This build has around 1.1M ED dps, 7-8k EHP and 2k effective regeneration per second and VERY TANKY. It focuses on much more defenses than other ED guides you will find out there, while achieving similar to higher damage numbers.

Quick Jump

Pros & Cons

  • + Fast mapper
  • + All endgame bosses viable, including deep delve bosses.
  • + Hardcore viable
  • + Cheap, clear upgrade path. Shaper 3EX, uber elder 8EX.
  • - Single target lacks, you are not oneshoting bosses.
  • - Doesn't do the DEEPEST delve bosses (4+ mods depth 1300 auls will kill you, but that's not really a build problem...)
  • - You are a meta slave
  • - Performs really poorly in the timeless domain, requires heavy swaps for HoGM (but can actually do it)

Skill Tree

Ascendancy: Ghost dance - Escape artist - Patient reaper - Prolonged pain

Pantheon: Soul of Lunaris and Soul of Shakari

Bandit: Kill All (recommended)

Passive Tree & PoB

~3ex t16 viable setup: https://pastebin.com/4xVpjVZQ

6500ehp - 450k ED dps + 650k blight dps - 75% dodge

~10ex all content setup: https://pastebin.com/97dc75gs

7500ehp - 850k ED dps + 1M blight dps - 75% dodge

Endgame setup: https://pastebin.com/CHNxZrcR

8600ehp - 1.8M ED dps + 3.5M blight dps - 73% dodge

 

 

 

 

Gems Setup

Weapon

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

There is no variation when it comes to essence drain. You should push for a 6l as soon as possible and buy a level 3 empower. If you only have a level 1 or 2 empower but you have a 6l, you should use Decay support instead:

Helmet

Vaal Discipline - Malevolence - Enlighten - Flame Dash

You should put your auras in your helmet because vertex gives +1 level of socketed gems. This means you will only need a level 3 enlighten instead of 4. It will also give a slight damage and ES boost by leveling your auras more.

Gloves

Contagion - Increased Area of Effect - Intensify - Faster Casting

If you use an es base gloves, you should put your Contagion setup here for ease of coloring. Intensify and area of effect supports are mandatory to make contagion's aoe massive. Faster casting is a nice quality of life boost.

Boots

Wither - Spell Totem - Multiple Totems - Increased Duration

I recommend placing a 4l wither totem here. If you can't afford red sockets or strength for increased duration, use faster casting instead. Don't use blight totems, it's lower range, worse hinder and takes a jewel slot. It's a noob trap.

Wither doubles our damage against anything that stands 2 seconds in the wither circle, it should be used against endgame bosses.

Body armor

Vaal Blight - Controlled Destruction - Efficacy - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Infused Channelling

Here you have some choice. For more damage, the best option is blight:

A CwdT setup is also viable with the following gems:

CWDT - Summon Stone Golem - Spirit Offering - Enfeeble - Steelskin

If you do not have aspect of the spider on a piece of gear, you should use flesh and stone in sand stance:

Lastly, a phase run gem can be good to add in. it's your choice wether you want to link it to CwdT or cast it yourself, but it is a good addition:

 

Gear Setup

Boots

Price scale: Budget - Expensive

Titan Greaves

+19 to Strength
+71 to maximum Life
+38% to Cold Resistance
30% increased Movement Speed
6% chance to Dodge Attack Hits
+20% to Fire and Lightning Resistances

Two-Toned Boots

Regenerate 2% of Life per second if you were Hit Recently


+12% to Cold and Lightning Resistances


+84 to maximum Life
30% increased Movement Speed
6% chance to Dodge Attack Hits
Unaffected by Desecrated Ground
Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers
+18% to Fire and Cold Resistances
+20% to Fire and Lightning Resistances

MATATL's boots with up to 6% attack dodge are hard to beat. They always come with 30% movement speed. Try to get life and resistances on top of the dodge/MS mod. A bad pair of boots with just MATATL's prefix and some life will be good enough for uber elder, don't stress it too much.

To try to minmax them, you should try to get t1 life and as much resistances as you can. The two-toned boots shown here are a great example of this.

