Dark Pact of Trarthus
Occultist Build

Updated for Patch 3.26

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Dark Pact of Trarthus is a new Nova-type Spell that conjures a stack of Ruin above your head with each cast. When you reach 7 stacks, it deals 50% of your Maximum Life as Chaos Damage, consuming it in the process, and resetting the Ruin counter. This very efficient scaling with Maximum Life funnels us into a specific Life-stacking archetype - it requires The Apostate, Rathpit Globe, and The Untouched Soul. We will also include The Adorned with multiple Magic Jewels with Life on them, since we have lots of sockets to fill. The end result should yield at least 20k Life. That's 10k base Chaos Damage with 100% Damage Effectiveness; a very big number. We can elevate it to deal around 100 million Hit Damage. With 7 casts a second, that we're expecting to reach, that's 50ml DPS, because you have to build up Ruin stacks between these bursts.

To gain the Sacrificed Life back, we will allocate the Eternal Youth Keystone. Recharge Recovers a set % of a resource a second, so no matter how much Life you have, it won't affect your recovery rate. With high enough Cast Speed, you will eventually Sacrifice more Life than you Recharge, so increasing your Recharge Rate will become mandatory. The finishing touch will be The Dissolution of the Flesh for 30% more Life. With it, the build has a sizeable life pool, but that does not translate into survivability. Your Armour/Physical Damage Reduction is poor, Resistances mediocre, and Recovery that of a malnourished Victorian child. Dissolution requires you to take no damage for 2 seconds, or you will never get back the Life that is now Reserved instead of dealt. Meaning, you cannot do content where you won't be able to catch a break - any content with high mob density, especially when it involves quick and ranged enemies.

It's more of a boss-killer build that's good for farming Uber Pinnacles. Remember, your AoE is bad. You will have to quickly dash into a pack of enemies and start Casting, which often ends badly. Runegraft of the Novamark with Assassin's Mark causes your Dark Pack to be dotonated on top of an enemy, allowing you to keep a safe distance from the target.. The only way to enhance your mapping experience is to detonate enemies on kill with Profane Bloom and Oriath's End. It's a build with a clear purpose, and mapping is not part of it.

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1. Gameplay

There are not that many skills here, since we need lots of empty Gem Sockets. Dark pact deals damage. Use it in combination with Assassin's Mark to cast it remotely. It's useful in cases where it's ill-advised to come near the enemy. To move around, cast Frosblink of Wintry Blast. Regular Frosblink has no Cast Time, which may be appealing too. Your sole Aura is Zealotry. Allocate Wellspring of Creation Keystone on your Atlas Tree. Your damage should be more than enough.

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

There is no way to level it up in a way that would gradually evolve into the finished version. You have to start with something completely different and change the build at around level 95. We would say level 100 is the best since you won't gain much level after switching into it. As of the current patch, one of the best ways to level up a Witch is Wintertide Brand Elementalist, but you should go with anything you're familiar with.

Bandits:

Kill all for a Skill Point

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

113 Points Final Passive Tree (doesn't include Unique and Cluster Jewels)
123 Points Path of Building (PoB) link

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in that order:

1. Void Beacon
2. Withering Presence
3. Forbidden Power
4. Profane Bloom

Pantheon:

Major God: The Brine King: You cannot be Stunned if you've been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds

Minor God: Soul of Abberath: 60% less Duration of Ignite on You; 10% increased Movement Speed while on Burning Ground, Unaffected by Burning Ground

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Dark Pact setup
	Dark Pact of Trarthus - Deals a bit of Chaos Damage with each Cast, but if you complete the sigil, you'll deal half of your Maximum Life as Chaos Damage.
	Intensify Support - Standing still while Casting grants more Damage and less AoE. It can be upgraded by an additional Intensify with a Caster Mastery.
	Increased Critical Damage Support - Extra Critical Strike Multiplier.
	Power Charge on Critical Support - More Damage per Power Charge with a chance of gaining it on Critical Strike.
	Spell Echo Support - Spell repeats an additional time with much more Cast Speed.
	Void Manipulation Support - More Chaos Damage at no cost whatsoever.

[UTILITY] Aura Setup
	Zealotry - More Spell Damage, Crit Chance for Spells, and Consecrated Ground on Hit. If your Mercenary has Zealotry, use Haste instead.
	Eternal Blessing Support - The linked Spell will Reserve nothing as long as it's your sole Aura.

