[3.5] Dark Explosive Charged Dash Occultist - CoC Dark Pact

Main Skill (6-Link)
Charged Dash - Cast on Crit - Dark Pact - Inc. Crit Strike - Void Manipulation - Added Chaos


Blade Flurry to replace Charged Dash for serious bossing, and Cyclone for tight map layout with lot of doors/corners.

Conc. Effect will give more dps than added chaos, but I like the middle ground between boost of dps and didnt sacrifice my AoE on general clearing.
Besides that, Conc. Effect reduce blade flurry attack range by a lot which I reallu dislike to keep myself very close to the target in order to attack.
With 2 points of AoE nodes from skill tree and some on gear, Inc. AoE doesn't really needed for general clearing.

Quad Curse Setup (4-Link)
Blasphemy - Assassin's Mark - Enfeeble - Temporal Chain


By using Solstice Vigil, Temporal chain mana reservation has 100% reduction. This allow us to reserve 3 curses without mana issue.

Warlod's Mark will be one of the main curse to be used for leeching and sustaining life pool.
It can be ahieved by using ilvl75+ Elder Rings that can roll with "Warlord's Mark on Hit" affix, hence not reserving any mana.

Single Target Setup (4-Link)
Summon Skeletons - Minion Life - Spell Echo - Empower


Movement Skill & BUff (4-Link)
Flame Dash - Faster Casting - Enhance - Blood Rage


Enhance is optional here, it reduces flame dash cooldown and increases the attack speed bonus from Blood Rage.
There are different movement skills available, they are totally subjective to personal choice imo.
Such as Shield Charge/Whirling Blade - Faster Attack - Fortify

Utility (3-Link)
CWDT - Immortal Call - Inc. Duration

Storm Brand/Orb of Storm - Power Charge on Crit - Arcane Surge


Other Utility/DPS Boost (If you can fit in will be great to have them)
Wither - Spell Totem - Multiple Totem
Vaal Blight, Vaal RF.
Despair Curse (from blasphemy or witchfire brew flask)
Aspect of the Spider

Current Gears




Gear Explanations

Weapon: Imperial Claw has the highest life gain on hit implicit to sustain. Plus higher base attack speed and crit chance is decent for CoC build.
Crafting: Try to spam alterations until you hit either T1/T2 attack speed or Crit chance, then regal it.
If the claw has T1/T2 attack speed, regal it. If it hits T3 or higher crit chance, keep it and try annul off the prefix. Or mastercraft suffix cannot be changed then scour it.
If the Claw has T1/T2 Crit chance, regal it. If it hits T2 or higher attack speed, keep it and try annul off the prefix. Or mastercraft prefix cannot be changed then scour it.
Repeat the steps above if regal/annulments doesnt met the requirement.
Last step is Multimodding the claw, then add the "Hits can't be evaded" and "%increased spell damage".
The cheaper alternatives will be buying an Imperial claw with high crit chance and attack speed with open prefix, then craft "Hits can't be evaded" on it.
Or simply using Lycosidae shield and craft %incraased spell damage on the claw instead if tight on budget.

Shield: Rare ES shield with life, spell damage, spell crit and resist.
It will be ideal to have either open prefix/suffix to craft "% chance to deal Double Damage while Focussed" or "% increased Effect of your Curses".

Helm Enchant: Dark Pact has 40% increased damage.
Helm Fossil crafting: Pristine + Aberrant fossils.
It's fairly easy to hit the "nearby enemies has -9 chaos resist" delve mod with fossil crafting.
Keep crafting until you get this delve mod and a decent life roll.
This gives us the mini despair boost of dps.
An open prefix is the most ideal craft result to mastercraft the +1 AoE gem on helm to boost our curses.
Helm alternatives: Starkonja or any rare helm with high life and resist.

Body Armour: 6-linked chest with Dex/Int requirement is easier to roll 3 green and 3 blue sockets for the CoC setup.
Crafting: Shrieking/Deafening Essence of Greed, Pristine fossil, or simply chaos spam till you get a good life roll and resist.
Prefer to have an open prefix to craft "You can apply additional curse".
Other Chest options: Carcass Jack or Cherrubim's Maleficence are both solid choice. If using either one, you need to get additional curse source from Doedre's Damning ring, Windshriek or Amulet with +1 curse vaal implicit.
Cospri's Will can be an option as well, but I find the dex requirement is a bit too high.

Boots: Just life, movement speed and resist.

Glove: Fingerless Silk Gloves has the "%increased spell dmg" implicit, which is ideal for any spell build to craft.
Crafting: Prisinte + Serated fossils, Essence of Greed/Loathing until you hit either good Life/resist/attack speed.
Ideally you 3 of them and an open suffix/prefix to craft "Adds # Chaos Damage if you've dealt a Critical Strike Recently" or "% increased Damage during any Flask Effect".
If prefer to use an unique glove, Command of the Pit is good.

Belt: Stygian Vise with life and resist.
The ideal craft will be with Pristine + Aberrant for the "%increased chaos damage" mod with good life roll and open prefix to craft "%increased damage".
Shaped belt with cooldown recovery affix is good if your attack speed pass the limit the CoC 0.15s interval.

Amulet: Solstice Vigil isn't the BiS here, but quality of life for free temporal chain mana reservation.
You can use a rare amulet with life, crit, crit multi and resist instead, then pickup some reduced mana reservation nodes on the passive skill tree to solve mana issue.

