Dark Pact
Occultist Build

Updated for Patch 3.24

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The Dark Pact is a Spell that Sacrifices a small portion of your maximum Life to deal Chaos Damage in Nova around you. The Sacrificed Life is added to the Damage of the Dark Pact, so you are naturally encouraged to stack as much maximum Life as possible. The Rathpith Globe is a Unique Shield that shares the idea of Sacrificing Life, but this time it increases your Spell Damage and Critical Strike Chance based on your maximum Life. To help with that goal you will use two recently introduced Unique Items: The Apostate which grants you Life instead of Energy Shield from other equipped Items, and the Untouched Soul which grants you maximum Life based on the Empty Red Sockets in your Equipment. The Dissolution of the Flesh not only grants you up to 30% More maximum Life, it also completely changes your interaction with incoming Damage. You will now Reserve Life instead of losing it, which resets after 2 seconds of not taking any Damage. That way, you can safely Sacrifice all your Life, as only the Reserved Life matters to you. It is a quite specific playstyle, which can get annoying if you don't take care of Ailments which stops you from Unreserving Life during combat. 

The additional Damage of the Dark Pact is based on the Sacrificed Life, so you should aim to recover more than you spend. Thanks to the Eternal Youth Keystone you can apply your Energy Shield Recharge to your Life instead, which doesn't get interrupted by Sacrificing it, providing you a constant recovery of 33% maximum Life per second, which you can boost further. Taking Damage from other sources will stop it for a short moment. You can also include Life Leech and Life Regeneration to recover it even faster, allowing you to improve your Cast Speed for a massive DPS boost. 

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1. Gameplay

Use Dark Pact when enemies are near you. You will want to leave as many Empty Sockets as possible, leading to a very minimalistic Utility Setup. Use Assassin's Mark against powerful opponents, Frostblink to move around and dodge incoming Attacks, and Zealotry as your only Aura. 

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

Sacrificing your own Life during the leveling is very hard to sustain, it is recommended to use Dark Pact with Skeletons instead if you don't mind the 2-button playstyle. It will require different Passive Tree choices, as the final version relies completely on your maximum Life and its interaction with Unique Items. You can also level up as a pure Summoner which will be faster and easier, as this archetype historically is perfect for the leveling environment, especially if you can obtain the Mirror Arrow of Bombarding and its Prismatic counterpart. For more leveling tips visit our Witch Leveling Guide using Minions in PoE.

Bandits:

Kill all Bandits to get an additional 2 Passive Tree Skill Points.

Leveling Skill Trees:
40 Points Passive Tree
Pick up nearby Life and Minion Notables.  

75 Points Passive Tree
Continue improving your Minions and your maximum Life. You can take the Necromancer Ascendency, but the additional Curse from the Occultist is useful enough. 

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

111 Points Final Passive Tree (doesn't include Cluster or Unique Jewels)
121 Points Path of Building (PoB) link (regular version)
121 Points Path of Building (PoB) link (Mageblood version)

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in this order:

1. Void Beacon
2. Withering Presence
3. Profane Proxy
4. Unholy Authority/Forbidden Power

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of the Brine King: You cannot be Stunned if you've been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds; 100% chance to Avoid being Frozen

Minor God: Soul of Ralakesh: 25% reduced Physical Damage over Time taken while moving; Moving while Bleeding doesn't cause you to take extra Damage

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Dark Pact setup
	Dark Pact - Sacrifices a portion of your Life to deal Chaos Damage in the area around you. The additional Damage is based on your Current Life.
	Spell Echo Support - makes you repeat your Spells at a significantly higher rate.
	Void Manipulation Support - improves your Chaos Damage and disables Elemental Damage. The Awakened version improves your Damage further.
	Intensify Support - improves your AoE or Damage depending on the situation.
	Increased Critical Damage Support - grants tons of Critical Stike Multiplier to improve your Damage.
	Power Charge on Critical Strike Support - improves your Damage based on your Power Charges. You can also use the Cruelty Support if you can get the correct Colours on your Armour, it grants a similar amount of Damage.

[UTILITY] Aura setup
	Zealotry - grants you Spell Damage and Critical Stike Chance. You can also benefit from powerful Watcher's Eye modifiers while affected by this Aura.
	Eternal Blessing Support - allows you to use one Aura for free, but disables all other Auras.

[UTILITY] Curse setup
	Assassin's Mark - grants you a lot of Critical Strike Chance and Damage against Marked Enemies. It also generates Power Charges for you.

