Essence Drain Occultist

Essence Drain is a popular skill because of how effective it is. Among the Ascendancy classes, the Occultist is one of those that makes the best use of it, and for many good reasons. For those looking for a good PoE occultist build, this one is worth trying out.

Pros and Cons of PoE Essence Drain Occultist Build

Pros:

• Has solid defenses
• Good league starter
• Only needs 1 6-link gear for endgame
• Can run all map mods
• Immune to stun
• Doesn’t require Wither Totem

Cons:

• Needs to cast two skills constantly
• Not beginner-friendly

Gear, Gem Links, and Skill Tree

Here’s the Passive Skill Tree.

• Weapon: Cerberus Limb (Unique) for increased elemental damage, spell damage, cast speed, 0.5% of spell damage leeched as life if shield has 30% or more chance to block, +1 maximum energy shield per 5 armor on shield, + 5 armor per 5 evasion on shield, and +20 to evasion per 5 maximum energy shield on shield
  • Immortal Call with Cast When Damage Taken and Increased Duration support gems
• Shield: Aegis Aurora (Unique) for increased armor, energy shield, elemental resistances, chance to block, replenishes energy shield by 2% of armor every time you block, increased elemental damage with attack skills
  • Shield Charge with Faster Attacks and Fortify support gems
• Helm: Doedre’s Scorn (Unique) for +2 to level of socketed gems, increased intelligence, energy shield, elemental damage, damage with hits and ailments per curse on enemy, and curse duration.
  • Bane, Contagion, and Despair with Arcane Surge support gem
• Body: Shavronne’s Wrappings (Unique) for increased spell damage, energy shield, energy shield recharge, lightning resistance, lightning damage reflection, chaos damage doesn’t bypass energy shield
  • Essence Drain with Void Manipulation, Swift Affliction, Efficacy, Empower, and Controlled Destruction support gems.
• Belt: Bated Breath (Unique) for increased intelligence, damage, energy shield, and energy shield recharge rate.
• Gloves: Vixen’s Entrapment (Unique) to trigger socketed skill when casting curse skill; increased curse skill cast speed, energy shield, 0.2% damage leeched as energy shield for each curse on enemy, additional curse on enemy
  • Blight; Temporal Chains and Enfeeble with Blasphemy support gem
• Boots: any Rare Boots with increased movement speed, energy shield, elemental resistances, and stun and block chance. Discipline; Clarity and Malevolence with Blood Magic support gems.
• Accessories:
  • Rare Amulet and 2 Rare Rings with the following mods: attributes, energy shield, elemental resistances, evasion, energy shield recharge rate, and earlier energy shield recharge start time.
• Jewels:
  • Watcher’s Eye (Unique) for increased maximum energy shield, life, mana, faster start of Energy Shield while affected by Discipline
  • Energy from Within (Unique) for increased maximum energy shield, and reductions and increases to life are applied to energy shield.
• Flasks:
  • Cinderswallow Urn (Unique) for life, mana, and energy shield recovery when killing enemy during flask effect
  • Chemist’s Sulphur Flask of Heat for consecrated ground and chill freeze recovery/immunity
  • Perpetual Quicksilver Flask of Resistance for increased movement speed and elemental resistances
  • Perpetual Basalt Flask of Heat for physical damage reduction and reflection and chill/freeze recovery/immunity
  • Experimenter’s Aquamarine Flask of Staunching for chilled ground on use and bleeding recovery/immunity

With the next expansion coming closer and closer, the most perfect time to go with a reliable POE build such as the Essence Drain Occultist would be now.