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

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djnat wrote:

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Egoish wrote:

Thanks for the guide, i've played on and off since release and this is my first character to make it to mapping.

Now i'm 77 with 6k es i'm blowing through content, gonna give atziri a try when i hit the mid 80's. My only critique would be that it's painful to level, i restarted once and got to cruel with lightning tendrils before respecing as the twin curses on blasphemy do nothing for survivability until they level up and have a range larger than your characters footprint and contagion without a leveled inc. aoe is annoying.

The dagger is superb though, i died twice on dom and twice on mal in cruel but i picked up the unique in act 1 merciless after suffering with the bosses in cruel, i went ci in act 2 merc with only 1.9k es (about 2.2 after the swap). Dom melted and i wouldn't say i had an easy time with mal as i spent more time dodging that attacking but the dagger shortened the fight by a large margin.

Yes, you are right: Contagion / Essence drain don't feel fast when leveling until you get some decent QoL improvements like the inc AoE gem on Contagion, some levels on Blasphemy + curses and the poison to melt bosses. Leveling is the most annoying part of the character, but when you get to lvl 80+ and all the passives / ascendancies / gear slots are in place, it really shines.

Yes, the poison is very important against bosses, it makes your damage a lot higher, especially in "static" fights where you can literally spam ED and mantain 4+ stacks.

One other thing comes to mind, i've had a vaal lightning trap leveling but i've never needed to use it. I have a spare slot in my 5l chest but it's green so i might use haste or grace for now...

However i've got my contagion on a 4l all blue with faster cast, inc aoe and item rarity. I thought i'd throw iir on as i didn't need any more damage from the link, a bit of google-fu leads me to beleive that as long as i contagion first the iir applies if the mob dies to a dot and that as the contagion spreads ed and is the first skill interaction it also applies on the spread effect.

I'm not sure if it has any effect, i "feel" like i'm getting higher tier drops (more rare, more uniques) but i don't know if it's a side effect of graduating to maps or having the iir gem in place, any ideas?

If I'm not wrong I clarified that thing in this thread some pages ago.

IIR has to be applied to Contagion, because it's the first skill you use, then you apply ED. You get better drops that way.

Vaal LT is very useful at tough bosses (and I mean enfeeble + max life maps or T14+). I find it quite useful @ Uber Atziri, too, to burn the clones.

Why dont you use a lvl 1 fortify with 20% quality since lvling up fortify only gives you more melee phys dmg ( which is not necessary) and you would need less strength then !?

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Arcev wrote:

Why dont you use a lvl 1 fortify with 20% quality since lvling up fortify only gives you more melee phys dmg ( which is not necessary) and you would need less strength then !?

Yes, it's an option if you are struggling with strength from gear / passives.

Since lvl 4 Empower requires 96 Str and Summon Stone Golem requires 98 str (100 if lvl 21), the difference isn't that big. :)

Hey i have a question. : Essence drain can stack ? for example if i hit a boss multiple times

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Luis98x wrote:

Hey i have a question. : Essence drain can stack ? for example if i hit a boss multiple times

No, ED can't stack, but the poison from Consuming Dark can, so in single target situations it's really advised to cast ED multiple times on the boss.

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djnat wrote:

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Luis98x wrote:

Hey i have a question. : Essence drain can stack ? for example if i hit a boss multiple times

No, ED can't stack, but the poison from Consuming Dark can, so in single target situations it's really advised to cast ED multiple times on the boss.

Thank you for the answer

Cool beans.

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Mike798POE wrote:

Love this build. I was running a different ED/Contagion build and hit a wall as far as progress goes. Stumbled across this and respecced and sweet baby Jesus what an upgrade. I've been knocking out T12-14 maps like they're nothing, and pretty much roll through every T15 minus Core.


Speaking of which, how do you deal with the chaos resist on every boss there? It makes things rough when running it with pretty crazy map mods. I wreck everything in there until I get to Maligaro and Malachai. The dmg they do coupled with their lower damage taken has been an issue thus far.

But yea, no complaints, this build is a real gem.

Hey! Glad you like the build!

As you can read at the start of the main post, the Trickster CI version of this build is optimal for survivability. Damage can feel somewhat lower when compared to an Ascendant (or Occultist) version, but with optimized gear the survivability is so high that usually this is not a problem.

My Ascendant version (you can take a look at it if you want, it's in my signature) does considerably more damage than the Trickster one, but it's a bit less safe because it's life based. Especially for HC characters, going Trickster is better. When I get crazy damage rolls on T14-T15 maps, I prefer running them with the Trickster.

For "tough" bosses / rares / high chaos resistance foes, the combination of wither totem + vaal lightning trap can do the trick. Yes, if you do a Core map with Enfeeble + %monster life it can feel slower, but it should be doable.

Energy shield based versions of ED builds work wonders against the Malachai fight. The important thing is constantly moving + obliterating his traps with the wither totem, and keeping the fortify buff up via whirling blades on his zero-threat adds. You will spend most of the combat time doing that, it's very important to have room to move around and dodge his tribombs and monster mortars. Stacking poison when he does the tentacle attack is the key. I usually use all the vaal lightning trap charges on and after the third heart in P2, because that is the most difficult part of the fight by far.

About your character, since your tab is set to private: what's your current dot component on ED? And how much ES do you have?

gr8 build, but i have some questions.

Heretics veil is so damn expensive (5 to 7 EX on poe.trade wtf) but running dual curse with blasphemy seems ok, I guess you don't get that item until much later on and i'm wondering if it's even worth it? like what kind of dps increase would I see from running vulnerability?

The other question is why don't you take the ES nodes right at the beginning of the witch tree? so much value on those nodes compared to others and you're already in that area from taking arcane focus.

Very much enjoying the build so far in the beginning; leveling is very smooth and watching those big prolifs go off while you run behind them with temp chains is so satisfying.

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Also, fatal toxins, yes or no?