[3.0] Kuraku's Caustic Occultist
 www.twitch.tv/kuraku94
Overview
This build makes use of the synergy between Wicked Ward from Occultist and the Soul Strike unique quiver for a great defense boost, while throwing in the Ascent from Flesh unique belt to give us phasing if we've started our ES recharge recently. This allows for an interesting combination with Frost Wall, as we'll be able to walk through the walls and leave enemies trapped or circling to get to us. Caustic Arrow also goes straight through the wall, allowing us to consistently deal damage from relative safety.
There are other uniques used in this build, but these were my focus from the start and they make up the basic foundation of the build.
Videos
LV75 Videos
T11 Wasteland 48% Life, Enfeeble, 60% less recovery rate, Turbo, Reduced Flask Charges @LV75
The purpose of this map was to challenge the build with awful mods and an awful boss. The reason Voll is difficult on the build is because he creates consecrated ground that regens his life, with the 48% life and less damage multiplier from enfeeble it becomes pretty slow. Pile on top of that the less recovery rate and turbo, and we get a lot of close calls. I did have to switch to conc effect a few minutes in simply because I needed more damage to offset the map mods. Obligatory T11 Shaped Strand run, Temp chains, 28% more life, reduced flask charges
LV85+ Videos
Phoenix, with a single rather embarrassing death in the first 20 seconds
This is actually my first time ever clearing a guardian fight, and it probably shows. I attempted Hydra once on a different character and it didn't go well, also attempted Phoenix on a different character this league and got obliterated. You can tell by my face at the end of this my relief that it was over! Forge of the Phoenix leading up to the guardian fight, rather eventful with an Essence, Breach, Zana, and Harbinger huddled together. T12 Shipyard Ele Weakness, less area The environment in shipyard is kinda tricky for caustic arrow, the blocks don't leave much room to get a shot in the middle of packs very well. Boss isn't bad though. T12 Shaped Castle Ruins -10% max res, 25% inc damage, -60% curse effect, -50% flask charge gain Nice open area of Castle Ruins is excellent for spreading Caustic Arrow and moving on, boss was easy here, too.
Pros
+Fun and engaging gameplay
+Excellent clear speed +Safely runs up to T15 maps +Core items are cheap +But scales up nicely with investment +You can level from 1-??? using the same weapon (Silverbranch/Silverbough)
Cons
-Not HC tested(But it does have solid defense, I think it's doable if you're careful)
-Single target damage isn't the best, some bosses with certain map mods(More life, enfeeble, Chaos res) are a slog to get through -Can't facetank, you have to move around and dodge or you will die. -No leech, which means you can't run no regen maps because you won't be able to sustain caustic arrow
Bandits
Kill All - 2 Passives
Ascendancy
-Wicked Ward: The key component to our defense, easily first to get
-Void Beacon: Has a deceptively large radius, basically everything on screen takes more damage from caustic arrow. -Vile Bastion: Helps a lot with stuns, plus the regen isn't terrible when clearing. -Profane Bloom: Not great, not bad. The extra damage from curse is nice, the explosion feels sort of pointless in most cases since everything is taking the same damage at the same rate anyway. Looks cool, though!
Pantheon
Soul of the Brine King: This, combined with Vile Bastion from our Ascendancy, makes stuns negligible.
Soul of Abberath: Can't recharge if we're burning, this takes care of that.
Passive Tree
110 Points
Noteables in leveling order, with explanations -Deep Wisdom -Blast Radius: The Inc AoE is great while leveling at this stage! -Corruption: More damage! -Arcane Focus: ES and ES Recharge. -Unnatural Calm: ES and ES Recharge. -Growth and Decay: More damage! -Coldhearted Calculation -Nullification: Defense! -Fangs of the Viper: Damage and MOVE SPEEEEDDD -Deep Thoughts: You may get this earlier on if you're having significant mana issues. -Entropy: Large damage boost -Atrophy: Large damage boost -Essence Surge: Faster ES start and Recharge, excellent combo with our ascendancy. -Sniper: Large damage boost -Void Barrier: Defenses -Piercing Shots: Large damage boost(Because we can switch Pierce support out, now.) -Foresight: ES -Chaos Inoculation -Method to the Madness: Large damage boost -Influence: Increased aura effect, works very well with the grace/discipline we run. -Written in Blood: ES -Melding: You can get this one earlier if you can afford the Energy From Within jewel to place next to it, don't get this until you get the jewel, though. -Physique/Prowess: These are used purely to get enough str for gems, get them when needed or get the str on gear, your choice.
Required Gear
Soul Strike's purpose is purely defensive, it allows us to make the most out of the Wicked Ward ascendancy from Occultist. Ascent from Flesh is our utility and defense, it's a wonderful item that does several things for us. Firstly, it let's us phase through enemies and walls if we've started our recharge recently, which pairs very nicely with Soul Strike. Secondly, it gives us a visual effect to go by to know when we're in the effects of Wicked Ward, which ends up being incredibly helpful for smooth play of the build. Dream Fragments is defensive and gives us a needed boost to mana regen. Being immune to chill/freeze ensures we won't get trapped in situations where we're unable to get away to recharge.
Recommended Gear
Eber's Unification is a great offensive addition, level 10 Void Gaze reduces chaos resistance in an area in front of you by 10% and can be triggered every 3 seconds. Really wanting a Caustic Arrow damage enchant, one day. One day. Witchfire Brew makes another good offensive addition, though the evasion rating and smoke cloud also give some good defenses of their own. The Sorrow of the Divine is a great utility flask, providing us with both a bit of extra regen through zealot's oath and consecrated ground - AND extra damage. Silverbranch/Silverbough is the unique we'll use until we can afford a 6L bow with +1 to gems and +2 to bow gems like the one below. This is our ideal weapon, the only thing that it's missing would be Decay from an Essence of Delirium. The one above cost me around 250c on Harbinger Softcore, definitely not cheap.
