[3.0] Crit US MoM Dark Pact ||optimised for speed, DPS and overall efficiency|| [Vids included]

CRIT US (Unwavering Stance) MOM (Mind over Matter)! :D

This build prides itself on maximizing mobility and speed for fast and smooth clearing as well as having high DPS, survivability and versatility (6 jewel sockets).

PoB code for the ideal (and very much unachievable) character based on this build with BIS gear:
- 3.7 million DPS without concentrated effect, 4.6 million dps with
- 10k EHP

Gameplay Style

1. Cast Orb of Storms to generate power charges + initiate arcane surge buff
2. Shield Charge/Whirling blades into a pack of mobs
3. Use Abyssal Cry
4. Cast Dark Pact
5. Watch them explode
6. Rinse, repeat


Build Concepts

Layered Defense
i. High HP pool
ii. High unreserved mana pool for MoM
iii. Stun immunity
iv. Life Regen from skill tree and Mana Regen
v. Life + Mana leech from berserker ascendancy
vi. Warcries for instant 25% life and mana recovery
vii. Fortify

Offense
i. High HP pool = higher damage
ii. Crit-based = even higher damage

Speed and Mobility
Daggers are the weapon of choice here for high crit as well as the ability to use whirling blades/shield charge for added mobility.

To Vaal Pact, or not to Vaal Pact?
Vaal Pact with CI/ES was awesome (that's why it got nerfed). With life-based builds, it becomes tolerable, and no longer as fun. Not having the ability to regen life can get very annoying in lab running and general gameplay. You can still opt for Vaal Pact if you wish to do so, but I personally found it very unnecessary. Vaal Pact comes in extremely useful versus bosses because it enables you to facetank them, and without Vaal Pact the fights become much more challenging. To me however, bosses comprise maybe 20% of the content, and I much rather focus on having a smoother gameplay experience For the other 80%.

Why Warbringer and not Cloaked in Savagery?
Dark Pact already gives a ton of damage, enough for us to leech more than the 6% we expend per cast. As such, I didn't find it necessary to get Cloaked in Savagery, especially when its only useful during combat. My gameplay style for this build is all about recovery which is independent of flasks, and Warbringer's 25% instarecovery for both the life and mana pools suits me very well.

Videos

Stats

Ascendancy, Bandits and Pantheon

Leveling

Gem Links (feel free to change as per your preference)
Useful Uniques
Gearing advice



_______to be continued further______

Gear at the time of the Atziri Vid:




just corrupted this!



one step closer to acuity!

I tied crit its less dps and EHP here...about 75 regrets later is a level 16 Dark Pact no crit (character short bus rider)

Could have 10K life andn just a little less DPS with Kaoms.






Another thing I disliked about crit was the orb casting. Wastes a small step to get charges that could be used to DPS them down. Anyway just think you'll find stacking chaos life and spell damage will come out on top. DPS wise. Convenience wise (ease of play). And EHP wise.

"

Aim_Deep wrote:

I tied crit its less dps and EHP here...about 75 regrets later is a level 16 Dark Pact no crit (character short bus rider)

Pretty cool character, I like your approach! I have done things a little different. I went for a Scion that utilizes Cospri's Will + Vile Toxins in my 6l Pledge of Hands. It nets me a 45% more damage multiplier after 1.2 seconds of casting. The poison is decent damage but nothing to brag about without further investments. I wonder if arcane surge or faster casting is more damage... Or if I can "outsource" my arcane surge to something else. Unfortunately, it seems that I cannot get the buff from my totem :/

Ideas?

My character's name is: "CrystallineDIVA" (

"

Aim_Deep wrote:

I tied crit its less dps and EHP here...about 75 regrets later is a level 16 Dark Pact no crit (character short bus rider)

Could have 10K life andn just a little less DPS with Kaoms.



Another thing I disliked about crit was the orb casting. Wastes a small step to get charges that could be used to DPS them down. Anyway just think you'll find stacking chaos life and spell damage will come out on top. DPS wise. Convenience wise (ease of play). And EHP wise.

Heya, I appreciate your input aim, but I do feel that what you've mentioned above is misleading. I Granted, it might have been my mistake to not have provided my gem links and stats in order to arrive at the above DPS, but your comparison was an unfair comparison to begin with.

Firstly, the stats you've provided above are with
Level 16/20 Dark Pact
Level 21/20 Conc. effect, Added Chaos Damage, Controlled Destruction, Faster Casting
Level 20/20 Void Manipulation

The stats I provided was with
Level 19/0 Dark Pact, Controlled Destruction, Void Manipulation, Increased Crit Strikes, Spell Echo
Level 17/18 Added Chaos Damage

If I switch my increased crit strikes to conc. effect and trigger my level 8 arcane surge (which you do not have), my tooltip DPS rises to:



Keep in mind that I'm only level 89 and you're level 94. In addition, you have already maxed out your weapon DPS in terms of having a high rolled Pledge of Hands as well as having pretty sick gear for the rest of your slots whereas my gear (particularly dagger and shield) still has ample room for improvement.

"

Another thing I disliked about crit was the orb casting. Wastes a small step to get charges that could be used to DPS them down.

Its just a simple step that is fast, need only be done once per 7 seconds and provides me with both charges as well as the arcane surge bonus. I don't even need to do it versus regular mobs to be honest if I don't wish to, but it really isn't as difficult as you may think.

Also, I find that having the option to use additional skills makes for more engaging and rewarding gameplay which simply right clicking and having only 2 active skills does not provide.

"

Anyway just think you'll find stacking chaos life and spell damage will come out on top. DPS wise. Convenience wise (ease of play). And EHP wise.

Nope, DPS-wise crit will always be better. The only main benefit of stacking chaos, life and spell damage will be improvement in survivability. Your EHP as non-crit non-MoM user is not going to be better than a crit-based MoM build for similar DPS output.

Looking at your character, I made some adjustments for you based on your non-crit gear:

https://pastebin.com/jGRpcWJ6

Sacrificing 10% HP, you get a 17.5% DPS boost (which rises to 50% upon use of a diamond flask). Keep in mind that once you get crit multi mods on gear and jewels the DPS difference between crit vs non-crit will rise even further.

Therefore, going non-crit doesn't win out crit in every single aspect. You just get more life, that's all, but your claim in the above quote is invalid.

Other observations:

1. I did consider going staff, but the mobility advantage from shield charge/whirling blades was too difficult to consider foregoing, and overall clear speed does depend on mobility after all. Lightning warp can also do the job, but there is still split delay when waiting to arrive at your destination.

2. Why are you using the retch? You're not a slayer. The DPS boost from the retch is arguably not going to be as high as belt of the deceiver for instance while costing 200 times as much

Nice, going to try this out. Tried a non-crit DP build but didn't like it as much see how this goes.

which bandits did u go for?

"

balanced wrote:

which bandits did u go for?

i actually ended up killing both as I couldn't decide between krait or alira.

Alira gives higher dps with a nice bonus to res while Krait gives better clear speed and mobility coz of movement and attack speed.

at the end though i decided to go for the 2 extra points

Oof, 5 blue coloring a Cherrubrim's is tough, how many chromes did that take? Did you use the Vorici jeweler method?

would the cherrubrim be bis endgame