[3.20] Looking for Advice with CI Occultist HoAg Build (Uses Spells to Apply Virulence)

I've been working on a Herald of Agony build intermittently since the gem came out, and I just finished its latest iteration. I tested it out on an old spare char today, and it's not performing as well as I want it to, so I'm coming to ask for any advice you guys have to offer. This is the first build I've created, so I probably won't be familiar with standard build-creating practices. The following is a breakdown of the notable aspects of my build and a PoB link to it.

Passive Tree
Link to PoB: https://pastebin.com/NQi82uRq

- I use the Occultist Ascendancy for an extra curse, some ES regen, and immunity to freeze. I found it added more PoB-calculated tankiness and damage compared to the other Witch ascendancies. I didn't have enough spare characters to field test the difference.

- I use 3 cluster jewels (1 large, 2 medium) and 2 unique jewels. The medium cluster jewels both add Pure Agony, and one gives a socket for the Golden Rule. My other jewel is Energy from Within, located north of the Witch starting area.

- There are 3 trees and 2 skill + item sets. Two of the trees are my final plans for the build; one (named Tanky) is simpler than the other and doesn't use cluster jewels. The other (named Damage) was a test, because I couldn't account for all the potential changes between the trees in my head. It turned out to have much more DPS and EHP but less flat ES, so I kept both trees. The final tree and secondary skill + item sets are all labeled Field Test, and are the items, skills, and passives of the actual character used to test the build. I didn't have all the items in the build, which can account for some of its shortcomings, but it should be viable already at level 90 and I'm not happy with the meager 1.6M DPS PoB says it'll have when maxxed out.


My Issues with the Build
I've tested the build in various scenarios, and it doesn't seem to perform exceptionally well in anything. I don't know what specifically it needs, so I'm coming to you guys for help. I want to be able to finish all endgame content reasonably well. The build doesn't need to be able to do all map mods or be the best in any type of fight, but I want to kill all the bosses and survive most/all league encounters. The following is a list of things I tested it on.

- Delve: Died twice at depth ~116 very quickly. I didn't have enough clear speed, and the crawler kept falling behind and abandoning me to die.

- Maps: A bunch of tier 1-3 maps, along with a tier 5 or 6 map. It finished all the maps, but there were a couple times where my health took a concerning dip or the mobs didn't die quickly.

- Breach: I did one breach and almost died twice.

- Delirium: I did one Delirium encounter and almost died a few times.

- Harvest: I did one Harvest encounter and, you guessed it, almost died a few times.

- Betrayal: I killed Catarina, but died once.


Virulence Stacking
I use Ice Spear with spell echo, unleash, and greater multiple projectiles to stack virulence. The support gems let me hit a ton of times in a single cast, and I use the Golden Rule to increase my virulence gain. Since I use CI, I take no damage from the poison. To let Ice Spear apply poison, I use The Consuming Dark dagger and an abyssal belt + abyssal gem adding chaos damage to all spells.


Herald of Agony Supports
I use Herald of Agony linked to Damage on Full Life, Empower, Minion Damage, Vicious Projectiles, and Vile Toxins. I have two cluster jewels with Pure Agony, and the crawler has a 25% chance of gaining Onslaught and Unholy Might on kill. I use skitterbots to shock and chill, and my stone golem gives me Feeding Frenzy. I apply Despair and Vulnerability for damage, and use a spectre that grants frenzy charges.


Survivability
I'm running a CI Occultist, so my health pool is Energy Shield. I've got a shield that gives me a ton of ES, and I invested in some block (26% block chance, 42% spell block chance). I mainly use ES regen to sustain, which I get from Zealot's Oath and a ton of life regen mods. I get extra ES regen from my Stone Golem. I have two manually triggered survivability skills: Vitality, which grants 400 ES/second; and Focus, which recovers 27% of my ES instantly. I have Vitality in March of the Legion for the extra ES regen and the freed-up mana reservation (I still need enough mana to cast the aura, but I can use the mana for other spells while it's active). I also use Enfeeble, which reduces enemies' action speed. I use Vixen's Entrapment because it's pretty cheap but gives a lot of ES compared to my rare gloves, it gives an extra curse, and it triggers socketed curses when I cast a curse.


I made this pretty wonky because I didn't want it to be like the other HoAg builds I saw. I based it around cheap gear and niche uniques, and I apply Virulence with spells and not attacks. At this point, I feel like I can't massively improve it with what I know now, so I'm looking for you guys' expertise on builds. First impressions, ideas to improve it, comments, and any other information you have to offer are all welcomed.
Last bumped on Jan 4, 2023, 7:22:13 PM
youll find the info you need in the other hoa build threads mate, check the comments in https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3264207
Probaly you die often because you miss es-recovery, miss many defensive layers and have as CI no needed ignite-immunities.
It's hard to max Occu in tankyness and castspeed.
And of course use pierce or awakened fork in maps for faster clearspeed also as Occu.
Last edited by Chromino on Jan 4, 2023, 8:38:08 AM
Thank you to both of you guys! I'll take a close look at the HoAg build thread you posted, and I'll add a pierce to my crawler. I'll also find gear with ignite mitigation. What sort of defensive layers can I consider? I've taken block nodes in the tree and focused a lot on ES regen, and I'm not sure where else to go.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info