[3.16 updated] BRO, DO YOU EVEN SUMMON? Life/ES Dark Pact Skeleton Caster League Starter

Why didn't you bother to get Corruption?
Why are you using two skills on a single Spell Totem?

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DestroyPoE wrote:

Why didn't you bother to get Corruption?

Point for point you will get more damage not to mention life from pathing to jewel sockets

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DestroyPoE wrote:

Why are you using two skills on a single Spell Totem?

Which two skills do you see supported by spell totem?

Also crafted some gear upgrades, thanks @picodaguy for pointing out that an i86 helmet was needed.

awesome build i try on Abyss leauge is very powerful skill and easy & cheap to play

but my life is lower then you coz of base lvl and jewel left just grinding

my gear is :

I have a load of questions for you.

So is this suppose to be HP primary Witch build?
Why do you not get Grave Intentions (Extra Skellybro and Minion life)?
How do you manage to switch between weapon and sec weapon so fast and do you do that in boss battles?
What is your max Powercharge count?
Why do you have Devouring Totem and Wither Linked to Spell Totem?
Do you use any Offering? I have been using Spirit Totem, is it better the Blood Offering via BloodBond?
Do you still use Vaal Summon Skellybros?
Why do you use Warlords Mark and Abyssal Cry? Abyssal Cry seems a waste of time.
Why the heck would you ever use Gloomfang?
Have you considered using Decay attached to D.P?
What do you think of Wither Spell Totem + Inc AoE + Faster Casting?
What do you think of Summon Skellybro + Spell Echo + Minion Life + Chance to Status Affect?

Sorry for all the questions.

Hey, thanks for your questions.

1. This build works as Assasin also and it has even higher dps potential then but Witch is a better option for a starter on a new league.
2. Grave Intentions is a waste since it doesn't provide hp to our skeletons and we don't need +1 more skelly. However, 2 previous nodes are ok but only if you decide to lvl up to 95+.
3. I'm pressing X. I do that during certain bosses like Shaper for example when I'm into Zana's bubble and my charges are about to expire.
4. 9
5. To save a space. Devouring Totem takes the same benefits from support gems as Wither Totem. WT doesn't need both faster casting + inc duration gems to reach maximum of 15 stacks with this build.
6. Any offerings are waste since they provide no useful bonuses for us and moreover they sacrifice our life, remove corpses useful for bodyswap / devouring totem and take out gem and hotkey slots.
7. I don't. Normal skellies are way more reliable since they don't require vaal souls.
8. Warlord's Mark is for mana sustain and life leech. Abyssal Cry is for maintaining power charges and also for additional layer of defense against porcupines. It saved me dozens of times from dying to their spikes on high rippy maps.
9. +1 chain. Gloomfang increases my dps from 4.5m (with a rare crit multi amulet) to 5.3m.
10. No. Decay dps bonus is almost unnoticable.
11. Inc AoE wouldn't give us any benefits since the area doesn't matter when it's targetet directly on a boss.
12. We need gems linked to Summon Skeletons to provide some bonuses increasing our Dark Pact damage. Minion Life and Empower are doing it by increasing life of our skeletons, Arcane Surge increases our damage and cast speed when we spend mana on casting skellies. Any Chance to Status would be a waste since one need a significant and constant damage to get the benefit from them. Spell Echo would be ok if you are lazy and want to summon 6 skeletons at once but in my opninion, Arcane Surge and Empower are better choice.

To all of you who made responds to this thread, sorry I don't have time to be into PoE actually, I hope I will manage to respond to your posts later today.

Hey, thanks for your response.

1. This build works as Assasin also and it has even higher dps potential then but Witch is a better option for a starter on a new league.
That doesn't really answer my question, lol. What I'm asking is is the primary Sustian pool meant to be Life/HP? I thought this was suppose to be a lowlife build.

5. To save a space. Devouring Totem takes the same benefits from support gems as Wither Totem. WT doesn't need both faster casting + inc duration gems to reach maximum of 15 stacks with this build.
Well, your recent gear links show you using ST+WT+Faster Casting, so do I or no?

7. I don't. Normal skellies are way more reliable since they don't require vaal souls.
Don't Vaal Summon Skellybros create a physical block against mobs/bosses/projectiles?

