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

Evening djnat - just passed away in Prophecy HC and wanted to try my hand at ED/Cog and you have the most throughout and active approach (in replying) I've seen from all the guides so I just want to thank you so much for that!

I've never played CI before, and not coming into this 2nd build with too much $, I'm hoping I will be able to make this work to wrap up the remaining 8 Challenges for the MONKEY :D. From what I can see, 4L 500 ES Chests arent that badly priced (5L's go for 30c) - and I won't be getting a Veil so as you suggested I will need to get a 200 ES Helm and run just 2 Curses (with that in mind do I still go passive for additional curse or wear the ring - maybe a combination until I get to higher level, using the ring earlier?).

My last question is around the leveling section, I know your working hard on it, but would love if you could throw anything together - as I've never played CI before I assume (as you've said, but I've never been on this side of the tree before so a little lost) we pick up life nodes on the way up until Merc Dried Lakes then we transition into CI.

With all that said - would you suggest this for a NOVICE CI'er/someone on a budget - should I maybe look at the life version of ED/Cog floating around (this is not belittling your build in the slightest)? I'll be guided by you as the pioneer in what seems to be a fantastic new build meta.
Last edited by Deathlythoughts on Jun 9, 2016, 10:08:29 AM
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Evening djnat - just passed away in Prophecy HC and wanted to try my hand at ED/Cog and you have the most throughout and active approach (in replying) I've seen from all the guides so I just want to thank you so much for that!

I've never played CI before, and not coming into this 2nd build with too much $, I'm hoping I will be able to make this work to wrap up the remaining 8 Challenges for the MONKEY :D. From what I can see, 4L 500 ES Chests arent that badly priced (5L's go for 30c) - and I won't be getting a Veil so as you suggested I will need to get a 200 ES Helm and run just 2 Curses (with that in mind do I still go passive for additional curse or wear the ring - maybe a combination until I get to higher level, using the ring earlier?).

My last question is around the leveling section, I know your working hard on it, but would love if you could throw anything together - as I've never played CI before I assume (as you've said, but I've never been on this side of the tree before so a little lost) we pick up life nodes on the way up until Merc Dried Lakes then we transition into CI.

With all that said - would you suggest this for a NOVICE CI'er/someone on a budget - should I maybe look at the life version of ED/Cog floating around (this is not belittling your build in the slightest)? I'll be guided by you as the pioneer in what seems to be a fantastic new build meta.

The "positive" thing about not using the veil in a first approach to the character is the fact that it does not have resistances on, so you just want to arrange your character knowing that the endgame headpiece will be a no resistances one, i.e. balancing your stats / res around other gearslots.

Usually our resistances' powerhouses are:

1. Body armour
2. Gloves
3. Spirit Shield
4. 2nd ring or both rings (both only if using a corrupted +1 chayula, thus not requiring Doedre's)
5. Lightning on Brinerot whalers
6. Jewels

To get two curses you use the ring because it has no level requirement so you can use it as soon as you get blasphemy (lvl 31). The +1 curse passive comes a lot later in the game and it is only a damage boost. You are going HC so you prioritize survivability, and getting the third curse later shouldn't be a problem at all.

While you "wait" for heretic's veil, if your resistances are capped, you can find a very good ES helmet without res at a very low price.

About leveling: there are a lot of life nodes that require little to zero travel pathing to get while leveling. And they should be prioritized over ES nodes until the transition to CI.

When the transition is made, all those life nodes get respecced into ES ones.

However, if you aren't an experienced CI user, the life version by Ghazzy is extremely solid and good to start, because it requires a lower budget to gear. My CI version requires a slightly higher budget to start but when you get the currencies, at higher levels of gear it really shines (I'm currently aiming at 13-14k ES and 45k Essence Drain tooltip, the defensive stats will be similar to the ones you can see in the opening post, if not better).

Remember to go for an alternative aura setup for curse immune / hexproof maps (our curses are Temp Chains, Enf and Vuln - so GBB colours, you want Grace + Discipline + Clarity to match those colours in those maps).

CI is the top survivability option to go once you get used with it, but it requires a little practice. It's your choice. :)

If you need advices / tips & tricks while leveling, feel free to add me in friend list in game, or simply ask here on the forums, when you want.
Last edited by djnat on Jun 9, 2016, 11:26:00 AM
Would it be crazy to spec Zealot's Oath earlyish (Say, around level 50-55ish), WITHOUT taking CI? It seems like my life is always full and my ES mostly partly-empty so all that ED regen is going to waste.
No, it wouldn't be crazy. You can choose the solution that feels more comfortable with your current stats / gear.

If you get zealot's oath earlier, you regen ES with it and you can always refill your HP with a life flask, so it seems to be a good choice.

I'll add this specific info into the core guide, thanks for pointing out!
Last edited by djnat on Jun 9, 2016, 3:31:10 PM
thought about switching the stone golem with a chaos golem. i could take the 30 str node out and could lvl it to 20 (4% phys reduction). any reason i should not do that?
Last edited by Scarfio on Jun 10, 2016, 12:18:14 PM
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LightDevil wrote:
thought about switching the stone golem with a chaos golem. i could take the 30 str node out and could lvl it to 20 (4% phys reduction). any reason i should not do that?

