[3.11]QUEEN OF NECROMANCY - STRONGEST ZOMBIES EVER? 55M+ DPS 7K+ LIFE MAX BLOCK 90% CHAOS RES

WE DID IT BOIS!

3.11 BOSS KILLS
First uber elder clear of the league
Setup used in the kill: Messed up the PoB, sorry :(
https://youtu.be/owFm28uWjpg
Simulacrum wave 20/20 clear
https://youtu.be/3LosXyjq4u0
Setup used in the kill: Messed up the PoB, sorry :(

Elder 5L budget clear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl1fs0t_XHo&feature=youtu.be

Setup used in the kill:https://pastebin.com/UPE4PsxE

T16 8 Mod mapclear on a 5L
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDJoRb19qTs&feature=youtu.be
Setup used in the clear:https://pastebin.com/UPE4PsxE


3.9 BOSS KILLS


3.8 BOSS KILLS

PROS :D

+Very high DPS. Zombies maxout on about ~50M+ Shaper Dps. note that this dps will not show in PoB as it only accounts for 1 zombies dps, so simply multiply it by the amount of zombies we have!

+Very tanky build, 75% spell & attack block, Glorious vanity with 85% chaos resistance, 7,5k life, 80% physical damage reduction and of course the 2% juicy life leech of zombie damage gives you some fat leeching.

+Runs all map mods endgame, except phys reflect. 8 mod maps are just more fun!

+Hardcore viable.
Leveled it to 96+ Doing uber elder with it in SSFHC in 3.8 (kill in video spoiler) And even tankier in 3.11!

Cons >:C


-Cannot run Halls of the grandmaster well.

-Minions fills alot on the screen and can be overwhelming for some players.

-Minion builds have high actions per minute, means you can't just left click all day.

Cannot run physical reflect unless triad grip is used.

Budget/league starter PoB
This pastebin is optimized for a lower budget version of the build. It should still push ~5m shaper dps and be viable for most content.

https://pastebin.com/xCUs9gij

NOTE: The endgame pastebin has leveling trees incorporated!

Endgame PoB
I just wanna note that this tree will require alot more investment than the starter tree, however its soo worth it!

https://pastebin.com/WcLGrFwR

NOTE: The pastebin uses a Glorious vanity timeless jewel for divine flesh, however the notables within the radius depends on the seed, so be aware!

If you're new to builds in Path of Exile and Path of building with pastebins in general, i suggest that you check out this guide for it! https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1716360

Furthermore since Several mechanics are not up to date in the current edition of path of building, i suggest that you check out the local identity / Fork edition!
https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/deon82/localidentitys_path_of_building_v141514_fork/

By using these you'll be allowed to see all the gears turn and how we actually end up with the DPS and stats that we do! Heck you'll even be able to change / improve the build!

Kill all, we need the skill points

Had alot of requests for a leveling guide, so heres a basic leveling guide. First of all i wanna point out that skill points from quests aren't added very well into this short guide, so please do take it with a grain of salt. If you have more skill points left over, check out the next skill tree! I made this on short notice and its my first time doing it, so please don't be too harsh.

Ascendency order

Mind less agression
Unnatural strength
Mistress of sacrifice - Be sure to have bone offering & glancig blows!
Bone barrier

note! The endgame pastebin has leveling trees incorporated, so i highly recommend having that open on the side while leveling.It can be found on the bottom bar of path of building to the left in the drop down menu. You should also always try to have the best in slot movement skill for you in your links, these being: Frost blink -> Flamedash-> Leapslam And run leapslam until bow is crafted

Level 1-9
You will want to pick up Summon raging spirit as soon as you get it as a quest reward and link it with Infernal legion and Summon phantasm. You also want to pick up Raise zombie from the start, however they won't add much early on, so just keep leveling them in a socket for later.


Level 9-31
You want to pick up Summon skeleton as soon as you get it for completing "The caged brute" quest. If possible link your skeletons with minion damage. After picking up Sacrifice your zombies should start having some value, so if possbile link your Raise zombie with Minion life. You should also start leveling your Raise spectre once killing General Gravicius.

Level 31-50
Upon reaching level 31 you should acquire Feeding frenzyby completing fixture of fate, and link it to your skeleton link, as this makes your skeletons agressive and makes them use the dash ability. You also want to check out the skill links part of the guide at this point, as you'll be able to buy alot of the gems used in the finished build at this point. Pick up as many as you can (remember to reserve a good chonk of your mana with auras). You can also start using your spectre links, however they still might die once in a while. (go to The The riverways in act 2 and enslave 2 Stygian Silverbacks). You can also desecrate them with the desecrate gem(gotten from The Root of the Problem act 2). Other than that the ride should start to be smoother, your minions should be pretty decent at clearing at this stage.
Level 50-71
At this point we want to start looking for some of the uniques used in the budget part of the build and spending some of the few chaos we got from leveling on this (especially baron). We should also acquire the glacning blows keystone once getting Bone offering with mistress of sacrifice ascendency, as it gives us as massive layer of defense.

