[3.16] Dark Pact Totems | The smoothest spell totem skill around, now post-nerf updated
" Thanks for the very quick reply new gear: i have zero issues with damage, only defensive and BS one-shot by weak lab boss :D. |
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" The shield really needs to have +1 Summoned Totems, since that adds a lot of DPS uptime and quality of life. Though your new shield is very solid otherwise :) With the Lab boss, since your damage is good, it means you will 'phase' him very quickly. He will keep attacking, even though you cannot damage him anymore. This is very annoying and you just need to keep running around like a headless chicken, while you wait for the boss to realize that he is phased/dead. | |
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Well hot damn! I was looking for a build to re-spec my IceNova Hiero as I really was not happy with slow playstyle that required me to wait for those Frostbolts... at the same time wasn't really as tanky as I wanted. I found this guide and deciced to try it out as entry level was quite affordable. I went in and started investing more and it can be really powerfull, with fun and rewarding playstyle. I really enjoy this build and guide itself, concise and precise at the same time. If you'd have some time I'd love an expanded take on levelling and more crafting advise - I think you mentioned it for shield but same for other items would be cool too. Anyway, great job mate and thanks for your hard work.
PS. If you could take a look at my build and tell me what would be next upgrade step for gear I'd really appreciate the advice. Last edited by LokiONY on Nov 14, 2020, 2:07:27 PM
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" All of your gear looks appropriately focused and budget conscious. Just about every item has high life, most have a good chunk of mana too. I like your choice for the Large Cluster jewel, which doesn't change much but I can see why it works. Small Clusters are tough to get to work, especially when Scion life is just a few points away. For example, your Small costs 3 points (and it would love a Leo Exalt slam). You gain 203 Life, 111 Mana, and 19 Chaos Res. That's 68 Life/point, 37 Mana/point, and 6 Chaos/point. If your Small was the bigger version, it would cost 4 points and give you 74 Life/point, and the other rolls get better too. So you really want a Small to be the big version, and you want to have Increased Effect, like you do. My Small costs 4 points, and doesn't give me Mana. It gives me 115 Life/point, 3 Dex/point, 3 Fire-res/point. Spending 4 points instead to get to Scion's Constitution would give me 119 Life/point, and 5 Str/point. So you can see that my Small Cluster isn't even that good lol. Oh and a Small jewel takes the place of a regular jewel, which would have Life, Mana, Res/Attribute, and DPS on it already. On the skill tree, I see you are saving points by taking a 'shortcut' from the Templar start point. It's a reasonable choice to save 2 skill points, as nothing there is super impressive. For gear upgrades, I would look at the Boots. They're not bad at all, you just really want 30 Movement Speed. Open Suffix is nice to fix your resistances on the go, or to craft on Chaos res. If you don't feel attached to your current enchant, then you'll have a lot more options to work with. I really like Frenzy charges on my ring/amulet, which means you need an open suffix and your res needs to be good enough that you don't need to craft res there instead! Your amulet is pretty good overall, so I can see why you might want to skip Frenzy. Any new amulet will need to have decent Life already on it, since you won't be crafting Life there. Keep a look on trade for good snipes here. Your other ring is fine, can slap Frenzy on it once your res is good enough. The helmet, if you had more Res on there, that would really help you balance everything out. It would be a worthy trade to give up 10-15 Life for 25+ more Res, I think. And if you can get Mana too! So keep your eyes on trade, or consider rolling the dice with some Fossil/Essence crafting. None of your gear needs replacing though, everything you have is solid! | |
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I don't think I have any crafting advice, beyond the uber basic bench crafting mentioned in the guide. The gear we want is generic and plentiful, and it didn't take long within Heist league for the likely crafting cost of items (like Cluster jewels) to exceed the market cost of those items.
For leveling, I haven't started as a totem char, or even a Templar, in a long time. So I don't have much experience to share. I do know this char needs the Astral Projector ring, which means you already need currency from somewhere. With the ring at Level 40, and a +2 Tabula... the rest of leveling becomes easy :) | |
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I forgot about min. frenzy charges, fair point and should increase the DPS by a lot. I just nabbed some sexy vermillion ring, will try to craft it for more life and open suffix for frenzy. Amulet is kinda tough as really good ones are 10+ ex so I was trying to craft on my own +1 intelligence but can't hit nice life roll along with it. Thanks for the advice, will try to push through and hope to reach lvl 100.
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2 shield mods are hard to find :(
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" Good shields are not needed, and yes they are quite rare. You really only need the one mod, +1 Summoned Totems, and then crafted Life. That's it. That will carry you at least to Level 90. A nice budget alternative is to look for some bonus elemental resistance on the shield, in addition to +1 Totem and crafted Life. Looks like you can score decent ones for 30 chaos or less. This is the type of shield I bought for myself, and it helped me keep my resistances capped while I leveled up my guy. https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Heist/b2kM5WDuL Last edited by BlueeGreg on Nov 19, 2020, 3:39:54 AM
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" idk why ive never played dark pact before. really having fun. clear feels so good and bossing dps on a budget is pretty insane as well! wish i can league start this but the ring holds it back. oh well. ty for the guide tho! | |
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Hello sir, thanks for the build, I was bored with ball lightning totem and got astral projector so why not giving this build a shot :D So now I'm at red t14 maps, clear speed is still really solid - as long as I'm not going face first into tight corridor i won't die - but I got a few scares like porcupine death triggers, some nasty DoT (not much chaos res yet) - and Im trying hard to stay under the budget - here's my item: any advice on what pieces need to be improved next? - I'm leaning towards soul mantle but kinda worried because I can only wear 1 kikazaru. Also not sure if my single target dps is ok, map boss still drops quite fast. here's my pob: https://pastebin.com/bh7RJ7SN Thanks and really appreciate the guide!
Edit: just tried this on Conquerors A2 and the damage isn't good - how can I improve it? Last edited by FateAvrnicus on Nov 27, 2020, 2:55:24 PM
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