[3.10] Tai's Vixen-Bane Occultist | 4 curses
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Preamble
This build revolves around the unique gloves Vixen’s Entrapment, using Bane to automate the casting of four curses (Despair, Enfeeble, Temporal Chains, and one other). Unfortunately I don't have any videos because my computer isn't up to recording PoE at this point.
Bane vs Soulrend/ED Contagion
Bane vs Soulrend: This mostly comes down to playstyle, I personally prefer bane, though I did try both through the leveling process and may try it again later in the league or in future leagues. I also think that you're better off playing a Trickster if you're going a pure Soulrend build as this one is mostly using Occultist for the curse related synergy. Bane vs Contagion: Bane has a much larger AoE, but doesn't spread like contagion does which means you're sometimes left with a few mobs left alive if you don't cover the whole pack with your first cast. This isn't too much of an issue due to the cast speed of Bane, as well as the addition of Profane Bloom from Occultist. The main thing here, is that Contagion doesn't proc our curses when cast, which bane does. There's no reason not to level as contagion until you're ready to switch to endgame gearing. ED/Contagion does deal more damage compared to Bane, but we get more utility with our curses.
Pros & Cons
Pro's
Con's
Defensive Mechanics
Leveling
Leveling is pretty straight forward, you pick up blight from Tarkliegh at the start and then contagion until you can get Bane in act 3. You can check out RaizQT's trickster ED/Contagion video Though it's for a different skill/class, you'll be leveling in a similar way and looking for similar stuff in the earlier levels. Keep an eye on vendors for boots with movement speed, and wands with “+1 level of all chaos skill gems” or “Chaos damage multiplier”. These are both very solid and will help carry you through leveling as the +1 gems recipe no longer exists.
Mapping
While Bane isn't as good a mapper as ED/Contagion, it still feels pretty smooth to run. Even with pretty average gear you can easily clear low reds. (See my character Artyria, which I've tested up to T13's) There are only a few map mods you want to avoid:
Hexproof is irellevant due to our ascendancy. But you may want to avoid maps with multiple damage modifiers that could be very rippy.
Skill Tree & Pantheons
The pastebin has trees for both CI and MoM, alongside a general leveling tree. You can also run things like Phase/Acro and Eldritch Battery, whether alongside the MoM or not. Pastebin There are trees for level 80 and 100 for both versions, which I’ve included to account for the new cluster jewels. For more info on those, see the Gear section below. The pastebin also includes some example items for both the CI and MoM builds. Suggestions for nodes to annoint:
You could also annoint Whispers of Doom, or another notable, and save a few points on tree to give yourself more wiggle room for cluster jewels. Ascendancy Profane Bloom provides dps and helps clear large packs that our Bane doesn't entirely cover. But most importantly it lets us ignore Hexproof on maps and Nemesis mobs which is key for this build. Malediction gives us some extra dps and survivability, and an extra curse. Void Beacon and Withering Presence. Void beacon is mostly a travel node, the enemies don’t regenerate life is nice QoL. The second node is what we’re here for. Chaos resist is nice, but the main thing here is the chaos damage over time and inflicting withered on nearby enemies. b]Vile Bastion[/b] gives us a smooth transition into CI or LL, as well as some QoL with removing recharge disruption and stun immunity. This will replace Withering presence, and you will want to pick up one Spreading Rot jewel to make up for the lack of wither. Pantheon Pantheons are super flexible and up to the individual. I personally go with Lunaris as my major for the MS and damage reduction because I play pretty forward, and Ralakesh as the minor for the reduction in bleed and eventually maim immunity.