Level 71+
After killing Kitava you should farm the uniques used in the build while progressing through the atlas. A really good way to keep pushing maps while still leveling up is running a 5 linked femur of the saints (check gear section) as your zombie link. As for skill tree start picking up the jewel sockets accordingly to what currency you have gathered.

Main skill, our zombies! Note that this link goes into your weapon, cause the higher skill level gem you can get a hold of the better, as minions scale VERY good of skill gem levels! Also if you cannot afford a level 4 empower early on, and don't have the weapon, then swap empower 4 for Maim in a 6 link. If you only have a 5 link early on, drop the Maim.
NOTE! A level 2 empower is better than other skill gems in the mace, due to the mace effect on empower!

Raise Zombie - Awakened Multistrike - Awakened melee physical damage - Awakened brutality - Empower 4 - Impale support

NOTE! Once you get 2 rotten claw notables on large cluster jewels swap - Impale support for Minion damage / awakened minion damage


Aura Setup - Chestplate links.

Enlighten 4 - Purity of Elements - Pride - Flesh & Stone - Maim Vaal Haste

NOTE!: The aura priority of the build is the following: Purity of Elemtents > Flesh & Stone - maim > Generosity - Dreadbanner > Aspect of the Avian > Pride.
NOTE! If you don't have ornate quiver yet, drop vaal haste from chest and use desecrate there.

Note!: You will not be able to run all the auras run on my character, unless you get a well rolled saqawals nest, sovereignty cluster, a pair of medium cluster jewels with master of command aswell as a few reduced mana jewels. Until you can get thi drops pride for skitterbots, or purity if your resists can handle it and you don't have the watchers eye.

Spectre boys & Animate guardian - Helmet links

Raise spectre - Minion life-Blood magic - Animate guardian
Note! Remember to have this link in your Helmet, as it grants +2 to minion skill gems. We use blood magic, as it makes our spectre depend on lifepool rather than a small mana pool for spellcasts!

Banner & Movementskill - Boots links

Flame dash - Bone offering - Dread banner - Awakened generosity

Skeleton - Gloves link
Vaal summon skeleton- Feeding frenzy - Awakened brutality - Multistrike

NOTE! Swap multistrike with melee splash on clearing!

Convocation - Unset ring 1

Convocation

Enduring cry - Unset ring 2

Enduring cry

Desecrate - Quiver

Desecrate

NOTE! If you don't have ornate quiver yet, drop vaal haste from chest and use desecrate there.

IMPALE VS. FLAT DMG By. Jlh <3



In summary, BiS is Dread Banner + Impale Support with the Lab enchant for Dread Banner. Linking Dread Banner to L21 Generosity provides the exact same benefit as the Lab enchant.

How to summon spectres

A good tip for this is first going into your options -> UI -> Corpse targeting and set your option to "when key held A". After this you cast your desecrate spell once, hold your A key down and run your cursor over the spawned corpses. I must mention that the corpse targeting in the game is abit scuffed, so you may have to hover around the body rather than on top of it.

How to summon your animate guardian

IMPORTANT Do not use a level 1 skill gem to summon your geared animated guardian, as he will have like 2k Hp and WILL DIE So level your skillgem to about level 15 before summoning him.

You summon your animated guardian by dropping the desired items you want him to wear on the ground in a non-city/hideout zone. After this you find the animate guardian spell and simply press the spell while hovering over the item you dropped. Note that the only way the animate guardian will lose the items is by dying, so you can remove the skill gem from the sockets, or accidentally remove the item he is socketed in or similar without him losing the items, simply re-summon him after you're done.



Spectres

The spectre choices for the first 2 spectres isn't really debatable, as they grant massive amounts of DPS and quality of life.

First spectre: to get is a carnage chieftain - found in Act 7 the ashen fields. This spectre has the ability called "mass frenzy" which grants nearby allies a frenzy charge. This is a great ability and is linked with blood magic, so that the chieftain can spam it.

Second spectre: I prefer getting another carnage chieftain as it keeps the up time of max frenzy charges.

Third Spectre: is gained when your gem level reaches 21 with unnatural strength and socketed in The Baron. This is up to you, however i prefer Arena master, as it a casts a very strong buff that grants 40% attack and movement speed for 4 seconds every 8 seconds.
Forth Spectre: Host chieftain, as we have smooth frenzy charges and power charges add a fair bit of dps to the zombies. This spectre gains more value as we start scaling crit on the minions with kingmaker/Cluster jewels

In all, 2 carnage chieftains, 1 Arenamaster and 1 host chieftain. Picked up in the order stated.

