Quad Dark Pact
Totem Hierophant
Build updated for Patch 3.2

The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo

Estimated budget: moderately low (10-12 Exalted Orbs)

Quad Dark Pact Totem is excellent for both Hardcore and Softcore modes because your totems will tank most of the damage and high life pool combined with Mind over Matter passive and Hierophant’s Ascendancy will help you tank damage directed to you with ease. Chaos damage from Dark Pact scales insanely well with increased % damage, which combined with Pursuit of Faith Hierophant’s Ascendancy node allows you to deal massive damage while mapping. Flat damage from dual wielding Apep’s Rage or increased level of socketed Chaos Gems from the newly added staff Cane of Unravelling can massively increase your Dark Pact’s damage. Investing into Tukohama’s Fortress allows you to have five totems placed at one time! While it may not make much difference when mapping, it gives high damage increase versus bosses.

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1. Gameplay

Dark Pact Totem Hierophant is a very straightforward build - you summon skeletons and drop Totems which will sacrifice the undead dealing violent area explosions and clearing full screens at once. Your movement skill Flame Dash, due to its high mana cost from Apep’ s Rage, will proc Arcane Surge Support, which will provide us with constant increased spell damage and increased Cast Speed.

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

Recommended leveling process is to use Freezing Pulse until level 28 when you switch to Dark Pact linked with Spell Totem Support Gem. High base damage of Dark Pact should carry you by itself until endgame. For leveling the recommended option is to use two wands with a high Spell Damage and flat added damage to spells as possible. If you are playing this build on Abyss League, you should find Abyss Jewel with the highest added damage to spells and socket it into Stygian Vise belt.

Suggested leveling gem setups:

Freezing Pulse setup
	Freezing Pulse - best spell for the early leveling phase
	Added Cold Damage Support - great buff to your DPS providing flat damage added to spells
	Lesser Multiple Projectiles Support - this will make your FP viable for faster clearing through locations

Dark Pact setup
	Dark Pact - you should start using Dark Pact at level 28
	Spell Totem Support - it’s mandatory to link it to DP because you cannot use spells directly after you grab the Ancestral Bond node
	Added Chaos Damage Support - this gem provides an insane damage boost to your Totems. Keep in mind that you can only drop it or buy from other players. You cannot buy it from any vendor
	Added Lightning Damage Support - another gem giving a lot of flat added damage to your Totems

Utility gems
	Stone Golem - grants a bit of Life Regeneration which helps a lot with survivability while leveling
	Summons Skeletons - Dark Pact Totems can sacrifice skeletons for increased damage explosions. Recommended to link Increase Minion Life, because of Dark Pact scaling with sacrificed minion’s maximum Life

Bandits:

We recommend killing all bandits for the additional 2 passive points

Leveling skill trees:

30 Points Skill tree
Priorities: 1) Amplify 2) Inspiration 3) Light of Divinity 4) Purity of Flesh 5) Quick Recovery

72 Points Skill tree
Priorities: 1) Ancestral Bond 2) Devotion 3) Totemic Mastery 4) Totemic Zeal 5) Shamanistic Fury 6) Blast Radius

Recommended leveling items:

Tabula Rasa - definitely the best item for leveling, allows you to link up to 5 support gems to your spell gems starting at level 1. It can be used up to late endgame when you switch to Carcass Jack
Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden)

Hrimmsorrow - great gloves that provide a lot of flat damage added to spells
+(20-30) to Strength Adds (5-7) to (13-15) Cold Damage to Spells and Attacks +(40-50) to Evasion Rating +(20-30)% to Cold Resistance 50% of Physical Damage Converted to Cold Damage Reflects 10 Cold Damage to Melee Attackers

Karui Ward - amazing DPS and movement speed bonuses granted by this amulet, combined with freezing pulse projectiles will make your leveling process before getting Dark Pact much smoother
+(20-30) to Dexterity +(20-30) to Strength +100 to Accuracy Rating 30% increased Projectile Speed 10% increased Movement Speed 30% increased Projectile Damage

Lifesprig - a perfect wand, which can be used since level 1. It gives a lot of Spell Damage and Cast Speed. It can also be dual-wielded for even higher damage
(8-12)% increased Spell Damage +1 to Level of Socketed Spell Gems (20-28)% increased Spell Damage (5-8)% increased Cast Speed +(15-20) to maximum Life +(15-20) to maximum Mana Regenerate (6-8) Life over 1 second when you Cast a Spell

