Witch - [3.10] Soulrend/Bane Occultist from budget to gadget (but also Essence Drain because why not) - Forum

>>>THE GUIDE IS NOT COMPLETE YET<<<
So refer to the PoB in the Skill Tree section for everything

Good gloomy day Exiles, Obsiwolf here, chaos magic lover in theory and practice.
Been playing around with chaos mechanics till ED and Contagion came out and mained the (now RIP) glorious chaos queen Scion.
There's no way nowadays(for me) to play Scion + Chaos dmg again, so backed up with the (nonetheless) glorious Witch Occultist.
I'm not a super pro player and this guide is not one of those
>>>[[[60M++++++++ SHAPER DPS]]]<<< things, today, I just killed awakened 6 Sirus with my char and soon after Shaper with outstanding ease so I thought "Ehy, maybe someone else could enjoy my build", so here I am writing that wall of text.
Also, I'm not that kind of guy that reads tons of guides and mechanics, so this is a whole bunch of my experience in playing the game during time, my personal vision of my most loved magic and how I personally enjoy the game, may not be the best way maybe, but is what makes me keeping it going and trying to get better.
It's a guide, so feel free to take your own personal glance and modify the build for your playstyle and try out things :)

Also sorry but I suck at editing pics, will try my best. But ehy, it's Chaos, mh?
Also 2: I like coloured things so expect that guide to be a lot coloured.

So let's step up in the Chaos realm in order to reap the souls that are rightly ours

Pros / Cons
+ League starter friendly
+ Cheap to start with a lovely scaling with investments
+ Great fast farming girl
+ Offscreen everything
+ Homing projectiles
+ Relatively tanky
+ Killed almost all the content
+ Chaos dmg <3
+ Cats <3

- Damage over time(you either like it or nah)
- Some gear slots are locked by uniques
- HP/Hybrid to Low Life can be tedious for some(but giving an alternative for that)
- Not a zoom zoom build(you basically stay away, dodge and throw cats)
- Can get expensive(Is there a build that doesn't? smh)

Spoiler

So we start our adventure as a Witch and as soon as we get in town, we wear

grab Spark skill gem and start the game, remember to update your links with support skills gems when they will be available during the story mode.
At the end of act 1, switch Spark to Essence Drain + contagion(or if you wish just stay with Spark or Arc for some more) in order to start spreading our Chaos reign in Wraeclast.
If you decide to switch to Essence Drain and Contagion, you must know that those 2 skills have an amazing sick sinergy, so you throw a Contagion at an enemy, follow with an Essence drain, and the dot(damage over time) will start to spread all around the enemies when your main target dies, sweet, isn't it? <3
Add those support gems to ED setup:
-Pierce (act 1)
-Controlled Destruction (act 2)
-Void Manipulation (act 1)
-Swift affliction (act 3)
-Efficacy (act 3)
Add those support gems to Contagion setup:
-Arcane Surge (act 1-don't lvl. it up past lvl. 2)
-Intensify (act 3)
-Increased Area of Effect (act 4)

Also while in Act 1 remember to grab a movement skill like Flame Dash, Dash or Frost Blink

During the story mode grab from the ground RARE wands and identify them, you want something like that in the stats:
- Chaos damage over time multiplier
- Increased Chaos damage
- Increased Spell damage
- Increased Cast speed
If you manage to get your hands on those stats just throw away in the stash your Lifesprig wand and wear those rare wands(with a shield or even dual-wielding if you can find 2, remember that Chaos dmg over time multiplier is our best friend in this kind of build, so if the stat is there, is better!)

Act 2: kill all the bandits for those juicy sexy 2 skill points, also remember to go back to act 1 after opening the passage in the western forest for another skill point.

When reaching act 3, after the first quest in the Crematory and reporting to Malamoa you can buy finally Bane and Despair, link them and use Bane AND Essence Drain/Soulrend on bosses and rares in order to spice up the situation, in the meantime, while leveling if you picked up Whispers of Doom already, you can consider to add also Enfeeble or Temporal Chains to Bane setup for even more lolololol

After the quest "Severe the right hand" and killed Gen. Gravicius there comes our great big fat question:
Do I want to switch to Soulrend? (I think so, the build name talks about it) or do I just want to stick to Essence Drain and Contagion?
This build can do either skills, so up to your preference.

So the leveling tips are those, we move to the next section.

Spoiler

Wow, you read a whole bunch of stuff already, thanks for being still there dude, hope you're not getting too bored O_o

So those are my favourite Skill gem setups for my Magic:

Soulrend(6-link body or weapon): Greater Multiple Projectile(Switch to Swift affliction when bossing for crazy single target dmg), Void Manipulation, Efficacy, Arcane Surge, Controlled Destruction.
(note that here we take Arcane surge to lvl 18, Soulrend is very mana expensive and will proc it in no time)

Bane(4 link head/boots): Despair, Controlled Destruction, Efficacy
OR
Bane(6-link body or weapon): Despair, Controlled Destruction, Efficacy, Void Manipulation, Swift Affliction

Other curses setup:
4-link GLOVES(Refer to the gear section): Vaal Blight, Efficacy, Temporal Chains, Enfeeble

Aura setups:
4-link(boots or helmet): Vaal Discipline, Flame dash, Malevolence, Enlighten (lvl 3 is more then enough)

4-link(boots or helmet, but only if already switched in Low Life): Clarity, Purity of Elements, Blood magic, Portal(if you have one)

>>>IMPORTANT<<<
DON'T LINK ANYTHING ELSE IN THE BLOOD MAGIC SETUP(LIKE IF YOU DONT HAVE PORTAL, DON'T LINK FLAME DASH INSTEAD) YOU WILL NOT HAVE ENOUGH HP TO CAST IT MORE THEN ONCE AND YOU WILL NOT HAVE HP REGEN ENDING UP IN STICKY BAD BDSM SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE OF A ANGRY MOB OF MONSTERS

So here it comes the question: Did I sticked to Essence Drain? If yes keep Bane in 6 link, and in the other 6-link you will:

Essence Drain: