I’ve started leveling an Occultist and I’m lvl 35 at the moment. Can’t decide on a second class so I’ve gone all Occultist so far. Here’s where I’m at: http://grimcalc.com/build/U8SLIF5
I’m playing 1-hand plus Tome as a melee/caster hybrid and don’t want to change that.
What I dislike about this build is the lack of a default weapon attack skill to attach the Manticore proc to. My idea was to go for Soldier and use Cadence. But I just found out about the Shard of Beronath component that grants a weapon default attack skill, meaning I don’t necessarily need Cadence. It’s lvl 55 though.
Is it viable to go all Occultist with Poison/Acid/Vitality/Chaos? Or would it be a good idea to choose Soldier for his defensive passives? Maybe Arcanist for his first passive (the +Spirit +Offense thing) and the two defensive skills?
I should mention that I play multiplayer with my brother, so the build doesn’t need to be perfect as we can compensate weaknesses. I don’t have any Ultimate experience yet though, so I don’t really know how best to skill this character to make it to lvl 85.
Also, are there other components/items like Shard of Beronath (i.e. that grant a weapon default attack?)
Yup just mistborn talisman and shard of beronath, nothing else sadly.
If you go only occultist you will die…A LOT. Or you can play like a grandma facing tiny groups of enemies at a time and still dying. It is doable, but for the most part single class characters are very very tough to do.
If you wanna go 1hander+tome and focus on those damage types then witch hunter (nightblade 2nd) is perfect for that! Warning that WH can be a bit squishy depending, but with the right setup can do infinite damage and have good survivability too
Pure Occultist is very viable as a summoner, I have a video of one happily tackling ultimate SoT pre-B31 (WITH handicaps and back when everyone thought that the Occultist was one of the weakest masteries) but as a fighter/caster hybrid I think you’re better off choosing a second mastery.
Note that a build doesn’t count as “pure” until you decide to not sink any points at all in a second mastery at max level, so just because you plan to stick to just one mastery for most of normal/epic doesn’t mean that you’ve decided to go pure Occultist. Sticking to just 1 mastery pre-ultimate is actually a great leveling strategy because of the way most mastery skills scale (many of them are extremely powerful in normal/epic when maxed).
You can simply recover skillpoints using the respec NPC later.
What second mastery you pick depends what approach you prefer - would you rather go all out spamming spells/nukes (Arcanist for OA/mana regen/survivability boost) or do you prefer a more cautious/defensive approach (Soldier - survivability boost, shield support, some weapon offense boosts)? You can even pick Shaman for the party buffs, vitality debuff and control.
There’s really no rush to decide, and it definitely wouldn’t hurt if you hold off picking a second mastery until you reach ultimate. Just make sure you max Blood of Dreeg/Aspect of the Guardian and use a lot of +HP gear/components. You should breeze through normal/epic and even early ultimate with just those two, except perhaps for Log, as long as you have decent offense.
There are indeed other items that grant spammable weapon attack skills. Off the top of my head there’s the Mistborn Talisman (a relic). There’s even a very long list of components that grant short CD weapon damage-dependent skills, if you’re willing to work with those.
Since it’s your first character you probably should just keep going like you are until you hit a wall. It doesn’t hurt anything to try things and see what works. If you misallocate stat points, etc., you can use the editor in GDStash to fix it.
Single mastery characters work pretty well up until level 50 or so. You can definitely beat normal/Veteran that way. You start needing the stats and health from the other mastery at some point. Also, hybrids tend to be difficult and are not recommended as a first character.
Soldier defensive passives are all-around good. That’s never a bad choice. It’s generally better in GD to focus on 1 or 2 damage types. You may find that another mastery works better than Soldier, depending on which way you go. All 15 classes are viable, so anything could work out.
