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

I had my first guardian kills this league on a 5L Perfect Form, and that works just fine. Spend your money on good rares before you get the 6L. The Perfect Form + Atziri's Step combo requires a lot of resists from other items. If you choose to go for both, the rings/helmet could end up getting pricy.

Hey Nedi, I wanted to ask a question about this build. Not knocking it or anything, I'm 100% sure the issue is me, but...

I gave this build a try last league as my starter... and loved it. Until I hit guardians. There was a steady correlation of progression up to that point, where I might hit a "soft" wall but a little bit of saving and then purchasing some upgrade helped fix an issue, and it was fine. And I loved the playstyle.

What killed the build for me was being able to kill guardians/shaper. Now I see you talking about doing it, but I'm just really curious... how. I'd go into those fights, and with near-zero sustain, I just ran out of potions. I'd end up running out of portals and the boss would still be at 50%. I fully understand this might be a "git gud" situation, but I'm struggling to understand how the VERY low single target damage of this build is able to keep up with guardians. Blight/Aleopathy helps single target, but guardians don't really give you the opportunity to sit and channel in their faces for very long, and the build has no real leech or sustain on a single target, high HP boss to speak of. I WANT to be able to play this build and beat the game with it (including Uber Atziri, Uber elder, etc)... but I just don't see how that's possible. Is there some gear "breakpoint" you look for before you attempt them? Do you just kite them as best as you can for 5+ minutes while keeping ED on them (and ignoring blight)?

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Nedieth wrote:

@Walrusky,Spreading Rot does not need the points to be allocated. There just have to be 40+ int total in the radius.

@TheRoyalShu, I would just keep upgrading my gear to be able to fit The Perfect Form eventually. Cherrumbi's is a strong choice for the build as well. If you get the jewel sockets close to shadow start, you should only need one item with a good dexterity roll as well as Imporesence to be able to equip The Perfect Form. On my current character, my only sources of dex are

. If I just equip some other item with dexterity, I can equpip The Perfect Form. I can then remove the other item with dex, since the body armour provides some dexterity as well.

Thanks for the reply! Yeah I went a head and purchase the "Perfect" again, and so far so good. I am really torn between the 2 armor, but just like the other poster, I too am having issue with red elder, and t16 maps. I know this build is built upon evasion. (8k evasion) But I know its not built on, face tank, however its getting to the point where end game is difficult ("map bosses"). Your input would be SO appreciated.

My new set up.

There are videos at the start of the guide, where I do all four guardians and Shaper in one go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O4I8llbsyw.

This is from Harbinger, but the current performance of the build is quite similar. The guardian maps are just magic in this case. Since this was a fast run on a HC character, I prioritized staying safe rather than risking anything during recording.

On my character in the current league, everything goes down just fine. Stuff like double damage modded minotaur etc is still very sketchy, but it would be with pretty much any non-specialized build. In case you didn't already watch the video, I hope you learn something. At the end of the day, it is important to keep in mind that this is a typical league starter build. It truly shines on no budget, but it will never be able to scale as well as other options. Even with min/maxed gear, you still need to "actually play the game" and learn how to deal with boss mechanics.

My suggestion would be to roll a few easy maps to start out with. then play very defensively and just observe the animations of the bosses. When you get everything down and know what moves does what, you can start getting closer and closer with Blight. (If you still need practice on how to move relative to a boss, I would suggest getting Dark Souls. Great practice for dodge rolling/shield charging.)

Did the first lab with Stone of Lazhwar amulet. Izaro couldn't even scratch me. Seems like a good amulet for early game. Not that early game and labs isn't a cake walk with this build anyway.

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Nedieth wrote:

There are videos at the start of the guide, where I do all four guardians and Shaper in one go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O4I8llbsyw.

This is from Harbinger, but the current performance of the build is quite similar. The guardian maps are just magic in this case. Since this was a fast run on a HC character, I prioritized staying safe rather than risking anything during recording.

On my character in the current league, everything goes down just fine. Stuff like double damage modded minotaur etc is still very sketchy, but it would be with pretty much any non-specialized build. In case you didn't already watch the video, I hope you learn something. At the end of the day, it is important to keep in mind that this is a typical league starter build. It truly shines on no budget, but it will never be able to scale as well as other options. Even with min/maxed gear, you still need to "actually play the game" and learn how to deal with boss mechanics.

My suggestion would be to roll a few easy maps to start out with. then play very defensively and just observe the animations of the bosses. When you get everything down and know what moves does what, you can start getting closer and closer with Blight. (If you still need practice on how to move relative to a boss, I would suggest getting Dark Souls. Great practice for dodge rolling/shield charging.)

