[2.2] Occultist (Contagion + Essence Drain) Beginner starting build
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For now just a little theory-crafting, could actually use some help to make this build even more viable for new patch. Let's get started:
Starting in new league - Hardcore
Right now, i just tested this build by going completely self-found without using talisman neckless. As far as we keep safe position, this build is perfect for starting in new league due being pretty much self-sufficient in matter of self-found item base and still keeping decent dps while leveling. Rule of progressing is simple: contagion -> essence drain -> move forward and forget, monsters normally just die and give you experience. Fighting with bosses is mostly based on placing wither spell totem, spamming essence drain + occasionally in bosses like Malachai / Dominus just cast contagion to deal with adds. Kiting skills are required in this one.
(Theorycrafting) Occultist skilltree mechanics
Class skilltree: https://www.pathofexile.com/ascendancy/classes/Occultist Void Beacon: Both - reduced chaos resistance and life regeneration are very strong attributes for ED/Contagion build due making enemies weaker for our primary damage type - chaos damage and additionally dealing with annoying monsters having mod "Regenerates life" which makes killing them a bit longer. As we normally run around monsters to keep up Vulnerability curse, we pretty much utilize both of this attributes at same time. Profane Bloom: 10% additional damage on cursed enemies. After massive unjustified nerf 20% chance to proc corpse explosion for 25% of monster hp as chaos damage. Malediction: Enemies can have additional curse attribute allows us to completely drop 4 skillpoints from initial tree and put them into more survivality. Update (thanks to strikeg2) - additional damage do not affect us. Basically we gain a lot of usefull utility like exploding corpses + reducing chaos resistance on enemies which in my opinion is HUGE. Way to take skillpoints: Void Beacon (most important stats for us) -> Profane Bloom -> Malediction.
Pros
- Beginner friendly - Moderate / high dps (endgame gear can spike up to very high dps) - Fast clear speed - Decent xp per hour ratio, depends on player experience in leveling - Can do most map mods without problem - Dual curse without investing 4 points into curse part of skilltree - Chaos resistance debuff for monsters (Occultist special skill)
Cons
- Squishy in every stage of the game, not afk farm build, require attention - Till lvl 38 boring (first aoe nodes + aoe support gem for contagion)
Skilltree
!! Open with new PoE Skilltree Offline Planner for Ascendancy !! 124 points is counted together with occultist ascendancy skillpoints, don't get fooled.
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMA37BHyoIQfPB-oY-mkQdp2ESrQnpVrnpwLJwRLSt4fIMfx-vuLYsc3DLRbRm4k48aRUeX9Aj0IvQo-sBmUlPAVGwLgscEszwFl5U9X7zqakOTJ_noogCf3-98TLN_xu-IvopBh_AfBAfQH35ZEZb5N6Evtz6D2-_rDkgHHtfP_gpVxrcwXfKVLkmx8kXYvTpYFAkrCvDVOuE1kqyYE20RLwMeSVGP-qZX_o_31yaI62MfQVxATeOESFKvtUiHy1xrrUq7TXaCp5vDbWf83V_IDHWetNHPFRa_JpVqjGHi9W9VS8gUotmw2DY9napsjGKsaPIYPL0nGFY=
Core nodes: (Occultist) Void Beacon (Occultist) Profane Bloom (Occultist) Malediction 30 points leveling:
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMA37CCEI-mRKtVriycK3gfxy2LbRmX9FJTPV8i9GwLkyd_xhGWBx6VLvDVSVGP-lxAh8unm3WezxWXlQ5I
50 points leveling:
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMA37CCEI-mRKtVriycK3gfxy2LbRmX9FJTPV8i9GwLkyd_xhGWBx6VLvDVSVGP-lxAh8unm3WezxWXlQ5ItzAUCRNtJohMswQHg9tVxjpYrJj311Kvu03dX2f8rUrviPk3189JsQ==
80 points (4 ascendancy points):
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMA37BHyoIQu_x-oY-mFX5p2ESrVa4snBEtK3h8gx_HLYttGZf0IvRSU2wLl5U9X5MnTLN_xu-IBAcRlvk3g9sOSAce189VxrcwXfKVLkmxOlgUCSsK8NWsmBNtES8DHklRj_r31yaI62MfQVxAUq-bobVINj2Hy61Ku00YanaCnaqnm2f83V94L8gMbIx1nnzltNFirM8VWAcWvyaVYeJVSw==
96 points (6 ascendancy points):
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMA37BHyoIQu_x-oY-mFX5p2ESrxvdVrpJ0LJwRLSt4fIMfx-vuLYsc3DLRbRm4k0VHl_Qi9Cj6wGZSU2wLgsc8BZeVPV-TJ_non9_vfEyzf8bviEGHBAcRlvk3tz6D2w5IBx7Xz_4KVca3MF3ylS5JsfJF2L06WBQJKwrw1TWSrJgTbREvAx5JUY_699cmiOtjH0FcQFKvtUiHy61Ku012gqebZ_zdX8gMdZ600c8VFr8mlWHiVUuboRhqeC985VgH
------------- CI Option ------------- This is very work in progress skilltree and will need optimization. Just posting for people interested in this kind of build. I do not recommend going for it in early league due lack of good ES items which will make hard to build good ES amount.
