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

I'll post a 3.15 summary before tomorrow.

Surprisingly, other than many global nerfs, totems weren't hit that hard. No unique items were mentioned in the patch notes, no change to Hiero nodes that are taken, and Spell Totem Support received a small but not back-breaking nerf.

Support gems like Controlled Destruction now should never be used unless you are leveling early and using Elemental Overload.

Elemental Ailment Avoidance is now harder to obtain, especially if you are big money boy who has Viridi's Veil helmet. But it's still obtainable, and now even more desirable because of flask nerfs.

Totem builds now really really need the Soul Mantle Combo to feel powerful, because of the global nerfs. This, combined with people farming Maven much slower, and other builds wanting Viridi's Veil helmet for its curse immunity, means that the helmet will be incredibly more expensive this league compared to 3.14. I'm expecting a +2 week cost on that single item, i.e. the price on day 24 of 3.15 will be the same price as day 10 of 3.14, if that makes sense.

Sup man, great build!

Question what u think to replace DP for forbiden rite?

i guess it is good cause 12% of life based chaos damage,
what u think it can be used with your tree?

i am really worry about Viridi's Veil helme 3.15 too hard to get it

3.15 Gon’ Give It To Ya

Best of luck to the brave souls who will be playing 3.15! May your masochism not be in vain :)

Buffs?
- Unique items are untouched, specifically the Soul Mantle Combo + Astral Projector
- Cluster Jewels are untouched
- Hierophant Ascendancy untouched… well just the parts we care about

Nerfs!
- Huge flask nerfs that impact every build, especially crit builds like this. No idea what a proper flask setup looks like now. Don’t be afraid to run double Quicksilver, etc.
- Crafted ‘Avoid Elemental Ailments’ is reduced, but is now available to craft on Boots and Shields.
- Virtually every support gem now has a higher mana multiplier.
- Spell Totem Support has a larger Cast Speed penalty, now -40% from -30%; we do gain 2% More Damage though!
- Controlled Destruction should now never be used, except when using Elemental Overlord during the acts.
- Conc Effect loses 15% Damage
- Void Manip and its Awakened version both lose 5% Damage
- Added Chaos Support, Increased Area of Effect, and Multiple Totem Support all unchanged?


Conclusion:
It’s not clear what the best 6 or 7-link combo for Dark Pact looks like. Will need to see what Path of Building thinks!

Our biggest loss of power comes from the flask changes, since so much DPS and QOL was associated with ‘skillful’ uptime of flasks. That’s now all gone. Surprisingly the support gem changes aren’t all that bad, but it hurts to lose Awakened Controlled Destruction since that was a very good gem to use. Dark Pact continues to have a lack of strong, solid support gem options.

I expect Viridi’s Veil helmet, for the Soul Mantle Combo, to be significantly more expensive in 3.15. Players are nerfed, and the helmet is a Maven endgame drop. Players also want curse immunity, which the helmet provides. Likewise, any totem character is going to be desperate for the Soul Mantle Combo, if they want to stand a chance of clearing juiced T16s comfortably.


Forbidden Rite:
This is a new skill, added in 3.15, that seems primed for exploitation with totems. It scales similarly to Dark Pact, with a bigger tax on Totem Life and Totem Chaos Res, for potentially a bigger DPS upside. The skill is scaled by everything that scales Dark Pact, in addition to Projectile Damage.

While the skill is given in Act 2, I don’t think the skill will be truly usable until you are into maps and you specifically have two Medium Cluster Jewels, both with ‘Ancestral Preservation’. The two other notables you’d want would be ‘Sleepless Sentries’, and then whatever else you want like ‘Ancestral Reach’ or ‘Ancestral Echo’. Until then, the skill will simply nuke your Totems too fast for it to be enjoyable or powerful.

Projectiles - The skill always launches one projectile where the totem is targetting. There will be additional projectiles launched for nearby enemies, and there will always be a 2nd projectile if there is only one enemy in range. It is unlikely that increasing your projectile count will improve single target DPS, and the skill tooltip says there is built-in 7 extra projectiles.

