A great setup for the Occultist that sacrifices Skeletons to deal insane amounts of Damage with the Dark Pact Spell
Updated for Patch 3.24
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Guide notes |
June 23, 2024 -Reworked into Self-cast version for significantly more Damage and Durability |
Build Overview | |||
Tags: [CHAOS] [CASTER] [LIFE] [CRIT] | |||
Budget: Defenses: | Boss DPS: AoE: |
The Dark Pact is a Spell that Sacrifices a small portion of your maximum Life to dealChaos Damage in Nova around you. The Sacrificed Life is added to the Damage of the Dark Pact, so you are naturally encouraged to stack as much maximum Life as possible. TheRathpith Globe is aUnique Shield that shares the idea of Sacrificing Life, but this time it increases your Spell Damage and Critical Strike Chance based on your maximum Life. To help with that goal you will use two recently introduced Unique Items: The Apostate which grants you Life instead of Energy Shield from other equipped Items, and the Untouched Soul which grants you maximum Life based on the Empty Red Sockets in your Equipment. The Dissolution of the Flesh not only grants you up to 30% More maximum Life, it also completely changes your interaction with incoming Damage. You will now Reserve Life instead of losing it, which resets after 2 seconds of not taking any Damage. That way, you can safely Sacrifice all your Life, as only the Reserved Life matters to you.It is a quite specific playstyle, which can get annoying if you don't take care of Ailments which stops you from Unreserving Life during combat.
The additional Damage of the Dark Pact is based on the Sacrificed Life, so you should aim to recover more than you spend. Thanks to theEternal Youth Keystone you can apply your Energy Shield Recharge to your Life instead, which doesn't get interrupted by Sacrificing it, providing you a constant recovery of 33% maximum Life per second, which you can boost further. Taking Damage from other sources will stop it for a short moment. You can also include Life Leech and Life Regeneration to recover it even faster, allowing you to improve your Cast Speed for a massive DPS boost.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over hereOdealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
1. Gameplay
Use Dark Pact when enemies are near you. You will want to leave as many Empty Sockets as possible, leading to a very minimalistic Utility Setup. Use Assassin's Mark against powerful opponents, Frostblink to move around and dodge incoming Attacks, and Zealotry as your only Aura.
Odealo is a secure tradingplatform for MMO gamers. Here you can buy, sell, and tradePoE Currency for real cash.
2. Build's PROS & CONS
PROS |
|
CONS |
|
3. Leveling tips
Sacrificing your own Life during the leveling is very hard to sustain, it is recommended to use Dark Pact with Skeletons instead if you don't mind the 2-button playstyle. It will require different Passive Tree choices, as the final version relies completely on your maximum Life and its interaction with Unique Items. You can also level up as a pure Summoner which will be faster and easier, as this archetype historically is perfect for the leveling environment, especially if you can obtain the Mirror Arrow of Bombarding and its Prismatic counterpart. For more leveling tips visit ourWitch Leveling Guide using Minions in PoE.
Bandits:
Kill all Bandits to get an additional 2 Passive Tree Skill Points.
Leveling Skill Trees:
40 Points Passive Tree
Pick up nearby Life and Minion Notables.
75 Points Passive Tree
Continue improving your Minions and your maximum Life. You can take the Necromancer Ascendency, but the additional Curse from the Occultist is useful enough.
4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon
Final Skill Tree:
111 Points Final Passive Tree(doesn't include Cluster or Unique Jewels)
121 Points Path of Building (PoB) link(regular version)
121 Points Path of Building (PoB) link(Mageblood version)
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in this order:
- Void Beacon
- Withering Presence
- Profane Proxy
- Unholy Authority/Forbidden Power
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of the Brine King: You cannot be Stunned if you've been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds; 100% chance to Avoid being Frozen
Minor God: Soul of Ralakesh:25% reduced Physical Damage over Time taken while moving; Moving while Bleeding doesn't cause you to take extra Damage
5. Final Gems links
[DPS]Dark Pact setup | |
![]() | Dark Pact- Sacrifices a portion of your Life to deal Chaos Damage in the area around you. The additional Damage is based on your Current Life. |
![]() | Spell Echo Support- makes you repeat your Spells at a significantly higher rate. |
![]() | Void Manipulation Support- improves your Chaos Damage and disables Elemental Damage. The Awakened version improves your Damage further. |
![]() | Intensify Support- improves your AoE or Damage depending on the situation. |
![]() | Increased Critical Damage Support- grants tons of Critical Stike Multiplier to improve your Damage. |
![]() | Power Charge on Critical Strike Support- improves your Damage based on your Power Charges. You can also use the Cruelty Support if you can get the correct Colours on your Armour, it grants a similar amount of Damage. |
[UTILITY]Aura setup | |
![]() | Zealotry- grants you Spell Damage and Critical Stike Chance. You can also benefit from powerful Watcher's Eye modifiers while affected by this Aura. |
![]() | Eternal Blessing Support- allows you to use one Aura for free, but disables all other Auras. |
[UTILITY]Curse setup | |
![]() | Assassin's Mark- grants you a lot of Critical Strike Chance and Damage against Marked Enemies. It also generates Power Charges for you. |
[UTILITY]Movement setup | |
![]() | Frostblink- an instant teleport that leaves Chilling Ground in both locations. You can use it to dodge incoming attacks while Casting. |
On Odealo dozens of sellers compete for your attention. Buying PoE Currency here guarantees the best prices, prompt delivery, and the best quality of service.
