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How to Choose Your Favourite Build at League Start in POE 3.20: Theory and Recommendations

Dec 13, 2022 Author: POECurrency.com

Should I go corrupting fever gladiator? or maybe it's time to try out Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist? What about Lightning Strike? I don't know about you, but I'm sure lots of people having a really hard time choosing what build a league start this time. Of course this is nothing new at this point, it's practically tradition to try between different builds before the new league actually starts. I can't be the only one that make the build guides, you're probably flooded with guides of the absolute best league starters builds for POE 3.20, so let's just dissect what makes a good League starter for you.

First off, what qualifies as a good League starter is incredibly subjective, we've each had our own experiences with different builds, and we will naturally compare other builds. Some people even only play one build for many years and won't settle for anything less than being an Uber boss killer on day one of the league. On the other hand, some one just started playing the game last league, and it is really hoping you can make it to maps clearing this time around a good build with less POE Currency costing.

Three Main Build Genre
But if you're playing in hardcore or ruthless or solo self, then it goes without saying that you'll absolutely need to factor builds aspect into your choice of League starter. So I like to separate builds into three main categories. First up, Fast Mappers, these are builds designed with running through maps fast and efficiently, think about auto bombers cast on crit builds. So on the goal for these guys is to blast through as many screens of the monsters per second as possible, while still doing enough damage to kill map bosses without too much trouble.

Secondly we've got Bossers, Bossers are builds meant for killing end game bosses with ease oftentimes, these are either totems traps, or mines, or minion builds, since they have a big uptime advantage on their DPS compared to other types of builds, allowing them to just run around dodging everything coming at them. While these builds can still complete Maps, they would rather be spending their time in actual end game Boss Fights once they have all.

The last big category is All Rounders, these are builds that don't specialize in either fast mapping or easy bossing, but are competent enough in both, they're in the middle and are generally safe builds to play if your goal is to just get through maps and do some endgame bossing, like spark and toxic rain builds.

Keep in mind that builds in this category could usually be pushed in either direction if you really wanted to with enough Currency Orbs investment, so those are the three main types of bills that I think of.

Other Build Genre
However these categories only really encompass good or meta builds, what about your funky Glacial Hammer builds or Firestorm? These types of builds I would put under the For Fun category, just as important as any of the other types of builds, Fou Fun builds are oftentimes interesting and not necessarily good builds, don't get me wrong, they could come up to a totally crazy build as well, and I wouldn't be all that surprised. But generally when playing one of these builds, the expectation is that you'll eventually hit a wall in progression where you either need to farm up a bunch of currency for better gear to push past it, or just decide to play something else. If you're okay with that, and just want to explore new builds that look fun to you, this is the way to go finally.

The last category that comes to my mind I've simply dubbed Other, these are good builds that are hyper focused on accomplishing a specific thing that isn't mapping or Bossing, like specific builds for currency farming or something else. Reddit and Poe ninja are all helpful places to find build ideas, just find something that looks fun to you.

So here are two good Mapper I would like to recommend that can be used widely in POE 3.20 Expansion.


Build Recommendation
Mapper One:
Corrupting Fever Champion is a top League start Mapper created with a focus on speed, explosions and survivability. For the skills, we can use Corrupting Fever, Kinetic Blast,Utility and Auras, Reap, Vulnerability. As the main skill, Sacrifice the blood in your veins to activate Corrupting Fever, causing hits against enemies to apply a stacking Corrupting Blood debuff causing Physical Damage over Time.


20221How to Choose Your Favourite Build at League Start in POE 3.20: Theory and Recommendations


Meanwhile Utility and Auras is our primary movement ability providing quick progress through maps. To escape in the blink of an eye, use Frostblink to instantly teleport away evading large telegraphed attacks or quick reactive abilities. Unleash your anger and become frenzied with Blood Rage giving you Frenzy Charges on kill and additional attack speed. Thus Champion is the best choice as it offers the best defences in the game and gives you very powerful damage through Adrenaline and Aura effect.

