[2.0] Generic curse support guide - The Doedre's apprentice

History and changelog


Since the 1.2.0 and the rework of the Curse on Hit gem and curse node, there are a lot more build that use the Curse on Hit gem and sacrifice slots on their main skill. Surely it's because it's efficient.
Even after 1.3.0, the curse on hit only lose 9% increase effect, and the drop on curse duration doesn't really impact this build.
Also, there was a nerf on mobs resistance that indirectly buffed Elemental Weakness, Flammability, Frostbite and Conductivity.
This is a guide about how to play a curse-support, a new kind of support that will assist group with multiple efficient curses.
The 2.0 brings a more standardized size and duration progression for curse and reduce the mana cost. Nothing notable for curse on hit but manual casting will be easier for leveling and less tedious to maintain the mana cost. However, there was some nerf on the quality, enhance is now a little less useful than it was and some curse. Good news, Dying Breath is up, its radius has been increased. Shock Nova is coming back as a skill to use for Curse on Hit.

Doedre's fanboys only



Guide concept


> In order for a curse-support to find a place in a group, you have to be the most helpful possible.
If you have dps and need your curse for that, what will happen when you play with someone that need another curse? Very bad synergies: you won't profit from each other and will impair the other if you impose your choice of curse. If your going to curse, do it like no one else could, and think about the group before yourself. This is way, when encountering other build that use curses, say "hey, let me curse that for you, I'll put the same curses, they will be more efficient and I'll put extra ones".

> Curses are efficient and scale more with number than other kind of support.
People are usually limited to one curse, if people had time to have one all the time, they'll say it's a great help. As there is two defensive curses, meaning universal, two is very efficient. Every curse thereafter will be exponentially helpful, but will not always favour all party members, so you need to accommodate. Hopefully, the powerful ones are not the less used, and some are both offensive and defensive. Even with the worst possible pairing you will still find five curse that are helpful, and the sixth could be helpful to you. In most case, you'll always want more curses than wondering which to pick.

> Your party do not lose efficiency when other have their build based on curses.
When group are made and there is different member that use curses, they'll have the ones they need, and when the perma-freeze build want is elemental weakness frostbite when the cautious one want enfeeble temporal chain and some righteous fire want the flammability vulnerability, two or even four curses are not enough, and the group will lose some of its synergy. When more than one people relies on curses, they don't spend many point in it, it is mostly items. So even if those skill points go to waste, the loss is limited. By liberating gem slot and allowing to swap their «additional curse» items or by saving time for the group having only one person dedicated to curse all the time, the curse-support as meaningful impact on a group.

In conclusion:
> The build idea is to put the maximum curses on your enemies, with maximum effectiveness <


Guide target


There are as many reason for playing Path of Exiles as people playing it. In this guide, I'll try to cover three categories. Here's a description of this categories:

> Challenge-driven.
Players that mostly play the game to go where no one has gone. They'll do race, hardcore or league because their is competition. They aim to be the first to achieve something new. They do pack size domination palace over and over again. They want to optimize their experience gain per hour. They only use curse if it's more efficient than other builds.

> Science-driven.
Players that mostly don't play the game... I mean, they're looking at the wiki, drawing path on poebuilder and asking question to the dev everyday on the forum. And from time to time, they decide to play the game and test "this" with "that" and see where it goes. Even if they are not very efficient in grinding or leveling, they want to test how far can curse go.

> Thrill-driven
Players that mostly play the game to enjoy a good game. They'll do race, hardcore, or league because the modifier is offering opportunity to test their skills and discover new way of playing with fire. They do maps with lots of affix to test their limits and try to summon abaxoth when they can. They want to see if curse can help them survive in place where they didn't try, yet.

> Solo / PvP
I'll be saying some few words on playing solo or doing PvP with curses.


