[3.14] Zizaran's Exsanguinate Ascendant | Gladiator + Necromancer | Spellslinger, Selfcast & Lowlife

+ good defenses
+ great clearspeed
+ scales well with gear
- Cluster Jewels are mandatory
- damage doesn't scale very high

‣ Damage over Time: Unlike hit damage, Damage over Time (or DoT) applies consistent damage per second over a duration to enemies. The length of this duration depends on the DoT source.
While their damage ceiling is usually lower, DoTs allow you to damage enemies while moving which makes it easier to avoid their damage and can improve clearspeed.

‣ Block: Blocking a hit prevents all its damage (unless otherwise stated, such as on the Glancing Blows keystone) and ailments it would apply, but can stun you for a duration. It's capped at 75% and separated into Chance to Block Attacks and Chance to Block Spells, DoTs can't be blocked.

‣ Trigger: While triggering a skill can come from different sources with their own conditions, they all have a few things in common. The triggered skill doesn't interrupt the player, it has no life or mana cost and it has a cooldown. There's also a trigger order throughout all triggers on your gear, which can be seen on the linked wiki page.

Your journey through the ten acts can be seen as an extensive tutorial, slowly confronting you with the majority of game mechanics and increasingly more difficult enemies to learn to counter.

This section will help you while playing through the ten acts and shows the recommended
passive tree progression, gem setups, quest progression and exp farming zone for each act.
The passive tree goals are just a pointer, it's not a big deal if you're over- or underleveled.

Keep in mind that this section includes major storyline spoilers, if you care about that.

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Exsanguinate
+ Efficacy -> Brutality
+ Onslaught -> Spellslinger
+ Controlled Destruction

Explosive Trap -> Reap
+ Swift Assembly -> Spellslinger w/ Reap
+ Added Fire Damage -> Controlled Destruction w/ Reap
+ Efficacy w/ Reap -> Brutality w/ Reap

Dash -> Flame Dash
+ Arcane Surge (Lv2)

War Banner until Spellslinger

Vitality until Spellslinger

Frenzy (Lv1) triggers Spellslinger
+ Lifetap
+ Greater Multiple Projectiles (Lv1)

Corrupting Fever add at Level 38
+ Brutality
+ Swift Affliction
+ Efficacy

Vulnerability

Smoke Mine put Detonate Mines on left-click


Life Flask
Life Flask -> Quartz Flask
Mana Flask -> Stibnite Flask
Quicksilver Flask -> Jade Flask
Quicksilver Flask


Kill all Bandits for +2 Skillpoints


Act 1 Passives
Act 2 Passives
Act 3 Passives
Act 4 Passives
Act 5 Passives
Act 6 Passives
Act 7 Passives
Act 8 Passives
Act 9 Passives
Act 10 Passives

Passives

‣ Spellslinger before Uber Lab
‣ Spellslinger after Uber Lab
‣ Spellslinger w/ One Cluster Setup
‣ Spellslinger w/ One Cluster Setup + Lowlife
‣ Spellslinger w/ Two Cluster Setup
‣ Spellslinger w/ Two Cluster Setup + Lowlife

‣ Selfcast before Uber Lab
‣ Selfcast after Uber Lab
‣ Selfcast w/ One Cluster Setup
‣ Selfcast w/ One Cluster Setup + Lowlife
‣ Selfcast w/ Two Cluster Setup
‣ Selfcast w/ Two Cluster Setup + Lowlife



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Ascendancy

‣ +20 Strength and Dexterity & +1 Skillpoint (Normal): Attributes and an extra skillpoint.
First labyrinth isn't too exciting for Ascendants.

‣ Gladiator & +40 Intelligence (Cruel): Gladiator gives a nice amount of Attack- and Spellblock, while also raising the maximum Attack Block Chance to 78%. Furthermore, we gain a large damage multiplier for our Physical DoTs and chance to blind for Frenzy.

‣ +1 Skillpoint & Necromancer (Merciless): Allows Offerings to apply to us with a 50% reduced effect penalty. We also get another skillpoint and some extra damage while we have Spiritual Aid.

‣ +1 Skillpoint & Path of the Witch (Uber): Lets us respec some skillpoints by allowing us to start from the Witch start, and grants yet another skillpoint.

The Spellslinger setup is more convenient to play, but has lower damage output.