[UTILITY] Movement setup
	Frostblink - an instant teleport that leaves Chilling Ground in both locations. You can use it to dodge incoming attacks while Casting.

6. Gear Setup

There are a few important interactions between your maximum Life and certain effects from Unique Items. The most important is the Rathpith Globe which scales your Damage based on your maximum Life. The Apostate, Untouched Soul, Adorned, and Dissolution of the Flesh are great ways to scale your maximum Life, without them, it will be hard to reach sufficient Damage and Critical Strike Chance. The Mageblood is not mandatory, but it obviously provides insane amounts of defense via permanent Flasks, which also frees up a lot of burden from your other Gear pieces. On your Rare pieces, you will want tons of maximum Life and Energy Shield, which gets converted into even more Life via Apostate. You will also need Energy Shield Recharge Rate, Elemental and Chaos Resistance, Ailment Avoidances, and Critical Strike Multiplier. Additional Cast Speed can lower your DPS if your Recharge Rate is not sufficient enough. 

(Weapon) Divinarius - you don't rely on Gem Levels like most Spell Casters, so this Dagger is the best Weapon you can wield. It grants you tons of Damage, improves your AoE, and Recovers your Life during Mapping.

(150-200)% increased Spell Damage Gain (100-200) Life per Enemy Killed Gain (50-100) Mana per Enemy Killed 30% increased Area of Effect (200-250)% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells if you've Killed Recently +(60-100)% to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spells if you haven't Killed Recently

(Shield) Rathpith Globe - a very important factor for this Build, it greatly improves your Spell Damage and Critical Strike Chance based on your maximum Life. You should Corrupt it to reduce the Damage you take from Critical Strikes.

(10-15)% Chance to Block Spell Damage (120-160)% increased Energy Shield 10% increased maximum Life Sacrifice 10% of your Life when you Use or Trigger a Spell Skill 5% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells per 100 Player Maximum Life 5% increased Spell Damage per 100 Player Maximum Life

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - here you should aim for tons of maximum Energy Shield, Life, and ES Recharge Rate. Additionally, you can look for Resistances or Attributes. Use Eater's Influence to reduce Ignite Duration on you.

Min. requirements: +80 to maximum Life +200 to Energy Shield 20% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate Optional affixes: Elemental Resistance Chaos Resistance % reduced Ignite Duration on you

(Body Armour) The Apostate - converts Energy Shield from your other Armour Items into maximum Life. It doesn't affect Jewelry or Jewels socketed in the Passive Tree.

Has no Attribute Requirements or Energy Shield (Hidden) +(30-50) to Strength +(20-30)% to all Elemental Resistances Gain Maximum Life instead of Maximum Energy Shield from Equipped Armour Items

(Body Armour) The Untouched Soul - if you leave most of your Red Sockets Empty, this Amulet grants you 440 base maximum Life. You can also use Omen of Blanching to safely get White Sockets if you desperately need Resistances.

+40 to maximum Life for each Empty Red Socket on any Equipped Item +225 to Accuracy Rating for each Empty Green Socket on any Equipped Item +40 to maximum Mana for each Empty Blue Socket on any Equipped Item +18% to all Elemental Resistances for each Empty White Socket on any Equipped Item

Recommended anointment:  Whispers of Doom

(Boots) Rare Boots - similarly to your Helmet, look for ES, Recharge Rate, and maximum Life. Exclusively to Boots, try to get Movement Speed, Bleed Avoidance, and Action Speed.

Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life +100 to Energy Shield 20% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate 30% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: Resistance 100% chance to Avoid Bleeding (Eater + Crafting Bench) Action Speed Attributes

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - another defensive piece, look for ES and its Recharge Rate, maximum Life, and optionally Resistances and Attributes. Use Eldritch Influence to apply Unnerve on your Enemies and get Life Leech from Chaos Damage.

Min. requirements: +80 to maximum Life +100 to Energy Shield 20% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate Optional affixes: Attributes Elemental Resistance % chance to Unnerve Enemies for 4 seconds on Hit % of Chaos Damage Leeched as Life

(Belt) Rare Belt - here you can heavily focus on maximum Life and Resistances. It can also greatly improve your Flask sustain. As always, try to use the Stygian Vise Base. The Hunter's Influence allows you to boost your maximum Life even further.

Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: % increased Life Attributes Chaos Resistance Flask Charges gained/used

(Jewel) Rare Abyss Jewel - on the Abyss Jewel you should look for maximum Life, lacking Resistances or Attributes, Critical Strike Multiplier, and immunity to Corrupted Blood.

