[3.6] The "Death's Fang" Occultist | Death Aura + Raise Spiders | CI | Tri-Curse + 2 Aura |

Introdcuction:

Hey, Exile! (✿☯‿☯✿)

Have you ever played a Death's Oath build? Cool, unique interactions? Mobs just melting away around you without the need to press a button? Chaos damage over time... Doooope... :D If you liked it, this build is probably for you. The only issue with it is that it lacks single-target damage.
Have you ever played an Arakaali's Fang build? 20 little spiders, not only attacking but poisoning the target with viper strike! Well, luckily for us, poison is actually chaos damage over time and Arakaali’s Fang's aoe damage is not so good; some people even use Meele Splash Support gem in the dagger. But the weapon has preeeetty good single target damage.

I think you got where I'm going with this... combine these two, and we get a fitting combination of two unique items!

The build itself is probably not for super-new players, but I tried to keep things as beginner-friendly as to make you able to play this amazing ‘piece of art’ (✿☯‿☯✿)

My synthesis character: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Oiry/characters



Achieved:
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uhm... lvl 92
Deathless Kitava :I
T16 maps
Normal Atziri
Delve 170
Elder
March 28th: 8k ES

Still barely even started to finish improving the gear. :D



Pros & Cons:
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So the build takes advantage of two very specific unique items. Let us see what this can give us:

Pros:
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- All content viable (not tested yet, but pretty sure about it ;))
- 6k+ Energy Shield (Easily 7k+ decent ES rolls and watcher's eye)
- 3 Curses and 2 Auras
- Enemies dying without any buttons pressed :D
- You can choose between Whirling Blades and Shield Charge as a movement skill
- At 20 spiders you get 40% Attack Speed, which makes your movement skill faster
- No 6L needed (although getting right 6S is still a problem, check Cons and gear section)
- Can do all map mods ('No regen' can be annoying without the proper watcher's eye. Basically can't use movement skill)
- Something new, you've probably never experienced before
- Immunity to stuns
- CWDT setup
- This build has A LOT of different variations, some of which are extremely expensive. So min/maxing viability is huge!


Cons:
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- Not a league starter. Arakaali’s Fang may cost a few exalts.
- Upd: In 3.6 ES builds are meta. Because of this, many items from our wishlist got much more expensive. (I managed to reach 6k+ ES in 3exalts, though, and I don't even have "energy from within" yet)
- Getting the right sockets on your Death's Oath may require a lot of Jeweller's Orbs
- Strength hungry :/
- Chaos Inoculation means this build is fully ES based. Not for everyone.
- Not the usual caster build. Some people don't like it.
- Despite me talking about SSF in the end, this build is not SSF viable! :(

- This is an engineering build. I feel like you spend more time calculating your gear, resistances, str... etc, than playing it, because the build kind of plays itself (Kappa)




Gameplay:
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Low tier maps: just press the movement skill button and MS flask. Run and that's it.

High tier maps: channel blight until desecrate triggers 3 times, then activate writhing jar once to summon the spiders. Then repeat the stuff for low tier maps. Sometimes you'll have to press some utility flasks, like chill immunity or resummon spiders. You can also channel blight on the boss to buff your dmg.

Bossing: same as a high tier map, honestly... be careful with writhing jar charges to always be able to resummon them, when needed.

Videos:
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3.5:
Carcass T15:
A video from the 3.5. The tree was wiped, I forgot to use flasks, and this: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2458727/page/1#p21766954
Holyymolyyy.. :D This vid is only good to get the grasp of the gameplay. Normally you'd also use blight to get that sweet infusion buff for even more dmg. But better than nothing. I will upload some more when reaching my ssf state in 3.6 :D
https://youtu.be/V7Roey9VZ-U





3.6?:
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In terms of numbers, PoB shows a pretty good dmg buff overall

- Spreading Rot jewels nerfed. Good: never really liked them anyway :D
- Malevolence is god. It's a crazy dmg boost! Also, skill effect duration increases the spider's duration.
- Death's Oath's Death's Aura skill now deals 25% more damage per second.
- Reworked curse effectiveness for bosses. This is huge for our build.
- Storm Barrier Support/Infused Channelling Support! I feel like this is our new Spreading Rot and damn it's awesome! We save a lot of skill points on the tree, which is huge.
- Added "Arcane Will" on the tree. Cool!
- Summon Phantasm on Kill Support (Just a cool addition to try while leveling :D :D)

Upd: Omg, scratch summon phantasm stuff, leveling with bane is just what you want. Leveling with this build was painful for me before 3.6, now you just lvl with bane! Ideal solution :)



Leveling Section:
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TODO, reply please, if you really need it :)

But you just have to reach lvl 53, until that, everything becomes a joke, because you can equip the fang.
I used Bane in 3.6 from lvl 24, which also seemed very nice.



