[Invasion] Sarah the Self-found Solo Summoner

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plasticeyes wrote:

not sure how experimental you are feeling.

putting zombies or skellies on a trap would boost their damage.

so you would have a 4L summons with a trap damage boost.

It wouldn't really be workable with zombies since you'd have to get a corpse in place, then toss the trap, then have an enemy trigger it. Possible, yes, but not really feasible to do on demand.

Skeletons don't need the corpse so I could see that happening, but it's hard to give up the tanking of a skeleton totem. I suppose you could put Spell Totem-Skeletons in the Deerstalkers, so you'd throw a trap that would spawn a totem that would spawn skeletons...hmm. Interesting, but I'd be worried about the mana cost, plus getting the positioning right could be tricky.

Not really my thing, but if someone else wants to try it, I'd be interested in hearing the results!

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Qhorrin wrote:

Life Leech is my favourite spectre support - link it to ranged spectres and they'll almost never die.

I used to do the same thing, prior to the reworking of the minion passives. But since then, it hasn't been necessary, except maybe as a stopgap until your build is complete. There's 2.5% life regen per second and 4% life leech on the nodes you're likely to be picking up anyway, so a life leech gem is overkill. I prefer to use that link socket for some kind of additional damage.

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ineffablebob wrote:

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plasticeyes wrote:

not sure how experimental you are feeling.

putting zombies or skellies on a trap would boost their damage.

so you would have a 4L summons with a trap damage boost.

It wouldn't really be workable with zombies since you'd have to get a corpse in place, then toss the trap, then have an enemy trigger it. Possible, yes, but not really feasible to do on demand.

Skeletons don't need the corpse so I could see that happening, but it's hard to give up the tanking of a skeleton totem. I suppose you could put Spell Totem-Skeletons in the Deerstalkers, so you'd throw a trap that would spawn a totem that would spawn skeletons...hmm. Interesting, but I'd be worried about the mana cost, plus getting the positioning right could be tricky.

Not really my thing, but if someone else wants to try it, I'd be interested in hearing the results!

exactly right. other option is cold snap + elemental proliferation + cold pen + added cold damage

you can really freeze the heck out of stuff. start tossing those out if you get in trouble and it might save you.

i suspect you don't have the slots to spare. such is the problems with summoners.

and yes - the trap that springs a totem is a good way to go.

as for zombies- duh. remote mine works well with spectres if your spectres are relatively tough.

but you know all that ;-)

edit: really i'd try the cold snap traps. i've used them before and they really freeze ! i was thinking it's a defensive move, but really it's an offensive move too. if you catch one of the weak links in the mob you'll freeze the whole mob including a boss, possibly for several seconds. and that can make for some serious killing time by zombies and spirits.

I'm really glad you decided to take another shot at it - Sarah was a big inspiration on me revitalizing my main (albeit mid-build - the amount of currency it'll take to fix it now is mind boggling), and I'm certainly rooting for you guys this time around.

There's a lot of nice, helpful information in here, as well as quality reading entertainment. What more could an Exile want*?

(*NOTE: No, 'not to die' is not a valid response, nor are permutations thereof acceptable.)

Level 51-52

Into the Slums, where I was fighting a rare snake when I noticed some of my minions had the Blind icon. Turns out that Wiraqucha was around a corner and had drawn off some of the horde. Something weird happened where he got stuck and wasn't moving, and I wasn't going to complain about it...tossed raging spirits at him until he died. Found Clarissa and killed the guards without difficulty, then into the Crematorium.

All the fire, all the time. Lots of zombie charcoal thanks to many spawns of those fire-bomber guys. Once I revived a couple of them, things went quicker, since mine were giving better than they got thanks to LMP and Fire Penetration. Found Piety without seeing an Invasion boss, and had no trouble with her...even reduced her HP down to zero before she ported away, which is always amusing. Quest reward: Clarity. Going to keep it at level 2 for now, and see how the mana holds up.

Slums Sewers were filled with poison bomb throwers, of course. The horde pretty much held its own until I hit a room with a rare and his friends plus Thena Moga. She casts Vulnerability, so that was a recipe for disaster. Ran away to resummon and she followed me, which worked out well since the minions ate her in short order, then it was easy enough to go back and clear the rare guy. Also came across Evocata Apocalyptica, who soon had a half dozen totems out and was casting Firestorm, so I decided to retreat and come back with a full horde. When I did, she was dead...apparently the minions had eaten her brain but the totems had stuck around a while after she died. Found the bust and headed onward.

