[3.17] Dark Pact Slayer (Self cast / Budget / Life Leech Tank)
 Hello, This is my first character for the Archnemesis league. It is a self cast dark pact slayer and originally I developed the build with my guildmates back in 2017 and recently two major changes recently made me favor it over all other starter builds. Firstly, as shown below Dark Pact got a huge buff to self casting using life  Secondly, the eater of worlds modifier on gloves. In the past a lot of people would just use Warlords mark curse to get life leech with chaos damage but that was nerfed a long time ago. Since then you could only get around 0.2-0.4% chaos damage leeched as life on rings or amulet which was very restrictive. *UPDATE* This upgrade appeared initially to be 4% but ggg changed it in recent hotfix, grand EOW implicit is now 0.4% which is ok but not yet sure if its enough overall, need to test more (it is noticeable that it was changed for sure). Pro: - Tanky, does reach up to around 8-9k hp / 50k armour by lvl 92 (88000+ effective hit pool on POB) - Decent clear speed in maps but can fair better at indoor areas - Can beat Guardians/Burning Exarch/Eater of Worlds with under 200c worth of gear Con: - *Maps* Do not run no leech or less life recovery mods. These can be risky/lethal. - DPS on a 5L is around 200-300k dps on end game bosses with 15 wither stacks from totems. That being said every boss i've fought has been taken down just don't expect it to facemelt anything. DPS gains become expensive late game (6L chest or 2h staff + Kaom's chest, watcher's eye, ect...) - Originally this was used in Hardcore but I would advise against it, although it dies much less than other characters I have it is not deathproof. Other: - This build was developed back in 2017 when dark pact self cast berserker was reaching popularity. Even back then using Slayer was obscure so these days it is beyond hipster most likely XD. That being said you will very likely not see other people using similar build on poe.ninja - My current setup uses Vaal Pact... another node on the tree most people do not take these days. I origionally was using regular life regen but I found that it was never contributing as much as the life leech effects and it was annoying to not be able to run maps with no regen mod so I eventually switched over. Level 92 Gear and PoB: https://pastebin.com/WMichBY3
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Character sheet defenses:
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Defensive Stats: Standing in hideout, no flasks, 5L chest  Life Leech: Standing in hideout, no flasks, 5L chest  Benefits of Slayer:
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*Note* Some ascendancy points have bonuses that do not benefit casters unfortunately. As a whole it works well enough though. -Bane of Legends: 10% more Damage if you've Killed Recently, Cannot take Reflected Physical Damage, 20% more Damage with Hits and Ailments against Unique Enemies -Brutal Fervour: 100% increased Maximum Recovery per Life Leech, Life Leech effects are not removed at Full Life, 10% reduced Damage taken while Leeching -Endless Hunger: 20% of Overkill Damage is Leeched as Life, 20% increased Attack Speed while Leeching, Cannot be Stunned while Leeching, You are Unaffected by Bleeding while Leeching -Headsman: Kill Enemies that have 20% or lower Life when Hit by your Skills, Gain 10% increased Attack Speed for 20 seconds when you Kill a Rare or Unique Enemy, Gain 10% increased Movement Speed for 20 seconds when you Kill an Enemy  Frequently asked questions:
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Can you farm Uber Lab with this build? Yes, quite safely. Can you farm tier 15-16 maps? Yep, all the bosses are relatively easy they just take a bit of time. As far as doing juiced up Tier 16 maps I assume probably not (if its super juiced most builds wont be able to handle it either unless they are using a +50ex character) Can you farm the tier 16 elder/shaper guardians? I have fought most of the guardians this league and was able to beat them with generic map mods. That being said I was unable to beat them with Maven buff though (regenerate to quickly, might require some additional side skills to deal with the issue) What about Maven/Burning Exarch/Eater of Worlds? Was able to beat Burning Exarch and Eater of Worlds, still had a few deaths on each since I didn't watch the fights prior to the attempts. Have not yet tried Maven this league nor Shaper/Elder/Sirus. Videos
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****************Disclaimer***************** Just one video for now, might add more later... ******************************************* Sirus fight Bandit's
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Generally you want to kill all bandit, the 2 extra nodes on tree are worth it. Gem Setups:
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5L setup: For 6th slot would probably go awakened added chaos damage Wither totem setup: Curse setup: Main Armour Generators: Dash links: Cast on damage taken: Pantheon
