The goal in the early game is to establish your defenses/offences and work on leveling skill gems. Capping your elemental resistances and obtaining a Despair on Hit ring is the priority in early game.
Do not spend too much on your Rings and 5-linked Body Armour, as they will be upgraded later on.
Milestone 1 - Off-Hand Gems
Purchase a Weapon and Shield that has 3 Green Sockets from a Vendor. Buy 6 Blade Vortexs and put them in your Weapon Swap. Then swap back to your normal Shield and Unarmed set. When these gems reach level 20, sell them to the vendor with 1 Gemcutter's Prism each to get a level 1 gem back with 20 quality. Level these back up to 20 and finally use a Vaal Orb on them or alternatively double corrupt them with a level 3 Alva gem room called: Doryani's Institute for a chance at a level 21 or Vaal Blade Vortex gem.
Milestone 2 - Flasks
Flasks are a significant defensive upgrade and are our next pickup. The flask bases to run with this build are:
- Saturated Divine Life Flask of Alleviation
- Quicksilver Flask
- Granite Flask
- Jade Flask
Craft your Flasks using basic crafting methods by first using an Orb of Transmutation on Normal Rarity Flasks and then alternating between using Orb of Alteration and Orb of Augmentation until hitting the following mods on your Quicksilver Flask, Granite Flask and Jade Flask. Any of the below mods can be on any of the flasks you're rolling:
- Increased Evasion during Flask effect.
- Increased Armour during Flask effect.
- Increased Attack Speed during Flask effect.
Flasks have modifier tiers just like items so be sure to upgrade these as you gain access to higher level flask bases.
Roll for the following modifier on your Divine Life Flask: 70% increased Amount Recovered / 33% reduced Recovery rate Once you have this modifier, make sure to have captured at least 4 Yellow Beasts. Visit the Menagerie and craft the Sealing mod to give Corrupted Blood and Bleed Removal to your Life Flask. IMPORTANT - This modifier makes your Flask, which is your Weapon, deal more Chaos Damage.
As you pick up Glassblower's Bauble, use them on your utility flasks until they hit 20% quality. After picking up enough Instilling Orbs check the Crafting Bench and craft the following enchant on each of your Utility Flasks: Used when charges reach full.
Milestone 3 - Despair on hit Ring
A Despair on Hit Ring allows your Profane Bloom to also apply this curse, giving you an enormous amount of additional explosion clear. A Mark of Submission enables this early on.
Milestone 4 - Accuracy gear
You need to obtain enough Accuracy to hit as close to 100% chance to Hit as possible. This requires 3 Rares with 300+ Accuracy on them AND a Level 7 Precision linked to Arrogance Support. The best way to obtain Rares with Accuracy and other useful stats early is to use one of the following essences:
- Wailing Essence of Greed
- Wailing Essence of Anger
- Wailing Essence of Hatred
- Wailing Essence of Wrath
Use Harvest Reforge Attack or an Essence on your Gloves, Rings and Shield until you obtain Accuracy and 2 or more of the following modifiers:
- +120to Accuracy Rating
- 50+ to Maximum Life
- 35%+ to Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistance.
- x% chance to Suppress Spell Damage
If you get 2 of these mods, craft the last one. If you get all 3 mods, then craft a Resistance or Damage mod.
Milestone 5 - Syndicate Unveils
While doing Syndicate Missions find Elreon and Gravicius, or remove other members from the Syndicate until they show up. Unveil the following gear slots for these crafts specifically and all other unveils afterwards:
- Unveil Boots for the 20% increased Movement Speed Cannot be Chilled & 20% increased Movement Speed
- 2% chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill Boot modifier
- Unveil Elreon's Veiled Rings for Non-Channeling Skills have -(x-x) to Total Mana Cost
- Unveil It That Fled Veiled Gear for x% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage
There area variety of other useful veiled crafts you will gain in the process, obtaining them should be much easier as the veiled item required to unlock the crafts is not specific to a syndicate member.
