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

I was wondering how I could improve chaining on the build. I took a look at Gloomfang and I was wondering the following:

Gloomfang only has +1 chaining as benefit, on top of 0,5% chaos damage leech (and we are already using warlord's mark anyway).

Are rings that much better then amulets? Because snakepit seems it offers more stats for the same +1 chaining to be fair.

Also wondering if you could get both a assassin's mark ring and an warlord's mark ring, you could open up mana for an additional aura?

Also I'm not sure if fork actually does or does not work on Dark Pact Skeletons? Seeing it doesn't hit an enemy and it auto targets our skeletons?

Lastly, extremely min-maxing, I was curious if you ever looked into Bow/Quiver for dark pact? There is a very expensive ''socketed gems chain an aditional time'', as well as corrupted quiver mod. This way you could craft (absolutely min-max) a sick bow and use a corrupted quiver for potentially more dps. Not sure if this is viable, but I can imagine adding 2-3 links is quite entertaining.

"

TotemLols wrote:

I was wondering how I could improve chaining on the build. I took a look at Gloomfang and I was wondering the following:

Gloomfang only has +1 chaining as benefit, on top of 0,5% chaos damage leech (and we are already using warlord's mark anyway).

Are rings that much better then amulets? Because snakepit seems it offers more stats for the same +1 chaining to be fair.

Also wondering if you could get both a assassin's mark ring and an warlord's mark ring, you could open up mana for an additional aura?

Also I'm not sure if fork actually does or does not work on Dark Pact Skeletons? Seeing it doesn't hit an enemy and it auto targets our skeletons?

Lastly, extremely min-maxing, I was curious if you ever looked into Bow/Quiver for dark pact? There is a very expensive ''socketed gems chain an aditional time'', as well as corrupted quiver mod. This way you could craft (absolutely min-max) a sick bow and use a corrupted quiver for potentially more dps. Not sure if this is viable, but I can imagine adding 2-3 links is quite entertaining.

Interesting ideas, though the snakepit has a requirment of a projectile skill which dark pact is not. Same with fork.

If you'd want to minmax you could get an amulet with double crit multi, cast speed and other things and add substitute a support gem for chain support.

The bow + 1 chain shaped mod is really nice, didnt know about that one. I was thinking about it too, but only thought there is only the unique bow with +1 chain.
With that bow you could annul the rest and get multimod bow paired with for example corrupted soulstrike if you are into CI.

Unfortunately with more and mroe chains, the increase of damage per chain would be lower and more importantly you will melt skeletons much faster, so the question is what would be the optimal number of chains without sacrificing other damage stats.

From playing in PoB with the bow and quiver i couldnt get better damage than my current setup. (dropped from 6,3M to somewhere 5,5 even with conc effect support that i dont normally use)

From the legion posts you could have noticed that pledge of hands will be changed. I had tried it in PoB and if i remember correctly it was almost simillar as dual void batteries (with the staff crit multi points instead of wand cast speed) So that one could be and potential upgrade if it's better than current one.

Not sure if you could/couldn't get better stats. It's however extremely expensive and at some point you have enough damage.

The staff is very interesting though. Greater Spell Echo, no penalties to it. Staffs also allow for certain nodes to be picked up that are on route and might be potentially better. Also the staff offers some block I believe, which is better then nothing in terms of defense.

Just came back from a 1 year break and was researching builds for Legion. I don't want to risk melee 'cause of the revamp (and i still need to catch up with stuff).

So i'm going with this build. I find your devotion to Dark Pact admirable. The guide is very well written!!! Hope to have lots of fun with it

What to do now without warlord's mark? Pledge of hands + Eldritch battery + MoM? :o

"

6230374 wrote:

What to do now without warlord's mark? Pledge of hands + Eldritch battery + MoM? :o

I just hope it wont go live, this thing might kill most of the self-cast in game.
You would have to play with really low cast speed (the staff would be good), whatch for mana multiplier on supports, take mana nodes, get mana regen on gear, use clarity and then you might be able to get sufficient regen.

Or play with 5L + mana leech which might be even better then this insane struggle. Maybe use mana leech supoort with lightning brand for bosses with enough damage.(cinderswallow for clear)

It kinda feels like dagger in the back from ggg to spell casters. Not like they were played that much (dont count WO which is channel with zero mana problems)

Life leech also hurts, but there are options to get it from gear (gloomfang and other rare rings/amulets)

Sorry for responding so infrequently but I'm lacking of time recently. I want to ensure you, I will be making an update to this build for the upcoming 3.7 patch.

"

I just found an Intuitive Leap gem (https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Intuitive_Leap) and I'm wondering if it will be worth popping it in the top most gem slot to gain access to: Blast Radius, Alchemist, and maybe Mysticism. Thoughts?

It's not worth regarding to my PoB but maybe it is with yours if you have a different setup. You may check it by yourself and see.

"

Wtb a POB for assassin too if it aint to much work, I guess it would be pretty much the same nodes all the way around?

Yeah, Assassin would be almost identical so no worries.

"

I was wondering how I could improve chaining on the build. I took a look at Gloomfang and I was wondering the following:

Gloomfang only has +1 chaining as benefit, on top of 0,5% chaos damage leech (and we are already using warlord's mark anyway).

Are rings that much better then amulets? Because snakepit seems it offers more stats for the same +1 chaining to be fair.

Also wondering if you could get both a assassin's mark ring and an warlord's mark ring, you could open up mana for an additional aura?

