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Poison Concoction/Bladefall Blade Blast Occultist

Lake of KalandraArchived

Last Updated:July 26, 2024|Changelog

Introduction

Welcome back to another great map blasting build. The Poisonous Concoction Occultist is the premier mapping focused character with its built in explosions from Profane Bloom. This allows chain explosions, which is an extremely satisfying mapping experience when combined with Plague Bearer. Later on in the build, you swap to Bladefall and Blade Blast for more damage and Life recovery from +# Life gained for each Enemy hit by your Spells.

Mid game BF/BB Occultist

Strengths and Weaknesses

DifficultyLow
BudgetVery Low
MappingExcellent
BossingAverage
DefenceAverage

Skills Breakdown

With your main hand empty, throw your Poisonous Concoction to cover your foes with an acrid mix of toxins. Overlap your projectiles to inflict many Poison stacks onto enemies, dealing Chaos Damage over time. Upgrade your weapon by turning the life recovery of your Divine Life Flasks into Chaos Damage causing massive damage, at little cost. Level and clear the atlas as Poisonous Concoction until you have enough gear to swap your main ability to Blade Blast.

Ascendancy Breakdown

Occultist Ascendancy Breakdown

The Occultist is the best choice for Poisonous Concoction as it provides explosions to clear packs, an additional curse and damage to take care of Map Bosses, and an additional Wither application method for even more damage.

  • Profane Bloom causes your curses to consume the corpse of your enemies, triggering a cascade of explosions once one has fallen.
  • Void Beacon gives nearby enemies -20% to Chaos Resistance and prevents them from regenerating Life.
  • Withering Presence applies Wither stacks to nearby enemies, gives you +60% to Chaos Resistance, and makes your Chaos Damage 15% more potent.
  • Malediction allows you to inflict an additional Curse on enemies and causes those cursed enemies to have the Malediction debuff. This debuff causes 10% increased Damage Taken and 10% reduced Damage Dealt.

To learn how the Labyrinth works, feel free to consult our Labyrinth Guide!

Playstyle

Level as Poisonous Concoction through the atlas by simply throwing your vials onto your enemies to inflict Poison. After you obtain enough gear, swap to the BF/BB setup. Lay down your blades with Bladefall and explode them with Blade Blast. On both versions, incubate your Poisons with Plague Bearer and unleash them when full.

Mapping

Focus on using your main damaging ability until you're at Maximum Plague Value. Unleash your Plague Bearer and Shield Charge through packs of monsters, letting your Profane Bloom take care of everything until your Plague Value is empty. Simply repeat the process for fast clear.

Bossing

Bosses don't go down easy, so save your Plague Bearer to use on the Map Boss. Put down your Ancestral Protector when playing Poisonous Concoction, and use Focus, giving you Ailment duration. Apply your Curses and unleash your Plague Bearer.

Build Scaling

Offence
Defence

Poisonous Concoction Occultist is a Chaos Damage over Time Poison Attack build scaling with:

  • #% increased Amount Recovered rolled onto a Divine Life Flask. Upgrading your Life Flasks gives you damage, so do it often while leveling!
  • #% Increased Chaos Damage
  • #% Increased Attack Speed
  • Despair and Temporal Chains to increase and extend Poison Damage.
  • Accuracy to obtain 100% hit chance.
  • #% chance to Poison Enemies on Hit
  • #% increased Damage over Time
  • #% increased Poison Damage/Duration
  • +x% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier
  • #% increased Area of Effect causing Multiple Projectile overlaps

Once you make the swap to BF/BB (Bladefall + Blade Blast) you will no longer scale #% Increased Attack Speed or Accuracy, instead you scale #% Increased Cast Speed and Gain #% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage.

The Occultist's lack of good recovery is one of the main reasons to swap to BF/BB (Bladefall + Blade Blast). Your mitigation and avoidance is plenty for mapping.