Build set up


> There is 5 way to gain an additional curse on enemies:
* the Whispper of Doom passive
* the Doedre's Damning unique ring (you can equip 2 of them)
* the Windscream unique boots
* a corrupted «+1 curse» amulet

> There is 6 way to boost the effectiveness of curse:
* the Skittering Runes passive notable and two passives point in the Whisper of Doom and Hexmaster cluster
* the Dying Breath unique staff
* quality on the Curse on Hit gem
* upgrading your curse gem, with quality and level
* consequently, linking Empower and Enhance to curses
* Conqueror's Potency unique jewel from Merciless

> Note: about some options and other bonus
* Chalice of Horror give only +1 to level in the item, so only on 3 curses maximum, or only 1 with Curse on Hit. Not worth it.
* Mod like «curse enemies with - on hit» are not worth having the gem itself because of the fixed level and the gem having no quality.
* Getting +1 level in Geoffri's Crest doesn't allow to have all 6 curses at maximum efficiency, but it help.
* Getting +2 level of support in Atziri's Disfavour allow to reach the maximum effectiveness of some curse, but it's not cheap.
* Dying Breath can be put into an Animate Guardian, you'll only lose the 18% increase effect of aura you cast, you can even pair it with Leer Cast.
* The increase effect of curse on Dying Breath is more effective than any level or quality upgrade, more so on boss.
* Whispering Ice is a free 7 link, allowing you to put 5 curses in one skill (Curse on Hit need to be linked to the curses, so you'll need a 6L)
* Curse Duration bonuses are limited to rare occasion where you want to do something else than cursing.
* Curse Area of effect bonuses have no effect when you use a «curse on hit» curse.
* No jewel apart from Conqueror's Potency

> Let's look at that:
+ few passives needed
+ can be played as a full build or second role build easily.
- «+1 curse» unique are not found early in new league, and will be quite expensive. The worst is still the corrupted amulet.
- lot of unique items, meaning low resistances and defences.
- lots of gem slots: 6 curses, 2-3 Enhance and/or Empower, 0 to 2 curse on hit with their active skills.
- in order to use all curses, you'll need 151-155 on all attributes. Dexterity is often the lacking attribute.
- curse have gone popular and the unique items have become expensive.
- currency sink if you want two Curse on Hit 20/23 (~9 ex each), two 6 link (~28 ex each), a good corrupted amulet (~9 ex) and six 20/23 or 21/20 curses (~15 ex each) with one Enhance 4 and one Empower 4 (~40 ex each) and the 6L Atziri Disfavour (~50 ex, but only 22 more than a 6L Dying Breath).

In conclusion:
> The build is very versatile on passive points, need some unique items to start and has space for your own variant <
> The build is hard to gear in new league (nobody want to sell +1 curse item as they are popular, and they are more expensive than in standard) <
> A few curses can be run in cheap version but rich people can invest a lot <

* Challenge-driven recommendation:
> Don't waste tons of point for just a +6% curse effect, don't lose all your currencies on additional curse stuff if 3-4 is enough. Planning ahead with your group is more efficient than taking extra curse that nobody would use. Take into account that some curse are really better with quality and some are already at half their capacity at level 1. Rush some Enhance as the bonus is quite consequent on some curse.

* Science-driven recommendation:
> Do not accept less than 6 curses and take all curse nodes. Corrupt every good amulet you come across and all your 20/20 curse gem. It's for science. 6 curses puts a lots of graphics effect on the mobs, you can pick the curse you want from their colour (because, why not). Search to maximize something else than curse, like duration, area, or projectile speed that could do great with your build.

* Thrill-driven recommendation:
> You might not want to invest much as there exists curse immunity on magic and rare monster as well as map. If the latter can be avoided, the first two can usually be skipped. You might want white socket or alternate colour gear to adapt the curses for a particular party or map.


