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

Hey I'm just wondering, do acuity's work with this build or no? Would it be worth it if they do?

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Nirdana wrote:

I tried it for 2-3 times before i found out the right combination and now i can quite easily complete it (usually with 1 death or so).

I'm using ball of lightning paired with block chance reduction, lightning pen and the rest is the same as with dp. {no aoe gems of course]
You can add faster projectile for the last pack to kill them from safe distance.
Also had to drop curse to run clarity.

But general idea is just equip block chance reduction gem and use non-chaos skill gem.

Many thanks! Just completed hogm. The trick was indeed block chance reduction and clarity. The first time I tried without clarity, and failed again, but for the second run (successful!) I equipped warlord's mark ring and clarity. Helped a lot. Now, just perandus manor left, but that should be easy (with enough currency). Once again thanks!

Holy crap it took me like 2 weeks to read the entire thread through here and am still digesting pieces of it daily. Anyways I came to say thank you for sharing this build, it's really amazing. I started one month after Betrayal release (been petting my prev build in Standard for long) and with the time I have on my hands I still managed to get farther than my previous Freezing Pulse char. I wish not only Occultists were this interesting tho because even this is my second char I'm not sure how I'd feel to start another witch, yet again. Still, there are a few things I'd like to ask and hope someone can share his thoughts on them:

1) Why would anyone swap Vaal Summoning Skeletons for the regular Summon Skeleton skill gem? Being able to hit this "oh shit" button to see as you guys say the sea of skellies coming, flame dashing out and dark pact the living shit out of whoever stuck among my skeletons, is just first, such a lifesaver, second, feels rewarding and great! Probably due to my lack of experience I have no idea but what the hell do you have any better than that with regular Summon Skeleton?

2) Which way would you improve my build from it's current state? https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/kollarz/characters - Arniziel - Because I just started to taste in Tier 7 maps yesterday and honestly, damage is still not an issue. Rather sometimes I get 1 hit if I run around and self casting Dark Pact like a moron. Temporal Chains and Warlord's Mark feel like a must if I do the maps this way but things start looking like I should stay back and cast skellies front and get more value from Assassins Mark instead the Warlords Mark .. is that correct? If so then getting power charge passives and shifting towards more ranged style gameplay seem to be the way moving forward but I'm curious what you have got to say.

Thanks!

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kollarz wrote:

1) Why would anyone swap Vaal Summoning Skeletons for the regular Summon Skeleton skill gem? Being able to hit this "oh shit" button to see as you guys say the sea of skellies coming, flame dashing out and dark pact the living shit out of whoever stuck among my skeletons, is just first, such a lifesaver, second, feels rewarding and great! Probably due to my lack of experience I have no idea but what the hell do you have any better than that with regular Summon Skeleton?

For me the reason is simply the price of lvl 21 Vaal skeleton compared to 21 regular ones.

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kollarz wrote:

2) Which way would you improve my build from it's current state? https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/kollarz/characters - Arniziel - Because I just started to taste in Tier 7 maps yesterday and honestly, damage is still not an issue.

Took a quick look, and there is a lot to upgrade. Fix your flasks (diamond is a must), get +3 helmet, void batteries/crit wands with minion life/spell damage, stygian vise with minion life, minion life on fingerless gloves, some life of jewels, better rings, etc. (more or less in this order). Put some lvl and quality into your gems too. Some are extremely cheap this late in the league, and the others you can level in no time, if you just buy them with max, or close to max, quality. BTW, use your weapon swap to level gems - really helps.

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kollarz wrote:

Rather sometimes I get 1 hit if I run around and self casting Dark Pact like a moron. Temporal Chains and Warlord's Mark feel like a must if I do the maps this way but things start looking like I should stay back and cast skellies front and get more value from Assassins Mark instead the Warlords Mark .. is that correct? If so then getting power charge passives and shifting towards more ranged style gameplay seem to be the way moving forward but I'm curious what you have got to say.
Thanks!

The warlord's mark is there for the mana leech. You can solve mana problems with a flask as you did it, but it is simply not reliable enough in some fights. So rather than dropping warlord's mark - use it. Run into a pack and blow it up, get some endurance charges, and run to the next pack. The build feels like melee in that way. IMHO, assassin's mark is not worth it - you get power charges through ascendancy, power charge on crit, and you can also equip brinerot flag as a weapon swap (which I do only before end-game boss fights).

Sorry that I haven't been here for a while but I don't have much time for PoE currently. Let me make a quick response for some questions you've asked.

I recommend playing life version of this build. The damage scales the best with it.

Skeletons vs Vaal Skeletons:
-lvl 21 non Vaal Skeletons are easier to obtain than lvl 21 Vaal ones
-non Vaal Skeletons are always ready to cast

For Uber Elder movement is the key. Double quicksilver + 30% speed boots (preferably with 10% movspeed enchant) + 20/20 Flame Dash + 20%q Phase Run and you got it. Also 6k+ HP.

HoGM is hard for this build but it's doable. Get devouring Totem + Desecrate on secondary weapon slot. For max block grandmasters use Scorching Ray (either a gem or a Balefire).

Congratulations on Depth 1300 zoNiklv! I'm waiting for a depth 1400 bragg. :D

Hi bro, very nice build!
What do you think about duo char version? my friend really want to play this build with me:
1 char high skeleton life (Necromancer) and buff
1 char super high damage and clear (Occutist)
Thank you!

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BETTERPC wrote:

Hi bro, very nice build!
What do you think about duo char version? my friend really want to play this build with me:
1 char high skeleton life (Necromancer) and buff
1 char super high damage and clear (Occutist)
Thank you!

Anyone can help me with this? ty so much

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Hi bro, very nice build!
What do you think about duo char version? my friend really want to play this build with me:
1 char high skeleton life (Necromancer) and buff
1 char super high damage and clear (Occutist)
Thank you!

Thanks! There is no reason why you wouldn't play together but you won't be able to use each others skeletons with Dark Pact.

It's me or Pure breachstone bosses have a abnormal chaos resistance? I have Two VB+9 Power Charges+Shock Ailment+Gloofang+Vaal Blight+VRF but its cost so much to kill them, but i can kill in 5 seconds all guardians even with extra HP or bosses like Shaper, Uber Atziri, Red Elder tier 15, Kurgal, Aul and Ahuatotli (lvl 83)

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DarkSamux wrote:

It's me or Pure breachstone bosses have a abnormal chaos resistance? I have Two VB+9 Power Charges+Shock Ailment+Gloofang+Vaal Blight+VRF but its cost so much to kill them, but i can kill in 5 seconds all guardians even with extra HP or bosses like Shaper, Uber Atziri, Red Elder tier 15, Kurgal, Aul and Ahuatotli (lvl 83)

Just ran pure chayula's breachstone (2man party), and killed in like two seconds, the other guy didn't even zoned in. Had only 1 HH buff (and no, it wasn't soul eater)

On the other hand, xoph felt much more durable and i doubt that 4 man party would make such a difference.