

Note: Those uniques in the pic are just skin transfers, see below for actual gear



For too long we have lived under the tyranny of dark pact berserkers, occultists, even a necromancer using totems. They all use the self-cast functionality but it's time to bring dark pact to what it was originally designed for - blowing up craptons of skeletons.



The general idea is summon skeletons -> dark pact on skeletons, with a golem and bunch of zombies tanking for you. The real highlight and funnest part of this build is using a massively buffed Vaal Summon Skeleton repeatedly from pack to pack, literally spamming the screen full of skeles repeatedly.



Meanwhile, for defenses, we have an army of minions taunting and body-blocking for us:



and 75/75% block chances with CWDT + Desecrate + Mistress of Sacrifice + Bone Offering + Rumi's Concoction + Rathpith Globe. Without a Rumi's this is still 55/60% block with a decent Rathpith. Tawm'r Isley also means that enemies are permanently blinded with the army of minions you have whacking away and you can sustain ES with the leech provided.





Changes since 3.1:

- Minion Life gem was changed from 'Increased' to 'More' life, buffing all minion life and dark pact DPS

- Using Cloak of Tawm'r Isley instead of a rare chest to get a 7th link life leech, this is only possible in 3.1 (also perma-blind is awesome)

- Skill tree slightly changed to include Ghost Reaver

- +2 vaal/+2 minion helmet replaced with a standard +2 minion helm for more ES

- Now keeping a helmet to swap out with lightning warp/faster casting/less duration/culling strike to help with big bosses

- DPS numbers updated

- Path of Building updated

- Shaper has been defeated!









Link to my current build (NecroLegendary):

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/SoLegendary/characters





Endgame Skill Tree (lvl 94)

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMDAAQHBLMHHgj0DeIOSA_EEJcRLxFQEZYVJxZvGmwbyB0UIvQkqioLKpgrCiycNj026TpYO3w8BT1fQZZEBESrRUdIjklRSbFMs1JTVUtVrlXGXEBca13yXypfamHiaPJqQ2vbbAtsjG0ZcFJ1nn0Yf8aCEIPbhEiHy4hAidOMNoyxjmSPRo-mj_qQM5MnlS6X9JuKm6GdqqEvogCio6aspyunm6yYrrO1SLb6uMq5k7zqvk--ir-XwGbDCcNtyT3MvM8Vz93QH9DQ0PXTj9fP2QvfsONq62Pr5Ov17IPvfO-I7-vwH_DV8YryHfIe96b31_k3-oD60g==?accountName=SoLegendary&characterName=NecroLegendary



A thing worth mentioning is that Minion Instability, while it looks like a good synergy, is really not worth having 1/3 of your minions' tanking HP removed for a marginal damage boost - explosions do fire damage, but we scale in only chaos.



Levelling is incredibly simple since this is a skill combo you can start pretty much as soon as you meet the level requirement at lvl28 - until then just use some generic spell + minion combos. There are also no build-enabling make-or-break uniques that are needed to get the build rolling.



The main tree can be taken in pretty much any order, just balancing out offense/defense properly. Ascendancies should be picked in this order:

1. Commander of Darkness

2. Mistress of Sacrifice

3. Beacon of Corruption

4. Spirit Eater

A thing worth mentioning is that Minion Instability, while it looks like a good synergy, is really not worth having 1/3 of your minions' tanking HP removed for a marginal damage boost - explosions do fire damage, but we scale in only chaos.Levelling is incredibly simple since this is a skill combo you can start pretty much as soon as you meet the level requirement at lvl28 - until then just use some generic spell + minion combos. There are also no build-enabling make-or-break uniques that are needed to get the build rolling.The main tree can be taken in pretty much any order, just balancing out offense/defense properly. Ascendancies should be picked in this order:1. Commander of Darkness2. Mistress of Sacrifice3. Beacon of Corruption4. Spirit Eater



Path of Building

https://pastebin.com/DnWRaxWb



Note that the high end DPS in the title (1.6mil) is with a 6-link and fully buffed with 20 stacks of wither, diamond flask and arcane surge active casting on vaal skeletons. PoB doesnt account for the fact that a skeleton-casted dark pact chains twice, so we effectively do 3x the listed DPS.



