★🩸 Dark Pact Occultist 🩸★

Endurance: 4 (around average)
Map clear efficiency: 9 (very high)
Single Target damage: 8 (very high)
Budget: 6 (mediocre)

1. Void Beacon.
2. Withering Presence.
3. Profane Bloom.
4. Unholy Authority.

Major: Arakaali or Brine King. I preferred the Brine King.

Minor: Ralakesh or Shakari, or Abberath - it is a personal choice. We aim to negate either Ignites, Burning Ground, Bleeding or Poisons. I chose Abberath because of the anti-burning ground which you can't otherwise avoid. Of course we're adjusting Flask effects based on this choice.

Both of them fully upgraded.

Kill them all.

Unique Jewels:


Cluster Jewels:


Other Jewels:

Generally, we're not using Life flasks at all - only for utility.
I am using a crit + onslaught flask for dmg boost on bosses and a movement speed flask for better clear speed through maps.
Life is naturally recharged if we haven't taken dmg for 1-2 sec. You can use 1 Life flask as a panic button in bad situations but it won't be necessary.
Rumi's Concoction and Overflowing Chalice are a personal choice. I recommend them for a light gameplay without thinking about flask charges.

Disintegrating enemies only by spamming Dark Pact doesn't need much explanation but I'll make sure you know the mechanics. These mechanics are also explained in my previous guide for Blood Sacrament here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3323266.

You just run around and one-shot everything, including very difficult rare monsters. The spell has a very small cast time so you will barely feel your character stopping to cast it. Let's look more into detail:

Damage scaling:


Defenses:


Eternal Youth vs Dissolution of the Flesh vs Petrified Blood


Uniques:


Rares:


The Skill:

Links explanation:


5 Keystones:

Masteries:

Gameplay:

Leveling:

Mapping:

Weapons: Any roll Void battery is around 15c - can get to 1~3 divines with nearly perfect rolls;

Helmet: Around 1~2 divines - depending on the Life roll. Finding one with additional Power charge or % Life corrupted implicit will be very expensive;

Armour: Skin of the Lords has proved very expensive this league (3.21) but fortunately for us, the Blood Magic variations are the cheapest ones for 1d or so.

Boots and Gloves: Get them with as much Life as possible. Avoid getting synthesized Gloves since we need to put useful Eldritch implicits on them.
Both Boots and Gloves I have were around 3~4 divine orbs each;

Belt: Usually cheap - around 2 divines for a very good Leather or Stygian. You can get a high-end Stygian with % life and flat Life + resists for around 8~12 divines;

Amulet: Double Impresence with Despair + Punishment is around 5~12 divines. You can start with a normal Impresence for 40c;

Rings:
-Essence Worm does not roll any mods and is literally 1c. Just change the socket to Red for the Petrified Blood;
-The rare ring helps with more Life and resistances. A good ring is around 1 divine;

Jewels:

-Watcher's Eye: We do not use any. We do not have auras;

-Forbidden Jewels: with Forbidden Power - approximately 5 divines for both jewels.

-Dissolution of the Flesh with maximum Life roll is around 1 divine;

-Rational Doctrine was very expensive last league - around 20 divines. Fortunately, in Crucible it's around 5-6 divines. The jewel is not mandatory but has interesting interactions that will boost your damage/crit;

-The Cluster jewels are around 2 divine orbs each;

-The rare jewels should have maximum Life in any form (flat or %) and you most likely will have to get some with resistances to fix them up. Price may vary between 5c and 1d...;

Skill and Support Gems: We do not need many gems. Most expensive are Empower L4 as well as the 21/20 gems and any Awakened gems.
Total budget on gems can vary between 1d and 10d.

OVERALL BUDGET: between 15 and 50 divine orbs.

Good:
-Simple gameplay;
-Low-to-medium budget;
-Really good damage;
-Does not require specific items that are expensive;
-Maps with Reflect don't matter;
-Maps with no Life regen or reduced Aura effect don't matter;
-Unique.

Bad:
-Takes time to get skilled even though it seems easy af;
-Scaling up Life/Damage can get expensive;
-Not a build for Hardcore.

Videos:


Screenshots:

Links:

-This is a variation of my previous build for Blood Sacrament: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3323266. Unfortunately, it is hardly possible to achieve a comfortable gameplay with the Blood Sacrament although it is still 100% viable, just with reduced damage due to Reservation issues;

-Getting more evasion through gear or other sources would help you for the Life recharge since evading damage will make sure the recharge delay is efficient;

-You can use Rathpith's Globe instead of one of the Void Batteries to help you with critical chance scaling but it will sacrifice an additional 10% of your life on top of the 9% that you sacrifice already - and this is for each cast. Definitely not recommended, especially for boss fights;

-Since the Dark Pact is also considered a Nova spell, the unique ring Astral Projector allows you to cast it from distance making your build safer to play this way but you're losing the potential of having bonus Life on that ring slot.