[3.0] VP DP OP - Dark Pact Berserker - New Minotaur Facetank Video

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coaa wrote:

I don't know man, I really feel you shoulda kept with maxing out the crit version and didn't listen to the haters.

I feel dropping MoM and just going full in on LIFE instead is the way to go. Get as much life as possible as it also helps scale out DP even further while adding in that additional layer of defense. Crit + acuity is great and it's that many more points freed up for more life on the tree.

I'm possibly going to try and still fit in CWDT + IC because porupines in groups still kill me. I could run Herald of Ice though to break them up instead but we'll see, still messing with things. I feel HoI in a non MoM setup is a good alternative as we have 0 mana issues without MoM. We could possibly run blasphemy + AM + Haste or HoI.

I followed your crit build and on a 5l pledge I've pushed red maps quicker / far easier then any other build I've tried since starting this game. I really feel you were onto something great and I see nothing but good things for that build.

For mobility I also got rid of flame dash. I hate flame dash, it's clunky and god forbid in a oh shit moment you move your mouse too far and it doesn't work to get you out. I switched it to a lightning warp setup with arcane surge. Even with the less duration to make LW smooth it's up 2-3 second which is more then enough for packs or to setup extra damage on a boss burst. I absolutely love warping into the middle of a pack and letting loose. Not only that but LW is like gods gift for running labs. It trivializes any traps.

In regards to stuns, we could use kaoms roots but we're pretty socket starved using kaom's. We do have enough leftover points to not take a few life nodes and instead take stun immunity if wanted. We're 5 points away which is a good tradeoff. I know with our huge hp (pushing 8k and I have lots of room in my gear to improve) we don't get stunned often, but we do still get stunned. And when leeching = life it sucks when stuns get through. I'm considering making the path to get it myself.

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synix09 wrote:

Hi, it's me again. That's too bad you can't CWDT Wither. The Wither Totem stacks around 14 times with increased duration at the moment. I thought it'd be nice to get closer to 20 with a secondary cast.

Anyway. I haven't given up on MoM because I too love theorycrafting and I want to make it work. I've never had my sights on Kaom's Heart so I made a variant around that fact. And plus, Kaom's Heart sways the 7:3 ratio way too much if you are reserving mana. The only thing that sucks about a MoM build is that you can only really reserve mana for 1 thing as opposed to 2-3 things with non-MoM builds. Make your choice to miss out on many of the good options: Arctic Armor, Haste, Purities, Herald of Ice, Blasphemy curses, etc. RIP =(

Acuity is good for MoM, but I would use CWDT + Blade Vortex since it lasts a few seconds and gives instant Life Leech (from Vaal Pact) and gradual Mana Leech (from Pain Reaver); this with natural mana regen should be enough to mitigate the adverse Mana Leech effect from Acuity. You should also probably use Blade Vortex if you aren't at 7:3 Life:Mana. And also I would keep Vaal Pact because crit isn't guaranteed. I get around 30% crit if I use Assassin's Mark. It's better safe than sorry.

I'm testing out different things right now, but I don't think going both Life and Mana is a bad thing. I currently have about 5k life and 2.1k mana so I'm sitting at around 7.1k eHP with full resists. But this drops down to 5k eHP without instant Mana Leech from Acuity so I need to get that soon. The 2% of maximum mana per second default leech rate is killer, and all the increase leech rate nodes are way too far. Mana Leech Support gem is the only thing within reach that raises our leech rate. But I know if you stack nothing but %Life nodes, Kaom's will a crazy amount of HP, but don't you think 2k+ Mana added as part of your HP a crap ton too? And plus, you open up 6 more skill slots for auto-casting.

The things I've learned from this build is that damage is not a problem, and mobs of trash is not a problem. Only thing you need to worry about is having enough defense to not get OHKO'd by bosses. It's a shame you can't easily use a movement + Fortify combo while holding a staff unless you use Leap Slam or swap (really clunky swapping). The 20% damage reduction is really nice though. Enfeeble seems like a must if you are getting one-shotted.

