Heading to New Zealand soon. Video has an overview of my general plans. If you want to meet up, feel free to reach out! My Discord / direct messaging there works: https://discord.gg/dykZnn6

Patch notes for PoE 3.8 / Blight, with link to the section where balance changes are mentioned: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2627574#specificskillbalance

I tend to theorycraft on my Discord. You're welcome to join! https://discord.gg/dykZnn6

As always, if you like what you see, please like the video and consider subscribing to my channel. I try to publish at least one video per day, across multiple concurrent series in multiple games.

A quick update after a three month hiatus. I'm still alive, just recovering more slowly than I had hoped.

As always, if you like what you see, please like the video and consider subscribing to my channel. I try to publish at least one video per day, across multiple concurrent series in multiple games.

(Build guide in the description)

This build has two permanent minions (golem and holy relic), but once you start hitting and killing opponents with Dominating Blow, this number will grow up to 29. Against bosses, count on about half of that number. In a pinch, Vaal Summon Skeletons will add another 20 or so skeletons.

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- First build idea: https://pastebin.com/fiSbPuiS

Dominating Blow on kill:

- DB summons a Sentinel of Dominance with the rarity and mods of the killed enemy.
- Herald of Purity will summon a Sentinel of Purity
- Summon Phantasm on Kill will trigger 50%+ of the time to summon a Phantasm

Against unique enemies, each HIT has:

- a 10% chance to summon a Sentinel of Dominance
- a 20% chance to summon a Sentinel of Purity

Holy Relic releases physical damage novas and heal us and nearby minions. Stone Golem will roll over enemies and taunt them. Both minions are supported by Decay so they should keep this strong DoT applied to bosses.

Consecrated Path is your movement skill in combat. It has a short range teleport, applies Consecrated Ground (6% health regen!) and applies Fortify. Leap Slam is your long-distance movement skill.

Decoy Totem and Stone Golem are meant to taunt things away from you, while Vulnerability is meant to boost the overall damage output of yourself and your minions. Blind Support on the minion-summoning Heralds should help you get hit less often as well.

# Defense layers

From the outside in, these are the layers between enemies trying to murder you, and your health pool reaching zero.

- Decoy Totem + Stone Golem taunt enemies. Taunted enemies usually ignore you. Bosses are less likely to be taunted, so beware.
- All minions potentially distract enemies and are a screen that catches projectiles, again with the caveat that bosses might go for you anyway.
- Blind support on my Heralds to give those 5 minions blind on hit. That's 5x 10% chance to blind on hit...

Path of Exile 3.4: Delve takes us into the dark depths below Wraeclast. On the surface we'll hunt for special sulphite to fuel the mining cart that will light our way through the deadly darkness below. In the mines we'll find azurite to power up our mining gear and allow us to go deeper. The lighting engine has been upgraded, so going into the dark seems like a good way to showcase this.

Crafting gets some more love, with Resonator currency dropping that has sockets! Use the sockets to customise the outcome of what the resonators will craft. As a SSF player this looks very interesting!

A total of ten skills will get added or overhauled. Based on demonstrations and patch notes, it looks like we're getting a nice selection of minions skills, as well as herals for physical and chaos damage. There's a few chaos and arrow based skills, too. Oh, and the lightning-based Smite skill.

Dominating Blow got overhauled! It costs less mana, summons minions that copy mods and rarity of opponents, and summons minions against unique enemies. It's different from before, but looks kind of sweet nonetheless. Herald of Purity is a minion-summoning physical Herald, and Herald of Agony is a minion-summoning Chaos herald; both look like they could help a Dominating Blow minion-focused Guardian thanks to the overhauled minion nodes in the Templar area.

The Reliquary makes a comeback from Legacy League (patch 2.6), though updated for modern times. 150 unique items from past leagues can be found in the Reliquary, with an even item rarity distribution, but the access key will be even rarer than before. This is more of a lucky find / trade league thing.

*Game Info*

Path of Exile is an online Action RPG set in the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast. It is designed around deep character customisation and a strong online item economy. The game is completely free and will never be "pay to win".

- Game site: https://www.pathofexile.com/
- Delve League: https://www.pathofexile.com/delve
- 3.4.0..

(Check the description for a build guide and GrimTools links!)

This Venomancer build focuses on Ravenous Earth and Bloody Pox, with a smattering of defensive skills and a boatload of aggressive poison-themed devotions. Damage absorption, life regeneration, procced heals and weakening enemies with "curse" like effects is going to be the defensive aspect of this build.

Contrary to previous series, this won't be a Let's Play series, but I'll give periodic updates to show you what the build is like at various points in time.