6. Gear Setup
There are a few important interactions between your maximum Life and certain effects from Unique Items. The most important is theRathpith Globe which scales your Damage based on your maximum Life. The Apostate, Untouched Soul, Adorned, and Dissolution of the Flesh are great ways to scale your maximum Life, without them, it will be hard to reach sufficient Damage and Critical Strike Chance. The Mageblood is not mandatory, but it obviously provides insane amounts of defense via permanent Flasks, which also frees up a lot of burden from your other Gear pieces. On your Rare pieces, you will want tons of maximum Life and Energy Shield, which gets converted into even more Life via Apostate. You will also need Energy Shield Recharge Rate, Elemental and Chaos Resistance, Ailment Avoidances, and Critical Strike Multiplier. Additional Cast Speed can lower your DPS if your Recharge Rate is not sufficient enough.
Stat priorities on items:
- Maximum Life and Energy Shield
- Resistances
- Ailment Avoidance
- Energy Shield Recharge Rate
- Critical StrikeMultiplier
- Chaos Resistance
- Cast Speed
![]() | |
(150-200)% increased Spell Damage Gain (100-200) Life per Enemy Killed Gain (50-100) Mana per Enemy Killed 30% increased Area of Effect (200-250)% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells if you've Killed Recently +(60-100)% to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spells if you haven't Killed Recently | |
![]() | |
(10-15)% Chance to Block Spell Damage (120-160)% increased Energy Shield 10% increased maximum Life Sacrifice 10% of your Life when you Use or Trigger a Spell Skill 5% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells per 100 Player Maximum Life 5% increased Spell Damage per 100 Player Maximum Life | |
| |
Min. requirements: +80 to maximum Life +200 to Energy Shield 20% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate Optional affixes: Elemental Resistance Chaos Resistance % reduced Ignite Duration on you | |
![]() | |
Has no Attribute Requirements or Energy Shield (Hidden) +(30-50) to Strength +(20-30)% to all Elemental Resistances Gain Maximum Life instead of Maximum Energy Shield from Equipped Armour Items | |
![]() | |
+40 to maximum Life for each Empty Red Socket on any Equipped Item +225 to Accuracy Rating for each Empty Green Socket on any Equipped Item +40 to maximum Mana for each Empty Blue Socket on any Equipped Item +18% to all Elemental Resistances for each Empty White Socket on any Equipped Item | |
Recommended anointment: Whispers of Doom | |
![]() | |
Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life +100 to Energy Shield 20% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate 30% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: Resistance 100% chance to Avoid Bleeding (Eater + Crafting Bench) Action Speed Attributes | |
| |
Min. requirements: +80 to maximum Life +100 to Energy Shield 20% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate Optional affixes: Attributes Elemental Resistance % chance to Unnerve Enemies for 4 seconds on Hit % of Chaos Damage Leeched as Life | |
![]() | |
Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: % increased Life Attributes Chaos Resistance Flask Charges gained/used | |
![]() | |
Min. requirements: +30 to maximum Life Recommended affixes: Resistances Attributes Critical Strike Multiplier % increased Cast Speed if you've dealt a Critical Strike Recently Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you | |
![]() | |
+(25-35) to Strength +(30-50) to Dexterity +(15-25)% to Fire Resistance +(15-25)% to Cold Resistance Magic Utility Flasks cannot be Used Leftmost (2-4) Magic Utility Flasks constantly apply their Flask Effects to you Magic Utility Flask Effects cannot be removed | |
![]() | |
Min. requirements: +60 to maximum Life +50% to Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Attributes Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit % increased Cast Speed #% to Critical Strike Multiplier | |
![]() | |
Min. requirements: increased maximum Life Recommended affixes: % to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spell Damage % to GlobalCritical Strike Multiplier Elemental Resistances Attributes | |
![]() | |
Recommended modifiers: 1 Added Passive Skill is Unholy Grace 1 Added Passive Skill is Unwaveringly Evil 1 Added Passive Skill is Dark Ideation 1 Added Passive Skill is Wicked Pall | |
![]() | |
(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> Recommended Aura mods: (10-15)% increased Cast Speed while affected by Zealotry (0.8-1.2)% of Damage leeched as Life while affected by Vitality +(20-30)% to Critical Strike Multiplier while affected by Precision | |
![]() | |
(50-150)% increased Effect of Jewel Socket Passive Skills containing Corrupted Magic Jewels | |
![]() | |
Removes all Energy Shield Life that would be lost by taking Damage is instead Reserved until you take no Damage to Life for 2 seconds (20-30)% more Maximum Life | |
![]() | |
Carved to glorify (2000-10000) new faithful converted by High Templar Dominus Passives in radius are Conquered by the Templars Historic Recommended Devotion modifiers: 4% reduced Elemental Ailment Duration on you per 10 Devotion +2% to all Elemental Resistances per 10 Devotion 4% increased Area Damage per 10 Devotion | |
![]() | |
Allocated Small Passive Skills in Radius grant nothing Grants all bonuses of Unallocated Small Passive Skills in Radius | |
![]() | |
(30-15)% reduced Duration Consecrated Ground created by this Flask has Tripled Radius Consecrated Ground created during Effect applies (7-10)% increased Damage taken to Enemies (100-150)% increased Critical Strike Chance against Enemies on Consecrated Ground during Effect | |
If you use Mageblood, use a mix of Elemental and Jade Flasks with bonuses to Evasion Rating, and Immunity against Poison and Curses.
| |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Odealo is one of the biggest Path of Exile marketplaces. It allows regular players to buy, sell, and trade PoE Currency with the use of real cash
If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.
Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.