[3.5] Immortal Incandescent Heart/Apep's Sacrifice BV/CI Occultist

I came back to the game in the middle of Incursion, and only heard of this build at the end, roughly when the guide was posted by Waggle. I've been eyeing it since then, and finally decided to go ahead with it this league, knowing that Apep's would be available through Incursion. So I've been playing this build exclusively during the past ~1.5 weeks.

All I can say is that it's been pretty decent for me so far. The damage surely looks a bit lackluster at the moment, but my main focus has been mostly on survivabiliy, and not on insane DPS. I'm usually rocking a 5L setup with BV-Inc. Duration-Efficacy-Increased Crits-Spell Echo, for maximum convenience during mapping. I have all the flasks, and besides those and the Apep's, all my other gear is in the sub-5c price range. I'm also only using Discipline and Herald of Ash for now, have no room for Bated Breath just yet due to resistance problems, have both my curses only in a CWDT setup, and only have Pricess for stat sticking (which is surprisingly decent with its 30% ele damage, compared to the theoretical maximum of 40% with double rolls, if you exclude the other potential rolls those items could have).

Even with this setup, I've managed to clear maps up to T13 with ease and rather fast (CWDT cursing surely hurts a bit here), killed multiple yellow and red elders, and a hard level 79 Xoph (which is the worst with its constant burns and no flask sustain). I have also virtually no issues tanking syndicate triplets and safehouses up to these tiers.

So all in all I'm liking this build even with stat stick nerfs, despite the fact that there are still plenty of tips in the main guide that I didn't remember from my first riffle-through. Props to Waggles for coming up with the guide, and JessicaSC for the detailed and amazing guide.

P.s.: this might be obvious to most experienced players, but a Vaal RF pretty much acts as a 7th link for bossing, which is not mentioned in the guide. It makes up for a portion of the damage lost to the stat stick nerfs.

P.s. #2: feel free to check out my current character, it's called BetterNerfStatSticks. I'm also open for further suggestions, though I'm fully aware of some of its limitations, as I've already pointed most of them out above.

Starting this build now as second character this league (still leveling) after I saved up enough currency on my first character for starting this with apep's and a 6L incandescent heart.

I have all of the uniques and just need to buy the rares now, and have two questions I'm not completely sure about:

1) Saw some people here mention self delve crafting a weapon with damage on full life mods and other physical as extra elemental damage mods. I didn't play during delve league so kind of clueless about how exactly to craft that.
I understood the basics of how the resonators and fossils interact, but that would greatly help if someone can explain the specifics about exactly which resonator and fossils can/should be used to craft a weapon for this build. Would also like to know which weapon base is recommended (which weapon type? shaper or elder?) and which ilvl that base should be.

2) What do you think about using Solstice Vigil?
Was planning to run both temp chains and enfeeble with blasphemy, which along with discipline would probably not leave enough mana for any of the auras. Making the temp chains free will probably allow me to run one of the auras, though I'm not sure if the extra aura is worth the loss of stats from a rare amulet (both ES and damage stats)

3) How important would you say the assassin's mark is?
Planning to later get an assassin's mark on hit ring and the 3rd curse node on tree when I can find a decent ring with it, but if it is pretty important I might try to go with such a ring from the get go

Thanks for all the info so far, it was very helpful

1) Saw some people here mention self delve crafting a weapon with damage on full life mods and other physical as extra elemental damage mods. I didn't play during delve league so kind of clueless about how exactly to craft that.
I understood the basics of how the resonators and fossils interact, but that would greatly help if someone can explain the specifics about exactly which resonator and fossils can/should be used to craft a weapon for this build. Would also like to know which weapon base is recommended (which weapon type? shaper or elder?) and which ilvl that base should be.