Build extension


> Utility
When doing support, your team might want more than just putting six curses. That's not the spirit, YOU want to do MORE for your team!
You can skip more utility for the team, but as you took curse, you will not be the one to clear the mobs.
* Aura: because of the affixes on Dying Breath, you can become a perfect Auramancer. Be aware that you might not have enough gem slot to put a lot of aura, plan ahead!
* Magic Find: once you put your six curses on the boss, switch stuff in the meantime (2 ring, 1 amulet, and optionally 1 headgear to swap and keep in your inventory), swap weapon with a Culling-Increase Quantity-Increase Rarity skill. Your party might not remember you need time to swap gear.
* Spectre: evangelist's proximity shield put you in safer place without much investment. However, without Bones of Ullr and Queen's Decree (if you take Windscream, Dying Breath or Atziri Disfavour, or another good item to curse), that only let Vis Mortis to increase number of spectre.
* Elemental Equilibrium: you can prepare three different skill, one for each element, for your curse on hit skills. If you use manual cast, even better.
* Conduit: pretty bad with this build, achievable nonetheless. You won't have Romira Banquet and I don't want to know the price of a «+1 curse» Voll Devotion. Playing with Assassin/Warlord/Poacher's Mark will also overlaps with your conduit. The best way is to have some Doedre's Elixir.
* Conversion Trap: pretty good with increase duration on rare monster.
* Stun: coupled with Warlord's Mark, you can make a very descent perma stun build.
* Shock: same, with Conductivity.
* Freeze: same, with Frostbite.
* Chill ground: Whispering Ice or Arctic Breath are good for maintaining boss in a chilled state.

> Defense
Remember that the more you invest in curse, the less you'll have. But you will likely be behind your party. You might also be the least likely to die to reflect.
When properly invested in Enfeeble, Temporal Chains and Warlord's Mark, the only things to kill you are: over-curse and curse immune mobs.
* Energy Shield: the least favorable one because if you don't have shield, boots and rings to boost it. Having Dying Breath on an animate Guardian can free up the shield. Also, a good energy shield amulet is expensive, so a corrupted +1 curse energy shield amulet is out of the charts. You can still go for it if you use Whispering Ice
* Evasion Rating: very cheap with dodge to have a descent minimum defense, but will not go high by itself. You can find some good piece of evasion gear, but Windscream will prevent the use of Atziri's Step.
* Armour: easily manageable with Iron Reflexes, Grace and Determination if you plan to run auras. Otherwise, grab a good shield and chest.
* Mind over Matter: will cost a lot of skill point, not like you don't have them. Dying Breath and Doedre's Damning are, by far, not the worth piece of gear for that, but 18% increase maximum mana is still quite nice.
* Cast when Damage Taken + Immortal Call, with an optional Arctic Breath: will cost some gem slot.
* Block: Staff block with Dying Breath can be boost to 34% but that's not what would save you. Corrupted Stone of Lazhwar is in the list of the most corrupted item, so finding a +1 curse is not that hard.
* Lightning Coil: will be hard to find the lightning resist needed but might be ok if you got place for a Purity of Lightning.
* Knockback: depends on the skill used to curse and the curse used, may needs some points to be reliable. May require the approbation of the group.
* Blind: good for your tank, if someone don't already blind, and someone is foolish enough to tank.
* Decoy Totem: really good, take just one slot and achieve some life-saving deeds from times to times.
* God Mod (Chaos Inoculation with surgeon elemental flask effect and Immortal Call cast on crit): doable but you'll lake some crit chance and attack speed to do it. Best casting Immortal Call manually.

> Offence
It is best to boost your ally damage than try to do some yourself. If you want, though, you can use one of those:
* Dual/Tri Searing Bond/Flame Totem + Fire Trap: you don't need to do damage yourself to curse so you can take Ancestral Bond. Can deal a lot without much link nor point.
* Minions: achieve a little army with some point. Don't know if it is useful. Summon Raging Spirit may be your best call.
* Poison Arrow Trap: with a +2/+1 bow in swap hand, you can add some descent dps. Curse allow you to swap without problem.
* Spell: boost the skill you use to curse to 20/20, add heralds. You'll do less damage than average, but don't underestimate the power of your six curses. Beware of reflect, it might become an issue.
* Attack: if you don't use Dying Breath, use a weapon that can still provide bonus to curse in some way (by either boosting curse or ensuring a better delivery of Curse on Hit).

