In this guide, I will help you have a smooth experience from a fresh start to zoom-zoom-explode in T16 80% delirium. I played Chaos DOT theme in 9 continuous leagues (from Metamorph) and hit the top 5 multiple times in race events (my background).

Showcase stage 3 with magic weapon any no rings, no boots https://youtu.be/Pwz6oXPrWAA

Why Occultist?

Profane Bloom with Asenath Gentle Touch ft. Herald of Ash is my favorite combo to archive an insane level of clear speed. Talking into the Chaos DoT category, Trickster is dead and Pathfinder doesn't have any advantage at mapping.

Let's begin!

Stage 1 - Fresh start with Poison Concoction

Poison Concoction is super OP and don't require any gears to function and having similar tree with our later build helps us save up a lot of regrets (from now on regret will hold long-term value thanks to the new atlas passive tree). So Poison Concoction is our best pick.

Don't like Shadow or Ranger, Witch can't access a lot of required gems from begin, you need to find the way to leveling until meeting Siosa in Library, Act 3. There are some solutions:

• Lightning theme: Orb of Storm + Blastchain mine

• Fire theme: Holy flame totem + Firewall

• Cold theme: I don't have any experience with cold skill league start

• ... or playing with a friend and ask them to buy gems you need so you can play poison concoction from level 12.

PoB: https://pastebin.com/LBZzf3dF (start with Lighting skill)

Some note when leveling with Poison Concoction:

• Keep 2 life flasks

• Save up transmute/alter until level 60 to craft Divine Life Flask

• Replace with next tier flask when leveling up but skip Sanctified Life Flask and Eternal Life Flask

• Divine Life Flask is our best bet, Alter/Transmute until hit "#% increased life recovered"

Before you kill Act 10 Kitava, there is something to consider

• you should level to 67-70, finish the 3rd lab and patch your resistance before killing Kitava.

• 3.17 league content is super rewarding both trade (chaos recipe) and SSF (unique farm) players. So you can run straight to the map if you know how to play with ArchNemesis.

• Other than that, Heist is our safe bet. Leveling from 60-70 into Heist help both trade and SSF player to access some early unique/gear. (You can google more about running Heist in league start, I don't want go too deep in this topic here)

Stage 2 - Setup Atlas

New Atlas and Kirac are very nice to us (I don't need to buy any map to finish 115/117 complete).

https://poeskilltree.com/?v=3.17.0-atlas#AAAABAAAAAeICBsKGQo9GMQZghtOHXQfOB_EIcUkyybnKNAo6SqENIg-X0FfQndDI0OpSbxQF1p9W9lc2V23YCFgZ2IpY7VmtWbGbipxC3Erc4t7p30TgHiD3YUnh_uK0YsYjSmRfZdFo4mkrK4Csma26LoXukzC_8bZyH7Joc560KLRTdSH1LnY0NmQ3_jhi-Kn5Y_nKOrV7sHvrvLo9Uz1d_ow_dH-3g==

This atlas passive tree focus to free additional mob packs and map drop. Also, Essense is very useful in early crafting to help you patch life/resist.

At this stage, you need to focus on leveling, unlocking Atlas and preparing to transform to Death Oath.

PoB: https://pastebin.com/LBZzf3dF

Some notes at this stage

• 5L Dendrobate is a worthy upgrade, it is easily acquire in both trade/SSF

• The Gull is broken AF, acquire one asap

• learn to use Plague Bearer

• shield charge work very well with withering step cause they don't share charge (or you can keep using flame dash)

• Death Oath suck at single, so you should complete your atlas with Poison Concoction or go direct to Death Oath + Toxic Rain totem stage.

• Save up for Asenath Gentle Touch (you can gamble with the divine card, it's fun :D)

• Use Steel Skin as Guard skill, it removes bleed and we don't have base armor atm

• balance your resist without gloves and belt slot (even better if w/o helm), to avoid re-balance resist again and again. This will save you a lot of currency in long term.

• T1-2 life is overrated, bench craft is more than enough. Don't settle with T3 resist in suffix.

• Bisco's Leash is OP if you can fix your resist

Prepare for the next stage (transform to Death Oath)

• don't forget leveling support gem for death oath

• you need to prepare a Death Oath asap, use harvest craft to change color (2B2G2R with less duration, 3B2G1R with awa AOE)

• prepare cluster, large and small are important, the medium cluster is nice to have. Both build share the same set of large/medium cluster, so this is still an upgrade for Poison Concoction.

