[2.4] The Master of Agony - CI / ZO + Tri-Curse Essence Drain / Contagion Trickster
" The defensive loss when going from CI to lowlife is insane. And for multiple reasons. 1. The last ES node behind CI (infused shield) is a "MORE" multiplier, and not an "increased" one. With good gear, that node alone gives about 1500 ES! 2. Shavronne is a mastodontic nerf to base ES. A best rolled Shavronne goes up to 448 ES, a best rolled Vaal Regalia goes up to 986 ES + 55 int (11% increased ES)! 3. To counteract the extreme ES loss, in the lowlife version you have to invest more passive points into mana reservation and increased energy shield nodes, thus sacrificing damage / utility ones. This makes the actual damage gain a lot less "important" than expected. 4. When going lowlife you aren't immune to chaos damage anymore. I would highly suggest staying CI, especially because you are an hardcore player. Sorry for being slow with the update of the leveling section, it has been an intense weekend. Have fun! :) Last edited by djnat#4628 on Jun 15, 2016, 6:09:25 AM
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I must ask. Do you have any problems/issues with chaos immune enemies on higher maps?
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As far as I know, there are no chaos immune enemies in maps, with the only exception being the CI champions in Hall of the Grandmasters (which don't spawn all the times since 2.2.2, but I will still avoid that map).
Last edited by djnat#4628 on Jun 14, 2016, 2:32:42 PM
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I mean chaos resistance enemies :P , not immune :)
And also wanna ask you about IIR Support Gem. Should I link him with ED or with Contagion? |
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" Chaos resistant mobs like the ones inside Poorjoy's Asylum are just a bit longer to take down, no problems at all btw. About the IIR question, it has been answered by Bex in the Q&A section of Talisman League: " |
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Think breath of the council is good enough to swap out for Consuming Dark? I know that the free link is amazing and it scales with DoT, but breath of the council is insane for ED in my opinion. I just wanted your take on it.
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" For a Trickster (we have no mana cost on movement skills and 36-56% attack speed from our ascendancies), losing Whirling Blades (and, as a consequence, Fortify) is not an option imho. Plus, with that weapon we lose the poison. Not really worth. You can try it for sure, but if my thoughts are not wrong, you will lose clearspeed and single target damage. Last edited by djnat#4628 on Jun 14, 2016, 9:55:46 PM
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" BTW, I finally got to play some more, and specced ZO at level 51, towards the end of A3C. It made quite a difference in the characters tankiness (in a good way). I'm in crappy self-found for the most part (What currency I've earned this league mostly went to gettting a Doedre's). I'm at around 900HP and 1.1k ES. |
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Ohai. Let me say I really like how well put-together your guide is. Thorough and to the point.
I threw this build on a 53 Shadow. I currently have no ascendancy points and am about to finish A4C. The pack clearspeed is quite solid now that I have a better hang of the Contagion -> ED (-> Wither totem) rhythm, but without a Faster Casting gem ED's cast animation just feels really slow. I also ended up pulling out Slower Projectiles and am running 5L in a Tabula as a result until I get another Empower. Is this sluggishness on the ED cast something that resolves itself over time or is it just in the nature of the build since it "avoids" cast speed? I may have been spoiled lately by snappy-quick builds like FoxTactics' Hellfire Arc. General feedback: I only started playing with this about two hours ago, but as advice to anyone else looking to try this, I advise going for Blasphemy+Temp Chains if you're only using one curse aura at a time. When a fast melee monster hits that invisible temp chains wall it becomes very easy to avoid them by the time their attack animation ends. This is just with walking away and a low-level temp chains - later I imagine this setup will make you mostly untouchable if you pay attention. Last edited by ConsPark#2414 on Jun 15, 2016, 2:44:13 AM
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" The ascendancies make a huge difference when comparing a high level character to a "slow feeling" low level one. You get 36-56% cast speed from them, and some more from the passive tree. Once you get a good gear, you will only use wither totem at bosses or tougher enemies. Remember that Slower Projectiles is better than Empower, until you get a corrupted lvl 4 one. You are right, in a priority order Temporal Chains is the best curse to use. Then it comes Enfeeble. Vulnerability is the last one. With max level / quality enf / tc you are nearly untouchable. And even if you get touched, with the damage reduction of Enfeeble, coupled with Fortify and the extra mitigation you get from Basalt of Iron skin + Rumi, the hits you suffer are 95% of the times a joke. Last edited by djnat#4628 on Jun 15, 2016, 6:08:16 AM
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