[2.1 Video Guide] Hybrid ES/Life Tanky Zombie/Specter Summoner - The Puppet Master [HC/SC viable]

Updated and viable for 2.1!

2.1 Video Guide: Path of Exile 2.1 Zombie/Specter Summoner Build Guide - The Puppet Master [HC/SC viable]

This video will explain the details and help you get a better understanding of how this character works as well as showing in-game footage of how the build performs.

For this build you can use either Revenants (recommended) or Evangelists as your specters together with your zombies. Revenants has much better clear speed and Evangelists are a bit safer to use. This guide will show you how to use either one of these. The video unfortunately only showcases Evangelist gameplay.

If you have any questions about the build, come to my twitch stream and I will do my best to answer them:

Lifting's Twitch Live Stream Channel

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What's up my fellow Wraeclast exiles!?
This is the official build thread for my "Zombie/Spectre Summoner – The Puppet Master”. In this thread I will cover the requirements of the build. To get a more detailed explanation on how the build works and needs to be setup, check out the link to my video-guide above.




First of all, what is this build and who is it suited for?

1. Fans of summoner builds who seeks an effective, very tanky (safe) and and relatively cheap character to traverse the continent of Wraeclast with.

2. Players who seek a powerful build that can reach endgame (Dominus and 78+ maps)

3. People who would like a build that is both viable for the templar, witch and scion.

4. A build that is both viable for hardcore as well as softcore.

5. People who prefer a build that has a video-guide linked to it.


Build introduction:

For defences the build relies on having a huge effective life pool. This is obtained by stacking both energy shield and life. This is a very tanky hybrid build.
Besides that you have your zombies and specters that both tanks and damages nearby monsters very effectively. Evangelists, if you decide to use these, will also provide both you and your other minions with a temporary proximity shield every now and then. Anything within this shield won't take damage from outside sources of damage.

The build relies on the usage of 4 auras. Hatred/Wrath, Haste, Purity of Elements and Discipline. Both offensive auras are linked with generosity to increase the effect thus making our minions deal even more damage. If using Evangelists you should use Hatred and for Revenants Anger is the right choice. Both our zombies and spectres deals aoe damage and are thus very capable of killing large packs of monsters relatively fast.

Lastly this character also utilizes a dual curse on hit setup. The curses I suggest is vulnerability and Elemental Weakness.
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Skill-gems and setups:

Zombies:
Raise Zombie, Multistrike, Fortify and Minion Damage. This skill-gem setup needs to be in a 2+ to socketed minion skill-gems helmet.

For early game leveling you should use the Matua Tupuna shield with the following setup: Raise Zombie, Minion Damage and Melee Splash.

NB: Before you getting a 5-linked specter setup or a Montre'guls Grasp I suggest using Melee Splash instead of Fortify to help with the clear speed for the zombies.

Evangelist Specters: (The safer approach)
Raise Specter, Spell-Echo, Increased Area of Effect, Minion Damage Added Fire (5-link) and Increased Duration (6-link).

Revenant Specters: (For Best clear speed. Recommended)
Raise Specter, Spell Echo, Chain, LMP, Minion Damage(5-link), Slower Projectiles (6-link)

Curse setup for Evangelist Specters:
Ball Lightning, Curse-On-Hit, Vulnerability, Elemental Weakness

Curses setup for Revenant Specters:
Firestorm/Ice Nova, Curse-On-Hit, Conductivity, Elemental Weakness

Offensive Auras, if using Evangelists:
Hatred, Haste, Generosity

Offensive Auras, if using Revenants:
Wrath, Haste, Generosity

Defensive Auras:
Arctic Armour, Discipline & Enlighten (leveled).

Utility:
Flesh Offering, Vaal Haste, Convocation & Increased Duration

Desecrate and Purity Of Elements each goes in their own Unset Ring.

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Passive Skill-tree:

Leveling skill-tree, 26 points:


Leveling skill-tree, 50 points:


Leveling skill-tree, 85 points:


Finished build, Templar:


Witch variant of the build 115 points:


Scion variant of the build:

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Bandit Quest Rewards:

- Normal : Kill them all for 1+ skill-point
- Cruel : Kill them all for 1+ skill-point
- Merciless: Kill them all for 1+ skill-point

Gearing and stat priorities:

When you are elemental resistance capped, this is the stats you should aim for

Number 1 being the most important and number 4 the least important

1. Life
2. Energy Shield
3. Chaos Resistance (very important, as chaos damage bypasses energy shield)
4. Strength/Dexterity

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Awesome, uniques that greatly benefits this build:








Only the Bones of Ullr are mandatory/required for the build. However in order to effectively use all the auras you will need the Prism Guardian shield as well. Mon'treguls is optional, but can greatly increase the power of the build if you are willing to invest the currency

Lastly you can potentially buy yourself a corrupted Sidhebreath with the 1+ to additional curses. If you get that you should of course spec out of Whispers of Doom and use the skill-point elsewhere.
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The above information serves as a rough guideline to get you started with the build. I recommend watching my video-guide, especially if you are new to the game, in the video I will explain some of the skills and how they work and how you should spend your skill points while leveling.

