[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Trickster Builds That Wreck Hard!

Updated:

04 Mar 2022

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Trickster Builds That Wreck Hard!

While the Trickster has fallen out of favor due to nerfs and lack of buffs by GGG, still can be a solid choice for certain builds. It’s definitely a jack-of-all-trades but master of none. That said, some have found ways to make him shine as bright as any other Ascendancy!

And here are some of the best Trickster builds in patch 3.17!

5 – Bloodslinger

Transcendence Exsanguinate MTX

Blood skills that were introduced back in 3.14, Ultimatum league, were a massive success due to their power and how well they can scale, and most particularly Exsanguinate and Corrupting Fever. There are a few ways to use them, and one of the easiest and most effective clearing version would be through Kinetic Blast with Spellslinger Support, and that’s exactly what this build does.

What the Bloodslinger Excels in:

Easy Low Life through Petrified Blood that also grants ‘Slayer’ leech
Fantastic and smooth clearing
Quite defensive with Ghost Dance, Evasion, and ES scaling
Can League-start very comfortably, without any required uniques to play

Bloodslinger full details:

Corrupting Fever works as a buff that you pay a massive life cost at the start of the map, and whenever you hit and refresh it, you apply more and more stacks, as well as proccing Exsanguinate through attacking the target. Since both skills scale similarly, you’re essentially doubling your damage by using both skills in tandem.
Exsanguinate, on the other hand, costs life to cast, and while that’s a massive drawback for most builds, the Trickster has a fantastical life sustain, both in life recovery rate as well as %life/mana/es gained on kill.
As this is a mapping build, our single target damage isn’t all that wonderful, but we can still comfortably clear all regular bosses and some of the weaker Pinnacle ones. With a Prism Guardian, you can reserve a lot more of your life to balance your life reservation in order to proc the Slayer leech, by reserving only 49% of your life, since, with Petrified Blood, you can’t go over 50%, and thus, you get infinite leech, that you can sustain with Exsanguinate’s base hit damage.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3080278

4 – Toxic Rain + Caustic Arrow

Toxic Rain

A tried-and-true build archetype, that only gets better as time goes on. While not on the same level as a Champion for survivability, or speed as a Raider, or even damage as an Occultist, the Trickster is the best of all worlds, able to be a mix of them, who’s the second quickest, the second tankiest, and deals more damage than all others except the Occultist.

What the Toxic Rain + Caustic Arrow Excels in:

Fantastic clear
Amazing sustain, both for mana and life/es
Really tanky, with lots of ES and Evasion scaling with Ghost Dance
Respectable Single Target damage with proper investment
Great for League Start and SSF

Toxic Rain + Caustic Arrow full details:

There’s really only a single choice in Ascendancy nodes you have, which is between Escape Artist or Weave the Arcane. Personally, I’m much fonder of Weave of the Arcane, since Toxic Rain has a hefty mana cost to spam. With the introduction of Forbidden Jewels in 3.17, now you can also take the Saboteur’s Born in the Shadows node for 15% reduced damage from blinded enemies (which will be everyone around you or that you attacked).
You’ll want two different 6-Link setups, but in this, you have some choice. You can either choose to clear with a Caustic Arrow with Arrow Nova or if you have +1 Arrow bow/quiver you can forgo that link, while using the secondary 6-L with Toxic Rain and Mirage Archer, or you can go with Ballista Totems. The other choice is using a clearing Toxic Rain with Mirage Archer and some utility links, like Withering Touch, and having Focused Ballista for your secondary, single target Toxic Rain.
Your tankiness comes from Ghost Dance, lots of evasion, a respectable amount of life, and crafting %Life as ES on your chest, to bump up your ES amount and going Hybrid. And if you get the Forbidden Jewel for Born in the Shadows, that’s another extremely strong layer of defense. It is the single highest source of general damage reduction in the game right now!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2467666

3 – Essence Drain / Contagion

Arcane Essence Drain MTX

A staple of Path of Exile, and one of the first builds I ever played that carried me into the endgame, back in Prophecy league. It’s simple, reliable, hasn’t changed much in years, and can still deal enough damage on a budget to carry you to red maps, and be able to farm into the actual endgame and bossing!

