Contagion

I had an arc gem. So i switched to that. Haven't even respecced my nodes. Just a few spell nodes.

So much more fun QQ. Better clear speed.

Will level up some more and grab atrophy cluster et al. Then we'll see. Here's my tree so far if anyone is interested.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwAAA-4FtQhnDkgRlhNtFAkVuBa_GDwbyB2-IcMi6iaVLagzhzWSNj064UGHSRNN41VLV-Fd8l-wYeJirGyMbWxvnnaCgseDCYTFieCMNpDWkx-TOpYym7WdqqZXsZC00bVItzC3PrfWvSfDOsgMyFvKSsu92L3bWeOE5ljmged06NbrFPJF-WX56P4K_o8=

Increased aoe and duration is a must for any contagion buildi imo.

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Saltygames wrote:

I had an arc gem. So i switched to that. Haven't even respecced my nodes. Just a few spell nodes.

So much more fun QQ. Better clear speed.

Will level up some more and grab atrophy cluster et al. Then we'll see. Here's my tree so far if anyone is interested.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwAAA-4FtQhnDkgRlhNtFAkVuBa_GDwbyB2-IcMi6iaVLagzhzWSNj064UGHSRNN41VLV-Fd8l-wYeJirGyMbWxvnnaCgseDCYTFieCMNpDWkx-TOpYym7WdqqZXsZC00bVItzC3PrfWvSfDOsgMyFvKSsu92L3bWeOE5ljmged06NbrFPJF-WX56P4K_o8=

Increased aoe and duration is a must for any contagion buildi imo.

It uh, really doesn't seem to get any better.
And if you're playing in a group, you're running around doing nothing until a boss shows up.

"

SuperTaster wrote:

The items you linked only has Spell Damage. It's not surprising that it's underwhelming.

Only? Spell Damage is the main thing contagion and essence drain benefit from on items.

"

nakieon wrote:

I liked this skill at first but I quickly noticed something very lackluster and annoying about the skill.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I tested it in quite a few situations and could not see different.

The 5 second debuff on the skill carries over on infected enemies when it spreads on enemy death. It does not refresh the debuff duration.

So imagine this situation: You cast Contagion on an enemy. 4 seconds pass and the enemy dies. Contagion then infects nearby enemies, but only lasts 1 second on those enemies.

This behavior makes it much less of a "death and decay" skill that a lot of people thought it would be and it becomes very annoying to try and apply Essence Drain to everything via Contagion.

This aspect was stated when it was first revealed.Rabies in D2 works the same way otherwise it would go on infinately.

My gripe with contagion is also that you cant really support it with a lot of skills you sort of think you might be able to initially.

As mentioned in Essence Drain, I enjoy the combo of those chaos spells, all self cast. I find this one (Contagion) the most interesting of the 3. So much so that it is a bit sad it has such a limited scope (only spreads 1 other skill).

I think it might be neat if it could spread all kinds of chaos-over-time debuffs, including poison - i.e. make it workable with viper strike. Also, what about contagious curses ? ;)

The AoE radius seems a bit small as well. Cast speed could be improved.

very low base dmg, pretty much useless without essence drain, but the combo is very awkward to hit (essence drain moves so slow), i cant think of any other skills that requires a specific combo in order to make it useful

its an aoe skill with a spread mechanic kinda redundant, either remove the aoe or spread component, increase dmg, im very disappointed with this skill, oh well back to caustic arrow witch is 10x better in any aspect

Chaos is rarely resisted and immune to reflect, but those are NOT good reason for making this gem so bad.

It can't crit, it has clunky mechanic (duration won't refresh when it spreads), doesn't bring any sustain (no leech) and above all, the damage is garbage.

Then I relegated it to support role for Essence Drain, but that is just another epic fail. The gameplay is even more frustrating, and the damage of ED, though clearly better than Contagion, is still at the bottom of the chart.

I still can't imagine how you guys let these useless gems slip through.

I really enjoy the playstyle (i'm not rushing this league), lvl 52 in HC talisman so far. I think all 3 chaos skills are balanced atm.

I might start using Contagion in multitrap for better AoE coverage because i don't use it for damage at all. The AoE isn't great and the cast time is pretty high. Essence drain does all the dps for me atm.

If I might suggest considerations for GGG on this skill it would be some minor QoL changes. When the spell is casted by player or recast by kill, let the skill hang for maybe 0.1 second longer so it has more chance to proc other creeps. Because the spreading of contagion with essence drain is so essential, and sometimes it can get very clunky. Lowering the base cast time, or increase the base AoE would also be nice.

After further playing with it, I've come to the conclusion that Contagion and Essence Drain were the same skill, arbitrarily split in to two skills.

I'd be better to just re-merge the damn skills.
Would feel a lot better.