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

Your profile is set to private zack. Can check it when you make it public.

Less duration should give slightly more damage than Empower 3, but it will be a nightmare to play with. I would just stick to Empower 3, since having 2-3 extra seconds of ED duration will be way more valuable than 5-10% extra single target damage.

Thanks for the heads up. I believe I fixed it now!

If I were you, I would get a decay weapon to start with. Consuming dark is great for its purpose, but where you are at now you are most likely going to be more comfortable with the extra punch from decay. Essence of Delirium has also been relatively cheap in Legacy league. I would also add Vaal Lightning Trap to help out with bosses and Vaal Discipline in case you get cornered/scared.

Other than that your setup is at the point where it really is good enough to start tackling most content, but you need some gem levels. Run maps as at high level as you can kill enemies without too much thought, and grind out a few levels. You should also be getting some currency as you are mapping. Spend the currency on whatever aspect of the build you feel right. If you like being very tanky and using decay, stick with CI and just upgrade your gear along the same lines as it is now (maybe add Brinerot Whalers if you can). If you want to sacrifice some ES for DPS you can eventually consider the Low Life approach.

Nedieth,

This is by far the farthest I've gotten a character so far and tons of fun!

Do you have any tips of what I should be moving towards next? I'm relatively low on funds but a target to move towards could help. I'm finding my clear speed is somewhat lack luster at tier 13+ etc.

Thanks!

you simply need to rely more on abyssal cry for higher tier maps unless you want to invest more into the character. a few options is a 6L regalia, a BBGGGR skin of the loyal or push for LL. A fast way to up your DPS a little bit is to buy a corrupted 20/20 ED. Those are usually quite cheap and should give you a 10% DPS increase.

Well that was a fun journey. Ripped to an Uul-Netol breachstone due to overconfidence. Got stuck and the slam made my 13.5k es disappear instantly. Overall at ~30k dps it was fine for most content up to t15. Didn't really try the t16 maps or endgame bosses but I'd imagine that damage would be slightly low for those.

Character - BillyTheBetaFish (just made the switch to LL from CI)

Hey Nedieth, should I be using the lvl 3 empower in my setup right now, or switch to slower proj? I'm working on leveling the quality gems up right now for the other support links.

I don't have the money to buy a lvl 4 empower at the moment (all of it was spent on 6 linking that pain in the A$$ chest), so maybe I should spend my currency on rerolling my chest to allow for slower proj instead of empower? POE Builder says my dps would go up even if it compared it to a lvl 4 empower.

I'm looking to clear all maps and bosses ultimately with this character, I never killed Shaper before so I really want to do that. So far T14s are not a problem, sustaining a map pool is....

Thanks,

In terms of raw DPS, slower proj > empower 4 > pierce (run PoB numbers for the last two). I really hated dropping pierce for slower proj. after it was nerfed a few patches ago, but got used to it quite fast. You could keep pierce and throw in slower for bosses if that suits you better.

4 green sockets work really well and saves the money needed for the level 4 empower, as the DPS difference is not that much. The currency is better spent getting a Presence of Chayula.

first of all big thank you for the detailed guide and your helpful responses!

my current gear:


11,1k ES and 50k dot with frenzy charges up.
not sure what i should upgrade next and which helmet enchant is the best for ED?
its quite hard to get chaosdmg rings with some resists, ES or a high strength roll for a reasonable price. same goes for crystal belts.
guess i should upgrade my rings/helmetenchant and even my shield before thinking about lvl 4 empower?

Added a section on pierce vs. empower as the 6th link. Check it out regarding the empower bit. I would focus on the gear, trying to squeeze out a tiny bit more defense/offense. With the gear you currently have, I suspect you have no issues at all dealing with any content below tier 16. If you want to push higher content, you might want to look into crafting a good decay weapon as well as making sure your resists are good enough to fit a breath of the council as offhand for Shaper. I feel that a BoTC makes more sense than using a shield for that boss at least.

I would just focus on utility rather than pure power where you are at.