Build Summary
In Poe 3.8, Essence Drain Occultist / Trickster can be a properly-recognized, strong league starter with countless guides existing! Let's take a deeper appear into the existing state of Essence Drain as well as learn how properly new Synthesis gear and abilities like Soulrend / Malevolence / Bane will perform with each other! Assume about Contagion as a "fuse" and Essence Drain as a "nuke". You mark enemies with Contagion then shoot ED projectile in a pack. They start off melting and explode, proliferating chaos damage to nearby enemies, as a result, "chaining" DoT chaos harm.
Build Items
Build Stat
- 62723.64
- 62723.64
- 2.04
- 1.3
- 1.3
- 1.5
- 100
- 128135.43
- 839807.09
- 902530.73
- 85
- 135
- 111
- 94
- 111
- 474
- 180
- 1485
- 17
- 75
- 5.05
- 1214
- 34
- 157
- 12.93
- 79.1
- 7150
- 245
- 159.43
- 564.51
- 904
- 55
- 28
- 15
- 2.07
- 31
- 67
- 23
- 55
- 3
- 3
- 3
Build Videos
Build PoB Link
https://pastebin.com/RQM916UE
Build Skill Tree
Build Description
INTRO:
In Poe 3.8, Essence Drain Occultist / Trickster can be a properly-recognized, strong league starter with countless guides existing! Let's take a deeper appear into the existing state of Essence Drain as well as learn how properly new Synthesis gear and abilities like Soulrend / Malevolence / Bane will perform with each other! Assume about Contagion as a "fuse" and Essence Drain as a "nuke". You mark enemies with Contagion then shoot ED projectile in a pack. They start off melting and explode, proliferating chaos damage to nearby enemies, as a result, "chaining" DoT chaos harm.
Where damage comes from?
1) Damage Over Time
2) Non-Ailment Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier
3) Chaos Damage
4) +1-2 to Gem Levels
5) Curses (Despair, etc)
6) In the very last end-game form we will be reserving a part of our life with Blood Magic and some auras and allocating Pain Attunement passive to give as 30% more Spell Damage while on Low Life.
How Bane works?
Bane is a Chaos Damage Over Time Spell. It has a Curse tag and scales with all Curse modifiers, such as effectiveness and duration, and at the same time it's not technically a "curse" itself, so it does not count towards your curse limit. It does decent amount of damage on it's own and other linked curses multiply it's damage and are triggered through bane as well. So it's an extremely usefull, powerful skill on top of everything else. With profane bloom occultist passive it's possible to use Bane as a standalone 6L killer.
How good is Soulrend?
Soulrend is a selfcast Damage Over Time Chaos spell. It has very low 0.4 second dot duration, high cast time and is mana hungry as well. Overall it's a decent skill for clearing maps. Literally one button action. But unfortunately it's very bad for bosses as you need to solve your mana issues and duration makes it a super spammy "stand your ground" skill. Your mobility suffers a lot during boss encounters and overall is not the best experience.
PROS & CONS:
+ Extremely tanky and safe
+ Easy to league start
+ Requires only 1 6-Link for end-game
+ All mods, even no mana regen is possible
+ No need for Wither totem
+ Always stun immune
- With ED+Contagion you constantly need to cast 2 skills.
- Soulrend is slow to cast because NO CAST SPEED investment
- Not super newbie friendly as you need some knowledge on playing life/hybrid builds and then transition to CI and eventually to Low-Life.
- Low-Life Chest is usually very expensive at the start of the league, but drops down cheap very fast
ASCENDANCY:
1. Wicked Ward
2. Vile Bastion
3. Void Beacon
4. WIthering Presence
BANDITS: Kill All.
PANTHEON:
Major God - Soul of Arakalli
mINOR God - Soul of Gruthkul