Gems/Links
Caustic Arrow(G) - Inc AoE/Conc Effect(B) - Damage on Full Life(R) - Swift Affliction(G) - Void Manipulation(G) - Empower(R)
Frenzy(G) - Greater Multiple Projectiles(G) - Faster Attacks(G) Wither(B) - Spell Totem(R) - Faster Casting(B) - Inc Duration(R) Cast When Damage Taken LV9(R) - Enfeeble LV12(B) - Frost Wall LV14(B) - Inc Duration(R) OR Inc AoE(B) Abyssal Cry(R) OR Rallying Cry(R) OR Enduring Cry(R) Blink Arrow(G) Grace(B) Discipline(B)
Flasks
Our flasks are very flexible for this build, the 2 biggest things are Staunching(Bleed removal/immunity) and Dousing(Ignite removal/immunity). The reason for this is because these 2 effects can keep our ES recharge from starting, which can in turn kill us. The halved ignite duration from Pantheon helps a little to alleviate this, but there are still times where you just can't afford to be ignited/bleeding.
As for what flasks to use for these effects, it's really entirely up your own personal preference. Silver flasks are kind of meh for us, since we don't need attack speed at all really. I personally like to use Aquamarine flasks to put down some chilled ground on bosses, especially if it's a caster type boss that doesn't move much.
My PoB
Last edited by kuraku94#4268 on Sep 24, 2017, 12:06:25 PM Last bumped on Jan 17, 2018, 7:34:37 PM
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Hey there! Thanks for submitting this build to the guide listing.
you do a couple of neat things and the build itself looks very neat. I have some ideas for you to consider that may improve it, upon your reflection. However, please note that as is it's totally passable and I have already included it into the listing: 1: You made it somewhat difficult to observe your character, gear, and tree. Poeplanner is a bit awkward, as most people are comfortable and familiar with Path of Building and poeplanner url's do not play nicely. Would you consider providing a Path of Building link with your character imported into it, so that others who wish to follow the guide can directly see both conveniently? (I'm happy to help guide that process if you wish for assistance) 2: Zealot's Oath might be a nice addition, and there are some points you could adjust to accommodate for it. 3: Some of your ES points are less valuable than others. Example: 5% Evasion / Energy shield nodes when you have access to 6% ES nodes, in a build that only has 8% evasion. (ideas) I was keen on adding frenzy charges somehow, I saw your build and just wanted to. It may not make the most sense, but a soul of arakaali / blood rage / immortal call setup could work maybe (if there was some reliable way to be ok with regular self-imposed degen) since you already have life regen passives invested. All in all, simple enough build and seeing frost wall used is nifty. Cheers Hot Flashes: poeurl.com/bPZT
Balance: poeurl.com/btzp Shocking EleHit: poeurl.com/bZXo |
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" I honestly was being lazy about the PoB thing, but it was super easy to put in there, my bad! x_x I opted out of Zealot's oath simply because I only have 1.4% life regen from the tree and it just didn't seem worth having, while I still have energy shield regen that entirely eclipses that from killing enemies(Via Occultist ascendancy). I actually had the same thoughts about the evasion/ES nodes until I turned on Grace and was pleasantly surprised by how much of a huge boost it was to evasion, now that my PoB is up, you can see for yourself the high evade chance for a character with nearly all ES gear(My belt being the ONLY equipment giving me evasion). It also meshes well with witchfire brew! I really wanted frenzy charges too!! :C The only reliable way I could find to do it was using poacher's mark, which could still be done by rerouting some points to get a second curse from witch side. My biggest problem was getting the curse off on enemies, I could do a CoH setup, and I did for awhile, but I didn't really like having that extra step when fighting. On the other hand, as I say in the guide, I don't have Profane Bloom yet from ascendancy, which could easily make a CoH setup more than worth it! Really appreciate the ideas, this is why I put it up here in the first place, was to get feedback and critique on it to improve! My next goal is to get uber lab done and consider picking up an extra curse to get some frenzy charges from! :] |
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Updated build to include Frenzy as a way to generate frenzy charges, don't know why I didn't do that in the first place, seems like a no brainer now.
Also added a "Recommended gear" section, since there were several uniques I use that I didn't see as "required" but still wanted to include them in the guide in some way. |
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Updated with new video(and video subsection "LV85+ Videos") showcasing where I'm currently at with the build. Running up to T15 maps pretty safely thus far, going to attempt a Guardian soon!
Added a "Flasks" section, since there are 2 specific mods that are definitely needed in certain situations for this build. |
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UPDATE! Killed the Phoenix! Wooooo! Added to video section!
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is there a way you could upload pictures of where all the gems go and also how important is the paraiah/energy from within jewel?
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" Energy from Within goes right next to the "Melding" noteable on the passive tree - it's highly recommended, but not required. As for Pariah, this one is also just recommended but not required by any means, I like it for the extra ES, but you could just as easily use something that gives you resists if needed there! Last edited by kuraku94#4268 on Sep 28, 2017, 8:42:23 PM
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Great build.
Especially with watcher’s eye for the 40% faster recharge. We can reach 200% faster, that means 0.5 sec before the recharge. Absolutey crazy. |
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