My "Acolyte of Chayula Essence Drain Contagion" Feedback

Acolyte of Chayula:

Build:
Occult (Essence Drain + Poison / Contagion / Dark Effigy + Withering Touch / Despair + Doomblast)

Issues:

Feels really bad to play at the start (no damage, no clear speed). Essence Drain damage seems to spread via Contagion only after the host dies.

Single target damage is poor. The regeneration buff from PoE1 is gone; consider re-adding it to reflect the "Drain" characteristic more effectively (e.g., 7.5% of Damage Leeched as Mana) and reduce the cast time to 0.66 to make the build quicker.

Even with a full damage build (passive Tree) using Chaos/Spell damage nodes; the damage remains minimal, and there is no defense.

Contagion is very mana-intensive early on (leveling it was probably a mistake since it doesn't deal any damage). The clear is very bad too (even with magnified effect & unleash support)

Withering Presence feels extremely weak. (well, i lost all my Spirit after the first ascendancy anyway... xD )

Adding a new mod for Wands/Staffs that grants +8-24% Chance to Poison (for Spells) would be beneficial. (Maybe Dagger will fill this role?)

Biggest Issue:

Mana sustain is a significant problem, as the build depends on using many different (expensive) spell buttons.

Possible Solution: 0.7% global mana leech (for spells too) via Ascendancy and travel nodes to "Ravenous Doubts".

Mana flasks become almost useless as the mana pool grows larger.

Mana regeneration nodes feel weak and not worth investing in.

Waking Dream (Into the Breach):

While visually appealing and fitting the Breach character, it needs a complete rework. In the fast-paced gameplay of PoE2, such slow and random sustain is worthless.

The damage buff (lasting 5 seconds) is not sustainable.

Possible Solution: "7 sec Overleech for Life & Mana"; Buffs last 7 sec. Even with these buffs, it remains nearly useless.

Remove/Change:

Lucid Dreaming (boring)

Chayula's Gift (useful only for leveling)

Embrace the Darkness:

Darkness is not scalable and has a significant downside ("no Spirit"). As a result, it's very weak and consumes a lot of Ascendancy points (compared to e.g. Titan, who gets 15% more life with no downside).

Consider converting all Spirit to Darkness with +100 + 7*level.

Darkness Reservation should last 7 seconds (10 seconds is too long).

Remove: Inner Silence Add: Riftwalk (change Dodgeroll to a powerful "warp" move at the cost of Darkness)




Passive Tree:

Chaos Damage & Poison Nodes:

These nodes are scattered and spread far apart, making it difficult to create a cohesive build focused on these attributes.

Defensive Option:

I opted for Mind Over Matter combined with Eldritch Battery to protect my Darkness.

Event Horizon Notable notable:

Losing 3% of Life/ES per cast without a chance to recoup and no regeneration... is...just... bad.


Conclusion:

I see a lot of potential in this build and class, but in its current state, playing it is pure torture.

Best regards

ArC

acolyte theme is badass hope someone will create OP build with it