support!

hey guys, first of all: thanks for sharing this build and writing this guide!

I saw a few page´s earlier Intoxikate asking exatcly the same question I also have, but noone answered. So it would be nice, if someone could take a stand on this. Thanks in advance

"

Intoxikate wrote:

^^Would you mind elaborating some more? Both Grave Intentions and Gravepact are both DIRECTLY off the skill tree that is being used without any unnecessary movement. I can understand not wanting to go for Grave Expectations in the upper left of the tree since you have to take extra intelligence and life nodes to get to it, but Gravepact has those minion life nodes that I would assume be useful to further buff up our minions' life and Grave Intentions has those minion damage nodes for further damage? No extra nodes to get to these whatsoever. Is taht Inner Force cluster for the buffs and that Cold and Lightning Resistance nodes at the bottom really that much more important? I'm just trying to understand the rationale because in my mind, I would have thought that having extra zombies on the field for more damage would be more useful.

about the res nodes: if you have made a scion you can take directly those when you start off lvl 1, and keep them, they are more useful then ahything else you can pick imo.
Look at it this way: you have to reach either Harrier, Sentinel or Shaper nodes, and from either of those you can continue putting points and make your build. So you can choose whichever path is the most useful, and in my opinion the best is the one ont the bottom: melee phys damage (useless) + 3 res 18%, this way you can save the less useful points: +12 health and 1.2 health regen/sec. If you dont wanna give up the +12health and 1.2 health regen you can still skip the 18%res points get those res from gear (rings and amulets mostly - note that if you wanna go for andvarus in the very end those extra res points will come very handy)

About the Zombie nodes: priority has been given to extra health nodes over damage, cos later on 80% of your damage will come from Burned Miscreation, and its damage scales off both %health and %damage, so having %health will both increase your army tankiness and damage.
Once you ve picked up all those %health nodes there will be %damage ones left and yes, they will give you also 1 more zombie (which means also more meatshield around you and on the field - so more damage and more protection). I am personally trying to save points wherever possible to try squeeze this points in later on (85+), just as you said, i didnt take inner force, cos its not an absolute priority to make the build work. I also saved 2 points on the Evasion rating wheel and 2 on the health wheel, the 2 close to the Scion start.

this is how i am building:
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgABEJcRlhUgFy8ZhRmGGYoabBqPHNwdFB2qJKoksCepKPoppSpNKpgs6S9vMZ41kjbpOuE_J0GHRARGcUp9SshNuU4qVcZV1lqRW69k52egaqxuqm-ecLt_xoCkgseC5IMJhtGHdohAiPGKr49GkBGQM5LNkvOTJ5itm6GbtaZXpqynCKh9rEesWbB3tAy18rc-uJO-vL-XwzrJPcpKzLzPZdDQ0_vZC9kT3Q3hiONq52PrLOvu8h7yRfba99f56PqA-tL7CfzF_gr-SQ==

Note that i ve also taken Grave Expectation on the very left. This way with Ullr boots you will have 8 zombies, which means you can raise up 4 Big Ones with Montregul. You can choose whether to leave Ullr boots on to have 8 zombie in total and 1 more spectre (for harder maps) or just go IIQ. Also, every minion will do more damage due to the %damage nodes you picked, and this is relevant especially for the BM, since in total it just had a %15 increased damage (from amulet).

The last points I would go for Inner Force or Written in Blood on the top right (you might have to take those earlier for the extra Str to run red auras, but you can increase str with amulets/rings and skip it), and then filling up the remaining left out points in Evasion (Elusiveness) and life close to the Scion, the 2 %damage points close to Death Attunement and Clear Mind.

I recently came into a couple exalts from selling a Marohi.

What item would you suggest buying 1st, not counting the distillate.
I already have the cheap list items Saffells, Tabula, Chober, Andvarius and the regular MF stuff.

