[3.17] Self-Cast Eye of Winter Occultist | LL | All Content Viable

[In page 3 of this guide I've given my current closing thoughts on the build as I have decided to take a step back, for the foreseeable future]

This is a guide meant for the people looking to play a second build, as this does not contain a strict leveling section because I myself transitioned into this after league starting Bane/ED. However, I will provide resources to help level an Occy.



What is Eye of Winter and why should you play it?

Spoiler
Eye of Winter or EoW for short, is a skill that fires a projectile that shoots out smaller projectiles as it travels and upon reaching maximum distance, explodes into a circle of extra projectiles. It gains a more damage multiplier as it travels. It's also quite an elusive skill when it comes to damage calculation because POB only shows damage per shard at the time of cast. This can be fiddled with by changing the projectile travel distance up to 50 units (30 units being a nice middle-ground).

When bossing with the build we want the boss to be dead center (or as close to it) between us and where Hydrosphere would've been previously (behind the boss). This means we're still hitting with the most amount of projectiles on the travel to and from the boss. Since Hydrosphere's interaction being changed to a single chained projectile once a second, we only use it for exposure. (Though, I do believe Frost Bomb is simply better now)

It's an incredibly versatile skill that you can Spellsling, CoC, CwC, self-cast or use in traps/mines, each providing a particular playstyle and having their own pros and cons. So what are they in the case of self-casting?


Pros:

- Stun and chill/freeze immune.
- Good clear speed due to EoW's spiral of projectiles granting nice coverage and its synergy with the Snakepit unique ring that allows it to chain once.
- Great to amazing boss damage as you start using EoW's max distance to its advantage.
- Clears Maven invitations with relative ease.
- Fairly tanky due to both Grace, Determination and Defiance Banner providing us with 75% Evasion and upwards of 30K Armour with Molten Shell, alongside a permanent Blind aura, chill/freeze, hinder from Aspect of the Spider.
- Ghost Dance.

Cons:

- Not a starter and wouldn't recommend it for HC.
- Requires a fair bit of cast speed to feel good.
- Without utilising the damage multiplier gained as EoW travels, it can feel like you're hitting with a wet noodle.
- Isn't quick in terms of movement speed before some investment.
- No longer a useful Hydrosphere chain interaction for bossing.


POB Link:
https://pastebin.com/p3Wqd9K5 - Last updated 13.02.2022

3.17 Videos:

Juiced Defiled Cathedral showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icKxG3mww3g

3.16 Videos:
A8 Citrus:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaqXOthJJ0
A8 80% quant Drox https://youtu.be/QF3lS3ZTFb4
Rare Maven's Invitation: The Twisted https://youtu.be/0071lM9O_XQ
210 Depth Delve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pj_y1WQSzo
T14 Map Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds4P5fdsFLM
The Map Showcase is in a T14 because Atoll is there this league and it's just a fluid map to play, the build has no issues doing juiced T16s.
Rare 10-Way /w Monster life, Shocked Ground and 70% ailment avoidance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19yVWYBCGRg
[Conquerors, etc. TBA] I did Maven and forgot to record it, only took 3 memory games

GEAR:
Spoiler


CURRENT 3.17 GEAR AT 3.5 EX:
Spoiler


PERSONAL 3.16 GEAR:
Spoiler




NOTES
Spoiler


We want to Anoint Tranquility and have the EoW projectile frequency Enchant on our helmet. For boots the options include 16% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you've killed recently, Damage Penetrates 10% of Enemy Elemental Resistances if you've not killed recently and 35% increased Mana Regeneration Rate if you've cast a Spell recently.

As for Ascendancy order - Malediction, Void Beacon, Frigid Wake, Forbidden Power. If you're feeling like you want the Profane Bloom pops you can replace Malediction with it and then either pathing to or anointing Whispers of Doom to upkeep 2 curses. Another option that's expensive is a +1 curse Presence of Chayula.

Gloves, boots and helmet are slots where you can find meaningful upgrades. Just because I have expensive gear there does not diminish usage of lesser gear, these are luxuries. You can use the Time Machine snapshot function on poe.ninja to check my gear progression as I went from Spellslinger to Self-cast here
https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/char/DexBunny/NinaKosakaBodyPillow?i=0&search=name%3Dnina.


Shavronne's Wrappings and Prism Guardian are non-negotiable in a LL build because we want to reserve our life efficiently and not let any Chaos damage through our ES. Prism Guardian also provides us with the necessary attribute and resistances we desperately need in a unique heavy build.

Void Battery because we're stacking Power charges and it grants us cast speed and spell damage per charge.

Presence of Chayula to bring our Chaos resistance to 0%, convert a quarter of our HP into ES, make us stun immune and provide us with a bit more attributes.

