[3.11] bOOgy's Wintertide Brand Occultist in SSF Hardcore - Comfortable boss fights all around

Introduction:
This is my Wintertide Brand / Vortex Occultist that i played in SSF HC in Harvest League to lvl 96.

I saw Waggle playing a similar setup with a Trickster as a Leaguestarter and I wanted to play it as an Occultist and see what happens.

The Occultist killed bosses like Oshabi, Shaper, Sirus at awakening level 8 and is still alive and smiling.

It doesn't have particular fast clear speed in maps, but it really shines when fighting bosses. You will slow down basically every boss fight thanks to increased chill effect of the cold damage over time.

If you have any questions, let me know in this thread or when I'm streaming on https://www.twitch.tv/boogywc <3


Video Guide:
I also made a guide on Youtube if you are into that:
Youtube Guide


Pro's & Con's:
+ very comfortable boss fights thanks to chill/freeze effect.
+ Leaguestart viable
+ decently cheap, i got everything SSF. (thx Harvest)
+ can run any reflect maps (got to be careful though)

- reduced regeneration maps can be rough
- got to get some crafts from syndicate/unveiling
- not invincible (but decently tanky)


Gear:
I highly recommend using Path of Building Community Fork.
The passive tree in PoB has several versions for leveling to Endgame.

https://pastebin.com/UXZZngUw

You can find the latest Version of "Path of Building Community Fork" here.



Gem Setup: (In order of importance)

Skills for leveling:
If you need some help for skills to use while leveling until you have access to endgame setup:

Passive Tree:
I highly recommend using Path of Building.
I have a leveling tree and proper endgame tree here:

https://pastebin.com/UXZZngUw

You can find the latest Version of "Path of Building Community Fork" here.

Alternative is here:
CI Endgame Tree without Cluster Jewels
A1-A5
A6-A10


Bandits
Kill All


Pantheon
Major: Soul of the Brine King
Soul of Solaris once you have picked up stun immunity from Occultist tree
Minor: Shakari (you are flexible here)

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That's all I got for now. I will be reading here if questions come up and try to improve the guide wherever needed.

Hey, I´m thinking to try first the option without cluster jewells, this seems to be a very nice build, my only question is, what do you think to level a pj to 100 doing maps with this?... will be tanky enough, and killing bosses its ok or so slow?... Thanks

What are the most differences with or without cluster tree?...

Thanks in advance...

"

Vyr75 escribió:

Hey, I´m thinking to try first the option without cluster jewells, this seems to be a very nice build, my only question is, what do you think to level a pj to 100 doing maps with this?... will be tanky enough, and killing bosses its ok or so slow?... Thanks

What are the most differences with or without cluster tree?...

Thanks in advance...

Hey Vyr,
first, what is a pj ? :D sry, never heard that before in poe.

Fighting bosses is definitely the easy part with this char at nearly any point. The cold damage over time just lets you run circles around any boss. One big part is the bonechill support on vortex. It's very effective :o

For me personally the biggest difference with the cluster jewel was mapping with wintertide brand. Once i got the cluster jewel, i could just tag a pack of monsters with a brand and move on and be pretty sure that the pack dies from that one brand.

I havent played this char in super juiced up maps, which you probably want to do if you go for lvl 100. I didnt feel super safe in high dmg maps, so i tried to avoid them. But i might have been too careful since i really like to avoid dying :D

But if you want to go beyond lvl 95 and dont want to fall asleep while waiting for the dot dmg to kick in, i would say you need the cluster jewels for that.

Oh sorry, pj is the same as char, and thanks for all the explanations I will think if I change build or not ,really appreciated your comments...

tried this build, very BAD i would not recommend this to Anyone.

"

haniii1 escribió:

tried this build, very BAD i would not recommend this to Anyone.

hehe, i just killed Cortex and the 4 other Synthesis bosses with this trash build in SSF HC.

Doesn't using Elemental Focus on Vortex stop us applying the chill effect to slow them down?

Never mind, noticed the chill ground from Vortex.

"

Khurune escribió:

Doesn't using Elemental Focus on Vortex stop us applying the chill effect to slow them down?

Never mind, noticed the chill ground from Vortex.

Yeah, its fine with elemental focus.
I looked at your Profile for the Occultist and i am a little shocked :D

How much Energy shield do you have atm? :D

Please try go get a pure energy shield Body armour, preferably a Vaal Regalia, and just roll Defence Seeds on it.
Even on a 5 Link it should be fine, doesnt have to be 6 linked early on. But i think you should really focus more on Energy shield everywhere, specifically Body armour, Helm & shield.

I'm still leveling with this, but I'm having a blast! Looking forward to when I hit maps. :)

I just want to say thank you, you make some incredible builds and incredibly well explained with everything you need so that a newbie like me can follow them and it is very appreciated that you put leveling area and a divided skill tree thank you very much