> Note: Vaal Gem for support
Two vaal gem will store the good moment and ease the bad ones. There is a lot of useful support Vaal gem, so don't miss them (but don't use more than 2 as they charge independently).
* Vaal Grace
* Vaal Haste
* Vaal Discipline
* Vaal Summon Skeletons (meat shield)
* Vaal Lightning Trap (for shocking ground)

In conclusion:
> The build is quite open to do something else and you should make your own depending on the need of your group or your playstyle <

* Challenge-driven recommendation:
> going utility with offensive boost like offensive aura or Elemental Equilibrium to ensure damage output. Don't waste time with Frenzy-Power Conduit if you play Poacher's Mark or Assassin's Mark. Don't sacrifice too much survivability on gear, the aim is to be of use for the group, so dying is a no.

* Science-driven recommendation:
> Maybe some Spectre could be cool with curse? Using strange unique items to combine them with curse, or simply using curse-oriented unique (did someone said Shackles of the Wretched?). Self flagellation is the way to get all curses... on you... just enter a double curse map.

* Thrill-driven recommendation:
> You might want to choose a mix of two, maybe with a swap weapon for better versatility. Remember to have something that will work for Curse Immune mobs.


Skill to use (for curse-on-hit route)


Remember that you'll want most of the link to boost curses.
Think to look for are:
* Bonus: can you improve the skill with some passive or equipment? Most skill will seems good if they use at least 2 support gems. You can't afford this here.
* Speed: how fast does it apply curse? If you curse the boss with Temporal Chains and Enfeeble after he killed everyone, shame on you.
* Cover: how many time does it take to curse everyone around? This is important to maintain the clear speed.
* Range: how secure can you be from the danger? This depend on your choice of defence, if you can afford to jump in or not.
* Reliable: will it curse only the first line of mob? can you miss? can you curse that one dangerous mob wherever it is whoever and whatever is around him? As important as Speed. Defensive curse need this the most.

I put verything on my wiki page because it's prettier



In conclusion:
> As the build is open to variant, use the one you see fit. Having specific bonus from your items/skill tree should help your decision <

* Challenge-driven recommendation:
> Look for Speed and Reliability first, then Cover and last Range. Take the bonus from the build into account (arc is really fast but need some cast speed and cannot be boost but by Chain). Manual casting can become really efficient if you invest in this and compensates the lack of Curse on Hit effect bonus.

* Science-driven recommendation:
> Look for something fun with strange bonus that go with the rest of the build. Pick your own order. With 6 curses and linking Curse on Hit, you got only 2 spare slots for other support gem when using two 6L. I'll recommend using Enhance and Empower to boost the curses, but no-link spell can be quite dull.

*Thrill-driven recommendation:
> Look for Reliability and Range, then Speed and Cover. You'll probably have a Tabula Rasa and a 4L or two 5L which will be enough or not depending on the number of curses. Tabula allow you to use different spell if you're playing Elemental Equilibrium.


Curse to use


Use all of them!
Most of the build is based on adaptability. You can be very versatile with some preparation time. Having all curse gems on hand is a must.

This is a description of all the curse, and why/when/how you should use them.

* Warlord's Mark (Red)
+ good in offence with mana leech. Allow the group to do no regen or half regen map more easily.
+ good in defence with life leech. Can help or totaly counter people who got problem with reflect.
+ good in defence with endurance charge.
+ good in defence with stun.
> as quality only provide chance of endurance charge, a 21/0 linked with Empower is enough.

* Punishment (Red)
+ good in offence.
- does not work against totem and dot and everything not doing physical attack.
- require to not kill the monster too fast.
> quality only improve attack speed, a 21/20 linked with Empower is better.

* Temporal Chain (Green)
+ extremely good in defence.
+ good in utility with increase duration of all debuff.
> quality and level improve the slow at the same rate, a 20/23 linked with Enhance is best, can be linked with Empower too.

* Poacher's Mark (Green)
+ good in utility with mana on hit. Allow the group to do no regen or half regen map more easily.
+ good in utility with life on hit. Can counter reflect for people with lots of hits per seconds.
+ good in utility with the 100% increase in flask charge. Allow to pop Quicksilver or other unique Flasks more often.
+ good in offence with the less evasion. It is a double offensive boost for critical attack build.
+ extremely good in offence with the frenzy charge.
> as quality only provide chance of frenzy charge, a 21/0 linked with Empower is enough.

