[2.4] The Master of Agony - CI / ZO + Tri-Curse Essence Drain / Contagion Trickster

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zz9za wrote:

Love love loving this build. So tanky and with great clearspeed, and I love basically not caring about map mods...at all.

Just hit 70, sitting on around 5.1k ES, easily soloed merc lab at 68.

I like the new belt you are using. I was thinking of adding it to the possible solutions for the belt slot, but Auxium's QoL option against freeze / chill is very good too. It's a difficult choice.

Your first upgrades to go for should be body armour and gloves. You can gain a crazy amount of ES with a few chaoses of investment in those gearslots. :)

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djnat wrote:

I like the new belt you are using. I was thinking of adding it to the possible solutions for the belt slot, but Auxium's QoL option against freeze / chill is very good too. It's a difficult choice.

Yeah, I've gone back and forth. I certainly could grab an Auxium. What's tipping me towards the one I'm using ATM, besides it being good, lots of evasion, and the phasing effect, and I know the sounds a bit silly but.... that +10% all res is really nice as with this build capping res can be a bit tricky with all the uni's.

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zz9za wrote:

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djnat wrote:

I like the new belt you are using. I was thinking of adding it to the possible solutions for the belt slot, but Auxium's QoL option against freeze / chill is very good too. It's a difficult choice.

Yeah, I've gone back and forth. I certainly could grab an Auxium. What's tipping me towards the one I'm using ATM, besides it being good, lots of evasion, and the phasing effect, and I know the sounds a bit silly but.... that +10% all res is really nice as with this build capping res can be a bit tricky with all the uni's.

You still have plenty of room for resistance affixes on gear. 2nd ring, spirit shield, body armour, gloves (and the "free" lightning resistance on brinerot whalers plus the +5 all res from Doedre's), even jewels if needed. Some resistances come directly from the passive tree (16% from Void Barrier plus Nullification).

1. Any recommendations for Arcane Vision passive skill point?

2. Did you try change a bit your gem setup and add Inc. Duration linked with Vaal Discipline?

3. There is a room to use Enhance support gem instead of Enlighten?

Djant, thank you very much for the build. I am looking forward to a new build that I can play (eq poison glad bored me a lot). Is it possible to run tabula without heretic veil etc.? Is it MANDATORY? Can I farm content without all these uber items :D? Thank you in advance!

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Unk_Particle wrote:

1. Any recommendations for Arcane Vision passive skill point?

2. Did you try change a bit your gem setup and add Inc. Duration linked with Vaal Discipline?

3. There is a room to use Enhance support gem instead of Enlighten?

1. Arcane Vision is useless, we are CI so we are always full life (1/1), and our light radius is always at maximum value regardless of our ES.

2. Vaal Disci is a "panic button" I use almost never. It lasts 4.5 seconds without any support gem linked to it, thanks to our duration passives; it's already a lot imho.

3. If you use Enhance instead of Enlighten, you have to invest at least another passive point into mana reservation nodes (the 4% one near the CI zone) and you'll end having like 150-200 free mana to use. I think it's doable, but far from being a "comfortable" choice. We already have a crazy amount of defensive layouts, plus the quality bonus on Vulnerability does nothing for us. Having 350+ free mana and saving a passive point is better for me. And you feel less curse-dependant when running Enlighten.

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Sillver wrote:

Is it possible to run tabula without heretic veil etc.? Is it MANDATORY? Can I farm content without all these uber items :D? Thank you in advance!

Heretic's Veil is mandatory if you plan to do very high content with the build (T13+ maps and uber bosses), because it allows to add Vulnerability which is a very good clearspeed boost in non-curse-immune maps.

We are CI, so we really want a body armour with ES on it (the chest is our #1 energy shield source, and sadly Tabula has no ES).

Thanks for this build OP.

Currently at 71 with a 5L chest piece with about 7k ES currently (missing a few of the ES wheels too).
Loving it so far. The change of pace is great and the contagion+ED combo is great fun!

