[3.8] Death’s Oath Occultist - Death Whisperer(CI) Updated regularly

Videos from [3.0]

Videos from [3.2]

-%Increased Chaos Damage
-%Increased Damage Over Time
-%Increased Area Damage
-%Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras
-%Increased Damage
-+% to Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier (Previously - Non-Ailment Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier)
-%Increased Minion Damage (This will only apply if you have the Spiritual Aid Notable Passive)

Death Aura

(Vaal) Blight

Bane

Aura Setup

Aura Curse

Movement Skills

Utility Minions

Early Game Level 35/45 (1 ascend)

Level 62 - CI

Level 85 - CI

Level 100 CI

(Abyss Eye - Hypnotic Ideally) x6

Primary Stats Max ES (35-50) +Strength (12-16)
Secondary Stats Increased Damage Over Time while holding a shield, Increased Damage if you've Killed Recently, Life Regenerated while moving, Chance to Phase on Kill, Increased Movement speed
A few examples of decent eyes and jewels until you get perfect ones.

Watchers Eye
Malevolence with 18-22% Chaos Multi(Think this is changed to DoT Multi?)
Clarity with 12-18% of Mana gained as ES
Uber Version - Pick One


Also a nice possible option to look for:
Malevolence - Unaffected by bleeding

Kill all bandits, bandits is bad people.

3 and 4 are interchangable, Profane Bloom will likely make for an easier mapping experience until you get Uber Lab completed.

You'll want a flask that does one of these situational removals the base of the flask doesn't matter too much though I prefer Quicksilvers and Sulphurs due to increased movespeed and increased damage. They're also easy to get 3 uses out of.

You'll Definitely need one of these with reduced charges used or + Max charges


Unique flasks

Use this if you want to save a skill point (would require constant uptime)


Use this if you want to save 1-2 gem slots
The curse doesn't receive benefits from curse effect or anything else


This flask and it's upgraded version will increase the damage of your Vaal Blight


This flask will give you amazing recovery while running through maps

3.6 Synthesis

3.4 Delve

Previous League

Whatever you feel like, these are entirely situational and have little impact on game play.
However the Soul of Abberath and the captured soul will make burning ground and ignite maps smoother to play in because these would generally interrupt our ES Recharge.

Death's Stomper - Death's Oath Berserker https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1990590
Death Whisperer - Death's Oath Occultist https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1966637
Death Alpha Hunter - Death's Oath Necromancer https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1987818
Storm Chaser - Charged Dash CWC Glacial Caster (featuring Rippling Thoughts) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1987921

2/28/2018: Revamped the build guide(Things like gems, potions, gear, passives, ascendancies, pantheon,and so much more has been looked over and edited for the better). This is a buff.

3/1/2018: Added Obvious use of Enlighten for curses and auras to make gameplay functional until you have an Impresence. (Yes I should have thought of it sooner.)
General spelling and organization of tags. Might have fixed punctuation as well.

3/10/2018: Edited out Hybrid version (bad idea is bad).
Added Tier 5 Map Videos (see below).
Updated Current Gear to League Character.
Added comments about belts because Bated Breath is better.
Removed Pantheon choices (they're mainly situational anyways)
Edited Ascendancy progression.
Thinking about reworking skill trees slightly.
Thinking about adding a starter build. (could use input - I'm thinking FP until SR until DO)

3/11/2018: Added Deathless Atziri video
3/20/2018: Added Previously asked questions section to hopefully help new players with questions that might have already been answered.
3/23/2018: Removed Increased effect of curses from the build, while this is nice to have it ultimately doesn't result in too much of a difference against monsters that can actually hit you hard.
I've opted for more energy shield down by templar, in addition to filling out the Unnatural Calm wheel.
This also gives us an additional jewel socket so we can place Spreading Rot here, and replace the one by the Melding wheel with an Energy from Within for an extra 15% energy shield!
These changes have been made to both the leveling and end game build!
8/26/2018: Finally removed the not safe for beasties comment from a few leagues ago >.>
12/5/2018: Gutted the Death's Assault minion build.
Removed Conc Effect suggestion from Blight (It didn't do anything).
Arranged tree for more optimal damage, Energy Shield and Jewel Slots (7 instead of 4)
Updated Build guide for 3.5
Updated PoB for 3.5
Dropped down to one curse for 3.5
Running Vitality, Discipline and Clarity(Doesn't need to be max level) Might have space for a fourth aura.
Awaiting new crafts to update best in slot jewels.
Still running Wither to force the wither effect from Occultist passive.
Almost up to 200k Death's Oath Damage with my eh standard gear.
5/28/2019: Remembered I had an update log, adjusted build guide to include Bane and a few other things before 3.7 launch.
6/5/2019: Made adjustments to the level 100 CI tree for Patch 3.7.0.
Made sentence structure and organizational changes throughout guide.
Finally Added potions to the suggested potions section
Added Synthesis league gear section.
Added examples to the jewel section.
Removed Perfect gear text wall, due to it being unlikely to be created because of outdated information.
Added a smiley face somewhere for giggles =)
Adjusted skill layout, awaiting 3.7 to link additional skills and possibly remove a few.
Edited title to reflect 3.7 usage.
9/5/2019: Changed all skills trees to use the new 3.8 skill tree.
Adjust skill gem layout, currently wait for Withering Step in game to link to build.
Finally changed the Ascend picture.
Title changed to reflect 3.8
Eventually I need to redo this entire guide

