Witch - [2.2] Occultist (Contagion + Essence Drain) Beginner starting build - Forum

" djnat wrote: " Miochan wrote: Anyone done lowlife out of this? Low life is certainly an option. The passive tree should look like this. However, I am not a big fan of lowlife ED, because I don't like the fact ED has no leech potential (0.50% is not that high even in a ZO scenario with vitality aura and some regen nodes like shaper), and because to get the pain attunement bonus you have to sacrifice lots of useful things, especially jewel sockets (a good-geared life based ED build takes at least seven of them). Plus, to have a good survivability when wearing Heretic's veil, you should sacrifice precious dps / mitigation gear slots like gloves (no winds of change, you need ES) or feet (no Atziri's step, you need Rainbowstride or good rare ES boots with resists). EDIT: I forgot to say you are really susceptible to stuns. You can solve this issue with a corrupted + 1 curse Chayula that frees a ring slot to use something better than Doedre's. I guess I'll stay hybrid. Do you have any other idea in upgrading my gear? I plan on making my armor carcass jack now and a +1 curse amulet.	Posted by Miochan#1918 on Mar 20, 2016, 12:23:21 PM Quote this Post
You can do some nice optimization on both your gear and your passive tree. For example, I find Malediction being a very weak choice for an Essence Drainer. The +1 curse cluster (whispers of doom) is easy to reach, has a 10% curse effect included in the pack and lets you gain 2 ascendancy points on your Occultist, so you can get Wicked Ward, which is a very powerful option. If you plain to go with 3 curses and some auras, maybe you will need some mana reservation nodes. Think about it. Carcass Jack is an excellent solution for an evasion / energy shield based character. If you use it, you can free some points in the tree removing some area of effect nodes. Usually the body armour slot is evaluated around some options: - Carcass Jack (Eva / ES) - Lightning Coil (Arm / Eva) - Belly of the beast (Arm / Eva) - Shavronne (ES / lowlife) - Rare Evasion / ES with life + resistances - Splendour (Eva / ES) Each one has its benefits. Carcass can be the easiest one to acquire at the start of a new league. Your belt is also a thing you should change for a good one with more life (a Leather belt is optimal, it can go up to 139 life, or a Chain belt if your ES scaling is better than the health points' one) and better resists / stats. When building your ED char, remember a thing: jewel sockets are STRONG! There are lots of stats which are good on jewels: - %max life / resistances - spell damage - chaos damage - damage over time - spell damage when holding a shield - projectile damage However, good jewels are really expensive, so they should be considered when you have some currency to spend to get godly ones. :D Last edited by djnat#4628 on Mar 20, 2016, 9:10:53 PM	Posted by djnat#4628 on Mar 20, 2016, 12:48:39 PM Quote this Post
" djnat wrote: You can do some nice optimization on both your gear and your passive tree. For example, I find Malediction being a very weak choice for an Essence Drainer. The +1 curse cluster (whispers of doom) is easy to reach, has a 10% curse effect included in the pack and lets you gain 2 ascendancy points on your Occultist, so you can get Wicked Ward, which is a very powerful option. If you plain to go with 3 curses and some auras, maybe you will need some mana reservation nodes. Think about it. Carcass Jack is an excellent solution for an evasion / energy shield based character. If you use it, you can free some points in the tree removing some area of effect nodes. Usually the body armour slot is evaluated around some options: - Carcass Jack (Eva / ES) - Lightning Coil (Arm / Eva) - Belly of the beast (Arm / Eva) - Shavronne (ES / lowlife) - Rare Evasion / ES with life + resistances - Splendour (Eva / ES) Each one has its benefits. Carcass can be the easiest one to acquire at the start of a new league. Your belt is also a thing you should change for a good one with more life (a Leather belt is optimal, it can go up to 139 life, or a moonstone one if your ES scaling is better than the health points' one) and better resists / stats. When building your ED char, remember a thing: jewel sockets are STRONG! There are lots of stats which are good on jewels: - %max life / resistances - spell damage - chaos damage - damage over time - spell damage when holding a shield - projectile damage However, good jewels are really expensive, so they should be considered when you have some currency to spend to get godly ones. :D What do you think of Profane Bloom? I think because of that ed often doesn't spread. Btw thanks for your help!	Posted by Miochan#1918 on Mar 20, 2016, 1:14:16 PM Quote this Post
