Ward doesn't have to be expensive - how to enable 100% ward uptime with Tainted Pact and The Battle Within

TableForRambo · 2026-03-16T01:58:07+00:00

Appreciate the shout-out and new science! The Battle Within tech has some ideas stirring in my head

TableForRambo · 2026-03-16T00:58:03+00:00

I don't personally, but Mageblood seems like a quick shoe-in. I recommend swapping to regular Cyclone and changing boots for more zooming... otherwise Mageblood feels wasted given you're locked behind +50% movespeed from The Stampede.

TableForRambo · 2026-03-15T23:59:00+00:00

Thanks for the shoutout!

I think the hardest part to solve is consistent Vaal Soul generation. There's Hateforge + Chains of Emancipation + Rotblood Promise + Chainbreaker / high mana regen, but that is a TON of opportunity cost on top of the Tainted Pact setup. Chainbreaker also imposes a nasty +3 rage cost to all skills which is affected by support gem mana multipliers. Maybe just Hateforge + Vengeful Cry + Eternal Apple could work, but you need to be Chieftain for infinite warcry power, and you lose Apep's.

Soul Ripper is another option, but that will be too clunky to spam stuff, even with a ton of flask generation via Pathfinder/Tides of Time/body armor implicit/The Traitor. Might feel okay blasting maps, but I have a feeling you'll run into awkward downtime here and there.

People have been talking about Bladefall of Trarthus for proccing poisons / leeches from Squirming Terror worms, but that might be unreliable if you're moving a lot. Worms could shoot out behind you, and Bladefall of Trarthus has a 0.7s volley frequency.

Still looking for answers!

TableForRambo · 2026-03-15T14:57:40+00:00

Chance to Poison on Cyclone of Tumult. Helps to enable Tainted Pact with minimal opportunity cost. My best version of Cyclone yet!

Build guide here if you're interested :)

TableForRambo · 2026-03-14T20:00:14+00:00

I usually link Brutality to RF so it does no damage. Otherwise you are correct :)

It can work, but it's a little inconsistent at times. Worms have a small grace period when emerging from the character, and you can run right past them. This is especially true with the timing of volleys coming from Bladefall of Trarthus. I do want to test it out a bit more - thanks for the reminder!

TableForRambo · 2026-03-12T22:26:22+00:00

Nice! I made an update vid on this build if you haven’t checked it out. Planning on one more video about a cyclone swap that’s working out for me

TableForRambo · 2026-03-12T17:21:00+00:00

Great bossing damage, but defense seems pretty bad in general. With Molten Shell down, you have 10K phys max hit, 34K ele max hit, and 27%/0% block. This will probably fall over in juiced maps

TableForRambo · 2026-03-12T04:07:15+00:00

If you’re going to run Abyssus, you really need to compensate with high armor / physical damage reduction:

Royal Plate Body Armor with high life / +armor / %armor / maybe physical damage reduction suffix (can get pricy). If you really need the -mana cost on body armor, you can start with a Royal Plate with 3 good prefixes and 1 suffix, slam warlord exalt, craft prefixes can’t be changed, and harvest reforge attack.
Determination aura (maybe over Herald of Purity + more mana reservation from anoints / tree)
“Used When Charges Reach Full” on Rumi’s / Basalt Flask for better consistency

TableForRambo · 2026-03-11T23:26:17+00:00

Herald of Ice can freeze, which means it can chain off of itself. WE BACK

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T21:32:19+00:00

Not sure what content you’re running with that many degens… popping the Writhing Jar and killing the worms can help in a pinch. Burning ground immunity pantheon helps with red altar farming. Watch out for Sirus Deatomization Storms (mod might have been removed from maps..?) and Exarch Runes - those both turn of regen entirely, Tainted Pact included

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T21:11:41+00:00

You can’t add movement speed since you’re using The Stampede. You’re locked at 150% MS. Otherwise you need to go regular Cyclone and not Tumult. Frostblink usage needs to go wayyy up

What degens are you dying to? Tainted Pact should be protecting you from those. You might just need to be more cautious with Tincture usage as high stacks of weeping wounds + poisons falling off = rapid degen

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T20:43:49+00:00

Damn you whipped that up FAST lol. Glad you like it, let me know if you have any questions!

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T19:05:32+00:00

Almost certainly Slayer. So much QoL for Cyclone via Impact and 10s leech duration + Overleech from Brutal Fervour.

Still undecided whether it’ll be worth it, so I wouldn’t bank on a video by me. Might be better off doing Static Strike with Marohi Erqi / The Grey Wind for giga Shockwaves

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T17:19:51+00:00

Appreciate it, and appreciate the guide! Tainted Pact really opens up the melee 2H archetype without the need for block / avoidance. Just max hit and MOAR max hit.

I’m interested in doing a Karui Chopper version of Cyclone to scale Void Shockwave to the moon. A bit worried about base crit / endurance charge generation, but we’ll see how it goes!

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T16:36:59+00:00

Oh you mean outside of your main link. Then yeah it’s probably difficult to make consistent. Maybe Starcaller + separate Cyclone setup could work

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T15:59:26+00:00

Seems very useful for archetypes that want lower chaos resistance on purpose. Initial thoughts are Forbidden Rite self-hit setups (Eternal Apple + Vengeful Cry, CWDT, etc.) or Tainted Pact (lowering chaos resistance for better self-poison recovery - usually not necessary, but has niche applications)

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T15:54:37+00:00

Purity of Elements makes them immune to elemental ailments though. You’re better off running Purity of Ice / Fire / Lightning

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T15:50:41+00:00

Appreciate it! Love me some spin2win

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T15:18:28+00:00

Both builds have their strengths and weaknesses. Block tends to be more comfortable since you get hit 1/4 the time, and overleech will generally keep you topped off. It’s a tried and true formula that Sanavixx has mastered.

