann#3415 wrote:

I wish, but I am not sure, if this is even possible without a new support gem or full enemy HP rework.

ED/C + Blight was decent last league until you meet something big. The 15% damage buff was noticable and made it more than decent until late game.

One would either need a way that these skills do damage 80% faster or something or give them an intrinsic multiplier against beefy enemies.

Compared with e. g. Toxic Rain, which scales with Damage, DoT Multi and Attack Speed (potentially also with number of Ballistae, Area of Effect or Number of Projectiles), ED or Blight scales only with Damage and DoT Multiplier... Cast speed does not do much, Blight is capped at 15 stacks. Eventually x² is outclassed by x³...

And ED/C + Blight takes away 11 - 16 sockets.

I started PoE with ED/C and I miss it since Expedition =(

That's exactly what I was thinking! I started my PoE journey with ED + Contagion, and it was a great way to get into the game. However, the recent HP buff has made it harder to keep up with the investment required—not just in terms of currency, but also the socket space. Plus, there are so many great defensive/aggressive options that can fill those sockets more effectively.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

I miss ED+C too. Hope it gets buffed so its viable for endgame bossing. I'm not even asking for it to have uber-boss dps, just decent dps to kill all the other normal bosses in the game. Its such a fun build to map with, but its single-target is always what keeps me from playing it for years now.

Definitely, we could pair ED of Desperation, which deals solid damage, with traps or mines to bypass the downside. However, I feel that losing life regen fundamentally breaks the essence of a Chaos DOT caster, or specifically saying a classical ED Contagion build. It no longer feels like playing a true Chaos DOT build ... it's more like being a trapper or miner in the end.

while it is not meta, and the build options are terribly limited (you stack levels, all the DoT nodes and do something with enemies chaos res - done, thats it) it still can get job done

and its true strength is in pretty much complete immunity to map, altar and expedition mods

having played 'stronger' builds (VFoSnaking, Frost Blades, LArrow and stuf) it is actually amazing how no brainer the gameplay is - esp given that I like expedition A LOT

there are not that many builds that can pretty reliably run blind 'double' (scarab) expeditions - chaos dot build cares only about ONE mod (immunity to chaos) - everything else is more or less doable


so yes, the top end is middling and the builds are limited, the ACTUAL performance is buttery smooth until the final few encounters. even rolling T17s is far less frustrating because you only care about few mods that everyone else also hate and the rest is free money

again. these builds/skills might have mid-tier numbers, but the actual performance and steady map churn is kinda cool

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sidtherat#1310 wrote:

while it is not meta, and the build options are terribly limited (you stack levels, all the DoT nodes and do something with enemies chaos res - done, thats it) it still can get job done

and its true strength is in pretty much complete immunity to map, altar and expedition mods

having played 'stronger' builds (VFoSnaking, Frost Blades, LArrow and stuf) it is actually amazing how no brainer the gameplay is - esp given that I like expedition A LOT

there are not that many builds that can pretty reliably run blind 'double' (scarab) expeditions - chaos dot build cares only about ONE mod (immunity to chaos) - everything else is more or less doable


so yes, the top end is middling and the builds are limited, the ACTUAL performance is buttery smooth until the final few encounters. even rolling T17s is far less frustrating because you only care about few mods that everyone else also hate and the rest is free money

again. these builds/skills might have mid-tier numbers, but the actual performance and steady map churn is kinda cool

No offesnse but im not sure if you played chaos dot a lot like me, when talk about expedition you probably refer to soulrend bypassing block and chaos explo while playing occultist ... okay great

The biggest upgrade for any build is always an Empower +4, which costs easily 10 divines + just to deal a similar amount of damage in the EARLY league. However, it still falls off later on, which is really frustrating.

I’m not a pro and I work full-time, but even I, someone who doesn’t care too much about clear speed and efficiency, switched to various other skills. And I noticed that I need so much less currency to run T14+ maps feeling good, with just a fraction of the currency I needed to invest for Chaos DOT. It really makes me question if it's in a good spot at all.

I don't expect to kill Maven in a single cast of ED, but when I can get my first 4 stones with a "random other" skill and scale it in different ways while maintaining solid map clear speed, it doesn't seem right that ED + Contagion can't perform equally well in higher map tiers. Whether it’s about clearing efficiently due to insane life pools on rares and even magic mobs now, or dealing with map bosses, it’s frustrating. On top of that, you have to sacrifice so many sockets in your gear just to achieve even worse damage compared to other skills. It feels like ED + Contagion is just not up to par, especially when compared to other builds that require less investment and provide better results.

My feeling is, you could give ED 100% more damage, it would still not (for me at least) be anything close to uber viable and it would be overtuned for high density low scaled T1-16 maps. Not sure, if there is a solution for it to become an allrounder skill.

It's a pity, it is for me one of the identity skills of PoE.

