[3.2] Occultist Bow Aurabot 10.5 auras, 4 curses

Introduction

This is an Aura + Curse support build, it focuses on maximizing speed, damage and survivability of the party. It is very much like the most common Necromancer or Scion aurabot, but the major difference is that this build makes use of a Curse on Hit setup to apply up to four curses on enemies.
It may be interpreted as 6 curses applied, if you count Elemental Equilibrium and Malediction as curses. Even Hexproof enemies can be cursed because of the Occultist ascendancy - Profane Bloom.
While planning on which skill to use in order to curse the most foes on hit quickly and on a wider area, I decided that split arrow would be a good choice.
Even though you will be attacking stuff, the damage is so low that you won't be killing anything, so it is good to pair with MF builds to maximize the farm.



PROS:

+ Great damage and defensive support
+ Versatile (Can support many different builds)
+ Good speed
+ Not as boring as most aurabots
+ Not too squishy

CONS:

+ Some items may not be cheap
+ Lacks the attack speed and movespeed auras from other aurabots
+ Can't do any content by itself (not even T1)

Path of Building Link:

https://pastebin.com/u6avZYpa

GEAR:

Hand/Offhand:
For the weapon and the offhand, the damage is irrelevant. You just need to hit enemies quickly and not die, the most important rolls are projectile speed on the bow (for better speed and mobility) and ES on the quiver.

Both Quill Rain and Soul Strike also provide the additional dexterity needed to run all the auras.

Helmet:
On your head, the most common choice for running auras, Alpha's Howl. I bought one with an additional arrows enchant. It was cheap, but you may want to get one with a reduced aura reservation enchant so that you may run an additional aura. Your pick.


Chest:
I recommend Shavs on the chest so that you dont have to keep coruscating elixer all the time. You may want to switch for a Victaro's Influence if you feel like it, but I think it's boring and not as reliable.


Amulet:
Any rare amulet with +1 curse and overall ES+resist is a good amulet, but I chose Shaper's Seed for the additional ES regen and regen aura for the whole party. It is also very cheap.


Boots:
As boots, Sin Trek are good for the high ES, dexterity and movespeed. They are also cheap. You can chose to wear rare boots with High ES and decent resistances if you are struggling to get it capped.


Rings:
2 rare rings with ES and resists are a fine choice, but I use Lori's for the luck and movespeed. You also need STR and maybe DEX on at least one ring to be able to use all aura gems.

Note: the BiS would be a Pariah with a blue slot instead of a rare ring, but I couldn't balance my resistances without the rare one.

Belt:
A belt with high ES and resist is a must, for that reason, darkness enthroned with nice jewels is a good choice.


Gloves:
Any rare gloves with high ES and resistances is good enough.


Jewels:


Watcher's eye: It is the most important one. If you manage to get one with -10 manacost of skills while you have Clarity, you can use lv 21 split arrow with zero cost. This is VERY important, since using split arrow will no longer interrupt your ES recharge, and you can also get Zealot's Oath on the passive tree because of the zero manacost. If it is too expensive, you may want to grab one with -9, or -8 manacost, but you'll have to get a lower level Split Arrow for that (its manacost goes up with its level)
Conqueror's Efficiency: Needed to run all auras.
Energy From Within: Not 100% needed, but it is good if placed close to the "Melding" notable in the passive tree.
Chill of Corruption: Good for maintaining Vaal Haste up at all times while mapping with Crit+Cold builds
Poacher's Aim: WHAT?! WHY?! You will need pierce so that your shots can curse more than one enemy each. I couldn't think of other sources of pierce. A corrupted bow may also give you +1 pierce, but that might be expensive. Pierce is (maybe) more suitable than chain or fork, since the same target cannot be hit more than once per shot.

Flasks:

I don't have any fancy flasks, just grab flasks for movement speed and removing debuffs. The quartz flask also helps navigating through enemies because of the Phasing Buff.


Skill Gem Setup:

Main Elemental damage auras setup:


Bow attack curse on hit:

Note: You may choose whichever curses suit your party better. Be creative!

Vaal skills setup:


Utility auras:


Defensive auras:

Note: If you have a "The Pariah" ring, Discipline may be socketed in the ring, and an Enlighten gem goes in the helmet instead.

Movement skill:

Note: Socket it anywhere, I managed to socket it in the 6th slot on the Shavs, but it may be hard to get a green socket on it.

Passive Tree and Ascendancies:



This is the passive tree currently at level 93.

Since I usually run maps while supporting only one person, I grabbed the OP node ELEMENTAL EQULIBRIUM. With this, all enemies that I hit not only get 4 curses on them, but they also get that sweet -50% cold and lightning resistance. On my setup I'm using the fire conversion from the quiver to deal minor fire damage on hits. If anyone in your party is running wrath or hatred, this bonus is negated, and it's also quite terrible. So grab it at your own risk.

Grab Zealot's Oath only after you get your Watcher's Eye. It shouldn't be too expensive.

I recommend getting Whispers of Doom only after you get a 6 linked bow.

