[2.1 HC] Alpha Summoners. 5-7 auras , 81+ ele resists. Updated with 2 versions !
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I know , yet another summoner build. Having so much fun with my version of summoner in Tempest league so decided to share it.
This is my first build guide #AchievmentUnlocked INTRODUCTION I love playing summoner. I play POE and summoners builds since 1.2, both own and community made, and finally i came up with the most awesome one I've played. Build is designed to endure difficult maps in hardcore leagues. The Tempest league made me think of how to elevate the build from generic summoner spec to endure all the nasty stuff tempest effects can throw at me and my minions. The solution i came up with - auras. With the help of aura related tree nodes and specific unique items I've pushed surviveability aspect further enough to be as safe as possible in late game content. Builds Features * Builds utilize Alpha's Howl helmet, the key component. That's why the name "Alpha summoners". More on why its being used go on further into the guide; * Two versions with bonus "Pantless" section for the league starters and "broke" players; * Aimed at intermediate and higher level of players for now. There is good newbie friendly summoner guides already which you can use as reference and when you have a hang of playing summoner build try my "Alpha" summoner version. * Relatively cheap. It is cheap for anyone having higher lvl characters / currency savings in the league, also farming from scratch to the point of this build requirements isn't too difficult. * Hardcore viable, can be adjusted to extra offense for softcore or very confident HC players as well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Change Log *2015-12-10 . Skill tree updated, almost no change to previous one, only hex master notable half-wheel placement is changed . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COMMON CONCEPTS The build branches out to 2 different versions, but there is plenty of stuff that's same for both of them. SO in order to keep better build guide structure and not to repeat myself over and over I'll put mutual builds topics here. Note: Don't dive into specific build guides before reading this section first ! Skill tree and bandit choices 2.1 updated :
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#1 League starting/low currency tree, taking some more life nodes: http://tinyurl.com/hb77f48 #2 when you have decent ES gear, respec to the final build tree: http://tinyurl.com/gnlcu7o Bandit choices: Pick skill point in all difficulties. We need all the points we can get, +life bonus from oak looks good at first but in the longer run his bonus becomes obsolete. Helmet
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Key component for the both builds. It is really wonderful piece for summoners enabling you to run more auras and a bonus freeze immunity + chill avoidance. You may ask if lack of +2 minions helmet will make your zombies too weak. In my opinion extra auras more than make up for it and zombies minmax potential with empower gem and '+1 gems+ boots corruption is still here. Currently i'm lvl 88, got no +1 boots nor empower lvl2+ and my zombies doing just fine. Zombie setups
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I'll refer to this section on zombie topic to each build. There is 3 different viable support gem setups for zombies. You can mix between them or use any as you feel like. Boots going to be best place to put zombie gems in.
Maximum Zombie Damage setup: Raise zombie + Minion damage + Melee Physical damage (or lvl'd empower) + Multistrike ; Maximum Zombie Defense setup: Raise Zombie + Minion Life + Multistrike (or lvl'd empower) + Fortify; Maximum Self-Defense: Raise Zombie + Multistrike + Melee splash + Blind; Spectre choices:
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Revenants are meta, but i just like Flame Sentinels more. Their clear speed is really good , many fireballs looks cool and best AI. Also you can get lvl 68 version from Eternal Laboratory and no need to risk with act4 merciless boss fights. Also they synenergise very well with zombies, because anger aura (dmg aura of choice) adds to both spell and attack damage. Note : sometimes eternal laboratory doesn't give you flame sentinel corpse. Just restart the instance if you can't get their corpse with couple desecrate casts. 5 Gem links on chest with Flame sentinel spectres : Raise spectre + minion damage + lesser multiple projectiles + spell echo+ fire penetration. for 6th link I'd use blind gem, huge surviveability boost since those spectres hits many mobs at once. Use ball lightning spell in auto-curse setup with them. With exact same gem setup you can summon Undying Incinerator spectres too, just you have to hunt them from maps. Crematorium version of them is too low lvl and is too squishy in maps. ------------------------------------------ 5 links for revenant spectres: Raise spectre + chain + lmp + minion damage + spell echo. 6th link would be lightning pen. Alternative setup: Raise Spectre + GMP + lightning penetration + spell echo + minion damage. 6th linked gem would be: added lightning. Alternative setup feels really great for me, although chain is very good for extra clear speed as well. Summon them from Harvest location in act4. My thoughts on Revenants vs Flame sentinels
