ED/Contagion Trickster

Intro

This low budget, league start, and hardcore viable build guide is designed for all players veteran and new. If you’re a seasoned player and just want the PoB link then scroll down past the videos. If you want a more detailed guide then read on!

Changelog

Added

• Table of contents
• Optional check boxes for picking up gems in leveling section
• Advanced section

Fixed

• Updated for 3.8 (Blight) league
• Removed +1 Chaos wand vendor recipe

Added

• Screenshots for all trees
• Build diary videos
• Skill gems (Flesh and Stone)

Improved

• Formatting improvements

Guide published

Overview

The written portion of this build guide is designed for new players who feel like they need some hand holding. As such some things that veteran players and experienced racers might do in the early levels have been left out as to not be too complicated. That being said, this should still be a smooth and quick leveling experience.

Path of Building

Not sure how to use Path of Building, or what it is? Engineering Eternity has a brilliant guide that you can check out here https://exiledguides.com/home/poe-tools/path-of-building/

Pastebin Import: https://pastebin.com/X7vSFRBA

Gem Setup

Essence Drain: (In order of importance. If you only have a 5-link, leave out Energy Leech Support)
Essence Drain–Controlled Destruction Support–Efficacy Support–Void Manipulation Support–Swift Affliction Support–Energy Leech Support

Contagion:
Contagion–Increased Area of Effect Support–Intensify Support–Faster Casting Support

Movement:
Flame Dash–Faster Casting Support

Allelopathy gloves for Blight:(leave out Void Manipulation if you’re using a Blight gem until you get Allelopathy)
Infused Channeling Support–Efficacy Support–Controlled Destruction Support–Void Manipulation Support

Auras/Curse:
Malevolence / Arctic Armour / Flesh and Stone / Despair

Note: Flesh and Stone should be used in Sand Stance for its defensive properties.

Leveling

There are some good general leveling guides that can be found here for specifics on how to get through the acts: https://exiledguides.com/home/beginner-guides/leveling-guides/ 

Screenshots of leveling skill trees are provided at the end of each act. These also serve as a rough indicator of the level you would expect to be at by the end of the act. If you find that you have lots of extra skill points, you can probably afford to move a bit faster and kill a bit less.

Act 1

Got	Gem	Source	Quest
	Blight	Nessa	Enemy at the Gate
	Explosive Trap	Reward	Enemy at the Gate
	Contagion	Nessa	Breaking Some Eggs
	Void Manipulation	Reward	The Caged Brute
	Frost Blink	Reward	Breaking Some Eggs
	Essence Drain	Nessa	The Siren’s Cadence
	Infused Channeling	Reward	Mercy Mission
	Arcane Surge	Nessa	Mercy Mission
	Flame Dash	Reward	The Siren’s Cadence

After killing Hillock, choose Explosive Trap as your quest reward. 

Check Tarkleigh for move speed boots (you can use the search function at the bottom right of the trade window with Ctrl+F and type move to search a vendor’s inventory – this will highlight anything with move speed).

Check Nessa and buy any wands she has with 2 blue and 1 green linked sockets. Make sure you pick up items with these links if they drop from monsters!  One piece can have 3 blue links if needed.

After completing the quest ‘Breaking Some Eggs’ return to town at the next waypoint and pick up Frost Blink or Dash as your quest reward, also buy Contagion from Nessa. This is when you should go to Tidal Island and fetch Nessa’s Medicine Chest for a Quicksilver Flask and Infused Channeling Support in ‘Mercy Mission’.

Do the passive point quest ‘The Dweller in the Deep’.

Once you’ve killed Brutus, select Flame Dash as your quest reward, then left click flame dash on your bar,  and set it as “Always attack without moving” and buy Void Manipulation Support from Nessa.

You should now have a wand (or other piece of gear) with the following gems:
Blight–Infused Channeling Support–Void Manipulation Support

Complete the passive point quest ‘The Marooned Mariner’ (in the Ship Graveyard). Grab the waypoint in the Cavern of Wrath and head back to town to pick up Essence Drain as your reward. You can link this with Arcane Surge Support for now.

Blight and/or Contagion will be sufficient to clear most regular mobs (grey names at the top of screen). Throw in Essence Drain for extra damage on single-target tanky rare mobs (with yellow names) and bosses (with orange names). Head back to the Cavern of Wrath, kill Merveil and you’ve completed Act 1!

Act 2

Got	Gem	Source	Quest
	Arctic Armour	Reward	Intruders in Black
	Faster Casting Support	Reward	Sharp and Cruel
	Controlled Destruction	Yeena	Sharp and Cruel

In this build we kill all three bandits to get 2 passive points.

Once you’ve completed ‘Intruders in Black’ (in the Chamber of Sins) Gruest will reward you with Arctic Armour. This gem can go anywhere in your gear and does not need to be linked to anything. 

Once you complete the quest ‘Sharp and Cruel’, choose Faster Casting Support as your reward. Link this to your Flame Dash gem. Purchase Controlled Destruction Support from Yeena – this will replace Arcane Surge Support in your Essence Drain links.
Our new Essence Drain links should look like this:

Essence Drain–Controlled Destruction Support

Go and kill the Vaal Oversoul and get ready for Act 3!

