[2.5] Death's Kiss, a Trickster Essence Drain/Contagion full build and leveling guide

I saw some tree changes in 2.6, but I haven't leveled or played enough to really grasp if that has changed the leveling for this character any.

How would u rate this build at SSF LHC?

It works really well self-found. I am not a HC player however (filthy casual me!). I haven't died a lot, mind you, and when I did it was mostly because I was too tired/cocky, AND I was doing hard stuff (such as Labyrinth on level, or a Breach coupled with Onslaught and Bloodlines).

For a more tanky playstyle you might want to get Ghost Dance and Shade Form first as your Ascendancy progression.

I am also using Blight-CWC-Contagion-Incr.AoE instead of hard casting Contagion, originally I was packing Blight just to break barrels, but then I read on the forums that you get faster casting of Contagion this way (even at level 1 CWC is 0.45 instead of 0.85 seconds), plus the slow from Blight seems to help against fast melee mobs.

Stopped reading as soon as I saw that it was life.

May 8, 2017. I am currently level 66 Trickster build using a Carcass Jack and Bino's Kitchen Knife. Primary attack for most targets is 6 link Whither - Cast While Channeling - Essence Drain - Contagion -
Added Chaos Damage - Bladefall. (The Bladefall speeds up the killing, so it doesn't take quite so long.) It works very well for clearing large groups and fairly well on bosses, but for them I use 4 linked Viper Strike - Multistrike - Faster Attack Support - Added Chaos Damage. The last offense is Vaal Summon Skeleton for when the poop hits the fan. Vulnerability on Blasphemy and Arctic Armor reserves 2/3 mana. Ice Golem. For defense, 4 link Cast When Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Frost Wall - Blade Vortex and 3 link Cast When Stunned - Desecrate - Detonate Dead.

Other unique gear is Chalice of Horror War Buckler for the +1 level to the vulnerability curse gem and Kikazaru Topaz Ring (30% lightning resist, +15 all attributes, 15 life regen, 31% mana regen). All else is rare.

I don't know how to post the skill tree, but moving out from starting point, the big nodes are: Coordination, Soul Siphon, Blood Siphon, Will of Blades, Entropy, Sleight of Hand, Method to the Madness, Void Barrier, Revenge of the Hunted, Fangs of the Viper, Nullification, Cold Hearted Calculation, Assassination, Growth & Decay, Nightstalker, Written in Blood, Atrophy, Force Shaper and Melding. Will add Fatal Toxins and then go for life nodes.

It's not so tanky, so I manually cast Molten Shell and Life rejuvenation totem.

So far, this has been my favorite.

Any comments or suggestions?