The animate guardian setup for endgame

Kingmaker Gives fortify in a decent radius that both affects you & your minions, culling strike and abit of critical strike multiplier. We use this as a source of fortify, since we don't use any attacks that can grant fortify. It iis not the most consistent way of getting fortify, however the build is stil lvery tanky!
Elder influence helm Preferably a eternal burgonet with abit of life and resist aswell as the "nearby enemies take 9% increased physical damage" mod.
Victarios flight Simply because movement speed for you and nearby allies.
Gruthkuls Fur or Garb of the Ephemeral
Gruthkuls fur adds alot of life and regen to the animated guardian, while the garb grants nearby enemies cannot critical strike aswell as nearby allies movement speed cannot be reduced below base values.
Meginords vise or Southbound gloves - Later on Oskarm for Assasins mark on hit Personally i go with whatever i can get cheapest that has vulnerability on hit, the difference here doesn't do thaat much, and vulnerabilty is a great dps increase. Late game pick up a pair of oskarm, as they grant assasins mark on hit, which is alot stronger with the amount of crit gained in the endgame setup.

NOTE! The Guardian does not share your max amount of curses you can apply to enemies, and therefore functions as a player with the default curse limit when applying curses (through corrupted gloves, for example). - Quoted from Path of exile wiki!

Animate guardian setup for leveling / budget:

Leerchast mask gives abit of damage to nearby allies, decent and costs basicly nothing.
Dying breath is a decent weapon, gives abit of dmg to nearby allies aswell, and costs next to nothing.
Ambus charge or Belly of the beast both should be quite cheap and does the job decently. You can also go with blood bond for a good stack of % life.
Meginords vise or southbound gloves Same as high cost, just without vulnerabilty on hit.
Victarios flight cause they're just good and cheap as dirt.

This build offers quite a hefty amount of ways to make your minions survive.

Minion block
With the adition of bone offering to both our own aswell as minions survivabilty in 3.11 our minions gain 36% chance to both block attacks aswell as spells. Furthermore they gain 750 life on block. We also run a fortress covenant jewel to grant 10-12% additional block chance.

Minion leech
Our build also utilities minion leech nodes, found just left of death attunement (0.2% leech) used in the budget build, and fiesting fiends (0.4)% used in the endgame build. This enables our minions to gain up to 10kk life leech, helping them to keep alive while doing damage.

Minion regen
Minion regen is the main access to survivability early on, picking up sacrifice as well as righteous army means that they gain 2% of their life regened per second. Later on we swap to renewal cluster jewels to gain 3% life regen, however life regen does fall off later on.

Life from death
This is our main source of minion suriviability in 3.11, we pick this up as soon as we can on a medium cluster jewel with the notable called "life from death". This notable makes our minions gain 4% of their life per minion that died recently. However we spam skeletons in damage heavy fights like Sirus or Al-Hezmin (hunter conqueror) to gain 12% minion life everytime we cap our skeleton amount since the former ones "die".

GEAR IN GENERAL & GOOD UNIQUES

Instead of listing a long list of uniques i fell like checking the budget pastebin would be more rewarding, so go check that section at the top!

Although heres a small describtion of what to go for and whats better than what.

Listed from best to worst:
Crafted bow & Quiver in endgame build > 6 Link femurs of the saints > 6L Queens Escape > 5 Link Femurs of the Saints > 5L Queens Escape.

Femurs of the saints: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Femurs_of_the_Saints

Queens Escape: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Queen%27s_Escape

I've been asked quite a few times "which items should i go for first" so here i'll make a small list, sorted in Tiers, the items are not ranked beyond the tiers, so pick up what you like or need the most within the tiers temselves:

Tier 3: easy to obtain: Baron, Astramentis, 2x Efficient training, Femurs of the saints, 5 Link rare bodt armour with life and resists, Rare boots with resists, strength and life or Alberons warpath, a rare ring/amulet with Aspect of the avian, Rumi's concoction, Elder belt with 10-12% increased attributes flat strength and life, Breathstealer gloves. Followed by budget animated guardian setup.

Tier 2: Craft the bow & quiver, as it is the highest dps increase we get. Followed up by Saqawals nest, divine this until atleast 10% reduced mana & 65+ attributes, Glorious vanity (with decent chaos resist).

Tier 1: Cluster jewels, Baron with head enchant, Elder amber amulet with +1 zombie +1 strength/intelligence gems, Hunter influenced boots with % strength.

