[2.2] RF/Essence Drain
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Hey guys, this is a fun, cheap and hardcore viable build. It is beginner friendly and is open to change however you like.
I started making it during the last weeks of Talisman HC, when I noticed just how ridiculous Essence Drain is. Table of Contents 1. Pros/Cons 2. Mechanics & Skills 3. Passive Tree 4. Choice of Ascendancy 5. Gems & Links 6. Gear 7. Bandits 8. Leveling 9. Late Game Content Pros/Cons
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Pros + Easy to play + No expensive required gear + Hardcore viable + Doesn't require you to be in the middle of the pack to clear things... + ... but you can do that if you want to + Reflect immume + Allows you to run around and dodge boss skills whilst doing damage Cons - Not super effective in AoE clearing in parties on lower levels - Your DPS will be significantly lower in maps with either -max res or reduced lfie regen - Build gets hard-countered by allies cannot die aura's (can be fixed by having another skill) - The build only starts to work on level 40+ or with a 4link - Makes you feel like an idiot watching your friends spam skills to kill the boss, while you run around doing nothing and still do the most DPS Mechanics & Skills This build's main (and only) damage source is Essence Drain. This skill scales absurdly well into higher levels and its damage increases from a little too many things as well. A nice bonus is that Essence Drain heals you for 0.5% of the damage it deals. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but at higher levels it because some nice regen. Essence drain fires a projectile that applies a damage over time effect on anything it hit. The DoT damage is independent of the initial hit. With just Essence Drain your AoE clear speed is shit. But that's where Contagion comes in handy: Whenever Contagion spreads, so does Essence Drain. This clears packs ridiculously fast. The playstyle of this build is simple: 1. Cast Contagion on a pack 2. Cast Essence Drain 3. Loot everything When dealing with bosses and strong packs our third skill will finally be used: Wither applies a slow and a stacking debuff that increases chaos damage taken. Wither stacks up to 20 times, with each stack increasing chaos damage by 7%. This totals to 140% increased chaos damage. Last but not least: This build uses Righteous Fire. It gives a huge damage modifier +(40-59)% more Spell Damage, but it drains your health very quickly. Therefore this build requires a lot of life regen + max fire res. Damage Level 82 Damage:
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On level 82, with level 18 gems I deal 18k dps using a 5link. At level 90 Essence Drain would do 45k+ dps on a 5link. Essence Drain's dps increases with the following stats:
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- Increased/More Chaos Damage - Increased/More Spell Damage - Increased/More Projectile Damage - Increased/More Damage over Time - Increased/More Damage Passive Tree The idea of the build is to get +12.1% life regen and stack as much defences, max fire res and damage on Essence Drain's damage over time effect. The life regen nodes required to run Righteous Fire:
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https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAALfW2E3bWZSg4q2xWy2o2mIJ2aYysZBodMpGAwSDCfnoIFkaem-eQYfKSrc-X7CDzJu1PC3DOsauJIsLYcT2DF8Pq69sJ-0cpxa_aPIGDhkuU6W00XwO1HzZYcgMp1UJ9lcNrY12glug8azPfrVIKS7rY3y4ES8aPisKXz9d8vZIDkjEWLcw6FomiAAA My Current Skill Tree (level 82)
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https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAABAAMEA-4EswYOBx4J2Qn2C2EMXw5ID6sRLxGWE20UCRQgFr8ZLho-Gnocpx2-IFkkiyaIJpUn7SkuKwotqDOHNZI8LT38QYdDyEkTSVFLV1BHU6VXDVhjW6BcQF3yXz9fsGHiaHRo8m-edZ52gnwOfLiCB4LHgwmDzIfLieCMz4_6kx-UoJUum7WiAKYyp1Wnm62Nr2yxW7GQtNG1SLcwtz631sBmwOPDOsRYxPbGrsbYyAzKRspKzxXPftIh1HzYTdi92WHZfNpi21nireZY6FrrY-8O8B_w1fGs8bPyQfZI-ej-Cg== The complete level 90 Tree:
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https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAAAMEA-4EswYOBx4J2Qn2C2EMXw5ID6sRLxGWE20UCRQgFr8ZLho-Gnocpx2-IFkkiyaIJpUn7SkuKwotqDOHNZI8LT38QYdDyEkTSVFLV1BHU6VXDVhjW6BcQF3yXz9fsGHiaHRo8m-edZ52gnwOfLiCB4LHgwmDzIfLieCMz4_6kx-UoJUum7WiAKYyp1Wnm62Nr2yxW7GQtNG1SLcwtz631sBmwOPDOsRYxPbGrsbYyAzKRspKzxXPftIh1HzYTdi92WHZfNpi21nireZY6FrrY-8O8B_w1fGs8bPyQfZI-ej-Ctn8CarAmvKXm12omlpS_o8AAA== Choice of Ascendancy For the Scion Ascendancy you can choose from a few sub-ascendancies. These can be categorised in two parts: Offensive