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Until lvl 86 used flame sentinels and got no problems with them, then i decided to unlock harvest merciless wp to see what Revenants are like too. At first they looked better because initial damage from projectiles a definitely higher. However there is big problem about them having quite long delay between they shoot a barrage of projectiles. To compare which better i used this setup: 5 spectres and 1 damage aura to them (Wrath for revenants, Anger to flame sentinels). Used revenants only in 89-90lvl and flame sentinels in 90-90,5 lvl. Both spectres summoned from act locations so revenants 70lvl and flame sentinels 68lvl. For a conclusion i've got better time with flame sentinels in both clear speed and single target dps, although difference isn't big at all. Animated guardian:
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Really awesome addition to summoner builds, use these items for him: *Dying breath staff. Increase damage aura for allies, Increase curse effectiveness on nearby enemeies affixes really good. *Leer's cast helmet . 2nd increased damage aura for allies; *Zahndethus' Cassock chest. up to 50% chaos ress and creates Consecrated Ground on block which adds life regean to allies *Any gloves and boots with some life will work. Suggest to use him when his gem lvl is 17+, you don't really need him in act contents/lowest maps. Bone Offering vs Flesh Offering
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Great temporary buffs for minions, but you have to choose one of them (only 1 can be active). Most people pick flesh offering, but I suggest using bone offering instead. The reason is Animated Guardian's unique chest (see his section) which grants consecrated ground on block. With bone offering this friendly ground effect will proc a lot more often providing extra life regen for you and your minions. Really awesome synenergy! . Curses
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With the improved curse nodes on tree, not using curses is a sin for summoner imo. Suggest using them with Curse on Hit setup so you could apply Elemental Equilibrium as well.Proc spell choice depends on your spectre damage type. I prefer to use ball lightning even if i use revenants, so i then i spec into avatar of fire keystone as well so this spell would deal fire damage instead of lightning.
Curse setups to choose from: Maximum defense (I use): Curse on Hit + spell + Enfeeble+ temporal chains Defense + offense: Curse on hit + spell + elemental weakness + temporal chains Maximum offense: Curse on hit + spell + elemental weakness + flammability/conductivity (depends on spectre choice) Its most optimal to use a curse on hit setup links in gloves linked sockets. Important Quality on Gems
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Very important to get quality on these skill gems: * Temporal chains. Extra slow down for enemies; * Curse on Hit. Extra curse effectiveness; * Elemental weakness (if you use it) . Extra resistances reduction on enemies. * Raise Zombie. Extra life and movement speed for zombies; Good to have, but not as important: * Aura gems. Extra aura radius so you can keep distance between you and minions even longer while affecting them with your auras; * Support gems for spectres and zombies. Good amount of extra damage output. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BUILD BRANCHES Here I'll cover two different build variations you can play with. The branches are defined by gear/gems/jewels only. That's why there is no other information there, use one of them in conjunction of "Common Concepts" section! First one is "Aurabot" who focuses on running maximum amount of auras while still having strong minions and very good solo capability. Second one is "Penta" who focuses on getting 5 spectre minions and 5 auras. Still pretty good aura support and very fun playstyle utilizing so many spectres. As you can see from section above, transitioning from one spec to other is quite simple. If you want a 2-in-1 toon, i suggest to get 2 alpha's how helmets so you wouldn't have to re-roll colors there. Bonus one is "Pantless" where i just cover on how you can play summoner on tight budget so you could afford to become the "Alpha". Alpha AURABOT summoner:
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Focusing on getting 7 auras going. Can be great party support and great on solo mapping as well. Gear 'n' Gems
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General idea on rare gear pieces: you need to cap chaos resistance while getting some ele resists, str/dex stats and as much energy shield you can get. Some life on gear is neat bonus too.
