Level 85 Vaal Caustic Arrow Occultist^3.24

Notes

Guide by Allie
https://www.twitch.tv/Allliee_
https://www.youtube.com/c/Alliee


3.23 Changes:

Not much has changed, Caustic Arrow has recieved a minor aoe increase giving us better clear.

As for Wildwood Ascendancies, id recommend going Primalist and trying to fit in a Tailwind Charm, and Spell Suppression Charms to Spell Supression Cap.

Minimum items to play CA AND for it to feel comfy

Death's Oath - This is the bread and butter of your clear. This chest is like 5 chaos at best and you DO NOT need to 6 link it or link it at all. We need to recolor it to GGBBRR or at least GGBRR. More on this in the chest section. Try to buy one with a high attribute roll.
Bow - You will want to buy a decent 5-6 link bow or craft one yourself. We want to find a +1 socketed or +2 Bow Skills bow with a T1 or T2 "Damage over Time Multiplier" roll on it. Lastly we want a open Suffix to craft "Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier" on it.
High Chaos Resistance - You will have decent Chaos Res for simply being an Occultist but you will want to have at least 60-75% Chaos Resistance to not degen from Death's Oath.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>IMPORTANT FOR DEATHS OATH PLEASE READ <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Do not use Less Duration without Lifetap. Less Duration only works on skills with the Duration tag and Lifetap is needed as it gives Death Aura the Duration tag.

Once you have Lifetap socketed you will NEED TO TRIGGER IT.
Lifetap from any source will make all lifetaps work at their correct gem level. Because of this we need to link a level 1 lifetap to Flame Dash.
Every time you Flame Dash it will give you the Lifetap buff making the level 20 Lifetap in your chest actually work.



How to start this build

We cannot start CA from act 1 due to Occultist having access to any relevant nodes. CA also relies on you having a good bow and ideally Vaal CA as it is a massive single target buff.
Because of this we will be using Poison Concoction to get to Maps. Once at maps we will buy a decent bow as our first purchase and immediately swap to Vaal CA.
Leveling with Poison Concoction will be easy as long as you follow the leveling Pob.
You do not need Death's Oath to start CA, you can buy it later, we just need Vaal CA and a good bow.

One option to get a good bow at maps:

1. Buy an Essence of Dread and use it on a bow for guaranteed +2 Bow Gems on a 6 link bow. 
2. Craft Chaos Dot Multi.

Questions

Ailment Immunity? - Stormshroud, get it early
Defensive Layers? - Adren, High Life on Kill, Viridis Veil, Enfeeble, High Evasion & Armor, Just the fact this build is ranged, At Higher Budget: Timeless Jewel with Divine Flesh

Gear

Basic overview of every slot and what to look for.

IN GENERAL - Fit resistances & Dex/Str wherever you can fit.

Helmet

Our BIS helmet for this build is Viridi's Veil. This helmet just does too many good things for CA. It can roll up to 25% All Res making rec capping easier, It has +2 Socketed Gems giving us a level 5 Enlighten allowing us to run all auras we need.
Lastly, if you equip a Magic ring in the LEFT slot you will be immune to crits which is an extremely powerful defensive layer and all enemies will be unlucky meaning they will roll for damage twice and pick the lower number when attacking you.

Viridi simply gives this build too much defense and mana to not run. Only issue is that Viridi is a Maven drop thus, you will not see one for the first few days. The upside is that Vidiri is one of the most common drops making it cheap.
Once they are available try to get a good all res roll.

Until you get Viridi use a rare helmet. If we put the Eater of World "Mana Reservation Efficiency" roll as an implicit. This will allow you to run Determination, Grace, Malevolence, and Despair on Blashphemy or, get a "Mana Reservation Efficiency" Jewel.
Buy some Lesser Eldrich Ichors and spam for "Mana Reservation Efficiency".  Try to craft Life or resistances as needed or buy a good helmet.
Try to do this on an Evasion base.

Once you have Viridi's Veil and a Level 4 Enighten, Fit in Herald of Ash for better clear.


Chest

Use any generic chest until Death's Oath.

