[3.5] Soul Mantle Dark Pact Totems - League Starter - All Content
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Leontje wrote:
Hey, I had a question for you SHEPUUURD.
Is it possible to run Wither with arcane surge - despair and cast when channeling instead ?
You can, but it'll be worse than only Wither because despair is only worth 1-2 stacks on targets where you actually need the damage.
If you get a new Shaped/Elder or Abyss item that gives you an extra link, for example Kalisa's Grace (maybe corrupted with Cast while Channeling), then it's probably a good idea.
Builds and Guides:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2198879
Just wanted to say that i melted Kitava a10 right now, leveling was smooth af! My rares are self found and really really crap (-9% cold e.g.) but this was no problem. thank you for the guide!
Focusing on farming cause i have just 5c budget lol
I used this build as my league starter and it was awesome. The start with firestorm and flameblast is okay, but once you hit 49 and are able to afford the soul mantle and two rings the damage just melts everything.
I'm currently 85 and "decent" equiped.
gear
The next damage boost might come for me with fliped gems and a 6-link.
Im currently thinking about the helm enchantment, maybe you guys can give me some feedback on this. 12% cast speed is quite good at the moment. I can see some rogue exiles being some kind of damage knockback locked when the pulse frequency of the totems is at its max. I'm unsure if the 40% damage enchant might provide more DPS down the line.
In addition I feel quite squishy at the moment. I'm hesitating to spend skill points on the life cluster near shaper and waiting for uber lab to finally grant me access to the shadow part of the tree. Yes, more life on the items would be better, but the availability is quite low right now and therefore the prices are high. Kaoms are no option for me, i need the speed.
First and foremost, big thank you to Shepuuurd for this build guide. It is very well written and prepared and was extremely useful for me and others, as the popularity of this topic clearly indicate.
Below please find my quick overview of the build for all of you who still wonder whether to give this one a shot. Please note that this is written from a perspective of a semi-casual player, having max. 3hrs per day for PoE (and usually less than than), so YMMV.
TLDR: You definitely should try this build. It is an amazing budget build, one of the best league starters and appears to have quite high ceiling (which means you can invest in it and run Shaper down, for example).
Main pros of the build:
1) Fairly good leveling. Not sunder-like levels of easiness, but good enough to not give you suicidal thoughts before transitioning to final build / endgame. You level with totems (firestorm, later flameblast), which is good, as they need basically no gear to do their work. Keep in mind that leveling with totems may not be the fastest way, but it is certainly quite safe and chillin’. Drop the totem, run further / away from the danger, rinse and repeat. I’ve done leveling with only self-found gear and it was a cakewalk.
2) You transition to the main build quite early, as the core uniques for your build can be used as soon as you hit lvl 49 (Soul Mantle + 2 x Kikazaru). Apart from that, the whole transition in easy and does not require you to spend a ton of regret points / use totally different skill gems and equipment. For me, this is a big plus. As soon as you get your hands on the Soul Mantle + Kikazaru’s combo, you will feel EXTREMELY powerful. And I mean seriously, I still cannot wrap my head around why these items are so cheap. Which brings me to the next point…
3) The baseline of the build is VERY, VERY cheap. 4L Soul Mantle + Kikazarus is a couple of chaos total, even at the beginning of the league. I have bought mine for like 3c for Soul Mantle (4L already) and 1c per Kikazaru, and it was during the first week of the league (on 3rd day if I remember correctly). Then, at lvl 62 you can buy 2x Apep’s Rage for 1c each and you’re golden. I’ve bought the remaining parts of my equipment for 1c each (gloves, boots, helmet with res and life), looted the belt and amu. What I am saying is – you can easily get this build up and running – AND SMASHING LOW-MID TIER MAPS LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW – with 10c total investment. Amazing league starter, 6/9 would do it again.
4) It can do all labs by itself. I am still waiting for all my uber trials to check how it fares in the Uber Lab, but I cannot see how it can have any issues. Normal / cruel / merci labs were a joke.