* Projectile Weakness (Green)
+/- piercing will not help Explosive Arrow and others, and pierce build will probably have good pierce chance on their own.
+/- often fun to knock back, sometimes can be annoying.
+/- only work with projectile, but can be spell or attack and they are very popular.
> as quality only provide pierce chance, it is best to have a 21/20 linked with Empower. However, if you are in a premade party that rely on your pierce, better get a 20/23 linked with both Empower and Enhance.

* Enfeeble (Blue)
+ extremely good in defence against critical damage.
+ extremely good in defence against critical chance.
+ extremely good in defence with less chance to hit against attack and even double dip on critical attack.
+ extremely good in defence with less damage.
+ did I say it is extremely good?
> quality will affect chance to hit and chance to critics while level affect damage and chance to hit. Having a 21/20 linked with Empower to boost everything is better but Enhance is cool too.

* Assassin's Mark (Blue)
+ extremely good in offence with critics based build.
+/- extremely good in offence with cast on critical build. Don't encourage them, you fool! Unless you have a good computer.
- does nothing for dot based build and Resolute Technique ones.
0 some mana and life on kills... who cares?
> as quality only provide chance of Power charge, a 21/0 linked with Empower is enough.

* Elemental Weakness (Blue)
+ extremely good in offence, and more polyvalent than specific element ones.
- does not improve pure physical and chaos user. Very rare though.
- very high resistance mobs will not be affected unless used with other means to reduce the resistance.
> quality and level improve the resistance reduction, a 20/23 linked with Enhance work best, can be linked with empower too.

* Flammability (Blue)
+ good in offence with more chance to ignite.
- only work with fire and burn. (and cold ignite with three dragon).
> quality will improve the duration while level will improve the damage. If you (or the one to ignite) like to watch the whole world burn choose a 20/23 linked with Enhance, otherwise a 21/0 linked with Empower is enough.

* Frostbite (Blue)
+ good in defence with more chance to freeze.
- only work with ice (and lightning freeze with three dragon).
> quality will improve the duration while level will improve the damage. If you only care about damage, 21/20 linked with Empower, if you want to perma freeze, 20/23 linked with Enhance.

* Conductivity (Blue)
+ good in offence with more chance to shock.
- only work with lightning (and fire shock with three dragon).
> quality will improve the duration while level will improve the damage. If you only care about damage, 21/20 linked with Empower, if you want to perma shock, because you really only care about damage, 20/23 linked with Enhance.

* Vulnerability (Blue)
+ good in offence with physical damage and dot.
- only work with physical damage and dot.
> quality and level improve the physical damage taken at the same rate, so a 20/23 Enhance is best but it can be linked with Empower too.

In conclusion:
> Better to have some set with Empower and some with Enhance, but you could do some with both and some without any <
> Speak with your team and be knowledgeable on curse to settle which curses to use <

* Challenge-driven recommendation:
> Maximize clear speed by preparing your party and using curse that double dip (Flammability on ignite, Vulnerability on bleed, Assassin's Mark on crit) and that can synergies (Assassin's Mark + Flammability + Elemental Weakness for crit burning Flameblast/Fire Trap/Summon Raging Spirit or Assassin's Mark + Vulnerability + Projectile Weakness for crit Puncture Trap Knockback).

* Science-driven recommendation:
> Temporal Chains is the most fun to watch. Combine it with Frostbite for the chill/freeze effect. Projectile Weakness's knockback is really cool. Poacher's Mark is good to test how far you can make a build on potion.

* Thrill-driven recommendation:
> Defensive curses are more generic than offensive ones. Warlord's Mark's stun, Temporal Chains's slow and Enfeeble's debuff should always be included. Poacher's Mark can nullify reflect and provide more defensive flask uptime while giving an offensive bonus.


