[2.3] KrazyEd's CA Occultist- 3-4 Curse DoT Resistance Crusher. Atziri Down!




KrazyEd's CA solo/support Witch- Quad curse, minus enemy chaos res, and chaos explosions


*DISCLAIMER!*
This is my first build guide so I'm sure there's a lot I can improve upon. If I'm missing something please let me know and I will try and add it as soon as I can.




*UPDATES*
6-23: Added a Build overview to the video section
8-25: Updated Equipment, Q and A, and Passive Tree




What is this build about?

Wreaking havoc through chaos damage (which as of now there are still no map mods for!) and lots of curses on enemies. In the title I mention solo and support as a style but I'm confident you can carry with this build as well in a small group. Maintaining 3 curses should be no problem and 8 is theoretically possible if you want to go full on curse support, but I think that would turn into a completely different build. There are a few requirements for this build but you're able to tier into them as you build currency so it's not too bad. It's not like you need everything all at once for the build to start "working". With that being said... to be able to do red maps and other hard content and really let the build shine it will take some currency investment on your part. But that's not much different than most other builds out there.

Damage and Defense Screenshots



Defense stats in Dried Lake



Damage with a lvl26 CA (21 CA + 3 bow + 2 Empower lvl 3 (from bow))



Here's some gameplay video's or you can check out my youtube page
Spoiler


Chateau Map (+2 Bow)

Triple Damage No regen Canyon (+1 bow)

un-ID'd torture chamber (lvl77, +1 bow)

Build Overview (You're probably going to have to turn the volume up... It's really quiet.)



**Important Disclaimer!**
Caustic Arrow is not available to a witch... EVER! If this will be your first build in a new league you will need to start a mule ranger or shadow, complete the "breaking some Eggs" quest (the roah nests in mud flats), and maybe pick up a dex amulet to drop in your inventory before starting this one. If you're fast this should only take about 10 minutes. You can also do this later and buy multiple CA gems to level if you want to use another spell like freezing pulse or firestorm to level till you can equip your +1 bow.




Skills and Gem Links
Spoiler

This builds primary attack is Caustic Arrow (CA) but it also uses Frenzy (F) to gain frenzy charges and blink arrow for movement. Here are my how I link my skills

  • CA- Void Manipulation- Rapid Decay- Conc. Effect- Pierce- Empower or (Inc. AOE for leveling)
  • F- GMP- Curse on Hit- Vulnerability- Temp Chains or Enfeeble- Enhance or 4th Curse
  • Wither- Spell Totem- Faster Casting- Inc. Duration
  • Blasphemy- Temp Chains or Enfeeble- Blink Arrow- Faster Attacks*
  • CWDT- Immortal call- Inc. Dur- Grace
  • Flame golem in an unset ring


For a 4th Curse remove Enhance for your 6th link in chest or put Grace in an unset ring and add a low level one to your cwdt setup.

*Less Duration is actually preferred to faster attacks but linking less duration in the same setup as IC lessens the IC duration and having it in the same links as the Blashpemy increases the mana reserved for the curse. There are 2 ways around this...

  • The most obvious way around this is to link blasphemy/curse and cwdt+IC on a 4 link with no inc dur and put grace, flame golem, and Blink arrow less dur on the last 4
    link. This will let you drop unset rings and still get all the skills but you are left with getting a RRBB (or RRBG) and RRRG on 2 of your 4 links which is going to cost you a few chromes.
  • Alternatively you could also just not 4 link either your boots or helm. A 2+2 with the right colors would let you run the above setup with Less Dur.






Passive Tree, Bandits and Ascendancies

Tree's


40 pts.



80 pts.


Final


My Current Tree (92)


Note
In this tree I have spec'd 5 points out from the Whispers of Doom wheel. I am only running 3 curses. If you want to run 4 simply remove the points from the Shadow starting chaos damage nodes or get another +1 Curse on boots, ring or amulet.





