I've been experimenting with the Tainted Pact Amulet for the past two weeks. I'm not running any calcs or POB so far, the build is barely viable, very close to immortal, but still suffers from Physical Hit, and died to Uber Shaper Slam due to insufficient lifepool. I'm not sure how to scale the DPS and the gem choice, the gear is still scuffed, but here's the no-config raw POB: https://pobb.in/KFW6U0eypjHi

I think the build has some potential, but it's just too much for me to figure this out alone since I don't even understand half of the mechanics on this build. Just take a shot in the dark and see what works. So here's what I've learned so far:

Flaw of the build:

- Leech duration is very inconsistent; there are so many mods in the game that can shorten the duration of the leech. For example, any + Chaos Resistance on the mobs will lower your hits, which will also reduce your leech duration, but this doesn't affect your poison duration. So, poison duration > leech duration = dead.

- Sometimes you don't leech hard enough from one-shotting a singular trash monster (like in Simulacrum), and again, leech duration is reduced = dead. But this can be solved with the Flask Mastery node "Remove a random non-elemental ailment when you use a Life Flask."

- Scaling eHP is quite hard due to the detrimental effect of Ming's Heart Ring, but without this, the Reap isn't strong enough to have a full duration of leech. Probably not an issue if using another type of gem.

- Hitting without Atziri's Promise Flask active sometimes killed me.

- Yes, my poison chance is still not capped, but I don't think it's even needed.

- I think the correct play here is to scale the DPS with the big initial hit and not scale DoT or poison. Think of it as a big hit DPS, and poison as complementary. Build archetype like Low Tolerance might be viable.

- The problem with scaling DoT/poison is that it generally scales by lowering your hit (like Deadly Ailments), increasing the poison duration, or something like GMP with less hit damage and stacking poison as much as possible. This three doesn't scale with leech, whereas scaling the initial phys/chaos hit scales poison DPS and leech at the same time.

- I don't know why, but swapping my Oriath's end to Progenesis makes me die more often, this might not be correlated.

Mandatory Gear:

- You need a source of overleech, so either you go Slayer, Immortal Ambition, or Mahuxotl's Shield. I use Mahuxotl's Shield since it's quite cheap in this league.

- Wurm's Molt, to leech life into full duration as a Pathfinder, I don't know any other uniques or mods that leech as strong as this.

- Watcher's Eye "% damage leeched as life while affected by Vitality" and Atziri's Promise flask as source of spell life leech.

- Asenath's gentle touch, purely for clearing and applying curse.

- Life flask with crafted "15% damage taken from hits leeched as life", I don't know if this helps with Forbidden Rite + CwS but might as well just put this on.

- Ming's Heart, not enough leech without this.

- 2 Maximum Life + 1 Endurance Grand Spectrum, I don't know any better options to mitigate Phys without armor.

Things that can be improved:

- Helmets.

- gloves for bossing.

- Anointment, I don't know which one is the best yet.

- Maybe swapping boots for Ralakesh boots since you are basically stationary all the time for bossing.

- Weapon DoT multiplier fractured is probably wrong, crucible tree is irrelevant.

Tips and build ideas:

- Self-poisoning with the Golden Rule means you "reflect" the poison and not "inflict" it on you. It means the poison duration you are inflicting on the monster = the poison duration on you, it can't be modified by any "less poison/debuff duration on you" mods.

- You technically don't have to mitigate any DoT like Ignite, Bleed, Corrupted Blood, or Ground Degen since the Tainted Pact will outhealed any source of DoT in the game as long as you can leech.

- Reducing your poison duration with something like Swift Affliction Support is generally good for not dying randomly but feels clunky to play since you don't always have poison on you. You can try and feel it for yourself. I prefer scaling leech rather than reducing poison duration.

- I don't think using Reap is the most optimal, I used Reap just because I've never used it and wanted to try it. And also, there are very few sources of life leech for spells, which makes it hard to build around. Probably attack gems with big hits will be better.

- Any life-based cost skill/unique is basically free with Tainted Pact. I can spam Vaal Reap with 9 Blood Charges while casting the Forbidden Rite and don't have to worry at all. You can go wild with this. Dark Pact, Demon Stitcher gloves, Relic of the Pact, you name it.

- I really like the Forbidden Rite + CwS (Cast When Stunned) setup with the Immutable Force jewel, it felt like a scuffed ward loop. You don't need Blood Notch + Life Recoup since Tainted Pact heals the damage for you.

- "Gain adrenaline when stunned" mastery can be nice but can't be combined with Immutable Force.

- Swapping Tempered by War with Strength of Blood might be good.

- There are some interesting unique helmets and boots like Glimpse of Chaos, maybe 6-linking Forbidden Rite + CwS with Forbidden Shako, etc.

- Forbidden Rite + Fourth Vow + Glimpse of Chaos might be worth looking at.

I hope this build archetype gets more attention and gets solved quickly. Don't ask me about leech mechanics. I'm not an expert and am still learning about the topics myself, but I'm open to suggestions.