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMAR8rfirv8fPB-oekCFX6RB2nYS64bJdlbbRmX9CL0EVBSU2wLNbmXlT1fkyenKx1PTLN_xr6KBAdFfqKjEZbK06EvHwIOXMHzDkgHHrQMNsVq-lyKtzBd8pUu6rqLehQJKwrw1Q18NAoBbxNtES8DHklRj_pXyTdm4vcmiOtjH0HsGFxAKPo3gyymhEi1SCy_h8u4k6brkNb311xrdoIV16ebHNxSr5uhw23IDIaudZ7r7o8arUq7TRhqtNFWY88Vpwgy0Wf83V94Lxa_na5FR3zlaowabMBmWAf1b_fBPAXIFJ_f73yi2bDY0B_v69DQX2o=
Bandits
Normal: Oak (+40 HP) Cruel: kill all Merc: kill all
Gem setup
Essence drain (chest): 4L: ED - Void Manipulation - Controlled Destruction - Rapid Decay 5L: ED - VM - CD - RD - Slower Projectile 6L in my opinion either Empower or Poison. Contagion (hands / boots): 4L: Contagion - Increased Area of Effect - Void Manipulation - Faster Casting Wither (weapon): 3L: Wither - Spell Totem - Faster Casting Curses (helmet): 3/4L: Blasphemy - Temporal Chains - Vulerability (- Enlighten / Arctic Armour if you have Alpha's Howl) CWDT (boots): 3L: Cast when damage taken - Arctic breath - Greater Multiple Projectile 1Slot: Chaos Golem Mobility (shield) - your personal choice, all works well: 3L: Lightning warp - Faster casting - Less duration 2L: Flame dash - Faster casting 2L (if you use dagger as main hand): Whirlwind blade - Faster attacks
Optimal Gear
Prioritize stats: 1. Life + ES 2. Armour + Resists 3. Chaos Damage + Damage over time 4. Spell damage TBA
Usefull uniques
Alpha's Howl - If you can afford it, take it. It will allow you to add Arctic Armour as additional defence and keep reasonable mana pool. Winds of Change - Great unique for ED since it gives massive amount of Projectile speed and projectile damage, binded together with slower projectile gem it buffs ED damage massively.
Final words
Since i plan to spend a lot of time polishing this build in new challenge HC league, i will update it right after league start. Things to add: - gear - map mods - atziri Feel free to leave your feedback and help in making this build look even better, contributors will be memoried in credits :). Have fun in new Perandus Challenge Leagues, wish you all good luck! Last edited by datenshiddd#0060 on Mar 3, 2016, 3:19:10 AM Last bumped on Aug 26, 2016, 2:42:06 PM
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Changelog:
01.03.2016 - Added Occultist mechanics for build - Uniques 02.03.2016 - Updated skilltree - small optimization, please check! - Updated Occultist mechanic regards ED skill on Malediction node - Visual improvment - Added CI skilltree 03.03.2016 - Final skilltree (please update your offline planner!) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for contribution in this guide: strikeg2 - Occultist Malediction mechanic Last edited by datenshiddd#0060 on Mar 2, 2016, 11:34:42 PM
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Many thanks for the guide, its just that im lookig for :).
Ill use it on hc perandus |
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reserved
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One question, what did you get Elemental damage nodes? As I know, chaos damage is not affected by elemental damage.
Thanks! |
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" It will not work with ED dot. This description means - if u have skill that deal 1k non-chaos(for example fire) damage with this buff it will deal 1k(fire) + 1k*0.04*(curse count)*(enemies killed in 4 seconds) chaos damage. So to deal with solo targets u need to use this setup: ED - Void Manipulation - Controlled Destruction - Rapid Decay - Poison - Iron Will(Empower lvl3) Also ED scales fine with projectile damage, not only Chaos/Dot/Spell, so get Sniper node, its great. |
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" Changed this, at the end 1 jewel slow isn't worth 2 wasted nodes. Thanks for pointing this out. " Golden words, thanks for explanation, changed this in guide. " Tbh we don't have too much strength to make Iron Will sufficient. I could prefer stay with Slower Projectile here since it boost dmg probably more in this case. While league will go on, i will think about making another guide for Iron Will RF ED/Contagion build. " True, dunno why i have it on my character but it wasn't in skilltree. Fixed, thanks for pointing. -- Updates in guide, please check. |
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Doesn't projectile damage only increase the initial hit of ED? Cause that's how I knew it so far and if I'm correct projectile damage is a bad stat for any ED build.
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" Projectile damage affects DoT component of ED same as spell damage, chaos damage and damage over time stats. |
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" Wow I just checked Wiki and it seems to be true. I heard it sometime back when it was released and I thought it was true and it only made sense cause ED's dot dmg is basically not projectile dmg, only the initial hit is.... Oh well edit: thanks! edit2: so I looked at the skill tree and it looks solid, why do you take Trickery tho? I played Mannercookie's ED build in HC Talisman but it was a shadow and now Occultist is the best class so we have to go with Witch. I used a Sai dagger for extra survivability and for Whirling Blades. Do you think Lightning Warp is a good movement skill? Especially now that we have Labyrinth I thought Whirling Blades would prolly be the best, not sure as I don't have Alpha access. What kinda items are you planning to use tho? I also used Rathpith and Atziri's Step but Manner's build was somewhat focusing on block as well as an alternative layer of defense. edit3: so one of the things I loved about that character is that it had really good defense. I could do t13+ maps with 2-3 dmg mods, thanks to IR, block and lots of HP and the fact that mobs didn't really hit me due to the playstyle of ED. But in the cons section you mentioned that this build is squishy and I can tell that. Do you think it could become as good defensively as Manner's build? Last edited by attiGT#7833 on Mar 2, 2016, 10:52:25 AM
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