Turned out to be good that I'm responding that late to your post. Since GGG just announced Warlord's Mark won't work with spells, Gloomfang seems to be the must-go option for Dark Pact. Snakepit, as Nirdana said, benefits only projectile spells so no +1 chain for Dark Pact.

"

Just came back from a 1 year break and was researching builds for Legion. I don't want to risk melee 'cause of the revamp (and i still need to catch up with stuff).

So i'm going with this build. I find your devotion to Dark Pact admirable. The guide is very well written!!! Hope to have lots of fun with it

Glad you like it! Comments like yours keep me motivated to incessantly work on this guide.

"

What to do now without warlord's mark? Pledge of hands + Eldritch battery + MoM? :o

That's the question which will probably going on in my head until the 3.7 launch. I have some interesting simple idea but first I want to test it before sharing it with you.

"

brant09081992 wrote:

Sorry for responding so infrequently but I'm lacking of time recently. I want to ensure you, I will be making an update to this build for the upcoming 3.7 patch.

"

I just found an Intuitive Leap gem (https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Intuitive_Leap) and I'm wondering if it will be worth popping it in the top most gem slot to gain access to: Blast Radius, Alchemist, and maybe Mysticism. Thoughts?

It's not worth regarding to my PoB but maybe it is with yours if you have a different setup. You may check it by yourself and see.

"

Wtb a POB for assassin too if it aint to much work, I guess it would be pretty much the same nodes all the way around?

Yeah, Assassin would be almost identical so no worries.

"

I was wondering how I could improve chaining on the build. I took a look at Gloomfang and I was wondering the following:

Gloomfang only has +1 chaining as benefit, on top of 0,5% chaos damage leech (and we are already using warlord's mark anyway).

Are rings that much better then amulets? Because snakepit seems it offers more stats for the same +1 chaining to be fair.

Also wondering if you could get both a assassin's mark ring and an warlord's mark ring, you could open up mana for an additional aura?

Turned out to be good that I'm responding that late to your post. Since GGG just announced Warlord's Mark won't work with spells, Gloomfang seems to be the must-go option for Dark Pact. Snakepit, as Nirdana said, benefits only projectile spells so no +1 chain for Dark Pact.

"

Just came back from a 1 year break and was researching builds for Legion. I don't want to risk melee 'cause of the revamp (and i still need to catch up with stuff).

So i'm going with this build. I find your devotion to Dark Pact admirable. The guide is very well written!!! Hope to have lots of fun with it

Glad you like it! Comments like yours keep me motivated to incessantly work on this guide.

"

What to do now without warlord's mark? Pledge of hands + Eldritch battery + MoM? :o

That's the question which will probably going on in my head until the 3.7 launch. I have some interesting simple idea but first I want to test it before sharing it with you.

I'm going to play this build even if the dps drops millions. I'll test PoB with Pledge of Hands when they update it, I'd honestly like to use it, always loved staves :P

Gonna keep you posted with my progress.

Thank you for your effort!

Allright, storm brand + mana leach was disaster, its duration was disaster and leech wasn't sufficient at all. You are forced to use one more spell on bar (on less vaal skill) and recast it regullary. Ergo.. no way

But with shaped ring mod + mana gain on enemy hit by your spells you can get enough of mana back to completely omit warlord's mark.
With two ring that both have +3 to mana for each enemy hit by your spells (and one -7 to mana cost master craft) i was able to sustain mana easily (tested on shaper)
It has some benefits and some disadvanteges:

No endourance charges form curse

Assasins mark (if you didn't use it already. I was able to find ring with assasin's mark and +mana on hit) --> this resulted in dps gain for me (7-->7,5)

You have to get 2 specific rings instead of one.

Mana on hit is prefix, which is good.


I was trying it on a character with base mana cost 50, cast rate 7-8 per second, and 4 chains (5 hits alltogether)

With the market being probably focused on melees it might be less expensive to get, but that's just hope :)

To do: Gonna try if i can sustain without the master craft



Edit: forgot on spell echo :D So one cast should be equal to 10 hits against bosses that can survive that. Therefore one mod + one master craft (probably -9 for ex) should be enough with 4 chains. With only +1extra chain from gloomfang two mods might be still needed)

"

Nirdana wrote:

Allright, storm brand + mana leach was disaster, its duration was disaster and leech wasn't sufficient at all. You are forced to use one more spell on bar (on less vaal skill) and recast it regullary. Ergo.. no way

But with shaped ring mod + mana gain on enemy hit by your spells you can get enough of mana back to completely omit warlord's mark.
With two ring that both have +3 to mana for each enemy hit by your spells (and one -7 to mana cost master craft) i was able to sustain mana easily (tested on shaper)
It has some benefits and some disadvanteges:

No endourance charges form curse

Assasins mark (if you didn't use it already. I was able to find ring with assasin's mark and +mana on hit) --> this resulted in dps gain for me (7-->7,5)

You have to get 2 specific rings instead of one.

Mana on hit is prefix, which is good.


I was trying it on a character with base mana cost 50, cast rate 7-8 per second, and 4 chains (5 hits alltogether)

With the market being probably focused on melees it might be less expensive to get, but that's just hope :)

To do: Gonna try if i can sustain without the master craft

Edit: forgot on spell echo :D So one cast should be equal to 10 hits against bosses that can survive that. Therefore one mod + one master craft (probably -9 for ex) should be enough with 4 chains. With only +1extra chain from gloomfang two mods might be still needed)

So basically Assassin's Mark + Temporal Chains on Blasphemy until I can get a ring/+3 curses?

Also, I have a question. Your PoB link is projected for a lvl 97 character, but I would like to adjust this to my reality that is level 90. What 7 nodes would you cut out?