PoE Crucible: Impending Doom League Starter Guide

Patch 3.21 of Path of Exile, officially titled Crucible, has finally been released a few days ago. Needless to say, a slew of league starter builds are now circulating the internet in true PoE fashion.

One such powerful build that can help you breeze through all 10 acts and reach the endgame is the Impending Doom occultist.

While this might seem like a one-button build, there are actually a few intricacies going on in the background.

If you want to pick this build as your league starter, this guide should help you out.

Impending Doom League Starter Guide in PoE Crucible

As mentioned, we’ll be going for the Occultist ascendancy for this build. There are a few good reasons for this which are as follows:

• You have access to Profane Bloom which is insanely useful for clearing packs of enemies.
• Void Beacon reduces nearby enemies’ Chaos resistance by 20% for even more damage.
• You can apply an additional curse on your enemies via Unholy Authority.
• You also gain stun immunity as long as you have an Energy Shield via Vile Bastion.

Needless to say, the Occultist is perfect for this build. Add to that the fact that Impending Doom has the Hex and Chaos tags to it which is what the Occultist specializes in!

How the Build Works

The idea behind the build is a bit unconventional as it doesn’t really rely too much on an active skill to deal damage. Instead, you’ll only be using your active skill to trigger Impending Doom which is a support gem.

In this case, your support gem is actually the one that deals damage instead of your active skill gem. This is done via the Doom Blast spell which is exclusive to the gem.

So what you do is cast a Hex curse, and once its duration expires, it will then trigger Doom Blast via Impending Doom to damage all enemies hit by the curse.

However, this version is a bit different from the one which was popular in the previous Sanctum league. Instead of dealing chaos damage via hits, you’ll be dealing poison.

How to Level Up the Build

The build is pretty versatile during the leveling process. As with most builds, you shouldn’t go straight into using your main skill during the early stages of the campaign.

Instead, you need to change which skills you’re using as you go. That said, the focus of this build revolves around dealing Chaos damage to your enemies.

During your first few levels, you should use Blight and Contagion for clearing packs of enemies then Essence Drain for single-target. Once you hit level 24, you then swap to Bane.

When you reach Act 3, complete the quest A Fixture of Fate in The Library to gain access to Siosa’s shop. Then, purchase Herald of Agony, Impending Doom Support, and Cursed Ground Support gems.

You can then switch to the Impending Doom build as soon as you complete Normal Labyrinth.

Recommended Gear

The gear you use will greatly increase the overall DPS of this build. For this, you want to focus on the following items:

Vixen’s Entrapment

Consider this quality-of-life gloves as it lets you automate the casting of your second curse each time you cast a curse. Since you’ll be applying two curses on your targets, the ability to apply an additional curse is important.

While you still don’t have these gloves, you can just take the Unholy Authority ascendancy. But once you have the gloves, respec to Vile Bastion instead.

Apep’s Rage

This is the only weapon you’ll need for this build, and it applies on all stages of playthrough from early to endgame. This unique wand provides the build with a massive DPS boost thanks to its flat Chaos damage bonus to spells.

Aside from that, it also causes your poisons to deal damage faster which allows you to clear maps much more quickly! However, this weapon is mana-hungry, though you can offset that by getting the Eldritch Battery passive node.

Skin of the Lords

For your body armor, you want to go for Skin of the Lords.

For one, it massively increases your defenses which is really useful for added survivability. It also adds 2 levels to gems which are socketed into it. This allows you to increase the damage of your Impending Doom even further.

As for the keystone, you want to look for Ghost Dance, Lethe Shade, Mind Over Matter, or Divine Shield.

Do take note that Skin of the Lords isn’t modifiable. As such, you have to purchase one that has the same socket colors as the gems you socket into it. Also, all gems should be corrupted.

Atziri’s Reflection

For your off-hand, there’s no better choice than Atziri’s Reflection. It increases the effect of your curses by 20% which also means increased damage overall.

It also makes you unaffected by curses alongside other nice bonuses.

Death’s Rush

This is a unique ring that greatly helps with clearing maps quickly. Each time you kill an enemy, you gain the Adrenaline buff which increases your damage, attack and cast speed, as well as movement speed significantly.

It also reduces physical damage that you take for a duration.

As for the rest of your gear, you’ll want rare items that will cap your resistances. Also, make sure to invest in a Stygian Vise with an increased cooldown recovery rate modifier.

Gem Links

You want to socket the following gems in your gear:

• Body Armor – Impending Doom Support > Divergent Temporal Chains > Spell Cascade > Unbound Ailments > Divergent Void Manipulation Support > Added Chaos Damage Support
• Any Gear – Shield Charge > Faster Attacks Support > Flame Dash
• Any Gear – CWDT Support > Molten Shell > Plague Bearer
• Gloves – Punishment > Enfeeble > Despair > Spell Cascade
• Any Gear – Determination > Grace > Anomalous Herald of Agony > Anomalous Withering Step
• Any Gear – Divine Blessing Support > Inspiration Support > Malevolence > Increased Duration Support

And that is basically the build. To play the build, you’ll need to cast your Curse hex on your target(s) and build as many poison stacks as possible. Then, watch as they melt your enemies.

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