[3.3] Blade Vortex Occultist — Perma IC — Low Life CI (NOT a meme anymore!)

This is my first ever guide, and also first ever CI character, so bear with me. I just really wanted to make something crazy with the new uniques.

Pros & Cons

Pros:
* Extremely tanky even at low ES values
** Immune to chaos damage (for EZ Architects and Incursions, which are heavy in chaos dmg)
** Immune to physical damage (permanent Immortal Call)
** Immune to bleed (due to CI + Apep's Supremacy)
** Immune to elem— okay not really. But between the +3% max all res, Incandescent Heart and Fortify, we're fine on the ele damage department.
* Very fast clear
* Blade Vortex naturally has decent single target
* Uses a bunch of Unique items no one else uses which means they're really cheap
* Can scale well into super-late game

Cons:
* I lied in the title. It's pretty memey.
* Uses a bunch of unique items, which means it's not as easy to balance stats and resistances as other builds. Very doable though, even with cheap gear.
* If you're not attacking anything, you're not immune to phys damage, which means traps can hurt you a lot (for lab farming you can just remove the belt when the extra damage from Pain Attunement isn't needed)
* If you're not careful to always have Blade Vortex up sometimes you can be caught without any endurance charges which will lead to your death
* Can't run some curse maps aside from Vulnerability (to be fair while you lose some map mods you gain others, so I wouldn't really call this a con)


Build Enabling Uniques

Every Unique item in this build is there for a very specific reason and here I'll explain what those reasons are.

Let's start with the new stuff shall we?

This right here was the cornerstone of my theory crafting. It enables Low Life CI, at the cost of always being cursed with Vulnerability and 50% increased effect of curses on you.
That means you're always taking more than an Abyssus' worth of more physical damage.


That's where these bad boys come in.
This combo allows us to always have max endurance charges up (as long as you're attacking something) which in turn means that with the help of a CWDT + Immortal Call setup we're always immune to physical damage. All you need is for your Immortal Call duration to be longer than it's cooldown, which is achievable with only 4 Endurance Charges and 1 Skill Effect Duration Cluster (and the Increased Duration + Efficacy support gems too, of course)


Hey look, another new Incursion unique!
Okay, wait, so we're taking a ton of increased phys damage, that means a phys based degen like Bleeding is our bane, right? WRONG!
This makes us take chaos damage from Bleeding instead of physical. Oh, we're immune to chaos damage due to Chaos Innoculation? By the gods.
Bleed immunity, +3% max all res, +45% faster ES recharge on a 250 ES shield? Sign me up!


This beauty was practically made for this build.
It saves us a skill point in Arcane Vision and gives us a ton of extra chaos damage. It also negates 25% of all the elemental damage we take, again, because we're CI.
And remember that +3% max res from our shield? SYNERGY BABY!


Less exciting, but very important.
This + Phys to Lightning support gem means we're converting 100% of our physical damage to elemental damage.


Rares: What do look for



As is typical of BV build, you're looking for a rare weapon similar to those too. Get as many of those "phys as fire/cold/lightning/random element" mods as you can afford.

My suggestion would be to get as least 2 mods, and at least +40% between those two. Anything with 25-30% or less isn't worth it because you can just get with the very cheap leveling unique The Princess (https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Princess)



With my current tree, I struggled a lot with stats. Mainly due to the Rapier up there that I bought early on in the league, that required 212 dex.

But if I can get all those dex/str requirement at the start of the league, with a very tight budget, I'm sure you can do it too. You can obviously adjust your tree too if you want an easier time with the attributes

Other than stats, you're obviously looking to top up your resists (which shouldn't be so hard considering all the +all res we get from the tree, but consider the extra max res from the shield) and as much ES as you can. Some movement speed on the boots help with Shield Charge, but it's optional.


Path of Building: Passive Tree and Jewels

https://pastebin.com/2sEkd2i2

I'm getting about 6.5k ES, which doesn't sound like a lot, but oh boy does it feel like a lot.
I'll bet my bollock you won't feel squishy while playing this build.

