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

Hi!
Currently trying to get this build up, not the easiest thing since it's my second character and I kind of regret making a Low Life.

Still I do have a question. I purchased my Shav (not the best roll at all but I'll roll it) and I'd like to know what would be the item priority?

Thing is I'm actually crazily weak and I barely handle magic T1 maps and Shavronne's Wrapping took all my currencies away so I'd like to get tankier as fast as possible ^^

Thank for this complete topic btw, it helps a lot to understand lots of things in the game.

My dps is around 33k ed and around 8k blight. Es is around 8.9k the problem is the degen keep preventing the ES from regening. I don't have zealots oath as I don't have life Regen from my gears. Maybe a kill video link will help too.

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Skywebz wrote:

Hi!
Currently trying to get this build up, not the easiest thing since it's my second character and I kind of regret making a Low Life.

Still I do have a question. I purchased my Shav (not the best roll at all but I'll roll it) and I'd like to know what would be the item priority?

Thing is I'm actually crazily weak and I barely handle magic T1 maps and Shavronne's Wrapping took all my currencies away so I'd like to get tankier as fast as possible ^^

Thank for this complete topic btw, it helps a lot to understand lots of things in the game.

Item priority after Shav:

1. Get the full flask setup with the right rolls
2. Get decent ES items until you go past 6k ES while staying resistance capped
3. Try to complete The Hungry Loop setup as soon as possible and try to get Breath of the Council
4. Get Presence of Chayula, it's an immense survivability boost
5. Get the Elder jewel (Watcher's eye) with AT LEAST faster start of ES recharge, if you can get a pseudo-endgame one like mine it's top!

Going ES based isn't that easy until you get used to it. I've played a ton of ES based characters, so it's crazy good for me at the moment, but I understand that it can be difficult to manage sometimes. Flask management becomes a lot more important in ES builds (especially because we use some key passives like Alchemist and Primal Spirit to enhance flask uptime in both mapping and bossing) and you have to be really good at dodging because all Essence Drain builds aren't based on leech mechanics, since we only rely on ES regeneration and recharge (that's why Faster Start is crucial, and we can get it from the Elder jewel, and from the Leo craft on the ring).


@tesun: playing without Zealot's Oath isn't optimal in my opinion. You are sacrificing the passive regen from Essence Drain, the regen from Sulphur flask (4%) and the regen from the passive tree (1.4%) or boots enchantment (2%). That is pretty massive and makes the playstyle a lot more comfortable, especially when you get to 8.5k+ ES. All these sources of regen get boosted by 50% whenever you kill anything (any add in the Shaper phase of the Elder, for example), thanks to the Trickster sub-ascendancy of the Scion.

Do you own the Elder jewel? The faster start of ES recharge is very helpful too.

I have set my profile as public.
My char is a occultist.
and will try to get zealot oath and try it out.
are you able to advise further then?
have you tried testing whether the elder is harder to kill for T10 ?
sorry no elder jewel yet.

Just tested it in a T11 map.

The adds phase seems a bit more intense than in 3.1, but with my gear it's easily doable. ZO helps a lot when there are more monsters / adds, because the ED regen is multiplied. The Elder phase was really easy because the damage on my standard character is very high.

After seeing your public profile, there are a lot of upgrades you can get.

1. You are using a completely different passive tree from the one I use, because you are CI. This means you are doing 30% LESS damage because you don't have Pain Attunement yet. Try to get a 5L Shav as soon as possible, it should be your main focus. Total cost in BSC is 1.4 ex for the unlinked chest and 30c for the 5L prophecy.

2. After you go lowlife, remove CI and all the spell damage / mana and life nodes at the witch start and take ZO + Whispers of Doom + Pain attunement and use a passive tree which is similar to the one I updated in the main post of the build, in the Witch version. Remove Dreamer too, going for Primal Spirit is a lot better because it provides stats (str + int), mana, mana regen and the super important extra flask charges.

3. When gearing, after getting Shav and changing the passive tree, follow this priority:

- Get the right full flask setup and The Hungry Loop
- Cap your resistances while having as much ES as possible
- Get Breath of the Council
- When you have farmed the required currencies, get Watcher's Eye with AT LEAST faster start of ES recharge, then Presence of Chayula
- Minmax your gear (enchantments, jewels, damage / es rolls)

1)regarding Zealot's oath, do you try to get life regen gear if possible?
since it will help to regen ES faster?
2)or I should just focus only on ES regen gear?

