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

Hey! Sorry for bad english, i am russian :D

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roselan wrote:

It's good but you should really get a weapon with "trigger a spell when you use a skill", as well as elemental overload and and elemental equilibrium. That costs 1c to set up and will nearly double your dps.

Yeah, bruh, but i need a recipe for Jun. I still don't have it :) I play Standart league.

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Medling is not really interesting without an "energy from within" jewel. Luckly, you can get one for 1c this league, and a 6% ES one for 5-10c (they were like 80-100c last league...).

I will remove it. It was an act of despair after the patch, thx :))

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Your quicksilver flask has antifreeze, but you get that through frigid wake (but it's is not important until lv 90+).

Yeah, nvm now

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Path of the savant is generally not taken, there are better nodes. You are still leveling and I don't know if Wicked Ward and Spiritual Aid are in your plan. That said, I would connect Soul Thief from the left, and spec out the two nodes to it's immediate right.

I had WW and SA before the introduction of Betrayal in Standard league. I forgot about WW, ty :P But i took Spiritual Aid points to ES. Was it a bad decision? :)

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Edit: you added a picture. If your plan is to max es, you probably better off to spec out the starting nodes, and connect deep wisdom throu the int nodes on the right, this will free you a point you can use on a 6% es node.

Thx, bro! I am noob and your advices helped a lot ;)

Now the tree looks like this
https://pastebin.com/Qt3qQ8qG

What do you think about Written in blood node?

Written in blood is one of the best node in the tree.

you can check my tree top of page 178

Now I would spec out Malediction for Vile Bastion. Please note that the tree is like that because of Might of Meek jewel.

An update tree would look like that: https://pastebin.com/d3Bh8iBU

Without might of the meek, I would go for something like that: https://pastebin.com/JgarSmv1

With the new Utmost Intellect node, it's actually more ES than with Might of Meek.

roselan has captured most of the points that I would make. if you want another opinion on the passive tree, you can take a look at mine (from profile - character). I've stopped playing vortex as an occultist and am playing as a trickster, but the tree is more or less what I would advocate. some are good to have but not mandatory. I haven't allocated the entire area around Growth and Decay up till Entropy because not enough SP. play around in POB for all the suggestions and trees that we have, to get an idea of WHY we path-ed in that direction. adapt some of the passives according to what you want. hope this helps. I don't have the bandwidth to fine tune and give a v indepth explanation as I'm also playing the league haha

It's been what, 3-4 leagues when Occ es/ci vortex was GG. I hear they messed up the ascendcy. To this date it was the best build I've ever played, 2-3 vortex to transition shaper, never having to stop on maps, 12k ES and so much Vortex damage from Skin chest than I never ever used cold snap.

I have my 92 character on standard but all the passives are reset. I remember I followed this and another guide and made a hybrid, but sadly I don't think it would be possible if I could remember.

How's the build these days? Which is the best set-up? Is it too fuked up? I still have all my gear but wondering if I should spend the reset back into this sort of build.

Well you should not have any issue with the build if you are already geared up, especially with access to legacy stuff. If you enjoy the Vortex play style, definitively go for it!

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Ashtrey wrote:

Well you should not have any issue with the build if you are already geared up, especially with access to legacy stuff. If you enjoy the Vortex play style, definitively go for it!

Yeah, I wasn't very happy with it, right after they patched it up, but apparently there were still issues with moving around and keypresses, etc.

I did end up losing like 2.5k es, and that's not THAT big of a deal, but once I specced into profane bloom, things became a fair bit more pleasurable and it started to feel a bit more like the old build. I'm not a big fan of how wicked ward turned out, but it was fairly overtuned, as it was, I guess..

But yeah, if you've already got a char geared up for this, just go back through your tree and make a few adjustments.. the damage and all is still there, it's just not as tanky. Still, pretty good to run. Just did shaper deathless as a lil 'test'.. will do uber later and see how it goes.

