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

Does any know for sure if the following stats are equal for for us:

1) Spell Damage
2) % increased non-ailment Chaos damage over time

I thought they'd be the same, however when I switch between the following 2 wands, the first wand shows a LOT bigger dots for all my spells.

wand 1:
75% increased Spell Damage
26% increased non-ailment Chaos damage over time

wand 2:
99% increased Spell Damage

I know they are close on paper but wand #1 is showing a much higher DoT size for all my skills. Example:

ED: 56,600 dot versus 47,600
Bane: 11,980 dot versus 10,440

This is annoying because wand #2 also has "socketed gems supported by level 20 Efficacy" so was going to save me a gem slot.

"

GhostlightX เขียน:

Does any know for sure if the following stats are equal for for us:

1) Spell Damage
2) % increased non-ailment Chaos damage over time

I thought they'd be the same, however when I switch between the following 2 wands, the first wand shows a LOT bigger dots for all my spells.

wand 1:
75% increased Spell Damage
26% increased non-ailment Chaos damage over time

wand 2:
99% increased Spell Damage

I know they are close on paper but wand #1 is showing a much higher DoT size for all my skills. Example:

ED: 56,600 dot versus 47,600
Bane: 11,980 dot versus 10,440

This is annoying because wand #2 also has "socketed gems supported by level 20 Efficacy" so was going to save me a gem slot.

I think the "26% increased non-ailment Chaos damage over time" modifier is what's doing this. My bow has a 40% non-aliment chaos as well as 89% spell damage increase and it does 156k chaos damage per second on ED when activating malevolence. I have another bow that's +1 to socketed and it does less chaos damage (about 20k less) but ~2k more dps. I'm thinking I should just stick to the first bow.

"

GhostlightX เขียน:

Does any know for sure if the following stats are equal for for us:

1) Spell Damage
2) % increased non-ailment Chaos damage over time

Non-ailment Chaos damage is like a 'more' multiplier (https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Stat#more_vs_increased) so it will be a lot better than an increased of the same amount.

You should download Path of Building, lets you really easily test things like switching a stat and seeing what is better.

"

KFCDotCom เขียน:

I'm thinking I should just stick to the first bow.

You should just stick with whatever one you want while you work on making the full ED bow. The full ED bow will be a huge DPS gain since it also has +2 to support gems which will raise your empower another 2 levels.

How do i unlock the crafting mods for non-ailment and chaos?

I have tried hunting veiled items, but either im really unlucky or i need to do something to get these items.

"

HrKugler เขียน:

How do i unlock the crafting mods for non-ailment and chaos?

I have tried hunting veiled items, but either im really unlucky or i need to do something to get these items.

If you look at the crafting bench and scroll down to "Undiscovered"/"Veiled" you can see every craft you don't have. Mousing over them tells you how to attain them. I don't remember how to get those two specifically since I already have them, but if it's just unveiling items, then yeah there's a lot of luck involved.

Alternatively you can have someone else craft them on for you. Feel free to message me in game, I have all the ED/Contaigon crafts and always craft for free (no tips accepted).

Hi All, I have now taken this build to level 85 and am currently running up to tier 12 maps maps no problem. Beyond that, and sometimes with bad affixes I am having massive survivability issues.

Now my gear is crap, I admit that. It was cobbled together from cast offs from other chars and I threw about 100 chaos at a few other choice items (I am a bit of a noob at this game and have no wealth as such).

So when I say my gear is crap, I mean CRAP. I think the main issue is every item I have except for my chest is pure ES, no evasion as such (most of my other chars were casters). I am thinking this makes Phase Acrobatics rather bad. Right now I have:

4800 HP
900 ES
Evasion 2424 (12%) + Phase Acrobatics
Resists capped
Ghost Dance

I haven't ran T3 labyrinth yet, due to laziness and also my general detesting of the labyrinth, so do not have Escape Artists - which would probably be bad anyway due to my gear.

This is barely enough to stay alive vs bosses in higher maps. I am wondering if I should drop everything in passives to do with evasion (including Phase Acrobatics) and try to find ES or Life elsewhere in the tree? And then run Discipline over Flesh and Stone.

Any advice would be appreciated as I am otherwise loving the gameplay of the build.

Why do you claim this is the best ED build for Legion? Your guide is super short and feels half-arsed if I'm honest. I'm indifferent about the build choices, just curious why you think "it's the best"

Did I hit the jackpot with my timeless jewel? There are two nodes that offer 80% increased spell damage. I already took one of them, should I try to build up to the second one? there is also two supreme egos, do they stack? what to do tree wise from here on out?

"

frostzor27 เขียน:

Man the lab enchant is killing me... Any tips? I don't wanna pay half a HH for one Hubris circlet with it...

Your choices:
- Choose a suboptimal base like deicide mask or mind cage instead of hubris.
- Get the despair curse effect enchant instead. This can actually be more damage than the ED enchant situationally at a fraction of the cost.
- Ignore the enchant completely. You can still clear all content.

"

KFCDotCom เขียน:

How much of a difference does "+1 level to socketed gems" have over just having empower + max level gems? my current bow is 6 linked and has the ED setup but I don't have the +1 to socketed. What I do have is +40% non-ailment chaos over time on that bow, will that be sufficient or is +1 socketed a must?

