[2.2] Necromancer: Undying Grappler Summoner [Softcore]

Hi! This is my first guide here on Path of Exile.
English is not my native language so please excuse any grammatical errors!
Also, this guide format is inspired by @mattc3303, a very nice necromancer.

I've been playing Path of Exile since 2012 and I've dedicated 90% of that time playing summoners.

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This is a Spectre build, using http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Undying_Grappler as our source of damage and http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Carnage_Chieftain as a frenzy charge generator. You will be amazed at how this guy works. Undying Grappler use discharge to deal tons of damage. They also use flicker strike as a gap closer to the enemies.

So, let's start for the core items you will need.



This belt is a must, since we're gonna give charges to the spectres thanks to this potion:


We'll take 2 of those potion, to increase the charges the minion receives. The -10% HP isn't noticeable, even if you spam them at once. That's because our minions have % hp regen + life leech from the tree.

Let's take a look at another item:



Actually, this shield isn't a must, but it's very helpful for giving our minions even more charges, as the shield shared charges with allies.

Lastly, this is a personal choice, you could use Vis Mortis or both of them, I use:



Now, let's move onto the passive skill tree:

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Get all the minion nodes, get +1 to curse, curses effectiveness, aura radius/increased effect, life/ES and jewels sockets. This build also uses Necromantic Aegis, for the shield to be effective, and Elemental Equilibrium, for our cold damage to hit harder, which will be our main element, though discharge will hit for three elements.

For the ascendancy points, I personally use Spirit Eater for more DPS, but you could also use Mistress of Sacrifice for extra tankiness.


Bandits
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Oak, kill them all, kill them all.


Gems and gear

Spoiler
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Weapon: I use Midnight bargain
Gems setup: Discipline + Purity of Elements + Convocation




Gloves: I use rare ES gloves
Gems setup: CoH + Ball Lightning + Elemental Weakness + Poacher's Mark.




The reason behind this setup, is because discharge does fire/lightning/cold damage, so EW is the best curse for damage boost imo. Poacher's Mark is used to gain more frenzy charges and also for boosting the potions charge speed.

Belt: Umbilicus Immortalis. This is a must for the build to work properly.



Boots: Bones of Ullr.
Gem setup: Raise Spectre + Minion Life + Spell Echo + Blood Magic




This boots give us +1 spectre and +1 zombie. Those boots are very important since +1 spectre is a lo of damage and we don't want to miss that. Zombies are also important, they are our tanks.

Now, for the gem setup.

We want to raise a Carnage Chieftain, from the Act 2 - The old Fields. Those mobs have a mana problem, so they can't keep spamming their "Grants Frenzy Charges To Allies". To solve this, we use the Blood Magic gem and Spell Echo, so they use it two times.

"
Mark_GGG wrote:
Regarding the points on use of skills, Spectres have exactly the same AI as when not spectres. They use skills in the same situations. Yes, monsters use mana, and there are plenty of monsters where that's the primary timing mechanic - we know how much mana they have and how fast it regenerates, so set them to use skills when they can (and in some cases their AI specifically uses other skills when their mana is low, for example). For others mana consumption isn't a big issue, and it's based on the situation they're in - things such as numbers and positions of allies/enemies, which may well be different when they're minions compared to when they're monsters, because they'll mostly be expecting to fight a few strong enemies, not swarms of them.


Shield: We use Victario's Charity.
Gem setup: Flesh Offering + Flame Dash + Faster Casting



As I said before, this shield is another must, since it will help A LOT with the charges gain speed. It also boost the toughness of our minions, giving them some HP/All resist/Chaos resist.

Flame Dash is a great movement skill with the help of faster casting. Flesh Offering will give our minions a huge damage boost, so keep using it.

Helmet: I use a +2 to minion gems.
Gem setup: Raise Zombie + Poison + Minion Damage + Animate Guardian



You can switch Minion Damage for Minion Life or Fortify.

Also, for Animate Guardian, you should use these items:

Leer Cast + Dying Breath. The Chest/Gloves/Boots are up to you.

Body Armour: I use a six linked ES chest, but you could also use a Vis Mortis, giving us +1 Spectre and a small damage boost. I'll use a six linked one once I got the currency.
Gem setup: Raise Spectre + Minion Damage + iAoE + Controlled Destruction + Cold Pen. + Elemental Focus



The idea is to boost our elemental damage, increasing our AoE and penetrating their defenses through Cold Penetration, since our main source of damage is cold, independently of discharge hitting for three elements.

Amulet and Rings: Use rare Amulet/Rings which boost your toughness. Find some Hp/ES/allResist/Chaos Resist ones.



Potions: Potions are very important, as they affect Zombies/Spectres. They will boost the damage, resists and will give them charges.



