[3.6] Tanel's CI Occultist BANE + DEATH´S OATH w/ Blight & Essence Drain CHEAP SUPER STRONG STARTER!

EVERYTHING DIES.. us included with Porkupines.
UPDATES:
Added gems and Items into the thread as a bonus to my PoB link!
Added a quick gameplay video from early DELVE without DO in SSF

VIDEO: Early Delve but you can see the insane AOE and how good it clears with just BANE alone. Im still trying to find DO in SSF.
At the end you can see the encounter where I just hold down my left mouse button and move my mouse around the screen and.. everything DIES.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLJlmji4alc

Hey everybody!
My name is Tanel - www.youtube.com/TheTanelChannel
I am a casual PoE player from the Eastern Front (You might have seen me in a missile silo video or two on Youtube).
The only real game I play is PoE and I always try to find new and interesting builds to play around with.. and for this league I think I found the perfect fit with the new BANE skill that by itself is really really strong.. but added with some extras.. it get´s ridiculous fun to play!
This here is my very first build guide.. ever.
Feel free to correct me in some cases :) and add to this build if you think it can help the build while not being super hard to achive.


Pros:
Very nice and safe clearspeed thanks to Bane not costing any real mana so you can SPAM this.
Thanks to the LARGE AOE you are gonna clear the entire screen in a few clicks, everything that lives the initial hit will melt a few seconds later or get destroyed thanks to Profane Bloom.
Death´s Oath while not mandatory is a really nice safe cushion and more dot damage with all other skills combined.
Very easy to play with, very easy to gear (All rares totally fine)

Cons:
Porcupines, god I hate them.

PoB - https://pastebin.com/b8WFh4fD - I have ALL gear options and skillgems setup here so just download it and take a look at everything there. Added a bit of explanation to items name aswell, infront of the actual item name.
SPIRITUAL AID:



GEMS:

So I have them planned out from best to worst in links. If you have a 3-4-5 or 6 link item then you know what gem to input next :)

BANE:
Bane-Despair-Enfeeble-Efficacy-Swift Affliction-Controlled Destruction

ESSENCE DRAIN:
Essence Drain-Efficacy-Controlled Destruction-Void Manipulation-Swift Affliction-Empower

VAAL BLIGHT (Can be regular Blight aswell):
Vaal Blight-Efficacy-Controlled Destruction-Swift Affliction-Void Manipulation-Empower

DEATH´S OATH (No links required sa DO has a SKILL built into the item and any appropriate support gem socketed into the chest will automaticly be LINKED, you just need right colours!)
Void Manipulation-Efficacy-Concecrated Effect.
NEXT gems ONLY WORK if you have ARCANE SURGE IN DO so:
Arcane Surge-Swift Affliction-Less Duration.

For final gems in DO:
Void Manipulation-Efficacy-Concecrated Effect-Arcane Surge-Swift Affliction-Less Duration

SUPPORTS:

FLAME DASH:
Flame Dash-Faster Casting-Arane Surge (Keep Arcane Surge below Flame Dash mana cost so you get Arcane Surge with ONE Flame Dash cast!)

DISCIPLINE & MALEVOLENCE
If you run into ANY mana problems, get the REDUCED MANA RESERVATION skillpoint under Hex Master. Remove one Chaos Damage/minion damage point on tree if you must.

DISCIPLINE & BLASPHEMY with TEMPORAL CHAINS
When you reach your Malediction Ascendancy you can apply 3 curses at a time. Best is to have Temporal Chains then instead of Malevolence that slows enemies down and has a huge AOE thanks to our skilltree.

WITHER TOTEM:
Wither-Spell Totem-Multiple Totems
You can run this fine without Multiple Totems Support. Be sure to UNLINK this from any other gems cause Spell Totem will affect anything else connected to it.

CAST WHEN DAMAGE TAKEN:
Cast When Damage Taken (Keep at lvl1 so it would proc with lowest amount of damage taken)-Immortal Call (Keep at lvl3 cause CWDT supports gems that are lvl38 or under)-Increased Duration (You can level this to max)





GEAR:
So as I mentioned earlier, please take a look at my PoB file to see all the items. I have many variations there to choose and play with. Simple rares to cheap rares to BIS rares.
The priority is to stack ES (or LIFE if you go life instead) and NON-AILMENT CHAOS DAMAGE MULTIPLIER and SPELL DAMAGE, don´t forget to get your resists to atleast 75% aswell.
When you wanna craft an item, check out if that item can roll these things. Many items are best crafted with Alteration\Augmentation orbs and then Regal Orbing and maybe even multimodding them. Ofc feel free to use ALC-s or CHAOS spam aswell.
NEVER FORGET the powerful DELVE FOSSIL crafting!! Getting insane ES rolls like that and much more could pay off big time. Check out what Fossils roll what things at poeaffix.net or a similar site.

