[3.16] Dark Pact Totems | The smoothest spell totem skill around, now post-nerf updated

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DunklerKoenig wrote:

Hey,

i would like try out Dark Pact Totems, does someone have any recommendations for a setup? I saw the reglular setup with the skin of the loyal and a setup with Soul Mantle..

Thanks :)

Both work, there are also other equally good ways to build this, you can check on PoE.ninja for the top levelled characters playing this build by Filtering by Dark Pact.

If I were you I would pick the setup which you manage to get the best bargain price for. If you find a cheap Mantle take it, if you find a cheap Skin take that instead, or if u find a good hunter rare chest pick that route, and stick with it, because they all work. That said, Soul mantle is slightly more complicated as it is a bit squishier, but if you can make it work, it is alot of dmg. There is also an Ivory tower variant, whichever one you want really.

I have completed all content now, The Feared and Maven are dead, along with the rest of the invitations and bosses.

Great league start really, Ill now shift focus back to irl aswell, slowly complete my challenges and perhaps level this and/or other builds :)

The ultra-budget version is worth a try, assuming you already have the Astral Projector ring or can afford it. Gambling the divination card "Haunting Shadows" is mathematically the cheapest way to get the ring. But is still a gamble.

+2 Tabula is all you need to at least get to low tier red maps, and to learn the playstyle. Soul Mantle combo is objectively the highest DPS, and the cost of that package is coming down. You are undeniably squishier, ofc.

Thank you Bobirobsan1 for helping out here! And I'm impressed you did The Feared (I assume with 100% Inc Aoe for the challenge). I've never tried it, and I paid for a carry this first time because I could not stomach losing all that investment, if I were to brick the fight. It's a huge pain to unlock that fight. I'll try the fight again later once I feel like grinding those bosses (which means grinding trade to buy entry to the bosses lol).

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BlueeGreg wrote:

Thank you Bobirobsan1 for helping out here! And I'm impressed you did The Feared (I assume with 100% Inc Aoe for the challenge). I've never tried it, and I paid for a carry this first time because I could not stomach losing all that investment, if I were to brick the fight. It's a huge pain to unlock that fight. I'll try the fight again later once I feel like grinding those bosses (which means grinding trade to buy entry to the bosses lol).

Thanks! Yeah the Feared was very tough because I ran a 68% quantity rare version, but I made sure to make the mods as easy as possible, so no increased AoE for the first time around haha. There were some scary damage mods, but no resistance or more HP or anything of that nature. It was also my first time as I did not get to play as much last league.

I also got lucky because Atziri spawned first, and I absolutely deleted her in the first few seconds. The setup dmg of frost shield, bottled faith, void sphere helm enchant another 10% increased dmg taken, withering step, infusion, and more wither stacks with 7 totems and all the self curses etc. She did not live long LOL! She managed to sneak 1 attack in for say 80% of my HP, but that was all she wrote.

But unfortunately, I couldn't get my totems to kill Shaper and Cortex fast enough after, and I lost 4 portals, almost entirely due to shaper getting cloned and then spitting so many spells out that the arena was covered. Shaper is particularly annoying because he will teleport to you and cast, so running from him is harder.

I was surprised that Chayula and Elder were not more of a nuisance, I barely noticed them and did not even see when they died.

The cost of Cortex is the issue with this fight sigh. 2 Ex for his map makes it very hard to recover currency from it unless u drop a bottled faith. Chayula splinters can be farmed, but most ppl will have to buy a Cortex map...

I actually made currency in total I believe from the invitation with the other 4 synthesis maps, but Cortex is simply too expensive.

Hi!

I have a question. Is it a good idea to use Atziri's reflection since there is an option to use Soul Mantle? Atziri's Reflection is pretty cheap this league, but there is only one player with Dark Pact and atziri :D

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dawulya wrote:

Hi!

I have a question. Is it a good idea to use Atziri's reflection since there is an option to use Soul Mantle? Atziri's Reflection is pretty cheap this league, but there is only one player with Dark Pact and atziri :D

I don't have experience with that shield, or the Viridi's helm that is the replacement for that shield. But I would say that the helmet option is probably better, even with its downsides. You can use a +1 totem shield in its place, or go for a pure DPS 2nd weapon.

Currently Atziri's shield is 10x the cost of the Viridi helmet, so only you can determine if that is worth it.

Thanks for your reply! :)

I bought this one for 3c and linked it with 15 Fusings.. that was unexpected, but maybe someone tells me to got for it ^^




Update:
Holy Shit what a Hit ^^ Sadly no Block to Spell Damage.
I think about going for Glancing Blows

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BlueeGreg wrote:

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dawulya wrote:

Hi!

I have a question. Is it a good idea to use Atziri's reflection since there is an option to use Soul Mantle? Atziri's Reflection is pretty cheap this league, but there is only one player with Dark Pact and atziri :D

I don't have experience with that shield, or the Viridi's helm that is the replacement for that shield. But I would say that the helmet option is probably better, even with its downsides. You can use a +1 totem shield in its place, or go for a pure DPS 2nd weapon.

Currently Atziri's shield is 10x the cost of the Viridi helmet, so only you can determine if that is worth it.

I am leveling a second character as this build right now, and I'm having a blast so far! I was thinking using the shield would be good, as you can still use a rare helmet and craft avoid ailments on it for 100% to avoid ailments.

Got to lvl 97 as well now.

I changed the passive tree a bit using an Intuitive Leap in the upper witch jewel socket. And also changed the starter nodes from Templar to save some points.

Then I used the 5 points I saved to grab the Chaos DMG + Wither effect nodes next to the cluster jewel.

To make up for lost EHP I bought a 10% dmg taken from mana Clarity Watcher's Eye.

With only flasks, Wither Step (6 stacks cos on my left click) and Awakened Increased AOE Gem I have 1.38 Mil DPS per totem, with 7 totems up.

With all the buffs - Frost shield at 3 stacks, Void Sphere debuff, 15 Wither stacks, Concentrated Effect (gem swap) and Infusion, it goes up to 3.3 Mil per totem lol. Thats a combined total of 23 mil shaper DPS that can be unleashed on some boss that allows you to set up properly XD.

Still have to get a better shield with more defences (Max res, more HP or HP on block), fit in an extra curse (Assassins Mark) somehow, get culling somewhere and also get Ailment immunity to free up flask suffix's. Lots of upgrades left to be made which is good!

Now that I've levelled up I might try to use a lvl 4 + 2 (Viridi) Enlighten to reserve something like Skitterbots, probably not a good idea but ive got no xp to lose :D

Hi~ I'm new the game and using this build, so far I still dont have any ex orbs yet so I cant buy the projector ring, can I use this dark pact to playthrough ? or I must have the ring to use it ?

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jemyjemy9588 wrote:

Hi~ I'm new the game and using this build, so far I still dont have any ex orbs yet so I cant buy the projector ring, can I use this dark pact to playthrough ? or I must have the ring to use it ?

You really want the Astral Projector ring to make the build feel good. Until then, you can level up as Hierophant anything, including ultra-budget Freezing Pulse Totems.