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Exsanguinate - Spellslinger - Brutality - Controlled Destruction - Efficacy - Chain/Swift Affliction

Exsanguinate is our main skill. It's a physical spell which shoots out multiple tendrils that damage enemies and apply a physical DoT. This DoT has a base duration of 1 second and can stack up to three times.

Spellslinger turns linked spells into a mana reserving buff and disables them from being used manually. Instead, they will be triggered through wand attacks with a short cooldown added, and completely forego their skill cost and casting animation. Additionally, it adds a percentage or the wands hit damage as base spell damage.

Brutality adds a very large physical damage multiplier, but prevents the linked skill to deal any other damage types.

Controlled Destruction adds a large spell damage multiplier at the cost of reduced crit chance, which doesn't matter to this build.

5th Link: Efficacy adds spell- and DoT damage multipliers and increases skill effect duration.

6th Link: Chain adds two additional chains to our tendrils, which is great for clearspeed.
While it reduces hit damage, our DoT damage is unaffected. Swift Affliction can replace Chain for bossfights, to gain another large DoT damage multiplier at the cost of skill effect duration.

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Reap - Spellslinger - Brutality - Controlled Destruction

Reap provides us some additional damage. Similar to Exsanguinate, it's a physical spell that deals hit damage and applies a DoT with 1 second duration. While it has a Blood Charge mechanic to increase its damage and skill cost, it's ignored when triggered and therefore not relevant to us.

Spellslinger, Brutality and Controlled Destruction do exactly the same as above.


If Lowlife:
Petrified Blood | Arrogance - Herald of Purity - Vitality

For the Lowlife setup, we replace Reap and all its support gems with auras.

Petrified Blood allows us to play Lowlife without needing a secondary hitpool. It prevents 40% of the damage we take from hits below half of our life, and then applies a percentage of the prevented damage as damage over the next 4 seconds. It also stops any life recovery other than flasks at the 50% Lowlife treshold. This is important as it lets our life leech instances, which would normally stop when reaching full life, remain for their full duration as long as we don't reserve more than 49% of our life. This effectively helps countering the damage we take from this skills mechanic and DoT damage, which is unaffected by the 40% prevention.

It's important that Petrified Blood is not linked to the other gems in this setup!

Arrogance makes linked skills reserve life instead of mana and slightly increases their effect.

Herald of Purity provides a physical damage multiplier and occasionally lets us spawn sentinels, which can add some distraction for enemies but are otherwise unimportant for us.

Vitality grants life regeneration and unlike most other auras, it reserves a specified value based on gem level instead of a percentage. This is important as it allows us to adjust its level to stay at 49% life reservation.

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Corrupting Fever - Brutality - Efficacy - Swift Affliction

Corrupting Fever is a duration-based buff that slightly damages us on use and lets us apply another physical DoT with 1 second duration when hitting an enemy. It automatically refreshes without its initial life cost if we spend enough life with other skills during its duration.

Brutality, Efficacy and Swift Affliction do exactly the same as above.

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Frenzy (Lv1) - Greater Multiple Projectiles (Lv1) - Lifetap - Maim

Frenzy is our Spellslinger trigger and additionally grants Frenzy Charges on hit. We gain nothing from leveling this gem, so we keep it at Level 1 for lower Dexterity requirements.

Greater Multiple Projectiles adds 4 projectiles, which makes it easier to hit enemies for Frenzy Charges and Corrupting Fever. Same as above, we keep it at Level 1 for the same reasons.

Lifetap converts linked skills mana cost to life cost, which helps us to refresh Corrupting Fever.

Maim gives us a chance to maim enemies on hit, which slows their movement speed and makes them take increased physical damage.

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Flame Dash - Arcane Surge (Lv2) - Steelskin

Flame Dash is our movement skill, it has three uses and a short cooldown. It also removes Grasping Vines and prevents us from taking damage from DoT sources when dashing through.

Arcane Surge grants a temporary buff after spending some mana, which grants a more damage multiplier, cast speed and mana regeneration. To consistently proc it, we keep it at Level 2.

Steelskin gives us a temporary hitpool, which takes 70% of damage taken from hits to life or energy shield until depleted or its duration runs out and has a 3 second cooldown.

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Cast when Damage taken - Desecrate - Bone Offering

Cast when Damage taken triggers linked spells upon accumulating enough damage from hits for its treshold. The spells required levels also need to be within Cast when Damage takens listed trigger level limit. While a higher level gem allows to trigger higher level spells, the damage treshold also increases and often makes it not worth it. We can fully level it for this setup.

