[3.11] Caustic Arrow Asenath's Chant Soulrend Occultist - 11k ES / 2.2M Shaper DPS / Insane clear
  Introduction This is a CI Occultist build that uses the reworked Asenath's Chant helmet to achieve top tier map clear whilst still outputting a respectable single target DPS. By shooting with our bow we proc a Soulrend that is linked in our helmet to GMP on a 0.3 seconds cooldown. The Soulrend pierces all enemies and in conjunction with Profane bloom and some minor faster projectiles scaling we have screen wide clears and "pops". Since there are absolutely no mapping issues we use a 6L Caustic Arrow in our bow without the need of GMP exclusively for single target. By using both Soulrend and Caustic arrow we ensure that we can scale all of our damage with the same stats. Since we are using a bow for our Caustic Arrow links this means we have a free 6 link chest we can do anything with. In this case I am Pros and Cons Pros: -Insane clear speed on any difficulty Maps. Zoom Zoom. -High survivability- 11k CI ES paried with a CWDT, Vile Bastion, ES leech, ES Regen and defensive pots. -You don't need to change any gems for bossing. -Can run any modifiers and content the game has to offer. -Fully DOT based, a lot of movement can be done on bossing. -Visually appealing - Soulrend and Profane bloom pops have very nice effects/sounds. -Performance friendly - The game has been suffering from performance issues as of late and its nice to play something smooth with practically no lag. -Very fun to play! -Not being a Trickster meta slave. Cons: -Can be expensive if you want the best gear (10+ex) -As with the majority of chaos Dot builds the single target DPS reaches a ceiling at around 2mil. -Not a playstyle for those who don't enjoy DOT approach, although you don't really notice it until bosses since everything dies within the first tick. Gameplay Videos
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Deathless Uber Elder - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6miZifrho7o Hydra - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUKwasJB40Y Elder Guardian - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyH2p-9-YI0 - No Auras for map clear to show you don't need much gear. Occlutist vs Trickster
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Trickster is a viable ascedency we can play instead of Occultist. Trickster offers similar survivabily(we trading our high ES pool and regen for evasion/elusive) however it has superior damage. The only place we would really notice that is on bosses however the DPS of any of those DOT builds would never really be amazing and as it stands 2 mil is more than comfortable for Awakener 8 and Uber Elder.
I'm on the opinion that Occultist was the right pick for this build. Profane bloom offers insane clear and synergy with Soulrend and a curse on hit ring. While Vile Bastion got nerfed in 3.7 it still offers very good ES regen which is definely noticible in high densinity encounters such as Simulacrum where we are practically unkillable. It also provides stun immunity which is very important. Withering presence allows us to run a cast when damage taken setup instead of the usual Spell Totem Wither setup. All in all it flows and plays very nicely. Basics of the build
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We are using Soulrend procced from our caustic arrow with the thanks of Asenath's Chant to clear maps. We run a curse on hit ring which allows our Soulrend projectiles to apply both a curse and their dot on practically every enemy on the screen. This results in chain Profane bloom explosions and screen wide clears. Whilst mapping, Soulrend's dot is roughly 400k DPS which is more than enough and if anything doesn't die within the first tick it automatically dies to our 1.3+ million DPS caustic arrow puddles of which we shoot 4 of (+1 corruption on quiver + dying sun).
For single target we just use our Caustic arrow which of course also triggers our Soulrend. Whilst both dots are ticking we use a 6L Essence Drain socketed into our chest piece for a third dot - this is optional and just gives us more dps. Damage and scaling
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Since Soulrend, Caustic Arrow and Essence Drain are all chaos damage over time skills we can scale all 3 of them with the same stats. We are looking for damage over time multiplier, increased damage, increased chaos damage and increased damage over time. Practically all Chaos dot builds are played in a similar fashion and this is not an exception, we use a +to all gems bow alongside an empower for our Caustic Arrow main link. We can also use stuff like influenced Amulets for +1 to all Chaos gems which again helps with all 3 damage skills.
Defenses
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This build uses Chaos Inoculation which makes you 100% immune to all sources of chaos damage including poison however it leaves you on 1hp meaning you will need to stack heavy ES. The build runs a 300% ES from Tree alongside Soul Strike quiver/Bated Breath belt energy shield recharge combo. We are stun immune and have an extremly high and fast shield recharge. We run a cast when damage taken immortal call just for extra defences. Soulrend also has an in built ES leech which certainly helps.When I'm doing Simulacrums, Delirious Maps or High Tier Blighted Maps if I continue attacking to maintain 10 stacks of Vile Bastion alongside getting kills for extra ES regen it is practically impossible to die unless I get 1 shot. Boss fights are very easy since our shield recharges to full very quick with a tiny delay after we last got hit.