ENCHANT: Movement speed or Regeneration. I prefer movement speed.

Weapon

Price scale: Budget - Midrange - Expensive

Cane of Unravelling

+18% Chance to Block Attack Damage while wielding a Staff
+47% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier
22% increased Chaos Damage
2% increased Cast Speed per Power Charge
+2 to Level of all Chaos Spell Skill Gems
Gain a Power Charge after Spending a total of 200 Mana
Regenerate 2 Mana per Second per Power Charge

Short Bow

+1 to Level of Socketed Gems
Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers
+2 to Level of Socketed Support Gems
+38% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier

Maraketh Bow

10% increased Movement Speed
Item sells for much more to vendors


+1 to Level of Socketed Gems
+34% to Damage over Time Multiplier
18% chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill
Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers
+2 to Level of Socketed Support Gems
+40% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplie

This is the only piece of gear you must invest in for endgame bosses. While the rest of items you wear can be 2 chaos trash, this one is important!

If you are on a budget, get a 4-5 links Cane of unraveling.

You should upgrade to a 6L one to clear red maps and conquerors.

Your endgame weapon should be an ED BOW and soul strike for better energy shield sustain. While you can usually get a 6l cane after a few weeks in a league for ~1ex, the shortbow shown here will be around 5ex to craft, and the maraketh bow around 10ex.

Gloves

Price scale: Budget - Expensive

Sorcerer Gloves

Adds 4 to 6 Physical Damage to Attacks
+74 to maximum Life
+41% to Fire Resistance
+34% to Lightning Resistance
+19% to Cold and Lightning Resistances

Sorcerer Gloves

Trigger Edict of Light when you take a Critical Strike


Item sells for much more to vendors


+16% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier

Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers
+1 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems
38% increased Energy Shield
+90 to maximum Life
8% increased Area of Effect
+19% to Fire and Cold Resistances

If you are on a budget, life and resists will do all content. If you have a bit more to spend, elder gloves with chaos multiplier are great.

ENCHANT: Of SPITE. Chills enemies around you when you get hit. awesome. Of LIGHT is also a somewhat decent choice but almost never actually triggers.

Helmet

Price scale: Budget - Midrange - Expensive

Martyr's Crown

Blight has 30% increased Hinder Duration
+196 to maximum Energy Shield
Reflects 5 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers
+5 Physical Damage taken from Attack Hits
Pain Attunement

The Vertex

+1 to Level of Socketed Gems
Socketed Gems have 50% reduced Mana Cost
279% increased Evasion and Energy Shield
+38 to maximum Energy Shield
+28% to Chaos Resistance
Enemies Cannot Leech Mana From you

Hubris Circlet

40% increased Essence Drain Damage


Item sells for much more to vendors


+61 to maximum Energy Shield
Nearby Enemies have -9% to Chaos Resistance
Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers
110% increased Energy Shield
+28 to maximum Life
+18% to Fire and Cold Resistances

Vertex is very cheap and difficult to beat! +1 gems allows us to have an additional level on enlighten as well as slightly boosted auras. It also gives the most ES out of any unique helmets, and also provides a lot of evasion. Best in slot, unless you obtain some truly insane rare hubris circlet. Martyr crown's is a good 1alch unique if you don't have access to vertex for some reason. I killed uber elder with it, it works. Just get high Energy shield to synergise with your ascendancy: Escape artist

Vertex can be beaten with a properly crafted rare. It is difficult to break 300es with more quality of life (750 eva and +1 gems), so Vertex is the go to helm as long as you can't afford a very well crafted rare hubris circlet.

If you have 20+EX to throw at a helmet, check out the crafting section below. A rare crafted helm will be 16% MORE damage overall and slightly more es, but slightly less evasion.

ENCHANT: 40% Essence drain damage.

Expensive, don't bother if you don't have the currency.

