[3.13] Life Based Dark Pact Occultist

Playing LL assassin dark pact, using Frostblink + ice bite to generate frenzy and chain herald of ice. Plan to pick up increased crit socket gloves for Herald of Ice, try and get some reserve possibly to give it a few extra links for a semi autobomber. Frostblink in helmet can also give you more pseudo 5/6 link.

I'm still figuring out defenses though, relying on just high energy shield and recharge rate at the moment. Currently using Allelopathy corrupted with Despair on hit until I can get a ring instead. Tossed on totems and the spreading rot jewel for hinder and wither for now. Dual Void Batteries have been carrying me as well.

maybe any update ?

Update please, more videos

@PurpleBlades Hey dude. Allelopathy is a strange choice, blight doesn't deal a lot of damage plus you have to waste a jewel socket to get wither. I'd just use wither instead if I were you. I'd also ditch all those mana passives on tree and use an enduring mana flask like this one:

Since a flask like that would solve your mana problems I'd use precision instead of clarity. Pick up a ring with life gained on spell hit cause if dark pact sacrifices hp it deals a bit more damage. Are you actually generating frenzy charges with ice bite? And reserving mana for herald of ice seems like a waste since it doesn't actually deal all that damage I recommend using Assassin's Mark and Zealotry. Despair also gives us a lot of damage and a easy way to get it is using a Witchfire Brew.

I fiddled a bit with your build in PoB and this is what I came up with: https://pastebin.com/iYBC3hjW

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Sweter wrote:

I got Acuity for more leech.

I've managed to six link and get 5 offcolors on cherubim.
I haven't played much lately.

Get void batteries, awakened gems, chest with spell crit chance.

Did you tried 1 blue, or 2 blue method to color?

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commonjunks wrote:

Did you tried 1 blue, or 2 blue method to color?

I used harvest crafting "Reforge the colour of two random sockets on an item, turning them Blue and Green" from Wild Thornwolf Seed.

Hello, I've taken ideas from this build and applied some of my own knowledge, and also used much more currency to optimize it some more.

In case you're all curious, here is the PoB pastebin of what I'm doing

https://pastebin.com/RPK3J9SB

Current realistic DPS is 3m Shaper dps, or about 6m dps overall.

What I'm running isn't fully optimized, but this build definitely has potential to shine even more.

Hi all, working on this build too. Loving it so far but iv identified a few issues, most notably that its squishy, and currently isn't doing great against bosses. That can be solved I think with Atziri's Acuity for the vaal pact, and filling out the tree a little more.

Im using the devouring diadem for more auras rather than the crown of the inward eye.

Im planning to use skitterbots, zealotry, and blasphemy/assassin's mark, which i can fit in with a level 3 enlighten.

I do have some questions about light of lunaris and cerberus's limb. I havent seen here a justification for using it other than the life leech. Can I not get better leech, damage, and life off of rares?

Hey @pBiggZ. Yeah Acuity is very good. You could also consider using Precursor's emblem with "You have Vaal Pact while at maximum Endurance Charges" and some power charges bonuses but it's gonna cost you a lot.

I think that devouring diadem isn't such a good idea.

We can get chaos damage to spells and reduced chaos resistance of nearby monsters on helmet. And some more hp, more hp is more leech.

If you have mana to spare, sure skitterbots are a great addition to the build. You should also get precision, it reserves only 22 mana at level one and still gives a substantial boost to dps. Your Arcane Surge is at level 19, it requires you to spend 345 mana to activate and your flame dash costs 36 mana so it take 10 flame dashes.

I mention cerberus limb and light of lunaris mostly because they give a lot of dps for cheap + light of lunaris couples nicely with Glancing Blows. You don't need cerberus limb to leech life, you can get a ring with chaos damage leeched as life. Rare weapon and shield or even 2 void batteries is gonna yield you more damage.


Aaaaaand you might wanna change your Annoint to Command of Steel, it gives 1% damage per 1% chance to block attack damage (75% increased damage wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo).

Thanks for the input! That's an interesting thought on the helm but I think a more intensive aura setup can *really* push this build up a few levels and there are enough pieces that arent uniques that I wont be hurting for life for too much longer. Additionally, turning ES into mana effectively solves the mana problem. Even with just a few hundred ES you never have to worry about mana, and while I feel using a life flask is perfectly acceptable (despite what the min-maxxers will say) using a mana flask just tells me the build needs a crutch.

I've anointed command of steel, its a cool keystone. I may go for a fatter life keystone in the future but the damage is nice.

The acuities really did solve alot of the sustain problems but the build still does die alot on chunkier bosses with harder hits. I'll be looking into an assassin's mark on hit ring and a rare weapon next, and likely a rare shield.

Also, have you looked into cluster jewels at all? I havent dug into the tree deep enough yet to be sure but moving some points over to cluster jewels might save on points if there are notables that are worth running.