T17s are kicking my ass!

Here's my POB: https://pobb.in/1v1UNEvl8XhW\

SRS Poison Necromancer following Balormage's guides and POE Ninja.

So my damage is good enough, but my defenses are clearly not good enough for T17. I'm able to clear about 70% of the map before I run out of portals due to too many deaths (even while using portal scarabs!). Last league I did holy relic and was eventually able to comfortably clear T17s, but I was using Melding of the Flesh + Mageblood. This early in the league, that's of course not possible. Am I just shit out of luck? Or is there some way I can get defenses that can keep up with T17 damage?

I'm wondering if glancing blows is the wrong move, but I don't know how to get block capped if I'm not using it. Also, Mind over Matter results in instant mana exhaustion and I can't cast anything, so I'm forced to turn that off in t17 maps unfortunately.

Thanks for any advice, exiles! I got some great advice here in past leagues so thought I would ask again. :)

Hi there, few questions, recommendations and tips that I hope will help.

1. Why do you have multistrike in your weapon? - Typical setup is awakened generosity, leap slam and faster attacks.
2. You're not running malevolence? - You'll need to swap your Amulet out for an Aul's to fit the mana reservation in - since divine blessing was removed.
3. You're playing SRS, you should be firing them off screen... if you can't see the mobs, the mobs are less likely to kill you
4. t17s are tough, builds like these where you fall over when a pin drops near you feels bad if you're not super reactive to incoming damage.
5. You have 8k armour, determination isn't doing nearly enough for you. Try Flesh and Stone instead? less mana reservation for a bigger impact since you don't have the armour equipped to really benefit from it.

Hope something in there helps you even a little it.

"

neo1987 wrote:

Here's my POB: https://pobb.in/1v1UNEvl8XhW\

SRS Poison Necromancer following Balormage's guides and POE Ninja.

So my damage is good enough, but my defenses are clearly not good enough for T17. I'm able to clear about 70% of the map before I run out of portals due to too many deaths (even while using portal scarabs!). Last league I did holy relic and was eventually able to comfortably clear T17s, but I was using Melding of the Flesh + Mageblood. This early in the league, that's of course not possible. Am I just shit out of luck? Or is there some way I can get defenses that can keep up with T17 damage?

I'm wondering if glancing blows is the wrong move, but I don't know how to get block capped if I'm not using it. Also, Mind over Matter results in instant mana exhaustion and I can't cast anything, so I'm forced to turn that off in t17 maps unfortunately.

Thanks for any advice, exiles! I got some great advice here in past leagues so thought I would ask again. :)

I was checking baloremage guide in Affliction league and played poison srs with 20mil dps without malevolence. 1)You weapon should be another which stack withered(Severed in sleep),not the poison chance. 60% Poison chance you getting from the abyss unique belt on 2 sockets with 100% effectiveness(90 is fine) + some others in the tree . 2 good jewel on 15% in belt=60% poison chance are done. Withered boosting your damage too much. 2) Every(!) your endgame abyss jewel need modifier "increase 20% of minion damage if you use minion skill recenctly"- its huge dps boost. Buy this with fractured modifier and spam "reforge chaos" in harvest for chaos damage and poison chance. 3) Your gloves doesnt have implicit from eldritch on minion damage 4) All your gear shoud be armor+evasion for aurora proc,not evasion energy shield 5) Your rings are total "garbage". Your rings is your dps. You need minion damage in prefix and minion attack speed+movement speed in suffix - this one is IMPORTANT for srs. Typically you buying fractured minion damage ring and spam essence on minion movement speed. Then faster your srs running=then faster they kill mobs and save your life 6) Cluster jewel on 35% effect without 3% attackspeed. All other modififiers are not important,but minion attack speed is very important on poison build. 7) You dont have medium cluster which doing srs immortal for short time after you summon them(Blessed Rebirth),its helps in any uber content. In other way they are dying from shaper beam / any boss cast or attack. 8) Glancing blow is not mistake at the beginning , it is mistake in the endgame. 9) i dont see spell suppression on your boots,gloves and in tree from right side.Drop the points on max res+1 point on minion damage and take spell supression+mastery that supression is lucky. Plus-setup animated guardian,he is also damage boost. Use the body armor from Maven,helmet "nearby allies increased damage on 40-50%" etc. Gazzy have guide on AG for SRS.

Your build looks like you only start farming atlas or may be red map . You have to fix a lot of things. What is your spectre setup? I was running haste, vitality and evasion aura. Determination+envy+malevolence was in main setup. You can use another setup,but specres are very important. You can use the spectre on action speed instead of evasion aura from last league.

