POE Synthesis Shadow Essence Drain Contagion Trickster Build - Insanely, Start with Cheap

R4PG Game Store Date: Feb/26/19 01:38:48 Views: 7188

Fires a projectile that applies a damage over time debuff when it hits. You are healed for a portion of the debuff damage. The debuff is spread by Contagion. This skill cannot be used by Traps or Mines.

Essence Drain (often referred to as ED) is a spell that fires a chaos projectile that applies a damage over time debuff when it hits the enemy. The spell also regenerates a portion of the debuff damage as life. If target dies while afflicted with both Contagion and Essence Drain, the remaining duration of both degeneration effects will be spread to nearby enemies.

Pros & Cons

Pros

+ insanely high exp/h gain
+ can level as itself without any external abilities required.
+ start with a very low budget
+ It's works wonders in low budget to accumulate enough currency fast for the higher budget version.
+ Has one of the most amazing feeling

Cons

- if you are looking to kill end-game bosses this build CAN do them, but will require investment and even at that point there are a lot of other builds that would work better than this

Defence & Utility

The build utilizes Mind over Matter with tons of mana unreserved and getting help from the Ascendancy nodes to sustain your effective HP pool.

Here is a link to a downloadable calculator for how much effective HP you'll have with Mind Over Matter: Mind Over Matter eHP Calculator

To help with the massive HP on map bosses we will be using Vaal Lightning Trap to increase the damage taken.

Shield Charge is combined with Fortify for that sweet defensive buff as well!

Skill Tree

Ascendancy

Patient Reaper -> Ghost Dance -> Prolonged Pain -> Swift Killer

Bandits

kill all

Pantheons

The Pantheon List

Major God - Soul of Lunaris

Basically just helps with avoiding some projectile damage

Minor God - Soul of Ryslatha

Basically just an additional layer of defence when you're on low life.

Passive Tree

POE 3.6 Essence Drain Contagion Trickster Passive Skill Tree

Gems Setup

PoE Skill Gems Essence Drain , Void Manipulation, Controlled Destruction, Swift Affliction, Efficacy, Empower lvl 3+

Note: Before you can afford an Empower lvl 3+ you can use Pierce or Decay!

PoE Skill gems Contagion , Faster Casting, Increased Area of Effect, Arcane Surge

Make sure to read the Arcane Surge gem so that you know what lvl of gem will work with your current gem lvls!

PoE Skill gems Cast When Damage Taken , Immortal Call, Increased Duration, Vaal Lightning Trap

Note: The lvl of CWDT is suppose to be low, this comes down to a matter of taste, I prefer to keep it at lvl 3 with the Immortal Call at lvl 5, if it's higher it won't work. It also does not require Endurance Charges to function though the duration will be rather low without which is still enough to keep you from getting instantly killed by Porcupine packs that dies!

PoE Skill Gems Wither , Spell Totem, Multiple Totem Support, Faster Casting

PoE Skill gems Shield Charge , Faster Attacks, Fortify

Auras

- Clarity, Blasphemy, Enfeeble

Could use TC over Enfeeble (matter of taste). Also consider getting an item with +1 curse so that you can use the Witchfire Brew Flask for increased dmg output.

Optional

- Faster Casting, Arcane Surge, Increased Area of Effect, Contagion => On Allelopathy Gloves can help single target boss fights a bit!

With this setup I would recommend using 2x Spreading Rot Jewels and simply wait with the Grand Spectrum Jewels till later.

Gear

Required uniques

Quill Rain bow 1alch - 1 chaos
Witchfire Brew Stibnite Flask 15c

Higher-end upgrades

Kaom's heart kaom's if you have a 6l quill rain and want some more life. or a Queen of the forest if you want moar speed.
Cherrubim's Maleficence 50-80% increased chaos damage for a dps increase if you want that instead.
+3 6l bow in offhand for bosses
Empower level 4
Enhance level 4
+2 socket bubonic trail
Two of these or better for Bubonic trail boots
Rigwald's Quills
Dying Sun Ruby Flask
Two chaos % damage and %max life jewels or better
Headhunter

Leveling

Great news is with the CA buff you can start the game with CA now, The skill has pretty decent clear, but single target is going to be lacking earlier in the game before you get major item upgrades.

Leveling uniques

Shameless self plug check my signature for a sunder leveling build that you can use if you want.

Or we can level with CA so you get that nice feel of character progression.

Useful uniques

Quill Rain bow 1alch - 1 chaos Get this ASAP
Ondar's Clasp gloves 1 alch for 30% attack speed from level 5 on 1 alch
Goldrim helmet for resists4c currently as of 9/3/2018
Wanderlust boots for movement speed and cannot be frozen 1c

Passive Trees

Other tips

First things first out of the gate if this is a league starter character for you. Find two 1 hand weapons with 3 green sockets for your offhand and equip two of them, Then fill the sockets with spare caustic arrows. Fret not you can level the gems even if you don't currently have the weapons out. This is for a vaaling them for a chance at a level 21 gem, good damage boost later on.

Rares should focus on resists in the earlier acts more than life. Try to find res as high as possible early on and try to find something with equal or better res but with better life as you play.

Look for a 4l green to carry you to maps. CA > pierce > swift affliction > mirage archer/void manipulation

POB: https://pastebin.com/k3EeeBqk