Yeah I get it. I'm an old poe player (day 1), but been retired from this game for over 5 years. I just recently been playing this game, and so far been enjoying it. I started out watching a lot of youtube vids on best entry lvl builds, and wanted to try this due to the high clear speeds. I have watch numerous other MoM builds on youtube, and I understand what you mean. Now with the second post, I didn't mean to offend you, but just wanted to get your input, (its probably my Diablo days of rushing in and face tanking the fk out of everything.) But anyways, I'll give it some more time, and learn more of the poe boss mechanics. Anyways, I did some more modification to the build. added one new ring, and 21/20 ED. Its GREAT!(A must for all Ed/MoM) So far my cold res. is far more superior then before. I'm sitting around 5k hp with 8.2ish eva. Did lab's and few t13-15 maps and am happy with everything thus far.

No need to worry about offending me! All builds have drawback, and my goal has been to make a well rounded character that scales well from low to medium budget. With a goal like that, it is almost a given that the character will have some issues.

I didn't think about it earlier, but if you really want to push ED into the ultra end game, you should check out djnat's Mistress of Agony on the scion forums. His build can be played as shadow as well, and should provide a noticable increase to boss damage. Going Low Life used to be a no-brainer, but since 3.0 I have shyed away from it and tried to take the build in a different direction.

The beautiful thing about ED (+ Blight) in its current state is that it can be built for different playstyles.

If you are a fan of lifebased MoM builds and you want a balanced character with very good clearspeed and still OK boss damage, go for Trickster.

If you are a boss damage lover, with exceptional survivability and triple curse capability, go lowlife Occultist. Map clear speed will suck, sadly, because of the Profane Bloom cancer interaction with Contagion, but bosses will go down pretty fast.

If you still want to go lowlife but don't want a bad clearspeed, Scion is the way to go, especially in 3.2. Going at 177% movement speed while mapping with an ED character is INSANE. I don't even feel the need for a movement skill anymore, lol.


TL;DR there isn't a "superior" class or ascendancy when playing ED. Every one has its own perks, it's just a matter of personal preference.

Hey ! i'de like to start by saying thank you for your guide !

i'm a new player, currently lvl 49 and i try to upgrade my items as i go(you'll see them soon), im playing the bestiary league ! and i Love how ed/contagion work ! That's said i have some questions for you guys !

here are my items :



body armor :


Nothing to be said about the body armor i tried to go as straight forward as possible with this item, i'll upgrade and buy higher quality gems to make it even stronger !


Helmet :


Now when its comes to this i have a lot of questions ! is there any better replacement to vaal grace ? i never use it ! is immortal call necessary ? my main concern is i don't know how effective this is ! and i don't know if there is better replacement for it !

+ you say

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Allelopathy can change the playstyle of the build significantly. If you drop your CWDT setup, you can have a 5L blight in your gloves. Combine this with 2x Spreading Rot jewels, and your boss DPS will skyrocket.

Any exemples ? then i guess i'll have to switch my glove setup to helmet setup and create a new glove setup ?

Gloves :

for now i'm pleased with these ! but as i said earlier what's the best court of action when i'll get my hands on Allelopathy ?


Weapon :

I have nothing to say about this ! spamming shield charge feels amazing !


Shield :

I have a chaos golem, but i don't know if it's the best choice, + the sound its makes when it walks is horrible :s

and the boots :

I think the boots are good as they're !

Now i have some questions about the flask, you who've playing ed for a tremendous amount of time ! what do you advice !

this is my flask setup :


Do you think witchfire brew is a good flask ? i usually don't use it ! as i said im still a newbie and have much more to learn !

Do you advice Stibnite or Silver flask ? i hate how stibnite feels, do i need to stay in the cloud to gain the evasion effect ? if yes i guess that silver flask of reflex is better !

im not ready to get rid of my mana flask yet, as sometimes i mana starve when it comes to hard boss fights, maybe im supposed to keep it ? *I saw my mastake i had patient reaper taken, i'm going to switch it for weave the arcane !* with what should i replace it ?

I also have a question, i've not taken any jewel and i plan on adding 2 spreading rot, is it to early ? or can i at least get one ?

Thanks again for the guide !

Question regarding going low life trickster. I am play ssf beastery league. I beast crafted a shavs. Is it possible to go low life without presence of chayula? Pretty hard to get it now that breach is not zana mod