P.s. Flesh offering? You dont use it in the endgame. You use it while running acts/early maps. Bone offering for block chance = this is how you cap your block + some nodes from tree. Its also boost your AG and spectre defence. Malevolence is good dps boost,but you can run wthout it. Block setup is = Bone offering (around 17%attack and spell block) + tempest shield(26% spell block)+ some nodes and mastery from the tree. You can use Rumi flask on block. The issue with tempest shield - its easy to setup to cap spellblock.but hard to setup envy+determination+malevolence+tempest shield. You need enlightens + some manaresevation gear. Thats why before ppl run with malevolence +guardian blessing
P.P.s. Also advice - keep this amulet.Jinxu is better then Replice dragonfang in terms of survive ability. Helmet craft - try to find armor/evasion helmet with fractured +2 minion and spam essence on manareservation until it proc spell supression+something else. Then you can fix prefix with eldritch chaos orb and eldritch currency.
P.P.P.s WTF? Drop this ascendancy on unholy might and take offerings. You will stack withered with another unique sword, but you will get bone offering. Okey, i played when unholy might works on another way,but still. This offerings node are OP. and this is explain why ppl use this sword now,but its good only in early mapping.

Wow, thank you!! You've given me a lot to consider and test. <3

And for the spectres I'm using:
-Hulking Miscreation
-Perfect Forest Warrior
-Perfect Warlord

Going to look through the rest of your suggestions for sure.

"

neo1987 wrote:

Wow, thank you!! You've given me a lot to consider and test. <3

And for the specters I'm using:
-Hulking Miscreation
-Perfect Forest Warrior
-Perfect Warlord

Going to look through the rest of your suggestions for sure.

Like my advice -> its my experience before necromancer ascendancy was reworked. I dont see something overpowered in new unholy might since most of your flat chaos is from abyss jewels , Envy aura and body armor.


Hulking Miscreation - dont know how he works.

Spectral Leader(20% action speed aura). If i right remember - the issue that he have fire and lightning res are 0 , and cold 40%. Thats why it you may need additional suffix on ring for minion ele-res.

I would suggest Spectral Leader if its possible to find him in this league.

Example of some gear. Its not the perfect one, but its a good one.(Like here i dont care about gloves base cause i crafted them with Rog and i was running Grace specter, thats why additional evasion wasnt that bad, but perfect variant its armor+evasion)

and 35% effect with 3% attack speed is important on big cluster even if tis 11 node.Since poison have infinite stack mechanic -then faster attack your minions, then more stack they will put=more dps as result.

Some endgame thoughts - you may try to raise the lvl of Specter gem to 25 to get +1 specter. Its can be done by gem 21+2 helmet+2 and eleveted Elder modifier on boots = lvl 25 gem = its allow to raise 1 more specter. Someone like arena master or pail seraphim etc. or use Empower for that purpose. Empower may be a better solution then craft such boots. Right now when Affliction Specters are back - its not a bad idea cause you can run +1 aura. I dont like turtle specter cause you have to press convocation very often, but then its possible to turn on everything(envy, malevolence, tempest shield - like core setup. determination(specter) Haste(specter), vitality(specter), Grace(specter)/spectral leader etc.)

Other thoughts - timeless jewel. You can use Divine Flesh for more survive ability in endgame and try to push chaos res or Elegant Hubris with couple nodes 80% minion damage. If you have 3 nodes - 240% increase minion damage can be huuuuge and expansive. Even 1 on 80% minion damage will be good.

Some issue with AG and specters = they are still dying on t17. If there a group of rogue exiles under tormented spirits or from boss. Its hard to make them live on t17 . If full defensive aura setup of specter are dead = you are probably dead too...Like Domino effect

Watcher eye - huge flex. You may choose additional block chance or armor under determination or life regen/recovery under vitality or spell suppression if you running grace specter etc etc etc.

For AG - i like to use Asenath's Gentle Touch + Windscream a) its helps with clear. he start to expode small minion groups and srs focused on rare monsters b) its put temporal chain which affect our poison duration(increase) . So you have despair+temporal chain. Issue = for t17 you need a good rare gear for his survive.