Warehouse Sewers started off with Grath, fortunately without too many other monsters around to block the minions. Killed him off quickly, found the bust and the waypoint, and moved on. The Warehouses were equally quick, no Invasion boss spotted, but I did take a brief side trip into a Blind Alley corrupted zone (shocked ground, 12% elemental reflect). M'gaska, the Living Pyre was an interesting fight...the horde wasn't able to stay out his flameblast so it was basically my raging spirits against his. Had to run away several times to recover and summon more minions for his raging spirits to target, but eventually wore him down. Sacrifice at Dusk again, that's four if you're counting. And I am counting, because there's nothing else worthwhile to do with them.

Rolled through the Marketplace to the waypoint, killing Marceus the Defaced on the way. Found the sewers next, and made my way through to the stash room for the bust. Hit 52 along the way. Saw Mother of the Hive but left her alone, since it takes so long to kill her with all those invincible children distracting my minions.

Skill points from the quest and level went to finish out the Gravepact cluster except for the 10% Minion Life node, which I can get later.

Level 52-53

Back to the Marketplace and onward to the Battlefront; was fortunate enough to spot the Ornate Chest along the way, so I won't have to come back later. Once in the Battlefront, headed northeast to revive me some Flame Sentinels. One of the rare instances where I appreciate having invading monsters, as it's quicker to find those in this zone than having to go into the Solaris Temple. Spotted a Neglected Cellar corrupted area, but I want no part of Rima Deep Temptress and her crazy AoE traps and ice storm. Went back and found the waypoint and Ribbon Spool, then headed for the Docks. Killed Grath on the way.

Rolled through the docks like...well, like a horde of the unstoppable undead. Even took out the Guardian of the Mound, who killed three zombies with one totem and a few storm calls, but got mulched before he could go crazy with the AoEs. I think the spawn location helped, as he was at the bottom of some stairs, and so there was a natural firebreak against his fireball totem. Got the sulfite, said hello to Fairgraves, and grabbed the waypoint.

Found a slightly better shield with better life, evasion rating, and block chance, plus 14% to all elemental resists. It's not 3-linked, but I'm not using all three links in the shield right now anyway. Since I'm using the weapon switch to Queen's Decree when summoning (credit to Braunar, that was a good idea), I don't want anything in the shield that will turn off when I swap, so all I have in there right now is Convocation.

Back to the Battlefront waypoint and onward to the Solaris Temple. Level 1 was full of invading archer statues, not particularly dangerous but annoying with all the ice arrow frozen ground. Killed off the Voltaic Seal, Infernal Seal, and Grath as I roamed the halls looking for the stairs. Finally found it and moved on to level 2, where there were more invading statues as well as a lot more Flame Sentinels. They're dangerous in groups, but if you can get Enfeeble on them, the fireballs are a lot more manageable. Hit level 53 and started in on the Grave Consequences node cluster. Killed off Glassmaul, who has apparently learned Warlord's Mark, and the Goddess of Purity. Found a Sacred Chamber corrupted zone (12% elemental reflect) and cleared it. The Shadow of Vengeance is fairly easy as long as you get minions close to him so he won't summon a ton of animated weapons. Vaal drop was...wait for it...Sacrifice at Dusk! Number 5. Got a useless amulet and the Talc from Dialla.

The RNG obviously felt bad for me after giving up yet another Sacrifice at Dusk, so it also dropped my first 6-socket item and a Desecrate. Oh happy day, corpses on demand! Won't use it in battle, because I don't have a spot on my skill bar for it, and I haven't noticed lack of corpses being an issue. But I will definitely use it to get Flame Sentinel corpses at the Solaris level 2 waypoint whenever I first log in.

Level 53-56

Went down to the Sewer Waterway and headed over to grab the Battlefront waypoint. Lots of poison bombs, so took it slow and resummoned zombies as they died. Found the Mother of the Swarm in a side passage and let the horde destroy her; I did little other than cursing her and tossing a few spirits in, as they pretty much did the job themselves.