Playstyle
When playing as the Corrupting Fever Champion you aim and click your Kinetic Blast into large monster packs applying the Corrupted Blood debuff and applying a separate bleed which triggers your Haemophilia on kill explosions. Every 20 seconds reactivate Corrupting Fever to take your Life down below 50%, triggering First to Strike, Last to Fall giving Adrenaline.

Mapping
When mapping as the Corrupting Fever Champion apply your Corrupted Blood to enemies with Kinetic Blast and then quickly Shield Charge to the next pack of monsters. For stronger enemies use Reap to quickly dispatch them.

Skill Gems
Gems are a fundamental part of your build, and getting the correct link setups and levels before entering Maps is your main goal. This is how your Gems look throughout the endgame stage of progression.

*Corrupting Fever - Awakend Brutality Support - Awakend Swift Affliction Support - Efficacy Support - Empower Support - Reap

*Anomalous Kinetic Blast - Maim Support - Greater Multiple Projectiles Support - Lifetap Support

*Flam Dash - Lifetap Support - Storm Brand - Culling Strike Support

*Handed Ranged: Malevolence, Tempest Shiled, Enduring cry

*Shiled: Shiled charge - Faster Attacks Supports - War Banner

*Cast When Damage Taken Support - Molten Shell, Pride - Vitality


At this point in the build your gearing should be starting to finalize. Purchase from another Player or grind from Syndicate missions a T4 Vorichi in the research branch to switch a random number of sockets into White. This allows you to easily swap your Kinetic Blast setup to a Frenzy and Maim Support setup which allows you to obtain Frenzy Charges on bosses while also causing them to take 10% increased Physical Damage from being Maimed.

The next big upgrade is to purchase an Empower Support at Level 4 to put in your 6-Link and a Anomalous Kinetic Blast giving you an additional 2 Pierce. Your Auras change to include a Vitality and Tempest Shield at the cost of your Herald of Purity. This is because you obtain such a valuable amount of Life recovery and Spell Block, and your gear is good enough to give a bit of damage up for that.


Skill Tree


202212How to Choose Your Favourite Build at League Start in POE 3.20: Theory and Recommendationsng


Mapper Two:

Poison Blade Vortex Occultist offers one of the smoothest mapping experiences of any league starter build thanks to Profane Bloom explosion chains and Plague Bearer. Combining these skills allows fast map clearing with a low investment, however it can be min maxed to be fantastic for late endgame as well.

The Occultist is the best choice for Poison Blade Vortex as it provides explosions for great clear, and an additional curse. It also gives an easy way to cap your Chaos Resistance whilst reducing enemies resistances and additional free applications of Wither stacks for even more damage.


2022121310030926How to Choose Your Favourite Build at League Start in POE 3.20: Theory and Recommendationsng


*Profane Bloom causes your curses to have a chance to consume the corpse of your enemies, triggering an explosions dealing a quarter of their Maximum Life to nearby enemies.

*Void Beacon gives nearby enemies -20% to Chaos Resistance and prevents them from regenerating Life.

*Withering Presence applies a Wither stack to nearby enemies for every second you are near them, gives you +60% to Chaos Resistance, and makes you deal 15% more Chaos Damage.

*Malediction allows you to inflict an additional Curse on enemies.

Mapping
Activate your Blade Vortex and repeat casting until you've reached 10 blades. Charge through packs until you're at Maximum Plague Value. Activate your Plague Bearer and Shield Charge through packs of monsters, letting your Profane Bloom explode packs whilst maintaining 10 Blade Vortex stacks.

Bossing
Save your Plague Bearer to use on the Map Boss if you know you are nearing it. Apply your Curses and activate Plague Bearer to inflict additional damage. If you have the Vaal version of Blade Vortex; Vaal Blade Vortex this is the best time to use it to best make use of the additional poisons it can inflict.

Skill Gems
Gems are an fundamental part of your build, getting the correct link setups before entering Maps and leveling those Gems as you progress through the Atlas is one of your main goals.