2.1 Video Guide: Path of Exile 2.1 Zombie/Specter Summoner Build Guide - The Puppet Master [HC/SC viable]

Feel free to ask me any questions regarding the build, but please do me the favor of watching the video first. It should explain a lot of the common questions you might have :)

Anyway, have a great day guys!

GG

Kind Regards
Lifting

Another great build man :) I'll try this build sometimes. Thanks for the guide.

I have enjoyed your youtube videos for a few months. I have a level 85 summoner. I can't see how having desecrate on a weapon swap works.

With Mon'Tregul's grasp, your zombies will explode any enemy they kill, which means you will only have desecrate targets when the spectres kill an enemy. I guess your experience is different than mine, but I always desecrate before using flesh offering for this reason. Besides that, against a boss, without desecrate, you can run out of corpses to flesh offer. And it means that you can't start a fight with flesh offering cast.

Also, if you use a rare chest, you can craft on the +1 zombies, getting the total to 10, which is 5 with Mon'Tregul's.

Are you sure that added fire does more damage than minion damage? Minion damage has a higher increased damage number, and increases the cold damage from hatred. Added fire will gain relatively more benefit from elemental equilibrium.

We should also let people know that increased area of effect makes the evangelist proximity shield larger, which in some ways is beneficial and in some ways a liability.

"

roddyriot wrote:

I have enjoyed your youtube videos for a few months. I have a level 85 summoner. I can't see how having desecrate on a weapon swap works.

With Mon'Tregul's grasp, your zombies will explode any enemy they kill, which means you will only have desecrate targets when the spectres kill an enemy. I guess your experience is different than mine, but I always desecrate before using flesh offering for this reason. Besides that, against a boss, without desecrate, you can run out of corpses to flesh offer. And it means that you can't start a fight with flesh offering cast.

Also, if you use a rare chest, you can craft on the +1 zombies, getting the total to 10, which is 5 with Mon'Tregul's.

Are you sure that added fire does more damage than minion damage? Minion damage has a higher increased damage number, and increases the cold damage from hatred. Added fire will gain relatively more benefit from elemental equilibrium.

We should also let people know that increased area of effect makes the evangelist proximity shield larger, which in some ways is beneficial and in some ways a liability.

I am glad you like the videos man!

I honestly haven't had any issues with needing corpses for desecrate. I find that my spectres deal the bulk of the damage and thus leaves plenty of corpses for me to use.

I did consider using a rare chest for the +1 to zombies, however I felt that the Belly was a safer choice for my build as I am playing in Bloodlines.

I haven't done any calculations, but from testing added fire definitely seems faster. If you decide to calculate the specific numbers, let me know! ;D

Hey LNB!

I ran a build kinda like this using Mon'Treguels as well. Have you tried swapping out Melee Splash for Melee Physical damage or Minion Damage because the zombies gain infernal blow for aoe? I maintained aoe clear with the zombies that way while also dealing more damage to rares and bosses. (Although the specters pretty much carry you there anyway)

Overall nice guide. Cant really tell anything about gemlinks.

Only that Written in Blood wheel is inefficient compared to going into the scion life wheel. Since you dont have any es on gear you get 20% Life and 10 Strength for 5 points. You get 24% life, 20 strength and 20 flat life if you spend 5 points into the scion life wheel.

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eps1lon wrote:

Overall nice guide. Cant really tell anything about gemlinks.

Only that Written in Blood wheel is inefficient compared to going into the scion life wheel. Since you dont have any es on gear you get 20% Life and 10 Strength for 5 points. You get 24% life, 20 strength and 20 flat life if you spend 5 points into the scion life wheel.

Good point. Well spotted!

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Lloydicus wrote:

Hey LNB!

I ran a build kinda like this using Mon'Treguels as well. Have you tried swapping out Melee Splash for Melee Physical damage or Minion Damage because the zombies gain infernal blow for aoe? I maintained aoe clear with the zombies that way while also dealing more damage to rares and bosses. (Although the specters pretty much carry you there anyway)

Really? If it works like infernal blow melee splash increases the aoe by a lot and should be better.

I'll have to test it out :)

"

I haven't done any calculations, but from testing added fire definitely seems faster. If you decide to calculate the specific numbers, let me know! ;D

I stand, sit actually, corrected. Added Fire is better than Minion Damage. Though in my case I'd need three off colors, red ones, on my ES helmet.

Might run this if my cascader rips. Nice guide + stream.