Rings should be upgraded as you go, fit with resists so you're resist capped, get as much strength and life as you can. Endgame you can look into minion movement speed. You should also look for rings that can get a prefix crafted, as it is highly recommended to crat -(8-9) mana cost to NON-channeling skills on both. This makes spamming skeletons alot more smoother.

- Fortress covenant

We pick one of these up as it grants good minion damage and block for our minions which scales well with our bone offering for minion survivability. Furthermore we do not get any of the negative effects from it as we can socket it into the socket close to barbarism on the tree and instead pick up life on cluster jewels at a better rate. However if you're not able to pick up other life than the barbarism and juggernaut cluster, then don't use the jewel just yet.


- Watchers eye

This is a pretty straight forward choice, it grants abit of life aswell as a nice defensive layer to the build. Converting physical damage to elemental damage is preferred, as we have much higher mitigation towards elemental damage than physical damage, especially after dropping VMS and increased armour during flask effect. It also grants chaos resistance which has great harmony with the pick of timeless jewel.

- Glorious Vanity

This league we once again changed up our timeless jewel, however i'll explain why we pick glorious vanity over Elegant Hubris/Lethal Pride

Glorious Vanity is the new go-to timeless jewel for the build. There’s a plethora of reasons why, but first and most importantly it’s because this league we’re using it for the keystone “Divine Flesh”. Now last league and some of metamorph we used elegant hubris for slum lords, the downside is it only provides damage – Which we have plenty of, or in the case of lethal pride it provided a ton of strength which previously let us get to some insane numbers of strength, which provide our zombies a ton of damage and gave us more zombies. After the baron nerf we settled at 1500 strength last league, this league we’ll be going down to 1000, so lethal pride is not worth it anymore.

Elegant Hubris is still a good option if you absolutely want a crap ton more damage, but elegant hubris has some major downsides, such as:

1. It is extremely expensive to roll and get a decent set up (and there is no guarantee you’ll get a decent roll ever, as its hard to roll) for 240% minion damage which is only 3x slum lord, and ideally you want 4x slum lord.
2. You lose out on all the travel nodes in the area as they turn into price of glory nodes, at best you can get 240%-320% for 7-11ish skill points depending on luck, which just isn’t worth it considering the damage we already gain from cluster jewels.

Now Glorious Vanity has quite a few major upsides, but here they are:

1. It’s very cheap to reroll, just to get the keystone it’s a 1 in 3, plus you can just buy a jewel that has the right general name which means you don’t even need to roll it.
2. The location we place it in has poor travel nodes, which turn into useful ones. there is many that isn't great, but you will easily roll at least a few that are good.
3. Divine flesh is amazing – This will be explained below.
4. You can get some very strong notables, in the area which we located it in the tree is perfect for it – You have one notable set in place (Arcanist’s Dominion) and then you have 5 additional notables in the area, 4 of which require 3 points and 1 requires only 2. So, you have great flexibility in rolling two strong notables and it’s very cheap. You can see the list of travel nodes here: [Removed by Support] - There is a long list of useful ones, i.e. Hierarchy which is 25-35% minion damage and 15-20% max minion life, resistance ones thats are strong, as they provide good chunks of resistance as well as 1% max res, and of course life is always good.


Divine Flesh reads: All Damage taken bypasses Energy Shield
50% of Elemental Damage taken as Chaos Damage
+10% to maximum Chaos Resistance

lets break it down.