*Armour: VAAL BLADE VORTEX - AWAKENED UNBOUND AILMENTS SUPPORT - AWAKENED UNLEASH SUPPORT - AWAKENED DEADLY AILMENTS SUPPORT - EFFICACY SUPPORT - AWAKENED VOID MANIPULATION SUPPORT

*DIVINE BLESSING SUPPORT - MALEVOLENCE - INCREASED DURATION SUPPORT

*Shield: AWAKENED BLASPHEMY SUPPORT - TEMPORAL CHAINS - PUNISHMENT

*Helmet: RACE - DETERMINATION - DIVERGENT HERALD OF AGONY - ENLIGHTEN SUPPORT

*CAST WHEN DAMAGE TAKEN SUPPORT - MOLTEN SHELL, SHIELD CHARGE - FASTER ATTACKs SUPPORT

*PLAGUE BEARER - AWAKENED INCREASED AREA OF EFFECT SUPPORT - EMPOWER SUPPORT - EMPOWER SUPPORT

*Ring: DESPAIR


Skill Tree:


202212How to Choose Your Favourite Build at League Start in POE 3.20: Theory and Recommendationsng


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Players Strongly Demand A Death Review Feature In Path Of Exile 2 Dawn Of The Hunt!
Players Strongly Demand A Death Review Feature In Path Of Exile 2 Dawn Of The Hunt!

Path of Exile 2 has been the center of discussion among loyal players of the action role-playing game since its early access release last year. Although the developers have added many new game elements to this sequel that were not in the original game, the player community and players on many social platforms have been negative about it.

Even after POE 2 released its first major update and the first league Dawn of the Hunt some time ago, players’ complaints about the low drop rate and drastic nerfs of in-game loot have not changed at all. According to some relevant information leaks, the developers are taking some actions, such as releasing some hot fixes and additional changes in patch 0.2.0.

But in order to ensure that POE 2 can be in the best state before the official version is released and can provide players with a best exploration experience, it may also need to add an important feature - death review. At this stage, players are very demanding for this feature, so this guide organizes players’ views on it so that developers can create corresponding strategies according to players’ requirements more quickly.

Developer’s Thoughts

In the production process of POE 2, developers have always wanted players to explore the huge game world in a slow-paced gameplay, and make the best build that suits them best according to the different exploration contents, until they reach the end of all battles.

However, in this game with slow and methodical gameplay, once the player dies in it, the cost invested before drawing, such as currency, gear, and one-way available Waystones will disappear, which is a very sad thing for all players, especially in the extremely challenging endgame stage.

Most importantly, players must learn from the corresponding experience from the failure just now, and then buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade their own builds accordingly, such as enhancing the overall defense ability or elemental resistance of the build to obtain better survivability. Or re-roll the affixes of the potions that can restore health or mana that they carry to obtain higher combat durability.

Players’ Thoughts

The developers thought this style might resonate with players, but in fact they didn’t buy it. Because the one-way available Waystones used in POE 2, on the one hand, the cost of drawing in the more difficult maps will also increase. On the other hand, if there is no death review screen in the game, it is difficult for players to find the real reason for death from the failure just now, which will make players more frustrated.

Because in most cases, the death of players in battle is not only caused by the ineffectiveness of the build they used, but also by mistakes in skill rotation or network jams, or even because of the excessive visual effects presented by the game, which makes players use wrong operations.

After these deaths caused by non-game mistakes, players may not need to make large-scale adjustments to their builds, and they want to clearly understand where they made mistakes and modify them in time, but unfortunately there is no such educational function in POE 2.

Although Path of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt has made some adjustments to reduce the degree of punishment for players’ death in the endgame, such as being able to create a new instance map after death and use Waystones with the same modifiers to enter it for a new round of exploration. But this cannot solve the genuine dilemma of players.

In fact, there are already many calls for the death review function in the popular action role-playing games in the current game world. Even Diablo 4, a powerful rival of POE 2, has been called by players to add this function, but they are indifferent.

So after Last Epoch, a common rival of POE 2 and D4, released Season 2 Tombs of the Erased, some disappointed players began to enter this more interesting game, because there are many features that players dream of, such as death review.

Even some players who have tried these two games called for POE 2 to learn from these features in Last Epoch in the next version to make themselves more competitive. Although the developers have not explicitly stated that they will consider adding this feature, players are still looking forward to it, because its popularity has become a trend just like couch co-op.

