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

Yester I opened PoB and saw Holy Dominion nodes were useless. Rerouted Tree and removed Spiritual aid as u said (and checked tht, yes, it was giving me less dmg). Took the following nodes:
1. Crit chance near avator Fire node (giving me more dmg than nimbless atm even after counting in lucky crit)
2. Intensify & Arcane Expanse
3. Arcane Focus

Also saw tht Clarity and Mana gain on Hit is no longer needed. Will swap that shaper ring with Vermilion ring and Clarity with soemthing else like Vitality? Have 150 mana to spare (excluding enlighten reduction).

Dunno how you are getting those synthesised rings/body armor. After Helmet, will check those out in trade.

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dracamancer wrote:

Took the following nodes

Also saw tht Clarity and Mana gain on Hit is no longer needed. Will swap that shaper ring with Vermilion ring and Clarity with soemthing else like Vitality? Have 150 mana to spare (excluding enlighten reduction).

Dunno how you are getting those synthesised rings/body armor. After Helmet, will check those out in trade.

Tree looks much cleaner now! Good job!

Idk Vitality doesn't do much for us. Altough endgame setup is Discipline, Zealotry and Aspect of the Spider, I've been using different ones though leveing:

Flesh and Stone for blind when hp pool was low.
Precision for Watcher's Eye.
Haste when I played around with Aul's amulet.
Summon Skitterbots for some added damage.

Right now I'm thinking about anointing Hardened Scars with Hybrid Life Flask for more mitigation and working on the Ring slowly:



As for Chest I had it from day 2 or 3, but couldnt remove the last prefix so I went for Carcass Jack. If you looking for a decent Hybrid chest that would be Vaal regalia with Temple HP mod (10% and 100 Life) with t1 ES percentage (it scales better than flat ES) and 1 open prefix and 2 suffixes.

*edit* Something like this but with ES :)



So the one I got is just temporary. I don't really want any influence mods now, but sometime late (never?) +1 curse and Frenzy on Hit is BiS :)

A little update is due!

Just hit level 98, build is fully online even without any investment into minion Life (apart from generic tree ones and two Ghastly Jewels). Corrupted Soul allows to map and get exp safely.

Cleared every boss and encounter in the game before dropping Bottled Faith, apart from Cortex/Chayla/UE/Atziri fight. Did it blind once and killed 3 out of 5, next time i'll just focus on nuking them as fast as I can. Maven was easy, same as Aul 250 and Awakener 9 is a joke.

At that time I already had a belt upgraded. I did use the unupgraded version in previous Leagues to speed maps, but this fellow is just insane and clearly best in slot for all content (Sorry, Headhunter you are only good for mapping):



It allows to reach a whooping 10 casts per second, 240%+ movement speed and reduces all cooldowns significantly. Still packing 11.2k eHP with more achievable with gear upgrades. Had to anoint Aligned Spirits to sustain mana even with two -10 rings, cuz we are blasting like crazy now.



Other minor stuff is changing the Links to support swapping to Intensify:



Took off alot of unneeded crit chance nodes thanks to Thread of Hope (Very Large at Low Life socket) and reached the +1 Intensity. Added Chaos for more damage for self-casting.

Been avoiding Harvest for the past days since I think it breaks the game too hard. Jewels like that are unethical:



Not like I don't want to craft +2 wands, just chasing Harvest is lame and I rather focus on trying luck with Watchers Eyes or farming Harbingers for Headhunter. Just generally enjoy the game!

Lastly, Flask update and updated PoB:





Hope you are having fun :) Been doing alot of Valdo with Jun, just insane^^

*edit* forgot to enable conc. ground on enemies and put 200% more for 3 skelies dps calculation

I am happy that this build is still online. One of my favourites, and the first one, with which I felt I had too much damage to the extent I was mapping with double Gryphons instead of void batteries. Hit lvl 99 in Betrayal - time to remove some dust in standard and grind to 100. Thanks zoNiklv for the PoB :)

EDIT: I have crafted new boots and gloves quickly, and the build still plays very well with old gear. However, I am lacking the old bossing. It is nothing dramatic - fine for T16 mapping, but not the bosser I used to know. When, I compare to zoNiklv's PoB I am missing like 75% of damage :/ Can anybody please check what is wrong? https://pastebin.com/g3dt7uMa

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sprawdzampoczte wrote:

