This may sound weird, but I don’t play occult because there are 4 debuffs and 1 buff I have to keep pressing at every fight. It’s very tedious. If I do 1000 battles, that means I mindlessly press those buttons 5000 times.
I feel like a pigeon pecking at buttons to get fed.
There’s no strategy or thought to how I use them either. Just press all 5 at every battle.
Plus they eat up 5 spots on my toolbar. Toolbar real estate is limited, especially when I add consumables and equipment skills to the bars.
I don’t want to have to press more than 4 buttons, and I want to use the buttons I do press intelligently.
It’d be nice if they turned those 4 debuffs into an aura, similar to spectral binding, veil of shadow or any of the other debuff auras.
At the very least, combine those 4 debuffs into 1 debuff skill.
It’s too bad, because I do love the concept of occultist and enjoyed its equivalent in titan quest, Spirit.
What are the other 2? I only count 3, CoF, pox and BoD. And pox is optional, so it’s really only 2.
Unless it’s a pet character, what kind of build are you doing where you are using 4 debuffs + 1 buff all from Occultist alone?
As far as I’m aware, every Occultist build will take Blood of Dreeg (which I’m assuming is the buff here), a large amount will take Curse of Frailty for RR and some will take Bloody Pox for one or multiple of - the OA debuff, a celestial power proccer or a core damage ability but even then, that’s only 2 debuffs.
Edit: Forgot about 1 point Dreeg’s Evil Eye + Focused Gaze for the reduced target’s physical damage. But that’s still 3. My suspicions are that you have 1 point in Sigil or Doom Bolt specifically from proccing a celestial power that acts as a debuff (i.e. Acid Spray)?
Which 4 skills are you talking about ? I can see Curse of Frailty falling into them and maybe Sigil of Consumption (even though it is not a debuff…), the rest are either toggles, summons or attack skills, which you would have to press in all other masteries as well.
So not really seeing a difference between Occultist and other masteries here.
My mistake, it’s 3. Bloody pox, curse of frailty and blood of dreeg. Every battle, I just press them. There’s no planning or thought to it, i just press them every few seconds.
I got 5 because i was looking at shaman/occult which means I’d have to also press grasping vines and devouring swarm.
I was playing a conjurer and it just became unbearable to keep pressing all 5 every time.
Would be so nice if they made those into auras so I can spend my time doing more thoughtful things.
Well, Bloody Pox is an attack skill, so you kinda have to press it if you decide to have that as one of your attack skills. My Occ do not even use it, so I never press that 
Blood of Dreeg is a buff and a heal, much like Pneumatic Burst, so I use it as needed (heal), which leaves CoF as the one debuff I frequently use (but even that I do not use every battle…)
I still see no difference to other masteries here…
For me, the difference is that they are mindless. I just put my cursor over the enemies and press 1 2 3 4 5 on my toolbar for a conjurer or 1 2 3 if just occult. Oh look another enemy, 12345. And another, 12345. and another 12345. I just press all 5. Not one of them do i have to make any decisions how to play them. I’m just button spamming.
With other skills, like the storm totem for example, I have to give thought to where i place it to be the most effective.
For demolitionist’s thermite mines, I have to place them where I anticipate they will go.
For inquisitor, all of its skills have to be strategically placed, especially a skill like rune of hagarrad where I have to time it so it goes off when the enemies get there.
These occult and the two shaman debuffs are mindless. To me, if it’s mindless, it should just be an aura. Many auras are attack, like the demolitionist’s flame touched and vindictive flame. Wouldn’t you agree that you prefer them as passives you toggle on, or would it be more fun to have to click on enemies every time you encountered them to set them off?
Imagine it, you have flame touched as button 1 and vindictive flame as button 2. Every battle you have to point at the enemy and press 1 and 2. When you suggest making them auras, people tell you they think it’s fine that way. They like pressing 1 and 2 every battle.
You use them mindless, I use them situational.
I use BoD when I need to heal, not because it is the next button in some imagined sequence. Also, the fact that it has a heal component makes it unsuitable for an aura.
CoF I place where I want them, so not much different from the skills you describe for other masteries.
I still do not see the difference here, to me the difference is not really in the skills themselves, but in your use of them.
If you do not like doing so, then don’t use them this way, or keep avoiding the mastery, either is fine. I do not really like pet builds, no one says you have to like / play all builds…
I can see the heal, but the others…
How do you use them situational? Maybe if you share your approach, it will change my perception of them.