  • Armour from Determination and Granite Flask combined with Molten Shell provides a large shield.
  • +18 Life gained for each Enemy hit by your Spells (When playing BF/BB)
  • 100% Spell Suppression
  • Freeze Immunity
  • Reflect Immunity
  • 10% reduced Damage taken from Malediction
  • 20k Evasion Rating giving 70% Evade Chance.
  • 20k Armour giving us a moderate protection against Physical Damage.
  • % of Physical damage from Hits taken as Fire damage
  • 3 Endurance Charges granting 12% Physical damage reduction total.

These defences preform well in Maps with some Evasion Rating giving enough avoidance against attacks. Your Armour combined with Endurance Charges and Physical damage from Hits taken as Fire mods provide enough Physical Mitigation. .

Leveling Section by tytykiller

Key Leveling Notes

Warning: This build is difficult and slow to level. If you are a beginner player, it is recommended to play the Poisonous Concoction Pathfinder. The Occultist version eventually has better clear due to Profane Bloom, at the cost of leveling slower and coming online later.

This build will level as Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall, and will do Library in Act 3 to gain access to Poisonous Concoction. You will use this to level until you gain the cast speed in late game necessary to swap to BFBB.

The "Wand Craft" is the easiest way to make any caster leveling better. Selling a magic wand, an Orb of Alteration, and a normal Topaz Ring produces a wand like this: Snapping Driftwood Wand.

If you need a magic wand, purchase a 3-linked wand from Nessa with favorable colors, those being Blue-Blue-Green, Blue-Blue-Blue, or Blue-Green-Red. Then use an Orb of Transmutation on it. If you need a Topaz Ring, you can sell an Iron Ring with any Skill Gem that is colored Green.

Note: Selling rare items identified they will give you Alteration Shards, while selling them unidentified gives Transmutation Shards.

Campaign Step By Step

Beginner players should follow Enki's Campaign Progression guide.

The levels listed below are based on speedrunning. Always be greater or equal to the levels listed.

Use slider for progression.
Open Poisonous Concoction Tree in new tab and use arrows at the bottom to navigate.
Act 2
Step 1: Level 12
  • After killing Merveil, walk north into The Forest Encampment (Town).
  • Talk to Greust, click Sell Items, and sell all items you acquired from Merveil.
    • You CAN try to purchase a 3-linked item if you have not found one yet, but it will likely cost an Orb of Transmutation.
  • Go to the right of town into The Old Fields and complete The Great White Beast.
Step 2: Level 13
  • After completing The Great White Beast, go to the Waypoint at The Crossroads and return to town.
  • Talk to Yeena and select the Magic Quicksilver Flask reward.
    • At this point, use two Life flasks, one Mana flask, and two Quicksilver Flasks.
  • Waypoint back to The Crossroads, and finish the quest Intruders in Black in the Chambers of Sin 2.
    • Make sure to complete the Trial of Ascendancy in the Chambers of Sin 2.
Step 3: Level 16
  • After killing Fidelitas and getting the Baleful Gem, return to town.
  • Talk to Greust and select the gem Herald of Thunder.
    • Herald of Thunder is an Aura that gives a slight increase to damage, and will occasionally rain lightning bolts on enemies. This will be replaced later on.
  • Talk to Yeena and purchase Summon Skitterbots
    • Summon Skitterbots summons two small little minions. They run around and apply Shock and Chill to monsters. Shock increases damage taken, and Chill slows down enemies.
  • Go left from the Town to complete the quest Sharp and Cruel in The Weaver's Chambers.
Step 4: Level 18
  • Kill The Weaver, pick up Maligaro's Spike, and return to town.
  • Talk to Silk and get the gem Controlled Destruction Support.
  • Complete the quest Deal with the Bandits.
    • Waypoint to the Crossroads, go right to the Broken Bridge, kill Kraityn, and return to town.
    • Waypoint to the Riverways, go north to The Wetlands, and kill Oak.
    • While in the Western Forest, kill Alira and complete the quest The Way Forward.
    • Note that The Way Forward is an Act 1 quest that is only completable in Act 2.