Desecrate spawns corpses, which we need to consistently proc the next skill.

Bone Offering procs by consuming corpses and grants us Attack- and Spellblock, and also recovers a decent amount of life when we block. It's important that this gem comes after Desecrate in the trigger order!


If Trigger Weapon:
Desecrate - Bone Offering - Tempest Shield (Lv1)

Desecrate and Bone Offering still have the same purpose as above.

Tempest Shield gives us extra block- and spellblock chance with a relatively high duration.
The amount of block chance gained is the same across all levels, so we just keep it at Level 1.

The Selfcast setup can reach higher damage, but has to deal with casting animation and skill cost.

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Exsanguinate - Brutality - Controlled Destruction - Efficacy - Chain - Swift Affliction

Exsanguinate is our main skill. It's a physical spell which shoots out multiple tendrils that damage enemies and apply a physical DoT. This DoT has a base duration of 1 second and can stack up to three times.

Brutality adds a very large physical damage multiplier, but prevents the linked skill to deal any other damage types.

Controlled Destruction adds a large spell damage multiplier at the cost of reduced crit chance, which doesn't matter to this build.

Efficacy adds spell- and DoT damage multipliers and increases skill effect duration.

5th Link: Chain adds two additional chains to our tendrils, which is great for clearspeed.
While it reduces hit damage, our DoT damage is unaffected. If it's in a white socket, it can be replaced with a Level 3+ Empower to gain more damage during bossfights.

6th Link: Swift Affliction adds another large DoT damage multiplier at the cost of some skill effect duration.

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Corrupting Fever - Brutality - Efficacy - Swift Affliction

Corrupting Fever is a duration-based buff that slightly damages us on use and lets us apply another physical DoT with 1 second duration when hitting an enemy. It automatically refreshes without its initial life cost if we spend enough life with other skills during its duration.

Brutality, Efficacy and Swift Affliction do exactly the same as above.

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Cast when Damage taken (Lv7) - Immortal Call (Lv9) - Increased Duration - Vaal Grace

Cast when Damage taken triggers linked spells upon accumulating enough damage from hits for its treshold. The spells required levels also need to be within Cast when Damage takens listed trigger level limit. While a higher level gem allows to trigger higher level spells, the damage treshold also increases and often makes it not worth it. We keep it at Level 7 for this setup.

Immortal Call gives us a temporary buff that makes us take less physical and elemental damage and has a 3 second cooldown. We keep it at Level 9 to stay within the CwDt trigger treshold.

Increased Duration is pretty straightforward, it increases the linked skills duration.

Vaal Grace grants us temporary chance to dodge attacks and spells, which is another defensive layer when getting rushed by enemies. We don't use the regular Grace aura that it grants!


If Lowlife:
Cast when Damage taken (Lv7) - Immortal Call (Lv9) - Flame Dash - Arcane Surge (Lv2)

When playing Lowlife, we have to shuffe around and remove some gems to make everything fit.

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Flame Dash - Arcane Surge (Lv2) - Second Wind - Smoke Mine

Flame Dash is our movement skill, it has three uses and a short cooldown. It also removes Grasping Vines and prevents us from taking damage from DoT sources when dashing through.

Arcane Surge grants a temporary buff after spending some mana, which grants a more damage multiplier, cast speed and mana regeneration. To consistently proc it, we keep it at Level 2.

Second Wind reduces the linked skills cooldown and adds another use.

Smoke Mine throws a mine that we can teleport to upon detonating it, which also grants us movement speed and procs a smoke cloud that blinds enemies. We also gain the Detonate Mine skill, which we can bind to left-click for easier usage.


If Lowlife:
Petrified Blood - Pride - War Banner - Enlighten (Lv2+)

Petrified Blood allows us to play Lowlife without needing a secondary hitpool. It prevents 40% of the damage we take from hits below half of our life, and then applies a percentage of the prevented damage as damage over the next 4 seconds. It also stops any life recovery other than flasks at the 50% Lowlife treshold. This is important as it lets our life leech instances, which would normally stop when reaching full life, remain for their full duration as long as we don't reserve more than 49% of our life. This effectively helps countering the damage we take from this skills mechanic and DoT damage, which is unaffected by the 40% prevention.

Pride and War Banner will be explained below.

Enlighten reduces the linked auras reservation cost, but only does something at Level 2+.

