





Hi! Here is my Essence Drain build. Its extremely durable and can do any content in the game. Fairly cheap to get started.

This thread contains 3 versions of the build:

1.Hybrid starter(Life+ES+MoM)

2.CI

3.Low-Life





Important note:

I wouldn't recommend this build for new players who never played ES based builds before. Its really important to understand core mechanics before running the build.



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Procs and Cons



Procs

-High Chaos DoT output

-Very tanky

-Budget friendly starting

-Can do ANY map mods

-Reflect immune

-HC Viable





Cons

-Not the fastest map clearer

-Weak in party play without expensive gear







Mechanics

Essence Drain

Inflicts strong Damage Over Time debuff on the target it hits, debuff deals damage passively over its duration, that allows u to focus on your positioning and dodging in hard boss fights while dealing damage.

Contagion

Gives u proliferation effect. When monster dies it spreads contagion effect around his body. If the monster had Essence Drain on him, spreads it as well. This combo can easily clear couple screens around you in high density instances.

Defenses



Zealot's Oath.

Converts all your life regen into ES regen, as well as %regen from essence drain. Gives u huge amount of regen while killing monsters

Enfeeble

Less damage from enemies, less crits.

Wicked Ward(Ascendancy node)

Your auto vaal discipline.

Grants a large flat energy shield bonus and stops energy shield recharge from being interrupted by damage, if it began recently(past 4 seconds).

Smart use of this passive skill makes your uber lab runs easy and safe.

Damage layers

Essence drain can scale from multiple damage types such as spell damage, chaos damage, damage over time. This build focusing on utilizing the most valuable nodes on tree and a bunch of More damage multipliers in gem setups.



Profane bloom(Ascendancy node) is a great offensive addition, in combination with high-effect Temporal Chain curse allows you to safely jump into middle of monster pack and start explosions and Contagion chains.



Wither increases chaos damage taken by 6% for each stack. Stacks up to 15 times. Drop wither totem when you need damage boost.



Its highly recommended to keep bosses in range of your curses all possible time. That increases your damage dramatically.

Inflicts strong Damage Over Time debuff on the target it hits, debuff deals damage passively over its duration, that allows u to focus on your positioning and dodging in hard boss fights while dealing damage.Gives u proliferation effect. When monster dies it spreads contagion effect around his body. If the monster had Essence Drain on him, spreads it as well. This combo can easily clear couple screens around you in high density instances.Zealot's Oath.Converts all your life regen into ES regen, as well as %regen from essence drain. Gives u huge amount of regen while killing monstersEnfeebleLess damage from enemies, less crits.Wicked Ward(Ascendancy node)Your auto vaal discipline.Grants a large flat energy shield bonus and stops energy shield recharge from being interrupted by damage, if it began recently(past 4 seconds).Smart use of this passive skill makes your uber lab runs easy and safe.Essence drain can scale from multiple damage types such as spell damage, chaos damage, damage over time. This build focusing on utilizing the most valuable nodes on tree and a bunch ofdamage multipliers in gem setups.Profane bloom(Ascendancy node) is a great offensive addition, in combination with high-effect Temporal Chain curse allows you to safely jump into middle of monster pack and start explosions and Contagion chains.Wither increases chaos damage taken by 6% for each stack. Stacks up to 15 times. Drop wither totem when you need damage boost.Its highly recommended to keep bosses in range of your curses all possible time. That increases your damage dramatically.



Ascendancies



Normal - Profane Bloom



Cruel - Wicked Ward



Merciless - Malediction



Uber - Void Beacon



- Profane Bloom- Wicked Ward- Malediction- Void Beacon



Leveling Gears and trees(Hybrid version)

Starting with whatever skill u want, switching to firestorm + flame totem at level 12 (u can use any spells you want, thats just a generic example).



Take Essence Drain(lvl12), Contagion(lvl4), Discipline(lvl24) gems, place it into your second weapon set and start leveling them up.



Switch to Essence Drain once u got Increased Area of Effect gem in act 4 for your Contagion.





Take Mind Over Matter and following mana nodes around level 50-55. It doesn't saves your ES, working only if your life damaged. Helps greatly to mitigate chaos damage and survive boss fights. Do not forget to take mana flask with you.





You can sacrifice some damage nodes from tree to get Whispers of Doom(+1 curse) around lvl 65 if u got Witchfire Brew by this point.



Bandits - Kill all(2 points)



Gem setups

Gems listed in order of importance



Main skills:



Essence Drain - Controlled destruction - Swift Affliction - Void Manipulation - Efficacy - Empower



You need 4l to get it started



Contagion - Faster Casting - Inc AOE - Arcane Surge(Keep this gem low level to fit manacost of contagion so if u cast it once u get the buff)



Utility:



Wither - Spell totem - Faster Casting



CWDT - Immortal Call



Vaal lightning trap.



