[2.6] Trickster | CoC Malice Discharge | HC viable | 8-10k+ ES | 90K+ DPS | Budget Version Inc

images are courtesy of http://poecraft.com

With 20/20 Discharge/iAOE & the two AOE skill point clusters.



With all the above+Dying Sun.

Lvl 94 ingame tree

Lvl 100 Planner Tree

Lvl 68 Hybrid Tree
Can equip malice with 20 dex and respec the 8 hybrid points when you are comfortable to.

New Lvl 100 Planner Tree--works great for both SC and HC
Use's 2 Intuitive leap jewels

Focus on getting all the crit/dex nodes first, followed by power/endurance charge nodes, then fill in the jewel nodes and rest.

Bandits:
Normal:Passive Point
Cruel: Passive Point (If your aps is lower than 4 then go for Kraityn)
Mercy: Alira (If you don't have Death's door and +1 belt then go with Oak)

Ascendancy Sequence:
Normal: Walk the Aether
Cruel/Mercy: Shade Form
Uber: Swift Killer

Choose from the setup that works best for you:-

Cospiri's: Switch IAoe with Conc for boss's.



Helmet: You can use any purity here if you need to cap resistances or increase them for guardians/shaper, also can be linked with an Enlighten Support. Otherwise you can run curses with empower/blasphemy.

For pack runs/upto T15 maps, go with herald of ice with an ice golem linked with empower.



If you want good leech up all the time you can use warlords mark in your helm with blasphemy.


Chest

Only 5 gems are required, you can remove or switch with either an iAoe(increase's shield charge radius) or Culling Strike (gives you even more attack speed on shield charge), which ever you find is more suitable for you or according to availability of colours.

Colours on Chest
6 link : 3G:2R:1B or 2G:2R:2B or 3G:2B:1R(Currently my chest colors)
5 link : 2G:2R:1B

Boots
You can use pcoc in boots with vortex too which will help in generating extra charges in boss fights.

Since this build uses EE make sure you have no #add to fire/lightning damage anywhere on your gear.

Weapon: Cospiri's Malice is required without doubt.

To equip Malice with my skill tree you need at least 20 dex on gear
Only stat to look for on the malice is attack speed, try to get a 14% attack speed one.


Chest
Voll's Protector is required to gain power charges which deal lightning damage.


Minimum Required socketed links are 4, 5-6 links should be based upon color availability. Check links/gear section for choices.

Helmet

First priority on Helmet is the Discharge enchant. Either the damage or not to consume are alright, whichever one you can afford. Mod Priority:-
1. Atleast close to or 300+ ES
2. Accuracy 200+
3. Resistances.

Shield

Mod Priority:-
1. 400+ ES
2. Spell Damage
3. Resistances
4. Spell Crit Chance

Boots

Death's Door is best in our setup but can be replaced by a good Es/Resis boots if you can't afford it.

Enchant on boots can be either leech or attack speed.

Gloves
For gloves I do recommend a Essence of Horror crafted one(+3.5 critical stike), as this will improve your crit chance.

If you cannot find a decent Horror crafted gloves, you can use any gloves with ES & some crit chance until you can find one. A decent Unique alternative would be Voidbringer.

Mod Priority:-
1. +3.5 Crit chance for socketed gems
2. Atleast 100+ ES
3. Resistances
4. Dexterity
5. Spell Damage

Rings
Rings must be diamond base to further improve crit chance.

Mod Priority:-
1. Accuracy 100+/preferred 300+
2. Resistance (Rings are best to get your resistance on, so try to get as much as you can)
3. ES 30+
4. Dexterity

An even better option if you can afford it, is double crit chance diamond rings (achieved by crafting a diamond ring with an Essence of Loathing)



1-2 Gifts from above diamond rings can also be used to get even higher crit chance + nice rarity bonus. But you will have to adjust missing mods like ES & resis on the rest of your gear.



Belt
Belt with +1 endurance charge is recommended.

Mod Priority:-
1. ES 30+
2. Resistances
3. Armour
4. Flask Gain/Duration
Otherwise get a rare crystal belt with high ES & resistances.


Amulet
Voll's Devotion is required to sustain Endurance charge's, which deal fire/burn damage.