Milestone 6 - 5-Link Body Armour, Boots, Amulet and Belt
Obtain a 5-Linked Evasion/Energy Shield Body Armour if you have enough currency.
For your Boots you want Evasion/Energy Shield hybrid bases to make coloring Sockets easier and allow you to use your Divine Blessing Support gem setup.
To craft your Boots and Body Armour spam any combination of the following Essences on the item until you hit satisfactory life and total elemental resistances:
- Screaming Essence of Greed
- Screaming Essence of Hatred
- Screaming Essence of Anger
- Screaming Essence of Wrath
- Finish the item by crafting Life or Hybrid Elemental Resistances with the Crafting Bench.
Look for any of these additional modifiers:
50+ to Maximum Life
35%+ to Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistance.
x% chance to Suppress Spell Damage
30+ to Strength (You need 155 to use a level 20 Determination)
Make sure there is an open Prefix on your Boots after crafting, to craft the "Onslaught on Kill + Movement Speed" Unveiled mod on your Boots. Get the following mods to fill your build out with as much Life and Resistances as possible.
Obtain or purchase a Stygian Vise Belt to craft on, or grab a Leather Belt and craft on that. The Stygian allows for an extra Abyss Jewel for damage/Stats/Resistance. Use an Amber Amulet base to help with Strength. To craft your Belt and Amulet, spam Screaming Essence of Rage or Harvest Reforges until you obtain a required Elemental Resistances and finish with a bench craft.
Milestone 7 - Amulet
- Purchase an Amulet with +x% to Damage over Time Multiplier and some Elemental Resistances/Strength depending on which you need.
- When you get an Amulet that has one of these mods, craft Life and anoint Toxic Strikes:
- Amber Oil
- Clear Oil
- Crimson Oil
Milestone 8 - Leper's Alms
Leper's Alms is a unique shield which grants a ton of Evasion and Energy Shield. The Energy Shield is very helpful early to ensure that you are able to cast your Divine Blessing Support aura setup without issues. Evasion rating granted by the item bolsters your avoidance, making it less likely for you to die as you progress the atlas and work towards improving the rest of your gear. The Ailment Duration gives you a substantial damage boost in encounters where you need it the most, it allows you to stack up more poisons on bosses.
Shared Suffering is a mechanic unique toLeper's Alms, it causes all damage from hits, including hits from your Profane Bloom to cause Elemental Ailments you are suffering. For example: if your character is shocked, a hit will inflict that shock to the enemy and remove it from you, which is a great way to mitigate ailments early on where you might not necessarily have the gear to deal with them yet.
Milestone 9 - Blade Vortex Gear Swap
To swap comfortably you need to purchase an Obliteration wand. The Obliteration Wand is the best weapon for map clear as it provides an extra 20% chance to explode, giving you a total of 70% chance when combined with Profane Bloom. Make sure to get as high of a roll as you can afford as the #% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage scales your damage substantially. If you wish to get a weapon swap for bossing, the Cold Iron Point provides an additional 7% damage at the cost of clear.
This is where you swap to Poison Blade Vortex. Once you complete these Milestones you'll be able to farm red maps with Altars with delirium. Ensure to have checked all the previous milestones before moving forward.
Milestone 1 - Blade Vortex Swap
Make sure to have crafted EVERYTHING from Milestones 6-8 in Early Game. Once completed you are ready to make the swap to Blade Vortex. This means you should have a level 85+ character, otherwise keep farming maps until you do. Make sure your resistances are capped and that you have enough Strength to use Determination. Purchase all your Gems from the Act vendors if possible, because then they are leveled up. If your purchase them from Lily, they are level 1. Then swap your passive skill tree to the Blade Vortex Swap.
