[2.1] Rev's Elemental Animate Weapon summoner (4 aura's, Arctic Armour, EB/ZO)

Hello everyone! This is Rev bringing to you my short overview of my patch 2.1 Elemental Animate Weapon build. I've played this build before in Domination, but decided to give it another swing in this patch. There are a lot of cool new items, gems, jewels and other changes to existing items which inspired me to take another look at this interesting summoner build. As of this moment I'm only level 69 back on Standard working this build out, leveling it up and progressing through some maps (notice some of my gems are actually still low level). I'll try to set up some different paragraphs to go over things like the passtive tree build, gear requirements and playstyle.


** Passives **

First off, I will start with the full 112 point passive tree I have set up to follow at the moment.



Bandits: Oak, Kill, Kill

Leveling is actually pretty easy these days compared to a few years back when I first ran this build. All we do is pick up a Flame Totem, put it in an easy to craft +1 fire gems wand (or even better a Lifesprig), head for Ancestral Bond (which is only 5 points away from the Sovereignty cluster) and it will carry us to the point where we switch to Animate Weapon. You might be able to switch as early as level 45-50 and only run on Wrath and Anger, but I've personally waited with my switch until I had all the aura and mana reservation reduction passives as well as most minion nodes and EB/ZO. I only pick up Potency of Will at first and go for Exceptional Performance way later. Also few of the life/es nodes I've saved for late game, since I feel pretty safe most of the time with 20-30 minions running around protecting me.


** Gear **

I'm not gonna post my entire gear set here, since obviously I'm still leveling up. But I will go over some in my opinion required gear to make this build work or to make the most of it.



The number one requirement to be able to run all the auras we want. With this chest, plus the Conqueror's Efficiency jewel, we can run Wrath, Anger, Hatred, Haste and Arctic Armour. A special note is that we don't need any links at all here, just the sockets. The chest provides for the Generosity support gem on whichever aura gem is socketed into it, which not only saves us from having to 5 or 6 link it, but also provides a good boost to the aura efficiency. Note that it is also required to socket Arctic Armour into this chest to benefit from the reduced mana reservation bonus it provides. Desecrate is there just so we can summon Zombies in our Hideout before going out, or to boost Flesh Offering when we have nothing else to do.



As stated before, we need this Jewel to be able to run all the auras as well as Arctic Armour. With this Jewel we can just about bump the reservation of the 4 auras down enough to free up enough mana for Arctic Armour. This puts the 4 auras at 22% reservation and Arctic Armour at 11%, which totals 99% mana reservation. Eldritch Battery then provides us with "mana" to animate weapons and cast our other utility spells. On top of that it also provides increased Skill Effect Duration, which is somewhat useful as well since it synergizes with almost all skills we use. You can get this Jewel by completing the Through Sacred Ground quest in Act 2 Merciless.



Overall just a really nice boost in damage and utility, as well as being a 2-hander, this is the only way we can get a 5 or 6 link going for Animate Weapon. I'll let the stats on the staff speak for itself here.



Not really a requirement, but a really fun and interesting Jewel designed specifically for this build. This must be socketed into the Jewel slot between the Ranger and Shadow area for it to reach the requirement of 50 dexterity allocated. This is also why there is one node of dexterity allocated beneath Charisma; it wasn't a missclick :)

Furthermore a +2 minion gems helmet really boosts the damage and life pool of our Zombies, though it is not a requirement.

I'm also using a 5-link +2 fire gems staff in my weapon swap with Summon Raging Spirits. This is to help with the first couple of monster kills to get some weapons going, as well as during lengthy boss fights if you run out of weapons or they somehow die.


** Gems **

Animate Weapon - Multistrike, Increased Duration, Minion Damage, Weapon Elemental Damage, Melee Splash

I suppose one could argue the importance of order in which to use these supports going from a 4- to a 5- to a 6-link. I personally think Minion Damage since patch 2.0 is way way stronger than Weapon Elemental Damage, since it boosts all types of damage (i.e. also boosts phys damage, thus boosting damage gained from Hatred as well) and also favours Melee Splash in my opinion. The choice of either Weapon Elemental Damage or Melee Splash as 5th and 6th links will probably come to personal preference.

