3.6 ~ Spark ~ Occultist (League starter, map clearing)

3.6 Spark ~ Witch ~ Occultist (self cast)



Pros & cons:
Pros: League starter, pack clearing, yellow/red map farming (clear speed), great aoe
Cons: struggles with bosses in open areas, a tad squishy while leveling, single target not amazing, prob not HC viable
Notes: Quack Ribbit

Basic Strategy:
- Main damage ability: (Vaal) Spark, supported by spell echo, is the core of the build and our main damaging spell (We use Vaal Spark for boss killing/whenever we have enough souls). It’s amazing for clearing packs of mobs reliably & efficiently.
- Curses: We use Projectile Weakness and Conductivity linked with Bane (casting bane applies both our curses)
- Arcane surge is also in our Bane link. We cast Bane (approx) every 5 seconds to keep up our curses & arcane surge buff.
- Auras: Our main auras are Herald of Thunder, Herald of Ice & Discipline (you can also take clarity while leveling for extra mana regen)
- Movement: Our main movement Shield Charge, supported by faster attacks & fortify, as well as Lightning Warp as it is very useful for running the lab, trials & general "wall hax" (I have lightning warp in my 2nd set of weapons and just switch to it when needed).
- Golems: Our golem will be the lightning golem, because of the lovely cast speed buff it provides us.
- Survivability: As much energy shield as we can get, Fortify & ES leech.
We will take Chaos Inoculation (CI) once we reach maps and have a decent amount of ES (5k+)
We will also be taking advantage of Immortal Call & CWDT (Cast When Damage Taken), with the addition of Increased duration support.

Leveling Tips & notes:
Spoiler

- Build is perfectly viable to be run as a league starter or with all rare items (no uniques), however, the build does more damage with the recommended uniques.
- Use (regular) Spark - available in act 1, until you can get your hands on a Vaal Spark gem (vaal gems give both the regular and vaal version of a skill).
- If spark is insufficient for boss killing it may be legit to swap to another skill such as ball lightning for boss fights.
- Stop Leveling CWDT, Immortal call & Molten Shell at around level 2-4 (otherwise it will hardly ever proc) (Immortal call can be 2 lvls higher than CWDT).
- Only lvl arcane surge to lvl 4-5 (so it procs from 1 Bane)
- Level of curses must be equal or lower that that of Bane to work
- It may be helpful to level as a life-based character and then respec to ES nodes upon reaching maps (I usually level with a group of friends so being a squishy ES potato is fine when you can hide behind your jugg friend ;) )
- For leveling the auras I am using are: Clarity, Herald of Thunder, & Herald of Ice. I am also using a mana pot.
We switch from clarity to discipline once we switch to full ES/CI and we have access to shaper rings/crafts that give us mana on (spell) hit.
- For movement we can either use a shield charge + fort setup, or flame dash & faster casting (SC = more surv, FD = faster)
- Fast leveling guide by jeipei89 (not mine): https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2150196 (this guide is for 3.4, but it still should be valid/useful. :)
- 3.6 Patch Notes: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2333648


Bandits:
Spoiler
Kill All (extra 2 skill points)


Pastebins/Passive Trees:
Spoiler
(You will need to download Path of Building for the pastebins)
Endgame pastebin (lvl 97): https://pastebin.com/jFf5rkXe
~ Leveling trees included in endgame pastebin/PoB (bottom left corner to switch trees)


Gear, Gems & Links:
Spoiler

- All applicable gear pieces should have Int, Cast speed, Ele/lightning damage, resistances & ES if possible - your resistances, except for chaos, should always be capped 75%+
- We require a bit of dex & strength on our gear to meet the requirements for some of our skills
- Mana: Try to get a shaper ring with mana on (spell) hit prefix (+3)
- Weapons: we want a dagger/mace/sword & shield (ES spirit shield)
- Boots: We want boots with movement speed (20%+)
- Helm Enchant: (uber lab) 40% increased Spark damage / (Merci lab) 25% increased Spark Damage
- Boot Enchant: 16% increased attack & cast speed if you've killed recently
~ Recommended uniques:Choir of the Storm, The Overflowing Chalice, Heartbreaker, Doedre's Scorn(these uniques are not required for the build to function, however they will increase damage output/survivability)
~ This build can also be adapted into a "magic find" build (yellow map farming), by using the unique items: Bisco's Collar, bisco's Leash, Sadima's Touch, Goldwyrm, Ventor's Gamble.

6 Link Chest (x6 blue)) (Rare Chest - int)
- (vaal) Spark
- Spell Echo
- Energy Leech
- Controlled Destruction
- Lightning Penetration Support
- Added Lightning damage support

3 Links
Weapon 1 (dagger): (3 blue)
- Herald of Thunder
- Herald of Ice
- Discipline

Weapon 2 (shield): (3 blue)
- Summon Lightning Golem
- Minion & totem elemental resistance
- Minion Life


4 link no. 1: (3 blue, 1 red) (Either SC or FD setup)
- Faster attacks support
- Shield Charge
- Fortify
- Lightning Warp


4-link no. 2: (4 red - (int - off-colour red))
- CWDT
- Immortal Call
- Molten Shell
- Increased Duration Support

4-link no.3: (3 blue, 1 green - Int)
- Bane
- Conductivity
- Projectile Weakness
- Arcane Surge


:O
Last edited by Pootatoes69 on Mar 11, 2019, 11:14:13 AM
Last bumped on Mar 31, 2019, 4:13:43 AM
Ascendancy:
Spoiler
Occultist:Ascendancy: Profane Bloom > Malediction > Wicked Ward > Vile Bastion


Flasks:
Spoiler
The Overflowing Chalice (unique), Silver Flask, Granite Flask, basalt Flask, Quicksilver Flask
- Try to keep your defensive flasks up as much as possible
- Try to roll Chemist's prefix on all of your rare flasks


Jewels:
Spoiler

We want 2x Hazardous Research (unique spark jewels), and 1x rare eye jewel with lightning damage, ES, & mana regen


Resists:
Spoiler

We want our ele resists to be 109%+ (for ele weakness mod)


Pantheon:
Spoiler

Major: Lunaris / Solaris
Minor: Abberath / Ralakesh


(img credit = Shutterstock)
PS: Spark spider MTX looks amazing with this build ;)
https://imgur.com/a/XMMdLHW
:O
Last edited by Pootatoes69 on Mar 9, 2019, 3:46:42 AM
~Will update this guide with a PoE planner link asap. :)
:O
Last edited by Pootatoes69 on Dec 7, 2018, 2:11:24 AM
~ had to post the guide in 2 parts/posts as my spoiler tags for the last few things weren't working in the main guide post? O.O
:O
Updated guide with PoE Planner link. :)
:O
Hi Pootatoes69, thank you for sharing this build, this will be my league stater <3
nvm
Last edited by woelkchen93 on Dec 7, 2018, 3:25:43 PM
what type of item oh scepter recommend
"
suritame wrote:
what type of item oh scepter recommend


Either use 2 wands or 1 wand/scepter & a shield. :)
The stats you want (ideally) are: Spellpower/ elemental damage, lightning damage, cast speed and mana/mana regen.
:O
This is spark, not vaal spark.

Seems a bit click baity.

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