Milestone 2 - Spell Suppression
Suppression grants a % chance to reduce incoming spell damage of hits and their ailments by 50%. This can be stacked up to 100% to effectively half our Spell Damage taken. The primary sources of suppression are: Body Armor, Boots, Gloves, Helmet, and Shield Suffixes. This stat can only roll on Evasion or hybrid Evasion bases which isn't a problem for this build. The easiest way to do this is to obtain a Supreme Spiked Shield and/or Dragonscale Gauntlets to use Harvest Reforge Life, Essences or craft with the Expedition NPC Rog until you've obtained 17%+ Chance to Suppress Spell Damage, and 70+ to maximum Life. Then finish your Shield by crafting Gain (7-8)% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage. A unique which can greatly help with capping Spell Suppression as well as Elemental Ailment Avoidance is the Elevore, Wolf Pelt. It grants 20-25% chance to Suppress Spell Damage & 20-25% chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments as well as Recover 100-200 Life when you Suppress Spell Damage.
Milestone 3 - 6-Link Rare
A 6-link rare armour is going to provide us with a huge power spike in the mid game.
Make sure to only craft on a Carnal Armour or sad*st Garb as they provide the highest amount of flat Energy Shield + Evasion
The ideal Body Armour has the following stats:
- + to Maximum Life
- % chance to Suppress Spell Damage
- % chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments (crafted)
- % increased Energy Shield and Evasion
- +% to Resistances
Milestone 4 - Final Flask setup
Flasks are an extremely important part of our build's avoidance and mitigation, properly invest into them. You need these 3 mods on 3 Flasks.
- % increased Evasion rating during Flask Effect
- % increased Armor during Flask Effect
- % increased Movement Speed during Flask effect
Use the Flasks below, fitting the above mods onto 3 of them where available. Buy or roll Flasks for the mod x% increased Charge Recovery. Grab item level 70+ Utility Flask bases, rolling x% increased Charge Recovery should take about 30 Orb of Alteration each Flask, for 90 in total. Either Orb of Augmentation into those, or buy those mods on at least one if you have to.
- Granite Flask
- Jade Flask
- Quicksilver Flask
Go to your crafting bench and craft Used when Charges reach full on your 3 Utility Flasks to automate their use. This will cost you 5 Instilling Orb and 5 Glassblower's Bauble each.
Milestone 5 - Ming's Heart/Death Rush
You should look into upgrading your second ring into a Ming's Heart if you feel like you are tanky enough and just want a substantial damage boost, or a Death Rush if you wish to get more damage and speed for mapping (as the effects granted by the ring are on kill they do not apply to bossing). If you can afford to, you can also buy both to swap them out for bossing and mapping. Note that the rolls on both of these rings have a high variance, when purchasing make sure to get a decent roll that is within your budget.
Milestone 6 - Stygian Vise
If you have a belt with T3+ Life, and 2+ Resistances/Strength then skip this step. Grab an item level 82 Stygian Vise. Harvest Reforge Life or Shrieking Essence of Rage until you obtain T3+ Life, and 40+ Strength with a Resistance. Finish it by crafting 285to Armour and Evasion Rating in your Prefixes.
For your Abyss Jewel, grab one that has x% chance to gain Phasing for 4 seconds on Kill and one or more of the following modifiers:
- +x to Strength
- +x to maximum Life
- Resistances
- increased Global Physical Damage
- % increased Damage over Time while holding a Shield
- Enemies Withered by you have-2% to all Resistances
Once you have x% chance to gain Phasing for 4 seconds on Kill you can swap out your Quartz Flask for a Sin's Rebirth.
Milestone 7 - Helmet Enchant
Grab a Helmet Enchant on an Armour/Energy Shield base if they're not expensive. The Enchants you want are either Determinationhas 30% increasedMana ReservationEfficiency or Herald of Agony has 75% increasedMana ReservationEfficiency. This frees up of mana giving you flexibility to fit another curse into your Blasphemy Support if you drop Defiance Banner. To craft, use Harvest Reforge Life or Shrieking Essence of Greed until you obtain a combination of the following stats:
- + to Maximum Life
- % chance to Suppress Spell Damage
- +% to Resistances
If you have a free suffix and your resistances allow it, make sure to craft 50% increased Duration of Ailments you inflict while Focused. This modifier grants you the Focus skill, when pressed you gain ailment duration while it's active granting you an on demand DPS boost.
Milestone 8 - Ailment Avoidance
Ailment avoidance can primarily be found as a body armor prefix, as a boot suffix + implicit, and on shields. The easiest way to cap our ailment avoidance is to get a total of 100% avoidance split amongst these items, while keeping in mind we can craft 25% as a prefix on Body Armor and 25% as a suffix on Boots. Therefore we need at least a t1 % chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments, or a lower tier with an implicit on our boots rolled with Lesser Eldritch Ichor.
Milestone 9 - Eldritch Influence
At this point your gear should hate T3+ to maximum Life, your Strength should be enough to use a level 20 Determination and your Chance to Suppress Spell damage and Chance Avoid Elemental Ailments should be capped. Next you look to further upgrade your gear using Eldritch Currencies.
Use Lesser Eldritch Ember to gain one of the following implicits in order of priority:
Body Armour
- % increased effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills
- % to all maximum Resistances
Helmet
- % increased Area of Effect
Boots
- % increased Action Speed
- % increased Movement Speed
Gloves
- % to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier
- Herald of Agony has#% increased Buff Effect
Use Lesser Eldritch Ichor to gain one of the following implicits in order of priority:
Body Armour
- Grace has% increased Aura Effect
- Determination has% increased Aura Effect
- % to all Elemental Resistances
Helmet
- % increased Duration of Ailments on Enemies
- % increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills
Boots
- % chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments
- % of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage
Gloves
- % chance to Suppress Spell Damage
- % chance to Poison on Hit
Milestone 10 - Watcher's Eye
Your first Watcher's Eye mod should have one of the following:
- % additional Physical Damage Reduction while affected by Determination
- to Armour while affected by Determination
- +x% chance to Evade Attack Hits while affected by Grace
Milestone 11 - Finalizing Amulet
At this point, if you have enough currency and as long as your attributes and resistances allow you to swap, you should look to upgrade your amulet to either an Impresence or a Solstice Vigil. Both of these Amulets achieve the same goal which is to remove the mana reservation of either Temporal Chains or Despair when linked to Blasphemy Support.
The End Game gear set is good enough to farm all mapping content this game has to offer. You can even complete the non-Uber bosses, all with one build. This set has extra damage and mitigation, but requires many crafted pieces. If you need additional currency check out our farming guides.
IMPORTANT: Most gear in this section is easier to craft if you obtain a Fractured base. This base 'locks' the mod in, so you can use Essences and other crafting methods to obtain a good item. You can search for fractured modifiers on trade by inputting "~fractured (name of modifier)" in the modifier search box. If you want to try out how to craft your final items, Craft of Exile is an amazing tool to plan them without wasting in-game currency.
Milestone 1 - Awakened Gems
The easiest upgrade you can make is going to be Awakened Gems and Alternate Qualities. Purchase the following Awakened Gems:
- Awakened Unbound Ailments Support
- Empower Support (level 3-4)
- Awakened Increased Area of Effect Support
- Awakened Unleash Support
- Divergent Void Manipulation Support
Purchase the following Alternate Quality Gems:
- Anomalous Withering Step
- Divergent Plague Bearer
- Divergent Herald of Agony
Purchase the following Exceptional Gems:
- Enlighten Support level 3-4
- Empower Support level 3-4
Milestone 2 - The Devouring Diadem
The The Devouring Diadem allocates Eldritch Battery saving you 3 passive skill points. The reason for which you want to use this helmet in the Endgame is because on top of saving you some passive skill points it grants SocketedGems have 25% increased Reservation Efficiency. This modifier allows you to socket Determination, Grace and Herald of Agony in it saving you a lot of mana for your Blasphemy Support setup. The The Devouring Diadem also gives a substantial amount of Energy Shield which is converted into HP with Mind Over Matter.
