[2.5][HC]OldManSyndrome's Aegis/Ed MoM Hierophant

Removed while reworking guide, will be back soon.

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Hey! Build looks really nice, thanks for writing this up.

I just died and am thinking of playing it, but I had one or two questions if you don't mind.

Are the 6 points invested in skill duration really worth it? If I'm not missing anything, it's only allocated to help with contagion (which has a base duration of 5 seconds) and essence drain itself. Trash mobs should already be dead with one cast, and you can easily refresh the essence drain on bosses even with the base duration of 3.8 seconds, especially with temp chains.
Same for all the points invested in mana, I get that it is nice with Sanctuary of Thought and Mind Over Matter, but isn't it a bit overkill?

Isn't the damage a bit lackluster? There is a really low amount of damage on the tree, even though Clear Mind and the 4 other jewels must help a bit. That unique claw you're using also means you can't use a decay weapon to help your single target... Have you tried doing high tier maps? are you still able to kill bosses in a reasonable time?

Thanks again for the guide!

The increased duration helps with your curse, contagion, essence drain, wither stacks and wither totem duration.
They're typically nodes I take later, but the design of this build is to maximize the damage per cast of ED so you don't have to reapply it very often, leaving most of your time for maneuverability. It's not just about killing one pack of mobs per cast. It's about killing 3-4 screens of mobs in one cast.

As for the mana, I actually don't have quite enough mana to max out the efficiency of the 40% damage to mana effect. I'd like more. Just keep a ratio you're happy with.

You're entirely free to use a different weapon, decay items are extremely strong and would also scale insanely well with this build. In that case, i'd recommend taking a couple more block nodes and getting a bit more armor to maintain a similar Aegis Nullification value. Ideally something like 20k armor instead of 15k, and 66% block instead of 75% to have a nullification value of around 800.

Pursuit of Faith adds 100-250% increased damage while mapping, boosting the tooltip significantly as shown in the pursuit of faith video that I believe I linked in the mechanics section.

Things slow down a little in high tier maps, but that's the price you pay for tankyness. It's not really an issue. Some of the bosses take a while to kill, but it's pretty hard for you to die to most of them.

This build is designed to get you to 100 safely.

How well do you think this build would do in the breachlord domains?

I am not entirely sure yet, I've heard they're pretty wonky for essence drain builds. In the process of leveling one on breach HC to find out for myself, should have some data/videos within a couple days. Will update when I have an answer.

What are your thoughts on using Poison instead of Empower in the main links?

Acceptable, but good luck getting those colors on a lioneye's vision.

I guess my question is would that result in more or less damage output, compared to a lvl 3 / 4 empower?