[2.X] Pledge of Spectres, Summoner - 7L spectres, 6L zombies -Update for 2.2 Ascendency?

Which item would you suggest me to improve to help my survival, I seem to struggle quite abit on health on every piece. However I really just want to take one slot at a time and get a really nice item.

Keep in mind I need to have some dex from gear to get the 153 dex for vaal haste


Atm I'm thinking of buying a nice 80 resist + 80 life gloves and get minion life - so I can keep resistance capped even with elemental weakness on me. The rest seem decent enough, obviously the ring and amulet can get better. Sadly they can often explode in prices when we get too demanding of the rolls.

I am assuming you do not run the Life/ES hybrid version?
I personally do and I am satisfied so far, you have to dodge the mobs manually either way. and Life/Es combined provides a nice amount of survivability.

As you said, that amulet is not good. It would be my first choice by far, followed by the unset ring (Storm Grasp).

I am not sure if you really need to overcap ele resists to play ele weakness maps. I don't, but just because I don't want to afford items for overcapping. I mostly depends on the map boss whether I get problems with ele weakness maps. Anything else dies rather fast... my Zombies have Minion Life linked though, not like yours. For my playstyle I need it, can't risk two mobs at once killing a zombie and then coming at me. so I use zombies as a wall of (dead) meat and solid solution to single target DPS. Anything else is handled by the spectres.

I'm hybrid atm since it feels like the best option, especially with the upcoming es changes in the expansion.

Stats:

4186 Life
3089 ES
159% fire
122% cold
104% lightning
-44% chaos

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Rmpz wrote:

I'm hybrid atm since it feels like the best option, especially with the upcoming es changes in the expansion.

Stats:

4186 Life
3089 ES
159% fire
122% cold
104% lightning
-44% chaos

So you're having survivability problems with these stats, playing as a summoner ? I don't really see how you can die when you're so tanky, considering the minions usually do most of the tanking for you.
If you find yourself dying too much it's entirely a problem of playstyle, you should learn to control your minions so that they lead into battle.

I have to agree with Vadler.

I got 3276 Life and 3606 ES at L88 and leveling feels pretty safe. Just got not too much time to play atm but I think you can level quite far with this.
Besides hybrid health pool,my resists are so that I have 75 (80) 75 (104) 75 (103) and -40, mostly because I packed some IIR rather than additional resists.
That's not good but I die maybe once in 2 levels to elemental damage.

Further defense is Enfeeble as 2nd curse, and this here (bad rolls, yes):


You probably just need some small playstyle adjustments. Personally I keep moving all the time so nothing stuns me. Biggest problem are those leaping mobs and devourers, rhoas are not so bad. Also, using Convocation a lot so that I can benefit from the Proximity Shield of the evangelists (not reliable tho!!).
Minion control is really important as Vadler said, 90% of my deaths are caused by bad minion control...getting used to summys still^^

"

Rmpz wrote:

I'm hybrid atm since it feels like the best option, especially with the upcoming es changes in the expansion.

Stats:

4186 Life
3089 ES
159% fire
122% cold
104% lightning
-44% chaos

"

Vadler wrote:

So you're having survivability problems with these stats, playing as a summoner ? I don't really see how you can die when you're so tanky.

I have the same hp/es , do you really think having that is being tanky? :S
The build has NO defense, no eva/armour end charges etc.
I did a few Poorjoy's Asylum yesterday, ONE titty bi@tch hits you for 2 sec YOU DEAD.
I got hit by ONE, yes, ONE melee hit from the one with the whip, and guess what? DEAD DEAD :D.
You do have to play perfectly dodging all the things and managing to get the minions walking ahead of you all the time, almost all of my deaths was just because i went in to a corner with my minions behind.

Not complaining btw i'm loving the build :), just saying you can't facetank stuff.

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Vadler wrote:

"

Rmpz wrote:

I'm hybrid atm since it feels like the best option, especially with the upcoming es changes in the expansion.

Stats:

4186 Life
3089 ES
159% fire
122% cold
104% lightning
-44% chaos

So you're having survivability problems with these stats, playing as a summoner ? I don't really see how you can die when you're so tanky, considering the minions usually do most of the tanking for you.
If you find yourself dying too much it's entirely a problem of playstyle, you should learn to control your minions so that they lead into battle.

I don't like to take thing slow when it comes to ARPG, we min/max for a reason - I'm pushing my char to the limit and if going into a pack using convo increases my clear speed, that is what I'm aiming to be able to survive.



Key note I refuse to use evangelist, since i find them extremely boring and uninspiring. The only place I allow my self to make a personal choice is wich minions I use.


To normal mobs I barely get hit, but devourers can stil instant kill me, along with a bunch of other wombo combos.

I am sorry, but it is very hard to find other reasons than those presented.

1. You don't seem to want to adjust your playstyle. Personally I think a summy is not a typical Hack&Slash char. It never was, although it can be found in most ARPGs. Also, the mentioned word "tanky" does not apply to any summoner. "Tanky" is to go for the biggest, ugliest, utmost terrifying mob and scream "IS THIS ALL YOU HAVE, YOU P****?!?!".
And then kill him.
That's just not what a Summoner is like. You DO have decent clearspeed, but minions do your work (and they do it well mostly).

2. What a Summy has is survivability in form of a high life or life/ES pool. You could aim for armour/ES items all the way, providing you with a bit of phys dmg reduction, but that just hasn't got the best synergies. however, you are already in the Templar area of the tree and grab some ar/es nodes.

3. Choice of minions. I respect you for not using evangelists, but the thing is: Flame Sentinels stay behind. Which then again means, all you have between angry mobs and you are Zombies. The single improvement you already meantioned yourself: Get minion life for Zombies.

I don't think Enfeeble as 2nd curse (given you have the option through gear or passive points) would solve your problem.

The only thing that comes to my mind is evasion...mostly through the Grace aura. I doubt you can add it without a problem, but since you use Flame Sentinels, your spectres have no physical damage and you can think about replacing Hatred with Grace. Which will of course weakn your zombies.
Typical, since we are speaking about burst damage, a CWDT setup would be the solution, but we don't have the needed space for gems. Also, the chest armour in this build is set, so one of the main defense sources is rather weak given its low ES.

I just tried running with grace instead of hatred and reju totem instead of generosity. Obviously the damage have been reduced quite a bit, but the survival is quite nice. I doubt I will keep running this setup, but it sure is an alternative way of handling the build.

Glad I could provide some ideas :)

Depending on your playstyle, (Vaal) Molten Shell or Vaal Discipline could be an option instead of Rejuvenation Totem (which I am not fond of)
If you keep it however, maybe Zealot's Oath is worth considerin? That way you'd regen ES instead of Life, makes more sense when you got health potions ready.