Pre-word and Idea
July 2017 Update: I'm NOT playing beta, so this guide won't be updated for 3.0 until the release and then a few days later. From what I've seen I'd throw away one of the "blasphemed" curses (most likely staying with Enfeeble, with Temp.Chains socketed somewhere "just in case") - Blasphemy's not so pretty now with reduced radius, heavy investments in curses and powerful MoM alternative. Then stop thinking about squeezing in Discipline and get Mind Over Matter instead. Your toon should have quite a few layers of defense (hp pool + eva/dodge + Enfeeble + block + basic ES + MoM), dual-curse is still a thing but you have to apply second curse manually (and it's probably Vulnerability most of the time). Curse effectiveness isn't that attractive now, so drop that too for a few mana pool nodes. CI is kinda broken, I'd vote against it yet. They've added some new support gems and did something with projectile damage (seems it doesn't contribute to DoT part of ED), so I should dig a bit before the final build comes out.
Heard that eva/es shields got a new dodge implicit, now they look a bit more attractive but still a few questions remains: now much dodge and can they roll spell damage? This probably should be tested "on the field". And if RNGesus just might throw you an outstanding eva or eva/ES shield - there's not much reason to sell it, esp playing SSF.
We'll get something like this at 80 lvl, it's 3280 hp (186% life, 201% for 4 points later) + 631 ES + 2233 mana (like 740 hp thanks to MoM) - all of this totally naked. If this thing does the math properly, ofc.
At lvl 88 with good gear Path of Building shows like 5.5k hp and 2.2k ES, 30k DoT (6L), 2.8k mana, MoM included, and we're free to wear nearly anything with those stats. Just find any planner that supports 3.0 tree and check out this.
The future of ED is still bright, guys.
* *** *** * -* -*-* */-** *-* *- ** -*
Should check the new AoE of Contagion but pretty sure it's still ok (it is).
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And nobody said "ty", sure thing 😾
This is an another simple & cheap AF build, even safer than my BF totem templar AND even cheaper cuz you don't need a very specific multi-stat crit+spelldmg dagger (the best ones is 20c+ tho you barely need those). Ofc could be played solo self-found... well 99%, except ONE gem which is easy to buy - Spell Totem, but GGG said Siosa in A3 Library will sell every gem in 2.6, yay (he does).
Can't remember exactly who did inspired me, so I can't say it's totally my build, more like it's how I play with ED+C since the Talisman league, and it works fine since then.It's probably a bad idea to take this build to Guardians and Shaper himself - no leech, relatively low damage... I'm not saying it's impossible but the aim here isn't around top-tier endgame - red maps is our highest target. Maybe uber-Izaro. And good for farming too!
The basic idea is getting an extremely high-life (199%) biohazard - poop'n'run, if you like. Since we don't need crit, AoE or cast speed we're all about defenses, regen, curses and chaos/DoT/spell dmg. On the tree, major life nodes goes first in the priority, curse effectiveness is great but should be taken in late game.
Don't be hasty, it's an easy-going build to enjoy, not a ladder-breaker, speed-runner or high-end elitist's shit. Made for casual by casual.
And no vids guys n gals, leave it to pro bros.
We got ED presented in Build of the week section (not my build/guide). While it's a good work and a solid build by itself, it has three big flaws imo - 1) costs like limo; 2) requires full ascendancy (end-game Lab included, lmao); 3) 125 points tree, can't stop lmao'ing. Don't get me wrong, it's fine but "beginner-hostile", so to say.
Tree(s) and leveling
Another big plus is the way the Shadow takes, we got only two moments where we'd stuck at "what the hell is next" - it's pretty straightforward.28 points, phase one - we got a decent hp pool for such glassy char like Shadow, a basic regen and good piece of damage there. Two possible spells for lvling are Lightning Tendrils and Freezing Pulse. LT is less safe and meant for the lazies, FP is safer and reliable but you should pay more attention for aiming. Ethereal Knives is seemingly benefits from our tree but solo target damage isn't that impressive (not to mention we can't get +1 to EK level in our wand by crafting). Clarity is a good aura to have but don't level it further than lvl 3-5, eats mana like hell (and becomes obsolete soon enough). Fortunately, Essence Drain and Contagion both low-level so you can start spreading the plague very soon. Don't forget to get one Spell Totem gem for Wither, helps immensely as an off-tank and debuffer. Other gems that's important to us on this stage: Controlled Destruction (100% benefit cuz we don't crit anyway), Void Manipulation (another win) and Rapid Decay, which isn't that good but we can't be picky with ED. That's the spine of the whole spell combo.
65 points, phase two - a bit boring part, running for the templar area for some more hp and regen. We can start using Blasphemy with any curse you like (and leveling all three - Vulnerability, Enfeeble and Temporal Chains), Vul is good in safer parts and Enf in dangerous/vs bosses, TCh is great against leapers or any fast mobs. You could add up Arctic Armor if you feel squishy. Don't forget your trusty Stone Golem for tanking, helps a lot... when he does.
81 points, phase three - The Dual Curse and last damage nodes. Again, the most safer thing is running Temp + Enf, Vuln could go self-cast in case your Blasphemy isn't going overcurse already.
96 points, phase four - a shitloads of hp and we're mostly finished there.
110 points, final stage - last hp/ES points, heavy curse supports and increased duration cluster (would affect ED, IC and Vaal buffing skills). A little lower damage for more ES and one jewel closer, low cost respec: 110 points.
After some tinkering (since life-based build means pain, at least till 3.0), I've ended up with a possible respec: nearly the same 111 points CI version... and it's even better in damage. A few obvious changes - use ES stuff, bandits are kill-kill-kill, don't respec until 70 lvl and 1.5-2k pure unbuffed ES in town (the more the better). Try to squeeze in Discipline (Heretic's Veil seems mandatory then). Trouble is, even in 2.6 running, there's still a mighty possibility of nerfing ES/CI, so life-based with a spruce of ES is more "stable", so to say. And ED's life recovery won't work for CI even if you have Ghost Reaver or Zealot Oath (source 01, source 02), so basically you have to depend on pure ES regen and be ready to flee if things turns ugly.
