[2.1] Damning-King - Tri-Curse ED+Contagion | Super Fun | AoE Smasher | ST Melter | Atziri Viable

Since we're using Bino which is a dagger, I swapped to whirling blades:



We will probably have to drop the golem.

Also, after thinking about it and testing a bit, we want to use the CWDT+IC combo:



We make the Wither 3-Link this way:

I'm 100% poor after buying alpha's howl, doedre's and some other items for this build.
So I only have a 4 link available for the Essence Drain setup.

I'm using ED + Controlled Destruction + Void Manip. + Rapid Decay.

Is that the optimal setup for a 4l? Or should I use poison instead of one of the support gems?

Also, is it worth it to buy the cheapest 5l or 6l I can find and lose a lot of defenses to gain some dps?

Edit: I'd like to thank you for this really fun and different build. It took forever to find a viable and fun triple-curse-blasphemy build, but I'm glad I found yours. Cheers!

"

aerotsu wrote:

I'm 100% poor after buying alpha's howl, doedre's and some other items for this build.
So I only have a 4 link available for the Essence Drain setup.

I'm using ED + Controlled Destruction + Void Manip. + Rapid Decay.

Is that the optimal setup for a 4l? Or should I use poison instead of one of the support gems?

Also, is it worth it to buy the cheapest 5l or 6l I can find and lose a lot of defenses to gain some dps?

Edit: I'd like to thank you for this really fun and different build. It took forever to find a viable and fun triple-curse-blasphemy build, but I'm glad I found yours. Cheers!

Glad you enjoy!

yes, poison is the 5th gem, and then empower as 6th. your setup is correct.
You can search for somewhat 'decent' 5L with like 60+ life and 1 or 2 resistences. it should cost much.

Is Bino really necessary? Can I go with this build with rare dagger? :)

Update: 24/12/15
* Updated the gems. Some changes were made, we have more defensive sources now - CWDT+IC combo and Fortify.
* Modified the passive tree again - We don't need Blood Drinker in the right side. we invest 3 points for 14% life when we can invest them for 15% more. Also, I think 'Dreamer' node should be in the final passive tree, and you can just remove it if you have enough mana. It's 2 points in favor of 33% to maximum mana and 15% mana regen. thats great for us. Check out the tree.
* 'Wind of Change' Gloves are awesome for this build, enhancing our Essence Drain's DPS by a lot. Highly recommended to get them.
* Sorted out the leveling trees aswell.



@Amerlor - Yes you can go with a rare dagger its no problem. I just like bino's poison spread along with essence drain's dps.
Added a note about it in the guide:


Note: Bino is great for this build, spreading the poison and making our AoE stronger. However, you can use a rare dagger with decent Spell Damage (+can craft DoT damage with Leo master) for more DPS. This will make your Single Target stronger, but from my tests the AoE is slightly weaker and I like to maximize the AoE damage.

I found the solution for several issues that were bothering me. Call it 'lazy defensive setup' if you will. :)

Issue 1: To many active skills. Whirling Blades for movement and defense. ED, Contagion, Wither as main dps. Abyssal Cry as secondary dps and defense. I was having trouble adapting to using so many skills at once. Too much concentration required to press the buttons in the right order at the right time. I play PoE casually, while listening to music, relaxing. This was too intense.

Issue 2: Secondary skills are not used often enough. I zip to a pack, cast Contagion and ED and then a white pack is already dead, a blue pack lives long enough to see Wither or Abyssal Cry. Only single targets (rare/boss) survive to see the 4th attack. So not only 5 active skills is too intense, it's also redundant.

Issue 3: Survivability is too low. We traded off a bunch of +life nodes to get very high dps. But I no longer feel comfortable in tier 10+ maps with random mods. Can be super careful and crawl through them releasing the ebola way ahead of you to be safe from most mobs, but I don't like slowing down and skipping the bosses.

The solution:

Replace Abyssal Cry with Molten Shell.

My quality of life improved dramatically after this change. Feeling comfortable in tier 10-12 maps again. Back to the relaxed play style, no more confused fingers. :) Explosions were fun, but not really necessary for this build.

After more thinking, I have another major change to propose: drop the 3rd curse and replace Vulnerability with Arctic Armor!

Lose: 33% inc DoT damage

Gain: 13% LESS physical and fire damage taken + 9 tree nodes!! Drop: Whispers of Doom wheel, -4% mana reserved, Dreamer. Grab 2 jewel sockets (below Scion and near Blood Drinker; with bonus resists and dex) or 1 socket and a bunch of +life nodes.

You can easily roll a jewel with 26-28% inc damage from just 2 modifiers. And if you find a jewel with 3 or 4 useful mods, you'll get a lot more.

I think this trade-off is totally worth it.

ETA: You repathed away from Blood Drinker? 2 reasons to change it back:

1. If you grab all 3 life nodes in it, you get +20% life and +10 dex, while 4 life nodes elsewhere will give you just +20% life.