Skills
Chaos over time builds rely on stacking a number of different DoTs to deal damage to stronger mobs. You’ll want to use Bane, Essence Drain and Wither to deal with tough rares and bosses. I’ve also included a number of options when it comes to utility. In order of importance, max gem level unless specified: Bane > Efficacy > Controlled Destruction > Void Manipulation > Despair > Swift Affliction Our main damage link, you can have any curse in here your other curses should all be socketed in your gloves. Essence Drain > Efficacy > Controlled Destruction > Swift Affliction > Void Manipulation > Empower If playing with a bow, we can add in a 6L. Another option would be to run this in a Hungry Loop as a 5L, or a 4L in a helm/boots. Enfeeble > Temporal Chains > Poacher's Mark > Assassin’s Mark Poacher's Mark grants frenzy charges which is a pretty decent boost to damage. Assassin's Mark grants power charges and life/mana on kill. Feel free to add in other curses if you're grouping with people, but these are the ones that benefit your build. If you can get it, I’d recommend running an Enhance linked to Temporal Chains which will increase the slow, also we can only have four curses active on an enemy so there’s an empty socket here. Vixen's and our tree/Ascendancy gives us 4 curses, if you're wanting to run more than that; you'll want to look into items on this page. Discipline Malevolence Clarity Zealotry Summon Skitterbots Vaal Grace Discipline is a must if you're going CI Malevolence gives us a decent amount of DoT and Skill Effect Duration. MoM, you want to pick up clarity for the regen. Zealotry gives extra spell damage, other bonuses aren't relevant. Summon Skitterbots provides shock and chill, which increases the damage enemies take by 15%, and chills by 10%. [Vaal] Grace is good if you're going for an evade based build and taking Phase/Acro. If you're going MoM, you'll only want to take clarity alongside one other aura at most. With the base 30% MoM you need 43% of your life as unreserved mana eg; with 5k life you'd want to have 2150 unreserved mana. Blight > Spell Totem > Multiple Totems Drop these to boost damage on tough enemies. We can get wither from either ascendancy (Vile Bastion), or Spreading Rot, so we’re mostly using this to apply hindered and the withered effect. Flame Dash > Faster Casting > Arcane Surge [lvl 7] > Withering Step We want arcane surge to be lvl 7 here to proc every time on flame dash granting us spell damage and cast speed. This puts the activation cost at below the amount of mana we spend on a lvl 20 flame dash. Withering step is a good alternative to using Wither/Spreading Rot, you'd want to use Bane on a target and then withering step to apply the wither stacks and avoid damage.
Items and Gearing
You'll want to make sure that you cap your resistances (Ideally 40% over cap to ignore Elemental Weakness map mods).
Weapon Slots
Mainhand: Imbued wand with the affix "#% to Non-Ailment Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier", other things to look for are "#% Increased Spell Damage" and "#% Increased Damage over Time". Other options include a Bow with "+1 to socketed Gems", "+2 to socketed supports", and "#% Non-Ailment Chaos Damage over Time". This lets you put a 6L ED in a bow, and gives you access to a quiver such as Soul Strike or one crafted with resists/dexterity. Offhand: The options are either another wand, or a shield. Personally I’d go with the shield option for the defense. There aren’t any good offensive affixes here outside the spell damage and +1 level of all chaos spell gems prefixes. Unique shield choices include Saffel's Frame, or Prisim Guardian (if going Low Life). Vix Lunaris, Invictus Solaris and Magna Eclipsis can be interesting choices, utilizing the increased levels, alongside Zeel's Amplifier for the AoE. The redeemer affix “Increased effect of your curses” is very strong, but will be hard to aquire. If running a bow, the quiver Soul Strike is a good cheap option. If using a rare quiver; life/ES, resists and [chaos] damage over time multiplier. For more details, the weapons section of Tarkecat's video on his Soulrend is relevant to this build.
Stuff to look for (CI)
Body Armour: A Vaal Regalia crafted with dense fossils is going to be BiS here. Don’t forget to use perfect fossils, and the additional quality crafts to push the amount of ES you get here. Gloves: Vixen's Entrapment are our primary choice here, and the item we're building around. Boots: Rainbowstride, Sin Trek or rare boots with better MS and ES values. For the most part Sin Trek will be the best choice here as it provides decent ES as well as a good amount of dex, which this build needs. This is one of the best slots to pick up the dexterity we need if using rare boots. Helmet: Doedre's Scorn is a good option here, especially if you're still on a four link for your Bane setup as the +2 levels are pretty nice for our damage. Replace with a rare helm with better ES if you feel like your damage is high enough, and when you get a 6L chest. Enchants to look for would be either Bane or ED damage, though I’ve not done the math yet on how the increased effect of curses might change our DPS (would currently only apply to Despair). Rings: Mostly for fixing resists, they don't really have any great affixes for us outside of the stuff you can craft; "#% faster start of ES recharge" is a good choice for open prefixes. Amulet: Flat and % ES, as well as resists. Chase would be a good Essence of Envy crafted amulet.
