Hexblack Blackflame Occultist PoB Update #1 [PoE 3.16]

Leveling: If you want to, you can mule an Onslaught Support from a Scion character, as well as stashing any gear you get from Hillock, the 3 Wisdom Scrolls, and getting an extra check of the vendors for proper linked gear. Look for the following *linked* sockets at the vendors whenever you come back to town: 2x BBG (Blue-Blue-Green) wands or gear pieces. BR (Blue-Red) gear piece. BBB (Blue-Blue-Blue) or BB (Blue-Blue) and another piece of B gear. (The Blue Blue Blue gear should only have 1 link, so Clarity does not get linked with Arcane Surge, btw save the arcane surge Skills: Stormblast Mine - Swift Assembly - Added Lightning Orb of Storms - Onslaught (If muled) - Elemental Proliferation Holy Flame Totem - Combustion Frostblink - Level 2 Arcane Surge (Do not level this) At level 10 replace Frostblink with Flame Dash, and add in Clarity Holy Flame Totem can easily carry most of the clear early on. Drop Holy Flame Totem and Orb of Storms, and then spam and detonate Stormblast mines on bosses. Try to make at least 1 flat lightning to spells vendor crafted wand before Merveil (Magic Wand + Normal Rarity Topaz Ring + Alteration Orb). Also try to wear at least one Sapphire Ring for the Cold Resistance. Both rings can also be crafted from vendoring an Iron Ring + a gem of the corresponding stat (Sapphire = Int Gem, Topaz = Dex Gem, Ruby = Strength gem) At level 16 add Herald of Thunder and Summon Skitterbots to the build and activate them. Nothing will change until at least level 28 when we can start using Hexblast and also achieve 100% chance to ignite. When transitioning to ignite, pick up 2 Ashcaller wands with at least 20% chance to ignite each. These wands are fantastic now that we don't use Elemental Equilibirum and the added fire to spells resetting it is not an issue. You can transition to Hexblast at level 28, but level 29 is when you can get the Doomsday and bossing and killing rare enemies becomes a lot faster due to getting max Doom after 1 second. Spec out of the Witch starting spell damage nodes and Lightning Walker, as these will both do you no good once we switch to ignite. You can now drop the Stormblast, Orb of Storms, and Holy Flame Totem setups entirely. Arcane Surge can also be dropped as well as Herald of Thunder. Malevolence should be added now, and should be ran with Clarity, with Skitterbots placed in an offhand to level for the time being. Hexblast links (BBBG) should be as follows: Hexblast - Combustion - Unbound Ailments - Deadly Ailments Swift Affliction is *slightly* more damage than Unbound Ailments at this point, but the quality of life of the far, far longer ignites and far, far more total damage per ignite is well worth it. Also PoB is currently broken and doesn't register 'less duration' ailment lines so the total damage per ignite and duration of ignites when using Swift Affliction is going to be far less than PoB states. I simply do not like Swift Affliction at all and advise against it's use in most cases. At level 38 add in a 4 link of: Scorching Ray - Spell Totem - Multiple Totems - Efficacy These 3 totems in tandem will do very solid damage on their own, help with clear in dense areas, and give 25% fire exposure for great extra DPS on bosses. These will be massively buffed in 3.16, so expect them to be even stronger than advertised. Once we pick up the Sovereignty wheel, try to see if you can fit Skitterbots back into your build. If you can, great; if you can't, no harm at all. Once a 5 link is acquired, add in Burning Damage support to your Hexblast setup. Once a Blackflame is acquired, you can drop the Scorching Ray totems in favor of Wither Totems. Past that, simply gear up as best as you can, following the endgame gear as a rough guide for what to look for: Look for fire DoT multi jewels, add in Cluster Jewels when you can afford them, get a 6 link (your endgame crafted chest can wait until much later), and pick up some sceptres with elemental damage implicits with fire dot mult and flat elemental damage to spells.