Wrath, Anger, Hatred, Haste, Arctic Armour + Desecrate

As stated before, all socketed into Victario's Influence without any needed links. Desecrate is there for the reasons stated above, as well as being the only gem slot I had left.

Raise Zombie - Multistrike, Melee Splash, Minion Damage

Since we can raise up to 8 Zombies with this passive build (even 9 if you find a really nice Talisman and can get the strength and dexterity requirements elsewhere), they provide a good base of minions to get some monster kills and weapon drops to animate. Again, favoring Minion Damage here over Melee Physical Damage or Weapon Elemental Damage for the same reasons stated above.

Rallying Cry, Flesh Offering, Vaal Haste - Increased Duration

These spells alone give really nice boosts of damage to our minion army, but when you combine them all together they just go bonkers! With all the Skill Effect Duration increases we get from the passive tree, as well as potentially a high quality Increased Duration gem, we can have Vaal Haste up almost permanently and it covers pretty much the entire screen with all the radius increases we get. Naturally, with these durations it's also very easy to keep Rallying Cry and Flesh Offering up for a very lengthy amount of time.

Vaal Summon Skeletons - Minion Damage, Weapon Elemental Damage + Elemental Weakness

I just love this skill so much it makes me giggle every time! :) This just melts map bosses before you even realise they're dead. If it spawns the General with the Anger aura (which stacks on top of our own Anger) the damage just goes through the roof. Elemental Weakness is there for obvious reasons: we need the curse to boost damage and I simply don't have another slot for it elsewhere.
Vaal Skeletons however is just for shits and giggles to be quite honest and one could argue that a Cast When Damage Taken setup here would be much more useful, since we pretty much have no personal defense whatsoever.


** Conclusion **

Overall very happy with this build so far, especially with the new items and changes to old items and gems, allowing me to rework this build into a 2.1 version. I don't think it will ever be as powerful as a lot of other builds out there, nor will it be able to shine in late game maps, but it's definately is a very fun to play build! Please let me know what you think.

I was using AW in a build different than this one but still EB/ZO but I also used MoM for survivability. Just today I did the math calculating the DPS of the weakest weps i could find (given that on average not all my weps were as bad as that) using their damage/attk speed/crit%. Along with the aura's, # of weps, and a few extra things. I got my DPS just over 3mil doing atziri. It was kind of funny to not see her health bar most of the 20~ second fight.

And my gear wasnt exactly expensive. the most expensive thing for me was the 5L Femur's of the saints. after that the cost to buy the rest of my gear was under 10c(buying the atziri map pieces costs me more lol). I Had never done atziri before this league, just because i never felt like i was up to it. And this time i was like....Is that all?

I am pretty sure once i am done optomizing my gear and upgrading my gems to lvl 20 and then 20% quality them that I can break 5mil quiet easily. which from what I know so far(by asking in global chat and looking around) that 5mil is the record for DPS set by any build for PoE to so far.

You should use Melee Splash over Multistrike. Multistrike sucks at clearing Maps. The Weapons spending more time Fighting the Air than actual hitting targets, because most Monsters often die in one hit. The DPS might be lower, but the clearspeed goes up. I have done this in very long tests in high end situations (2 Toons, one halfway to 98 and one almost 94). Even in a 6 Link Multistrike is much weaker than Added Lighting, which you should use as a Standart and switch, if you really need (Bossfights like Atziri), Melee Splash with Multistrike.

You also should link your Victario's Influence and add Generosity as a Support. This Chest has only a lvl 1 Version and a lvl 20/20 one is a huge Difference. Quality on Generosity might be weak at the first look, but with this you can increase your Safe distance between you and your Army by a lot and the extra 20% Aura Effect also boosts your Damage by a lot.