• prepare the weapon for death oath build.

Minimum requirements

• 2 Divine life flask - 20% quality - well rolled

• 5L Dendrobate

Stage 3 - Death Oath, focus farming.

Template/Starter PoB: https://pastebin.com/J71mVMru

My PoB: https://pastebin.com/XnzaNZ7u

MF PoB: https://pastebin.com/DFYsY3P6

video: https://youtu.be/MpexLu09baI

no gears showcase: https://youtu.be/Pwz6oXPrWAA

Once again, this build suck at single. You should finish your atlas complete or go straight to the Toxic Rain upgrade. This stage don't require any 6L, you can self-craft almost all gear and still archive insane clear speed.

At this stage, keep abusing The Gull and you could run whatever content you like to build up your bankroll to the next craft/upgrade. With current clear speed, nothing can stop you. Or you can keep Alche and go, then sell Essense in bulk, or learn to craft for profit.

My favorite content at this stage is Blight (main), Harbinger, and Ambush.

Atlas: https://poeskilltree.com/?v=3.17.0-atlas#AAAABAAAAAMfB4gIGwncChkKPQq-DuIPYxXAF8sYxBtOHXQfOB_EIcUkyybnKNAqhCz8LwQvbjADM-Q0iD5fQV9CE0J3QyNF4UgAUBdWRVk8Wcxb2VzZX-tgZ2IpY7VmxmfpbP1tfW4qcStzi30Tf9yCaYPdhcSGmIfph_uK0Y0pj9SU4aLepKyngqq5ruqvwbH7sma0hrbouky83ML_xtnHs8e9yH7Joc2oznrOg9Ci0U3Uudi12NDZkN9e3_jgFuGL5Y_q1ezl7aDuwfFL8uj1TPV390_35Pow-rL9Hf3J_dE=

Some notes at this stage (beside note in PoB)

• small cluster is OP, give us a lot of DPS and provide mana reserve efficiency.

• Using The Gull make it hard to cap 100% spell suppress, but it worthy trade-off.

• Avoid Blight and Beyond, this will make the server crash if you let blight mob stack. Because we clearing too fast with explode chain and beyond spawn will make a loop then... crash. (Don't think about intended crash instance to dupe item, I already warn you :D)

• Awaken AoE support is a super worthy upgrade. But you need to prepare a 5off socket color Death Oath.

• Buy Inspire Learning asap, it adds fun to the game. Then swap amulet to Solstice Vigil... for more fun :D

• farm Imperial Legacy div card for 6L bow

• Start to craft +3 bow, prepare for next transform (crafting guide in the bottom of post)

• prepare a good set of the flask, enchant with "Use when charge reach full" and forget the auto macro script

• replace Steel Skin with Molten Shelf give us more eHP

• binding Withering step in left click give more DPS, binding Guard skill in left click give more survivability

• learn to use Enduring Cry - we don't have free life flask recharge like a previous passive tree, It also gives us endurance charges

Minimum requirements

• Death Oath (obvious)

• 2 wand/rune dagger with "(chaos) DOT mul" and bench craft "inc chaos damage"

Stage 4 - Death Oath ft. Toxic Rain totem

My Current PoB: https://pastebin.com/hwq5F796

Video: https://youtu.be/Cpm9pR3q0L0

For the long time, CA known as the best friend of Death Oath.

I disagree. Even with a good bow, I still feel clunky with CA at a single target. TR-totem comes to the rescue, with a lot of advantages:

• auto-aim, what the point of playing Death Oath and still need to aim

• don't require attack speed to do decent DPS

• don't require us to stand to cast

• hold aggro from boss

• totem still deal damage while we loot item :D

At the current stage, you can run Triple Beyond + Delirium, and can do any boss yourself (still need skill and learn the boss pattern, not foolproof bosser).

Some notes for this stage

• you need to prepare an additional bow, 1 to use and 1 (try) to craft a better one (crafting guide in the bottom of post)

• crafting a good bow may require a lot of investment (time and currency), if you want to skip stage 3, consider your bankroll first

• craft rare helmet with spell suppress if you juice map too much and can't pick up shire

• prepare 6L carcass if you want to transform to CA/TR-totem

• save up for a luxury upgrade

Minimum requirements

• Death Oath (obvious)

• 6L +3 bow

Stage 5 - Caustic Arrow, Toxic Rain totem ft. Herald of Ash (final form)

My 3.16 PoB: https://pastebin.com/gWu3siCP

My 3.17 PoB (min-max): https://pastebin.com/jqLzxqka

3.16 Video: https://youtu.be/bUCppExj8MI

3.17 Video: https://youtu.be/L10OYx80taA

(you can find more video in my channel, I record almost everything content with this build)

Death Oath is cheap to start but has it own problem, we need to face-check everything. CA can solve this problem with the cost of more clicks. Good thing, CA does more damage.

