[3.1] 9K ES CI Death Aura Occultist (updated for 3.1)

****3.1 changes**** Basically none =P. The build still works fine (more dmg actually) in 3.1 because it uses Despair instead of Vulnerability, which is better. The new 2 soc belt with some nice es/res/str abyss jewels is also an option, as well as the watcher's eye jewels with mods like faster start of es recharge, mana as extra es, phasing while affected by haste, - mana cost while affected by clarity (blight only costs 10 mana on this build so you can swap in a -10 mana cost watcher's eye to do no regen maps easily. This jewel would also make the Blood magic version of this build a lot more viable if anyone wants to mess around with that), es regen with discipline, etc. I did end up changing the tree a little bit, but not much (see my current abyss league occultist in profile or this PoB link https://pastebin.com/xLp0DBBD). Instead of the 2nd energy from within on the far left side of the tree, I am just using a flat es/res abyss jewel and instead of the 4 chaos dmg nodes down where Vaal Pact used to be, I'm taking the 4 DoT nodes with life regen. You get 2% less dmg from those nodes, but with CI the chaos res on the lower nodes is useless and with the life regen you can convert it to a little ES regen with just 1 pnt in Zealot's Oath. If you do get the 2nd energy from within and a "mana as extra es" watcher's eye, this build can get over 10k ES now in 3.1.


I uploaded a video for the build here with clips from maps, uber lab, guardians and an overview of the tree.

https://youtu.be/x5zqWx93H3c

3.1 Video in hall of grandmasters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfgXXiGbdns&feature=youtu.be


Others have made builds around this skill already, but I wanted to focus on clear speed/movement speed (around 188% with phase run + flasks up) and seeing how much ES the build can get (up to 9.3k or so) while still having enough dps. When I say enough, basically I mean it is not a wander. You won't be able to carry a full party in a T15 map with enfeeble and 70% more life. You also probably can't do shaper with this version of the build, without changing the tree and gear a bit for more dps. If you do want to do shaper with the build, consider looking at the 96k dps version on the forums, though I wouldn't recommend death aura for shaper anyway when there are so many other skills that can finish each phase in seconds if they get a good spike in. That said, this build has plenty damage and clear speed to farm Vault or other maps for currency, or to just take you up to T15 maps with a couple friends, or to even kill guardians easily (but not quickly, more like 3min). Mostly it's just a fun, smooth build that I think a lot of people might like playing, but maybe were hesitant to play because so many other videos of the build only have around 6k ES.

Path of Building links:

[3.1] version (with watcher's eye, 2 soc belt, etc) - https://pastebin.com/xLp0DBBD

Leveling tree - https://pastebin.com/T3fHLS8g

9k ES version - https://pastebin.com/QEyj6jjY

MF/Inspired Learning version - https://pastebin.com/WquGCrjr

Blood Magic version - https://pastebin.com/z7y70YY9
The CI version felt a lot safer to me, but I didn't try elreon rings or reduced mana with wither totem. With those 2 things, you should be able to stay above low life all the time, so esh's visage's chaos damage does not bypass ES mod would always be in effect. If you do want to try messing around with the blood magic version, I'd be curious to know how it turns out. Strength isn't an issue and you don't need enlightens with it by the way. If you don't like it, the trees are mostly the same so you could always respec to the CI version later with just around 20 respec points.

If you don't have PoB, here are some other links to the trees:
Leveling tree -

9k es tree -

MF/Inspired learning tree -

Blood Magic Tree -

You can see all this below in the path of building or video above, but here is a brief overview of gear, bandits, etc.

Bandits: Kill all for passive points.

Pantheon: I like brine king for stun, freeze, and chill, and garukhan for movement speed and a bit more evasion. With the Blood magic version, I would use arakaali though instead of brine king.

Ascendancy: Occultist. Personally I'd get Wicked Ward first and then after that it's up to you what order you get Vile Bastion, Profane Bloom, and Void Beacon depending on if you feel like you need more damage or more defense.


Jewels:
9K es version - 2 energy from within, 1-2 spreading rot (swap 1 energy from within for spreading rot for guardians or uber lab for more dps), 1 chaos/DoT/Damage + resistances jewel

MF/Inspired Learning version - 1 inspired learning, 1 chaos/DoT/Damage + resistances jewel, 1 energy from within, 1-2 spreading rot (again, swap the 2nd in for guardians or uber lab)

(Just an example of an ok watcher's eye for the build. Other mods are good too, like immunity to ignite/freeze, -cost of skills, mana as extra es, etc.)


Gear: Get ES/Int/Resistances on everything you can with strength where you can as well. The only uniques are Death's Oath, Allelopathy, Ascent from Flesh, and Breath of the Council. Sin trek's are a nice cheap alternative for boots also. In 3.1 Balefire was added, so you can throw that on and do Hall of Grandmasters also.