All Damage taken bypasses Energy Shield – This is not a big deal, we have like 4-500 energy shield, which is useless as we have very little recharge rate, it does not get healed from leech or anything with our current build, it is a non-factor.
+10% to maximum Chaos Resistance – to explain how the next one works it is important to understand the context of the resistance. This will put us at 85% maximum Chaos Resistance, and because we are going Divine Flesh you will want to hit 90% maximum Chaos Resistance. This is very easy to do – Since we are going bow, you can get 2% on quiver from hunter, and then we will get a small cluster jewel of chaos resistance, which will give 3% maximum chaos resistance. This means we will be at 90%.
50% of Elemental Damage taken as Chaos Damage – This is amazing for many reasons, i'll first explain “Damage taken as”.
Damage taken as does its calculation before any sort of mitigation happens. This is very important for the calculation of damage.
In this case with divine flesh, we’re taking 50% of any elemental damage and turning it into a hit of 50% of the element and 50% chaos, and after damage mitigations are applied, for example: Let’s say a mob hits us for 10,000 fire damage, normally with 75% fire resistance, we’d take (10,000 x .25) = 2,500 fire damage. Instead it turns into 5,000 fire damage and 5,000 chaos damage (before mitigation). After mitigation of 75% fire resistance and 90% chaos resistance you end up with (5,000 x .25) + (5,000 x .10) = 1,250 fire and 500 chaos damage. So, the total is 1,750 damage taken instead of 2,500. That is 30% less damage taken, which is massive.
There is a second upside of taking elemental damage as chaos – The chaos portion of the damage ignores elemental penetration, on both abilities and on maps. As an example, take the shapers bullet hell, which does 7,000 cold damage with 25% cold penetration. This means normally with 75% cold resistance we'd take (7,000 x .50) = 3,500 cold damage per bullet, this is why most people can tank 1 not 2, and if they have enough hp for 2 they usually can't tank 3. However, with divine flesh and 90% max chaos res, it becomes 3,500 cold damage and 3,500 chaos damage before mitigation. This turns out to be (3,500 x .50) + (3,500 x .10) = 1,750 cold and 350 chaos damage. Which is 2,100 damage taken instead of 3,500. That is 40% less damage taken overall.
Now let us add another layer. We’re picking up glancing blows and should be at max block, which means there is a 75% chance to cut the damage taken in half, so you can turn that 3,500 damage hit into a 1,750 damage hit of pure cold, or a 1,050 damage hit of cold/chaos per hit blocked. Plus healing us for ~540, which means the net damage taken when blocked is 1,250 before divine flesh and only ~500 after.
And as a bonus – It promotes us to get to 90% maximum chaos resistance, which means chaos damage in general will be near to non-existent, plus we can very comfortably use forbidden taste which provides phasing and 10% attack and spell dodge. Which is also insane!

Hopefully, with these arguments you can see why Divine Flesh is so valuable, as you essentially take 30% less elemental damage than you normally would as well as completely gutting elemental penetration AND getting our chaos res to 90%. Even if we didn’t have glancing blows we’d be much tankier than previously, but with glancing blows and Divine Flesh (and bone offering) I believe we’re going to be in a situation where we’re tankier than when we had CWC spirit offering.

For 3.11 we'll be using a bow. Here is a simple guide to craft one that should be best in slot until we start utilizing the crazy possibilities of synthesis. Also please read the full steps before doing anything, as you may miss half a step if you're in a rush. I've had this happen multiple times in the past.

Okay, so theres 2 ways to tackle the bow craft. The socketed attacks method is the better way by a small margin if you follow the endgame build setup. If you get more % minion damage on things like glorious vanity, cluster jewels, rings etc. It will only become more powerful. However the Essence craft should be easier to hit, however essences can be very frustrating to acquire. Also remember to check trading, they're often easier to buy crafted!

Large cluster jewel guide


Boot craft


Amulet craft


Bow crafts
Melee weapon crafts (i will not be using these).

You want to pick up Soul of Lunaris as your major pantheon - fully upgraded as soon as possible, as chaining projectiles are ruthless against you with your horde around you. Infact, it is often a oneshot if you get chained of.

For the minor pantheon it is more or less what you prefer. I run with soul of gruthkul as it is easy to end up between alot of enemies.

Furthermore the shakari poison immunity has been removed with the introduction of 3.11 plus we gained alot of chaos resistance, which renders it close to useless.

IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT WORKS, CHECK THIS GUIDE OUT! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTwpzNORnl8

If you want to use oils, and therefore use a non-talisman amulet go for the following:

Additional Zombie.
+1 to intelligence or strength gems.
Flat strength.
Life.
Resists.
Idealily on a Amber amulet.

Which node to anoint?!

Since we are using breathstealer gloves this league we will be granted 2 annoints instead of one. I would recommend that you pick up death attunement on one of them and the other is basically preference. I recommend picking up constitution as its the strongest life node on the tree, however it is quite expensive. Other annoints could be ravenous horde if you lack dps, Decay ward if your minions die or soul of steel if you want less damage taken.

Can i transmute a elder/Shaper amulet into a talisman after annointing it?
No, sadly you cannot transmute elder & Shaper bases into talisman, so be sure to pick up a non elder/shaper base if you decide to transmute it.

General survivability

PANTHEONS

Deeper in the mines you start facing serious degen originating from either burning patches or desecrated patches. Theres a few things that helps out here.

Burning patches

These badboys often spawn in magma fissure biomes, and degen hard. To avoid dying too much to these you should change to soul of Abberath as this renders you immune to burning patches.


Tips & tricks

At 800+ Depth your animate guardian start to be at risk of dying. I lost 2 with 14 exalted worth of gear since 800, so keeping a keen eye on him, or simply despawning unless you're facing aul or similar is recommended unless you want to face the same fate as i did. Some of the extra damage mods paired with projectiles or the bad AI of the guardian kills him easily. Even with the 9% HP regen a second.