Ok, if you really not a reader type, here's how I'm playing in Legacy. A little bit different than the usual path, but the core idea remains the same. Click to see a bigger pic.
Legacy SC progress
Entering A2 Normal camp (lvl 14, all of skillpoint quests is done):
tree
428 hp/17 ES
Main skill 2L [6%q ED 1 lvl]+[VM 3 lvl] chaos dmg (tooltip lowest numbers): 63.7
Used some stuff from other toons, but these things won't give many advantages except resistances, so ehp and damage numbers is very very plausible to SSF.
Didn't take Clarity at all.
Entering A3 Normal camp (lvl 25, all of skillpoint quests is done):
tree
931/97
Main skill 3L [6%q ED 4 lvl]+[VM 6 lvl] + [CD 2 lvl] chaos dmg: 366.1 (wand +1 chaos)
Lucky alt-roll on 3L Quartz Wand - got +1 to chaos spells, so damage is a bit higher than you'd expect with casual gear.
Running with Arctic Armor. With 3L had to use mana flask occasionally.
Entering A4 Normal camp (lvl 35, all of skillpoint quests is done):
tree
1328/119 (without Discipline)
Main skill 3L [15%q ED 4 lvl]+[VM 8 lvl] + [CD 5 lvl] chaos dmg: 786.3 (wand +1 chaos)
Put all of my GCPs into ED just for shit and giggles.
Bought Spell Totem, Discipline, all three curses, got Blasphemy. Now running Blasphemy+Vulnerability and Discipline. Voll's quest reward - Stone Golem, now we all set. I miss Clarity tho, but I'll get more mana soon and things should be easier.
That's the whole leveling process, not that fast but fairly lighthearted. Note that you'd better get 4L before taking out Kaom, Daresso and Malakhai himself, probably even Voll. Don't be afraid of using a "crutches" like +30 Str node or mana/manaregen, you'll spec out later.
Aftermath
There's a few points left, and I'd recommend to spend those for jewel slots (if you got some really good ones, four useful stats with three of them being damage affixes is considered good), Mana pool, Mana reservation, bigger Spell dmg nodes, probably Frenzy charge, maybe ES - be creative. Don't go for AoE, cast speed or (the worst) crit - AoE won't help you much (even worse with 2.6), cast speed is useless cuz we're not spamming any spell and crit is a total waste cuz DoTs won't crit.
Some weird paths, huh.
Method to the Madness is good but it's kinda out-of-way. Might be useful when you'll hit that 110 points tree or even earlier, but by that time you'll deal a hefty 25k+ tooltip DoT chaos dmg anyway and prolly won't see much of improvement.
We play as a life build but don't be shy with ES, you could arguably easily beat 1500 ES on top of your 5k+ hp, so these hybrid nodes is actually strong.
Why no jebbelz? It's actually not that hard to find a good one, but we're short on points early on, and if we gonna use jewel - it better be darn excellent 4-stats life-dmg-res one, which is rare/expensive. Anyway there's four "one point to get" slots on the tree, if anything - it should be sufficient.
Curse duration and effectiveness isn't that crucial, you could use instead reduced mana reservation nodes and Discipline for survivability. Otoh if you have some source of +1 to curses, these nodes is important for applying Vulnerability, both for longer and heavier effect.
The path from Witch's area to Templar's is quite shitty but I can't see any other way to reach all those stuff thru so little points invested (besides, that's the way to juicy spell damage nodes close to Witch start). Well, except being CI or going hybrid to the core.
You could set an experiment and get yourself a +3 bow and a Drillneck, after somewhat easy tuning (like dropping a few hp nodes and taking pierce cluster) - there is a mighty possibility to run both Caustic Arrow and ED with a possible sum of 60k+ chaos DoTs. Maybe I should check it myself.
UPD: u-huh, I knew it! Someone just did it in 2.6 with Occultist, using CA for pack clearing and ED for single target. Can recommend his build, pretty playable. Bonus points for being hardcore.
The "new" 2.6 Mind over Matter is tempting but we tend to reserve too much mana for curses (70%), AA (25%), Discipline (35%) or (probably but hardly) Clarity, and MoM just doesn't help with such tiny free mana pool. There is a possibility of playable MoM build if we will:
- throw away the blasphemed curses, +1 curse block, all of those curse nodes,
- take full MoM block,
- put Discipline or any defensive aura you like in Essence Worm ring (buy),
- get Clear Mind jewel (buy),
- go self-cast Vulnerability...
...then our ehp (hp+ES+mana) should be really good and damage is pretty, but that wasn't tested. Going CI with MoM could potentially buff your ehp pool to the top. But still, I'd miss all those curses.
Bandits
We're going to pay heed to classic way and pick: normal - Oak is a must (bigger hp pool - bigger regen - even bigger regen with Patient Reaper ascendancy; every little bit helps), cruel - kill all three and merc - same kill (but Kraytin if you're up to Swift Killer ascendancy, more on that later in this guide). Going full kill is an option too but this time we're hp-hungry, I'd advise against it.
Gearing
This part is supposed for life build, as for ES there's nothing that would need the explanation. So I'd recommend to stick
with hybrid eva/ES stuff, it fits nicely with ascendancy. And HP>ES>eva.
Oh, and honestly, screw the uniques, too much hassle to balance the rest of equip. There IS a few good ones that won't break the scheme, but try to stick with rare items if you can't cap your resses.
Basic stats priority - hp, res, ES, mana/mana reg. Eva is nice but we can't get much of it (pure eva toon in mediocre gear would have like ~30% chance to evade at 75, the number goes by downward spiral swiftly as toon grows). Cast speed is nice but not important.
Helmet and Gloves. There's nothing special on our helmet or gloves so look for those basics. Having Str or Dex helps too. Attack Speed, leech, any added damage is useless. For unique helmet can't skip Geoffri's Crest, great mid-game hat, and expensive AF Heretic's Veil as an end-game pick (btw good item for yolo chancing, don't skip Deicide Masks along the play... unless you're into hopeless Headhunter or Skyforth). Again, you'd be better off with good rare (100 hp big res eva/ES). As for gloves, Winds of Change looks like a BiS but they have too many downsides - armor base, reduces movespeed and no resses? Screw it, if you don't go min-maxing.
