[3.4] The Mistress of Agony - Lowlife BlightDrain Ascendant / Occultist - ALL content viable!

To add some numbers, I imported my character on the last version of Path of Building.


Total DPS on a standard boss (including wither stacks, poison and decay)

Unbuffed: 1375018.9
Buffed with flasks: 1952471.2
Buffed with flasks while Vaal LT is on boss: 2801364.2


Total DPS on Shaper (including wither stacks, poison and decay)

Unbuffed: 587286.9
Buffed with flasks: 808813.6
Buffed with flasks while Vaal LT is on boss: 1136482.5


This is based on my Ascendant, with my current lvl 93 tree. I am obviously not considering trash mobs in maps when evaluating DPS because they melt in no time while I am walking and do not deserve specific calculations.

Considering I have still some room for improvement (better delirium dagger, ED enchant on hubris, some more levels to add to the mix, a couple more corrupted supports) these are some great numbers for an ED Ascendant, especially considering that the survivability is immense if played properly (10k ES + defensive curses + fortify + vaal discipline + defensive tools from trickster sub-ascendancy + defensive flasks).

The cost is not insane as every CI build of these days.

A quick estimate of the costs in middle breach league:

6L Shav: 10-11 ex
Hubris: I got mine for 4 ex
Boots: 5c
Rings: about 30-40c each plus the Elreon ES craft = 3 ex total
Gloves: I crafted mine myself, but I think their value is in the single exalted range
Belt: 2 ex
Amulet: 10-15c for the base chayula, then it depends on the value of the blessing to upgrade it. At the start of the league it was 2.5-3ex, then it raised a lot. You can still farm it by yourself if you want.
Consuming dark: a few chaoses, about 10-15 for a good roll
Decay Sai: just use a ilvl 84+ Sai and slam deliriums on it. A baseline one like mine is about 30c.

Flasks: 10c for a perfect SotD, 20c+ for a good Witchfire brew. The other flasks are 1-2c each.

Jewels: good jewels with ES% and double dipping stats are usually about 1-1.5 ex each. We use 4 of them plus an Energy from within (perfect is about 10-15c, if you want a corrupted one with silence immunity, which I highly recommend, it's 1.5ex usually).

So the total cost for a very good gear is about 30 ex. Obviously you can spend a LOT less than me and still rock the whole game, or a lot more and see your ES + DPS skyrocket even farther. Expensive items are a luxury to have, getting more ES + life is always good, overcapping resistances and getting QoL improvements is nice too (like crafting the 5% movement speed craft on belt).

Heya, i really love your build and i was planning to use it with the start of the new season in 2.6.

I was wondering if the main one you posted is still viable? Or your current low-life versione you said you're using in Breach is better? Which one would you recommend?

I really can't wait for the upcoming guide :)

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Erith25 wrote:

Heya, i really love your build and i was planning to use it with the start of the new season in 2.6.

I was wondering if the main one you posted is still viable? Or your current low-life versione you said you're using in Breach is better? Which one would you recommend?

I really can't wait for the upcoming guide :)

We still have to see how the passive tree will be modified for 2.6. That's why I am waiting to update the full build.

The main lifebased version is quite outdated because new things were added to the game after 2.4 (specifically essence of delirium, presence of chayula, crystal belt basetype and fingerless silk gloves basetype... plus all the guardians and shaper fights!). Outdated, but still more than playable. These new things ALL boost the character in a significant way, making lowlife have a still good survivability even when dual wielding.

If I have to choose, at the moment the CWC version is my absolute fav. Smooth mapping, viable for all endgame bosses and not insanely expensive as the majority of the CI builds which are around these days (this Scion's whole gear cost is the same of a very good 6L regalia alone to play CI properly).

Alright, I'll be waiting for the upcoming guide when new tree changes will be released. Thanks for the build guide and keep up the good work! ;)

Any chance you can upload some video footage of the CWC build in action? I'm very interested in trying this build next league.

Thanks.

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EmptyPalms wrote:

Any chance you can upload some video footage of the CWC build in action? I'm very interested in trying this build next league.

Thanks.

