Death's Oath support gems in 3.15

TLDR: Wiki is outdated or wrong, quality bonus from Divergent Arrogance Support works but isn't worth it (regular gem doesn't), Arcane Surge doesn't, Lifetap does and enables the "duration" gems, you need a 2B-2G-2R for maximum DPS but a 3B-2G-1R is okay (increased AOE).


Since I couldn't find any comprehensive information about the 3.15 changes I did some testing myself:

Traditionally and also in 3.15 Death Aura works with: Increased AOE, Concentrated Effect, Efficacy, Void Manipulation, Item Quantity and Item Rarity (according to tooltip icons and DPS numbers).

Before 3.15, you could simply socket Arcane Surge to permanently enable the "duration" tag and thus enable Less Duration and Swift Affliction without any further prerequisites. This has been reworked, and now these gems NEVER work with Arcane Surge under any condition. Wiki is wrong. It says you needed to have both an active spell skill linked to Arcane Surge and an Arcane Surge on your Death's Oath. Only if you triggered Arcane Surge by spending mana with that active spell, you gained Arcane Surge, and thus only temporarily enabled a bonus to Death Aura. This is not true, I've tested it with Contagion. It benefited from Arcane Surge, but my socketed Swift Affliction didn't affect Death Aura during Arcane Surge - neither according to icons nor to DPS numbers.

Wiki also states something similar about Lifetap, implying you need to spend life to gain Lifetap and only then the bonus worked. The truth is, you ALWAYS get the (albeit small) DPS bonus from Lifetap's quality AND if you spend life you get a larger bonus while Lifetap is up. But most important, Lifetap is the new Arcane Surge giving you the duration tag and thus permanently enabling Less Duration and Swift Affliction again!

Also, there is currently a discussion about whether Arrogance Support works with Death Aura (as stated by Wiki). If you socket it, the icon doesn't show on the tooltip and your DPS number stays the same.
Some say it theoretically must work because of the wording, and therefore the tootip has to be bugged.
Others say it can't work because it requires life reservation and Death Aura has no reservation.
Both seems to be wrong. I socketed Divergent Arrogance with some - not full - quality and the DPS number increased. Then I used GCPs to bring it to 20% and the DPS number was higher. This proves it is no bug with the regular version alone since the DPS bonus is systematically depending on the quality, but independent of reservation. The 10% increased DPS bonus from Divergent Arrogance is bad though and only can serve as provisorical solution until you get your perfect socket colour setup.

Also, I playtested Item Quantity a little and didn't notice any obvious difference. Perhaps the effect is just too small to be noted (43% at 20/20), perhaps a bugged interaction has happened since the gem went legacy.


You now have slightly more freedom with gem socket colours during early league, you can now work with one red socket (Divergent Arrogance or Lifetap), or two (Lifetap and Less Duration) or three (all); one green always works (Void Manipulation), the second (Swift Affliction) requiring one red with Lifetap; up to three blue work (Increased AOE, Concentrated Effect, Efficacy).

Since the gem numbers on Wiki are outdated, now the highest DPS and "proper" endgame setup (according to my own gems at mentioned level and quality) is:

Concentrated Effect 39% more + 11% increased (B, 20/23)
Efficacy 25% more + 10% increased (B, 21/20)
Awakened Void Manipulation 39% more + 10% increased (G, 5/20)
Lifetap 10% increased (R, 1/20)
Awakened Swift Affliction 45% more + 11 % increased (G, 6/23)
Less Duration 19 % more (R, 20/0)

Just like before, your choice is between Less Duration and Awakened Increased AOE (B, 6/23, 15% more + 11% increased)

Bottom line: Your double corrupted 3B-2G-1R is now slightly devaluated, since you needed a 2B-2G-2R for maximum DPS. But you can continue to use it with Awakened Increased AOE at slightly less DPS but better clearspeed and more tactical freedom of movement in boss encounters. If you already went for the increased AOE setup before with a 4B-2G, you're screwed.

Just how much dps do you put out with this thing? My napkin math implies it's really, really hard to break 100k dps, let alone something half decent like a million.

yeah, wiki went to shit really fast

PoEDB for the win

https://poedb.tw/us/Death_Aura#SupportedBy


e: thats also not finished yet lol

83,7 k on the 3B-2G-1R setup with +1 gem level corruption on the chest but with regular 20/20 increased AOE.

Don't worry too much about the nominal DPS, your "killing performance" is way better than it looks. It's not only about the DPS you deal, it's about the DPS the monster takes.

You have to play as an Occultist and invest in aura and curse effectivity, run despair-enhance-empower-awakened blasphemy (free with chaos impresence), malediction and withered from ascendancy and Withering Step on your left mouse button. Monster's chaos resistance is naturally way lower than elemental resistances.

I haven't played too much recently but before the nerf patch I could kill Über Atziri, AL8 conquerors, Omnitect, corrupted 8-mod t16 bosses, and delve to 575 but certainly not deathless and it is true you can't do the final endgame (Shaper, Elder, Sirus, deeper delve bosses, t16 Catarina) with it.

DO is also primarily something for standard, since you can't level with it, are extremely skill point and gem slot starved and need to squeeze out every bit of DPS with very good rolls, chase uniques and double corruptions - in other words, you should have a "lifetime achievement" of equipment at your disposal.

"

PyleWarlord wrote:

yeah, wiki went to shit really fast

PoEDB for the win

https://poedb.tw/us/Death_Aura#SupportedBy


e: thats also not finished yet lol

LOL that link is hilarious too: Brutality explicitly states "deal no chaos damage", (regular) Arrogance I've falsified and Hypothermia ("cold DOT") actually really shows the icon when socketed, but correctly the DPS number doesn't increase.

"

kaijyuu2 wrote:

Just how much dps do you put out with this thing? My napkin math implies it's really, really hard to break 100k dps, let alone something half decent like a million.

Are you talking about effective DPS or tooltip?

You can reach over 2 mil. effective shaper DPS if you push it to the limits.

People usually add some boss killer skill (CA, ED,..) to boost their singl target damage though.