[3.16 updated] BRO, DO YOU EVEN SUMMON? Life/ES Dark Pact Skeleton Caster League Starter

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aastr wrote:

I've been using this as a league starter, works excellent so far. Rush the life nodes on the RHS, ignore crit chance and multi, then start working on the left side of the tree. Use DP as soon as you get it, make sure to buy the jewel that improves it (From Dust). Keep on top of your leveling gear and it should be pretty smooth, don't forget to buy 6 other copies of DP for chance at 21 later. The build really gets going after 62 when you can equip double Apeps, I'm using warlords mark and a mana on hit ring to sustain.

thanks bro helped a bunch

I've seen something cool on another build (a spectre summoner using minion instability)
==> using Vix Lunaris as a shield (before getting the 2 void batteries / +3 minion helmet)

It allow to a +2 socketed gems with an Empower (which got boosted by the shield)
you can achieve some nice life for the skeletons :) (Shield = Skel / Empower / Minion life)

Sorry guys for not responding for a few days but I was so engaged into the new league. ;D

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is there a possible ES version or is life the way to go?

With 3.5 changes to ES recharge it's now possible to play Dark Pact as an ES based char! Neither self-casting DP nor Gloomfang lose life mod no longer interrupt ES recharge.

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Hows the build going? Are u playing with it in this league?

Yeah I'm playing with this build in a league. Got 6L chest yesterday and now I'm having a hard time to even tell the unique monsters from a regular ones. ;) DPS is nuts even I'm still using self found rare wands. Clearspeed is ok (curse on hit ring is definitely needed later on). Syndicate map encounters are more rippy than the actual Syndicate hideout runs - on maps there is a lot of monsters and it's just a big mess while on hideout runs I can clearly see a boss and nuke it within a second. Tankiness was never a strong aspect of this build.

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hey guys ive been using Enki's Arc Witch to level, currently level 28 now.
do i keep using arc until 60+, idk when to switch to dark pact and al lthat

aastr made a great response to your question. I'm gonna only say that I've been also levelling with Arc and switched to Dark Pact at lvl 28.

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I've seen something cool on another build (a spectre summoner using minion instability)
==> using Vix Lunaris as a shield (before getting the 2 void batteries / +3 minion helmet)

It allow to a +2 socketed gems with an Empower (which got boosted by the shield)
you can achieve some nice life for the skeletons :) (Shield = Skel / Empower / Minion life)

I haven't tried that but it sounds like a good alternative to what I suggest.

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hey guys ive been using Enki's Arc Witch to level, currently level 28 now.
do i keep using arc until 60+, idk when to switch to dark pact and al lthat

aastr made a great response to your question. I'm gonna only say that I've been also levelling with Arc and switched to Dark Pact at lvl 28.

I've actually made it further with Arc, all the way to Yellow maps. With our Ascendancy and skill tree pretty much similar. Just wanted to try Arc with crits... if you are buffed by Vaal Arc you pretty much melt everything, but other than that clear was okay but no tools to deal with Syndicate whatsoever.
So I've switched to DP, now it's a breeze with most of the stuff.

Big hint here is you have to take down the Fort door asap, otherwise mobs will just overwhelm.

I also have a few questions if you don't mind:

- Did you try Atziri's Acuity on the build?
- Whats the best way to approach Delve Outposts, should we offscreen a little there? So far it's fine at depth 150, but i feel it can get worse in time. Already had few unpleasant deaths to Vaal Swordsmen :)

And thanks for the build, altough i've made some changes (vaal grace, double totems, some minion damage nodes, mf stuff and leech) pretty satisfied so far!

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brant09081992 wrote:

Sorry guys for not responding for a few days but I was so engaged into the new league. ;D

"

is there a possible ES version or is life the way to go?

With 3.5 changes to ES recharge it's now possible to play Dark Pact as an ES based char! Neither self-casting DP nor Gloomfang lose life mod no longer interrupt ES recharge.

"

Hows the build going? Are u playing with it in this league?

