Winter Orb: Occultist vs Assassin

Looking on POE Ninja, pretty much all the Winter Orb characters are Occultist, and many of them are energy shield. I think if it's energy shield then Occultist is best.

But what about life based? I realize mine may not be built exactly optimal, but I like to do my own thing so it is what it is.


Which life based Winter Orb is better? Occultist vs Assassin

With identical gear on both of them, here's the only aspects that are different:


Occultist:
- Can use the "Heart of Destruction" jewel combo
- Has more area (183% vs 117% for Assassin)
- Has more cold pen (72% vs 66% for Assassin)


Assassin:
- Has Culling Strike when using the jewel combo
- Has the additional benefits of Elusive
- Has more damage (102,700 tooltip vs 86,700 for Occultist)
* Damage isn't accounting for Occultist using Heart of Destruction (haven't bought yet)
- Has 100% Crit for spells vs 92% for Occultist
- Has a bit more life (4790 vs 4680 for Occultist)


Occultist: Heart of Destruction / more area of effect

Assassin: Elusive, more damage, culling strike, 100% Spell Crit


Which would you say is better?

Im no expert for winterorb builds, but if you go assassin you can drop the elusive boots and may go for tailwind / onslaught boots + evasion utility flask instead.

you currently have 2 curses - did you grab whispers of doom? - with occultist you could use asassins mark with malediction for hard targets, but with your budget i would assume map clear is already smooth.

Have you checked if eater/exarch influence on gloves is better than the curse? (unnerve on hit - 10% more dmg taken + exposure or life leech)
Also temple mods exist (30-50% dmg against chilled enemies)

Do you plan to get freeze and shock immunity? - I guess this builds defense is its clear/dps.

Do you want to focus on a specific activity with your build?

There seem to be some interactions between aoe and amount of projectiles.
3 year old reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/bobqtc/winter_orb_mechanics_hit_rate_cast_speed_scaling/

Why not unhide your characters, it would be easier to help you with build questions.

"

VixTrader wrote:

But what about life based? I realize mine may not be built exactly optimal, but I like to do my own thing so it is what it is.


Which life based Winter Orb is better? Occultist vs Assassin

With identical gear on both of them,...

Is this some sort of self imposed challenge, or do you want to figure things out yourself? I went a bit all over the build, because I think you have to work around the ascendacys for a good comparison.