[UTILITY] Remaining Gems
	Assassin's Mark - Extra base Crit Chance with Critical Strike Multiplier against Marked enemy.
	Frostblink of Wintry Blast - A version of Frostblink that has a Cast Time, but since your Cast Speed is high, it's short. You have to stay mobile when mapping.

6. Gear Setup

It's more or less a usual Apostatic Life-stacker. With The Apostate, you will need Energy Shield as well as Life on your Gloves, Boots, and Helmet, so aim for Warlock Gloves, Warlock Boots, and Lich's Circlet with high-tier Prefixes. On your Rare jewellery (Belt and Rings), you won't need any Energy Shield. With The Untouched Soul Amulet, be sure that all of the empty item sockets are red, which may be challenging to accomplish on these high-level pure ES bases. To get more damage, focus on Maximum Life, Critical Damage Multiplier, and Cast Speed. Cast Speed is a bit tricky, because if you have too much of it, you will sacrifice Life faster than you can Recharge it back. It doesn't diminish your damage, but bottlenecks it. Dark Pact's sigil explosion deals damage proportionally to how much Life it has consumed, up to 50%. Energy Shield Recovery Rate will help you with that; it can be found on a Skill Tree, Gloves, Boots, and Helmet. With Dissolution of the Flesh, you'll have to find a way to avoid the most common DoTs - Burning, Poison, Bleed, and Corrupted Blood. Employ Patheon, Tattoos, and item modifiers - Implicits on Boots and Jewels.

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - It needs T1 Life mod with as much ES as you can afford. We heavily recommend the modifier for increased ES Recovery Rate; it can be found as a Suffix and an Eldritch Implicit. For the second Eldritch mod, get Cast Speed.

Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life 300 Energy Shield Optional affixes:  increased Energy Shield Recovery Rate Intelligence Resistances

(Weapon) Divinarius - It's a very powerful weapon to wield against pinnacle bosses, but has no Cast Speed at all. Look for the high roll on Crit Multiplier. Corrupt it for an additional 25-30%.

30% increased Global Critical Strike Chance (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

(Weapon) Rare Wand - It provides much less Crit Multiplier, but instead it offers Cast Speed and regular Spell Damage, which can be crafted. It's much better for mapping, and we recommend at least swapping to it when doing so.

Min. requirements: +30% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier 30% increased Cast Speed Optional affixes:  Gain Life per Enemy Killed adds Damage to Spells increased Spell Damage

(Off-hand) Rathpith Globe - A primary source of your Crit Chance and increases Spell Damage. You may Corrupt it for increased Life.

(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 Spell Critical Strike Chance per 100 Player Maximum Life 5% increased Spell Damage per 100 Player Maximum Life

(Body Armour) The Apostate - It's the best way to stack Maximum Life. You will need items with Max Life and ES now, but only on Boots, Gloves, and Helmet.

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

(Boots) Rare Boots - We're hesitant to call increased Movement Speed a desirable mod since it's a Prefix. Movement speed is a good defensive layer. Maximum Life, Energy Shield, Resistances, and Attributes. For Eldritch mods - Chance to Avoid Poison or Bleeding with extra Action Speed.

Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life 250 Energy Shield Optional affixes:  increased Energy Shield Recovery Rate increased Movement Speed Attributes Resistances

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - Follow the usual drill - Maximum Life with Energy Shield. Dexterity should be easy to find on Gloves. For the Eldritch mods, get Chance to unnerve and slower Withered expiration.

Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life 250 Energy Shield Optional affixes:  increased Energy Shield Recovery Rate Attributes Resistances

(Belt) Rare Belt - You want the Hunter-influenced Stygian Vise with tons of flat Life and increased Life. Most of the other Hunter's mods can be great, like Flask Charge on Critical Strike or Cast Speed During Flask Effect. And Resistances with Attributes, of course.

Min. requirements: +130 to Maximum Life 10% increased Maximum Life Optional affixes:  Attributes Resistances Gain a Flask Charge when you deal a Critical Strike increased Cast Speed during any Flask Effect

(Amulet) The Untouched Soul - It's the reason why we have so few Skills, to gain more Life via Red Sockets. Remember to use Fertile Catalysts on all your jewellery items.