Yeah I'm playing with this build in a league. Got 6L chest yesterday and now I'm having a hard time to even tell the unique monsters from a regular ones. ;) DPS is nuts even I'm still using self found rare wands. Clearspeed is ok (curse on hit ring is definitely needed later on). Syndicate map encounters are more rippy than the actual Syndicate hideout runs - on maps there is a lot of monsters and it's just a big mess while on hideout runs I can clearly see a boss and nuke it within a second. Tankiness was never a strong aspect of this build.

"

hey guys ive been using Enki's Arc Witch to level, currently level 28 now.
do i keep using arc until 60+, idk when to switch to dark pact and al lthat

aastr made a great response to your question. I'm gonna only say that I've been also levelling with Arc and switched to Dark Pact at lvl 28.

"

I've seen something cool on another build (a spectre summoner using minion instability)
==> using Vix Lunaris as a shield (before getting the 2 void batteries / +3 minion helmet)

It allow to a +2 socketed gems with an Empower (which got boosted by the shield)
you can achieve some nice life for the skeletons :) (Shield = Skel / Empower / Minion life)

I haven't tried that but it sounds like a good alternative to what I suggest.

Thanks :) I was wanting to ask, do you have any tips for increasing survivability on early maps? I've been ripping quite a lot.

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aastr wrote:

Thanks :) I was wanting to ask, do you have any tips for increasing survivability on early maps? I've been ripping quite a lot.

Take 3rd curse on the passive tree and get these gloves:



That should solve the issue for now. Then work on 5L and later 6L so you can actually kill stuff fast.

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- Did you try Atziri's Acuity on the build?

No but I had some plans of making DP without use of skeletons and I was thinking about using Acuity.

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- Whats the best way to approach Delve Outposts, should we offscreen a little there? So far it's fine at depth 150, but i feel it can get worse in time. Already had few unpleasant deaths to Vaal Swordsmen :)

I haven't played Delve league so I'm a noob here. ;) So far I'm trying to figure out basic aspects of delving.

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I was wanting to ask, do you have any tips for increasing survivability on early maps? I've been ripping quite a lot.

As zoNiklv said, you may get temp chains gloves, but I think it will be better to drop an Assassin's Mark and put a higher lvl Temp Chains gem into a Blasphemy. Also try to get as much life as you can. And necessarily use Phase Run.

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brant09081992 wrote:

No but I had some plans of making DP without use of skeletons and I was thinking about using Acuity.

I haven't played Delve league so I'm a noob here. ;) So far I'm trying to figure out basic aspects of delving.

That probably involves going full life, raising eHP to 8k++, but won't be good enough for bosses since you are too exposed when self-casting close to threats. I was more thinking about fast healing after taking damage. We are not tanky at all, so every bit will help. Natural leech is really slow and we can build instances pretty fast with our cast speed even without overleech.

As for delve, my strat is to push as much as you can, always. Just make sure you pick-up azurite nodes on the way and upgrade your capacity and slightly everything else. Red maps can get about 4k sulphite per map without scrabs, you have to fit it all. Reason to push deeper is juicy nodes will be appearing more often. It got crazy at depths ~2000ish.

If you want to farm walls then you need flare and dyno capacity, profits are huge even with fossils going for just 1c now.

At the start you are starving for azurite and maybe tempted to farm low cost nodes to get it. But it gets more cost and time efficient as you go down. The strat i used is doing 1 wall paths (two nodes and one empty square between), but without refilling flares and dyno fully - you need only 2 flares and 1 dyno to succeed, so that if you encounter the chest with them you can benefit.

Edit: Removed off-topic stuff

does anyone have a good idea of how to run a low life or ci variant? probably asking for a lot (IE skill tree, equips , gems ect.)
I'm level 41 and will probably have to respect but i would love to purse a low life version
but any help would be greatly appreciated.

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PUNSHET2 wrote:

does anyone have a good idea of how to run a low life or ci variant? probably asking for a lot (IE skill tree, equips , gems ect.)
I'm level 41 and will probably have to respect but i would love to purse a low life version
but any help would be greatly appreciated.

That does not sound viable to me.
Best case scenario for maps: you use Spell Echo linked to Skeleton and only after you have them you cast DP on top. Meaning you spend twice as much time clearing maps if not more because of skeletons fail to be recalled at certain terrains, behind ledges and other buggy places. Would be easy with self-cast, but you don't have the health to raise base damage.