[3.8] A CI/LL Tri-Curse Herald of Agony Occultist [Deathless Uber Elder, League Starter]

hi, great guide - thank you.

I'm trying to plan what my first build will be in 3.5 - It is currently between this or a MF wander using either PS or KB.
Having not played for 3-5 years, could you tell me which you would recommend? I think this build would be better for actually clearing maps/bosses etc but would the MF character be worth building first?

Would it be possible to use incandescent heart for the elemental damage to chaos reduction.
Is darkskorn bow with 25% physical reduction to chaos too slow of a bow to use with this, considering the need to keep stacks up.

I figured I'd chime in here and add a little testimonial of sorts.

Before I go into it, I did make some changes to the build, but I DO NOT recommend them. I don't think my version is better than the authors; think of it more like a crazy little experiment. That's one of my favorite things about POE...you have so much customization to alter builds to suit your playstyle and needs. The net result is a significant loss in max ES, for what I feel is a decent gain in both damage and ES sustain. While the tweaks are my own, the idea stemmed from this authors thread. Again, this is not better than OP's version, and I do not recommend it. With that out of the way...

This build has really been a joy for me to play. It somehow manages to make a minion build not actually feel like a minion build (in most cases...thank GGG for convocation for the rest). It does literally every map mod, effortlessly, even at t16 (though as any build without atziri's reflection knows, Temp Chains can still be annoying if you aren't a god with flask usage and efficiency).

I started this league 5 or 6 weeks late (due to the WoW expansion, I have since quit WoW), at first mostly on a Herald of Agony gladiator of all things. But something just didn't feel right, the clear was sub par and I was still prone to one-shots. Minus block maps were a chore, and downright scary on a guardian like Chimera.

After my typical league "try a dozen builds until I find one that does everything I want", I finally hit the jackpot with this build. Despite starting late, I have completed 37 challenges completely solo. Occultist is really the magic bullet for me... it gives the build amazing clear, utility, and survival. Assuming they don't nerf Herald of Agony significantly with the upcoming 3.5/Betrayal patch notes, I'll most likely be league starting with my own variant of this build (otherwise, it's boring old Arc Traps!).

I made some videos showcasing the build in a youtube playlist:

My Playlist

In that list, you'll find deathless Uber Elder, every shaper guardian (which sadly are all harder than shaper actually is) with decently beefy to downright rippy mods, a short clip at delve depth 600 (really could have gone much deeper but time limitations prevented that... stupid sulphite), and a double beyond UGS with sextants and big packsize.

Here's hoping Herald of Agony makes it through unscathed on patch day. The combination of a truly immortal minion with high damage and good clear speed has me worried...but then again, stat sticks and zerphi's have survived this long...

@ Nebs

Actually, both are very good builds, so it all comes down to your personal preference : what it your preferred way of playing ?

Do you want to run mid tier maps, trying to chain them to make a lot of currencies geysers appear ? (MF Wander)

Or do you want a true self sufficient build that can do almost all content, not at the fastest clear speed, but reliably and steadily, to maybe try the hardest encounters of the game ? (This build)

Try to find YOUR answer to these questions and you will know what to do. Just remember : the "best way" is to have fun 😊


@ Bonewall

Yes, Incandescent Heart is an amazing chest plate, with its awesome elemental damage taken conversion when you are CI. It is so good that if you have 75% all elemental resistances, you are in fact at 81 all elemental resistances with Incandescent Heart !
Moreover, there is a nice quality of life mod with Light Radius based on ES.
The only drawback is that the total ES of this chest is rather low (mid 300s), so you will probably have to get a better ES chest for the hardest content.

For Darkscorn, yes, the other mod of damage taken is really good, but it is really too slow for this build. Don't forget that we need a huge attack speed not to do damage ourselves, but to maintain a big total of Virulence stacks for the Crawler so that he can kill for us ! And Virulence stacks go down very fast...


@ Xyrm

Thank you very much for your warm and sensible testimonial. It is always a pleasure to read and see the success of others with this build, and I'm sure that Vatinas will be interested in linking your videos in the OP.
I hope too that the Herald will survive the 3.5 patch notes, but in my opinion, there are worse cases for nerf than our beloved scorpion !


Have fun guys !

