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

A couple of questions.

1) How do you deal with no regen maps? You state that the build can run them, but it seems to be a remnant of your EB + ZO Scion post.

2) How essential is the Piercing Shots cluster in your opinion? I realize it's QoL/clear speed increase in totems maps but those are a minority in my experience, and a 6-passive point investment is huge. Would you consider allocating those points elsewhere, for example AoE nodes?

Thanks for the guide. I liked your Scion version in 2.2. Shame I didn't get the chance to try it.

If I have to compare the Scion version of the Essence Drainer to the Trickster one, I am tending to prefer the Trickster for 2.3; even if the damage is a bit lower, the defense is so obscenely strong that you will literally faceroll most content once you get a good gear.

The clearspeed is nice because of the Trickster's utilities in the Ascendancy tree (lots of attack speed = godlike whirling blades).

To answer your questions:

1. No regen maps were a no brainer with the Scion version, because of EB. With the Trickster, they are done by using a mana potion when needed.

2. I feel that a build is complete when nothing can significantly slow its clear speed. Having to re-cast essence drain 3 or 4 times in a totem map, or in a huge monster pack with a yellow one who makes all the others invincible is one of the things I hate A LOT in this game. So if I can choose, I always go for full pierce. Fortunately, the 50% pierce cluster comes with a 16% projectile damage increase too (which double dips with the poison output), so it's not totally bad.

QoL is QoL! The area nodes in the witch area are good too and a valuable alternative, but I still prefer the full pierce.

There are two things I really like of Essence Drain:

1. It's a decent skill while leveling. One can get used to it from the starting levels of the game. It's not the best in the early leveling, but when the increased area of effect support gem becomes available and is linked to Contagion, it starts to shine.

2. It's ULTRA-SAFE, especially in the Trickster version. And it can start from a really low budget, in the first week of the league you can farm normal Atziri easily with a super-cheap gear (a few chaoses: you only need to cap resists, a 4 link on body armour - 5 link is a luxury - and possibly a Consuming Dark... things like Auxium, Doedre's Damning, Eye of Chayula and Rainbowstride are low-cost, and some of them are even best in slot for the build, lol). The "expensive" gearpieces like the 750+ ES Vaal Regalia, Heretic's veil and the good spellpower / ES / resists Spirit Shield can be acquired later when a solid amount of currency has been stacked. Oh, and when talking about "expensive", keep in mind that the whole gear of this character usually costs less than Skyforth alone, unless you really want a mirrored/godlike spirit shield (500+ES, resists, 65+ spell damage) and regalia (900+ ES, multiple resists) to fly over the 14k ES mark.

I just added some screenshots of damage and defensive stats to the guide.

The leveling section should be updated in some hours, hopefully before the launch of Prophecy.

Happy 2.3! :)

Hello, what do you think about new announced armour?

It can be very good, and probably best in slot, when you have a really insane gear. The lack of ES and resists can be compensated if you get nice gloves, jewels and spirit shield (or boots, if you are not using Brinerot whalers... or the second ring, if you happen to get a corrupted +1 curse Chayula and can replace Doedre's Damning with a good Moonstone one).

Keep in mind a "insanely rolled" Regalia can go way over 900 ES (the one I'm currently using is nothing "insane" and has nearly 200 ES more than this new unique one), and a loss of 300+ base ES on a CI character is huge. So I advise you to get this only if the rest of the gear is really solid.

It seems the old 2.2 passive tree link works in 2.3 too!

Adding some quick info about leveling soon. :)

Hey man! I'm thinking of doing this build in the HC Prophecy in a bit but just had a couple questions. What level can you safely switch to CI at and how much ES should you have roughly when you switch?

Did you play this build last league in HC or SC? Your profile is set to private so I couldn't check your characters. :)

And finally, I know you haven't finished the leveling section of the guide yet, but maybe you could throw up a couple things to prioritize on the tree? Like do I need ZO before switching to CI? What other clusters should I hit first and which last? Because the tree is for lvl 100 I wasn't sure what to prioritize. Thanks again and awesome build!

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BhaluBear wrote:

Hey man! I'm thinking of doing this build in the HC Prophecy in a bit but just had a couple questions. What level can you safely switch to CI at and how much ES should you have roughly when you switch?

Did you play this build last league in HC or SC? Your profile is set to private so I couldn't check your characters. :)

And finally, I know you haven't finished the leveling section of the guide yet, but maybe you could throw up a couple things to prioritize on the tree? Like do I need ZO before switching to CI? What other clusters should I hit first and which last? Because the tree is for lvl 100 I wasn't sure what to prioritize. Thanks again and awesome build!

I think the "safe point" to switch is when you have a decent ES chest (500+ ES) to go for a 4 link ED. 7-8k ES should be more than comfortable to start mapping in the low tiers. Keep in mind that at higher gear levels this build can double that ES value and fly up to 13-14k!

The majority of the gear is very simple to obtain. Consuming dark, Auxium, Doedre should be a piece of cake, but they are key items for the build! Heretic's veil can be tricky but in the meanwhile the build can be played with a "cheap" 200+ ES headpiece with blasphemy + the two defensive curses.

The "difficult" pieces can be the Spirit Shield and the Regalia. Those are the items which make the real difference in terms of ES. Gloves and boots shouldn't be too complicated to acquire.

I don't play HC but I know that the transition point to CI is a crucial question for survivability, because the first times I played CI in softcore, I died some times to get used to the new playstyle also because my gear wasn't optimized at all. Once your gear is set in stone, you die only if you make really big mistakes.

Some hints in the leveling section are coming soon (I think before prophecy is launched)!

ZO is a very high priority before switching to CI, or the regen component of Essence Drain would be totally wasted!

Stay tuned, I'm trying to do my best to get the guide completed as soon as possible!

Leveling priorities added!

Happy Prophecy to everyone :)

hi, thanks for this guide it's really fun to play :>

is whirling blades the only reason for a dagger?
would i gain a lot of damage if i don't take whirling blades?

can you recommend other weapons in that case? ^.^