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

I'm also enjoying this build a lot, leveling in cruel atm with self found gear (new player), it's not hard to kill monsters alone but it's really important to keep the golem and the wither spell totem up so they are slowed down and can't reach you before they die. Arctic breath and armor also help in that regard.
The skill trees can be opened using https://github.com/EmmittJ/PoESkillTree/releases

So I got lucky, in one of my first Perandus boxes I found Doedre's Damning. Might it be better to use that, and go Wicked Ward instead of Malediction?

Also, what's your opinion on Heretic's Veil?

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Hephoran wrote:

So I got lucky, in one of my first Perandus boxes I found Doedre's Damning. Might it be better to use that, and go Wicked Ward instead of Malediction?

Also, what's your opinion on Heretic's Veil?

If you leaned more on ES than life Ward might be worth. Would want to ditch the life nodes though in this build.

That helm is baller, would be a perfect fit on this build. Definitely going to keep an eye out for one.

Just killed cruel Malachai with no deaths in cruel with rubbish gear and 20% resists. Any idea what gear I need? At the moment im literally on a 30% spell damage wand and a 20% spell damage shield

My variant of buld.

trying out this build in the new league, and i feel so much squishy, so far ive been using energy shield stuff mainly, what should i do?

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Rockstarpanda wrote:

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Justifiedsoul wrote:

-snip

i would say that its to help with moving away from packs that get in your face. freezing them and moving back to help not take damage that isn't needed is always a good plan on a build that has you dot and ed. i run the chaos golem in that same set up so i don't have to cast him lol [/quote]

Thanks for the explanation!

I really enjoy this build so far, just one question about leveling Cast When Damage Taken gem. Should I upgrade it to higher possible level, or just stop upgrading it at specific level ?

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liama wrote:

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMAAN-Ku_x-oekCFX5p2EuuxvcbJZJ02VttGRFQl_Qi9DW5UlNsC6crl5U9X5MnTLO-in_G74gEB9AfoS_K0xGWwcX5N4Pb7-u0DA5I7BhYWtfPVcbqul3ytzCP-nC7Tm1SKUmxOlgNfCsKFAlcQKXEVeCsmFfJES8DHhNth8ucMvfXKPrrYx9BJoinm4RIUq-Cx7iTtUh1nlxru02tSh2--egc3HaCzxXDbd1fZ_wzhxg8QYePGsgMA-69J5y-tz600RhWDR_-Cha_PCjyRdi9JpUPqzrhNZJh4iSLpldVS8M6ieCbteZYhMWTH0kT8NVJUQAA

My variant of buld.

I see you've got a lot of jewel slots, what do you plan to put in there?

It's my CI half-theorycrafted tree:

http://poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMBAx4EBw18DkgPqxEvEVARlhV-FdcWvxcvGGoZihpsGo8bJRzcHRQdTx9BIvQkiyaIKwosvzLRNbk8BT1fRUdHykkTSVFLrkyzUlNSr1XWVmNYB1xAXGtd8l8qZOdn_GnYbAttGXRVdZ52gngvfOV88H6hf8aApIRIhq6Hy4ngjxqPRo_6kQeTH5MnlwaXlZf0m6Gdrp_foS-nCKcrp5usmK1KtAy00bVItzC7Tbv8vorAZsHFwzrDbcSiyAzK088V0B_ZW91f34rmWOha6QLquutj6-Tr7uwY73zv6_DV9tr3wffX-tL7CQ==

If I ever find that OP Blashpemy unique helmet someone posted before I will drop some points
in reduced mana passives and boost more ES or utilities (flasks).