HORRORMANCER - low budget beginner friendly

Welcome to my Horrormancer Guide. I know there is another popular Horrormancer guide that has already been done, but this is a little different. The main perspective here is in keeping a very simple, basic low budget build suitable for beginning players and or beginning in a new league.

The Classic Summoner build is in my opinion one of the best builds to start with. The main reason is that minions scale very well with just the addition of passive skills. You really don't have to have any expensive gear for them to just work, hence making the summoner a perfect build for players with little to no currency.

Level 30 Skill Tree
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMAAQQHEJci9DpYRARMs025VcZXK18qa9tsC20ZfRiD24Vgm6GqxKyYvYK_l8k9zLzfiukC6-TsivIe99f-sw==

Level 40'sh Skill Tree
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMAAQQHEJcVUBhqHNwi9Cj6Kpgy0TpYRARFR0yzTblVxlcrWAdfKmvbbAttGXgvfOV9GIPbhWCIQI9GkDOboaaspwiqxKyYuJO9gr-XyT3MvNkL2t3fiukC6-Tr7uyK8h731_qA_rM=

Level 50'sh Skill Tree
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMAAQQHBLMQlxVQGGoabBslHNwi9Cj6Kpgy0TpYRARFR0uuTLNNuVXGWAdo8mvbbAttGXgvfOV9GH_Ggh6Cx4PbhTKFYIhAiEKPRpAzkyeboZ2uogCmrKcIqsSsmLiTv5fAZsHFyT3MvNkL2Vva3dsL34rpAuvu7IrwH_Ie98H31_no-oA=

Level 90'sh Skill Tree
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMAAQQHBLMGSRCXE2wUIBVQFm8YVhhqGj4abBslHNwi9CSqKPopLiqYMtE1kjbpOlg64TwtPfxBh0QERUdLrkyzTblN41BHVcZYB1hjWpFfP2ebaHRo8mqsa9tsC20ZeC98uHzlfRh-WX_Ggh6Cx4Nfg8yD24UyhWCIQIhCjM-PGo9GkDOTJ5uhna6hL6IAplemrKcIqH2qxKyYrj63PriTvoq_l8BmwcXGrsbYyT3MvNAf0_vYvdkL2VvaYtrd2wvfiuNq5FHpAuvu7IrvDu_r8B_xrPIe8kX2SPfB99f56PqA_gr-jw==

For the first 40 or so levels, you will use mana to use your skills. This is why we take mana nodes to begin with, unless you feel like spamming mana flasks. At around level 40 you will respec out of mana and grabe Eldritch Battery and Zealot's Oath. Make sure you get the life regen nodes by Templar and Scion starting area's first. This will help you regenerate your energy shield. You can then take Mind Over Matter as it will draw from your energy shield instead of mana.

AURA'S - You will use Hatred and Haste when you finally take your Eldritch Battery/Zealot's Oath combo. This will use up 100% of your mana. But you won't need any of your mana because you are now using your energy shield for your skills. You will want to link both of these aura's to a generosity gem.

CURSES - At around level 35'sh you will want to get Curse on Hit. Before this you will be manually casting vulnerability. When you get COH you will then buy a Poacher's Mark. Your Curse set-up will be Arc - COH - Vulnerability - Poacher's Mark

Cast Attack Skill - Arc. You will start using Arc at the end of Act 1. You will use Arc for the rest of the build. Arc at first will be your main DPS. Level up as a summoner, you can use spark until you get arc. Arc's DPS will slowly fizzle as you level as your not supporting it or taking any support nodes. It is not meant for DPS for your end build. It is purely for Minion Direction and to apply curses.

GEAR - You will want to use 2 Unique's, which are very cheap and very common. Sidhebreath amulet and Bones of Ullr slippers. The amulet will buff your minions and so will the boots, plus the boots will give you an extra spectre.

The rest of your gear will all be rares. Use Str/Int gear or pure Str gear. You won't need that much extra Energy Shield, your mainly looking for armor. No evasion gear. You mainly looking for as much resists, life and armor as you can get.

GOLEM - This is critical, you absolutely need a Stone Golem for Life Regen. You need the extra Life Regen for your Energy Shield recharge.

SPECTRE - Knitted Horrors. 3 of them. Use these for the whole build.

JEWLS - Anything with Minion damage, life and or resists.

SKILL GEM SETUP.

+ 2 Minion Helm = Raise Spectre, LMP/GMP, Minion Damage, Physical Projectile Attack Damage.

