[3.6] Speedy Melee Herald of Agony Occultist | ALL MAPS | ALL MODS | SHAPER VIABLE | LEAGUE STARTER

Have you ever wanted to race around the map while a man eating spider follows you at sonic speed and kills everything near you? Well look no further! This is the build for you!




Build Features
• 180%+ peak increased move speed.
• Super curses. Mobs barely dent you with the super enfeeble and temporal chains.
• 7k+ life.
• Easy to maintain fortify.
• Strong recovery via LGoH.
• Agony Crawer does all the work.
• Can handle EVERY map mod in the game
• Good clear speed via minion augmented profane bloom explosions. Very fast in delves.
• Good league starter. The base gear is dirt cheap and no six links are required.
• ??? dps. Feels like about 300-500k with bad gear and 1M+ with good gear but it’s a minion build so you never know...



Ascendancy, Trees, PoBs, Bandits, Pantheons

Note: these trees were made before withering presence got added so they don’t have it on.

Also note: this build is VERY flexible. There's a lot of room for variation and these are not necessarily perfect or ideal tree and gear setups so if you don't like some aspect of it, just tweak it.

Ascendancy: Occultist
Ascendancy Skills: Profane Bloom, Malediction, Void Beacon, Withering Presence.

Early mapping:
Skill Tree Early Maps
Path of Building Early Maps

Endgame:
Skill Tree End Game
Path of Building End Game

Bandits:
Kill All or help Alira for resists.

Pantheon:
Crab dude and whatever minor node you like.

Note there's a fair amount of flexibility in how you build this character. You don't have to strictly follow my endgame PoB, it's just the version of the build that I currently prefer.


Gameplay

Here’s the core gameplay loop:
• Hit enemies with static strike to get poison stacks going.
• Hit quicksilver and phase run or shield charge to run through packs.
• The agony crawler kills as you run around.
• If the crawler falls behind, re-up your static strike and/or use convocation.
• If you encounter a tough target like a boss, use molten strike and dodge any attacks you can’t tank until the crawler takes it down.


Mechanics

Clearing

Your clear speed is achieved through the following mechanics:
• Movement speed. Self explanatory.
• Minion movement speed. This helps your minion keep up. You ideally want it to be much faster than you so its AI will catch up, stop, and attack frequently.
• Static strike with chain support and poison. This keeps the crawler at high stacks even as you’re moving.
• Profane Bloom. This helps kill tougher targets and stragglers in packs.
• Pierce on the minion. This lets it hit more targets and clear larger packs faster.
• Convocation. This is if the crawler lags behind or gets stuck.

Here’s how you get movement speed:
• Boots.
• Alchemist’s Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline with flask effect nodes.
• Shield Charge.

Here’s how you get minion movement speed:
• Minion speed support (transition out of it in the end game though).
• Frenzy charges. Curse enemies with Poacher’s Mark and your minion gets them on kill. Each charge is 5% move speed for the minion.
• Abyss jewels with minion movement speed.
• Essence of fear jewelry.

Here’s how you get Poacher’s Mark:
• Elder ring with the Poacher’s Mark mod.
• Gluttony belt.


Single-Target

These are the mechanics that can enhance boss damage:
• Damage on full life support for HoAg.
• Minion damage support for HoAg.
• Vile toxins support for HoAg. Bosses get many poison stacks on them so you get a big more multiplier to hits.
• Poison support for HoAg or possibly chance to poison from Severed in Sleep.
• Frenzy charges for HoAg (via Poacher’s Mark).
• Profane Bloom explosions next to the boss or rare. These are amplified by HoAg’s massive increased minion damage bonus and minion damage Passover from the tree. They hit very very hard.
• Withering Touch Support on molten strike. Max out those either stacks!
• GMP support on molten strike. When each hit poisons, more hits = faster ramp up on the crawler, more wither stacks for its chaos components, and more poisons for vile toxins.
• Wildfire jewels. Same reason as GMP.
• Multistrike on molten strike. Same reason as GMP.
• High base attack speed weapons.
• Spirit offering if you can work it in.
• Resolute technique for consistent poisons.


Defense

These are our defensive mechanics:
• High curse effect enfeeble via blasphemy and temporal chains on hit
• Armour if you can fit it.
• Fortify support for Static Strike
• LGoH from claws and poacher’s mark. We already hit lots of times to maximize our crawler stacks so this gives us a good chunk of life sustain. This is crazy good in delves.
• High evasion via Jade Flask.
• High PDR via Basalt Flask.

NOTE: Against general map content, these defenses are a lot stronger than they look on paper. You basically can't die to trash and the vast majority of my deaths have been to darkness. They do fall off a bit in effectiveness against really late game bosses like guardians though, mostly because curses get totally gimped against guardians...



Broke Player Gear

I don't have great examples of this anymore.
The weapon:


This gives you chance to poison without elder poison supports so you can run molten strike and static strike on regular four links.

The shield:


Whatever rare shield gives you the life and res you need.

The helm:


This lets you get a 5 link for your herald of agony. Alternatively, you could use a regular rare helm and the embalmer gloves.

The belt:


Poacher's mark gives you mana sustain and your crawler better accuracy and frenzy charges. Alternatively, you could get poacher's mark in that new curse on hit ring. It's pretty cheap.

The gloves:


Temp chains on hit is good.

For all other items, just use rares that give you high life and resists. Get four links in the boots/helm/gloves and use them for molten strike, static strike, and herald of agony. Put shield charge in your shield(you don't need a 4L on it) and blasphemy enfeeble + convocation in your weapon.

