Occultist

Occultist

Witch

	Throw off the chains of fear and embrace that which was forbidden.

This page is about the Ascendancy class. For the Ascendant passive, see Occultist (Ascendant passive).

The Occultist is an Ascendancy class for Witches.

Overview

The Occultist is a Witch class that specializes in cold and chaos damage over time (DoT) effects as well as curses, with a minor affinity for both energy shield and power charges. The class is capable of reliably generating said Power Charges without needing to trigger on-kill effects, using Forbidden Power. Malediction and Profane Bloom are a great boon to builds that utilize curses in any form, though to bring out their full potential you would ideally combine them with other sources of non-chaos damage. Withering Presence and Frigid Wake, the two specialized damage over time nodes behind Void Beacon, amplify the power of chaos and cold damage over time respectively. Historically the Occultist has been one of the most resilient Ascendants, utilizing many forms of damage mitigation and energy shield generation. With the removal of its notable Wicked Ward and the power down of Vile Bastion, it still retains its powerful defensive layers in either Frigid Wake or Malediction but is no longer the be-all and end-all for energy shield durability.

Passive skills

Minor skills

This class has the following minor passive skills:

Name	Stats
Energy Shield, Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier	6% increased maximum Energy Shield +5% to Non-Ailment Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier [1]
Energy Shield, Cold and Chaos Damage	6% increased maximum Energy Shield 10% increased Chaos Damage 10% increased Cold Damage [1]
Energy Shield, Cold Damage over Time Multiplier	6% increased maximum Energy Shield +5% to Cold Damage over Time Multiplier [1]
Energy Shield, Curse Effect	6% increased maximum Energy Shield 5% increased Effect of your Curses [1] [2]
Energy Shield, Energy Shield Recharge Rate	6% increased maximum Energy Shield 15% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate [1]
Energy Shield, Power Charge Duration	6% increased maximum Energy Shield 18% increased Power Charge Duration [1]

Notable skills

The class has the following notable passive skills:

Skill	Modifiers	Prerequisite	Preceding Passive
Forbidden Power	+1 to Maximum Power Charges 5% increased Area of Effect per Power Charge 5% increased Spell Damage per Power Charge Gain a Power Charge after Spending a total of 200 Mana		Energy Shield, Power Charge Duration
Profane Bloom	Cursed Enemies you or your Minions Kill have a 25% chance to Explode, dealing a quarter of their maximum Life as Chaos Damage Your Curses can apply to Hexproof Enemies		Energy Shield, Curse Effect
Malediction	When you Kill an Enemy, for each Curse on that Enemy, gain 8% of Non-Chaos Damage as extra Chaos Damage for 4 seconds You can apply an additional Curse 15% increased Effect of your Curses Enemies you Curse have Malediction	Profane Bloom	Energy Shield, Curse Effect
Void Beacon	Nearby Enemies have -20% to Chaos Resistance Nearby Enemies have 100% reduced Life Regeneration rate Nearby Enemies have -20% to Cold Resistance		Energy Shield, Cold and Chaos Damage
Withering Presence	+20% to Non-Ailment Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier +60% to Chaos Resistance Every second, inflict Withered on nearby Enemies for 15 seconds Nearby Hindered Enemies deal 15% reduced Damage over Time	Void Beacon	Energy Shield, Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier
Frigid Wake	+20% to Cold Damage over Time Multiplier Cannot be Chilled Cannot be Frozen Every 4 seconds, Freeze nearby Chilled Non-Unique Enemies for 0.6 seconds Every 4 seconds, 33% chance to Freeze nearby Chilled Unique Enemies for 0.6 seconds Nearby Chilled Enemies deal 10% reduced Damage with Hits	Void Beacon	Energy Shield, Cold Damage Over Time Multiplier
Vile Bastion	1% of Energy Shield Regenerated per second for each Enemy you or your Minions have Killed Recently, up to 10% Cannot Be Stunned while you have Energy Shield		Energy Shield, Energy Shield Recharge Rate

Version history

Version	Changes
3.7.0	Wicked Ward has been removed from the Ascendancy tree. Vile Bastion no longer requires any Ascendancy notables. Each of the small passives on the Occultist Ascendancy tree now grant 6% increased energy shield (from 8%).
3.5.0	New Notables - Withering Presence and Frigid Wake. Added a small passive leading to Withering Presence which grants 8% increased maximum Energy Shield and +5% to Non-Ailment Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier. Added a small passive leading to Frigid Wake which grants 8% increased maximum Energy Shield and +5% to Cold Damage over Time Multiplier. The small passive leading to Void Beacon now also grants 10% increased Cold Damage.
3.2.0	Minor node Energy Shield, Critical Strike Chance replaced with Energy Shield, Power Charge Duration. Minor node Energy Shield, Curse Duration replaced with Energy Shield, Curse Effect.

See also

• Necromancer
• Elementalist