[3.0] HC/SC Nowlech's Trickster Essence Drain (LifeMoM/CI/LL) ~Shaper and Uber Atziri! Videos!

A summary after the 4th day with this build:

Gear





Compared to the previous CI incantation of the build and progressing to LL, this version starts out faster in maps, but requires a lot more care to play, as you don't have 8-9k+ EHP right out of the gate, and won't be able to run dual defensive curses with heretics veil.

On the upside, Allelopathy fixes the single target problem, which is desperately needed with the 3.0 buff to boss HP. I can't imagine killing the map bosses without self-cast blight, wither totem and ED in any reasonable time, and would just skip them. Considering that bosses actually drop loot now, I feel like they're worth the hassle.

These were the biggest decisions I've been facing lately:
- Ascendancy order: Swift Killer and Patient Reaper are no brainers, but Weave the Arcane vs Walk the Aether first? It boils down to personal preference of speed vs defense first. I went with Walk the Aether first, but mana started to get sketchy around T8 maps. Luckily the build has no problems in uberlab, and I managed to finish it today for that juicy mana.
- Upgrades after random rares and flasks: after saving up for WFB and speccing dual curse, there's three paths to take here if we're talking in exalt range items. First is the offensive side, with a strong decay dagger, gloves (must imo!) and Cherrubim's Maleficence. Second path is the defensive side, with either a Cloak of Defiance or Belly of the Beast, eventually 6L becoming the ultimate upgrade with an added Empower gem. I eventually decided to go for Cloak, but ultimately the EHP difference is a wash between those two. The third, riskiest one is the MF route, by sacrificing defense but not clearspeed, hoping for better loot by using at least Bisco's Collar. I opted for this route first, and it's looking good so far. I don't recommend this route for new players though, the safest first investments are a decay dagger and either Cloak or Belly.
- Fixing resist issues: by using both Bisco's Collar, Bisco's Leash, Allelopathy and eventually Cloak, I was struggling to cap my resists while also having chaos resist. So for now, until more currency comes in, I sacrificed chaos resist for magic find, and movement speed on boots for a crapton of resists. Unfortunately I had to give up shield charge now, it would feel too slow without MS. Whirling blades doesn't care about MS, only AS, so for the time being, I'm whirling instead of charging.
- Jewels: this is where it gets interesting. I opted for two Spreading Rots, as they are mandatory when using blight. The 2*25% increased damage taken becomes a multiplicative damage increase to your all other bonuses, as it's applied to monsters as damage taken. By using Blight as well, the useful mods on jewels is smaller than usual, since Projectile damage no longer scales both ED and Blight, and Area Damage is useless for ED. Until last league, energy shield roll was easier to come by than life, thus finding a good jewel will be a lot harder now. Lucky for us, the number of available sockets for rare jewels is also smaller now.
"
TerroXor2 wrote:
how do u get a dagger with the decay mod on ? i cant seem to find one....


It's crafted by using an Essence of Delirium on a normal or rare dagger. It's expensive as fuck though, and you have to pray you get at least one other good roll there as well, either decent attack speed or spell power rolls. I stopped counting how many I used in Legacy league before calling it a day and buying one already crafted.
Whats up with your dagger? Is the decay godly or am i missing something? No attack speed?

Also I noticed you are leveling a duelist to farm lab, but I thought this ED build was good for farming bosses?
"
useful mods on jewels is smaller than usual, since Projectile damage no longer scales both ED and Blight, and Area Damage is useless for ED


With the new changes to double dipping, neither projectile damage nor AoE damage increase the DoT of either ED and blight. Only generic, chaos, DoT and spell damage increase ED and blight damage.
"
maladeth wrote:
Upgrades after random rares and flasks: after saving up for WFB and speccing dual curse, there's three paths to take here if we're talking in exalt range items. First is the offensive side, with a strong decay dagger, gloves (must imo!) and Cherrubim's Maleficence. Second path is the defensive side, with either a Cloak of Defiance or Belly of the Beast, eventually 6L becoming the ultimate upgrade with an added Empower gem. I eventually decided to go for Cloak, but ultimately the EHP difference is a wash between those two. The third, riskiest one is the MF route, by sacrificing defense but not clearspeed, hoping for better loot by using at least Bisco's Collar. I opted for this route first, and it's looking good so far. I don't recommend this route for new players though, the safest first investments are a decay dagger and either Cloak or Belly.


If you go Cloak of Defiance, do you still get the big mana nodes behind MoM on the tree? Liking the build so far. My decay dagger didn't turn out so great, but right now I'm looking to go towards a 5L and saving for either Belly or Cloak. Carcass Jack also looked fun, but slightly less defensive.
"
darunae wrote:
Whats up with your dagger? Is the decay godly or am i missing something? No attack speed?

Also I noticed you are leveling a duelist to farm lab, but I thought this ED build was good for farming bosses?