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Pride - War Banner - Herald of Purity

Pride increases the physical damage that enemies within its radius take, with the value doubling if they stay within radius for 4 seconds.

War Banner increases the physical damage that enemies within its radius take aswell. It also gains stages upon killing an enemy while carrying the banner and can be placed to increase its effects and gain Adrenaline for a short duration.

Herald of Purity provides a physical damage multiplier and occasionally lets us spawn sentinels, which can add some distraction for enemies but are otherwise unimportant for us.


If Lowlife:
Arrogance - Herald of Purity - Vitality

Arrogance makes linked skills reserve life instead of mana and slightly increases their effect.

Herald of Purity still does the same as above.

Vitality grants life regeneration and unlike most other auras, it reserves a specified value based on gem level instead of a percentage. This is important as it allows us to adjust its level to stay at 49% life reservation.

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Cast when Damage taken - Desecrate - Bone Offering

Cast when Damage taken still does the same as above, but this time we can fully level it.

Desecrate spawns corpses, which we need to consistently proc the next skill.

Bone Offering procs by consuming corpses and grants us Attack- and Spellblock, and also recovers a decent amount of life when we block. It's important that this gem comes after Desecrate in the trigger order!


If Trigger Weapon:
Desecrate - Bone Offering - Tempest Shield (Lv1)

Desecrate and Bone Offering still have the same purpose as above.

Tempest Shield gives us extra block- and spellblock chance with a relatively high duration.
The amount of block chance gained is the same across all levels, so we just keep it at Level 1.

Weapon

Spellslinging requires a wand, but even for Selfcast we'd ideally want to use one as all other weapon types implicits do nothing for this build. Imbued Wands are the best base for the Spellslinger setup, for the Selfcast setup aim for an Opal- or Profane Wand if possible.

To get it out of the way - Increased Physical Damage and Adds # to # Physical Damage
are local to the weapon and don't apply to spells, except for the Spellslinger setup!

+1 to Level of all Physical Spell Skill Gems is the most important affix for us and can be crafted with this recipe. Once crafted, use an Augment- and Regal Orb, then add Physical Damage over Time Multiplier with your crafting bench.

Eventually we want to craft the Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill, with a 8 second Cooldown suffix for better Bone Offering uptime, while still retaining the above two affixes. There's two ways to craft this, which both involve Harvest Crafting. You can use any Reforge Physical crafts until hitting those two modifiers and an open suffix, or use Reforge a Rare Item, being much more likely to receive the same modifier types on your starter weapon and hope for success.

The best outcome is getting +1 to Level of all Spell Skill Gems or 50%+ Spell Damage on top, check the Notes in this builds Path of Building setups to learn how to craft such a wand!

Cold Iron Point grants +3 to Level of all Physical Spell Skill Gems as easy damage source, but being a dagger it only works for Selfcast and losing the Trigger setup is too risky for Hardcore.

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Shield

We don't need a fancy shield to get started, having 70+ Life with either +1 to all Physical Spell Skill Gems, Spell Damage or Global Physical Damage and maybe Resistances is enough.

Later we want Recover 5% of Life when you Block for survivability, which can appear with Shaper or Warlord Influence. Another affix we need is Chance to Block Spell Damage, since we're otherwise quite low on that stat.

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Body Armour

All our body armour needs is 90+ Life and Resistances, Increased Maximum Life helps too.

For endgame we also want 25% increased Effect of Offerings to maximize our block chance, this can only appear with Hunter Influence.

It's also our first slot that we can craft Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments on, which is extremely valuable to have for endgame. We gain 20% from Arcane Swiftness, which means we need another 80% total from our gear to be fully immune to elemental ailments.

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Helmet

Our helmet should have 70+ Life and Resistances, ideally on a Bone Helmet base to gain some extra damage through its implicit together with Spiritual Aid.

The Elder Influence suffix Nearby Enemies take 9% increased Physical Damage can be added to maximize damage for endgame.

It's another slot that we can craft Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments on.

Best enchantments are Exsanguinate deals 40% increased Damage and Corrupting Fever has +50% chance to inflict an additional Corrupted Blood Debuff. For the Spellslinger setup, you'll likely need Skills Supported by Spellslinger have 15% reduced Mana Reservation to run both the 6L Exsanguinate and 4L Reap setups, Skills Supported by Spellslinger have 30% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate is good if you don't need the former one.

