[3.0] The Azure Knight (Flurry/Frost Blades/Multi-class/Budget/Crit/Life/Conversion) Shaper/Uber

Any particular reason you chose Occultist?

I've never played one, but always thought it was primarily for ES builds.
Looked through the skillpoints and only one that really stood out was 10% chance on hit to gain a power charge... and even the travel nodes are all partially wasted since they give ES.

Is that even worth it though?

I was considering running a Frost Blade Raider for 3.0 start.
I just respecced an old HoWA character on Standard to utilize 2x Anguish, Frost Blade build... and with just the weapons/crit gem I had something like 74% unbuffed crit. Silver Flask (if used) probably pumps this up to quite high.

I would think the tradeoff for another 10%-15% or so crit from power charges is hardly comparable to perma full frenzy charges & perma status immunity, plus the added Raider attack damage from frenzies etc.

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KooperT wrote:

Any particular reason you chose Occultist?

I've never played one, but always thought it was primarily for ES builds.
Looked through the skillpoints and only one that really stood out was 10% chance on hit to gain a power charge... and even the travel nodes are all partially wasted since they give ES.

Is that even worth it though?

I was considering running a Frost Blade Raider for 3.0 start.
I just respecced an old HoWA character on Standard to utilize 2x Anguish, Frost Blade build... and with just the weapons/crit gem I had something like 74% unbuffed crit. Silver Flask (if used) probably pumps this up to quite high.

I would think the tradeoff for another 10%-15% or so crit from power charges is hardly comparable to perma full frenzy charges & perma status immunity, plus the added Raider attack damage from frenzies etc.

To be completely honest, I chose Occultist for fluff. Before I started playing PoE, I was looking for a game in which I could play a Necromancer/Blackguard/Warlock kind of character, any rpg/arpg/mmo etc. That's how I ended up picking up PoE, and making my first guide here on the forums.

After 3.0 announcement and triple KO (ES nerf, ES leech nerf, Double dip nerf) I was looking for an alternative, another "evil theme Witch" build. Melee necromancer was ripped to shreds, Elementalist doesn't have the fluff vibe I wanted (too candy to my tastes), so I tried to get something working for the Occultist.

The main reasons why I chose this class over Shadow/Raider or other, was:
- additional free curse, allowing me to use both Elemental Weakness for damage and Enfeeble for survivability. If you watch any of my videos, you will realize quickly that my rig is really outdated to play this game, and my connection isn't that great either - Enfeeble helps me greatly with leveling, as I don't die to stupid freeze/lag as often. Running Enfeeble makes this build surprisingly tanky, and I die a lot less then on my other build, 9.5k ES dual wield poison Necro.
- free Power charges. Since VP leech doesn't work with ES in 3.0, ES/Skyforth is out of question. Running Assassin's Mark does not help against bosses, as it isn't reliable at all. Power charge on Critical isn't worth extra micromanagement during boss fights, if used on another skill. All other sources of Power charges are on kill, meaning it does nothing against bosses, where you need high damage most.
- Profane Bloom helps with clearspeed and leveling, it's like a free chance to cast Detonate Dead on kill. You may not see it as much on a 6L geared build which almost one shots packs anyway, but when you only start clearing t1-10 maps, it does help a ton. Early in the league, the faster you get to farm end game content, the better loot you are able to sell, and you can set yourself up for the rest of the league much easier. Extra chaosplosions help with that.
Sometimes, they also kill reflect monsters for me.
- Only requires 3 Ascendancy points to get 98% of build's efficiency. Wicked Ward is useless for a life build and Void Beacon doesn't increase our damage by a lot, meaning we only need to do lab 3 times to get almost full benefit of Ascendancy. It makes it a lot easier to reach higher power level early in a new league, where other classes really do need that Uber lab. Also, I hate lab, so a class that gets most power with only Merc is better for me.

You can always check the stat comparison in the Ascendacy/Bandit section, the build can be played as a Raider, heck, even Pathfinder if you prefer :) Core of the build is really:
- the part of the tree streaching from Assassination/Trickery to Heart of the Warrior/Born to fight, and
- synergy between items/gems.

While it is true that you can get more tooltip dps using a crit gem with frenzy charges, taking Occultist for free power charges and using other gem (like penetration or something) will get you to about same dps output against bosses, who for me are a benchmark, as trash dies so quickly anyway.
Also, if you choose Occultist, you get both power and frenzy charges during mapping with Blood Rage, while Raider can only get frenzy charges. This really closes the gap between both Ascendancies, even if first 5-7 points as a Witch are spent just to travel to the core base of the build.

Both dps against bosses and against trash in maps is very similar between Raider/Pathfinder and Occultist, so you can choose your class based on preference/additional mechanics.
For me, Enfeeble and dying less to spike damage is more important then the risk of running out of charges on my anti-freeze flask or small ignites that I can outleech anyway. Every ascendancy has its merits.

Hi. U have mentioned, the evade chance against blinded enemies. How do u affect them with blind? Thanks :)

There are a couple of ways you can do it:
- One that I am using at the moment, having Blind support gem linked with both Ancestral Warchief totem and Ice Golem. Since Golem attacks a lot with a burst of multiple projectiles, it has a high chance to affect enemies with Blind. Totem also has a good attack rate, and should apply Blind shortly (1-3 seconds) after being placed.
- CwDT setups can be taken as you prefer, some may find classic Immortal Call + Duration a good choice, personally I stopped using it. If you can find/free up links like that, you could run Cast When Damage Taken + Blade Vortex + Blind. I was running it for quite a while, but later I wanted to fit more gems into the build and thought that simply linking Blind with totem/Golem might be a better idea.
- You can use some magic Stibnite flask.
- You could also potentially use a Smoke Mine, but that's the last thing I would recommend, you might run out of space on the skill bar :)

Added Uber Atziri run (first one in a few months so, not as clean as it should be) and Elemental Reflect map mod run. Gear/gem changes to deal with these kind of maps are in the video description.

