[3.6] Occultist CWDT Auto Cast Mobile Spell Turret - Red Map / Delve 275+ Viable

* Cannot easily trigger arakaali buff anymore with immortal call no longer preventing all physical damage
* Huge nerfs to Occultist

Many buffs in 3.6:
* Higher damage Curse effect buff for bosses
* Many new passive nodes with ES leech, so don't need ghost reaver. This Es leech is multiplied by the 100% increased covery rate of this build.
* Many spells do more damage. Fire variant of this build will do at least 40% more damage because of spell / curse buffs.
* Anger flat damage buff
* Wave of Conviction (with high lvl CWDT) big damage / exposure debuff
* Can use Purifying Flames for big damage and/or spreading consecrated ground everywhere which greatly benefits this build.
* Non-Channeling Chaos DoT skills makes chaos variant viable, using Soulrend, Essence Drain, and Bane for stacking damage.

Updated POBs and passive trees. I have not tested this, but this build is much stronger in 3.6 from patch notes / PoB alone.

3.6 New fire variant https://pastebin.com/rHawyVAe
3.6 Chaos Variant https://pastebin.com/zTi6Dd20

No nerfs from patch notes as far as I could tell.

3% of Life Regenerated per second during Flask Effect is very good veiled mod to craft for this build.

The skill reworks give more choices for cold skills. Duration based skills like cold snap / vortex work well with high level CWDTs (probably just use lvl 20) for single target DPS, since you don't need them to cast fast for mapping, only every 1-2 seconds, for killing bosses / rares. Frostbolt can be combined with ice nova / vortex in automated fashion.

Brands are probably not going to be very good DPS on Occultist since this build has little cast speed.

CWDT self sustaining loop with and subsecond duration

The old perpetual auto caster build had to use pre-nerf CI ES gear (12k+ ES total pools) and multiple Fragile Bloom jewels to increase damage taken and get high ES regeneration. Before the spirit offering 50% nerf, necromancer could also easily sustain it in 3.0.

With Occultist + Pantheons, there's a new / better / cheaper way to do it. This build can sustain more than 2940 self physical damage taken per second with only 9k total ES. More importantly, the damage is only done in ~735 ES increments, meaning it does not reduce your effective life pool by 2k+ chunks like the old Zerphi's Last Breath / Scold's Bridle builds.

The build accomplishes 100% up-time Soul of Arakaali 50% increased ES Recovery Rate if you've stopped taking damage over time recently by using the following:

* Two Heartbound Loops for ~735 total physical damage taken per minion death.
* 88% reduced skeleton duration from 5 To Dust Jewels.
* At least 10% cooldown recovery, so that CWDT CD (.22s) is less than skeleton duration (.24s). If you cannot get CDR on your gear, for whatever reason / bug, .24s skele and .25 CD still works. Just keep in mind your gear without CDR may break when this bug / math is fixed.
* 4-Link with: LVL 3 CWDT, LVL 1 Immortal Call, LVL 1 20%Q Less Duration (provides 10% reduced duration, for a total of 98%), LVL 10 Summon Skeleton.

The crucial math here is that the Immortal Call buff duration must be less than or equal to your skeleton duration. This allows Immortal Call to constantly proc Arakaali buff without interrupting the Heartbound Loop. Summon Skeleton duration is .24s, Immortal call is .22s, CWDT CD is .23s.
* 2-Link with: LVL 3 CWDT and LVL 1 Blood Rage. Blood rage will serve as the damage taken over time recently.

With all of the above, immortal call will prevent bloodrage damage to proc arakaali buff, but then expire before the skeletons expire, since immortal call and summon skeleton are from the same CWDT trigger.

3.6 New fire variant https://pastebin.com/rHawyVAe
3.6 Chaos Variant https://pastebin.com/zTi6Dd20

IMPORTANT: Pantheon buffs put on QuickSilver Flask. See FAQ PoB question.

Bandits: Kill All

Ascendancy:
Order does not matter except for leveling preferences.
Wicked Ward, Vile Bastion, Profane Bloom, Malediction


Pantheon:
Major: Soul of Arakaali with **IMPORTANT**captured Arachnoxia - 50% increased energy shield recovery and reduced damage taken from blood rage
Minor: Soul of Ralakesh - reduces damage taken from blood rage,

Because of easy access and application of 3 curses, I went for a fire themed projectile tri-curse build. GMP Fireball / Magma Orb with 3 damage effectiveness curses obliterates regular map mobs up to T16. Cremation and Volatile dead on gloves is used for single target. Projectile Weakness / Cremation / Volatile dead are also very nice for defending Delve Encounters

Auras: Vaal Discipline and Anger. Fit in Herald of Ash if you have enough reduced mana reservation. You need to have enough mana left over to cast Stone Golem.

Summon Stone Golem (lvl 21/20Q if possible), single-linked

Damage Spells
This fire build has the helmet slot, gloves and body armor to use for damage skills.

