Essence Drain & Contagion Occultist help

This is my character https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/DemonBeats/characters. I die too easily. What could I improve on?

It looks like you have about 4k EH, which is a bit low for starting maps with a build that doesn't have much else in the way of defenses. (See EDIT below...)

If you have finished Act 10, you're taking about double cold damage from low resist - even if you helped Alira. If you didn't help alira you're taking triple cold damage compared to capped resists. Or if you haven't finished Act 10, your cold resist situation is about to get bad when you take that -30 penalty.

In general, your gear is a mixed bag. Are you following a build guide? Some of the guys with more experience on the trade-offs between ES, hybrid and LL builds under 3.8 can give you some specific pointers.

If you haven't played in some time, the game has gotten quite fast paced. I find that, even with more robust defenses on a caster, it's important to be constantly on the move and you have to play rather differently than on a tankier character.

Cheers

EDIT: I went back to look at a few of my toons at ~70 for comparison. None from last league had more than about 4k EH at that point as they were all budget builds, but the melee guys had solid physical mitigation through armour, e-charges, fortify, etc. And the ranged toons generally had better avoidance - up to 70% evade and 50% dodge. It's really about how you choose to design your overall defenses and then playing in a way that's consistent with those defenses.

Hey man, just checked your build :)

1. Your cold res right now is 38%
Fix that asap, anything dealing cold dmg will freeze and kill you

2. You are not running Discipline or Malevolence auras for more energyshield and dmg output (lvl20 Discipline would be about 1k ES total with your current tree). Get both in act3

3. Link Intensify to Contagion for a bigger AoE and more comfortable spread. Combined with Malevolence aura you should deal more dmg and spread it faster, which means monsters are less likely to hit you in the first place.

4. You allocated a lot of curse nodes, you are even getting the option for a second curse - which is good. But you arent running curses at all - thats bad :)
Try to get a Bane + Despair + Temp chains setup running
That way you can increase your dps output as well as slowing down enemies, allowing you to avoid them more easily.

5. Check "Faith & Steel" node for more ES and all res. Its just 2 points, totally worth it

6. If you can, get a vaal discipline. So you can trigger ES recharge whenever needed and just tank through some tougher encounters t

7. Since you are running Shavronnes Wrapping chest, you might as well go lowlife for 30% more dmg output. But your build isnt ready for that just yet.
You would have to switch gear in favor of way way more ES on each item and then only rely on ES.

8. You did equip Astramentis, but you dont really need it.
Its a good amulet for sure, if you need this many stats but you dont. You need like ~30 dex and thats it. So try to get an amulet with ~30 dex, life, flat ES, %ES and some res. Thats way better.

9. Try to get rid of the goldrim helmet. Its nice for all res while leveling, but its trash for endgame. Just not good enough. Try to get a helmet with life, ES and res instead.

10. Your wand is trash :)
Try to get a better one. A rare wand with spell dmg and chaos dmg multiplier would be helpful

11. Try to witchfire brew flask for more dps


Thats all for now, but there is more you could improve, if you wanted ;)
Good luck

While you are increasing your ES and resistances look into getting a Vixen's Entrapment
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Vixen%27s_Entrapment

2 curses in the Entrapment Gloves + an enhance (once you can afford the enhance - no rush it's more a polishing piece!) and a 4L Bane with 1 curse + 2 DPS supports can go a long way towards getting all your curse needs in one click + a decent DOT that will kill trash enemies by itself and is extra DPS vs bosses. I recommend Despair, Temporal Chains, and Enfeeble - Temp Chains + Enfeeble will help you survive a lot and Despair is basically a free extra link of DPS.

As has been mentioned the Astramentis amulet will likely do more good being sold and replaced than an item to wear...your build just doesn't benefit from the huge pile of stats.

When/if you transition to a low life build, and with a Shav's you really really should - you'll want ES everywhere. Currently you have zero ES on all 3 pieces of jewelry, none on your helm, minimal on boots and gloves (and only 2 of those slots have so-so health rolls...squishy). That's basically your entire character, and then no discipline aura either. If going ES you need to commit...and if you want to go life you also need to commit right now your tree says ES and your gear isn't supporting either life or ES well - which is why you are dying so much.

The Blast Radius node above witch starting area + the area damage node before it are really bad nodes for your build. DOT damage is by definition never Area damage so you've spent 2 points to get 10% increased AoE...if you want more AoE take the Arcane Expanse cluster as spell damage will affect all the chaos dot spells. You can keep the 2 increased area nodes though it's just area damage that won't work.

You are using Spreading Rot jewel but not the blight skill. Either trade out whither for blight or get a new jewel (flat ES abyss jewel imo)

Thank you, guys. That helped a lot.

Your main concern was defense, but offense is a solid form of defense in PoE and some of the comments above have pointed to DPS suggestions.

In that line you may want to check out this excellent post on chaos damage...
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2485596

I forgot one of the most important and simple additions! Flesh and Stone aura. Blinds nearby enemies and lowers the damage you take from attacks to non-blinded enemies for 25% mana reserve. It's kind of awesome...