{3.10} Speaker for the Dead | The Mass Minion Summoner | League Starter, Leveling Guide 💀

@ Alerean:

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Alerean escreveu:

Hey there. I'm a recent D3 exile so this will be my first PoE season. I was having trouble deciding on what summoner/minion build to run with when I stumbled on this. Never mind the build itself, the build guide has me sold. Holy crap, the detail in both the guide and your replies...

As a brand new player I'm hoping that this will be a smoother introduction to the game than some of the other builds I've been looking at, especially as I'll be playing SSF. Hopefully this gets even more awesome with tomorrow's patch notes.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for the effort you've put into this. It's extremely helpful to a new player (I've actually printed out a bunch of this to keep beside me as I play).

Thank you kindly. Just note all the New Player Guide sections are still under development, so they will have new content added within the next few days and beyond. If only I had more time in the day... =o)

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@ N7Zebracakes:

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N7Zebracakes escreveu:

I'm new to the game and wondering what the gear posted in the leveling guide is for. I checked Nessa, and she doesnt have any of those items. Am I missing something?

Example: The unique(?) items listed under Act 1

They are helpful leveling items. Unique items must be found, traded for from other players (trade guide can be found in the Shopping List section), or gambled for using Chance Orbs on the same item base. Some, like the six-linked white-socketed (means any gem color can go into the socket) Tabula Rasa chest armor, have what's called a Divination Card that drops in specific areas. These are like finding a piece of an item.


The Humility divination card drops in Act 4's Aqueducts (just after Dominus and before Highgate), Act 9's Blood Aqueducts, and any maps based on these tilesets (e.g. Channel). When you have a full stack of those cards (9 in this case), talk to the NPC Navali or Tasuni. They have a special Divination Card exchange option, where you can receive the item listed on the card set.

It can take several hours of farming, but it's a reliable way to eventually get the item if you are playing SSF (Solo Self-Found) or lack the going rate of 10-20 Chaos Orbs to trade for one from other players (gets cheaper over time in a new league).

I'll be adding a more thorough explanation of the listed Unique items as I complete the Leveling Guide.

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@ Tvazpolarvyn:

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Tvazpolarvyn escreveu:

I'm new to PoE and started this build on the tail end of the season. Very fun - thanks for the amazing guide Hercanic. This is exactly the kind of build I was hoping for.

My question is that I will be starting fresh in the next league with another player that will be running Arc (assuming no major nerfs from patch). If I understand Arc correctly, most of their damage is lightning-based (which we create a resistance to). How would you alter the build to accommodate the elemental affinity of an ally?

My initial thoughts were to adjust ball lightning to a fire-based(or potentially cold) skill gem (not sure what), and swap out the Solar Guard for a lightning-based(or swap the frost sentinel for a lightning) unit. Is that all I would have to alter, and if so do you have some suggestions or potential alternatives?

Thanks!

You've understood correctly. The simplest solution is to save yourself a skill point and not take Elemental Equilibrium. You won't have to worry about other people's auras or any errant Added Elemental Damage on gear. It'll nearly halve the elemental damage of your minions against bosses, though, since they have no other sources of penetration.

If you want to make EE work, use Fire damage. Firestorm is a good high-hitting alternative to Ball Lightning, but it'll have far less area coverage. The problem is your channeled attack. Charged Dash is inherently Lightning-based. You'll have to use Blade Flurry, and your partner cannot use the Wrath aura or it'll add Lightning Damage to your attack.

You could use a channeled spell (Incinerate, Scorching Ray, Blight, Wither) instead of an attack so your friend can use Wrath, but you'll have to drop Bloodlust on Skeletons for Empower or Multistrike (and you won't need Chance to Bleed on gloves), and will not have Fortify as an endgame defensive option aside from on Shield Charge. You could use Storm Barrier instead.

For Spectres, use a third Frost Sentinel to further your freezing potential. A lightning-based alternative to a Solar Guard is a Risen Vaal Advocate (they comes in several varieties: physical, chaos, lightning, and fire, which you can only tell apart by the color of the effect on their hands), but your friend should be doing plenty of shocking for the both of you.

If you drop both EE and Bloodlust, the new Winter Orb looks to have potential. You could activate it and then Shield Charge around for fast mapping. You'll be trading a big chunk of your bossing DPS for it, though.


Arc, and all lightning damage, has a wide damage range, so to further help your friend I'd recommend this amulet. Lucky means the damage is rolled twice and the higher one is used. Minions are also considered Allies. Storm Barrier could help mitigate the downside.