Any thoughts on replacing Orb of storms with Armageddon Brand in order to apply Ignite, which combined with Cinderswallow Urn could provide 10% more damage?



Armageddon Brand will still provide EE through fire damage. Or is there a better way to Ignite?

Hi,

Apologies if this has already been answered.

How is the build fairing in the Legion league? Is it clearing sufficient legion mobs or is it too slow due to the time limit and the DOT mechanic?

Also in terms of tankiness what is the normal ES value people are getting for normal budget gear? (e.g. 700ES chest, 150-250 ES boots, helm and gloves)

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Mentalmike wrote:

Hi, Apologies if this has already been answered.
How is the build fairing in the Legion league? Is it clearing sufficient legion mobs or is it too slow due to the time limit and the DOT mechanic?
Also in terms of tankiness what is the normal ES value people are getting for normal budget gear? (e.g. 700ES chest, 150-250 ES boots, helm and gloves)

Yes, it is good for Legion:
After a deathless Shaper Kill on my Cyclone Slayer (growing bored spinning) and making a lot of currency along the way, I was looking for a build to really get into. This is for sure that build. Mine is adapted from Idarroc (3.5), Wrecker_of_Days and Ghazzy’s Vortex + Cold Snap Witch Occultist builds for 3.7 and by reading through pages of old posts for inputs & considerations from similar 3.5 and 3.6 great builds/comments by SonsOfKorhal and Durnz (3.6) and others. All are great builds and very inspiring!

Stats:
1.7mil Shaper DPS estimated via PoB
10.5k ES and Chaos Inoculation & Wicked Ward, but not Vile Bastion Ascendancy
1.1k Mana (approx. 175 mana useable) with some Mana Regen
+10 over each Elemental Resists Cap
Ignored Minion related nodes and gear

Uses 2 Curses and 4 Mana Reserves:
Curses are CWDT Frostbite (lvl5) and flask-derived Despair Curse (Witchfire Brew Flask) for fast Pack clearing
Mana Reserves are:
1. Malevolence Aura (for extra DoT damage) *no reserve due to Aul’s Uprising
2. Hatred Aura (more Cold Damage)
3. Discipline and Vaal Discipline (more ES and ES fast regen under Damage)
4. Aspect of the Spider Debuff (from gear)

Ascendancy:
1st and 2nd) Void Beacon and Frigid Wake
3rd) Profane Bloom and (Last) Forbidden Power*is optional

100 Lvl Tree:
https://pastebin.com/FS2jKjW6
90 Lvl Tree:
https://pastebin.com/DRnUwVae

Tree important notes:
1. Aura buffs and Mana Reserve assists
2. Damage over Time +
3. ES and Resists (to give more options in gear without Resists)
4. Jewels and more Jewels! (personal choice--as I find Jewels one of the best parts of PoE, as you can really customize your choices)
5. Might of the Meek usage up top and a Cold DoT Watcher’s Eye

Gear notes:
• 3 Unique items – Neck, Head, Belt (and Head and Belt are optional)
• Lots of ES increases
• Aspect of Spider
• Aura effect increases
• Cold DoT multiplier and increased Spell Damage
• Movement speed
Important: Weapon with “Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill” enchant (*most important) for easy EE set-up

Flasks are important:
1. Witchfire Brew for the Despair curse, when combined with Ascendancy node “Profane Bloom” allows for fast Mapping (with speed Flask) blowing up Packs
2. Cinderswallow Urn for ES Recovery on Kill effect (and Onslaught) (*use a Divine Orb to get 3% ES Recovery on Kill—it’s worth it)
3. Quartz Phasing flask to allow you to run into Packs and Bleed removal is key (esp. the Corrupted Blood dot)
4. Movement speed flask
5. Optional – Curse removal, immune to freeze; lots of good options