Boots had to be with movement speed bonus, the more the better. Any boots without is is nearly crap, even if you could craft movspeed with Tora - it's only 8-12% (and sucks). They should be very good life/def/res rolled to be used without movspeed, and even then you must find +30% msp boots in case if you'll ever think of Atziri/uber Lab/high-end maps. As always, Rainbowstride is a reliable pick in mid-game.
Belt is Leather-based with top rolled hp's. Forget any other. HPs and resistances is a must, all those flasky fluff is nice to have but won't help you much with, say, Daresso or any other solo boss, and you're gonna be decent with packs anyway. I won't regret if I would roll one such stat but that's totally not in priority. Meginord's Girdle is pretty good,
Ascent From Flesh too, Dyadian Dawn with good rolls seems plausible.. and that's it.
Jewelry is the key to balance off the whole instability, any base is welcome as long as the stat set is decent. Top choices is Two-Stone and Prismatic rings, they're easiest to cap the resses. For amulet - that's the main source of any stats missing for the whole leveling time, so suit yourself.
Body Armor - our main linkage item, you could afford meh stats (HP and res is still a must tho) if it's 5L or better. Playing with Tabula isn't really fun, cause you miss a large chunk of stats (like 100+ flat hp and 400 ES) and spend mana way faster than you should. You'd be able to craft 5L relatively easily (by the time when there'd be real use for it) by fusing-spam any suitable 6-socket base you'll eventually find (might take a ton of fusing with bad luck). Or poe.trade one, which is honestly would be waaay cheaper. Cospri's sucks, btw, no life, no res, no ES, useless poison on hit... nice to have hexproof penetration but I'd better just skip those maps. Cherrubim's Maleficence looks promising but it's not, 20% increased chaos damage and +80 hp isn't even close to some cheap eva/ES rare with 100+ hp, 300+ ES and resses. Helluva skin tho.
Weapon(s).
From three caster's weapon types both daggers and scepters is a no-no - crit or elemental damage, *facepalm* oh please. We're going wands, no doubts, and looking for highest spell damage available there - otherwise it's a heavy hit for our spelldamage (42% - Opal - from wand's implicit at it's best). As always, we could self-craft with alt-spamming something neat with hybrid SpellDmg+BasMaxMana affix (see below) and then regal it and add up pure SD from Cathie if it lacks. The result probably could be very meh but it's the only way beside the trade if RNG is in bad mood. Use the best wand possible, right. Again, it's costly but manageable, tho the cheapest +100% total spell damage wand costs 1 alch (well, Prophecy softcore but it won't be expensive in the next leagues I guess... UPD: I was right, same price in Breach SC). Since the crit and added damage won't give us anything anyway, the wand should be extremely cheap.
As a side note, you could play differently and get an "essenced" bow+quiver combo, but that's not our goal right now for the simplicity.
Brackets:
Spell Damage +%
iLvl 2: 10 to 19 (Apprentice's)
iLvl 11: 20 to 29 (Adept's)
iLvl 20: 25 to 34 (Catarina lvl 4)
iLvl 23: 30 to 39 (Scholar's)
iLvl 30: 35 to 44 (Catarina lvl 6)
iLvl 35: 40 to 49 (Professor's)
iLvl 46: 50 to 59 (Occultist's)
iLvl 58: 60 to 69 (Incanter's)
iLvl 64: 70 to 74 (Glyphic's)
iLvl 84: 75 to 79 (Runic)
Spell Damage +% and Base Maximum Mana
iLvl 2: 5 to 9 / 8 to 10 (Caster's)
iLvl 11: 10 to 14 / 11 to 13 (Magician's)
iLvl 23: 15 to 19 / 14 to 16 (Wizard's)
iLvl 35: 20 to 24 / 17 to 19 (Warlock's)
iLvl 46: 25 to 29 / 20 to 22 (Mage's)
iLvl 58: 30 to 34 / 23 to 25 (Archmage's)
iLvl 80: 35 to 39 / 26 to 28 (Lich's)
Perfect ED wand would look like that (no, I don't have it! created in ItemMod editor by poecraft.com)
Kinda impossible to get something close to that but now you've seen the star. Max spell damage wand on the standard market is 148% and ain't cheap, just FYI.
There is a strange option to use The Consuming Dark dagger, poison on chaos damage works with ED just fine and does a significant single target damage, but it should be used on bosses cause poison doesn't spread by Contagion, and it's actually lowers the clear speed overall. Probably a good secondary slot thing to have. At this moment it starts from 3 chaos price, average 5 chaos (the very end of Breach league), so I can tell it's probably not that cheap at the beginning, lotsa builds based on that, but not expensive either. Then again, heard that poison on DoT got nerfed way back in time, so don't buy this dagger for reason, test it only if you got it already.
Dual-wield or Shield?
While dual-wield might get you to (way) better spelldmg, a good shield could save your butt many times. In PoE, the defenses is in high priority, higher than dps, and caster shield (ES-based) might provide us with both dps and survivability. HP, res, spell dmg - everything you may need. I've found +109 hp/220 ES/+30%cold res/+11% all res/+15% spell dmg shield relatively easily, and that's very mediocre. Add up 23-25% block chance - and it just could shrug off a killing blow, who knows. So pick a good one and you're all set. Don't bother with eva/ES shields tho, they're out of spell dmg and shitty beyond imagination (the guy who's designed those, did you ever used them yourself? or you care about pvp?).
As a variety, it's still a good idea to have second "offensive" weapon is swap slot just in case you're gonna do any part of the content without being engaged in close combat (caster-type map bosses) - block is useless against them, so full dps mode is better. And if you're always out of melee - dual is pretty viable.
Flasks
Assuming we don't have a ton of currency, it's 3 life flasks, one quicksilver and one basalt/granite. For life flasks, Divine > Hallowed > Eternal, cuz we're gonna roll insta-heal affixes and thus don't care for how long the flask recovers the health, and having a bigger duration is actually better for secondary effects.