Helmet Generosity + anger or wrath (depends on spectre choice). These two gems has to be linked together and unlinked to other 2 gem slots. Very important ! we only want generosity gem to support the one damage aura. other 2 gems: Purity of Ice + Haste(offensive option) or Grace (defensive option) . Grace aura provides very good synenergy with Enfeeble curse as its reducing accuracy of monsters. I like Haste a bit more because it provides move speed and cast speed for myself too. Shield A must have item for this build version, letting us run more auras reserved on life. Use these gems in 3 slots: Discipline, Purity of Lightning, Purity of Fire. Chest Most important piece as it'll provide you with most EHP (life + es combined). Look for most ES on chest as you can anything like resists/life on it is a big luxury. 5L is borderline mandatory for spectres (see section above for links). Also 6th spare gem socket is very good to have. 6L is fantastic option if you can afford of course. Gloves As much ES as you can get + elemental/chaos resistance. Belt Rare belt with Chaos resistance, ele resistances, life/es . Suggest to get either Heavy belt to cover strenght requirements or chain belt for more es (you'll need more str on accessories then). Accessories Both rings HAS to be unset type for extra gem slots. Look for these affixes: chaos res, missing str/dex , missing ele resists, as much es (+life as luxury). Weapons Midnight Bargain : best offensive option, but extra life reservation can be tough to handle. Recommend to have like 6.3k+ ES if you wanna use it.; Montregul's grasp : great offense/defence balanced solution. Stronger zombies provides nice single target dps boost with it. Suggest to use offensive zombie setup with it (see "common concepts" section) ; Ephermal Edge: best defensive option providing you a lot of extra energy shield. Suggest using it if you are running in party as a primary support and there are other ppl doing major dps. Boots A must have cheap unique item. Chosen zombie setup here, See "common concepts" section . Utility gems: On free sockets that left use these gems: 1) Convocation; 2) Flesh or Bone offering; 3) Vaal discipline; 4) Animated Guardian; 5) Chaos Golem; 6) Arctic Armour; Note: If your chest is 5s/5l or 6s/6l you won't have room for one of these gems. I would remove chaos golem in such case. Gems to have in Inventory: You must have desecrate lvl 17+ laying in there so you could put replace taken green socket with it for summoning. Then switch back to inventory after summoning done of course. Also good to have blood magic gem so you could resummon zombies without deactivating aura in case any zombie dies. You can also have slower projectiles gem laying as well to swap it in on spectre links for boss fight. Jewels
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Awesome introduction with new patch, especially for summoners. You can use all rare jewels Affix priorities: 1)Minion Damage 2)Missing Chaos ress/ele ress/str or dex stats; 3)+Life/ +minion life/ +es/ faster start of energy shield recharge. Up to your situation of how to minmax those. It would be very nice if you cover 2nd category with rare gear though. Usable unique jewels: 1) Conquerors Efficiency . Good for a little extra aura reservation reduction. Use if u need more mana for casting utilities. 2) Conquerors Potency . Mostly good for extra 4% curse effectiveness. Pros and Cons breakdown
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Pros:
+ 7 Auras and 6 of them are +2 levels. + Very tanky vs elemental damage with 81+ ele resists from individual purities. Also great avoidance from any damage with minions and curses. + Great damage minmax capability when you get good jewels and good rare gear to sustain midnight bargain weapon. Cons - Barely any physical damage mitigation. As long as you are cautious you mitigate this with avoidance tools mentioned before; - Less minions than the other build's branch; - a little more life reservation than the other build's branch. Alpha PENTA summoner
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5 spectre and 5 auras branch. Here is the guide to achieve this. GEAR 'n' Gems
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Helm Links doesn't matter here. Fill sockets with: Purity of Lightning, Purity of Fire, Purity of Ice, Discipline You'll need 3 off colors here "rgbb". Best to achieve with vorici "at least 2 blue sockets" craft. Shield Rare shield with ES amount as number one priority, also look for ele/chaos resists and open suffix for leo craft "reduced damage from damage taken over time". Nice extra mitigation for that type of damage. Chest Mandatory unique chest, granting you extra spectre. 