My favored corruption on the amulet are :-
1. Fire/Lightning leech - Simply coz it saves me the boot's leech enchant and also enables me to leech on hex-proof maps
2. +1 To Resistances - Get +1 to max resistances
3. +1 Curse - Would be the best mod if not for it's high cost.
4. Attack speed / Movement Speed / Block Chance
5. All Others

For Jewels we are looking at following (in order of preference):

1. Critical Strike Multiplier (Fire,lightning,cold,spells,elemental,global)
2. Spell/Elemental/Area/Increased Damage
3. Attack Speed (with shield,swords,one handed melee)
4. Increased Energy Shield

please avoid getting increased cold, fire & light damage mods as only one of them doesn't boost the overall discharge damage. Fire and light are ok as an extra mod on jewels but cold should be avoided if possible.

Example Jewels:-



You also need 1 Intuitive Leap, Viridian Jewel to grab charge nodes near Templar. See skill tree

Diamond Flasks are a must, Vinktar's will help with survivability



Only run Diamond and Vinktar(if available) 100% of the time, rest of the flasks are situational.
Quality on flasks is a must especially for diamond flasks. Remove shock and unfreeze mods are recommended with any flask setup.
Wise Oak is a nice addition if you manage to tune your resistances to your advantage.

This is not a detailed leveling guide but should be enough to help you to level this build.
While leveling it's recommended to keep the gems required for our final discharge build in the alternate weapon swap, this will level those gems as we progress.

Lvl 1-68

My leveling gem is just Arc, with proper planning & support it's good enough to carry us until 68. Just Look for a 4-5 Link item (Chest/Staff) and you are good to go.

Initial setup would be: Arc+Faster Casting+Added Lightning Damage
Later on you can add Lightning Penetration to the setup.



This should be enough till Act 3,
Setup for Act 4 and onwards: Arc+Faster Casting+Echo+Added Lightning Damage/Pcoc+Lightning Penetration



If you feel Arc is missing on single target DPS, you can use a 4 link Storm Call

Storm Call + Controlled Destruction + Lightning Penetration + Echo/Conc



Alternatively if you have got enough points invested in crit nodes(~Lvl60+), you can use Ice Nova. Using HOI with it is great for pack clear but misses out on single target DPS.

Ice Nova + Spell Echo + Increased Crit + iAoe/Pcoc



Any unique/rares that help with your setup are always welcome.

For mana Issues following unique can be used



Golems, Decoy Totem's & Aura's will help a lot.



please ignore gem levels

Skill Tree: For survivability & effectiveness you can take health nodes in the tree until you go CI. Please refrain from taking CI or any related nodes until you can afford good ES Shield & Helm to support it. Also ignore taking the EE(Elemental Equilibrium) node until you equip Malice.

Once you hit level 68+ and can equip Cospiri's Malice, you can scrap this setup and use my main planned gear and setup.

If you have any further questions about leveling please ask in the comments and I will try to add it here or reply back

Hardcore players should consider making these changes to make it more durable:-

1. Skill tree should be same but you can skip some jewel nodes and stick to the hybrid nodes for more ES until you level up more to afford them.
2. Focus more on Attack speed and ES for jewels, spell damage/crit multi should be there too but best to get ES and attack speed on most jewels.
3. After capping resistance's use purities. Only Purity of fire and lightning is needed as we mostly deal damage for those elements.
Setup: Enlighten with 2 purites and discipline. Wardlords mark in cwdt.

A high ES shield & helmet is highly recommended. These changes will make you tankier & should save you from reflects.

After hitting Level 68+, you can buy/upgrade your gear in the following manner:

1. Build Enabling Phase: To start the build you need Cospiri's Malice & Voll's protector.
For Voll's protector you can initially start with just 4 links, later on add Fortify as 5th and Culling as 6th link.

With the above 2 unique items, you will need skill gems. Try to get quality on all gems if possible as it helps a lot.

Rest of the gear i.e diamond rings, ES belt, Shield, helmet, boots and gloves should be focused on capping resistances and increasing ES pool. (shield & helmet should be with atleast 200+ ES)

This should be enough to help you clear upto T5 maps easily.