The low end DPS (530k) is with my regular skeletons, no wither or diamond flask but still with arcane surge. Skeletons are always kept up and are actually really easy to cast with decent cast speed + From Dust, so I've found arcane surge is a 100% uptime.



Note that map/act bosses and the Shaper/Guardians also have some chaos resistance at 15/25% respectively.





Pros & Cons

+ Huge DPS with great survivability

+ Long range with tanking minions = never have to deal with melee enemies

+ Can run every map mod in existence



- Framerate-murdering, especially during breaches (really needs dynamic resolution)

- Incredibly slot starved (needs two unset rings to use all gems) and no movement skills without swapping out helmet slots (which I do for Shaper/guardians)





Gameplay & Videos

Tier 16 - Pit of the Chimera (boss fight demo)

https://youtu.be/rgL--h0NAYQ



Tier 13 - Gorge (map clearing demo)

https://youtu.be/KOcNlGPKBE4



Note: Above vids show me using a 5-link and old gear at about half the DPS I now have in 3.1. Below is my latest Shaper kill (I died once, but only because of that dumb ball timing):



Tier 17 - Shaper's Realm

https://youtu.be/w2CBZM6IX_U







Gameplay is generally played at a long range while having minions to tank for you. Vaal Skeletons + wither totem should be used to take down large packs like strongboxes and shrines, as well as abysses, breaches and map bosses. Always play with lifebars above allies on so you can track which minions are dying. If your skeletons die unexpectedly, you may start darkpacting your own life. For strong bosses, your zombies may die but so far nothing has been able to kill my tank of a stone golem.

Note: Above vids show me using a 5-link and old gear at about half the DPS I now have in 3.1. Below is my latest Shaper kill (I died once, but only because of that dumb ball timing):Gameplay is generally played at a long range while having minions to tank for you. Vaal Skeletons + wither totem should be used to take down large packs like strongboxes and shrines, as well as abysses, breaches and map bosses. Always play with lifebars above allies on so you can track which minions are dying. If your skeletons die unexpectedly, you may start darkpacting your own life. For strong bosses, your zombies may die but so far nothing has been able to kill my tank of a stone golem.



Gems

Chest

Dark Pact - Added Chaos - Void Manipulation - Spell Echo - Inc. Crit. Strikes - Conc. Effect



Helmet

Raise Zombie - Vaal Summon Skeletons - Minion Life - Minion Speed



You can swap out Minion Speed for a lvl 3+ empower for slower tankier minions.



Helmet (for tough bosses)

Lightning Warp - Faster Casting - Less Duration - Culling Strike



Boots

Summon Skeleton - Spell Echo - Minion Life - Arcane Surge



Gloves

Wither - Spell Totem - Inc. Duration | Clarity



Wand

Bone Offering (lvl 10) - CWDT (lvl 4) - Inc. Duration



The CWDT for bone offering needs to be slightly higher than desecrate so that it will trigger after the corpses appear. This won't work if a single hit does too much damage though.



Shield

Enfeeble (lvl 5) - Desecrate (lvl 7) - CWDT (lvl 1)



Two Unset Rings

Summon Stone Golem | Discipline





Gear



As of 3.1, Dark Pact is treated as being a minion gem, so Cloak of Tawm'r Isley is vital to getting a 7th link leech gem. It's other massive benefit is 15% blind chance on all your minions and since you always have 8 skeles at once, bosses are often permanently blinded, effectively giving you 50% evasion all the time.



Rathpith globe combos very well with Mistress of Sacrifice + Bone Offering (54% attack block and 61% spell block total) and From Dust Jewel to let you summon 6 skeles at a time.