Leveling Guide
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Leveling can be a bit tricky for newer players trying this build. I levelled entirely using Quill Rain + Toxic Rain and a Tabula Rasa. Thief's torment helps with mana and life issues. At level 45 we can start using Asenath's Chant alongside Soulrend. I bought some cheap 1c corrupted gloves which had despair curse on hit implicit on them to make me breeze through the acts thanks to Profane Bloom.
I've added a few levelling brackets in the pob to help you out. Make sure you take as much life as you can and when you change to full CI/ES respec out of it. Gear
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Please note that this is very min/maxed expensive gear. You do not need anywhere near this to achieve comfortable single target DPS and smooth map clear. I will talk below about each individual piece and why it is good.
Bow
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This is where the majority of our damage comes from. If you are not new to chaos dot builds then you would have probably used something very similar to this. The base is mostly irrelevant, I went for a Maraketh bow for the move speed implicit however you can can choose whatever you want. Please note if you do go Maraketh or something like Imperial the dexterity cost might be a bit of a pain to reach.
You can either buy this or try to craft it yourself. Price wise bows like that come at around 8 exalts. Crafting it yourself can be far cheaper though, you just buy a 6 linked base ilv 82+(for highest % to Damage over Time Multiplier) and alteration/regal spam until you get a +1 to level of socketed gems as prefix and damage over time as suffix. From there on you just multi mod the chaos damage over time multiplier and + to level of supported gems. Alternatively if you are on budget try to focus on the damage multipliers since they would help with your Soulrend clear. Something like +1 to gems/open prefix for chaos dmg multi craft and damage over time suffix is not expensive. https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Harvest/dkD0BBbuJ - Budget bows, craft chaos dmg over time on them(prefix) Chest
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Highest ES you can afford, if you can afford go for 6 link ED in it, if not buy high ES piece and 5 link it yourself. I quite like the energy shield regen suffix which you can guarantee if you have 0 empty prefixes with the "augment a random defence modifier" harvest craft. Resistances are a plus to make the rest of your gearing process easier.
Helmet
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Asenath's Chant. If you can find one with a suitable CA/Soulrend/ED enchant go for it. Make sure to quality if for maximum ES gain.
Gloves
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Just as high ES/Resistances as you can afford. I chose Silk Gloves for some extra damage on Soulrend/ED however you don't need to since CA is the main source of our damage. Mine have Dexterity on it since I am using a Maraketh bow which requires 222. Bis gloves would be warlord influence for the increased damage over time.
Boots
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Again, highest ES/resistance you can afford. Obviously they must have movement speed. I got a lucky synthesis craft on mine which give them even more. Craf is mostly irrelevant, I farmed lab until I got the move speed for extra zoom zoom.
Quiver
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Soul strike is the choice here. It works very well on high ES pool builds. It makes it so your energy shield starts recharging quicker however you recharge less. This is fixed by using Bated Breath belt. It also gives a nice ES bonus and dex. As for corruption totally not needed but +1 arrows is good. I bought about 15 for 1c each and corrupted them, managed to get it that way. You can always use a good "stat stick" quiver with stuff like damage over time multi and resistances
Belt
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If you are running Soul Strike Bated Breath is nice with it. If not look for a shaped/crusader base Crystal Belt.
Rings
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A Curse on hit despair ring is a must. The other stats should be resistances and energy shield. The faster start of ES recharge craft is very nice!
Amulet
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If your budget can afford it +1 to chaos skill gems is very nice. It buffs our 3 damaging spells. Either way you will also need a decent amount of ES, resistances and any missing attributes. Chaos damage over time multi is very nice too.
Flasks
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Its pretty much all personal preference. I like to run Sulphur/Witchfire for the damage boost, Dying sun for map clear and a defensive one. Quicksilver with move speed or effect is very useful!
Cluster Jewels
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Cluster jewels are optional but I found that they add a lot of damage/survivability if you invest some currency into them. You want to use a Large cluster with 2 jewel sockets for 2 medium clusters. On the large jewel you want chaos damage over time alongside 1-2 good damage notables. On the medium cluster I decided to go with Brewed for Potency, Vile Reinvigoration and Brush with death. Please note that any of those would do. Try to keep the medium/large jewels as short as possible. As for small its very important you get Energy from Naught. Any resistances/attributes on any of the jewels is a bonus. Please refer to the POB I posted below if you have any more queries.
Clear Speed
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I run a Onslaught on kill searching eye. Simply buy a Searching eye with an open suffix and use harvest craft on it to augment a caster modifier. It can only roll two things so you have a good chance to get Onslaught on kill. Make sure the jewel you buy has ES and other beneficial stats like damage or resistances.