Series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha0io8foavcQzd2wL8nFEfvK

# Build outline

Skill tree and Devotions:

* Endgame build with possible items: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVWKE3dV

# Skills outline

This build uses Bloody Pox to weaken groups of enemies and Ravenous Earth to deal with stronger foes, or tougher groups. Curse of Frailty's Vulnerability helps against stronger foes, while Ill Omen might prove helpful to send some weaker mobs running to their friends after you Bloody Pox them. The Blight Fiend is a walking curse, attracts some attention and might actually do a little bit of damage. This is not a pet build, so don't expect too much from the smelly zombie pet.

Blood of Dreeg provides health regeneration, so you want to keep it active at all times. Due to the duration being longer than the cooldown, you can use the heal on use effect as a combat heal. Mark of Torment is a panic button to help you get some damage absorption if you're getting attacked a lot. Devotion procs such as the Behemoth's heal and regen, and Tortoise's shield further aid you in staying alive.

Spectral Binding and its Spectral Wrath proc are incredibly strong early on: if you max it early, you'll have a lot of extra health, and you'll wreck most trash mobs with Spectral Wrath.

# Gear choices

Endgame you'll want the Dark One's Gift mythical set, which boosts Bloody Pox and Ravenous Earth. While leveling, focus on:

* Re..

TL;DW: Burnout from work, questioning everything in my life, taking a step back from YouTube. No more daily let's play videos, instead there will be infrequent build updates and theorycrafts. Thanks for watching all these years!

Path of Exile 3.3: Incursion will take us back in time to the ancient Vaal Empire, where we'll raid their temples and re-architect them to affect how they look in the present. After 11 raids to the past we get to see the result in the present and clear a huge map that we helped construct. Gameplay looks to have something of a timed Zana map / breach mechanic, so bring your clearspeed builds for this one.

Vaal skills got overhauled, and we get some new ones! There's a bunch of new traps, and a lot of fire skills have been refreshed to give the Ignite mechanic a boost. On top of this, other skills have been reworked and rebalanced as well.

The overhaul of traps as well as reworking of Arc and Vaal Arc adds up to a (Vaal) Arc Trapper. Saboteur will be the Ascendancy to use for this.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha25u0XDWgixmU6ATNLCOHPn

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- Very rough build idea (3 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/q4W91b4n
- Second iteration (5 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/gFrwp2Zv
- Build Overview after defeating the story (1 August 2018): https://pastebin.com/y8wqyXSf

*Skills*

Trap Support + (Vaal) Arc will be my main skill. Everything else supports this.

Damage boosts:

- Bear Trap immobilises and increases all trap damage taken by the monster
- Ice Golem increases crit rate
- Herald of Thunder boosts spell damage and has some extra attacks going out
- Power & frenzy charges generated by passive tree and Charged Traps give crit chance/mult and damage
- Conductivity increases shock chance and lowers lightning resistance

Survivability:

- Siphon Trap is a sustain mechanic that grants life & mana regen
- Decoy Totem and taunts mobs, groups them around traps
- CwDT Immortal Call grants phys immunity
- CwDT Enfeeble lowers monster damage output when I get hit
- Grace grants evasion, Vaal Grace is a panic dodge button
- Flame Dash teleports me across chasms/traps

Skills..

Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth is the first expansion for Grim Dawn, and it adds two new classes: the Necromancer and the Inquisitor, as well as extending the story by two acts.

In this series we'll play a Drain Essence using Death Knight (Necromancer/Soldier) through all three difficulties on hardcore (or my character will die trying).

Series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha2gxq2Gh04OyrzH0jVhCVR3

# Build outline

Skill tree and Devotions:

* Very basic level 35 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2j0v9rZ
* Very basic level 50 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZorKxoV
* Endgame build with possible items: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1jpQBZ
* Endgame build updated (4 May 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4VxdvgpV
* Actual character @ level 87 (10 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/DV9Q8JLV
* Actual character @ level 92 (18 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pKLAjN

The basic builds come equipped with green items that can be bought/crafted/farmed reliably or come from quest rewards. Some have nice synergies, boosting relevant skills, others are there simply to attach a component to (Ectoplasm, Focusing Prism, Soul Shard, Wrathstone). The Spectral War Shield is the only item that I think is mandatory for this build, because it greatly boosts Drain Essence. The bonus range and extra targets are very powerful.

Items from around level 40 and onwards will be based on whatever you find. Blue and Purple items are random drops, so it's less useful to plan for them.

