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

You may want to change or delete the Arctic Armour, MoM and CwDT-Enduring Cry entries under Defences.

Good catch, this guide has become too big for myself :P

Took the opportunity to updates some of the other section and add one for quest reward

Beginner here. I started with VOC curse build, but quickly found out that the 6 curse build is way to expensive for me, which is why I moved to your build. Now I've played a fair bit in warband and would like to discuss the build a bit. (From your character, not the generic guide one)

First of all a more optimal class in my opinion is ranger. Purely by the start of the skill build and nodes you take. Instead of melee damage and strength, we get evasion and life when starting as a ranger.

Furthermore you went for Hired Killer, which I dont really understand as it gives rather poor Life percentages, compared to other nodes or in my new build jewels that result in (+5 or 6% max life and elemental resistances!).
https://www.poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgIAAF4Zju2DCC6bjdN-u-P-un11xKLuDu96FHV311b6KaV08Rjbg7YnC4bR705eE0CgIWD-SR2q4YhGcYMJb57KSl-wm7XDOhmKlwa-isrTtAycMqXETm2TJy9v2RNwu-wYwcV_xipNfVusR1FMSsg_J4LkkBGKr3vDtfJuqti9NZL-Cjrh8kX-j03jg188LYPMtz5yqcT2xq6QVRo4WfOsqicvgKQksBcv-tJmnnIPZOcYapuhj0YdFHgvfOVYB-NqFm826SSqGo_22vsJTZIj9qOKjX107QUteu-hL4TFPCgNH5y-QYdV1g==

Replacing Hired Killer with Max life jewels, would propably give us even more resistances, which depending on the gear could allow you to go for the jewel on the left side of the tree with just two more points of investment (or replacing the scion start resistance nodes).

Another thing I have considered taking is Elemental Equilibrium its quite a heavy investment with 4 points, but it would allow us even stronger debuffs to elemental resistance. From the limited experience I have, I think there aren't to many builds that focus on lightning damage aside from Lightning Arrow, but all other builds would get huge damage increases when we curse with ball lightning. Furthermore if we go down this route we dont need to take the strength nodes to the left and just can move up the skill tree like this:
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgIAAF4Zju2DCC6bjdN-u-P-un11Go_22vsJGYqXBsSi_kkdquGIRnGDCW-eykpfsJu1wzovb9kTcLvsGMHFf8aTJ76KytO0DCj6mK2DticLhtHvTl4TQKAhYHTxGNsUdXfXVvruDu96KaWcvkGH-eiCxzwoDR-cMqXETm2sR1FMfVtKyD8nKk01krXybqrYvf4Ktz6C5JARiq-ExXvDoS9NkiP2o4qNfQUteu907Y9Gpwjr7hzcuJMYapuhfOV4L1gH-tIdFFXWZOcXL4CkJLBmnnIPWfMnL5BVGjg26SSqFm_jao8a
This way it would effectively lower the amount of skill points required to take Elemental Equilibrium to two, as this new path just swaps STR to INT nodes, but is shorter overall. This again opens up the jewel on the left side, which can grant us another boost to max life and resistances.

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgIAAF4Zju2DCC6bjdN-u-P-un11Go_22vsJGYqXBsSi_kkdquGIRnGDCW-eykpfsJu1wzovb9kTcLvsGMHFf8aTJ76KytO0DCj6mK2DticLhtHvTl4TQKAhYHTxGNsUdXfXVvruDu96KaWcvkGH-eiCxzwoDR-cMqXETm2sR1FMfVtKyD8nKk01krXybqrYvf4Ktz6C5JARiq-ExXvDoS9NkiP2o4qNfQUteu907Y9Gpwjr7hzcuJMYapuhfOV4L1gH-tIdFFXWZOcXL4CkJLBmnnIPWfMnL5BVGjg26SSqFm_jao8aZlSUbw==

At this point we are back at 7 Skill Points, which we could invest in another jewel node for 3 points, or just more max life nodes that you have already taken, but I have left out so far. In very late game you could even take those points and invest into Skill duration (now both Potency of Will and Exceptional Performance are open) for better Vaal Haste/Vaal Grace and Arctic Armour.

What do you think?
I have also considering going for Cloth and Chain, but no idea if the 15% resi and 36% Evasion and Armor is worth the 2 Points Investment, but it seems something worthwhile to consider and better than the Scion start.

Gear Wise I have been running Tabula and a lot of other crap, because I am so poor. I can see your reasoning behind your Carcass for Ball lightning AOE and the high life/evasion and resistances you get, but due to more jewels in my build you propably could do without the resistances and then you could consider Victarios Influence allowing you to go over 5 Auras. That would currently mean reducing your amount of curses for auras, which can be good or bad, but if you would have two dying breath 6L then you could weapon swap to your all curse count and maybe even opening up options like Molten Shell on Damage Taken. Victario also probably means you can go for Grace and Determinition giving you huge amounts of armor at the cost of curses.

Edit: Just noticed there is a two point investment jewel in the south as well.

Would love to hear some feedback on that. I will propably try the build next league!

The tree is getting old because at the start of 2.0, I didn't really though I was getting good jewel easily, but now, yeah, it's seems a good idea to take the most possible jewel socket.
It's really tricky to compare 52% evasion rating from the scion wheel for another jewel socket and some spell damage that are not interesting, and elemental equilibrium for 2 extra point when you will also lose 60 strength. Also, EE is very hard to play with people that use anger.
I don't own a Victario's Influence, and I'm playing as a scion because this character cost me a lot to get to two six link, and with curse getting some love by the community, it was hard to make this build in league (I remember Doedre's Damning costing 5 chaos and Windscream 10 when I made this build :'(). But I'll definitely want to test it with more jewel socket and Victario's Influence.
Frankly, i'm waiting for threshold jewel, see if there is something good for this build, and test things out with blasphemy. Also, want to know all Ascendency class to know what class would be best.

Hey could you add my guide to the showcase cursers.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1460546/

I also got pretty much every curser item aside from atziris disfavour if you still want to do testing. Build is also fine for Ascendancy if there isnt other huge skill tree changes.