I grabbed Resolute Technique to always land hits/curses. It is optional and it will require only 1 passive point since it is in the main path.



The Occultist ascendancy makes you able to curse Hexproof enemies, enemies have malediction, you have stun immunity, 250 additional base ES, +1 curse and a very handy uninterruptible ES recharge.
I'd suggest grabbing the ES nodes first, for better survivability.

For bandits, I helped Krait for the higher movement speed and dodge, but you may also kill all instead for the +2 passive bonus. You choose.

Disclaimer: This is my first proper build posted here, I just felt like doing this thread since many people I supported this build with liked the overall result, and I also enjoyed playing with it. It is very similar to other Aurabot builds, but it has a few tweaks. Sorry for the bad english. Don't sue me.

And above all else, have fun!

NICE BUILD, perfect support for windripper!!

This build does everything i wanted from a support build. However there is one caveat.
Regarding speed, how are you planning on keeping up with the clearspeed meta without shield charge, sorry if i missed it in your guide, but blink arrow just isnt fast enough :P

regards

"

Yunojelly wrote:

This build does everything i wanted from a support build. However there is one caveat.
Regarding speed, how are you planning on keeping up with the clearspeed meta without shield charge, sorry if i missed it in your guide, but blink arrow just isnt fast enough :P

regards

that's one of the downsides of the build. It lacks the atk speed aura and the high maximum speed of shield charge, which scion and necro aurabots do. I managed to get a watcher's eye with both -10 manacost and reduced cooldown of blink arrow for 30 chaos, and the bow really helps with the great proj speed bonus, but it is still slower that the usual meta aurabot.

Even so, I prefer supporting people with this build, because it is incredibly satisfying shooting and cursing everything on the way. I also have the impression that the bossing dps might be higher with this build depending on who we're supporting. I might be wrong though.

"

Yunojelly wrote:

This build does everything i wanted from a support build. However there is one caveat.
Regarding speed, how are you planning on keeping up with the clearspeed meta without shield charge, sorry if i missed it in your guide, but blink arrow just isnt fast enough :P

regards

Also, I made this build because after seeing the usual aurabot build, it felt like such a waste being so close to curse nodes, elemental equilibrium and resolute technique, and not make use of them.

I totally get your intention, but im afraid that, practically, this wouldn't be desired much to play with.

If it was me and i was running an average meta clearspeed build who was looking for an aurabot, if the aurabot wasn't able to keep up, it would DIRECTLY affect the point of me wanting an aurabot. Which is to trivialize content and by doing so, decreasing the amount of time it takes to clear maps for the sole purpose of potential profits.

I love the idea of playing a more active aurabot though so kudos for this variation, but it could really do with some work on movement.

EDIT:

If only mirage archer didn't despawn on weapon swops.... Imagine, pressing split arrow, swopping weapons to a 1hShield combo, and have the archer curse everything for you whilst moving around Hmm :P

"

Yunojelly wrote:

I totally get your intention, but im afraid that, practically, this wouldn't be desired much to play with.

If it was me and i was running an average meta clearspeed build who was looking for an aurabot, if the aurabot wasn't able to keep up, it would DIRECTLY affect the point of me wanting an aurabot. Which is to trivialize content and by doing so, decreasing the amount of time it takes to clear maps for the sole purpose of potential profits.

I love the idea of playing a more active aurabot though so kudos for this variation, but it could really do with some work on movement.

EDIT:

If only mirage archer didn't despawn on weapon swops.... Imagine, pressing split arrow, swopping weapons to a 1hShield combo, and have the archer curse everything for you whilst moving around Hmm :P

Ye, that would be sweet, hadn't thought of that even if it worked.

I understand that this build has a worse speed, it can't keep up with people wearing a headhunter. The main point is to have fun, and I found that being a "pure" aurabot, although very handy, is ultimately boring to play I couldn't play more than one day with a full aura build. With this one, the pleasure of playing a support is enduring much more.

Hi, thx for your build, but i have a problem, so we play with blood magic and zeloat's oath, so no regen on life but we curse with split arrow, how you sustain life to use split arrow ?

Thx

"

Hi, thx for your build, but i have a problem, so we play with blood magic and zeloat's oath, so no regen on life but we curse with split arrow, how you sustain life to use split arrow ?

The watchers eye gives you -10 mana cost, lvl 1 split arrow + coh is free then. Thats why he wrote get zealots oath only after you get the watchers eye.

"

dable82 wrote:

"

Hi, thx for your build, but i have a problem, so we play with blood magic and zeloat's oath, so no regen on life but we curse with split arrow, how you sustain life to use split arrow ?

The watchers eye gives you -10 mana cost, lvl 1 split arrow + coh is free then. Thats why he wrote get zealots oath only after you get the watchers eye.

Ye, that's the purpose of the watcher's eye. A cheaper alternative to sustain life would be getting life on hit anywhere (jewels, rings), but that would be way worse since spending life to shoot would interrupt ES recharge.

If you manage to get a -10 manacost watcher's eye, even a lv 21 split arrow would have zero "lifecost"