- Mapper
- Boss Killer
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Important PoB Notes
All my guides use Path of Building. We have a simple guide for you that shows how to import my build into Path of Building, you can find the guide here
End Game PoB & Passive Skill Tree
All my guides use Path of Building. We have a simple guide for you that shows how to import my build into Path of Building, you can find the guide here
Below you’ll find a couple of different PoB links, it is strongly recommended to start with the low budget PoB, it includes leveling sections throughout the acts as well as skill-point progression.
Here’s the low budget Dark Pact PoB: https://pobb.in/wEQImarVfsJi
For higher budget here’s the most optimal & well rounded beast: https://pobb.in/4Eh5pqQCFKlF
Once the skill tree is finished, focus entirely on more jewel sockets or cluster jewels if you can afford it.
Leveling Progression
Depending on if you’re playing Hardcore or Softcore, you will have to adjust your route depending on the quality of gear you’re able to obtain. For example, if you have lots of Life and Resistance from drops you get during the Acts, you can focus on taking damage-providing nodes over the defensive ones and vice versa. The links below are trees that should fit in almost any situation no matter the drop RNG.
- Leveling skill tree, 13 points
Do note that the leveling trees are designed to level with Dark Pact hence the removal of the minion nodes in the start when switching over to DP. - Leveling skill tree, 32 points
- Leveling skill tree, 78 points
- Leveling skill tree, 101 points
- Finished skill tree
Masteries
A lot of the masteries available come down to a matter of personal preference but some are more or less mandatory.
Minion Offence Mastery: Seeing as we are utilizing Mistress of Sacrifice, we will benefit a lot from the “20% increased effect of Offerings”
Leech Mastery: “10% of leech is instant” Since we are hitting so many times per second this mastery will provide a hilarious amount of instant life leech making us more or less immortal outside of being one-shot as long as we are hitting something!
Critical Mastery: “+25% to Critical Strike Multiplier against Unique Enemies” is a nice bonus but not something you’ll be taking until you have the rest of your tree finished.
Caster Mastery: “Spells which can gain Intensity have +1 to maximum Intensity.” This further scales our single target damage output and shouldn’t be taken unless you have a 6-Link ready to go.
Minion Defence Mastery: To further scale the HP of our skeletons which means we want to pick up the “Minions have 15% reduced life recovery rate /// Minions have 30% increased maximum life” as it significantly increases our damage output.
Life Mastery: It’s important to pick up the “+50 to maximum life.” This mastery should be picked up as soon as possible. NEVER take the mastery that decreases your life recovery rate with this build!
Mana Mastery: “10% reduced mana cost of skills” Casting Dark Pact as fast & as much as we are with this build we’ll want to reduce the impact of that with this mastery.
Life Mastery: “Skills cost life instead of 30% of mana cost” Since we are instantly leeching we are then able to move some of the heavy mana cost to our life pool instead making the build much smoother to play.
Leveling Gems & Links
You can easily level with Absolution until you reach level 28 and gain access to the Dark Pact skill. While leveling, be sure to complete Siosa’s quest in the Library of Act 3 to purchase Feeding Frenzy for your skeletons. An important note to remember when playing this build is that mana problems are very common and there are a few solutions to this that are both easily accessible and cheap. One solution is to use a mana flask during the campaign acts and later get an “Enduring” prefix rolled mana flask. It’s fair to point out that Absolution is considered better & faster. I simply prefer to level with the ability I’m expected to use in the end-game if viable.
Amulet Anointment
There’s a handful of options for you to chose between, the optimal being Retribution which costs 1x Clear Oil, 1x Crimson Oil & 1x Opalescent Oil.
Since we do want to get ourselves a Hunter Influenced amulet with the modifier “#% Chaos Damage Leeched as Life” it would be wise to not bother putting oils to your amulet until you have one with this modifier to avoid wasting currency.
End Game Gem Links
With recent changes to hex curses we will be self-casting our Despair against bosses and it shouldn’t be used when clearing maps.
6-Link Dark Pact
Since we benefit vastly from chaining our Dark Pact between our skeletons, to hit single target bosses with multiple chains these links are the best, in this order:
- Dark Pact
- Spell Echo Support
- Chain Support
- Intensify Support
- Void Manipulation Support
- Arcane Surge Support
3-Link Trigger
This setup is best used with a bench-crafted weapon for the modifier “Trigger socketed spells when you use a skill.” This is to automate the Bone Offering buff we get to reach the max block cap. We also have Convocation in here on the trigger to effortlessly keep our utility minions safe. If you do not have a trigger craft available you will have to self-cast the Bone Offering to keep the buff up until you get the craft.
- Desecrate
- Bone Offering
- Convocation
3-Link Arrogance Auras
Life reservation auras:
These provide a decent chunk of both life, and mana regeneration.
- Arrogance Support
- Vitality
- Clarity
4-Link Skeletons
Our priority with this build is to increase the HP of our skeletons as well as making sure they are fast when moving from enemy to enemy. We also would prefer to automate the application of Wither via our skeletons melee hits. The best path to achieving this is as follows:
- Summon Skeletons
- Minion Life Support
- Feeding Frenzy Support
- Withering Touch Support
2-Link PCoC
PCoC- Orb of Storms
- Power Charge On Critical Support
2-Link Utility Minions
At gem level 13 you will get your second spectre and with the Death Attunement node from the passive tree, it will give your 3rd spectre.
You should replace your host chieftains with more carnage chieftains once the Power Charge on Crit setup above is established for more reliable charges.
See Specter Page for more detailed breakdown
- Raise Spectre
- Minion Life Support
If you’re uncertain how to summon your specters, please check out this brief video:
The spectres you’d want to use is 2x Carnage Chieftain, 1x Host Chieftain these will generate Frenzy & Power charges for you reliably and as the build is focusing so much on minion life across the board of both skill-tree & gear they won’t have any issues in staying alive.
1-Socket Aura
- Petrified Blood
1-Socket Aura
- Discipline
1-Socket Mobility
- Flame Dash
1-Socket Curse
- Despair
Main Page TL;DR
Changelog
Updated for PoE Affliction 3.23
Added a Gear Progression page to the guide!
Build is now updated for 3.22