Thanks again!! I've been working on your suggestions over the past few days and making all the changes I can afford. I'm definitely much stronger now and can handle T17s and even Simulacrum 14 (can't handle 15)

Here's an updated POB: https://pobb.in/vs0uTCvInFzm

Here's what I still need to fix or figure out:
-I need more suppression.
-I need to focus on armour and evasion gear instead of energy shield - I might try to get a 4th spectre with grace somehow to help with this (2 from helm and 2 from boots like you said, but those are mega expensive on trade). I replaced Aurora with the new Svalinn shield, which is WAY stronger
-I kept unholy might and united in dream, because the new unholy might gives you withered already and united's 60% chance to poison frees up a lot of sockets for unique jewels, especially elegant hubris which I'm trying to figure out how to make work
-Going to attempt to find an add 1 endurance charge to bring me to 4 total
-I want movement speed on my second ring, but resistances are making that tough. I might have to wait until mageblood
-I might go with a watcher's eye, but isn't making sense just yet

<3

"

neo1987 wrote:

Thanks again!! I've been working on your suggestions over the past few days and making all the changes I can afford. I'm definitely much stronger now and can handle T17s and even Simulacrum 14 (can't handle 15)

Here's an updated POB: https://pobb.in/vs0uTCvInFzm

Here's what I still need to fix or figure out:
-I need more suppression.
-I need to focus on armour and evasion gear instead of energy shield - I might try to get a 4th spectre with grace somehow to help with this (2 from helm and 2 from boots like you said, but those are mega expensive on trade). I replaced Aurora with the new Svalinn shield, which is WAY stronger
-I kept unholy might and united in dream, because the new unholy might gives you withered already and united's 60% chance to poison frees up a lot of sockets for unique jewels, especially elegant hubris which I'm trying to figure out how to make work
-Going to attempt to find an add 1 endurance charge to bring me to 4 total
-I want movement speed on my second ring, but resistances are making that tough. I might have to wait until mageblood
-I might go with a watcher's eye, but isn't making sense just yet

<3

Like option-use empower and just eleres/stats boots. 21 lvl raise specter gem+minion life+elemental army+empower = lvl 25(with +2 from helmet). The issue with boots - even if you have +2 in suffix,its hard to make them good boots. Like necromancer/witch always running out of str or dexterity and boots is source of suppression. So Empower is a much better/easy solution.

From what i see- you did great job and need a bit better gear(higher tiers of suffixes for resistance,stats,etc.). 12m dps is good for closing almost all content if you have enough survive ability.

About shield - Aurora is basically good if you have 20k armor+ mind over matter with eldritch battery + cap block - then you have energy shield like effective hp and like mana at the same time, but if you do so - you have to be care about "ignite/poison/bleeding" - this DoT/degen may kill you cause your shield will be 0 and you may not be able to press srs or movement skill until you block.

New shield is good for midgame or even overpowered for midgame,but for lategame its not the best slot.

Rare shields are optional, but im Aurora fan. Good roll aurora - its a lot of flat armor + usefull passive +EB+MoM .

Like core of the build - is balancing between poison chance, withered stacks and survive ability.

3 endurance you will get from warlord specter,its kinda enough.

"-I kept unholy might and united in dream, because the new unholy might gives you withered already and united's 60% chance to poison frees up a lot of sockets for unique jewels, especially elegant hubris which I'm trying to figure out how to make work"

Okey,here is the thing - with new unholy might your conversion at the end become 50% fire and 50% chaos. So if you have a lot of added t1 flat phys modifiers in jewels - they are also will be a part of chaos damage at the end, but only 50%, so t1 flat chaos damage will give you twice more damage then t1 flat phys.So if you want to get the most benefit from unholy might in this case- your perfect jewels are p- flat phys,p-flat chaos,s-minion damage if you use minion skill recently,s-poison chance - its hard to roll,make,or buy,its also doesnt provide hp etc. Im not sure that bonus will be "that great". From this point its also make sense to raise lvl srs gem and replica dragonfang may be better then Juju. Since you raise the lvl of gem = base damage also raised = 50% conversion to chaos will work with this too.

So if you get for free or cheap a lot of good jewels with flat phys and some usefull high tiers modifiers -its may be worth it. Its true that its easy to setup poison chance with your sword, but its also kinda nothing in the late game. Lets say you have 90% poison chance from tree+withered weapon - you may take lifeleech ascendancy. Will it boost your survive ability and worth it? 100%. You getting almost permanent 10% phys reduction AND gain extra 40% minion life as energy shield for specters,AG etc. When it was released - it was bugged and leech didnt work well.


You may keep it in own way. For example if i will start poison srs next league - for sure,i will take poison chance sword until red maps+unholy might, then i will take atlas for abyss and like madman farm it untill i get belt/unique jewel/jewels for poison chance etc. After i will switch to leech ascendancy. I see only this way for myself into the end game. Someone also may share another opinions/thoughts.

If you dont have 15-20k armor and cap block=aurora is garbage. If you have cap block and this amount of armor = aurora is best slot. The better MAY BE will be some mirror tier shaper shield +1 minion gem lvl, % minion damage , life gain when block ,max res(may be max chaos for Doryani) or smt like that.

