[2.4] LL Crit Arc Occultist - Budget/CI version included - Core viable
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Hello. Welcome to my guide for Low Life Crit Arc Occultist (budget/CI version at the end).
---Foreword--- So finally my humble dream of having big Arc damage has been fulfilled. Made this char years ago when I was still a noob, made a noob guide for it - here for your entertainment - revisited it some time later here - and only recently was bothered to log back in and finish it Ascendancy style. I am quite happy with the result and honestly it's a far cry even from the stuff I once theory-crafted with no hopes of getting the needed gear. At 50k dps in Hideout, this build now has more dps than the CI one had at full charges and almost 10x more than my first noob build. Talk about power creep :o. Well, but in case this doesn't amuse you, let's get to the guide, shall we... ---Personal thoughts on the build--- The Bad: Expensive, clear speed is great but not godly, many map mods are annoying The Good: Monster damage, good survivability, very easy to play ---Quick info on the state of my current character--- - lvl92 - 40-50ex overall cost - Arc (6L): 231k dps, 80.5% crit chance - 8.75k ES, 12%DR, 15% Block ---Videos--- Colosseum Clear - Double Boss, Monster Life, Ele Weakness - Possibly the worst kind of fight for this character: no power charges, lacks a reactive movement skill like WB, all done under a constant threat of stun, and chill lasts for ages. Can be done, though :o Uber Izaro Gorge Speedrun - 2:17 Core - \o/ Lvl79 Temple Clear - Normal damage showcase and dealing with reflect Courtyard Clear - Enfeeble, EE, some other stuff, basically a maximally gimped dmg showcase ---Tree--- Current Tree At lvl92. Lvl100 Tree More ES and jewel slots, basically.
More detailed tree discussion
All the stun avoidance nodes are essential. You will die without them, no question. Damage nodes, however, are quite optional. Already dropped many of them from my earlier tree for more ES. Probably will drop more in the future. Getting enough Dex and Str in this build is a bit of a problem. Don't worry about taking a 30 point node if your gear isn't quite there.
Ascendancy options
My (theoretical) take on other Ascendancy options, taken from a comment: " ---Gear---
Gear
Jewels
On jewels you mostly want damage and to fill any stats. Use Energy From Within in the slot near PA. Also, if you can, get it corrupted with Silence immunity.
More detailed gear discussion
General requirements: Dex: 98 for Herald of Ice Str: 111 for Less Duration Int: Will always have enough --Weapons-- Void Batteries are realistically the best option, although any rare Wand/Dagger/Scepter will do. Using a shield is a possibility as well, but I am not sure you would be ready for the loss of cool and street cred, so don't. --Chest-- Shaaaaaavs. Yes, don't bother with Solaris Lorica --Rings-- Ideally Diamond rings with ES, master crafted %ES, and then resists and anything else you might need, like stats, or just more damage. --Gloves-- High ES rares are the best option, but Facebreakers/Maligaro's/Shadow's are also possible. Voidbringers would be excellent if you wanted to run on Vaal Clarity. --Boots-- High ES rares with max movement speed, resists, int, etc. --Helmet-- High ES rare with resists and int. If possible, craft Chance to Avoid being Stunned from Leo. --Belt-- Lightning Doryani's is an option, but a rare with max ES and resists is probably better. Bonus if it has strength. --Amulet-- Spell dmg, ES, Crit chance and Crit multi. Citrine/Jade base would be best for filling your stat requirements. --Flasks-- Rumi is good because it also helps with reflect, Topaz is necessary for reflect, Quicksilver for speed. Diamond and Atziri are optional, but you WILL need at least one Heat and one Staunching flask there somewhere. --Luxury Items-- +1 Shavs.
Enchantments
Gloves - DGAF Boots - Only the "you've killed recently" trigger option is realistically useful. Life/Mana leech would be probably the best and let us replace War Mark for general mapping, although we might still have to use it against certain bosses. Movement speed would probably be the second best, with CS/AS also not being terrible. Helmet - +2/3 Arc chains is what you really want. Other tolerable options include: Arc dmg, Reduced aura reservation, War Mark increased effect and Increased golem buff. --Using a shield-- In case you wanted to gain some defense at a cost of damage, you could wear a shield.
