Relic of the Pact Ascendant ~ Build Guide

************************************************ Caution Before you Buy *********************************************************************** This build is a fast mapper with high bossing potential simply due to overkill levels of damage. This build operates a lot differently than most other builds in how it interacts with incoming damage due to being built around dissolution of the flesh. Dissolution of flesh can feel very strong at times and other times it can also be a very tilting element. It requires a high level of attentiveness to ones life reservation amount and playing around dodging mechanics when ones life pool starts to get too low. I highly recommend getting a good understanding of how dissolution operates/feel for it before commiting to the character as it could be a make or break element depending on personal preferences of playstyle. Limitations: This build does not operate well in content with high amounts of unavoidable damage(I am mainly thinking of simulacrum being an issue but there may be some others I can't think of) This build packs a weird mixture of invincible and glass cannon, if an enemy hits at the exact right moment during the cast of blood sacrament they can one hit us leading to some random one shots during playing the character. It doesn't happen all that often but it does happen, consider it a justice/balance for all the enemies we get to one shot. This being this can be heavilly mitigated if you opt for a lower reservation amount than 91%, keep in mind this will lower your damage/aoe for the value of much high defensive consistency. Problematic Mob Types: Flicker Strike Mobs / Prefire Spark mobs -> generally 90% of mobs will be easilly killed before they can hit us but there are certain mobs that can be annoying to deal with as a dissolution build that pick apart our very weakness and generally maps that spawn with these mobs will be a lot more rippy/harder to progress through ************************************************ Mandatory Key Pieces **************************************************************************** *eternal youth = recharge on life pool that never ends which counteracts petrified blood degen damage & gives of life to use skills *dissolution of the flesh = 30% more life & makes damage reserve life instead of remove from life pool, 2 seconds without taking damage is required to unreserve life from taking damage *petrified blood = pretty much doubles our ehp meaning when we go down to 10% life the enemy has to deal damage close to 20% of our life pool to one hit us(20% of 20k, actually not the worst one hit threshold tbh) *Essence worm + reduced reservation efficiency kalandra ring + increased reservation efficiency(champion of cause/jewel implicits) = need to hit 92% reduced reservation total(91/93 are doable but not ideal) *relic of pact / rathpith globe are mandatory uniques which the entire build is entirely formed around -> more life = better build *kaom's spirit => this unique allows us to put berserk on left click for very high uptime which provides great movement + damage + damage mitigation. *Ailments we need to deal with *Poison -> boot mod(very easy to craft, check explanation later in notes) *bleed -> boot implicit + jewel implicit/explicits(bleed avoidance needs to be at 100% *Ignite -> minor pantheon 60% less duration makes it mostly manageable also solves burning ground *Freeze -> brine king Pantehon + chill reduction *shock/other ailments we do not get immunity to with my current setup(this has not proven to be an issue for me in my playtesting ************************************************ Pros & Cons ****************************************************************************************** Pros: *High DPS *Very High EHP when necessary(idling casting for things like uber shaper ball phase for example) *Fast Movement Speed *Big AoE *Fast Cast Time *High mobility while dealing damage(never had an easier time dodging uber eater tentacle whips while full dps before this build) *Build operates on very low gear value as long as you have relic of the pact *S tier bosser due to OP damage Cons: *Random One Shots *Bit awkward to play if enemies hit us before we hit them(dodge out of combat to unreserve life is mandatory to cast sometimes) *requires a pretty active/paying attention decently playstyle *Mid tier mapper due to dissolution ************************************************ Leveling ********************************************************************************** *Level however you want till 38(the build comes online and works great the moment we can equip essence worm) ~respec to level 38 tree recommended at this point and it should be smooth sailing until rathpith globe is equippable which is basically when the build becomes utterly amazing :) (I recommend just grinding some blood aqueducts till 68 because there is some heavy dopamine involved in one hitting the rest of the act bosses once you equip rathpith) ************************************************ Gem Links ********************************************************************************** Relic of The Pact -> Brutality - Second Wind - Lifetap(only do this while leveling, swap out of lifetap once you get 92% reduced reservation efficiency for Crit damage) Vaal Righteous Fire (this is just free damage to proc on bosses/while mapping Enhance - Divergent Berserk(more spell damage+speed+defence) - Divergent Second Wind(phasing) Petrified Blood(giga extra defense) OR Pride(damage good to use on certain recovery disabling bosses(exarch/maven/sirus) -> socketed in essence worm Assassin's mark - Arcanist Brand - Faster Casting (something to preload a debuff on bosses before the spawn) Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Flame Dash (extra movement utility options) Misc: Steelskin (temporary bleed immunity with bad uptime, helps a bit until you get full bleed immunity) Extra Sockets: Cast on death portal is an option? To be honest I had an extremely hard time thinking of any useful utility skills to use so your guess is as good as mine for coming up with a good use for these extra sockets :D ************************************************ Life Pool Explanation ********************************************************************************** Dissolution of the flesh -> Damage now reserves our life instead of removing it (separates damage taken from our normal life amount)(unreserves after 2 seconds of not taking damage) Petrified blood -> a portion of the damage that would reserve life is now applied as a degen to our normal life amount Eternal Youth -> Applies recharge to life pool, this recharge never deactivates and thus counteracts degen from petrified blood My Life Pool in video appears to be jumping up and down based on us reserving life to cast blood sacrament, this is due to enabling UI option to show life pool based on unreserved life total. It adds to the excitement of gameplay, enable only if you want to see life pool rapidly bounce up and down while playing the character :) ************************************************ Ascendancy Choice ********************************************************************************** Ascendant -> ideal starting points on tree to get biggest bang for buck in scaling life ->pathfinder sub ascendancy = easy res capping via flasks along ->Berserker -> best damage of options available + high uptime of stun immunity. (chieftain will give higher life scaling) ************************************************ Flasks ********************************************************************************** Aim for Reduced charges used OR Charge recovery rate as prefixes. This combined with reuse at the end of flask should enable a setup where we press flasks once at the start of each zone and they remain on for the entiriety of the zone. Keep in mind this isn't permanent effective flask uptime but pseudo-permanent, as long as we are killing monsters/bosses the flasks will be on effectively permanently, but there is a limit so a long enough time without contact with monsters will result in the flasks running out. Run tri ele flasks + bismuth & quicksilver. Aim for suffixes like "additional all ele res / movement speed / cast speed / %regen craft / avoid bleed(could be good if you can't cap on jewels) / reduce effect of curses ************************************************ 92% Reduced Reservation Perfectly Balanced *************************************************** Why 92%? This allows us to reserve 91% of our life with 1 tick cast of blood sacrament while using good supports(brutality/crit damage/second wind) Why not 93%? -> would reserve 96% with a 130 multiplier instead of brutality(brutality would reserve too much of our life to be even castable) 96% reservation would give us a bit more base damage but with a support worse than brutality the damage will probably end up being less while also making our liklihood to be one shot go much higher, less QoL. Safer Option 91%? -> would reserve around 80%ish life per cast ( less damage/aoe) but would be higher QoL and a safer play style. How do we hit 92% reduced reservation efficiency? *80% from essence worm(this can be qualitied to 92% with legacy essence worms in standard, not doable in league) *15-28% from kalandra ring(negative variant of delve mod life reservation efficiency) *Positive reservation efficiency from annoint/jewel implicits to counter balance down to 92% as our minimum roll for kalandra jewellry is 15% Example for my character: 80%(essence worm) + 26%(my kalandra ring) -8%(annoint) -6%(3 jewel implicits) = 92% ************************************************ How to Craft Kalandra Ring ********************************************************************************** Reflection of kalandra is a rare tileset that can be found in lake of kalandra which will always spawn "ethereal reflecting mist" this mist allows us to place our own jewellry in to be reflected, and it will generally make half the mods go negative and the other half go positive. 95% of the time or so this is an even split of negative and positive mods which will always generate a result with a specific multiplier to the value of the item's modifiers we put in. From my testing this modifier is consistent as follows: Kalandra Difficulty Multiplier D1 = 1.5 multiplier D2 = 1.6 D3 = 1.7 D4 = 1.8 D5 = 1.85 D6 = 1.9 D7 = 1.95 D8 = 2 D9 = 2.05 D10 = 2.1 D11 = 2.15 D12 = 2.2 D13 = 2.25 D14 = 2.3 D15 = 2.35 D16 = 2.4 This means we can knowingly predict what %reservation amount the ring will give based on the kalandra difficulty we use when crafting our ring. The higher multiplier means we will get a stronger ring for life/crit multi/strength/ect but it will also mean we need more reservation efficiency on our jewels/annoint. I recommend using a even multiplier for hitting a 92% reservation setup, and only use an odd multiplier if you want to get a 91% setup going for a safer playstyle. Outcome Odds: (I don't know the odds of the all positive/extra positive outcomes but from my experience its happened once in about 30 reflections i've done so I am just going to say its a 5% chance as a rough estimate so just know 5% of those times kalandra may screw you) 2 mod ring life + rmr affix: 100% -> high life + negative rmr mod 3/4/5/6 mod ring life + rmr + 4 dead mods: 60% roughly to get high life + negative rmr 3 mod ring life + rmr + crit multi: 50% for high life, high crit multi + negative rmr mod 4 mod ring life + rmr + crit mult + dead mod: 33% for high life/crit + negative rmr/dead mod 5/6 mod ring life + rmr + crit multi + 2/3 dead mods: 30% for high life/crit + negative rmr + dead mods 5/6 mod ring life + rmr + crit multi + strength + 2 dead m1ods: 10% chance for high life/crit/strength + negative rmr + dead mods Early budget: Just a ring with life + reseravtion efficiency + dead mods -> reflection of kalandra of appropriate difficulty for reservation efficiency you have access to Mid budget: Fractured reservation efficiency mod + scorn essence till high life + anul off extra mods -> kalandra reflect for 50% success rate High budget: Fractured Reservation efficiency mod + scorn essence till high life + a third good mod + benchcraft on min charge(incase extra mod goes positive) -> kalandra reflect for 10% success rate ************************************************ Amulet Craft/Buy ********************************************************************************** Early budget: Buy an amulet with just high crit multi + life + extra dead mods Mid budget: Buy a better amulet with higher crit multi + higher life + dead mods High budget: Buy Fractured Life/Strength/All attributes/Crit multi + scorn/rage essence till 3 good mods + extra dead mods + benchcraft min charge(incase extra mod goes positive) Annoint champion of cause if you need rmr efficiency or life notable ************************************************ Boot Craft ********************************************************************************** Early budget: Buy Fractured Movement Speed Boots + (Corroded + hollow + Glyphic Fossil) till cannot poison/abyssal socket(usually happens on first try) -> benchcraft flat life Mid budget: Buy Fractured Strength Boots + (Corroded + hollow + Glyphic Fossil) till cannot poison/abyssal socket -> suffixes can't be changed + veiled chaos -> bencraft life -> unveil move speed High budget: Buy Fracutred Life Boots + (Corroded + hollow + Glyphic Fossil + fundamental) till cannot poison/abyssal socket/high strenght -> suffixes can't be changed + veiled chaos -> block mana -> unveil movespeed -> benchcraft hybrid life ************************************************ Belt Craft ********************************************************************************** Early budget: buy a belt with high life + % life OR elder leather belt + scour + fertile catalyst + alch + pristine fossil spam till good life Mid budget: create/buy elder+hunter stygian vise -> spam pristing/fundamental/sanctified till good life/strength/%attribute belt -> benchcraft %cdr for damage High budget: Same as mid budget craft except roll over good belts, and only settle for T1 perfection you filthy rich min-maxer ;) ************************************************ Glimpse of Chaos ********************************************************************************** This helm has multiple good implicits: AoE => best clear Malediction => best damage/defense Min Charge => good damage/bit of extra speed/defense CDR => Good damage if you can't get CDR on boots & Belt, cdr breakpoints are something like 10% and 18% Helm can be divined if bad rolls, keep this in mind as it could be worth to get a BiS implicit. ************************************************ Jewels ********************************************************************************** *Crit multi + %life are the stats we want, aim for jewels with these stats until you can afford grand spectrum life(only necessary for min-maxing) *transcendent flesh should be used where unnatural instinct is until you can afford unnatural instinct, transcendent flesh is actually superior damage but offers less QoL and you need to drop path of warrior node if you use this jewel *lethal pride in resistance scion location allows for us to get %life/strength on 4 possible notables potentially(double damage is also a good stat to look for) ************************************************ Hardest Bosses for the Build? ********************************************************************************** Uber Exarch / Sirus / Maven all share one thing in common, they have mechanics that disable recovery. If recovery is disabled petrified blood degen damage will instantly kill us, so for these fights I would recommend running pride instead of petrified blood. Petrified blood = extra tankiness but has its short comings in specifically these fights. Pride is a healthy amount of extra damage to help us eliminate these bosses and their BS quicker ************************************************ Map Mods That Brick Us ********************************************************************************** Phys Reflect (can get reflect immune with phys cluster + mastery + minor pantheon if needed for atziri) Desecrated Ground(really annoying to stop us from unreserving life if we stand in wrong spot) Less Recovery(if using height of hubris this will brick our petrified blood, can swap to pride for these fights) Less Cooldown Recovery(will brick our damage, as we are cooldown based build) There are other mods that are unpleasant like reduced flask charges used for example, but generally most invitations/ect we can kill the bosses before our flasks run out. Also there may be mods I am forgetting, I am human. ************************************************ Min-maxing Suggestions ********************************************************************************** *Enchant Relic for AoE -> double corrupt(can get 28 qual after hitting good corruption with tainted whetstones) *double corrupt rathpith globes *Enchant Glimpse of Chaos for Berserk Effect *Tailoring orb kaoms +(double corrupt if you get real crazy) *get cdr on belt + boots 18% is breakpoint for a total of like 25% more damage(will need to get bleed avoid implicits on more jewels) *good double corrupt on kaom's spirit *enchant boots for movement speed ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************** (Corroded + hollow + Glyphic Fossil) till cannot poison/abyssal socket