[3.5] Soul Mantle Dark Pact Totems - League Starter - All Content

Loving the build so far. It's quick and tanky, but I have a couple of questions:

1. Managed to get 150% ICE Golem efficiency in the eternal labyrinth. I know we run Lightning Golem for the increased attack/cast speed - but ice golem has increased crit chance. Would it be any idea to use the Ice golem instead given this enchant? I'm not really a fan of running the labyrinth, especially for helmet enchants, so it would be nice to know your opinion on this - otherwise I'll keep going as I got the boot enchant on my first try. =)

2. How do you calculate MoM life vs. mana? I have currently 5200 hp, 800 ES and around 800 free mana after using both Haste and an almost maxed out Clarity. I didn't think the extra mana without using Clarity made that much of a difference, and I really like the way Clarity bounces your mana back that much quicker - in cases of consecutive hits. I watched your video on killing Shaper and you had around my level of unreserved mana in that fight as well, so I thought this was cool - but I don't really understand how you should calculate this. When running MoM, I really HATE it when I take consecutive damage and can't get enough mana to summon a totem to kill the source of the damage...

"

Bizze79 wrote:

Loving the build so far. It's quick and tanky, but I have a couple of questions:

1. Managed to get 150% ICE Golem efficiency in the eternal labyrinth. I know we run Lightning Golem for the increased attack/cast speed - but ice golem has increased crit chance. Would it be any idea to use the Ice golem instead given this enchant? I'm not really a fan of running the labyrinth, especially for helmet enchants, so it would be nice to know your opinion on this - otherwise I'll keep going as I got the boot enchant on my first try. =)

2. How do you calculate MoM life vs. mana? I have currently 5200 hp, 800 ES and around 800 free mana after using both Haste and an almost maxed out Clarity. I didn't think the extra mana without using Clarity made that much of a difference, and I really like the way Clarity bounces your mana back that much quicker - in cases of consecutive hits. I watched your video on killing Shaper and you had around my level of unreserved mana in that fight as well, so I thought this was cool - but I don't really understand how you should calculate this. When running MoM, I really HATE it when I take consecutive damage and can't get enough mana to summon a totem to kill the source of the damage...

30% of the damage taken goes to your mana, which means that the remaining 70% goes to your life.

You will run out of mana after taking 800 / 0.3 = 2666 damage. You will have lost 2666 * 0.7 = 1866 life at that point and have 3333 life left. Without mana, the remaining damage will go directly to your life.

This adds up to 2666 (damage to life/mana) + 3333 (damage to rem. life) + 800 (ES) = 6.8k effective life with MoM.

Ideally, your available mana to life ratio should be at least 3:7 so that you run don't run out of mana before you run out of life. You would have to nearly triple your currently available mana to reach that. This is why you should turn off Haste in situations where you need more defenses.

"

BattleLeader wrote:

When using a dual Void Battery setup, would you use Lightning Warp as movement skill?

Yeah, Lightning Warp linked to Swift Affliction, Less Duration and maybe Faster Casting. The helmet enchant is also really nice.

"

atarekaze wrote:

Im trying to use this build. However, my game shows me having just an 8.82% crit chance.
Fair enough I say, considering I havent allocated anything, nor do I have the gear for it(I'm OP for A7 anyway).

HOWEVER....when I do go into PoB and add the nodes Arcane Potency and Shamans Domain, nothing happens. The crit chance does not change. Why is this? Did I do something wrong?

That's probably because of Controlled Destruction. It decreases your crit chance so you need a bit more crit for it to break even. It's worth it though.

"

Bizze79 wrote:

1. Managed to get 150% ICE Golem efficiency in the eternal labyrinth. I know we run Lightning Golem for the increased attack/cast speed - but ice golem has increased crit chance. Would it be any idea to use the Ice golem instead given this enchant? I'm not really a fan of running the labyrinth, especially for helmet enchants, so it would be nice to know your opinion on this - otherwise I'll keep going as I got the boot enchant on my first try. =)

2. How do you calculate MoM life vs. mana? I have currently 5200 hp, 800 ES and around 800 free mana after using both Haste and an almost maxed out Clarity. I didn't think the extra mana without using Clarity made that much of a difference, and I really like the way Clarity bounces your mana back that much quicker - in cases of consecutive hits. I watched your video on killing Shaper and you had around my level of unreserved mana in that fight as well, so I thought this was cool - but I don't really understand how you should calculate this. When running MoM, I really HATE it when I take consecutive damage and can't get enough mana to summon a totem to kill the source of the damage...