My plan is as followed:

Pseudo 7-link Pledge of Hands with Dark Pact stuff.
Increased AoE and Item Rarity for farming.

Armor can be split in 3-link + 3-link for budget or CWDT strats: CWDT (Lv20) + Blade Vortex + Culling Strike Support and CWDT (Lv14) + Lightning Golem (Lv16) + Assassin's Mark (Lv17)
Blade Vortex is for the constant Life/Mana leech. I know you said Vortex is better for the cold, but that doesn't provide a passive source of leech, and chilling for the slow isn't that big of a deal for me at least. Culling strike is mainly for tough bosses that you wanna down quickly before things go south. Lightning Golem and Assassin's Mark aren't at max level, but the only thing we worry about here is the 9% cast speed buff from the golem and the 9% crit from Assassin's Mark (way too much DPS gain to pass up). The reason why Assassin's Mark is not a Blasphemy curse is because I only care to apply this during longer fights.

4-link: Wither + Spell Totem + Faster Cast + Increased Duration
This one is a no brainer. Faster cast applies only to the totem casting Wither, but not the totem itself, which sucks, but I believe the duration buff applies to both Wither and the totem?

4-link: Blasphemy + Enfeeble + Flame Dash + Faster Cast
Flame Dash as a mobility skill in fights is pretty good. Too bad you can't attach Fortify to it. Enfeeble is chosen because I suspect I will still get OHKO by bosses. Note that you will need +1 curse to apply both Assassin's Mark and Enfeeble.

4-link: Orb of Storms + Power Charge on Crit + Arcane Surge (Lv6) + Increased Duration
This provides more DPS. This is your only way to generate Power Charges during single target fights. 4 Power Charges means 8% more crit chance with Dark Pact and Orb of Storms. And plus you get an Arcane Surge every time you renew your Orb. Increased Duration also affects both your Orb and the Surge buff so that's amazing. Since this batch only supplies more damage which we have plenty of, it can be subbed out for something more defensive like Kaom's Roots if you'd like.

So that's my plan thus far.

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13jkim wrote:

Why do you take alira instead of 2 passive points? Is she noticeably better to take or is the difference marginal?

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Araganzar wrote:

I'm trying this build as a new player.

I have worked my way to Vaal Pact at 46 and I'm curious what passives I should be going for now until I can get Cloaked in Savagery. I would just get some good stuff for Sunder but I don't have a ton of respecs left. I'd been following the old non-crit build and I had to back off and go back down the crit path. I've been able to solo to Act 6 with no problem but that resist hit was nasty.

Sunder is carrying me pretty hard, but I'm starting to hit a wall on Act 6. I run life on hit, multistrike, concentration with Herald of Ash and I use Heavy Strike on bosses. This makes me kind of facetanky and I think maybe multistrike is making me want to stand in place too much.

I'm wondering if I need to start paying serious attention to resists or if I just need to get better at the game. My character is public if you want to make any suggestions.

I also wonder if there are any budget gear recommendations to get to a minumum level where I can run Dark Pact and enjoy the explody goodness. I've only spent 4c on a Cauteriser that I can flip later. I imagine by the time I get Cloaked I will have maybe 20-25c to invest.

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You shouldn't be at VP at 46. It sounds like you didn't take all the easy health along the way, so do that. And yes you should focus on capping your resists. Look for a goldrim. (Easy health is any health cluster you don't have to path away from the main path

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Araganzar wrote:

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You shouldn't be at VP at 46. It sounds like you didn't take all the easy health along the way, so do that. And yes you should focus on capping your resists. Look for a goldrim. (Easy health is any health cluster you don't have to path away from the main path

Either the info about not using VP until I have Cloaked wasn't there or I missed it. I wanted to make sure I could get to the main passive before I branched. Bear in mind I didn't know ascendancy trees existed until they popped up in game.

I'm heading for Cruel Preparation and Written in Blood. I'm 14 chaos shards away from getting a goldrim, I think that will make the biggest difference.

Should I look to swap over to DP around 67 when I can gear up easier or just as soon as I can get Cloaked in Savagery?