[3.0] Tentacle Slapper - Occultist Caustic Arrow - CI - 10k ES

Pros:
+ Cheap to start
+ Easy play-style and good map clearing
+ Scales well with currency
+ Immune to chaos and very tanky towards other damage types
+ Good lab runner
+ An ES build that doesn't need or want Skyforth
+ Sexy alternate skill effect
Cons:
- Damage can be lacking before +2/+3 bow
- Weak boss-killer (not viable against T16 and Shaper/Uber Atziri)
- Vulnerable to lots of small hits if you cannot kill small ads quickly

Witch does not get Caustic Arrow until Act 3 (if you help Siosa) or Act 6 (Lilly Roth quest), therefore, you must create a Ranger mule, level it to 5, complete the "Breaking Some Eggs" quest and buy a Caustic Arrow gem as well as a jade amulet. Level the witch using freezing pulse until lvl 5 where we swap to the Jade Amulet (so you can equip Caustic Arrow) and start using CA.


Level as life, starting through the energy shield nodes from Witch, and path to as much life as possible while picking up the damage nodes from the final tree on the way.
Level 27 tree: poeurl.com/bBEK
Level 40 tree: poeurl.com/bBEL
Level 60 tree: poeurl.com/bBEM


If this is not your league starter, buy a Silverbranch bow and use that until you get a +2 (or upgrade to Silverbough). If it is your league starter, you can roll +1 to bow gems on any ilvl 9 or higher bow. Until you get to that level use a normal white bow. Try and get as much life and resists on your leveling gear; you will need dexterity on gear until you reach Shadow start. Use leveling uniques as you see fit if this is not your league starter.


Try and get a +2 bow as soon as possible (ilvl 64 5L bow, spam alterations for the mod).
Once you reach end game and are able to equip ilvl84 ES gear, as well as Soul Strike and Voidwalker, make the switch to CI and spec out of all of your pure life nodes

Normal: Void Beacon - Increases our damage quite a bit
Cruel: Profane bloom - You can run vulnerability in a blasphemy setup until you get Witchfire Brew. Helps with clear
Merciless: Wicked Ward - Can pick this up in cruel, really adds to defense once we have switched to CI. Synergises very strongly with Soul Strike
Eternal: Vile Bastion - Helps with survivability while mapping, not essential until after we switch to CI in our late 60s/early 70s

Kill all
We do not derive much benefit from the other three options, as we do not scale from attack speed, crit or physical damage

Your major god should be The Brine King, as it essentially removes our fear of perma-stun and makes breaches and close areas much less frightening.
As for the minor god selection, it really is up to personal preference, but I would recommend Gruthkul, as it helps also with the small hit issue. You should swap into Ralakesh for lab as it makes running through traps even without your bleed flask up a breeze.

The blessing and the curse (heh) of CI Occ Caustic Arrow is that there are not many ways to scale the damage on the tree, so we have a lot of spare points to put into defense (%ES). The reasoning behind the skill point choices is to get all of the relevant damage nodes in the top right side of the tree, and use the remaining points to grab every %ES node we can get our hands on.

I used a legacy Silverbough as my +3, but a rare +3 is better. You will need one to get good enough damage for end-game maps

Crafting a +3 bow:



This is my legacy one from Standard league, but the current one is just as mandatory, as there are no other quivers that give the same level of survivability through flat ES and faster start of energy shield recharge.

This is my preferred choice for boots, as they remove the need for the Pierce gem and thus allows us to use Damage on Full Life Support, at the cost of some ES and Resistances.


While we have a Frenzy/Vulnerability curse-on-hit setup, this item helps greatly with the smoothness of the build's play style (as we do not have to stop to curse enemies)


Energy from within is useful to squeeze roughly 250-300 ES more out of your build, by putting it in the jewel socket near Pain Attunement.

As this is a CI build, and we have ample mana regen, we can use a full damage and utility flask setup. My recommended setup is Witchfire Brew, Basalt Flask, Quicksilver Flask, Quartz Flask and Rumi's Concoction. This provides us with damage, physical damage reduction, move-speed, dodge and block.

At minimum, besides your Energy From Within Jewel, you want % Increased Maximum Energy shield and at least one of the following damage mods:
- Increased Damage Over Time
- Increased Chaos Damage
- Increased Area Damage
- Increased Projectile Damage
- Increased Damage

You should use the rest of your gear slots to fill up your resistances and get as much flat ES as possible, on your chest piece as well as on your rings, belt and amulet. Try and get at least 40 strength on gear otherwise you will have to sacrifice a point to take Physique for +30, which will cost you about 100 ES.

In order of damage priority:
Caustic Arrow - Concentrated Effect - Damage on Full Life - Swift Affliction - Void Manipulation - Empower

This will be linked in your +3 bow to bump CA's level above 20.Keep in mind that Damage on Full Life is only prioritised over the other gems once you've swapped to CI, as you get the bonus no matter your ES level (CI characters are either on full life or dead :D). If you have a lvl 4 empower, it is your fourth link over Swift Affliction, otherwise it is your last link.

Essence Drain - Efficacy - Controlled Destruction - Swift Affliction - Empower - Discipline

This will be socketed in your chest. Helps greatly with single-target damage, adding around 30% damage to your skill rotation. The Discipline is boosted by your empower, leading to higher ES.

Wither - Spell Totem - Faster Casting
This is a massive help to your single target damage, as it applies a debuff that reduces enemy chaos resistance (essentially a more multiplier)

Frenzy - Curse on Hit - Vulnerability - Greater Multiple Projectiles
This is to generate frenzy charges for better single target damage as well as curse big targets with vuln when your Witchfire is down

Cast When Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Summon Flame Golem - Increased Duration
You can adjust the levels of the CWDT (and therefore the proc rate) to your liking, but for simplicity, I recommend just maxing out as high as you can go with your level of strength.

Vaal Lightning Trap
Pretty self explanatory, for better single-target

Due to the synergy between Soul Strike and Wicked Ward, as well as bleed immunity from your utility flasks, labyrinth traps are not much of an issue. As well as this, we have high levels of ES, meaning we can tank most of the damage dealt by a non charge-buffed Izaro. You just need to play it a little slower as you don't have much damage.