Zombie/Spectre conundrum

Hey all,

I'm running a zombie baron build with Sagawal's and a whole heap of auras this league. In short:

Zomb - brutal - emp - impale - melee phys - multi
Spectres - Host/carnage chiefs, 2 Diabolists for enfeeble.
Auras - Pride, Dread Banner, Flesh and Stone, Purity of Elements, Aspect of the Avian, Vaal Haste.

Going very well, but as my only source of dps are the zombies I kinda have to just cyclone deathball around since they have a relatively low aggro radius. I definitely miss the perimeter-clearing ability of spectres and I wanted to incorporate a ranged option into the build, dropping vaal haste and generosity to make room for a 6L spectre setup.

What really took me aback was the fact that according to the community PoB fork, the overall zombie Shaper DPS drops by like 40% when I remove frenzy and power charges from minions, which is what would happen if I replace the chiefs with a ranged spectre option. I'm not one to slavishly live by PoB calcs, but neither can I really ignore such a massive drop even if it might not be a very accurate estimate. I know charge bonuses work differently for minions, but I didn't expect it to be that much different. I have been moving gems around and I can't replicate the paper DPS I had this morning when I started changing things, but at that point the POB DPS changed from 1.8m per zombie to 1.0 m.

Anyway, does anyone have some insight into whether the chiefs really add that much damage to zombies? And if so, an interesting combo of Spectres that make the 6L investment worth it, even when including two chiefs?

I was planning on adding in Redemption sentries as a perimeter-clearing pack, but obviously the support gems don't synergize at all if I have 2 chiefs and 2 sentries. The other option is some sort of bruiser squad that are all melee, but that kind of misses the point of adding range to the build.

At a loss for what to do here... anyone recommend a decent melee spectre option that push the kill zone a little bit beyond the zombie radius? I am planning on supporting the spectres with feeding frenzy, so some high movespeed melee specs might do the trick. I would experiment with different combos myself, but getting a Saqawal coloured 4R 1G 1B took a lot of chromatics, so I'm reluctant to go ahead with that before thinking about which spectres to include and how to support them.
Última edição por Encomium#2738 em 23 de abr de 2020 13:51:43
Último bump em 23 de abr de 2020 16:09:47
Update -- I did end up picking up a second Saqawal to allow me to play with the different build. Moved Enhance-Flesh-Maim-Pride to gloves, golem, AG, banner and dash to helmet to make room for 6L Sentries. The zombie/sentry combo is definitely way more potent than just the zombies, although I haven't yet done an encounter that would really show the difference in pure DPS between 12 zombies with frenzy and power charges VS 12 zs and 4 sentries without them. But mapping is way better imo.

Does add one required socket to the build, so I may have to drop cyclone/CWC and selfcast offerings. I'm sure the hungry loop makes more sense in the long run given how constrained summoners are on sockets. The sentry single target dps with GMP is very lacklustre, so a loop with a baked-in GMP would definitely play a minor role in boss fights. I suppose you can make different loops for different situations, but with empowers and awakened gems, that would take a long time to happen.

Also opens up the switch from Brutality to something else and using Grip of the Council again with EE and CoH frostbite...

Changed setup:

Última edição por Encomium#2738 em 23 de abr de 2020 18:48:53

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