AOE - Each projectile’s explosion is AOE damage, like Dark Pact. We are assuming that the AOE explosions of each projectile can overlap its damage. If that is the case, then increasing Area of Effect radius will be incredibly important for most any situation.

Cast Speed - The skill has a longer casting time than Dark Pact, and 3.15 is also increasing the Cast Speed penalty for Spell Totems. This will be a slow skill early on, and the projectiles aren’t instant once cast (Dark Pact is instant). Likewise, if you scale Cast Speed too high without also increasing your overall DPS, then your totems will nuke themselves long before any beefy enemy is dead. So you’ll need a balance here.

Projectile Speed - There is also travel time of the projectiles (Projectile Speed), which you could think of as a second type of Cast Speed. There’s no efficient way for us to scale Projectile Speed, and GGG has nerfed this many times already. So probably don’t worry about this.

Hi! Thx for updating this build! leveling is the same, with Freezing Pulse Totems?

"

Audio777Video wrote:

Hi! Thx for updating this build! leveling is the same, with Freezing Pulse Totems?

Yes I would recommend doing that after you finish the first lab. In 3.14 I used Holy Flame Totem all the way until Level 87 or something, it was painful!

Just checked my poe.ninja build snapshot from 3.14 Day 2
https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/char/BlueeGreg/The_Saskatchewanian?time-machine=day-2&i=9&search=time-machine%3Dday-2%26name%3DThe_

"

BlueeGreg wrote:

3.15 Gon’ Give It To Ya

you specifically have two Medium Cluster Jewels, both with ‘Ancestral Preservation’... Until then, the skill will simply nuke your Totems too fast for it to be enjoyable or powerful.

Correct me if I'm wrong but do you really need 2 Ancestral Preservations? Since Forbidden Rite is specified as damage rather than sacrifice, both the totem's base 20% chaos resist and 45% less damage taken properties should kick in, right? That should trim it down from 40% life damage to 20.8%. A single Ancestral Preservation would cut that to 10.4%, so about 10 shots max compared to Dark Pact's 17 shots. Since the base cast speed of Forbidden Rite is 50% slower than Dark Pact, they should last a relatively similar length of time?

i only fear that the delay from shooting the proj to finally landing might take to long and thus opens for incoming dmg.

talking about forbidden rite.

"

Exilecake wrote:

"

BlueeGreg wrote:

3.15 Gon’ Give It To Ya

you specifically have two Medium Cluster Jewels, both with ‘Ancestral Preservation’... Until then, the skill will simply nuke your Totems too fast for it to be enjoyable or powerful.

Correct me if I'm wrong but do you really need 2 Ancestral Preservations? Since Forbidden Rite is specified as damage rather than sacrifice, both the totem's base 20% chaos resist and 45% less damage taken properties should kick in, right? That should trim it down from 40% life damage to 20.8%. A single Ancestral Preservation would cut that to 10.4%, so about 10 shots max compared to Dark Pact's 17 shots. Since the base cast speed of Forbidden Rite is 50% slower than Dark Pact, they should last a relatively similar length of time?

I don't know how the innate Totem "less damage taken" works, but it still seems worth to stack Chaos Res on the Totem (in addition to Life). Totems can die even when they aren't shooting themselves in the face!

You are correct, the first 'Ancestral Preservation' is worth more than the second, but the second is still good because it continues to scale Life and and it brings the Chaos Res from 60% to 75% (max). It's also somewhat easy to roll with Harvest when it offers a Chaos option.

"

majesthro wrote:

i only fear that the delay from shooting the proj to finally landing might take to long and thus opens for incoming dmg.

talking about forbidden rite.

Yes the delay will be annoying, you won't be able to charge forward as quickly as you're used to. But nothing a little patience can't overcome. Just always be moving sideways, or even backwards, after placing new totems on the frontline. Don't walk on top your totems, because the enemy who isn't dead yet is probably launching a one-shot right there.