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

Guys, just remember that 'Ethical' 100 is and has always been a meme...

I personally hate how that particular word has become associated with the grind. There are no forests burned because ppl ran 5-ways to 100. Polar bears will not die out either and no children will be harmed lol.

Jokes aside, I've got 3 exams waiting for me next month, so as soon as I get 50% of the way to 100 I'll buy the other 50% with legion runs. Essentially if you can get your char to 50% xp without doing any XP strategies, then you've proved your character's worth - the only thing that is left to prove is how much time you have to to get the other 50%.

Im running max juice burials - Chisel > Alc > Vaal > 4 scarabs for more monsters > 3-4 unique pack/area lvl watchstones > 4 awakened sextants. I dont skip any mods, I run Sirus with the same character too. These maps can be dangerous, some of them have Delirium bosses and most of them have a metamorph. Obviously my character is very tanky as I prepared for this, but that's kinda besides the point.

Respect ur time boys :) If you'd rather do other builds or do hard bossing or irl etc...your time is worth more than a few Ex. I feel the need to complete my char before I bury myself in books, so like I say ill get 50% then buy the rest, I seem to get around 1% per per 2 maps roughly.

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Dassort wrote:

Already build and i have a lot of fun with this build thank you again for the build i got something like 2.5mil per totems and that is too much to do all content here is a clip that i did A9 sirus deathless if any of you want to see this build in 3.14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulq2OFaxW5s&t=5s

That's probably the cleanest Sirus fight I've seen or experienced. I also like your technique of keeping totems up during the off-phases, for the regen. And you save flasks for the final phase only, because everything before is irrelevant.

I've been trying to coach a friend through the Sirus fight, without success. I will use your video as a great example!

@Bobirobsan1, yes Ethical is a meme and its fun to use :) There's no shame in boosting and there's also no shame in grinding it out.

not sure how much of what has been typed is directed at me but for what its worth i dont really care if its considered a meme or not. and why should i care really.

i play this game not caring much about what the community thinks of this or that. ppl take this shit too seriously and reddit in a cesspool of entitled asshats so what the 'community' considers a meme or not isnt something i care about. the idea of hitting 100 to me is just one more thing to do cuz i love this build. im just considering different factors before i decide to commit or not. as a parent of 2 and a business owner i assure you i respect my own time, thank you. getting boosted to 100 defeats the purpose entirely. and i also have no intention of grinding 100 with it being my sole focus. i'm still enjoying the act of accumulating currency for the sake of it.

@ciggaro, congrats on the 37 challenges! That's my goal too.

A proper grind to 100 does generate a lot of currency, and you learn a lot about the game and the build you're playing. Every player should experience that at least once, I would say.

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ciggaro wrote:

not sure how much of what has been typed is directed at me but for what its worth i dont really care if its considered a meme or not. and why should i care really.

@ciggaro

As an example, I have a friend who invested over 1 mirror's worth of currency in an MS Jugg back in betrayal, only likes to do bossing at the end game so he used pure chayulas from 98-100. Now, his character to date probably has less than 10 deaths in total, and he also must have hundreds of paid Uber Elder carry's in that league. If someone is to tell me that he did not earn his lvl 100 just because he CBA to chain maps they can go and... you get the idea.

I am aware that the phrase as used in this thread is not meant in that exact way. But at the same time something about the way you used it felt almost as if you were ashamed to pay for xp or something...and that's wrong on so many levels so I just wanted to post and remind ppl that it IS a meme, which comes primarily from SSFHC.

@BlueeGreg

Got my 100 today, did 50% myself, 40% boost legions and last 10% some chill alc-only maps and delve. I didn't count how many maps in total but it was a lot of them split into 3 days, and I died 4 times. I did expect some deaths though because as I said previously, these were super-juiced, difficult maps, and Im really happy with my character for being able to level through them. Dropped 1 Doctor, made a bunch of extra currency, so yeah, it's a good way to level up.

And I agree it's useful, shows you what is dangerous for your build. For me its mostly chaos dmg. I feel almost immortal in ultimatums, and didn't even come close to dying in any of them. But chaos dmg hurts like a truck! It goes past the 2.7K ES layer I sustain with my flask and the Flask minor pantheon ( so I don't get the 5% reduced chaos dmg taken ). I want to use Chayula's amulet for more ES, stun immunity, and chaos res - but balancing ele resists was a pain and I didn't bother for now.

Anyways, I won't be much active here or PoE generally cos now that I've hit 100 ill focus on my exams completely.

Thanks again for writing up the guide, I found it after watching Mathil and wondering how to build it without Harvest. My own character ended up being very different from yours, but I still found things like ailment immunity really useful, along with a lot of other smaller info, so good job on the guide! Hopefully you will keep improving it in later leagues.

