[3.6] Chaos Cerberus - an ED LL Occultist | Viable for everything | Deathless UElder + Video

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crazytrain334 wrote:

hey cyrix im just wondering are you updating the guide before tomorrow ?

Propably not, no. Afaik you can play the build as is right now with the exception of needing one talent point more on the passive tree. Should work even better then before due to the increased Baseline Damage of ED.
You can also replace the Blight Threshhold Jewels with some proper damage/es jewels. (Chaos Ailment can roll on those - as well as ES, faster start of ES recharge etc.) That is about it though. Enjoy. :)

I will make a 3.6 PoB and replace the Purities with Malevolence and a purity of elements (to fix the missing resists)Malevolence is just to huge a buff to pass up on.

1. ED + Contagion! + Support by Blight and its Threshold Gems. Supercharged by the new Occultist Asendency for Wither and Chaos Damage Debuffs.

2. Huge Elemental mitigation due to tripple Purity and Elemental Aegis. - In the 3.6 Update I changed tripple purity for Malevolence and Purity of Elements for more offense. You can still run tripple purity though if you prefer!

3. Crazy fast uninterruptable Occultist ES-recharge rate. (6kES+ per second)

4. Big ES Pool and good attack/phys damage mitigation (for an ES caster) without crazy rares or legacy items. ~10k ES are easily doable.

5. 2-3 Curses! Which makes this whole thing not bad at delving/against normal enemies. And Blight with the Threshold Jewels/Allelopathy acts as a pretty good additonal slow as well.

6. Cwdt + IC: This sounds funny - but it really is not. A lot of LowLife ED Characters often lack the GemLinks to fit that into their build and this just helps such a crapton. :)

Tier 17++: UberElder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7gIpBgM4Aw

Deathless UElder. Does not really need any other comment.

By other Users from this thread:




Tier 17: Shaper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx2UKAeOMS4

It is the full run; 8 Minutes and something. I didnt cut anything out to show how tanky the build is against the various pre-bosses and the hordes of Trash-Mobs. TimeStamps for Shaper are in the description.

Tier 16(ish): RedElder

https://youtu.be/TxRABmds8U4

People had questions about the add-phase - key is to target the adds - not the portals. Those die anyways due to the Contagion/ED combo.

Tier 15: Belfry A quick showcase of the build in a corrupted/unided Map:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEQiFPflPpY

Please take into consideration that I was experimenting with my movementskill - I use ShieldCharge in this video but I changed it out for Flamedash and cwdt + IC. The PoB in the PoB section has the final gem choices.

Tier 14: Shaped Cemetry Another mapping showcase.

https://youtu.be/Uho2KB7XhKY

Please keep in mind that this is not a speedclear build - though it is not somthing slow and lumbering either. This video is ment to show that. It is also not played super perfectly or anything; I backtrack once and collect some loot - the map also has an abyss as well as a breach (including a breachlord). Nevertheless it should give a good idea of what to expect.

Delve 555 - Aul the Crystal King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tdgb8qswTo

It was a really easy Aul - though all Aul's I found so far were not very hard; the delve before the boss was honestly more dangerous then the boss itself.

Delve 485+ - 2 Player Carry

https://youtu.be/pQXQlC4fvbE

I did not play in Delve so my own mine is kinda low Level in standard till I play a bit more. I asked TheGagis, a friend of mine, to let me use his Mine - he did not do anything in this clip but stand around. He is a Molten Strike HoA and you would have noticed if he did. Molten Strike is really eye-catchy. Essentially making me 'carry' our party of two.

Please consult the PoB for the final GemSetup! Also: Two lv3(!) Enlighten are kinda needed to play this. lv4 ones are a tad more comfortable, but not needed.

Please note: This was a side project for me I did on the fly - And as such my enchants are not optimal nor do I have supergood rare rings or fancy stuff going on. It is also on standard since I test things there. It does not use any legacy gear though; its fully league viable:



I found this combination of Weapon and Shield really good. Not only are the items quite good on their own - but combined they also give quite a bit of physical mitigation due to armor - which unlike Arctic Armor doesnt need you to stand still - it also gives (together with the SinTreks I am wearing) 20% evasion and 25%+ block chance. Also a wooping 2k+ES.

Good alternatives would be:



The ES on this Helmet got buffed - and VoidGaze in general is just a very very solid debuff for Chaos Damage spells. It reduces Enemy Chaos resistance by 20% (got buffed as well!) which combined with our Ascendency choices and Despair Curse-Aura is really nice. Unlike curses it always works at full effectivness against bosses. Neat!