(12-20)% increased Rarity of Items found +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 Anointments: Force of Darkness

(Ring) Rare Rings - Rings can be very Expensive. There are Hunter and Vermilion Rings with increased Life, Manifold or Geodesic Rings with increased effect of Prefixes, and the Reflected Rings that could roll crazy amounts of Life. Besides that, they should get you Attributes and Resistances, maybe Crit Multiplier.

Min. requirements: +130 to Maximum Life Attributes Resistances Optional affixes:  increased Maximum Life Global Critical Strike Multiplier

(Jewel) Rare Jewels - We are using Corrupted Magic Jewels to improve them with The Adorned. There is only one Prefix, Maximum Life, and one Suffix, Crit Multiplier, that you should be striving for. Remember that one of them must have the Corrupted Blood Immunity.

Recommended affixes: 7% increased Maximum Life +10% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier +13% to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spell Damage

(Jewel) The Adorned - Aim for the Adored with 72% or 86% to improve your 7% Max Life bonus from Magic Jewels.

(0-100)% increased Effect of Jewel Socket Passive Skills containing Corrupted Magic Jewels

(Jewel) Dissolution of the Flesh - It grants up to 30% more Life, so any downside it has has to be overlooked.

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 - Dominus' variant grants Inner Conviction for more Spell Damage per Power Charge. Area Damage, effect of Auras, or Elemental Resistances are fitting Devotion mods. Socket it near Iron Grip or Mind over Matter and transform them. It cannot transform any of your allocated notables.

Carved to glorify (2000-10000) new faithful converted by High Templar (Avarius-Dominus-Maxarius) Passives in radius are Conquered by the Templars Historic

(Jewel) Watcher's Eye - Your Auras are Zealotry and maybe Haste if you can put one of these Auras on a Mercenary. Zealotry may roll increased Cast Speed, or grant Arcane Surge that also increases your Cast Speed. Haste has no good mods.

(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers>

(Jewel) Large Cluster Jewel - Use one or two of these 8-passive Large Chaos Damage Cluster Jewels with listed notables and a useful fourth Affix, such as the one for lacking Resistance or Attribute.

Recommended Affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Unwaveringly Evil 1 Added Passive Skill is Touch of Cruelty 1 Added Passive Skill is Unholy Grace

(Flask) Bottled Faith - Bottled Faith is good in most Crit builds. Use it against bosses to deal increased damage and cause them to take more of it.

40% increased Damage Creates Consecrated Ground on Use (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

(Flask) Oriath's End - If you're mapping, switch Bottled Faith for Oriath's End to do it much faster.

+35% to all Elemental Resistances (20-40)% increased Charge Recovery Enemies you Kill during Effect have a (20-30)% chance to Explode, dealing a tenth of their maximum Life as Damage of a Random Element

Suggested Flasks: Basalt Flask with increased Armour Granite Flask with increased Movement Speed Silver Flask with reduced effect of Curses on you Quicksilver Flask with bleed immunity or Shock Resistance

6. Mercenary Setup

There is only one sound option for a Merc, and that's Cruel Mistress. They need a Zealotry Skill. On their damaging Skills, they need at least one Wither on Hit Support. You can Wither yourself with Withering Presence passive, but it's too slow. We also recommend Void Sphere. The Runegraft of the Novamark (Astral Projector-esque interaction with Nova Skills) causes your Assassin's Mark to stay on corpses, so consuming them with Void Sphere is a good thing. The last thing to look at is how fast they can hit enemies. We want them to Curse on hit (via items), so that our Profane Bloom will proc explosion consistently. Merc with a lot of Projectile Speed (and Projectile Skills) that Chain or Pierce will do that.

[UTILITY] Mercenary Skills
	Zealotry - If they don't have it, you have to give up your Haste.
	Void Sphere - Consumes Corpses so that you will no longer target them.

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - You don't need Leer Cast since your damage is already increased by a lot with Rathpith Globe. Just get a Rare helmet with Resistances, Chaos Resistance reduction, and extra Pierce.

Min. requirements: Projectiles Pierce an additional Target (crafted) Nearby Enemies have -9% to Chaos Resistance (Hunter's Suffix) +80% total Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Chaos Resistance

(Weapon) Dying Breath - Cast Speed, increased effect of Curses on enemies, and increased effect of Auras on you make this Staff great.