Just have fun :) Best wishes.
P.s. Like in affliction when i played srs - if you staying under 9k-12k wisps,5 orb,8 mode map - you needed A LOT of survive ability. It was much harder then current t17 maps. There also was OP mechanic wich helps to close block and suppression with alternative ascendancy.

Thanks! Yeah I think I'm finally at the finishing touches of my build. :)

https://pobb.in/XXIYAmKXmnkh

Managed to solve almost all of the problems I had before and now I'm crushing T17 like it's butter. And yeah I agree Aurora is better, but I don't think I can make it work until I get a mageblood, because I'm too low on armour and block chance at the moment.

Also, check out my gloves - self crafted those! That was my first time with a larger craft so I'm proud of myself haha. I didn't realize you could get +2 minon fracture for spectre with gloves, I was totally focused on boots. Now I've got four spectres :)

Current spectres:
-Perfect Warlord
-Perfect Judgemental Spirit
-Hulking Miscreation
-Perfect Primal Thunderbird

With unholy might, it says phys conversion is 100%. What do you mean 50%? I can't seem to find that anywhere.

And also, I managed to get my 3X elegant hubris to work! Check it out! Huge damage boost.

Thanks again for all your help, you are clearly an expert at this build haha. <3

"

neo1987 wrote:

Thanks! Yeah I think I'm finally at the finishing touches of my build. :)

https://pobb.in/XXIYAmKXmnkh

Managed to solve almost all of the problems I had before and now I'm crushing T17 like it's butter. And yeah I agree Aurora is better, but I don't think I can make it work until I get a mageblood, because I'm too low on armour and block chance at the moment.

Also, check out my gloves - self crafted those! That was my first time with a larger craft so I'm proud of myself haha. I didn't realize you could get +2 minon fracture for spectre with gloves, I was totally focused on boots. Now I've got four spectres :)

Current spectres:
-Perfect Warlord
-Perfect Judgemental Spirit
-Hulking Miscreation
-Perfect Primal Thunderbird

With unholy might, it says phys conversion is 100%. What do you mean 50%? I can't seem to find that anywhere.

And also, I managed to get my 3X elegant hubris to work! Check it out! Huge damage boost.

Right now your build is more then ready for "all content".

Thanks again for all your help, you are clearly an expert at this build haha. <3

You did a great job again. 25mil is solid numbers for poison srs. I see your gloves,its cool that you got this fractured , but why you didnt spam some essence or reforges for better suffixes tiers? :) Like spam essence on dexterity or cold res or HP until it proc suppress/higher tiers of resists/dexterity and craft 20% minion damage in pref and setup minion damage implicit. Its not a big deal now and will not boost your damage huge,but...its also costs cheap :)

Okey,this is info from Wiki: Damage conversion: Raging Spirits deal base physical damage. Their 100% of their Physical Damage is converted into Fire Damage stat is inherent to the minion, not the summoning skill or its own attack skill, meaning it has the same priority as other sources of non-skill conversion like Triad Grip, Sidhebreath, and Unholy Might. The ratio is scaled down to 100% if the sum exceeds 100%. For example, wearing a 4 green socket Triad Grip will cause 100% of Physical Damage to be converted to Fire and 100% to Cold, which is scaled down to 50% Fire and 50% Cold conversion.

Srs have own 100% conversion to fire,after that you apply 100% conversion to chaos with unholy might.In that case its become 50% fire,50% chaos as result. You also can "play" with level of gem in pob and check the damage changes (if you want +3 lvl from replica of dragonfang.You will have 1 more mill of dmg from 25.8 to 26.8,i think its not worth it). thats why poison srs are bad scaling from gem lvl.

I also notice that you bought usually quite expensive amulet on envy and good timeless with triple minion damage and also minion life(May be you wanna try Popcorn srs with popcorn dark marionette - then this life nodes are useful :) ).

Even if you open your calc in PoB,you will notice,that srs dealing 225 fire and 994 chaos damage.This 225 fire-is 50% of base damage converted to fire. THis 994- its your add chaos lvl 29 from body armor,envy,malevolence,jewels from tree etc(you can check whole sources of chaos damage there). Conversion have "own rules".

Overall -well played. :) You figure out how this works :) P.s. like very advanced option if you wanna farm very,very tough maps fast with delirium,beyond and really large amount of mobs - you may take Occultist ascendancy on explode and curse the enemy with archanist brand or shield.

Also you can fix something with tattoo(block/suppress/whatever you may need)

What i dont like a bit - hp pool. I think that some ubber bosses are still issue cause a lot of attacks/spell from ubers are unblockable.