Bandits

Normal- Oak for +40 Life
Cruel- Point from Eramir
Merc- Point or Kraityn for Frenzy charge


Ascendancy

I choose Occultist because the -20% chaos res, access to the additional +1 curse, and enemies take 10% more damage when cursed by you. The occasional chaos explosion can add some clear speed and help on areas with exploding porcupine's and necromancers. With that said the order in which I get the the points is as follows:
  • 1. Void Beacon: -20% chaos res OP
  • 2. Profane Bloom: 10% more damage taken OP and chaos explosions are a nice bonus
  • 3. Malediction: +1 Curse
  • 4. Wicked ward: +50 ES (damn you Acrobatics!). It's a little boost to eHP but nothing special and still better than the +1 power charges that do nothing for this build.

I did the normal lab after normal Malachai but waited to do cruel until about lvl65 and merc at lvl75 mostly because I was trying to level quickly and get to maps. I've still yet to find all my trials for end game lab but will do it as soon as I can for the lootz and enchants.

OTHER Ascendancy Options
Deadeye and Trickster are both good options as well. They will need a +1 curse ami, doedra's ring, and/or spend the 5 skill points to make up for the Occultists Malediction ascendancy.

  • Deadeye get's plenty of damage with farshot, endless munitions, fast and deadly, then powerful precision as a final. Ranger also can get the +16% proj dam for 1 passive node investment which is a nice bonus.
  • Trickster gets a bit more survivability with Ghost Dance and Shade form and some damage and a Frenzy charge from Patient Reaper and Swift killer. If not going Occultist this would be my pick.






Gearing
Spoiler

Gear is the most important aspect of this build since we will eventually want that +3 bow. Try to get a +1 bow with a 4-5 link as early as possible. I found a 3-link +1 cold wand early so I dual wielded wands with Freeze Pulse-added cold- and controlled dest. until about level 30 supplementing with a 3-4 link ED on rare's and bosses.

Weapon



Marketh is the best base because of the +6% move speed but they can be a bit more expensive and bought up faster than a thicket (fastest attack speed) or Steelwood (4% movespeed). I leveled with a 5-link +1 bow (2C)from the low 40's till about level 80 so that should give you plenty of time to farm currency and maps for a 6-link base.

Here are the crafting method's to get a +3 bow. I've stolen them from Sarleth's guide because I feel it's the best list, but there are youtube video's, forum and Reddit posts describing and discussing +3 crafting method's. I suggest you really look into the process because it will be cheaper to craft your +3 bow then buy one already crafted out.
Method 1

  • Use Alterations until it is a single stat Sharpshooter’s (+2 level of Socketed Bow Gems)
  • Mastercraft “Cannot Roll Attack Mods” (Caterina, level 8)
  • Regal the bow, the only prefix available is Paragon’s (+1 level of Socketed Gems)
  • Did you hit Paragon’s? If not Exalt the bow
  • After hitting Paragon’s remove the “Cannot Roll Attack Mods” (Tora, level 7)
  • Mastercraft (15 to 30)% increased Damage over Time (Leo, level 3)
  • Exalt out the last suffixes or call it done


Method 2

This is the method I plan to use once I get Caterina to lvl8
  • Use Alterations/Augmentations until Sharpshooter’s (+2 level of Socketed Bow Gems) with a Suffix
  • Regal the bow. If a suffix was hit continue, if a prefix was hit Scour and start over
  • Mastercraft “Cannot Roll Attack Mods” (Caterina, level 8)
  • Exalt the bow, you will hit Paragon’s (+1 level of Socketed Gems)
  • Remove the “Cannot Roll Attack Mods” (Tora, level 7)
  • Mastercraft (15 to 30)% increased Damage over Time (Leo, level 3)
  • Exalt out the last suffix or call it done


