[Moved]

"The Battle Queen" is now running as a Necromancer. As such, the build has been moved to the Witch forum. Click [here] to see the updated guide. I apologize for any inconveniences.

Hey there, really cool idea! I have a 92 scion with a re-spec, and I've been looking around for something to try out. This looks very cool.

Would the build be possible using the Scourge alone, and a shield? Or would the damage be too low to really cut it? A lot of my focus lately has been towards defense. I would imagine those minions would cover a large portion of that. Very curious in some videos!

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iGanc wrote:

Hey there, really cool idea! I have a 92 scion with a re-spec, and I've been looking around for something to try out. This looks very cool.

Would the build be possible using the Scourge alone, and a shield? Or would the damage be too low to really cut it? A lot of my focus lately has been towards defense. I would imagine those minions would cover a large portion of that. Very curious in some videos!

Thanks for reading!

I've tested The Scourge + Shield with this build, but it's unfortunately not as damage oriented as having a 1-handed main with The Scourge as the off-hand (The Scourge + Shield had roughly half of the damage output). However, the shield certainly provides additional defense, namely increased armor and block chance, of which the Duelist area has plenty of nodes to assign. Overall, I'd suggest The Scourge + Shield if you want to take a more defensive approach to the build. If that's the case, simply allocate passive points in the "+% Melee Physical Damage while holding a Shield" nodes to increase damage.

But yes, you are correct in that some minions, namely the Skeletons and Spectral Wolves, provide a decent chunk of defense as meat shields against pesky projectile attacks/spells. Furthermore, Stone Golem can pull aggro off of you, while the general tankiness of Zombies is considerable.

My third char in the game, decided to try this build, as wanted a Scion-Necro, bot not SRS.

So far lvl30 and doing will, I'd say. What do you think about Decoy Totem for leveling? Seems to work like a charm for me.

And so far I use Molten Strike for primary melee. Might not be the best idea, but at least I have it (first char in the League)

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MisterAL wrote:

My third char in the game, decided to try this build, as wanted a Scion-Necro, bot not SRS.

So far lvl30 and doing will, I'd say. What do you think about Decoy Totem for leveling? Seems to work like a charm for me.

And so far I use Molten Strike for primary melee. Might not be the best idea, but at least I have it (first char in the League)

I'm glad you decided to try it out! I actually used Decoy Totem quite extensively as I leveled. It's an incredibly useful skill, especially during low/mid-leveling because your minions may need some help with crowd control (this is why taunt from both the Champion ascendancy and your Stone Golem is important).

Molten Strike is a suitable alternative for leveling as it has AoE coverage without the use of Melee Splash. It can actually spawn more attacks to trigger "On Hit" effects. However, do keep in mind that the spread of Molten Strike's projectiles isn't as consistent as Double Strike's two hits. Overall, I'd support the use of Molten Strike, at least until you can use Double Strike and its five support gems.

What do you thing about changing
CWDT + Stone Golem + Enfeeble + Increased Area of Effect
to
Blasphemy + Enfeeble + Increased Area of Effect + Stone Golem
?

This will allow to level skills and really, does high-lvl golem die so fast?

Or will we lose too much mana on this?
EDIT: tried, so far I don't have enough mana to sustain that altogether.
But at least I'd rather put Golem on manual cast and have it high-level.

BTW, got Sidhebreath as drop, seems to be very handy.

Yes, as you've tested, there isn't enough mana to sustain Hatred, Purity of Elements, and Blasphemy. However, please note that the main reason I use Purity of Elements is because my character is limited on equipment options for resistances. My character dual wields (meaning no shield), uses Lightning Coil (which reduces lightning resistance by a considerable amount), and uses Thief's Torment (using both ring slots takes up a lot of space for additional resistances). Needless to say, it was quite a chore to get max resistances; this is noted by my gloves and boots being tri-res and the picking up of resistance nodes throughout the passive tree.

That being said, if you can manage to max out all of your resistances with items and the tree, that will free up 35% mana for Blasphemy. At that point, any applicable curse supported by Blasphemy will not only be viable, but also more consistent. Heck, you could even spare a few passive points to get the notable passive "Whispers of Doom" for +1 to max curses; this means you could have CWDT + Enfeeble, along with, for example, Blasphemy + Poacher's Mark (for Frenzy charges, flask charges, and more life/mana gain on hit).

However, I would keep CWDT + Stone Golem (although it can do without Increased AoE). Although a high level Stone Golem is durable, remember that this build centers on auto-casting minions in order to reduce/eliminate micromanagement so you can focus on your character's actions. Also note that I've tested both an actively cast high level Stone Golem and a CWDT-supported Stone Golem; with the goal of 100% up time in mind, the results were pretty much the same - both set ups achieved the same goal with the only difference being how they are summoned. On the contrary, I know some players enjoy more active builds; more power to them.

And yes, I completely agree that Sidhebreath is handy. Other unique amulets are useful too (for example, Eye of Chayula can be used if you want to save a few passive points and refund Unwavering Stance). That's actually the main reason why I didn't include my amulet in the equipment list for the build; that item slot is variable, so I left it to the reader to decide what amulet to wear.

Sounds reasonable.

It seems I'll finish Passive Tree from Ascendant start long before I get Path of Duelist. Have you been sparing Passive Points for that time, or used any other idea?

For leveling purposes, I tried two methods:

1) Using an elemental weapon (in my case, it was a 1-handed rapier), picking up "increased elemental damage" nodes near the Witch/Templar area, using Anger [or Wrath, depending on the circumstance], and CWDT + Elemental Weakness. I did this until Level 40 or so.

2) Beyond level 40, I refunded all the elemental nodes and removed all the elemental-based skills. Then I switched to a 2-handed weapon with moderate physical damage (in my case, it was "Rigwald's Charge" at Level 44, then "Terminus Est" at Level 51+. Other similar 2-handed melee weapons work just as fine). I also started using Hatred at this time.

Unfortunately, there aren't many melee physical damage nodes near the top of the tree, so you'll really be relying on your minions to cover much of your damage. However, once you're the proper level to equip The Scourge, you'll start seeing a huge difference in damage.

By the way, is that Full passive tree with 22 points left, or do you just leave those for people to decide as they chose?