2 problems with this. First off occultist is generally weak as a single class (and single class builds are already challenging). 2nd off is you’ll have no AoE except procs and limited single target damage doing a one hand + tome melee build - while not having a shield means that long drawn out battles are far less likely to be kind to you. Seems both the base idea of melee + spell tome and occultist only are going to be highly problematic by mid elite difficulty to say nothing of ultimate.
No single class is is worth it. Sure the tougher ones like shaman or soldier can go through the game but you will be weaker than any duel class char and will struggle to wear some items due to the high attribute requirements. You just don’t get any bennefits going only one char.
Seriously, not sure where all the “Occultist is a very weak mastery by itself” misinformation is coming from.
Occultist boasts some of the highest healing/health regen of all classes (BoD), has a built-in damage absorption + Chaos Resistance buff (Possession), has a built-in Poison/Acid Resistance and Physical Resistance buff (Aspect of the Guardian), has one of the best defensive/offensive debuffs in the game (CoF + Vulnerability) and even has a free +31% to all elemental resists with Storm Spirit. That’s just with the stuff you SHOULD get as a leveling Occultist.
It’s easily one of the strongest solo masteries while leveling, and I’ve played enough Occultist/x characters to know that that momentum can easily propel you all the way through early ultimate very easily.
Oh, and stat points are cheap in this game. Waaaaaay cheaper than skill points, so ignore the naysayers. Or you can just check store items with
+stats yourself, the evidence should be plain for all with at least half a brain to see.
I would second that. I prefer leveling as pure Occultist because it is one of the easiest masteries to level up from scratch. You forgot to mention they also have a killer pet which tanks and destroys stuff while you place Sigils on the ground, staying in full health and destroying groups of mobs. Occultist is definately on the OP side to be honest.
You can solo with any class to say lvl 50 with relative ease.
After that you need to figure out how you going to be doing damage and specialize with skills/devotions and then items will make any build work
I think occultist is very strong I just don’t see how you can play ultimate as occultist only without being insanely squishy unless you want super defensive on masteries.
I think I’ll stick with Occultist for a while and then go for the defensive Soldier passives. Didn’t consider that choosing a second mastery also gives more base stats. Soldier in particular gives me a lot of health and will help me get to Physique requirements for equipment.
I’ll also try to craft Mistborn Talisman, I just checked and I do have the recipe already. I can use that skill until lvl 55 and then replace it with Shard of Beronath.
Many years ago I played Titan Quest and I can still remember that my main would cut through all enemies easily - until I entered the last act (the one from the expansion) where I couldn’t get past the first few monsters…
I think occultist is very strong I just don’t see how you can play ultimate as occultist only without being insanely squishy unless you want super defensive on masteries.
It’s just math. I already pointed how much resistance/absorption/etc. Occultist gets natively. Once you look at how much HP you get from your typical green or even yellow gear, everything else just kinds of falls into place.
Have you tried actually going over how much extra physique/HP you get from constellations/components if you already had a ton of bonus resistances from skills?
The reason the character in my vid was able to beat ultimate SoT has more to do with numbers rather than skill. The simple fact is that even before B31 it was possible to reach 10k+ HP and 900+ physique on a single mastery class. Note that +physique/HP items have had multiple buffs since then.
In any case, you simply cannot play pure Occultist as a non-summoner. Half the skills in the mastery were designed with summoned units in mind, so you’re basically playing with only half a mastery.
So while I believe that sticking with pure Occultist up until early ultimate will actually help the OP and his bro (maxed CoF and BoD lines are godly in multiplayer, and you need to be 35+ to max both) he should definitely pick a second mastery at some point.
Thanks for your input, guys!
I think I’ll stick with Occultist for a while and then go for the defensive Soldier passives. Didn’t consider that choosing a second mastery also gives more base stats. Soldier in particular gives me a lot of health and will help me get to Physique requirements for equipment.
As I already said, stats are cheap. You should pick a second mastery for the SKILLS, not the stats. Pay closer attention to skills which give you bonuses that you have a hard time finding on constellations/gear.
