Nightblade/Occultist Builds

[Sword that Slays Wisdom]

I am a level 36 Nightblade/Occultist, running as a gun (power over tanking), and mainly relying on passive abilities. Aside from Solael's Witchfire, I have not invested in much in the Occultist tree, except the Hellhound. I am thinking of either maxing out Occultist, to get their avatar shapechanging form (forget the name), or maxing out both so I can get the final attack on the Nightblade, too.

However, this may require too many points to complete both. I have invested several points in Pneumatic Burst, Solael's Witchfire, and the Dual Wield skill tree, and Hellhound summoning ability, but very little else.

What skills are most viable with a melee dps build, using both maledictions and benedictions to incapacitate my foes. I plan on mainly playing as a melee/support dps guy, with tons of skills for utility.

[Sword that Slays Wisdom]

Also, just noticed I had 1 pt. in the Nightblade's blade barrier ability.

Unsure how useful this ability is.

[3982173917524862]

http://grimcalc.com/build/j4Rprk This here is my melee occultist build. I mainly use Sigil for great aoe damage and getting health back. My melee hits don't really hit as much as most right click builds, but with Possesion, I can pretty much survive any encounter easily and deal 3k-5k damage per swing. I have +7 on doom bolt, which deals 20k dmg easily, even more when critting and possesion/curses. My gear consists of mostly + to chaos and vitality damage and +8 to Solalel's witchfire. I could have stayed a pure occultist, but I wanted some more spirit and offensive power, so I put some in the first passive arcanist skill. I think I could reevaluate some points from sigil or the 2nd witchfire for more arcanist skills like mirror or the spellshield, but I have enough survivability as it is

[3982173917524862]

Originally posted by Buttonpushingoverlord:

Melee Occultist with no Blood of Dreeg.
O.......k.

As I said, I do too much dmg to make a difference, most enemies don't survive more than 2 waves of the sigil and the healing from it is what keeps me alive. In tight situations or bossfights, I use possesion and kill everything quickly.

[Sword that Slays Wisdom]

Nice build. I kinda would have agreed with the Blood of Dreeg statement, instead of Curse of Frailty, but I haven't toyed with other builds much. The vulnerability might be a more effective way of getting past enemies with resistance than pure dps.

I am more on the Nightblade side of things, currently, but I might take points out of my pet, and roll back more into the melee side of Nightblade, instead. Some of the debuffing skills of the occultist are great, and damage-over-time is a concept I have yet to play with.

[Sword that Slays Wisdom]

Here is my plans on a curent build: http://grimcalc.com/build/K2gdMF

If anything, I might take some points out of melee skills, in order to build up debuffing skills, utility, and dps-over-time.

[The Real J.]

Here is my current main character: My build[grimcalc.com]

Based on phantasmal blades and lots of chaos damage boosters + resistance reduction (with Mark of Dreeg in weapon) with hellhound and stormhound for support. Haevy reliance on chaos damage (augments, items), but seems to work nicely.

[Sword that Slays Wisdom]

It looks like I overlevelled both my Nightblade & Occultist for the build I was going for. I am considering whether to restart the game. Ugh! Lots of grinding to do...

[The Real J.]

Originally posted by DawnrazorDCLXVI:

It looks like I overlevelled both my Nightblade & Occultist for the build I was going for. I am considering whether to restart the game. Ugh! Lots of grinding to do...

If you are considering leveling the occult mastery to the level where you get hellhound+ember claw you can get an easy start by quickly leveling the hellhound and ember claw. Doesn't reduce the amount of grinding but makes the initial game easier.

[Sword that Slays Wisdom]

Originally posted by The Real J.:

Originally posted by DawnrazorDCLXVI:

It looks like I overlevelled both my Nightblade & Occultist for the build I was going for. I am considering whether to restart the game. Ugh! Lots of grinding to do...

If you are considering leveling the occult mastery to the level where you get hellhound+ember claw you can get an easy start by quickly leveling the hellhound and ember claw. Doesn't reduce the amount of grinding but makes the initial game easier.

Thanks! I am levelling a pure Nightblade right now. Saving my dual mastery for when they release the new classes. Anyone have any experience with Blade Cage or Blade Spirit?