The Summoner Compendium

So I've been doing maps both solo and grouped, and I really wish pets would either follow you closer or warp onto you sooner. Usually soloing it's manageable but in a decent group, especially on indoor maps, I feel pretty useless since most stuff dies before any of my pets contribute. My solution currently is to pop a swift flask and sprint into a room first. Sometimes this works and my pets will teleport to me and wipe everything out, but it's not viable against a lot of types of mobs and often my pets don't warp onto me anyway.

Overall I'm very happy with pet survivability and damage, but only when they actually engage things quickly. As it is I'm planning on leveling something else for now.

Do you have Minion Speed attached to your zombies? I have Sidhebreath and the support gem. I haven't grouped up at all so I don't know if those would change anything or not.

Sidhebreath+Midnight Bargain gives me 27% minion speed, and I have 16% quality zombies which adds another 16%. The issue is not their runspeed, it's the fact that they get hung up on walls/doorways and no matter how fast they are, they still don't stay right with you when you move but instead follow a fairly large distance behind.

One idea that I think would help is to let minions teleport with you when you cast Lightning Warp, similar to teleporting in diablo 2. Lightning Warp has a built in delay before you actually teleport and there are range/line of sight restrictions so I don't think it would be overpowered. It would definitely help summoners to have their minions in combat sooner though.

How do you get more than two spectres?

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g0rki wrote:

How do you get more than two spectres?

With uniques such as these:

Man are these AOE magic creeps the bane of Summoner fun.

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Brixtan wrote:

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g0rki wrote:

How do you get more than two spectres?

With uniques such as these:

Oh man I need to get me one of those:) U sellin'? :D

Keeping you posted on the Shadow Summoner while the new patch downloads : Lvl 66 Now, Finished Merciless and did 3 Solo LVL 66 Maps with modifiers... Died only once on the 2ND map due to a room with a badly placed doorway and 3 Flame Ribbons. Coudn't get summons to do anything other that stand on the doorway and get demolished. I'm actually surprised I can solo maps... Granted , it's probably not the fastest anyone ever ran maps, but it's probably one of the safest... Then again, I'm playng softcore and I had my shares of deaths over my character progression.



I'm pretty happy with this guy. He has 2.2K HP, about 850 Energy Shield, and most resists at 60 ISH values, with Chaos at -44. His Armor and Evasion is abysmal, but then again, I can use a granite flask if things get really crasy... And i'm always behind an army of 20 People anyway...

His Firestorm + Lifeleech combo allows me to give my minions support while I leech off any damage from incoming projectiles... The Damage is limited on it's own, but combined with the pounding of 20 enemies and a curse, it's pretty good.

When it comes to auras, I have Purity, Clarity and Discipline running as of now. Having Better Resists and Some Energy Shield on my minions goes a long way to keep them alive... While I leveled Clarity enough to restore about 60 Mana per second, enough to be able to recast summons almost constantly, with a skeleton totem taking only a couple of seconds to be ready to case even if it's destroyed. I have the Vitality Aura on standby, but I would need some more mana to make it equippable (Doesn't need all that much, only like 50-100 More mana and it should run)... Reduced Mana is a lifesaver in running more auras... And I'm leveling a Blood Magic Gem in hopes of maybe putting a couple fixed cost auras on the HP pool and leave the % Based Ones on the Mana Pool.

In terms of gear, i'm using mostly basic stuff with some resists and + Life and good sockets. Nothing too fancy. I Snatched myself a pair of the Bones of ULLR boots, and I'll get eventually get the Sidibreath amulet when some fricking currency starts to drop (Got like one Gemcutter in 20 days of gameplay)... Still pretty far from endgame stuff, really... I did find one +1 to summon skills circlet which I could work into making a 4 link blue, but I guess waiting for a +2 seems like a good idea. Debating Getting Midnight Bargain due to the lack of Spell Damage and the HP reserve... Also not too fond of the Queen's Decree due to not having access to a shield... So I think i'll stay with 9 Zombies, 3 Spectres and 12(Sometimes 13 due to a bug) Skeletons.

Still pretty undecided on where to go next when it comes to skill points. I could spend the next 4 Points into Getting Dual Curses, which would allow me to Have Vulnerability, Enfeeble and maybe even Punishment for bosses (Have to do some reaserch on that one)... Or I could get some more resists so I can grab cheaper gear and be viable ... Or Get more HP and be more tanky... Or get more Mana and get the Vitality aura running... I could even get Eldrich Battery and go all out aura fanatic. All of these look good , and I sure as hell would have enough stuff to pursue to take this guy to level 100... XD

Quick update again, lvl 69 Now, still running maps solo with ease. Decided to go with some resists and i'll have dual curses in two levels... Then I'll go for either more mana, more hp, or maybe static blows and other static related passives and the wrath aura... Wanna see if it's true shocked enemies get decimated by the minions even faster.

Current Build as of now :


I'll show off my gear, for those interested. Guess where I got that armor... Act 1 Merciless Vendor as a lvl 67 Shadow ... Yes, that guy sold me a blue six linked plate for one fricking blue orb... MUAHAHAHAH... A Scouring later and about 20 Chromatics and I got a kickass plate. So check vendors regularly guys... In the worse case scenario, you might get a six socket unlinked which can be sold for seven jewelers.



