Trickster VD Pens 3.4 (Uber Elder down)
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Welcome!
This is my take on the Indigon Poet's Pen build. I haven't tested a ton, but I hope to provide enough basic information and a path to being able to breeze through some of the hardest content in the game.
Pros/Cons
Pros:
Fast No need for gem swaps Reasonably priced to be able to kill everything but Uber Elder Cons: Expensive to complete/optimize Twitchy gameplay at times (depends on latency and AS vs CDRS)
Trickster?
Once I saw the Indigon spoiled I knew I needed to try it out, but I didn't know with which skill to use. At first I went for an essence drain character, which was a blast, but I felt it was going to be expensive to optimize with very little upward motion as far as power. Then I remembered the beauty that is the Poet's Pen.
VD is the typical choice so I started there. But Trickster? There's 1 reason, the rest is just a bonus:  With this single node we will gain all the things we want for an Indigon build. The other nodes we get are pretty nice though: Swift Killer: +1 max Frenzy Charge, which we sustain. The increased damage per is not really pertinent to the build. Patient Reaper: Stupid good for mapping. We just don't die, especially once we've killed something with an ignite. Your mana recovery will reach absurd levels. Harness the Void: A more multiplier. I realize there are many ways to build this type of character, because the Helmet + Pen interaction is what carries it, but after trying it with Trickster I feel as though other options just wouldn't cut it as far as damage and survivability. This is of course just my opinion.  Let's talk about budget and item choices, this is usually the make it or break it section for most people due to cost.
Budget
This is as of 10/24 BSC with links 2x Poet's Pen 65c/, Indigon 10-20c, 2x Fevered Mind 25c/
You can use a Tabula until you get a 6link chest/Gloves with multiple supports. You definitely want 6 links though. You can easily go through red maps with 4k life and 5k mana. Total: 250c 
Must_Have
These items are absolutely necessary to start:
Try to get as close to 60/60 on your helmet. For the pens you want as much Attack Speed as you can get. The implicit is negligible for this build. 2x Fevered Mind, because we need to get the cost of the skill as high as we can as fast as we can An Elder Ring with Warlords Mark, the mod can be rolled from level 75 Poe Trade for the base Poe Trade for Warlords Mark rings. Seems like a hard mod to roll... I tried a LOT. I ended up buying one to shore up my resists: This one I crafted: I think the most important rolls are resistances, then life & mana of course. Important details: Poet's Pen has an internal Cooldown of 250ms. That means that without any augmentation to your cooldowns the pens can only activate every .25 seconds. This means the optimal attacks per second is .25, but if you get increased cooldown recovery, then the calculation changes. Here is a spreadsheet I made to calculate the lowest your attacks per second should go based on your cooldown recovery: Link Here
Gear
Priority-1
You should have these for red maps and up:
3x Grand Spectrum, because we want as much mana as we can reasonably get Gloves with 2-3 support gems built in. Chests: Kaom's Heart Cloak of Defiance Loreweave 6link if you don't get gloves like that.
Priority-2
Not Necessary, but powerful Jewels A Mana Recovery or Mana on Skill use Watcher's Eye. I have tried both, I currently use the Mana Recovered on skill use variant because the Mana Recovery Rate one fills my mana too fast to use Divination Distillate Might of the Meek here:  And I use an Intuitive Leap here:  Belt A Shaped belt with "Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed" is really good. I rolled many belts with the mod. I suggest the Leather Belt base, but that can be expensive. Any belt with that mod some life and some resists is a good starter option. Bear in mind, this is only truly necessary once you surpass .25 Attacks per second. Here is a trade link for the belt base An Alternative to this would be using a Shaped Belt with Mana recovery Boots I go with Kaom's roots with +1 Frenzy now that I do Uber Elder You can really start with whatever has life/mana/resistances Or go with a set of fancy Increased Cooldown Recovery boots once your attacks per second go below .25 Amulet I happened to craft this thing with about 20 essences of Insanity, which is very unethical If you can get a Blue Pearl Amulet with the Insanity mod "10% chance to Recover 10% of maximum Mana when you use a skill", this is ideal. This Amulet is NOT necessary and you can get incredible gains just from a mana recovery belt or watcher's eye vs trying to stack chances to gain mana on skill use. A budget option that's still really good is Atziri's Foible
Priority-3
Gloves
If you decide to try and go for Kaom's Roots you'll need all the resists you can get. I suggest getting gloves with Life/Mana and as high resists as you can. If you choose to go with a Kaom's chest, then these gloves will need to be ones with at least 2 gems built in. Ring Mana/Life & resistances. Flasks The 3 you certainly want are Zerphi's (which I don't have in Beastiary), If your resistances are balanced for The Wise Oak get one. It's a big damage multi. I happened to have used Blood of the Karui to beat Uber Elder Bleeding isn't a huge danger to us since bodyswap isnt movement and we can leech through any bleeding. If you want to do Uber Elder go for an Sapphire Flask for more Cold Resistance. Otherwise this last flask doesn't really matter, do what you like.