My enchant on it is hot garbage: Obviously something which would profit Essence Drain is what we need; this being an Essence Drain Build. But - as said before - this is a bit of a side project and I didnt go hunting for the correct enchant and stuff. (yet)

A Manasaving enchant for one of our 4 auras is also neat if you want more mana. I do not have that and do not feel like I need it - but the option is there!

Alternative:





A Shavs. Mandatory for LowLife Builds. A double Corruption with +1 to all and +2Duration/Projectiles would be best - but even like this it is very strong. With the temple available and part of the core game it should not be such a crusade anymore to get a decent corruption on a shavs.



Mandatory if you want to run without Vile Bastion due to the Stun Immunity it grants! Though you can also always still run Vile Bastion even with Presence of Chayula. Gives a crapton of ES. I would recommend it even for newer players.

Update!





Allelopathy are great gloves that synergise well with DoT Builds. It also enables all the support links to both affect Blight and Contagion - saving us a gem slot. I have them corrupted but it honestly doesn't matter. Contagion is just there to spread Essence Drain. Any Lab enchant will do as well.



Pretty much made for the Occultist. We are all about that juicy recharge rate. :)



Just some cheap boots with a good ES roll. There are a lot better rare options out there that might also give you resists or more ES. Especially fossil crafted stuff is strong for this.

The enchant is garbage: Regen on getting hit is propably what you would want.

Update!



Those Rings are pretty much hot garbage - but they do fill in my resists/stats and give some ES. The craft on them is pretty much mandatory for this build. With 3.5 this craft got better and can now go up to 24%. Though I am a cheap bird and didn't reenchant them yet.

Dream Fragments fit into the build really well too - but they cannot be enchanted with faster start of recharge rate modifier. I quite like them - but it is up to you to decide what you are more comfortable with. You should aim for at least 85% faster start of recharge rate I feel like.

If you can get your resists on rare boots you can use the ringslot for even more offensive stuff - Mark of the Shaper and stuff like it are handy damage boosts. As well as essence crafted Chaos Damage rings/veiled modifiers etc etc.

There is defo room for improvment in this regard.

Update!
As for Jewels:


I use only 3 Jewels in this build and all of them are uniques: [This was for 3.5 - in 3.6 onward you can use whatever jewels you like/find that are useful. (+%ES; +faster restart of ES; DoT; +non ailment over time multi; spellpower etc.)] 2 of them are the Threshold Jewels for Blight: Spreading Rot. Try to get them corrupted with something decent like not being able to be silenced or not being able to be affected by corrupted blood. You gain those jewels as a quest reward while leveling and as such are dirt cheap from the get-go. Vaal away. :)

The last one is a Watcher's Eye who needs one mandatory modifier: Faster start of ES recharge rate while affected by Discipline.
for 3.6: Try to get a secondary modifier with +22% of non-Ailment Chaos Damage over time Multiplier while affected by Malevolence.
I also went for 'Damage taken gained as Mana while affected by Clarity' since this allows me to do no-regen maps without switching out any gems on Essence Drain. (you would want to switch a green gem out for mana leech if you happen upon a no-regen map otherwise). Just a bit QoL.

Keel 'em all! :)

You can pretty much run with whatever you like! I do run around with Lunaris for the MovementSpeed/phys mitigation against mobgroups.

For the minor god I choose Poison immunity to savea flask slot. Though we are chaos resistance capped and you can choose something else like tukohama for more phys reduction/regen while blight-ing or more movementspeed.

https://pastebin.com/7RiHaGZu <- this is more then enought to do all content.

https://pastebin.com/PpyJRwSJ <- this is if you have an unnatural instinct available.

I optimized my own character a bit further with really expensive rares - take a look if you wanna know where to go if you have the dosh: https://pastebin.com/33szyWy6

Tripple Curse (without Arctic Armor -> 'cheap' to do and does not need enlightens!):

https://pastebin.com/aiEj8kg6

Tripple Curse (with Arctic Armor -> needs enlighten):

https://pastebin.com/9tDE416y

Dual Curse + Tripple Purity (needs two lv3 (better are lv4) enlightens): This is what I used in the Videos and is probs the best setup vs bosses:

https://pastebin.com/9ZWTsbmj

And the last PoB here is my own Character with whom I have taken things a bit further and optimized around since I started this thread:

https://pastebin.com/7UJrdKSd

Most noteable is propably Aul's and the Spider aspect as well as the unnatural instinct and the corruption on the weapon. Nothing of that is really needed though. The Videos (including the deathless UElder) were made without those improvments.