5L borderline mandatory, see "Common concepts" section for spectre setup in here. Gloves As much ES as you can get + elemental/chaos resistance. Curse on Hit setup here, see "common concepts" section Belt Rare belt with Chaos resistance, ele resistances, life/es . Suggest to get either Heavy belt to cover strenght requirements or chain belt for more es (you'll need more str on accessories then). Accessories At least one of the rings HAS to be unset type for extra gem slots. Look for these affixes: chaos res, missing str/dex , missing ele resists, as much es (+life as luxury). Weapon Mandatory item granting you extra spectre. Look for at least 20% increased minion damage roll. Boots Mandatory cheap unique item. Zombies setup here see "common concepts" section, suggest self-defense or zombie-defense setup in this build. Utility gems: You got some freedom with more open sockets. I suggest this option: 1)Convocation; 2)Flesh or Bone offering; 3)Vaal discipline; 4)Chaos golem; 5)Arctic armor; 6)Animated Guardian 7)Vaal lightning trap (applies shock on enemies its like extra curse), can be linked with chain or multiple traps if you got free socket for it); 8)2nd vaal discipline/vaal skeletons. Note: if you use vaal lightning trap with revenant spectres, you MUST spec into avatar of fire keystone or respect out of elemental equilibrium keystone. Gems to have in Inventory: You must have desecrate lvl 17+ laying in there so you could put replace taken green socket with it for summoning. Then switch back to inventory after summoning done of course. Also good to have blood magic gem so you could resummon zombies without deactivating aura in case any zombie dies. You can also have slower projectiles gem laying as well to swap it in on spectre links for boss fight. Jewels
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Mandatory: Conqueror's Efficiency unique jewel. Too little mana left with reservations without it so must use it. Rare jewels on other slots. Affix priorities: 1)Minion Damage 2)Missing Chaos ress/ele ress/str or dex stats; 3)+Life/ +minion life/ +es/ faster start of energy shield recharge. Up to your situation of how to minmax those. It would be very nice if you cover 2nd category with rare gear though. Pros and Cons breakdown
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Pros + Lots of minions , 5 spectres, 16 in total ! Awesome clear speed. + Defensive with 81+ ele resists, DoT mitigation from leo shield craft, curses and a meat shield of minions letting you to avoid dangers. + Less life reservation than other branch'd build. + A bit less expensive than other branch'd build. Cons - Less auras than other branch'd build (5 vs 7, 2 expensive ones has to be ditched); - Less energy shield because have to use unique chest; More damage approach
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If you feel like want to get even more damage out of your minions you can try:
* Remove arctic armour and purity of ice auras; * Add wrath or anger(depends on spectres) + generosity . Can replace conqueror's efficiency jewel with another rare jewel with minion damage this way. You'll have to get more cold resistance with gear this way. Suggest to have dmg aura + generosity in other gear piece and leave alpha's howl sockets for discipline and purities. Can still keep purity of ice gem in alpha's howl so you could activate it instead one of other 2 purities for certain encounters like map merveil bosses. I've tried this setup for some time, works really nice although you lose some defenses by not having AA and higher cold resistance cap. ------------------------------------------ What if I'm Pantless
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Not everyone might be having enough currency or willing to farm it to get quite expensive uniques and rares around them. That's no problem, I'm posting how i played before transition to "Alpha" summoner.
Its at least as good at clear speed (might get even better), just less defenses because you won't be able to sustain that many auras. Skill tree: exact the same as posted for original builds in common section. Gear choices: Very underrated and cheap unique chest for summoners, don't have to be 5 links. With 4 Links strongly suggest to use flame sentinel spectres on this setup: Raise spectre+minion damage+spell echo+lesser multiple projectiles. Extra spectre bonus is really neat and huge improvement to damage output. Instead of alpha howl/Prism Guardian you can use rares on these slots. Try to look for shield with 300+ ES and helmet with +2 to minion gems and put zombie links in there (raise zombie + minion damage + multistrike+ melee physical damage) For other gear slots just aim to get life/es/resists/str+dex atributes. Try to get your chaos resistance to positive value. Of course use bones of ullr boots as well, which is cheap unique. For weapon slot you can use montregul's grap which is cheap and overall good option. Once you have decent amount of ES (5k+ atleast) and have 40+ chaos resistance you can even use midnight's bargain for the 5th(!) spectre. Auras Suggest to use this setup: Purity of Elements, arctic armour, generosity+anger/wrath (depends on spectre choice) and Discipline. You will also have to use Conqueror's Efficiency unique jewel to free-up some mana for skills usage. Free gem slots options:desecrate, vaal skeletons, 1/2 vaal discipline gems, vaal lightning trap. Use whatever you find most useful. Also 2 unset rings isn't very important, but suggest to use atleast one of this ring type. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EXTRAS Build is done, here will be some random sections i can think of. Video gallery