Components: outside of the energy components I mentioned earlier, use them to fix your resistances. When those are maxed, get more health, armour or damage. In Elite and Ultimate, augments are used as bonus components. Wrathstone in your weapon + shield give you TWO auras you can activate to boost damage and have retaliation damage early on.

Notice that early on I keep Drain Essence and its support passives at a low level. Those skills i..

Path of Exile 3.3: Incursion will take us back in time to the ancient Vaal Empire, where we'll raid their temples and re-architect them to affect how they look in the present. After 11 raids to the past we get to see the result in the present and clear a huge map that we helped construct. Gameplay looks to have something of a timed Zana map / breach mechanic, so bring your clearspeed builds for this one.

Vaal skills got overhauled, and we get some new ones! There's a bunch of new traps, and a lot of fire skills have been refreshed to give the Ignite mechanic a boost. On top of this, other skills have been reworked and rebalanced as well.

The overhaul of traps as well as reworking of Arc and Vaal Arc adds up to a (Vaal) Arc Trapper. Saboteur will be the Ascendancy to use for this.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha25u0XDWgixmU6ATNLCOHPn

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- Very rough build idea (3 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/q4W91b4n
- Second iteration (5 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/gFrwp2Zv
- Build Overview after defeating the story (1 August 2018): https://pastebin.com/y8wqyXSf

*Skills*

Trap Support + (Vaal) Arc will be my main skill. Everything else supports this.

Damage boosts:

- Bear Trap immobilises and increases all trap damage taken by the monster
- Ice Golem increases crit rate
- Herald of Thunder boosts spell damage and has some extra attacks going out
- Power & frenzy charges generated by passive tree and Charged Traps give crit chance/mult and damage
- Conductivity increases shock chance and lowers lightning resistance

Survivability:

- Siphon Trap is a sustain mechanic that grants life & mana regen
- Decoy Totem and taunts mobs, groups them around traps
- CwDT Immortal Call grants phys immunity
- CwDT Enfeeble lowers monster damage output when I get hit
- Grace grants evasion, Vaal Grace is a panic dodge button
- Flame Dash teleports me across chasms/traps

Skills..

Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth is the first expansion for Grim Dawn, and it adds two new classes: the Necromancer and the Inquisitor, as well as extending the story by two acts.

In this series we'll play a Drain Essence using Death Knight (Necromancer/Soldier) through all three difficulties on hardcore (or my character will die trying).

Series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha2gxq2Gh04OyrzH0jVhCVR3

# Build outline

Skill tree and Devotions:

* Very basic level 35 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2j0v9rZ
* Very basic level 50 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZorKxoV
* Endgame build with possible items: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1jpQBZ
* Endgame build updated (4 May 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4VxdvgpV
* Actual character @ level 87 (10 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/DV9Q8JLV
* Actual character @ level 92 (18 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pKLAjN

The basic builds come equipped with green items that can be bought/crafted/farmed reliably or come from quest rewards. Some have nice synergies, boosting relevant skills, others are there simply to attach a component to (Ectoplasm, Focusing Prism, Soul Shard, Wrathstone). The Spectral War Shield is the only item that I think is mandatory for this build, because it greatly boosts Drain Essence. The bonus range and extra targets are very powerful.

Items from around level 40 and onwards will be based on whatever you find. Blue and Purple items are random drops, so it's less useful to plan for them.

Components: outside of the energy components I mentioned earlier, use them to fix your resistances. When those are maxed, get more health, armour or damage. In Elite and Ultimate, augments are used as bonus components. Wrathstone in your weapon + shield give you TWO auras you can activate to boost damage and have retaliation damage early on.

Notice that early on I keep Drain Essence and its support passives at a low level. Those skills i..

Path of Exile 3.4: Delve takes us into the dark depths below Wraeclast. On the surface we'll hunt for special sulphite to fuel the mining cart that will light our way through the deadly darkness below. In the mines we'll find azurite to power up our mining gear and allow us to go deeper. The lighting engine has been upgraded, so going into the dark seems like a good way to showcase this.

Crafting gets some more love, with Resonator currency dropping that has sockets! Use the sockets to customise the outcome of what the resonators will craft. As a SSF player this looks very interesting!

A total of ten skills will get added or overhauled (well, that's their plan...) and we've seen 3 so far:

- Smite, a lightning based melee attack that causes lighting to strike and grants a temporary lightning aura to you.
- Toxic Rain, the answer to the question what you could do to make Rain of Arrows jealous.
- Dominating Blow got overhauled! It costs less mana, summons minions that copy mods and rarity of opponents, and summons minions against unique enemies. It's different from before, but looks kind of sweet nonetheless.