WEAPON:
So to start off you are TOTALLY fine with a simple RARE wand you get from ACT I up until early MAPS with the +1 Level to Chaos Gems (You trade a blue wand with a CHAOS tagged gem to a vendor to get one). At first keep your BANE in there and later when you find a 4-link item to have your BANE in then eighter put Essence Drain into the wand or Blight.
Now the cheapest and BEST DPS weapon you can have early on (1C typically in trade league) is CANE OF UNRAVELLING. It has great DPS boost to your BANE.
The only downside is that you can´t use a shield so you lose a ton of ES. Good thing is that you can delay your endgame wand crafting when you feel comfortable doing that :)

Another cheap option is THE GREY SPIRE.

ARMOUR:
So in the end we are gonna wan´t a Death´s Oath just because of the really nice DoT damage as an extra damage and defensive option! By alone it already would clear everything but combine it WITH Bane and Essence Drain with some Blight and a Wither Totem... this build is gonna carry a lot! Very nice league starter atleast. With DO clearing everything around you automaticly and BANE an INSTANT HUGE AOE cast that clears everything aswell.. if anything lives, Wither Totem down and Spam Bane, shoot some Essence Drains out and Blight at times. Nothing will survive :P

Tabula Rasa will always be a cheap easy way to get your BANE to 6 link monster. You do need 1 extra Curse passive tree point and Malediction ascendancy for this though so you can have 3 curses linked to Bane and 2 supports. If you REALLY think you NEED a Tabula then the safest quickest and easiest way is to just farm ACT IX The Blood Aqueduct. Most racers choose to just farm this spot beginning of the league until they find ALL Divination Cards (9 in total) to trade it in for a Tabula Rasa. In maps this card drops from Channel Map but in story mode the monster level is always 61 so safe to farm and also you can CTRL click the instance to make new instances everytime you run through one. Usually takes aa few hours to get all cards needed!
PS! What I really advise you do when starting a league is do ALL Vaal Side Areas you see. Additionally you can grab 1 random Fragment and but it into your map device to open an endgame Vaal Side area. Why to do them from time to time is that the item box at the end of the area has a high chance to drop corrupted 5 an 6 linked items. Very strong early on.. but might be hard to get the right colours :P but if you are in trade league you can sell them for good currency! Plus you get VAAL gems from there aswell that can sell for a decent amount and we in our build can cast VAAL Blight from time to time if we get the gem!


HELMET:
The best item here is DOEDRE´S SCORN. Until you get a BEEFY ES crafted rare helmet :)
Again very nice DPS to our Curse Gems AND very nice ES to go with it!!
This helmet can carry a long way. Again main target is Bane in this if you don´t have 5-6links somewhere. And later just put Essence Drain or Blight in here.
PS! Eber's Unification is another great choice here if you can find it or buy it. Around 15c week 2 of league. Enemies have -20% Chaos Resistance but also gives us very decent amount of ES!


GLOVES:
Allelopathy-s are BIS if you wanna have a great BLIGHT DPS!
This is not mandatory though as I feel mostly I kill with Bane alone with Essence Drain.. but if you think you like Blight that much then get these gloves as they are the best ones for our Blight damage!
AGAIN these have very nice ES on them so pretty hard to recommend anything else :D but in SSF feel free to have regular RARE gloves with punch of ES and ALL RESISTS :)

BIS are ELDER essence crafted gloves! Might not be that hard to craft actually as you just need ESSENCE OF DELERIUM to get SOCKETED GEMS DEAL 30% MORE DAMAGE OVER TIME and then hope for NON-AILMENT CHAOS DAMAGE OVER TIME % and ES! :)
If you can´t find Essence of Delerium or it is too expensive then just do Elder maps and try to find elder gloves, don´t need to be ES based if you are in SSF but in trade league just buy total random cheapest Elder gloves you can find and Alteration Regal the non-ailment chaos damage over time % on them with some ES and or Resists! Feel free to use scour alchemy orb method aswell as it might be easier to hit it with other good stats accompaning it!
I do recommend always when buying rare items to buy the HIGHEST base there is in the game. Go on PoE wiki and check what are the BEST gloves\armour\helmet etc there is and buy only that cause that can roll the maximum values for you! Also keep in mind that some rolls are item level dependant so getting ilvl83 gear is usually the sweetspot, but this can all be checked out at the poeaffix.net website what are max rolls for a select ilvl!
ANOTHER thing to keep in mind when rolling items is what colours you need in them. If you are rolling STRENGHT gloves or whatever you are almost always going to get 4 reds etc.. INT gets you blue sockets, DEX green ones. So might not be a bad idea to find DEX\INT items if you need lets say 2green 2blue :) but these items do not roll the best Energy Shield for you. Only INT items roll best ES values as it´s the only stat on that item and so on. Sorry got a bit confusing maybe :D

BOOTS:
So Sin Trek-s are a great choice here, very cheap in trade league, great amount of ES and MS. But as resists might become tight with more Uniques we have then feel free to get some BEEEEFY All Resist boots instead. ES not that important but good if you can get it on all items ofc just might be tough to get everything you want :)


BELT:
Pretty much BIS. Great amount of ES, VERY CHEAP in trade league and nice recovery rate bonus aswell for ES. If you are in SSF, it is quite easy to find this but if you don´t find it then just craft or find a decent ES belt, Crystal Belts can be farmed at certain map areas aswell but Crystal Belts require lvl79 to use. Regular ES belt with nice amount of resists is the second choice! :)


RINGS\AMULET:
So in general I havent tried to find a unique to go with this build yet but rares and Shaper\Elder items are very good here.
Just find ones that have Energy Shield and Energy Shield % on them with Resists aswell and you are good to go! In addition ELDER Amulet can roll % Non-Ailment Chaos Damage Over Time, so try to find an Elder base amulet.

