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

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zhenyaowen wrote:

What's your plan for 3.9, sir?

Gloomfang drop from elder guardians.

Shaped rings

Elder helmet

Watcher's eye

Your build will be fantastic next league. Some of the items might not be easy to accquire though.

I wouldn't worry too much about these items, more worried about Brotherhood its too strong and might not be back to the game next League same as Synthesis fights were delayed 1 league.

Gloomfang is now not the only source of chaos leech, rings can roll leech too and you can use something like Brotherhood or Marylene which will be particularily strong with Assassin - i did import mine into pob and crit chance is over the roof.

This league i did get more shaped/elder items from Blight chests than maps itself, so getting a curse ring takes only 1 ring, bunch of alterations and one beast on average. Quite doable since Metamorph bosses are essentially multiple chests combined if you followed ExileCon streams carefully.

Helmet was never shaper or elder cuz they add affixes you dont wanna see when crafting.

As for Watcher, es on hit is more QoL than a necessity and precision multy can be replaced with Tempered Flesh. When put in Spiritual Aid socket it provides 49 multy, same as WE.

I know ppl speculate alot about Dying Suns and pther Shaper/Elder items being hard to find, but just look at Syntesis uniques - market is filled with them and apart from Bottled Faith you can farm everything yourself from Zana missions. And Faith will get a div card now 😀

Im more worried about powee charge on helm and tailwind boots being super hard to roll, since GGG has a tendency to release screenshots of most juicy things that are near impossible to get 😋

Did play around with POB a bunch, turns out Diamond Flask does nothing for my Assassin since i'm at 100% Crit Chance without it! Replaced it with Witchfire Brew.

Current theoretical Shaper DPS without Vaal Skills, realistic 10 Wither stacks (Emulated Assassin passive + Arcane Surge as "Always on Full ES mod" since PoB cant account for both somehow):

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15Mil Shaper DPS https://pastebin.com/8KtT8KNf

Expected dps in 3.9 (Tailwin +1 pc):

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18.6Mil Shaper DPS https://pastebin.com/cb7ew2Vx

Real life DPS in 3.9 should be around 14Mil considering dips in Skeleton life.

Also took Brant's GG POB and made it into Assassin with few adjustments:

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52 Mil Shaper DPS https://pastebin.com/FGQFKSw0

Adjusted for 3.9 and got:

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62 Mil Shaper DPS https://pastebin.com/Ngv0FBmQ

Yours faithfully! ;)

Replaced Diamond Flask with Quartz and using Flesh and Stone on top since I had plenty of unreserved mana.

Recorded Guardian T16 runs in that setup. Barely touched by anything now)

Phoenix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQLzfrO3mO4

Hydra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsEEyYZaSjA&t=11s

Mino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBiwZ0_jItw

No Chimera since I'm still leveling and he is a bit of pain in the butt time to time :)

Hows the survivability comparison between Occultist and Assassin?

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TheRebirthed wrote:

Hows the survivability comparison between Occultist and Assassin?

When using



Assassin gets 40-75% attack and spell dodge from Elusive (it starts at 75% and goes down slowly to 40% until refreshed) when mapping. Occultist only gets that dodge when running from pack to pack and it's removed when she casts.

Both of them reduce enemy damage by a little 8 (Assassin) - 10% (Occultist).

Occultist hinders enemies around her every 1 second while Assassin takes no increased damage from enemy Critical Strikes.

Assassin takes additional 10% reduced damage if there are at least 2 Rare/Unique enemies nearby.

You can compare both yourself, the passive tree is 100% identical:

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Assassin

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Occultist

Essentially, we trade Profane Bloom for more damage and survivability.

Here is me running around mindlessly killing delve mobs to show you how dodge works:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/510927820

Before you had to actually spec into Acro + Phase Acro, now you just take Mistwalker + Withering Step and you're good to go :)

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What's your plan for 3.9, sir?

