Home / Build / [2.6] Low Life Essence Drain Witch (Occultist)

[2.6] Low Life Essence Drain Witch (Occultist)

Intro & build description

This is ”go-to” build for many PoE players as league starting character since it is extremely easy to get build going and it doesn’t require anything specific to perform well in mid 70 maps. Once you get to that point, investing currency in items make it incredibly strong and easy to push red maps, guardians and even Shaper. If you want a safe bet starting new league, not worrying about character performing well later on, this build is for you.

Build Pros

  • Easy to play
  • Great league starter build
  • Very cheap to start with (pre low-life)
  • Guardians and Shaper viable
  • Can do any content currently in the game

Build Cons

  • Not the fastest build in terms of clear speed
  • Requires some currency to unlock full potential

Passive tree(s) and Path of Building

Full Build

Bandits

Bandits Quest Choice
Kill all bandits

Ascendancy skill points

LabyrinthsSkill point choice
Labyrinth 1Wicked Ward
Labyrinth 2Vile Bastion
Labyrinth 3Void Beacon
Endgame LabyrinthProfane Bloom

Skill gem setup

Helm


Blasphemy Support

Temporal Chains

Arctic Armour

Enfeeble


Body Armor


Essence Drain

Controlled Destruction Support

Empower Support

Rapid Decay Support

Void Manipulation Support

Pierce Support


Gloves


Blood Magic Support

Clarity

Discipline

Vaal Discipline (Unlinked)


Boots


Spell Totem Support

Wither

Faster Casting Support

Vaal Discipline (Unlinked)


2h Weapon


None


1h Weapon


Whirling Blades

Faster Attacks Support

Fortify Support


Offhand weapon / shield


Contagion

Faster Casting Support

Increased Area of Effect Support



Build uniques / Example rare gear


Tip: Click on the item to view it on PoE Wiki or to view similar rare items in poe.trade

Helmet

Hubris Circlet

Hubris Circlet with high energy shield and some resistances.


Body Armour

Shavronne's Wrappings

Before you farm enough currency for Shavronne’s Wrappings, any hybrid ES chest will work just fine.

 

Hybrid – Life and energy shield rolled on chest.


Gloves

Sorcerer Gloves

Nothing much to say here, get as much ES and resistances as you can.


Boots

Sorcerer Boots

Look for pair with 25%+ movement speed boots with energy shield and maybe some resistances. All 3 of these mods can get pricy, MS + ES is just fine.


Left Ring

Two-Stone Ring

Rings will cover resistances, which allows you to sacrifice some resistances on other pieces of gear to get as much ES as possible. Look for rings with strength as well, since these stats are hard to come buy on the skill tree as witch.


Right Ring

Two-Stone Ring

Strength, energy shield and resistances are your priority on rings.


Amulet

Eye of Chayula

Eye of Chayula is mandatory since it makes us immune to stuns. Get it as soon as possible.


Belt

Crystal Belt

Your typical Crystal Belt with ES and resistances.


1Hand Weapon

The Consuming Dark

Great dagger for this build, any rare dagger with spell damage will serve you well till you find or buy consuming dark.


Offhand

Titanium Spirit Shield

Get as much energy shield as possible, massive boost for energy shield pool.


Jewel

Energy From Within

Great jewel to place close to ”Melding” life/ES cluster in passive skill tree.


Flask

Witchfire Brew

Insane flask for the build, huge DPS boost while flask is active.



Gameplay

Build in action.

Feel free to share your thoughts/experiences/tips about the build in comments section below.

About prime

Prime is knowledgeable in everything builds related. Mostly focuses on writing build guides and tutorials on how to play with certain skills.

8 comments

  1. Hi cool build can you help for skill tree progression. Thanks

    • Hi. In early levels go for approximately 50/50 mix of defensive and offensive nodes (half nodes with spell damage and cast speed and other half with energy shield and life nodes for survivability, also some mana). While leveling pick up 2x Lifesprig Wands for cheap and you shouldn’t have any problems progressing.

  2. what are the other jewel stats beside the Energy From Within

  3. Hey I am playing your build its working great so far just got a question which is confusing me.
    You are suggesting 2 curses one as spell totem one as aura but I don`t see a skill that you can have 2 curses on enemies – could you explain me the playstyle?

    I am fairly new to poe and only played diablo 2 ages ago.

    • Hi, best course of action would be to pick up Doedre’s Damning ring – that will allow us to use 2 curses on enemies.

  4. Hi gems, I have a question about the curses too.
    Would you rather use Doedre’s ring or maybe even use the passiv skill whispers of doom ?
    Or how did you manage to use both curses ?

  5. I love the build so far. Just am using a more glasscannon version of it wit pure ES armour and wands. So here’s my question – isn’t moonsorrow better for the build? you cannot use whirling blades, but you obliterate everything before it can touch you. Flame dash is enough for me now (lvl 61, so still much to go for) so I hardly ever die and deal decent damage 🙂
    It makes me wonder if I should be switching to more hybrid, bit tankier build 😉

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