Step 5: Level 18

  • Talk to Eramir for two Passive Skillpoints.
  • Take the Waypoint back to the Act 1 town Lioneye's Watch. Talk to Bestel for an additional Passive Skillpoint for completing The Way Forward.
  • Use the Waypoint to travel to The Wetlands in Act 2. Click the Vaal Ruins to open it if you have not already done so.
    • Use a Ruby Ring for this zone, as the monsters casting Explosive Arrow are scary.
  • At level 20, return to town. With your other wand, sell a magic wand, an Orb of Alteration, and a rare Topaz Ring. Although this build switches over to Poisonous Concoction in act 3, this wand craft is necessary to help get there.
  • Complete the quest Shadow of the Vaal by killing the Act 2 boss, Vaal Oversoul. After this, return to town and complete the Trial of Ascendancy in The Crypt. Once these are done, move onto Act 3!

Mapping Preparation

You're done with the Campaign and ready to take on the Path of Exile Endgame. Priority 1 is to ensure your Elemental Resistances are capped (75%) and have sufficient Attributes to continue leveling your Skill Gems. Use Essences you have gathered on any item that is not Magic or Rare already. Items with an open modifier slot should be crafted on. Go to the Crafting Bench and craft Resistances wherever possible according to what you need, and Life wherever else possible.

On league start, Heisting and doing the Chaos Orb recipe is a great and easy way to obtain currency. From this point on, grind your Atlas out by progressing and completing Maps.

IMPORTANT! Upgrade your flasks to Divine Life Flask when you hit maps and roll them for #% increased Amount Recovered as this is your "Weapon" when using Poisonous Concoction.

Map Modifiers

Take note of the below modifiers, as they should be avoided if they appear on your maps:

  • Less Armour reduces your main defences.
  • Reduced Effect Of Auras eliminate our defences.
  • Cannot Leech removes how we regain our Mana.
  • -X% maximum Player Resistances causes you to take extra Elemental damage.

First step is to progress through the Atlas following our Atlas Progression Guide. As a mapping focused character, you should focus on gearing your character with strong pieces to prepare yourself to farm Red Map content. If you're struggling in higher tier content, go back and farm up more Currency and Gear. The endgame section below will take you to detailed Farming Guides based around maximizing your profits.

Early Game

  • Essence
  • Harvest
  • Heist

Mid Game

  • Essence
  • Harvest
  • Heist
  • Expedition
  • Eldritch Altars

Endgame

  • Essence
  • Harvest
  • Heist
  • Expedition
  • Eldritch Altars
  • Legion
  • New League Mechanic

Pantheon

For information about the Pantheon and how it works, consult our Pantheon Guide!

For Major Pantheon, select Brine King to gain Immunity to Freeze and Reduction of Chill Effects. This bonus is not available at first. It’s acquired with Divine Vessel.

For Minor Pantheon, select Garukhan and upgrade it. This grants reduced Effect of Shock, preventing large damage spikes, and Cannot be Blinded (to prevent a loss of Accuracy).

Skill Gems

Gems are a fundamental part of your build. Getting the correct link setups before entering Maps and leveling those Gems as you progress through the Atlas is one of your main goals.

If you don't have enough Sockets, simply remove the Lifetap Support and Increased Area of Effect Support from the Withering Step/Plague Bearer setup. If you need to remove more, drop the Lifetap Support from your Shield Charge as well. Keep in mind, removing Shield Charge will make your Mana strained. So try to re-add these when you get enough sockets!

Use Slider to see Skill Gems Progression

Poisonous Concoction Setup

Poisonous Concoction is your main ability until the BF/BB swap. This skill gem can hit multiple targets with its overlapping AOE projectiles, so link Greater Multiple Projectiles Support and Greater Volley Support. Void Manipulation Support provides raw damage, with Unbound Ailments Support providing additional damage and duration of ailments. The last link will be Lifetap Support to ease our early Mana issues by not being forced into a Mana flask.

Movement

Your primary movement ability will be Shield Charge linked to Faster Attacks Support. Use Flame Dash to traverse over gaps and make sure to link Lifetap Support to this entire setup to ease your Mana pressure.

Ancestral Totem

Ancestral Protector is put down for tough enemies. Use this before starting a boss fight, as it provides more Attack Speed. Once you swap to BF/BB, don't use this anymore.

