Dark pact build questions

Hi all,

I've made it to about map tier 8 and I've ran into some serious problems with clearing the map bosses. A lot of searching hasn't really given me the answers I need either. This is my furthest progressed character by far, and I feel very stuck. I don't know what direction I need to go, if I need to respec, some of both?

Gearing


Build path thus far:


I realize that there is most definitely better gear out there to chase after, but I have no idea how to prioritize what I need over something else. For example, do I need to go after a 6L covenant? Or do I need +40% Dark pact damage enchant? Is there a resource I can use to theory-craft effectively?

Thanks!

Not sure if your issue is that bosses take long or that they are killing you. If your issue is only with damage on map bosses, there is an easy solution.

Spell totem + Wither + faster casting + increased duration

In general, you should also use an Arcane Surge linked to for example flame dash, for 10-15% more spell damage.

For example, my PoB Dark Pact has 386k dps normally, but jumps to 525k with arcane surge + 1 stack of wither, and close to 1m with 20 stacks.

For your tree there's a few weird choices. You seem to be going for both life AND ES nodes but hybrid doesn't really work well, especially not when you can't leech any ES. You also have pain attunement but not using Shavs for low life so it's wasted. Using crit gloves but no crit passives, either go full crit or you could get much better gloves with lots of life. Your amulet is also pretty useless for the build, more than half of its stats have no effect on you.

Thanks!

I think most of the weird choices you speak of are from me trying to get as much effective health as possible. I'll probably change out of those soon and chase down extra health nodes.

I totally forgot about the amulet, it was niche to get some of the stats for my gems when I was changing gear so often.

Ill definitely put the gem suggestions to use!