I think the setup is starting to get really awesome and almost overpowered.... I ditched Freezing Pulse for a faster Artic Breath, allowing me to pound strong enemies from afar when needed. My Firestorm is a lifestealing fountain of life, meaning I can actually tank while helping my minions... The Two Curses are there , yet I'll only have access to both simultaneously in two more levels... But It seems like it'll be worth it. Had to remove the faster cast on the skeleton totem, but they can get there fast enough so it's not an issue.

Due to mana constraints , I cannot run all 4 of My Auras Yet. I'm defintively going to add some mana , especially if I want to add Wrath to the setup eventually. As of now i'm almost capable of running Vitality, Purity and Clarity and still be able to cast my skeles. The Jewelry + The Passives give me enough regen to always have enough mana to cast... And I can constantly spam firestorm or artic breath if need be.

The biggest find is Conversion Trap. Got a quality + 8 one as a drop and I figured... "Let's try it out"... And I love it.. See that unique boss that can one shot your army with his elemental attack... Throw a trap and he'll stand like a doofus for like 10 seconds or even better, he'll actually use those attacks on his fellow pack... Truly awesome... Nullifying those killers and turning them into tempory minions of yours...

In tense situations, you simply start running away, throw a skeleton totem and three convesion traps, then fall back to the last cleared bunch of corpses to revive zombies and spectres... But the time the Skeleton Totem has expired, your army is born anew and you just throw a new skeleton totem and continue the fight.

As for maps clearing, I did okay so far with enemies with increased damage, patches of fire on the ground half mana and hp regen, more bosses, various weakness conditions... Overall, I tend to reroll some very bad combinations, but he's pretty apt at killing stuff and there's very little risk involved. Still havent tried any maps over LVL 67 Though... So who knows...
Tried piety with a party again... The Skeles Helped and I only died twice, which is a major improvement over my initial performance... Wonder if he can solo merciless bosses, guess i'll try it out when I get my dual curses...

QUICK EDIT : Just Destroyed Merveil without even losing one zombie and had no troubles with Vaal either... Only need to try and solo Piety now...

EDIT NO:2 .... Ok, this is borderline overpowered... Killed Piety in less than 40 seconds using Enfeeble , Three Tentacule Miscreations and my regular army... Extremely garbage drops, but quite empowering indeed.

So there ya go, the necro can pretty much solo 100% of the existing content just fine (Even Act Bosses), as for maps, haven't gotten further than lvl 67 maps, but once higher maps start to drop, i'll keep ya informed...

Edit 18/02: Did quite a few crasy maps in the last few days and he's holding up fine. So far I'd say the most annoying conditions i've met were the following :

Faster Enemies, Faster Attacks, Faster spells... Especially combine with Temporal Chains.
Monsters with extremely enhanced Elemental Attacks... As the minions don't really enjoy this.
No Mana Regen. Pots do kinda work, but this build relies on heavy mana regen, so losing it makes it much harder to keep the mana costs reasonable. What's really great though is that most curses and debuffs are applied to the necromancer and not his minions... Meaning they are unnafected in most map situations...


I tried a little PVP with this guy and got decimated though... Just not enough time to raise an army and put your auras on before enemies get to ya and beat the crap out of ya. At the very best I got one win by getting three specters and the skele totem in a hard to see place... But since it only triggers when the other player is nearby, it doesn't generate enough Skeles in time for an assault.

Edit 18/02: Played some more PVP. He's actually extremely powerful and I got quite a few flawless victory matches. The reason I was under the assumption he was weak was because I was facing a bear trap using shadow with whirling blades that rushed me with totems and such... But against melee characters and not heavyily PVP optimised builds, I actually put extreme pressure on my opponents. They get dual cursed, surrounded by skeletons with like 5000 HP, then the more they struggle , they more time they give me to bomb them with lifeleech firestorm and resurrect 13K HP zombies... Really... It does pwn pvp in some situations.

A Couple Pics to Show off how cool Shadow Necros can look xd... Got Nothing Against witches, but hey...

Hey, nice read, Ill go over it tomorrow again.. I like some of the stuff you have equipped, also your skill gems, some of those I didnt even see yet and I could really use.. I love your link setup on chest! Also spectre/zombie combo on gloves:)

I dont have so many links sofar, and lvl 61 now... Im kinda waiting to get late game and then invest more into crafting good gear.

Im running 2 auras now, clarity and discipline, faster casting on skeleton totem. So far no mana issues whatsoever, I have I think around 60 MPS regen and around 270-300 free mana in pool. Ill try to kick it up a notch and add in another aura.

Im running 3 spectres, 7 zombies and I think 10 skeletons.. also +1 to minions in circlet.

Merciless bosses sofar actually werent problematic, and I was really surprised I didnt die once killing Oak, since on cruel, I simply couldnt solo him.

I did however die twice on A2 final boss (cant remember his name), due to being one shot with his laser. (1100 hp, 600 ES). Ill finish lvl 61 tomorrow and then figure out how to off him smoothly:)

Anyway, thanks for showing your gear:)