Act 3

Got	Gem	Source	Quest
	Void Manipulation Support	Nessa (Act 1)	The Caged Brute
	Malevolence	Reward (Act 3)	Lost in Love
	Despair	Clarissa (Act 3)	Lost in Love

Once you complete ‘Lost in Love’ take Malevolence as your quest reward. While you’re at Clarissa, purchase Despair . From Lioneye’s Watch (the Act 1 town) buy another Void Manipulation Support from Nessa, and link it with Essence Drain.

What our gem links should look like at this point:

Wand or other (B–B–G):  Blight–Infused Channeling Support–Void Manipulation Support

Wand or other  (B–B–G): Essence Drain–Controlled Destruction Support–Void Manipulation Support

Any piece with 2 linked blue sockets: Flame Dash–Faster Casting Support

If/when you happen to have a 3-link available for Flame Dash,  you can also link Arcane Surge Support (at a low gem level, so that it activates off a single cast of Flame Dash). This will provide extra cast speed, more spell damage, and mana regeneration for a short duration after using Flame Dash (though keep in mind not to dash into packs).

note: this will stop working once we take eldritch battery,  but that comes much later.

Anywhere (no links required): Malevolence, which will reserve 50% of your mana to give you extra damage over time. Also Despair and Arctic Armour.

Activate your Malevolence aura and use Blight as your skill to clear trash mobs. When you come across tougher single-target enemies, supplement your damage with Essence Drain.  Don’t forget to cast Despair on bosses as well, as it will boost your damage significantly. This will now be our skill gem setup until we reach Act 9.

Act 4

Nothing new here, continue with your current setup. One thing to note though is that Doedre Darktongue (one of the mini-bosses before Malachai) has a skill that causes her to consume curses she is affected by to buff herself. If you find that you’re struggling with her, simply don’t curse her.

At the end of Act 4, pick up Increased Area of Effect Support as your reward from the quest ‘The Eternal Nightmare’. We’ll be using it later on, but you can just throw it into a spare socket to start leveling it for now.

Act 5

The only thing to mention in this act is to start looking out for gear pieces that are 4-linked with the colours that we’ll need later on (in Act 9). These are:

1x B–B–B–G

1x B–B–B–B

NOTE: Pick up the Spreading Rot threshold jewel from the quest reward in this act. Take a jewel socket in your passive tree and put this in ASAP. We only need 1 of these jewels.
(The screenshot below does not include a jewel socket – this is a mistake! Please allocate any close jewel socket for two points, such as the one directly below the Shadow’s starting nodes.)

Act 6

Got	Gem	Source	Quest
	Efficacy Support x2	Lilly	Fallen from Grace
	Flesh and Stone	Lilly	Fallen from Grace
	Zealotry	Lilly	Fallen from Grace

After you complete the quest ‘Fallen from Grace’ , Lilly sells all skill gems (apart from the few drop only gems).

Purchase 2x Efficacy Support, and place them in spare sockets in your unused weapon-swap slots to start leveling the gems. When they reach around level 5 or 6, swap one into your Essence Drain links instead of Controlled Destruction Support.

Act 8

Note:  If you struggle with Doedre (who reappears after this again) don’t curse her. Doedre eats curses in order to super charge her own attacks. 

From here on make the following change WHEN, and ONLY WHEN you have found the right sockets for ED/Contagion.  (Minimum 3-link Contagion and 4-link ED)

Essence Drain–Efficacy Support–Controlled Destruction Support–Void Manipulation Support

Contagion–Increased Area of Effect Support–Intensify Support–Faster Casting Support* (Faster Casting Support can be dropped if you only have a 3-link available.)

This is the earliest you can change from using Blight as your main damage source into ED/Contagion and have it feel good. You should cast Contagion first on any given pack, then launch one Essence Drain at the pack.   

Note: don’t drop your Blight links at this point, as you can use it to supplement your boss damage. You will find that you can just use Essence Drain and Contagion most of the time, but throw in some extra Blight on bosses or very tanky rare mobs.

Act 9

You should go back and do any side bosses in part 2 that you may have missed or skipped. The extra passive points are super nice and you are now well over-leveled so it should be easier.

Towards the end of this act we will pick up Eldritch Battery on the passive tree which will enable us to use energy shield for casting spells before mana. At this point you can turn on Flesh and Stone as well as Malevolence and Arctic Armour, as your ES should cover all of your mana costs.
Important: Make sure that you are in Sand Stance for Flesh and Stone, and not Blood Stance. Sand Stance will boost our defences, while Blood Stance will provide nothing (other than reserving our mana).

Note that if you have Arcane Surge Support linked to Flame Dash, it can now be removed from your links (as we are spending energy shield instead of mana for our skills, so the buff will no longer trigger).

Act 10

A 5-linked Essence Drain will be able to carry you well into red maps with these links:

Essence Drain–Efficacy Support–Controlled Destruction Support–Void Manipulation Support–Swift Affliction Support

The ideal 6th link is Empower Support, but until you have one of at least level 3 we can use Energy Shield Leech Support as a 6th link.

If you wish to farm a Tabula Rasa, the Blood Aqueducts at the beginning of Act 9 is a great place to get Humility cards and experience. Going back there at this stage can be a good idea if you want that Tabula Rasa.

Seeing as the 6th link will eventually be Empower Support, I suggest you purchase a level 1 Empower Support(or find one) and begin leveling it as soon as possible. It’s not really worth using until it is level 3 (you’ll be around level 92 by the time this happens)