[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Occultist Builds That Wreck Hard! (3.20.2)

Updated:

16 Feb 2023

5 – Death’s Oath Caustic Arrow

This lovely old build continues to be a treat to play, especially if you can afford a Headhunter and just zoom around without a care in the world. It got significantly buffed this league, as Caustic Arrow got its new Vaal Version, which has a baseline 3 times as high as regular CA!

What DO Caustic Arrow Excels in:

Fantastic Clearing, you clear as you walk
Good single target with investment
Can do most content
Perfect for League Starting

Pick DO Caustic Arrow if you Like:

Builds that essentially play by themselves
Play the same build right from level 1
Purple and massive BoomBooms

Death’s Oath Caustic Arrow full details:

Death’s Oath is an Aura that degens you for 450 Chaos damage per 3 seconds after killing an Enemy. While this seems like a lot, when you’re an Occultist and have easy access to a lot of Chaos res, at 75% Chaos Res, that 450 Chaos Damage becomes a measly 133 (ish) Damage, which can easily be out-sustained. That’s not even considering if you have a Sanctified Relic that grants Max Chaos Res!
The new Vaal Caustic Arrow has a damage ceiling that easily tops all other DoT base gems in the game, overtaking Fire Trap for the first time in over 4 leagues! It also has 2 charges, so you can have near-permanent upkeep of it during bossing, and it’s a delightful build to play.
This type of build promotes investment and a lot of movement speed, and there’s no better movement speed belt than Headhunter. You could use a Bisco’s, or even a Mageblood if you have it. Otherwise, a regular, strong Stygian Vise will serve you well.

For more information, check: https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/char/Clavinova89/DoktorSchniepelmatz?time-machine=week-3&i=0&search=time-machine%3Dweek-3%26class%3DOccultist%26skill%3DVaal-Caustic-Arrow%26sort%3Ddps

4 – Blade Vortex

An old favourite of many, Blade Vortex remains a fantastic clearing skill, and with proper investment, it can grind down any boss. In addition, it’s a lovely skill to just explode entire packs to smithereens and run over their corpses.

What Blade Vortex Excels in:

Zoomy build
Dozens of millions of damage, when adequately invested
Clear as fast as you walk

Pick Blade Vortex if you Like:

Builds that make you zoom faster than light
Massive chain Explosions.
Perfect for multiple MTXes.
Lots of boom booms

Blade Vortex full details:

You’ll want a Sacrificial Garb, as Vaal Blade Vortex scales supremely well with Levels, and this body armor is why it can clear so effectively. A rare crusader mod, with Enemies killed have a % chance to explode, can delete entire packs in the blink of an eye. You can also use a Redeemer for more Aura Effect and then Awakener’s Orb them together.
Since gem levels are the best thing possible, you want a Bow, preferably Synthetized with either +1 Gems or 18% Double Damage implicit. Then it’s just a matter of Essence of Woe Spamming until you get Crit Multi, and annulling until you only have the % Spell Damage and the Crit Multi. This way, you can then get a +3 (or +4 with the implicit), Bow with Crit Multi and even more chance to Double Damage by using Multimod.
Since we’re Aura Stacking, one of the best items in the game for us is Ashes of the Stars, which can make all our auras and skills shine with their Alternative Quality, by boosting them by 30%!!

For more information, check: https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/char/Imthemaster/Ericgo?time-machine=week-3&i=10&search=time-machine%3Dweek-3%26class%3DOccultist%26skill%3DBlade-Vortex%26sort%3Ddps

3 – Cast on Crit Ice Spear Occultist

This is what CoC Ice Spear looks like when you have a near-infinite budget and can toy around with one of the best and most broken uniques introduced in this league, Nimis. It’s a ring that makes it so all projectiles return to you, regardless of their travel. This means they can also double-hit and shotgun. However, it comes with a drawback (which isn’t a big drawback depending on the skill): it fires your projectiles in random directions.

What Cast on Crit Ice Spear Excels in:

Insane clearing.
Buttery smooth gameplay. You kill as you spin.
Amazing single-target damage.
Can clear all content.