Affixes to look for:
- Panicked (25% reduced Amount Recovered + Instant Recovery when on Low Life);
- Seething (66% reduced Amount Recovered + Instant Recovery);
- Bubbling (50% reduced Amount Recovered + 135% increased Recovery Speed + 50% of Recovery applied Instantly).
At least two of lofe flasks should have insta-heal, the third might be with the amplified healing effect, better recovery speed or reduced charge use, up to you.
For suffixes on healing bottles we're looking for:
- of Staunching (Immunity to Bleeding during Flask effect + Removes Bleeding on use) ;
- of Warding (Immunity to Curses during Flask effect + Removes Curses on use);
- of Grounding (Immunity to Shock during Flask effect + Removes Shock on use).
That's a must have set, esp Bleeding removal.
Quicksilver - anything you like as affix , but it must be "of Heat" to remove Freeze. You could switch "of Heat" with health flask's "of Staunching", but those 2 suffixes must be always ready.
So, the fifth flask, it's either Alchemist's Granite Flask of Iron Skin (amplified armor) or Experimenter's Basalt Flask of Adrenaline (duration+movspeed). Both are "oh shit!" bottles if things goes grim. Basalt is preferred for the uber lab since Izaro hits with phys (kinda obvious, ikr).
Can't leave unmentioned Witchfire Brew, you could drop off one of health potions or basalt/granite. It's a hefty buff for burst damage, but you should learn some flask management and the art of the right timing. Rumi's Concoction looks promising but it's not that great.
Gems & Links
Oh, and honestly, screw the uniques, too much hassle to balance the rest of equip. There IS a few good ones that won't break the scheme, but try to stick with rare items if you can't cap your resses.
Basic stats priority - hp, res, ES, mana/mana reg. Eva is nice but we can't get much of it (pure eva toon in mediocre gear would have like ~30% chance to evade at 75, the number goes by downward spiral swiftly as toon grows). Cast speed is nice but not important.
Helmet and Gloves. There's nothing special on our helmet or gloves so look for those basics. Having Str or Dex helps too. Attack Speed, leech, any added damage is useless. For unique helmet can't skip Geoffri's Crest, great mid-game hat, and expensive AF Heretic's Veil as an end-game pick (btw good item for yolo chancing, don't skip Deicide Masks along the play... unless you're into hopeless Headhunter or Skyforth). Again, you'd be better off with good rare (100 hp big res eva/ES). As for gloves, Winds of Change looks like a BiS but they have too many downsides - armor base, reduces movespeed and no resses? Screw it, if you don't go min-maxing.
Boots had to be with movement speed bonus, the more the better. Any boots without is is nearly crap, even if you could craft movspeed with Tora - it's only 8-12% (and sucks). They should be very good life/def/res rolled to be used without movspeed, and even then you must find +30% msp boots in case if you'll ever think of Atziri/uber Lab/high-end maps. As always, Rainbowstride is a reliable pick in mid-game.
Belt is Leather-based with top rolled hp's. Forget any other. HPs and resistances is a must, all those flasky fluff is nice to have but won't help you much with, say, Daresso or any other solo boss, and you're gonna be decent with packs anyway. I won't regret if I would roll one such stat but that's totally not in priority. Meginord's Girdle is pretty good,
Ascent From Flesh too, Dyadian Dawn with good rolls seems plausible.. and that's it.
Jewelry is the key to balance off the whole instability, any base is welcome as long as the stat set is decent. Top choices is Two-Stone and Prismatic rings, they're easiest to cap the resses. For amulet - that's the main source of any stats missing for the whole leveling time, so suit yourself.
Body Armor - our main linkage item, you could afford meh stats (HP and res is still a must tho) if it's 5L or better. Playing with Tabula isn't really fun, cause you miss a large chunk of stats (like 100+ flat hp and 400 ES) and spend mana way faster than you should. You'd be able to craft 5L relatively easily (by the time when there'd be real use for it) by fusing-spam any suitable 6-socket base you'll eventually find (might take a ton of fusing with bad luck). Or poe.trade one, which is honestly would be waaay cheaper. Cospri's sucks, btw, no life, no res, no ES, useless poison on hit... nice to have hexproof penetration but I'd better just skip those maps. Cherrubim's Maleficence looks promising but it's not, 20% increased chaos damage and +80 hp isn't even close to some cheap eva/ES rare with 100+ hp, 300+ ES and resses. Helluva skin tho.
Weapon(s).
From three caster's weapon types both daggers and scepters is a no-no - crit or elemental damage, *facepalm* oh please. We're going wands, no doubts, and looking for highest spell damage available there - otherwise it's a heavy hit for our spelldamage (42% - Opal - from wand's implicit at it's best). As always, we could self-craft with alt-spamming something neat with hybrid SpellDmg+BasMaxMana affix (see below) and then regal it and add up pure SD from Cathie if it lacks. The result probably could be very meh but it's the only way beside the trade if RNG is in bad mood. Use the best wand possible, right. Again, it's costly but manageable, tho the cheapest +100% total spell damage wand costs 1 alch (well, Prophecy softcore but it won't be expensive in the next leagues I guess... UPD: I was right, same price in Breach SC). Since the crit and added damage won't give us anything anyway, the wand should be extremely cheap.
As a side note, you could play differently and get an "essenced" bow+quiver combo, but that's not our goal right now for the simplicity.