My gear:

Swap breath for balefire for HoGm:


Important point about Death's Oath:
Like with other skills granted by gear, the armour doesn't have to be linked for the gems to effect the skill, but the swift affliction and less duration do nothing for your dps without arcane surge. So, if you have 2r,2b,2g instead of 3b,2g,1r, drop efficacy or concentrated effect for arcane surge.

Auras and enlightens: having grace is nice, but not absolutely necessary (in case you don't have 2 lvl 3 enlightens). In the Vault clip in the video, I was running with purity of ice instead and I was fine, so you could always just use arctic armour, a purity aura, or, if you pick up a +1 curse amulet, you could add enfeeble in your blasphemy setup and then you don't even need enlighten (though you might want one lvl 2 enlighten to put with your discipline, so you have a bit more unreserved mana for blight and wither totem). I would recommend having grace or enfeeble for uber lab and guardians though.

Gems in breath of the council: what you put in here is up to you. I would use flame golem for damage and then switch the other 2 gems around depending on what you are doing. If you are having mana issues on bosses, put in a rallying cry. For uber lab or if you want to go faster, I would put phase run + increased duration. You could also put cast while damage taken + immortal call or vortex (to apply chill), a portal gem, flame dash or lightning warp, shield charge for the smoke phase on chimera, etc. You could even put minion life + animated guardian and then put a leer cast, dying breath, victario's flight and some nice res + ar/ev armour and gloves on the animated guardian, so you would get more move speed and damage. You do have 2-3 curses + 1-2 auras, so between that and minion life the guardian can stay alive, but I wouldn't risk it dying on more dangerous T14+ maps or guardians. If you do put minion life in though, you might have to take it out to cast your flame golem ( because so much mana on the build is reserved) or break the links in the breath of council so minion life only applies to the animated guardian. I like to have 2 breath of the councils. One with phase run + inc duration + flame golem for clearing trash in maps, then another I will swap in with cwdt + immortal call + flame golem or rallying cry or vortex for bosses.

For the Blood magic version:



You want attributes on the chayula's presence, mine just happens to have a frenzy charge.

Flasks:



For uber lab or Minotaur I would swap out silver flask for something with armour/evasion or basalt.
If you're wondering why I have witchfire when I already have despair on blasphemy, basically I am lazy and half the time I don't bother with nor do I want to have to go to the trouble of constantly clicking ALL my flasks besides quicksilver. Despair is a big dps increase though that you want up all the time, so I just put it on blasphemy as well. You could probably swap it for enfeeble against guardians though, with all the less effect of curses guardians have, despair only adds a little over 1k dps, compared to the 9k+ or so that it adds against trash in maps. (3.0 dps numbers here with vulnerability, despair numbers are probably a little bit higher)

Also, consider checking out mehks' version of the build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1995544. Personally I just looked at the wiki page for death's oath before I made my build because making builds is half the fun in games like this, but afterwards I looked around when I decided to make a video for this build and mehks' build looks pretty good too.

hi dude, nice build
Stll works this build for 3.1 ??

I've been playing this build as a league starter for 3.1. The clearspeed is on the stronger side but boss damage could be better. It's still fine for everything but Shaper and Uber Atziri although you should avoid mapping groups and stay solo.

Current gear after hitting 92 at the end of day 6 of Abyss:



- Astramentis for easier and cheaper gearing
- Darkness Enthorned for ES / RES / DoT
- Essence of Envy for ES implicit on rings with chaos damage



- Watcher's Eye + Clarity for a stupid amount of additional ES



Things to get or figure out:

- Boots/gloves enchantment
- Immunity to burn
- +1 curse Astramentis for Enfeeble instead of Arctic Armour
- Replace Silver Flask with a Basalt Flask and get Onslaught from other source

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hueto wrote:

hi dude, nice build
Stll works this build for 3.1 ??

Yea, I'm playing it again now and it's fine. There's a bit more damage actually in 3.1, like 67k dps in PoB with 2 spreading rot jewels. The new watcher's eye jewels are fun to mess around with as well. I happened to find a nice phasing while affected by haste one, so I have perma phasing now, which is pretty fun for maps. For guardians I'll probably switch out haste for grace though and put on a faster start of es recharge watcher's eye.

"

Scarletsword wrote:

- Boots/gloves enchantment
- Immunity to burn
- +1 curse Astramentis for Enfeeble instead of Arctic Armour
- Replace Silver Flask with a Basalt Flask and get Onslaught from other source

For the glove enchant, if you want to get one, I'd get the one that gives you consecrated ground when you take a crit. You would need to put 1 pnt in Zealot's Oath for that to help though.

You lose a bit of es and res, but if burn is really annoying you, the new Cylcopean Coil belt could work. You would be immune to both shock and ignite with that. Then if the burning is coming from burning ground, there is the pantheon for that. There is also a watcher's eye jewel with immunity to ignite with purity of fire up. You could also get immunity to freeze with purity of ice instead, and then put ignite on a flask instead of freeze.

