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

Double post ;X

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labelbuddy wrote:

Any idea of a good seed to hubris? Or how to go about finding one?

I did post mine awhile back, but you can just find a jewel yourself. Buy Hubrises in bulk, check on your tree and if you don't find what you are looking for - sell them in bulk back to the next guy.

Most people are trying to fetch good ones so you won't find a GG damage Hubris this way, but Minion Life noone cares about so there are some nasty jewels floating around somewhere.

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Msciwoj wrote:

I think I will completely abandon the left side of the tree and instead invest in cluster jewels, they are pretty sweet.

What is the consensus on movement skills? I used just Flame Dash for now, in the guild it says Phase Run and many people here are using Withering Step. WS shares a cooldown with FD, should I put them both on Second Wind Support and not use Phase Run? It seems kinda unnecessary.

Looking at poe.ninja I can tell there is very little consensus on how to best use Dark Pact. All skill trees and setups are different. For some other builds, eg Whispering Ice, everybody does exactly the same thing.

Well, people are always experimenting and since the skill is niche there are barely any guides or media for DP. And that's not a bad thing, per say. Ways to experiment.

As for movement, Dash and Second Wind is what most people use this patch, Phase Run is way less effective. Withering Step is not only movement, but also a damage + defense buff. Pair both with Second Wind and try. Should be pack-to-pack with Step and if you have no monsters to kill then just Dash-Dash. Ofc they both will be much better with Badge of the Brotherhood, but since people figured out it's OP and droprate got nerfed it's a chase/luxury item.

Do share your Cluster experience ;) There are alot of strong ones, Minion immunity is particulary strong for DP. Same as juice like Ailment avoidance, elusive on kill. Unfortunately, best chaos damage nodes on these are DOT nodes.

Cluster Jewels I have:
Large: Chaos damage. 8 nodes
Unholy Grace - 30 % increased chaos damage, 10% increased attack and cast speed
Unwaveringly Evil - 30% increased chaos damage, chaos skills ignore stuns
Touch of Cruelty - Chaos skills can Hinder, Hinder causes enemies to take 10% increased damage

Medium 1: Minion Life
Blessed Rebirth
Life from Death

Medium 2: Area Damage
Intensity (+1 Intensity)
Vast Power - 20% inc area damage, 3% inc AoE per power charge (27% total at 9 power charges)

Small: life
25% increased effect of small passive points
Blessed/ Sublime Sensation.

Overall Void Batteries give so much increased damage this ends up being mostly utility. PoB is showing me I need to invest in crit multi. That makes sense. Probably minion life as well (but it is static in PoB).

So far level 77, Void Batteries are cheap and I got an ex drop so just got the other one. This just got super fast, I linked skeletons with Feeding Frenzy and they dash everywhere, I dash everywhere, maps get cleared really fast. I actually think I will continue to cast on skeletons because it does not slow me down. They disperse, so one cast clears several packs instead of just one.

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Msciwoj wrote:

Overall Void Batteries give so much increased damage this ends up being mostly utility. PoB is showing me I need to invest in crit multi. That makes sense. Probably minion life as well (but it is static in PoB).

So far level 77, Void Batteries are cheap and I got an ex drop so just got the other one. This just got super fast, I linked skeletons with Feeding Frenzy and they dash everywhere, I dash everywhere, maps get cleared really fast. I actually think I will continue to cast on skeletons because it does not slow me down. They disperse, so one cast clears several packs instead of just one.

Sounds good. Few improvements you can make:

- Link arcane Surge to Dash and Withering Step
- Use 4th link Elemental Army for Skeletons so they survive longer (or put in Cluster for immunity and Withering Touch)
- Use 4th link Faster Casting for your Totems

And by the looks of it you need %increased Minion Life alot! Also Arcane Expanse might not be worth it, one point wasted into Channeling Cluster and some time in future you better rerouting starting nodes into ES route since they got buffed and have minion life there en-route.

Just an update on my progress.

Switched to assassin cuz elusive op. Over all the build is great. Was able to snag a hubris for 40c, and botherhood. Redeemer chest for frenzy on hit is fantastic.


I've cleared sirus 8 and uber elder with this build.

I will say for 3.10 its a great build but there's just too much juicy stuff on tree to pass up to sub in cluster jewels. Had a 7 point voices drop, and tried to drop left side of the tree for some mediums. I PoB'd it and ended up SLIGHTLY higher DPS and same life. In my book better off just selling the jewel for 7.5 ex it was worth.

Only thing I'm missing now is a bottled faith.

Other thing I'm Missing is +3 helmet. But there aren't many 86+ helmets with enchant on market, and my +2 helm with enchant is like 50k dps less, so for now will stick with that.

Final snap shot of gear & POB

https://pastebin.com/yCBiArJc

Well, elusive isn't restricted to Assassin, since you're prolly going to get Withering Step anyway, he just enhances it.

According to PoB, DPS is basically equivalent between Assassin/Necromancer/Occultist (if cast on skeletons), Occultist having more AoE, Assassin speed and Necromancer survivability.

Same issue with cluster jewels, nothing really all that great apart from subbing a small life cluster here and there.

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labelbuddy wrote:

Only thing I'm missing now is a bottled faith.

Other thing I'm Missing is +3 helmet. But there aren't many 86+ helmets with enchant on market, and my +2 helm with enchant is like 50k dps less, so for now will stick with that.

Might look into Tailwind boots and helm you can craft +3 minions youself, might also hit a good hybrid while doing it. -9% chaos res is also a stronger option than 40% DP enchant.

Despair should be more damage than Zealotry, might try to fit both eventually. With on hit, blasphemy or Witchfire Brew.

Cherry on top would be Unnerve gloves and a good Watcher Eye, you probably are using Precision one?

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Iyacthu wrote:

Well, elusive isn't restricted to Assassin, since you're prolly going to get Withering Step anyway, he just enhances it.

Same issue with cluster jewels, nothing really all that great apart from subbing a small life cluster here and there.

Still, Assassin gets it naturally during battles vs others having to go for boots or cluster jewel to sustain.

As for clusters, I'd definitely grab immune skelies to Delve 1000+. Other than that, you are fine without!

You can use Withering Step during battles though (and use Bodyswap/Lightning warp or whatever non-blink skill for movement)

Still, it's a huge asset/QoL for Assassin.

Spellslinger synergies well with Dark Pact+ Skeletons?

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DarkSamux wrote:

Spellslinger synergies well with Dark Pact+ Skeletons?

Well, it kinda does and does not. It can be played, but not as effective as casting them yourself.
In fact, Mathil is playing it right now with Poet's Pen.

But a few mistakes are apparent watching his footage:

1) He puts too much Emphasis on DP gem Levels. While for normal spells you will get on average 25% more damage per 2 gem Levels, when you cast on skelies they don't give as much and can be way below 5% more per Level.

With 30k HP skelies base chaos damage is around 2700. Which is clearly the highest base damage of any spell in the game right now. But there is little to no reason to go for +1/+2/+3 corrupted chests and running 6L with empowers. It only works for self-cast.

2) He acknowledges that Minion Life is not effective when you get it from the passive tree and tries to up it via Cluster Jewels. Result is 15% Minion Life per skillpoint vs 10% on average normal nodes. But he clearly should be using a Timeless Jewel for 20% to 40% Minion Life per skillpoint if you get lucky!

As a result of inefficent skillpoint use his eHP is low.

3) He is not trying to build hybrid as another reason for low survivability. Whilst a normally built hybrid reaches 10k eHP with okay gear and can go over 13k eHP with good rolls.

There should be a fine balance between your eHP and Minion Life.