Profane bloom is good for "Enemies you Curse take 10% increased Damage". This, coupled with Void Beacon, is a noticeable "real dps" boost. The pseudo-abyssalcry thing doesn't impress me, especially because the only problem of an ED build can be found in some single target fights; AOE is never a matter.	Posted by djnat#4628 on Mar 20, 2016, 1:53:17 PM Quote this Post
Hi, kind of new person here, how do you generate endurance charges with this build? I see many of you guys use immortal call, but I can't figure out the source of the endurance. Thanks!	Posted by vilg#0860 on Mar 20, 2016, 5:00:31 PM Quote this Post
Immortal call has a base duration of 0.4 seconds, which becomes 0.7 with a 20/20 increased duration (or even more if you take some duration nodes in the passive tree). This is generally more than enough to prevent insane damage spikes. This ED build does not have a way to generate endurance charges, unless you equip an Enduring Cry gem and cast it when it's needed. Last edited by djnat#4628 on Mar 20, 2016, 5:37:58 PM	Posted by djnat#4628 on Mar 20, 2016, 5:37:20 PM Quote this Post
Here is my take on the build, with built in MF (I had a 3 aura setup with Heretic's Veil, decided to drop it for MF), next step I planned was to get a 6 link high ES Atziri's Splendour (then rework some gear since I'll be able to drop some resistances): https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMBAAMeBAcEswceCPQOSA-rES0RLxGWE20UCRV-Fr8YahmKHNwfQR_HIvQkiyaIJpUrCit4LJwtizLROlg8BT1fRKtFR0kTSVFMs1JTUq9VrlXGWAdcQF3yYeJn_GjyadhqQ2qMbAttGXWedoJ4L3yDfOV88H6hf8aCEIPbhMWHy4ngjxqPpo_6kQeTH5MnlS6XBpeVl_SboZu1n9-hIqEvogCiQKLZp5usmK1KsNi00bVItzC7Tbv8vorAVMBmwzrEosgMyBTPFdAf3V_fsOZY62Pr7u987-vwH_DV9Pj1b_fX?accountName=Palaryel&characterName=YggLaria Resistances (total) are now 82/82/124 (I'll try to get this balanced out more for running ele weakness maps), 919 Armor (8%), 711 evasion (9%), 2885 HP, 2552 ES, INT 350, STR 104, DEX 164. Essence drain DMG is 4290-6425 hit + 25836,4 damage per second (obviously this is not calculating in Vulnerability Aura or AoE nodes) Running 29%/211% (268% on contagion with IIR gem) MF at the moment I'm not sure of it yet, but I might also drop Goldwyrm boots for some rare boots like the ones I used before the switch to MF (I'd like some input on this from people experienced with MF) Last edited by Palaryel#6900 on Mar 22, 2016, 6:18:06 AM	Posted by Palaryel#6900 on Mar 20, 2016, 9:41:11 PM Quote this Post
" djnat wrote: " Deciever wrote: What do you think about going acrobatics since we're deep into shadow's area of the skilltree anyway? It's a solid defensive choice. " Summoner wrote: How does poison work with ED? It doesn't add any tooltip DPS, and the only ED calculator I've found doesn't do poison in calculating its damage output. It does a percentage of the initial ED damage over 2 seconds, and stacks. Poison was one of the best possible supports in 2.1. In 2.2 its damage has been lowered by a crazy amount, and the fatal toxins node all ED / poison based builds took was halved in value. In 2.2, poison is NOT the way to go if you are playing ED / Contagion. What would you suggest instead then? Empower's outside my budget/time to play. Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?	Posted by Summoner#6275 on Mar 20, 2016, 10:34:38 PM Quote this Post
" Summoner wrote: " djnat wrote: " Deciever wrote: What do you think about going acrobatics since we're deep into shadow's area of the skilltree anyway? It's a solid defensive choice. " Summoner wrote: How does poison work with ED? It doesn't add any tooltip DPS, and the only ED calculator I've found doesn't do poison in calculating its damage output. It does a percentage of the initial ED damage over 2 seconds, and stacks. Poison was one of the best possible supports in 2.1. In 2.2 its damage has been lowered by a crazy amount, and the fatal toxins node all ED / poison based builds took was halved in value. In 2.2, poison is NOT the way to go if you are playing ED / Contagion. What would you suggest instead then? Empower's outside my budget/time to play. If you already have a red slot in your 5/6L, I'd go with ED+VM+RD+CD+Pierce+Less Duration	Posted by partyboy505#4256 on Mar 20, 2016, 10:41:48 PM Quote this Post
" Summoner wrote: What would you suggest instead then? Empower's outside my budget/time to play. Are you sure? Empower, if you search for a corrupted lvl 3 one, will cost you about 1-1.5 ex (or even less, if you get a lucky trade).	Posted by djnat#4628 on Mar 20, 2016, 11:27:15 PM Quote this Post