The Reliquary makes a comeback from Legacy League (patch 2.6), though updated for modern times. 150 unique items from past leagues can be found in the Reliquary, with an even item rarity distribution, but the access key will be even rarer than before. This is more of a lucky find / trade league thing.

*Game Info*

Path of Exile is an online Action RPG set in the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast. It is designed around deep character customisation and a strong online item economy. The game is completely free and will never be "pay to win".

- Game site: https://www.pathofexile.com/
- Delve League: https://www.pathofexile.com/delve

*My Info*

- My loot filters: https://github.com/Narnach/path_of_exile_loot_filters
- My PoE profile: http://poeurl.com/Wze
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/narnach
- Twitch.tv: https://twitch.tv/narnach
- Twitter: https://twitter.co..

Path of Exile 3.3: Incursion will take us back in time to the ancient Vaal Empire, where we'll raid their temples and re-architect them to affect how they look in the present. After 11 raids to the past we get to see the result in the present and clear a huge map that we helped construct. Gameplay looks to have something of a timed Zana map / breach mechanic, so bring your clearspeed builds for this one.

Vaal skills got overhauled, and we get some new ones! There's a bunch of new traps, and a lot of fire skills have been refreshed to give the Ignite mechanic a boost. On top of this, other skills have been reworked and rebalanced as well.

The overhaul of traps as well as reworking of Arc and Vaal Arc adds up to a (Vaal) Arc Trapper. Saboteur will be the Ascendancy to use for this.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha25u0XDWgixmU6ATNLCOHPn

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- Very rough build idea (3 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/q4W91b4n
- Second iteration (5 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/gFrwp2Zv
- Build Overview after defeating the story (1 August 2018): https://pastebin.com/y8wqyXSf

*Skills*

Trap Support + (Vaal) Arc will be my main skill. Everything else supports this.

Damage boosts:

- Bear Trap immobilises and increases all trap damage taken by the monster
- Ice Golem increases crit rate
- Herald of Thunder boosts spell damage and has some extra attacks going out
- Power & frenzy charges generated by passive tree and Charged Traps give crit chance/mult and damage
- Conductivity increases shock chance and lowers lightning resistance

Survivability:

- Siphon Trap is a sustain mechanic that grants life & mana regen
- Decoy Totem and taunts mobs, groups them around traps
- CwDT Immortal Call grants phys immunity
- CwDT Enfeeble lowers monster damage output when I get hit
- Grace grants evasion, Vaal Grace is a panic dodge button
- Flame Dash teleports me across chasms/traps

Skills..

Path of Exile 3.3: Incursion will take us back in time to the ancient Vaal Empire, where we'll raid their temples and re-architect them to affect how they look in the present. After 11 raids to the past we get to see the result in the present and clear a huge map that we helped construct. Gameplay looks to have something of a timed Zana map / breach mechanic, so bring your clearspeed builds for this one.

Vaal skills got overhauled, and we get some new ones! There's a bunch of new traps, and a lot of fire skills have been refreshed to give the Ignite mechanic a boost. On top of this, other skills have been reworked and rebalanced as well.

The overhaul of traps as well as reworking of Arc and Vaal Arc adds up to a (Vaal) Arc Trapper. Saboteur will be the Ascendancy to use for this.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha25u0XDWgixmU6ATNLCOHPn

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- Very rough build idea (3 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/q4W91b4n
- Second iteration (5 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/gFrwp2Zv
- Build Overview after defeating the story (1 August 2018): https://pastebin.com/y8wqyXSf

*Skills*

Trap Support + (Vaal) Arc will be my main skill. Everything else supports this.

Damage boosts:

- Bear Trap immobilises and increases all trap damage taken by the monster
- Ice Golem increases crit rate
- Herald of Thunder boosts spell damage and has some extra attacks going out
- Power & frenzy charges generated by passive tree and Charged Traps give crit chance/mult and damage
- Conductivity increases shock chance and lowers lightning resistance

Survivability:

- Siphon Trap is a sustain mechanic that grants life & mana regen
- Decoy Totem and taunts mobs, groups them around traps
- CwDT Immortal Call grants phys immunity
- CwDT Enfeeble lowers monster damage output when I get hit
- Grace grants evasion, Vaal Grace is a panic dodge button
- Flame Dash teleports me across chasms/traps

Skills..

Path of Exile 3.3: Incursion will take us back in time to the ancient Vaal Empire, where we'll raid their temples and re-architect them to affect how they look in the present. After 11 raids to the past we get to see the result in the present and clear a huge map that we helped construct. Gameplay looks to have something of a timed Zana map / breach mechanic, so bring your clearspeed builds for this one.