I prefer to use Redblade Band to help my stone golem, which has 52k HP, tank better. I use a Rumi's Concoction to reach max block, but a +armor +duration granite flask is also quite good.



Essences of Fear have armor mods for +%Minion HP so those are your best bet to scaling minion HP. Remember that minion HP = better tanking, and +damage for dark pact.



One final thing worth mentioning is that helmets can have +2 to minion gem levels, as well as +2 vaal gem levels from corruption. This gives us +4 to vaal skeletons, which is roughly +3000 HP. Recently I have replaced this with just a +2 to have more energy shield, since vaal skeles die pretty much instantly against Shaper/guardians.









Jewels





Flasks





As of 3.1, Dark Pact is treated as being a minion gem, sois vital to getting a 7th link leech gem. It's other massive benefit is 15% blind chance on all your minions and since you always have 8 skeles at once, bosses are often permanently blinded, effectively giving you 50% evasion all the time.combos very well with Mistress of Sacrifice + Bone Offering (54% attack block and 61% spell block total) and From Dust Jewel to let you summon 6 skeles at a time.I prefer to useto help my stone golem, which has 52k HP, tank better. I use a Rumi's Concoction to reach max block, but a +armor +duration granite flask is also quite good.Essences of Fear have armor mods for +%Minion HP so those are your best bet to scaling minion HP. Remember that minion HP = better tanking, and +damage for dark pact.One final thing worth mentioning is that helmets can have +2 to minion gem levels, as well as +2 vaal gem levels from corruption. This gives us +4 to vaal skeletons, which is roughly +3000 HP. Recently I have replaced this with just a +2 to have more energy shield, since vaal skeles die pretty much instantly against Shaper/guardians.



Stat Choices

Stat Priorities

Above all else: Minion HP (Minion HP scales both damage from skeletons getting dark pacted AND helps all your minions tank hits for you)

Offensive: Spell Damage/Chaos Damage - Crit Multi/Chance - Cast Speed

Defensive: HP - ES - Ele Res - Chaos Res





Bandit Quest

Help Alira for +20% crit multi, +5 mana regen, +15% to all resistances



Pantheon

Major: Soul of the Brine King (Stun & chill/freeze defenses)

Minor: Soul of Garukhan (+Evade after savage hit, +Movespeed)







Thanks everyone for reading! Stay sane, exiles

Those uniques in the pic are just skin transfers, see below for actual gearFor too long we have lived under the tyranny of dark pact berserkers, occultists, even a necromancer using totems. They all use the self-cast functionality but it's time to bring dark pact to what it was originally designed for - blowing up craptons of skeletons.The general idea is summon skeletons -> dark pact on skeletons, with a golem and bunch of zombies tanking for you. The real highlight and funnest part of this build is using a massively buffed Vaal Summon Skeleton repeatedly from pack to pack, literally spamming the screen full of skeles repeatedly.Meanwhile, for defenses, we have an army offor us:andwith CWDT + Desecrate + Mistress of Sacrifice + Bone Offering + Rumi's Concoction + Rathpith Globe. Without a Rumi's this is still 55/60% block with a decent Rathpith. Tawm'r Isley also means that enemies arewith the army of minions you have whacking away and you canprovided.- Minion Life gem was changed from 'Increased' to 'More' life, buffing all minion life and dark pact DPS- Using Cloak of Tawm'r Isley instead of a rare chest to get a 7th link life leech, this is only possible in 3.1 (also perma-blind is awesome)- Skill tree slightly changed to include Ghost Reaver- +2 vaal/+2 minion helmet replaced with a standard +2 minion helm for more ES- Now keeping a helmet to swap out with lightning warp/faster casting/less duration/culling strike to help with big bosses- DPS numbers updated- Path of Building updated- Shaper has been defeated!https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/SoLegendary/characters Last edited by SoLegendary on Jan 3, 2018, 12:37:22 AM Last bumped on Feb 7, 2018, 7:05:50 PM