The ideal Veiled Modifier for this helmet is:
- % increased Duration of Ailments you inflict while Focused
The ideal Enchant for this helmet:
- 30% increasedBlade VortexDuration
Milestone 3 - Skin of the Lords
The Skin of the Lords is an extremely powerful Unique Armour because of it's 100% Increased Global Defences, +2 to Level of Socketed Gems and it's unique modifier granting you a Keystone. Global Defences scale your Evasion , Armour and Energy Shield making this unique very efficient for scaling your defensive layers. The +2 to Level of Socketed Gems modifier boost your damage substantially when you socket Blade Vortex into it.
The best keystones to look for when searching for this Armour on trade are:
- Mind Over Matter
- Ghost Dance
- Divine Shield
- Lethe Shade
Keystones you MUST AVOID:
- Acrobatics
- Ancestral Bond
- Avatar of Fire
- Blood Magic
- Chaos Inoculation
- Eternal Youth
- Ghost Reaver
- Hex Master
- Iron Reflexes
- Necromantic Aegis
- Solipsism
- Supreme Ego
- The Agnostic
- Unwavering Stance
IMPORTANT: You cannot modify the colours on this Body Armour; It must be purchased with the correct Gem colours. It also only allows for corrupted gems to be socketed within in, so you have to corrupt all your skillgems.
Milestone 4 - Obliteration Corruptions
There are two good corruptions for your wand: % chance to gain Unholy Might for 3 seconds on Kill & % increased Area of Effect. Unholy might is the same buff granted by Sin's Rebirth. If you get this corruption you can swap the flask out for a Bottled Faith or a Sulphur Flask.
Milestone 5 - Shield
Milestone 6 - Gloves
Milestone 7 - Boots
Milestone 8 - Belt
Milestone 9 - Jewels
The Stormshroud Unique Jewel is an essential part of your defenses, It allows you to stack % chance to Avoid being Shocked instead of % chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments. This is beneficial because it is a much more easily accessible stat which can be rolled on Boots to grant you full ailment immunity.
The Watcher's Eye can grant a boost to both your defenses and offenses. Since this build utilises two defensive, and one offensive aura there is a wide range of stats we can look for on it. Look for at least 1 damage stat and 1 defensive/utility stat listed below:
- % chance to Suppress Spell Damage while affected by Grace
- % chance to Evade Attack Hits while affected by Grace
- % increased Movement Speed while affected by Grace
- % additional Physical Damage Reduction while affected by Determination
- to Armour while affected by Determination
- Damaging Ailments you inflict deal Damage #% faster while affected by Malevolence
- % to Damage over Time Multiplier while affected by Malevolence
The Brutal Restraint is slotted at the Scion Jewel socket next to the Elemental Resistance Passives once you are able to get the extra Spell Suppression needed on gear to drop Magebane. Near this socket there is a great concentration of Passives the build already paths to for it's damage and utility making it the favourable location for it to be slotted. The Jewel grants additional powerful bonuses to passives allocated within the radius of it's ring. The bonuses we are looking for on these passives are any combination of the following:
- 4% increased maximum Life
- 20% increased Damage with Poison
- 8% increased effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills
- Poisons you inflict deal Damage 10% faster
- 25% chance to gain Alchemist's Genius when you use a Flask
- 5% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill
- You gain Onslaught for 8 seconds on Kill
In the remaining Jewel sockets you can slot Rare Jewels to grant additional life and damage . The stats we are looking for on these can be any combination of the following:
- % increased maximum Life
- % increased Chaos Damage
- % increased Global Physical Damage
- Damaging Ailments deal damage% faster
- % increased Damage over Time
- +to Strength
- % to all Elemental Resistances
- % increased Poison Duration, % chance to Poison on Hit
- % to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier
Milestone 10 - What's next?
Now that your build is done, what's next?
You can continue to perfect your gear to get the most out of each item slot, or look to reroll to one of our endgame guides! The Poison Spark Occultist uses very similar gear and scaling and can be easily transitioned to if you have finished the endgame milestones, make sure to check that out.