Hands of the High Templar for readily available corruptions (here we are mainly looking for a Curse on Hit and base spell crit for a start), a bit more ES/HP and resistances.

Since the change of Hydrosphere in 3.17, it may be advantageous to also start to use Snakepit on the left ring slot if Fork is something you fancy, seeing as the Chain interaction is no longer a necessity. You may also drop Snakepit entirely, in favour of a good rare ring.

If you wish to use rare gloves then you need Frostbite or Ele Weakness on your rare ring. The rest of your rares should help cap resistances and provide cast/movement speed.


GEM LINKS:

6-Link: Eye of Winter - Awakened Spell Echo - Awakened Added Cold Damage - Divergent Inspiration - Power Charge on Critical - Increased Critical Strikes



Anomalous Eye of Winter is also an option to make clear speed better (I use it while mapping and in Delve, does conquerors okay as well), but it reduces boss damage for when EoW explodes at max distance because it gets there quicker, therefore less projectile hits on the way.

Divergent Inspiration is quite mandatory, I'd say, you really need the reduced cost at the cast rates we have. If you can't get it - path to a mana node and take the Mastery for 10% reduced cost or fetch it on jewels.

Personally, I didn't like regular Spell Echo or Unleash so I used Faster Casting until I could afford Awakened Spell Echo, which felt just as good. If you do not have enough cast speed to make Echo feel good to play or simply don't like it - use Unleash.

Pseudo 4-Link: Flame Dash - Sniper's Mark | Clarity (lv 2) - Arrogance


Here the only link we care about is Arrogance /w Clarity, we don't want to have Aspect of the Spider in the item that has this link.

4-Link: Defiance Banner - Discipline - Hatred - Herald of Ice



An alternative to Herald of Ice here is Tempest Shield if you wish to have a more defensive playstyle with closer to 20 attack / 50 spell block. Herald of Ice is purely cosmetic due to the shatters, DPS wise it provides us with next to nothing.

The glove slot is where all your mana reserved auras should sit.

4-Link: Hydrosphere - Awakened Unbound Ailments - Bonechill - Culling Strike



We link Hydrosphere with Unbound Ailments and Bonechill to make bosses take more damage based on chill effect and since we're scaling AoE through the Ascendancy, it can pulse and hit the boss a fair distance away. Culling Strike helps with taking bosses down without a hitch.

Alternatively, you may want to use Frost Bomb instead, you'd swap Culling Strike for Increased AOE.

You don't need Awakened Unbound Ailments, but it's nice, an upgrade here would be Divergent Bonechill because it provides more chill effect from quality. If using Frost Bomb, Divergent Frost Bomb and Anomalous Increased AOE are upgrades.

3-Link Shield: Grace - Determination -Zealotry



These auras are essential to our defences and damage. If you get a pair of Templar gloves that have +2 aoe/aura alongside base spellcrit and a curse, feel free to swap Zealotry into them and put Hatred in the shield. This should help with crit chance while you prep the build for a +2 corrupted shield.

3-Link Wand: Anomalous Molten Shell - Frost Shield - Arcane Surge (lv 8)



Anomalous Molten Shell is a luxury because it provides even more armour, we keep it on left click so it procs all the time. We keep Arcane Surge at level 8 due to all the reduced mana cost we have and it's the only level when we can reliably proc it with Frost Shield. All the alternate qualities for Arcane Surge are really good - if you need more regen, get Anomalous, if you want more up time for damage, get Divergent.

Aspect of the Spider should be used on your belt, preferably, if using rare gloves then those work as well. We don't want it on the piece of gear that's holding Arrogance because it would otherwise interact with it and make it reserve HP.

JEWELS:



Spoiler
Notes:

Energy From Within converts the Melding ES/HP wheel to provide ES in place of HP.

Thread of Hope allows us to grab 4 notables for some ES/recharge, cast speed/mana regen and damage.

Replica Conqueror's allows us to freely cast EoW at an alarming rate of 0.2s at best of times. The other option currently is to have two rare jewels with 5% reduced mana cost each to replace it.

Militant Faith with Dominus allows us to have more damage per power charge, while also granting us mana regen and aura effect due to Devotion. The mods with Devotion are static, therefore you can buy any Militant Faith and divine it for Dominus after.

The Large Cluster jewel is one of the most important because it provides us with a Blind aura to nearby enemies for 4s, but because we cast so often it's up at all times. Blast-Freeze is what keeps packs from jumping on us because once one is frozen, all of them are.
This type of cluster is expensive, if you cannot afford it, get one with Blanketed Snow and either Blast-Freeze or Disorienting Display.

The Medium Cluster jewel provides us with projectile damage at close range, which helps with clear and some pesky map bosses, while also providing cast speed for us.