2. Build Tuning Phase: Now as the Maps become a tiny bit harder, you will need improve ES on your gear (Shield & helmet should give a combined ES of atleast 600+).

Best phase to buy Voll's Devotion Amulet (although you can skip it this phase if you want).

Getting a +3.5 Crit gloves should be a priority, doesn't need to have high ES or other desired mods this early on. You can buy a Essence of horror yourself and craft it on a Fingerless silk gloves or a high ilvl Sorcerer gloves.

Considering this phase you will hit your mid 80's. You will also need to get decent damage jewels. Spending on good jewels is a good investment as most of our damage comes from them. Check Jewel section to check what mods to look for in them.

Doing the above upgrades you will clear upto T10 maps with ease.

3. Build Farming Phase: With the upgrades in this phase, you will mostly be done with the build and enter the phase where this build shines the most i.e shaped map farming/power leveling.

You should definitely buy Voll's devotion now if you haven't done so far.
Get a Death's door as it's the best boot's for this build setup. You can manage with a high ES Boot's but you will need to adjust a lot of things without Death's door.

Your shield should be atleast 400+ and helmet 300+. Get a +1 Endurance charge belt if you are not using death's door.

Within this phase, your ES should be atleast 8k+, crit multi 400+, with good amount of spell damage on jewels. All your damage/support gems should be level 20 (you don't need to level some gems like Shield Charge, Cyclone, Fortify, Cast when damage taken, Warlords mark, etc).

You should have quality flasks with one of the any Vinktar variant's(except add to attacks).

With these changes upto T15/breachlords shouldn't be a problem

4. Final/Boss killer Phase: These upgrades are only needed if:
i) You have extra currency to spare.
ii). You want to take this build to next level (Do endgame boss's or push your DPS/surviability higher)

The mentioned gems that need leveling should be 20/20 without question. But gems like Discharge, Controlled destruction & Concentrated Effect should be 21 to push for higher DPS.

Shield ES should be 500+ & Helmet 400+, rings should have Master crafted ES mod's. In total you should aim for 9k-9.5k+ ES.

Definitely get a 40% Discharge Damage or 30% Not to consume charges Helmet Enchant

Power Endurance charges should be 7/6. Get a penetrate Vinktar Variant. Preferably get a Leech Voll's Devotion Amulet.

All Jewel slots should be filled with good damage jewels.

If you makes these changes, then T16+ boss's can be taken down.


All above phases are required to have your resistances capped, try to do so without using any purities as you won't be able to run HOI or Blasphemy if you do so. Only use purities if you must have to.

This is the bare minimum version of this build with strict budget in mind.
We save a ton of currency in this version by:
1. No voll's devotion amulet required.
2. Only 4 linked voll's chest is enough.
3. Save on fancy jewels and high ES gear as both get a decent boost from the tree itself

Level 92 Budget Version Skill tree
Doesn't require intuitive leap jewels

Links and gear

The biggest investment for this version is just the Cospiri's malice.


For chest we definitely need a Voll's protector but all we need is a 4 link which costs almost nothing.

ignore the 6 link, you just need the 4 sockted links

Gloves do need to be +3.5 crit chance to make our shield charge smooth. Buy the Essence of Horror yourself and use it on a Fingerless Silk or a high iLevel Sorcerer gloves if you are unable to find a decent cheap one on market.



Boots should be any high ES one with resis's. You can use ice golem instead of pcoc as 4th link.


Belt once again any high ES with resis's.



Rings must be diamond, just look for resistances & accuracy if possible.


Amulet can be any rare with crit chance, crit multi or spell damage.


Any rare Shield and Helmet will do, preference is on ES and resis's if you need any.
Links in shield and helmet remain same as in the normal version.

Please note this is just a strict budget version, its perfect for lake farming-strand farming, the single target dps will remain low unless you get some decent jewels.

The video's are only to showcase build durability and skill/gear choice, you can do them much faster/better.