Method 3

This method attributed to Sarleth is more expensive and complex but can be used to craft a bow with +3 gems, leo DoT mod, and Dual res
  • Mastercraft Dexterity (Vagan, level 2)
  • Regal the bow, did you hit Sharpshooter’s (+2 level of Socketed Bow Gems)? If not Scour and start over
  • Remove the mastercrafted Dexterity (Tora, level 7)
  • Mastercraft “Can have multiple Crafted Mods” (Elreon, level 8)
  • Mastercraft “Cannot Roll Attack Mods” (Caterina, level 8)
  • Mastercraft a random suffix / random prefix so you only have one prefix slot left
  • Exalt the bow, you will hit Paragon’s (+1 level of Socketed Gems)
  • Remove the mastercrafted mods, (Tora, level 7)
  • Mastercraft “Can have multiple Crafted Mods” (Elreon, level 8)
  • Mastercraft two resistance rolls (Tora, level 5)
  • Mastercraft (15 to 30)% increased Damage over Time (Leo, level 3)




Armor


When I equip the Cospri's over a 100 HP armor I lose ~250HP and some resists but hexproof maps are no longer an issue and you can spec out of the 5 points to Hex Master if you don't want to run 4 curses. I also have enough resists on my other gear (even with unset rings) to be Ele. Weakness capped while wearing a Cospri's.


Quiver


Drillneck, BIS. 100% increased damage with life and some bonus evasion. It can be corrupted with +1 arrow for a GG one but I got mine for a chaos.


Gloves


They have 12-16% increased life which can give you more than a perfectly rolled pair of rare gloves and can have up to 50% cold res. Since the casutic cloud doesn't hit it's drawback is a non-issue. I use these to easily get my RRBB 4 link for my wither totem.


Other Gear


All your other gear should have good life rolls and fill out your resistances. Aim for 30% MS on your boots and try to have a belt with free prefix open for bonus movespeed from Tora as well. Also try and get strength wherever you can to help with base life and stat requirements for a higher level spell totem and flame golem.

*If you have the funds and resists on your other gear Atziri's Step boots are probably BiS.



Jewels

Your jewels can be whatever you need and should be the last thing you pickup. They would also be one of your most expensive items as 3 mod jewels will run ~20-40C and 4 mod jewels can be an Ex or two depending on the rolls. They can however be a HUGE boost and if you already have some put points into jewel slots earlier than later.
Jewel mods to look for are:
  • (5 to 7)% increased maximum Life
  • (10 to 12)% increased Area Damage
  • (9 to 13)% increased Chaos Damage
  • (10 to 12)% increased Damage over Time
  • (8 to 10)% increased Damage
  • (10 to 12)% increased Projectile Damage

Perfectly rolled Jewels can have either 7% max life and 37% increased CA damange or 49% CA damage.


Enchantments

There are a lot of good enchantments you can get for helmets, gloves and boots. Try and get any helm enchant for Caustic arrow and an on kill effect for gloves. For boots movement speed when not hit recently is my preferred but spell dodge on taking spell damage is nice as well.





Q and A
Spoiler
Q: My CA doesn't do enough damage. I feel like something is wrong!
A: If you're in a 5 link make sure that Empower is not in the equation and Conc Effect is. Even though Conc Effect doesn't show on the tool tip you will notice a significant difference when you start playing with it. Also make sure your pierce chance is 100%, that you're keeping up with your vulnerability on hit/Frenzy charges and using wither totem on bosses.

Q: Can this build do deathless Atziri?
A: Yes! I've done over 30 runs and most of them deathless.

Q: Can this build kill Uber Atziri???
A: I believe it can but the setup will have to change some. I will update this guide in the future when that happens!




Credit's and Thanks
I'd like to thank Sarleth, ComradeSerge, Grocery and anyone else who's taken their time to put together CA guides in the past. They've really given a fantastic base of knowledge to build upon while also shown how strong and versatile a skill it is. Thanks.

Last edited by KrazyEd on Sep 7, 2016, 11:18:54 AM
Last bumped on Aug 25, 2016, 5:41:17 PM
Reserved
How about tooltips or any other stats mate?
"
zdupix1993 wrote:
How about tooltips or any other stats mate?


Added them just between the Intro and video section.
^
^
Added a new video in video's section.
^
Updated Gear, my current tree, Q and A, and my current stat's. Plus I've been farming Atziri and will have a Core video up soon.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info