[3.2] The Blue Man(a) with Purple Skills -- 934k Tooltip ED, now with deathless Uber Elder video!
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DISCLAIMER: This build is no longer functional. I have revived the content for archiving purposes but this should not be played.
Video of deathless Uber Elder has been added. As of 3/25/2018 the skill tree and build has been significantly updated. If you've viewed this guide before, I suggest checking out the additions in the Change Log. This variation has significantly less AOE on contagion, but is much more durable for bossing. If a player chooses to fill in the Scion life wheel instead of taking mana nodes, it is the full Hardcore variant. My other Indigon guide for Beastiary league can be found here: Purple Skills:  Blue Stuff:  Effective Hit Points ~10.6k:  Complete Leo Dailies in seconds!  Blue MTX for blue build! TAKE NO DAMAGE NODES! Unbuffed ED and Blight tooltips:
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  Damage in maps:  Ramp up time in hideout: (missing some combat only buffs, old build version)
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  No Zerphis!
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   (You could use Zerphis, but it will never work any time you kill something due to instant restorations, so it is a bad choice!) Hello world! This is a build guide for all damage over time spells with this tree and gear. This includes Scorching Ray, Essence Drain, Contagion and Blight. With this build even Contagion can clear some maps very quickly. I rarely make guides because I'm selfish and want the best items. Sadly this league I'm not playing much longer, so I decided to make a guide. This guide in particular should not only change some opinions on a certain item but also an entire set of rare item modifiers. The Path of Building link is next to this item. Please look at the item first and note that its defining modifiers do not work in Path of Building. Advantages/Disadvantages:
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Any spell will work with this build; However, I have found Essence Drain to be the most effective. 0.5% of damage dealt is gained as regeneration per each enemy and is defined as recovery. This recovery is massive at endgame and even 60% less recovery is an insubstantial increase to difficulty. "Cannot leech" also has no effect in slowing down this build. This build is able to do all content and all map mods with ease, even before I obtained some of my gear. I did Uber Atziri at 82 deathless before making many upgrades. Additionally, the 6 second duration of Essence Drain means that total control over mana usage and damage is given to the player. It is also calculated on hit, meaning if you reach the point where you cannot cast the skill because of the mana cost, but still see the number on tool tip as the skill lands, you will do that damage. Essence drain picks the largest damage over time effect and it will persist until it expires, at which a newer one will take over. Obtaining the final gear was easy, but if enough people are bothered to play this there will be trouble. It is now fairly difficult. Fortunately, many pieces of equipment opt out of damage increases entirely because they do nearly nothing in all cases unless it is a "more" modifier. Opal rings are trash, a Paua ring will give more damage and Two-Stones give more utility. Also, keep in mind Essence Drain has mediocre party play. That being said, the damage is still respectable in a 4 man party in red maps. PoB, Skills and Most Important Items.
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Man(a)datory items or modifiers are highlighted in red. Alternatives are listed in yellow. Detailed explanations of various things are in blue. THE PIVOTAL ITEM and Path of Building Link:
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 The entire build, ascendancy, items, passives is centered around this single item. I have been waiting for an item like it since early 2014. It is a true chase unique. Without it this build cannot exist. Indigon scales damage and mana proportionally. I have found that a 60/60 roll provides ideal balance in dealing consistent damage, even over a 50/60 roll. The rolls on this item are unfathomably important. Neglect them and expect serious loss of damage. Indigon Mechanics Explanation
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If you spend more than 200 mana in 4 seconds, Indigon will continue to scale the cost of the skill at an exponential rate. This continues until either the skill costs more than the total mana pool (As is the case with Essence Drain), or until mana is exhausted. (As is the case with Blight) This means that there are two restrictions on damage which have to be calculated in order to determine how much peak damage Indigon can provide. Math:
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Currently, my most recent version of Trickster has 8197 maximum mana and 6386 mana regeneration. This means that mana cost of Essence Drain cannot exceed 8197. It also means that 6386*4 (recently) is the amount of mana which can be spent in 4 seconds. This is a conservative estimate, because the player starts with full mana. 6386 * 4 = 25544 Rounded down to the nearest multiple of 200, this is 25400. Divided into increments of 200 mana spent: 25400 / 200 = 127 units of 200 mana spent. I will call this j. j = 127 j * 60 = 7620% Spell Damage from Indigon from the first restriction. The second is slightly harder to calculate, as all modifiers to mana cost must be removed from the tree. A level 26 Essence Drain in a 6 link costs 97 mana. There is 200% increased mana from Fevered Mind, and 8% reduced mana from Dynamo on the tree. This is a sum of 192%. You cannot use more than your maximum mana, so that is the limit. I will call this k. Again this is conservative, because of the way Essence Drain damage is calculated. 97 * (1.92 + 1 + 0.6 * k) = 8197 Solve for k: k = (8197 / 97 + 1.92 + 1) / 0.6 k = ~145.7 k > j j is the restriction which will be reached first, therefore spell damage provided by Indigon is 7620%. Adding this value to Indigon in Path of Building will give a value that is representative of the screenshot at the top of this page. Full logic behind selection of Essence Drain as the primary skill:
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The first thing I tried was Soul Taker. The thought was to use it with 9 Fevered Minds and Cast on Melee Kill. It does not work. You get no benefits after mana reaches zero, thank Chris. The second thing I tried were a few direct damage spells. Ethereal Knives with Nova, Volatile Dead, Cremation, Blade Vortex, Arc, Dark Pact, Firestorm, Lightning Tendrils, WI Ice Storm, Stat stick Glacial Cascade, Gloomfang Magma Orb and Storm Call. They all functioned reasonably well, and any build using gems with duration or autotargeting will function reasonably well. However, many of these skills require passive points to deal more damage. This is not ideal, as one struggles to decide if life or mana nodes should be cut to take other things like critical strike chance or multiplier. The end result always ended up being worse than the better known versions. This is not good enough for a unique gated behind a difficult boss fight with a modifier that is potentially the most "Chase" thing ever created in POE history. No chase items have ever gone unnerfed in POE. I settled on Damage Over Time spells and picked Scorching Ray. While it can deal about 7 to 8 times more damage than Essence Drain, its clear is worse and it does nothing to add to durability. The worst part is if Scorching Ray exhausts your mana, it "stutters". The end result is a non-continuous stream of damage which prevents sweeping the screen when fully stacked. It also is a higher maintenance ability, in that it has stacks and the duration is not very long. Still, for a mere 4 points respec (remove AOE, grab EE + EO) you can go the boss damage route. However, I have found this to be unnecessary for all content so far. I have now moved on to testing Poet's Pen Volatile Dead lowlife Heirophant with nearly 12,000 mana and 10,000 energy shield. It is a work in progress but can do Uber Elder in under 2 minutes. It is significantly more expensive and has very little leeway for other items. Note that this item's mechanics are not integrated into Path of Building, so damage values are inaccurate. For an accurate estimation of damage look at Indigon Mechanics Explanation above and add the value to the helmet. Path of Building: Old Tree L95
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Current Tree L96 (Recommended version)
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Skill tree link: (For Xbox) Old Tree: New Tree: Major Items and their Modifiers
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Cloak of Defiance
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 Cloak of Defiance's first mod: 1% Mana regenerated per second is added to the base 1.75%. This percentage is based maximum Mana then scaled by increased regeneration modifiers. The final product is then multipled by recovery modifiers. Another alternative or two exist, and are listed below. I consider them less convenient. Mana Maths:
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1000 Maximum Mana 2.75% Mana Regenerated per second 200% Increased Mana Regeneration 130% Increased Mana Recovery Rate .0275*1000*(1+2.00)*(1+1.30) = 189.75 Mana Regenerated per Second This chest provides 24% of current maximum life as extra maximum effective hit points. The derivation for calculating damage taken from mana before life is included below. Ultimately, all you need know is that the closer you can get this value to 100%, the better. (From Wiki: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Mind_Over_Matter)  Alternatives:
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 A Shaper Chest with +1 Active Gems and 10% Damage Taken from Mana Before Life. Costly to roll but feasible. I included what is lost, ultimately I think this is a mediocre choice with a large price tag.  The Perfect Form allows for more avoidance of spells, but this is no longer a viable option for the version of this build which takes Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics. Belt Modifier
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 This is a portion of Mana recovery rate which is the final multiplier. It is more important than normal recovery as the most anyone can obtain is 130% as of version 3.2.1. It also scales flask mana recovery. This belt can be crafted cheaply using alterations and regals on a Shaper base. Boot Enchant
