[2.0]Rathik's NEWBIE FRIENDLY FUN&CHEAP FARMER, DPS Summoner. High AOE DMG, SURVIVAL."The Matriarch"

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Balbaines wrote:

thanks for the response Ellysia, should have edited my post sooner. Played around a little and answered it myself lol. The chemistry of gems is quite different for sure. Enjoying it so far.

Only thing I haven't figure out thus far is the IIQ/IIR gems. since they are support does the spell you have linked to them have to get the killing blow for the increased quality/rarity to come into play or as long as the spell linked to them does damage. I notice Rathik has them both linked to Arc and not the zombies so wasn't sure.

Yes the spell linked with IIQ/IIR must deal the killing blow in order for the gem to work, that's why linking it with Culling Strike which automatically kills anything under an HP threshold is very effective. Linking them with minion gems means the minion must get the killing blow for the rarity/quantity to trigger.

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yaron_zeel wrote:

Which jewels do you recommend?
Should I run three auras, or do two suffice?
How do you not run out of corpses (during boss fights)?
How do you stay alive during boss fights effectively?
How do you keep your zombies alive during boss fights?

Thanks in advance.

1. For Jewels I personally recommend anything with minion damage +x%. The switch to minion damage to more damage means it is incredibly strong right now. The other rolls aren't super important, so a +x% minion damage gem for a few chaos is fine. I think both of those unique gems are too weak to consider swapping out for a minion damage gem. You don't need the extra ES, especially on SC. And the boost to curses is negligible compared to a ~15% boost in minion damage.

2. This part confused me as well, but the only gem linked to Generosity should be Hatred. Your minions already get a base 35% resistance, so a generosity PoE is overkill, especially since you probably need the resistances as well. Discipline and PoE should be offlink and Hatred should be linked with Enlighten and Generosity. You will not be able to support all three auras off Enlighten. I'm barely able to support all three with enough mana to still Arc with curses and Flesh offering as needed. I do have to turn off one aura to summon my horde however. This is all assuming you have picked up every reduced mana node besides the Charisma ones.

3. I honestly don't have a super good answer for this one, I've almost never never found myself using Desecrate while boss fighting. Bosses have never been an issue for me. There's usually enough corpses for a few Flesh Offerings to zerg the boss down with my horde's DPS. It's typically not the end of the world if you run out of corpses during the fight. Even a non-offering horde should be sufficient to kill 99% of bosses in decent time. If you really despise not having offering up 24/7, I suppose using Desecrate is acceptable as long as you aren't sacrificing crucial slots or safety to do so.

4. Just stay as far away from a boss as you can while being close enough to offering/curse if possible. Constantly trying to keep 100% offering uptime is probably burning you more than it's helping you. A good Granite Flask roll will work wonders and make sure your resistances are capped. Running out of life flasks typically means either your minions dont DPS fast enough to kill the boss, or your defenses are too low to survive long enough. Or Both. I recommend running something like 2 Animation Life Flasks, 2 Resistance Flasks, 1 Granite Flask. A chaos golem is a nice addition to give you a little more survivability as well.

5. As for your zombies dying, I feel like they shouldn't be with a proper setup. If your zombies are dying so quickly you can't keep with resummons, you need to seriously consider running Necro Aegis. I run necro aegis with a rathpith globe shield and my minions NEVER die unless it's a massive AoE boss like Volcano boss or Piety. Switching to bone offering for the fight is also helpful as well.

To even further add to your minion horde I recommend an Animate Guardian with Leer Cast, Dying Breath, Zahndethus' Cassock and pickup rares to fill out resistances. The added minion damage is amazing and the synergy between the uniques means anytime the guardian blocks you get a patch of consecrated ground that heals your minions for 4% Max HP a second. All of those uniques can be picked up for a few chaos each.

Also Culling Strike is a garbage gem to be on minions. Please replace it with Melee Splash or Multistrike. If you absolutely insist on a Culling Strike, place it on an Arc.

tl;dr
1. Minion +x% rolls > everything
2. Generosity/Enlightenment linked Hatred, Offlink Discipline/Purity of Elements.
3. 100% Offering isn't super crucial to boss fight. Use Desecrate only if you aren't sacrificing slots.
4. Animation Flasks, Resistance Flasks, Granite Flasks, stay on outskirts. Chaos Golem.
5. Consider Necro Aegis w/ Rathpith or good Archon Shield. Bone offering switch for boss. Animate Guardian with Leer Cast, Dying Breath, Zahndethus' Cassock. Replace Culling.

Thanks a lot!

1. Alright, I already got a +16% minion damage/+8% minion resistances jewel, will look for another one to complement it. What do you think about army of bones? Smaller damage bonus, bigger horde. Not worth it since the skeletons don't deal the majority of damage anyway, right?

2. Okay, since my resistances are capped I'll just leave it at Hatred + Discipline and switch to PoE when a boss deals heavy elemental damage or something.

3. I suppose the key problem is my minions dying, then. I guess you have all your (important) gems at 20/20 (because I don't :/)?

4. Alright, Animation Life Flasks are a good idea, I'll try that. And yes, I'm already using a chaos golem (in a link with the spectres).