Other advantages of dropping Death Aura are saved up passive points, mana reserve from curses (before we must run curses as an aura to trigger the effect of Asenath Touch) to archive more DPS, survivability

Hidden Stage - MF somesh*t

PoB: https://pastebin.com/DFYsY3P6

Video: https://youtu.be/Sh2ur_fB0qk

MF is love, MF is life.

Advanced - Gears choice

As I mentioned before, balance resists w/o Gloves/Belt/Helmet gives us a lot of power in gears choice.

Rings

Rare: resist, life, despair on hit (optional), frenzy on kill, endurance on kill

Unique: Death Rush (for poison concoction)

Boots

Rare: spell suppress, resist, move speed, life

Unique: Atziri's Step

Helmet

Rare: spell suppress, mana reserve efficiency, resist, life, (bench) +1 level AOE / inc AOE

Unique: The Gull

Belt

Rare: streng, dex (what unique are you thinking about ^^), life, res (not recommend)

Unique: Bisco's Leash, Replica Head Hunter, Head Hunter, Mage Blood

Gloves

Rare: life, DoT mul (hunter), res (not recommend)

Unique: The Embalmer (poison concoction), Null and Void (or other gloves with Rampage), Asenath's Gentle Touch (BIS)

Amulet

Rare: +1 all skill gem, +1 all chaos gem, DOT mul, chaos DOT mul, Malevolence mana reserve, life, (bench) inc AOE damage / inc AOE, res (not recommend)

Unique: Ashes of the Stars, Impresence (chaos), Solstice Vigil (after-acquired Inspired Learning/replica HH/ HH)

Body

Rare: life, res, (bench) max life as extra ES

Unique: Dendrobate, Death Oath, Carcass Jack (BIS)

Shield (poison concoction only)

Rare: mana reserve, spell suppress, life, res (not recommend)

Unique: Leper's Alms

Wand/Rune Dagger

Rare: DOT mul, chaos DOT mul, (bench) inc chaos damage

Unique: None

Bow

Rare: +1 gem, +2 bow gem (or bench craft +2 support gem), DOT mul, (bench) chaos DOT mul, inc chaos DOT (hunter)

Unique: None

Quiver

Rare: inc damage with bow skill, DOT mul with attack skill, +1 arrow, life

Unique: Skirmish

Cluster

Large: chaos damage

Medium: AoE / chaos DOT, balance by your style

Small: Master of Command (is a must)

Additional attribute or resist is a big plus

Advanced - Min-Maxing, Luxury upgrade

Let's talk about BIS or nearly BIS item

Helmet enchant

"Deter/Grace/Male 30% mana reserve efficiency" is BIS for mana management

"Withering Step inflict 3 additional Withered debuffs" is BIS for output DPS

Bow

A good bow don't have "Can have up to 3 crafted modifiers" (roast me). Besides 4 fixed mods (+1 gem, +2 bow gem, DOT mul, inc chaos DOT) and bench craft "chaos DOT mul", the 6th mod should be "+2 arrow" or "atk speed". I prefer +2 arrow over attack speed.

Mirror tier bow may be synthesis base +level gem, or +2 arrow with Aisling "chaos DOT mul".

Base bow should have 1.5 APS and require as less dex as possible.

Rune Dagger

In case you want to stay with Death Oath, good dagger would have Hunter "inc chaos DOT", "DOT mul", "chaos DOT mul" then bench craft "inc DOT"

Gloves

Asenath Touch with corrupted implicit: Despair on Hit, +1 frenzy, +1 socketed, +2 AOE

Double corrupt Despair on Hit and Enfeeb on Hit and annoint Wishper of Doom give us the best defensive curses setup

Double corrupt Despair on Hit and +1 frenzy give best output dps

Double corrupt Despair on Hit and +1 socketed gem give best mana reserve with Enlighten Support

Belt

Mage Blood is BIS. Head Hunter is fun. Your choice (also Bisco is cheap AF).

Helmet

The Gull is broken AF with atlas passives.