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Hercanic escreveu:

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Tklaebo escreveu:

I'm following the lveling Plan, the first
Trying this:

Zombies | Holy Relic - Summon Phantasm on Kill | Smite - Ancestral Call
For me it seems you suggest Holy Relic and SPoK linked. That dosen't do anything for me.

Phantasms have a chance of spawning if the Holy Relic gets a kill, but the Relic only casts when you hit with an attack (Smite/Static Strike/Charged Dash). If you aren't generating enough Phantasms, put them on Zombies instead. If you lack socket space, replace Melee Splash. Phantasms are Aggressive, so they make good traveling companions for drive-by XP.


Thx :D.

I did that and use the Phantasm on the zombies :D works like a charm.
If I use more phantasm gems, will I be able to spawn more of em?
Say I use it on skeletons too. Will I be able to spawn zombi max phantasm + skeleton maks phantasm? And doing so double the number, or is it player capped, and not gem capped limit ?

I like the guide :D and I try to follow the plan, but I struggle with gem slots. Either I don't get the right color, and do not have the color alteration gem, or they have to few sockets and wrong connections.

So I've tried to focuse on the zombies, skeletons with gems and a active cast gem for offence and the relic both for offence and defence.

My dmg seems to progress oki. Am I attacking it wrong seen in the light of my socket problem? Any tip for getting the sockets solved fast?

I hope for a follow up on the guide for betrayl.

is there any big nerfs for us summoners?

"Fixed a bug where increased damage sources on minions were increasing damage in ways they shouldn't have been."

Hm, wonder if that's significant... Not a lot of detail there hah!

anything changing for this after patch notes? crawler got nerfed a good bit

I saw in your leveling plan that you have smite-ancestral call at lvl4. however, i am unable to find it at nessa. Is there a way to obtain it or is there a replacement skill for it?

I'm customising my leveling loot filter and I have some questions...

1) What are the general stat priorities for this build, offensively and defensively? I'm assuming I can safely disable anything that drops with Energy Shield heh, but anything else?

2) What weapon types should I stick to when leveling? I'm planning on disabling all other weapons. At the moment I have all 2H weapons disabled of course, but I wasn't sure about wands and daggers.

Sorry for the noob questions :)

I'm hoping some of this tinkering with filterblade will reduce some of the clutter I'm seeing constantly, hopefully without breaking everything.

@ Tklaebo:

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Tklaebo escreveu:

If I use more phantasm gems, will I be able to spawn more of em?
Say I use it on skeletons too. Will I be able to spawn zombi max phantasm + skeleton maks phantasm? And doing so double the number, or is it player capped, and not gem capped limit ?

They are globally capped no matter how many of the gem you use. You will get multiple Phantasm counters at the top of the screen, but when one gets a Phantasm another loses a Phantasm.

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Tklaebo escreveu:

I like the guide :D and I try to follow the plan, but I struggle with gem slots. Either I don't get the right color, and do not have the color alteration gem, or they have to few sockets and wrong connections.

Early on, when it comes to rares you will be discarding, save your Jewelers, Fusings, and Chromatics. Prioritize items with links, rather than rares with nice stats. Vendors often sell fully linked white items. You can use an Alchemy orb on them and just accept whatever stats it gives.

When deciding between two items, take a look at the gem colors you want to put into it. When using a Chromatic Orb, the color roll for sockets is weighted based on the stat requirements of the item. Items with an Intelligence requirement (Energy Shield) roll more blue sockets, Dexterity (Evasion) items roll more green sockets, and Strength (Armour) items roll more red sockets. Hybrid items roll more of the corresponding colors of its two stat requirements. So if your gem set has a lot of red and green, you want a STR/DEX (Armor/Evasion) hybrid item. If it has mostly blue gems and maybe one red or green gem, an INT (Energy Shield) item would have the highest chance to give you the right socket colors with the fewest Chromatic Orbs.

"

Tklaebo escreveu:

So I've tried to focuse on the zombies, skeletons with gems and a active cast gem for offence and the relic both for offence and defence.

My dmg seems to progress oki. Am I attacking it wrong seen in the light of my socket problem?

I hope for a follow up on the guide for betrayl.

Yep, sounds fine. What level are you? Early link priority:

• 1. Zombies/Phantasms - Drive-by clearing. Put wherever they'll fit.
  
• 2. Skeletons - Kill bosses; cast a few on big monster packs, then run off saying "teh-heh" while they mop up. Keep in helmet if you can; share sockets with Zombies if need be.
  