Gods:
Fully Upgraded Soul of Lunaris (because Projectiles hurt)
Mapping—Soul of Garukhan fully upgraded, more zoom and can ignore Burning
For Bosses—some good different options

Gem Set-up:
--Standard Vortex Gem combination (*at Lvl72 use 21Lvl or higher Vortex)
--Standard Vaal Cold Snap combine; save Vaal Cold Snap usage for chain Killing lots of Packs in a row and Legion monoliths—pop flasks, pop Vaal Cold Snap and run around like a crazy person dropping Vortex as you go, it is a ton of fun!
--CWDT setup is optional—I use Frostbite curse and IC without Inc Duration but with Phase Run (Phase Run is your key to get out of jail free)
--Flame Dash with Arcane Surge and Faster Casts for movement

And most importantly for Boss Killing is the EE GEM setup with weapon:
• 1-Storm Brand 2-Frost Bomb 3-Orb of Storms (socket in that order)
And with the “Trigger” enchant these will cast in row every 4 secs as you use Flame Dash or Cold Snap or Phase Run or Vortex.

*Make sure you have no flat Added Damage types to Spells anywhere on your gear (to Attacks is fine, don’t melee the boss); as you fight the Boss--you are applying Lightning and Cold resistance debuffs from the Triggers and as those cycle through, the Boss will take a lot more Cold Damage from your main spell--the DoT from Vortex (and of course Cold Snap DoT as well) Zoom around as the Boss melts!

Some Crit Chance to proc Elemental Overload consistently is needed as well (6-8% Crit Chance is good enough). And don't worry about Spell Damage Regen to ES, as this doesn't work with our main damaging ability--DoTs.

For Gem levels: Dex and STR mainly from Jewelry & Jewels, and a few Passives (goal is 100-110 of each) high lvl Maces need STR and 20Lvl Green Gems need Dex.

I freely admit dropping some $$ currency on this build, but after killing Shaper as a rather cheap Spinning Slayer, I was looking to invest in a build, and this was definitely the one for me!

Lastly: For leveling 85-90 faster; trade around for Poorjoy’s Asylum maps, as this map is great for exp (but don’t die, a few mobs in there hurt!)

My Gear:

Nice cover up.

- Did you consider running herald of ice plus flesh and stone (in sand mode) instead of hatred? you can unlink the one node in sovereignty for the node under ci (influence wheel) if you need more unreserved mana. If you decide to keep hatred, you can hunt for a malevolence plus hatred watcher eye.

- you link your malevolence to an enlighten 4, but it costs you no mana. You better off getting it elsewhere and link it to empower 4... if you can find the gem slots. I ended up linking vaal cold snap - bone chill - empower 4 - malevolence.

- I'm surprised by your rotgut flask, in what sense is it better than a standard perpetual quicksilver flask of adrenaline? (You get onslaught with cinderswallow).

- your cwdt setup is unusual as it will rotate the 3 skills. The usual is cwdt 1 - ic 3 (now steel skin works too, but I don't know at what level) - increased duration 20+ - phase run 20+. (and activate phase run manually). That said, frostbite is strong, but w/o malediction... it's complicated.

For your your tree.

- The Insightfullness wheel is really, really strong.

- On the other side, arcane swiftness is not that strong (neither is Ash, frost an storm, but this one is ok).

- You can connect the right part through the node north east of pain attunement, and unlink the 2 minor nodes of Written in blood. 1 more 6% es node. yey.

- with might of meek you give up Utmost intellect, I'm not sure it's worth it. (but if you give up might of the meek, you can change too much things in your tree, that's not the point :P).




The most surprising is your Forbidden Power ascendancy. The build doesn't really need crit chance, and you have few ways of generating power charges. You have 4 max, but stand close to 3 more (7 nodes in total for 3 more). I personally have a hard time justifying power charges on a non crit build, and without void batteries (these things are op).

Malediction and Vile Bastion are honestly more useful. Trust me I did try ;)