[LHC] 2.6 Ramona's CI Essence Drain

I'll summarize briefly on these changes.

The only real downside to running Abyssal Cry is you don't have room for CWDT-IC anymore.
I had at least two free gem links after removing Vaal Disc and Inc Duration.
(Which lowered the amount of Strength required for the build.)

*Note*
Abyssal Cry and Profane Bloom can trigger from the same monster (corpse).
There is no downside to running both, it simply means stronger packs, Rares or Bosses will die much quicker.
The main issue is I would not allocate more points to say Skill Effect Duration to scale my poison further.
(As my normal Essence Drain does not scale poison damage)
Though I would note, modifiers to AoE damage, DoT damage, Chaos damage and 'Damage' do scale the poison.
With all but the DoT damage modifier double dipping.

I personally find it hard to justify any other use of the slots I had available.
All in all it should smoothen out the playstyle of the build with no real downsides.
Unfortunately I would like to slot a flame dash but I cannot personally justify removing another gem slot currently.

In other news, if you do plan on running similar uniques to mine, I would certainly encourage you to use Void Barrier.
10 Strength would be incredibly easy to find on gear, 24% all resistance would not.
In total you lose 10 Str for 10 Dex, 5% ES for 10% Energy Shield Recharge Rate, 1 skill point for 24% all resistance and just lose a 10 int node.
I would consider prioritizing Written for Blood if I could slot Energy From Within nearby, but all of these life nodes are wasted.
Two points alone for Written for Blood coming down from Atrophy is most justifiable, but I would prefer an extra Jewel slot myself.

Hopefully this helps. :)

"

Ramona wrote:

I'll summarize briefly on these changes.

The only real downside to running Abyssal Cry is you don't have room for CWDT-IC anymore.
I had at least two free gem links after removing Vaal Disc and Inc Duration.
(Which lowered the amount of Strength required for the build.)

*Note*
Abyssal Cry and Profane Bloom can trigger from the same monster (corpse).
There is no downside to running both, it simply means stronger packs, Rares or Bosses will die much quicker.
The main issue is I would not allocate more points to say Skill Effect Duration to scale my poison further.
(As my normal Essence Drain does not scale poison damage)
Though I would note, modifiers to AoE damage, DoT damage, Chaos damage and 'Damage' do scale the poison.
With all but the DoT damage modifier double dipping.

I personally find it hard to justify any other use of the slots I had available.
All in all it should smoothen out the playstyle of the build with no real downsides.
Unfortunately I would like to slot a flame dash but I cannot personally justify removing another gem slot currently.

Hopefully this helps. :)

I enjoy having Shield Charge + Flame Dash available too and I didn't know how Abyssal Cry works. I think for now as long as I'm not doing bosses I'll stay on it and switch again when I'm trying bosses or T15. Which might be soon considering I need to get U-Lab done.

Thanks for the thought-out help. Your Guide is really good :)

"

Ramona wrote:

In other news, if you do plan on running similar uniques to mine, I would certainly encourage you to use Void Barrier.
10 Strength would be incredibly easy to find on gear, 24% all resistance would not.
In total you lose 10 Str for 10 Dex, 5% ES for 10% Energy Shield Recharge Rate, 1 skill point for 24% all resistance and just lose a 10 int node.
I would consider prioritizing Written for Blood if I could slot Energy From Within nearby, but all of these life nodes are wasted.
Two points alone for Written for Blood coming down from Atrophy is most justifiable, but I would prefer an extra Jewel slot myself.

Hopefully this helps. :)

If you really need 8 all resist, then I would pick Faith and Steel, which is 3 points for 17% ES and 8 all resists, much better choice than Void Barrier(4 points for 20% ES and 8 all resists). Written in Blood is 2 points for 15% ES and 10 str, which is very efficient and should always be picked.

Actually imho your choice of gears and tree seems more like SC than HC. For HC you want to first get as much ES as possible since damage is always more than enough for mapping.

"

hupple wrote:

"

Ramona wrote:

In other news, if you do plan on running similar uniques to mine, I would certainly encourage you to use Void Barrier.
10 Strength would be incredibly easy to find on gear, 24% all resistance would not.
In total you lose 10 Str for 10 Dex, 5% ES for 10% Energy Shield Recharge Rate, 1 skill point for 24% all resistance and just lose a 10 int node.
I would consider prioritizing Written for Blood if I could slot Energy From Within nearby, but all of these life nodes are wasted.
Two points alone for Written for Blood coming down from Atrophy is most justifiable, but I would prefer an extra Jewel slot myself.

Hopefully this helps. :)

If you really need 8 all resist, then I would pick Faith and Steel, which is 3 points for 17% ES and 8 all resists, much better choice than Void Barrier(4 points for 20% ES and 8 all resists). Written in Blood is 2 points for 15% ES and 10 str, which is very efficient and should always be picked.

Actually imho your choice of gears and tree seems more like SC than HC. For HC you want to first get as much ES as possible since damage is always more than enough for mapping.

