[2.4] {HC} Occultist CI Crit Freezing Pulse - Ascendancy Update

The purpose of going cold crit is that you freeze enemies when you crit them, so your offense is another form of defense.

I think going non-crit would be fine for some other skill but I don't think you benefit from this build's purpose if you go non-crit.

I'm currently level 48 in HC perandus and I'm doing fine as Occultist. I got rekt at level 40 when I tried to do the lab for the first time but I didn't know what I was getting into. I levelled up some more and having fun with this league.

The build shouldn't really change much apart from probably getting Zealot's Oath now since I've been used Stone Golem while levelling since its really nice to have life regen as a Witch. Since life regen is now accessible, on top of the Occultist skills it means you can regen a pretty nice amount of ES on top of recharge, so Zealot's Oath would be really good now at a +2 point investment.

Having fun with Perandus, will update around 60-65 when going CI and doing Cruel lab.

Thanks for the tip, I'm going to be starting this character tonight. I probably wont pick up ZO myself but buy the new unique flask that does Consecrated Ground and give ZO. It basically acts like a life pot for CI builds and also gives a slight damage boost.

Just ascended Cruel at level 65 with 2k HP and 2.8k ES. I had a really easy layout and it was Gargoyles and Lieutenants so the fight was also pretty easy if you stayed out of his teleport in the last fight.

The synergy between Wicked Ward and Vile Bastion is insane. I can't wait to test this with a 10k+ ES pool. Being able to regen through damage is mind-blowing as a CI player and the 0.5% of ES regen per enemy killed will scale so nicely with Zealot's Oath and Stone Golem, I just need to find a way to get the Str requirement for the golem in late game.

I'll be going CI soon, I've had no luck with drops so my gear is pretty awful.

if possible could you add a video or videos of maps soon, rolling this build now currently and would like to see how your doing with it. I know it will be good, btw loved the build guide very comical at times, and loved the laidback approach!

Alright boys, I just Ascended Mercliess.

This build has become... really fucking good. Its twice the build it was before Ascendancy.

First off, I am currently level 81. I attempted Merc lab at 76 with something like 8.5k ES and 10k DPS on Freezing Pulse. Even with Frost Bomb and Assassins Mark, it didn't feel like enough damage and the fight was too hectic for me to control. I levelled up, got some drops and upgraded gear and got my es to 9.5k and FP to 20k DPS. I actually just breezed through Merc lab despite being CI so there is hope for us yet.

I will do a mini-update here since the build has changed somewhat and I will update to Ascendancy changes. You can see the order in which you spend you Ascendancy points at the bottom.





From here its pretty much just grabbing all 3 power charges and finishing up with Nulification and Sniper. Notice I have changed the path for the crit nodes since I wouldn't ever need Ghost Reaver and it saves a skill point, plus also now speccing into Zealot's Oath because Stone Golem is a really great way to give you some regen, which Witch severely lacks.

Here's my current gear:




The only really good items here are my Amulet and Shield. The amulet cost 20c and the shield cost 1ex, although both should have been 2ex+. The chest I crafted at around level 60, I bought the white 5L for 3c and rolled one stack of alts onto it to get resplendent flat ES roll, regal and master craft. This is a cheap, easy and very efficient way to not only get a piece of useable gear, but something that can carry you to T10 maps if you get lucky with a resist. For 5c its last me 30 levels and will probably last another 10. I also crafted my dagger, rolling for T1 spell crit and then just crafting on Spell Damage, these are the only two mods you want. Flat elemental added spell damage and crit multi are other desirables, there just isn't really any in the league right now. The ring has Leo's level 3 master craft of 10-20% faster recharge of ES, which for our build where we stack faster recharge on gems, this gets you up to 50% faster recharge, which is absurdly good. Then the Rainbowstrides (perfect) to compliment Rumi's flask, which I got a fucking great enchant on to give me 1.5% life regen when hit, something I really really needed with ZO.

GEM CHANGES:
You should be able to see all the links in my gear. I've opted to run one Vaal discipline instead of two, but kept increased duration and fast casting, since they both synergise well with the new gem, Frost Bomb. This OP little shit is great for taking away life regen but also cold resist, which couple with cold penetration lets you do almost double damage when its within range. I did use this with increased AoE, but prefer the duration so I only have to cast it once while killing a pack of mobs. Its great for bosses and is a really nifty little thing to help ele resistant mobs.

Now using Stone Golem instead of Ice or Chaos golem, since Stone golem provides more passive defense with Zealot's Oath than chaos and Ice golem only gives 1% crit chance. Its up to you which you use, but I prefer the life regen. This is on a two link with minion life, separated so Arctic Armour doesn't get the mana multiplier and reserve more mana than it should.

Lastly, Freezing Pulse. You will now be running FP > Spell Echo > Faster Casting > Cold Pen > LMP. You can drop PCoC all together thanks to the Occultist class and in hindsight having single projectile freezing pulse was.... really bad. Ascendancy really fixed the flaws my build had before, although there is a tough time.