Brackets:
Spell Damage +%
iLvl 2: 10 to 19 (Apprentice's)
iLvl 11: 20 to 29 (Adept's)
iLvl 20: 25 to 34 (Catarina lvl 4)
iLvl 23: 30 to 39 (Scholar's)
iLvl 30: 35 to 44 (Catarina lvl 6)
iLvl 35: 40 to 49 (Professor's)
iLvl 46: 50 to 59 (Occultist's)
iLvl 58: 60 to 69 (Incanter's)
iLvl 64: 70 to 74 (Glyphic's)
iLvl 84: 75 to 79 (Runic)
Spell Damage +% and Base Maximum Mana
iLvl 2: 5 to 9 / 8 to 10 (Caster's)
iLvl 11: 10 to 14 / 11 to 13 (Magician's)
iLvl 23: 15 to 19 / 14 to 16 (Wizard's)
iLvl 35: 20 to 24 / 17 to 19 (Warlock's)
iLvl 46: 25 to 29 / 20 to 22 (Mage's)
iLvl 58: 30 to 34 / 23 to 25 (Archmage's)
iLvl 80: 35 to 39 / 26 to 28 (Lich's)
Perfect ED wand would look like that (no, I don't have it! created in ItemMod editor by poecraft.com)
There is a strange option to use The Consuming Dark dagger, poison on chaos damage works with ED just fine and does a significant single target damage, but it should be used on bosses cause poison doesn't spread by Contagion, and it's actually lowers the clear speed overall. Probably a good secondary slot thing to have. At this moment it starts from 3 chaos price, average 5 chaos (the very end of Breach league), so I can tell it's probably not that cheap at the beginning, lotsa builds based on that, but not expensive either. Then again, heard that poison on DoT got nerfed way back in time, so don't buy this dagger for reason, test it only if you got it already.
Dual-wield or Shield?
While dual-wield might get you to (way) better spelldmg, a good shield could save your butt many times. In PoE, the defenses is in high priority, higher than dps, and caster shield (ES-based) might provide us with both dps and survivability. HP, res, spell dmg - everything you may need. I've found +109 hp/220 ES/+30%cold res/+11% all res/+15% spell dmg shield relatively easily, and that's very mediocre. Add up 23-25% block chance - and it just could shrug off a killing blow, who knows. So pick a good one and you're all set. Don't bother with eva/ES shields tho, they're out of spell dmg and shitty beyond imagination (the guy who's designed those, did you ever used them yourself? or you care about pvp?).
As a variety, it's still a good idea to have second "offensive" weapon is swap slot just in case you're gonna do any part of the content without being engaged in close combat (caster-type map bosses) - block is useless against them, so full dps mode is better. And if you're always out of melee - dual is pretty viable.
Flasks
Assuming we don't have a ton of currency, it's 3 life flasks, one quicksilver and one basalt/granite. For life flasks, Divine > Hallowed > Eternal, cuz we're gonna roll insta-heal affixes and thus don't care for how long the flask recovers the health, and having a bigger duration is actually better for secondary effects.
Affixes to look for:
- Panicked (25% reduced Amount Recovered + Instant Recovery when on Low Life);
- Seething (66% reduced Amount Recovered + Instant Recovery);
- Bubbling (50% reduced Amount Recovered + 135% increased Recovery Speed + 50% of Recovery applied Instantly).
At least two of lofe flasks should have insta-heal, the third might be with the amplified healing effect, better recovery speed or reduced charge use, up to you.
For suffixes on healing bottles we're looking for:
- of Staunching (Immunity to Bleeding during Flask effect + Removes Bleeding on use) ;
- of Warding (Immunity to Curses during Flask effect + Removes Curses on use);
- of Grounding (Immunity to Shock during Flask effect + Removes Shock on use).
That's a must have set, esp Bleeding removal.
Quicksilver - anything you like as affix , but it must be "of Heat" to remove Freeze. You could switch "of Heat" with health flask's "of Staunching", but those 2 suffixes must be always ready.
So, the fifth flask, it's either Alchemist's Granite Flask of Iron Skin (amplified armor) or Experimenter's Basalt Flask of Adrenaline (duration+movspeed). Both are "oh shit!" bottles if things goes grim. Basalt is preferred for the uber lab since Izaro hits with phys (kinda obvious, ikr).
Can't leave unmentioned Witchfire Brew, you could drop off one of health potions or basalt/granite. It's a hefty buff for burst damage, but you should learn some flask management and the art of the right timing. Rumi's Concoction looks promising but it's not that great.
Gems & Links
It's kinda both bad and good news for all biohazard heroes - we're short of sockets, but otoh using the full of it. Every additional link is for good.
Main Attack (Body Armor):
Main Attack (Body Armor):
4L: Essence Drain + Controlled Destruction + Void Manipulation + Rapid Decay (BBGG)
As good as it is. And actually that's enough to do all content except hardcore mapping.
5L: Essence Drain + Controlled Destruction + Void Manipulation + Rapid Decay + [Slower Projectile/Pierce/Poison] (BBGGG)
While SloPro gives more damage overall, it makes your ED shot really, well, slow, so many peeps is complaining about that. Pierce since 2.3 got a nice damage boost, it became a common choice and then it was nerfed in 2.4, but still viabe. I like SloPro more, I'm fine with the speed loss, and Pierce has often made me mistakenly thinking like I've been missed the shot. But can't leave this option unnoticed... besides, it really helps against Allies Cannot Die aura. Poison is the weakest choice really.
6L: Essence Drain + Controlled Destruction + Void Manipulation + Rapid Decay + Pierce/Empower/Slower Projectile (BBGGGx)
There's a few different choices, just take what you like more. I'd pick SloPro and Empower (3+).
Support (Shield):
3L: Spell Totem + Wither + Faster Casting (BBB)
It also might act as a decoy sometimes. Good stuff. Benefits from our Cast Speed so it's not a bad stat to have (but not required either).
Movement (Wand):
3L: Lightning Warp/Flame Dash/Phase Run + Faster Casting + Lesser Duration (BBR)
Flame Dash is a casual skill, LW meant for the Lab. Since I'm outta this meta speed stuff, I still like LW. Note that Phase Run isn't actually a traveling skill but could be used if you got surrounded, might happen with badly spawned breaches/strongboxes/lazy play (yes, I'm looking at you, mirror).
CWDT (Gloves):
4L: CWDT (5) + Immortal Call (7) + Increased Duration (∞) + placeholder for your customization (RRRx)
This combo gives us a sec of invulnerability, even without charges it's a savior. Last socket could be used for anything that would benefit from ID support, if it's requirements is lower that 46 lvl it'd be autocast with CWDT, if higher - manually. Auto Phase Run is cool (in theory, actually it's not that great), Vaal Grace/Vaal Discipline (screw Vaal Haste, what a surprise, VD is probably best choice as long as GGG doesn't nerf it - hah, I knew it, they will in 2.6 - then VG it'd be, or back to VH just for the movspeed) is always perfect for self-cast. Tempest Shield is crappy but looks great. I like looking great.