Once you have Death's Oath we will need to recolor it to ideally GGBBRR or at least GGBRR. The easiest way to do this is to corrupt it and use Tainted Chromatic Orbs. These can be a bit expensive at 4-7c each but will randomly recolor all sockets with no bias.
It will take you anywhere from 5-10 of them to get GGBBRR on average but keep GGBRR if you hit it and recolor or buy a colored one later.

Order of Importance for gems to socket: Void Manipulation - Concentraded Effect - Lifetap - Swift Affliction - Efficacy - Less Duration.
Do not use Less Duration without Lifetap. Less Duration only works on skills with the Duration tag and Lifetap is needed as it gives Death Aura the Duration tag.

Once you have Lifetap socketed you will NEED TO TRIGGER IT.
Lifetap from any source will make all Lifetaps work at their correct gem level. Because of this we need to link a level 1 Lifetap to Flame Dash.
Every time you Flame Dash it will give you the Lifetap buff making the level 20 Lifetap in your chest actually work.


DO NOT BUY A 6 LINK/LINK IT - Death's Oath does not need to be linked at all as all supports are applied to the skill the chest gives. Just 6 socket it.
Try to look for one with a high attribute roll to help with the high str and dex this build needs.


Belt

Get a Stygian that fills in any Dex/Str you might be missing and any res you need. You can try to look for flat Armor+Evasion too but its more of a nice to have.

Once you have Stormshroud you will want to get a new Stygian to become ailment immune. To do this we will use Essences of Torment to roll "Chance to avoid Shocks". 
This combined with an ailment avoid Eldrich Implicit on boots & a "Chance to avoid Shocks" roll on a abyss jewel will give you 100% chance to avoid Shocks which Stormshroud will turn into ailment immunity.

Ideally use Shrieking essences, don't use Deaf as it is overkill when combined with boot implicit and abyss.

Bow

For a starter bow look for one that has +1 Socketed Gems or +2 Socketed Bow Skills & Damage Over Time Multiplier on it. You can either get your own 6 link with Porcupine Cards or you can just buy one. Maraketh is the best base as all we care about is Movement Speed.
Try to find a bow with an open Suffix to craft Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier.

This bow should be enough for early game. We don't need to upgrade this until we get a Level 2 or 3 Empower. Once you have one crafting a near bis bow for this build is simple but a bit costly, this will cost ~5-6 div.

Crafting Process For BIS Bow:

1. Buy a i82 Maraketh Bow
2. Alt Spam for Tier 1 Damage Over Time Multiplier 
3. Regal to make the bow rare, annul everything off that isn't Tier 1 Damage Over Time Multiplier. You now have a rare bow with 1 Suffix.
4. Craft "Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers" & "Cannot roll Attack Modifiers" This will fill up suffixes.
5. Exalt Orb Slam for guaranteed +1 Level of Socketed Gems.
6. Hunter Exalted Orb Slam AFTER to fill another Prefix and guarantee "x% increased Chaos Damage over Time"
6. Remove Crafted Modifiers and recraft "Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers" then craft "+2 to Level of Socketed Support Gems" and "+x% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier"

Once you have made this bow, swap to Arrow Nova for better clear.

Quiver

Best Base: Feathered Arrow

Defensive mods to look for: Life, Resistances
Offensive mods to look for: "+x% to Damage over Time Multiplier with Attack Skills", "x% increased Damage with Bow Skills" Hunter Mod: "+x% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier with Attack Skills"

Not much to say about a quiver, try to get at least 2 damage rolls and life at the minimum. If you want better clear you can also look for "Bow Attacks fire an additional Arrow" but it will not give more dps.
Hunter quivers a few days into the season should start propping up too and the Chaos Dot Multi roll on them is a big spike.


Boots

Look for an Evasion base, with high Life, resistances, and a 25% or better Movement Speed roll. 

Use Eater of Worlds Ichors to hit "% chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments". Use at least Greater to make Ailment Capping with Stormshoud easier. 
Use Searing Exarch Embers to hit "Chaos Resistance" or "Movement Speed". Its nice to be chaos res capped & the more you have the better or to get movement speed. Remember to bless the chaos res implicit as it has a roll unlike most other ones.