However, I am lacking the old bossing. It is nothing dramatic - fine for T16 mapping, but not the bosser I used to know. When, I compare to zoNiklv's PoB I am missing like 75% of damage :/ Can anybody please check what is wrong? https://pastebin.com/g3dt7uMa

Please understand, zoNiklv's build focusses more on clearing (selfcast DP). For bossing, you need skeletons. Following are the changes in your build:
1. You have taken crit chance nodes and you are using controlled destruction gem. Please replace this gem with increased crit dmg gem
2. Damage scales very well with minion life; goal is to have ~20k skeleton life (no more, no less). You have 14k skeleton life, please increase it further either from tree OR
3. Elegant hubris timeless jewels: This gem helps you in maintaining 20k life without depending on item/passive tree. Glorious vanity gives you more life which helps with selfcast DP
4. You can use Chain (or awakened) gem instead of pcoc.
5. Gloomfang is optional not compulsory because it makes you squishy. You can easily get a rare amulet/ring with Chaos dmg leech + anoint it
Here is your new tree > Life+ minion life. You can swap life with crit nodes to increase dmg
https://pastebin.com/NCPdg0s1

This will be a nice build for 3.16.
Selfcast for clearing got a decent buff and using skellis will still be strong.
Going to use this as a starter, maybe playing as necro first since it's more survivability for less chaos.
Ghazzy uses petrified blood in his necro version. I don't know if this would work as an occultist, since it lacks survivability but it could be worth a try since low life gives a decent amount of additional dmg.

"

This will be a nice build for 3.16.
Selfcast for clearing got a decent buff and using skellis will still be strong.
Going to use this as a starter, maybe playing as necro first since it's more survivability for less chaos.
Ghazzy uses petrified blood in his necro version. I don't know if this would work as an occultist, since it lacks survivability but it could be worth a try since low life gives a decent amount of additional dmg.

I will be updating this guide for 3.16 but can't say if it will be 100% ready until Friday so if you want to try Necro first go follow Ghazzy's guide, it probably gonna be in a better state than my guide currently is. I will be now focusing exclusively on Occultist version of DP.

For now I can only promise that I will post a PoB before Scourge goes live (it's 99% ready, I just need to organize it a bit before I post it).

I made an occultist PoB, it Includes Budget & a High Budget Version and a Shield or dual VB Variant.

Regarding to your original Build there are some Gem Changes for example, well and of course the tree. Maybe u can use some ideas, maybe its trash :)

(i used gazzys older necro guide as a template, mostly items)


https://pastebin.com/kM3QcBVv

why lightning warp: i think it has no CD with withering Step. ANd well..it seems the slots are left. U could skip faster casting.and i have cool mtx :D

why Withering step and no totem: It applys enough wither with the ascendancy, using anomoulous quality gives even more wither. no need for totems. makes us faster + phasing

why feeding frenzy: i dont know of a better 4th gem. Skelletons run to packs, where they need to be.

why haste: Cause witch is slooooooooooooow. Only till we have Aspect of the Spider.

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brant09081992 wrote:

I will be now focusing exclusively on Occultist version of DP.

For now I can only promise that I will post a PoB before Scourge goes live (it's 99% ready, I just need to organize it a bit before I post it).

Glad to have you back bro!!!
You and zoNiklv have been good mentors.

"

Void_xy wrote:

I made an occultist PoB, it Includes Budget & a High Budget Version and a Shield or dual VB Variant.

Regarding to your original Build there are some Gem Changes for example, well and of course the tree. Maybe u can use some ideas, maybe its trash :)

(i used gazzys older necro guide as a template, mostly items)


https://pastebin.com/kM3QcBVv

why lightning warp: i think it has no CD with withering Step. ANd well..it seems the slots are left. U could skip faster casting.and i have cool mtx :D

why Withering step and no totem: It applys enough wither with the ascendancy, using anomoulous quality gives even more wither. no need for totems. makes us faster + phasing

why feeding frenzy: i dont know of a better 4th gem. Skelletons run to packs, where they need to be.

why haste: Cause witch is slooooooooooooow. Only till we have Aspect of the Spider.

I tried my hand at the PoB, I went with more Auras, prism guardian petrified blood to feel tankier, purity of elements for ailment immunity and to reduce need for resistances on gear and trash items you can get day 1-2 into the league (disregard the boots). Is my approach viable or am I going the wrong way about this? Also i do like profane bloom, obliteration for more stacking then i'll be switching to void batteries.

https://pastebin.com/dwe898yM