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

3.14 Ultimatum Tips & Changes

2nd week of 3.14 Ultimatum has begun, and I wanted to talk about some changes, recommendations, and gameplay tips.

Passive Tree:

I tried a few changes, inspired by Wallach's guide for Freezing Pulse totems. The main change is instead of spending 9 points to take Primal Manifestation and its nearby jewel socket, we spend those 9 points in the Witch area and the jewel socket there. This allows us to grab a decent chunk more of EHP.

The downside is we lose some DPS, and our totems become less tanky.

The anointment for the amulet is changed from Ironwood, to the slightly more expensive Primal Manifestation. This gains us more DPS, but loses some armor for us and tankiness for our totems.

Two points are shaved off in the Shadow area, to 'save' one point overall for pathing.

The tree, and my current character, can be seen in the POB below.

https://pastebin.com/b2jTB1Df


Gear:

Gear recommendations are virtually unchanged. The emphasis on the set of Cluster jewels remains the same. The power of a +2 Tabula goes a long way. I still like a proper Skin of the Loyal as a reasonable Soul Mantle alternative, but not worth overpaying for.

I want to emphasize that a 3R 1G 2B setup may not be best anymore. Empower is always expensive. I'm experimenting with 2R 1G 3B, and using the extra Blue socket for a specific gem swap. Awakened Increased Area for mapping and most all gameplay, and then a gem swap to Concentrated Effect 20/20 before staged bosses like Conquerors, Sirus, Maven, etc. The current budget-focused standard should be a Concentrated Effect at all times.

Elemental Ailment Avoidance is easy to overlook, but please don't. It's a later game addition once your gear is more set, but it's a very achievable and worthwhile goal.

Divergent Wither is HIGHLY recommended. It doubles our Wither stacking.

Frenzy Charge craft on the ring and amulet still continues to feel really good!!


Offensive Combo:

There's a very distinct combo that I recommend to open most large fights with, like Conquerors, and this combo can be used elsewhere. You start by:

Having all 6 totems up and within range of the boss;
Be sure to summon another set of totem(s) immediately before the boss is ready to take damage;
This ensures that your conditional buffs from your Cluster jewels are online;
Pop all your appropriate flasks once the boss is able to take damage;
Including your Quicksilver for this next step;
Tap your Withering Step button and do a quick 'drive-by' on the boss;
This immediately hits the boss with 7 stacks of Wither;
Run away to safety, and probably re-summon some totems;
As soon as there is a safe ranged opening, channel the boss down with your Wither.
At all times, all totems should be alive and within targeting range of the boss.


Defensive Tips:

Proper gearing and EHP solves a lot of issues, but death can still come easily. I'm looking at you, Sirus influenced mobs!!

Focus on flask uptime. Keep your totems up at all times, if even just for the bonus regen. Movement speed is key, so combo with your Quicksilver and a skill like Phase Run. Try not to Flash Dash into enemies, or unknown areas. Know every enemy mechanic by heart :)

If you get stunned, reflexively hit that life flask button. Probably all your flasks!


Ultimatum Mechanic:

'Stand in Stone Circles' is terrible. Skip it every single time, unless you enjoy dying.

Only run Ultimatums that are favorable for you. That means wide open rooms, few obstructions. No crazy map mods like Multi Proj or no regen.

Try to clear the area around the Ultimatum first, especially in influenced maps, Beyond, Bloodlines, and holy smokes Sirus mobs. I've had these guys wiggle their way in and its absolute chaos and not in a good way.

Run in circles near the outside. It's very boring gameplay.

Piano your keys and flasks, one button press of totems every 2 seconds or so. Use Phase Run and Withering Step. I'm trying out Shield Charge + Fortify here. Limit use of Flame Dash, though its OK to dash out of known danger. Never stop to self-cast Wither. And never stop moving for anything.


I appreciate the brave few of you who are giving Dark Pact Totems a try!

Yo, another question why Anomalous dark pact?

"

Jhonegao wrote:

Yo, another question why Anomalous dark pact?

"Anomalous Dark Pact needs to be 21/20, to beat the regular 21/20. It uses more of your totem's life to deal damage, which is why it is better for damage. It will kill your own totem a little faster though.

Since it's so rare and its benefit is small, I wouldn't worry about upgrading."