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 This modifier applies to the base 1.75% of Maximum Mana regenerated per second. It is conditional on being hit, which is rare for a build with 95% evade, 15% block, 50 dodge and 40 spell dodge. When it is active, it is extremely helpful. In difficult maps I estimate its up time to be over 70%, even with those avoidance mechanics. Blind Gloves
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Aim for Blind, Life, Resist and Mana. Blind is important and I consider it to be mandatory. CWDT Firestorm goes in here. It will have 15-20% chance to blind depending on the tier of the Blind Modifier. Do not enchant these gloves, especially with a damaging enchant. It will kill you in a reflect map. Allelopathy is a terrible choice. You give up too much in terms of stats and flexibility. Watcher's Eye
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 The most important modifier is the recovery rate. I a single clarity mod watcher's eye until level 91 and had no problems without the other modifier. Yet, it is very strong. Odds:
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There are 71 Jewel mods as of 3.2.1. If we acquire two distinct modifiers from this pool at random and have 3 opportunities to do so, what is the probability of 2 or more of these modifiers roll? n = number of modifiers = 71 k = number of chances = 3 d = number of desired modifiers = 2 Each time a modifier is put on the jewel, n decreases by 1. Let us consider the summation of all situations which result in success in acquiring a jewel with two modifiers: To determine the odds of outcome we have k!/d! or 3 outcomes for success. There will be a sum of 3 chances. In ascending order we have: Pass, Pass, Fail; Pass, Fail, Pass; Fail, Pass, Pass. If the initial outcome passes we have d/n. If the second passes we have (d-1)/(n-1). Then, the 3rd is garbage and any remaining mods (n-2)/(n-2) are valid. This chance is d/n * (d-1)/(n-1). 1 in 2485. If the initial chance passes we have d/n again. If the second fails, then for the 3rd we have (n-1)/(n-2). This chance is d/n * (d-1)/(n-1) 1 in 2449.5. If the first chance fails, then the second has a chance to roll either desired modifier. If this happens, then the probability to obtain either modifier from the remaining pool is d/(n-1). The odds for the last to work are (d-1)/(n-2). This chance is d/(n-1) * (d-1)/(n-2). 1 in 2415. A sum of these comes out to 1 in 816.5. This is only for the case in which the item drops 100% of the time. In reality, it should be closer to 1 in 2400 Uber Elder Runs. Needless to say, this is probably the last upgrade. It is relatively easy to buy a mana recovery clarity jewel for under 40 chaos as of 3/20/2018. I have deliberately left out combinatorics for ease of access. Other Jewels
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1-2 Fevered Minds lower maximum potential damage, but makes everything more consistent by reducing ramp up time. New choice for Jewels:
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3 Grand Spectrum. Either use 3 or 0. The mana increase is very strong and is good for a more laid-back play style. The corrupts are not important. Outdated Alternative:
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A single application of Blight will hinder for almost the entire duration of Essence Drain, scaling damage by a factor of 1.5 for the duration. This is necessary only for Essence Monsters and Map Bosses.
Mana and Mana Regeneration
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Wherever possible. Don't forget mana can be master crafted on equipment! Style points if every piece of gear is blue or has a blue mtx attached to it. Aspect of the spider is not necessary, only helpful if you like to AFK in maps. It has reservation so it is not worth using in higher difficulty map, as the reserved mana effectively reduces damage and maximum effective hit points. Amulet Alternative:
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Atziri's Foible is a viable alternative to the Blue Pearl, as long as you do not mind the loss of maximum life and resistances, it is the much cheaper alternative that still gives more damage in most situations. Weapon:
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Use Shrieking Essence of Misery on 85 Shaper Sai. Look for mana, mana regeneration and 20% or higher attack speed. As of this post, the essence costs 2 chaos per attempt and forces cast speed. Ignore Spell damage and spell modifiers, they are ultimately insignificant compared to mana oriented rolls for this build. Maim on hit is a bonus and a Shaper exclusive modifier. Claws are much easier to roll though, and I am stuck with this for now!  This is my current weapon. Remember mana and mana regeneration can be crafted. Alternatives:
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Brightbeak. The movement speed means that more movement skills can be spammed to recover mana. The attack speed modifier on the weapon functions as a more modifier to all attack speed, which means the difference you will experience is greater than 23% and the added resistances are nice too. However, less maximum mana means less maximum damage for bossing. Its up to you entirely.
