[3.0] Dark Pact self-cast Ascendant (Beginner, SSF and low-budget friendly)

Hi everyone,

I've been working on a SSF build very similar to this one, except I went Zerker/Occultist instead, and I am more defensively focused with MoM, a shield and a lot more armor/armor% (taking advantage of maurauder life start). I do only hit about 600k DPS although, my gear is mostly much worse than what OP has in his PoB pastebin.

The MoM I'm not entirely sure is helpful, but it only costs me 4 points, so...

PoB link : https://pastebin.com/vFTteJZz

hey alex are you able to reliably kill bosses like guardians with your version of the build? I am able to do all t15s, and uber lab but some bosses still take 2-3 portals on t15s. here is my profile
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/forkheals/characters

Minotaur took some portals but I think that's mostly my skill not the build... kept getting one shot by his tunneling attack. Haven't tried other guardians/shaper yet (wanted to get to 92). I rarely die to map bosses though, unless I do something really dumb. Still, it did happen often enough that I skipped bosses to get to lvl 92.

I'm at lvl79 now. I've been playing with a 4L chest, and using a 6L with concentrated effect more than doubled my DPS.

This build is pretty good, I like flame dash personally.

For other noobs make sure you activate your enfeeble aura if you're using enfeeble. I thought I didn't need to activate it but I guess I do.

I have a question - what do you think about using Doedre's vs getting the node in the skill tree? And why don't you get the 5 +10% chaos dmg (and +10% phys dmg) nodes?

What skills would you recommend for a 4L in boot slot instead of Kaom
s? I'm around level 50 and some bosses are difficult to tank through, so I summon skeletons in times of need and still do some damage by dark pacting them. Maybe boost them through the boots? Whaddayathink

Reking you aren't supposed to use dark pact till level 67+. You are supposed to use essence shift and contagion still.

Could you elaborate more on how the Rippling Thoughts/shield charge approach is supposed to work?

Is the harbinger just for boss fights?

What do i replace with a voidbringer? wand or apep's?

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AlexF wrote:

Minotaur took some portals but I think that's mostly my skill not the build... kept getting one shot by his tunneling attack. Haven't tried other guardians/shaper yet (wanted to get to 92). I rarely die to map bosses though, unless I do something really dumb. Still, it did happen often enough that I skipped bosses to get to lvl 92.

Aye that tunneling attack is lethal, need to move out of that and boulders from the ceiling. The Guardians aren't too bad - it's just Chimera that poses a problem due to how much physical damage is in there.

"

reking wrote:

What skills would you recommend for a 4L in boot slot instead of Kaom
s? I'm around level 50 and some bosses are difficult to tank through, so I summon skeletons in times of need and still do some damage by dark pacting them. Maybe boost them through the boots? Whaddayathink

justjaken answered this, but yeah you should be using Essence Drain + Contagion at that level. Using Dark Pact without the ability to leech back the backlash damage will lead to unnecessary deaths.

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justjaken wrote:

I have a question - what do you think about using Doedre's vs getting the node in the skill tree? And why don't you get the 5 +10% chaos dmg (and +10% phys dmg) nodes?

It's less efficient to go for it over using the ring. If we pathed closer to it then I'd recommend it, but right now I'd only go for it if you're going SSF or are really struggling with resistances and need a boost using a second "proper" ring. An amulet with a +1 Curse corruption is still the overall best option provided you can get the corruption on a good damage amulet (so not just any old amulet).

"

justjaken wrote:

Could you elaborate more on how the Rippling Thoughts/shield charge approach is supposed to work? Is the harbinger just for boss fights?

You could use it for anything really. The damage difference isn't that noticeable over using double wands, and you gain the effect of Fortify. The issue I found in my testing is the attack speed and the "delay" in being able to do anything once you charge in, it caused a couple of deaths due to the slow animation time. However, overall, I ended up being more tanky for general purpose usage. It is a viable option to use though and if you're having major issues with physical damage I'd recommend looking at it as an option... personally though, I prefer double wands and Flame Dash.

"

Amk02 wrote:

What do i replace with a voidbringer? wand or apep's?

Voidbringers are the gloves, but if you mean a Void Battery then I would not recommend one at your gear level. You need seriously good gear to beat a rare wand + Apep's set-up due to scaling from the spell damage reduction on the Void Battery.

Great guide, thanks. Cleared act 10 for the first time with this.
I actually used Dark Pact from level 28 and had no major problems.

Does anyone know if Item Rarity Support works with Dark Pact? The tooltip doesn't mention the rarity gem, like it does on other skills.