Tool Tip

Hideout Discharge


Hideout Cyclone


Hideout Shield Charge


Hideout Defense


Hideout Charges


Discharge DPS with Charges

6/7 Endurance/Power Charges using iAoe


6/7 Endurance/Power Charges with 2 Frenzy charges using iAoe (Avg map DPS)


6/7 Endurance/Power Charges using Conc


6/7 Endurance/Power Charges with 2 Frenzy charges using Conc (Avg conc DPS)


6/7/4 Endurance/Power/Frenzy Charges with Conc (Max Charges)


Estimated Dps (Calculated using Path of building tool)

In Combat with max available endurance & power charges


In Combat with max available endurance, power charges & frenzy charges

General map monster packs & rare's get wiped with this build, if at time you feel like you are running dry on crit chance you can rely on diamond flasks to keep up the constant clear speed.

This Section I will talk about the build's capability against different game boss's/area's.

Since we will be facetanking most boss's so there are two rule's you must follow while doing so:

1. Never start cyclone facetanking boss's while standing on a dot(damage over time area).
2. If you ever feel like your shield is dropping faster than you are able to leech, It's time to pop a Vinktar's Flask. This will bring your shield back to max.

Below content can be achieved at Level 86-90+ considering you have relatively similar gear & skill tree

1. Maps: Upto T15 can be cleared fast and with ease. Almost all map boss's can be facetanked with minimal need to evade attacks. Only thing to watch out is elemental reflects.

2. Lab: Lab's can be cleared fast, thanks to the super fast shield charge movement skill. Uber Argus & Izaro is a joke with this build. You can facetank both without worrying. (just don't stand on a trap while facetanking Izaro :P)

3. Atziri/Uber Atrizi's: Atziri can be done easily even without optimized gear. Evading Atziri's flameblast is easy with our fast shield charge. Uber Atziri is doable but needs fully optimized gear and good attack dodge sense.

4. BreachLords: All breachlords are very doable considering you know their mechanics.
It's necessary to evade their dot attacks and use appropriate flasks (remove shock for Esh, freeze for Tul, etc) if you want to avoid deaths. Uul-Netol is a joke if you have Death's door equipped.

5. T16 Maps:
Vaal Temple
Was able to clear this map with a health & cast speed on boss's. Don't leave K'aj Q'ura (cycloner) as the last boss. And bring remove poison flask.

Pit of Chimera
Managed to kill chimera deathless. Video can be found above.
Setup used: Enfeeble with Blasphemy linked with empower in helmet slots.

Forge of Phoenix
Brought down a corrupted Phoenix with extra damage mod and no life/mana/Es recovery mods, 2 deaths. Death's door makes it harder as ignite duration is increased. I switched to 1 extra remove burning flask(2 in total) after the deaths due to burning.
Avoiding major incoming damage at mid-end stages is recommended.
Setup used: Arctic Armour+Purity of fire in helmet slots.

Maze of Minotuar
By far the easiest as they say, didn't even bother to evade most attacks or dot areas. Cleared deathless obviously.
Setup Used: Artic armour, Ice Golem linked with empower.

Lair of the Hydra
Another easy guardian down, minimal need to evade his attacks. Just pull out for a couple seconds if you are taking too much damage at a particular spot while tanking at mid-end stages.
Setup Used: Warlords Mark Linked with blasphemy.

I think this is end of this section, as I have done all boss's/maps except the shaper which was never my aim with this build (but it can be done with some changes to gear).

Final Verdict:

* All maps upto t16 can be cleared without much hassle, although you need to be careful/avoid some in case you are using it in HC.
* Any map mod can be done without any gear changes with this build except off course elemental reflect. Although Hex-proof & Cannot Leech mods may create issues with keeping shield up constantly.

I have tested both versions (Assassin & Trickster). Trickster gives you more survivability & requires minimum tweaking with gear as opposed to Assassin which requires elreon rings & mana jewel to sustain mana.
Thus also making it slightly easy on budget but with all this you do lose some Dps & crit chance on Trickster.