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong (*cough* probably *cough*), but I replicated you're tree (+ getting it to 100 for reasons you'll see why) for Berserker. And with pretty GG items that I could never attain, I'm left wondering how on earth you've reached such HUGE damage amounts at level 80.

Do you think you can point out if I'm missing something or just being incompetent :P

Thank you :) ---> Pastebin link for my tree + gear + skills -> https://pastebin.com/pgTAfTJ4

Edit: Yes, this is intentionally meant for 3.0 tree

Ok, let me start saying, that provided tree in the opening post is best suited for Witch start, and I was going to make proper trees for other ascendancies, however I didn't have time recently due to real life to do it yet, so far I've only done one for the Assassin version (and posted in respective subforum).
When I finally get more time, I will make the trees for other Ascendancies, sorry about that :(

Let's start with items first:
- Flasks are where majority of damage on most attack builds come from. Flasks in PoE are so OP, they can double or sometimes even triple your damage. If you enable Taste of Hate (with average roll of 27%) and a Diamond flask, you gain almost 50% more damage just there.
- If you can afford to cherry pick, "Attack speed with Claws" is the best jewel affix to boost your damage, followed by Crit Multiplier. "Increased Physical damage" is a much weaker choice in most cases.
- You can get more damage by choosing Alira bonus, you also get resistances and much needed Mana regen (see my last Uber Atziri video on how I died due to game freeze/and running out of mana to attack).
- Running Elemental Weakness might be a better idea then Assassin's Mark - its around 5-10% less overall dps, since you lose Power Charges, but I believe it's more reliable in general.
- Since we don't have to path to the Witch start, we can completely bypass it and stop at Assassination/Trickery. Saved points can be spent on Strong Arm, Barbarism, and finally Disemboweling, which I believe is the best Crit cluster on the tree. Sadly as a Witch we don't have enough points to reach it.
- I believe the "Enemy is Shocked" hitbox was selected in the Configuration menu when I took the screen shot, which is boosting total dps by +50% more.

I haven't messed a lot with the jewels, I wanted to change physical damage to claw attack speed, but I'd have to change them to Viridian I believe, so I kind of left mostly as they were.

I changed one ring, however - I removed strength, and put around 300 accuracy instead. Life+Str jewelry with decent resistances can be terribly expensive. It's a total loss of around 60 life, but a big dps boost.
Witch starting in her area picks up more Intelligence, which gets converted into accuracy with Shaper's Touch. If we account for less Int as a Marauder, we need to get more flat accuracy on the gear instead.

Finally, if we pick Berserker and take 10% more damage, to get equal survivability as in my videos, you need around 6.6k life, and maybe around 7k-7.5k to account for lack of Enfeeble. Do note that most of my deaths are due to lag/freezes or simply sheer stupidity, so you might get away with only 6k-6.5k and die less often then I do.
With that in mind, you can drop Rite of Ruin in favour of Cloaked in Savagery for a big dps boost - obviously that is down to your preference.

With all these changes, it would look more or less like this: https://pastebin.com/nswYEJtT
7.3k life, 7.73 million dps, without Power charges. If you are a multitasker, unlike me, and use Power Charge on Critical + something like Orb of Storms, or even Jaws of Agony unique shield on your second swap, your dps can go much higher, up to 8.84 million.
Only concern as a Berserker instead of Occultist is lack of second curse, Enfeeble, and taking 10% increased damage on top, meaning you might need to sacrifice some of the dps nodes in favour of life. I haven't played as a Berserker myself, but if you want to pick up the build and experience deaths too often, you can always take more life until you feel safer (to reach that 7k life with worse gear).

For comparison, my current equipment/setup (and if I had lvl 95) in 3.0 - https://pastebin.com/7ttbEMXY
Around 5 million with ToA that I used before switching to a rare. Since even without Bandit rewards I'd have resists almost capped for Ele Weakness maps, I chose 2 points instead.

And here is Light/Cold Occultist version (without glove corruption, getting in on Shaper's Touch is terribly expensive and costs as much as 6L + all other uniques/rares/flasks combined :P) - https://pastebin.com/L2evg2Ba
More "paper" dps, but a bit less dps against bosses (since there is no Penetration gem).

Overall the Berserker looks like superior choice, and it very well might be, but for me personally free Enfeeble and free Power charges outweight additional damage, however big it might be.
If you decide to try this build out on a Marauder, please let me know what are your experiences and how does it feel with 6/6.5/7k life.

Hi,

thanks for that nice guide. I started a Ranger in 3.0 Beta. My question is: Wouldn`t it be a big DPS buff by taking the Point Blank Key Stone, which is just around the corner?

Best regards

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Drahtos wrote:

Hi,

thanks for that nice guide. I started a Ranger in 3.0 Beta. My question is: Wouldn`t it be a big DPS buff by taking the Point Blank Key Stone, which is just around the corner?

Best regards

You mean for the Frost Blades version? I think it's out of the way of normal pathing to make a good use of it, plus, Frost Blades are great because you can clear a whole screen in one attack. With Point Blank your projectile damage will actually drop against spread out packs so you might not be able to do that anymore, and screen clearing is the main advantage over Blade Flurry.

So I'm interested in running this build, but as the berserker. I think the defensive / offensive aspects of that tree seems pretty strong. I read your own view on it, but I was wondering on why you would choose any other ascendancy over that one in 3.0, it just seems like the best of both worlds? Also, how do you feel about the Abyssus nerf to crit multi? Also, do you have a mock up tree for berserker?