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Gloves

Once again we only need 70+ Life and Resistances here, ideally on Apothecary's Gloves base for some extra DoT damage from its implicit.

Great endgame gloves have all that together with Socketed Gems deal 30% more Damage over Time, which comes from Essences of Delirium and is a notable damage increase when socketing our Corrupting Fever in there. You may also try crafting this on Hunter Influence gloves to potentially hit Physical Damage over Time Multiplier.

It's the last slot that we can craft Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments on.

Don't bother with enchantments for this.

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Boots

To everyones surprise, we're looking for 70+ Life and Resistances here, but this time we also want 20%+ increased Movement Speed. Two-Toned- and Blessed Boots bases are preferred.

While we can't add it through the crafting bench here, Shaper Influence allows to roll Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments. Shaper- and Crusader Influence can also roll Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate, which is interesting for the Spellslinger setup.

Useful enchantments are 10% increased Movement Speed if you haven't been Hit Recently, Regenerate 2% of Life per second if you were Hit Recently and 80% chance to Avoid being Stunned if you've Killed Recently.

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Belt

Yet another slot to get 70+ Life and Resistances from, ideally on a Leather Belt or Stygian Vise.

Elder Influence belts can roll Increased Maximum Life and Increased Life Recovery Rate, which are both incredibly strong for us. For the Spellslinger setup, we can also gain more Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate with the crafting bench or through Shaper Influence.

For Lowlife Setups, it's also a potential slot to craft Aspect of the Spider or Aspect of the Crab on.

Doryani's Invitation in its physical version is our first potential source of Physical Damage Leeched as Life. Aside from that, it also grants Global Physical Damage and lots of Resistances. It can only drop from Atziri in the Apex of Sacrifice or Temple of Atzoatl.

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Rings

And for the last time we're looking for 50+ Life and Resistances on both rings, for endgame preferably on Vermillion Ring bases.

Having Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on Hit on one ring is mandatory for endgame.
This modifier can come from Warlord Influence or Physical Item Nodes in the Delve Mine.

Those nodes can also drop rings with Physical Damage Leeched as Life, use one if you don't get leech from anywhere else.

Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life is a different modifier and won't apply to us!

The +1 to Minimum Frenzy Charges and +1 to Minimum Endurance Charges crafts are helpful for an extra damage multiplier or physical damage reduction respectively.

For Lowlife Setups, it's also a potential slot to craft Aspect of the Spider or Aspect of the Crab on.

Lori's Lantern is a great ring to use for Lowlife setups. It grants lots of Resistances, Movement Speed and makes enemy hit damage unlucky. This means their damage is rolled twice and the lower value is taken, which helps surviving with the Lowlife setups relatively low life.

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Amulet

Our first amulet can be as basic as having only 50+ Life and some Spell Damage or Global Physical Damage.

Elder Influence amulets can roll Physical Damage over Time Multiplier, and even Physical Damage Leeched as Life if you don't have it anywhere else.

Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life is a different modifier and won't apply to us!

For endgame we're looking for +1 to Level of all Physical Skill Gems from Warlord Influence or +1 to Level of all Strength Skill Gems from Hunter Influence, or even both at the same time.
The +1 to Minimum Frenzy Charges and +1 to Minimum Endurance Charges crafts are once again a good choice here.

For Lowlife Setups, it's also a potential slot to craft Aspect of the Spider or Aspect of the Crab on.

Good anointments to get started are Freedom of Movement and Vitality Extraction, for endgame we want Command of Steel for additional Attack Block Chance and damage.

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Jewels

All of our jewels should have Life and atleast one of the following: Increased Damage, Increased Global Physical Damage, Increased Damage over Time, Increased Spell Damage (-while holding a Shield), Physical Damage over Time Multiplier. Additionally, Cast Speed (-while holding a Shield) and Attack & Cast Speed are useful for Selfcasting.

Having a Searching Eye Jewel with Chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill can give a nice clearspeed increase.

Useful corruptions for us are Corrupted Blood cannot be Inflicted on You and You cannot be Cursed with Silence.

Conqueror's Efficiency can help with early mana reservation, if that's an issue. It's obtained through the Wings of Vastiri quest.

Thread of Hope with Large Ring allows us to allocate passives within its ring. This saves us lots of skillpoints which we need for the Endgame Cluster Jewel setups. When socketed above Devotion, take Spiritual Aid, Vanquisher, Sanctuary, Discipline and Training plus surrounding Life nodes and Sovereignty plus surrounding Reduced Reservation nodes. It can only drop from Sirus.