Noobie in need of help, thanks.

The +1 levels is really important. Spells scale with gem levels, and it becomes +2 to your ED if you use Empower. With the setup as detailed in the guide, we have a level 28 ED. If you just subtracted the +1 to gem levels, you'd have a level 26. Going from 26->28 comes out to about 25% more damage.

"

GhostlightX เขียน:

Hi All, I have now taken this build to level 85 and am currently running up to tier 12 maps maps no problem. Beyond that, and sometimes with bad affixes I am having massive survivability issues.

Now my gear is crap, I admit that. It was cobbled together from cast offs from other chars and I threw about 100 chaos at a few other choice items (I am a bit of a noob at this game and have no wealth as such).

So when I say my gear is crap, I mean CRAP. I think the main issue is every item I have except for my chest is pure ES, no evasion as such (most of my other chars were casters). I am thinking this makes Phase Acrobatics rather bad. Right now I have:

4800 HP
900 ES
Evasion 2424 (12%) + Phase Acrobatics
Resists capped
Ghost Dance

I haven't ran T3 labyrinth yet, due to laziness and also my general detesting of the labyrinth, so do not have Escape Artists - which would probably be bad anyway due to my gear.

This is barely enough to stay alive vs bosses in higher maps. I am wondering if I should drop everything in passives to do with evasion (including Phase Acrobatics) and try to find ES or Life elsewhere in the tree? And then run Discipline over Flesh and Stone.

Any advice would be appreciated as I am otherwise loving the gameplay of the build.

You've identified and answered both questions with this response (your gear and your labs). You're a high enough level that your T3 lab should be no problem. You can always take prolongued pain instead of escape artist if your gear isn't up to speed yet.

Rather than trying to respec, I would suggest just trading for gear upgrades gradually as you play. It's a bit of a boring suggestion, but if you're cruising through t12, keep playing t12. Or you can even just farm t2 glaciers (even more boring suggestion). I'd try this upgrade order:
- Level 21 ED, 1 ex
- Bow as described in the guide, 6 ex
- Carcass Jack, 10c plus jewelers since we don't need it 6-linked. Could also do Queen of the Forest (would need more evasion elsewhere), Perfect Form (could unspec Acro), or Hyrri's Ire (85c).

Getting up to mid red maps with very little investment is impressive, but you're just hitting the wall where you'll need to farm up some currency.

"

Valant เขียน:

Suggestions for upgrade please

สปอยล์

Atziri's Step can be improved. Boots with the Temple mod "Matatl's" prefix grant 30% move speed and 10-12% chance to dodge attack or spell hits as a single mod. Legion content has made these boots insanely common. You can get a pair with high life and some resists/attributes very easily for only a few chaos.

A level 4 empower will be your next biggest upgrade. After that, it's just generic improvement on your rares, belt and gloves appearing to be the weakest currently. Depending on how much you have to spend, elder gloves with non-ailment chaos damage over time and then multi-mod would be a big boost.

"

KFCDotCom เขียน:

Did I hit the jackpot with my timeless jewel? There are two nodes that offer 80% increased spell damage. I already took one of them, should I try to build up to the second one? there is also two supreme egos, do they stack? what to do tree wise from here on out?

I would take both the spell damage nodes. 80% damage for 3 points is hard to beat.

If you're really feeling adventurous, you could try wearing Cloak of Defiance instead of Perfect Form. It has nice synergy being an evasion/energy shield armor. You've also spec'd Acro and Phase Acro already, so Perfect Form is a bit wasted. That way you have Malevolence in an Essence Worm and your 100% unreserved mana could be put to work. Malevolence with 50% effectiveness boost, 160% spell damage from 5 points, and 100% unreserved mana with MoM sounds pretty juicy actually. I like it in theory, but no idea how it would feel in practice.

If you don't go the Cloak of Defiance route, spec'ing Supreme Ego is a bit of a tossup. You lose Flesh and Stone in exchange for more damage from Malevolence. If you feel tanky enough to do it, awesome. You likely don't need to put it in an Essence Worm though. Without MoM, running around with only 25% mana unreserved isn't much of a problem. I think Arctic Armor counts as a spell, not an aura, so you'd still be able to use that too. I believe it would reserve 12.5% of your mana since Supreme Ego and Perfect Form would combine effects.

"

ArtCrusade เขียน:

Why do you claim this is the best ED build for Legion? Your guide is super short and feels half-arsed if I'm honest. I'm indifferent about the build choices, just curious why you think "it's the best"

1) It has the best title
2) The author is the best looking :)

"

ArtCrusade เขียน:

Why do you claim this is the best ED build for Legion? Your guide is super short and feels half-arsed if I'm honest. I'm indifferent about the build choices, just curious why you think "it's the best"

Well, it's a hell of a lot better than the other one that's super popular (the ghazzy one), because he has 'actually' updated the guide for 3.7 and does actually respond and address issues raised in the comments instead of whining about he has no time since he's not a full time streamer.

Curious why you think it's short and half-assed, what do you think is missing? I felt like it gave all the relevant info in a straight to the point manner.