How to use Occulist to deal good damage?

[Samseng Yik]

Specifically, should I use Warlock path for dealing damage?

[Табушка]

I used Ritualist to apply target and vulnerability for my highwayman and hellion, and he was really good at that role. But for Warlock, I guess I would use Abyssal, artillery, Daemon's pull, Burning stars, chaotic offering and sacrificial stab / binding shadows

Might swap out daemon's pull for the healing spell cuz that's always a good thing to have. But then again, pulling targets closer is also really useful and it does apply target to the enemy. I wouldn't swap Abyssal artillery because it's so good against the back ranks.

I'd play him in rank 3 and use sacrificial stab to collect the tokens needed for burning stars. Or if you have a rank flexible party you could use binding shadows too, which seems like it would give you more tokens for less effort. And if you put a jester in rank 2, they'd be going back and forth between rank 2 and 3. And the jester can apply the target token to enemies as well.

As for trinkets, Raven's Reach is always good for ranged. Seeing sphere looks really good if you have a way of applying vulnerable to your occultist. You could use something like Buttressing Band with it. Or Sacred Scribblings with Sharpness Charm will give enough speed debuff to him to apply vulnerable.

Idk how well that would work, it's just an idea

[Raki]

I've been trying the same thing, but for me neither "Sacrifical Stab" nor "Binding Shadows" really worked out for Warlock. Sacrifical Stab is useless in many bossfights (since you get the token when you kill the boss, at which point you don't need it anymore), while Binding Shadows often requires 2 Attacks. (EDIT: and position management)
So for my Warlock, Chaotic Offering is the way to go. Keep in mind that using Deamonic Pull and Abyssal Artillery both benefit from the +25% Dmg boost, while the melee attacks do not.
Also means that he feels perfectly fine on the 4th position.

I've also tried Aspirant, there you can focus on the melee attacks, but the tokens are more of a small bonus there. All in all, I think Aspirant needs a bit of reworking, the key abilities don't really mesh well.
E.g. you often need 2 rounds to get the tokens for Anamnesis, the class' signature move (the AOE Bleed). In most scenarios, you should have killed at least one or two of the enemies in round 3, and you are better off with another ability.

[Vudak]

He takes too much setup imo to deal considerable damage, I like him a lot despite it - i've been having fun running aspirant anamensis but I won't pretend i'm not building the party around using the ability lol. I think he needs some sorta more favourable RNG or buff around his power mechanics, a chance for him to basically be able to cast his 2 power spells immediately etc.

He's already sacrificing health / debuffng himself & arguably wasting a turn in order to throw out a 2power ability - I'd personally like to see him with a chance to be ready to rock immediately, I consider maybe just give him a 10/20% chance of an extra action (when upgraded) when using Chaotic Offering - as I said, I feel he's already on the lame end of that bargain to begin with.

I've no complaints about him in boss fights and anything that takes longer than 2 or 3 rounds, he's solid there. Just feels like he's only just getting ready to start fighting in road encounters when the battle is almost over.

Outside of the aspirant, I don't dare use him as a healer - there is too much risk involved. So i only ever use him as utility & light damage, via his ritualist (iirc) marking/debuffing as well as putting tokens out with artillery tentacles and the occasional tentacle grab etc when required. If i don't run him as a gimmicky frontline damage, he's more about facilitating other heroes doing more damage, lining them up for others to knock down.

[Lynfinity]

Originally posted by Vudak:

I think he needs some sorta more favourable RNG or buff around his power mechanics, a chance for him to basically be able to cast his 2 power spells immediately etc.

That's why Jester is his best companion - Encore and then either nuke the backline with upgraded Abyssal Artillery, or Chaotic Offering into Burning Stars immediately (unless you're lucky enough to proc that 4% chance to Stun lol).

[Vudak]

Originally posted by Lynfinity:

Originally posted by Vudak:

I think he needs some sorta more favourable RNG or buff around his power mechanics, a chance for him to basically be able to cast his 2 power spells immediately etc.

That's why Jester is his best companion - Encore and then either nuke the backline with upgraded Abyssal Artillery, or Chaotic Offering into Burning Stars immediately (unless you're lucky enough to proc that 4% chance to Stun lol).

Yeah, i found that also - by dumb luck tbh, I was running jester with him initially to try and fix peoples position order, assuming I was going to be stabbing more with the occultist - but in the end just wound up skipping the middle man and had the jester encore the occultist all the time lol.

