[3.16 updated] BRO, DO YOU EVEN SUMMON? Life/ES Dark Pact Skeleton Caster League Starter
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Void Batteries are significantly better than Cane of Unravelling, almost 2 times higher dps. S.Skellybros + Minion Life + Arcane Surge + Spell Echo + Empower + Enhance wouldn't be better than 4L Skeletons socketed into +2 minion helmet.
Inya's Epiphany are BiS amongst all unique boots. The reason I went with pair of rare boots was simply more life and resistances. I would probably go with Inya's if I was making this build as a glass-cannon max-dps 20ex Assasin. |
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this build is starting to massively suck.
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What is the status of this build regarding the newest changes in 3.2? Is it supposed to be still viable?
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"Like how? It's hard to help if you don't provide specifics. This build has the highest single-target DPS I've ever seen for something minion-based, even higher than TV spectres. I wouldn't say that sucks. ⚡ Lightning Golems:
/1902593 ⛄ Ice Golems: /1914382 |
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" His last posts show he didn't even understand the build and instead tried other things that didn't go that well with this kind of build. However I would like to ask something. I'm thinking about doing this build for Bestiary as league starter. Of course Void Batteries are what scares me the most, but I hope I can do with rare wands in the meantime. The question is: the only clearspeed video is one from 3.0, with 5k life and other things that show me it's underleveled. How is the clearspeed when the build is more advanced, and how can you improve it? I love being able to kill bosses, but I don't want the build to be super slow on general clear speed (5+ mins for a Gorge as shown in that video). Maybe there's a clear skill that works with this build? I hope you can help me with that :) Last edited by KurthDeimos#4571 on Mar 1, 2018, 3:11:12 PM
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You will be good with some decent rare wands. Just don't invest in power charges in a passive tree until you are ready to get dual Void Batteries. I've just made a quick check in PoB and I switched Void Batteries for two rare wands I got dropped during mapping on Abyss and dps dropped from 5.6m to 4.2m. When I totally disabled weapon slots dps dropped to 2.3m. Maybe I should run PoE now and record an unarmed Shaper kill for a meme purpose? ;)
It's for sure not a slow build but it's not turbo fast either. It's like 90% of a good cyclone clearspeed. I was playing a bit with my Starforge cycloner friend and he was getting the advantage in linear maps like Gorge or especially in more curved ones like Phantasmagoria - I was able to keep up but he was killing 90% of mobs. When he was doing his best I was just insta-bodyswapping at corpses of dead monsters. In open maps my clearspeed was very similar to my cycloner friend. I managed to be ahead a lot of times. Bodyswap shines when you backtracking, especially in maps like Racecourse. However, it does definitely worse in ones with more complex layout like Necropolis. The key is to get used to the challenging gameplay. Not everyone will be fine with using 4 different buttons to clear. If you want to simplify the clearing process you may pretend some adjustments. You may switch Desecrate and Bodyswap for any other movement skill so you will need to press 1 key less, you can clear by self-casting Dark Pact (faster and easier but less safe). There is a one thing you may try out and I didn't - levelling Desecrate and Bodyswap all the way up and using them for clearing. I have been occasionally clearing dudes with lvl 1 Bodyswap for fun with this build and regular mobs were dying after 3-5 hits on average. I'm really curious how would it do with lvl 20 Bodyswap & Desecrate! Yet some words about partying. I didn't have problems with keeping up to the leader in most cases. I was finding myself to be the fastest of the party members sometimes. I do actually was occasionally leaving behind some faster builds at complex layout maps but coming into the boss arena during a midfight and watching boss's HP bar dropping drastically just after spamming some Dark Pacts on him was compensating me all of that and more ;) |
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" Thanks a lot for your great reply! Now I'm really hyped to try the build. I've tried both self-cast Dark Pact and totem Dark Pact. The second one brought me to my first 100 ex and Headhunter in week 2. I'm eager to see what I can achieve with this one. I didn't need a T1 clear speed build, but I thought it was way slower than what you wrote. I haven't tried Bodyswap yet, so I'll have to see if it's comfortable enough or something like Lightning Warp would be better (but more socket hungry). I will also test that self-cast potential, but if it's as you said, I'm happy with a decent-good clear speed. Oh, by the way, I must be doing something wrong with my PoB. I reach 1M DPS against Shaper with Void Batteries. Is there anything I'm missing? Maybe I have to manually calculate the chains? I have specified the skeleton's HP, just in case. Last edited by KurthDeimos#4571 on Mar 1, 2018, 5:23:23 PM
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Looking to try this build as a league starter.
You said in earlier forum posts that Assassin would also work for this build. With the Assassin buffs in 3.2, I'm looking to use it instead. What ascendancy order should I pick and what curses/auras should I use instead (I only have 2 curses max)? Last edited by WvrLight#6597 on Mar 1, 2018, 8:14:53 PM
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" Indeed you have to multiply the dps number manually by the amount of chains (4 times with a Gloomfang and 3 times with any other amulet). PoB got an update today providing an option which auto calculates a dps regarding the number of chains but I can't find it anywhere, maybe Dark Pact isn't supported with that. Important thing to remember is that you need to manually match the Skeleton Life into the Configuration section in order to get the accurate dps number. I know you did so but some other players may don't know that. " I would go for Opportunistic first. Normal and Cruel lab Ascendancy picks are mostly about boosting your levelling experience and 20% inc movspeed afterkill is a really nice thing to have at this stage. As well as the 100% inc damage triggered during certain boss fights. Then I would go for Ambush and Assassinate. Unstable Infusion and Deadly Infusion I would pick at the last since I recommend to begin investing in power charges when you already are at relatively high level and you can afford two Void Batteries. " I would definitely use Warlord's Mark. Life and mana leech are crucial. The selection would be between Assasin's Mark and Despair. Assasin's Mark provides us power charges gained on kill so it's a huge quality of life option (we don't have to cast Abyssal Cry that often to generate them). It also increases our damage a bit (200k for a finished build in PoB). Despair also increases our dps but this boost is over 2 times higher (415k). It also provides some defences. Assassin's Mark reserves mana and Despair takes one flask slot (unless you decide to use it with a Blasphemy but we don't do it in this build). One may prefer an additional flask slot, someone else would want to reserve mana for something else so it's up to your preference what your 2nd curse will be. What I can tell is that Despair would be probably better for endgame when you have already started investing at power charges and you are generating them via Unstable Infusion. |
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Thanks for the reply! I think I'm gonna use Warlord's Mark + Despair instead. Hopefully I can earn enough currency for those Void Batteries :p
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