Pick Cast on Crit Ice Spear if you Like:

CoC Builds
Clear as fast as you move
Demolish all content

Cast on Crit Ice Spear full details:

Nimis, as I said before, makes it so all your projectiles fire in random directions and then return to you, hitting enemies on their path once again. And since Ice Spear is an exceptionally quick projectile, and Sniper’s Mark creates over a dozen more projectiles, with Nimis, you’re dealing, by sheer virtue of projectile count, a buttload of damage.
You can either go with a Cospri’s Malice as your weapon, or you can use a dagger with Vagan Mod to not worry about accuracy at all while also getting a ton of good benefits, like Crit Multi, Crit Chance, +1 to all Cold (levels for spells are the best to increase their damage) and attack speed.
That is important because there are certain thresholds you wanna reach with CoC builds, those being 7.57 and 10.10 attacks per second (with all buffs active). So you need a pretty quick weapon to reach that attack speed threshold (and not go over it, as it will ruin your damage significantly. Aim to get it as close but UNDER the point. As well as getting a ton of CDR, with 52% being required for 10 aps.

For more information, check here: https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/char/phasegrenade/CallMeKermitTheFrog?time-machine=week-3&i=1&search=time-machine%3Dweek-3%26skill%3DIce-Spear%26item%3DNimis%26sort%3Ddps

2 – Cast on Crit Forbidden Rite

While it has fallen out of favour a bit, since Sentinel league, with the nerfs to % Global Defense and other, stronger meta-skills popping up, FR is still one of the most powerfull skills, mechanically, in the game, and it is, personally, the strongest build I’ve ever played.

What Cast on Crit Forbidden Rite Excels in:

Immortal build.
Can do any content, even Uber Bosses with Height of Hubris and insane Mods.
Perfect Simulacrum Farmer can play while watching a show or a movie without needing to focus.
More than respectable damage and clearing.

Pick FR CoC if you Like:

Having a build that can do everything and anything, without gear swaps.
Able to play a build without more than a button press, gliding across the screen cycloning.
Face tanking pretty much everything without a care in the world.

Cast on Crit Forbidden Rite full details:

It’s a build that can do any content, any of the Uber Bosses (which I’ve farmed Uber Maven now so much that I’ve gotten 2 Woke Enlightens!), 100% Delirious Maps, The Feared, Sanctum, you name it.
Forbidden Rite gets its damage scaling off 5% of our Energy Shield (we’re CI), so the more ES we have, the more damage we deal. This means you’ll want to be as tankier as possible because you’ll be dealing the most damage potential.
As such, things like Global Defense Fractured Chests are the way to go, as you can scale your FR’s level insanely high with Faceted Fossils and get a ton of ES from your Grasping Mail.

For more information, check here: https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/char/jmsplat/Waiter?i=0&search=class%3DOccultist%26skill%3DForbidden-Rite%26sort%3Ddps

1 – Poison Spark Occultist

With the introduction of Nimis, and the resurgence of poison builds, combined with the vastness ‘overpoweredness’ of Occultist, it makes sense Poison Spark would also return to the meta. And all you need is an Ashes, a Nimis and a Mageblood (I’m kidding, you don’t need a MB, wink-wink).

What Poison Spark Excels in:

Fantastic Clearing
Great at Sanctum, can hit behind walls.
Insane amounts of damage.
One of the best Maven Invitations Farmer because of the arena.
Quite tanky.

Pick Poison Spark if you Like:

Instantly exploding everything in sight
Dealing millions of damage without a worry in the world
Purple Explosions with Profane Bloom

Poison Spark full details:

Nimis makes it so all projectiles you fire go off in random directions at the benefit of them returning to you at the end of their flight. This means your sparks will hit the enemies very often because whenever they bounce, they reset their enemy count, and then once again, when they come back to you.
And you need Ashes of the Stars to increase your Phantasmal Spark’s quality to over 50%, meaning you get to convert 100% of your lightning damage into chaos, enabling the total damage of your spell as a poison application.
You also use the borderline broken Incandescent Heart interaction with CI, making it so you take 25% reduced elemental damage for free. And not only that, but you also gain 20% of your Elemental (Lightning) damage as Chaos, for even more poison damage.

For more information, check here: https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/char/poepenguin/sanctPenguin?time-machine=week-3&i=0&search=time-machine%3Dweek-3%26class%3DOccultist%26skill%3DSpark%26item%3DNimis%2CIncandescent-Heart%26sort%3Ddps