Auras (Helmet):
4L: Blasphemy + Temporal Chains + Enfeeble + Stone Golem (BBBx)
That's a very strong combo for anyone... until you meet curse-resistant/immune, so you have to pay attention and play carefully. Enfeeble at 17 level and unbuffed is 34% less accuracy (kind of boost to evasion) and 29% reduced damage (kind of armor), and I should say it's the numbers which is unreachable by common mortal caster out there (20% of damage resistance for Arm/ES considered awsum). And all of this is on top of our gear defenses.
Stone Golem is the best choice without questions, taunt and regen, dream come true, but you could beat the most of leveling part with Chaos Golem too, he's easier with requirements early on (honestly, and later on too). Golem is an important part of the build, always have him summoned (unless it's a chaining map). You could even drop off CWDT setup and make something like ChG+MinionSpd+MinionLifeRes+MinionDmg, cuz his chaos attacks/aura would benefit from our skilltree... but I didn't tested it out yet. Still, SG seems to be a better pick for life-based.
Until being able to dual-curse, use just one blasphemed curse, Arctic Armor and/or Discipline and Clarity (the latter <5 lvl), works well nuff. Heralds is a waste. If you could manage to get +1 curse (to 3 in total), well, that's getting interesting - Vulnerability is a godly debuff, can't recommend it as a third curse in Blasphemy setup (not enough mana to reserve) but it'll sure work as a self-cast.
If you're good at kiting you could switch to Vulnerability + Temporal Chains, this combo is a natural born killer.
Offence (Boots):
4L: Contagion + Increased AoE + Faster Casting + Item Rarity/Vulnerability* (BBBB).
That's very important combo for spreading ED damage. As for Rarity:
*Official quote:
With 2.6 AoE nerf there' even less sense in spending points for AoE nodes along the skilltree, IAoE gem is just enough. Yes, I knew it.
Vulnerability is extremely potent damage buff for us, but as I said - you could self-cast it only if your Blasphemy isn't too wide to overcurse already, or if you're lucky to have +1 curse ammy.
Off-slots
You'd better level up a few ED there for vaaling them right after they hit 20 in hope of 21-23 lvl. Don't forget to put 20 quality before the attempt tho - it's a +20% chaos damage buff. If everything would be screwed - just buy 21+ 20q ED, by the time you'll really need it - you could afford it, or farm the lake a bit, get somestench air.
Quality for the gems
Those darn gems is a major currency sink when it comes to quality, but that is what makes the difference.
Ascension and Labyrinth
As good as it is. And actually that's enough to do all content except hardcore mapping.
5L: Essence Drain + Controlled Destruction + Void Manipulation + Rapid Decay + [Slower Projectile/Pierce/Poison] (BBGGG)
While SloPro gives more damage overall, it makes your ED shot really, well, slow, so many peeps is complaining about that. Pierce since 2.3 got a nice damage boost, it became a common choice and then it was nerfed in 2.4, but still viabe. I like SloPro more, I'm fine with the speed loss, and Pierce has often made me mistakenly thinking like I've been missed the shot. But can't leave this option unnoticed... besides, it really helps against Allies Cannot Die aura. Poison is the weakest choice really.
6L: Essence Drain + Controlled Destruction + Void Manipulation + Rapid Decay + Pierce/Empower/Slower Projectile (BBGGGx)
There's a few different choices, just take what you like more. I'd pick SloPro and Empower (3+).
Support (Shield):
3L: Spell Totem + Wither + Faster Casting (BBB)
It also might act as a decoy sometimes. Good stuff. Benefits from our Cast Speed so it's not a bad stat to have (but not required either).
Movement (Wand):
3L: Lightning Warp/Flame Dash/Phase Run + Faster Casting + Lesser Duration (BBR)
Flame Dash is a casual skill, LW meant for the Lab. Since I'm outta this meta speed stuff, I still like LW. Note that Phase Run isn't actually a traveling skill but could be used if you got surrounded, might happen with badly spawned breaches/strongboxes/lazy play (yes, I'm looking at you, mirror).
CWDT (Gloves):
4L: CWDT (5) + Immortal Call (7) + Increased Duration (∞) + placeholder for your customization (RRRx)
This combo gives us a sec of invulnerability, even without charges it's a savior. Last socket could be used for anything that would benefit from ID support, if it's requirements is lower that 46 lvl it'd be autocast with CWDT, if higher - manually. Auto Phase Run is cool (in theory, actually it's not that great), Vaal Grace/Vaal Discipline (screw Vaal Haste, what a surprise, VD is probably best choice as long as GGG doesn't nerf it - hah, I knew it, they will in 2.6 - then VG it'd be, or back to VH just for the movspeed) is always perfect for self-cast. Tempest Shield is crappy but looks great. I like looking great.
Auras (Helmet):
4L: Blasphemy + Temporal Chains + Enfeeble + Stone Golem (BBBx)
That's a very strong combo for anyone... until you meet curse-resistant/immune, so you have to pay attention and play carefully. Enfeeble at 17 level and unbuffed is 34% less accuracy (kind of boost to evasion) and 29% reduced damage (kind of armor), and I should say it's the numbers which is unreachable by common mortal caster out there (20% of damage resistance for Arm/ES considered awsum). And all of this is on top of our gear defenses.
Stone Golem is the best choice without questions, taunt and regen, dream come true, but you could beat the most of leveling part with Chaos Golem too, he's easier with requirements early on (honestly, and later on too). Golem is an important part of the build, always have him summoned (unless it's a chaining map). You could even drop off CWDT setup and make something like ChG+MinionSpd+MinionLifeRes+MinionDmg, cuz his chaos attacks/aura would benefit from our skilltree... but I didn't tested it out yet. Still, SG seems to be a better pick for life-based.
