[3.24] Bane/Blight Occultist Starter

"

Doctor_Teh wrote:

Any tips on where to go from here to improve single target damage for end game bosses? Is there a different build I should swap into once I want to be taking down maven, etc? Really enjoying the build, quite tanky, fun to play. Just worried the damage isn't QUITE enough for a few encounters.

It's important that you can sustain 20 Blight stacks. There's a few things you're missing to do that:
- replace crafted modifiers on your wands with those providing both chaos damage and skill effect duration of chaos skills (can be unveiled),
- replace Efficacy with Anomalous Efficacy,
- 20% quality on your Temporal Chains would help a bit,
- try to get at least 8% increased cast speed by using Eldritch Embers on your helmet.
Alternative sources of cast speed and skill effect duration can work as well, in doubt consult PoB :)

You can also upgrade at least one of your wands a little (search 1, search 2) and use some more Eldritch Embers on your gloves for another bonus to chaos damage over time multiplier. That brings you to a point that is enough for the Maven in my experience, although it's not a fast kill yet.

Further on, you can use a Cluster Jewel, but this requires more fiddling with the gear in order to keep a high chance to suppress spell damage. I went through it for my template build in section 4.3.

Hello!

Great build and guide, I've been playing through the league with it, pretty casually, and having a blast.

One thing that stands out though - CWDT Immortal call. Why? It doesn't proc when using minimum endurance charges, right? I don't believe this ever does anything with your Min Endurance Charges setup. I can see it proccing a little bit if you're just using 1 minimum and Disciple of the Unyielding to generate charges, but it's not going to last long, and it'd just be valid for mapping, not boss fights.

Is there something better we can use for those slots? Better supported Void Sphere maybe? 4 link ED for a smidge more DPS?

"

Quadricwan wrote:

Hello!

Great build and guide, I've been playing through the league with it, pretty casually, and having a blast.

One thing that stands out though - CWDT Immortal call. Why? It doesn't proc when using minimum endurance charges, right? I don't believe this ever does anything with your Min Endurance Charges setup. I can see it proccing a little bit if you're just using 1 minimum and Disciple of the Unyielding to generate charges, but it's not going to last long, and it'd just be valid for mapping, not boss fights.

Is there something better we can use for those slots? Better supported Void Sphere maybe? 4 link ED for a smidge more DPS?

Hey, I'm glad it's been working out for you :)

Immortal Call consumes only those Endurance Charges that exceed your minimum number, but it still provides its basic effect even if it can't consume any at all. It's pretty much what the build can get regarding the guard skills without some additional investment (Steelskin requires more strength than I expect to usually get). My current character keeps it for ~2s.



You can experiment with some other configuration though. Keeping Culling Strike on Void Sphere sounds valid, but it's also possible to set up a weapon swap for it. Alternatively, you can try e.g. Frost Shield with Increased AoE.

Thanks for the quick response!

I didn't realize IC really did even that much without endurance charges, good to know.

I do (just by random lucky mods on crystal belt/iolite ring) have enough strength to run steelskin. I think that's better for us, assuming we have the strength? The 2500HP buff isn't necessarily much better than the IC 25% resist (I'm sitting at around 7500 mixed HP), but it works against chaos, unlike IC, and the bleed immunity is not inconsequential. Not sure if I prefer it with a CWDT setup or just increased duration and the left click.

I've been rolling culling on Void sphere, mostly because I don't bother with withering step (I never remember it), so I've got the gem slot available for that. It's not amazing though - I probably wouldn't miss it. I could drop it in favour of putting increased duration on the phase run, but that would leave me with just void sphere on its own, which doesn't seem terribly impressive.

All in all, I'm still not really sure what to do with those four slots.

Edit - oh, and i did try frost shield too, but it always seemed like I might kill myself with it. The ES drain is just too threatening, even for a brief second, especially linked to CWDT.

I actually play on SSF, and really enjoy how it's easy to reach T16 map with dying at all. My only problems is to find better stuff for bossing, it take sometimes more than 3min to kill Conqueror or really big boss.
It's even hard to find quality chaos gem, for crafting +1 lvl on wand.


Do you have any advice ?

Tree

And Stuff :

"

Keussef wrote:

I actually play on SSF, and really enjoy how it's easy to reach T16 map with dying at all. My only problems is to find better stuff for bossing, it take sometimes more than 3min to kill Conqueror or really big boss.
It's even hard to find quality chaos gem, for crafting +1 lvl on wand.


Do you have any advice ?

Tree

And Stuff :

Spoiler

Your cast speed and skill effect duration are severely limiting the amount of Blight stacks you can keep on bosses, especially if you actually don't use Malevolence. Try supporting Blight with Efficacy instead of Swift Affliction. If you could anoint your amulet with Potency of Will, that would help as well.

The cast time of Blight usually should be between 0.20 - 0.25 seconds. The lower it is, the higher is the mana regeneration rate you need though. I've been suggesting allocating Arcane Will and using lvl 5 Clarity + Conqueror's Efficiency at similar stages.

Your wands should be ok for now. Perhaps later on you can look into crafting with fossils; Corroded + Metallic + Shuddering can produce good results, but it's important that you don't use a base with ilvl higher than 82.

Actually, i only use Vaal Blight as a bonus for bossing. But i don't use Blight at all. SHould I ?

Should i switch it on 6L? and put Bane on 4L ?

I just craft this amulet also, so now i can anoint it ( last one was mirrored ).


About crafting with fossil. I'm on SSF and i didn't focus on Delve at all actually.
Actually, i'm looking fot killing Sirus to drop Crown of the Inward Eye.

"

Keussef wrote:

Actually, i only use Vaal Blight as a bonus for bossing. But i don't use Blight at all. SHould I ?

Should i switch it on 6L? and put Bane on 4L ?

It's the main single target skill this guide suggests. As long as clear speed feels fine, a 4L for Bane can be enough. If you prefer ED, perhaps you can find better resources, but it will require just more gearing up, levels, etc.

Hey,

Wanted to say I'm really enjoying this build, I'm pretty sure this is the furthest I got in a league so far. I'm a noob and I keep going for off meta things like this since I dislike the ballista / trap gameplay, and this feels so smooth and the mapping clear speed is amazing.

Did my first simulacrum just now, and damn it's fun with all the mobs exploding :D (only got to wave 20 tho :( )

I don't believe I'll get to the ultimate endgame though (like uber bosses), I feel like I've hit a roadblock where all gear upgrades would be 7+ divines which is pretty steep for me.

All in all this is a great guide to follow for casuals like me who like to watch a whole screen of mobs explode in one spell :D

Hi all, the guideline is updated now to 3.20. The new PoB link: https://pobb.in/XmI5KRQJEvnJ.