What ED/Contagion Excels in:

League Starter, HC, SSF viable
Decent Single Target damage
Amazing clearing with one-two hits
Comfortable to play and gear, and scales well with investment

Essence Drain Contagion full details:

While many people do not enjoy the ED/Cont gameplay of 2-button builds, the Trickster has so much cast speed and quality of life that you barely cast Contagion and it’s already killing things. There’s a couple of ways to build defenses and damage with the Trickster, but having a ton of evasion and ES while using Ghost Shrouds is a great combo.
You can either go with a +3 Bow setup, which gives a ton more damage or with a +5 all gems Staff, which costs so much. An alternative that has a lot less damage but can be ridiculously tanky would be with a +2 wand and a shield, and either go block or full Evasion.
Essence Drain scales superbly with levels and as such, that’s what you’ll want to stack as much as possible, and that’s why the +3 Bow can be so good, especially if you go Low life with a Shav’s and use the Soul Strike quiver, that gives a bunch of ES and a bucket load of Faster Recharge of ES, guaranteeing your safety with Wicked Ward!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2785198

2 – KP’s Blood Tendril King

Transcendence Exsanguinate MTX in Blood Aqueducts

Similar to the Bloodslinger, this one takes advantage of Trickster’s inherent synergy with DoT skills, but instead of going for a Spellslinger setup, we go full hand-casting, in a way to avoid the nerfs to trigger gems, and take advantage of the insane self-cast buffs Exsanguinate got!

What KP’s Blood Tendril King Excels in:

Very budget to start and can scale well into the endgame
Respectable single target damage
Fantastic clearing
Can get tankier with investment

KP’s Blood Tendril King full details:

This build also makes use of Corrupting Fever to help out with Single Target damage, and just works wonders for clearing, nearly doubling your DPS on just a 4-Link. With good leech and Trickster’s inherent life recovery, the life cost of both Exsang and CF are negligible and you barely notice it.
For defenses, you can spec into Ghost Dance and grab gear that gives you loads of evasion and ES, and with Grace and Malevolence, Defiance Banner, and maybe a Skitterbots if you can handle the mana, will guarantee you’re exceedingly tanky and able to survive the harshest of fights with your prologued sustain and survivability.
And with the introduction of Forbidden Jewels, especially for Trickster as they’re the least played Ascendancy at the moment, they’re all exceeding cheap (except for Swift Killer, as that’s the strongest node), you can grab yourself Born in the Shadows or Escape Artist to further improve your survivability!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229414

1 – Sith Lightning Tendrils

Lightning Tendrils

If you ever wanted to cosplay as Palpatine and zap your enemies into oblivion, this league has made it perfect for doing it! With over 80% more damage buffs in 3.17 for Lightning Tendrils, this is the time to give in to your anger and succumb to the dark side of PoE!

What the Sith Lightning Tendrils Excels in:

High Single target damage
Quite tanky
Respectable Clear
Comfortable to play with
You get to cosplay as a Sith Lord!

Sith Lightning Tendrils full details:

This build makes use of the ridiculously overpowered mechanic that is Alternating Ailments, like Brittle, Sap, and Scorch. While we don’t scorch enemies, we do have an Alternating Scepter that makes it so our lightning and cold damage Brittle and Sap enemies, and we convert our Lightning damage to Cold with the help of a Call of the Brotherhood unique ring, converting up to 48% of the damage.
This way, we barely have to have investment into Critical Strike Chance, as Brittle inflicts the enemies with a base chance of being hit by crit, which essentially guarantees that we have 100% crit chance, while Sap reduces the damage they deal. As such, we also scale a lot of Non-damaging Effects of Ailments in the tree and gear, to the point where we can guarantee a 15% Brittle and a 20% Sap!
Our survivability comes from stacking as much Energy Shield possible, with Divine Shield, Mind over Matter, and Eldritch Barrier, which makes it so our Energy Shield ‘protects’ our mana, which enables us to reserve 3 50% auras and one 35%, and makes it so 30% of damage we take be transferred to our ES. And whenever we take physical damage, because we also scale our armor, a percentage of the mitigated damage is regenerated as ES, making us have fantastic sustain!

For a full breakdown of this build, click here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2869437