[3.7] SC/HC - ED/Blight Trickster - Up to 10k eHP, Layered Defense, 3m DPS

I'm going to be running a variant of this build come league start, so I have a few questions as someone who has never tried essence drain. I apologize if these are asked somewhere in the thread, but I did try to read most of what's here. I'll be going occultist as I prefer the boss-killer playstyle and feel that it will benefit more from the leveling experience (hybrid into CI) and with the changes to map mods. Also this will be on hardcore.

1) Knowing I won't get my hands on a shavs for a least some period of time, what would your aura setup look like as pure CI? I'd imagine I want discipline more than double blasphemy, but I'm really not sure if that's the case and would love your opinion on the order of importance here.

2) Do you feel that blight will provide any benefit to this build? There's a lot of overlapping damage scaling but ultimately a pure blight build would look very different. I haven't had a chance to try the skill yet but it seems like it might help in the leveling process. Any thoughts?

3) What is the order of importance on end-game transition? Should I go for a shavs first to be low life? Heretecs veil? Consuming Dark? Chaos Essence? (who knows how rare that will be now). I'd like to know where the priorities lie in your experience as a hardcore character.

4) Any big pitfalls/dangers that I could run into in terms of map mods, bosses, etc. in your experience?


Thanks for a quality guide and the inspiration.

Hi there! Thank you for taking the time to write out this guide. It's very helpful.

As a newer player, could you help me figure out what gems I would be using while leveling? Would it be possible for you to add a 'leveling' section that lists what gem to use between what levels and when to switch?

Edit: thoroughly sorry - didn't see the "How I leveled"-tab. Got it now!

I will keep my reply short, as I am gonna get some sleep before the league starts.

@magnus:

1) I would run discipline, temp chains and then consider what I want for the last aura. Enfeeble, arctic armour and clarity are all good options depending on what you want to focus on. Running dual curse will leave you with extremely little mana available, and you will need a leech enchant on boots or a mana flask.

I pref temp chains over enfeeble as it allows me to rely on my own mechanics and skill rather than pray the curse does enough to mitigate the damage taken.

2) I have been playing with the idea of adding blight. So far the best kind of build that uses both ed and blight would be a 6L blight, 4L ED, no contagion Occultist. With our setup you are better off casting ED a few more times to stack poison or simply run around like a tard.

3) Consuming dark > Heretics/Shav's (depending on defense through enfeeble or damage through LL)> Decay weapon > chaos jewelry

4) Last league the 4x proj + 40% more aoe was terrifying (and ripped me) on projectile splash bosses. For now the no regen mod is completely undoable, as we don't leech with ED, we regen. Depending on your flask setup, as in Rumi's vs. Jade/Stibnite, the evasion/block reducing mods are really dangerous.

-maxres is fine, added elemental damage is really scary. The new mod that applies random elemental ailments looks really bad as well, and a shock immunity flask might become a permanent addition to our flask setup.

If you have a general understanding of what map mods are punishing, you should not have much problems with this build. You can check out the video of me doing an absolutely bonkers map if you want:

Overgrown Ruin - temp chains, no regen, -16% maxres, turbo, tripple added elemental, power charges

day 4 of the league and I'm loving it. what a fantastic meta call because breaches are free time to run around and click portals as ED wipes the screen as the breach mobs spawn in. I am really close to transitioning to LL and I couldn't have done it without this build.

I will say the main disadvantage I've found is if you get overwhelmed it can get a bit scary because you're a 2 button build but other than that it's been going great. I also realized I wasn't running vaal lightning trap so that might help with my lackluster single target, also I'm really dumb

e: what do you think of having instead of decay / shield and CD / decay scepter on swap, having CD / shield and cd / scepter on swap for this early in the league? CD is around 5c and deliriums are 50c, would a nondecay scepter / cd provide enough of a dps boost to be worth it? I'm on sc

I would not use a non shield offhand if it was not breath of the council, CD or decay. You can get a spell damage shield if you want to sacrifice some survivability for damage.

I had a rip at level 80, so I am still using Consuming Dark and playing as hybrid. At the moment I think I will prioritize Decay > Heretic's Veil/CI transition > Low Life.

Not sure if I want to go Low Life at all yet. The Chayula breaches are terrifying, and CI seems to be a better way to approach them unless I manage to upgrade my Eye of Chayula.

If I have Essence of Delirium, what weapon should I use it on first ?

If you want to maximize damage and utility potential, use it on an Opal Wand.

If you want to use it in combination with a Consuming Dark, use it on a 1.50 attack speed sceptre.

If you want to use it alone and have whirling blades as an option, use it on an Ambusher.

All the weapons should be ilvl 84 so you have the max spell damage roll available.

How important is the Swift Killer node for damage? Kinda wanna go with Shade Form first and get Swift Killer last if I end up going uber lab, since I havent tried uber lab at all yet and dont know how long it takes to unlock.

hey, my character is kind of a mess. could OP/someone help me out? i'm trying to go LL(dumb decision i feel like). if you look at my tree;

gear:


you'll see i've derailed quite alot. and my gear is for hybrid. so if you could take a look at my gear and talent tree, and tell me what i should change first. my gems are a mess too. also probably playing it all wrong. i followed a different guide since i chose the build right before launch, and now i'm regretting it so hard.

Hi so I made . Should i go for leo's Damage over time craft or Spell damage from Catarina and why/