[3.0] Dark Pact Berserker, need help

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll try a few things out.

I know the build isn't optimized, I don't have a lot of time to play, neither do I have a lot of currency to buy new gear ...

I know I haven't rolled my flasks ... lol, lazy. Didn't seem like a priority, I should get to that.
I also need to get path of carnage, which may solve the DPS problem.

I AM using Warlord's on blasphemy and I got the rest of MoM nodes. I'm also using arctic armor, it may not be that useful cause it lowers my mana pool by a lot. Right now I'm mostly spamming Rallying Cry, rather than using life flasks.

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DarthPwn wrote:

I'm playing a Dark Pact Berserker too.

Apep's + MoM will not work. Vaal Pact instant leech is only good for your life and not your mana.

No mana = no casting = no leech = you died.

Honestly I think you should stay away from both Apep's and MoM because Dark Pact is already fairly mana hungry. Running Warlord's Mark will help your sustain greatly and as others have pointed out increasing your damage will help you sustain your life leech and survivability.

Yes, VP does nothing for mana and MoM, it's also rather suicidal if you use Spell Echo, as it means 12% HP loss on each click, no matter what and if you hit anything.

One more time: Apep's and MoM is good, I'm playing it, dual Apep's and I'm doing just fine. I'm enjoying massive cast speed without need for Spell Echo and heavily boosted AC even on punny mobs.
I don't have all the gear pieces equipped yet, so I have only ~2.6k mana. I should have around 3k mana in the end, which should allow me to regen mana even while chanelling the skill. Get the lab boot enchantment, that does wonders to mana regen.

I'd also disagree that Abyssal Cry is useless, I find it pretty good. It allows me to oneshot even packs with rare mob in the middle, so I don't need to recast DP. Also the very great bonus of AC is that you get rid of corspes and mobs such as Porcupines are no threat at all as they don't explode in their usual way.
It also means that I don't really need Increased AoE in DP (using Arcane Surge now, but this would probably need some skill duration on the tree and I don't really want to waste points there), why bother ... I cover nearly whole screen anyway.

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zagibu wrote:

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Skelworath wrote:

MoM problems - when getting hit consistently or staying in damage over time, I run out of mana and am unable to do anything ... which results in death

Vaal Pact Problems - The leech is perfect in packs ... when against single target and not killing I am down to 3% ( 1 from ascendancy and 2 from warlord's mark). I do more damage to myself then bosses do, and when solo against the boss it easily results in death.

I'm guessing that Apep's Rage is not a very good option mana and cast speed wise.

Anyway I'm looking for advice as to how to make single target fights comfortable

You'll probably have to decide between MoM and Apep's. VP is fine, your problem is that you're not doing enough damage yet. Dark Pact can do over 100k dmg easily per hit when properly built, so even 1% leech will be good enough.

Just pull through, it will get better soon.

Would love to see how you plan to do 100k dmg, I can figure out 100k dps pretty easily but per hit that sounds pretty high to me.

PoB: https://pastebin.com/HqgJwDEV

Thanks for the link. I was looking at a non crit build, explains why it is much lower.

I'm leveling one too, just got into maps and have been having a few random thoughts.

Gem levels seems like one of the best ways to scale it. I think empower provides one of the largest damage increases for any gem due to base damage and more multiplier increasing significantly for self cast. Need to do more math but empower and +gem levels staff with kaoms seems like one of the best ways to scale the damage of the spell (admittedly pricey and pipe dreams though).

Cast speed scales it well but you should be careful as it increases the health cost of sustained casting. High cast speed should be compensated with more leech. Spell echo kind of is dangerous because your leeching less and hurting yourself more. At higher damage levels this is likely moot but it's something I think is worth considering.

Overall very fun and good skill so far.

Still debating last ascendency points but the importance of leech makes the Savage hit 100 percent leech node seem the best choice. I do love the idea of more abyssal crys though.

I'm doing vp but not mom.

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zagibu wrote:

PoB: https://pastebin.com/HqgJwDEV

That's way too unrealistic. What's up with the insanely good crit chance+multi+high life? Do you really expect to have such gear?

Also, wither totem at 20 stacks always? Unrealistic.

That's not gonna work in reality, PoB is good for theorycrafting, but don't go too far with such crazy requirements, like having 20 stacks wither, diamond flask and other things always up.


You don't even have 200% inc life from tree, and you're playing melee dark pact without any support, such as a decoy totem or spelltotem+skellies.

U n r e a l i s t i c.

Of course the max numbers are unrealistic, they just show what's theoretically possible.

It seems you haven't played around much with the build in PoB if you think the build itself is unrealistic. Even if you go very low on crit gear, reduce Wither to 5 stacks, remove Spell Echo and deactivate Diamond Flask you can reach on hit damage of over 100k and several 100k DPS.

Anyway, I'm playing it at the moment, and it's already very good at level 48, and it's getting better every level.

Got to level 75. It is starting to feel a lot better even against bosses.

PoB gives me 27k DPS against regular bosses with 450hp leech which compensate the 280 hp sacrified. When I have some wither stacks on it only get better.
The Doon Cuebiyari + Iron Will is like triple dipping: more strength = 2 times more +% spell and more life which is also more base damage.

I'm going mostly +%spell then +%hp at the moment. But maybe I should remove some HP for some nice crit. Will try later in league with more currency.

Edit: Mutewind Pennant + Abyssal cry = +25% hp every 2s and onslaught.

I finally gave in and took vaal pact. I had +160% leech rate and it still was not nearly enough vs some bosses. I wish I could take Vaal pact situationally as 99% of the time (i.e. not vs bosses) leech + regen is safer and more reliable.