Wand or Shield - Summon Stone Golem, Minion Damage, Minion Life

Wand or Shield - Desecrate, Flesh Offering and Spell Echo.

Chest - Raise Zombie, Melee Phys Attack, Minion Damage, Poison, Multistrike, Bloodlust

Gloves and Boots - Aura's and Curse set ups. Ohh.. and also fit in Convocation somewhere, this is an absolute must skill.


That about does it. This build again is very cheap and easy and it have very good clear speed for normal mid to high tier maps.

Ascendancy Class Tree


Bandits - Oak for life, Alira for cast speed, kill all.

I just did normal Atziri. Was able to clear trash no problem. Double Vaal was no problem. The three mini bosses gave me some trouble however. Lost all of my precious Knitted Horrors and had to re-summon my zombies during the fight. But I did it without dying. Had to go get my Knitted Horrors again.

Lost all my zombies within seconds to Atziri and almost died. I ported out.

defeating Atziri herself with this build I don't think would be possible. It would be very hard. I didn't port back in.

Endgame Lab would also be pretty tough I think. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks really hard.


All in all though, I've been doing mid tier maps at my current level of 84. I should have over 4k life by the time I reach lvl 90 and High Tier maps should be no problem.

Again, this is a budget build. It requires very little currency to work and my clear speeds for normal maps is very good.

This is a nice beginner build, I recommend it. I've been having a blast with it.

How its ,,beginner friendly" just bunch of text rly hard to understand. No hate just saying I'm pretty new and I have no clue in this ,,beginner friendly" GUIDE

If you have any specific questions I'll be happy to answer them for you. By "Beginner Friendly" what I mainly mean is that this is a pretty basic easy to understand build.

"

TheCarthusian wrote:

SKILL GEM SETUP.

+ 2 Minion Helm = Raise Spectre, LMP/GMP, Minion Damage, Physical Projectile Attack Damage.

Wand or Shield - Summon Stone Golem, Minion Damage, Minion Life

Wand or Shield - Desecrate, Flesh Offering and Spell Echo.

Chest - Raise Zombie, Melee Phys Attack, Minion Damage, Poison, Multistrike, Bloodlust

Gloves and Boots - Aura's and Curse set ups. Ohh.. and also fit in Convocation somewhere, this is an absolute must skill.

Spectres gain almost nothing from a +2 Minion Helm. Even a Skullhead would be better.

Stone Golem doesn't really need any supports. You could use those gem slots for Vaal Haste + Increase Duration, Skeleton Totem, Wither Totem, Blood Magic + Level 1 Clarity for Commander of Darkness buff, Flame Dash, Lightning Warp, Phase Run, Whirling Blades, Smoke Mine (seriously, you need a mobility skill), Vaal Summon Skeletons, Cast When Damage Taken + Immortal Call/Arctic Breath/Frost Wall/Enfeeble, etc.

Flesh Offering and Spell Echo are a bad mix. You'll go from 8-corpse duration to 1-corpse duration. Faster Casting would be more reliable.

You're using Arc for curses, but didn't take Elemental Equilibrium for 1 passive point to boost your Hatred damage by 50%? If a monster has 75% Cold Resist, you would drop it down to 25%, effectively tripling Hatred's damage. It works on everything, too, including totems, bosses, Atziri, etc. Just be mindful in party play, but that's a given with curses anyway.

Consider Mistress of Sacrifice as an Ascendancy for Flesh Offering's 30% movement speed. Bones of Ullr's low movement speed really hurts clear speed when moving from pack to pack.

If you really want to make a "beginner guide", you should fully explain your setup:
Arc + Curse on Hit + Poacher's Mark + Vulnerability
Generosity + Haste + Hatred + ??? (Convocation?)

You can do Atziri if you switch to Flame Sentinels (Minion Damage + Spell Echo + Elemental Focus) and use Summon Raging Spirits (Minion Damage + Spell Echo + Melee Physical Damage) in your +2 helm, then take Mistress of Sacrifice so you get Flesh Offering's 30% cast speed for Raging Spirits. They both do way more damage and you can pre-cast spirits.

If you want to stay focused on Zombies and Bloodlust, have you considered the Umbilicus Immortalis belt?

5% Cast Speed from Alira for Cruel Bandit quest isn't worth it. For 1 passive point, you can grab Occultist's Dominion for 4% Cast Speed, 20 INT, and 16% Spell Damage.

If your only active ability is Arc for cursing (consider lvl1 Ball Lightning for cheaper cost and more targets hit), do you really need to spend 7 points to get Eldritch Battery/Zealot's Oath? You could spend 4 on Sovereignty and have 14% of your mana pool back, along with some boosts to your auras.

