[2.0] Animate Weapon (Tempest)

After some interest behind an animate weapon build in 2.0 from my unfortunate rip video, here's a quick overview of my animate weapon build that was actually doing surprisingly well....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ppLRpkdzRE

I have to stress I only managed to play this character up to level 78, these are just my views so far.

Foreword:
Really SRS is a much easier build to play compared to animate weapon, but animate weapon is interesting and offers (more?) party utility (anger/wrath, double curse, dying breath etc), but also works better with a party to get the weapons started. I did actually use:

in my offhand if i wanted to solo map (realisticly i could use srs for the whole map, same builds)


Skill tree:
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMA34rpAv6zVyu9gm0ZCPQi9H0YwFRsC2vb7IpqQ7zqkydMs3_G74hTNQQHwcX5N1BCg9vr5OwY18-MNlXGXyqP-nC7SbFVSzpY8NXZE2HirJiVLklRL28mlffXBx4Wv8y8m6GqxI9GGGqFYKcIHRR4L0252t0VUOvu-tJ85RzcmuAWbxcvWAePGriTRZ3jaiSqZOco-lNSNulV1oLHgKT56NP7Hb5Bh6h9M4ecvrc-WpED7g0f_gpqrDwo2L3yRTWSOuH-j7XypldN426qSsg_J1-YWW3PMg==

Animate weapon follows the same tree as SRS, bar the double curse. I levelled by heading directly for the life wheel and skill duration nodes so as soon as i picked up my required uniques i could switch to animate weapon.


Required Gear:


With the introduction of Victario's Influence its really easy to get anger and wrath after the aura cost changes. Very mandatory.

Main hand:


Focusing on party utility i chose dying breath for curse effectiveness (dual curse build) and aura effectiveness. Another option i tried was the new tempest weapon:



I used this to test it but i found it too hard to get the high strenght cost, and the damage increase compared to Dying Breath is minimal. Swapping to dying breath freed up my amulet slot for:


All other gear slots were health/resists.


Skill gems:

Animate weapon (20 quality is very mandatory, cost me 7-10c)
Links: melee splash - minion damage - inc duration
5l: multistrike (i imaging a 5l with multistrike would be insane)
6l: weapon ele damage?

Curses: anything you want to use with inc aoe/inc duration, i switched it depending on the party setup

Convocation - very usefull for pulling your dumb weapons to attack mobs
Flesh offering - spam it around zones for inc damage...
Vaal haste - basically permenant

Auras: Wrath/Anger/Clarity


Bandits:
Oak/Skill pt/Skill pt

Final thoughts:
I enjoyed this, but it is tiring and difficult to play and really shines in party play which i almost exclusively played. This character is also very squishy, its only defence is a life pool (~180% on tree), and 18% block from dying breath, basically just let your weapons tank and sit far enough away and use double curses... (which i should also mention i manually cast)
I didn't have a cwdt setup yet (my character was only level 78, lots of improvements to be done).
The AI on animate weapon is terrrriiibblleee, minion move speed is incredibly useful. (convocate infront of a boss, they all run across the map to kill 1 white mob in a corner).
This character was also very cheap to get going, the uniques cost 1/2c, the gear i bought for the same price or mostly self found. The only more costly part is a 20q animate weapon for 7-10c (really useful, 40% minion move speed).
I'm sure this is the only build that can out damage SRS on a single target as well (yea yea if 1000 weapons). With a moderate 20-30 weapons we were killing the hillock dunes boss before his 2nd stage (if that even means much)

I should also point out with the introduction of loot filters it makes playing animate weapon much easier. I created a quick filter to highlight all white melee weapons i could summon.

"

Show
Class Claws One Two Dagger Thrusting Staves Sceptre
Rarity Normal
SetBorderColor 0 255 255

I added that code to the bottom of my loot filter (after 6l/5l 6s, good bases etc). Also to note, magic/rare identified melee weapons wont be highlighted which you could also animate.


Let me know if you have any questions or if i missed anything.

You can use WED with Animate Weapon, and minion speed is also nice.