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Gear Progression

Last Updated: April 4th 2023

Crucible 3.21

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Learn how to progress your gear, important Milestones, Budget Items, Earlygame, Endgame & Crafting for the Poison Blade Vortex Occultist Build.

Milestones

Early Game

The goal in the early game is to establish your defenses/offences and work on leveling skill gems. Capping your elemental resistances and obtaining a Despair on Hit ring is the priority in early game.

Do not spend too much on your Rings and 5-linked Body Armour, as they will be upgraded later on.

Milestone 1 - Off-Hand Gems

Purchase a Weapon and Shield that has 3 Green Sockets from a Vendor. Buy 6 Blade Vortexs and put them in your Weapon Swap. Then swap back to your normal Shield and Unarmed set. When these gems reach level 20, sell them to the vendor with 1 Gemcutter's Prism each to get a level 1 gem back with 20 quality. Level these back up to 20 and finally use a Vaal Orb on them or alternatively double corrupt them with a level 3 Alva gem room called: Doryani's Institute for a chance at a level 21 or Vaal Blade Vortex gem.

Milestone 2 - Flasks

Flasks are a significant defensive upgrade and are our next pickup. The flask bases to run with this build are:

  • Saturated Divine Life Flask of Alleviation
  • Quicksilver Flask
  • Granite Flask
  • Jade Flask

Craft your Flasks using basic crafting methods by first using an Orb of Transmutation on Normal Rarity Flasks and then alternating between using Orb of Alteration and Orb of Augmentation until hitting the following mods on your Quicksilver Flask, Granite Flask and Jade Flask. Any of the below mods can be on any of the flasks you're rolling:

  • Increased Evasion during Flask effect.
  • Increased Armour during Flask effect.
  • Increased Attack Speed during Flask effect.

Flasks have modifier tiers just like items so be sure to upgrade these as you gain access to higher level flask bases.

Roll for the following modifier on your Divine Life Flask: 70% increased Amount Recovered / 33% reduced Recovery rate 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. IMPORTANT - This modifier makes your Flask, which is your Weapon, deal more Chaos Damage.

As you pick up Glassblower's Bauble, use them on your utility flasks until they hit 20% quality. After picking up enough Instilling Orbs check the Crafting Bench and craft the following enchant on each of your Utility Flasks: Used when charges reach full.

Milestone 3 - 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. A Mark of Submission enables this early on.

Milestone 4 - Accuracy gear

You need to obtain enough Accuracy to hit as close to 100% chance to Hit as possible. This requires 3 Rares with 300+ Accuracy on them AND a Level 7 Precision linked to Arrogance Support. The best way to obtain Rares with Accuracy and other useful stats early is to use one of the following essences:

  • Wailing Essence of Greed
  • Wailing Essence of Anger
  • Wailing Essence of Hatred
  • Wailing Essence of Wrath

Use Harvest Reforge Attack or an Essence on your Gloves, Rings and Shield until you obtain Accuracy and 2 or more of the following modifiers:

  • +120 to Accuracy Rating
  • 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.

Milestone 5 - 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 & 20% increased Movement Speed
  • 2% chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill 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

There area variety of other useful veiled crafts you will gain in the process, obtaining them should be much easier as the veiled item required to unlock the crafts is not specific to a syndicate member.

Obtain a 5-Linked Evasion/Energy Shield Body Armour if you have enough currency.

For your Boots you want Evasion/Energy Shield hybrid bases to make coloring Sockets easier and allow you to use your Divine Blessing Support gem setup.

To craft your Boots and Body Armour spam any combination of the following Essences on the item until you hit satisfactory life and total elemental resistances:

  • Screaming Essence of Greed
  • Screaming Essence of Hatred
  • Screaming Essence of Anger
  • Screaming Essence of Wrath
  • Finish the item by crafting Life or Hybrid Elemental Resistances with the Crafting Bench.

Look for any of these additional modifiers:

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)

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.

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. To craft your Belt and Amulet, spam Screaming Essence of Rage or Harvest Reforges until you obtain a required Elemental Resistances and finish with a bench craft.

Milestone 7 - Amulet
  • Purchase an Amulet with +x% to Damage over Time Multiplier and some Elemental Resistances/Strength depending on which you 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 - Leper's Alms

Leper's Alms is a unique shield which grants a ton of Evasion and Energy Shield. The Energy Shield is very helpful early to ensure that you are able to cast your Divine Blessing Support aura setup without issues. Evasion rating granted by the item bolsters your avoidance, making it less likely for you to die as you progress the atlas and work towards improving the rest of your gear. The Ailment Duration gives you a substantial damage boost in encounters where you need it the most, it allows you to stack up more poisons on bosses.

Shared Suffering is a mechanic unique toLeper's Alms, it causes all damage from hits, including hits from your Profane Bloom to cause Elemental Ailments you are suffering. For example: if your character is shocked, a hit will inflict that shock to the enemy and remove it from you, which is a great way to mitigate ailments early on where you might not necessarily have the gear to deal with them yet.

Milestone 9 - Blade Vortex Gear Swap

To swap comfortably you need to purchase an Obliteration wand. The Obliteration Wand is the best weapon for map clear as it provides an extra 20% chance to explode, giving you a total of 70% chance when combined with Profane Bloom. Make sure to get as high of a roll as you can afford as the #% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage scales your damage substantially. If you wish to get a weapon swap for bossing, the Cold Iron Point provides an additional 7% damage at the cost of clear.

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