Gems availability


All curses are unlocked when entering act3 in normal. Curse on hit is available at vendor after killing Malachai in normal, and as a quest reward either after Brutus or Weaver in Cruel depending on class. R = Available as reward, Q = Available after quest, X = Not available
Here's a table of which class unlock curses:



Tips & Tricks


Stay with group, curse all the enemies around. If you have extended the build to do something else, do it after cursing everyone (I mean the enemies, language!).

> How to deal with...

*Curse Immune:
affix on mobs, it's ok, that's what party member are for. Affix on maps: go take a drink. Then complain to devs :)

*Curse Reflection:
fun... you realise that your curse are good, really good... I mean, really really ~I should not have Frostbite/Elemental Weakness/Warlord's Mark/Temporal Chains/Assassin's Mark this Merveil~ good. Get a warding flask when doing Curse Reflection Boss. No more Maëlstorm of Chaos for me.

*Reflect:
did you actually manage to do damage to the point of dying to reflect? Well, you should take Vaal Pact and use Warlord's Mark or Poacher's Mark or both! Hopefully you won't need life leech on gear or additional link like the other. (If you take Poacher's Mark, you can add an Atziri's Promise easily.)

*Over-curse:
For those who still don't know, when someone is casting a curse, it is added to the curse pool and will replace an already more powerful one. Then the limit of curse on enemy this person dispose off (usually one) is applied. Trust me, this is your worst nightmare. Enfeebled Temporaled extra fire crematorium boss in zana 76 maps is fine... until someone pop a Warlord's Mark on his Cast When Damage Taken setup...
Spam party channel to remove/unlink/disable their Curse on Hit setup. Blame everything (cordially) on the guys who still use manual curse.
Curse on hit gloves and other uniques are hard to deal with. Either don't play with them or sell them an alternative to theirs. Hope you enjoyed screwing the party with your 200ex dual curses Asenath's Touch... Headhunter on a hexfont nemesis mod? you gotta be kidding me.
When failling to determine who is still cursing the mobs and removing all your perfect pretty curses, look for spectre that can curse then for dominated monster.
Did you know that some Elreon's relics can cast curse? Yeah... it's a harsh world out there.

> How to level?
Whatever you have in mind as extension of the build. You're fine with everything till act 3 cruel. Apart from the additional curse, curse nodes are very weak, so you can take them latter.
If you have a support extension, a late build, or a really weird concept, you should stick to basic leveling spell.
As the «+1 curse» item are fairly rare at start of the league, you don't really want to level with this anyway. Whatever extension you chose, begin with it, like any other dual-curse build.

> How to PvP
Everyone in the high sphere is playing anti curse flask... I might test a LLD version one day, but it is not a build aimed to shine.
I'm just going to develop the part where you want to level Leo a bit with a build like this:
* watch out for guys who use anti curse flask. Flee like hell and wait for the flask to expire.
* you don't really need defence auras, either your screw from the start or you can manage without. Exception is Purity of Lightning for Tempest Shield.
* the main curses are Temporal Chains and Warlord's Mark with a fast skill. You'll easily perma stun and leech all mana and life needed back. Complete with offensive curses.
* see if you can manage offensive aura or heralds
* some of the best way to curse is: huge Area of Effect because you can target a corner, Arc and Flicker Strike because of autotarget.
* take time to make a Block Chance Reduction and level it, you'll need it.
* be careful of Atziri's Mirror in Animated Guardian. Take time to kill it if necessary.


Showcasing other people


I have talk with other curse-build users, at least 5 for now. I watch out for those build regularly on Reddit and this forum. The things I learn from them is shared in this topic.
We are not alone, we are among you.

> oGsShadow - Marauder Support in Tempest
An exemple of a low budget build made in an Hardcore League

> downhilldemon - Double Whispering Ice
Using 2 Whispering Ice for Chilled Ground and extra level in support gem. The weapon swap allow to carry a Kaom Heart for extra tankiness

> PetitCaca - Summoner support
Use a Sire of Shards with Stygian Revenant Spectre for damage and a wall of minion for defense. Use 4 curse on a curse on hit and one manually.

> sirdaneth - The Cursologist
Use Ephemeral Edge for reaching 10k ES and whirling blade to keep up with group, focus on elemental resistance with Elemental Equilibrium.