With fully optimized gems you're looking at about 700k-800k Shaper DPS. But even with my 5L, crappy gems and gear, you're still looking at about 500k. So not bad at all.

Alternate links for the Skill Tree:
www.poeurl.com/bYFG
www.poeurl.com/bYFI


Bandits and Pantheon

Alira for the much needed resistances, mana regen and crit.

For the Pantheon, I normally have Soul of Solaris for the chance to take 50% less area damage. This can save your life sometimes. Considering we're immune to physical dmg and stuns, the Major Gods don't do much for us aside from that.

For Minor Gods, an upgraded Soul of Ralakesh is a must. This means you can't be maimed by Vulnerability.
Don't be afraid to just buy a Divine Vessel and a Fields map and go kill the boss. If you're already in full perma IC mode, he won't do much against you, even if you just got into maps. It may take a while in that case, but again, no risk of dying.


Support Gems and Links

Vaal Blade VortexElemental FocusControlled DestructionPhysical to LightningConcentrated EffectAdded Fire Damage

No need to swap Conc. Effect for Inc. AoE or anything of that sort. It's arguable you need any AoE at all, since everything just explodes due to the Profane Bloom ascendancy node.

Immortal CallCast when Damage TakenIncreased DurationEfficacy

Level these up. To 20. Yes, the CWDT too.
In this setup with a decent lvl IC (doesn't need to be lvl20) + 1 Skill Effect Duration cluster + 4 Endurance Charges means your IC's duration is already higher than it's cooldown. If you grab these gems as they become available and just level them, you shouldn't have any problems.

Assassin's MarkCurse on HitHerald of Thunder

Your extra curse is of your choosing. I like the mana gain on kill from Assassin's Mark.

Shield ChargeFaster AttacksFortify

Standard mobility setup.
Because of the melee aspect from BV, you don't need to feel like you were forced into close range to get your Fortify! FeelsGoodMan

Elemental WeaknessBlasphemy

Boom boom!

The following gems require no specific links:

Herald of Ash
Summon Flame Golem



Leveling

The Princess (https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Princess) unique saber is extremely cheap and will carry you from level 10 all the way until you get yourself a shaped statstick. It's THAT good.

Leveling with Blade Vortex has never been easier. Before you get Controlled Destruction and Ele. Focus just use whatever added elemental damage supports you can find. After that just run the links I posted earlier, with Conc. Effect as your 5L and Added Fire as your 6L.

For ascendancy points, I put my first 2 points into Profane Bloom. Then into Forbidden Power, and Wicked Ward.
By the time you get to Uber Lab your whole setup should be done, which means you can generate power charges with Romira's so unspec from Forbidden Power into Malediction (it's an insanely huge DPS boost) and with your new 2 points grab Vile Bastion.


Gameplay Tips

* Wind up your stacks, and THEN charge around into packs of mobs. Don't charge in with no BV stacks and just sit there casting it, because your Immortal Call will proc and you will have no Endurance Charges and you will die.


* Vaal Blade Vortex is pretty amazing. Throw it inside an extra-scary room full of monsters. Use it to double up on your boss DPS. Use it to kill straggler mobs that you're too lazy to go back and kill yourself.


Videos

T12 Castle Ruins (4L, no Pain Attunement)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyPBZ5vEQ7Y

This was right after I began mapping, I'm on a 4L, and with no PA because the map curse overwrites the Vulnerability. The damage was really bad, but you can have a feel for how tanky the build is.

Edit: I fucked up the new video upload. Gonna have to reupload another run. Soon™
Edit 2: Uploading a new one, but this one is a T9 because that last one was my last red map. It will have to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯




This build is really cool to me, as all the uniques seem to work together in great synergy. I don't have much time to play PoE so my gear isn't the best, but I guess it just shows to how viable this build is if you're not swimming in exalts.

I can post some videos if anyone has interest, but it's really nothing special. Shield charge around, stuff blows up, stand next to boss and spam BV.

