I've played around with the mod for about a month and while I do enjoy a more supportive oriented skill set, I find a few flaws. Note that I do modded runs a majority of the time, mods like sunward isles and farmstead plus have a far larger focus on horror than straight up stress.

Sacrificial Stab: This skill is a bit worse now that their is a negative damage multiplier. It doesn't have the little increased accuracy as Vulnerability Hex, so I find myself missing just a little more often. Worse yet, enemies that require the mark to burst down their large protection (Swinetaurs and Urca Majors) can easily negate the extra damage when I would much prefer a protection debuff.

Abyssal Artillery: At higher tier dungeons, stress healing should happen towards the end of the fight when you have complete control of the situation. This means the stress or damage dealers at the back are usually dead, leaving the support oriented nature of the skill kinda weak (While their were a few times I managed to use the corpses as a valid target, some mods use corpses in interesting ways).

Vulnerability Hex: I actually really liked how you handle the skill, without the damage, it becomes far easier to handle repost or damage reflection enemies. The only issue is the base trinkets have a large debuff chance boost, and the debuff becomes slightly overpowered.

Wyrd Reconstruction: I don't think I really notice the cure all that often, I usually have a bandage prepared or a class that can cure/massively resist bleed.

Daemons Pull: This one's ... intresting, for a few runs I tried to use this with classes that inflict horror or in the aforementioned horror dungeons. I found it inconsistent, but a nice convince when it did happen.

Stygian embrace: Firstly, I really love this addition, stealth is controls the combat in a unique fashion. The only issues I have with it is that it downside is almost negligible at time, having two round where a hero can't be directly affected is more than enough time to get rid of major stresser.


My Personal Ideas for Changes -

Sacrificial Stab: Change it back to how it used to be. Sacrificial Stab in the base game is a great eldritch sweeper, and because of its high crit chance I almost find it to be a better Daemons Pull (leaving no corpses). If you were to move the party cure horror to this skill (perhaps buff it to 50% or have it cure horror on kill), I think It would be a fantastic utility.

Abyssal Artillery: Because Vulnerability hex lost its damage (and therefore its crit chance) I'd be in favor of keeping the lowered damage in exchange for a 5-9% crit chance. If you want to make it a support buff skill, I'd add add a + additional healing done. The Oculist rarely benefits from base + healing skills, either having to high or two low a heal to matter. An affixed healing buff say + 3 - 5 additional healing would be a tremendous helpful, more so with Stygian embrace.

Wyrd Reconstruction: I really wouldn't care if the cure was removed, but if you want it to have some kind of benefit for continuous healing, how about a buff. + Healing recieved or + bleed resistance would fit the most. I'm personally in favor for - damage received, as works almost like protection but it also counts towards self damage (which a few modded classes have).

Vulnerability Hex: It's already pretty good, but I think removing the dodge and changing the damage debuff to a base of 75% would be a good balance,

Daemons Pull: Weirdly enough, people I talk to about this skill agree its a better back line snipe than a pull. I think It would be good if the damage modifier was changed to -15%. Perhaps It would be good to have an enemy party debuff, as Occultist loses a considerable amount of debuff tools in this rework.

Stygian Embrace: I'd exchange the + Stress recived for a 2/4rds horror. It provides a more immediate threat and also would make the player consider purchasing Laudanum. I would also remove the bonus dodge, the healing already makes up for the survival of the hero.

If any of these skills get a bit to powerful, i'd slap a low 1/6rds horror as the power of the eldritch work to corrupt the Oculist's mind.

I'd also look into changing the crit, + healing skills as mentioned before don't fit the Occultist all that well, maybe something to do with crits received.


While the rework has a bit of balance flaw, I would never considered the Occultist to be this great a support when it comes to horror or stealth.

Thanks for your feedback! I had to take a break from modding, but in the future I plan to further balance these classes and I will definitely consider introducing some impactful changes.

v 1.1 changelog:

- new crit buff! Flat +2 hp heal on next move.

Sacrificial Stab
- slightly better accuracy
- added prot debuff

Abyssal Artillery
- lower base damage, higher crit chance
- longer buff duration for % stress healing received
- debuffs enemy speed
-> great to control those fast backline stress casters

Vulnerability Hex
- dodge + dmg debuff
- can now crit (better overall attack / heal synergy)

Wyrd Reconstruction
- max healing tuned down a bit
- bleed scaling adjusted again
-> Upgrading this skill now makes more sense.

Stygian Embrace (2 uses per battle)
- added 66% chance of inflicting horror 2 /4rds on target ally

Daemon's Pull
- higher base dmg and accuracy
- debuffs target speed
- 33% chance to clear horror on each party member (synergy with previous skill)