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PoE Build

Thy's SSF Foulborn Death's Aura Occultist - Just a fun mapper

End Game

3.27 KotF

SSF

Witch

Occultist

By thyworm

Updated on Feb 20, 2026

Feb 20, 2026

Path of Building Code

Build Overview

This is an endgame mapping build I created in SSF. It follows most of the common death's aura tropes, with perhaps a twist here and there given this is an SSF league. You wouldn't say, maybe, by the items, but I ended up here after a foulborn challenge run, and it was such a nice build I thought I'd share it.

This clearly cannot be a league starter, there are some mandatory uniques, but given that Breach 2.0 is going core, there's a decent chance you'll be able to play this again next league.

Strengths and Weaknesses

smooth mapper
purple explosions
tanky
autobomber

not a starter
requires several uniques
cannot kill bosses

Build Variants

There's only one endgame version, but I'll list the minimum items and scaling aspects in the guide below

Equipment

Mandatory uniques:

Foulborn Death's Oath. You can use the regular Death's Oath as well, but it doesn't have the increased withered effect, so the foulborn version is strictly better. You only need to 6 socket is, there's no need to 6-link the gems.
Impresence (Chaos), as you want one free aura at least, for either Despair or Punishment, ideally both, but good luck finding that in SSF.

Nice to have uniques, in order of rarity:

Rumi's Concoction, just to help cap block, plus armor for this build is useful as well
Death Rush, just makes you zoom through the maps, it's one of my favorite uniques
The Light of Meaning (Chaos Damage), a lot of increased damage, but a lucky find

Chase Uniques:

The Sundered Will, a rare drop from the new breach bosses, increasing aura effect and scaling Death Aura by a lot, plus it has chaos res and mana reservation. I just wasn't able to find it, but it's a great item.
Headhunter, of course. I created it out of gambling The Doctor cards.

SSF solution uniques:

In SSF, you have to be a little creative when you don't find what you need, so there are two more uniques that I used in this regard.

Profane Proxy: this substitutes another free curse you'd get on the amulet otherwise, and I put Punishment in there. The ring otherwise is decent too, with some res on it
Megalomaniac: You can't plan for these in SSF, but if you get 2 or 3 decent notables, it's worth considering. In my case, Cult-Leader gives 35% increased damage, thanks to Herald of Ash, Capacitor helps a little bit with shock, and Mortifying Aspect is great of course for mana reservation, allowing me to get an extra aura.

How to Get Which Gear

Helmet (farm a El Hazmin influenced map, and just spam chaos or alchemy orbs until you hit the modifier that gives -9% chaos res to nearby enemies)
Impresence (Chaos) (farm Elder)
Death Rush (random unique drop)
Profane Proxy (random unique drop)
Foulborn Death's Oath (from the tree / loot the chests in the Hive Fortress)
Gloves (Tree Crafting)
Boots (Tree Crafting)
Wand (Fossil Crafting just to get a high minion damage roll on there, then remove affixes if possible and craft at least DoT multi on there)
Shield (Fossil Crafting, aim for just a high minion damage roll, and then several defensive stats like block chance, life, resistances)
Headhunter (gamble The Doctor cards with Harvest)
Rumi's Concoction (random drop, I got it from the tree)
Megalomaniac (these drop from simulacrum, but don't use this build to do simulacrum...)
The Light of Meaning (Chaos Damage) (King in the Mists)

Passive Tree

main:

123

ascendancy:

Masteries

Reservation Mastery (2)

Auras from your Skills have 10% increased Effect on you

30% increased Area of Effect of Aura Skills

Mana Mastery (1)

12% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills

Block Mastery (1)

+1% Chance to Block Spell Damage per 5% Chance to Block Attack Damage

Damage Over Time Mastery (1)

+10% to Damage over Time Multiplier if you've Killed Recently

Shield Mastery (1)

+1% Chance to Block Attack Damage per 5% Chance to Block on Equipped Shield

Armour Mastery (1)

You take 30% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes

I think mostly a pretty standard passive tree for Death's Oath. See the scaling sections and this tree should make sense, once you've read that.

Skills

Nemesis Goad

Paladin Boots

Summon Skitterbots

Enlighten

Herald of Ash

Malevolence

Corpse Dome

Zealot Helmet

Raise Spectre

Meat Shield

Empower

Minion Life

Beast Palm

Zealot Gloves

Automation

Lifetap

Withering Step

Steelskin

Pandemonium Mark

Fossilised Spirit Shield

Portal

Cast on Death

Tempest Shield

Foulborn Death's Oath

Astral Plate

Awakened Void Manipulation

Swift Affliction

Foulborn Death's Oath

Astral Plate

Lifetap

Less Duration

Honour Gnarl

Convoking Wand

Despair

Blasphemy

Foulborn Death's Oath

Astral Plate

Efficacy

Foulborn Death's Oath

Astral Plate

Increased Area of Effect

Profane Proxy

Unset Ring

Punishment

Honour Gnarl

Convoking Wand

Shield Charge

Increased Area of Effect

Foulborn Death's Oath

Astral Plate

Death Aura

PoB messes up these support gems, but this is what you want in your Foulborn Death's Oath (no need to 6-ink it, just 6-socket it)