If I have any tips id say maybe include some more influence options like the warlord gloves, I use 2 warlord influence items. Instead of Endurance charges u can get Frenzy's with redeemer influence on shield (I get frenzy charges from the timeless jewel).

@Bobirobsan1,

I'll definitely rewrite the guide at the end of the league. Make a very clear and strong emphasis on the different versions and steps of the build, from Leveling into Budget into Soul Mantle into $$$, for example those gloves you mention. I'll admit I'm ignorant when it comes to expensive crafting and rares, because I've never done it and my specialty is making a build work with as little currency as possible.

I intend to skip the next 3.15 league, but this guide should still be a resource for new and experienced players alike.

I hit Level 100 the way you did, grinding to 99.56% and then paid for the boost to finish it. Believe me, I'm not making any judgment on that! I'm miserly when it comes to spending currency, and I think my loathing of 'wasting' currency came across as judgmental.

Saving your Level 100 POB for future research! <3

Is it worth switching to the Soul Mantle build even if you cant get the +2 AOE Gems corruption? I am currently using the +2 AoE Gems Tabula and my DPS is around 1/3 what you guys are getting. Just working out where next to spend my $$$.

Also if it IS worth switching to Soul Mantle without the +2 AoE Corruption should we then in that case still use an Empower to get the extra gem levels?

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Targwyn wrote:

Is it worth switching to the Soul Mantle build even if you cant get the +2 AOE Gems corruption? I am currently using the +2 AoE Gems Tabula and my DPS is around 1/3 what you guys are getting. Just working out where next to spend my $$$.

Also if it IS worth switching to Soul Mantle without the +2 AoE Corruption should we then in that case still use an Empower to get the extra gem levels?

Thanks for asking this Targwyn!

You should absolutely make the switch to a basic 6-link Soul Mantle. We're in Week 5 of the league, so the Soul Mantle Combo is incredibly cheap to buy now. Heck the chest is only 200 chaos!!

I am removing the Empower Support recommendation from my build guide. Pretend it doesn't exist! If you need/want to use a red support gem, I would recommend the new gem Cruelty Support.

Build guide update! I've updated every single section in the build guide, removed quite a few recommendations, and added some more. I've also linked most of my gear from 3.14, and added a few trade links, to help provide some context. The big things left to do before 3.15 is a proper Leveling section, and multiple POBs that demonstrate the progression of the build.

Here's a fun snippet from the end of the guide :)

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Combo While Waiting On The Boss

This applies to any boss with a long summoning animation, such as Metamorph, all Conquerors, Sirus, Cortex phases, Maven phases. The steps are this:

- Stand close to the boss
- Spam out your totems, preferably on the other side of the boss
- If Soul Mantle, spam out even more totems to make sure you have lots of curses going
- Wait for the boss to become targetable. You will know when this happens, because your totems will start shooting
- Hit all your non-Life flasks, especially Bottled Faith if you got it
- Hit your Withering Step button
- Run away like a scared child, but not with Flame Dash because its locked out
- Profit

If the boss doesn't immediately vaporize, you should start to burn them down with self-cast Wither from a safe distance. At all times, make sure you have all your totems up and shooting.

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I've also added two end-game variants to the guide, courtesy of all the discussion in this thread!

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Elegant Hubris ES Stacking:
@Bobirosan1 took this version to Level 100 in 3.14.
https://pastebin.com/WWeRQjTD
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Bobirobsan1/characters?characterName=ShadePact

Elegant Hubris (Cadiro) is used to access the Supreme Decadence keystone. When combined with the Panicked 'instant because low-life' Life flask, this provides very reliable recovery to the ES pool, which the build otherwise does not have. There are other small bonuses from this jewel, if you allocate more points around it and rolled good RNG.

ES is further boosted by changing the Ascendancy points. A Clarity Watcher's Eye is used. Some mana is reserved for Zealotry, to make up for missing DPS elsewhere. A double curse setup is used for more boss DPS. There are also clever passive tree changes to fit this all in.


Agnostic Arcane Cloak:
@ciggaro took this version to Level 100 in 3.14.
https://pastebin.com/nR109Z5p
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/ciggaro/characters?characterName=AntiRSIbuild

The Agnostic keystone, and a high level Arcane Cloak skill gem, leverage a healthy mana pool into a significant source of regen, and also a chunk of DPS. This creates a surprisingly balanced and defensive character, though some DPS is sacrificed to create this balance. The passive tree choices largely mimic what a person would do for an Archmage build.

Elemental Ailment Immunity is maintained by anointing 'Arcane Swiftness'. Clarity, and a Clarity Watcher's Eye, are used to balance out the MOM even more. Unnatural Instinct jewel is used because cash money why not? :)

I personally like this variant and I think I will try it whenever I play Dark Pact again!