Auras

Use Determination to mitigate Physical Damage. Use Grace to obtain Evasion Rating, giving you Chance to Evade Attacks. When you have enough Vaal Orbs, corrupt your Grace into a Vaal Grace. Use it right before engaging with a boss for a huge boost in Chance to Evade Attacks. After the BF/BB swap, use Defiance Banner to boost both Evasion Rating and Armour.

Plague Bearer + Withering Step

Link Plague Bearer and Withering Step to Increased Area of Effect Support to make them affect a greater amount of monsters. Plague Bearer should be treated as your main clear ability that you load up and release onto monsters. Withering Step is how you apply the Wither debuff, causing enemies to take 6% increased Chaos Damage per Wither.

Blasphemy Temporal Chains

Blasphemy Support linked with Temporal Chains makes your Curse into and Area of effect Aura. This allows you to easily Curse enemies who come within that area. This pairs very well with Profane Bloom giving you easy explosions. Temporal Chains is chosen because it makes effects on enemies expire slower. This means our Poison does the same amount of damage per second, but does more damage in total. It also causes enemies to become slower, which stops enemies from hitting you and helps you recover damage taken in between enemy attacks.

Cast when Damage Taken

Cast when Damage Taken Support should be linked to Molten Shell to trigger a protective shield that scales off Armour and absorbs damage for a duration. If you can't use Determination to scale your Armour yet, then replace it with Steelskin.

Bladefall Blade Blast (BF/BB)

Once you obtain everything needed to preform the BF/BB swap, change your main ability to Blade Blast and Bladefall. This one-two combo will provide you with some much needed Life Recovery and some additional damage. Link Blade Blast to Chance to Poison Support for flat Chaos Damage and Chance to Poison, Increased Area of Effect Support to increase the explosion radius to cause overlaps and then Void Manipulation Support, Unbound Ailments Support and Deadly Ailments Support for pure damage.

For your Bladefall, link a Level 1 Unleash Support to cause repeats of this ability, leaving the maximum amount of lingering blades on the ground. Use a Level 1 Spell Cascade Support to cause a repeat of this ability in front and behind where you targeted, helping leave even more lingering blades. Lastly, Link Concentrated Effect Support to cause your lingering blades to fall within a concentrated area, allowing more overlapping explosions from Blade Blast.

NEW BOSSING SETUP

For Pinnacle Bosses, you should replace Unleash Support with Arcanist Brand, and follow the recommended passive tree in the End Game POB. This will have you take Runebinder which allows you to have 2 Brands attached to enemies. Then you simply spam Blade Blast after your Brands cast Bladefall.

Skill Tree Progression

Occultist's Trees OPEN IN A NEW TAB

Bladefall Blade Blast (BF/BB) Swap

Swap to BF/BB after leveling with Poisonous Concoction to level 88. You are swapping at this point because BF/BB does more damage and has a better recovery method through the use of +# Life gained for each Enemy hit by your Spells. The stat you need on your gear to make a comfortable swap is increased Cast Speed on your Wand, Ring, Amulet, and Gloves. This may sound intimidating, but with Harvest Reforge Caster, it becomes trivial. You will need an 8 passive Large Physical Cluster, a 5 passive Chaos Damage over Time Medium Cluster, a 5 passive Critical Strike Chance Medium Cluster, a 2 passive Enduring Composure Armour Small Cluster, and a 2 passive Mana reservation efficiency Small Cluster. These bases are all easy to purchase or craft. They are also covered at the end of the Early Game Milestones.

Character Progression

Early Game
Gear Overview
Milestones

Early Game Goal
Your first goal will be capping Elemental Resistances and obtaining a Despair oh Hit Ring.

Don't spend too much on your Helmet, one of your Rings and a 5-linked Body Armor, as they will be upgraded later.

