PoB: https://pobb.in/ImKFPkyqCLrJ

Firstly, unless you’re one of the 10 other people playing ED/Cont, you probably don’t want to follow this build. It’s not exactly what you’d define as powerful, especially given its budget.

I’ve always liked ED, so I decided to play it with some of the new toys we got in 3.23. Gear is a typical power charge stacking setup with some changes to accommodate Chaos DoT.

Pros:

• Powerful enough for most non-Uber content
• Very satisfying prolif for expedition, legion, etc.
• High recovery, decent mitigation (6k ES, 70% evade, 70% phys mitigation)
• Adequate DPS (1.3M ED, 5M Blight) despite investing heavily in AoE
• You get to feel special for playing this shyt skill in 2024

Cons:

• Probably can’t do Uber bosses or Simulacrum 30 (without some re-hauling)
• Meme build
• It’s ED Contagion
• I take attributes on my tree. Sue me.

Area of Effect

Contagion received a change to its quality modifier, now granting it +0.2m radius per 20% quality.

• 67% quality Contagion (23 base, 28 from Ashes, 16 from Enhance 3) with 2.3m base radius
• 22% increased AoE per power charge (6% from Occultist, 12% from 3x Occultist charms, 4% from That Which Was Taken)
• 10 power charges (3 base, 3 tree, 1 Occultist, 1 Void battery, 1 Belt, 1 Helm)
• Ralakesh boots guarantee charge uptime

With the following setup we get 4.8m radius Contagion, which is almost screen-wide.

Ashes of the Stars

Beside Contagion AoE, what 51% quality (23 base + 28 Ashes) on gems mean:

• 21/48 ED: regenerating 1.7% of tooltip damage as life per second - around 3k regen/s when ED is active
• 20/51 Despair: -30 chaos res w/ 25% increased curse effect = -37% chaos res
• 20/51 Withering step: inflicting 12 withered debuffs instead of 9

Defenses

There’s not much flexibility for defense because of some mandatory items, but I managed to fit in armor and evasion by using the two respective auras

• Evasion you can actually feel in-game (+4 evasion from Helmet Trickster charm * 3)
• 85% reduced bonus damage from critical strikes (tree + Determination Watcher’s Eye)
• 120% of elemental damage recouped as ES (Graven’s Secret)
• Stun + Ele. ailment immune (Occultist & Purity of Elements)

What I’d upgrade (with more investment)

• A good DoT Wand (gem levels, DoT multi) is an almost strict upgrade from Void Battery (-meme points). This is because we get a lot of %increased spell damage from stacking power charges. Compared to traditional Chaos DoT builds, the current setup lacks multi.
• Mageblood would actually improve itemization vastly, since the build lacks attributes and resistances. Triple Ele flasks would help against large elemental hits, which is the build’s weakness from playing it a bunch.
• Corrupted +gem level Shavs
• Finding a way to fit Vast Power cluster jewels into the build for more AoE
• +1 power charge precursors, if we need another giant currency hole to fill for some reason

If I didn’t play on a potato PC, I’d record some gameplay footage, but in the meantime I’d love to answer any of your questions and take your suggestions.

I really enjoy playing the build and have so far invested ~50div into the build. For the investment, the damage is quite weak (it is ED in 2024, after all, a skill quite overshadowed by others), but I’m leveling in t16 wisp maps if that’s useful information for anyone.