In general, because the difficulty of building and endgame in Path of Exile 2 is very high compared to similar games, the learning difficulty of players will also become higher. Therefore, if a death review screen is added, it may make it easier for them to learn from the experience of this battle and complete subsequent challenges faster.

Because the addition of this feature will improve the accessibility of the entire game, it is very useful for both novice exiles and high-level exiles. This will also indirectly lead to more new players pouring into POE 2, thereby expanding their influence. Like the players, I will also wait and see whether the developers can implement this new feature that can greatly improve the player's experience in the official version.

Players Want These Changes In The Next Update Of Path Of Exile 2! - For Loot, Gems And Maps
Players Want These Changes In The Next Update Of Path Of Exile 2! - For Loot, Gems And Maps

Path of Exile 2 was well received after its early access release in December last year, because it added a lot of new game content and mechanics compared to the original game. This positive momentum continued until early April this year, when the first major patch 0.2.0, and a new league Dawn of the Hunt were released.

Although the developers also spent a lot of time in this major update to bring players a variety of new content, such as new classes, new enemies and new maps, players did not buy it. Even though the developers subsequently launched nearly 5 patches to make up for the losses of players, players still complained about it.

Since Path of Exile 2 is still in the early access stage, there is still a lot of room for developers to modify. In view of this, this guide will summarize some of the key changes that POE 2 needs to make in the next update that are currently discussed the most in the player community and social platforms, and they may all make the player’s gaming experience better.

1. Drop Rate Needs To Be Increased

Although the quality and drop rate of Path of Exile 2 loot have been greatly improved compared to the original game, only a small number of gear and currency have enjoyed this preferential treatment, while the drop rate of other POE 2 Regal Orbs, Orb of Annulment, and Chaos Orbs that can greatly improve production efficiency is still very low in the game.

This makes it a very long and tedious process for players to make a high-rarity and high-quality affixed gear in the game. More importantly, in order to obtain those rarer Uniques directly through the campaign, players need to complete the running tasks of those more challenging maps.

In this case, the shortage of currency and the lack of gear effectiveness will make this challenge full of great risks. Therefore, players are very much hoping that the drop rate of these key items will become a little higher, making some high-tier maps more profitable, so that the entire game can be more explorable.

2. Add A Gem Supplier

The gem cutting system in POE 2 is recognized by players as a great addition to this sequel, because it allows players to customize their skills according to the needs of the current exploration. And when you enter a higher-level explorable area, you will get more Uncut Gems, which means you can use them to upgrade your current skills or unlock new skills.

But when you over-upgrade a skill and change an exploration style, you will find that your build urgently needs to be modified in terms of skills. But when you remove this skill gem, you need to use a lower-level Uncut Gem to fill this gap.

In order to obtain this Uncut Gem, you need to return to the low-level map to do boring farming again, and expect these randomly dropped items to be picked up by you as soon as possible, which will consume a lot of time and energy.

Most importantly, you also need to buy POE 2 Currency to make corresponding modifications to your already nearly perfect and powerful build, which is a completely avoidable consumption.

So if developers add a gem vendor to the game, whether it’s skill gems, support gems, or spirit gems, it will greatly save players the cost of searching for the gems they want, thereby greatly improving the quality of life of players.

3. Change The Map Layout

Path of Exile 2 has several very large maps, and many players have complained about having to circle the map many times to find the corresponding exit. And because of the unique map refresh mechanism in the sequel, the location of the exit will change when you enter the map at different times.

In addition, there are very few checkpoints on each map, which makes it impossible for players to respawn nearby and challenge an enemy or boss again after failing. All these factors make it difficult for players to quickly draw maps and get more loot from them.

The improvement that developers can make is to set more checkpoints and reduce the scope of each map so that players can better backtrack and farm effectively.

Not only that, many players who want to complete all campaigns quickly suggest that the exit of each map should be permanently marked. However, from the perspective of some players who want to explore in detail, this may have some negative effects, because after completing the main battles and quests, they will be very eager to leave the map instead of looking for some optional quests or bosses.

Of course, in addition to the changes in the game mechanism, players also hope that developers can optimize the performance of the game. Because in many actual explorations, the player’s configuration is far beyond the recommended configuration, but the game’s frame rate is still not stable, so developers may need to put this type of optimization on the agenda.