Figured out that you can get stun immunity if u take Arcane Swiftness (20% stun avoidance) + Elder boots suffix (30% stun avoidance) + Cinderswallow flask (50% stun avoidance).

You will need some added fire somewhere, and also something to 'hit' with to ignite to use the 10% increased dmg taken from the flask.

The onslaught cluster jewel would become obsolete since its a silver flask, but theres plenty of good totem clusters.

This way of doing it is better than unwavering stance or brine king imo. It conflicts with the ailment immunity, but that is readily available through flasks, which are up 100% while doing ultimatums.

I specced out of unwavering stance to test for abit, but the experience is insufferable, every 2.5 second you get stunned T_T.

Elemental Ailments are more than just Freeze, which flasks often cover. Shock is like being hit with a crit every time, and there isn't room on flasks to prevent that usually. Ignite isn't too bad, but it can be a big DOT that neutralizes our regen.

Ailment immunity also opens up a flask suffix for something like Catarina's crit :)

I would always choose Elemental Ailment immunity, over stun immunity. We aren't a melee or self-cast character, whose DPS solely relies on attacking. When those guys get stunned, their DPS goes to zero. When we get stunned, our totems are still putting in work.

Ultimatum has made stunning more often and feel worse, though :(

how do i calculate dark pact's damage? is PoB accurate?

"

Clypeus3 wrote:

how do i calculate dark pact's damage? is PoB accurate?

It calculates the DPS of 1 totem, while taking into account that there are several totems up, such as the 5% more per totem from ascendancy. So whatever DPS PoB gives on dark pact, multiply that by your maximum number of totems to get your max DPS. Keep in mind that while mapping you usually don't have all 6/7 totems up for each pack of monsters, mostly for bosses.

I managed to solve my issue with stuns and got to lvl 96 this morning.

I realised that if I get stunned, my totems can kill my attacker. So I invested into more damage with a bottled faith. The dmg alone is worth but you also get more regen, and you cover the entire Ultimatum arena in consecrated ground. Im surprised the flask is not more expensive given how strong it is for ultimatums. Boss DPS with all buffs up is now over 1 mil per totem, which is awesome!

I changed to Shield Charge as primary movement ability, replacing second wind on flame dash for faster attacks on SC. This had 3 positive effects.

- Ensures fortify is up 100% of the time. If I do get stunned, I am fortified, giving my totems more time to save me.

- SC does not compete with Withering step, so I can place it on my left click and link it to a low lvl Arcane surge. This means that every 3-4 seconds I can apply 6 stacks of wither to all enemies, while gaining the elusive dodge.

- Its...really fast XD. We are not an attack build but we have perma onslaught, I also get 10% move speed from Cowards legacy. Basically my map clear speed outright doubled. Ultimatums are safer, as I can move from 1 end of the arena to the other in a split second. This allows me to draw enemies to one side then move to the safer one, and to dodge most projectiles by circling. In case I am hit, and therefore mini stunned, I have fortify up. I still keep a flame dash gem for jumping over gaps in terrain, but with my atlas somewhat set up, I try to avoid those layouts.

I changed my passive tree to have more EHP as recommended with investing into the mana nodes in the witch tree. Now I'm close to 3k max mana and it feels much safer, with minimal DPS loss. There are some interesting options for the previous tree, with Dynamo, agnostic is there, maybe the scion jewels with Unnatural instinct, but I don't know if that's worth it as we are not stacking huge amounts of mana.

Also picked up a cheap 70c watchers eye with 20% dmg recouped as mana Clarity and a Zealotry mod.

Im wondering if there is a way to reserve some mana with a high lvl Enlighten in a +2 Viridi. Id try zealotry to use the watchers eye mod, but maybe a 35% skitterbots for chill and shock aura is better. Reduced action speed would feel great in ultimatums.

Ill be looking out for a better shield with + max res, as I feel that most of the dmg we take in Ultimatums is Phys converted to ele. Chaos res on some pieces might also help a lot. Not sure if I will push this to lvl 100, but it it definitely doable!

Sweet, glad you are having success with your version of the build! It's nice to see changes and alterations working. I do want to try the Soul Mantle combo sometime, but I'm not in any rush.

Time to return to the real world, and stop playing a lot less. Work and other commitments :) I'll slowly get my way to Level 98, and consider starting a second character. The league start grind was fun!

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 :)