Gems
Cloak of Defiance
4g-1r-1b Frenzy level 1 20%+ Quality-GMP 20%+ Quality-Culling Strike 20%+ Quality-Life Gain on hit-Chain-Increased Crit chance/Power Charge on Critical (I'm not 100% on the last link, there's probably something better, could go with Faster Attacks if you have all the Cooldown recovery. All you want is a bunch of mana multipliers so that the cost goes higher while your attacks per second are in line with your cooldowns on the pens) Pen 1 1b-2g The order is important because we want Bodyswap to proc first, then corpses+VD from the other pen. Bodyswap-GMP-Unearth Pen 2 1b-2g Color order doesn't matter. We use Mana Leech so the Mana is always going up and we'll always have some to eat incoming damage. Helm/Gloves Doesn't matter which these go in. 4r-1b 1g-2b We have flame dash for tricky situations. Blood Rage is there to give more attack speed. Have a single blue socket not linked to have a Clarity. Either level 1 or level 20 depending on whether you're trying to go for more mana recovery or instant mana gain. If you don't have enough resists for Kaom's Roots you could get another Cast when damage taken setup for more damage. A spell totem with Scorching Ray for crazy bosses or Vaal Lightning Trap. If you have a good Watcher's Eye a Vaal Aura to help activate it.
Ascendancy
1)Swift Killer - Makes you go Faster
2)Weave the Arcane - To be ready for Indigon 3)Patient Reaper - Keeps you alive 4)Harness the Void - Damage isn't our biggest concern, but it's always nice
Leveling
Get Poet's Pens equipped at level 16 when you get frenzy with a Tabula. Try to have some Elreon Rings to reduce your mana costs until you can equip 2x Praxis Rings. When you get those rings activate all the Heralds and a Clarity. For Bosses you can use a Cremation pen swap.
Important gems to get are the ones you see in the gem section. The leveling tree is to simply go as far as you can with the points grabbing life on the way and getting enough jewel sockets for when you equip your helm. The goal is to have 2.5-3k life & 5-6k mana ready when you equip the Indigon. Then you can fill out the life as you need it.
PoB
You can use the damage Indigon for your calculations. Included here is an item set for a Starter Gear setup & My own Gear setup. - https://pastebin.com/1V4G3ruK
3.4 setup, includes MF - https://pastebin.com/R9E17nTe I also created a Kaom's Heart Variant, although I didn't discuss it above, it works the same way this one just has a bunch more life and a bit less mana, but will have a much harder time using Kaom's Roots. - https://pastebin.com/HzF5eFNB Some of these has anything checked off in the config or flasks active. I'm not a DPS warrior. You'll see your DPS in action once you play the build.
Videos_*Coming_soonish*
Currently my PC isn't good for recording. I may try to record some this coming week.
Content
Everything Besides Uber Atziri.
Uber Atziri would be safest with a gem swap to control the damage vs the images. I've done twinned Vaal Temple & Uber Elder with this build. HotG is simply a swap or a 4 link scorching ray once you've boosted your damage.
FAQ
Not sure, haven't been asked questions yet
Please feel free to ask me any questions or give any suggestions you have for the build. I definitely appreciate all feedback!  Last edited by Morgasming#5388 on Oct 25, 2018, 12:59:17 AM Last bumped on Jun 25, 2018, 1:20:31 AM
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Reserved if necessary
Uber_Elder_Proof
 Last edited by Morgasming#5388 on Apr 21, 2018, 10:06:41 PM
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Wow, seems like a cool concept. I will try this as my league starter and let you know how it goes.
Last edited by Levito#5394 on Jun 12, 2018, 7:48:08 PM
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I personally dont really get the warlords mark on hit ring, as you get mana leech and get life leech from atz promise. For maps boss, damage is good enough and uber elder has ads that fill up flasks and give you life regen and such. Outside of that, lvl 73 atm, sitting around 5.5k mana with one grand spectrum missing and a few big mana nodes
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Flasks wont be up vs the bosses, that would be the Pathfinder Variant.
If you use Path of Building (if you don't you should), then you'd see how bad the leech is without the ring. Been killing Uber with the following Paste: https://pastebin.com/zcFuCKHg When doing Uber I use Kaom's Roots & Blood of the Karui. Dumping Blood rage (too much attack speed anyways). For Mapping Been using a pair of CDR boots that are in the above paste. I'll be updating the guide as I progress. I'd definitely say that the ring is important. Last edited by Morgasming#5388 on Oct 25, 2018, 12:10:00 AM
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