Stuff to look for (MoM)
Body Armour: A variety of uniques are viable in this slot, you'll likely want to go for either pure evasion or hybrid evasion/es chests such as Kintsugi, Perfect Form, or Queen of the Forest. Carcass Jack only increases the AoE by about 1 unit and the area damage doesn't scale Bane. Eternity Shroud is a new item, but would work really well here if you can get shaper items in each slot. Restless ward synergizes well with poacher’s mark charge generation. Gloves: Vixen's Entrapment are our primary choice here, and the item we're building around. Boots: Anything with life/mana/reists is good here, dex here if you need it. Unique options include Sin Trek and Atziri's Step. Ideally pick up the regen enchantment. Helmet: Alpha's Howl, Starkonja's Head are both good unique options. Alpha's boosts our auras, while Starkonja's provides us with decent defense. Rings: Dream fragments is a good choice if you can't get "Cannot be Frozen" on your boots. Otherwise just life/mana/resists on rare rings is good here. Amulet: Life/Mana/reists on rares. You'll likely be using this slot to fill out missing attribute requirements as well. Chase would be a good Essence of Envy crafted amulet.
Jewels
Conqueror's Potency is a good choice, and you'll get one through the campaign. Spreading Rot if you aren't getting the Withering Presence Ascendancy node. Otherwise rare jewels with the following affixes in order of priority
Desirable Watcher's Eye affixes:
Cluster Jewels
There are a number of good notables here that we can use, I've listed a few of the more notable ones here, though there's a lot of powerful stuff that you could build around. I'd suggest looking at the lvl 80 trees and grabbing one of the jewel nodes near either CI or Minion Instability if you're wanting to use them.
There are a huge number of notables that will be useful, and I won't have the space to list them all here. This image sorts all the new notables by type. DoT Chaos Life Energy Shield Chaos DoT Chaos Def Mana Curse Last edited by Tyriuth on Mar 11, 2020, 3:38:41 PM Last bumped on Apr 18, 2019, 12:10:31 AM
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hey thanks for the build.
if i'm running 4 curses is it better to leave one linked with bane, or have all 4 curses in the gloves and use nothing but support gems with bane? thanks again. Last edited by DrawingFlies on Mar 17, 2019, 2:30:46 PM
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" The top dps links for bane are, in order: 1) Efficacy (48.4%) 2) a single curse (47%) 3) controlled destruction (44%, no drawback) 4) swift affliction (44%, 15% reduced dueation though) 5) void manipulation (39%) Special) empower. Can be anywhere between low 20ish% to almost 100% more depending on the item it's in (ie, a rank 3 empower is trash, a rank 4 empower with +1 all gems / +2 support gems is over 100% more though) TL:DR If you want bane to deal damage always use 1 curse - and only 1 curse - linked to bane. Rest in your gloves. |
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" Thanks !! should i get energy within jewels or save for other gears? Last edited by DrawingFlies on Mar 17, 2019, 4:28:07 PM
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Hey,
Nice build, I'm trying it out right now. Having alot of fun :) Been playing around in PoB to see if I could fit a single target spell like ED or Soulrend... Anyways, I wondered how you can apply 5 curses. I count 1 from base, 1 from tree, 1 from ascendancy, 1 from vixen = 4 curses top. Where does the 5th one comes from ? Cheers Bayux | |
" https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Curse#Curse_limit also the spell leech from the gloves doesn't work with bane right? Last edited by DrawingFlies on Mar 18, 2019, 9:52:01 PM
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I just have a quick question concerning poacher's mark in the gloves. I have yet to see any frenzy charges but I do see poacher's mark used but no frenzy charges. Any ideas? Thanks.
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"you're missing the +1 curse node in the top left of the tree. ;) |
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" With the Vixen's Entrapment gloves it should give me +1 curse to trigger the Poacher's Mark...am I reading that correctly? |
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"you have 3 curses equiped. so you need +2 max curses. you need the +1 from gloves, and +2 from passives "Whispers of Doom" and "Malediction", none of which you have allocated. Last edited by DrawingFlies on Mar 19, 2019, 4:37:27 PM
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