9. +1 chain. Gloomfang increases my dps from 4.5m (with a rare crit multi amulet) to 5.3m.
But you lose two sets of life for each spell/attk that hits don't you? Wouldn't that drains us instantly?

12. We need gems linked to Summon Skeletons to provide some bonuses increasing our Dark Pact damage. Minion Life and Empower are doing it by increasing life of our skeletons, Arcane Surge increases our damage and cast speed when we spend mana on casting skellies. Spell Echo would be ok if you are lazy and want to summon 6 skeletons at once but in my opninion, Arcane Surge and Empower are better choice.
I tried using Arcanse Surge with Skellybro's and it would never go off, since it cost 1 mana to cost and the amount needed for an Arcane Surge says at 150 cost per cast. What am I doing wrong? Even with spell echo, it wouldn't do it.

New questions:

Wouldn't Dark Pact Dmg be better Helm Enchantment?
Why did you choose Bloodbond, if the only real benefit from it is Minion Life Inc an Witch Life Inc? Wouldn't Cospris Will, Skin of the Loyal, The Covenant or Cherubims be better?
Why use Sulphur Flask/The Writhing Jar?
Have you considered using Inc AoE for Blasphemy + Curses?

Thanks so much man.

I'm not op but I can answer some questions.
1. Yes its a life build.
2. Use whatever totem setup you like, its a utility thing.
3. One of the main ways this build scales damage is the 6% of Skeleton life as Chaos damage so things like %minion life on chest or 21 gem level summon skeleton are good dps increases. The skeletons from summon skeleton are more than adequate as a block and more importantly always available when compared with vaal summon skeleton.
4. Gloomfang leech + Warlords leech will make the life loss from hits completely irrelevant.
5. Keep your arcane sure low level (5 or 6) so it always triggers when you cast the skeletons.
6. Helm enchants are hard to come by.
7. The Covenant or Cherubims might be worth testing, I think the best chest this build can get is a shaper crit chest. Cospris and Skin offer very little dps to this build and worse, no life.
8. Writhing jar gives 'On Kill' effects and Sulphur Flask gives 40% increased damage. Increased AOE causes your blasphemies to reserve 40% more mana and thus you would only be able to use one blasphemy.

Thanks for some help, would like to see also what the Creator says on this :)

RonBrogundy's answer is pretty accurate in general so I'm gonna add only a few words to it.

Gloomfang is really useful when you want to maximize your dps against the hardest bosses like Shaper or Uber Atziri and also for Hexproof maps when you cannot leech with a Warlord's Mark. For regular mapping I've been using rare amulets; +# to max life, life gained on hit and resistances are better than +1 chain and 0.5% leech in most situations.

Covenant gives about 450k more dps (remember to swap Added Chaos support for Inc Crit Dmg) but gives less HP bonus and makes Dark Pact drain our life instead of mana by Blood Magic.

+2 Skin Of The Loyal gives the same dps bonus as the Covenant but it doesn't provide any significant defences. I'm also not sure about the actual price due to the prevailing pricefixing.

Cherrubim's provides comparable dps bonus to Bloodbond and about 150-200 less hp depending on rolls. Double leech speed would make it really good for levelling but I personally value having bigger hp pool more once you've reached an endgame. Also trying to get 5 off-colors would probably make me quit the game quite fast. ;)

Cospri's would shine only on Hexproof maps but this build can deal with these anyway. We don't really need another +1 curse and 3 points saved from not taking Whispers of Doom won't compensate bonuses we loose from not having some other chest.

I also want to comment on the potential awesomeness of this;

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Cane_of_Unravelling


>+2 to Level of Socketed Chaos Gems
>(60-80)% increased Chaos Damage
>2% increased Cast Speed per Power Charge
>Gain a Power Charge after you spend a total of 200 Mana
>2 Mana Regenerated per Second per Power Charge

If you did this, you could six-link DP and then 6L Skellybros (S.Skellybros + Minion Life + Arcane Surge + Spell Echo + Empower + Enhance) or have a complete CWDT + Safeguard setup.

Or this Item;

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Inya%27s_Epiphany


>+(50-70) to maximum Life
25% increased Movement Speed
(5-8)% increased Intelligence
5% increased Damage per Power Charge
25% chance that if you would gain Power Charges, you instead gain up to
your maximum number of Power Charges