4. Final Skill tree, Ascendancy Points and Pantheon

Final skill tree:

115 Points Final Skill Tree
116 Points Path of Building link

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in that order:

1. Pursuit of Faith
2. Illuminated Devotion
3. Divine Guidance
4. Ritual of Awakening

Pantheon:

Major God : Soul of Solaris- 6% Physical Damage Reduction if there is only one nearby Enemy; 20% chance to take 50% less Area Damage from Hits

Minor God : Soul of Ryslatha - Life Flasks gain 3 Charges every 3 seconds if you haven't used a Life Flask Recently

5. Final gems links

[DPS] Dark Pact Spell Totem setup
	Dark Pact - your main DPS spell. It grants incredible AoE and excellent single target DPS that will be cast by your Spell Totems
	Spell Totem Support - main support gems, which makes totem’s cast linked spell
	Added Chaos Damage Support - boosts your chaos damage by a lot
	Controlled Destruction Support - increases your spell damage, which scales well with all flat damage added to spells
	Void Manipulation Support–increases all chaos damage
	Concentrated Effect Support - increases all damage by a lot in exchange for reduced Dark Pact's AoE. Can be swapped for Increased Area of Effect Support or Faster Casting Support for mapping if it doesn’t cut your clear speed

[MINIONS] Summon Skeletons 4L setup
	Summon Skeletons - summons skeletons which are sacrificed for more Dark Pact damage
	Faster Casting Support - improved quality of this support gems, makes summoning skeletons faster
	Spell Echo Support - increased quality of this gem is recommended
	Minion Life Support - colossal DPS boost, because Dark Pact damage is based on sacrificed minion’s life

[DEFENSE/Utility] Cast When Damage Taken 4L setup
	Stone Golem - grants additional life regen. While linked to CwDT gem, the GOlem will be summoned automatically
	Cast when Damage Taken Support - will make it cast supported spells after the player takes a certain amount of damage
	Molten Shell - will grant a temporary boost to armour. It is automatically cast by the CwDT
	Decoy Totem - Decoy Totem taunts nearby enemies who might come in handy in dangerous situations

[MOBILITY] Flame Dash 4L setup
	Flame Dash - our main movement skill, it grants the Arcane Surge buff
	Faster Casting Support - increases cast speed of Flame Dash
	Arcane Surge Support - with an increased mana cost of skills from Apep’s Rage our Flame Dash will apply Arcane Surge every cast which increases spell damage and cast speed
	Increased Duration Support - increases the duration of Arcane Surge buff

[CURSE] Wither/Despair 3L setup
	Despair - curse reduces chaos resistance and adds additional damage cursed enemies receives
	Wither - channeling skill which stacks a debuff on your enemies increasing chaos damage taken
	Faster Casting Support - increase cast speed for both Wither and Despair

5. Gear Setup

Below you will find all the recommended items for the Quad Dark Pact Totem Hierophant. We have included several gear options for both low and higher budgets. The main difference lies in the body armour and weapon choices.

If you couldn't afford the recommended items, we would love to invite you to visit our Path of Exile market where you can buy cheap POE currency to complete this build.

Our recommended items will:

1. Cap your resistances 
2. Give you enough DPS/Life to start mapping successfully
3. Save you at least a couple of hours, as it's already all planned out for you!

(Helmet) Voll’s Vision - this helmet provides nice bonuses to maximum Life, Life Regeneration, and Elemental Resistances, but you cannot equip corrupted items for it to work

+(260-300) to Armour +(26-32)% to Fire Resistance +(8-16)% to Chaos Resistance 20% increased Light Radius (8-12)% increased Maximum Life if no Equipped Items are Corrupted Regenerate 100 Life per second if no Equipped Items are Corrupted

(Weapon) Apep’s Rage - definitely the best in slot wand for this build. It is recommended to dual wield them, giving a lot of flat chaos damage, spell damage and increased cast speed

(38-42)% increased Spell Damage Adds (50-65) to (90-105) Chaos Damage to Spells (25-30)% increased Cast Speed +(5-10)% to Chaos Resistance 40% increased Mana Cost of Skills

(Weapon) Rare Wands

Min. requirements: 80% increased Spell Damage 60 Added Damage to Spells 15% increased Cast Speed Optional affixes: Increased Critical Strike Multiplier Increased Maximum Mana