Watcher's Eye can roll many aura-related affixes, of which only Damage leeched as Life while affected by Vitality and Increased Life Recovery Rate while affected by Vitality are relevant to us. It can only drop from the Elder (2-Affix) and Uber Elder (3-Affix).

Replica Pure Talent gives a decent amount of damage and skill effect duration once we have Path of the Witch. It can only be obtained through Grand Heists.

Unnatural Instinct has a strong interaction with small passives within its radius. We lose the effect of allocated ones, but gain the effect of unallocated ones. To make this work, we path through the mana nodes to Shaper and socket it there.

Might of the Meek similarly interacts with nodes within its radius. It removes the effect from Notables but buffs small passives by 50%. We can use this in conjunction with Unnatural Instinct in the other early Scion jewel sockets for massive gains.

Glorious Vanity with Ahuana is interesting for non-Lowlife Setups to turn Pain Attunement into Immortal Ambition, which allows our leech instances to remain for their full duration.
It can only drop in the Domain of Timeless Conflict with a Vaal Emblem used.

Your Flask Setup should be the following:

Divine Life Flask - Quartz Flask - Jade Flask - Basalt Flask - Quicksilver Flask

Divine Life Flasks are better for instant heal, we're going for Seething or Panicked with Staunching to remove Bleeding.

The Quartz Flask is mainly for Phasing, use Chemist's or Experimenter's with Warding to remove Curses. If the curse comes from a map mod, it is only removed during flask effect.

Jade Flasks grant evasion for additional damage avoidance, we want Chemist's or Experimenter's with Heat to remove Chill and Freeze or Curing if you're ailment immune.

Basalt Flasks reduce the physical damage we take, get Chemist's with Curing to remove Poison. Eventually we want to replace this with Rumi's Concoction for additional Attack- and Spellblock.

Quicksilver Flasks give us movement speed to help with clearspeed or dodging enemies, we want Chemist's or Alchemist's with Adrenaline, or Grounding if you're not ailment immune.

Cluster Jewels are needed to push this build further into endgame. They can only be used in 3-point jewel sockets at the outside of the passive tree, and add new passives based on their type.

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Large Clusters

Our Large Clusters need to be 8 Passives Spell Damage with Mage Hunter and Conjured Wall to maximize Spellblock. Having any suffix notable pushing the other two forward saves us two skillpoints here.

Temporarily you can also use an 8 Passives Physical Damage base, but it can't roll the notables that we're after.

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Medium Clusters

Medium Clusters have insane damage potential for us! We need 4 or 5 Passives Physical Damage over Time Multiplier bases with primarily Blood Artist, Rend, Brush with Death or Exposure Therapy.

Less important, but still decent notables are Student of Decay, Flow of Life, Brewed with Potency and Vile Reinvigoration.

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Small Clusters

Small Clusters aren't mandatory, but nice if you can fit them in. Increased Maximum Life bases have Fettle, Surging Vitality and Brush with Death as useful notables. Battle-Hardened on an Increased Armour base can give Endurance Charge generation while Elegant Form on a Chance to Dodge Attack Hits base can help reaching elemental ailment immunity.

Check out this video to learn the basics about maps.

Mapping is pretty straightforward - activate Corrupting Fever, move around with Flame Dash or Smoke Mine and blast every enemy in sight. Exsanguinate has a decent range and especially with Chain, clearspeed should be really good.

While having high block chance and life recovery are great, don't get overconfident - the best defense is still manually avoiding as much damage as possible.

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Mapmods to look out for

Physical Reflect - use Soul of Yugul and a Sibyl's Lament to be safe, unless any modifier such as Shock or the Physical Sextant modifier make you take increased damage.

Reduced Chance to Block - you'll take way more hits and with that way more damage.

No Life Regeneration - can hurt, especially if you have no life leech yet.

Cannot Leech Life - if your entire sustain is based on leeching, skip this.

Soul of Solaris (Major): Lots of damage reduction that are generally good to have.

Soul of the Brine King (Major): Prevents stunlocks, especially for the Lowlife version.

Soul of Abberath (Minor): Avoid taking damage from Burning Ground.

Soul of Shakari (Minor): Additional chaos damage reduction.

Soul of Ryslatha (Minor): Its upgrade is great for Lowlife.

You can have 1x major and 1x minor Pantheon node active at once.