Even better in 3.13 - Occultist BANE + ESSENCE DRAIN Build - Crushing All Content

I had huge fun min-maxing my favorite build - Occultist Low Life Bane + Essence Drain. Damage is so high that I use Essence Drain inside the Bow just for Sirus fight and even that is not needed.

UPDATE for 3.13 Echoes of the Atlas - Build is now even stronger than it was in Harvest/Heist League. Occultist is buffed, now Profane Bloom and Withering Presence are much better. Profane Bloom now grants a 40% chance for Cursed Enemies you or your Minions Kill to Explode (from 25% chance), dealing a quarter of their maximum Life as Chaos Damage. Withering Presence no longer grants +20% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier. Now grants 15% more Chaos damage. (In the min-maxed version of the build this change = 8-9% more DPS). We can get/craft all items we used in Harvest league + we can craft even better items with Maven's Orb. There were no changes to skill gems. Also, I just updated my PoB community add-on with a 3.13 passive tree, all passives stayed the same for my min-maxed version of the build, and damage for Bane is now 7.771 M DPS. With 3.12 passive tree damage is 7.173 M DPS, so changes for Occultist brings 600k more DPS. This is for level 100 char. https://pastebin.com/q9zbQiEB - PoB Community Fork Pastebin. This is a version with Bane socketed in Bow and ED in Body Armor. ED, in this case, is 6.369 M DPS so the total DPS is over 14M DPS. If you place ED in bow and Bane in body armor total DPS is even higher.

Be sure to use PoB Community Fork, this pastebin link will not work in old PoB.

UPDATE for 3.12 Heist: The build is as strong as it was in 3.11. This build doesn't use vixen's entrapment gloves. Change to Bane skill gem (Curse tag removed) also doesn't have any negative impact on the build. I will update the PoB Pastebin links probably on Saturday after the start of the new 3.12 Heist League.

PoB Damage (Essence Drain inside the Bow) = ED 12M + Bane 3M PoB Damage (Bane inside the Bow) = Bane 7M + ED 6M From Gear I used, only one important damage mod is not possible in the next Path of Exile 3.12 Heist Expansion - implicit on Bow - +1 to level of socketed support gems.

Check the pinned comment for the PoB Pastebin link. In PoB, check notes for additional information.

All recorded gameplay is on Awakening Level 8. Table of Contents: 00:00 T16 Shipyard Map 01:30 Shaper and Elder Guardians

03:09 Conquerors of the Atlas 03:48 Vaal Temple 04:00 Ulaman - Abyss boss, zone lv 84 04:27 Heart of the Grove 04:55 Aul, the Crystal King - Delve Boss Lv 83 05:20 Infused Beachhead 05:46 Chayula, Who Dreamt (Pure) 06:29 Uber Atziri 06:43 T16 Blight Map (3xSilver Oil) 07:28 Shaper 07:56 5 Emblems without HH belt 08:38 Simulacrum Wave 20 09:10 Sirus, Awakener of Worlds (Essence Drain inside the Bow) 09:38 T15 Burial Chambers 100% Delirium Beyond Map 10:30 T16 Hall Of Grandmasters (Balefire for chaos immune exiles) 11:17 Uber Elder - Full Fight (Bane inside the Bow, I used Presence of Chayula amulet) 13:41 Gear 14:31 Gem Setup 15:15 Passive Tree, Jewels 16:46 Pantheon It is possible to push Essence Drain damage over 17M DPS and around 6k energy shield,  by using a third Large Cluster jewel + 2 Medium Cluster Jewels + 2(1) Small Cluster Jewel. I had no time to experiment with different medium cluster jewels, maybe there is a better combo than  Brush with Death and Exposure Therapy. Finally, switching to Zealotry instead of Summon Skitterbots, using some reduced mana reservations + String of Servitude with implicit = malevolence has increased aura effect, zealotry had increased aura effect, damage for Essence Drain can go over 20M DPS (when inside the Bow).

If you have any questions about this build, you can leave them in the comments or send me a message inside the game, my ign McRedHarvest. If you wish to support me, you can donate to my PayPal: https://paypal.me/LittleGamingTips