I wont go into D measuring contest - I will just say Ive played enough and seen enough

my Phrecia build (lvl95, Bog Shaman):


chaos DoT skills are perfectly viable in T16, with any juice except busted exiles (but most builds share the same limitation). they can do (not quickly) T17, and struggle with bosses due to - as you mentioned - poor bossing potential (also shared by other archetypes)

Empower 4, while powerful is barely 8% more damage than Empower 3, so I do not see it is a gate for viability.


Let me explain the expedition bit: you know the scarab that doubles your remnant modifiers? People farmed it in Phrecia because you got get Expedition mobs to 0 life with idols, so they instantly died. without this trick, this scarab is EXTREMELY dangerous and in most cases, on most builds makes expedition 100% undoable because of several build bricking mods/outright immunities (and reading trough them is unfeasible due to UI limitation)
Chaos DoT archetype is pretty much one of the best farmers of this content because - as mentioned before - it is very, very resilient to these mods

i consider it a viable 'strength' of a build. it might not be great single target, it might have mediocre clear but you can click altars without even looking at them closely

meanwhile meta builds like lightning strike gonna think twice before clicking 'you get no defences if you use frenzy charges'



i can see a point however, the supposed 'strength' of DoT builds - layering of several skills, kinda doesnt work because basic duration is too short. maybe increasing it by 50% would allow for actually stacking them (you can already, with Temp Chains - but making it a no-cost functionality would be a solid buff)

if anything, I find building defences on Chaos DoT harder - you just cannot beat 10% instant leech on a hit build. regen is fine, excellent in fact, but that instant recovery is too good to ignore

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Probiotenmann#3415 wrote:

My feeling is, you could give ED 100% more damage, it would still not (for me at least) be anything close to uber viable and it would be overtuned for high density low scaled T1-16 maps. Not sure, if there is a solution for it to become an allrounder skill.

It's a pity, it is for me one of the identity skills of PoE.

Exactly, I just want a decent ED+Contagion build that can kill endgame bosses like guardians,shaper(not uber bosses) in maybe 5-10 seconds with all buffs up? And still have the satisfying clear while farming t16s and stuff like Legion and Expedition. I'd love to play a CI chaos dot build like that again, haven't played one in yeeeears.

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sidtherat#1310 wrote:

Let me explain the expedition bit: you know the scarab that doubles your remnant modifiers? People farmed it in Phrecia because you got get Expedition mobs to 0 life with idols, so they instantly died. without this trick, this scarab is EXTREMELY dangerous and in most cases, on most builds makes expedition 100% undoable because of several build bricking mods/outright immunities (and reading trough them is unfeasible due to UI limitation)
Chaos DoT archetype is pretty much one of the best farmers of this content because - as mentioned before - it is very, very resilient to these mods

i consider it a viable 'strength' of a build. it might not be great single target, it might have mediocre clear but you can click altars without even looking at them closely

meanwhile meta builds like lightning strike gonna think twice before clicking 'you get no defences if you use frenzy charges'



i can see a point however, the supposed 'strength' of DoT builds - layering of several skills, kinda doesnt work because basic duration is too short. maybe increasing it by 50% would allow for actually stacking them (you can already, with Temp Chains - but making it a no-cost functionality would be a solid buff)

if anything, I find building defences on Chaos DoT harder - you just cannot beat 10% instant leech on a hit build. regen is fine, excellent in fact, but that instant recovery is too good to ignore

I understand your point, and I agree to some extent, but when it comes to layering multiple Chaos DOTs, I have to ask: where do we get the sockets from?

I’m okay with not being the fastest boss killer, but how do we actually stack Chaos DOTs? For example, you need a 6-link for Essence Drain + Contagion, a 4-link for Blight, a 4-link for Bane, plus at least a few auras and a movement skill… and suddenly, all the sockets are filled.

It just doesn't seem feasible.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

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Probiotenmann#3415 wrote:

My feeling is, you could give ED 100% more damage, it would still not (for me at least) be anything close to uber viable and it would be overtuned for high density low scaled T1-16 maps. Not sure, if there is a solution for it to become an allrounder skill.

It's a pity, it is for me one of the identity skills of PoE.

Exactly, I just want a decent ED+Contagion build that can kill endgame bosses like guardians,shaper(not uber bosses) in maybe 5-10 seconds with all buffs up? And still have the satisfying clear while farming t16s and stuff like Legion and Expedition. I'd love to play a CI chaos dot build like that again, haven't played one in yeeeears.

I actually have to disagree here. Personally, I think buffing the damage by an additional 100% would make it too powerful, especially for early mapping and progression (though I agree it wouldn't break uber bosses).

What I’d really like to see are more ways to scale Chaos DOT damage beyond just +levels and %damage. I feel like the build is missing the kind of shenanigans other builds enjoy—like gaining DOT or Chaos damage for every xyz of evasion, armor, life, etc.—and then scaling that further.

There are so many items for attack and caster builds that trigger on hit to scale damage, so where are the Chaos DOT items that give us similar flexibility?