Progression Series Ep.5 - Quest Neglected Flame + Incarnation of Neglect - Path of Exile [3.26]

-----PoB 1----- I used Ethereal Knives in the early levels, then quickly swapped to Freezing Pulse. I used Freezing Pulse until I got Wintertide Brand and Creeping Frost from the vendor. -> This is where I switched to Cold DoT. I replaced Creeping Frost with Vortex once I got Vortex from the vendor, then I replaced Wintertide Brand with Vaal Cold Snap. Before respec tree - The basic starting tree, without any respec-ing. Points can be taken in any order. I rushed Mysticism, then Vampirism. Vaal Caress is a broken Cold DoT leveling item. Socket Vaal Cold Snap in here. Dual Rune Dagger Setup with Whirling Blades is super fast, especially with Vaal Caress. Price: Daggers - 2c total Vaal Caress - 1c unique Other gear - SSF gear -----PoB 2----- Spent 10c for Fated End, the most OP ring in the game for Cold DoT. Compared to Doedre's Damning or Anathema, Fated End provides certain upsides, such as: - much more dps than a perfect fractured hellical ring and much more dps than the other 2 ring options - enables Bane as a curse trigger skill, which doesn't reduce curse effect anymore with this ring and instead, the curses have more ramp time - enables the curse mastery "Non-Cursed Enemies you inflict Non-Aura Curses on are Blinded for 4 seconds" -> 100% consistent while mapping ; huge defensive layer early - bane feels SOOO GOOD to use ( you cast 2-3 curses at once ) -> BIG QoL and speed ; my build can do sanctum runs due to this - my build has a 4L setup as follows: Bane, Hex Bloom + 2 curses -> the setup with other 2 rings won't have hex bloom, which is a big drop in QoL and speed - you can focus on damaging curses entirely or a combination of defence/offence -> this setup is still superior to the other 2 ring options, because that specific defensive curse is giga boosted ( you double down on 1 specific type of curse, rather than getting enfeeble + temp chains together or just 1 of them ). Downsides: - skill issue ( if Bane is recasted while a boss is already cursed, then the curse effect won't ramp up to maximum and it resets to 0 curse effect bonus -> you lose dps!! ) - no good suffixes are present on this ring ( besides some %ES from intelligence ) -> no resists, a bit painful to fix - bane needs to be recasted more frequently ( curse duration is uselles with this ring ) You can't invest into curse effect points on the tree, because the ring already ramps up curse effect to a certain maximum ( you have to use alternative damage points ). -> this can be an upside or a downside, depending how you build your character. For me it's an upside, because I already invest into cluster jewel setups. About the "Curse Duration Expired on Enemy" PoB Config setting: It's set to 3, because with perfect rolls, this ring gives 120% bonus curse effect to each curse. Those curses ramp up to maximum in 6 seconds. To obtain the accurate consistent dps, we have to do: (220-100)/2 = 60% consistent curse effect dps, which is obtained in 6/2 = 3 seconds. Bane makes the curse ramp take longer ( ramp up time becomes more than 6 seconds due to bane's curse penalty ), which means that in reality, you will have a bit more damage than the numbers shown in PoB. *** I don't put Curse Duration Expired on Enemy = 4, because the math for bane might result in that duration being something around 3.4 -3.6 seconds or other numbers that aren't integers ( the game has a tendency to downgrade numbers to the closest integer value ) *** -----PoB 3----- 5 deaths total at lvl 82 - mercenaries became too op in maps ( be aware of physical slam skills, they one shot tricksters! ) - added new ring, new life flask, new boots Price: Daggers - 2c total Vaal Caress - 1c unique New boots - 1c + 3c on implicits = 4c ( not necessary to add implicits, yet ) Other gear - SSF gear -----PoB 4----- Death counter: 11 -> certain mercs just one shot, or juicy expeditions with hits can't be evaded Working towards double curse setup with bane + fated end. Took the caster mastery that opens chest ( super useful in expeditions ). Runegrafted the most op mastery for OG Cold DoT: Gain 1 Vaal Soul per second -> Cost: 30c -> makes Vaal Cold snap super consistent in maps and later on it can become a reliable frenzy charge generation tool during boss fights The mastery for daggers solo carries early progression and even the endgame. I get 20% suppress with some movement speed and much needed attack speed for whirling blades. -> I almost have capped suppression with no investment in gear! This is the moment to upgrade the character ( ES swap if possible ). Red maps are punishing and damage fell off. -----PoB 5----- Death counter: 23 -> some mercs continue to one shot and I still pop juiced expeditions with bad mods NOTE: VERY IMPORTANT !! !! The energy shield swap can be done from lvl 86 and onwards. I decided to swap after a few more levels. It depends on how comfortable you are with the build and how good your gear is. !! "Before ES swap" and "After ES swap" trees are min-maxed and show how to properly make this change. -> My gear was terrible ( around 7c worth of investment ) and I was running with a 4L Vortex and a 2L Vaal Cold Snap ( you should definitelly colour Vaal Caress and play with a 4L setup ). -> After the swap, my gear looks pretty good for defence. However, damage is still lacking. OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES !! !! I changed the elemental mastery into reduced reflected elemental damage taken because, if it's paired with Soul of Yugul, you pretty much have elemental reflect immunity ( It is technically not true, because valdo maps that have 100% reflect can still kill your character -> already tested ). !! The attributes mastery can be used either to fix stats or to get more energy shield. If you select int, then you will also get more evasion via the evasion mastery. !! I replaced "chance to suppress spell damage is lucky" from spell suppression mastery with spell suppression prevention, because you can roll a bit of suppress on gloves in order to get 100% suppress ( which I didn't hit with eldritch currency ). You should try and get it with cheap orbs. !! The other eldritch mods on my gear are whatever I managed to hit with what I had at the time, besides: grace aura effect ; gain a frenzy charge every x seconds. Grace aura effect is really good for having high evasion early on trickster and frenzy charge generation is MANDATORY! !! This brings us to the next point, which is: frenzy charge generation. -> There are a few ways to generate frenzy charges on a Cold DoT build, such as: 1) Ice trap setup with charged traps support -> pretty inconsistent at times and needs button mashing + more gem sockets ; also less visibility vs bosses. Ice trap is a trap that can trigger again ( x chance to trigger an additional time, which procs charged traps support ). Fire trap can be used, but it flashbangs you ( tested ). 2) Vaal Cold Snap + Swift Killer -> best way to do it early ; It also lets you use any tier of "gain a frenzy charge every x second", which is good on a budget. You can opt not to use the eldritch mod, but then you need crazy amounts of damage in order to cycle Vaal Cold Snap in time ( charges fall after roundabout half a minute ). The downside is having to wait until you get a Vaal Cold Snap proc. 3) Gain a frenzy charge every 10 seconds with Vaal Cold Snap + 20% frenzy charge duration on tree -> more expensive to get, but it doesn't require Swift Killer anymore. Vaal Cold Snap will accelerate the generation and the charges will never fall out. Vaal Cold Snap doesn't even need to be consistent ( one proc is enough to get max frenzies ). The downside is having to wait until you get a Vaal Cold Snap proc. 4) Gain a frenzy charge every 6 seconds vs uniques -> the most expensive route that "doesn't really need" Vaal Cold Snap ( charges go up faster ). The downside is that charges will fall off while mapping ( you lose attack/cast speed from frenzies ) or vs bosses ( if they have long phases ). I don't recommend, but it is an option. In this case, I would still use Vaal Cold Snap to accelerate the generation, which brings me to option 3). !! Charisma + Mana mastery + small cluster jewel with mana reservation efficiency and Sublime Form are enough to sustain all 3 of my auras, which are: Malevolence, Grace, Discipline. It also gives enough mana unreserved to comfortably cast every spell. You should get one cluster jewel setup like that with 3 nodes and increased effect though ( even more mana unreserved ). Defences breakdown: Wicked Ward + Spellbreaker is arguably the reason why would you want to play any trickster build. This combination allows you to make mistakes and even facetank, which is suitable for new players. Cold DoT is already a cheap noob-friendly build and all these things together make it even stronger. 8k ES is the point where all endgame content becomes trivial. My aim is around this mark or even 10k es ( aspirational ). ES + Evasion is the best combination of defences in this game, because if you get hit and then evade, your energy shield will start recharging ( since it wasn't damaged in the past 2 seconds ). This period can be adjusted via faster start of energy shield recharge ( which I scale to +100% ). Spellbreaker makes your recharge start instantly when you get hit by spells. Wicked Ward makes it so your energy shield recharge is not interrupted by damage. Besides faster start of energy shield recharge, energy shield recharge rate is also very important, because it essentially gives you more es regen. Having 95% chance to evade attacks ( evade cap ), allows you to recharge your energy shield more frequently and not get hit by physical attacks ( trickster's weakness ) I managed to get my Bane setup working. It is Bane + 2 damaging curses + Hex Bloom Support. -> this setup, in combination with Fated End, allows me to cheese damage and proliferate curses. I cast Bane once and all curses linked to it spread to enemies. -> enables the curse mastery "Non-Cursed Enemies you inflict Non-Aura Curses on are Blinded for 4 seconds", which boosts my chance to evade attacks. The rest of the points ( from lvl 86 to lvl 92 ) are meant to fix my character. Those aren't mandatory. My gear has overcapped cold resistance so I got the mastery for it. I needed str + dex so I got those points. Etc. Gear price ( updated ): - daggers: 1c each +4c each to upgrade the spell damage craft - helmet: SSF eldritch implicits ; base 5c ; crafting -> I used scours + orbs of binding to get it, super lucky ; you should throw dense fossils at it - chest: base 1d ( came with the enchant ) ; implicits: ~ 10c ; crafting -> threw 3 dense fossils at it, super lucky - gloves: literally from Karui Shores vendor ; implicits: SSF and I didn't hit anything good - boots: 1c + 3c on implicits - ring: from Rog - amulet: from Rog ; 2c craft + ~7c anoint -> Flash Freeze is good for damage + chill effect and it's a very cheap anoint - belt: SSF - Fated End - 10c - flasks: SSF The ES swap costs around 3-5d depending on luck. My setup also has wrong boots, wrong belt and wrong glove bases. You need ES boots + gloves and a Crystal belt / Micro-distillery belt ( this heist belt is for Balbala setup with Traitor Keystone ). Get Area of Effect on helmet implicit and gloves. I don't have those aoe rolls on my gear, but you should get them ( very important! ).