Depending on your flat added spell damage / selection of skills, you will want to choose either LVL 3/4 CWDT for spells cast at 4x per second, LVL 10 CWDT for 2x per second, or LVL 18 CWDT for 1x per second. For skills that have a duration or do not need to be cast frequently, like DoTs for single target, you can also use lvl 20 or 21 CWDT. Make different sets of skill links in PoB to determine the levels that will give you the most DPS.
Note: Unless you are using a spell that does damage or one with LVL 44 req, CWDT LVL 3 is better than CWDT LVL 4, since it will trigger earlier.

Helmet:
LVL 3 CWDT, LVL 7 Projectile Weakness, LVL 7 Flammability, LVL 7 Elemental Weakness
Since the curses are restricted to LVL 7 (LVL Req 42) if you want them to cast fast, using curses that benefit a lot from gem quality or curse effectiveness are best.

Body Armour:
LVL 10 CWDT, LVL 16 Fireball, LVL 16 Magma Orb, GMP, Immolate, Combustion

Gloves:
LVL 18 CWDT, LVL 19 Cremation, LVL 19 Volatile Dead, Concentrated Effect

Weapon:
LVL 3 CWDT, LVL 10 Unearth, LVL 2 Blood Rage, LMP Elder mod

Other Spell Variants
Freeze based auto caster can use something like Frost bolt / Freezing pulse / arctic breath, frost bomb, with curses Elemental Weakness, Frostbite, and Projectile Weakness. In v3.5+, Cold snap, Ice nova (casts on up to 2 frostbolts) / vortex (casts on up to 5 frostbolts) will make good additions. You can also get the cold ascendancy path instead of the curse path, and scale cold damage over time.
Lightning based caster can use arc, ball lightning, spark, with conductivity / elemental weakness

Of course, this build can use practically any spell. For a map / delve viable build, though, Pick 1-2 Aoe Skills, and 1-2 single target skills, and 2-3 curses.

Get as few armour (0 ideal) on your gear as possible. If your armour is too high, you will miss the CWDT thresholds for lvl 3/4, 10 or 18 CWDT.

Required Uniques with high ES / recovery / regen rolls:


It is possible to not use Beast Fur Shawl (but not currently recommended, because it will be more expensive to build and benefit less from vile bastion / leech), if you have a very good ES Pool, e.g. 12k+ , or additional ES regen / recovery rate, than what is shown below. Use PoB to determine your final regen.

To be able to support a .24 second duration skeleton (98% reduced /lvl 1 less duration), you need at least 10% cooldown recovery on your belt or boots so that the CWDT CD will be less than .25s. There seems to be a bug, though, in that the skeletons will still loop with a .25s CD and .24s duration. Just be aware if you don't have the CDR, your gear may break in the future if the math is fixed.

Without increased cooldown recovery you will have to use 97% reduced duration, with a lvl 15+ less duration, getting a .3 to .4 second summon skeleton duration.

Getting Dexterity on gear will save 1-2 skill points.

Weapon / shield
Wand / scepter with spell damage / ele dmage / flat spell damage / elemental damage as extra chaos / elemental leech / multiple projectiles (if using certain gem setups, to make a pseudo 4-link)

For Chaos / DoT variants of this build, Get a wand / scepter with 90% increased minion damage (Temple of Atzoatl minion room reward) and craft damage over time multiplier.

If you don't have enough ES, you can use this as budget option. Global damage (profane bloom) and blind is nice.


Shield with high es / resists


Helmet
High ES helm with resist. Helmet enchant up to you.

Gloves
High ES gloves with resist. Glove enchant up to you.

Boots
High ES boots with Uber lab enchantment 2% life / mana regen if hit recently, cooldown recovery (on boots or belt, don't need on both)


Belt
Shaper Crystal belt with cooldown recovery (on belt or boots, don't need on both), energy shield recovery (not needed if you have good ES gear), then resist / flat es if possible. My belt was rolled by chaos spamming a Item lvl 75+ Shaper crystal belt. I did not use more than 100 chaos to roll it.


Amulet
Marble amulet or Elder amulet with 1.5%+ life regen per second, flat es / max es, resists


Jewels
Cheapest / most cost effective watcher's eye is:

with 100% energy shield recovery, this jewel gives you over 4% regen per second.

Bonus mods if you are rich:
+#% ES recovery rate while affected by discipline
+ ES added from reserved mana while affeced by clarity
ES gained on hit while affected by discipline
Leech while affected by Anger


Energy from within (only to increase ES pool)


5x To Dust Jewels:

If you have a cooldown recovery item (or don't care if math bug gets fixed) and enough ES to sustain 2940 self DPS, go for 88% total reduced skeleton duration from 5 To Dust Jewels, and use LVL 1 20%Q Less Duration.

