[2.2] King's "Jupiter Ascendant" - 4 curse hybrid/CI non-crit Occultist Witch [HC&Beginner friendly]

Hi, I've been following this guide and finally got the Lab on Cruel, but im with a few questions.

1- How important is the fourth curse ? Im starting to believe Vile Bastion is better than Malediction.

2- Anyone knows if Vile Bastion recovery is everytime, or it's just when the energy shield is regenerating ?

3- If I go with three curses, would be useful to go with:

Blasphemy > Warlord > Enfeeble > Conductivity
Herald of Thunder > Clarity > Arctic Armor > Reduced Mana

What do you think of this setup ? Could it work well ?

Thank you and sorry for many questions, im kinda new to the game.

"

Chaudblitz wrote:

Hi, I've been following this guide and finally got the Lab on Cruel, but im with a few questions.

1- How important is the fourth curse ? Im starting to believe Vile Bastion is better than Malediction.

2- Anyone knows if Vile Bastion recovery is everytime, or it's just when the energy shield is regenerating ?

3- If I go with three curses, would be useful to go with:

Blasphemy > Warlord > Enfeeble > Conductivity
Herald of Thunder > Clarity > Arctic Armor > Reduced Mana

What do you think of this setup ? Could it work well ?

Thank you and sorry for many questions, im kinda new to the game.

Well, I would always use 4 curses rather than anything else because you can either go Temp Chains, Enfeeble, Warlord's Mark and Conductivity for HC, or Enfeeble/Temp chains, Warlord's Mark, Conductivity and Ele Weakness for SC. It's a huge defense/offense bonus. Extra defense curse with curse effectiveness is a huge defense boost, temp chains + rallying cry will almost stop mobs from moving and Ele Weakness + Conductivity is literally 90+% MORE damage. You can always play 3 curse setup if you like, but I would definitely choose 4th curse :)

For 3 curse setup, I would use Herald of Thunder + Curse on hit + Enfeeble + Conductivity and Orb of Storms + increased crit strikes (to trigger Elemental Overload more often) + curse on hit + Warlords Mark.

Reduced mana doesn't work with auras anymore, Enlighten does that now (but you don't really need it).

"

Chaudblitz wrote:

Hi, I've been following this guide and finally got the Lab on Cruel, but im with a few questions.

1- How important is the fourth curse ? Im starting to believe Vile Bastion is better than Malediction.

2- Anyone knows if Vile Bastion recovery is everytime, or it's just when the energy shield is regenerating ?

Vile Bastion adds directly to regeneration, not recharge, and it is as such completely independent of whether you are recharging or not.

Each kill gets it own counter and you get a kill-counter of current active kills at the top of the screen with the buffs.

Kill one mob and a second two seconds later, and you get 0.5% ES regeneration the first 2s, then 1% regeneration the next 2s after which the first expires, then 0.5% ES regeneration the next 2s until the second kill-timer expires.

Or have fun wiping out Perandus packs and seeing if you can kill quickly enough for your killcounter to hit the 40s, giving you 20%+ ES/s regeneration while the fun lasts.

Needless to say, this makes dealing with large packs of enemies trivial and this is much stronger than the benefit you get from a fourth curse - especially if you play the CI variant and stack absurd amounts of ES.

The drawback is equally obvious - when fighting few enemies or bosses without friends around to kill, Vile Bastion does nothing whatsoever while a fourth curse provides a lot.

So it is a question of what you prioritize. Which of the two situations are of most concern to you?

I'd like to give you all some of my thoughts about this bulid. First thing to mention - I am playing CI version (lvl85). Second - I don't think dagger is the best weapon for this non-crit build. Wand+shield is better. Orb of Storms +Inc.Crit Strikes is enough to proc Overload 99% time.
Vile Bastion (imho) is better than the fourth curse. I have 603 ES regeneration atm without Vile Bastion buff and with it my ES regen rockets to the sky! With 3-5 kills it is over 1k per second. So I can safely stand in the middle of big packs of monsters. And I don't have Immortal Call at all. No physical reduction except from Endurance Charges and 300 armour on my belt. Besides, the fourth curse is useless against curse immune monsters while Vile Bastion always works (except solo targets without spawns). The stun immunity at full ES is also nice thing as stuns are the most dagerous situation for CI builds (not using Chayula amulet). Now I can do any map mods apart from Elem. Reflect (but even Elem reflect is doable if you play carefully and don't rush. I tried only one such map and at that time I had about 300-350 ES regen so I think with 600+ it is even easier). I just alch a white map and go. No problem. Just keep one Divine mana Flask with anti-freezing mod.
I 'd like to repeat that all the above is true for CI version. For hybrid it might be another case.

what flasks would u suggest on a CI version?

My flasks (CI build) :

basically you need 2 remove-freeze flasks 1 remove-bleed and 1 remove-curse . Other mods are up to you. But for some bosses/map mods you need to adjust accordingly. For example, you need more remove-bleed flasks when you fight Malformation boss (preferably swap Anti-Freeze Divine Mana flask for Anti-Bleed one).
Tip: Pop a Quartz ant-freeze flask just before you open a strongbox.

"

bskaa wrote:

what flasks would u suggest on a CI version?

At least one Granite flask with extra armour.

At least one Sulphur flask. 4% extra regeneation (and 40% damage) on demand is awesome.

The remaining flasks chosen to shore up mana or defenses as neeeded.

Regarding affixes, you should have at least one anti-freeze, anti-curse, and anti-bleed.

Hello. I'm pretty new and I've decided I want to run this as my first build. I also want to go for the CI route (it looks really damn cool and fun to play). But I need advice on what sort of uniques I should be using in that case and what gear to aim for later on to maximise my ES and survive.

Advice?

"

SpookedMuffin wrote:

Hello. I'm pretty new and I've decided I want to run this as my first build. I also want to go for the CI route (it looks really damn cool and fun to play). But I need advice on what sort of uniques I should be using in that case and what gear to aim for later on to maximise my ES and survive.

Advice?

here is my gear. Maybe it helps

"

SpookedMuffin wrote:

Hello. I'm pretty new and I've decided I want to run this as my first build. I also want to go for the CI route (it looks really damn cool and fun to play). But I need advice on what sort of uniques I should be using in that case and what gear to aim for later on to maximise my ES and survive.

Advice?

You should play hybrid until you reach end game (lvl 75+) and buy all gear. Garfunkel posted his gear, take a look. 450+ es chest, 200+ es helm and shield are imo minimum for CI.