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1) Trickster, the +20% increased damage when not on full energy shield is constantly active when Righteous Fire is active, increasing total damage output by 20%. 2) Elementalist, the +30% increased Damage of each type for which you have a matching golem is great for us. This will give +30% increased chaos damage as we will be using a chaos golem 3) Chieftain, the +30% increased Damage while you have a Totem, gives a huge damage boost... but requires us to have a totem active all the time. 4) Slayer +30% increased damage against rare or unique mobs is nice and effective against bosses, but not nearly as good as the other options. Defensive
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1) Juggernaut, 30% increased armour is a lot. And it gives us a 10% chance to gain an endurance charge when hit. 2) Guardian, this gives +3% additional Block Chance and removes all curses every 10 seconds. 3) Trickster, every time you kill something affected by a damage over time effect you get +30% increased Recovery of Life, Mana and Energy Shield as we have atleast 12% life regen, the extra regen gained from this is equivalent to using a flask. 4) Chieftain, not only does it increase our DPS when we have a totem, it also gives us +2% life regen which is (on 5k HP) ~100 hp/sec. But, again, requires a totem. Gems & Links Essence Drain: The order is not really important though Empower will give the largest boost to overall DPS. Essence Drain - Void Manipulation - Rapid Decay - Controlled Destruction - Pierce/Slower Projectiles - Empower. Contagion: Contagion - Increased Area of Effect Wither: Increased Duration is not really important, but will cut you some more slack during chaotic boss fights Wither - Spell Totem - Faster Casting (- Increased Duration). Righteous Fire can be linked with anything you'd like to have on it. It is not used as a damage skill, only for the more spell damage. Aura's Both Vitality and Enlightend are not a required, but having atleast one of the two makes your life a lot better. Purity of Fire - Vitality (- Enlighten) Optional Skills:
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Cast When Damage Taken The CWDT if up to your own preferences Cast When Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Increased Duration - Chaos Golem I self-cast Enduring Cry to gain endurance charges. Movement Skills You can use any movement skil you like, it just depends on your weapon: When using a dagger: Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify When using a scepter/wand: Faster Casting - Flame Dash or Faster Casting - Reduced Duration - Lightning Warp Secondary Skill:
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Blade Fall - Culling. I recommend using a secondary skill and link this with Culling. Why? Because Essence Drain cannot kill anything when a monster has Alles Cannot die. When one enemy is affected by Essence Drain and Contagion, hitting it with a culling skill will kill it and spread Essence Drain, possibly hitting the allies cannot die mob. For bosses:
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Essence Drain - Void Manipulation - Rapid Decay - Controlled Destruction - Poison - Empower. What? Poison!? Yep. There's very much debating whether or not Poison is a good gem for Essence Drain builds, but it is against bosses. Why? It applies a stacking chaos damage over time debuff. The poison damage increases with the initial hit, so +% increased spell damage, +% increased chaos damage both apply. Then the +% damage over time and +% increased chaos damage applies to the poison debuff. With one stack it is less dps than with Pierce/Slower Projectiles, but after a few stacks it deals more dps. Curses:
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I personally don't use curses, as I'm too lazy to self-cast them, but a few good options are: - Temporal Chains: Not only does this slow enemies, it will also increase Essence Drain's duration. - Enfeeble: Greatly reduces damage dealt by enemies, making you much more survivable - Poacher's Mark/Assassin's Mark: If you want to use Frenzy charges for bonus damage - Projectile Weakness: Essence Drain counts a projectile, thus this gives a huge damage bonus - Vulnerability: This will increase your damage over time effect on enemies Gear There isn't much gear required for this build, except for one (cheap) unique: Rise of the Phoenix. And this unique is only required for keeping RF from killing you.