Void Manipulation Support or Awakened Void Manipulation Support
Swift Affliction Support or Awakened Swift Affliction Support
Increased Area of Effect Support or Awakened Increased Area of Effect Support
Efficacy Support
Lifetap Support which does nothing in itself, but gives the skill a duration tag, so that
Less Duration Support works

Other Auras

Malevolence - for DoT multiplier and it costs 50% less thanks to my Megalomaniac and Enlighten Support
Herald of Ash - For the explosions / clear
Despair is cast as an aura thanks to Blasphemy Support, but doesn't cost mana thanks to Impresence (Chaos).
Summon Skitterbots - so Profane Proxy works, and then it's up to you to either shock or chill. I prefer chill as it's more defensive.
Tempest Shield - helping with spell block cap and shock immunity
Automation - automating Steelskin which also cures bleeding, and Withering Step for a bit of movement speed and wither stacks.

Spectre (totally optional)

A bit of a personal twist is a spectre. You're taking some minion life and damage, so I opted to include a spectre into the build. They do die in juicy maps, but they're back for the next map either way, so it's fine. And there's not much else you take. I'm taking:

Forest Warrior - for onslaught. Any forest warrior works, they all give onslaught, even though the tooltip indicates otherwise
Perfect Warlord - for endurance charges / Vitality. 3 free endurance charges, very welcome, although you get them as well by blocking (cluster jewel).
Any other spectre that gives an aura you don't have yet, but preferably a tanky spectre, or they will die on the first pack.

use Elemental Army Support if you don't have Empower Support

How it Plays

you run around, press zero buttons, and the whole screen explodes with purple pops.

How it Works

Death's Oath:

Death's Oath triggers an aura, called Death Aura, which can be supported by gems that you slot in the chest armor. It's a chaos damage over time, AoE aura, and that's how you scale it as well. It does 1250 base damage per second and doesn't cost or reserve any mana. You will also take a bit of chaos damage, which can be mitigated by life regen or life on kill (for example with Death Rush)

Defensive Scaling:

A bit of armor, for some extra phys damage mitigation.
Block. Block capped for attack and spell block
Life.
Enemies are chilled, thanks to skitterbots
Corrupted blood immunity, using a corrupted implicit on a jewel

Offensive Scaling:

The multiplicative damage scaling, which mostly comes from support gems which have more multipliers on them. Primarily DoT multipliers and more damage multipliers from support gems.
The increased damage scaling, which includes all sources of increased minion damage thanks to Spiritual Aid, increased damage over time, area of effect damage, and generic increased damage
AoE scaling. The more AoE, the easier your aura applies to enemies, making you kill them from further away, which makes it easier as well. AoE scaling also helps with the Hexbloom and Herald of Ash explosions
Aura effect. As Death's Oath creates an aura, you can scale the aura effect, primarily using keynodes such as Champion of the Cause.
Withering, by the ascendancy, increased withered effect from the foulborn unique, and you'll find it on several other aspects in the build as well.
Enemy increased damage taken. You do this by using Punishment, Despair and lowering resistances further with the helmet and wither. Shocking enemies is also an option.

Anoint

Testudo - cheap & defensive

Influence - expensive and damage

anything else you can afford and fits either defensive or offensive scaling works too

Pantheon

Brine King against freeze and Aberrath as we're farming red altars.

Spectres

I took 2, see the skills section. Very optional though.

Animate Guardian

I tried it, but this guy is weaker than spectres, so I don't advice this.

Regex Strings

Rolling Maps T16: "!eir m|o al|get|uct|ur$|gen|r li|taun|pet|s rec|mmo"

Changelog

20-2-2026: v1.0 created

Video Guide

Stats

Character

Attributes

272 /

164 /

296

Movement Speed

218%

Pantheon Major

TheBrineKing

Pantheon Minor

Abberath

Charges

Endurance Charges

Frenzy Charges

Power Charges

Defensive

Life

3,774

Energy Shield

510

Mana

916

Armour

8,996

Evasion Rating

Block

78%

Resistances

76% /

75% /

75%

Simulated

Effective Health Pool

157K

Max Hit

13K /

34K /

33K /

27K

Skill DPS Estimation

Death Aura

475K

1. Path of Building Code 2. Build Overview 3. Strengths and Weaknesses 4. Equipment 5. Passive Tree 6. Skills 7. How it Plays 8. How it Works Death's Oath: Defensive Scaling: Offensive Scaling: Anoint Pantheon Spectres Animate Guardian Regex Strings 9. Changelog

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