We use two Doedre's Elixir because one isn't enough. We should be spamming this in each pack, while applying our curses on hit. Thanks to Poacher's Mark, the flasks will charge very fast.

We also use a Sulphur Flask to boost our minions damage by 40%. Also, the consecrated ground will help with the HP regen.

Atziri's Promise gives us extra chaos damage which is great, as we are doing ALL kind of damage (physical from zombies, Lightning/Fire/Cold from Spectres and Chaos from potion).

Lastly, an HP potion, which will help our minions to stay alive.


Gameplay

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You have to spam your potions when fighting packs while also cursing enemies with ball lightning. keep using Flesh Offering to refresh the atk. speed/mov. speed/damage boost (if you took Spirit Eater).

Use Flame Dash to move from pack to pack.

Use Convocation to reposition your minions near you.


Videos

Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxCix6eAjY8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPn2RhxTbpE(This video is outdated, as I didn't use Flame Dash/Carnage Chieftain)
Last edited by Ghidet#6127 on Apr 5, 2016, 7:58:38 PM
Last bumped on Aug 19, 2016, 12:18:01 PM
personally i dislike running the "mark" curses with this build, because not only is it a chance to gain a charge (and a pretty paltry one at that), but also doesn't give it to the whole team like victario's charity does. now if you're using it for the lgoh and mgoh, that's okay, but i think you're better off using a defensive curse like temp chains or a curse that lets you penetrate their cold defenses even more like frostbite.

if you can spare the gem slot, phase run is quite nice in this build, as we have a lot of frenzy charges in excess. either that or run rotgut if you don't have umbilicus immortalis.

if you have 9+ zombies (and/or running srs), you will have no problems generating frenzy charges whatsoever. i have zombie + faster attacks + multistrike and i never fall below 3 charges in combat. the stygian silverback (ape chieftan who gives frenzy charges) is quite honestly useless and you're better off having another grappler/lurker.
Last edited by Juicebox360#1700 on Apr 5, 2016, 8:37:19 PM
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Juicebox360 wrote:
personally i dislike running the "mark" curses with this build, because not only is it a chance to gain a charge (and a pretty paltry one at that), but also doesn't give it to the whole team like victario's charity does. now if you're using it for the lgoh and mgoh, that's okay, but i think you're better off using a defensive curse like temp chains or a curse that lets you penetrate their cold defenses even more like frostbite.


Yeah, I first started using Frostbite, but I noticed that my flasks weren't recharging kinda slow, so I decided to go poacher's mark because of the frenzy charges + 100% flasks charges, so it indirectly increases my dps.
Last edited by Ghidet#6127 on Apr 5, 2016, 8:36:32 PM
"
Ghidet wrote:
"
Juicebox360 wrote:
personally i dislike running the "mark" curses with this build, because not only is it a chance to gain a charge (and a pretty paltry one at that), but also doesn't give it to the whole team like victario's charity does. now if you're using it for the lgoh and mgoh, that's okay, but i think you're better off using a defensive curse like temp chains or a curse that lets you penetrate their cold defenses even more like frostbite.


Yeah, I first started using Frostbite, but I noticed that my flasks weren't recharging kinda slow, so I decided to go poacher's mark because of the frenzy charges + 100% flasks charges, so it indirectly increases my dps.


hmm, that is true. you do gain more flask charges off poachers mark, my bad. i don't run my build with umbilicus immortalis and doedres (i use that on my animate weapons instead), so i wouldn't know. thanks for explaining.
you'll want poacher's mark if your using flasks with only one charge like vinktars. Constant flask uptime is a huge dps boost.
Necronomicon: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1617098
Build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/409940
Summoner Dischord: https://discord.gg/XwWdSUa
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/zhoukon
Pretty neat build. Can you run high level maps with this?

EDIT: Just occurred to me that this build wouldn't work in Prophecy, because the belt was Perandus league exclusive. Unless GGG has plans on bringing that league back as a Zana mod, this build isn't going to work here.
PoE players: Our game has a wide diversity of builds.

Also PoE players: The [league mechanic] doesn't need to be nerfed, you just need to play a [current meta] build!

MFers found strength in their Afflictions. They became reliant on them. I am not so foolish.
Last edited by Pizzarugi#6258 on Jun 11, 2016, 4:16:35 PM
Respec'd my dormant witch to this yesterday. The minions are insane and practically unkillable... too bad I'm so squishy... ;-( really need to work on some upgrades and leveling some of my gems!

Spoiler
Well hello Mister Fancypants. Well, I've got news for you pal, you ain't leadin' but two things right now: Jack and shit... and Jack left town.
Last edited by Dhrakken#2383 on Aug 19, 2016, 12:20:22 PM

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