Gear Overview:
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Weapon:
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Description:
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tl;dr: cool weapon, get one. :D

Remove this, and you'll something similar to a DO build. Dagger adds significant single-target damage, movement speed (via 2% attack speed per summoned spider, which makes your shield charge/whirling blades faster), and survivability. With the right minion blind jewel, they blind, they distract.
Important to note, that the spiders inflict wither with withering touch extremely fast. Also a Huge boost to our DO dmg.
Does not have to be linked. Socket colors: R G B



Body Armour:
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Description:
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Mandatory. Look for high elemental resistance implicit and high attributes. Good rolls may be costly, just upgrade, when you can. Keep in mind, getting the right socket colors is problematic. Needs 180 to be equipped, which is not that easy to get as a witch. Just take two +30 STR nodes on your tree, but you will want to remove those later when you get decent gear with str.
The Armour gives you Death Aura, which damages everyone around you, but inflicts chaos dmg on you, so be sure to have CI taken, when you equip it.
How to get the right sockets:
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Doesn't have to be linked :) Ideally, you need 3B 2G 1R
There's 1 okay method to roll these sockets, instead of wasting thousands of chromatics, watch as FlasherCatcher shows it in a video in his DO build: https://youtu.be/L6jAAB_ng84
The video was made a while ago, so there's one addition. I recommend you set up a 5S with 3B, 1G, and (the last one) 1Red, prepare your Betrayal Vorici rank 3 at Research for white socket crafting. Then take your chances. :D Same goes if you got 4B 1G or 3G 2B :) I'm sure you'll figure it out (✿☯‿☯✿)


For the: "I was just wearing DO, I crafted the sockets, but now can't equip it, wtf! HELP!" situation:
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So, as I told you before, DO needs 180 str to be equipped. Again, to be equipped, exactly, "not to be worn"! This means that if you have 170 str, you won't be able to wear it, and this is important, cause your DO itself gives you 40-50 str.
What this means essentially: be careful when you unequip it. Make sure you can get enough str to wear it back.
What I did is I didn't respec the + str nodes, before I've made all the DO crafting and got sure I'm not going to unequip it in the next month XD (or just get some super-str items, but that's too easy, right?)




Helmet:
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Well, nothing much to say about it. We are eager to get gem slots and mana reservation and Heretic's veil gives both of those while crafting some curse effectiveness and ES. Look for the highest ES one.
Enchant: Despair curse effectiveness. Huge DPS buff, but well... As always, enchants are the last things you'll look for.

Sockets: B-B-B-G. ezpz :)


Boots:
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Most Importantly: Movement Speed. I'd recommend 30%+
Elemental resistances. A lot of it!
Energy Shield

In terms of sockets, I recommend the R-R B B, where "-" means linked :)


Amulet:
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Solstice Vigil is my favorite one, especially in the super-late game, when you have headhunter. But early on, an Impresence with despair mana reservation removed may be even better.

Before these any amulet with high ES rolls. (basically 1c on the market):

In the late game you can get some crazy corruptions on your amulet, especially with the T3 corruption chamber, but only do this, if you're really sure about it. When I first corrupted my solstice I ended up not having enough str anymore for the DO. :/


Gloves:
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Well, just couldn't really find a better replacement for Alleopathy. Again, gives some dmg, and saves a skill slot. While it's not really mandatory to use blight, it's still recommended to use a channeling skill. I mean, cmon. These gloves are fairly cheap, also. Why would you want to skip them? (O.o)


Rings:
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Okay, getting perfect rings can get expensive quickly, so I'm just going to show, what's the purpose of them:
- unset rings are good, but not mandatory. (although I do recommend using at least 1 of them, check skill gem section for more info)
- unset rings can have +2 Level of socketed gems (only if this fits)
- elemental resistances. A lot.
- At least on 1 rings high Strength. (40+)
- Maximum energy shield
- crafted: faster start of energy recharge rate
- Dex. Careful, it's easy to forget about dexterity while focusing on Strength a lot. Keep in mind, that you'll need around 115 dex to max out withering touch

Build and items are different. You will have to play out, what's best for you, and what are your exact needs. Count the amount, you'll need for 180 str and capping resists (75 + 60 cold and fire and 76 + 60 for lightning)
Get familiar with poe.trade filters, pseudo mods, etc. And browse the market :)
To get everything max out, your friend is your..... Stygian Viiiise.. Tadaaa:


Belt:
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Stygian Vise is so good. Get 2 high resists, str (or dex, depending on your situation) and + to maximum ES if possible.

Lategame BiS: Headhunter. Makes the build even "doper". But check the shield section, before you leave to buy your HH.