I guess it's a matter of preference.

I find Stone golem really tanky, and the life regen it gives is very good for our character, since it translates into permanent ES regen (exception made for no regen maps) thanks to Zealot's Oath.
Good news for all the Essence Drainers!

In the Prophecy League, Brinerot Whalers (usually exclusive to Warbands' League) are cheaper than EVER! Even cheaper than they were in Perandus.

So the complete endgame gear setup can be achieved in this league too, thanks to Warbands packs spawning in some prophecies and dropping related items.
What you think about Occulist version for ED/Contagion? Occulist offer Void Beacon (-20% chaos res) and high ES regen + I feel it is better if we decide to go for LL (using AA) instead of CI.
come on man...every damn build now needs a heretics veil, 5ex MINIMUM on even new prophecy league.

Sure, I can run dual curse setup with blasphemy and avoid the helm, but then I have what, 10% mana? is that enough?

god damnit.
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Unk_Particle wrote:
What you think about Occulist version for ED/Contagion? Occulist offer Void Beacon (-20% chaos res) and high ES regen + I feel it is better if we decide to go for LL (using AA) instead of CI.

This is a common question I already answered some days ago. I'll quote that answer:

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djnat wrote:
The Occultist lowlife version of ED is very good, and I expressed my appreciations for it in Klino's post some time ago.

That said, there are still some solid reasons to try the Trickster.

1. You have a lot more ES (if we talk about fully optimized gear for both classes and relative builds, the difference is at least 3-4k).
2. Ghost dance and Shade form are an amazing layer of defense, especially when combined with flasks (and having primal spirit is nice for the extra charges gained), I don't even need a CWDT setup to be ultra-safe in all map tiers, I prefer going for a strong golem instead
3. DPS is very close to the lowlife version, with a slightly better Spirit shield than the one I'm currently using, and a level up (I am 94 and at next level another jewel socket unlocks) I should go past the 40k mark on ED's dot component
4. Trickster takes more chaos and projectile damage nodes, which double dip on the poison damage, and has more innate cast speed and free mana pool which allows for more spamming, so the single target damage output with consuming dark is very good
5. Chaos immunity is fantastic to have, as you said, it nullifies map mods like desecrated ground and poison on hit, and makes those nasty groups of ancient constructs in Uber Atziri's grinding a total joke
6. Profane bloom has really poor utility when you already destroy packs with a single ED + Contagion (plus, it's bugged); the only places where I don't destroy mob packs with a single combo 100% of the time are Poorjoy's Asylum, Alluring Abyss and T14-15 maps with Enfeeble + more monster life modifiers
7. 100% pierce is a QoL feature that is vastly underexistimated, totem maps / "other allies cannot die" foes are a lot easier when you can always take them down with a single Essence Drain
8. Ballistic Mastery is very nice to have, 20% proj speed is quite useful in fights where aiming can become a complicated task
9. Having a Stone golem rocks, especially on a 3-link; not only it provides nice additional ES regen, but it's very tanky and I consider it to be a very reliable decoy
10. Having a decent unreserved mana pool (about 400) allows to really spam ED at bosses if constant movement is not required to survive (like in P2 Palace Dominus, Conservatory Oversoul, Shrine Piety, Wasteland Voll for example). And generally, mana management is a lot more confortable as a Trickster, because of Patient Reaper (or Weave the Arcane, depending on personal preference). Especially in mana regen nerfing maps.
11. Walk the Aether is a massive clearspeed booster if you love to spam whirling blades to navigate maps.


And I want to point out again that I'm a fan of the Occultist lowlife version. But if a hardcore player, for example, asked me what ascendancy to pick for an essence drainer, I'd answer Trickster all the time. Occultist would be a good ascendancy btw, and Void Beacon is the real winner there, because it's the only thing that makes the damage output slightly better than the one of a Trickster.

In the end, I think it's a matter of personal preference.

As to the cost, Perandus has been a special league, you know. I'm not sure a Shav will cost only 3ex in Prophecy, especially considering that Shav-like rarity uniques' drop rate is being lowered, and Cadiro is no more.



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broseidon07 wrote:
come on man...every damn build now needs a heretics veil, 5ex MINIMUM on even new prophecy league.

Sure, I can run dual curse setup with blasphemy and avoid the helm, but then I have what, 10% mana? is that enough?

god damnit.

As I said in a previous post, Heretic's Veil is a DPS upgrade for the build, and it's not "needed" but "desired". If you don't own / can't afford one, you can go dual curse (Enfeeble + Temporal Chains) with Blasphemy, having plenty of unreserved mana (38%) to use, until you can get the Veil, which you will eventually do. With the Veil you can add Vulnerability to the curse setup and it's like having an extra MORE multiplier for Essence Drain.

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