[3.5] Occultist Vortex/Cold Snap ES/CI - Deathless and Safe Uber Elder and T16's

Pro's

Healthy- 11-15k Effective Health to absorb those nasty one hitters
Damage - This build "Over Time's" so hard it feels like it hits. Effectively "One Hit" content with what is actually a DoT Skill.
Different - There is not another skill that feels quite like this. If you are bored of thousands of hours of the same style of skills, this is something fresh.
Good Clear Speed - Despite not chaining or multicasting, later game the clear on this is fairly darn good. It "One Hits" almost all content, and has two separate skills that can be used to clear, one to cast on you and one to cast on your cursor.
Uber Elder Viable - This build cleared Uber Elder on a Tabula. Deathless. As with Uber, you still have to actually play the game, but this build makes it fairly easy.
Shaper and Guardian Viable - Laugh at the Bull Boy as he tries to 1 hit your massive energy shield. Phoenix? Cold Pokemon beats Fire. Shaper is laughable.
Sexy Witch - Need me to say more? You are going to stare at her for 100 hours, best like her.
Cheap - but Scales Well with Investment - I beat Uber Elder with a Tabula. Most of the gear can be crafted for under 20-30c per slot for end game viability, but the more you dump into this build the more it just owns. I am still exploring the outer limits of its godlike power.
Great for Delve - The condensed area of delve paths makes the DoT area easy to wipe anyone who dares stand up.
Doesn't get One Shot by Syndicate - They told you to build tanky. Here it is without sacrificing damage.


Con's

This is not Arc Traps/Totems/Arc in General - This will never be the most insanely godlike clear speed build in the world, though it does well.
Melee Range - This could be considered a con, but the fact that you are always phasing and have a huge effective health pool, this shouldn't bother anyone.

Main Skill (6 Link) - Vortex

This is your main skill. You cast this as much as you can, in the middle of people, and cover the screen with it. It is an instant cast, so it does not interrupt movement. These DO NOT shotgun, but screen coverage can be important to maintain dps. These DO stack with Cold Snap, effectively causing 2x DoT's


Vortex - Controlled Destruction - Elemental Focus - Efficacy - Hypothermia - Swift Affliction



Second Skill (4 Link) - Vaal Cold Snap

This skill can be used to reliably put Bonechill on enemies for more damage, as well as be used to innitiate or clear out emeies that you do not want to run face first into. It is a great secondary skill and provides a lot of utility. Many other builds opt to go for 2x 6 links, giving up the shield, but I do NOT find that necessary, and prefer the extra HP instead.

Vaal Cold Snap - Efficacy - Bonechill - Hypothermia



Survivability Skill (4 Link)- Immortal Call and Phase Run

This is what will help to keep you alive, and provide more survivability.
Phase Run is FANTASTIC as an escape skill, or when your Quartz Flask is down.
It helps you get right into the middle of crowds and decimate them without taking damage. The important part here is you want to level this far above the CWDT, so you can manually cast it. Immortal Call should be capped at lvl 3, so it can be activated when something hits you with Cast when Damage Taken. Having both of these linked to an Increased Duration at max level is ideal.

Immortal Call (Level 3) - Cast with Damage Taken (Level 1)- Increased Duration (Max Lvl) - Phase Run (Max Lvl)



Curse and Aura Skills (4 Link) - Vaal Discipline and Enfeeble

Vaal Discipline is perfect for extra energy shield, and the ability to rapidly regenerate it regardless of taking damage. Enfeeble keeps it so enemies do not do very much damage at all, increasing your survivability even more. You could technically use another curse for more damage, but again, it is 100% not necessary. This build is already very strong damage-wise. Having these connected to a Blasphemy casts the curse as an aura, meaning its always on anyone around you. Enlighten attached to it reduces the mana required, and is very useful when you eventually go for the "Aspect of the Spider" on your skills, as your final mana reserve skill.

Enfeeble - Blasphemy - Vaal Discipline - Enlighten


Movement Skill (3 Link) - Flame Dash

Flame dash works perfectly for our build, allowing us to get over walls, dash out of trouble, or more likely, into the middle of it. Feel free to experiment here, but this is my preferred skill for this build. We attach it to Faster Casting for more smoothness, and Arcane Surge for mana regen, and extra damage. Keep Arcane Surge low enough level to be activated on every flame dash for convenience.

Flame Dash - Faster Casting - Arcane Surge (Level 6)



Elemental Equilibrium Proc and Cold Debuff - Main Hand 3 Link

This is an awesome feature of this build. This uses a new mechanic in 3.5 to make any item a pseudo Poets Pen. We do this with our main hand weapon, and make sure the weapon has the affix "Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill" then inside it put Frost Bomb to shred their cold resists and debuff them, as well as Orb of Storms and Storm Brand to proc Elemental Equilibrium with their lightning damage, massively increasing our damage. These skills DO NOT have to be linked.


Frost Bomb - Orb of Storms - Storm Brand

LEVELING TREES HAVE THEIR OWN SECTION BELOW!

You can take Deep Thoughts for 2 points to help with mana regeneration if you are having issues, or Arcane Will.

If you have too small of a mana pool, you can take the 1 point near CI for 4% reduced reservation!

Path of Building (PoB) Link

Take note, this PoB is off of my current build at this moment, and I will try to keep it updated and optimized as I receive feedback.

https://pastebin.com/QakKRKiv




Profile Link

I am not here to hide what I do from you, feel free to check my shit out at any time here. I linked the character for this build, but feel free to browse other builds as well. Leave a comment here for questions!

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Idarroc/characters/Addle




Raw Skilltree URL

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/3.5.1/AAAABAMBAQFvA-4HHg18DkgQUREPES8RUBGWE20UCRSwFX4XVBslHNwdFB1PHb4d2SKBJogo-isKLJwspiy_MtEzhzQKNbk3ZjeDOw08BT1fQ1RFR0lRSp9LrkwtTLNSU1KyU9RWSFZKV8lca13yZp5ncWnYa9ttGXaCfqGCHoLHhEiIQom8i3qMdo2CjjyPGo9Gj_qQ1pJ0lS6XlZf0mK2boZ48nqGfAaDmpuunCKcrqOqsmLVItzC3MbiTug67_MBmwcXDbcb3yAzQH9DQ0eTT-9gk2VvfiuL341bk6-kC6rrrY-vu7Bjsiu987-vw1fRx98H31_no-tI=?accountName=Idarroc&characterName=Addle

Minion Damage on Items and Tree

So you have read enough of my guide to get to the point of noticing i have minion nodes in my tree, and minion stats on my items, and you are about to dismiss me as a crazy idiot who does not know what he is doing.

Well, I may be a crazy idiot, but in this case, I believe I know what I am doing, and will try my best to detail it here.

Spiritual Aid



Spiritual Aid is a new node that added in during 3.4, and we are still exploring its potentials. The main stat on here that is important is "Increases and Reductions to Minion Damage also affect you." That means, when we get a node that says "15% Increased Minion Damage" it also affects OUR damage. It flat out lets us ignore the "Minion" in the statement, and look at it as bonuses to our own stats. As you can see from the screenshot, this node adds roughly 22.7% overall damage to my Vortex.

Other Notable Passive Points









Minion Item

The main item we will use with Minion stats on it is our main weapon. I will go more into detail on how to make these in the Gear/Crafting sections, but this is a high level preview.

This stat makes it so that WE deal 70%+ more damage, not just our minions.
This is VERY strong. I have snagged a snapshot or two of different sceptres that will work, my recommendation is to not try for a perfect one, but just get some decent rolls and you will be fine. No need to waste 10 exalted crafting on this slot.

Items and Gear

The biggest thing that I could stress in this section is the fact that you should NEVER follow any guide verbatim when it comes to gear. You can make what you find work, or SHOULD be able to, for any truly viable build, barring a few key items.

This build has little to no key items to make it viable. You do not need to spend 50 exalted on a piece of gear to kill Uber Elder. I killed Uber Elder deathless in a Tabula for 11c.

There are also a lot of options here to favor your particular play style. If you want more defense, build more ES. If you want more damage, build more damage. Long story short, build to what you prefer. What I have here is what I am using, and have had great success with. Feel free to comment and ask questions, or provide alternatives, as I am always tweaking!

One more important thing to note....



Aspect of the Spider is AWESOME on this build. It is one part on my current build I am missing, but will be getting soon. If you have an option to get it on a piece of gear, I would highly recommend it.

Weapon



Shield



Helmet



Armour



Gloves



Boots



Amulet



Rings



Belt



Flasks



Jewels



One last time... The IDEAL way to use that last bit of mana, in my opinion, rather than a different curse... is to get the Aspect of the Spider affix on your belt or other piece of gear.