Here is what you gain and lose in both versions:

Assassin

Gains:
1. Increased critical strike chance : 60% from minor nodes + .5% /power charge. 100% more against enemies on full/low life.
2. + to critical strike multiplier : 30% from minor nodes. +40% when enemies on full life. 8%/power charge.
3. 30% increased damage against enemies on low life
4. Free Culling strike

Lose:
1. To sustain mana for movement skills need 2 Diamond Eleron rings (atleast -6 on each or -12 combined). Not only are such rings expensive but hard to find desired mods on them like resistances, elemental damage, ES, etc.
2. Lose a jewel slot to gain mana on hit jewel to sustain mana on no regen maps.

Final Verdict:
More damage & higher crit chance but with mana issues, no defence/es buffs & expensive gear.

Trickster

Gains:
1. Increased attack speed: 12% from minor nodes + 20% on using movement skill recently (which should be always up) + 20% if energy shield has started recharging.
2. Defence buffs: 16% increased evasion rating/Energy shield. +500 to evasion & +250 to ES, 5% chance to evadewhen on full shield & 20% when not). 20% faster ES recharge.
3. Free movement skills , can do no regen maps and reserve most mana without relying on gear.
4. Increased mana & +1 Frenzy charges and chance to gain one on kill (doesn't help on boss's tho).

Lose:

1. Less crit chance
2. Less crit multi
3. Culling strike

Final Verdict:
Lose some damage & crit chance but gain lot of defense buffs, no mana issues, better attack speed & cheaper gear (don't need diamond eleron rings, 5 link chest is enough).

Pro's
1. Lightning Fast Clear Speed.
2. High attack speed.
3. Good Es & Evade boost.
4. Can Facetank most boss's due to good leech and ES pool.

Con's
1. Single Target DPS isn't that great.
2. Although cheaper than an Assassin version still the gear isn't cheap (key equip's cost quite a bit)
3. Elemental reflects can kill you if you hit them 1-2 times.
4. May have to rely on diamond flasks for crit chance more often than an Assassin variant.

1. How to leech with this build?

A. We leech by either using warlords mark linked with Cwdt in our boots or by using warlords linked with blasphemy if you want to keep leech always up.

2. How much APS should I aim for cyclone?

A. Since we use a single discharge gem, we should have an aps of atleast 4 in accordance with malice's 250ms cooldown. An Aps of 5 or more is recommended to keep the constant discharges incase you fail to crit in between. Calculate your aps including the movement speed recently used buff. My preferred aps with buff is between 5.90-5.99.

3. Can we farm Uber Lab and Atziri with this build?

A. Yes, both instances can be farmed using this build.

4. Which Vinktar Flask should I use?

A. Best offcourse would be the penetrate resistance variant but all others can be used except the add to attacks variant as it messes with our elemental equilibrium setup.

5. How much currency am I looking to spend to get this build started?

A. First of all to start using the planned gear and setup, a recommended level 70 would be preferable. Regarding cost, please keep in mind as this should be never considered as a starter build:

Required Items:
1. Voll's devotion Amulet : ~ 3-5 ex
2. Cospiri's Malice : 1-2 ex
3. Voll's Protecter: 5 link with desired colours : 20-50c (for trickster 5 link is more than enough), 6 link: 4-5 ex

So a minimum of 5-12ex is required to start with required gear.

Diamond rings + decent ES shield and Helm will put u behind couple more ex.
If you go with a good endurance charge belt and Deaths Door boots then consider atleast 5ex more.

Prices are stable estimates of leagues in SC.

6. How do I keep up my crit chance?

A. For cyclone using a horror crafted gloves (gives +3.5 base crit chance to your gems) will make sure it crit's almost every time. For shield charge or general map pack clear, run 2 diamond flasks to fill up the dry period's. Taking all the planned crit/accuracy nodes and having 20/20 crit & accuracy gems is required without question.

7. Which Helmet Enchant is best for me?

A. If you are the single gem setup version then get the Damage enchant, if you want to use 2 discharge gems then go for the Not to consume charges enchant. Don't use damage enchant with 2 discharge gems.
Damage enchant is cheaper and effective in map runs as you mostly one shot everything. Thus making it a cost effective choice.
Not to consume is more effective in single target and mostly unnoticeable during map runs.
Best Enchant comparatively is the not to consume enchant simple coz it saves charges. You deal more damage by discharging 2 charges at once rather than 1 charge twice. With more charges to discharge single target damage gets a huge boost.