Hi,

I want to start with this build for the upcoming Betrayal league, however i will play on HC. It feels like this build has decent clear speed, while being able to do all endgame content with decent budget.
However, I've tried to search for some other HC players playing variants of this build, and was only able to find this one:
https://pastebin.com/NWUW4sJk

It seems like he uses Darkscorn for the reduced physical damage, and has a bit of a different skilltree. He goes for ball lightning as poison skill, so he does not need accuracy.
The other thing i've noticed, is that he runs with spectres. Could this be solar guards - to benefit from our curses applied to projectiles (piercing) ?
I have not seen above build in action, so im not quite sure how mechanics are compared to this, and how he will keep max virulence stacks.
What are your view on the differences for these two variants?

Looking forward to your answers guys, and thanks for an awesome build!!

/Kanaz

@Kanaz
Something similar here:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2253197

Not sure about end game content but I think I like his version more (the ball lightning). Feel like it allows for dark scorn and incandescent heart, solves the issues of stack while not attacking (ball lightning travels rather slowly).

Will probably go with something in this direction and see if I can takeuber elder down.

Thank you very much for the build guide. I am having a blast playing it these last few days.
I was close to deleting the char during Act 7 as I died like 10 times on my way to Maligaro which was probably just me being bad or not having done any lab yet XD

But once I hit lvl 64 and had done 2 labs its an absolute joy to play.
While it wont be my starter build for betrayal it will be my 2nd char next league.

Hello everyone, sorry for not answering before, I've been kind of busy IRL these last few days.

tl;dr: I agree with with Pakito said!

@bonewall: Incandescent Heart is a nice ES chest, indeed, but its ES is pretty low. It can be a nice alternative if you do not have the money for a 500/600+ ES chest (which should be cheap-ish, there are trade links in the guide if you want to check the exact price). Darkscorn, however, is just too slow to be used versus bosses, but you can still try to use it for clearing if you feel like you need another defensive layer.

@Xyrm: Thanks for sharing your achievements, it's nice to get feedback from fellow exiles! May I add some of your videos to the build guide?

@CodeEmperor: I'm happy to hear it! I'm glad you're having fun with the build :)


Concerning Ball Lightning, it's a nice alternative, but is too short-ranged for clearing in my opinion. Having to get close-ish to monsters to curse them sounds kind of rippy. However, for bossing, that's not an issue, and it would work really well. So I think that if you want a straight up boss killer, Darkscorn + Ball Lightning is a good idea, but if you also want to clear, it might be more comfortable to go Quill Rain + Rain of Arrows - not "better", but probably more comfortable. To me, at least :)

Sure, you can use any of my vids for this build that you want :)

"

Vatinas wrote:

"

DamageIncorporated wrote:

Hey

Why not a source of lightning damage, and use EE? The Crawler is physical, chaos and FIRE....if we do lightning damage, it's fire damage will be buffed.

I'v spent some time examining the build trying to figure out a reason NOT to take it. Can't find it. It's one passive. I think we can spare it.

Picked up:

PS: REALLY strong build. I've played many, this is up there. Little word of advise on Rain of Arrows: don't look for quality Vaal Rain of Arrows. Look for one with zero or close to zero quality. It has plenty of AOE without it, and in fact more AOE on it is a bad thing when it comes to single target. More spread= less arrows hitting which means worse Virulence stacking speed.

Indeed, I've been thinking of it! I haven't been using Added Fire Damage for that long, I used to use Empower instead, that's why I haven't yet added it to the build. But it's a really nice idea and a huge dps boost for the Crawler if we can find a way to add lightning or cold damage to our attacks.

The most simple solution would be to get a Searching Eye jewel with ES and added lightning/cold damage to attacks, or to get the added damage on a ring/amulet. If you can get it on a ring/amu, it's perfect; if you can't, it takes up a jewel socket, but even then it would definitely be worth it damage-wise: I ran some numbers, and a Ghastly Eye jewel with perfect attack speed gives an increase of 2.3% dps, and a Searching Eye jewel with lightning/cold damage and EE gives an increase of 12.7%! So it's definitely worth, and it's a good idea, I will add it to the guide.

Thank you for the suggestion! :)


Edit: Done! I updated the PoB with EE. I was lucky and already had added lightning damage on my amulet :)

Hello

Sorry but I don't realy understand the way this is working. I also have lightning damage on my amulet, is it interresting to try to get more on jewels? What make this lightning damage upping crawler damages?