Non-influ rare:

• (synthesis) Socketed Skill Gems get a 92% Cost & Reservation Multiplier or useful Eldrich mod

• (essense) 10% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills

• T1 spell suppress

• T1 resist

• T1 Life or (unveil) +2 AOE gem/inc AOE

• (craft) life or +1 AOE gem/inc AOE

Double influ rare:

• (hunter) -14% chaos res

• (redeemer) 14% mana reserve

• T1 spell suppress

• T1 Life or (unveil) +2 AOE gem/inc AOE

• (craft) life or +1 AOE gem/inc AOE

Rings

Suffix

• T1 resist

• Despair on Hit (if you dont have corrupted gloves)

• Frenzy/Endurance charge on kill

Prefix:

• T1 life

• (warlord) inc AOE

• (Craft) -7 mana cost of Non-channeling skill

Amulet

• +1 all skill

• +1 chaos skill

• T1 DOT mul

• T1 chaos DOT mul

• Male mana reserve

• (craft) -7 mana cost

Body

My best choice is Carcass +4

Watcher Eye

Useful mods

• (Grace) 15% spell suppress / move speed / immu curse

• (Malevolence) #% DOT mul / immu bleeding

• (Clarity) -10 mana cost non-channeling

• (Deter) flat armour / reduce crit damage taken / flat physic reduce

My dream combo should be "spell suppress" + "DOT mul" + "- mana"

Forbidden Flame/Flesh

New 3.17 jewels give us new window of min-max. My choice would be:

• Commander of Darkness (BIS)

• Mistress of Sacrifice

• Shaper of Storms

• Heart of Destruction

• Bastion of Elements

Megalomaniac

Can only meet but cannot ask. Go digging trade site.

Zero mana

To counter no-regen map mod also mana-pot-free, We can archive 0-mana cost in both CA/TR if stacking enough source of "reduce cost of skill" and "-X mana cost of non-channeling skill".

Advanced - Crafting Bow

There are a lot of way to craft bow, from early league to mirror tier. I will try to cover some method from easy to advance.

Shrieking Essence of Dread

We will try to get +2 bow with min cost.

If you are broke. Just 1 slam, get +2 socketed bow gem. Then go farm more currency.

Fossil crafting

Corroded + Jagged + Metallic (if ilvl >= 83)

Corroded + Metallic (if ilvl <= 82)

May be take 4-10 try to get +3 bow.

This method will always keep 1 prefix open to help you slam Hunter orb later.

Fossil crafting (again)

for a get better bow

• step 1: Spam fossil until hit +2 and "DOT mul" in suffix.

• step 2a: If have only 1 suffix. You are lucky, to go to god tier method or craft Aspect of Spider and settle down.

• step 2b: If you have 2 suffixes. Go to step 3.

• step 2c: If you have 3 suffixes. Anul! If you remove "+2 bow" or "DOT mul", back to step 1.

• step 3: Bench craft "Cannot roll Attack"

• step 4: slam Hunter Exalted Orb

• step 5a: If you have 2 prefixes. Slam Ex or Leo slam or Beast slam, to get +1 socketed gem.

• step 5b: If you have 3 prefixes, meaning you already have +1 socketed gem. Move to step 6.

• step 6: Bench craft "chaos DoT mul". Done!.

Alter spam (lame way but 100% work)

• step 1: Spam alter to get T1 "DOT mul"

• step 2: beast imprint

• step 3: regal

• step 4: anul

• step 5a: if remove "DOT mul". use imprint. Then go back to step 2.

• step 5b: if remove trash mod. Go to step 6.

• step 6: craft "Can have up to 3 crafted modifiers"

• step 7: craft "Cannot roll Attack"

• step 8: slam Hunter Exalted Orb

• step 9: Slam Ex or Leo slam or Beast slam, to get +1 socketed gem.

• step 10: remove bench craft

• step 11: Bench craft "Can have up to 3 crafted modifiers"

• step 12: Bench craft "+2 support gem"

• step 13: Bench craft "chaos DoT mul". Done!.

Now you have some decent bow... but it cost too much.

Alter spam (good tier bow prepare)

• step 1: spam alter until hit both "+2 gem" and T1 "DOT mul" (most boring part)

• step 2: imprint

• step 3: regal. anul! if failed, imprint back. Back to step 2.

• ... in advanced method, if you failed in any step, you can imprint back and go to step 2.