LEVELLING ISSUES WHILE SELF FUNDED:

The main pain of this build is through the latter part of Cruel up to Dried Lake merc. Your damage starts to drop off since you invest almost entirely on trying to stay alive as life/es hybrid while levelling and pathing out to the necessary spots for your nodes in the tree. Playing this through again was quite painful but as you hit level 75, the build really opens up and accelerates and becomes what it should be. The harshest levels are through level 55-75. This is the point where you are transitioning from hybrid into CI, which does demand some currency and sacrifices a bit of your damage scaling. I went CI around level 64 and ended up with about 5k ES, very low and I was struggling for currency. When I was farming merc Dried Lake here it got pretty bad, since most builds are starting to ramp up their clear speeds when yours is actually declining sharply. These are the inherit problem levels that come with CI, and for the build since you aren't scaling your crit enough to be able to do consistent damage until around level 75. I dropped PCoC and went almost non-crit (around 30%) while levelling at this time, speccing into some spell damage and most importantly, mana. I noticed you really need some good mana regen on all your jewelry and a few nodes on the tree (the best ones are the 3 mana and mana regen at Witch's start point). This is because Lesser Multiple Projectiles adds a huge mana cost on your mana pool of only 150-200 unreserved. Level clarity as much as you can and don't get your crit nodes until 70-75, when you can spec out of spell damage and get all crit at the same time.

ASCENDANT SUMMARY:

At level 81 after doing merc lab, I'm feeling quite accomplished since doing lab as CI is no joke and the build is really kicking itself into high gear now. My clear speed is decent enough for solo play, my damage is great and my survivability is so good thanks to everything from Occultist. With Whirling Blades Fortify, double curse CWDT and frost wall, freezing enemies, 34% physical mitigation with no armor investment, 59% block and 31% spell block with Rainbowstrides and Rumi's Concoction, 44% evasion, 10% chance to dodge spells and attacks, avoid stun through Leo's mod and Witch nodes, 53% faster recharge of ES with jewels and Leo's mod(so quick), and now the good stuff... using Zealot's oath with stone golem for ES regen per second, which stacks with Vile Bastion where killing an enemy grants you 0.5% ES regen, if you start to regen your ES after taking damage then your ES recharge will not be stopped by regen for 4 seconds (which is almost a permanent effect of Vaal discipline if you get to recharge, made easier with 50% faster recharge), and being immune to stun on full ES.

That was just your defenses I listed there, see that there are so many. You don't spec or invest solely into one or two big defenses like most classes do, you don't master any of them. Instead, you have layers. You have a little of everything to either not take damage completely, or to react when damage is taken with an automated enemy slowing and ES recharging beacon of cold light.

This build feels so good now after Ascendancy. If you get through some of the tougher challenges of being CI, you're rewarded in the end. #nobandwagonfeelsgoodman

Hwy dude, I really like your guide, but I'm playing SC. I noticed that your build contains very few spell dmg/cold dmg nodes. Which survivability nodes (or nodes in general, like the flask ones) could I drop for more dps for SC? Which dmg nodes would be worth taking?

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CruelMatatron wrote:

Hwy dude, I really like your guide, but I'm playing SC. I noticed that your build contains very few spell dmg/cold dmg nodes. Which survivability nodes (or nodes in general, like the flask ones) could I drop for more dps for SC? Which dmg nodes would be worth taking?

I've never understood this philosophy; you don't deal damage when you're dead. I don't think when you're playing CI that you can really afford to forgo ES nodes at any point, unless you are insanely well geared (talking 20ex+ in gear for SC). Having said that, I also think flask nodes are top priority for CI and I usually get them straight after speccing into CI.

Since this is a crit build, you don't heavily rely on Spell damage or Elemental damage to carry you through levels, instead relying on crit to deal your damage (since you will have around 400% multiplier). The easiest way to min/max your damage is to simply run a Diamond Flask instead of a Jade Flask (I don't recommend this in HC) and then getting Diamond rings / jewelry with spell crit instead of %ES crafts.

I tried to make a tree with more SC nodes but I don't think it works. Everytime I looked at dropping something I knew there was a good reason to not drop it. I'd probably consider doing another build if all you want to do is be a glass cannon.

These are just the nodes I'd recommend if you want easy damage. The best are the spell damage nodes at witch start point. These damage nodes make the build level 96.

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMBAQMeBAcFQg3RD8QQWBEPES8RUBV-FdcW8xcvGGoaSBpsGyUdFB1PHdkfQR_HIvQmPClPKgsrCit4LJwsvy2LL501uTlSOw07fEGWQ1REq0uuTLNQMFBCUXRTNVWuVdZWY1gHXGtd8l8qY0NknWTnZlRmnmu3bAttGXBScLt-WX7Hf8aApIIQgpuESIV7hX2GrohCidOMNox2jmSO6Y9Gj6aP-pJ0kyeboZ2unjyhL6KjppmnK6yYrrOvm7b6tzG4yrv8vorBxcNtxvfQH9D11abZW9te34rfsOOE5CLli-kC6-Tr9ewY7Djv6_Id9Cj0cfem98H31_nb-tI=

Just kiled Malachai on Merciless in Hardcore at level 84, six levels lower than I did last league. I swapped out my Quicksilver and replaced it with a Silver flask which has provided a great boost to clear speed. For this, I've now rolled Heat on my Quartz (so I still have it always available) and put Dousing on the Silver. For this char a belt with Reduced flask charges used is great.



I am feeling so strong. I feel twice as strong as the iteration of this build that got to 90 on Talisman HC, and I'm 6 levels lower with less gear.

hi man can u please post u passive tree for leveling? like 20 - 40 - 60 lvls. Cos im gone to start to play whith u build at HC and never played CI builds.
Also why dont u took + cold damage passivs?

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pathpanch wrote:

hi man can u please post u passive tree for leveling? like 20 - 40 - 60 lvls. Cos im gone to start to play whith u build at HC and never played CI builds.
Also why dont u took + cold damage passivs?

There is a levelling build in the spoiler at the bottom of the main page, you just need to look.

You don't need +cold damage since you get your damage from crit.