[3.6] CoCPact - CoC Dark Pact Assassin - 35 casts/s - 5M Shaper DPS

So after some playtesting it looks like that even though Gloomfang is awesome, it is also extremely dangerous in dense map layouts, because you instantly lose like 1k+ HP just on hitting the pack (you leech it back later but you can easily just kill yourself like this). So I dropped Gloomfang, slightly altered tree to give us more defense options/ I dropped War Banner for Dread Banner and put back Warlord's Mark then removed mana leech node from tree and slightly increased accuracy. I replaced Gloomfang with this amulet:



what puts us up to 4 AR, what means we just need 90% effective crit chance in order to have 7 Dark Pact procs/second. Sadly now we have only 5 Dark Pact chains per proc, what brings our DPS down to around 5.5M shaper DPS, but I think this is still good change because it makes mapping more smooth and safe (+ ability to wear Dread Banner together with our Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics, 40% Evade and Stibnite Flask makes our defense pretty solid).

Here is updated PoB:
https://pastebin.com/s0Ukyb9t

I also made new video of me doing Ancient City with Dread Banner and Warlord's Mark.


Lvl 78 Ancient City:

https://streamable.com/g50kg

Edit: Also Beach

Lvl 79 Beach:

https://streamable.com/1iwxu

I decided to try this amulet with Precision with this build as well instead of Warped Timepiece and so far its pretty awesome, I can still maintain > 3.5 effective crits/s, it boosts damage and even though our AS is lower, effective crit and hit chance is a lot higher, that means more consistent pack clearing.

So I decided to switch back to Warped Timepiece because I wanted to run Arctic Armour as another layer of defense. So I replaced Herald of Agony with Arctic Armour for now.

But if you are missing crit and hit chance then using Hyrri's Truth will mostly solve all your problems.

Also, I am running this build as league starter and as it's very flexible I had absolute no issues with currency yet, everything is really cheap (except bow ofc, but atm I am just using generic 6 link bow and it still feels good). So I would say that this build is very viable as league starter.

So I just did Eternal (Uber) Lab and it was pretty simple, I died on first try because I tried to dodge last Izaro's phase attack and I messed up because of my latency, but on second try I just decided to facetank it and try to outleech him and it worked.

EDIT:

Also added more Delve previews.

Lvl 84 Delve Depth 69:

https://streamable.com/hj5ln

So I was trying this build also with Lancing Steel + Exquisite Blade. The damage is basically the same (Exquisite has crit multi, so I dropped Arcane Surge for Leap Slam + Fortify, even though I can just go back to Flame Dash/Phase Run but melee movement skills are way to good to pass) but clear is WAAY superior because thanks to our chains Lancing Steel chains too, so it can basically clear screen in ideal scenarios (because lancing steel range is also godlike).

Downsides are that Exquisite Blade build is not very scalable and not that budget friendly. So, downsides:

1. ANY variations of shaped Exquisite blade are fucking overpriced (even just CoC without anything at it is few EX) - Thanks Mathil. For comparison, you can get shaped Thicket bow with Cast on Crit mod for few chaos, and 6 linked maybe for 30c atm
2. Exquisite blade variation cannot scale with damage so high as bow version can (no + chain corruption on quiver and no +1 chain on bow because its not bow, duh)
4. We are losing quiver
5. It's more annoying to target bosses with Lancing Steel so it hits at least 2 projectiles (because it's a bit spread on sides so you need to position your mouse far away)
6. Just crafting required mods on Exquisite cost 5 exalt (Can have multiple crafted modifiers + Hits can't be evaded + Minion Damage/Minion Speed (cost of this is neglible))

Benefits of Exquisite blade:

1. We do not need to run Shaper's Touch and we do not need to worry about accuracy (that also frees 3 points on tree)
2. Insane clear thanks to chaining Lancing Steel
3. We can use melee movement skill and fortify
4. With blade I can easily go up to max CoC procs/second with cooldown reduction, what is 7.4 (compared to 7 from Bow version)
5. Our effective crit can easily reach 99% because we do not need to worry about hit chance again

Thoughts?

EDIT: So I was asking around a bit and it seems like Lancing Steel would be a bit more unreliable because of projectile delay and unknown delay between attacks, and also the hit area required for 2 procs, so maybe its better to just stay with Blast Rain, even though I still think Lancing Steel *might* be pretty valid option, it just requires more playtesting.

For anyone interested here is lancing steel version after some adjustments (I kept Phase Run, because it just synergizes too well with every other aspect of the build, Leap Slam doesn't):

https://pastebin.com/qFkY5JdS

So this actually now has a bit higher DPS than bow version, with more consistency, and slightly more life. So all that needs to be done is to really play test this, what I will do in near future probably (the tree is basically same and gear too, so it should not be too hard to just switch to that and then switch back if it will not work out).

Also it requires only 117 points instead of 118 (idk what to do with extra point, so I will just take this to lvl 94). Also it freed 1 socket because we do not need golem anymore (even though maybe we should still use it, but it can sometimes die and then it's annoying when you forget that its dead).

I will also include this in main post as alternative version.

EDIT: Decided to go for Leap Slam anyway, after playtesting its way too good and Fortify rocks. Still higher DPS than Blast Rain setup thanks to large crit multi. Also optimized flask setups in both versions.

EDIT2: Nah, I feel way more comfortable with Phase Run, and we have fortify very very often from Dread Banner anyway (as we impale very very often too)

EDIT3: Did few maps and bosses with melee setup, and as I said before, clearing feels faster, but not smoother (maybe I am just too used to bow playstyle). And bosses feel a lot worse, with Blast Rain you just aim at their head with big AoE, with Lancing Steel you have to aim more, watch your distance and watch your projectile spread. Idk, I just really dislike that part and it do not feels smooth at all. So I will be continuing with bow version. But I will be updating also melee version beause ultimately, with enough effort, I think its better.

Here is preview of Armalla boss fight from Sunken City map:

https://streamable.com/7envo

Also, I found out that Barrage works really well when mapping, because it chains too and also it stacks Dread Banner. So that is another valid option to use instead of Blast Rain. I still prefer Blast Rain because its easier to target stuff with it (and I am already used to top-down skill playstyle).

EDIT: Also bear in mind that this is still on extremely budget setup, my current whole gear costed me maybe max 40c, probably even less (e.g I bought Cherrubim for 1 alch and then 6 socketed it myself).

My current most expensive item is bow, and that is mostly because I bought it 6 linked, what is like 10c.

And based on PoB my current DPS is 1.7M.

So I was a bit bored and I wanted to try full cookie cutter version in PoB. So, here it is:

https://pastebin.com/rEjS0jgt

11.3M DPS with basically current gear (well, also added multicraft on bow for some extra spice). Sad thing is that that thing has only 5.5K HP and basically no other defenses. Its mostly just for fun anyway, I might try running that.

Hi playing a lancing steel version of this build right now.

Just wondering why herald of ash? I'm aiming at running like warlords on hit somewhere and using zealotry atm. Just wondering if it was just like something to toss in for a bit of extra dots or if I'm missing something obvious.

This build is super fun. Thanks for the guide!

"

AlixeIvy wrote:

Hi playing a lancing steel version of this build right now.

Just wondering why herald of ash? I'm aiming at running like warlords on hit somewhere and using zealotry atm. Just wondering if it was just like something to toss in for a bit of extra dots or if I'm missing something obvious.

This build is super fun. Thanks for the guide!

Herald of Ash is there mostly just to slightly improve clearing. It's not necessary but it helps.

Zealotry is definitely quite strong in this build (e.g check my previous message with "cookie cutter" version).