Gloomfang drop from elder guardians.

Shaped rings

Elder helmet

Watcher's eye

Your build will be fantastic next league. Some of the items might not be easy to accquire though.

Gloomfang will be more expensive but I hope not double ex digit expensive. However, good Shaper rings may be really expensive this league so I think of using a mana flask this time. Helmet is a normal base anyway. Watcher's Eye with gain on hit is a fantastic way to recover ES for this build so I will be buying one if I could afford it.

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Adjusted for 3.9 and got:

62 Mil Shaper DPS https://pastebin.com/Ngv0FBmQ

I will take a look on this during the weekend but holly shit 62mil dps, what that build just became...

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brant09081992 wrote:

I will take a look on this during the weekend but holly shit 62mil dps, what that build just became...

Please take a look cuz I have a strong reason to believe that the is something fishy going on. If you go under Calc -> Dark Pact you will see 1200+ more multiplier on the spell without consistent values when you hover it with the mouse.

I also belive same is present across all 3 of your original post pobs. What i did is: taken two 2 vb one, turned it into Assassin, put in Bottled Faith, replaced crit flask with withfire brew, replaced one of the jewels with 50 multi Watchers Eye, replaced Temp Chains with Zealotry and finally added tailwind and +1 pc for 3.9.

My own pob has 10 withers, no vaal skills, poc instead of conc effect but dps desparity is too high. 10mil value is pretty consistent with what i see in the game and i did record it in the guardian videos.

On the note of Gloomfang I wouldnt worry at all, even if its rare/expensive that will not slow the build at all. Its still an item to be on lookout for, but I did just fine without. Only got it before Uber Elder fight, Shaper was down without any leech whatsoever. And there are 4 different ways to leech now.

Hey guys n gals,

So i am looking for a starter (and more) to play in 3.9 . I already thought about this build in 3.8. Thanks for all the theorycrafting here - seems very solid. I think i would go for an Assassin, which brings me to the following question:
Any Ideas /advices on Leveling with a quite smooth transition in gear and Skilltree to the final build?
Any replies appreciated!

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Void_xy wrote:

Any Ideas /advices on Leveling with a quite smooth transition in gear and Skilltree to the final build?
Any replies appreciated!

Sure, there are plenty ideas!
Since Dark Pact requires casting skeles + DP on top while leveling I advise against it.
If (and it's a big IF!) Orb of Storms will not get nerfed, then it's how you should be leveling.

Start with Spark until Orb of Storms and use them in combination until Wave of Conviction (with Phys to Lightning support gem) unlocks. Orb -> Faster Casting -> Inc. AoE -> Inc. Crit will be your main link. Flame Dash -> Faster Casting -> Arcane Surge for movement when available. Use Lightning Spire Trap/Lightning Trap for boss support.

Follow 300 eHP per Act rule and pickup Discipline in Act 3 since we have alot of hybrid nodes on the right side of the tree available. Just follow the final tree and safely into crit nodes + power charges if eHP is fine!

Variant 2 is when Orb of Storms will be nerfed and it's slightly slower, but might be even safer. Bane + Essence Drain. Change the tree a little bit to pickup Hexmaster early, but still generally stick to final tree (no crit stuff tho at the start!). Start with Blight, then Essence Drain + Contagion until Bane. Use Withering Step + Wither Totems for bosses.

In both cases use Flesh and Stone + Discipline as your Auras, pickup Mistwalker from Assassin first. Precision low lvl for crit chance and Clarity for mana regens.

You can lookup more on the Bane/OoS leveling on forums, might be useful.

Level up some final DP gems in offhands (DP, Summon Skelies, Spell Echo, ES Leech, Minion Life as minimum) and transition when you reach maps (or when you feel your leveling build starts lacking).

If you have time you can practice leveling a bit before the League starts, just a few first acts so you can remember the gem unlock order and won't be losing it with the final tree!

Feel free to ask whatever else is unclear!