SRS Summoner - Turn Your Enemies Green with Envy

So I just had my first character here to turn level 80 and I figured it was worth putting up a post to share the build and idea with.

My basic idea is a standard SRS Summoner which I have all the minion nodes for, and I did get them completely nothing can be left unselected in each one.
I have Zombies, a Chaos Golem, and Specters, with Summon Raging Skull as my main support base. I like very much that it now is apparently fixed and I can have at any given moment 30 SRS out on the field at no hardly any cost.

I have a lot of tweaking still to do, I need to get more resist nodes, and I plan on getting a few of the reducdtion in cost to mana skills and a few jewel slots also.

The Build as of 80th Level



The way I did this is that I went the quickest path to each of the minion nodes before I did anything else. Since I did this in standard I had access to some pretty good items from the start.

For the longest time, from say the earliest level you can I ran Tabula Rasa to about 10 levels ago. I got the helmet as a drop early on and qualitied it and linked it then Vaaled it. A very nice person gave me my first Midnight Bargain and then another nice person "Sexy Ping" gave me the second Midnight Bargain and the Cloak of Defiance. The Boots are essential as they give you the extra minions, earlier I ran with the Queen's Decree sword for the longest time.

My current gear is as follows:







On the 2nd Midnight Bargain I run 2 Vaal Summon Skeleton Gems with Spell Echo. And before you bitch at me, yes it does work!!! I have tested it and it is one of the ways I play the character. I can have both gems set on different keys, which I do, and run them both at the same time for a massive army of skeletons. Now be careful when you do this because your FPS rate will drop through the floor into the long dark of hell when you use them both together.
In the helmet I keep my Chaos Golem for the life support, that combined with Minion Instability makes my zombies and other creatures walking time bombs waiting to further the chaos.


For the gem set up I do the following:

Chaos Golem: I run Melee Physical, Multi Strike, and Faster Attacks
For the SRS: I run Additional Accuracy, Minion Speed, Chaos Damage, and Spell Echo
For my Zombies: I run Added Chaos Damage, Melee Damage, and currently I am using Zombies to level Empower, if I don't have Empower there Iwould recommend added Fire Damage
For Specters: I run Added Chaos Damage, Minion Speed, and I sadly just realised Ineed to swap out Item Rarity for something else.

I did realise that I have both Convocation, and Vaal Arch in my Unset Rings. My mistake sorry. Convocation allows you to recall your minions to you. But make a note here, Convocation will NOT summon your Vaal Skeletons to you, those will be left where they are!

Vaal Arc is just useful to have and will help deal quick damage while your minions get to the enemy and tell you how many is out there.

In the Midnight Bargain on the left I have Portal Gem, Anger.

The amulet Sidhebreathe gives the minions bonuses, so for me that is essential. The helmet Skullhead Executive Helm also gives minions essential bonuses. The gloves give YOU increased attack speed, evasion, resistances. The Belt gives good ES and resistances.

I am still learning how to use flasks so I can't say much about them. I will be working on that part next.

As things stand I can now run up to Tier 6 Maps pretty well as long as I pay attention and have at least one Vaal Skele bomb being held. When you find a hard pack you want to drop a skele-bomb on them, then after a couple of seconds you can mass explode things with Vaal Detonate Dead - which looks like a nuke going off in chain reaciton with damage that cannot be deflected to you!! I may swap out Vaal Arc at some point for something else not sure what yet.


For Summon Raging Skull:

Summon Raging Skull is the primary gem in this build. As things currently stand I have each skull doing a little over 1k dps. I use Spell Echo, Additional Accuracy, Minion Speed, Added Chaos Damage on a 5L Cloak of Defiance. It is fine to let them go chasing off after quarry, but after a while you want to reel them back in with Convocation.

For Zommbies and Skeletons:

With all your minions, support gems work on them like they would on you. If you add the gem Multistrike, your minoins will have multiple attacks. If you add Melee Splash then the damage will splash. If you add fire, cold, lightning whatever damage then your minions will strike with that damage.

Also If you want tanky minions use the Minion Life and Minion and Totem Resistances gems.
If you want damage and speed use the Minion Speed and Minion Damage gems.
Another player "Sexy Ping" told me that you may want to consider using the gem Additional Accuracy for your minions to have better striking ability. If you can't hit your target then you can't kill! Very Important!

For the Bandits: Kill Them All , I didn't want ot bother with being picky.

One last tip: Specters

Specters are pretty essential and can be done in what ever you prefer. But for a recommendation I would do this. Get the gem Desecrate as early as possible. The you can go to the Act Portal for any place and use Desecrate there. It will summon up various bodies of different kinds PER use. Then you mouse over the bodies while using the letter A and it will show you at the top of the screen what each body does. I like to go to Solaris and get the minion that raises dead zombies. These will increase the number you can have beyond what the limit of your items allow. Currently I can through items summon 11 zombies. If I have 3 of these guys I can have up to 21 zombies!!! then I can summon 2 more specters from anywhere I've been by the waypoint. I leave that decision up to you.


Well that is the gear and the build and the idea as it stands. I have so many people to thank for help with items, and ideas and various tips I would at this point haveto say thank you to ALL of PoE people for the generosity and the help. So let me know what you think. This is my first Build Post so please keep that in mind if I have missed anything.

Oh one last note, the part of the title name Turn Your Enemies Green with Envy. That comes from the Chaos Damage which all of my minions run. What happens is your minions hit them, they turn green then a few moments later they die.

Thank you all,
The Morgawr