Vaal skills got overhauled, and we get some new ones! There's a bunch of new traps, and a lot of fire skills have been refreshed to give the Ignite mechanic a boost. On top of this, other skills have been reworked and rebalanced as well.

The overhaul of traps as well as reworking of Arc and Vaal Arc adds up to a (Vaal) Arc Trapper. Saboteur will be the Ascendancy to use for this.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha25u0XDWgixmU6ATNLCOHPn

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- Very rough build idea (3 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/q4W91b4n
- Second iteration (5 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/gFrwp2Zv
- Build Overview after defeating the story (1 August 2018): https://pastebin.com/y8wqyXSf

*Skills*

Trap Support + (Vaal) Arc will be my main skill. Everything else supports this.

Damage boosts:

- Bear Trap immobilises and increases all trap damage taken by the monster
- Ice Golem increases crit rate
- Herald of Thunder boosts spell damage and has some extra attacks going out
- Power & frenzy charges generated by passive tree and Charged Traps give crit chance/mult and damage
- Conductivity increases shock chance and lowers lightning resistance

Survivability:

- Siphon Trap is a sustain mechanic that grants life & mana regen
- Decoy Totem and taunts mobs, groups them around traps
- CwDT Immortal Call grants phys immunity
- CwDT Enfeeble lowers monster damage output when I get hit
- Grace grants evasion, Vaal Grace is a panic dodge button
- Flame Dash teleports me across chasms/traps

Skills..

Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth is the first expansion for Grim Dawn, and it adds two new classes: the Necromancer and the Inquisitor, as well as extending the story by two acts.

In this series we'll play a Drain Essence using Death Knight (Necromancer/Soldier) through all three difficulties on hardcore (or my character will die trying).

Series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha2gxq2Gh04OyrzH0jVhCVR3

# Build outline

Skill tree and Devotions:

* Very basic level 35 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2j0v9rZ
* Very basic level 50 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZorKxoV
* Endgame build with possible items: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1jpQBZ
* Endgame build updated (4 May 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4VxdvgpV
* Actual character @ level 87 (10 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/DV9Q8JLV
* Actual character @ level 92 (18 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pKLAjN

The basic builds come equipped with green items that can be bought/crafted/farmed reliably or come from quest rewards. Some have nice synergies, boosting relevant skills, others are there simply to attach a component to (Ectoplasm, Focusing Prism, Soul Shard, Wrathstone). The Spectral War Shield is the only item that I think is mandatory for this build, because it greatly boosts Drain Essence. The bonus range and extra targets are very powerful.

Items from around level 40 and onwards will be based on whatever you find. Blue and Purple items are random drops, so it's less useful to plan for them.

Components: outside of the energy components I mentioned earlier, use them to fix your resistances. When those are maxed, get more health, armour or damage. In Elite and Ultimate, augments are used as bonus components. Wrathstone in your weapon + shield give you TWO auras you can activate to boost damage and have retaliation damage early on.

Notice that early on I keep Drain Essence and its support passives at a low level. Those skills i..

Path of Exile 3.3: Incursion will take us back in time to the ancient Vaal Empire, where we'll raid their temples and re-architect them to affect how they look in the present. After 11 raids to the past we get to see the result in the present and clear a huge map that we helped construct. Gameplay looks to have something of a timed Zana map / breach mechanic, so bring your clearspeed builds for this one.

Vaal skills got overhauled, and we get some new ones! There's a bunch of new traps, and a lot of fire skills have been refreshed to give the Ignite mechanic a boost. On top of this, other skills have been reworked and rebalanced as well.

The overhaul of traps as well as reworking of Arc and Vaal Arc adds up to a (Vaal) Arc Trapper. Saboteur will be the Ascendancy to use for this.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha25u0XDWgixmU6ATNLCOHPn

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- Very rough build idea (3 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/q4W91b4n
- Second iteration (5 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/gFrwp2Zv

*Skills*

Trap Support + (Vaal) Arc will be my main skill. Everything else supports this.

Damage boosts:

- Bear Trap immobilises and increases all trap damage taken by the monster
- Ice Golem increases crit rate
- Herald of Thunder boosts spell damage and has some extra attacks going out
- Power & frenzy charges generated by passive tree and Charged Traps give crit chance/mult and damage
- Conductivity increases shock chance and lowers lightning resistance

Survivability:

- Siphon Trap is a sustain mechanic that grants life & mana regen
- Decoy Totem and taunts mobs, groups them around traps
- CwDT Immortal Call grants phys immunity
- CwDT Enfeeble lowers monster damage output when I get hit
- Grace grants evasion, Vaal Grace is a panic dodge button
- Flame Dash teleports me across chasms/traps

Skills with links

- Vaal Arc + Trap Support + Charged Traps + Trap & Mine Support + Lightning P..

Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth is the first expansion for Grim Dawn, and it adds two new classes: the Necromancer and the Inquisitor, as well as extending the story by two acts.

In this series we'll play a Drain Essence using Death Knight (Necromancer/Soldier) through all three difficulties on hardcore (or my character will die trying).

Series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha2gxq2Gh04OyrzH0jVhCVR3

# Build outline

Skill tree and Devotions:

* Very basic level 35 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2j0v9rZ
* Very basic level 50 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZorKxoV
* Endgame build with possible items: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1jpQBZ
* Endgame build updated (4 May 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4VxdvgpV
* Actual character @ level 87 (10 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/DV9Q8JLV
* Actual character @ level 92 (18 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pKLAjN

The basic builds come equipped with green items that can be bought/crafted/farmed reliably or come from quest rewards. Some have nice synergies, boosting relevant skills, others are there simply to attach a component to (Ectoplasm, Focusing Prism, Soul Shard, Wrathstone). The Spectral War Shield is the only item that I think is mandatory for this build, because it greatly boosts Drain Essence. The bonus range and extra targets are very powerful.

Items from around level 40 and onwards will be based on whatever you find. Blue and Purple items are random drops, so it's less useful to plan for them.

Components: outside of the energy components I mentioned earlier, use them to fix your resistances. When those are maxed, get more health, armour or damage. In Elite and Ultimate, augments are used as bonus components. Wrathstone in your weapon + shield give you TWO auras you can activate to boost damage and have retaliation damage early on.

Notice that early on I keep Drain Essence and its support passives at a low level. Those skills i..

Path of Exile 3.3: Incursion will take us back in time to the ancient Vaal Empire, where we'll raid their temples and re-architect them to affect how they look in the present. After 11 raids to the past we get to see the result in the present and clear a huge map that we helped construct. Gameplay looks to have something of a timed Zana map / breach mechanic, so bring your clearspeed builds for this one.

Vaal skills got overhauled, and we get some new ones! There's a bunch of new traps, and a lot of fire skills have been refreshed to give the Ignite mechanic a boost. On top of this, other skills have been reworked and rebalanced as well.

The overhaul of traps as well as reworking of Arc and Vaal Arc adds up to a (Vaal) Arc Trapper. Saboteur will be the Ascendancy to use for this.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha25u0XDWgixmU6ATNLCOHPn

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- Very rough build idea (3 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/q4W91b4n
- Second iteration (5 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/gFrwp2Zv

*Skills*

Trap Support + (Vaal) Arc will be my main skill. Everything else supports this.

Damage boosts:

- Bear Trap immobilises and increases all trap damage taken by the monster
- Ice Golem increases crit rate
- Herald of Thunder boosts spell damage and has some extra attacks going out
- Power & frenzy charges generated by passive tree and Charged Traps give crit chance/mult and damage
- Conductivity increases shock chance and lowers lightning resistance

Survivability:

- Siphon Trap is a sustain mechanic that grants life & mana regen
- Decoy Totem and taunts mobs, groups them around traps
- CwDT Immortal Call grants phys immunity
- CwDT Enfeeble lowers monster damage output when I get hit
- Grace grants evasion, Vaal Grace is a panic dodge button
- Flame Dash teleports me across chasms/traps

Skills with links

- Vaal Arc + Trap Support + Charged Traps + Trap & Mine Support + Lightning P..

Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth is the first expansion for Grim Dawn, and it adds two new classes: the Necromancer and the Inquisitor, as well as extending the story by two acts.

In this series we'll play a Drain Essence using Death Knight (Necromancer/Soldier) through all three difficulties on hardcore (or my character will die trying).

Series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha2gxq2Gh04OyrzH0jVhCVR3

# Build outline

Skill tree and Devotions:

* Very basic level 35 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2j0v9rZ
* Very basic level 50 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZorKxoV
* Endgame build with possible items: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1jpQBZ
* Endgame build updated (4 May 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4VxdvgpV
* Actual character @ level 87 (10 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/DV9Q8JLV
* Actual character @ level 92 (18 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pKLAjN

The basic builds come equipped with green items that can be bought/crafted/farmed reliably or come from quest rewards. Some have nice synergies, boosting relevant skills, others are there simply to attach a component to (Ectoplasm, Focusing Prism, Soul Shard, Wrathstone). The Spectral War Shield is the only item that I think is mandatory for this build, because it greatly boosts Drain Essence. The bonus range and extra targets are very powerful.

