I get that the physical echoing Strike build got nerfed heavily and the new go to is the magic build maxing hex purge damage.

But can’t you just prebuff on this build and still get realy good phys damage on top of purge damage. Basicly doing the same as the bowlock does ?

Most build guides just recommend void setup now for max magic damage.

But if you prebuff your hex purge and then switch to a big damage phys weapon, all you loose would be 15% magic damage on void but you could gain a lot phys damage. Is the phys portion of ES THAT bad? Is 15% magic damage outperforming smth like a 400% ED eth weapon ?


The setup I had in mind would be smth like this:

Hex purge Prebuff gear:

+ 3 helm (magic jewel), + 3 amu, + 6 tome, wraithstep, arach 2x opalvein magic , void with + 3 hex purge, 15% sunder.

Then I would switch to my phys gear.

Weapon: Death in eth decapitator
Offhand: Mephisto
Helmet: hellwarden (magic jewel)
Amu: 2/15+ @ crafted amu with life leech
Ring1: opal magic
Ring2: sling/ second opal
Belt: gheeds
Gloves: Magefist/to
Boots:gores

still running magic sunder.


This way I would get max level hex purge from prebuff.
On my Run gear I would still have hellwarden, Mephisto, gheeds, magic jewel, Sunder and opalvein/sling for max magic damage and - res. Would still consume defiler, since goatman consume only gives 100 ed, that’s nothing.

The only thing I would loose would be 15% magic damage from void. But I would get a 400% ed eth weapon. With death gores and levitation mastery You would hit like 75% chance to crit. All while still hitting 125fcr for ES.

You could also run might merc with pride then. On the void build your merc is just a mana battery. But if you switch to phys you can gain insane damage from him with might + conc aura.

Not sure about skills. Prob would run 1 defiler 1 consume and 1 bind demon with cursed/ holy freeze.


To sum it up : if you prebuff your purge and then switch to a phys build, you loose: 15% magic damage from void.
You gain: 400 Ed eth weapon damage with 75% crit , scaled by might and conc aura + amp damage demon.

Isn’t this worth it? Or is the phys scaling just that bad on ES now?

Or is purge different from bane and can’t realy be prebuffed?

This post was edited by Junglist69 on Jul 6 2026 03:21am

good post. interested in this as well.

Try it out with a hero editor?

Won’t have access to pc I’m on workation. But will do when I have the time

Bump, sorry still hadn’t time to play yet…. Anyone experimented with a prebuffed ES build yet?

Pretty sure hex purge doesn't snapshot like that, man. It calculates dynamically, so the second you swap to death, your purge level and damage will immediately drop to whatever your physical gear supports.
Even if it did work, the gameplay loop would feel awful. Swapping back and forth every couple of minutes just to lose your FCR breakpoints and magic pierce on the physical swap makes no sense. you’ll end up with mediocre physical damage and crippled magic clear speed. Honestly, better to just commit 100% to one side.

Well if it works that way and purge can’t be snapshoted then yes, it is awful.
If Prebuff would work just like bowlock I’m sure it could be worth. You sure Snapshot doesn’t work?

You won’t loose 125fcr with the setup I suggested though. Would still run sling + opal, hellwarden, Mephisto, mages/to, gheeds belt, magic jewel , magic sunder.
You would still have basicly all the magic modifiers, only void missing.

Add a 2/15 fcr lifeleech amu + gores and you still hit 125 fcr but with a 400 ed eth weapon and 75% deadly strike, possibly with might+concentration+ amp. Only thing you loose would be the magic dmg from void.

So if you could Snapshot and prebuff with full hex purge damage and then switch to the phys setup you would only loose 15% magic damage for a 400 ed weapon and 75% crit(+ might conc amp) Could also just run eth insight . That has to be better than the double dip of void (you would still prebuff with it, so only double dip missing).

But if you are right and snapshot doesn’t work, all that is useless and void is bis.

If you are not you could just play it like bowlock with prebuff and get some realy good phys dmg while sacrificing almost no magic dmg…

This post was edited by Junglist69 on Jul 14 2026 10:33am

Mrllama build is actually solid. Just add void with +3 hex purge, +3 amulet for prebuff(everyone game,..? dang) for example.
Tried this route and,.... meh but it works. even went as far as T5 heralds p8.

but,..Rather cleave/mirrored blades or abyss lock tbh.

This post was edited by GforceUSA on Jul 14 2026 09:37pm

This is wrong, physical ES is still better than magic.

But does Snapshot work or not ?

With prebuff and then switching you could just have both. Full power Magic damage from purge (only void double dip missing on rungear) + a great phys setup at 125fcr. That has to be stronger.

Need to get home from vacation to finally test this but with death or insight you could just run all the magic buffs and still get great phys dmg with high crit.

Can anyone confirm that snapshot works/doesn’t work?