One real question of course..
The two ascendancy points from Merc that are meant to go into Walk the Aether, if I am already leeching back the mana instantly anyway when using whirling blades, should I just go straight into Patient Reaper for more damage?
AFAIK apart from the free Whirling Blades, the extra 20% to attack and cast speed doesnt do anything for ED does it?

In that regard sounds like it might be best to just go for Patient Reaper... Lmk :)

Thanks again!

EDIT: going to try them both out first before I decide, probably have uber izaro down by then anyways.

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FATKMZ wrote:

Thanks for this build OP.

Currently at 71 with a 5L chest piece with about 7k ES currently (missing a few of the ES wheels too).
Loving it so far. The change of pace is great and the contagion+ED combo is great fun!

One real question of course..
The two ascendancy points from Merc that are meant to go into Walk the Aether, if I am already leeching back the mana instantly anyway when using whirling blades, should I just go straight into Patient Reaper for more damage?
AFAIK apart from the free Whirling Blades, the extra 20% to attack and cast speed doesnt do anything for ED does it?

In that regard sounds like it might be best to just go for Patient Reaper... Lmk :)

Thanks again!

EDIT: going to try them both out first before I decide, probably have uber izaro down by then anyways.

It's a matter of pure clearspeed.

Free mana on WB is a huge QoL thing especially in less regen / no regen maps.

The 20% movement speed makes WB faster, increasing clearspeed a lot, especially in maps which require some backtracking.

The 20% cast speed is a free bonus to the ED + contagion combo. It speeds up a little the whole farming process. This build is pretty rhytmic; usually you WB into a pack to get Fortify buff, WB again out of them, Contagion + ED them, so they die. While they die, you WB again to go on.

That 20% movement + cast speed is a huge speedup if you consider the average playstyle of an Essence Drainer.

Patient Reaper is a good boost too. It gives some decent damage and a fantastic multi-regen utility, which I think is more useful at very high levels, when you never want to die to reach the high zone (lvl 95+) without wasting XP due to avoidable deaths.

I definitely think Walk the Aether is worth it. It has a 100% up-time, 20% attack and cast speed is a good buff--much better for clearspeed than the 30% increased DoT damage from Patient Reaper. And as djnat mentioned, the free whirling blades will be useful in low/no-regen maps (very common when alching maps).

For the 2 points from Uber lab I went Swift Killer for the frenzy charges and I'm very satisfied with it. 15% chance is enough to keep maximum charges up most of the time in maps unless you have to backtrack a lot. Most bosses also either have adds or packs in the room with them, or are easy enough to reach and kill before the charges run out. Every frenzy charge adds 4% increased attack and cast speed and 4% more damage. With the charge from bandits and ascendancy you have 5 charges, and you can add a 6th via corruption on Eye of Chayula for 3c.

With a mana potion and the +5 mana on kill from Doedre's Damning, I never have mana issues, so Weave the Arcane is useless. Patient Reaper has a much smaller damage boost than Swift Killer and also a lower up-time (4 seconds after each pack vs the 11 seconds of frenzy charges), and the increased ES regen rate is nice but it only lasts 4 seconds after a kill--if you really want 60% ES recharge rate get the Essence Surge cluster.

I agree on the Ascendancy discussion.

Usually swift killer is taken in life-based builds (and in that case I would equip the Blood Dance boots) which go deep into the ranger and duelist areas to take the extra frenzy charge nodes and make full profit from them.

That way you can go up to 10 frenzy charges (3 baseline, 1 from Kraityn merciless, 3 from the passive tree, 1 from the ascendancy and 2 with the possible corruptions on boots and amulet).

The only drawback of the frenzy charge playstyle is that in the most difficult bosses of the game, like Atziri, Core Malachai, Colosseum Daresso, Abyss Kaom, Vaal Temple Trio, you will not make any use of frenzy charges, because it's simply impossible or super difficult to keep them up.

But I agree that for mapping purposes, going the frenzy charges' way can be an option. I personally prefer Patient Reaper, but it's really a question of personal taste, especially when your gear is near perfection and you can play the way you prefer to.