Items from around level 40 and onwards will be based on whatever you find. Blue and Purple items are random drops, so it's less useful to plan for them.

Components: outside of the energy components I mentioned earlier, use them to fix your resistances. When those are maxed, get more health, armour or damage. In Elite and Ultimate, augments are used as bonus components. Wrathstone in your weapon + shield give you TWO auras you can activate to boost damage and have retaliation damage early on.

Notice that early on I keep Drain Essence and its support passives at a low level. Those skills i..

Path of Exile 3.3: Incursion will take us back in time to the ancient Vaal Empire, where we'll raid their temples and re-architect them to affect how they look in the present. After 11 raids to the past we get to see the result in the present and clear a huge map that we helped construct. Gameplay looks to have something of a timed Zana map / breach mechanic, so bring your clearspeed builds for this one.

Vaal skills got overhauled, and we get some new ones! There's a bunch of new traps, and a lot of fire skills have been refreshed to give the Ignite mechanic a boost. On top of this, other skills have been reworked and rebalanced as well.

The overhaul of traps as well as reworking of Arc and Vaal Arc adds up to a (Vaal) Arc Trapper. Saboteur will be the Ascendancy to use for this.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha25u0XDWgixmU6ATNLCOHPn

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- Very rough build idea (3 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/q4W91b4n
- Second iteration (5 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/gFrwp2Zv

*Skills*

Trap Support + (Vaal) Arc will be my main skill. Everything else supports this.

Damage boosts:

- Bear Trap immobilises and increases all trap damage taken by the monster
- Ice Golem increases crit rate
- Herald of Thunder boosts spell damage and has some extra attacks going out
- Power & frenzy charges generated by passive tree and Charged Traps give crit chance/mult and damage
- Conductivity increases shock chance and lowers lightning resistance

Survivability:

- Siphon Trap is a sustain mechanic that grants life & mana regen
- Decoy Totem and taunts mobs, groups them around traps
- CwDT Immortal Call grants phys immunity
- CwDT Enfeeble lowers monster damage output when I get hit
- Grace grants evasion, Vaal Grace is a panic dodge button
- Flame Dash teleports me across chasms/traps

Skills with links

- Vaal Arc + Trap Support + Charged Traps + Trap & Mine Support + Lightning P..

Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth is the first expansion for Grim Dawn, and it adds two new classes: the Necromancer and the Inquisitor, as well as extending the story by two acts.

In this series we'll play a Drain Essence using Death Knight (Necromancer/Soldier) through all three difficulties on hardcore (or my character will die trying).

Series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha2gxq2Gh04OyrzH0jVhCVR3

# Build outline

Skill tree and Devotions:

* Very basic level 35 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2j0v9rZ
* Very basic level 50 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZorKxoV
* Endgame build with possible items: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1jpQBZ
* Endgame build updated (4 May 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4VxdvgpV
* Actual character @ level 87 (10 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/DV9Q8JLV
* Actual character @ level 92 (18 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pKLAjN

The basic builds come equipped with green items that can be bought/crafted/farmed reliably or come from quest rewards. Some have nice synergies, boosting relevant skills, others are there simply to attach a component to (Ectoplasm, Focusing Prism, Soul Shard, Wrathstone). The Spectral War Shield is the only item that I think is mandatory for this build, because it greatly boosts Drain Essence. The bonus range and extra targets are very powerful.

Items from around level 40 and onwards will be based on whatever you find. Blue and Purple items are random drops, so it's less useful to plan for them.

Components: outside of the energy components I mentioned earlier, use them to fix your resistances. When those are maxed, get more health, armour or damage. In Elite and Ultimate, augments are used as bonus components. Wrathstone in your weapon + shield give you TWO auras you can activate to boost damage and have retaliation damage early on.

Notice that early on I keep Drain Essence and its support passives at a low level. Those skills i..

Path of Exile 3.3: Incursion will take us back in time to the ancient Vaal Empire, where we'll raid their temples and re-architect them to affect how they look in the present. After 11 raids to the past we get to see the result in the present and clear a huge map that we helped construct. Gameplay looks to have something of a timed Zana map / breach mechanic, so bring your clearspeed builds for this one.

Vaal skills got overhauled, and we get some new ones! There's a bunch of new traps, and a lot of fire skills have been refreshed to give the Ignite mechanic a boost. On top of this, other skills have been reworked and rebalanced as well.