5) It is quite tanky with MoM, innate defensiveness of the totem mechanics and all the life nodes in the tree. However, for reaching the final levels of end-game (T11+), a shield + dagger combo appears to be necessary (maybe with Apeps on a switch for bosses?). That said, if you are a SC-scrub like me, you can get a lot of mileage from simply playing smart and avoiding danger, as you have plenty of time for reacting to all of this when playing a totem build.
6) Curse immunity is a bless. No need to worry about overcapping resistances to much (which is a little bit of a hassle, given the fact that 3 pieces of your gear are set in stone and only Kikazaru provides lightning res), as Elemental Weakness CANT TOUCH THIS (hammertime!). As cannot Temp Chains. God, I hate Temp Chains on maps…
7) It does not feel as clunky as other totem builds. Do not get me wrong – it is still a totem build, so no crazy map clear speed, but the AOE / coverage is decent, as is your mobility. It excels at boss-killing, especially if you use vaal skellies + minion life setup, which I wholeheartedly recommend. In general, it is a good all-around build, which seems to be capable on tackling even the higher end content on a low budget.
Main con of the build:
1) Dark Pact visuals and sounds. I did not see that coming, as the YT videos do not really show that, but hoooooooly shieeeet these black, stroboscope-like explosions are giving me headaches. WUB WUB WUB WUB. And I have played flicker strike before. Still, this dark pact shit can be annoying, to say the least, in particular when the visuals are impeding your ability to see relevant things, like that fcking abyss rare monster that wants to rip your heart away from your chest. Moreover, if your computer is a potato, expect to get huge fps spikes when your totems start doing their thing with tons of monsters / other visual effects around.
All in all, this is an excellent build and I am having a blast playing it. If you are wondering whether you should try it – wait no more. DO IT! DON’T LET YOUR DREAMS BE MEMES!
Last edited by swdr#0123 on Dec 14, 2017, 8:22:40 AM
I used this build as my league starter and it was awesome. The start with firestorm and flameblast is okay, but once you hit 49 and are able to afford the soul mantle and two rings the damage just melts everything.
I'm currently 85 and "decent" equiped.
gear
The next damage boost might come for me with fliped gems and a 6-link.
Im currently thinking about the helm enchantment, maybe you guys can give me some feedback on this. 12% cast speed is quite good at the moment. I can see some rogue exiles being some kind of damage knockback locked when the pulse frequency of the totems is at its max. I'm unsure if the 40% damage enchant might provide more DPS down the line.
In addition I feel quite squishy at the moment. I'm hesitating to spend skill points on the life cluster near shaper and waiting for uber lab to finally grant me access to the shadow part of the tree. Yes, more life on the items would be better, but the availability is quite low right now and therefore the prices are high. Kaoms are no option for me, i need the speed.
The enchants are about equal in power, so any is fine. They are only there as an endgame upgrade, and you should prioritise your gear baseline before that (see gearing section/priorities).
What's important right now is that you get your resists to 75% and more life - both on gear and the tree.
The Assassin start is really, really strong, but you only have around 100% inc. life right now; you need more.
You have most of the jewel sockets, but your Jewels are very bad, so you should either get better ones or respec the points (You can also get resists on jewels).
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thyriel wrote:
As you didn't even mentioned it in the alternatives, how about Chieftain Ascendancy ?
For Scion's chieftain, you get like 3-4% DPS and 125 regen, which is really bad.
On Marauder's chieftain you could get leech (which you can also get with a Trolltimber Spire), endurance charges, regen or taunt - and pretty much no damage.
You could play it on Marauder but even then I think there are a lot better choices (Champion is almost straight up better).
"
swdr wrote:
Spoiler
Hi all.
First and foremost, big thank you to Shepuuurd for this build guide. It is very well written and prepared and was extremely useful for me and others, as the popularity of this topic clearly indicate.
Below please find my quick overview of the build for all of you who still wonder whether to give this one a shot. Please note that this is written from a perspective of a semi-casual player, having max. 3hrs per day for PoE (and usually less than than), so YMMV.
TLDR: You definitely should try this build. It is an amazing budget build, one of the best league starters and appears to have quite high ceiling (which means you can invest in it and run Shaper down, for example).