To Hercanic:

1. You are correct. A plus 1 or 2 minion helm isn't necessary to run your spectres on. This is a good clarification. The Skullhead is a good minion helm, but it's just another unique to have to buy. I'm trying to keep this as a simple starter build with minimum effort to start and run. Also, it's unnecessary, your knitted horrors and zombies will be tanky enough for mid to high tier maps without this helm. I feel that a rare helm is better for extra resists, life and armor. I am currently using a +2 minion helm only because I had one in my stash tabs that had extra resists, life and armor.

2. I totally agree with you on my Stone Golem setup and I am planning on changing that. Currently with a level 19 stone golem, it's got like some 35k life, which is ridiculous. I didn't know they were so tanky without any support gems. So I do plan on using those extra 2 slots for something else. Thank you for the heads up on that, I'm excited to be able to add something else there.

3. I had read somewhere to use spell echo with flesh offering but I'll try the faster casting.

4. I hadn't thought of using EE because I am running hatred. I'll be picking that up. I like using arc though over Ball Lightening because it's quicker. I'm not worried about mana cost because of Eldritch Battery and ZO.

5. I don't personally feel the need to take Mistress of Sacrifice just for extra run speed. I use a quicksilver flask and because I'm using poacher's mark, it stays full quite a bit.

6. I plan on going back and explaining my skill gem setups better based on your remark, I think your absolutely right, thank you.

7. Umbilicus Immortalis will not work with this build. Because I'm using Zealot's Oath, I have no life regen and I absolutely need to be able to use life flasks along with my other flasks, granite, quicksilver etc... Plus I don't feel as though my minions need this extra support for just running normal maps.

8. You can change this build of course to be able to run the games harder content i.e., Atziri, end game lab, high tier unique map bosses.. etc.. But that is not what this build is meant for. This build is meant to be able to just run normal maps to generate currency. But changing out spectres for Raging Spirits is a viable way to do Atziri, yes.

9. I agree, the extra cast speed from Cruel Alira isn't necessary. I like have a little extra cast speed though, I like getting as much cast speed on my wand as I can, so that's why I take it. But that is definitely optional. You could certainly take the extra point on Cruel.

I like using Zealot's Oath because that allows me to run both Hatred and Haste. That is how this build is set up. You could certainly run a mana based full summoner build. But you then need to either just run one 50% aura or you need to figure out how to lower your mana reserve. I don't feel that it is necessary to have to run any other aura's then hatred and haste for normal maps. So that is why I chose to use Zealot's Oath. It just makes it easy to run two 50% aura's without having to invest any passive's into aura reserve nodes.


Thanks again for all the great input. Again, this build guide is more specifically targeted for people who just want to get something up and running for normal solo map running. That is my endgame most of the time. For that I feel this is still a solid build.

1. Skullhead is typically regarded as a subpar item. That's why I said, "even a __ would be better", meaning almost anything, including a crappy item. It's fine that you're using a +2 helm because it's the best Rare you had, but your beginner guide shouldn't recommend one unless your intent is to actually use one. Remember, you just said: "I'm trying to keep this as a simple starter build with minimum effort to start and run."

2. The Stone Golem gets 68% increased life as part of its gem level. This is added together with increased minion life from your passive tree, which with the Soul Weaver ascendancy and all nodes it is 130%. What this means is Minion Life Support, which is another Increase effect at 49%, has far less impact. You're going from 198% to 247%, which is a relative increase of only ~16% more life.

3. You probably read to pair Desecrate with Spell Echo, because the second cast doesn't consume a charge. It's a good combo if you frequently use 3x Desecrates for max duration Flesh Offering, but if you only plop down one Desecrate to start and then use corpses your minions generate then it's not. This is because Spell Echo forces a second cast, so if your Desecrate takes 0.5 to cast with SE, you are actually spending 1.0 second to cast twice. It feels faster per individual cast, but the total time is longer than it seems, so if you don't actually need that second cast you should use Faster Casting.

"

It just makes it easy to run two 50% aura's without having to invest any passive's into aura reserve nodes.

But you are investing passive points either way, be it Zealot's Oath + Eldritch Battery and the points to get to them or mana reduction nodes like Sovereignty. ZO+EB is great for mana-hungry builds like SRS because the ES regen is so fast. If you don't use much mana, though, you are sacrificing survival by losing life regen and ES. Mind Over Matter helps recover some of ES's protection, but any ES over 1/3rd your life is no longer protecting you.