Body armor

Price scale: Budget - Midrange

Kintsugi (5L)

118% increased Evasion Rating
+66 to maximum Life
+30% to Fire Resistance
20% less Damage taken if you have not been Hit Recently
50% increased Evasion Rating if you have been Hit Recently

Hyrri's Ire

+49 to Dexterity
216% increased Evasion Rating
25% increased Chill Duration on Enemies
Adds 126 to 176 Cold Damage to Bow Attacks
10% chance to Dodge Attack Hits
10% chance to Dodge Spell Hits

Hyrri's ire is best in slot. It has insane evasion, giving us 500 flat ES from our ascendancy.

The dodge and spell dodge are also really cool, allowing us to reach dodge cap. Perfect form is an other option, but does not offer as many benefits as Hyrri's Ire. I'll go over it in the "popular alternatives" section.

If you are on a budget and cannot afford hyrri's ire, Kintsugi is a very nice chestpiece that only cost a couple chaos. It synergises very well with the dodge/evasion mechanics of this build and will prevents oneshot mechanics, especially on bosses. After playing with both for a while, I can however confirm that Hyrri's ire is still the superior choice when it comes to real endgame.

Rings

Price scale: Budget - Expensive

Two-Stone Ring

Your Temporal Towers have 25% increased Effect


+16% to Fire and Lightning Resistances


+18 to maximum Energy Shield
+72 to maximum Life
4% increased maximum Life
+21 to maximum Mana
+9% to Fire Resistance
+41% to Lightning Resistance
+1 to Minimum Endurance Charges

Two-Stone Ring

Your Freezebolt Towers fire 2 additional Projectiles


+16% to Fire and Cold Resistances


+147 to Evasion Rating
+93 to maximum Life
4% increased maximum Life
+16% to all Elemental Resistances
Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers
18% increased Damage
+1 to Minimum Endurance Charges

Life, resists. The usual. Try to get +1 Min endurance charge if possible, it is a massive survivability boost!

The temple mod gives up to 6% increased maximum life on top of the t1 roll. It is a bit more expensive than just flat life but well worth the cost.

3 Minimum endurance charges is our way to generate endurance charges.

Amulet

Price scale: Expensive

+30 to Strength


+16% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier
+58 to maximum Life
+34 to maximum Mana

39% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
+1 to Level of all Chaos Skill Gems
+1 to Minimum Endurance Charges

Again, aim for life, resists, and an endurance charge. You may also minmax it by having a chaos multiplier elder mod and/or +1 gems level, but that's way more expensive. Just get life and resistances to start.

Once again, I cannot stress how good +1 min endurance is for a single suffix if you are rescapped already.

Belt

Price scale: Budget - Expensive

Has 1 Abyssal Socket
Grants Level 20 Aspect of the Spider Skill
+97 to maximum Life
18% reduced Flask Charges used

Has 1 Abyssal Socket
+117 to maximum Life
12% increased maximum Life
19% reduced Flask Charges used
Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers
20% increased Damage
+20% to Fire and Lightning Resistances

Stygian vise with an onslaught jewel. On the belt itself, life and reduced flask charges used. This is a good spot to put aspect of the spider.

Tip: If you already have an other source of onslaught (on a bow most likely), you may get 2% dodge instead on the jewel!

Jewels

On rare jewels, aim for LIFE at all costs, then any damage source that affects you, like in any other build.

Green nightmare is a good option in the late game, as it gives frenzy charges on kill and a bit of dodge chance to reach cap without flasks. The 3% it gives puts us at 64% flat, which goes up to 69% with Solaris pantheon or 74% with quartz flask.
Don't forget dodge as increasing returns for each point you get, so you really want to reach that magic 75% cap.

Watcher's eye is really expensive this league, but pretty cool. The mod you are looking for is damage over time multiplier while affected by malevolence. Due to the price, this should be one of your last upgrades. It boosts your damage by around 7% compared to a normal rare jewel.

Inertia gives us strength. We need 111 to run increased duration, and 155 to run a level 20 Steelskin. It solves all attributes problems.

Brutal Restraint of deshret Transforms the keystones in radius to Wind dancer. Wind dancer is absolutely amazing, preventing you from oneshots and being up most of the time because of the high avoidance of this build. It also empowers ghost shrouds by 20%, and makes Lunaris pantheon and Steelskin proc very reliably, not worrying of oneshots before they proc.