1. Q: How do I achieve LowLife?

A: You reserve your Life away via BloodMagic + Auras.

2. Q: I can't do that! I have no life/mana left!?

A: Multiple things! Make sure you took the nodes in the tree that reduce the ManaUpkeep of abilities. Make sure your BloodMagic is leveled up! Make sure you use at least lv3 Enlightens!

3. Q: My Mana is still kinda tight!? Llv4 enlightens are too expensive!

A: Multiple things you can do! Grab a jewel socket and use conquerors efficiency. Grab a Helmet with a Manasaving enchant for one of our purities or Discipline. Take a gander at Dream Fragments! It might just push your regen/overall mana over the edge to make things more comfortable. Deactivate one of our curses so you have plenty of mana to spare. I would deactivate Enfeeble if you can survive easily and Despair if you feel like you have enough damage. Or you can forgo Despair for the time being and supplement it with WitchFireBrew Flask.

Last but not least... save up for lv 4 enlightens! :)

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Sojournerx wrote:

Hi Cyrix!
First of all, thanks for this in-depth guide, very usefull information.
Can I ask you to add some lvling tips - i know that's a noob question, but it's difficult to play ES right from the start (only 1.1k ES on lvl 47).

Well, leveling is kinda always the same for casters?

You start out with either FrostBlades and a high DPS weapon (for your respective level of course) or Freezing Pulse.

At Level 14 you can use Arc - which is a great leveling skill. Make sure to put the skills relevant for this build into your offhand weaponset to level those gems.

Try to use Gear that has Armor on it - physical mitigation is much more valueable then Evasion or ES in the early levels.

When you have at least 3links for contagion (+ arcane surge + increased Area) and 5-6links (with a tablua ^^ - noone expects you to use actual 6linked gear while leveling) Essence drain you can play this build from then on.

You might wanna stick with Arc though - Essence Drain is a bit of a late bloomer. It is a dot skill and as such cannot crit and doesnt really benefit much from cast speed. As such one needs modifiers and gear that are only available later in the game. (Pain attunment, Curses etc)

There are a couple of Health-Nodes in the Witch Start - I would path up to Occultist domain first - then go right and pick up those Health/Mana Nodes - they are fairly good. And then fill out the right side of the tree and forgoing the ES nodes for now.

Atropy is a good cluster to get once you use Essence Drain. Leave out all the Aura and curse specific nodes when you level - you wont use discipline or the purities for example nor will you really need them if you have rares with resists on them and no relevant ES gear.
In general this means the left side of the tree where Zealoth Oath is located should be the last bit of the tree to fill out.
Once you aquire ES gear you can specc out of the Life nodes you took and put them into ES nodes.

Tabula, Lifesprig, Wanderlust and Asenath Mask are all very good caster specific leveling items. As are Poet's Pens, but those are probs way out of your budget, especially this league. ^^'

I know this is a bit general - but honestly leveling is not such a big thing as people might think. And respeccing is not as expensive as one might think if you take a bit of care with your tree and dont deviate crazy from this tree. You get a couple of respec points even during leveling! 10 or so I think? Maybe a bit more. Can't remember.

Also, Low Life Chaos Damage builds are not really noob friendly. :/ I feel like they require the most understanding of the game out of the builds out there.

It is way easier to grab a weapon, socket a skill in it and bash monsters heads in then doing this. A lot of stuff like ES and its recharge rate, vs leech, vs gain on hit - and spells like contagion or blight that do not actually 'hit' but are just degeneration effects etc pp are all things specific to PoE and not really all that intuitive to understand.

Nevertheless, if you wanna try it you can! ED + Contagion is not a *bad* leveling skill when it comes down to it. It works well, but its not easy to grok. Arc might just feel better for you while leveling.

Blah. Wall of text. ^^'

Here is a tree progression:


You start out with LifeGear:





Around this point you should switch to ES Gear; take CI if you want:



Here you can support two curses; do not do it if you do not have a shavs yet - use Auras instead. (Disc + Malevolence)



From there on finish out the tree as in the OP.

Asendency go for Vile Bastion first.