2) What do you think about using Solstice Vigil?
Was planning to run both temp chains and enfeeble with blasphemy, which along with discipline would probably not leave enough mana for any of the auras. Making the temp chains free will probably allow me to run one of the auras, though I'm not sure if the extra aura is worth the loss of stats from a rare amulet (both ES and damage stats)

3) How important would you say the assassin's mark is?
Planning to later get an assassin's mark on hit ring and the 3rd curse node on tree when I can find a decent ring with it, but if it is pretty important I might try to go with such a ring from the get go

Thanks for all the info so far, it was very helpful[/quote]

1) I mentioned delve crafting. For the sake of NOT ruining it and having 1,000 stat sticks around as it's my main source of income while trying to craft a perfect one for myself. I'll point you to the https://poedb.tw/us/mod.php?cn=Thrusting%20One%20Hand%20Sword and I'd suggest ilvl83 + apex rapier simply 83 for ele pen roll if you get lucky, and apex because of low dex requirement which really is a struggle in this build. I'd stick to 3 socket chaotic resonators simply due the price jump between the 4 slot. I'd aim for double extra ele, damage on full life, ele pen, and an open prefix for the spell dmg/extra chaos hybrid craft.

2) The amulet slot isn't terribly locked, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea so you could run HoA/ Hatred they only good ES gloves with curse on hit atm are 20ex. So, going to have to try and get creative. I think an dual extra ele dmg amulet is important once you start trying uber elder/atziri. I'd almost recommend selling the apep to get a decent COH ring IMO. However I perfer Uberdan/PoEdan79's version of the build abit more check out his WTBincandesentheart profile if interested he doesn't use Apep and killed uber elder.

3) Assassin's mark isn't too terribly important the power charges do help with damage, however some sort of mana leech is required IMO, however I've added some of my own personal twists to the build so that might be due to my own creation.

Check out my profile, I have some changes to make like dropping Enfeeble in Cwdt and switching it's to Apep's and switching phase run - inc dur - arcane surge - vaal righteous fire to the helm slot.

Hey,
i am still leveling my character but i had a very similar build in mind. My main question is why you (and pretty much everyone else for that matter) do not use phys to lightning and ele focus in the BV setup? The armor adds extra chaos damage and my POB numbers give it a much higher damage output.

Great build btw, gj:)

Hi everyone,
loving this build so far, even managed to slay the Shaper for the first time in my life solo. I have just upgraded my gloves to enfeeble on hit and was wondering if somone here knows, what would be the next upgrade i should focus on. I was thinking going lvl 4 enlighten and empower. Any suggestions?
Thanks for a nice build/guide :) and response.

My current gear:

What do you think about Vaal RF for damage boost for bosses?

"

xJelz wrote:

What do you think about Vaal RF for damage boost for bosses?

"

luorax wrote:

P.s.: this might be obvious to most experienced players, but a Vaal RF pretty much acts as a 7th link for bossing, which is not mentioned in the guide. It makes up for a portion of the damage lost to the stat stick nerfs.

"

Klat1k wrote:

Hi everyone,
loving this build so far, even managed to slay the Shaper for the first time in my life solo. I have just upgraded my gloves to enfeeble on hit and was wondering if somone here knows, what would be the next upgrade i should focus on. I was thinking going lvl 4 enlighten and empower. Any suggestions?
Thanks for a nice build/guide :) and response.

My current gear:

Spoiler

Delve craft a better weapon, double extra ele, with open prefix for spell dmg/ extra non-chaos as chaos roll.

Use discipline needs to be Vaal discipline, 21 preferably it's literally 6 seconds of invulnerability.

I'd also switch lightning golem etc to Phase rune, inc duration, vaal RF. Phse run is just too good for delving in the dark imo.

What do you guys think about Hypothermia over Efficacy? According to PoB the difference in duration is ~0.75 seconds, while the DPS boost is massive (39% vs 20% more). Granted, we need to chill for that to work, but with Shaper stat sticks, Taste of Hate and Hatred on the table, our means for proccing it are plenty.

Of course Efficacy would still be useful for quick mapping, however I could easily see it being superior for bossing.

Is this build even worth doing? I'll have around 10ex or so to spend.