Aspect of the spider is so insanely strong, can affect people 3 times, and stacks... What does it do? 30% reduced movement per stack, and 5% increased damage taken per stack.

This is your temp chains on steroids! Huge movespeed reduction, and increased damage taken is one of the best stats in the game, because it is hugely multiplicative, compared to adding more damage with has diminishing returns.

I would HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend getting that if you can afford it, over a second curse.

Bandits - KILL

With bandits on this build, I prefer to have the two additional skill points. It helps a lot in the tree and I can't make a strong argument for any other choice

Pantheon

We have a few options here, but the main ones that stand out to me are Soul of Lunaris and Soul of Garukhan. The fact that we are stun and freeze immune from our ascendancy helps a ton, and negates other pantheons. Lunaris gives us chance to avoid, avoid any chained, and huge phys damage reduction for anyone nearby, which generally, there will be a lot of people nearby in those late 5x sextant t16 maps.... at least for 1/100th off a second...

Soul of Garukhan is personal preference, most minor pantheons should work fine. I like Garukhan for the extra movement speed, as well as, heck, why not, a little extra evade if we have actually been hit big.

Major





Minor

The Ascendancy - Occultist

Instead of comparing Ascendancies, I will tell you why Occultist wins my vote.

Occultist has a great amount of Energy Shield in its tree, +250 flat, and 32%. There is also Vile Bastion, giving 1% of energy Shield Regenerated per Second per each enemy you have killed, up to 30%. This is massive amounts of regeneration when our ES can get up to 15k. You cannot be stunned while alive, Energy shield recharge is not interrupted by damage, you cannot be frozen or chilled. Oh don't forget, every few seconds, you have a chance to freeze even unique enemies, and guaranteed non-unique enemies, and nearby chilled enemies deal 10% reduced damage with hits. All fantastic benefits. That is a lot of defense in an ascendancy. There are also great offensive bonuses, especially for Vortex and Cold Snap. Extra Cold DoT damage, enemy cold resistance reduction, and anti life regeneration all start to add up. When you start to look at it all lined up, it becomes pretty clear why this is the perfect ascendancy.

First Choice - Wicked Ward

For our first two nodes, we prioritize defense. Remember, we are running face first into enemies trying to murder us. Defense is HUGE.




Second Choice - Vile Bastion

Defense. Defense. Defense. The Energy Shield Regenerated Per Second stacks up HUGE. Cannot be stunned while you have energy shield (which as CI, means while you are alive), is MASSIVE. This is just a beast upgrade for us.



Third Choice - Void Beacon

After we get our Energy Shield, we build towards Frigid Wake. Void Beacon is first in that route, so we take it first, pretty simple. It also gives -20% Cold Resistance to Nearby Enemies, so that is not bad, on top of reduced Life Regeneration for enemies.




Fourth Choice - Frigid Wake

This is an awesome UberLab pickup. Cannot be chilled or frozen, as well as more damage, and extra defense from chill and more chilling and freezing? Please and thank you.

General Leveling Thoughts

This build can be leveled as a league starter, but obviously every build shines as an end game build once you hit 6 link.

Generally, I recommend leveling a lot of points defensively early, because if you are dead, you can't do damage. Simple as that.

Early, I snag a bunch of Energy Shield nodes in my tree, but mainly stick with LIFE on my gear until i get enough ES to feel comfortable to make a more dedicated switch. If you have ES items while leveling, feel free to use them, I just find health easier to maintain with potions until you get later in the game.

Vortex cannot be used until level 28, so until then, I would recommend leveling with Storm Brand (New and very strong), Frosbolt or Frezing Pulse, as they hit multiple people at once and are decently strong.

Arcane surge can be leveled, but stop it at level 6ish, then attach it to flame dash when you can. Flame dash is just always nice for movement/survivability.

Controlled destruction and Ele Focus can be got at level 18 to add some beef to the Vortex when you finally get it as well.

Early leveling uniques for cheap? Highly recommend using Wanderlust, Goldrim, and Tabula Rasa.