Anyways, if there's any way I can improve this guide feel free tell me and I'm also open to any questions or critiques about this build. Belive me, I've done my fair share of explaining.
Last edited by ianpgerman on Jun 22, 2018, 5:53:41 PM
Last bumped on Oct 9, 2018, 7:30:49 PM
6/15:
* Added alternate links to Skill Tree and a video
6/22:
* Added another video (t13 + incursion)
* Added rare items section
* Added The Princess unique Saber to the leveling section. How could I forget the item that carried me from level 10 to 80!

Last edited by ianpgerman on Jun 22, 2018, 1:35:42 PM
Looks interesting, but 99% of people including myself are gonna wanna see some vids, just because this is a new take on the meta horse.

Looking forward to seeing some vids
Any chance of getting a "normal" tree (non pastebin/pathofbuilding) tree?

I'm intrigued but can't download path of building here.


"
broseidon07 wrote:
Looks interesting, but 99% of people including myself are gonna wanna see some vids, just because this is a new take on the meta horse.

Looking forward to seeing some vids


I recorded a video doing a T12 Castle Ruins right after I got into maps (lucky uberlab chest had some red maps) but it's a 4L and really slow, so I didn't know if I should upload it. But I guess it shows the defensive capabilties of the build. Uploading it to YouTube right now, but it'll take a while.

Once my crap internet downloads the new 2.3GB patch I'll record me doing a fast T9 or T10 so you can get a real feel for how normal mapping will be.

edit: video added

"
aDoreMe wrote:
Any chance of getting a "normal" tree (non pastebin/pathofbuilding) tree?

I'm intrigued but can't download path of building here.


Added alternate links for the tree in the Skill Tree section!
Last edited by ianpgerman on Jun 15, 2018, 10:38:26 PM
"
ianpgerman wrote:
"
broseidon07 wrote:
Looks interesting, but 99% of people including myself are gonna wanna see some vids, just because this is a new take on the meta horse.

Looking forward to seeing some vids


I recorded a video doing a T12 Castle Ruins right after I got into maps (lucky uberlab chest had some red maps) but it's a 4L and really slow, so I didn't know if I should upload it. But I guess it shows the defensive capabilties of the build. Uploading it to YouTube right now, but it'll take a while.

Once my crap internet downloads the new 2.3GB patch I'll record me doing a fast T9 or T10 so you can get a real feel for how normal mapping will be.

edit: video added

"
aDoreMe wrote:
Any chance of getting a "normal" tree (non pastebin/pathofbuilding) tree?

I'm intrigued but can't download path of building here.


Added alternate links for the tree in the Skill Tree section!


I understand it's 4L and no pain attunement but that damage looks _really_ bad for T12. Pain attunement is only 40% right? Feels like you're doing a LOT less dmg then contemporary blade flurry builds
"
Magisch wrote:
"
ianpgerman wrote:
"
broseidon07 wrote:
Looks interesting, but 99% of people including myself are gonna wanna see some vids, just because this is a new take on the meta horse.

Looking forward to seeing some vids


I recorded a video doing a T12 Castle Ruins right after I got into maps (lucky uberlab chest had some red maps) but it's a 4L and really slow, so I didn't know if I should upload it. But I guess it shows the defensive capabilties of the build. Uploading it to YouTube right now, but it'll take a while.

Once my crap internet downloads the new 2.3GB patch I'll record me doing a fast T9 or T10 so you can get a real feel for how normal mapping will be.

edit: video added

"
aDoreMe wrote:
Any chance of getting a "normal" tree (non pastebin/pathofbuilding) tree?

I'm intrigued but can't download path of building here.


Added alternate links for the tree in the Skill Tree section!


I understand it's 4L and no pain attunement but that damage looks _really_ bad for T12. Pain attunement is only 40% right? Feels like you're doing a LOT less dmg then contemporary blade flurry builds


40% more

Did you read the whole guide? That was a T12 straight out of kitava, doesn't matter if you had 10 hours your typical BF build could never do that.

"
ianpgerman wrote:
With fully optimized gems you're looking at about 700k-800k Shaper DPS. But even with my 5L, crappy gems and gear, you're still looking at about 500k. So not bad at all.