1. Ice golem doesn't fit the build really well; it's best used for crit attack builds. Howeever, the enchantment should make it better, or at least put it on par, with the Lightning Golem (Depending on your gear, so only PoB can tell).
Contrary to boots, getting the correct helmet enchantment is extremely unlikely, so I'd rather recommend just buying a helmet.

2. Ideally your mana should be 43% of your life, anything higher means you'll lose your hp before the rest of your mana can protect you.
I wasn't using MoM in my video, that's why I had Haste active. I think it's a bad idea to use Haste with MoM unless you can live with it, but it's the best option for an offensive aura.
I'm editing that part because I saw a lot of people using both auras (and my video might cause more confusion).

Having tried both the dark pact and the bladefall build, I recommend for leveling the bladefall one. Don't equip the soul mantle too early, you will not enjoy it.

Firstly the range is limited, even with increased aoe, and you will not like getting cursed over and over again, especially when you try to run and avoid getting hit, while at the same time the soul mantle gives you temporal chains.

Secondly you sacrifice a lot of resistances,life and decent starter gear with the 2 rings and the soul mantle. Even at lvl 60 there was simply no place where I thought that I just had to have this over bladefall.

Now I'm not saying that this is bad in any way, I'm putting for now my soul mantle on hold for later on in maps, but for now, I simply see no need to equip it this early on, there are no real advantages to it if you want to lvl up fast and get to the mapping faster. Limited range means you have to summon more and more totems in more and more places, and the constant curses will feel painful at times, even with the 2 kikazaru, it's no fun getting a temporal chains curse in the lab just as you try to outrun those sawblades.

I'm writing this for people who think of getting the soul mantle but don't really have the currency for it now, don't panic, you can easily lvl without the need for it, put the gems in some secondary gear so that they do level, but otherwise just use somehting else till you get the currency for a 5l or 6l soul mantle, and be sure you already have some other decent gear, as the 2 rings and the armor will put quite a dent in your resists+life.

Yeah, I also leveled using Bladefall, and when the dexterity requirements got too steep, I swapped over to Glacial Cascade. I don't see a reason to use Dark Pact before you complete the final lab and start the shadow nodes for improved chaos damage - then the difference really starts to show. I also used Ele Res aura after act 10 to circumvent the resistance issues resulting from forgoing 2 ring slots and chest slot.

I just started doing guardians, was able to squeeze a phoenix kill fairly easily but all the only ones are kind of hard. I'm sure I can do it without a rare corrupted version of the map but I would like the atlas completion. What would you recommend upgrades for my items being? I would link my gear but I don't know how.

Edit: Besides the 6 link armor, RNG hates me and im still working on that.

Would it work ok to have both characters playing this build in a party of two?

"

hsiegfried44 wrote:

I just started doing guardians, was able to squeeze a phoenix kill fairly easily but all the only ones are kind of hard. I'm sure I can do it without a rare corrupted version of the map but I would like the atlas completion. What would you recommend upgrades for my items being? I would link my gear but I don't know how.

Edit: Besides the 6 link armor, RNG hates me and im still working on that.

I'd try swapping the second instan life flask for a "normal" one, that should help in longer fights.
Some other easy upgrades:
•Get a rare dagger with attack speed, a decent one should cost about 15c right now. This can help a lot because you need to be fast in guardian fights.
•Get a better shield.
•Try to get your boots enchanted (or buy enchanted ones).
•Get a better Self-Flagellation.
•You have an unsocketed Jewel. Put something in there or rush Assassination at the shadow start (It's extremely good).
•Add fortify to your Shield Charge, also try out Whirling Blades because it's better for dodging IMO.

From my experience the Guardians' difficulty order should be: Hydra > Phoenix > Minotaur > Chimera.
Since you already killed Phoenix, Minotaur and Chimera shouldn't be a problem if you know the mechanics (my videos can help with that).
Some mods also make the fights really difficult, so you still want to roll easy maps.

"

0sync0 wrote:

Would it work ok to have both characters playing this build in a party of two?

Sure, you benefit from each others' Wither and can also share Power Charges if one of you generates them.

nvm now I understand.
this build looks cool!

hello I'm following your build and I'm at level 85. I had a great time up to when doing map from tier 10 up I can not do enough dps to bosses. Could you take a look at my profile to figure out what's wrong? Sorry for the english I'm using google translator