Shield:
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I think Apep's Supremacy is ideal for this build. It's worth the price. Before you can afford it, just buy the highest ES shield you can afford. I recommend buying one without resistances or str, or if you get, do not get confused when counting everything together. When you swap to Apep, you still have to have enough stats.
Cheap alternative: Victario's Charity. Buffs spider damage, your screen becomes a disco with blue/green balls all over it. It's a fair choice before Apep. But I jst like to use any high ES spirit shield I find on the market. Apep in 3.6 became meta, so it's harder to get one. A high-ES seems more suitable to me to use for a longer period. My current one:

Basically you go to poe.trade and get the cheapest shield with 250-300 es. ez profit.

A note on Apep: some people use The Golden Rule and a poison method to get poisoned and get +to max ele resistances. I've never tried it, but feel free to experiment with it. As I told you, there a lot of versions to this build :)

BiS: Obviously, Atziri's Reflection. Curse effectiveness, all ele resistances, ES... just such a good item, and so expensive. :(
Also, this is the item you'll most likely need before equipping HH, to get the missing resistances from Stygian Vise.


Jewels:
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Normally you'll have 4 jewel sockets. Depending on your tree choice, you may have more, but I'll cover 4, the others you're gonna figure out :D (if not, just pm me anywhere :D)
1) Minion Blind jewel. Above is a good example. Max ES is great.
2) Energy From Within. You use it near the "Melding" on your skill tree
3) Watcher's eye. It's a great addition to the build! Look for these affixes:
Gain (12-18)% of Maximum Mana as Extra Maximum Energy Shield while affected by Clarity. This is the reason why we use clarity. Just buy this at first, it's already pretty expensive.
Got more currency? Cool! Add: -(10-5) to Total Mana Cost of Skills while affected by Clarity. Look for at least -9. This will make No regen maps much easier to do :)
Did you sell your and your mom's kidney? Already got Atziri's Reflection and HH? Alrighty... then add: (30-40)% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge while affected by Discipline

On a serious note, just get the 1st affix. It's enough to feel comfortable :)

3.6 update: Some of the malevolence affixes are crazy good, but mostly for dmg, not for defensive mechanics. Notables: skill effect duration and ofc non-ailment chaos dmg. Specially the last one.

4) Well, bonus jewel. You will lose the socket when upgrading to HH. Basically, get anything, you are missing. resists, str, dex.

Also feel free to take more jewel slots if you feel like you're missing str or anything important. Just keep it in mind, and maybe later you can upgrade to smth and respec the jewel slot.


Flasks
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Well, these were my flasks in 3.5, but I wasn't really checking them out that much...
1) Quicksilver flask of adrenaline
2) Witchfire brew. One of the few ones that actually do smth for us...
3) Quartz flask of Heat is awesome. Getting phasing is huge, in my opinion, and squeezing in a "phase run" gem may actually be problematic. :(
4) The Writhing Jar. (look for high reduced charges used, 20% is highest). I've seen people playing without this, but it's so much easier with this. Not just because resummoning spiders is consistent at bosses, but also because its a hybrid flask -> capable of regening mana in a no regen map
5) Well, your flask of choice, but keep in mind, you'll need bleeding immunity if you don't have Apep's Supremacy shield. Otherwise, I'd recommend a curse immunity (before Atziri shield), maybe with a Silver Flask. (onslaught)



Skill Tree:
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Final tree (123/123): www.poeurl.com/cjYe
Obviously, feel free to change it, to make it more suitable for you. :)
There is an endless amount of options, just be reasonable about your needs and your gear. Other option, for example: www.poeurl.com/ckP2 (just for you to see, what else you could aim for.

Following progression works, if you're using a minion build for leveling (3.6 upd: I recommend bane levelling, though.). Keep in mind, that we are a CI build, so save your respec points. Look for high life + resist gear when leveling, smoothly transition to ES gear along the way.
You may have to take some STR nodes to equip death's Oath in the end. This is a good temporary solution :)


12 points: www.poeurl.com/cjXZ
27 points: www.poeurl.com/cjX3
40 points + 3 respec used: www.poeurl.com/cjX6
54 points: www.poeurl.com/cjX9
68 points + 6 respec: www.poeurl.com/cjYb
89 points: www.poeurl.com/cjYc Basically setting up our mana reservation and DO by getting aura nodes.
95 points: when you equip Death's Oath, you get Chaos Inoculation and after that it's up to you.


Skill Gems:
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Body Armour:
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Nothing much to say about. We use arcane surge to give death aura the "duration" tag. This makes other duration support gems affect death aura.


Helmet:
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Dagger:
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Gloves:
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With Alleopathy:


4th socket can contain smth like
(lvl 1), if you have a watcher's eye ready.

Without it (Alleopathy), just add a Blight into the last socket.