The overhaul of traps as well as reworking of Arc and Vaal Arc adds up to a (Vaal) Arc Trapper. Saboteur will be the Ascendancy to use for this.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha25u0XDWgixmU6ATNLCOHPn

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- Very rough build idea (3 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/q4W91b4n
- Second iteration (5 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/gFrwp2Zv

*Skills*

Trap Support + (Vaal) Arc will be my main skill. Everything else supports this.

Damage boosts:

- Bear Trap immobilises and increases all trap damage taken by the monster
- Ice Golem increases crit rate
- Herald of Thunder boosts spell damage and has some extra attacks going out
- Power & frenzy charges generated by passive tree and Charged Traps give crit chance/mult and damage
- Conductivity increases shock chance and lowers lightning resistance

Survivability:

- Siphon Trap is a sustain mechanic that grants life & mana regen
- Decoy Totem and taunts mobs, groups them around traps
- CwDT Immortal Call grants phys immunity
- CwDT Enfeeble lowers monster damage output when I get hit
- Grace grants evasion, Vaal Grace is a panic dodge button
- Flame Dash teleports me across chasms/traps

Skills with links

- Vaal Arc + Trap Support + Charged Traps + Trap & Mine Support + Lightning P..

Path of Exile 3.3: Incursion will take us back in time to the ancient Vaal Empire, where we'll raid their temples and re-architect them to affect how they look in the present. After 11 raids to the past we get to see the result in the present and clear a huge map that we helped construct. Gameplay looks to have something of a timed Zana map / breach mechanic, so bring your clearspeed builds for this one.

Vaal skills got overhauled, and we get some new ones! There's a bunch of new traps, and a lot of fire skills have been refreshed to give the Ignite mechanic a boost. On top of this, other skills have been reworked and rebalanced as well.

The overhaul of traps as well as reworking of Arc and Vaal Arc adds up to a (Vaal) Arc Trapper. Saboteur will be the Ascendancy to use for this.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha25u0XDWgixmU6ATNLCOHPn

Path of Building (https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding) codes:

- Very rough build idea (3 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/q4W91b4n
- Second iteration (5 June 2018): https://pastebin.com/gFrwp2Zv

*Skills*

Trap Support + (Vaal) Arc will be my main skill. Everything else supports this.

Damage boosts:

- Bear Trap immobilises and increases all trap damage taken by the monster
- Ice Golem increases crit rate
- Herald of Thunder boosts spell damage and has some extra attacks going out
- Power & frenzy charges generated by passive tree and Charged Traps give crit chance/mult and damage
- Conductivity increases shock chance and lowers lightning resistance

Survivability:

- Siphon Trap is a sustain mechanic that grants life & mana regen
- Decoy Totem and taunts mobs, groups them around traps
- CwDT Immortal Call grants phys immunity
- CwDT Enfeeble lowers monster damage output when I get hit
- Grace grants evasion, Vaal Grace is a panic dodge button
- Flame Dash teleports me across chasms/traps

Skills with links

- Vaal Arc + Trap Support + Charged Traps + Trap & Mine Support + Lightning P..

Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth is the first expansion for Grim Dawn, and it adds two new classes: the Necromancer and the Inquisitor, as well as extending the story by two acts.

In this series we'll play a Drain Essence using Death Knight (Necromancer/Soldier) through all three difficulties on hardcore (or my character will die trying).

Series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=PLPo00Kvl9Ha2gxq2Gh04OyrzH0jVhCVR3

# Build outline

Skill tree and Devotions:

* Very basic level 35 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2j0v9rZ
* Very basic level 50 build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZorKxoV
* Endgame build with possible items: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1jpQBZ
* Endgame build updated (4 May 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4VxdvgpV
* Actual character @ level 87 (10 July 2018): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/DV9Q8JLV

The basic builds come equipped with green items that can be bought/crafted/farmed reliably or come from quest rewards. Some have nice synergies, boosting relevant skills, others are there simply to attach a component to (Ectoplasm, Focusing Prism, Soul Shard, Wrathstone). The Spectral War Shield is the only item that I think is mandatory for this build, because it greatly boosts Drain Essence. The bonus range and extra targets are very powerful.

Items from around level 40 and onwards will be based on whatever you find. Blue and Purple items are random drops, so it's less useful to plan for them.

Components: outside of the energy components I mentioned earlier, use them to fix your resistances. When those are maxed, get more health, armour or damage. In Elite and Ultimate, augments are used as bonus components. Wrathstone in your weapon + shield give you TWO auras you can activate to boost damage and have retaliation damage early on.

Notice that early on I keep Drain Essence and its support passives at a low level. Those skills increase in energy cost every 2-3 levels, so only push it over that limit if you have t..