I also wound up having a trink which let the occultist get crits very freqeuntly (i think the speed>=8 = crit trink) and that kinda made me fall in love with the frontline occultist, so i've been chasing that high ever since lol, but didn't want to have to take a jester each time just for encore. Most recently I ran a ravager hellion who cycled between howling end & toe to toe, so as she dances back and forth the occultist never gets himself too out of position if a good stab opportunity presents itself.

Again, would just love an rng chance for him to be able to hit the ground running in shorter fights.

[nerdcommando.gamestudios]

Aspirant + Jester's Encore + Anamnesis. Just so you can reliably launch anamnesis turn 1.

[Samseng Yik]

I am trying with party "The Rain Of Blight"
The exact position of heroes are
PD + GR + OCC + FLA

I build everyone specifically focus to blight, except Occultist of course because he don't have innate blight skill. This OCC I use Aspirant and melee focus. But I still hardly to see how reliable he is to unleash good damage.
FLA serve as mini tank, I chose the path that TOXIC grant extra bonus. So just plan to let him constantly reduce everyone stress while raising own stress.
I just start few minutes ago m so still not sure the result

[Vudak]

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

I am trying with party "The Rain Of Blight"
The exact position of heroes are
PD + GR + OCC + FLA

I build everyone specifically focus to blight, except Occultist of course because he don't have innate blight skill. This OCC I use Aspirant and melee focus. But I still hardly to see how reliable he is to unleash good damage.
FLA serve as mini tank, I chose the path that TOXIC grant extra bonus. So just plan to let him constantly reduce everyone stress while raising own stress.
I just start few minutes ago m so still not sure the result

Do you have all the occultist skills? As he seems particularly back loaded with good stuff, ie anamnesis / burning stars / chaotic offering. Imo he doesn't really work as a dmg dealer until you get chaotic offering.

I ran a somewhat similar big blight party, and whist the occultist does chuck out bleeds rather than blight, it was kinda fantastic - anamnesis bleeding every rank & if you can find a trink that applies any debuffs on hit, its wild - I had him dealing bleed & fire with some librarian trinks :)

[Samseng Yik]

It is hard to say he backloaded with good stuff.
I unlocked every heroes every skill.
I think OCC locked skills are "require setup and planning".
Where his starting skills are foreverly practical doesn't require much setup.
I did try the Black Star with rank 4 Warlock he occasional deal a nuke. But still require RNG on the untapped power collection (Not useful in short fight)

[Vudak]

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

(Not useful in short fight)

That is essentially the long and short of it sadly, he's sorta operating at 75% power unless you're in a 2/3+ round fight basically. :(

[Raki]

Personally, I think Warlock is at the moment quite a bit better than Aspirant.

Ranged dmg bonus benefits the right spells:
- Abyssal Artillery is a strong backline nuke.
- Burning Star benefits from +25% Ranged Dmg. Can bypass block, but not dodge. Useful in any phase of the fight.
- Chaotic offering makes everything reliable
- No malus to debuffing, so can use tokens for stuns through various ranged skills more reliably

Aspirant
- The Melee abilities are too slow to reliably build up tokens for anamnesis
- You need to tailor your party to get a combo token from someone else on turn 1
- Ultimately, you still use Burning Star more often than Anamnesis, but it deals less dmg than for Warlock

Of course, what Aspirant has going for him is that his Hitpoint Pool is quite a bit higher. Still, PD Surgeon is quite similar, but gets +50% Melee Dmg (instead of just 25%), while having a DOT on her Incision on top.

I hope they show a little love to Aspirant in the future. He probably just needs a little bit of tweaking, the groundwork is there. I really like the concept of sacrificing your enemies to unspeakable horrors from outer spheres. :)

[squat_instructor]

I feel like they should just make him similar to Vestal - either make charge generate passively 1 token per turn or let curses generate 1 on use. That way he would play like a curse dispenser and occasionally discharge tokens with a nuke (maybe up the cost from 2 to 3 for the sake of balance).

I think curses should also deal 1dmg, just so you can ping blocks and check death's door with them

As it stands he is not in a good place, gimmicky at best.

[Pixel Peeper]

Ritualist is OK, Warlock is great, Aspirant is meh.

I gotta admit I didn't like him so much until I unlocked Chaotic Offering and The Burning Stars. Now he's one of my favorite damage-dealers. Being able to nuke through Block and apply Combo at the same time is pretty nice.