First of all I’m a huge fan of dot builds and espacially the Essence Drain skill in PoE. I’ve been looking for a similar skill in LE but couldn’t find one so far. The dot skills I saw in build videos don’t really feel like what I’m looking for but I know that I’m most likely wrong
So long story short, Could you please suggest me a good dot starter build that is also viable for endgame aswell, for who has zero experience in LE? Or should I just pick one skill I like and stick with it?
I can’t recommend you any builds, but buillds are really not that needed in LE, since you can easily adapt a build.
If you like DoT Type abilities i can really recommend to check out Spirit Plague(Acolyte Base Skill), i think it’s one of the most interesting skills in LE, it has so many different applications.
By default it’s a (almost) single target DoT (you can hit multiple enemies if they are very close and the DoT will jump to a nearby enemy, if the target dies).
You can change the functionality, so you can manually spread the skill on top of the spreading on death, you can make it spread to multiple enemies, you can make it spread if you hit the target, you can make it spread if you crit a afflicted target.
You can combine this with some other DoT type skill or go a hybrid hit/dot build.
Skills you can combine with it very greatly are Bone Curse, Harvest, Rip Blood for example.
Depending if you wanna go caster or melee.
Just go for it, experiment. See what you like. Generally each and every skill is endgame viable if you put enough thought into the build and synergies.
Im an absolute PoE noob. Just googled essence drain to see, what it does.
So there is a skill that might be similar, perhaps. It’s the Hungering Souls skill of the Acolyte.
This skill shoots necrotic skulls at the target that hit and possess the target, dealing necrotic dot.
With health leech you can also heal yourself as leech also applies to dots.
You can build this skill for aoe with increasing the number of skulls it shoots. Or you go for a single larger skull that deals more damage.
In combination with Spirit plague you get through the story very easily. Have made such a build recently. Don’t know how well it scales in endgame, as Hungering Souls is not the most op skill. But you might wanna try yourself. You can switch to another skill later if it’s not your flavour.
I’d just say, stick with your choices for a time before switching. Some skills need 4-5 levels to begin to shine.
As Heavy stated, Lich is your go to class for dot abilities.
u can try this combination with Acolyte - Lich class - Aura of Decay (passive aoe aura), Hungering Souls (passive casting), Spirit Plague for stacking buff for + DOT damage for each cast or each spread, poison Wandering Spirits for good aoe damage and stacking Poison on bosses and poison Drain Life or Soul Feast for additional poison stacks and dmg. I still dunno which is better - Drain Life or Soul Feast - cuz i didnt play on this build much enough, but this build is lazy and good for new players. But u must have 3 unique items - Exsanguinous,
Plague Bearer’s Staff, Last Steps of the Living. Other items need some resistances, +9999999999999999 Health, +OT damage so u can tank all in this game
If u wanna some advices u can reply my here or in personal messages - ill send u some screenshoots and mb can explain u smth. And sry for my bad eng
P.S.
I love the combination of Infection and Essence Drain in POE, my favorite build