Final/Optional Upgrades:
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Maim on Hit Sai or Tiger Hook. Make sure you have 119 strength if you go with Tiger Hook. Maim is additive with Hinder and Wither. Two socket Tombfists can be used to achieve a similar effect, but at the cost of global blind chance. Insanity Blue Pearl Amulet to restore mana faster in No-Regeneration Maps. Delirium Gloves w/ Global Blind (Boss Swap) Pseudo 5L Essence Drain with 6L Blight in Body Armour for even more boss damage. Aspect of the Spider on any piece of equipment where resist or mana regeneration is not necessary. Weapon Swap Pledge of Hands Firestorm is a great way to get single target damage. L21 Firestorm is 1 chaos because of beastcrafting. Recommended links: Concentrated Effect - Elemental Focus - Controlled Destruction - Fire Penetration - Faster Casting - Firestorm. Intuitive leap may be used in this location:  To whomever initially recommended this, comment in this thread and I will make sure to mention you at the top of this post! It was an excellent idea! Gems and Equipment Priority Discussion:
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Syntax: Most important -> Next most important -> important -> less important -> least important In Gloves:
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Colors: RRRB or RRBB Immortal Call L0/Q0 - Cast when Damage Taken L1/Q0 - Despair/Warlords L5/Q20 - Firestorm L1/Q0 Don't level Firestorm higher or reflect can kill you! Goals: Shaped -> Life -> Blind -> Resist -> Mana Warlords Mark may be used instead of Despair, it would provide more mana gained per second from Essence Drain initial hit and make No-regeneration maps much simpler. Endurance charges will reduce the odds of dying from extremely large physical hits. Overall, I consider it to be the better choice, I just haven't switched yet. UPDATE: I am no longer running Vortex. Immortal call is still slightly more consistent damage prevention and the duration is sometimes longer from charges. In Boots:
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Colors: BBRG Vaal Grace L19/Q0 - Blight L21/Q0 - Clarity L20/Q0 - Increased Duration L20/Q20 A 0 quality level 21 Blight is very cheap because of Beastcrafting! Quality adds less than .1% damage on this build when using Blight as the primary skill. Goals: Enchant -> Move speed -> Life -> Resist -> Mana The enchant adds a considerable amount of damage by increasing mana regeneration. In Helmet:
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Colors: BBBB Contagion L20/Q20 - Arcane Surge L20/Q20 - Increased Area of Effect L20/Q0 - Spell Cascade L20/Q0/Faster Casting L20Q20 Arcane Surge scales all spell damage, including the primary ability Essence Drain. It will always be up, even at maximum level. It creates a pseudo 7 link. Spell Cascade shrinks the area of effect, but extends the targeting range for off screening enemies and hitting packs in front of and behind the player. Faster Casting will result in a larger AOE secondary effect with reduced delay. Lastly, an Enchant can be very helpful and the rest of the helmet can always be divined, so it is the most important. The hierarchy for helm enchants should be something like this: Goals: Enchant -> Contagion Area of Effect -> Essence Drain Duration -> Shield Charge Attack Speed -> Blight Hinder Duration -> Wither Area of Effect After Enchant, priority is: 60% increased Spell Damage for each 200 total Mana you have Spent recently -> 55% or higher increased Mana Cost of Skills for each 200 total Mana you have Spent Recently -> Increased Maximum Mana In Shield:
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Colors: BBR Wither L20/Q20 - Increased Duration L20/Q20 - Spell Totem Support L21/Q20 +1 on totem is not necessary, but helpful. Faster casting is not necessary with current cast speed to reach maximum stacks very quickly, so a 3 link is used instead to free up more options. A better shield than mine would have no cast speed and a resist implicit. Goals: Life -> Mana Regeneration -> Mana -> Resistances -> Cast Speed In Weapon:
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Colors: RRG or RRR Either: Shield Charge L1/Q1 - Faster Attacks L20/Q20 - Fortify L20/Q20 - (OPTIONAL Implicit Maim from Shaper Base) Or: Shield Charge L1Q1 - Maim L20/Q20 - Fortify L20/Q20 - (Implicit Faster Attacks from Shaper Base) The movement skill, which also provides fortify and optional maim for slowing difficult enemies. In Body Armour:
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Colors: RGGBBB Essence Drain L21/Q0 - Empower L3+ - Efficacy L20/Q20 - Swift Affliction L20/Q20 - Void Manipulation L20/Q20 - Controlled Destruction L20/Q20 Again, L21 Essence Drain is cheap because of beastcrafting. When switching to Contagion 6L remove Controlled Destruction for Spell Cascade. Greater Multiple Projectiels is a decent swap for trash clear. It also adds safety by splitting the recovery among up to 5 enemies. Flasks:
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Blood of the Karui - One of the most broken life flasks in the game breaks even more with Trickster Recovery rate. It recovers  + A full heal at the end. It is much faster than any Eternal. This flask is primarily used to top off life after all enemies are dead and for moments when I fall asleep and eat Shaper balls or slam.These two are to enhance avoidance. This is to have a slightly faster movement skill. It can be replaced with another more defensive flask. If you get hit, this is a good flask to mitigate the damage. Taste of Hate works as well, but I need freeze removal 100% of the time. For long boss fights without adds. On kill effects can be regained through using it. Expensive Alternative Flask for below T16 map clearing:
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Dying Sun for +2 projectiles on ED and AOE for all other skills. You can drop the life flask for easier maps and use this instead, especially if it is an open zone. Cost in current market:
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Minimum Cost: (I went out and bought/crafted these items in an actual video, which is attached!)
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3c ring
4c ring 4c leather belt base + 2 scour + 350 alts + 1 regal + 4 alch res craft + 2 blessed 1c alternative amulet 1c cloak of defiance base 309 jewellers to 6 socket 312 fusing to 5L 12c boots 5c shield 1c brightbeak 100c indigon Fevered mind x1 70c 18c gloves 1exa watcher's eye 2c spreading rot 4c jewel 6c jewel 10f jewel 6 regal jewel 10c essence drain 30 chromes to color gear 100 jewelers to offcolor gloves 1 fuse to link The total cost in current market is ~552 chaos or 6.7 exalts. I've decided to omit the watcher's eye so it is even less. If you did the 150 fusing recipe, a further 67.5c could be saved off this total. Here is the video:
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Recommended Expenditure: 25 exalts. Spend this money on 6L and L4 empower first. These increase mana cost as well as damage and are extremely important additions. The rest can be spent on upgrading the most important rares as listed in the most important items section. The video of me using this gear purchased has been appended to the bottom of the videos list. Pantheon, Bandits, and Passive Skill Tree Discussion: (Includes Ascendancy)
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Pantheon:
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 Soul of Garukhan provides movement speed and raises evade chance from 89 to 94 if you have been Savage Hit recently. (A savage hit is one which causes you to lose 15% or more of your life.) There are other viable minor god choices depending on the situation, this one is my favorite.  The Major God selection is mandatory. Brine King is required, and should be allocated and upgraded as soon as possible. Neglecting this bonus will kill you. Capturing Nassar makes chilled ground so much more tolerable. Bandits:
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Take the two passive points, after the build rework, they equate to extra life nodes. If you do not want them, Kraityn is acceptable. Passive Skill Tree Discussion:
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Passive Tree Link: Old Passive Tree New Passive Tree The new tree has several additions. Ultimately because Intuitive Leap lengthens the distance between its jewel socket and the Scion attack speed jewel socket, it no longer is worth taking. The points are removed from this spot, from some adjacent 8% mana nodes, a lot of area of effect nodes (36% total) and from the Scion life wheel. These points are then used to reach phase acrobatics and 3 ranger flask nodes.   The flask nodes further increase Blood of the Karui or Writhing Jar's restoration, Druidic Rite extends the duration of utility flasks by around 1.2 seconds while also increasing charges gained, and Primal Spirit increases charges gained. These flask nodes greatly improve quality of life for Uber Elder. I recommend Weave The Arcane -> Ghost Dance -> Patient Reaper -> Prolonged Pain as the order for Ascendancy. If playing Hardcore, take the second evasion node in place of Prolonged Pain, but take both of those first. I would also recommend taking Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics for Hardcore and Uber Elder.   Take these nodes if you are low on resist starting out, remove them later as needed.  Take these nodes if leveling as Scorching Ray. Remove the non-connecting Area of Effect nodes.  Taking Alchemist can offer further increased defenses. This raises POB avoidance from 89 to 93, or 90 to 94 if you obtain a better rolled Jade Flask than the one I have.   Likewise, taking Escape Artist provides more defensive utility. However, taking it comes at the cost of lots of damage and skill effect duration. I have found the build to be fine so far without it, but it is a solid choice if you are struggling to survive. Trickster Discussion:
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Trickster is actually behind Inquisitor in being able to reach massive mana regeneration values. However, Inquisitor is inconsistent and squishy. It requires consecrated ground to experience its zenith and it is too unreliable, even with CWDT setups. Trickster is unfathomably more durable, faster and has the ability to run no regeneration maps with ease. Ghost Dance  Avoiding damage is the name of the game with this build. This node takes me from 74 to 89 evade, more than doubling effective avoidance, even considering entropy. This is because Evasion rolls first, if a strike rolls as a hit, its entropy value is reassigned and it then goes to dodge and then block. Both of these have the opportunity to negate the damage, so entropy can be reset and the damage can still be negated entirely. The bonus attack and cast speed works wonderfully on a build that uses both. Patient Reaper  Recovery on kill has a reputation of being weak when it is an integer, but these are percent of total pool. It is not uncommon for a single Essence Drain to kill 50 monsters, providing you with 200% of your mana pool as they die. The recovery rate is a multiplier for the recovery from 0.5% of Essence Drain's damage, the leech applied from Warlord's Mark, flasks, and overall regeneration. The 50% damage over time does not matter in comparison to these other bonuses, but it is still relevant to the build. Prolonged Pain  Skill effect duration extends the slowing effects of the build, the duration of debuffing effects and damaging ones. The more damage over time is a 1.15 multiplier providing 15% more damage. The reduction in damage taken from Damage Over Time is helpful too. Weave The Arcane  This node, coupled with Patient Reaper's on kill mana restore enables this build to run no regeneration maps. Shield charging is free and can be used to restore mana if ever leeching stops or you overspend. Again, more attack and cast speed both benefit this build. Optimal equipment for specific content: (mostly optional, strongly recommended swaps in red.)
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Uber Atziri:
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Experimenter's Amethyst Flask of Warding for trash, replaces Silver Flask. Experimenter's Topaz Flask of Warding for Vaal Twins, Atziri, replaces Silver Flask. Standard Flasks for Trio. Experimenter's Ruby Flask of Staunching, Experimenter's Topaz Flask of Warding for Atziri; Ruby replaces Basalt, Topaz replaces Silver. Uber Elder:
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Chemist's Aquamarine Flask of Adrenaline instead of Silver Flask. Experimenter's Sapphire Flask, replaces Stibnite. (Glove blind takes over for this fight.) Atziri's Step (With Same Enchant) Spell Dodge is raised to 56% at minimal cost to performance, make sure resistances are still capped! Experimenter's Quartz Flask, replaces Basalt. I find the avoidance to be better. Slams will almost always miss this build. With flask effectiveness, this pushes Spell Dodge to 68%! Aegis Aurora 5% Maximum Cold Resistances Purity of Ice (Instead of Vaal Grace, because you have no souls!) pushes the build to 91% Cold Resistances while Sapphire Flask is active! This is optional because of mana reservation, it makes the fight take longer by lowering your maximum damage output, but it is slightly safer. Uber Lab:
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Brightbeak + 3 Green Prismatic Eclipse weapon swap, with Fortify - Faster Attacks - Leap Slam in brightbeak. Everything else is the same. Hall of Grandmasters:
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Contagion moved to 6 link, inheriting all ED links. Move Scorching Ray to helmet, with Arcane Surge, Efficacy and Controlled Destruction. Replace Silver Flask of Warding with Topaz Flask with increased effect, for Dethklok, he is the only dangerous one. A reduced critical strike damage belt is advised. (Shaper Modifier) Questions & Answers:
