[Beta/Obselete] [Build Guide] Frost Raven - Ice Shot Culling MF EB Necromancer - Great Solo Farming

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Kirielis wrote:

Just off the top of my head, I would probably be carrying around 3 curses and significantly less than 7 auras, as well as bringing my spectre setup into it with Bones of Ullr.

Pretty much impossible; there simply aren't enough sockets in any setup to accommodate those many skills simultaneously. Two 6Ls, 7 auras, and 2 curses uses every single socket (assuming 3x reduced mana; leaving the last aura unsupported might free up one spot).

Hence "significantly less than 7" auras.

The issue I faced when I wanted to do a Summoner that also do self damage was stat requirements and bad +dmg synergies. Getting dex for a good bow and the gems was a pain, the synergies for damage were poor.

I guess that's why most summoners that wanna do self damage lean back on Spells as their choice for doing damage. And as for Chilling? I quote from another thread: "I dont want them frozen, I want them DEAD". He meant that if they have time to chill, then you're killing too slow and should rethink :p


But nice to see some other ideas instead of all cookie cutters! +1

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talonmas wrote:

The issue I faced when I wanted to do a Summoner that also do self damage was stat requirements and bad +dmg synergies. Getting dex for a good bow and the gems was a pain, the synergies for damage were poor.

That's the idea behind going physical bow and Iron Grip. There's too much going on with this build to dedicate a lot of nodes to offense, so there really isn't any way to spare enough nodes for damage if you go elemental; Hatred is a much more important damage aura for this build than Anger or Wrath (but they're both cheap and very good for pre-maps leveling, so we use them anyway).

Speaking of, I've done some calculations as well as trying out the Reduced Reservation nodes between Marauder and Duelist, and they are a far more valuable contribution than anything the Templar area has to offer; I found that taking Clear Mind, plus maybe one chaos res piece of gear, is sufficient to handle Chaos-over-time map affix with Inner Force Vitality as the only regen source. I've restructured the passive tree development in the OP to reflect this; this also includes getting Iron Grip sooner (after max minions, before dual curse), since it's actually pretty vital to the build.

This makes it such that the build's answer to damage nodes is exclusively Iron Grip and eventually getting around 300 Strength, making it 60% increased damage off of a single node, but committing rather heavily to physical damage. At high levels (after gobbling up the good life nodes), +30 Strength nodes are +6% improved damage, +15 life, which is actually worth taking beyond stat requirements; similarly, IG also allows Strength gear to provide both offense and defense. Unfortunately, there's no more Catalyse, although you'll get some WED increases off of your quiver, maybe also a ring or an amulet.

Bumping; would like some feedback on the new passive development.

Scrotie,
I'm starting up a new char to try this out. Do you think this build works as good/better than other popular cheap summoner builds like "the matriarch" http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/479976 ?

The Frost Raven build seems to sacrifice minion damage and tankiness for getting and using the bow with ice shot, getting life nodes, and getting all the aura nodes.

The matriarch build gets all the minion nodes, but then goes CI, and uses arc for culling.

I noticed that your Merciless Act 2 build link still has Catalyze, which doesn't agree with your restructuring (unless you spec out of it later and didn't note that).

Beyond that, I like the concept; still don't have any high level witches on Onslaught so I'm going to play with it a bit there.

It's not exactly clear in your description, but Culling Strike only has the base effect if you don't have IQ/IR supports; as your minions get your base IIR/IIQ, that might argue for adding the supports in a slightly different order if you don't have IQ or a 4L yet and it may help to note that (particularly for self-found characters, which I pretty much play exclusively).

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Ravenous0001 wrote:

Scrotie,
I'm starting up a new char to try this out. Do you think this build works as good/better than other popular cheap summoner builds like "the matriarch" http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/479976 ?

The Frost Raven build seems to sacrifice minion damage and tankiness for getting and using the bow with ice shot, getting life nodes, and getting all the aura nodes.

The matriarch build gets all the minion nodes, but then goes CI, and uses arc for culling.

The Matriarch is not tankier for two reasons:
1) It is a Minion Instability build; this is why he doesn't take Necro Aegis. The reason the build takes minion life and damage nodes is that both increase the damage of MI explosions. MI is 35% less minion life right off the bat.
2) If you've played enough melee, you'd know that true tankiness isn't max life, it's how fast you heal vs how fast you take damage — it's a speed comparison. The Matriarch is still pretty tanky because summoning new zombies is pretty good "healing," adding decent life to the battleground per second; however, this occupies your character and requires fresh corpses. This build can do the same thing, but also has Vitality, Life Leech, and permachilled bosses.

The Matriarch is essentially a hybrid MI/ZombieTank build; this build is pure tank. As such, the Matriarch does clear some content faster, but the Frost Raven clears it more reliably — less deaths, etc.
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I'm on my cell now; I'll fix the bad passive tree link once home.

Thanks for the comparison between the builds. Regarding your tree progression i can say that up to level 20 my biggest problem has been mana, but my bow is super fast which is the cause i thInk. I haven't died yet, although the zombies were very squishy before I linked in minion health.

Can you add some details on the auras, which are important to get while leveling-what order and such. Also add if quality matters on any of them more so than others and if there are any we shouldn't level. I'm having fun so far and am up to level 20. Poison arrow/ice shot is good for leveling this so far.

Zombies aren't very tanky early. Life Gain on Hit helps a lot more than Life Leech early on; late game LGoH gets worse, and I'm running experiments on whether Melee Physical Damage actually heals more (about 50% more leech). I'd recommend LGoH over Minion Life for early game, although I've never use Minion Life early (only tried it in Merci A3). This is assuming Multistrike. Minion Resistances is by far the most important support gem so make sure you're using it.

Clarity is an important aura for leveling; Hatred is very important late with great gear, but absolutely trivial early or with crap gear. Purity is more important than Vitality if you have to choose. I'd consider minimal early aura stack to be Purity, Clarity, Discipline, Anger, Wrath.