For rings Doedre´s Damning UNIQUE gives us +1 Curse, could be a great choice early on if you can find one or buy one cheap. Bad stats otherwise.
The BEST way to go is MARK OF THE SHAPER Unique ring coupled with an ELDER ring in the other finger to get massive Spell Damage boost.
Just try to find ENERGY SHIELD rings with plenty of resists and ES! :)
Early on feel free to use TWO STONED rings to cap your resists!

JEWELS:
We really do not need ANY jewels in our build! We do go down one route where we can crab 1 Jewel Socket for 1 point and the best jewel would be eighter an insane Watchers Eye that would work with our build in some way or 1000x cheaper option SPREADING ROT Unique jewel that gives us some decent DPS boost to BLIGHT. Id actually get just a beefy ES jewel with Non-Ailment Chaos Damage Over Time jewel here :)

Leveling


BANDITS\ASCENDANCY

USN Gang

Wheres the poblinks? I can only see one

That picture has more pixels than my 4K monitor :D

"

MrScavenger wrote:

Wheres the poblinks? I can only see one

One has all. You can switch trees down below in PoB.

If we're using a staff, we don't need the Arcane Guarding keystone on the tree. Do you have suggestions on what to choose as a replacements?

Also if we use a staff, is Arcane Swiftness worth getting? That's 3 points for 15% increased damage for a 18% block staff(e.g. Cane of Unravelling).

"

We7efrur wrote:

If we're using a staff, we don't need the Arcane Guarding keystone on the tree. Do you have suggestions on what to choose as a replacements?

Also if we use a staff, is Arcane Swiftness worth getting? That's 3 points for 15% increased damage for a 18% block staff(e.g. Cane of Unravelling).

Take Arcane Guarding only if you are using a shield. Might need to update PoB a bit with some item choices. Same goes for Arcane Swiftness!

Basicly just focus on getting ES and all the non ailment chaos damage over time multiplier nodes. Very straight forward build :)

The staff is a very nice cheap option, in trade league and even easy to find on SSF but 2x Crafted normal wands are better with chaos damage over time multipliers and spell damage on them :) we could still use a curse helmet to keep our Bane in. Also 2x crafted wands don´t need massive amounts of currency to roll 6 socket, 6link, right colours. DPS is better with 2x wands in the end!! But it´s not that much higher then a 6 link cheap

Thanks for the guide! Been wanting to do a Bane playstle and this helps a lot. Still new to the game (installed a week before Synethsis released) so still have a lot to learn.

Currently lvl 30ish, what suffixes and prefixes should I look for on gear? Should I be focusing on ES and resistances? Or are there some offensive things I should look for?

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get ger as well. Just ID rates and then craft some stuff on it? I know that gets out of the scope of your guide but if you have any recommendations of other guides or videos that would be cool.

"

xon1886 wrote:

Thanks for the guide! Been wanting to do a Bane playstle and this helps a lot. Still new to the game (installed a week before Synethsis released) so still have a lot to learn.

Currently lvl 30ish, what suffixes and prefixes should I look for on gear? Should I be focusing on ES and resistances? Or are there some offensive things I should look for?

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get ger as well. Just ID rates and then craft some stuff on it? I know that gets out of the scope of your guide but if you have any recommendations of other guides or videos that would be cool.

Uhh, took me years to learn :D and still learning lol.
When leveling to maps.. just look out for your health as main priority. Max Life rolls AND resistances. Keep resistances as close to 75 as possible or over, huge difference in survivability.
Also make sure you craft a +1 Chaos Damage wand if you don´t have a 4link item to but your Bane in. Later when you find a 4link then put Essence Drain into the +1 Chaos Damage wand. You can use this wand until maps as it is pretty hard to find a non-ailment chaos damage over time % wands early on.. I suggiest just alteration and augmentation orbing a blue wand until you find those stats if you wish, cheapest way.

One bonus thing you can do is go to your hideout and if you have any resist crafting options available then fix your resists like that, plus life :)

Hey there, cool build, im playing something similar! Im kinda New to playing CI tho, why do some people Pick zealots oath and some, like you, dont? Is zealots oath Wörth picking up as occultist? Does it make a difference in bossfights?

Thanks!

Also: im currently on the go, so I cant access pob. Do you use spreading rot or wither Totem at all? If Yes, which one and why?