Level 97 Hybrid Essence Drain Occultist^3.17

Notes

**Levelling guide, notes subject to change as the new league launches.

Welcome to the Subtractem Bane Occultist Levelling guide!

This guide is designed to give players an excellent league starter comfortably and smoothly. While it's not as fast as other builds out there, it's very effecient and budget friendly.
This guide is NOT a complete ACT compaign walkthrough. It is designed to take you from the beginning of the game, when it's most challenging to the endgame.
Incase you do not know, the Tree section in the Path of Building has a drop down menu on the bottom left that lets you see the stages of the passive tree as you progress.

(Much thanks to notes editor extraordinaire Khaosshinobi for this spectacular rewrite - Subtractem)

Act 1
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-Grab Freezing Pulse from the first quest, and buy Blight from Nessa to begin levelling it up. But don't actually use Blight, yet. Save your blue gems!
-Link Freezing Pulse with Arcane Surge (Ditch this setup once you get Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall)

Don't level Arcane Surge too much if you notice it's uptime starts being too infrequent. *Generally level 3 is fine, but level 1 is on the safer side for uptime*

-Look for a Red+Blue+Blue or Green link item to link Holy Flame Totem + Summon Phantasm + Added Lightning
-Look for Blue+Blue+Blue for Frost Blink (until you get Flame Dash) + Arcane Surge + Flame Wall

(Can do Stormblast mine + Frostbomb + Orb of Storms if preferred over Holy Flame Totem w/ Summon Phantasms and/or Flame Wall)

-Buy Holy Flame Totem from Nessa, and take the skills Flame Wall and Frostblink from Tarkleigh, after travelling to the Submerged Passage
-Link Arcane Surge with Flame Wall early. Link Holy Flame Totem with Added Lightning Damage or Added Cold Damage based on the sockets you find

Summon Phantasms becomes available after collecting the Medicine Chest on the Coast. From the same quest, grab a Quicksilver flask. You'll want
to craft a mod onto your quicksilver using a transmute.

Look for Iron Rings. you can vendor an Iron Rings +  a Blue gem, like Fireball or Freezing Pulse, for a Sapphire Ring if needing frost resist for Merveil or future wand craft!

-Grab Void Manipulation, when you get to the prison. 
Socket it where possible to level it up, but don't prioritize this over your skills or red sockets for auras later.

For Brutus, use Holy Flame Totem to hold aggro and keep your distance and just play safe. 

-Grab Flame Dash, Vitality, and Clarity after defeating Brutus

Prioritise getting Vitality, it increases your survivability dramatically
Replace Frost Blink with Flame Dash, make sure you click on Flame Dash on your bar and turn on "always attack without moving" so it casts no matter where your cursor is.
If you have strength issues with Holy Flame Totem and/or Vitality, look for Heavy Belts, they give + Strength

-Grab Essence Drain when getting to Merveil's Lair to level it asap.
Immediately craft the wand below.

DISCLAIMER: If you are using this craft on your currently equipped wands it will make the item level requirement level 14!!
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Magic Wand (Blue quality) + Magic (Blue Quality) Ruby/Topaz/Sapphire Ring + Orb of Alteration
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If you don't have magic qualities, you can use Orbs of Transmutations to change them into magic quality items.
If you have spare red gems and Iron rings, you can do the same craft as earlier to get a ruby ring for this craft. Only worry about the ruby craft if you already have equipped Sapphire Rings!
  
Craft missing cold res on gear with Transmutes before going into Merveil's Caverns

Act 2
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We don't really use any of the gems here, Except for Controlled Destruction, later.

-Kill all bandits for maximum skill points.
-Socket Controlled Destruction to Flame Wall and Flame Totem if you can get the links. 

IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO START LOOKING FOR FUTURE GEAR LINKS! Check vendors often.
Since the build really shines when we are able to combine Bane + Blight + Essence Drain we want them all 3-4 linked asap. All of these skills will want G + B + B + B  link initially.


Act 3
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-Do the quest "Lost in Love" (find Tolman in the Crematorium) then buy gems from Clarissa.
At level 24 you will swap out Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall entirely and commit to pure Chaos now.
Funny enough the build is essentially complete. It's just a matter of putting the rest of the pieces together towards the end product.

Whenever 5 Links start showing up toss in Efficacy/Swift Affliction Support to your setups and just keep pushing through

As you gather more 4 Links add in Controlled Destruction to your Chaos skills, Bane first though.

Bane + Temporal Chains + Despair + Controlled Destruction (once you have a 4L)
.
Malevolence - socketed asap

-After you do Victario's Secrets quest (the busts in the sewer) you can respec the Fire Walker points towards more Chaos points. (The fire passive points above the starting area)

-At level 30-ish do Lab. Just keep Bane + Essence Drain on Izaro and walk around the edge of the arena, it's very safe and easy. I found taking Profane Bloom first was the biggest boost to clear and comfort.

The future points I go into Void Beacon -> Withering Presence and then take Malediction last.

Note: I'm not 100% sure if the "+ 1 Chaos gems, lose 10% life on cast" mastery will feel ok or not so be prepared to unspec it if it seems uncomfortable.

Act 4-10
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The build is really 80% put together now. Follow the skill trees in the PoB, do the Labs when available (Act 7 for Cruel, Act 10 for Merc) and keep a close eye on your life and res.

Keep a lookout for a Vaal Blight in Vaal side areas (or trade one from a friend that finds one) just so you can deal with getting overwhelmed in higher density areas.

The beauty of this configuration is that very little changes in play style from Act 3 onwards and you should be very comfortable playing it by the time you hit maps.

Eventually you'll want to snag some +1 Chaos Skill gems wands. The easiest way to do this is make a new level 2 character and buy them in Act 1. Alteration + Aug until you hit it. 
You likely wont have this currency early but in the later acts you should be able to go back and get some which will help a ton.

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If you have any questions or concerns regarding the build, never feel hesistated to ask question on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/subtractem , or the discord!
(Discord link found on the Twitch Channel)

Cheers!