The above are some suggestions from many players on the recent major update of POE 2 and what they want to see in the next update. Although there is no guarantee that POE 2 will return to its peak state after revising these problems, it is worth affirming that will undoubtedly be a relief to those exiles who criticized patch 0.2.0 and are loyal to the original. I wish you a happy game!

How To Correctly Use The Newly Added Tactician In Path Of Exile 2 Dawn Of The Hunt League? - For Different Stages
How To Correctly Use The Newly Added Tactician In Path Of Exile 2 Dawn Of The Hunt League? - For Different Stages

Since the early access release of Path of Exile 2, players have been very surprised by the performance of Mercenary class. This character, which seems to be out of tune with the game style, has become the first choice for many players who love strategic battles with its super damage output and super practicality.

In the latest Dawn of the Hunt league, the developer added a new Ascendancy class called Tactician, which is a class with vigorous support, survivability and damage capabilities. And some of the passive skills and effect gains it provides have significantly improved the practicality of Mercenary.

For Tactician, you can make it a purely auxiliary support class, or you can make it a part-time auxiliary class. If you have just unlocked this Ascendancy class, but don’t know how to use it correctly, this guide will provide you with the most commonly used and most powerful build tips for Tactician.

It should be noted that the builds provided here are all available for single-player exploration, which will focus more on self-leveling, and we will continue to pay attention to those builds that can benefit your allies in cooperation.

Tactician Build Overview

Before using Tactician, a class with multiple builds, you need to select Mercenary as your standard class before the exploration begins, and be familiar with some subsequent commonly used active skills, such as Fragmentation Rounds, High Velocity Rounds, Explosive Grenade and Gas Grenade.

Because being familiar with the rotation between these skills will make your early game and the campaign process in Cruel Mode very smooth. When you reach the endgame, you can modify your build according to your needs, because at this time you already have a lot of Uncut Spirit Gems to unlock some new spells, thereby enhancing the damageability of the entire build.

But it is worth mentioning that although the damage ability of Mercenary (or Tactician) is strong, its survivability is also very weak. In a boss encounter, the most powerful build of this character will be in serious danger of death after three consecutive attacks from the enemy.

Therefore, many players who use Tactician build often stun the enemy in combat, which will open up a window for them to deal super high damage and successfully complete all challenges. So here are some strategies and tips for using Tactician build during your exploration, including the leveling stage and the endgame stage.

Leveling Stage

Act 1

Since the skills you have in Act 1 are only some basic skills that can help you get through the early game, such as Fragmentation Rounds, which can effectively defend you from monsters. When you unlock Tier 2 and above Uncut Skills Gems, you can cut them into Velocity Rounds and Flash Grenade, two very effective damage skill gems, to have higher clearing and combat capabilities.

Although you don’t have a lot of support gems in Act 1, you still need to place Scattershot and Double Barrel in the support slot of High Velocity Rounds, and Overpower and Second Wind behind Flash Grenade.

In addition, your defensive gear is also very important in the early stages of the game, so you need to try to find some armor or helmets with high dodge ratings and elemental resistance, and then buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade their rarity or re-roll their affixes.

When you level up a little, you can unlock Galvanic Shards and add Lightning Infusion and Martial Tempo to it to expand the effectiveness of this powerful elemental damage skill. Finally, after you successfully defeat King of the Mists boss, you can cut the first Uncut Spirit Gem you get into Herald of Thunder to increase the lightning damage you can apply.

Act 2

In Act 2, you will need to upgrade your existing skills as much as possible and unlock some new skills. The first new skill you need to unlock is Gas Grenade, and place Scattershot and Magnified Effect support gems on it.

In the case of a group of enemies attacking you, you can use Explosive Grenade and equip it with Second Wind and Inspiration support gems. The other most needed new skill in this act is Explosive Shot, because it will work perfectly with Explosive Grenade skill, further increasing the explosion damage you inflict on the enemy, especially if you choose Martial Tempo as its support gem.

At this time, the support gem of Galvanic Shards should be changed from Martial Tempo to Conduction. With this powerful build, the exploration process of this act will be very smooth until you enter Trial of Sekhemas, which can provide you with a tough challenge with a strong Tactician Ascendancy class.