Main pros of the build:
1) Fairly good leveling. Not sunder-like levels of easiness, but good enough to not give you suicidal thoughts before transitioning to final build / endgame. You level with totems (firestorm, later flameblast), which is good, as they need basically no gear to do their work. Keep in mind that leveling with totems may not be the fastest way, but it is certainly quite safe and chillin’. Drop the totem, run further / away from the danger, rinse and repeat. I’ve done leveling with only self-found gear and it was a cakewalk.
2) You transition to the main build quite early, as the core uniques for your build can be used as soon as you hit lvl 49 (Soul Mantle + 2 x Kikazaru). Apart from that, the whole transition in easy and does not require you to spend a ton of regret points / use totally different skill gems and equipment. For me, this is a big plus. As soon as you get your hands on the Soul Mantle + Kikazaru’s combo, you will feel EXTREMELY powerful. And I mean seriously, I still cannot wrap my head around why these items are so cheap. Which brings me to the next point…
3) The baseline of the build is VERY, VERY cheap. 4L Soul Mantle + Kikazarus is a couple of chaos total, even at the beginning of the league. I have bought mine for like 3c for Soul Mantle (4L already) and 1c per Kikazaru, and it was during the first week of the league (on 3rd day if I remember correctly). Then, at lvl 62 you can buy 2x Apep’s Rage for 1c each and you’re golden. I’ve bought the remaining parts of my equipment for 1c each (gloves, boots, helmet with res and life), looted the belt and amu. What I am saying is – you can easily get this build up and running – AND SMASHING LOW-MID TIER MAPS LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW – with 10c total investment. Amazing league starter, 6/9 would do it again.
4) It can do all labs by itself. I am still waiting for all my uber trials to check how it fares in the Uber Lab, but I cannot see how it can have any issues. Normal / cruel / merci labs were a joke.
5) It is quite tanky with MoM, innate defensiveness of the totem mechanics and all the life nodes in the tree. However, for reaching the final levels of end-game (T11+), a shield + dagger combo appears to be necessary (maybe with Apeps on a switch for bosses?). That said, if you are a SC-scrub like me, you can get a lot of mileage from simply playing smart and avoiding danger, as you have plenty of time for reacting to all of this when playing a totem build.
6) Curse immunity is a bless. No need to worry about overcapping resistances to much (which is a little bit of a hassle, given the fact that 3 pieces of your gear are set in stone and only Kikazaru provides lightning res), as Elemental Weakness CANT TOUCH THIS (hammertime!). As cannot Temp Chains. God, I hate Temp Chains on maps…
7) It does not feel as clunky as other totem builds. Do not get me wrong – it is still a totem build, so no crazy map clear speed, but the AOE / coverage is decent, as is your mobility. It excels at boss-killing, especially if you use vaal skellies + minion life setup, which I wholeheartedly recommend. In general, it is a good all-around build, which seems to be capable on tackling even the higher end content on a low budget.
Main con of the build:
1) Dark Pact visuals and sounds. I did not see that coming, as the YT videos do not really show that, but hoooooooly shieeeet these black, stroboscope-like explosions are giving me headaches. WUB WUB WUB WUB. And I have played flicker strike before. Still, this dark pact shit can be annoying, to say the least, in particular when the visuals are impeding your ability to see relevant things, like that fcking abyss rare monster that wants to rip your heart away from your chest. Moreover, if your computer is a potato, expect to get huge fps spikes when your totems start doing their thing with tons of monsters / other visual effects around.
All in all, this is an excellent build and I am having a blast playing it. If you are wondering whether you should try it – wait no more. DO IT! DON’T LET YOUR DREAMS BE MEMES!
Realy nice review, if there are more like this coming I'll probably put it in the guide.
Builds and Guides:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2198879
Hey thanks for the guide! I will give it a shot since I'm not satisfied with my first league starter build.
Just one question, the link in the leveling walkthrough section does not show what to pick up first and so on? Or am i just blind?
There's only one way you can go in the skilltree. Just take everything as you pass by it (or rush Ancestral Bond if you want to).
