[2.0] Elemental Animator Scion - The Nanoswarm

Arena
Gorge #1 - 9:10

We get Elemental Equilibrium, some zombies, and auras passives.

Going mana-based, you will need lots of mana regen (Goldwyrm helps!):

Level 83 - Mana-based


I just recently converted over to Eldritch Battery for about 20 regret orbs. This version can handle the high mana cost of Animate Weapon more naturally, makes use of energy gained on hit Cobalt Jewels (a smallish bonus), and a huge boon of a 3rd 50% aura in Haste. However, I lost over 1000 life and my ES pool, so I am very fragile while I update my gear to better handle this setup.

I get 34% reduced reservation from the tree and I don't need to use Conqueror's Efficiency (though I like that jewel anyway) and don't need an Enlighten gem, either, so my aura sockets are Anger + Wrath + Haste + Generosity in my gloves or boots.

Level 88 - Eldritch Battery version

- Normal: Help Oak for +40 maximum life
- Cruel: Kill all for skill point
- Merciless: Kill all for skill point

- Weapon: Aurumvorax is our endgame weapon because the reduced item rarity effectively translates to more white melee weapons on the ground to animate. We use it to spectral throw our curse and elemental equilibrium via a small amount of cold damage on gear. Ideally you want a +60% all elemental resistance one, but you can go minimal on the damage roll because we want our animated weapons to get the kills since mine are linked to Item Quantity. Because we use a sword, we have the option of Whirling Blades, Leap Slam, or Flame Dash for movement (Lightning Warp is really bad because we have too much duration from the tree), and if you setup correctly you can keep your movement skill on weapon swap. Dual wielding Aurumvorax is something I haven't tried, but your resists will be capped!
- Shield: Any high life, high block, mana regen shield will do.
- Armor: I'm using a 6link armor (the only one I have, despite the 160 strength requirement, that cruel mistress) to socket my Animate Weapon. Belly of the Beast is a good choice because of the improved flask healing on minions and ease of rolling socket colors. With a rare, you can craft +1 maximum Zombies on it!
- Gloves - We CAN'T use Sadima's Touch (which has Increased Item Quantity) because it adds fire and lightning damage to our attacks which blanks our Elemental Equilibirum for Anger and Wrath. Some rares with resist will do, and you can craft Catarina +10-15% increased minion damage on a rare. Asenath's Gentle Touch is a good choice especially if you've got Whispers of Doom dual curse from the tree, Doedre's Damning, or Windscream.
- Boots - Goldwyrm is the best choice with its big fire resist, mana regen, up to 20% item quantity (legacy is up to 30%), and 20% movement speed. The ideal one is corrupted with +1 to socketed gems!
- Amulet, rings - We need lots of stats (~157 dex for Vaal Haste) so get some along with resists on your accessory slots. Fire resist is the easiest because Goldwyrn gives up to +50%. "Weapon elemental damage" isn't useful at all because it doesn't help our Animated Weapons.

NOTE: You will need a small amount of cold damage somewhere on your rare gear (gloves for me). A very low roll is great because it bricks the item for every other build but it's still 99.9% effective for us!

Flasks



We want:
- Eternal Life Flask of Animation - preferably a Catalysed or Saturated and 60% healing to minions
- Granite Flask of Iron Skin - for some physical mitigation
- Quicksilver Flask (Goldwyrm is only 20% movespeed, and we are a momentum-based summoner)

Jewels
-We want Cobalt Jewels with Minion damage. After that, minion block, minions resistance, or minion life is ok. Since I both attack and cast spells, I like the 4% attack and cast speed mod. Max life would be ideal, and we definitely don't want item rarity (fewer white melee weapon drops). We can make our spectral throw better with increased projectile speed so it travels further. We can't get mana gained on hit with cobalt jewels (that's for viridian jewels, which can't roll minion bonuses), but energy shield gained on hit works if you do an Eldritch Battery variant.

Summons




Chest (5l or 6l)
- Animate Weapon + Weapon Elemental Damage + Multistrike + Increased Duration
+ Melee Splash / Faster Attacks / Minion Damage
+ Item Quantity

Our main summon is Animate Weapon. Quality will increase weapon movespeed which greatly helps. It will cost a lot of mana, ~150 mana cost a cast and you'll cast it quickly since time is of the essence for a duration summon. WED is our biggest multiplier and Multistrike makes our flat added elemental damage from Anger and Wrath.

Helm (+2 minion gems)
- Summon Zombies + Minion Life + Fortify + Animate Guardian

This is our meatwall. Quality will help Zombies, Minion Life, and Fortify. Animate Guardian needs to be high level (quality only helps damage which doesn't matter here). If you go with a damage option like Minion Damage + Faster Attacks + Multistrike, I recommend not using Animate Guardian.

My Animated Guardian has equipped:
- Dying Breath staff (~1 chaos)
- Leer Cast mask (~1 chaos)
- Ambu's Charge armor (~1 chaos), rich option is Belly of the Beast (> 1 exalt)
- Southbound gloves (~1 chaos)
- Goldwyrm boots (rare boots with lots of resists are also good) (~1 chaos)

The Dying Breath and Leer Cast enhance our auras, curses, and army damage as much as possible. The rest is for high life and defense so the Animated Guardian doesn't die. Make sure to always drink your life flask of animation whenever the Guardian is taking damage! I haven't fully tested mine, but he can handle 76 maps barely taking any damage.

Boots
-Spectral Throw + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Curse on Hit + Elemental Weakness

This is our fancy version of a curse. While a cold spell would save a link, throwing Aurumvorax adds flavor to the weapon build. This also applies our Elemental Equilibrium cold damage (check your tooltip and make sure you have some cold damage and zero fire or lightning damage). We don't have to attack all the time, just hitting the harder and bigger monster packs once is enough, then get to summoning weapons from the ground.

Spectral Throw is ideally level 1 (for the lowest mana cost) and 20% quality (for increased attack speed). We don't need paltry extra damage leveling the gem adds because we're using Aurumvorax! The +life gained on hit from Aurumvorax gives us a little bit of sustain while spectral throwing.

Gloves
- Anger + Wrath + Generosity + Enlighten

Anger gives our minions fire damage, Wrath gives them lightning damage, and generosity adds more damage and denies us the fire and lightning damage so we can use Elemental Equilibrium with some cold damage. Quality gives some aura radius which is ok but not amazing. Enlighten is a necessary evil since we use so much mana.

Utility (this can be in your Aurumvorax, Shield, unset rings, or possibly on weapon swap)
- Desecrate - This is how we summon our Zombies. We can keep it on weapon swap since we only use it when we log in.
- Whirling Blades / Leap Slam / Flame Dash - Our movement skill options, ok to have on weapon swap. We can't use Lightning Warp because of our increased duration passives.
- Convocation - brings our minions to us. The best strategy against most bosses is to yolo run right next to them and cast Convocation so all your weapons fight it. This can be on weapon swap if you're a skilled player, as this is a very big emergency button.
- Vaal Haste - The largest buff we have for our army. Increased Duration makes it last a long time!
- Vaal Clarity - I use this as a burst way to cast Animate Weapon a dozen times for free. Great after a big fight or strongbox.
- Rallying Cry - A damage buff for our minions and some mana regen. It's our best warcry by far.
- Flesh Offering - A buff of our weapons movespeed and attack speed. OK on weapon swap.
- Chaos Golem - the only golem for summoners, adding some physical resistance. A single link will be fine thanks to our passives.