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By the way, for your Ascendancy, I would strongly recommend Commander of Darkness over Spirit Eater. More corpses from Desecrate is nice, but not necessary. You don't do any direct damage yourself, so the 40% increased damage is useless, and the cast speed is marginal and only lasts 4 seconds (and does not affect your minions). All you get, then, is 30% minion damage.

With just 2 auras, CoD gives your minions 20% increased damage, 10% attack/cast speed, and 20% all resist. That is waaay better. If you squeeze in a level 1 Clarity with Blood Magic Support (~68 life reserved), you'll push it up to 30% damage and 15% attack/cast speed. You also benefit from the cast speed (no 4 second gimmick) and all resist.

"

Hercanic wrote:

1. Skullhead is typically regarded as a subpar item. That's why I said, "even a __ would be better", meaning almost anything, including a crappy item. It's fine that you're using a +2 helm because it's the best Rare you had, but your beginner guide shouldn't recommend one unless your intent is to actually use one. Remember, you just said: "I'm trying to keep this as a simple starter build with minimum effort to start and run."

Yes you are correct. I will change that, thank you.

"

Hercanic wrote:

2. The Stone Golem gets 68% increased life as part of its gem level. This is added together with increased minion life from your passive tree, which with the Soul Weaver ascendancy and all nodes it is 130%. What this means is Minion Life Support, which is another Increase effect at 49%, has far less impact. You're going from 198% to 247%, which is a relative increase of only ~16% more life.

Again, correct. I will be changing that as well. I've already switched out those support gems for Vaal Haste and increased duration. I might also choose CWDT and IC. My Stone Golem is just fine without any support gems.

"

Hercanic wrote:

3. You probably read to pair Desecrate with Spell Echo, because the second cast doesn't consume a charge. It's a good combo if you frequently use 3x Desecrates for max duration Flesh Offering, but if you only plop down one Desecrate to start and then use corpses your minions generate then it's not. This is because Spell Echo forces a second cast, so if your Desecrate takes 0.5 to cast with SE, you are actually spending 1.0 second to cast twice. It feels faster per individual cast, but the total time is longer than it seems, so if you don't actually need that second cast you should use Faster Casting.

Correct again. I've changed my Spell Echo to faster casting, there isn't much difference in how many desecrates I can put down; faster casting is much faster then spell echo.

"

Hercanic wrote:

"

It just makes it easy to run two 50% aura's without having to invest any passive's into aura reserve nodes.

But you are investing passive points either way, be it Zealot's Oath + Eldritch Battery and the points to get to them or mana reduction nodes like Sovereignty. ZO+EB is great for mana-hungry builds like SRS because the ES regen is so fast. If you don't use much mana, though, you are sacrificing survival by losing life regen and ES. Mind Over Matter helps recover some of ES's protection, but any ES over 1/3rd your life is no longer protecting you.

This is where I choose to stay with my original decision. But the great thing about this build is that you can certainly choose to go with mana if you want too. I choose not to, because I prefer not to worry about mana. I've been running mid and high tier maps with no problem dying. To respec out of EB, ZO and the energy shield nodes in my starting area will only give me 8 points. I would need more points to invest in reduced mana nodes and extra mana nodes. I would also need to worry about mana on gear.

As it stands right now, I don't feel squishy at all. I've max resists, 35% chaos resist, close to 4k life and 5k armor. I don't have any problems with survivability.

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"

Hercanic wrote:

By the way, for your Ascendancy, I would strongly recommend Commander of Darkness over Spirit Eater. More corpses from Desecrate is nice, but not necessary. You don't do any direct damage yourself, so the 40% increased damage is useless, and the cast speed is marginal and only lasts 4 seconds (and does not affect your minions). All you get, then, is 30% minion damage.

With just 2 auras, CoD gives your minions 20% increased damage, 10% attack/cast speed, and 20% all resist. That is waaay better. If you squeeze in a level 1 Clarity with Blood Magic Support (~68 life reserved), you'll push it up to 30% damage and 15% attack/cast speed. You also benefit from the cast speed (no 4 second gimmick) and all resist.

Again, I agree with you; this is an excellent point and I'll be changing that as well. I won't take clarity with BM because I don't want to gimp my life and because I simply don't have room for it on my gear. But a 10% reduction in minion damage is worth gaining the cast/attack speed for my minions and most especially the +20% minion elemental resists.

Thanks again for all the good advice. I'll be working on shoring up my guide today.