Reservations:



Clarity + Temporal Chains on blasphemy



Movement:

Whirling Blades(or Shield Charge) - Faster Attacks - Fortify



Any golem u want - Flame, Chaos or Lightning









Trees:

14 points



40 points



61 points



Final Hybrid tree

Use this version to gather enough currency for CI. You can easily farm maps like this.





Gear

Leveling:





Hidden potential is cheap variant to greatly boost your damage in early game.







Flasks:

- The most important flask in the setup. Get one as soon as you can.

- Sustains your MoM and allows you to completely ignore mana regen on tree.







Gear progression

Look for the following stats on Energy Shield based items(listed in order of importance):

1.Life

2.Resistances

3.Energy shield

4.Mana (For MoM, not necessary)



Here is some cheap early-late game examples(gear from LHC market):











This is enough run maps and gather some currency for further progress



- Also a good option, helps to mitigate chaos DoT and gives all stats you need.





Weapons:

Look for high spell damage Sai with open prefix for Leo lvl3 craft (15%-30% increased Damage over Time)



Decay from Essence of Delirium almost not worth using in 3.0(nerfed base damage and does not scales with spell damage anymore) it will be good enough only if u get high spell damage roll with essence





Look for the following stats onbased items(listed in order of importance):1.Life2.Resistances3.Energy shield4.Mana (For MoM, not necessary)Here is some cheap early-late game examples(gear from LHC market):This is enough run maps and gather some currency for further progress- Also a good option, helps to mitigate chaos DoT and gives all stats you need.Look for high spell damage Sai with open prefix for Leo lvl3 craft (15%-30% increased Damage over Time)Decay fromalmost not worth using in 3.0(nerfed base damage and does not scales with spell damage anymore) it will be good enough only if u get high spell damage roll with essence Hidden potential is cheap variant to greatly boost your damage in early game.- The most important flask in the setup. Get one as soon as you can.- Sustains your MoM and allows you to completely ignore mana regen on tree. Starting with whatever skill u want, switching to firestorm + flame totem at level 12 (u can use any spells you want, thats just a generic example).Take Essence Drain(lvl12), Contagion(lvl4), Discipline(lvl24) gems, place it into your second weapon set and start leveling them up.Switch to Essence Drain once u got Increased Area of Effect gem in act 4 for your Contagion.Take Mind Over Matter and following mana nodes around level 50-55. It doesn't saves your ES, working only if your life damaged. Helps greatly to mitigate chaos damage and survive boss fights.You can sacrifice some damage nodes from tree to get Whispers of Doom(+1 curse) around lvl 65 if u got Witchfire Brew by this point.- Kill all(2 points)Trees:Use this version to gather enough currency for CI. You can easily farm maps like this.



CI Version

I recommend to switch into CI once u got level 75+ and some minimum amount of ES gear.



Tree: URL



Gem setups

Gems listed in order of importance



Main skills:



Essence Drain - Controlled destruction - Swift Affliction - Void Manipulation - Efficacy - Empower



Contagion - Faster Casting - Inc AOE - Arcane Surge(Keep this gem low level to fit manacost of contagion so if u cast it once u get the buff)



Utility:



Wither - Spell totem - Faster Casting



CWDT(lvl 9) - Immortal Call(lvl 1) - Tempest Shield(lvl 1)



Vaal lightning trap.



Vaal Discipline



Reservations:



Discipline + Temporal Chains + Enfeeble + Enlighten lvl3 in Heretics Veil



Movement:

Whirling Blades(or Shield Charge) - Faster Attacks - Fortify



Any golem u want - Flame, Chaos or Lightning









Gear

Required Uniques









Pretty simple. Try to get as much ES and Intelligence as you can.





In my opinion best Body Armour choises right now are:



or





Boots :





(This enchant is not necessary)



Rings:





(Since Elreon crafted mod is gone we have to craft Leo's faster start of ES recharge instead)





also works quite well



Belt:



Rare crystal belt, crafted with Essence of Spite for intelligence







or







Amulet:



Look for %ES, flat ES, Resistances, Intelligence



Cheap example:







Weapon choise:



Early on get high spell damage Sai







BiS would be Decay Sai with high spell damage and Leo's crafted %increased Damage over Time

or

+3 lvl to socketed gems Staff but you will lose quite a lot of ES.











Flasks

Pretty simple. Try to get as much ES and Intelligence as you can.In my opinion best Body Armour choises right now are:orBoots :(This enchant is not necessary)Rings:(Since Elreon crafted mod is gone we have to craft Leo's faster start of ES recharge instead)also works quite wellBelt:Rare crystal belt, crafted with Essence of Spite for intelligenceorAmulet:Look for %ES, flat ES, Resistances, IntelligenceCheap example:Weapon choise:Early on get high spell damage SaiBiS would be Decay Sai with high spell damage and Leo's crafted %increased Damage over Timeor+3 lvl to socketed gems Staff but you will lose quite a lot of ES.