That's with my very inexpensive gear and some decent gems. I'm sure I could hit +1kk shaper DPS with decent investment.

I don't know how much damage contemporary BF builds are doing (it's a bit weird to compare those two but nvm) but that's more than enough to do everything in the game, with infinitely better defenses. It's a trade off. If you enjoy hitting the boss for half a second and then have to dodge every attack the boss throws at you, fine. That isn't what this build does
Thanks for the Tree.


I leveled it up over the Weekend to lvl 81.
Its fun :). Its also very unforgiving but thats mainly because of the BV mechanics and your need for it to be up absolutely allways. If you screw it up, your just immediatly dead because whiteout the Endurance-Charge boosted IC your just toast ;).

I went with a bit more offense on the tree but couldn't test it with Hrimsorrow yet because Vorici is a giant turd (I use Kalisa's Grace instead for the pseudo 5 Link until I get the chest linked).

What the guide is missing imho (i never played bladevortex or CI):
The Dex/Str-Requirments for BV and IC are pretty big and this build gets like nothing from the tree. Same goes for resists and i actually use a Manaflask to make it "smoother". I had to alter the Talent tree to adjust to that.
A suggestion for what Kind of Weapon/Rares/Jewels to use would also be really nice.

My char isn't optimized at all, I don't have a single Jewel socketed and parts of the gear are really just "mix and match what i had lying around" but I cleared ~T10 and Xophs breach whiteout issues (had to refill flasks once against Xoph).
Its also the first time i played CI and BV... So i'm really no expert especially when it comes to the CI playstyle against bosses.


Its really fun and engaging build to play, you actually need to be really awake because if you aren't you just immediatly fall over :D.

(Disregard my profile, i was playing around with some stuff and thats how i logged out :))


Btw: Fuck Vorici, coloring Hrimsorrow should really not be that hard... One could think...
Last edited by aDoreMe on Jun 18, 2018, 5:12:03 AM
Hey, I wanted to throw in some input in here. I leveled this build (took the concept at least) and am currently 89.

I liked how memey it was, but the IC uptime felt clunky to me and made me prone to 1-shots from big phys hits. I inevitably dropped the Belt+Romira's+Voll's package for a more mainstream (blegh) approach.

That being said, there are a couple of suggestions I would make for you:

First, drop hrimsorrow for ES gloves for a Hatred phys -> Cold conversion watcher's eye. You can get up to 40% conversion this way and you don't sacrifice a Gear slot. I get an extra 800es from my glove slot. IMO worth losing 10-15% conversion.

Also, it's actually very easy to then as well get some decent ES gloves with 25% phys converted to Cold/Fire/Lightning. Not even that pricey for 100+ES

The next one is a little wonky, but it made sustaining IC feel a bit better, I actually kept this setup because it let's me start ES recharge, maintain 100% uptime on boot regen enchantment, keep myself always poisoned for apep's, and spam lvl 1 CWDT effects.

Spoiler


ES isn't great (obviously) but the self damaging aspect of this will help keep IC up as well as let you start your es recharge at will (even more tankiness)

I initially dropped the helm for a 300es one and felt squishier. I went back to it. The self-hitting also procs Soul of gruthkul or upgraded yugul pantheons.

I really enjoyed the style of this build and the concept of it. Unfortunately it was not for me. I might try this as a Juggernaught/Scion+Jugg with the Scold's hits generating endurance charges to fully automate the process. This would also grant more Endurance charges for greater duration. easing the "downtime" of IC and requiring a lower level-which again, means more reliable procs.


The last suggestion would be to put an intuitive leap jewel in the slot by the endurance charge and power charge. this saves you 5 passive points (assuming you take Faith and steel+2 charges) You can do lot with 5 points and the leap is not expensive right now.

Below is my current gear on my character at level 89, while I have strayed from the original concept, I did keep some of the mechanics that made it so tanky.

Spoiler


looks like a very interesting, build, hope you don't mind me asking but can you provide more videos? preferably showcasing this build and it's capabilities with at least a 5L and with the LL bonus, among other buffs

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