Since they have no recharge time, I never felt like there was a reason to save them for a special moment. I just use them every opportunity and as a result there’s no planning for them. I just spam them and it feels mindless.
With the other skills I mentioned, like storm totem, there are recharge times so you can’t simply spam them, you have to use them judiciously. That could really be what sets them apart.
Just imagine if there were no recharge time to storm totem. would you bother to plan when to use it, or would you just spam it at every battle?
An aura is similar, it just runs non stop, there are no recharge times. Those four may as well be auras.
The heal is situational, the CoF is more a matter of where I place it, plus I usually do not use it for small groups of mobs that die fast anyway.
Given that it is not a radius around you, it too does not really work as an aura however.
Since they have no recharge time, I never felt like there was a reason to save them for a special moment. I just use them every opportunity and as a result there’s no planning for them.
it does not stack, so spamming is pointless, all it does is refresh the timer (but for that you do not need to spam it…). For this to make sense, you need to hit a different group of mobs each time…
Just imagine if there were no recharge time to storm totem. would you bother to plan when to use it, or would you just spam it at every battle?
it still costs energy and if it also were pointless to spam (which is not the case for Storm Totem as it is now… but let’s say you could at most have two up and when you cast the 3rd, the 1st disappears), I still would not spam it
“If you don’t like hitting buttons, videogames are not for you.”
Socrates
/S
It’s not about hitting buttons, it’s about hitting them without any thought or purpose. It’s the difference between playing a chopin etude that has 200 notes and pressing the same key 200 times. The previous post’s explanation is helpful.
I don’t see why you even want to have vines in a conjurer. 4 devotion procers is more than enough. Honestly inq is just as mindless when it comes to placement. You place seal underneath yourself. You place runes in front of you cause majority of enemies will come near you. WoP is just CoF in blue form. Storm box/tether distance limit doesn’t matter much cause you’re tank af with seal. I don’t get what’s the difference with occultist here.
"I don’t see why you even want to have vines in a conjurer. 4 devotion procers is more than enough. "
I was playing it as a melee character with bleed. Everyone is assuming I went pets only. I have some pets, but I’m mainly melee with bleed.
I guess every player’s experience is different. I have inquisitors who i make decisions where to put its traps, I can see it’d be tedious if you didn’t.
I like sigil and doom bolt, I have to make decisions where to use them.
Mamba was helpful to let me know not to use them against the same opponent, but against new opponents it’s still going to be 1234. Maybe there are more suggestions how to use them thoughtfully.
Looking at what just curse of frailty does, it would work fine as an aura.
Curse of frailty:
X meter radius <–just like an aura
-x% movement speed <—veil of shadows has a reduction in speed
-x% physical, bleeding, poison, vitality, elemental resistances <—veil of shadows and spectral binding have reductions to resists. So does the pet from the new blood knight set.
Bloody pox and devouring swarm would be good as auras too. Grasping vines probably not.
A pet based Conjurer/Cabalist can easily use 5/6 procs. My one has 5, the Lazy Pokemon Summoner has 6.
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24703&highlight=lazy+pokemon+summoner
I guess you dont play inquistor aswell (Word of renvewal, storm box, word of pain…)
Come on, Curse of Fraility and Blood of Dreeg are SOO powerful, almost any class can benefit a lot with them. Really worth to get used of using them in your skill rotation.
Almost every build I wanna make and play have occultist in them, so I am pretty much the opposite stance: “why I always play the occultist” 
I’m not sure making them auras is the right way to go as that is arguably just as mindless, if not more. All you’re doing at that point is taking out the key presses and just moving around casting a few (1-3) damage abilities, sounds pretty dull to me :undecided:
Funny because I like Occultist because of Bloody Pox spam and Blood of Dreeg. Both skills are broken and braindead imo. Bloody Pox needs only to be cast once to annihilate two screens of enemies, Blood of Dreeg provides massive OA, defense, damage - what else would you want? We could say that Pneumatic Boost does the same, but it’s just an RNG defense, while Blood of Dreeg makes you skip one defense stat because it itself overcaps it on normal difficulty or provides massive boost in elite/ultimate.
In my opinion, hands down, Blood of Dreeg is the most OP skill in the entire game as well as the best one.
I second that!
that assumes the radius is centered around you, which I do not think it is… Sigil has the same description and that you (also) place
Pox and Swarm also are not a circle around you, so would not work as an aura either