Anoxi's Blight [Vanquished]

[MonTy]

Current Stats:
Level 88 - Bane/Blight/ES SSFHC Occultist
Account Profile Link - AnoxiMule character name
8.3k ES
145K Bane DPS
Highest Tier Map Clear: 14
Uber Lab Complete
Augmented Synthete Boss Defeated

6/1/19 - Died on a tier 14 map to a syndicate master with few extra damage mods. Same day I six linked my chest piece. POE giveth and taketh :)

Anoxi is my character in the Synthesis 3.6 SSFHC league that will be unique in the case that she will be bee-lining to Chaos Inoculation. CI is typically harder to gear for, especially in the beginning stages of the game. However, Anoxi is determined. She will be starting with no twink gear and will be focusing on Blight and Bane, to whittle away her opponent's health. She's aspiring to be an Occultist and will focus on casting multiple curses on her enemies.

Here are her various phases of her planned skill tree:
Step 1: CI
Step 2: Zealot's Oath
Final Skill Tree

Anoxi plans to utilize Bane as her main AoE skill in an ES chest piece. She's looking to link Temp Chains, Enfeeble, Despair, Efficacy, and Controlled Destruction to Bane.

For her Helm, she'll link Malevolence, Vaal Discipline, Vaal Blight, and increased Duration. For single target, her Gloves will contain Blight, Infused Channeling, Efficacy, and Arcane Surge. If she finds the Allelopathy gloves, she'll drop Blight for Controlled Destruction for more DPS. Her boots will support Wither, Spell Totem, Faster Casting, and Increased Duration.

For her weapon she'll link Cast When Damage Taken, Summon Chaos Golem, and Immortal Call. For her shield she'll be using Flame Dash, Faster Casting, and Arcane Surge.

The only unique I am planning on using is the Spreading Rot jewel, as it is an act 5 quest reward. Otherwise, I'm really just looking for high ES rare items, and Chaos Damage over time multiplier on my Wand. That'll be one of the most important stats for this build and it's basically a support gem in a stat line.

I feel like if I can make it past Cruel Lab, the character will be great. Up until then my ES will be low and I can easily die to stuns. But I look forward to the challenge and we'll see how it goes. It should be noted I've already played a good amount of Synthesis in Softcore and Hardcore league, but this will be my first SSF HC character.

[Chadvoluted]

Good luck in SSF.
With the struggles Im' having in tryingg to get mapping in Standard Synth, I just can't imagine I'd be OK with dealing with SSF.

[MonTy]

I'm glad to report Anoxi made it past Katava in Act 5, just fine. Had to spend all of my essences and currency but I was able to craft some early game ES gear. Normally would never spend so much on early equipment, but going ES from the get-go is a serious challenge. My only real scare was in a memory modifier enhanced zone. I was being greedy and looking for upgrades, and for HC untwinked, that is not the way to do it until later in the game.

I'm delaying going CI until after Cruel lab, I should have over 3K ES at that point. Plus, that's when I'll be running into chaos spitters or other chaos damage mobs that can wipe out my current 1K life petty quick. I'm running around with a chaos resist potion, just in case.

Here's my current skill tree at level 49. Here is a snapshot of my gear. Here's my character profile if you want to see a live version. https://pastebin.com/HFmdTtaw is the POB link.

After auras I'm sitting at 2.1k ES, 1k life, max resistances, and bane is about 6k damage, and I'm using blight for more single target. The playstyle is not the fastest nor is it my favorite - Bane's AOE, even with a bunch of nodes, is not great. I'm missing a lot of mobs when casting, and often have to recast 2 or 3 times. But the convenience of casting curses is nice, so I won't complain too much. I dropped wither totem since Blight's updated threshold jewel grants Wither, so that helped with links. I fit in tempest shield and will add increased duration and efficacy to vaal blight/discipline (when I get it, no successful Vaals yet).

We'll see how Act 5 and onward fares!

[MonTy]

Good luck in SSF.
With the struggles Im' having in tryingg to get mapping in Standard Synth, I just can't imagine I'd be OK with dealing with SSF.

Thanks, I'll need it. I had trouble with maps in trade leagues, so I suppose it'll be extremely hard in SSF. Especially getting your shaper quest line so you can reroll maps of the same tier with chaos orbs.

Anoxi is doing really well so far - just a tad bit low on ES for my liking. I've finished the main quest line, did Merc lab, and starting to do maps today. I've had a few close calls when I had 4k ES on CI, but now I'm sitting at 5.2 so it's more comfortable (especially with Bane/Enfeeble).

We'll see how maps go! I plan on running a ton of lower tier maps today- so hopefully I can advance the shaper quest line enough. Are you still playing?

[MonTy]

Finally feeling like the build came together. It was by far the hardest time I've had a build getting off the ground - just due to not being able to find any decent ES gear. I spent all my essences, alchs, scours, and chaos trying to spam a decent es chest/shield, but nothing. Then one day I had a ~450 ES chest and 200 ES shield drop, which brought me to over 7k ES (huge upgrade from previous 5.2k). Finally felt comfortable enough to progress in maps, do some Synthesis zones, and attempt Uber lab.

While I had bad luck with starting ES gear, I was fortunate enough to find the Uber trials fairly quickly. At 83 I braved Izaro and came out ahead after one close call. Pretty sure I would have died if not for taking it slow, getting all of the dark shrines, and not granting Izaro buffs.

Getting the last ascendancy points felt like a massive upgrade for this build. Enemies I curse have malediction, dealing 10% reduced damage, on top of my three curses with a total of 65% increased curse effectiveness (Enfeeble, Temp Chains, Despair). I also got more cast speed which really helps with the zones where I have to cast Bane multiple times.

With some time left in the league I still plan to take it a bit slow. Going to build up my base of maps before moving to the next tier. I'm most scared of the Nexus boss maps with modifiers - so I'll probably keep that as my last challenge if I make it past tier 10. We'll see how it goes, but I felt like I've accomplished a lot with this character for untwinked ssfhc, and would be satisfied with the character if Anoxi should meet her demise.

[Concillian]

Well done.

I can never bring myself to take it slow enough to play HC. And a lot of the time I like to play is late at night and I let myself get overtired and miss silly things that result in death. Great job making it as far as you have.

[MonTy]

Well done.

I can never bring myself to take it slow enough to play HC. And a lot of the time I like to play is late at night and I let myself get overtired and miss silly things that result in death. Great job making it as far as you have.

I definitely understand about not playing HC - I usually alternate every other league.

Thanks for the kind words! The character definitely exceeded my expectations for not having any twink gear. I was recently able to clear a synthesis boss, although just barely. Those synthesis mods are insane, and even with enfeeble and 50+ curse effectiveness, I was dropped down to a few hundred ES during the fight.

Not sure if I have it in me to grind out the guardian's maps - but I'd love to try and defeat one. Pretty bad luck on the high tier maps so far. Have used chisels, alchs, chaos, vaals, and zana mods but haven't had another same tier or higher drop of 13+. Only got them thanks to the Lab map chests. I guess I only have a few weeks left before the next league - so we'll see how it goes :)