• 3. Spectres/Phantams - Phantasms move here. Now we're starting to get real clear speed. Put in chest armor; these guys get the 6L Tabula treatment. Reliance on Zombies diminishes, allowing us to demote them to bodyguards with less support gems if needed.
  
• 4. Attack Skill of Choice - Occasionally bonk a smelly monster to get Holy Relic off its butt. Put in gloves or wherever.
  
• 5. Others - Put any random junk in your boots, since this is the one slot you want to be able to change out as soon as you get better movement speed on boots. As such, link availability here will be unstable.

Once you can use Ball Lightning with Lesser Poison, Agony Crawler can enter the fray and mess up faces. He's like three Spectres rolled into one.

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Tklaebo escreveu:

is there any big nerfs for us summoners?

Absolutely none for this build.

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@ Alerean:

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Alerean escreveu:

"Fixed a bug where increased damage sources on minions were increasing damage in ways they shouldn't have been."

Hm, wonder if that's significant... Not a lot of detail there hah!

Possibly how it boosted Profane Bloom, given the changes to Agony Crawler and Sentinels of Purity to have increased physical damage instead of global damage.

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Alerean escreveu:

I'm customising my leveling loot filter and I have some questions...

1) What are the general stat priorities for this build, offensively and defensively? I'm assuming I can safely disable anything that drops with Energy Shield heh, but anything else?

In terms of STR/DEX/INT, you just need to match gem requirements. The only one to really keep an eye on is Desecrate, since of all gems you want that one leveled up for your Spectres. We don't get much DEX on the tree until we start going for Acrobatics, so a bit on gear until then will help.

We don't focus on any particular defense type. Minions themselves protect us from most things. You just want life and elemental resistances. Rather than Evasion/Armour/Energy Shield, what you want is whichever base will make rolling the colors you want cheaper, so we end up with a mix. You want as many fully linked items as possible, because unlike other builds that are done at one skill, we use all of ours simultaneously, so the more the better.

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Alerean escreveu:

2) What weapon types should I stick to when leveling? I'm planning on disabling all other weapons. At the moment I have all 2H weapons disabled of course, but I wasn't sure about wands and daggers.

Sorry for the noob questions :)

I'm hoping some of this tinkering with filterblade will reduce some of the clutter I'm seeing constantly, hopefully without breaking everything.

Any one-handed melee weapon with a fast attack speed. A wand can't be used with any of the melee skills. You'd have to use Power Siphon and Flame Dash if you want to wield a wand while leveling.

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@ killwhiteyy:

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killwhiteyy escreveu:

anything changing for this after patch notes? crawler got nerfed a good bit

No effect on this build. The change to the Agony Crawler just prevents it from scaling things like Decay support, Added Elemental Damage, Abyssal Cry explosions, or Occultist's Profane Bloom explosions.

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@ SgArxen:

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SgArxen escreveu:

I saw in your leveling plan that you have smite-ancestral call at lvl4. however, i am unable to find it at nessa. Is there a way to obtain it or is there a replacement skill for it?

If you look toward the bottom right of the leveling plan, there's a formatting legend that mentions what to do about gems not naturally available to the Witch. For an alternative, any attack skill will do. You just want to proc the Holy Relic to heal up Zombies every so often. Smite is first pick because of its free damage aura for minions, but it's not required to use.

I'll be explaining each gem when I finish the leveling guide. On that note, I need to hop to finishing the leveling guide, ASAP! =oP

BUILD UPDATE
3.5 Patch Notes for Betrayal League were released today. TL;DR = No changes to build.

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Bex_GGG escreveu:

Ice Spear

• No longer pierces at short range.
  
• Now fires a rapid sequence of ice spears which move 300% faster after arming.
  
• Now gains additional critical strike multiplier after it arms.
  
• Now pierces after it arms.

Monster Changes
The rogue exile Ultima Thule now uses the updated version of Ice Spear.

Very unlikely this will affect Frost Sentinels. Monsters use their own version of skills. Only the Rogue Exile here is mentioned as being updated to the new skill.

"

Bex_GGG escreveu:

Herald of Agony
The Agony Crawler summoned by this skill now deals increased Physical Damage per Virulence you have, rather than increased Damage.

Does not affect this build. Hatred, Added Fire, and Maim all work with physical damage.

"

Bex_GGG escreveu:

Fixed a bug where increased damage sources on minions were increasing damage in ways they shouldn't have been.

No details provided, so we can only guess what this means.