> Starlina - Queen of The Cursed Forest
Evasion base with Queen of the Forest and Wind Ripper with curse for elemental damage and Charges.

Those Builds are still from the 1.3, I will update as they get updated.

> _VOC_ - pure support
Very high level player with 5-6 manual cursing.

> Broccolini - Multi-Curse Aurabot
Very high level player with a Shavronne's Wrappings aurabot base and 2 to 4 curses.

> FrontLineBait - Aurabot penta-curser
Arc linked to 4 curses and Aurabot with Prism Guardian and Shavronne's Wrappings. 5th curse is manual for hard pack.

> kaisersoze80 - Hexaura Pentacurse Slammer
Two Ground slam to curse combined with the speed of Brigthbeak and aurabot with Prism Guardian

> moomaaru - Hivemind
Templar summoner with Leer Cast and Haste for offensive support and Spectre for solo.

> heliusflame - Bad Tongue
Offensive auras for full offensive boost

> Asday - Whispers of the Angels
Surviving Hardcore with Ice Shot Quad Curse on Quill Rain

> Akamu - All kind of support
Quadra curse, Conduit, Elemental Equilibrium, and a bit of Magic Find

> Chardizhard - CI Freeze
Freezing Pulse Witch with aura and curse to play solo and a support configuration in swap

> Dolmax1 - see below
Hexacurse with some auras and Elemental Equilibrium adaptability and a Magic Find swap.

> myself - see below
Hexacurse max radius with defensive auras and shock.

Thanks for zkin for is patronage :)


Thanks for Bada_Bing for adding this build to the list.

Updated to be a generic guide more than my own build exhibition.

Updated to 1.3.0
Will need to do some excel screenshot, this forum make table presentation hard.

Hey man ! :)

First of all I'd like to say : thank you ! For this build and for all the nice advice you shared with me when I was a novice Hexer :) This is my favorite character by far and I play it as often as I can (I only switch to my boring TS Ranger when I want to play solo for a bit X) ).

I come here to present to you the result of my version of this build. I think it's a bit different from yours but the core idea comes from it :) I'm very happy with what it turned out to become and I'm eager to make it progress even more :)









Recently, I was lucky enough to get a Shavronne's Wrappings from Haku lvl 8 so I could afford to get a 6L Dying Breath :) I can now cast all my 6 curses with 2 buttons. Compared to my previous set-up where I had to click 3 buttons to get all the 6 curses down, it's a nice quality of life improvement :). It leaves plenty of time to position and pickup sweet loot :)

I did some test running Leer Cast instead of Alpha's Howl and I liked it a lot, I get a lot more messages saying things like : "Wow Such DPS increase!", etc. :P Feels good ;)
But I think I'll switch it with Alpha's Howl when I do maps like Temple, Shrine Or Crematorium with high elemental damage bosses, so I can procure high resists with purities (I have to invest in lvl 21s :) ).

One of my favorite things in this game is Vaal Haste so I tried to incorporate the ultimate Vaal Haste experience in my build :P
The stats of the Vaal Caress unique gloves fitted quite well in build so I bought some and vaaled them, hoping for a lucky hit but after 15, I resigned to grind a long long time with my TS Ranger to be able to buy the +1 Vaal Caress. I was also lucky to find a nicely corrupted belt with the resist I needed.
I now offer to my party a 16 seconds lvl 24 Vaal Haste (will get up to lvl 27 eventually :P ) on Generosity with all the aura nodes :). With a good group, on open maps, I am sometimes able to maintain a constant Vaal Haste during the entire map. :)

Concerning auras, I run Grace, Haste (or Determination if I feel that I need the extra armour),Purity of Elements, Purity of Ice and Clarity lvl 3. Which leaves me with just enough mana to cast my spells lvl 1. Thanks to the early mana nodes that I pick up on the tree, I just have enough mana regeneration to spam them as much as I want, even if they are linked to enhance or empower :)
In certain maps, I swap Determination with Leap Slam to get around easier :)

I chose to take Elemental Equilibrium for the moment. It's sometimes anoying to have to change Ball Lightning (I clearly prefer to curse with Ball Lightning) but all in all I feel it's pretty effective when playing with spell casters. I try to adapt the best I can to the group by using either Ball Lightning or Firestorm (or Coldsnap if I have to but it's my least favorite) to apply the curses.