Early Poisonous Concoction Gear
Milestone 1 - Syndicate Unveils

While doing Syndicate Missions find Elreon and Gravicius, or remove other members from the Syndicate until they show up. Unveil the following gear slots for these crafts specifically and all other unveils afterwards:

  • Unveil Boots for the 20% increased Movement Speed Cannot be Chilled Boot modifier
  • Unveil Elreon's Veiled Rings for Non-Channeling Skills have -(x-x) to Total Mana Cost
  • Unveil It That Fled Veiled Gear for x% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage
  • Unveil Gravicius's Veiled Body Armours for x% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire and Lightning Damage

Purchase from a Vendor a Weapon and Shield that has 3 Green Sockets. Buy 6 Blade Blasts and put them in your Weapon Swap. Then swap back to your normal Shield and Unarmed set.

Milestone 2 - Flasks

Flasks are significant defensive upgrades and are our next pickup. The Flask bases are:

  • Quicksilver Flask
  • Granite Flask
  • Jade Flask
  • Basalt Flask
  • Divine Life Flask

To craft your Flasks, use an Orb of Transmutation on White Flasks and then alternate between using Orb of Alteration and Orb of Augmentation until you hit the following mods on your Granite Flask and Basalt Flask

  • Increased Attack Speed during Flask effect.
  • Increased Armour during Flask effect.
  • Reduced Effect of Curses on you during Flask effect.
  • Increased Evasion Rating during Flask effect.

Roll for the following modifier on your Divine Life Flask. Once you have this modifier, make sure to have captured at least 4 Yellow Beasts. Visit the Menagerie and craft the Sealing mod to give Corrupted Blood and Bleed Removal to your Life Flask.

  • 70% increased Amount Recovered / 33% reduced Recovery rate
    • IMPORTANT - This modifier makes your Flask, which is your Weapon, deal more Chaos Damage.
Milestone 3 - Accuracy gear

You need to obtain enough Accuracy to hit 100% chance to Hit. This requires 3 Rares with 300+ Accuracy on them AND a Level 7 Precision linked to Arrogance Support. Harvest Reforge Attack on your Gloves, Rings and Shield until you obtain Accuracy and 2 or more of the following modifiers:

  • 50+ to Maximum Life
  • 35%+ to Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistance.
  • x% chance to Suppress Spell Damage

If you get 2 of these mods, craft the last one. If you get all 3 mods, then craft a Resistance or Damage mod.

Obtain a 5-Linked Evasion/Energy Shield Body Armour if you have enough currency. Use a Screaming Essence of Greed on your Body Armour until you hit a Resistance. If you have a Prefix open, craft the Gravicius's Veiled mod x% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire and Lightning Damage.

Milestone 5 - Boots, Amulet and Belt

For your Boots you want Evasion/Energy Shield hybrid bases to make coloring Sockets easier. Obtain or purchase a Stygian Vise Belt to craft on, or grab a Leather Belt and craft on that. The Stygian allows for an extra Abyss Jewel for damage/Stats/Resistance. Use an Amber Amulet base to help with Strength.

Make sure there is an open Prefix on your boots after crafting, to craft the "Onslaught on Kill + Movement Speed" Unveiled mod on your Boots. Get the following mods to fill your build out with as much Life and Resistances as possible through Harvest Reforging or Essence spamming.

  • 50+ to Maximum Life
  • 35%+ to Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistance.
  • x% chance to Suppress Spell Damage
  • 30+ to Strength (You need 155 to use a level 20 Determination)

IMPORTANT - Get enough Resistances and stats on these few pieces so that you can use The Gull. You need to buy a 6-link Body Armour base later on, so don't rely on this slot for resistances for too long.

LAST IMPORTANT MESSAGE - If you obtain any gear with bad tiers of Accuracy, Maximum Life and Resistances you can use a Harvest Reforge More Likely.

Milestone 6 - The Gull

The Gull is a Helmet that spawns Lesser Shrines on kill. Shrines are temporary buffs. Combine this Helmet with an Atlas Passive Tree that obtains additional Shrine Buff Effect and Duration to increase your speed, damage and survivability.

If The Gull is too expensive, purchase a Helmet with Resistances and an open Suffix to craft x% increased Duration of Ailments you inflict while Focused.