Shield+Helmet
Using my rare helmet would be fine as well - and it gives 20ES more - but the extra evasion, chaos resist and mana regen make the Vertex a better choice. Depends on how much ES your rare helmet has, of course. Stats with this setup: - DPS: 147k - ES: 10.7k --Stun Mechanics--
Stun Mechanics
As long as you have any ES, you have 50% chance to ignore stuns. Additionally, we have 70% chance to avoid interruption from stuns while casting and 35% chance to avoid being stunned from the helmet. This works out to: (100-50) * ((100-35)/100) = 32.5% chance of being stunned But when we are casting: (100-50) * ((100-35)/100) * ((100-70)/100) = 9.75% chance of being stunned ---Gem Setups--- 6L: Arc+Light Pen+Spell Echo+Inc Crit Strikes+Controlled Dest+Faster Casting 4L: Orb of Storms+PCoC+ICS; Blood Rage 4L: Blood Magic+Discipline+Clarity; Vaal Discipline 4L: HoT+HoI+CoH+Warlord's Mark 3L: LW+Less Dur+FC 3L: Enlighten+Wrath/Purity of Light; Ice/Light Golem
More detailed gem discussion
--Arc-- Controlled Destruction can be swapped for Increased Critical Damage or Added Lightning if you want slightly more reliable crits. Otherwise get your dirty hands from the Master Craftsman's setup, pls :o --Orb of Storms-- Works as your Power Charge generation. It's enough to cast it 1-3 times at the beginning of the map, Forbidden Power will take care of the rest. --Auras-- Lvl3 Enlighten is not necessary, but helps. Run Wrath for yolo and PoL if you wanna progress at lvl90+. --Curse-- Ele weakness or Conductivity could be run for more damage, but Warlord's is overall a much better option: provides endurance charges, gives us life to survive and mana to cast more easily. --Blood Rage-- Only run on open/easy maps. You can easily sustain it because of the ES regen, but you don't move that fast, and no mobs = sad ES. --Vaal Disclipline-- Don't forget to use. ---Stats---
Arc DPS
Defense
 ---Bandits--- Normal: Passive Cruel: Passive Merciless: Alira ---Leveling--- I would use this tree for lvling. It's similar enough so that you can later re-spec using quest re-spec points only. Go get Heart of Thunder, Cruel Preparation and Deep Thoughts first. Then travel through the stat/stun avoidance nodes, pick up Heart and Soul, and travel to the Shadow area to get Blood Siphon, or even Nullification if you need resists. Pick dmg/life along the way as you see fit. The tree is roughly for lvl73. After that you might re-spec into CI and later LL when you have Shavs, or continue as life by completing the Templar area until you have good enough ES gear. ---Mapping--- Map mods you don't really wanna run: - Ele Reflect - Blood Magic Map mods you might not want to run: - Minus Max - Added cold ---Actually Playing--- What you need to remember to be successful with this build: 1. This is, I think, my first Arc build that is highly resistant to reflect. Even so, use caution and ideally both Purity of Lightning and Topaz to be safe. 2. You have reasonably high ES pool, quick ES recharge and pretty much constant ES regen, BUT also almost no mitigation. Don't be lead into a false sense of security. 3. You will have quite high stun avoidance, but it's not gonna be 100%. Keep that in mind (and don't panic). Similarly, don't forget to use your Heat flask in areas with cold dmg mobs (and be quite careful in maps with added cold dmg). 4. You should use a Quicksilver for general movement, don't yolo into groups of mobs with LW. 5. This build - with charges and kill based ES regen - is quite momentum based. Be mindful of that before facing bosses and tough opponents. You don't wanna go in half-cocked :o. 6. I will add stuff, if anyone appears to care.
Budget/CI version
---Tree--- Lvl91 CI Tree Is extremely similar to the LL tree, all you do is drop Pain Attunement and Arcane vision and pick up CI and following ES nodes. ---Gem setups--- The only thing you change, is drop BM and Wrath, and run Discipline and Clarity with Enlighten. Everything else stays the same. Hurray for two gem slots you can do whatever you want with \o/. ---Gear/Stats/Changes/Budget--- --Budget-- If you are on a budget, you would probably use something like this: instead of Void Batteries and Shavs. You can also probably only afford a 5L, so you drop CD and your Arc is gonna be lvl20 only. Stats with this setup:
Budget Arc DPS
Budget Def
 11k ES, 57k dps - not bad. Easily enough to run high lvl maps. --CI non-budget-- You could also decide that the extra dps of the LL version is not worth losing ES over. In that case, your gear would look more like this: Just imagine that chest is 6L. Gonna simulate the dmg while wearing Tabula. Stats with this setup:
CI Arc DPS
CI Arc Def
 12k ES, 101k dps. And if you wanted to use Void Batteries anyway:
CI Arc DPS
 12k ES, 128k dps. At this point, it is questionable if the CI version isn't better than the LL one. The CI version plays the same as the LL one. Except you don't care about chaos dmg anymore, of course. Last edited by Cabesi on Mar 11, 2017, 3:57:10 PM Last bumped on Mar 11, 2017, 3:36:07 PM
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What you use if not blood rage?