Level 1 - 10 Tree



Level 10 - 30 Tree



Level 30 - 50 Tree



Level 50 - 70 Tree



Level 70 - 90 Tree

Videos

These are going to be added as we go here, I have a clip of me doing Uber Elder deathless, but it is just not the quality I want so I am going to redo it here in the next day or two likely. These are all going to be added throughout 3.5

T16 Chimera:

https://youtu.be/GUCCOof4RM0

U. Elder: All 4 Guardians

https://youtu.be/jSzwFhmgo10

Uber Elder DEATHLESS

https://youtu.be/ht5TaJ1vXl4

Gear Crafting Guide

Alright, here we go. The section everyone has been asking for! Thanks for the patience while I had handle some things in real life.

I am going to be working on this today, as much as possible. It may not be finished today, but I will get as much done as i can.

Crafting, and this build, go together like Peanut butter and Jelly. Like Peanut butter and Chocolate. Like Peanut Butter and... yeah you get the picture.

This is the section that could, in theory, either save you a lot of money, or make you a lot of money if you are lucky.

This build relies heavily on a few mods that are delve crafted, or crafted in general. this means that these mods are a lot more rare than the common mods that drop on the ground, as everyone has access to those.

Because less people understand how to craft these items, the supply is limited on the trade sites, and the prices are relatively high. Therefore, self crafting these items becomes a lot more interesting idea.

There are a few things I want to point out before we get into the specifics, and the first of which is this:

THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES WHEN CRAFTING.

Simple I know, right? There is no 100% certain way to get the exact mods you want, but I can provide guidance on what I consider to be the better ways to try to roll them.

The second point I want to make is:

YOU HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY.

This should be no surprise to any veteran of PoE, but for newbies out there, this is how we do it. "Money" is relative, but in order to maximize the returns on your investments, sometimes it requires a bit of monetary investment of your own. (Clarifying here, but when I mean monetary and money, i mean in game currency, nothing that you need to purchase with real money.)

This can be seen in the most simplistic ways with mapping. It is almost ALWAYS worth it to alch a map, because it increases the quantity and rarity of items dropped in the map, generally totaling out to be more than the alchemy you spent upgrading the map.

Take that further with Sextants and Fragments, and with the new Scarabs as well. Some Scarabs are 30c+, but why do people buy them? Because they can make more money spending that 30c on an item and using it in the right way, to maximize returns worth the costs.

It is always a gamble, but this is, at its core, ARPG RNG at its finest.

Now, to be perfectly clear...

NOTHING IS GARUNTEED

and

THIS WILL REQUIRE INVESTMENT

Now lets begin.

These will be added as people comment, or I think of them. If you bring something useful, you will get credit for it! Keep the ideas and discussion coming!

General Tips

"

bridgeburner wrote:

1) Wait til you get phase run to do the lab. It makes it so much easier.

2) Start getting used to hitting phase run instead of a life flask. It's good muscle memory. The length of phase run (assuming you have charges and inc duration) is enough time for our ES regen to kick in (which doesn't get interrupted after it starts thanks to our first ascendancy node)

"

Kaintgitrite wrote:

I dont know if it's that great for leveling for us since we dont get CI til late but ive been using Light of Lunaris Spirit shield that adds 38-60 cold damage to spells and 479% increased ES. im level 40ish and im assuming it will only start to shine more and more as we unlock more es nodes/es gear. It's a little more on the expensive side "non starter" but if running 5 6 or even 7th char like i am not that big of a deal.

FAQ

"

Idarroc wrote:

"

clindberg88 wrote:

I really like the look of this build, but I was wondering about the weapon's veil mod.

The Frost Bomb, will the not trigger equilibrium to the worse?

Yes, Frost Bomb will trigger EE for the worse, that being said, it only triggers on the hit of the explosion, as that is the hit. Also, with EE, effects do not stack, they overwrite, so with 2x Lightning spells "hitting" very fast repeatedly, EE should never be on Frost Bomb for more than .1 second at MOST.

"

bridgeburner wrote:

"

IronBodyGamer wrote:

As someone who is fairly new isn't Zealot's Oath a dead skill point since you have zero regen? Or is there something to this mechanic i am just not understanding?

It makes life regeneration apply to our energy shield instead of hp. We get about 1.4% life regen (converted to es regen) from the tree, and also we use a sulphur flask which gives us 6% life regen (converted to es regen).

So that's 7.4% of our max ES regenerated per second when these are up. For example, if your ES is 8000, that's about 500 es per second.

12/31/2018 - Added Helmet and Weapon Crafting Guide Section, added Guardians Video
12/29/2018 - Added first 2 Videos
12/28/2018 - Started the Guide