PoE 3.11 Harvest Essence Drain Shadow Trickster Starter Build
This ED + Contagion build is offset by the skill having VERY LOW SINSGLETARGET, about 1M dps on a budget. It also has a 6 free sockets in your chest where you can put any chaos dot skill (soulrend, bane or blight) to effectively double your dps (2M total dps with blight).
Skill Gems Setup
-
Infused Channelling Support BodyArmour
-
Phase Run Boots
-
Contagion Gloves
-
Essence Drain Weapon
-
Discipline Weapon
Pros & Cons
+ Very fast mapper
+ All endgame bosses viable, including deep delve bosses.
+ Hardcore viable
+ Cheap, clear upgrade path. T16 maps 3EX, A8 sirus 10EX.
- You are a meta slave
- Performs really poorly in the timeless domain
- Requires heavy swaps for HoGM (but can actually do it)
- potentially clunky 1-2 playstyle (altho very fast)
Passive Skill Tree
Bandits
Kill them all
Ascendancy
Ghost dance - Escape artist - Patient reaper - Prolonged pain
Pantheon
Lunaris and Garukhan
Skill Tree
Leveling
Leveling is surprisingly smooth, as blight got massively buffed.
It is a great League starter, but will not be the fastest.
Note that this leveling section covers a standard leveling process using chaos dots. Using spellslinger is faster and offers a fresh and interesting playstyle, but is more complex and will not be covered here. This section is meant to be beginner friendly.
Here is a youtube guide I find relevent for chaosslinger leveling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iQM12qHc40
Level 4-12
Grab blight in act one after killing hillock. Try to get a 3link setup with the following support gems:
Blight, 
Arcane Surge Support, 
Infused Channelling Support,
All these gems are purchasable from Nessa in act 1 after killing Hillrake and getting a quicksilver flask.
Skill tree:
Level 13-24
Essence Drain, 
Void Manipulation Support, 
Controlled Destruction Support
Add a 3link essence drain to your setup, to boost singletarget. You should still pretty much only be uising blight, as it still clears well.
Kill all bandits to get 2 passive skill points.
Try to pick up rare items that makes you reach 75% elemental resistances. Chaos resistance doesn't matter.
At this point, you might start to have a few alchs worth of currency to spend, consider buying these cheap uniques:
Lifesprig, Driftwood Wand, 
Goldrim, Leather Cap, 
Wanderlust, Wool Shoes, 
Crest of Perandus, Pine Buckler
Skill tree:
Warning Following this leveling tree requires a few respec points. Keep the points you gain during the campaign.
Note that the selected cluster on the top right should be no witnesses, not trap and mine damage.
Level 25-31
At the start of act 3 (level 24), you gain access to a plethora of good gems, and 4 link items.
You should use the following auras:
Malevolence, 
Discipline, 
Purity of Elements
Only use purity of elements instead of discipline if you lack elemental resistances. You should not need this gem, but it's better than no resistances at all. If you struggle with mana sustain, deactivate discipline and only keep malevolence active.
At level 24, you also gain access to bane. Bane is much faster and smoother than blight, and will be your main skill from now on.
Setup a 4-links bane with the following gems:
Bane, 
Despair, Controlled Destruction Support, 
Swift Affliction Support
Bane deals massive damage and will carry your clear for the rest of the acts. You should only be using blight on tougher targets, and add an ED cast on bosses with a lot of health.
Skill tree:
Warning Following this leveling tree requires a few respec points. Keep the points you gain during the campaign.
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.11.0/AAAABAYAAAbnDkgPqxGWFr8fQSSLJikmiCaVJ6lJE1VLXfJeA2Hiaox2gn_GieCMNpMfmFOi2aQFsNi00bVItzDBa8M6yAzIFOOE5ljoWvVv
Level 32-60
Contagion, 
Increased Area of Effect Support, 
Intensify Support, 
Faster Casting Support
At this point, you may want to try using ED + contagion. For this, you will need a 4links with the following gems:
That said, low cast speed means it'll be clunky, and I personally much prefer using bane. Leveling the gems, even in offhand, is however a smart move.
since you are using ES and not mana to cast your skills, you should replace arcane surge in your blight setup by 
Efficacy Support
As soon as you aquire spreading rot, socket it near pain attenument to let your blight apply wither.
At this point, you should have 3 damaging setups:
- Bane, that has great aoe clear and applies despair.
- Blight, that you only use on tougher targets and gives infusion and wither.
- Essence drain that deals good additionnal damage for singletarget situations.
Skill tree:
Warning Following this leveling tree requires a few respec points. Keep the points you gain during the campaign.
Level 60-Early endgame
At this point, you should be nearing/at blood aqueducts.
You should try to obtain a 5-links body armor for your ED, with the following links:
Essence Drain, Controlled Destruction Support, Efficacy Support, Void Manipulation Support, Swift Affliction Support
The best would be to get a 5-links kintsugi, but at this point, any random rare will do just fine.
Drop bane, and make sure you have your 4-link contagion setup to combo with ED.
Your next upgrade should be a 
Cane of Unravelling, Ezomyte Staff, 5 links if possible. It will carry your damage in early maps just fine.
Now is also a good time to do merciless labyrinth, before you kill Kitava. If you are not at leaguestart, try to get a Vertex helmet, to massively boost your energy shield, evasion and auras. This item is usually somewhat expensive during the first few weeks of a league, and drops to a few chaos after the first rush to maps. Any helmet with decent ES will do just fine.
[link: vertex]
Skill tree:
This skill tree is a trimmed down version of the final tree for level 71.
You should be reaching to mind over matter last, to only take it when you have enough energy shield (>1500). This usually happens when you equip Hyrri's ire.
Maps/Endgame
The guide for maps/endgame is everything else in this thread.
To know what gear piece to upgrade, refer to the "what do I upgrade next" section. For each equipment slot, check the "gear section", and see what pieces you can use according you your budget.
Never forget: there is no such thing as a 10c build that does all content. The more time you spend fine tuning and investing on your character, the better it will be. Progress your atlas, and spend the earnings you make while doing so to improve the strength of your build.