Hi hupple,

Definitely a valid point for Faith and Steel.
I'll work that update into my skill trees.
Honestly depending on how good your gear is this tree without those changes is in the 12-13k ES range.
I wouldn't say it can comfortably farm Shaper or Uber AtIri with that ES pool, but it is more than enough for mapping.

"

Ramona wrote:

"

hupple wrote:

"

Ramona wrote:

In other news, if you do plan on running similar uniques to mine, I would certainly encourage you to use Void Barrier.
10 Strength would be incredibly easy to find on gear, 24% all resistance would not.
In total you lose 10 Str for 10 Dex, 5% ES for 10% Energy Shield Recharge Rate, 1 skill point for 24% all resistance and just lose a 10 int node.
I would consider prioritizing Written for Blood if I could slot Energy From Within nearby, but all of these life nodes are wasted.
Two points alone for Written for Blood coming down from Atrophy is most justifiable, but I would prefer an extra Jewel slot myself.

Hopefully this helps. :)

If you really need 8 all resist, then I would pick Faith and Steel, which is 3 points for 17% ES and 8 all resists, much better choice than Void Barrier(4 points for 20% ES and 8 all resists). Written in Blood is 2 points for 15% ES and 10 str, which is very efficient and should always be picked.

Actually imho your choice of gears and tree seems more like SC than HC. For HC you want to first get as much ES as possible since damage is always more than enough for mapping.

Hi hupple,

Definitely a valid point for Faith and Steel.
I'll work that update into my skill trees.
Honestly depending on how good your gear is this tree without those changes is in the 12-13k ES range.
I wouldn't say it can comfortably farm Shaper or Uber AtIri with that ES pool, but it is more than enough for mapping.

anyway, Void Barrier grants %energy shield recharge rate and increased evasion rating for when our witchfire brew is up

what do you think about Liftingnerdbro and Zizaran' setup? they skip zealoth's oath to use a sorrow of the divine or grab the faster start of es recharge rate nodes, and they take the spell damage points or chaos damage points.
zizaran uses an orb of storm to cast enfeeble and vulnerability, while liftingnerd takes some mana nodes on the way to whispers of doom.
the only downside I've noticed is that they probably put some strength and dexterity on pieces of gear to reach the requirements for daggers and gems, making their builds more gear dependant

"

Giammafix wrote:

what do you think about Liftingnerdbro and Zizaran' setup? they skip zealoth's oath to use a sorrow of the divine or grab the faster start of es recharge rate nodes, and they take the spell damage points or chaos damage points.
zizaran uses an orb of storm to cast enfeeble and vulnerability, while liftingnerd takes some mana nodes on the way to whispers of doom.
the only downside I've noticed is that they probably put some strength and dexterity on pieces of gear to reach the requirements for daggers and gems, making their builds more gear dependant

Hi Giammafix,

Honestly I haven't looked much into their setups.
Zealot's Oath is something I've definitely considered dropping and running Sorrow of the Divine.
I personally prefer running Zealot's Oath, having the comfort that my ES regen is not tied to a flask.
Also I'm considering running a Rumi's Concotion in my setup, and I would only have room for one more unique flask currently.
ES recharge rate is definitely useful, I just do not prioritize it for my setups.
It is definitely a viable option.
Orb of Storms is certainly another way to utilize curses but it has its limitations.
It all comes down to your preference in playstyle, the choices I have made are how I enjoy playing the build. :)

Hi Ramona, i was recently thinking about going consuming dark with a sai instead of a shield

id have around 9-10k es if i do, i wanted to ask if the damage output would be worth it?



dont get me wrong btw the damage right now is already awesome but i want to try to do shaper and uber atziri more confidently cause idk about the damage that id do to shaper atm

"

Butter0311 wrote:

How good is ED with Uber Atziri and Shaper on HC. I was farming both Shaper and Uber Atziri with Chaos Blade Flurry and I died, so I am looking for something different.

Zizaran made a video where he actually managed to kill the Shaper with Essence drain and did it deathless in HC. You may watch that video and check his gear and tree, he did it pretty easy, but keep in mind that:
- he was running a slightly different version of essence drain as I mentioned above (still the occultist with the same ascendancies anyway, just changed the tree a bit, the gear and the gem setup).
- he reached more than 16k energy shield but had a literally godlike gear, running a level 21 Essence drain, an 800 ES vaal regalia, and other pieces with attributes on it which allowed him to skip some passive nodes and put those on more ES.
- though essence drain didn't got nerfed, Zizaran posted that video in 2.5, before the AoE nerfs and changes. Doing the shaper without picking some of increased radius of aura skills nodes may feel unconfortable at the moment.

imho this build can do the Shaper, picking the spell nodes and running with a very good gear

"

RabzH wrote:

Hi Ramona, i was recently thinking about going consuming dark with a sai instead of a shield

id have around 9-10k es if i do, i wanted to ask if the damage output would be worth it?



dont get me wrong btw the damage right now is already awesome but i want to try to do shaper and uber atziri more confidently cause idk about the damage that id do to shaper atm

Hi RabzH,

Using both daggers will definitely result in more damage.
I personally cannot speak to how your defenses will be as I have not played ED without a shield.