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costs 2~5C You are free to choose the rest of your gear. When playing in hardcore I'd advise you to atleast be res overcapped (in case of elemental weakness maps) and have 5k+ HP. As this build takes + 192% increased amour it is advisable to wear pure armour gear. However: use as little ES gear as possible: You will die. Righteous fire's self burn damage is based on how much life + ES you have. In total you get little under 14% life regen. This is more than enough when you have 0 ES, but with a lot ES this will no longer be enough and you'll gradually lose life. Weapon
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A good choice of weapon would be something that gives +% increased spell damage, + %projectile damage or just +% increased damage . I prefer using a dagger over a wand, as it allows me to use whirling blades. There are some uniques that this build would benefit greatly from:
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As this build uses atleast one aura, using a Alpha's Howl is advisable, but not mandatory. Winds of change gives + (30-50)% increased projectile damage, resulting in a huge damage boost. However its defensive stats are rather poor. A perfectly rolled The Dark Seer would be best in slot as the +50% increased damage modifier gives the biggest DPS increase. Flasks
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You will need 1 mana flask and pick flasks to your liking. However, you need a Dousing flask, as things get dangerous you want to turn off your Righteous Fire to get a huge amount of life regen. Enchants
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Get whatever enchant you personally like on your boots and gloves. The best enchant for your helmet is 25% increased Essence Drain damage. Bandits Oak - Kill - Kill
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In Merciless you are actually free to choose what to do. If you want to run assasin's mark to generate frenzy charges you can get a gigantic increase in damage. You can kill Oak for the +1 Endurance charge and get another +1 from the skill tree for 5 endurance charges. Don't help Alira. Power charges give crit chance, Essence Drain can't crit. If you don't intend to use charges you can just kill all of them for a skill point. Leveling The first 30 levels, or until you find a 4link, leveling with Spark is the easiest. You can level with a good +% increased spell damage wand/dagger/scepter for maybe an alch. A decent weapon (~ +50% spell damage) can be used all the way to Tier 9 maps. Level 30 Tree
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https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAAQceDkgPqxEvEZYTbRQJFr8kiyaIJpUrCi2oSRNLV13yX7Bh4mh0b552goLHgwmJ4JMflKCbtbGQtNG1SLcwt9bA48M6yAzKSthN2mLbWeZY62Pxs_no Level 65 Tree
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https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAAQSzBx4LYQxfDkgPqxEvEZYTbRQJFCAWvxkuGj4cpySLJogmlSftKS4rCi2oPC1Bh0kTSVFLV1OlVw1d8l8_X7Bh4mh0aPJvnnaCfLiCx4MJg8yJ4JMflKCVLpu1ogCtja9ssZC00bVItzC3PrfWwGbA48M6xFjE9sauyAzKSs9-2E3Yvdlh2mLbWeZY62PvDvAf8NXxrPGz9kj56P4K Level 70 Tree After switching to Righteous Fire
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https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAAQSzBx4LYQxfDkgPqxEvEZYTbRQJFCAWvxkuGj4cpySLJogmlSftKS4rCi2oPC1Bh0kTSVFLV1OlVw1boF3yXz9fsGHiaHRo8m-edoJ8Dny4gseDCYPMieCTH5SglS6btaIAp1Wtja9ssZC00bVItzC3PrfWwGbA48M6xFjE9sauyAzKSs9-2E3Yvdlh2mLbWeZY6FrrY-8O8B_w1fGs8bP2SPno_go= From here on grab any points you'd like. Late Game Content Is this build Atziri viable? I don't know yet. I RIPped at level 82 in the labyrinth to a trap, because I didn't pay attention. What I do know is that Izaro and Malachai are both utter jokes. Tier 9 maps can be cleared in little under 15 minutes without rushing or any difficulty. Hope you liked my build guide. If you have any questions feel free to post them! Last edited by warriormage on Apr 6, 2016, 4:48:04 AM Last bumped on Apr 22, 2016, 12:00:52 PM
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so this is what I came up with for finishing out the tree.
More HP, more Chaos dmg. Jewel slots. https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAAASzBg4HHgn2C2EMXw5ID6sRLxGWE20UCRQgFm8WvxhWGS4Ziho-Gmwcpx0UJIskqiaIJpUn7SkuKwotqDbpOlg8LUGHRUdJE0lRUq9TpVXGVw1boFxAXfJfP1-wYeJn_Gh0aPJvnnWedoJ8Dny4gwmDX4PMhMWHy4ngj0aP-pMflKCVLpcGm6GbtaIAp1Wnm6yYrUqtja9ssZC00bUEtUi3MLc-t9a7TbvjvoDAZsM6xFjEosT2xq7IDMpKzxXPftR81abYTdlh2mLbWd1f42rkIuZY6FrrY-8O8B_w1fGs9kj31_no-tL-ug== I dont recommend going elementalist since I found that the stone golem provides a slightly better defense battling the RF degen. It's health regen gets incredibly good later and it taunts enemies which could save you. So far I'm loving it! Jkurs on twitch, come and join the action . :) Last edited by Jkurs on Mar 31, 2016, 8:30:57 PM
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" So far I haven't tried the stone golem yet, but it's also a great option. I've been using the chaos golem because it gives 4% reduced physical damage and it increases your overal DPS a little when you take elementalist. |
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" yea you get 30% bonus damage with a golem out, which is also dependent on if you have a golem out as well. If it dies you lose 30%. Trickster is the ideal option since as you already said you never have full energy shield anyway. You lose 10% without a golem but atleast the damage boost is consistent. The 4% physical reduction is negligible in my eyes since if your stone golem taunts, you would be taking less damage by not taking any damage at all. This might be an issue with bosses but 4% phys reduction in my eyes isn't too high and I'd much rather have a buffer of a higher health regen to help battle the RF degen. With all the boosted damage that you get anyway having 10% more dmg and 4% physical reduction isnt bad just since you are already wearing pure armor then your dmg reduction is already really high anyway. My only real complaint about essence drain is the cast speed, it's so slow to get off but when it does get off its devastating. :) I also forgot to mention that trickster gives you mana and life regen on kills from your dots, which is massive for survival. Jkurs on twitch, come and join the action . :) Last edited by Jkurs on Apr 3, 2016, 6:21:17 PM
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Nice guide!
I'm following this guide! Last edited by premer2 on Apr 22, 2016, 12:01:07 PM
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