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#1 . Short video showcasing Alpha AURABOT summoner build in 75 map in Tempest league with devourer packs and inconvenient tempest mod. https://youtu.be/0tYBmuEPi2k #2. Short video showcasing Alpha PENTA summoner in tempest league. Killing jungle valley boss ! https://youtu.be/H9Q_yIF8D_8 #3. Short video showcasing Alpha PENTA summoner in tempest league. Killing jungle valley boss, by using revenant spectres this time . https://youtu.be/Qfm-05L3uwg ..more videos going to be added ... My current build setup/gear (2.1 updated)
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2.1 HC talisman Rip'd at lvl 88
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Rip from bonespire degen, nothing else have put danger to character. Can blame it on own laziness to craft insta flask for it. 2.0 HC Tempest league
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lvl 89, Tempest league . Using Penta Summoner branch for now with "offensive approach". Gear: Some stats: Life: 2081 Energy Shield: 5809 Fire Resistance: 81 Cold Resistance: 75 Lightning Resistance: 82 Chaos Resistance: 75 lvl 82-88 played "Aurabot" version, will go back to it when i'll save up for better ES chest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you got any questions feel free to reply in thread or contact me ign: RaisePants cheers Last edited by Taddis5#0970 on Dec 22, 2015, 3:55:22 AM Last bumped on May 11, 2016, 4:50:09 AM
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Hi, I'm running very similar build but with high budget for standar, works great.
The problem is the minions can die again , portal and searching for Flame Sentinels every time they die, is very tedious. Playing since 2013 mainly summoner. my current gear is ev/es, based on Shavronne's wrappings, Vertex vaal mask, prism archon,midnight and bones, running 7 auras: Grace,Haste, 3x purity , Discipline and clarity all with +1 to auras and they still die. I hope they remake spectre gem with some kind of memory so if you use the skill without targeting a spectre they take the latest spectre summoned. IMHO, the thing that we only thing we need is minion managing but new items like the staff are very welcome. Sorry for discusing this in your post and for my english,I just want to say that your build is very similar to mine and is one of the best I have played. |
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" Do you run auto-curse setup ? just one of temp chains or enfeeble would greatly increase surviveability for you and your minions. Bone offering is another great tool to keep minions alive, classic summoner doesn't benefit as much from flesh offering like srs in later build stage. |
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I use manual 2 curses with inc area of effect, enfeeble + temporal chains or assasin's mark .
Bone offering i'm not using atm but it's similar to running the node Necromantic Aegis they die again, maybe I should try Necromantic Aegis + bone offering + jewels with minion block as my last test. |
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Hard to tell for me what's missing in your summoner there, I've tested flame sentinels on standard too before 2.0 launched and there were no problems with survivability . And now they are even better with improved anger aura, better minion dmg and lmp support gems.
Last edited by Taddis5#0970 on Aug 13, 2015, 1:30:19 PM
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I will make a new summoner on hardcore these days with your same build, I think it's the best kind of play for me.
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Updated first post, added budget version of the build.
Also edited gem/links section. Ditching flame dash skill in order to use generosity+anger setup in alpha's how helmet. Arctic armor can be used in any other free slot. Have fun and stay safe ! Last edited by Taddis5#0970 on Aug 14, 2015, 9:08:23 AM
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Updated with "Possible improvements" section with information of how to push the build a little further.
Thanks for taking a look into my build ! Last edited by Taddis5#0970 on Aug 14, 2015, 10:25:35 AM
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Any reason why you dont just run BM passive? I run BM Passive - can run same amount of auras but do not need alphas howl. Allows you to keep +2 minion helm.
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" Too many points to reach it imo. It was worth when i played my first summoner in 1.2 and you could reserve way more auras with mortal conviction. Perhaps still viable option with shavs and reserving your life to the max. Will look into it. Regarding +2 minion helm, it's not so mandatory atleast when your raise zombie gems hits 18+ lvl. Auras more than make up for not using it that i even use 3 damage support gems on them. |
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