Gloves

The only gloves we want for this build is Asenath's Gentle Touch. These gloves give us chain explosions which will greatly help with clear speed. Look for a high life roll if possible.

Until you get Asenath's you can use any Evasion gloves or ideally Apothecary's Gloves for the Damage over Time Multiplier Implicit.
Look for Life and Resistances but keep in mind you will replace these with Asenath quickly.

Rings

One of your rings will eventually be Death Rush. This ring is just too good giving us free Adrenaline which provides 100% Damage, 25% Movement Speed and 10% Phys Reduction.
The important roll is the Adrenaline on kill, try to find 2 or 3 seconds as 1 will not feel good. Try to get a high Life on Kill roll to greatly help with staying alive.

Your other ring will be a Magic yes Magic Iolite Ring. This is to abuse Viridi's Veil "Damage of Enemies Hitting you is Unlucky while you have a Magic Ring Equipped" & "Take no Extra Damage from Critical Strikes if you have a Magic Ring in left slot"
Both of these effects are incredibly broken and can take care of most of our defensive needs for the majority of progression.

Since the ring will be magic we only need 2 stats. Either buy 1 with tier 1 life or Alt spam for Tier 1 Life then craft whatever suffix youd like. 
I like to use this suffix as a flex slot to fix my build. You can put any missing Dex or Str here or any Resistances. If you are good on everything then put 1 Minimum Frenzy Charge for a 4% dmg boost.

Until you have Viridi's Veil DO NOT use a Magic ring. Get any generic ring with life and res. The same goes for Death Rush until you get it.

Amulet

Use any generic amulet until you can buy Impressence. This item drops off of Elder and has 5 variations. We want the one that has "Despair has no Reservation if Cast as an Aura" MAKE SURE YOU BUY THIS ONE AND NOT THE WRONG ONE.
Impressence allows us to reserve Despair for free freeing up reservation for Enfeeble which makes us even tankier. It also has perfect stats for us with Life and generic Chaos Damage over Time as well as Chaos Res to help us cap it.

One good option until you can get Impressence if you dont need anything else is Eternal Struggle. If you can get one with Searing Exarch as the dominant roll ie, the bigger one, you will get a very nice 15% cull on everything.

Some good rolls to look for here are:
Aura Effect
Curse Effect
Chaos Damage
Max Res
Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier

You can also just use a rare amulet with some Life, Damage over Time Multiplier, and either +1 Skill Gems or +1 Chaos Gems.


Annoint Sovereignty to be able to fit all auras.

Flasks

Use your preferred set of Utility flasks, Quisksilver, Granite & Jade do very well. Try to get Increased Effect on them & whichever suffixes you prefer. 
Sulphur is also very nice to help with early game damage while you scale this build.

Gems

Unique Jewels in this build:
Stormshroud - This jewel is out Ailment Immunity, if we get 100% chance to avoid Shocks then we are immune to all ailments. This is done with a Tormented Essence roll on a belt, Eldrich Implicit on boots, and the remainder on an Abyss Jewel
Transcended Mind - Generic Damage over Time Multi, cheap and effective, put it in the socket above witch start.


Use PoB's Trade for these items feature to snipe good jewels for this build. 
Get Mana Reservation Efficiency if needed.

Good stats include: 
"+x% to Damage over Time Multiplier"
"x% increased Chaos Damage"
"x% increased maximum Life"
"x% increased Damage"

Generic Upgrade Order

Here is a potential order in which to buy upgrades at the start of a season

+1 & Dot suffix Bow -> Vaal CA -> Deaths Oath & Tainted Chroms to recolor -> BUY THESE AS SOON AS THEY ARE AVAILABLE IN THIS ORDER: Asenath's Gentle Touch -  Impressence - Viridi's Veil - Death Rush -> 
Awakened Arrow Nova when available -> Level 3 Empower -> Transcended Mind -> Bow Craft from bow section -> Stormshroud & new Stygian -> Awakened Jewels





















'