Can't see the point in using it. |
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" You get Frenzy Charges which give you more cast speed and damage. And more damage is always fun :o. Feel free not to run it, of course - depending on the lvl of your gear it might be wholly unnecessary. | |
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Great guide! Deserves more attention, but arc isn't Fotm anymore. You've convinced me to go occultist over assassin, but I'll move some tree points around to pick up vaal pact. I've loved arc ever since it was called chain lightning in d2. You're the first person I've see do core with it, so I'm looking forward to trying that too.
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" Thank you! I suggest this for a tree with Vaal Pact. Results in: -35%dmg, -6%ES, -12%All res, +2%CS and + Vaal Pact. Lvled this character 90-92 with the new tree/Ascendancy and never felt like I really needed Vaal Pact or wished I had it, but it seems like a fair deal nevertheless. Assassin - using this tree - gets you about 30-35% more dmg (replacing ICS with ICD and the extra Assassin passives), but you lose about 500ES, and of course Wicked Ward and Vile Bastion, which make ES characters just so much more well rounded and fun to play, not to mention resilient. Also with Forbidden Power you actually have a very reliable power charge generation. Playing Assassin you would be forced to cast Orb all the time, which would be quite annoying. All in all, it would be a preference, but my choice - at least with my current lvl of gear - would be the Occultist. As for the Inquisitor, he suffers a bit from sub-optimal pathing and also Arc is maybe not the best spell to use with him, because you kind of really want to have 95% crit chance to take the full advantage of Inevitable Judgement, which is pretty much impossible to achieve without completely remaking the build, and, in fact, because of the missing power charge, he is gonna achieve ~79% crit chance only. Using this tree you are looking at 0-15% more dmg for 30-45% res mobs, but less dmg against non-resistant ones. You also lose about 700ES and again a convenient way to sustain power charges and all the Occultist ES perks. So I would say Inquisitor pretty much sucks. Lastly, yeah, not sure Arc is so good anymore. Tried Storm Call for a bit with this char and it cleared faster and the single target dmg was better as well (especially with conc). However, at least without the helm enchant, the delay was still too high for my taste and it felt less safe and efficient overall. Depends on what you want, I guess. Last edited by Cabesi on Aug 10, 2016, 9:25:27 AM
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The auto charge gen is very nice and a huge point against inquisitor for me; I'm very lazy/forgetful about orbing all the time. But I've played crit capped assassin and I found their charge gen node to be sufficient and not take too long to reach max charges. But since we're talking about an endgame, expensive char, deadly infusion doesn't have the same value as it will for other builds since we need to dip into crit nodes on the tree for the multi anyways.
I think Occultist has some really underrated offensive nodes. Auto charge gen + 50 crit + 104% spell power, 10% more damage with some aoe, and 8% chaos damage + extra curse. Without having run the numbers, it seems like if you can cap crit with either ascendancy, then what the occultist offers on offense should rival the crit multi from assassin. I'll probably start with malediction with a blasphemy'd warlord's mark over vile bastion, but I'm sure I'll try both. My tree will probably be some kind of hybrid of yours and TheAnuhart's assassin. My comp gives me such bad frame rate that I'll need leech + pact, but you're right about that sweet void battery street cred :P I think, sadly, storm call is better than arc at this point in the game with the addition of the helm enchant and buff to less duration, but arc is my first love. edit: maybe the int node is better than power charge duration to path next to witch power charge node...I doubt there's many times where the charges would fall off at any important time. and how do facebreakers perform...I'm assuming not worth the es loss? Last edited by Durance on Aug 10, 2016, 11:46:31 AM
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I got a 6L Vaal Regalia from The Dapper Prodigy so i was thinking on making an crit Arc build, i was creating my own on my mind but yours seems strong, i'm gonna try it.
