ShakCentral’s Vortex Occultist: Beginner-Oriented | All Content | Budget | HC, SSF, & Console

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Your profile is private, so I can't see your characters, but yes, there is a point at which you will want to swap from a life-based build to an Energy Shield build. If you've saved the respec points that you receive during the campaign, the cost of re-speccing is reduced, but if not you can famr until you can trade or find enough regret orbs. Check out the trees in the PoB code; there's a tree for swapping to Chaos Innoculation as early as level 70, and one for staying life-based until level 80 or higher. Eventually you want to transition from life to ES, and you want to do that at one time.

As far as knowing when you should switch over, check out the Ultra Budget section in the gearing guide. As long as you can cap resists and you can hit 6k or higher Energy Shield (7k preferred), you can easily start clearing maps with the ES build. Plug the gear you currently have or are saving for the transition into PoB to check what your ES will be.

Thanks!

thanks it was my first time posting so probably default, i unlocked my profile. IM lvl 62 just got to act 10. How do you get to the "trees" in the POB code, i have the program and can see the "final tree" but not sure how to look at other versions of it. Thanks again and love the build - im hcssf btw (so far feeling very tanky compared to my usual attempts) Oh and ive got like 40 net refund points so hopefully that will do it! Edit: also I had one other question out of curiousity, im certainly not one to criticize any build im a noob, but why are we taking that dual wield set of nodes toward the beginning? Is it just for the cast on movement speed part of it? I started off dual wieldiong thinking that you meant for us to do then then figured out a shield was recommended. Thanks.

You can see different trees in PoB in the bottom left of the tree. Below the skill tree to the left there's a drop-down menu with 14 different trees.

hi all, I am also playing a cold snap/vortex build. I don't actually manually cast my cold snaps (everything dies too quickly, I only use vaal cold snap/cold snap when bossing). the build is really solid, if you have any questions, fire away.

I see most questions are on when to take CI. for myself, once I started dying to chaos damage too often while levelling, I took CI. with cruel lab done, you're pretty safe in terms of ES pool. dont be too afraid. anyway while levelling (assuming you're not in HC), 5% isn't a lot. in fact, it's very little. just zoom zoom all the acts, get to about 65, then clear A10 and go into maps.

for myself, I just levelled like how I level all my witch builds, freezing pulse with 2 first snow jewels, and bitter dream scepter. after starting maps, I went into vortex with a Spine of the First Claimant, before getting a cheap 20c or so wand/scepter with "trigger socketed gems" and then a multi-modded wep.

OP is right in the sense that once you have 6-8k ES pool with some decent equipment, the build is solid and ready to scale up. just map more and get currency and start gearing yourself. as there are no "mandatory uniques", there's no order/priority of what to get. just get what you can afford.

some luxury uniques that I run are solstice vigil, or aul's (with malevolence aura). sometimes I run temp chains, sometimes I dont. sometimes I run hatred, some times I dont. I also run aspect of the spider. all these adds a lot to QOL and dps.

I would suggest getting a watcher's eye and a might of the meek, take a look at my skill tree. hope this helps newer exiles trying to get into the end game. :)

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You can see different trees in PoB in the bottom left of the tree. Below the skill tree to the left there's a drop-down menu with 14 different trees.

oh quick question, why do you not take heart of ice? or maybe it's just not enough SP?

Thanks for the input on the last couple of comments! I love seeing fresh takes, different skill trees, etc.

As for not taking Heart of Ice, we just don't get most of the benefits. Damage over Time doesn't penetrate resistances, so we only benefit from that on the initial Vortex/CS hit. Damage over Time also does not leech, so we get the same reduced benefit. I think we get more value from other skill points.

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Thanks for the input on the last couple of comments! I love seeing fresh takes, different skill trees, etc.

As for not taking Heart of Ice, we just don't get most of the benefits. Damage over Time doesn't penetrate resistances, so we only benefit from that on the initial Vortex/CS hit. Damage over Time also does not leech, so we get the same reduced benefit. I think we get more value from other skill points.

with might of the meek, it's a very juicy 4 sp giving 84% cold damage (even if you ignore the rest) that could be considered.

So i've been following your leveling guide/guide and i've seen like 3 different versions so far of the skill tree. i'm trying to figure out which one i need to be following. *new to the game*

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RabbidDogg wrote:

So i've been following your leveling guide/guide and i've seen like 3 different versions so far of the skill tree. i'm trying to figure out which one i need to be following. *new to the game*

core mechanics of the build are the same. dont be toooo concerned about the differences in the trees. try downloading POB and tinker around with SP allocation to see what works best for you. generally till you hit 90 and start doing planning for sp allocation 1 level at a time, it's ok to play around and see what works.

Nice guide, i'm a new player and it helps a lot.

I'm currently on Act 1, kind of lost with this line, when u say that we should "Buy or craft HP if needed" what do u mean?

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❆ Run Flooded Depths in Submerged Passage and kill Dweller. Talk to Tarkleigh for a skill point and Nessa for Added Lightning Damage. When you’re lvl 8, link this with Explosive Trap. Buy or craft HP if needed. You will need Dex soon, and it will remain an issue throughout. Get a Jade Amulet when you can and upgrade to a Citrine in later Acts.

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Cosca07 wrote:

Nice guide, i'm a new player and it helps a lot.

I'm currently on Act 1, kind of lost with this line, when u say that we should "Buy or craft HP if needed" what do u mean?

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❆ Run Flooded Depths in Submerged Passage and kill Dweller. Talk to Tarkleigh for a skill point and Nessa for Added Lightning Damage. When you’re lvl 8, link this with Explosive Trap. Buy or craft HP if needed. You will need Dex soon, and it will remain an issue throughout. Get a Jade Amulet when you can and upgrade to a Citrine in later Acts.

I'll clean that section up a bit. HP is an OG gaming term that stands for "Hit Points" and is generally used to refer to whatever the health-based mechanic is for any particular game. All I meant is that you should try to get gear with life on it.