Boots/Shield/Rings:
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Movement Skill setup: Choose between Whirling Blades and Shield charge and link the other 2 :)



CWDT setup:


Keep CWDT gem at lvl5, and immortal call at lvl 7
It may happen that you can't fit increase duration, depending on your gear. Don't worry, just skip that gem then

Auras: If you happen to have unset ring with +2 lvl of gems mod, insert discipline and malevolence there (I'd recommend in this order of priority)


Keep in mind, We only use clarity for watcher's eye bonus.







Ascendancies:
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Occultist
1) Wicked Ward
2) Vile Bastion
3) Profane Bloom
4) Malediction
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You can start with Profane Bloom for the chaotic herald effect when leveling. I tried both variants, but the Wicked Ward first turned out to be waaaay smoother.
update: I started to lvl and realized, leveling with bane is probably the best thing. This means, getting profane bloom to curse hexproof enemies is probably more important at first.




Bandits:
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Just kill them all! Skill points are super valuable for us (✿☯‿☯✿)



Pantheon:
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Major: Anything except the Brine King. I personally like Lunaris, and you can switch to Solaris for bossing.

Minor: Any. I like Soul of Aberrath, otherwise, ignite delays you from ES recharge start.




PoB:
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https://pastebin.com/JR4R31ij


SSF-viable:
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Well, not going to waste your time: this build is not ssf-friendly for obvious reasons. :/
However, I decided to play ssf this league, yet I really want to play this build. So I'm so crazy that I'm trying to build it up in 3.6 :D I dare you to do it, too! :D

I honestly think this the ultimate poe challenge. Not only that you need to able to transition between DO/Arakaali builds (depending on what you get 1st), you also need to manage these without the perfect ES gear, possibly without other important build parts like The Writhing Jar, Heretic's Veil or Impresence/Solstice Vigil.
And honestly, building this up is quite the journey. :D


Hardcore?
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Well, never really played hardcore, never loved the idea to die and lose everything cause of a disconnect :(
The leveling can be tough in hardcore. You may need to respec later more then 16 points.. If you have the currency, well, you can try it for sure. But I'd say having a very expensive watcher's eye is almost mandatory!


FaQ:
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None ヽ໒(☯_☯✿)७ノ


To Do List:
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- Add skill tree description
- Update FaQ if needed
- Add leveling section
- Add DETAILED lvling section
- Hire a designer to make the build a little bit more attractive than just tons of text o.o (✿☯‿☯✿)(✿☯‿☯✿)(✿☯‿☯✿)



Update section:
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March 18th
Alternatiive skill tree added

March 16th
Reprahsed/added some more info
Linked items from synthesis, more, cheaper variance.

March 14th
Added different gear versions, gear explanations, etc.
Improved jewel section
Improved flask section.
Improved skill gem section. (✿☯‿☯✿)

March 13th
Added a 3.5 version video.

March 12th:
Added SSF section

March 9th:
Added PoB link
Added 1 gear version without explanation
Added skill gems section without detailed explanation

Last edited by Oiry on Mar 27, 2019, 10:20:13 PM
Last bumped on Aug 18, 2019, 4:05:15 AM
reserve
Definitely interesting build will farm with a league starter and check it out
(✿☯‿☯✿) preemptivly saying thanks <3
I've been looking for an arakaali+DO build, would you be able to record a video by any chance? Maybe one T16 run?
"
Celdro wrote:
I've been looking for an arakaali+DO build, would you be able to record a video by any chance? Maybe one T16 run?


Hi there! :)

I'm currently playing ssf in 3.6, so building up the build may require a month or so. If you're interested, I can try to record a video with my char from 3.5.
I would be interested if its not too much trouble for you :) Thanks in advance!
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Celdro wrote:
I would be interested if its not too much trouble for you :) Thanks in advance!


Hey! Added a video into the gameplay section.
First time recorder here, so It's pretty scuffed. The character and the skill tree got wiped, also a bug with alleopathy + enchant + flasks wont let me to cast blight properly.

But I hope you can at least see how it's going.

I will do more later, when I get the necessary equipment in ssf, or just get bored and transfer to non-ssf :D

oiry
why blight gem in gloves wich already have blight? We can put CWC-Soulrend-Infused-Control Destruction. Cast blight and it will cast also soulrend while channeling
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omgree wrote:
why blight gem in gloves wich already have blight? We can put CWC-Soulrend-Infused-Control Destruction. Cast blight and it will cast also soulrend while channeling


Hey there! I only wrote to use blight gem in cases without alleopathy. I updated the skill gem section to make clarify it :)
Do you think Impressence maybe better?!
with the chaos damage over time +
and is cheaper than the Solstice Vigil Onyx Amulet
for now!

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