Now you have a rare base with only 2 mods. Go to the god/semi-god method.

Semi-God Tier Bow (with atk speed)

• step 1: acquire rare base with "+2 bow gem" and T1 "DOT mul"

• step 2: harvest aug speed

• step 3a: Hit Projectile Speed, or low tier atk speed. Try Anul. Anul success, go to step 2. Anul failed, go to step 1.

• step 3b: Hit T1/2 atk speed. Go to step 4.

• step 4: Bench craft "Cannot roll Attack"

• step 5: slam Hunter Exalted Orb

• step 6: Slam Ex or Leo slam or Beast slam, to get +1 socketed gem.

• step 7: Bench craft "chaos DoT mul". Done!.

God Tier Bow (with +2 arrow)

• step 1: acquire rare base with "+2 bow gem" and T1 "DOT mul"

• step 2: bench craft "Can have up to 3 crafted modifiers"

• step 3: craft 2 trash prefix mod from bench craft

• step 4: Aug attack

• step 5a: Hit +2 arrow. Well done! Go to step 6.

• step 5b: Hit T1/T2 atk speed. Feel sad, settle down. Go to step 6.

• step 5c: Hit trash mod. Try Anul. Anul success, go to step 4. Anul failed, go to step 1 (or 2).

• step 6: Bench craft "Cannot roll Attack"

• step 7: slam Hunter Exalted Orb

• step 8: Slam Ex or Leo slam or Beast slam, to get +1 socketed gem.

• step 9: Bench craft "chaos DoT mul".

Well Done. Good job! In case you still want to gamble more.

• step 10: Bench craft "Prefix cannot be changed"

• step 11: Aisling T4

• step 12a: Remove "prefix cannot be changed". You (nearly) win.

• step 12b: Remove anything else. Cry! Go over again (if you still have resources).

• step 13: Unveil!

• step 14a: Hit "chaos DOT mul". Congratulation! You win 1st prize.

• step 14b: Hit anything related to "attack speed". Congratulation! You win 2nd prize.

• step 14c: Only trash mod. Cry! Settle down with meme-bow or start over again.

Conclusion

This is my first ever POE guide. Welcome to roast me in affection. I will update my build based on your suggestion.

/edit 1

because of some argument over Inspire Learning make the build OP, I made a showcase video without IL, only magic weapon, no rings, no boots

https://youtu.be/Pwz6oXPrWAA

/edit 2

Keep in mind, items in each PoB here (except template) are a snapshot of my character in the journey (or from the past league) to give you an idea of how the build looks in each stage. Keep the focus on the passive tree and my side note, rather than buying exactly item, the build doesn't need all of the luxury items to functions well. I may pick the luxury options cause of opportunity, situations when I played, or just because I have the fund. If you follow the guide and have any issues, come back here to get help from me, or we will argue how fuck up the guide I made :P.

Someone complains about my corrupted Despair on Hit gloves is expensive AF, I don't intend (and I don't even have the fund) to buy that, just got lucky from Div cards. I didn't have the fund to buy new gloves just for record gameplay purposes. I tried my best to record a showcase with fewer biased items as possible.

And don't get me wrong. if you can juice a map with more than 80c/map (kirac mod, rolled beyond sextant, 4 Gilded/Winged scarab, Delirium orb, rolled 25+ quan map...) and you tell me "Inspire Learning (2ex) is expensive AF". Sorry, we aren't talking the same language.

/edit 3

Update MF PoB: https://pastebin.com/DFYsY3P6

/edit 4

Update 3.17 min-maxed: https://pastebin.com/jqLzxqka

/edit 5

3.17 PoB min-maxed: https://pastebin.com/0v4RX1Wx

Got the triple curses Asenath after the 9th try, I was blessed. Now I can drop blasphemy and solved both socket and mana hunger, welcome Herald of Ash back to the team.

Defensive layer: 52k evasion, 48k armor, 100% spell suppress, 88% elemental res, enfeeble, temporal chain... gave us around 480k eHP against 50k hit.

Offensive: zoom zoom explodes a whole screen and... next 3 "normal" screens

Ashes of the Stars + Enhance Support + Alter gems are awesome.

The hidden heroes are Forbidden Flame/Fresh Commander of Darkness combo very well with buff provided from IL/replica HH gave a lot of attacks speed to Toxic Rain totem, they fire like Gatling guns.

So that may be my final optimization to the build because it's very all-rounded at the moment... until somebody gives me the next wild idea.