Until being able to dual-curse, use just one blasphemed curse, Arctic Armor and/or Discipline and Clarity (the latter <5 lvl), works well nuff. Heralds is a waste. If you could manage to get +1 curse (to 3 in total), well, that's getting interesting - Vulnerability is a godly debuff, can't recommend it as a third curse in Blasphemy setup (not enough mana to reserve) but it'll sure work as a self-cast.
If you're good at kiting you could switch to Vulnerability + Temporal Chains, this combo is a natural born killer.
Offence (Boots):
4L: Contagion + Increased AoE + Faster Casting + Item Rarity/Vulnerability* (BBBB).
That's very important combo for spreading ED damage. As for Rarity:
*Official quote:
Is it possible to use Item Rarity support gem with the Contagion + Essence Drain combo? If so, are you supposed to link it to Contagion or Essence Drain?So basically you cast Contagion, add up Essence Drain, and since Contagion was first - Item Rarity should work. If you don't believe in this MF voodoo - just put an old reliable Controlled Destruction, thanks 2.3.2 patch, it works now (tho I wouldn't count on Contagion as a reliable source of damage itself, it can be useful in some situations: doing low-life rogue exile or putting down that pesky invul totem).
There is no way to decide which degeneration effect killed an enemy, so it picks the one that has been on the monster the longest. If an enemy is affected by Essence Drain, Contagion and Righteous Fire, it will pick whichever one was applied first and check the Rarity of that skill. In other words, if you want to link a degen skill with Item Rarity, ensure you use that skill first.
With 2.6 AoE nerf there' even less sense in spending points for AoE nodes along the skilltree, IAoE gem is just enough. Yes, I knew it.
Vulnerability is extremely potent damage buff for us, but as I said - you could self-cast it only if your Blasphemy isn't too wide to overcurse already, or if you're lucky to have +1 curse ammy.
Off-slots
You'd better level up a few ED there for vaaling them right after they hit 20 in hope of 21-23 lvl. Don't forget to put 20 quality before the attempt tho - it's a +20% chaos damage buff. If everything would be screwed - just buy 21+ 20q ED, by the time you'll really need it - you could afford it, or farm the lake a bit, get some
Quality for the gems
Those darn gems is a major currency sink when it comes to quality, but that is what makes the difference.
Per 1% quality gain
|
|
Essence Drain
|
1% increased Chaos Damage
|
Void Manipulation
|
0.5% increased Chaos Damage
|
Controlled Destruction
|
0.5% increased Spell Damage
|
Rapid Decay
|
0.5% increased Damage over Time
|
Slower Projectiles
|
0.5% increased Projectile Damage
|
Pierce
|
0.5% increased Projectile Damage
|
Assuming that we don't have Empower and just using "what Hinekora sent", using non-quality gems is 20% base damage decrease for ED and then 10% per supports, for the total 70%. A huge loss in end-game, so you prolly should buy 20q ED right away or put every GCP in it ASAP. That'll keep you busy for a long while, then put 20q on your suports, Blasphemy and curses, the rest is up to you.
Ascension and Labyrinth
While we could choose something from three subclasses, going DoT leaves us no real choice. Trickster.
Casual Lab - when you hit 2k hp and ~45 lvl. Pick Patient Reaper. Strangely enough, at first I took this cuz of DoT damage increase, but know what - the regen buff is very nice too.
Cruel Lab - 3k hp and ~60 lvl. Pick Ghost Dance, defense is good, movspeed is great.
Merc Lab - 5k+ hp, 5L+ and ~75+ lvl. Shade Form is why so much hybrid ES nodes. Overall pretty strong defensive set.
Map Lab - when you think you're ready. Feel free to experiment with those two points, at his time there's no bad choice. Just a side notes:
- Swift Killer goes well with additional frenzy charges from Kraytin and the skilltree, so that'd be 6 charges with a potential 30% more damage - if you could keep charges up well. But some bosses is still solo, we have no reliable charge generator it such encounters, and thrash dies fast anyway without frenzy. You could try out Frenzy+LMP+FastAtk, but now where you'd put another 3L then...
- Weave the Arcane might allow us to run Discipline and 2 aura curses if we'd get an another bunch of "reduced mana reserved" nodes along the tree and mana itself;
- Walk the Aether, combined with good spelldmg'ey dagger, could be very effective for a speed-runs by Whirling Blades. Or Shield Charge (tho you'll loose some damage with this one). In any case free movement skill is nice.
I didn't tested that but this should work: Now I know it works: we can go CI ED Witch. Here's playable 98 points pre-CI tree. Before the switch, 120% life and 231% ES is enough really (but beware of chaos damage), that's ~72-75 lvl (which means an ability to use Vaal Regalia and the rest of the top ES stuff), then 96 points CI tree, we just drop hp nodes, and finally - a gorgeous 247% ES 110 points tree with -20% mana reserved so we could use 2-curse Blasphemy AND Discipline - or three-curse Blasphemy (Clarity included). Like 13 points is left for polishing, big mana pool - probably she'd be able to run a higher level Clarity too. Ain't she's something? Just don't forget to use Enfeeble+Temporal Chains asap (and by priority E>TCh). Drop Stone Golem cuz he has a rather high Str req which we can't get easy: our amulet would be probably that crappy Eye of Chayula for anti-stun (or Valyrium, can't say which one is crappier; anyway, it's a Str stat lost), plus we miss a bunch of Str from templar's area. Pick Chaos Golem, he does alright.
UPD: mid-Cruel with this baby, 1.3k hp with 500+ES, dual curse. Was a slow start since she has no damage nodes at the beginning but things gets better from 40+. Died once, right after Cruel a1, just by my own stupid fault: tried to form a bigger mob pack, got surrounded - that's usually bad but manageable - and then some rare bastard with phys damage aura has run into the pack, next second she was shredded. Beware of the auras! >o<
UPD 2: 75 level, switched earlier at ~65 (still think I should better do that a bit later, like 69), now 8.5k ES with Discipline, definitely can sustain it with 2 Blasphemed curses and underleveled Clarity (6 lvl), like 150 of mana is left for spells (pretty enough), have three curses (Blasphemed TCh+Enf and a self-cast Vuln). DoT dps is close to 12k in 5L. Got Valyrium (Chayula is 10c+ at the market, screw it), resses is capped but overcap isn't that big yet. 78 level, 9911 ES with Disc, ~14.5k DoT (gear), spent like 12-15 chaos in total on Valyrium (<1c), wand (4c), 5L (5c) and shield (can't remember really), everything else is SSF. Gotta go ranger next, cuz it seems I miss a little bit of Dex (1 point for SloPro, but the deficit will be bigger soon), and increased projectile speed+damage is soooo sweet.
