[3.4] The Mistress of Agony - Lowlife BlightDrain Ascendant / Occultist - ALL content viable!

Hello there it's me again. I played a bit since last time. I finally ascended, and
i was wondering what to chose for my next points. Since i probably won't go to lvl 100 (at least not before the season ends)i have to make choices. I feel like i lacked defensive ability so i took the last ES nodes, but where to go then ? i don't know about my damages for the very end game. For now, i have no problem clearing t12-t13 maps.

Here's my passive skill tree :


Could you help me going further ? I don't know how to link my character, but i don't really understand how my gear could be better.


Btw, i don't understand the purpose of shield dash, i think it's kinda clunky isn't it ? Leap slam wouldn't be better ? Why do you use shield dash for ? I use it to move "quicker" and sometimes dash out of combat, so i almost never profit from fortify. I find it really weird. I never wanna dash in with it and get killed.

thank you

You are missing two key talents to play the character properly.

Whispers of Doom allows you to use two curses on targets. Usually the two curses are Temporal Chains and Enfeeble, which help a lot with the defensive capabilities of the character. Despair can be used in place of Enfeeble when the character is really well geared (10k+ ES).

Zealot's Oath gives permanent ES regen, but I see you are using the flask so it should be pretty safe if you can mantain a high uptime of SotD.

Shield Charge is really good when coupled with movement speed and attack speed. Since we use Haste and the Onslaught Elder jewel, the high attack speed + movement speed we can reach under Quicksilver Flask effect make Shield Charge really powerful to move around in maps. Plus, it's used to apply the Fortify buff while mapping, which is a solid defensive layer (20% reduced damage taken). You only have to get used to it, when you learn how to use it properly it's a great movement skill.

Don't worry btw. You have a lot of room for improvements in your character.

- You need better flasks. Life flask isn't required at all; try to have the advised flask setup and things will get better and better (we use the Alchemist node, so our flasks are a very important part of the playstyle).

- You need to get the right colors on the Shavronne's Wrappings to finally have a 6L Blight setup.

- You need to consume a lvl 20 Swift Affliction into the ring to maximize Essence Drain's damage.

- You definitely need better gems. The majority of your gems has no quality, and you have a lvl 2 Empower only. The endgame goal should be having all gems lvl 20 / 20 quality or even lvl 21 / 20 quality (especially Essence Drain and Blight scale a lot with gem level, so corrupted 21 / 20 ones are a great boost to the character's damage), and a lvl 4 Empower in the Blight setup

- The Elder jewel is super powerful for this build. If you can get it your clearspeed will skyrocket and your defensive potential will increase a LOT.

After the Ascendant rework, the Scion version of this build has taken a mastodontic nerf from the damage side. The -15% chaos res from the Occultist sub-ascendancy is gone, and that was our best tool to make decent damage against bosses. The +1 curse doesn't compensate unless the curse effectiveness reduction of endgame bosses is modified. I'll wait for PoB update to compute some precise numbers after the changes, but I am pretty disappointed (and sad, because I really love to play ED as a Scion).

On the other hand, the Witch Occultist version of the build is pretty insane after the rework. The clearspeed problem sadly remains (profane bloom + contagion is still a bad interaction), but damage and survivability are increased.

OK, I am figuring the updates to both builds after all the ascendancy revamps and final patch notes.

As to the Scion version, probably we will not use the Occultist sub-ascendancy anymore, since it's extremely mediocre in 3.2, it only gives us an additional curse (which we don't absolutely need because curses are pretty bad in boss fights) with some curse effectiveness and some ES regen.

Stun immunity is not required since we would use Presence of Chayula anyway.

The Trickster sub-ascendancy is still powerful, if not more than ever, because now we can generate frenzy charges while mapping, increasing our clearspeed and damage until we can constantly kill monsters. It still has the super recovery bonus on kill which is huge for us, since we have permanent Zealot's Oath.

