Overview
This Blood Mage build turns the Despair curse into its main damage source. Casting Despair drops the target’s chaos resistance hard, and with a specific support gem socketed the curse zone no longer just pops — it spawns toads that swarm out and deal the bulk of the damage. The result plays almost like a Herald: you throw one curse and the screen clears around you.
The creator rebuilt the setup from scratch over roughly a week, tested it in SSF from the early game, and pushed a ladder version to about 67–68M DPS. A rarity-geared version still reaches roughly 50–54M DPS and was strong enough to face-tank Grand Expeditions without kiting. It grew out of an Elemental Weakness curse variant the creator played earlier in 0.5, and they found the Despair version more fun and noticeably smoother through the early-to-endgame transition.
Scaling comes from stacking curse and chaos-spell gem levels (around +20 total from the staff, amulet and a corrupted Despair gem), plus chaos damage, spell damage and gain-as-extra modifiers converted to chaos.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Effectively one button — cast Despair and the toads do the work
- Huge DPS ceiling (68M ladder, ~50M+ with rarity gear)
- Blasphemy slows nearby monsters’ movement and action speed, so very little gets to hit you
- Withering Presence stacks Withered for a large chaos damage boost
- Comfortable 6,000+ energy shield, scalable to 8–10K
Cons
- The best support gem setup costs roughly 200 divine (including a Dialla’s Desire on Withering Presence)
- Heavily reliant on corrupted gems and +level gear to reach full damage
- Endgame gear (Mageblood, ladder pieces) pushes the ceiling but is very expensive
- Leveling plays differently; the switch to the full setup happens around level 65
Key Skills
- Despair — the curse that lowers chaos resistance and, with the right support, spawns the damage-dealing toads
- Blasphemy — aura-curses nearby enemies to heavily slow them
- Withering Presence — applies stacking Withered for more chaos damage taken
- Arctic Armour — extra defensive layer, enabled by the spirit saved with Dialla’s Desire
- Defensive panic button — a skill pressed when energy shield drops mid-fight
Gear & Anointments
- Staff: spell damage, chaos damage and a gain-as-extra prefix; crit chance to reach 100% crit, plus +curse/chaos spell levels
- Rings: spell damage first, then extra chaos damage, chaos damage and cast speed
- Amulet: spirit base with spell damage, cast speed and +5 to all curse skills; crit and chaos resistance are a bonus
- Boots: a unique that removes curse activation delay so toads spawn instantly — does not need a third socket if corrupted well
- Mageblood (optional): Diamond, Quicksilver and Silver flasks are the important three
- No mana flask needed thanks to Blood Magic
Exact unique and support gem names are listed in the creator’s guide and PoB, linked from the source video.
Endgame Notes
The creator provides early, mid (Mageblood), 100% crit Headhunter and late-endgame PoB sets. A rarity setup is recommended for farming; the ladder setup drops rarity for raw DPS.
Credits & Source
Build credited to Swordorin2. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage + voice commentary: 67M DPS, Blood Mage Despair Toads Build Rehberim - Path of Exile 2 Türkçe (PoE2).