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

thoughts on using forbidden ritual totem for next league? Don't need the unique ring and scaling should be similar.

I plan to start Forbidden Rite totem hiero as well.

Forbidden Rite or whatever it is called, looks reasonable for a Spell Totem build. It might not feel good until you have two basic Medium Clusters, maxing out your Totem's Chaos Resistance; otherwise your totems will nuke themselves very fast.

If the skill launches all projectiles regardless of # enemy targets, and all projectiles can hit / overlap... then it should be very strong. Plus can use the 'Rain of Splinters' jewel for cheap.

Definitely wait for patch notes before getting too excited!!

Updated the Leveling Tips section and added a helpful POB there.

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I've created a POB that might help with leveling. It has three phases of Story Mode (first lab), Early Mapping, and then End Game. It also has example support skills like Arcanist Brand.

https://pastebin.com/RRZTT8mt

Your main goal is to the clear the first lab, at the start of Act 4. This gives you an explosion of power, and this is also when you double down on your totem synergies. 'Ancestral Bond' should be taken on the tree immediately after you finish your first lab, taking 'Pursuit of Faith'.

How you get to Act 4 is up to you. Use any style and Spell you prefer, it really doesn't matter. Once you're at Act 4 and beyond, you'll want to focus into a main 4-link Spell like Holy Flame Totem or Freezing Pulse + Spell Totem Support, while also adding in some support skills like Arcanist Brand.

'Elemental Overload' is great to use for most of leveling, until you have enough crit nodes on your tree and also a really good Diamond flask. Unfortunately with the upcoming flask nerfs, its unclear how potent the Diamond flask will be. So you should expect to use Elemental Overload for longer, and postpone taking crit nodes on the tree. Oh and when you're using Elemental Overload, don't be in a rush to use Controlled Destruction Support; your crit chance could be lowered to 0% :)

Once you have your first 6-link or Tabula, I strongly recommend using Multiple Totem Support. Combine this with your Spell of choice, and your early mapping should be set.

Your skill tree will be feature complete, shortly after Act 10 Kitava, around Level 75-78. Slot in regular jewels when you can snipe a good deal, and definitely be working towards your Cluster jewel combo.

super tempted to start forbidden rite totems as well.. gonna be keeping an eye on this post for reports of how it goes for others.

Here's a rough PoB for Forbidden Rite totems. Totems have max chaos res and 18.4k life.

https://pastebin.com/XdbevHPR

Using build from @DuckyGoonstead and implementing a hack version of Forbidden Rite into PoB (I assumed base Chaos Damage is equivalent in scaling to Soulrend). I got something like this:



Ignore where it says "12% of Skeleton's Life" it's using Totem's Life.

The build is basically 1 mil DPS per projectile per totem. Assuming it does at minimum 2 projectiles per totem on a single boss with no adds and we have 7 totems that gives us 14 * 1mil = 14mil.

sounds low compared to dark pact, doesnt it?

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DuckyGoonstead wrote:

Here's a rough PoB for Forbidden Rite totems. Totems have max chaos res and 18.4k life.

https://pastebin.com/XdbevHPR

I'm thinking of starting Forbidden Rite totems as well, but I'm curious why you have selfcast Wither instead of Blight totems with Multiple Totems and a Spreading Rot? You'd miss out on the Infusion buff but would get the extra damage from Ritual of Awakening plus the Blight DPS. Or I guess maybe the opportunity cost of Spreading Rot is just higher in the endgame setup when you can get stronger jewels?

Edit: Never mind, didn't see that you were using multiple totems in your main setup. My bad!

Hi. Any updates after patch notes release? Want to start with your DP totem build this league.