Not sure if i mentioned this in the guide in general, but you can stack bone armour and Vaal molten shell giving you a even bigger stack of life to withstand the horrors of the depths with.

A thing i found very useful through my travels is that you can see surges of blue power going to the ground when a Weta spike is about to spawn, either get away fast or use your offering, as it destroys the corpse that creates the effect.


Dropping the basalt flask for a sapphire flask with freeze immunity is very nice, as the degen from azurite cast on death can be realy tricky in deeper delve situations.

If you have questions, or wanna join the community of summoners, then join our discord! Lots of nice people and crazy builds being discussed!

https://discord.gg/ZBkGkQP

5th JULY
Added large cluster jewel crafting for harvest league :)

4th JULY
Fixed an issue with budget PoB being the endgame PoB
Added amulet & boot craft guide!

29th JUNE
Added minion life back into the AG/spectre setup, as the life regen on AG with meatshield was too low and started dying to Sirus 8 fight at times.
Added a wave 20/20 simulacrum clear, aswell as a uber elder kill.
Fixed the endgame PoB missing life from death as it created confusion.

24th JUNE
Added a 5L elder kill and a T16 8 mod map clear.
Added a "MAKE ZOMBIES PERMANENT" section to the guide pushing discussion on making zombies permanent.
Added essence crafting for the bow crafting

23RD JUNE
Added a bow crafting guide for 3.11 bow use!

22ND JUNE

Updated pastebins to include leveling tree in both.
Added life from death medium cluster in both pastebins
Added a minion survivability section to the guide.
Added ascendency order (forgot to add this earlier)

Also killed awakener 4 with the gear used in the pastebin below:
https://pastebin.com/ihB7ahPe
All in all the build is very solid, starting to belive that we'll be stronger than in 3.9 without over selling anything. ZOMBIES. ARE. ALIVE.


19TH JUNE
Just finished day one, my thoughts so far: Arena master makes our clear insane, its soo damn smooth since you get 40% ms every 8 seconds for 4 seconds. I feel like im playing my 3,9 build clearwise already.

Zombies& skellies 5Link does massive amounts of damage with arena master due to the 40% attack speed.

Glancing blows without rumis still makes bone offering suuuuuper strong meaning i can stand in packs and not lose life.

Enduring cry is basically busted, if you take ANY damage beyond what bone offering can deal with, you can regen 1,8k hp in a second. To give you guys an idea, my health pot is 2,4k over 7 seconds right now.

All in all, the build is super solid, even on league start, thinking i'll push red maps T12-15 tomorrow with basically the same gear as i use right now.

18TH JUNE
I came back to the game after skipping Delirium almost completely - Since then abit has changed, so i made a major overhaul of the guide, pushing the build to places i don't think we've been able to push it to before, Massive new defensive layers, massive DPS increase and no more CWC!

Edit 2 - Added 1 and 2 cluster jewel passive trees, cleaned up the leveling trees abit, added max chaos resistance cluster jewel - Added max chaos res on quiver (its okay if you don't hit this ^^) Fixed an issue where bone offering was missing on the skill links list. fixed a typo where i stated we were not using melee bow anymore?? Don't ask please ^^

Shapers touch nerf
Shaper's Touch now grants +1 maximum mana per 4 Strength (from 2 maximum mana per 4 Strength), and 1% increased Energy Shield per 10 Strength (from 2% increased Energy Shield per 10 Strength). You can use a Divine Orb on existing versions if you feel it is unethical to have that much Mana and Energy Shield (because it is).

This is quite a hard hit, This ontop of spirit offering rework - It is simply not worth using these gloves anymore. Back to either using triad grip for convertion, Grip of the council for dps or a pair of rare ones for surivability.

Spirit offering rework
No longer grants a portion of the minion's maximum life as Energy Shield.
Now grants +20% to Chaos Resistance at gem level 1, up to +30% at gem level 20.

This simply renders the CWC spirit offering setup useless. It was sweet as long as it lasted, however it was too OP. So far in 3.10 we'll be using Life gained on hit and higher life pool to negate this nerf, however it won't ever be as strong.

Bone barrier nerf
Bone Barrier no longer grants Elemental Resistances per minion. Increased Life and Energy Shield Recovery per minion is now 2% (from 3%), capping out at 20% (from 30%).
Commander of Darkness now grants you and nearby allies +30% to all Elemental Resistances (from 20%).

The elemental resistance nerf is fine for us, as we get a new resistance slot to fill in our gloves. The recovery rate is abit bad for our leech regen, however it should be fine. Bone barrier phys reduction aswell as the shield itself is still very strong.