Q: In your CI tree, why not go for Pain Attunement? Does being on 1 life permanently not activate it?
A: Correct with CI you are always at 1/1 life which will always and only count as full life. You can however achieve 0/1 life (but then you are dead).

Q: I have another classic beginner question: how on earth do you go up to 160(Think they meant 180) strength to equip Death's Oath? That's a massive amount of strength for a witch build
A: Beginning you should grab both of the +30 strength nodes by the witch which will give you +60 and another 40-50 from the armor. Which leaves needing to grab another 70-80 strength. You can get this between 2 rings and an amulet easily enough. You can also grab a pair of boots or gloves with a decent amount of strength on them and then put Death’s Oath on, and then remove the strength item for a higher ES item.
A2: Another Option is to use the Unique Jewel “Efficient Training” This converts Intelligence within it’s radius to strength. This option isn’t as preferred as the prior option however it is incredibly easy to do compared to it.

Q: Is Lightning warp usable here?
A: You can totally use Lightning Warp if you prefer, however it requires Less Duration, and Faster Casting to feel like a really smooth movement skill. Ideally you would be faster with just a 50-70% Quicksilver Flask.

Q: Thanks for the great build. How do your other death's oath builds compare to this one?
A: Currently I feel this is my first (because it is) and true love (I’ve put a lot of effort behind this). The damage and survivability are far superior in this specific build. The Death’s Stomper uses Abberath’s boots which makes it unique in its own way, while Death’s Alpha Hunter uses the Scourge Claw for fun wolf times. These two builds haven’t been updated to 3.2 but I might find some time soon I hope. (New job is really keeping me busy.)

Q: Have you tested faster casting in Death's Oath? I'm not sure if there's been confirmation one way or another, but the aura has a cast speed and seems to do damage more in a pulse manner than a true dot.
A: Faster Casting won’t have any effect on the skill it is either on, or off. In general Damage over Time skills do a certain about of damage over a certain amount of time. In Path of Exile the only way to increase or decrease the time applies to ignites with certain unique items, causing them to burn slower or faster. As of 3.2 There are no items that have a DoT speed up effect.

Q: Does Faminebind belt would be a good choice for your build ?
A: In short no, it won’t be a good choice of belt for the build. In long, it might be a great way to level quickly, however I’m not sure how large of an area the degen from the belt is. Also this is a Talisman League item, so it isn’t easy to come by usually.

Q: How about Abyssal Cry for faster clearing?
A: Having to constantly cast Abyssal Cry would likely be slowing you down more than speeding you up. You’re always causing Chaos Explosions which do fine.

Q: Could you explain the Efficacy/Arcane Surge/Less Duration interaction, and explain how you figure this stuff out?
A: Efficacy was always supposed to work with Death Aura, however due to a bug in 3.0 it wasn’t working as intended. However, adding Arcane surge to a skill gives it a hidden duration tag, similar to how it works with other skills. Less Duration and Swift affliction usually work with most skills that have a duration, hidden or otherwise.

Q: Also, will enduring cry (life regen) work for early level survivability? Will Enduring cry work with the zealot keystone?
A: Yes, Enduring Cry will apply the life regeneration to your ES. This effect only lasts for .75 seconds unless increased with duration increasing passives/skill gem, which could boost it to almost 1.95 seconds at max (longer for berserker but we aren’t grabbing any of these nodes so it will likely only last a second, granting you around 3-400 es regen every 4 seconds.

Q: "Death Whisperer" - means that you are using Whispering Ice..
A: Or.... Maybe it means you're whispering death and has nothing to do with a staff >.>

Q: Why do u run vitality?
A: level 20 Vitality gives 1.65% base life regeneration. With our 54% increased aura effect, this is increased to roughly 2.5% life regeneration. While it isn’t a huge amount it’s still enough to keep you alive most of the time while waiting for recharge or stacks of Vile Bastion to add up. Also with Watcher’s eye you can get flat life regeneration which is incredibly nice.

Need to find more questions in thread, reading this over it seemed rather short.