18% increased Cast Speed 18% increased maximum Mana 18% increased Area of Effect of Aura Skills 18% increased Area of Effect of Hex Skills Nearby Enemies have 18% increased Effect of Curses on them Nearby allies gain 18% increased Damage 18% increased effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills

(Body Armour) Cospri's Will - Cospri's Will or a Rare Body Armour with +1 Max Curse are both good if your Merc casts only Despair and has no other Curse. Useless with Anathema.

3% increased Movement Speed (150-200)% increased Evasion Rating +(31-53)% to Chaos Resistance You can apply an additional Curse Your Hexes can affect Hexproof Enemies Always Poison on Hit against Cursed Enemies

(Body Armour) Garb of the Ephemeral - A defensive option that causes you to take no extra damage from Crits and prevents you from having your Action Speed lowered.

(180-230)% increased Energy Shield +600 Strength and Intelligence Requirement Gain a Divine Charge on Hit +10 to maximum Divine Charges You gain Divinity for 10 seconds on reaching maximum Divine Charges Lose all Divine Charges when you gain Divinity Nearby Allies' Action Speed cannot be modified to below Base Value Nearby Enemies cannot deal Critical Strikes

(Boots) Inextricable Fate - There's Life, Chaos Resistance, some defences, and Grasping Vines against stationary enemies, which can be helpful. Basic Rare Boots are also fine. Hunter's Boots may roll an additional Pierce for Projectiles.

+(13-17)% to Chaos Resistance +(80-100) to maximum Life 30% increased Movement Speed You gain 3 Grasping Vines when you take a Critical Strike Nearby stationary Enemies gain a Grasping Vine every 0.5 seconds All Damage inflicts Poison against Enemies affected by at least 3 Grasping Vines You take (50-30)% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes by Poisoned Enemies

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - Rare Gloves may be improved with the Eldritch mods that Extinguish enemies. There's not much else to look for, so you may as well seek cheap Corrupted Gloves with Enfeeble on Hit. Hands of the High Templar are useful for that.

Min. requirements: +80% total Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Chaos Resistance Extinguish on Hit increased Projectile Speed (Elder/crafted Prefix) Enfeeble on Hit (Corrupted Implicit)

(Belt) Kaom's Binding - An obvious choice due to the "Nearby Enemies Convert 25% of their Physical Damage to Fire" mod that causes you to take much less Physical Damage when it matters the most.

+(25-35) to Strength +(30-40) to Strength +(300-500) to Armour Take no Burning Damage if you've stopped taking Burning Damage Recently Nearby Enemies Convert 25% of their Physical Damage to Fire

(Amulet) Gloomfang - The Gloomfang, anointed with Longshot, improves Projectiles' ability to Curse on Hit when mapping. Chaos Damage Leech grants Life Recovery. If you don't need that Chain or Leech, select Zerphi's Heart, Karui Ward, or Fury Valve instead.

(48-56)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate 0.5% of Chaos Damage Leeched as Life Lose (15-10) Life per Enemy Hit with Spells Lose (25-20) Life per Enemy Hit with Attacks Skills Chain +1 times (30-40)% increased Projectile Speed Projectiles that have Chained gain (20-35)% of Non-Chaos Damage as extra Chaos Damage

(Ring) Rare Rings - Rings can famously roll Curses on Hit, but in our case, the only useful one is Despair, and a Cruel Mistress has that Skill baked in already. They still need any Curse on Hit, so if you don't have Enfeeble on Hit from Gloves, get this Despair here.

Min. requirements: +80% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Zealotry has #% increased Aura Effect (Corrupted Implicit) Maximum Life Chaos Resistance

(Ring) Anathema - It will be needed to fit your Assassin's Mark, their Despair, and their Enfeeble or any other Curse on Hit.

+(15-25) to maximum Energy Shield +(30-40) to Intelligence (10-15)% increased Cast Speed (10-20)% chance to gain a Power Charge when you Cast a Curse Spell Your Curse Limit is equal to your maximum Power Charges

(Ring) Fated End - If you have no Despair on Hit, it will cause the regular Despair to grow in effectiveness every second, up to 220% of its base effect. That's a big Chaos Resistance reduction.

+(20-30) to maximum Mana +(20-40) to Intelligence Curse Skills have (8-12)% increased Cast Speed Non-Aura Hexes gain 20% increased Effect per second Non-Aura Hexes expire upon reaching (180-220)% of base Effect

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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