3)another question, you says ED has regen for ZO?
but the description of ED don't have any description of that. can elaborate more pls?

I saw some old post on ED debate with Ghazzy. see below.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1625254/page/52

4)You mention using vulnerability will generate more life regen and thus more ES regen with ZO.
Then why no one use vulnerability on ED/blight build but despair with ED build/blight?
Doesn't vulnerability gives more survivability?

"

tesun wrote:

1)regarding Zealot's oath, do you try to get life regen gear if possible?
since it will help to regen ES faster?
2)or I should just focus only on ES regen gear?

3)another question, you says ED has regen for ZO?
but the description of ED don't have any description of that. can elaborate more pls?

I saw some old post on ED debate with Ghazzy. see below.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1625254/page/52

4)You mention using vulnerability will generate more life regen and thus more ES regen with ZO.
Then why no one use vulnerability on ED/blight build but despair with ED build/blight?
Doesn't vulnerability gives more survivability?

1. No. Suffixes are precious, and we need resistances (or stats) on all of them.

2. ES regen gear does not exist. Like I said, we rely on two recovery mechanics, life regen (which becomes ES regen via ZO) and ES recharge.

Life regen can be found in the passive tree (the Witch version I published in this thread has 2.4% life regen per second from the tree), in Sulphur flask (4% life regen per second while standing on consecrated ground), in boots enchantment (2% regen), and in Essence Drain.

ES recharge can be boosted via passive tree or gear (Bated Breath, for example, has an insane 50% recharge on it). ES recharge can start faster if boosted by passives / gear. For example, the Elder jewel has up to 40% faster start of ES recharge, Leo enchant on rings has up to 20% and Shavronne's Wrappings has 10% faster start of ES recharge. On the passive tree, the Essence Surge notable has 15% faster start, but it's not necessary to take it when owning Shav + the Elder jewel.

3. ED has an innate regen mechanic (Regenerate 0.5% of Debuff Damage as Life). That life regen is transfered to ES via Zealot's Oath.

Let's say your tooltip DOT with ED is 50k DPS. 0.5% of that damage (250 per second) PER MONSTER will become life regen. Life regen becomes then ES regen via ZO.

So, if you spread your 50k ED dot on 10 monsters, you will regenerate 250 x 10 = 2500 ES per second until they die. If you are a Scion with the Trickster sub-ascendancy, that regen can go up to 3750 ES per second (50% increased) after "recently" killing. That's the case, for example, in The Elder adds / portals phase, when you are constantly killing things, and that's why my regen in that phase seems literally insane. If you keep that 50k ED dot on the boss only, you will still have 250 ES regen per second from ED, no matter what.

4. Vulnerability has been changed in 3.1. It's no longer useful for ED / Blight builds, Despair is the curse to go in the current state of the game.

How does occultist compare towards necro ascendancy as Scion? I feel like the 1.5% es per sec and additional curse seems too good to pass.

From a defensive point of view, especially at bosses, the Guardian sub-ascendancy of the Scion is more powerful when compared to the Occultist one. Curses suffer an 80% reduction in effectiveness at endgame bosses, and a 60% reduction in effectiveness at all other bosses, so having one more is good for mapping, but you'll hardly notice it at bosses, especially Elder / Shaper / Guardians. Don't forget that Scion cannot bypass hexproof mod too, while the Witch Occultist can, making curses a more powerful and reliable tool for all-around mapping. Guardian gives a strong regen every 5 seconds which feels like throwing a healing flask, and 10% aura effectiveness (= extra ES and speed). The best thing about the Occultist is the 1.5% regen, which is on average a lot inferior when compared to the Guardian one.

From a clearspeed point of view, Necromancer + Trickster > ALL.

And don't forget that the Necromancer ascendancy adds 20% skill duration, which is pretty powerful in boss fights because it makes Blight stacking even more reliable and all buffs / debuffs uptime (Arcane Surge, ED) more manageable.

Hello , thx for build.


Can i buy 2 Watcher's Eye , first with onslaught/hast (50 chaos) and the second ES/discipline (1exa) ?