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diabloxxx400 wrote:
OK you got my attention on this build, last league did build of the week DP totems and did liked it a lot, now its time for crit version and yours was approved by lifting :) now question about ascendance's Assasin is ok i see points of it, but about Templar, iam not going to be partying at all, more like solo but not selffound, and that 20% curse effect don't bothers that much that is still active after its gets reduced by rings, so i want to go full DMG on this one so maybe Herophant would be option? And other thing does these dmg items that is on list is only ones that can push this build to maximum damage output?
Hierophant (instead of Guardian) is your best bet for realistic DPS, the Wither totem and Power Charges help a lot.
These would be your BiS items:
You want to replace your Wither setup with:
Spell Totem - Wither - Fater Casting - Increased Duration
And your Whirling Blades/Shield charge with:
Flame Dash - Faster Casting/Increased Duration - Arcane Surge
This is a Power Charge skill tree (you should only use this if you have the items): http://poeurl.com/bFKQ
If you think this still doesn't deal enough damage (it should), then you can drop MoM and get more damage nodes on the skill tree, but you'll lose a lot of effective HP.
Have you looked at the new shimmeron dagger? If we dont use PCoC, it doesnt proc on us. Im not sure if damage is similar to void battery or not, I have 2x battery and I feel like 7x power charges is superior, however, the tooltip dps with shimmeron is higher, slightly.
We also gain 20% spell block with 5 power charges, could be decent.
Last edited by JSquiggle#0874 on Dec 14, 2017, 9:51:40 AM
Hey thanks for the guide! I will give it a shot since I'm not satisfied with my first league starter build.
Just one question, the link in the leveling walkthrough section does not show what to pick up first and so on? Or am i just blind?
There's only one way you can go in the skilltree. Just take everything as you pass by it (or rush Ancestral Bond if you want to).
"
diabloxxx400 wrote:
OK you got my attention on this build, last league did build of the week DP totems and did liked it a lot, now its time for crit version and yours was approved by lifting :) now question about ascendance's Assasin is ok i see points of it, but about Templar, iam not going to be partying at all, more like solo but not selffound, and that 20% curse effect don't bothers that much that is still active after its gets reduced by rings, so i want to go full DMG on this one so maybe Herophant would be option? And other thing does these dmg items that is on list is only ones that can push this build to maximum damage output?
Hierophant (instead of Guardian) is your best bet for realistic DPS, the Wither totem and Power Charges help a lot.
These would be your BiS items:
You want to replace your Wither setup with:
Spell Totem - Wither - Fater Casting - Increased Duration
And your Whirling Blades/Shield charge with:
Flame Dash - Faster Casting/Increased Duration - Arcane Surge
This is a Power Charge skill tree (you should only use this if you have the items): http://poeurl.com/bFKQ
If you think this still doesn't deal enough damage (it should), then you can drop MoM and get more damage nodes on the skill tree, but you'll lose a lot of effective HP.
Have you looked at the new shimmeron dagger? If we dont use PCoC, it doesnt proc on us. Im not sure if damage is similar to void battery or not, I have 2x battery and I feel like 7x power charges is superior, however, the tooltip dps with shimmeron is higher, slightly.
We also gain 20% spell block with 5 power charges, could be decent.
Just did a few checks with it in PoB, the damage isn't quite as high as Void Battery in most situations, but really damn close.
For it's price, it is an amazing weapon if you're using Power Charges.
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Xetremer wrote:
Will using a 4link soulmantle still be okay for this build? am broke
Sure, even a 3-link Soul Mantle does more damage than a Tabula, but you should upgrade if you want to do higher content.
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BattleLeader wrote:
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SHEPUUURD wrote:
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Potemnik wrote:
Will any of the new unique items suits to this build?
There's a lot of new stuff that fits the build, like Kalisa's Grace or Impresence. I'll update later in the league when every item is known.
How would you use the Kalisa's Grace in this build, if I may ask?
They add a 5th link that you can use for the Wither setup and what's more important - they're very cheap.
If you get a CwC corruption on them you can get a 6-link.
Possible setups could be:
They also have life which makes them not horrible. I can't think of any good way to make use of the crit part (because we have MoM), but it's also nice to have.
Builds and Guides:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2198879
Last edited by SHEPUUURD#7714 on Dec 14, 2017, 12:38:48 PM