I can try in the next days, when Breach league ends. I've got a pretty old PC at home, and usually when I record videos they turn out to be very bad quality.

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djnat wrote:

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EmptyPalms wrote:

Any chance you can upload some video footage of the CWC build in action? I'm very interested in trying this build next league.

Thanks.

I can try in the next days, when Breach league ends. I've got a pretty old PC at home, and usually when I record videos they turn out to be very bad quality.

No worries, I was just curious how CWC ED would play compared to normal ED. Thanks for the guide!

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EmptyPalms wrote:

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djnat wrote:

"

EmptyPalms wrote:

Any chance you can upload some video footage of the CWC build in action? I'm very interested in trying this build next league.

Thanks.

I can try in the next days, when Breach league ends. I've got a pretty old PC at home, and usually when I record videos they turn out to be very bad quality.

No worries, I was just curious how CWC ED would play compared to normal ED. Thanks for the guide!

The gameplay is pretty similar, you just use contagion and wither (which automatically casts an ED every 0.35 seconds). The mana cost is self-sustainable without a mana potion (exception made for no regen maps); mana is usually a major annoyance for all the classic ED builds, since you are somewhat forced to chunk a mana pot every now and then.

Plus, having haste as a permanent aura, you move / attack / cast a lot faster. This means you stack wither very fast (5+ stacks per second), so the damage on bosses which allow you to spamcast is INSANE. In 2 seconds of channeling you get 11 wither stacks, 5 poison stacks, decay and the ED dot damage plus 5 times the damage of the initial hit. 11 wither stacks mean 77% MORE (it's increased damage taken by the target, so it acts like a more multiplier) chaos damage, and this boosts all our damage components.

In Shaper beam phases Wither is capped at the max potential stacks, because you can spam like no tomorrow on him. So you actually do a very good damage per second in that timeframe.

The ED tooltip is apparently lower than my 2.3 lifebased version (actually my ED is about 35k dot component while flasked), but considering decay and all the advantages which CWC offers, it's more than enough to clear all content comfortably.


Resuming the pros / cons of CWC:

PROS

The character's clear speed feels better with Shaper boots (= free pierce + phasing + defenses against projectiles while mapping) and Haste aura
Low mana cost, completely regenerated by Clarity + Trickster sub-ascendancy
The tree feels very efficient thanks to Ascendant's double starting area
Insane single target against non-poison immune targets (this translates into super easy uber Atziri kills, and pretty fast Shaper runs)
Still better than before damage against poison immune targets (we have decay!)
No need for 3 curses, so you can replace Doedre's damning with a better ring
No need for empower 4

CONS

Poison immune guardians are pretty long to kill, but definitely doable
No regen maps are annoying exatcly as before
ED tooltip is lower because it has less support gems
Hexproof maps are doable but still pretty difficult, because of the loss of 2 defensive curses + the chaos resistance lowering of monsters from the Occultist sub-ascendancy



In a few days the full ascendant guide will be updated. Stay tuned!

Any thoughts on using Blight instead of Wither to trigger CWC, with a totem Wither to keep the damage increase?

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Erasculio wrote:

Any thoughts on using Blight instead of Wither to trigger CWC, with a totem Wither to keep the damage increase?

I have considered that possibility too, and it does not fit the ED playstyle perfectly.

Blight is a "melee / midrange" skill. ED is ranged, so you can even think about off-screening thinks when it is the safest thing to do.

Wither on a totem has 2 downsides:

1. The cast speed is really slow, so you can't stack it to massive levels
2. The wither totem, in endgame content, dies A LOT. And considering it's an extra action to recast it, in some cases it can be a DPS loss.

Wither on a CWC setup is amazing. With decent / good gear, your channeling time per stack is around 0.18s (with haste aura). This means you stack 5 wither debuffs on the target in less than one second, which is AMAZING. Many bosses allow you to stand still for 2+ seconds before you are forced to move. In those circumstances, you put 11 stacks of wither on the target while you spam ED on it. If the target isn't poison immune, and you have pre-emptively thrown a Vaal LT on it, it's almost certainly dead.


If you want to optimize the usage of Blight in a CWC setup, try it with Vortex.