2. This lets you grab the nearby socket with the nodes saved from dropping Vulnerability.

Hey dude. I'll try to answer to everything you mentioned:

1. Molten Shell - Totally useless. I used it alot back in the days, until I figured out that low level Molten Shell very helps you to feel tanky in the psychologic way - "i have shield i am protected", it doesnt have the ability to give u any useful defense at level 10 in high tier maps.

2. Too many skills? The first highlight in the 'Highlights' section is "very active build" means you use your fingers :) This is the fun I find in this build. That being said, you can adjust it just like you did, to a way that makes you feel more comfortable.

3. Survibaility is great. The only thing you could use for defense is more life -> more life on jewels and sacrifice DPS from tree for more HP nodes. This is the best you can get.
I honestly run like a boss in tier 11-13 and be like 'come at me bro' for every mob I encounter.

4. Dropping to dual curse - First of all the whole purpose of this build is - as its name - DAMNING king. Regardless, 33% increased DoT + 10% inc.effect from passive tree = total of 36.3% increased DoTs damage. IMPORTANT: its multiplicative with any other dots - we have 3 dots: Contagion, Poison (that can be stackable which makes it even stronger), ED. total of significant DPS gain.

5. Blood Drinker - The +10 dex is wat bothering me and you can get this HP elsewhere. Dexterity isn't really needed, you get enough from items/the tree itself (especially on the way to Fatal Toxic and the jewel on the right side]. Instead, I prefer getting 3x5% life nodes +another point in DPS/other stat that can actually help me.

As said in previous reply, you think 80% defensive while I support DPS gain in many cases.
I could use around 4800 or more HP, which is what I'll eventually have. This, alongside CWDT+IC, Evasion, Temporal Chains and Enfeeble will grant me the defenses I need.

"

MagicalCrime wrote:

3. Survibaility is great. The only thing you could use for defense is more life -> more life on jewels and sacrifice DPS from tree for more HP nodes. This is the best you can get. I honestly run like a boss in tier 11-13 and be like 'come at me bro' for every mob I encounter.

I'd love to see more videos from those tiers. Are you able to do multiple mods (alch'd maps)?

"

MagicalCrime wrote:

4. Dropping to dual curse - First of all the whole purpose of this build is - as its name - DAMNING king. Regardless, 33% increased DoT + 10% inc.effect from passive tree = total of 36.3% increased DoTs damage. IMPORTANT: its multiplicative with any other dots - we have 3 dots: Contagion, Poison (that can be stackable which makes it even stronger), ED. total of significant DPS gain.

The increased effect of curses does not increase Vulnerability from +33% to +43%, it increases it to +36% (by 10% of 33%). And you spend 9 nodes to get that +36% (that cluster + mana reservation + mana/regen).

I think you are wrong about its effect. It's additive ('increased'), not multiplicative ('more'). Yes, each DoT is affected by it. But it's not any different from the increased damage you can get on jewels. You can get 2 extra jewels for 6 of those 9 nodes, then spend 3 more nodes on +life.

One simple jewel with 2 mods such as +16% spell dmg with shield and +12% DoT or +12% spell dmg is already worth +28% increased spell dmg, i.e. you are only 8% short of Vulnerability. A jewel with 3 mods is better than Vulnerability. And you get TWO extra jewels!

Am I missing something? I don't think 'Eight-Jewel' sounds less cool than 'Tri-Curse' :)

I said 36.3 dude. never said 43.
a quote from poe-wiki:

"Cursed enemies take increased damage: Because these modifiers are an increase to the target's damage taken, they are multiplicative with your damage dealt and additive with any other increased damage taken effects on the target"

I check every day the jewels. Only once I saw one with triple-damage for us. its usually 2x damage +max life or so, and even that is hard to find.


Also, don't forget the Enfeeble and Temporal Chains also benefit from the +10% effect of curses.
Even if you drop to dual curse I'd suggest keeping that +1 from tree, and get a new rare ring instead.
But I do understand the temptation of having so much free skill points.

If you REALLY want more defense, what you can do is take off the 2nd circle of skill effect duration, you gain 7 points from it. then, get acrobatics. ED will last around 5.5 seconds instead of 7.
Like that:

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwABA-4EBwceCGcI9A5IES8RlhNtFAkWvxg8GFYYah2qHb4i9CaIJpUrCi2oM4c1kjpYQYdGcUkTSVFLV0yzUlNSr1XGWAdcQF3yX7Bh4mf8akNsC20Zb552gngvfOV_xoLHgwmD24TFieCP-pMfkyeTOpUul5WX9Juhm7WsmLGQtAy00bVItzC3PrfWu029J76AvorAVMDjwzrIDMpKytPQH9i921ndX-GI5ljrY-_r8NXxs_fX-ej-CofLp5t1ns8VoS8FtQZwTp96fxqNWyYi6ujWf_sDHh9BvOqtSlVL_o-ycCpTjb_UIzBx3ahLeDpCTeM=

Downside: the poison stacks will drop faster, means u lose single target dps.

Regardless, i'll make a new video soon.