Min. requirements: +30 to maximum Life Recommended affixes: Resistances Attributes Critical Strike Multiplier % increased Cast Speed if you've dealt a Critical Strike Recently Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you

(Jewel) Mageblood - the best defensive Belt in the game. It allows you to get nearly doubled effect of any Magic Flask with 100% uptime.  It is not necessary, but undoubtedly makes it easier to upgrade your other pieces.

+(25-35) to Strength +(30-50) to Dexterity +(15-25)% to Fire Resistance +(15-25)% to Cold Resistance Magic Utility Flasks cannot be Used Leftmost (2-4) Magic Utility Flasks constantly apply their Flask Effects to you Magic Utility Flask Effects cannot be removed

(Ring) Rare Ring - on your Rings you should seek maximum Life, Critical Strike Multiplier, Minimum Frenzy Charges, or cover lacking Resistances and Attributes. One of your Rings should also automatically apply Despair Curse on your Enemies.

Min. requirements: +60 to maximum Life +50% to Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Attributes Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit % increased Cast Speed #% to Critical Strike Multiplier

(Jewel) Rare Jewels - on your Jewels you should look for bonuses to maximum Life, Critical Strike Multiplier, Energy Shield Recharge Rate, and cover lacking Resistances and Attributes. If you use The Adorned, prioritize maximum Life and Critical Strike Multiplier.

Min. requirements: increased maximum Life Recommended affixes: % to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spell Damage % to Global Critical Strike Multiplier Elemental Resistances Attributes

(Jewel) Large Cluster Jewel - on a Large Cluster Jewel you should look for 3 Notables that would boost your Chaos Damage. Try to get a combination that lets you pick up only 2 useful notables to save points.

Recommended modifiers:  1 Added Passive Skill is Unholy Grace 1 Added Passive Skill is Unwaveringly Evil 1 Added Passive Skill is Dark Ideation 1 Added Passive Skill is Wicked Pall

(Jewel) Watcher's Eye - use modifiers that require Zealotry Aura to gain a lot of Damage from this Jewel. You can also include Vitality or Precision to get very useful modifiers, such as Flask Charges on Crit or Life Leech.

(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> Recommended Aura mods: (10-15)% increased Cast Speed while affected by Zealotry (0.8-1.2)% of Damage leeched as Life while affected by Vitality +(20-30)% to Critical Strike Multiplier while affected by Precision

(Jewel) The Adorned - with this Jewel you can double the value of maximum Life modifiers on your Magic Corrupted Jewels. Usually, even bad rolls will be better than perfect Rare Jewels.

(50-150)% increased Effect of Jewel Socket Passive Skills containing Corrupted Magic Jewels

(Jewel) Dissolution of the Flesh - greatly improves your maximum Life and changes its interactions with incoming Damage. You will now Reserve Life instead of losing it.

Removes all Energy Shield Life that would be lost by taking Damage is instead Reserved until you take no Damage to Life for 2 seconds (20-30)% more Maximum Life

(Jewel) Militant Faith - use this Jewel to get bonus Damage from your Power Charges, and greatly reduce the Duration of Ignite on you. Socket it near the Sentinel Notable for its interaction with Unnatural Instinct Jewel.

Carved to glorify (2000-10000) new faithful converted by High Templar Dominus Passives in radius are Conquered by the Templars Historic Recommended Devotion modifiers:  4% reduced Elemental Ailment Duration on you per 10 Devotion +2% to all Elemental Resistances per 10 Devotion 4% increased Area Damage per 10 Devotion

(Jewel) Unnatural Instinct - this Jewel improves your AoE and adds tons of Devotion when socketed near the Millitiant Faith.

Allocated Small Passive Skills in Radius grant nothing Grants all bonuses of Unallocated Small Passive Skills in Radius

(Flask) Bottled Faith - it is a great offensive Flask for every Build. It creates a large Consecrated Ground effect upon use, and you will deal significantly more Damage against Enemies standing on it.

(30-15)% reduced Duration Consecrated Ground created by this Flask has Tripled Radius Consecrated Ground created during Effect applies (7-10)% increased Damage taken to Enemies (100-150)% increased Critical Strike Chance against Enemies on Consecrated Ground during Effect

If you use Mageblood, use a mix of Elemental and Jade Flasks with bonuses to Evasion Rating, and Immunity against Poison and Curses.  Suggested regular Flasks: Quicksilver with Curse Reduction bonus Jade Flask with Evasion Rating bonus  Quartz Flask with Cast Speed bonus Diamond Flask with increased Critical Strike Chance

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

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