pob: https://pastebin.com/DWmgm5jN

budget in video is 50 ex

#Introduction

This is a really fun build that uses a lot of cool interactions. Something about dark pact is just immensely satisfying to play.

##Pros

• large hybrid health pool (10K EHP)

• high single target dps

• the juiciest life flask you've ever seen (heals you to full)

• Dark pact explosions are very satisfying

• Ailment immune

• hexproof

##Cons

• not the best mapper. I'd give it an A- or B+, just not enough move speed. Play style for mapping is easy and smooth though (drop totems and keep on moving)

• totem playstyle

• have to actually reactively push life flask. Cant just afk regen through everything like aura stacker or agnostic build.

#Mechanics

The main relatively unique mechanic used in this build is supreme decadence. By using supreme decadence in combination with coward's legacy and a panicked life flask (always active due to coward's legacy), you can get huge instant recovery to both your life and es pool. This can be taken a step further with upgraded ryslatha pantheon and flask life recovery nodes from tree/clusters/WE.

I also use the pretty standard soul mantle setup of cowards legacy + viridi's veil + soul mantle + magic ring in right slot. The hexproof lets us ignore both soul mantle's and cowards legacy's downsides. The upside of these items is huge: low life from coward's legacy enables us to run pain attunement and panicked flasks while soul mantle is a pseudo-7 link as well as giving us +1 totem.

Astral projector make nova skills actually playable. It is especially great combod with totems auto targeting.

For the large hybrid health pool, we can scale ES and mana together. This comes from sanctuary of thought + arcane will + WE clarity mod. Then, we can use our mana to protect our life using MoM + divine guidance.

#Gear

##Core Uniques

Viridi's veil, astral projector, coward's legacy, and soul mantle are mandatory. None of these uniques are expensive at this point though. I got the soul mantle +2 corrupt unlinked for 5c (~7 ex cost to bench link).

I guess you could get away with running atziri's reflection in place of viridi's veil, but the +1 totem from shield is very nice.

##Ring

Just get something with a %life implicit, scour, catalyze, alt spam t1 life, and craft on a min charge of your choice.

##Gloves

You need to have open suffix to craft ailment avoidance. Other than that, culling strike is BiS here but it takes up a suffix which we really want for res. Unnerve is also passable. In the end though I just filled out my res here and got some life/mana.

##Boots

Same as above, but you need to get shaper ailment avoidance mod (can't craft it on boots). You also obviously want movement speed.

##Amulet

Can really have anything here. You can either go for damage (like me) or focus on just filling out more life/res. I just have a soft spot for multi amulets and like picking them up; got my current one was 1 ex. For anoints you can just check pob for what is best. Primal manifestation is generally the best anoint, and it is very cheap.

##Weapon

Doesn't need to be a wand, but a wand will probably be your best choice. Most people playing dark pact go for +1 or +2 wands but don't fall for that; just go for crit multi, crit chance, spell damage, and cast speed. You can get an extremely solid wand for < 1 ex; my current one cost 90c.

##Shield

You're looking for +1 totem and then the rest as you need. Can get life, res, or some damage (double damage mods, spell crit chance, etc.).

##Flasks

You want quicksilver + diamond + bottled faith + panicked life flask.

Honestly the cinderswallow is kind of useless... the % recovery is ok while mapping but I honest to god just threw on a super generic flask set ripped from another char. I guess here you could run a defensive flask like stibnite, rumis, or basalt.

##Jewels

###Clusters

For mediums you want 1x sleepless sentries and then some combination of ancestral preservation, ancestral reach, and ancestral echo. I like 1 of each notable as ancestral reach/echo give nice qol.

For large, just grab the same one I have (unholy grace, unwaveringly evil, dark ideation). It is cheap and we actually make use of each notable: unholy grace is just good dps, dark ideation works since we are a mana chaos build, and unwaveringly evil lets us be stun immune while channeling wither.

###Timeless Jewel

You want a cadiro elegant hubris. My current one is pretty pog (2 passive points to get 160% spell damage), but in all honesty, it is not hard to get 2 good nodes. Something like a 3rd of all notables given are usable by the build, and you can check either cluster jewel slot (basically interchangeable). If you put timeless jewel on the left though, you probably want to path to take corruption).

I went through ~20 to find mine. The number is 150640 if you want to try your luck searching trade for it.

###Watcher's Eye

You have a good amount of options here. I think mana as extra ES is BiS for this build. Other good mods would be precision multi (slot in precision somewhere), vitality life flask recovery (slot in vitality somewhere), and pretty much any clarity mod.

###Other jewels

1x self flagellation should definitely be run (get good roll). With all your self-curses you get 160% increased damage from it pretty much all the time.

Other than that, I just fixed my res here and picked up some damage from % totem life. These jewels were mostly <10c since % totem life is for 99% of builds a meme.

##Skill gem setups

Dark pact links are pretty much set in stone, it doesn't have that many good links. Other than that, pay attention to alt qualities; they are small but actually each help quite a bit, and none of them are expensive. Divergent wither in particular is super nice as it just doubles your wither application rate.