Yes it is amazing for farming uber lab and bosses, but after only doing essence drain for a league and a half I want to try out some new builds I'm creating! I will still be playing this guy and upgrading everything but I do want to try out some new skills other than ED :D

But unfortunately I rolled the worst possible thing on my dagger, and only got the decay mod :l
Last edited by Nowlech on Aug 9, 2017, 3:37:39 AM
"
maladeth wrote:
A summary after the 4th day with this build:

Gear





Compared to the previous CI incantation of the build and progressing to LL, this version starts out faster in maps, but requires a lot more care to play, as you don't have 8-9k+ EHP right out of the gate, and won't be able to run dual defensive curses with heretics veil.

On the upside, Allelopathy fixes the single target problem, which is desperately needed with the 3.0 buff to boss HP. I can't imagine killing the map bosses without self-cast blight, wither totem and ED in any reasonable time, and would just skip them. Considering that bosses actually drop loot now, I feel like they're worth the hassle.

These were the biggest decisions I've been facing lately:
- Ascendancy order: Swift Killer and Patient Reaper are no brainers, but Weave the Arcane vs Walk the Aether first? It boils down to personal preference of speed vs defense first. I went with Walk the Aether first, but mana started to get sketchy around T8 maps. Luckily the build has no problems in uberlab, and I managed to finish it today for that juicy mana.
- Upgrades after random rares and flasks: after saving up for WFB and speccing dual curse, there's three paths to take here if we're talking in exalt range items. First is the offensive side, with a strong decay dagger, gloves (must imo!) and Cherrubim's Maleficence. Second path is the defensive side, with either a Cloak of Defiance or Belly of the Beast, eventually 6L becoming the ultimate upgrade with an added Empower gem. I eventually decided to go for Cloak, but ultimately the EHP difference is a wash between those two. The third, riskiest one is the MF route, by sacrificing defense but not clearspeed, hoping for better loot by using at least Bisco's Collar. I opted for this route first, and it's looking good so far. I don't recommend this route for new players though, the safest first investments are a decay dagger and either Cloak or Belly.
- Fixing resist issues: by using both Bisco's Collar, Bisco's Leash, Allelopathy and eventually Cloak, I was struggling to cap my resists while also having chaos resist. So for now, until more currency comes in, I sacrificed chaos resist for magic find, and movement speed on boots for a crapton of resists. Unfortunately I had to give up shield charge now, it would feel too slow without MS. Whirling blades doesn't care about MS, only AS, so for the time being, I'm whirling instead of charging.
- Jewels: this is where it gets interesting. I opted for two Spreading Rots, as they are mandatory when using blight. The 2*25% increased damage taken becomes a multiplicative damage increase to your all other bonuses, as it's applied to monsters as damage taken. By using Blight as well, the useful mods on jewels is smaller than usual, since Projectile damage no longer scales both ED and Blight, and Area Damage is useless for ED. Until last league, energy shield roll was easier to come by than life, thus finding a good jewel will be a lot harder now. Lucky for us, the number of available sockets for rare jewels is also smaller now.



Thanks for the well written reply! Cherribums is gong to be hard to color, but for life that is and offense that is our BIS
Farmed scriptorium so I could go lowlife. Finally managed it and it's working out pretty well. Currently at 9.2k ES and really don't have too many purchases left except a presence of chayula and possibly some super expensive res increasing upgrades. Will be dual curse soon and going tri once I can manage the resists(will need a crystal belt).

Some thoughts on uniques I'm running for specifically the low life build:
Sin Trek

Amazing ES and movespeed but pretty hard to color for LL. Could get comparable boots with resists which would be ideal but these are like 1 alc compared to basically nonexistant.

Breath of the Council

Decay weapon is definitely a tad better on bosses; however, this is a nice alternative. The damage and increased aoe is pretty good and as low life it provides a nice quality of life with the increased chaos skill duration letting you drop a few gems off the wither totem. The strength requirement is rough though and will likely require a node plus an item roll.

Allelopathy

Pretty amazing gloves and the ES ain't too bad either. Even without damage support gems it still does some decently helpful additional damage on bosses and will keep arcane surge up without using contagion. With how cheap they are I'm considering going for a temp chains on hit or +1 gems.

Bated Breath

Probably the weakest item I currently have but isn't too bad until I get a good crystal belt. It makes the resists horrible though and will probably need to use purity of elements or good res jewels with it. Definitively won't be able to use it as tri-cure unless you hit a +1 curse amulet or get really good res items.

From what do you get Frenzy Charges ?
Last edited by VanDaPelzi on Aug 9, 2017, 5:51:57 AM
From ascendancy.

Blight can't hit so no temp chains on hit.

My gear
Spoiler

I dropped golem because it was annoying as hell dying all the time. Blight on totem is not as good as I thought. Probably spell totem with wither is still better.

Still it could be used on bosses. Throw wither totem, shood ED then self cast spam blight to pull up more damage. But bosses aren't that stationary and deal a lot of damage to say next to it..

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