A plan for 85 level is here (108 points). Got to drop those curse nodes (not much of the profit from Hex Master cluster alone), also skipped Method to the Madness damage block (5 nodes) - it's 10.5% of chaos damage per node, I'd rather pick two pure spell damage nodes at the Witch' start (16%+12%) and one near Scion (16%) thru ES, chaos res is useless anyway. The rest of the points goes to jewel slot under Shadow's start, and I've decided not to take his five chaos nodes (11,2% per node) for spell damage at Witch's start (11,4% per node and next sixth node is phatty 16%).
Overall, she's a beast already. Damage is a bit lower tho, Shadow ascendancy pays off, but she could probably get on pair later.
If you wish to help with experiments and future builds - contact me.
If you're up to make a friend in-game or even join a small guild - Aotearoa Relax Team, ART (there's just me yet, actually) - same deal.
If you're gonna call my build bullcrap or whatever, because [..insert any complains here...] - I don't give a damn. This build is focused on casual players with casual aims. You can do better - git and do.
See ya in Wraeclast, Exile :)
Cruel Lab - 3k hp and ~60 lvl. Pick Ghost Dance, defense is good, movspeed is great.
Merc Lab - 5k+ hp, 5L+ and ~75+ lvl. Shade Form is why so much hybrid ES nodes. Overall pretty strong defensive set.
Map Lab - when you think you're ready. Feel free to experiment with those two points, at his time there's no bad choice. Just a side notes:
- Swift Killer goes well with additional frenzy charges from Kraytin and the skilltree, so that'd be 6 charges with a potential 30% more damage - if you could keep charges up well. But some bosses is still solo, we have no reliable charge generator it such encounters, and thrash dies fast anyway without frenzy. You could try out Frenzy+LMP+FastAtk, but now where you'd put another 3L then...
- Weave the Arcane might allow us to run Discipline and 2 aura curses if we'd get an another bunch of "reduced mana reserved" nodes along the tree and mana itself;
- Walk the Aether, combined with good spelldmg'ey dagger, could be very effective for a speed-runs by Whirling Blades. Or Shield Charge (tho you'll loose some damage with this one). In any case free movement skill is nice.
Masters
Well, first one to get is obviously Haku, for his invaluable armor stuff craft, then we'll get along with Catarina for our weapon upgrades, the third one is Elreon for the jewelry. The fourth slot could be used for switching, but if you're feeling lazy - either Vorici or Tora is
good. Vorici's missions is pretty tricky if he asks not to kill a single
guard or especially 10 sec of low life (you just can't say "stop working" to your DoT, try to use Contagion to drain life sloooowly), but if you're pretty sure you can't make
it - just kill the rogue exile for the loot, a win anyway. Zana is also decent addition, we could fire Elreon and pick Zana instead in the late game. Vagan is useless, Tora is ok'ish, Leo can add DoT damage on your wand but that's not really necessary (but go for it if you can).
Freakin' Scary Things to Fear
Curse Immune and Hexproof are affecting us greatly. Tormented Rogue Exiles and many tormented unique monsters is out of the line. We're naturally immune to reflect but I suspect things is gonna change someday. Jumping/running/flickering monsters is a pain too. Try to offscreen as often as you could. Combined auras from the rare mobs could be very dangerous, esp haste+phys damage: we could outheal one spike of damage or a barrage of smaller blows - but not the heavy blows series. Corrupted blood is a silent killa too, for some reasons it procs from our DoTs, whadda..?! Oh, and fear the Bishop in the Crypt map (?), he hates to be cursed, and so does Doedre in Phantasmagory Map. As if the life of Trickster wasn't hard nuff.
Backup Plan
If they'll ruin ED to shit with some "improvements" - you could still play this build with Caustic Arrow, that's totally viable even without respec (but should be better with a small one: more AoE at cost of that clumsy Witch-Templar path). If they'll add a reflect to chaos damage, we could go CA+Trap. If the whole build will blow due to any major nerf - we could always switch to bland Bladefall with arguably small respecs.
Bonus
UPD: mid-Cruel with this baby, 1.3k hp with 500+ES, dual curse. Was a slow start since she has no damage nodes at the beginning but things gets better from 40+. Died once, right after Cruel a1, just by my own stupid fault: tried to form a bigger mob pack, got surrounded - that's usually bad but manageable - and then some rare bastard with phys damage aura has run into the pack, next second she was shredded. Beware of the auras! >o<
A plan for 85 level is here (108 points). Got to drop those curse nodes (not much of the profit from Hex Master cluster alone), also skipped Method to the Madness damage block (5 nodes) - it's 10.5% of chaos damage per node, I'd rather pick two pure spell damage nodes at the Witch' start (16%+12%) and one near Scion (16%) thru ES, chaos res is useless anyway. The rest of the points goes to jewel slot under Shadow's start, and I've decided not to take his five chaos nodes (11,2% per node) for spell damage at Witch's start (11,4% per node and next sixth node is phatty 16%).
Overall, she's a beast already. Damage is a bit lower tho, Shadow ascendancy pays off, but she could probably get on pair later.
Afterword
That's pretty much covers anything I had to share. Feel free to ask any question.If you wish to help with experiments and future builds - contact me.
If you're up to make a friend in-game or even join a small guild - Aotearoa Relax Team, ART (there's just me yet, actually) - same deal.
If you're gonna call my build bullcrap or whatever, because [..insert any complains here...] - I don't give a damn. This build is focused on casual players with casual aims. You can do better - git and do.
See ya in Wraeclast, Exile :)