Without a cooldown recovery item, or not enough ES to sustain 2940 self DPS, go for 97% total reduced skeleton duration, with a lvl 15+ less duration.

If you have a good abyss jewel with flat ES, you can take the jewel slot by Nullification, and unspec a +30 dex node.

Flasks
Quicksilver, wise oak, atziri, sulphur flask with curse immunity(for additional es regen while standing still). I don't use a freeze or shock flask, but those are options too.

Betrayal % life regen flask mod is very good craft for this build.

With the nerf on Poet's Pen in v3.6, Abberath's hooves is probably the fastest. For Abberath's hooves, use tri-herald and supplement single target with flamethrower trap / unleash firestorm

Without Abberath's hooves, I'd recommend using wave of conviction. This skill has ridiculous base damage and scales with everything: conc effect, elemental focus, controlled destruction, added fire). Use increased duration or efficacy to make it travel further. You should only have to cast it once per pack. The debuff makes it good vs bosses as well.

Otherwise Bane is a very good leveling skill, if going the chaos route.

Winter orb/ blade vortex won't feel that good without investing in skill effect duration.

Make sure to do Merciless Lab before killing Kitava. Completing Uber lab should be easy either before or after the respec with all the spell buffs. If you want to clear Uber Lab before respec, you should have at least 3k HP / clear all the things that make Izaro harder, or you will get 1-shot if you make a mistake. It's still possible to kill Izaro without getting hit, though.

Before CI

Respeccing to CI will take between 15-25 respec points, depending on the passive skill paths you used for leveling.

Early CI
LVL 71+, 7 jewel slots, all regen nodes taken. Fill out more ES nodes and curse nodes as you level up.

Before converting to auto-caster load your gear on PoB and make sure you can sustain it, if not drop down to the 97% reduced duration setup. Even if you can't sustain it, killing mobs will give you additional ES regen, if you are comfortable slowly dying over time.

CI LVL 90 (3 curse / fire variant)

The leech nodes scattered around the tree may be worth grabbing. Have not had a chance to test this, but definitely take Soul Thief.

Mapping
This build is a mobile long range auto-casting spell turret. Just run through the map and everything will get blown up.

Maps with temporal chains are do-able but need continuous use of curse immune flask ( or more precisely, at least every time immortal call triggers), or loop will break. Re-cast stone golem or take damage to re-trigger loop.

Bosses
Use Suplhur flask / Purifying Flame consecrated ground / Vaal discipline to heal / tank through damage. Don't be afraid to portal for flask refill. Warlord's mark (if you have ghost reaver) can be a good curse swap in for difficult boss fights.

Delving
Run all the way to the checkpoint. Faster you kill stuff, more regen you get, everything blows up because of profane bloom. No need to be slow. If you have enough vile bastion stacks, you can survive in darkness for a long time, too.

During encounters, stand near an area on the side where you can funnel mobs. Projectile weakness/cremation will prevent anything from getting close to you.

Suplhur Flask / Purifying Flame / Vaal discipline used to heal / tank through damage.

My PoB regen is much less than the one you linked, what is wrong with it?
Common mistakes in PoB:
-Not enabling discipline aura on Vaal discipline gem.

-Not adding the pantheon buffs (this must be done manually). Easiest way to add it is to open one of your flasks, and click edit. Paste the following:
50% increased Energy Shield Recovery Rate
5% reduced damage taken from Damage over Time
25% reduced physical damage taken over time while moving
Save it, then check that you are always moving in Configurations.

-Having poor rolls on energy shield recovery rate, regen, or other items. Energy shield recovery rate MUST be high rolled (39-40% beast fur shawl). It is a MORE multiplier on your es regen.

-Not checking 'Have you been Hit Recently?'

My character screen shows much less regen than PoB or what is needed?
Bonuses from recovery rate will not show up in the regen shown on your character screen. It is easy to calculate without PoB, though. For example, if your screen shows 3500 ES / sec, and you have 40% beast fur shawl, 15% increased es recovery rate belt, and 50% arakaali buff (implied if you are following this build), then your total es regen will be 3500 * (1 + 1.05) = 7175 ES / sec.

I followed everything but am not benefiting from Arakaali buff
Did you capture Arachnoxia for your Pantheon Buff?

I don't have enough ES or regen gear, is there a way to start the build earlier or play a cheaper version of this build?
Yes, instead of using 98% reduced duration skeletons, you can use 97% reduced duration skeletons and use a lvl 15+ Less Duration. You can check the math in path of building. This will lower your self damage from 2800 per second to about 2100 per second (skeleton duration between .3 and .4 seconds). Just make sure your immortal call duration is less than or equal to your skeleton duration.

This build starts to accumulate FPS lag if I stay in one area too long, is it just me?
No, I get this as well. I usually reload a delve map every 2 checkpoints.

Where can I see the StrangeClouds auto-caster build?
Build Guide