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Major god you will want is Soul of Arakaali 10% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time Capture Arachnoxia Toxic Sewer Map 20% increased Recovery rate of Life and Energy Shield if you've stopped taking Damage Over Time Recently Capture Queen of the Great Tangle Jungle Valley Map Debuffs on you expire 20% faster Capture Murgeth Bogsong Stagnation Map +40% Chaos Resistance against Damage Over Time *More increased life recovery rate is the best option but its players choice* Minor god is going to be Soul of Garukhan 60% reduced Effect of Shock on you Capture Stalker of the Endless Dunes Dig Map Cannot be Blinded You cannot be Maimed *Reasoning behind Garukhan is that if you get this plus the defensive nodes on tree for reduced effect of shock on you its over 100% total reduced effect and you wont need shock immunity on flask* Current Gear lvl 95 Feb 21,2022:
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Path of Building: https://pastebin.com/BmpHgjJb Also got Sirus down this evening, was easy up until last phase and then you are very limited in uptime for damage. Best time for damage is during that ball throwing phase just toss your totems behind Sirus and face tank the orbs to get in more damage. The 20% culling strike was nice to have for this XD, had one death during fight to running out of flask charges.  Last edited by Tome_of_exp#3867 on Mar 4, 2022, 8:00:39 AM Last bumped on Jun 10, 2022, 7:36:34 PM
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*Reserved*
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would love to see a video of this build in action.
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Currently don't have access to my desktop for another week or so (I work away from the city) but ya I could probably do some videos of tier 16 bosses or some of the end game bosses at a later date. At the moment i'm just farming currency via lvl 83 heist contracts / grand heist's til I get a chance to have some free time at home.
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So recently did quite a few changes yesterday, got a 6L so using lvl 5 awakened added chaos damage in links as well as changed up all my jewels for more spell damage. Hp decreased down to 8400 but effective hp is still ~88000 with 585k dps with 15 wither stacks on guardian/shaper tier boss. Currently running grand heists for currency/exp, gear updates and pob have been added to bottom of page.
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Made a bunch of changes recently, got to lvl 95 and here is most recent gear changes.
Couple of notes: -Initially was trying the unique boots out just to see what it does. They are alright but replaceable, just not sure what to pick up just yet. -Needed more chaos damage leeched as life after the EOW glove nerf by ggg, got an amulet with another 0.5% and it seems reasonable now -Getting pretty close to around the top level of gear I want to invest in (about 10ex atm), upgrades such as double corrupt chest would definitely increase the damage overall but i'm fairly happy with current progress at this gear level Also got Sirus down this evening, was easy up until last phase and then you are very limited in uptime for damage. Best time for damage is during that ball throwing phase just toss your totems behind Sirus and face tank the orbs to get in more damage. The 20% culling strike was nice to have for this XD, had one death during fight to running out of flask charges. Last edited by Tome_of_exp#3867 on Feb 21, 2022, 10:25:16 PM
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Took some time to try out omniscience build with Shadow and Ranger, its pretty fun even if it seems to do alot of damage the build was super squishy even after 20ex investment.... probably just going to keep buffing this build for a few weeks to see what I can max out at for dps/effective hp.
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Picked up a bunch of new items, I would say other than a +2 aoe chest (which is around 25-30ex right now due to poisonous concoction overlap) its pretty much what you would want to achieve. Would probably need some suggestions from others to improve this more as i've run short on ideas XD. Tried Maven a few times recently as well, its kinda of a slow fight but very few attacks she does are lethal it just requires patience. Last phase is biggest problem though, if you are not skilled with doing the memory game and dodging the beams it probably wont be doable... but its nice that most of the damage Maven does during this time is negligible.
Also going to upload a Sirus run that I did recently, it was reasonably smooth but I did die once to ground degen (felt it was realistic example rather than only posting a perfect run). Feel like the video highlights relatively how tanky it gets, probably didn't need to dodge as much as I did as the die beams really don't do anything.... never tried tanking the meteor probably should have though :P Last edited by Tome_of_exp#3867 on Mar 4, 2022, 8:02:18 AM
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Using same skill this league, so far really good!
Just LvL 88,CHAMPION, a lot of gear to upgrade, having fun ! https://pastebin.com/j3VUGkap |
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When did/do you cutover to DP from your levelling skill ?
I could see that DP could be hard to manage without leech. Level 48 for the first rings with it on (https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Sentinel/YaWzbCY) and gloves are level 60 (https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Sentinel/3m2XbGJS5) X |
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