To replace the Occultist sub-ascendancy, two alternatives seem pretty promising:

1. Necromancer (clear speed and utilities: 20% skill duration, Flesh offering with 50% effect on us for juicy extra movement / cast / attack speed, and again cast / attack speed from our 3 auras; this sub-ascendancy makes us super swift at mapping)

2. Guardian (defenses: physical damage reduction from auras, extreme regen every 5 seconds, 10% extra aura effectiveness, and 25% reduction of curses on us)

I think I'll personally go with Necromancer, because I love mapping and clearing fast and because Scion is now vastly inferior in boss killing when compared to Witch Occultist, so I think it's better to specialize in that clearspeed aspect, but it's up to you.


As to the Witch version, the passive tree will be unchanged. We will still take Void Beacon, Profane Bloom, Wicked Ward and Malediction.


Now the choice is easier: if you want to farm bosses, go Witch. If you want to clear maps super fast, go Ascendant. And that's all.

TLDR; Ascendant's clearspeed will be insane. Frenzy Charges while mapping, Flesh offering, Onslaught from Elder jewel, Quicksilver of Adrenaline, we will map at around 170-180% movement speed lol, casting like a boss (0.32 cast time on ED and 0.21 on Contagion while mapping will be pretty crazy, I want to try it so hard lol). Witch Occultist's clearspeed will still suck because of Profane Bloom, but the boss potential of the ascendancy is top tier (around 35% more boss damage when compared to the Ascendant) and it received crazy survivability buffs too (hexproof bypassing, extra curse effectiveness, less damage taken from monsters thanks to Malediction).


Enjoy Bestiary League!


I will update the main post of the thread and passive trees / pastebins - as usual - before the league actually starts.

Cheers!

So I've been using your build for the last month and i'd have to say its probably my favorite since Pulpfictionz's old school Detonate Dead Witch. (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/923668) There's something magical for me in those "spread" builds.

Here is my gear: (the helm, armor and shield I bough when the league ended)



I've been using the Scion (LV 93) and now that we know the changes coming in 3.2 I've come to a difficult decision. I've always been more about the boss killing potential than clear speed, and I've also taken the +Blight damage enchant on my helm. So my question is plain: Should I switch to an Occultist? (I have one thats LV 92)

If you are more interested in boss kills, yes.

Talking about pure numbers, in 3.2 Occultist does about 32.2% MORE boss damage when compared to the Ascendant.

The map clearspeed difference, btw, is enormous. Scion is like a Ferrari while the Witch feels more like a Fiat Panda, lol.

"

djnat wrote:

If you are more interested in boss kills, yes.

Talking about pure numbers, in 3.2 Occultist does about 32.2% MORE boss damage when compared to the Ascendant.

The map clearspeed difference, btw, is enormous. Scion is like a Ferrari while the Witch feels more like a Fiat Panda, lol.

Well I guess my play style is like a fiat panda then lol, (I've never been big on the 3min clear map style). Shit only gets real for me when I fight a boss. So Occultist it is!

This is what you can expect in 3.2. I simulated with my standard character the same DPS and ES that the Ascendant will have in the upcoming patch with medium to high tier gear, using some "bad" underleveled gems and a bad spirit shield.

I own much better items on Standard and I can go up to 12k ES with my highest level Scion, but that wasn't the purpose of the video.

Uul-Netol's 3.2 simulated killing time (the boss has about 7.5 millions health and 15% base chaos resistance, so you get the point).

The occultist will do 32% more boss damage so the killing time should be about 4 seconds shorter.

Enjoy!



EDIT: as to your gear, I think the best upgrades you can get are higher ES boots to gain raw EHP and the Elder jewel to have both Onslaught while mapping and faster start of ES recharge.



From a damage perspective, obviously you will gain both clearspeed and boss damage with corrupted 21/20 Blight and Essence Drain.

Build updated for 3.2!

All passive tree and PoB links should work for the new content patch.

Enjoy the new league, and happy hunting! :)

I'm going for the witch/occu version and not getting malediction but vile bastion for this league for stun immunity.
how are you going to get Presence of Chayula when no more Breach zana mod for this league for stun immunity?