The Baron nerf
The Baron: Now grants 10 to 20% increased minion maximum Life (from 20%), +1 to maximum number of Raised Zombies per 500 Strength (from 300) and with at least 1000 Strength, 1.5 to 2% of Damage dealt by your Raised Zombies is leeched to you as Life (from 2%). Using a Divine Orb will update existing versions of this item to these new values.

This seems like a super big nerf, however it isn't really. The reasoning behind this is that we actually started having so many zombies, that they bodyblocked eachother on bosses (meaning no dps). Furthermore with the changes to the build in 3.10 where we use i.e. flesh offering and brutality we actually gain DPS, even with 2 lost zombies on the baron aswell as on the gem.

Raise zombie nerf
The number of maximum raised zombies you can have at gem level 20 is now 6 (from 7).

As described above, this is in theory a nerf, however i don't think it'll be felt very much.

Feeding frenzy nerf
Now gives minions from supported skills 25% chance to grant Feeding Frenzy to you on hit at gem level 1, up to 44% at gem level 20 (previously 25% at all gem levels).
No longer causes minions from supported skills to deal more damage while you have Feeding Frenzy.

This is just fine, this basically means that this is now seen as either an AI change or a buff granted by a buffer minion. We get the buff for our zombies more frequent, and the carrion golem does less damage from nothing, so we don't really care.

17 January Added awakener 8 Sirus kill

15 January - Added deeper explanation of what Pastebins does and how to use them in Path of building - Aswell as cleared up a section in the weapon crafting guide!

14 January - Updated the weapon crafting guide, as it was causing confusion.

9 January - Updated pastebin with the following:

Moved auras to a pair of +1 socketed gems shapers touch, Added Hunter influenced boots for more life, strength, movement speed aswell as an open suffix.
Made the lethal pride & watchers eye placeholder gems more understandable!

7 January - 3.9 Cortex & 130+ Quant minotaur Videos added!

Cortex kill -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnw3p3TtYTQ&feature=youtu.be

Minotaur kill -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X09kSnxi9s&feature=youtu.be

3.9 SKILL TREE, GEMS ADDED SO FAR, ITEMS WILL COME LATER, AS 3.9 BUILD COMES TOGETHER!
WEAPON NERFS/REWORK?
You can no longer roll Chance to Maim and Maim Support modifiers on two-handed shaper maces.

This is a flat 30% dps decrease, which sucks super hard. However i do feel like they'll be added to the new exalted orbs, so we'll just have to farm some more for the same amount of power here. (The shaper mace were too strong anyway for the cost).

ASCENDENCY NERFS
Mindless Aggression now grants your minions 10% increased Movement Speed (from 30%).
Commander of Darkness now grants the increased Attack and Cast Speed aura as a single combined aura rather than a separate aura for each other aura skill you had. This matters for effects that care how many buffs you have, such as Mantra of Flames.

The nerf to mindless agression movement speed hits us below the belt i feel like. This is not really needed, however it does suck for us. This could be negated by the meatshield support gem (check the feeding frenzy nerf part later on).
Commander of darkness doesn't affect us at all.

RAISE ZOMBIE SKILLGEM NERFS
The Zombie Slam ability now has a 6 second cooldown (from 4) and has a base radius of 17 units (from 28). Now increases Zombie Slam Area of Effect as the gem levels, up to 76% at gem level 20.

The zombieslam CD nerf is definitely not good for our clear, aswell as a minor dps decrease. It also makes permaslamming zombies with awakened multistrike not being a possibility. However we are able to negate the reduction in Zombieslam area(possibly even getting bigger, depending on the math), due to the fact that we level the skill gem to 30.

The slam is now slower and has 30% less base damage effectiveness at gem level 1, rising to the previous damage effectiveness around gem level 17. Note that these changes are not visible on the skill gem.

This means that our zombies will be less relevant as a damage source early on in leveling, meaning that we will rely more heavily on skellies throughout leveling. (Always prefer higher skelly link to zombie until level 17). However since it isn't showed on the gem i do believe that it will not be affected by skill levels beyond 17, so it cannot be turned into a buff.

Base Zombie damage has been reduced by approximately 25% at all gem levels.
No longer grants Zombies more life as the gem levels (but the Zombies themselves do gain base life with each gem level, like other minions).

The 25% less basedamage is a flat nerf of 25%, we can't really negate this, but in my opinion this is just fine, as zombies were stupidly strong.

FEEDING FRENZY SKILLGEM NERFS
The Feeding Frenzy buff now grants 10% increased attack, cast, and movement speed to your minions (from 15%).
Minions from supported skills now deal 5% more damage while you have the Feeding Frenzy buff at gem level 1 (from 15%), up to 15% at gem level 20 (from 24%).