(Weapon) Cane of Unravelling - it’s another good option for this build, which provides a lot of additional chaos damage, but it requires you to link your Dark Pact setup to it

18% Chance to Block +2 to Level of Socketed Chaos Gems (60-80)% increased Chaos Damage 2% increased Cast Speed per Power Charge Gain a Power Charge after you spend a total of 200 Mana 2 Mana Regenerated per Second per Power Charge

(Shield) Tukohama’s Fortress - another great unique item that will increase both your damage and defenses and on top of that it allows you to summon additional totem

+(20-30) to maximum Life 40% increased Totem Damage +(80-100) to maximum Life Can have up to 1 additional Totem summoned at a time +300 Armour per active Totem Blood Magic

(Body Armour) Tabula Rasa–great, cheap 6-link body armour that comes at the cost of no defensive stats. The most budget-friendly chest variant for this build

Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden)

(Body Armour) Skin of the Loyal - another great cheap 6-link chest. It is much better than Tabula Rasa as it provides 100% increased global defenses, but you have to find one with proper socket colors (you cannot alter them in any way)

3% reduced Movement Speed (Hidden) Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Sockets cannot be modified +1 to Level of Socketed Gems 100% increased Global Defences

(Body Armour) Carcass Jack - best in slot armour for this build, increasing area of effect and damage of your Dark Pact. On top of that gives you a lot of Life and Elemental Resistances

(120-150)% increased Evasion and Energy Shield +(50-70) to maximum Life +(9-12)% to all Elemental Resistances 20% increased Area of Effect (40-50)% increased Area Damage Extra gore

(Body Armour) Cherrubim’s Maleficence - another great armour that  increases your life pool and chaos damage

(50-80)% increased Chaos Damage (160-200)% increased Armour and Evasion +(70-100) to maximum Life 100% increased Life Leeched per second

(Boots) Rare Life/res boots - get a pair with the highest maximum Life bonus you can afford

Min. requirements: 60 maximum Life 20% increased Movement Speed 25% Fire Resistance 25% Lightning Resistance 25% Cold Resistance

(Belt) Rare Life/res belt - again, we try to grab one with the highest maximum life and elemental resistances bonuses

Min. requirements: 70 maximum Life 35% Fire Resistance 35% Lightning Resistance 35% Cold Resistance Optional affixes: increased Flask Duration increased Movement Speed

(Amulet) Bisco’s Collar - great, but expensive amulet. It provides insane increased rarity and quantity of item’s dropped, but comes at a cost of no additional stats. Requires highest PoE Currency investment in other gear pieces

(12-20)% increased Rarity of Items found (100-150)% increased Rarity of Items Dropped by Slain Magic Enemies (50-100)% increased Quantity of Items Dropped by Slain Normal Enemies

(Amulet) Rare Life/res amulet crafted with Essence of Envy (for % increased Chaos Damage)

Min. requirements: 60 maximum Life 15% All Elemental Resistances % increased Chaos Damage Optional affixes: maximum Mana Attributes

(Ring) Rare Life/res rings crafted with Essence of Envy (for % increased Chaos Damage)

Min. requirements: 60 maximum Life 15% All Elemental Resistances % increased Chaos Damage Optional affixes: maximum Mana Attributes

(Gloves) Rare Life/res gloves

Min. requirements: 60 maximum Life 25% Fire resistance 25% Lightning resistance 25% Cold resistance Optional affixes: Armour increased Rarity of Items Found

(Jewel) Clear Mind - insanely powerful jewel. We use it for the very same reason we advised to use it during leveling phase - amazing increased Spell damage bonus

(20-30)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate (40-60)% increased Spell Damage while no Mana is Reserved

(Jewel) Rare jewels - they should provide extra Life and damage bonuses

Recommended affixes: % increased maximum Life % increased Generic/Spell/Chaos Damage % increased Cast Speed Optional affixes: % increased Area Damage % increased Totem Damage

(Flask) Forbidden Taste - very good flask, recovering all your life on use

Recover Full Life on use 8% of maximum Life taken as Chaos Damage per second

Other suggested Flasks: Bubbling Divine Life Flask of Staunching (immunity to bleeding) Bubbling Divine Life Flask of Warding/Curing/Grounding (immunity of your choice) Catalysed Eternal Mana Flask of Heat (immunity to freeze) Alchemist’s Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline

If you have any other build requests, please leave that in the comments below.

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