[3.2] Blade Vortex Occultist

This character is my starter this league very high damage and very cheap to gear up. I think this build is a good choice for a league start can do just about all content I've thrown at it and is not dependent on any expensive items to get started.

For those interested in raw POB numbers at 20 Blade Vortex Stacks with my current (budget) gear with power charges and all my flasks up I do about 550K damage against normal mobs and about 340K against standard map bosses. Most of my gems are still level 18/19 currently and I have a fair few gear improvements I could make so have not reach "dps ceiling" yet.

You can view the path of building link for my character here:
https://pastebin.com/ZXjZdJ1Z

Or my profile here:
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Slappy_Cheese/characters?characterName=Hera_Blades

As of writing this I am level 88 I am still progressing through the atlas I've unlocked up to tier 10 maps so far. Build has felt very smooth damage output is high and clear speed in yellow maps is good.

I have run Uber lab successfully earlier in the day and damage against Izazo was very good he died quite quickly in all 3 phases.

I chose occultist because of the rework to the forbidden power ascendancy. And the ability to run mulriple curse gives some defensive flexibility.

The New Forbidden power grants you a power charge for every 200 mana you spend and each power charge grants 5% increased area of effect and 5% increased spell damage. This synergises well with blade vortex skill as you spend a lot of mana relatively quickly as you wind up the "stacks" which grant you the charges and the Boosted AOE is a good boon for map clear. I sustain power charges with Blasphemy/assasin's mark

The other ascendancy choices I picked were the 4 point "curse route" picking up Profane Bloom (another huge boost for map clear) and malediction which grants an additional curse as well as applying the new malediction debuff.

The final two ascendancy points from Uber Lab I spent on Void Beacon cluster - this is more debateable choice ultimately I picked it because of the 100% reduced life regeneration for enemies a lot of the red beastiary monsters on maps appear to have very high life regen so this is a quality of life choice to make them slightly easier to deal with.

Pros:
Cheap to gear,
High damage,
Good Boss Killer,
Shattering everything with Herald of Ice is hugely satisfying

Cons:
Can't run ele reflect maps,
You have to stand near mobs to deal damage - don't expect to off screen with this build,
There are faaster builds out there if you want pure Map Clear Speed



Leveling:
For leveling earliest I ran Freezing pulse until I got Firestorm gem as a quest reward in Act II, I ran Firestorm until act V and then from act VI onwards ran a four link (Blade Vortex + Spell Echo + Added Fire + Phys to Lightning). I killed Act X Kitava on the four link and then farmed up Blood aqueducts for humilty divination cards then used a 6L in Tabula for early maps.


A few notes:

The only mandatory unique is Hrimsorrow gloves - These convert 50% of physical damage to Cold damage.


I achieve 100% Full ele conversion by using Phys to lightning gem in the blade vortex setup.


Frenzy Charges comes from my main hand weapon

I like this item because it is an easy way to get frenzy charges which give more cast speed which makes it easier to sustain high number of blade vortex stacks. Another option is to run Ice Bite in the blade vortex setup (over added fire probably)

The bulk of the damage comes actually from off hand which is a Shaped Scepter that stacks gain X phys damage as extra ele dmg mods. I paid 1 Exalt (when an Ex was worth around 40 Chaos) for my scepter it is by far most expensive item in my build so far.



Before I purchased this scepter I used a cheap 1 alch unique "The Princess" https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Princess which gains % of phys damage as extra cold

If you are worried about defenses then a shield can be used instead of offhand weapon this will lower absolute DPS but will give you more life. At level 88 I have 5150 life which is a little on the low side but my gear is pretty budget still.

My Links are currently as follows:

Chest (6L):
Blade Vortex, Phys to Lightning, Spell Echo, Added Fire, Conc. Effect, Controlled Destruction

Helmet (4L)
Herald of Ice, Herald of Ash, Blasphemy, Assasin's Mark


I bought the cheapest helmet I could get with relevant Blade vortex lab enchant. the enchant I have currently is increased AOE which is nice Quality of life for maps but not essential to the build this cost me a couple of chaos.

Gloves (4L)
Orb of Storms, Arcane Surge (lvl 6), Curse on Hit, Temp Chains

These are Hrimsorrow gloves original I wanted to run Enfeeble or Warlord's mark as my second curse but wasted many chromatic trying to off color gloves before I gave up and settled on temp chains - very nice against bosses

Boots (4L)
Cast When Damage Taken, Immortal call, increased duration, lightning golem



I'm lazy so like to have golem in cast when damage taken setup so I don't need to manulyl recast it all the time - it does not need to be high level only there for cast speed boost it gives to make ramping blade vortex stacks easier. I have enchant from cruel lab which gives leech if you have killed recently this is useful it has let me run cannot regen life/ mana map mods. Not essential but very nice to have.

Main hand (3L)
Faster Attacks, Whirling Blades, Foritify

I have whirling blades mapped to me "w" key and blade vortex is my "q" key eventually you fall into a rhytm of tapping w and q sequentially one after the other to maintain blade vortex stacks and zoom around the map.

Off hand (3L)
Vaal Grace, Increased Duration, Decoy totem

This gives me some defense. Totem is useful for some boss fights. Vaal grace has about 15 seconds uptime in this setup which is a huge length of time in my opion however a lot of the time I forget to press it to be honest. Usually only time I remember to use it is when I activate a strong box or breech or similar.

Flasks:
Instant Life Flask, Atziri's Promise, Diamond, Stibnite, Silver

Let me know if you have any questions or would like anymore information.

Update:
I'm level 90 Now and have spent a bit on gear

POB at 90 is here: https://pastebin.com/XxrsFv9r

I've done up to t12 maps no issue still in process of filling out Atlas. I have died a few times so character is not indestructable mostly death are from stupid things. I died in uber lab not paying attention to traps and I also died to ice nova from a strong box XD I was in too much of a hurry map had stupid amount of mods on it and I did not stop to ID the box.

I will say This build feels very good this is the fastest I've managed to get to 90 on any character I've played.

I bought a Carcass Jack early in league for about 5C and have been throwing fusings at it all week finally got the thing to 6 Link. So that is now my chest:


I also upgraded helmet with better lab enchant:


This cost me about 30C

Those were the two main items I've invested in, spent a few C on my rings which are nothing special really and I replaced main hand weapon with this:


Set me back 3C - a bargin IMO. Anything with gain physical damage as extra elemental damage is insanely good for blade vortex.

If you trust POB dmg against white mobs is now 960K and about 660k against standard map bosses

Looks cool, videos please! :D

I will try to sort something out later tonight I'm not setup to record/edit video so not sure how it will work.

I managed to record this: Unfortunately makes my PC very laggy when I run recording software.

https://youtu.be/cLjamCXAScY

This video from my Daily Zana mission. This should demonstrate the AOE and howquickly you can generate charges.

Edit https://youtu.be/kjzK0ac-U48 second video in map.

Says video unavailable

Try again in a little while think you tube is still processing the upload.

Videos should work now. Let me know if still issues

I've edited post with more info now I've hit level 90. Unsure If I'll keep pushing further I'm getting ideas for some other builds I want to try out now I have currency.

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Slappy_Cheese wrote:

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Hi! Is it possible to make a chaos damage BV? We cant convert 100% phys to chaos right? Or we can?
Im really want to try BV Occultist this league and i want it chaos. Is it possible?

I looked at partial Chaos conversion but I found damage was better with full ele conversion

If you want to try it out maybe run Innsbury Edge (25% conversion) in your off hand.