Rings: Try to get any rare Elder ring with "Warlord's mark on hit" affix. The level of the curse doesn't matter.
This will be part of the main curse for overall sustain of life and mana. Other good mods to have are life, resist, attributes, chaos dmg, attack speed.
The another rare ring just life, resist and attributes.
Assassin's mark on hit shaper ring is an option, but low level has much lower crit chance as given and doesn't make sense to priotize over warlord's mark imo.

Flask:
Life flask (Bleed/Freeze removal)
Quicksilver of Adrenaline (for more movement speed)
Diamond Flask of warding (constantly immune to curses)
Granite Flask (bleed/freeze/shock removal)
Silver Flask (bleed/freze/shock removal)

The desired suffix on each flask is relatively easy on betrayal league with the return of beast crafting.
The main suffix must have on flasks are curse immune, bleed and freeze removal.
The best suffix to craft on flask is "%Increased crit chance during flask effect", this helps lot to cap out crit chance.

Sulphur flask is good against tough targets and swap quicksilver flask for extra dps and life regen.
Withfire brew is a good offensive unique flask if you can get 5 curses or drop one of the defensive curse (enfeeble/temporal chain).

Jewels:
For Rare jewels: Look for %increased max life, global/spell crit multiplier, then %increased chaos/spell dmg or %increased damage.
For Abyss jewels: Look for +# to max life, global crit multiplier, added chaos dmg to spell and added chaos dmg to spell while holding shield.

Bandits: Kill All
Gettiing more skill points earliy on is easier and faster to transition into cast on crit build.
Alira can be chosen if you prefer to have extra resist and crit multiplier.

Pantheons
Major: Soul of Brine King (prevent chain stuns)
Minor: Soul of Ryslatha (gain charges on life flask against tough targets and better life recovery when on low life)

Depending on type of contents and preferences, both majors and minors are very flexible.
Major gods can be Soul of Lunaris for faster clear speed and phys mitigation, Solaris for bossing, Arakali for better leech rate.
Minor gods can be Soul of Gruthkul for more phys mitigation, Shakari, Ralakesh etc.
For example: against elder guardian constrictor, soul of shakari (upgraded version) will make the fight easier as you are immune to poison.

Leveling Uniques:
Tabula Rasa, Wanderlust, Lochtonial Caress, Goldrim, Meginord's Girdle, Belt of the Deceiver,
Atziri's Foible, 2x lifesprig, 2x Le Heup of All(priotize higher elemental resist if possible),
Adrenaline Quicksilver flasks and 2x Axiom Perpetuum.


Level 1-11
Pickup Freeze Pulse, put it in Lifesprig and linked with level 1 Arcane surge + onslaught support.
At level 8, pickup Added lightning and Inc. Crit Strike. Equip Meginord's Girdle.
At level 10, pickup flame dash as movement skill and Clarity for easier mana sustain.

Level 12
Pickup Storm brand, linked with Added lightning + Inc. Crit strike + Arcane surge + Onslaught support.
Equip 2x Axiom Perpetuum will carry you to end game.

Level 16
Equip Atziri's Foible, from this point onward you can drop mana flask since you starts to regen fast enough.
Pickup Brand recall(linked with Arcane surge) and use Herald of Thunder.

Level 18
Pickup 2x faster casting, 1x Elemental Focus.
Storm Brand - Added Lightning - Inc. crit strike - Ele focus - Faster casting - Onslaught
Flame Dash - Faster casting

Level 24
Equip Belt of deceiver and 2x Le Heup of All.
Pickup Conductivity, great for self cast to boost single target dps. Simply cast it then walk away and let storm brand do all the work.

Level 28
Pickup Lightning spire trap for extra single target dps.
Link with Ele focus + Inc. Crit strike + Added lightning.

Level 31
Pickup Warlod mark and blasphemy, just lvling the gems until you get Malediction ascandency for dual curse.
Pickup 2x Lightning Pen .
Replace the onslauht support for storm brand.
Replace the added lightning for Lightning spire trap.

Level 34
Pickup Stone golem
Pickup Phase Run, linked with Increased duration support.

Level 36 (optional but can be helpful)
Pick up Cast when damage taken support and Immortal call, link them.

At this point, the character should have around 1k life and ready to do the 1st Labyrinth.
Pickup Profane Bloom after the 1st Lab.

Continues to level, pickup any +30 dex/str if needed for gear/gem requirements.

At Act 8, do the 2nd Labyrinth before attempting Doedre fight. 2k+ life is recommended.
Pick up Malediction after the 2nd Lab, start to use Warlord's mark + Blasphemy support.

At Act 9, grind some levels on blood aqueduct if needed.
At this point, you can start to level the gems required for this build before transition into CoC Dark Pact.
Or you can simply ignore gem lvling partsand buy them instead like I did if you spare currency.

Finish the 3rd Labyrinth before Kitava's fight. 3k+ life is recommended.
Pickup Forbidden Power after the 3rd Lab.

After the Kitava's fight, should be around Lv.68 or higher and you are set to transition into CoC Dark Pact :).

Progression of passive skill tree as below:
23 pts - rush towards Runebinder keystone.

33 pts - pickup some brand nodes and move into templar area for life.

58 pts - move towards shadow area, grab essential crit and life nodes.

76 pts - move up around witch area, pickup flask nodes and life.

91 pts - path towards scion life wheel.


After 91 pts, the character is ready to transition into this build. Simply respec all the Brand related nodes and put into Whisper of Doom for additional curse.
After that, try to get both power charge nodes asap, that will boost the crit chance for attacks to proc dark pact more frequently.

Currently none.

Occultist
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2302865/page/1#p16136143
Assassin
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2295361