5. Necro aegis… Will have to think about that, might be an option, but I think I'll try other things to improve my minions' survivability first. The Animate Guardian is a great idea, I'll see where I can free a socket as soon as my horde doesn't die against every second boss… I'd probably have to place it in the weapon/shield to prevent it from dying (or to be able to save it, rather).

I think Rathik replaced Multistrike with Melee Physical Damage (I think the former was nerfed?), and argues that Culling Strike doesn't perform much worse than Faster Attacks DPS-wise (probably only true for 20/20 though)… Considering the socket color, I'd prefer replacing Culling Strike with Faster Attacks, or is Multistrike much better?

Again, thanks for the helpful feedback!

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yaron_zeel wrote:

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1. You'd be correct. Skeletons are of little to no use much anymore. I've run out of gems slots so I ditched skeletons entirely. Just run in mob pack with granite flask, convocation to summon them in, flesh offering, and arc spam to curse. Unless you can get a perfect roll Army for dirt cheap, a standard rare with ~15% minion damage and some minor roll for a few chaos is superior.

2. Still run PoE at all times for your minions. They need to be capped resistances. If anything it frees up better gear items since you can ignore resistance rolls on gear. Can focus on life/es/mana/MF/whatever instead.

3. Yes I splurged and got 20/20 on some gems so that probably helps myself a lot, but quality generally isn't as important as level for a lot of minion gems. A level 20/0q is sufficient for 95% of everything else. However I strongly strongly emphasize a level 20 raise zombie. The HP difference per level is staggering. The last few levels the base HP jumps around 450-500 per level. It equates to several thousand HP after the boosts kick in.

4. Good :). I like the instant ones myself as an "Oh shit" button.

5. If stuff is dying faster than you can resummon then your overall DPS and clear speed is simply tanking and maps are taking far longer than necessary. I strongly recommend necro aegis for late game maps, but if you're having difficulties earlier then you should seriously consider it. You don't have to get a rathpith, even a saffel's or something can suffice.

I'd recommend a 5L along the lines of RZ-Melee phys-fortify-minion damage-melee splash/multistrike. I don't put zombies in my chest so I can't give super amazing advice on that end, but Fortify would be a crucial addition to zombie tankiness since you're having such issues. If you really don't want to reroll colors, culling/faster attacks is okay, but clear speed will suffer.

I'd say mostly focus on getting high leveled gems, get the right flasks, and make sure resistances are capped for you and minions at all times. My level 19 raise zombie in a +2 helmet is sitting at 10.6k HP, and that will go up another 2-3k on level up. It takes a hell of a lot of stuff to dent my horde.

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Ellysia wrote:

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yaron_zeel wrote:

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I'm new to summoner and MF builds, but since you seem quite knowledgeable, could you tell me what links you have where, what gear are you using, your passive tree etc? I'd appreciate it a lot!

Hi rathik, i have not played this game since 2014 and i am back with resetted skill tree, what do you suggest with 92 points? to follow your 90points skill tree or to just go ahead with ur "final" skill tree

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ATCKAY wrote:

Hi rathik, i have not played this game since 2014 and i am back with resetted skill tree, what do you suggest with 92 points? to follow your 90points skill tree or to just go ahead with ur "final" skill tree

That depends if you have decent ES gear or not.
That said, you should know that zombies are not in a good place right now due to the changes of latest patch.

You will get a full respec though in about 24 days when the new patch arrives.
Personally I feel that SRS build is far superior than zombies at the moment if you want to do high end maps (79+) and be able to kill uber (with the right gear of course).

If you just planning to level up your char with some IIR/IIQ until next patch comes in, then zombies will do just fine.

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Rathik2 wrote:

That depends if you have decent ES gear or not.
That said, you should know that zombies are not in a good place right now due to the changes of latest patch.

Can you explain the reasons for saying this. I was playing as a summoner for 2 months now and dont really want to change it now. Would appreciate your reasoning.

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Raiden007 wrote:

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Rathik2 wrote:

That depends if you have decent ES gear or not.
That said, you should know that zombies are not in a good place right now due to the changes of latest patch.

Can you explain the reasons for saying this. I was playing as a summoner for 2 months now and dont really want to change it now. Would appreciate your reasoning.

Map monsters and bosses are harder now. Not all of them but there are some bosses that will blow your minions in seconds.

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Greetings!
Thank you for this great guide, Rathik2!

I've had great success with it. My summoner is level 80 right now that is my highest character. I'm about to switch from self funded life build to CI build, buying better items from market. Planning on doing this with upcoming 2.1.0 passive tree reset.

Couple of questions for you, if you don't mind answering.
1) Will you be updating / giving support for this particular build after 2.1.0 update?
2) I noticed you mentioned SRS (Summon Raging Spirit) trumping this one. Would our beloved Matriarch still be viable, even if not as good as now, in 2.1.0?
3) Not owning any legacy gear and not being able to afford most of good IIQ gear for sale, how important is IIQ compared to IIR? What I'm mostly looking for is whether trying to get as much IIR as possible makes any sense or not without IIQ gear. Only one I have is the current version of Perandus Blazon Belt with 8% IIQ.