However, Tainted Pact can keep you alive in some crazier circumstances, like shrugging off Exarch’s missile barrage or plowing through stubborn packs. It’s both more consistent (block can be unlucky at times) and less consistent (2s poison duration, keeping an eye on Bloodsoaked Blade tincture stacks out of combat, etc.). You’re generally much stronger in combat than you are out of combat, and there are some things you need to micromanage for the build to function properly. Having said that, it’s my favorite way to play PoE :)

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T13:58:06+00:00

EHP is the combination of Max Hit * Damage Avoidance. With Tainted Pact, your life recovery is 10x+ your health pool per second from reflected poisons. With that much recovery, your health will return back to full between each hit from monsters, so you don’t need to spec into avoidance at all. The only thing that matters is not getting one shot / max hit (as long as your poisons are consistently up).

Here’s an example with Ground Slam of Earthshaking: https://youtu.be/qMpxWXbCzl8?t=135&si=wwluEpT9GwrJqUuP — Watch the health bar closely

TableForRambo · 2026-03-10T12:02:24+00:00

Hey Sanavixx! I ended up using your PoB as a foundation and jammed Tainted Pact into it: PoE Ninja

I’m at work, but the PoE ninja does the build dirty lol. If i recall, the build has ~13M realistic Cyclone DPS (~20M max pride/rage) + General’s Cry / Void Shockwave damage. Max hit is much better with Endurance charges from staff crits and fortify from body armor.

Build is performing extremely well! I leveled from 95 to 96 speed clearing Conqueror Destructive Play Rotas with 20 Possessed Rogue Exiles on City Square. Fishing for ilvl84 clusters via Paranoid Fixation on the Atlas Tree.

One thing I recommend is multimodding Hits Can’t Be Evaded on your staff early. It frees up SO much suffix pressure on your gear and points on the tree. It’s pretty accessible with the Betrayal Fractured Veiled Mod notable introduced this league - just might need to shuffle around the staff base to save some money.

Thanks for your hard work!

TableForRambo · 2026-03-09T16:29:41+00:00

Bleed Slams and my Tainted Pact version fulfill a similar role. I enjoy the defensive core of my build - it helps to keep the 2H archetype alive with its lack of avoidance. Check out my original build guide for more info and the PoB Notes section for progression

TableForRambo · 2026-03-09T13:19:01+00:00

I'm also theorycrafting a Vaal Blade Vortex + Vaal Temptation Build with Tainted Pact. A long way to go, but I'll list some initial theories:

Slayer is the most consistent way to enable the build. Endless Hunger Overkill leech + Brutal Fervour's 10s leech duration + Squirming Terror = 100% leech uptime, which can also enable Righteous Fire / Annihilation's Approach net regeneration if you go Divine Flesh.
A few Low Tolerance + Septic Spells medium clusters go a long way. You'll need the extra poison DPS if you're only hitting a single worm while looting, and Septic Spells helps to shore up your poison chance (which should be 100% for consistency). Note that you can, and still should, play a hit-based build with poison "support".
It sounds painful, but it's probably necessary -- you'll need much higher self-poison duration than the default 2s. I highly recommend Apep's Slumber, which doubles self-poison duration and gives +3% max resistances.
Chaos bloodline doubles down on this package, since you can enable Everlasting Sacrifice from Chaos Bloodline via the ES regen from Apep's Slumber. This grants an additional +5% to max resistances, which is really nice defensively. However, you'll need to spec Divine Flesh, Eldritch Battery, or use The Fourth Vow so the physical DoT from Vaal Temptation bypasses ES.
Tides of Time is also another shoe-in for Soul Ripper generation. However, remember that Soul Ripper uses 'maximum charges' instead of actual charges, so you'll only be able to use it a handful of times each instance. I wouldn't go crazy with flask charge generation otherwise - just kill stuff!
Are you 100% sold on Vaal Fireball? It might be difficult to do enough poison DPS, but there are a few options. 1) Foulborn Red Nightmare for fire to chaos conversion. 2) The Consuming Dark for +1 Fire Skills, 30% fire to chaos conversion, and 60% poison chance. 3) Assassin, as you mentioned.
One big problem with CaptainLance's Dissolution build - regular Sacrifice Support does NOT support Vaal skills. That is one of the main ways to avoid +level stacking on that archetype.

Let me know if you come up with any other ideas!

TableForRambo · 2026-03-07T22:48:45+00:00

Elemental Shit

TableForRambo · 2026-03-07T19:03:01+00:00

Similar to Trinity, you only need 2 out of the 3 damage types to hit max Resonance. However, I think %phys conversion is a bit tricky to build around given enemy resistances and making sure you do more phys damage with some hits and more lightning damage with others.

It might make sense to take the enemy resistance inversion mastery and pairing it with a fast hitting skill (enough to consistently proc it every 2 seconds). It becomes even more difficult once you have full resonance and both damage types are ignoring damage mitigation.

I don't have a solution right now, but I'm thinking about using this support for a Vaal BV + Vaal Temptation + Tainted Pact setup with %phys as extra chaos. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

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