[3.7] Essence Drain/Contagion Trickster (the best one)

Great build and I've made my own variation of it for more zoom zoom action. It currently clears t16 all juiced up, shaper, uber elder and I'm now delving as far as I can go (currently 300).

I've using Queen of the forest, with Aul's blessing (grace version) and my watcher's eye has both malvolence, and movement speed with grace. Along with the shaper quiver that gives 10% ms and patheon ms nodes, i'm about 85% ms with out any flasks. With flasks popped i'm around 250 ms which is nearly 100% up time during maps/delving. I can now do t16 juiced up in about 2-3 minutes depending on boss with monoliths. This build might be my first to 100 due to the dps/tankiness/and speed.



I use despair, Malevolence, and grace as auras with lvl 3 enlighten and still have 285 mana to use.

Any suggestions on my build/items (see profile)?
I am quite happy with doing some strands farming and continue my atlas...
But I'm not sure what to search for. Vendor ring would get me into trouble with resist, same does Impresence.

@rlauren2: I'm looking at your profile. What do you do with this higher quantity setup? Farming some lower maps? And I always wonder why there's a Queen of the Forest in your build. How much evasion do you have?

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Sinthoras149 wrote:

Any suggestions on my build/items (see profile)?
I am quite happy with doing some strands farming and continue my atlas...
But I'm not sure what to search for. Vendor ring would get me into trouble with resist, same does Impresence.

@rlauren2: I'm looking at your profile. What do you do with this higher quantity setup? Farming some lower maps? And I always wonder why there's a Queen of the Forest in your build. How much evasion do you have?

I got my Shaper stronghold onto Elder Beach, and with this setup I can still comfortably clear juiced up Elder Beaches. I unspec'd my guardian maps, but I'd imagine they could kill me if I tried 8-mod vaal'd guardians. For Guardians/Shaper/Elder/etc. I swap back to Perfect Form, rings with some damage, and normal boots. Sonyswarm posted just before your post basically the identical idea, except his gear is way better than mine. I don't run grace, but I have a decent Maraketh timeless jewel that gives a few evasion/dex/move speed/flask effect bonuses along with both jade and stibite flasks to reach the QotF movespeed cap. I just swapped out the rings and boots for item quantity choices to see if it made a difference.

For your build, I'd say:
- drop the mana flask. With Patient Reaper and Arcane Surge active, you don't have mana problems. If I ever find myself in a no-regen map, I just turn off Malevolence and Patient Reaper alone will carry me through the map.
- replace your boots. Atziri are a fine start, but rare boots with the 30% move speed/10% attack dodge hybrid implicit are super common. They essentially turn into Atziri's boots plus resists.
- grab the 2-node jewel sockets on your tree. I see two of them available. It's probably worth taking out Sanctity and one of the AoE nodes next to Amplify in order to grab a jewel socket.
- Level 21 ED and level 4 Empower. These are obviously the most expensive suggestions on this list, but there's just no comparison on damage.

After that, you start getting into the region where upgrading 1 affix skyrockets the cost. Compare your rings to Sonyswarm. Upgrading from life/ES/resists rings to life/ES/resists/spell damage rings means spending a few exalts instead of a few chaos. These types of upgrades should be typically left to last.

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primordialiege wrote:

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TheChosenOne_ wrote:

What's the purpose of blight again? We only use it for harder bosses?

yes, and to stack wither debuff with jewel

For harder enemies/bosses, do we only use blight or blight for a couple seconds to get the extra dmg for 6+ seconds then ed+contagion combo?

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rlauren2 wrote:

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Martingale7 wrote:

What would be the best/most cost effective setup for t2 glacier farming? I'm not a huge fan of ED in general so I'd prefer not to invest too much in setting this build up.

Thanks

For t2 only, noteworthy changes:
- breath of the council + zeel's amplifier shield instead of the bow.
- pick up arcane expanse and precision on the tree, sacrifice some life probably.
- perhaps spec Swift Killer + Weave the Arcane instead of Ghost Dance/Escape Artist
- carcass jack or queen of the forest for armor
- biscos belt, seven league step or goldwyrm boots
- ventors or pariah rings

Basically, sacrifice some survivability and pick up more AoE, move speed, and item quantity. I'm not sure exactly what budget you're targeting when you say "not invest too much", but the 6-link armor and the magic find gear are the only things here that aren't dirt cheap. Those items tend to hold their value though, so you could always sell them back once you're bored.

That's great advice. I did not make many changes to my tree. I switched Alchemist to Amplify for AOE. Still running Bow/Devouring Diadem/Perfect Form + MoM/Eldritch. Key though, has been Bisco's Leash belt for Rampage. With the damage and speed boost you get from hundreds of legions, you can zip around dealing with outside stragglers.

I switched Intensify with Item Rarity Support for my 4-linked Contagion. I have Sadima's Touch gloves for 10% quantity and a 9% quant amulet. Not sure those make any difference though, but "can't hurt".. Then I switched to Seven-League boots for 50% speed, those were a little pricey, plus a quiver with 10% speed. I then switched out 9% quant amulet for 10% movement speed.
Movement and clear speed is key. Use a minimal loot filter like Grimro's (poewizard). Turn off Karui, Eternal, Vaal splinters. Pick up as little as possible. Stop before the cave, unless Einhar has more beasts in there.

AOE seemed fine as it was. I am now 1/3 on the way to Headhunter, but I am frankly not sure I will make it. It's just too boring by now, and too many hours remaining to reach that goal :) [it's disheartening to not find an ex for 100 maps straight, then it picks up when one shows up, like it just did]

I may try Breath + Zeel, but then I also have to change my ascendancy nodes as you suggested to compensate for lost damage.



This was during a lucky streak tonight: 3 ex in 4 hours. During a bad streak, which can go on much longer, without any ex, divines, or annuls, the number is only 150C/hour. Most of the time it feels like the loot is much less than what streamers reported early league days. I started the league very late.

Please comment on my gear and what should I upgrade next ?

Build pretty good so far, able to do all contents. this is my first time ever ED/Con Build, really enjoying for this league mechanic.


I also switched to FULL MF gears for Farming too. IIQ:85%, IIR:46%

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Valant wrote:

Please comment on my gear and what should I upgrade next ?

Spoiler

You are using Perfect Form, but most people who use Perfect Form drop Acrobatics entirely from the tree. I would take back those 8 points you used to route over there and spread them out elsewhere. You can pick up Arcane Focus, Void Barrier, Arcane Will, Unnatural Calm, etc. to make up the defense.

Also, you should move all of your Auras to your helm. Devouring Diadem grants reduced mana reservation. You'd be able to run Malevolence, Discipline, and Flesh and Stone together if you put them in DD instead of the gloves. Also, ED is not an "attack", so the crafted added chaos damage on your ring is not going to benefit us. You can craft raw "% increased damage" as a prefix on a ring instead.

I saw in PoB that you use a shaped hubris circlet... but I didn't get it. What shaper mod should I look for? +1 to AoE?

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frostzor27 wrote:

I saw in PoB that you use a shaped hubris circlet... but I didn't get it. What shaper mod should I look for? +1 to AoE?

Yeah, the Shaper helms can roll the hybrid prefix +% AoE/Socketed Gems supported by level # Increased Area of Effect. The extra AoE is always appreciated, and it saves you one gem slot on your contagion setup in a build that is pretty socket starved.

That said, getting the ED or Despair enchant on the helm and then also hitting the Shaper AoE mod alongside high ES and -9% chaos from the dense/aberrant fossil crafting would be insane. The Shaper base is uber-luxury, don't be afraid to ditch it.