+1 curse astramentis probably costs a bit. You should be able to find a +1 curse ammy with at least 20-30 atts/str pretty easily.

For onslaught, you can get that on kill now with the abyss jewels. So, maybe try to find a flat es/res/str/onslaught on kill. You can also get it on kill with watcher's eye and haste on instead of grace, which is doable for maps. For guardians I wouldn't use haste though.

Hi there, I've been trying to find an aura/dot type build. To be honest I'm kind of lazy. And this looks like a lot of fun. Is it really as simple as it looks? You're running around and shit is just dying. I would like to point out I am a new player and I just leveled up a Sunder Duelist to like 60...but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do end game with this? Also what skills would you use for leveling?

"

alester237 wrote:

"

Scarletsword wrote:

- Boots/gloves enchantment
- Immunity to burn
- +1 curse Astramentis for Enfeeble instead of Arctic Armour
- Replace Silver Flask with a Basalt Flask and get Onslaught from other source

For the glove enchant, if you want to get one, I'd get the one that gives you consecrated ground when you take a crit. You would need to put 1 pnt in Zealot's Oath for that to help though.

You lose a bit of es and res, but if burn is really annoying you, the new Cylcopean Coil belt could work. You would be immune to both shock and ignite with that. Then if the burning is coming from burning ground, there is the pantheon for that. There is also a watcher's eye jewel with immunity to ignite with purity of fire up. You could also get immunity to freeze with purity of ice instead, and then put ignite on a flask instead of freeze.

+1 curse astramentis probably costs a bit. You should be able to find a +1 curse ammy with at least 20-30 atts/str pretty easily.

For onslaught, you can get that on kill now with the abyss jewels. So, maybe try to find a flat es/res/str/onslaught on kill. You can also get it on kill with watcher's eye and haste on instead of grace, which is doable for maps. For guardians I wouldn't use haste though.

All the stuff I wanted to figure out is pretty much a waste of time. I'm currently getting close to 96 and I replaced a few items:



I replaced temporal chance with enfeeble because abyss monsters in 82+ zones were hitting me for 9k+ and I only have 9.7k without Bisco's. My second change was to switch to vaal grace and keep it up 90% of the time. Enfeeble, vaal grace and blind let me evade most hits.

My next goal is probably a headhunter because why not?
Edit: Build playable - confirmed?

Have you tried HoGM or did the nerf completly butcher that option?

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Nvar wrote:

Have you tried HoGM or did the nerf completly butcher that option?

I've cleared HoGM somewhere around 88-90 with two portals left. I swapped to Balefire for CI-GMs.



The level 1 gems in that item are actually what i've used against HoGM. I could probably do it deathless with my current gear and leveled up support gems but I'm not sure.

"

HoboJingles wrote:

Hi there, I've been trying to find an aura/dot type build. To be honest I'm kind of lazy. And this looks like a lot of fun. Is it really as simple as it looks? You're running around and shit is just dying. I would like to point out I am a new player and I just leveled up a Sunder Duelist to like 60...but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do end game with this? Also what skills would you use for leveling?

If you are playing solo, then yea you can just run around mostly and everything dies. You still need blight for rare monsters or map bosses though. If you are in a party, then you usually have to stop and use blight on most things to kill them faster.

New as in you have only played that one char up to 60? If that's the case you might want to try a lab farmer char first to build up some currency selling helm enchants or something. Those builds are really cheap, like under 1 ex even. You need at least a few ex to get this build going, assuming you can find the armor cheap or craft it yourself using vorici and the jeweller orb recoloring method. It took both me and a friend last league about 1400 jewellers to get the colors on the chest (make the chest 3 soc, use vorici 7's 2 blue, 1 green craft, then make it 4 soc/3 soc/4 soc until a green or blue socket comes up in the 4th socket, then repeat for 4 soc/5 soc, and then the 6 soc craft should roll the red socket you need for the last socket).

It depends what is endgame for you. The build can do any tier map fine, even guardians are pretty easy - a bit slow (3-4min maybe), but easy. Uber lab is easy, but I would use a dedicated lab build if you want to farm lab. Atziri is easy, but I would not try this for uber atziri, that's more of a dps fight. Shaper as well is a dps fight, so the build can't really do that either, unless you have mad vortex placement skills or something.

The leveling tree for the build picks up all the spell crit/multi nodes and some spell damage, so you can level with whatever spell you want. Freezing pulse is good, abberath's hooves also if you can afford them. Or instead of going spell dmg/crit stuff, you could go straight for the chaos damage and use ED/Contagion. I never tried leveling with ed/contagion though, it always seemed slow to level with. The tree goes by the +1 totem node too, so you could go straight for that and just level with frost bolt totems or something too.