The Small Cluster jewel here is where you have some varience. You may also use an Armour cluster with Enduring Composure and the same small stat mods as the ES cluster. This would provide you with Endurance charges when hit and they're also up most of the time.

The Watcher's Eye is a flex slot as well, the key mods here are either Flat cold or Cold penetration for Hatred and the second mod can be either Zealotry or Discipline (if you can find one with ES on Hit /w Discipline, that's BiS), if you can even get a third mod that's for Grace/Determination/Precision - go for it.

FLASKS:



Spoiler
Notes:

Since we're a power charge stacking build, we have a lot of critical strike chance and therefore we can use flasks that have a chance at granting us charges when we crit. (And we crit a lot)

For suffixes we want armour, evasion, cast speed. If you feel that you don't need the additional critical strike chance on Diamond flask, feel free to get Bleed or any other damage type immunity you need. As for the Silver flask, if you also feel you don't require it and/or the additional cast speed from it is a bit too much to sustain mana, you can swap it out with a Rumi's Concoction for a bit more block and armour.


MASTERIES:
Spoiler

30% increased Life Reservation Efficiency of Skills
Discipline has 25% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency
15% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills
30% increased Evasion Rating while you have Energy Shield
+25% to Critical Strike Multiplier against Unique Enemies


Future options include:

Defend with 120% of Armour while not on Low Energy Shield
Cannot be Shocked while at maximum Power Charges
20% Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments while holding a Shield


BANDITS / PANTHEON:

Alira is the DPS option if you don't want to use the Small Cluster jewel for more physical mitigation, helps with mana regen, gives you more crit multi and resistances. Otherwise, kill all Bandits.

For upper Pantheons, I like Solaris but you can also use Lunaris, which is just as good. For lower Pantheons, Abberath / Yugul or Shakari, all of them work.

Resources for Leveling an Occy:

Zizaran's video on Shakcentral's Cold DOT Occy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6BGE8jnhf0

Subtractem's video on a Bane/ED Occy that's also a great option if you want to fizzle with something else while leveling, it's also what I used as a starter before my transition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uWYEK2TlbQ


Version History:

- Added rare 10-Way video
- Explained Ascendancy order and options
- Added information about gear progression from poe.ninja
- Added A8 Drox and Maven's Invitation: The Twisted videos
- Updated Citrus fight
- Updated POB for LVL 100
- Added info to gem section
- Added a section for my current gear at League end
- Updated Hydrosphere interactions and included Frost Bomb
- Updated gem section with new gem positions and info
- Updated POB link with relevant gem positions and info. in Notes tab
- Included personal current 3.17 gear at around 3.5ex invested
- New comments and changes to "What is EOW?" section
- Closing thoughts on page 3 of guide and added 3.17 map showcase with mild investment
Last edited by DexBunny on Feb 17, 2022, 2:59:30 PM
Last bumped on May 1, 2022, 8:39:51 AM
Seems pretty good. Always wanted to try this build. Now that there is a decent guide for it. I call dips! 😖
hi! how much ex do u think i need to start this build? at least to run yellow maps smoothly
If you wish to play this smoothly in yellows, you'd play this as a Spellslinger instead. You can find out how to make one from jungroan's youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBjSOngMsnQ.

I can't say for certain how much this costs to make because the market is ever changing and with the current events the amount of players in Trade are even less, therefore prices may be higher and saying a number feels disingenuous.
Last edited by DexBunny on Dec 6, 2021, 3:33:16 AM
What's there to do about light radius? I can't see any point being allocated with "light radius is based on energy shield instead of life"

Hella dark for me
"
What's there to do about light radius? I can't see any point being allocated with "light radius is based on energy shield instead of life"

Hella dark for me


There's an ES mastery that grants it based off ES and increases it 30%. That said, I don't really mind the darkness, and chose to spend the points elsewhere.
"
wrathchild619 wrote:
"
What's there to do about light radius? I can't see any point being allocated with "light radius is based on energy shield instead of life"

Hella dark for me


There's an ES mastery that grants it based off ES and increases it 30%. That said, I don't really mind the darkness, and chose to spend the points elsewhere.


Haha yeah I just wrote what ES mastery it was? But aight
It's located in multiple clusters nearby. Type "light radius" in the tree's search menu and they'll all light up.
Hi, I am level 90, and I am converting to this build, what 10 pints should I leave out in the passive skill tree ?? I would apreciate some help
"
What's there to do about light radius? I can't see any point being allocated with "light radius is based on energy shield instead of life"

Hella dark for me


You can remove the Caster mastery "1% increased damage per 16 intelligence" and allocate that in the Energy Shield mastery of Written in Blood notable wheel to get Light Radius.

I just don't get Light Radius on any of my LL builds because it's such a scam of a stat, it shouldn't even exist.

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