i'm just wondering about where do you get leech besides from Atziri's Promise because you take Ghost Reaver. Also, what do you think about and Call of the Brotherhood? As soon as i can do maps i'll tell you how is it going on ;) | |
" Not once you have a certain amount of dmg already, at least. Facebreakers give you about 15% more dmg, which is pretty good, but dropping the ES gloves (even only the 160ES gloves that I have) loses you 10% ES. It's an option if the rest of your ES gear is very good and you feel safe :). " I get leech from Warlord's Mark. Mind of the Council has a very pretty art :>. If you did use it, it would be for the mana sustain - you could get a different curse than Warlord's (or just use it in hexproof maps) and not get any mana regen on tree/gear, but then again, the sustain might not be enough against single targets (you would get 40 mana per shock, but one cast - which would have 88% chance to shock - costs 90 mana) and some bosses like Malachai or Atziri are impossible to shock. There might be some combinations that would work, but meh. Otherwise, the mini MoM is pretty useless (against Lightning dmg only) and we only have about 230-260 mana unreserved anyway, and the ES on it is very low. Also you obviously not wanna get shocked, that might be one of the few ways you might possibly die. I am not as big a fan of Call of the Brotherhood as some other people. Your lightning pen goes from 40% to 20%, which means 26% less dmg against 45% res bosses, AND it's now harder to shock. And it's the same story if you choose to go with cold pen, of course. Even though, in this build at least, I am looking to get some extra safety at the cost of dps, you lose a lot and the defensive gains aren't, in my opinion, as pronounced since Arc is inherently one of the safest spells already. Most mobs don't get to touch you, and if they do, there is a high chance it was because of Arc being limited to targeting 7 mobs at a time, rather than them not being frozen. Additionally, you lose 400-450ES per rare ring and any extra resists it might have. It wouldn't be a terrible idea to use it (we have a lot of dmg, so freezing/shocking meaty targets might not be a big issue), but again, meh. You should probably test it and find out how it works for you. Last edited by Cabesi on Aug 11, 2016, 4:25:03 AM
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Well i've been a bit busy but here is are my comments:
Yesterday i reached lvl 76 and took CI, i have 9.7k ES using Maligaros gloves (i hope to get ES gloves today), since i prioritized defense over dmg (and i'm only lvl 76) my dps with 10 power charges is 35kdps so far (with gems on lvl 17) but anyways i'm running tier 8-9 maps without trouble :D Leveling:
Spoiler
While leveling i used a tabula rasa, some random wands i got from drops and random jewelry, but i want to mention some good uniques:
Spoiler
The only hard times i had were at the end of act 3 and the begining of act 4 in merciless, since tabula provided no defense i died a couple of times while fighting bosses :c Questions:
Spoiler
On the gem section, you mention controled destruction, but in your gear you have added lightining instead of CD, what do you think between those 2 gems?
I'm leveling 6 extra arc gems, does it worth making them 20quality and then vaaling or should i just vaal them as soon as they reach lvl 20? What do you think about using empower? with arc lvl 21, and empower lvl 4 it will chain an aditional time, and if it's a good option, what gem would you replace? As soon as i reacg lvl 90 i'll comment again my thoughts. | |
" Right on! " Yeah, I have been switching between the two. CD means more dmg, but Added Light gives better crit consistency. Generally, you would wanna use Added Light for easier content and when you wanna maximize your clear speed, and CD for the harder stuff, but in reality it's often hard to tell the difference. Use whatever you feel like is best for the situation (gear and progress wise, as well as in game). Probably not. 20% extra chance to shock gives you only about 4% extra chance to shock once you have your crit gear and charges up. Getting a lvl21 Arc quick is more important. Depends on how much you like the character and how long you wanna play it. Indeed it is a good option. In my current link, CD gives about 35% more damage, FC gives 30% and Added Light and ICD give about 25% more. Lvl4 Empower would give you about 30% and, as you say, an extra chain, so any of three (CD, Added Light, ICD) or FC would be replaceable, really. Didn't think of mentioning it, probably because you need specifically lvl4 Empower and not lvl3, and it's a lot of extra money for 1 extra chain. Worth it if you already have lvl4 Empower, or are min-maxing, of course. |