Act 3 And Above

In this more difficult challenge, focus on upgrading your skills as much as possible and unlock Oil Grenade and Ripwire Ballista, both of which make some high-health enemies more vulnerable to high projectile damage and provide you with some defensive capabilities.

For the support gems of these two skill gems, Encumbrance increases the enemy movement speed caused by Oil Grenade by 15%, while Lockdown and Persistence make the damage inflicted by Ripwire Ballista stronger and more persistent.

If you miss the opportunity to gain Tactician Ascendancy in Trial of Sekhemas, you can also unlock it by completing Trial of Chaos in this act. However, if you have already unlocked Ascendancy class, you can also gain more Ascendancy points by completing this trial.

Finally, once you defeat Ignagduk, Bog Witch, you can use Uncut Spirit Gem it rewards you with unlocking Ghost Dance, which can be used with the support gem Clarity, which increases mana regeneration in this build by 30%.

In Cruel Mode, your overall build doesn’t actually need to be changed much, because most of the skill damage capabilities have been maximized. You can unlock Wind Dancer to enhance your defense capabilities according to your play style.

In addition, at this stage, the support gem slots of Gas Grenades and Galvanic Shards are no longer enough. You need to use two POE 2 Lesser Jeweler’s Orbs to increase this slot and place Primal Armament and Pierce in it.

Endgame Stage

When you complete all the main campaigns provided by POE 2, you enter the more challenging endgame content. Although your overall build is complete at this stage, you still need to modify it for subsequent game content.

For some key passive skills and active skill gems, you don’t need to modify them because their maximum effectiveness has been demonstrated. But the weapons and gear you use may need a major change.

In the early game exploration, your farming effectiveness and clearing ability may not be so important, so most of them are weapons that can inflict a lot of physical damage. In the endgame, you not only need to pay attention to the physical damage you cast, but also need to add some lightning damage to make you more profitable in some group enemy encounters.

Although your defensive gear such as armor and helmets are of a higher level before, and can allow you to complete some exploration tasks safely, the challenges of the enemies and monsters you face in the endgame are more difficult, so you also need amulets that can increase your maximum health and mana to escort you.

Overall Tips

In fact, the operation and gameplay of Tactician build are very simple. You only need to use the correct skill rotation (from Oil Grenade to Explosive Shot to Gas Grenades) to have super high damage output. But it has to be admitted that the cooldown time of these skills is very long. After you use a set of rotations, all skills may enter the cooldown time.

But this does not mean that you can only dodge to ensure your safety during this time. You can also throw Explosive Grenades at the enemy to cause more explosive damage until all skills are restored. Or, during the skill rotation, throw Ripwire Ballista at the enemy, which will stop the enemy from moving forward under the damage of the powerful crossbow, so that it can withstand more damage.

How Does Essence Drain Contagion Lich Build Work In POE 2 Dawn Of The Hunt League?
How Does Essence Drain Contagion Lich Build Work In POE 2 Dawn Of The Hunt League?

Exiles, the arrival of Dawn Of The Hunt League has brought us some new classes and Ascendancies, which also gives us more options for endgame builds. And here, an excellent league starter build we want to recommend is the new Lich Ascendancy based on Witch class, which is Essence Drain Contagion Lich.

Essence Drain Contagion Lich Overview

Lich is a very interesting Ascendancy class. It not only brings a new gameplay, but also is extremely powerful, causing a lot of damage in both the early and late game.

And Lich has perfect synergy with Essence Drain, because it has powerful defense nodes like Soulless Form and Eternal Life. And Lich class is also one of the few Ascendancy skills that Essence Drain will have a strong damage multiplier when using Eldritch Empowerment.

Essence Drain deals damage on top of regular hits, as well as secondary damage over time debuff that lasts for a set amount of time. When combined with Contagion skill, the damage over time spreads between groups of monsters, turning our primary damage into a large-scale clearing skill, and you can see groups of monsters on the screen exploding in an instant!

So, as the name suggests, this build revolves around two core mechanics, Essence Drain and Contagion. Now, let’s break down its mechanics.