I recommend to switch into CI once u got level 75+ and some minimum amount of ES gear.





Low-Life Version

Not budget friendly



This version grants you huge damage boost from Pain Attunement and allows to drop Heretic's Veil, losing chaos immunity and some ES. You dont have to use it, build works perfectly as CI for any content.





Tree: LL



Gem setups



Main skills:



Essence Drain - Controlled destruction - Swift Affliction - Void Manipulation - Efficacy - Empower



Contagion - Faster Casting - Inc AOE - Arcane Surge(Keep this gem low level to fit manacost of contagion so if u cast it once u get the buff)



Utility:



Wither - Spell totem - Faster Casting



Vaal Discipline



Reservations:



Enfeeble - Temporal Chains - Blasphemy - Enlighten lvl 3



Discipline - Clarity - Blood Magic



Arctic Armor



Movement:

Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify



Any golem u want - Flame, Chaos or Lightning









Gear



Required uniques







Fill empty gear slots with rares(High ES, Int, resistances). Examples in CI Gear section.



Flasks

You can use "Rumi's Concoction" instead of mana flask if u want. You can use "Rumi's Concoction" instead of mana flask if u want. Fill empty gear slots with rares(High ES, Int, resistances). Examples in CI Gear section. This version grants you huge damage boost from Pain Attunement and allows to drop Heretic's Veil, losing chaos immunity and some ES. You dont have to use it, build works perfectly as CI for any content.





Enchantments

Helmet - 40% increased Essence Drain damage.



Gloves - "Of Spite(Fires Projectiles, leaving chilling ground"/"Of Light(Spawns Consecrated Ground if u got Critical Strike"



Boots - "Regenerate 2% Life and Mana per second if you were Hit recently"





Pantheon

Hybrid and CI:



Major - Soul of the Brine King



Minor - Soul of Tukohama



Low Life:



Major - Soul of Lunaris



Minor - Soul of Tukohama







Jewels

List of useful jewel stats:

%increased maximum Energy Shield

%increased Chaos Damage

%increased Spell Damage

%increased Spell Damage while holding a shield

%increased Damage Over Time

+Intelligence

Resists in some cases.





Current Character

PoB pastebin url



https://pastebin.com/EPC7NL5a







3.0 Summary

This build got hit preety hard with Fall of Oriath release.



Good stuff:

- Curses got increase to base radius.

- Contagion got increase to base radius.

- Cheaper to get CI started due to shift of meta.

- Essence Drain got base damage increase.

- Leveling now easy as it never was before.

- Lots of good hybrid gear



Bad stuff:

- 30% ES loss

- Roughly 50% damage loss at high-end cus of double dip removal(Poison is gone for ED, projectile damage doesnt work, decay does not scale with spell damage)

- No stun immunity for CI since we are forced to utilize Brine King's pantheon power together with rare amulet to get enough ES

- Boss HP increase makes fights really slow at low budget.





CI is not dead but feels way less enjoyable because you get stunned constantly, its not deadly or something, just really annoying. Overall build is performing well at all stages. ED is still solid boss killier choise and works okay, just slower. Nowdays i think LL is nobrain choise even tho it costs almost twice more to get started compared to last league. At the end u can get up to ~240k DoT dps(300+ with +3 staff) and up to 13k ES as LL.





Video

2.6



Atziri 1st week



Uber lab full run

T16 Chimera fight





The Shaper's Realm Footage from Legacy Hardcore league Shaped Quay (-max, enfeeble, chaos res, extra damage, breach, onslaught, perandus) T16 Hydra (50% more life, 20% extra chaos res, additional projectiles) Chayula Breach full run - Record from test run, can be played way better





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More comes later.





Thanks for visiting! Feel free to ask any questions. Please let me know if i forgot to mention something or u spot any mistake.





Hi! Here is my Essence Drain build. Its extremely durable and can do any content in the game. Fairly cheap to get started.This thread contains 3 versions of the build:1.Hybrid starter(Life+ES+MoM)2.CI3.Low-LifeI wouldn't recommend this build for new players who never played ES based builds before. Its really important to understand core mechanics before running the build.__________________________________________________________________________________-High Chaos DoT output-Very tanky-Budget friendly starting-Can do ANY map mods-Reflect immune-HC Viable-Not the fastest map clearer-Weak in party play without expensive gear________________________________________________________________More comes later.Thanks for visiting! Feel free to ask any questions. Please let me know if i forgot to mention something or u spot any mistake. Last edited by no1else515 on Jan 6, 2018, 2:18:52 AM Last bumped on Jul 8, 2018, 2:56:51 PM