Milestone 7 - Amulet Craft
  • Purchase an Amulet with +x% to Damage over Time Multiplier or +1 to Level of all Chaos Skill Gems and some Elemental Resistances/Strength depending on which you'll need.
  • When you get an Amulet that has one of these mods, craft Life and anoint Toxic Strikes:
    • Amber Oil
    • Clear Oil
    • Crimson Oil
Milestone 8 - 6-Linked Body Armour

Obtain a 6-Linked Evasion/Energy Shield Body Armour if you have enough currency. Use a Screaming Essence of Greed on your Body Armour just like before, crafting the Gravicius's Veiled mod again x% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire and Lightning Damage.

Milestone 9 - Despair on hit Ring

A Despair On Hit Ring allows your Profane Bloom to also apply this curse, giving you an enormous amount of additional explosion clear. This also removes the need to self cast your curse, removing a button from your build. To obtain this Ring, purchase a Hunter Influenced Two-Stone Ring and use Harvest Reforge Caster until you obtain the Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit, with x% increased Effect. Land a Resistance with an open Prefix to craft Life, or Life and an open Suffix to craft Resistance.

Milestone 10 - BF/BB Swap Clusters

To swap comfortably you'll need to purchase and craft the following Clusters:

  • Purchase an 8 Passive Large Physical Cluster item level 50+.
    • Use Jagged Fossils until you obtain 3 notable passives. The best to obtain are Battle-Hardened, Furious Assault and Master the Fundamentals.
  • Purchase a 5 Passive Medium Chaos Damage over Time item level 50+.
    • Use Aberrant Fossils until you obtain Septic Spells. The best 2nd notable is Eternal Suffering.
  • Purchase a 5 passive Medium Critical Strike Chance item level 68+
    • Orb of Alteration spam until you obtain Overwhelming Malice. Then Orb of Augmentation and Regal Orb for anything else. This should take 100 Orb of Alterations.
  • Purchase a 2 passive Enduring Composure item level 68+
    • Or Harvest Reforge Defence until you obtain Enduring Composure.
  • Purchase a 2 passive Mana reservation efficiency
    • Orb of Alteration spam until you obtain Uncompromising.
Milestone 11 - BF/BB Swap Gear

To swap comfortably you'll need to purchase and craft the following Gear:

  • Shaper Influenced Item level: 75+ Gloves that have Evasion Rating.
    • Harvest Reforge Caster or use Aetheric Fossils until you obtain Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 18 Faster Casting. Land a Resistance with an open Prefix to craft Life, or Life and an open Suffix to craft Resistance.
  • A Shaper Influenced Item level: 75+ Ring.
    • Harvest Reforge Caster or use Aetheric Fossils until you obtain +# Life gained for each Enemy hit by your Spells and increased Cast Speed. If you land +# Mana gained for each Enemy hit by your Spells as well, you hit the jackpot and won't need an Eternal Mana Flask.
  • Obtain a Heathen Wand item level 72+ or 83+ if not too expensive.
    • Harvest Reforge Caster or use Aetheric Fossils to obtain increased Cast speed. Finish it with the Unveiled craft (46-50)% increased Chaos Damage + Chaos Skills have (11-12)% increased Skill Effect Duration.
  • Purchase an Amulet with 20+% increased Cast Speed and +x% to Damage over Time Multiplier

After crafting all of the gear and clusters you're ready to move on to the next section.

Video Guide

Path of Building

IMPORTANT! The POB's have multiple Trees, Gear and Gem sets. Make sure to swap ALL.

You NEED the community fork of POB for these to work! https://pathofbuilding.community/

Leveling + Early Game - https://pobb.in/2lpa7uWKn_gH

Mid Game - https://pobb.in/McNK1_-iArXl

End Game - https://pobb.in/iBQu0Qkavv38

Summary

The Blade Blast Occultist is one of the best mappers for a League Start. Charge around, explode packs, and have a blast. The gearing is simple and easier than ever with full crafting instructions. Simply use Plague Bearer, and let your Profane Bloom take care of it all.

If you have any questions, come ask them on my livestream Twitch.tv/TriPolarBear

If you're looking for what to farm for more Currency, check out our META section!

Credits

Written by Tripolarbear.
Reviewed by Raxxanterax.

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