As well as that we have a Quicksilver flask with move speed on it, Elusive on kill and the Maraketh bow implicit. Not all is needed since I didn't even use the Elusive until after I posted the build and clear speed was still amazing. We get the elusive on kill from our tree. Gem setup
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Helmet : GMP - Soulrend - Efficacy - Controlled Destruction
Bow : Caustic arrow - Vicious Projectiles - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Concentrated Effect - Empower Chest: Essence Drain - Efficacy - Controlled Destruction - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Empower Gloves: Cast When Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Increased Duration - Flame Golem Boots first link(arcane surge makes the aura reserve more mana so make sure they are not linked to it): Flame Dash - Arcane Surge Boots second link: Vaal Discipline - Malevolence Ascendancy
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Vile Bastion, Profane Bloom and Void Beacon are a must take. Vile Bastion offers a very important stun immunity and a lot of bonuses to ES. Profane bloom is the signature of this build so we always take that. Void Beacon offers some nice DPS and also we cannot really take anything else.
Now comes the hard part, Malediction vs Withering Presence. If we go Malediction we can apply an extra curse, meaning that we would have to use a Blasphemy or another curse on hit ring(can always use something like curse on hit orb of storms but I'm really not a fan on those setups on Occultist). At best we would get another curse on hit ring and apply Enfeeble or Temporal Chains but I really don't think its needed, it also adds on to the cost of the build. With Withering Presence we get to say goodbye to the annoying Wither Spell Totem setup and just apply the Wither ourselves. The range is actually quite far, pretty much at the end of the screen. We also get some more dot multi, however we waste the 60% Chaos Resi because we are CI. Since we don't need a Wither->Spell Totem>Multiple Totems setup we also get free 3 skill gems on our gear we can use for stuff like CWDT! POB/Tree
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http://poeurl.com/cXfI https://pastebin.com/pxdbajya Work in progress! Any feedback is highly appreciated. Will update more later on today. TODO: Add a Malediction(2 curses) Budget Life version. EDIT: Added Ascendancy explanation. Last edited by Swizzles123 on Jul 14, 2020, 9:05:42 PM Last bumped on Jan 22, 2021, 10:59:01 PM
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Reserved
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Looks good
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Is it possible that you can explain where to spend the passive points first?Maybe you can make a leveling tree in pob?
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" https://pastebin.com/SP6kef0m Updated the PoB with level 35 and level 50 routes (bottom left to choose). Took some life nodes just because leveling with purely ES is a nightmare. When ya get to 68+ and transition to CI + ES make sure you respec out of them. Last edited by Swizzles123 on Jul 10, 2020, 3:16:35 PM
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If you go for a 5L Chest, which gem do you leave out for ED? Is this worth it if you are on a budget to get super high ES and other good mods? How much damage do you lose on bosses?
Also, how important is the Watcher's Eye? It's 10+ Exalted. Last edited by jackals1234 on Jul 11, 2020, 12:38:23 AM
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Well , I know what I am doing in my free time. Even though I hate and said I am not doing any more ES builds this looks very good, and I like the profane bloom skill. Considering you said that you do high tier blighted maps is a big plus. Hopefully from all my poverty I will get to enjoy this build :( since I only have 200C this league cuz I don't know to craft :(
One question because I see it's not in the pob, why not get elusive from No witness since we are passing near it. For 3 points you get elusive on kill. Of course doesn't really help much with bosses. Never invite Vorana, Last To Fall at a beer party. Last edited by Vendetta on Jul 11, 2020, 2:12:00 AM
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Hi, can post a tree without the cluster jewels. Thank you
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" I was rocking a 5L chest for pretty much 95% of the game. Technically, you don't even need the link since caustic arrow/soul rend is comfortable DPS but its just icing ong the cake. ED Atm is about 500k dps 6 linked for me whilst caustic arrow 1.3 mill and Soulrend another 500k ish. The gem you would remove if you were rocking a 5l would be Empower. As for the watchers eye it gives me 8% DOT dps. I was just min maxing at the end so I bought it. With about 3-4 ex you can very comfortably reach 1 mil DPS(combined CA, Soulrend, ED) alongside a decent ES pool. Last edited by Swizzles123 on Jul 11, 2020, 5:52:04 PM
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" I'm glad you like the look of it! I think 200 chaos budget is probably a bit too little for this build. It is doable however you would need to be running life so something like Trickster might be better. ES gear is just a pain in the ass to buy because its pricey unless you craft it yourself. You might get away playing ES with that budget however we are looking at a rather low ES pool (6-7k?). If you do decide to stick with Occultist make sure that you take Malediction instead of Vila Bastion since Vile bastion is only good for ES builds. I am in the process of making a Budget life version of this though but it will probably take me a few days. As for the Elusive its actually a really good shout. The build's primary focus is speed and clear therefore it fits really well. I will most likely end up changing the build, saving 3 points from somewhere just so I can take it. On fights like Uber Elder elusive certainly helps! Last edited by Swizzles123 on Jul 11, 2020, 8:03:53 PM
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