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Q: Can I use Zerphis? A: No. You will reach maximum mana all the time, turning the healing effect off. Additionally it is useless, as the regeneration provided by Essence Drain is almost as high as the Poet's Pen Zerphi build anyway due to the large hit. It is also classified as recovery, so no leech does not matter either. You can run it for bosses, but I find it unnecessary. Q: What is the ramp up time? A: 1 second will have you doing more damage than all other ED builds, 2 more seconds and you are at maximum output. Q: Why don't you use Witchfire Brew? A: Loss of a utility slot and with current spell damage, it is actually more damage to just self cast a Despair gem or a very tiny loss to CWDT a L1/Q20 version. To not be misled by POB, you should add spell damage to the helmet and toggle Shaper/Guardian, since the rest of the content dies too quickly anyway. Concretely, this amounts to 0.4% damage loss when self casting and 3.1% gain when CWDT level 1. If the gem is leveled to 12 (CWDT L9), the differential shrinks to a measly 0.7%. Even if you are severely under equipped, this value should not ever more than double. Q: How do you do no regeneration maps? A: Warlords Mark CWDT + Trickster Recovery on kill + Trickster Recovery on skill usage + Insanity Amulet. The Amulet was not required and a very recent upgrade. Q: Why no Auras? A: Every aura in the game besides Clarity will result in less damage due to the fact it lowers the maximum amount of mana available. Q: Why don't you use blood rage? A: It conflicts with ascendancy. Q: Why don't you take Escape Artist? A: I have to give up damage and don't need the benefits. Q: Why do you run your movement skill in your weapon? A: I want maim on hit from a Shaper base more than I want insanity gloves. Q: Why don't you use RF? Your regeneration is high when ED is applied. A: MOM makes half that go to mana, which reduces damage. RF ends up being a slight loss with no benefit other than looking cool. Q: Is this build Hardcore Viable? A: I would say yes if you take more life nodes (Melding), the Alchemist nodes, and Escape Artist in place of Prolonged pain. This should be sufficient for running T16 in HC, especially if you like to alchemy maps there. Q: Any specific recommendation for the ascendancy order? A: Weave The Arcane -> Ghost Dance -> Patient Reaper -> Prolonged Pain Q: Would Consuming Dark be an option for bossing, as you are spamming ed anyway? Or can poison be neglected? A: Spell damage will not scale the poison, so it is not worth using. Q: Is Blight necessary? A: No, you can use 3 Grand Spectrum instead of 2 Spreading Rot to free up the gem socket. Q: Why do you use evasion, isn't it shit? A: Not when you have  .Leveling and league start discussion:
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League Start:
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Indigon is gated behind Uber Elder so there is a minimum time required before one is available at league start. It is probably best to start off as a classic ED build and then switch after acquiring Indigon. Leveling:
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Not budget, but faster:
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Poets Pen Bodyswap VD with 3 heralds and clarity with frenzy to autoattack is very safe and only requires 3 respec points to switch out of it. Grab EO, then remove it when switching. This can be done from 12-72 or even higher. It is the method I chose and am most familiar with. With this route you only need to ascend after reaching the point where you want to switch. Ascending can interfere with attacks per second and push you over the 4 attacks/second limit and reduce effective damage with Poet's Pen. I recommend Weave The Arcane -> Ghost Dance -> Patient Reaper -> Prolonged Pain as the order. Budget:
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Dual Ashcaller and Pyre into sceptre and shield with Scorching Ray, Elemental Equilibrium and Elemental Overload. Still 4 respec points to switch to ED. If pursuing the SR version of the build, know that when the skill can no longer be afforded it will stutter. The damage is significantly higher than ED, but provides less clear speed and durability. With this route you can Ascend immediately. I recommend Weave The Arcane -> Ghost Dance -> Patient Reaper -> Prolonged Pain as the order. Playstyle guide:
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When using Indigon, if a skill consumes more than 200 mana in 4 seconds, if you maintain the same constant rate of casting, you will eventually run out of mana. This means that you must decelerate the rate at which you cast as damage ramps up. During this deceleration, you can force your mana regeneration to be faster. Attacking in place with shield charge will rapidly refill mana. This is because of the Trickster ascendancy, which makes movement skills free while also refunding a percentage of maximum mana. (This is why Brightbeak can be considered better in some situations, it enhances recovery rate.) Build videos:
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I have decided to stop uploads after showing Uber Elder. I can consider adding videos other fights if strongly recommended.