My latest craze is to incorporate a boss culling setup into my build :)
I've been lucky in my drops lately and I was able to afford an Andvarius duo and a good MF amulet. After that I've cursed a map boss I swap my regular Doedrees and Karui with them then I switch to The Reaper's Pursuit (which is also nice to switch to when running around the map) that I have in off-hand and cast spectral throw linked to GMP + Item Rarity + Item Quantity. With this method I can quite reliably cull map bosses with 25%IIQ/320IIR (these numbers will rise a little bit as my gems are leveling up). The only anoying thing is that you have to keep the jewelry in your inventory the entire time and switch them as fast as possible before the group forgets that you have to cull and kill the boss. Also you are way more vulnerable to elemental hits during the time that you wear the Andvariuses.

At some point I decided to invest in a high evasion chest with the best life roll I could find. This is not mirror material but I'm still really happy with this chest. It was a huge buff to my survivability :) If I add 1 granite flask with armour roll + 1 jade flask with evasion roll + grace + determination, I get to crazy high armour ratings which is a delight. Small mobs don't even scratch me anymore :)

Here are some screenshots for the numbers ;)

Without Determination :





So, yeah, here is my character, inspired by your build, I thought you might want to know what I came up with :)
If you have any question or suggestion, I'll be happy to answer them :)

See you in Wraeclast!

Hi Dolmax!
You force me to post my updated build, I was so lazy this past month...

Very nice to see that people are enjoying support, to the point of trading a shav for a dying breath!

About your tree:
I don't think taking more armour than that is necessary, but it is fun to see tanky support. I myself have 11k armour with only grace, and have both jade and granite in my belt.
Soul of Steel is rarely taken, but can be really meaningfull with this much armour. However, I must say that Unyielding is quite the most powerfull defensive node. It will cost a lot of armour bonus, and 3 regret, but I think it is worth it.

About your gem:
I personnaly vaal gem that are better having 23q than level 21 as soon as they get to 1/20. Curse on hit, temporal chain and elemental weakness are the one where you afford to do it.
I never had need for clarity. The 4 node at scion start and the dying breath are enough :).

About your gear:
I really think an animate guardian can survive with Leer Cast instead of you. I'm leveling the gem to test it. The cost of the loss is not too much, and will allow you to wear Alpha Howl at all time. Cannot be frozen is nice.
I'm jealous of your mf gear, that's what I was hoping to get... in some months... but i'm not that lucky :'(



As I've redone my thread to be a generic guide, I delete my build, so I'm reposting my current hexacurser: (will upgrade the guide too later)



I don't have enough microtracnsaction to look pretty :)










The twist:
Currently levling Herald of Thunder. Without taking EE, and with 20/20 Ball Lightning, super powerfull conductivity and elemental weakness, I do "some" damage.
Not at all meaningfull, but I can shock! and that's enough.
Can currently clear 66 maps alone at moderate speed. Will try again at level 20 Herald.
I did a 1vs1 yesterday (Leo daily) against a 87 perma stun marauder... was long but won 3/1 :)

Nice Summary !

Hands down for one of the best guides i have ever seen. I had the great opportunity to party with you. Both and guide and the build are amazing. Hope you update it so i can try it in the next patch.


cheers

Thanks, very appreciated.

Not only will I update it to 2.0, but I have updated it now, to add more and more tips.
Also, will now work a little on the presentation, so I'm ready for the patch.

I also know that I'm going to do another build based on curse for 2.0, but I'll wait for the full patch note at the release! and maybe wait for all the unique to be discovered... Dark Though being removed broke my heart, but they said it could be reworked.

Update for 2.0




What changed:
Lost the possibility of another aura but trade it for better ones and better curses.
Aiming for a +1 curse shapper seed