Core Skills

As we said before, the core damage skills of this build are Essence Drain and Contagion, a combination that has actually been widely used since the early days of Path of Exile 1.

First, let’s understand the mechanics of Contagion, which is to apply a debuff to a single enemy and deal chaos damage over time. When an enemy affected by Contagion dies, it spreads all debuffs, including Contagion, to nearby enemies, and increases damage by +100% per jump, stacking up to 300%. This is really crazy!

For Essence Drain, after you fire a projectile, it can apply a powerful Chaos Damage over Time debuff to enemies. Currently, in POE 2, Essence Drain is the only skill besides Contagion that can apply a high Chaos Damage over Time debuff. So when an enemy affected by Contagion is killed by Essence Drain, its powerful Chaos Damage over Time will also spread to nearby enemies along with Contagion debuff.

Ascendancy Nodes

In Path of Exile 2, this playstyle was initially adopted by a few Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy players, making this class, which was not doing well in the early Early Access period, competitive.

However, after the release of Dawn Of The Hunt, Eternal Life mechanic of Lich class clearly proved that it was a better choice for this playstyle. Eternal Life Ascendancy node of Lich stipulates that life cannot be modified while having Energy Shield. At first glance, this seems to have two benefits, one is that as long as you have Energy Shield, you can prevent being killed instantly, and the other is that you are immune to chaos damage when Energy Shield is activated.

But the key is that when used in conjunction with Soulless Form passive skill, 10% of the damage will penetrate the energy shield. And after having Eternal Life, these penetration damage cannot modify life, which actually means that the penetration rate is converted into damage reduction.

Equipment

The core equipment of this build includes Atziri’s Disdain Gold Circlet, which makes 10% of the damage penetrate energy shield, and it also increases energy shield based on maximum life. In addition to this, you can also get Heavy Buffer, which increases maximum energy shield by 40% and makes 5% of the damage penetrate energy shield.

The combination of Soulless Form, Atziri’s Disdain and Heavy Buffer can get a total of 25% of the damage bypassing energy shield, which is equivalent to 25% flat damage reduction, which is extremely powerful.

Considering that the key equipment of this build is Atziri’s Disdain, we adjust its modifier priority to: Chaos Skill Gem Level > Chaos Damage > Spell Damage.

Currently, the price of Atziri’s Disdain on the market is very affordable, usually 1 Exalted Orb can be obtained, but the price of wands that provide chaos damage is relatively high, so if you want to get a continuous chaos damage debuff, then you may have to buy POE 2 Currency to get them.

In addition, thanks to the unique mechanism of Lich’s Eternal Life, defensive equipment can use life and energy shield at the same time, avoiding dependence on a single attribute, which greatly reduces the difficulty of obtaining defensive equipment. Therefore, except for expensive weapons, other equipment is still affordable.

Pros And Cons

In the character panel statistics, we can see that the damage per second (DPS) of Essence Drain Contagion Lich is 52,000, and the effective health value is 28,000 under normal circumstances.

As a Contagion Lich build with Eternal Life, you can apply various curse debuffs, chaos resistance, or take advantage of low life bonuses to get additional damage bonuses. Therefore, you can use it to clear all non-chaos immune content.

For the advantages of this build, we will consider that Contagion’s spread mechanism makes it extremely fast to clear the field, and the continuous damage gameplay allows you to clear all enemies in just a few seconds!

Of course, the disadvantages are also obvious. First, Essence Drain and Contagion are both single-target skills, so you can only trigger the spread effect when attacking the same enemy, and missing this combo will make you vulnerable. Secondly, running this build requires at least 2 active skills, which greatly increases the complexity of the buttons.

According to the current statistics for the new league, Lich has a usage rate of 13% in the ladder class, ranking second. Atziri’s Disdain maintains a usage rate of about 6% in the entire ladder ranking, making it the seventh most used unique item. The combination of Essence Drain and Contagion currently has a usage rate of about 7%, ranking 15th among all active skills.

There is no doubt that the build is relatively popular, probably because Lich is currently too powerful, but you have to consider that if Lich is nerfed, the effectiveness of this build may be severely affected.

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