What from you're rich list would you recommened trying to get 1st?

im doing a scion summoner based off a few builds out there. EB AA barrage cast on crit EK with all aura nodes. running haste/purity of cold or haste/purity of lightning +lvl 10 clarity atm. getting there on aura nodes and minion nodes. lvl 60 atm 2150 life 1900 mana. work in progress atm but is very fun and effective. only 4 zombies but they dont die very often with rejuvenation totem up.

i was able to tank merciless brutus without life leech gem. ^^ i know thats not a big deal bla bla but i thought it was pretty amazin.
current build

current gear
rest dont matter.

near 100% uptime on flask atm

the shield is just lvling gear ill get either high ES or evasion block shield later. cloak of defiance makes reflect a joke when u are using cast on crit....as long as u manage ur crit multi. if i can get 36% titanium or 37% evasion shield i dont think this character will have much problems dieing. the Ehp from minions, block, 40% damage mitigation is ridiculous.

some questions i have are:

with rejuvenation totem is vitality necessary and if that works at what lvl can i stop leveling totem. (cwdt link to totem eventually)

is grace determination really necessary?

i feel like haste is mandatory for minions giving them the only move speed they have and best dps increase available.

There's a big difference between builds that use spectres as dps and zombies/skeletons as meatshields and builds that use zombies as dps. But frankly, in neither of them is haste very useful. 8% more movespeed is not a buff to minion movespeed, especially given that they already move pretty rapidly. And 15-16 attack speed pales in comparison to any other dps aura. Hatred will provide more damage by far, especially if you're using high-linked zombies, a montregul's or a BoR.

I would caution you against thinking 'not having any trouble so far' is an indication of whether something will be viable in the 80s or in maps. It's entirely possible it will be - I've never played your spec so I wouldn't know. But anything tends to be entirely viable until late merc, and EK is specifically overpowered while leveling and then falls off dramatically.

Rejuv totem will regenerate similar amounts of health for you and less hp/s for your minions if you're picking up aura nodes. So it comes down to recasting totems versus reserving mana pool. Which is part of why a spec that uses MoM and EB is fundamentally different than a spec that uses literally no mana.

And by the by, grace and determination are as much for your minions as they are for you. For you, they provide an enormous boost in defense - but obviously at great cost. But for your minions, there's simply no way to replace them. Particularly when you're running something like rejuv totem, mitigation makes a big difference.

That's my input, anyways. Maybe someone will come and provide you with more definitive feedback. I can only speculate that your build will more or less collapse in 70+ maps unless you make some changes.

later i plan on running purity of lightning/ice + haste + clarity. im only lvl 60 and goin after minion nodes and aura nodes next. that being said in my findings rejuvenation totem is much more regeneration with increased aura nodes than vitality. at 4k hp lvl 20 rejuvenation totem regenerates nearly twice the hp of a lvl 20 vitality. also flat numbers from increased aura effect increase much more than low percentages. the passives specifically say increased effect of auras u cast. that doesnt separate from minions. only inner force specifies the player.

arctic armor + CoD hopefully will be enough after i get 3 more zombies and a third spectre. i tried to think it out as best i could when piking specific auras. arctic armor covers fire + physical. purity of lightning/ice the rest hopefully. CoD 40% mitigation is just amazin!! with the right mana ofc.

still a test run but it sure is fun =D

my simple 3L cast on crit is a really good supplement to minions damage. all ive added so far is 9 points for COC EK so its not much different than any other scion summoner. thunderfist in the build would really increase dps of CoC and minions but i dont expect to worry about those.

2400 hp 1950 mana atm

"

tehosiris wrote:

@Cage (tm) inhabitant(s)
Congratulations, you managed to find the scenario where increased damage > more damage
+1 for effort
i chose not to list the items and support gems you 'accicentally' did not include in these mathematically accurate tests

The purpose of this test was not to provide an optimal setup, but to confirm the correct method of calculation which you put in question and your alternative was proven wrong. I maintain that it needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis.
Once again, you weave baseless insults into your response.

With no objections raised to the formula, I can now give some basic thresholds of Minion Damage vs Remote Mine for those still interested:

For level 16 gems, we need to solve:

1+x+0.73=(1+x)*1.45

x=0.622

You need at least 63% increased damage from other sources for Remote Mine to outperform Minion Damage.

For 20/20 gems, we need to solve:

1+x+0.92=(1+x)*1.49

x=0.878

You need at least 88% increased damage from other sources for Remote Mine to outperform Minion Damage.

Thanks for the guide, first of all.
I have a question - I started using trap + remote mine to summon my spectres now (with sunblast), and I do a lot more damage than before, but for some reason it seems to me like I get less rares and uniques. Is RNG just playing tricks on me, or is there a reason that my trap+remote mine spectres don't get my gear's IIR and IIQ on kills?

Thanks!

pre 1.0.6 thoughts added

how do you switch armours without all your spectre's dying? ive tried a few different ways and every time i reenter an area they die.