Uber Elder (5m)
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Shaper (6m) Forge of the Phoenix (2m)
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Hydra with -9% maximum Player Resistances, 35% boss life: (3m)
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2 T15 maps, 4 Guardians and Shaper with absolute minimum gear purchased in 50 minutes: (50 minutes)
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How to craft Mana Recovery Rate Belts
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https://youtu.be/NUDd0EBXcx0 Check video description to see last two belts or click here:
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https://i.imgur.com/IP9fi4n.png Current Gear:
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Gear as of 3/18:
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Gear as of 3/22:
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Change log:
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3/18 Added discussion for adding Vortex/Arctic Breath to CWDT links for chill Added discussion for using a Tiger Hook or Sai with defensive implicit in place of a claw Added helm gem and priority modifier discussion Leveling and new league discussion added 3/19 Added Hydra Video Added GIFs Continued to expand Gems and Equipment Priority Discussion Finished Gems and Equipment Priority Discussion Added "Pineapple" marker because this post is so fucking long Finished Pantheon, Bandits, and Passive Skill Tree Discussion Added "No Zerphis!" Added Shaper Run Added Phoenix Run Added Brightbeak Alternative, Pledge of Hands Boss Swap, and Atziri's Foible 3/20 Added Costs in Current Market section Made Ascendancy Order more visible Expanded QA section Replaced Vortex with Immortal call and provided explanation Added Skill tree link for Xbox players under PoB section and Passive Skill tree section 3/23 Updated Passive tree for current L95 version Added a Optimal equipment for specific content section 3/25 Revamped Skill Tree for Uber Elder runs Added Discussion for Intuitive Leap in Optional Upgrades Section Added Discussion for Ranger Flask Nodes in Passive Skill Tree Discussion Added Discussion for Keystones in Passive Skill Tree Discussion 3/26 Added Atziri's Step w/ regeneration enchant to recommended items for Uber Elder 3/27 Bandit recommendation is now 2 passives instead of Kraityn 4/1 Added deathless Uber Elder video 4/2 Added a concrete example of estimated minimum cost of gearing with video to the Cost in Current Market section Added a video of Shaper + Guardians + 2 random T15s (I didn't want to waste Guardian maps and not spawn Uber Elder) to the videos section (this is with my "minimum requirement" gear purchased in the span of 50 minutes!) 4/3 Updated Q&A 4/5 Added warning not to enchant gloves with a damage enchant (reflect) Added new jewel setup (3 cobalt grand spectrum.) 4/9 Slowly updating old assets and math from earlier versions of build 4/10 Added a video on how to craft leather belts with recovery rate in the videos section  Undisputed best alpha tester since Awakening beta. Last edited by Rhaegar_G on Feb 27, 2020, 11:51:23 PM Last bumped on Nov 7, 2018, 5:51:49 PM
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 Hot Flashes: poeurl.com/bPZT
Balance: poeurl.com/btzp Shocking EleHit: poeurl.com/bZXo | |
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Cool build. I assume there is no way to level this without an influx of currency? I haven't played much this league so I don't have much of anything to start with.
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" Lvling ED contagion is one of the least expensive processes ever known to man. | |
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I would level as Scorching Ray with Elemental Equilibrium and Elemental Overload, then spend 4 respec points to remove them.
There are a lot of low level items that scale burn damage like Ashcaller and Pyre. For the more wealthy, Poets Pen works fine with just Elemental Overload, all the way to 72 at which point you can switch. It requires 0 damage nodes and has plenty of free gem spots for leveling ED gems. All that is required is Frenzy + Faster attacks, VD + Concentrated Effect + Controlled Destruction, Body Swap + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Unearth, and 3 Heralds + Clarity. You can afford to run all 4 reservations because of mana nodes on this build. I'll be continuing to update this guide as I continue to recall more things I had to test before I settled on my current version. Undisputed best alpha tester since Awakening beta. Last edited by Rhaegar_G on Mar 18, 2018, 7:28:16 PM
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thanks for your share.
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Nice job
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Will this build still work with weaker stats Indigon or the loss of damage will be to great?
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" I would recommend divining for 60% spell damage. Each 1% loss for me is equivalent to a couple hundred spell damage. Undisputed best alpha tester since Awakening beta. Last edited by Rhaegar_G on Mar 19, 2018, 1:54:57 PM
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Just hit 70 with meh gear and can do 200k tooltip with no weapon on at all
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