Elemental Equilibrium is also recommended. Curse on Hit with double Curse (Ele Weakness and Warlord's Mark) is also very good (use Freeze Pulse). I also recommend to use Purity of elements over Hatred, because otherwise the Weapons die like flies to burst Elemental Damage (Expensive option: get Minion resists on Jewels)

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Calculating the DPS for this Build is like really hard. I did a Spreadsheet once to get a look at the real DPS, but in every situation it is only an estimate.

cheers

"

MikeHunts wrote:

I was using AW in a build different than this one but still EB/ZO but I also used MoM for survivability. Just today I did the math calculating the DPS of the weakest weps i could find (given that on average not all my weps were as bad as that) using their damage/attk speed/crit%. Along with the aura's, # of weps, and a few extra things. I got my DPS just over 3mil doing atziri. It was kind of funny to not see her health bar most of the 20~ second fight.

And my gear wasnt exactly expensive. the most expensive thing for me was the 5L Femur's of the saints. after that the cost to buy the rest of my gear was under 10c(buying the atziri map pieces costs me more lol). I Had never done atziri before this league, just because i never felt like i was up to it. And this time i was like....Is that all?

I am pretty sure once i am done optomizing my gear and upgrading my gems to lvl 20 and then 20% quality them that I can break 5mil quiet easily. which from what I know so far(by asking in global chat and looking around) that 5mil is the record for DPS set by any build for PoE to so far.

Burning miscreations with cast on death with trap and mines then snappshotting minnion gems and stuff was about 56 million dps way back in the day

56 million. Wow, what couldnt you do at that point lol. I see enough stuff disappear, but Spectre's are permanent so that's even less work lol

Currently trying this build (with some of the adjustments Nurbel recommended) on HC Talisman and I'm about to hit 60.

It's starting to get somewhat rough in Merc though, this is probably the char with the most squishy feel I had so far. I know that I have a wall of guys between me and the enemy, but any mob that has problems holding aggro (like flicker striker and other fast moving things) could potentially wreck me in no time. Also long-range physical spells are a nightmare, I have to stand so far back that my minions quit fighting and keep running back to me.

With only a moderate amount of HP and basically zero damage mitigation beyond Arctic Armor, what are the best ways to increase my survivability?

It's still a fun build though and a welcome change from the bow chars I tend to make most of the time.

"

MikeHunts wrote:

...It was kind of funny to not see her health bar most of the 20~ second fight.

And my gear wasnt exactly expensive. the most expensive thing for me was the 5L Femur's of the saints. after that the cost to buy the rest of my gear was under 10c(buying the atziri map pieces costs me more lol). I Had never done atziri before this league, just because i never felt like i was up to it. And this time i was like....Is that all?

Even builds with GG gear need at the very least 30-35 sec, because of all the different phases. So on your first ever attempt and with gear worth 10c you were 10+ sec faster than builds specifically made for farming Atziri?

Could you by any chance record it and post it somewhere? Not buying that, at all.

Just tried Merc Malachai...to no avail. Went into the second phase with 15 weapons, that's normally enough for any boss, no matter the hp. But as he does multiple phases even within that second one there is no way I can make my weapons survive that constant barrage of AoE dps. The second phase is basically 6 life bars (3 x Malachai, 3 x organs) you have to deplete, and on top of that your weapons timer is ticking down.

Animated Weapons are fun, but for encounters like these I think they are pretty much the worst skill I could use. Which means I'm pretty much forced to switch to SRS. Which in turn means I could just use that gem at all time, cause it works everywhere no matter what.

It's depressing to see that GGG is apparently more interested in turning this game into a CCG (I'm looking at you divination cards) than fixing core skills that clearly lack functionality basically since day one.

EDIT: Kinda threw away the char at Lvl81 to careless playing, and I don't feel too bad about it. In the end it just felt unrewarding to work around so many impediments and still be gated off from certain encounters. Adds summoned by bosses dropping no loot at all means you'll just run out of stuff. And yes, you could portal out and get new weapons and resummon them one by one...but that playstyle couldn't be considered fun anymore, no matter how you look at it.

So unless the skill gem gets a serious makeover from GGG (highly unlikely) I'll probably not build another char around it.