The nerf to feeding frenzy actually might make me want to change from feeding frenzy into meatshield support. The argument for this is that we get 33% movement, 32% more damage for the minion supported by it when monsters are nearby, aswell 27% less damage taken. Since we cyclone through packs it actually means that our zombies will be agressive to nearby enemies. However you do need to actually move around in encounters like blight (oh no, we have to play the game D: ). Furthermore we have 20% chance for minions to taunt on hit, which is nice.

Another possibility is also to just drop feeding frenzy from the zombielinks and using straight up minion damage / melee physical, depending on the links.

So my overall opinion on feeding frenzy at this point is, it can be used for clear/skellies, however i feel like meatshield has more to offer for our zombies when cycloning at this point, although you need a more active playstyle to make it work in things like blight.

the feeding frenzy buff consisting of 10% Attack speed/cast speed aswell as movement speed could be useful, however i don't feel like our endgame setup has enough to sockets to support it. (Screams in 4.0).

MINION DAMAGE SKILLGEM NERFS
Supported skills now deal 25% more damage at gem level 1 (from 30%), up to 49% at gem level 20 (no change from previously).
Now gains 1% increased damage from minions from supported skills per 2% quality (previously gained 1.5% per 2% quality).

This is basically just a minor 5% increased nerf, due to the quality nerf, however the different leveling scaling makes melee physical damage more viable for leveling, but the endgame result will be the same.

MINION DAMAGE SKILLGEM NERFS
Fortify is now multiplicative with other sources of damage reduction.

This is a minor nerft to our defences, however since we have very high physical mitigation that part should be fine at the very least. However we will take slightly more elemental damage, however our CwC spirit offering should be able to handle this aswell. However Rotting legion started being abit more attractive due to the less elemental damage taken.

IMPALE SUPPORT SKILLGEM CHANGES
Now grants supported skills -30% to Total Physical damage Reduction against Impale Hits at all gem levels.

I assume this is a new form of improving impale damage, although we have little insight into the actual mechanics of this. I will return later when we have more knowledge, however it may be that impale isn't as strong for minions as it used to be.

SKITTERBOTS SHOCK CHANGES
The default Shock magnitude for effects that apply Shock without damage (such as Skitterbots) is now 15% (from 20%).

This nerf might actually make me want to go with Flesh and stone, dropping champion of cause in investing into either more life or minion damage. Since maim is gone from our weapon this could be very interesting and i will explore this futher into 3.9. Also Flesh and stone can be linked to maim, so both effect can occur, and might even end up in a dps increase?

AWAKENED SUPPORT GEMS
Awakened multistrike



This support gem is VERY strong for zombies, as adds a higher more multiplier on our damage
New: 90% -> 120% -> 140% -> 160%
Old: 90% -> 120% -> 140%
Multiply your zombie dps by 1,72 rather than 1,58!
Math: https://pastebin.com/wXbNz1rG

Awakened minion damage


New: 20% increased minion damage & 54% more minion damage
Old: 15% increased minion damage (10% in 3.9) 49% more minion damage

10% increased minion damage & 5% more mionion damage. This is decent, however this won't make us instaphase anything.

Awakened melee physical damage

New: 10% chance to intimidate enemies for 4 seconds on hit & 54% more melee physical damage
Old: 49% more melee physical damage

This one is absolutely bunkers for us, as we have no reliable way of inflicting intimidate on enemies, and having a reliable way of inflicting this adds 10% more damage to our build flatout. Furthermore we get 5% more melee physical damage aswell, so this one is a MUST.

Awakened Brutality


New: Enemies have -10% to total physical damage reduction aganist your hits & 64 more physical damage
Old: 59% more physical damage

This is a very interesting skillgem, as the -10% physical damage reduction is super strong, actually stronger than the added physical as extra chaos damage from a spirit offering. This means that it actually becomes better to run this even with spirit offering CWC setup.

Awakened added chaos damage

New: +1 to level of supported active skill gems & 234-352 added chaos damage
Old: 170-255 added chaos damage

Just wanted to add this to the list, as this may be very interesting to use with chaos convertion shenanigans.

All in all, with the added powercreep in 3,9 we may be able to push back to 30m+ old shaper dps, which would be nice.

NEW BELT?!




PRO:
We are able to run all offerings which is super strong, even at 50% effect.

Cons:
No elder belt attribute stacking ~250+ Strength lost.
We don't really have the sockets to procc all the offerings, as the CWC goes Desecrate -> offering -> offering -> offering -> desecrate.
We'd have to drop Fortify & infused channeling.

All in all, i wouldn't go for it, as it simply makes us give up sooo much to acquire so little.