Art by Akos Szabo

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Hercanic escreveu:

@ Tklaebo:

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Tklaebo escreveu:

If I use more phantasm gems, will I be able to spawn more of em?
Say I use it on skeletons too. Will I be able to spawn zombi max phantasm + skeleton maks phantasm? And doing so double the number, or is it player capped, and not gem capped limit ?

They are globally capped no matter how many of the gem you use. You will get multiple Phantasm counters at the top of the screen, but when one gets a Phantasm another loses a Phantasm.

"

Tklaebo escreveu:

I like the guide :D and I try to follow the plan, but I struggle with gem slots. Either I don't get the right color, and do not have the color alteration gem, or they have to few sockets and wrong connections.

Early on, when it comes to rares you will be discarding, save your Jewelers, Fusings, and Chromatics. Prioritize items with links, rather than rares with nice stats. Vendors often sell fully linked white items. You can use an Alchemy orb on them and just accept whatever stats it gives.

When deciding between two items, take a look at the gem colors you want to put into it. When using a Chromatic Orb, the color roll for sockets is weighted based on the stat requirements of the item. Items with an Intelligence requirement (Energy Shield) roll more blue sockets, Dexterity (Evasion) items roll more green sockets, and Strength (Armour) items roll more red sockets. Hybrid items roll more of the corresponding colors of its two stat requirements. So if your gem set has a lot of red and green, you want a STR/DEX (Armor/Evasion) hybrid item. If it has mostly blue gems and maybe one red or green gem, an INT (Energy Shield) item would have the highest chance to give you the right socket colors with the fewest Chromatic Orbs.

"

Tklaebo escreveu:

So I've tried to focuse on the zombies, skeletons with gems and a active cast gem for offence and the relic both for offence and defence.

My dmg seems to progress oki. Am I attacking it wrong seen in the light of my socket problem?

I hope for a follow up on the guide for betrayl.

Yep, sounds fine. What level are you? Early link priority:

• 1. Zombies/Phantasms - Drive-by clearing. Put wherever they'll fit.
  
• 2. Skeletons - Kill bosses; cast a few on big monster packs, then run off saying "teh-heh" while they mop up. Keep in helmet if you can; share sockets with Zombies if need be.
  
• 3. Spectres/Phantams - Phantasms move here. Now we're starting to get real clear speed. Put in chest armor; these guys get the 6L Tabula treatment. Reliance on Zombies diminishes, allowing us to demote them to bodyguards with less support gems if needed.
  
• 4. Attack Skill of Choice - Occasionally bonk a smelly monster to get Holy Relic off its butt. Put in gloves or wherever.
  
• 5. Others - Put any random junk in your boots, since this is the one slot you want to be able to change out as soon as you get better movement speed on boots. As such, link availability here will be unstable.

Once you can use Ball Lightning with Lesser Poison, Agony Crawler can enter the fray and mess up faces. He's like three Spectres rolled into one.

"

Tklaebo escreveu:

is there any big nerfs for us summoners?

Absolutely none for this build.

ty for a really good answere!
I think I've looked to much on the item stats and gotten blinded by that.
I'll try to buy the right linked items :D I'm lvl 28 or 29 atm. But come Betrayl and I guess I'll start a new one.
I started my summoner just to test it and so far I LOVE it! Not just the play style, but the guide and support you provide is awsome!!

It was especially helpfull with the list of how to roll items :D Had no idea it mattered.

Also, just a question about the planner that list up linke/gems.
Am I correct when I asume that in every section where zombies start and is marked with dots( since it is the first listing) it represent a new line of suggestions/alteration to the build?


⬤⬤
⬤⬤
Zombies - MS - MD | Holy Relic - SPoK - MD | Skeletons - MS - MD |
Static Strike - AC - Lesser Poison | Herald of Agony | Shield Charge | (Flame Dash) | [Desecrate]
⬤⬤
⬤⬤
Zombies - MS - Minion Speed | Holy Relic - SPoK - MD | Skeletons - Melee Physical Damage - MD |
Static Strike - AC - LP | Herald of Agony | Shield Charge - Faster Attacks | (Flame Dash - Faster Casting) | [Desecrate]

And that | represent end of link and new gem after?
I have also the same problem as mentioned earlier, can't locate all the gems. Are they drops, or do they sell at vendors?

Another tip for leveling (not sure if you already covered it in the guide, sorry):

Pick up and identify magic life flasks that you find until you have one with the suffix "of Animation". Once you reach Act3, check Hargan's inventory for a 4L helmet and then make it blue and vendor it with the life flask you found earlier and an Orb of Alteration. This will give you a +1 to Minion gems helmet for your Zombros.