This sort of set up should easily work up through yellow tier maps with any combination of mods. You may need to get gear upgrades to handle red maps.


My Expensive Endgame Gear




Skill Gems

Here are the gems and links that make this build work:

Herald of Agony + Pierce + Minion Damage + Vile Toxins + Damage on Full Life or Minion Speed

Enfeeble + Blasphemy


Static Strike + Ancestral Call + Chain + Fortify (+ Poison)

Molten Strike + Multistrike + Greater Multiple Projectiles (+ Poison) + Withering Touch + Ancestral Call (if you can get it)

Convocation

Shield Charge + Faster Attacks (+ Fortify + Poison)

NOTE: You could also fit in desecrate/spirit offering instead of fortify/poison on shield charge, but I don't think it's worth it.

NOTE: for Static and Molten Strike, if you don't use Mortem Morsu you need to add poison support through Elder pseudo 5 links.



Recommended Uniques

No uniques are required, but some are recommended. I've linked some of the items to make this section prettier.


Early game, Mortem Morsu is very good for getting poisons, but later you should replace it with elder rares that give static and molten strike the poison support gem on pseudo five links so you can use a shield.


Likewise, gluttony is a great belt in the mid game, but you eventually want to replace it with a Poacher’s Mark elder ring. The new curse on hit unset ring can work too.


Darkness enthroned is good even in the end game because it can give you 30% increased minion movement speed with the right jewels.


Kaom’s heart or Brass dome are good options for chest pieces. The former is better be elemental damage and the latter is better vs physical if you take armour nodes on the tree. You could even go belly if you want a cheaper more life chest. NOTE: the corruption I have linked on kaom's isn't helpful to the build. I just have been too lazy to sell it and buy a more appropriate one.


Asenath’s Gentle touch is very nice for its temp chains on hit

Severed in sleep should in theory be a good damage boost for the crawler since it will have a high chance to poison. I don't like what it would do to my defenses though.

The Embalmer is a good, cheap alternative to a pseudo 5 link elder helmet early on.


Wildfire is very good for more poisons and wither stacks from molten strike.

Also, a Careful Planning jewel can help a lot for dex requirements.


Rare Priorities

Amulet: life, resists, minion movement speed.
Ring 1: life, resists, minion movement speed.
Ring 2: life, resists, Poacher’s Mark.
Gloves: life, resists, poison support.
Main hand: multistrike or ancestral call supports, poison support.
Shield(assuming no Mortem Morsu): Armour, life, resists.
Belt (assuming no darkness enthroned or Gluttony): Armour, life, resists.
Chest (assuming no Kaom’s, Belly, or Brass Dome): Armour, life, resists.
Helmet: Minion damage support, minion gem levels, life, resists.
Boots: Movement speed, life, resists.
Abyss Jewels: Minion movement speed, life, resists.


Leveling

Do whatever you like until level 16. Once you hit level 16, equip herald of agony with whatever supports you can manage(pierce should be high priority as it's good for clear speed) and use incinerate with lesser poison support to build stacks(trust me it works REALLY well at that level). Switch to attacks once you have your mortem morsu and resolute technique.

On your tree, you should be working towards minion damage and resolute technique with a few life nodes.

Once you can equip mortem morsu and get resolute technique, switch to a Molten Strike + Static Strike set up.

The priorities on static strike are ancestral call and chain. Ancestral call is huge quality of life for getting it running.

The priorities on molten strike are multistrike and GMP

Once you get all your minion stuff and resolute technique on the tree, fill in the life nodes, curse effect nodes, jewel sockets. Do armour nodes last.

For Ascendancies, the order is profane bloom(highest priority, it's huge for clearing), Malediction, and Void Beacon. Uber lab doesn't really matter.


Cost

This isn't a super expensive build by nature. I have spent multiple exalts on acquiring my gear because I've been really focused on trying to get high clear speed in end game content. The build relies primarily on gem and tree interactions so you don't strictly need any specific gear.

So basically the cost is what you're willing to invest in it to make it tankier and clear faster as these are the main attributes that improve with better gear. You could even successfully run this build in SSF if you wanted.
Last edited by DichotomousThree#0868 on Mar 6, 2019, 1:47:09 PM
Last bumped on Jun 5, 2019, 9:21:00 AM
Added some videos and gifs.
Exciting!
Last edited by Kiln#2054 on Sep 16, 2018, 12:12:02 PM
Uggh not sure what happened with the trees. Thanks for letting me know. Will fix as soon as I get the chance.

In the meantime, feel free to import my character, Arachattack and take a look.
I fixed the skill tree links. Seems PoB isn't exporting trees properly anymore.

The PoB links were working correctly though.
Interesting looking build. What is it like in the Delve? (150+)
I’m at depth 210 or so and haven’t died to anything but darkness yet. The clear speed and survivability is really good in delves and the agony crawler one shots wave after wave in encounters. I am starting to encounter more mobs that force me to pay attention to their abilities though.
Last edited by DichotomousThree#0868 on Sep 8, 2018, 11:40:21 PM
May be a stupid question, but what is a 'incinerate lesser poison set up'? And how do you setup one at level 16?
Lesser poison is a support gem that adds some chaos damage and chance to poison, link it to incinerate so you get a lot of hits per second leading to a decent level of poison build up. This gives you virulence for the agony crawler quite effectively early on.
Question - Is it necessary to run both static strike and Molten Strike? Is the poison stacking with molten strike good enough for clearing too?

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