[3.5] Occultist Vortex/Cold Snap ES/CI - Deathless and Safe Uber Elder and T16's

I killed uberelder with this and i'm quite bad at this game.
Couldn't do with storm brand, couldn't with RF and with this i only wasted one portal dying :D
Can recommend whith my whole heart.

1) There's a good spot for energy from within to the right of the witch starting point, below Pain Attunement. Its a 3-point jewel node, but if u take the 4 life/ES nodes above it and use Energy from Within, it nets you 46% ES (with 6% on the jewel)

2)I've never played CI before this build, so I'm used to having a life pool. Find myself always mashing for the life flask that isnt there, so i decided to use a Rumi's Concoction, to give myself some defensive edge when i have to push through a pack to avoid a 1-hitter or something.

3) Cinderswallow is almost broken. We like. Very much.

I'm not sure what your play style with this build is, but i launch myself into packs with phase run/quicksilver and pop vortex, i only use cold snap if there's something off to the side i don't want to flame dash to. very fast build.

Getting into red maps now, and bossing is hilarious. Shaper pops up like "Hey twerp, your impending doom has arrived, stare into the abyss, etc etc..." and less than a second later "No matter! Insignificant!" and leaves... lold

I just run in, hit em with with both DOTs, back away to control adds or recharge ES (53% faster proc with cheap craft on the rings) and usually by the time i walk back to hit em again they r down... loot waiting.

Just want to finish off with a thank you. Excellent work on the crafting guide so far, i've been working through it on my own - getting expensive - but learning usually is, hope all is well!

I notice on PoB even if I add scepter with %dmg while on full life PoB doesn't change the dmg. I did the check on full life and I have CI on. Does PoB just not read it? I've tired multiple things. Checked reddit, even imported your scepter ontop of mine, but when I remove all crafts the dps isn't that much different with me not having dmg while on full life vs me not having it in PoB.
Mine has 90% minion dmg, cold dmg on it and triggger, but if I edit and add while at max life deal %dmg it doesn't do much.

Sorry for rant. I just messed with it forever and ever. Love the build by the way I wish I started with this. I had some of the items and had to buy most. I'm not very good at crafting or have all the vield crafts either.

Any better way to go about leveling? Recommended uniques or spells etc.?

Died a second time to synd again :( jumped out was okay at 600 life at 26 and some ES and just got completely blasted, with the low hp coupled with low str so little armor items available I find I'm just getting raped by them, even if I avoid them sometimes they'll just jump out of a portal and if I'm in the wrong spot like I was in the sewers I'll just got torn apart

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Maztur wrote:

1) There's a good spot for energy from within to the right of the witch starting point, below Pain Attunement. Its a 3-point jewel node, but if u take the 4 life/ES nodes above it and use Energy from Within, it nets you 46% ES (with 6% on the jewel)

I am sure the OP is aware of this. It is a commonly known thing. However, it will cost this build 8 skill points to get those nodes. What will you remove?

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Maztur wrote:

3) Cinderswallow is almost broken. We like. Very much.

It is a nice QoL, and one that I would use over a Dying Sun. It can especially be nice on no regen maps. But I wouldn't call it broken.

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MrToweliee wrote:

Any better way to go about leveling? Recommended uniques or spells etc.?

Well, don't fight Syndicate. They are overtuned when comparing with the rest of the game - and especially so when levelling.
If you want to level with another skill, you can use Storm Brand. It is a great levelling skill and you can rearrange the levelling tree so you are taken right by 3 major brand node clusters (Explosive Runes, Runebinder, and Runesmith). The take all the life nodes you can get on your way around the tree (There should be 4 or 5 clusters to take). But of course all that requires quite a bit of respeccing when you change to CI.
If you don't mind that, this could be an early levelling tree: https://pastebin.com/W0ehmKGD

Don't know if it has been mentioned before, but during leveling I had issues with mana sustain. Using a mana leech gem linked to storm brand (which I manually cast on packs before attacking, no spell trigger yet :( ... ) solved this problem.

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sikker wrote:

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Maztur wrote:

1) There's a good spot for energy from within to the right of the witch starting point, below Pain Attunement. Its a 3-point jewel node, but if u take the 4 life/ES nodes above it and use Energy from Within, it nets you 46% ES (with 6% on the jewel)

I am sure the OP is aware of this. It is a commonly known thing. However, it will cost this build 8 skill points to get those nodes. What will you remove?

I took it instead of written in blood, for a difference of 4 skill points, giving us an extra 21% max ES. Now that i'm looking at it its not a good strategy because the 6% nodes around unnatural calm and foresight net us more.

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Helmsman527 wrote:

Hi all!

I have two questions to TS or anyone who have tried this build already.
I'm level 47 ATM playing this build
Didn't use craft to make a proper vaal regal or weapon because I'm too low level

I'm wondering about following:

1. What could be best option (unique preferably for 1-3x) which can be used as a weapon? Currently I'm using "Spine of the First". Works good so far. Accoring to POE planner it provides almost the same amount of DOT damage as TS has with the scepter he crafted by himself. Any opinions on this?

2. Can I use "Aegis Aurora" for shield recharge and suvivability? I'm in love with this shield since the day one in POE. I started playing as melee 75/75 block with this shield - my first toon. Currently the price is around 1х. Anyone tried it already? How it feels?

Thank you in advanced for your replies.

Late reply but...

1 - Spine of the first claimant has really good damage rolls for cheap. But it means you can't have the autocasting of skills on the weapon. If you are happy manually casting storm brand and frost bomb then it's a decent option, jsut a bit clunkier.

2 - It's only really worth for max block characters (I've played with it too, very tanky but not much dps and quite slow). The effect won't be noticable on an occultist. It's a fairly low ES shield too. It could possibly be useful for uber elder, as it gives +5 max cold res. But think i'd rather have a high ES rare.

I have some leveling scepters I crafted it onto if you dont have one with the mod Tichke. Playing on cursingthings mostly lately. I'd be happy to pass a cheap one on, or to craft something simple.

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Carlovski wrote:

Late reply but...

1 - Spine of the first claimant has really good damage rolls for cheap. But it means you can't have the autocasting of skills on the weapon. If you are happy manually casting storm brand and frost bomb then it's a decent option, jsut a bit clunkier.

2 - It's only really worth for max block characters (I've played with it too, very tanky but not much dps and quite slow). The effect won't be noticable on an occultist. It's a fairly low ES shield too. It could possibly be useful for uber elder, as it gives +5 max cold res. But think i'd rather have a high ES rare.

Thank you very much!