Docks farm time again. Did 3 runs to get to level 54, 5 runs to 55, and 4 runs to 56. Plus a Stagnant Canal corrupted area (monsters cannot be stunned) during that last run; normally I'd skip that but my last couple of encounters with Wiraqucha went OK, so I figured it was workable. Once I cleared the voidbearers out, he didn't take too long to take down, with me staying well back and throwing spirits into the smoke while the horde kept all the snakes busy. Vaal item was Sacrifice at Dawn, bleh. Notable encounters during the Docks runs:

Harbinger of Elements (twice): First time spawned with some voidbearers that had to be taken down first. Second time was pretty much alone. Both easy kills.
Evocata Apocalyptica: Ugly fight that needed multiple resummons. Two rares, about a dozen other monsters, and Evocata all on the same screen. Once most of them were down, I was able to hide behind a crate out of the totems' line of sight and use the skeleton totem and spirits to finish off the last rare and Evocata.
The Book Burner: Mainly just dodged his Lightning Warp and the whirlwinds while the horde took care of him. Contributed a few raging spirits when it was safe.
Mother of the Swarm: Hid around a corner and let the skeletons and raging spirits take her down. She killed the zombies quickly enough, but the totem kept enough skeletons going to keep her distracted while the spirits fried her.
Coniraya, Shadow of Malice: Spawned in an odd location with him at the bottom of some stairs but his accompanying dudes at the top. Pulled everything away from him and killed them, then took him out with a lot of raging spirits while the horde kept his attention. Even alone, he still wiped out half the zombies with that lightning Rain of Arrows attack.
Corrector Draconides: Tough fight that ended with the entire horde wiped out, spectres and all, but the raging spirit damage did him in.
Orra Greengate: Not much of a threat once I got Enfeeble on her. Her Rain of Arrow seemed pretty wimpy after seeing Coniraya.
Konu, Maker of Wind: The most dangerous skill he has is Molten Shell, so I stayed well out of range. Had to run a couple of times when he jumped at me, but otherwise an easy battle.
Droolscar: He didn't do much but cast Desecrate a few times. Probably confused by the horde, who took him down pretty quickly.
Sheaq, Maker of Floods: He spawned in an odd location directly behind the sulfite cart. All the surrounding monsters died at the top of the stairs, but he hung back, so I was able to send the horde in to meet him. Only killed one zombie before they had him down.

Decided it was time to respec out of Minion Instability, as the horde survives most things now and does a goodly amount of damage. When stuff does die, it's usually to some ugly AoE that kills things at range anyway, where the explosions won't matter much. I'd rather have them dealing damage until the bitter end than dying at low life. Also picked up a couple of those life/mana nodes since I've been running short on mana more than I'd like...levelled Clarity to 3 also. Here's the current tree.

Found my first couple of Cartographer's Chisels during the Docks runs, and a goodly amount of other currency, though nothing earthshakingly good. No items worth mentioning.

Good stuff.
Looking at your tree. It seems like you can get rid of the 8% mana between the 20% mana regen and the 40% mana regen and replace it with the last Life and Mana node.

You seem to have too many minion nodes and too little HP nodes.

I'd say that 3 specters (going through damage nodes), 16% minion res and some regen is quite enough till 60-65.

Also could you post your gear? And if you have snapshotting gear.

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plasticeyes wrote:

exactly right. other option is cold snap + elemental proliferation + cold pen + added cold damage

you can really freeze the heck out of stuff. start tossing those out if you get in trouble and it might save you.

i suspect you don't have the slots to spare. such is the problems with summoners.

True enough. Running low on both sockets on gear and skill bar slots is a chronic issue with all my summoner characters. I have used the cold snap trap before on other characters, and I agree that it's very good when you have the space to use it.

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plasticeyes wrote:

remote mine works well with spectres if your spectres are relatively tough.

Yep, I've used that in the past. For the moment I don't have a Remote Mine so it's a moot point, but even if I did I'd probably skip it. The extra damage is nice, but I don't really like having to deal with the mine/detonate on summoning. Still, it's something to keep in mind if the opportunity arises and I feel like the spectre damage could use a boost.

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Foxfirega wrote:

I'm really glad you decided to take another shot at it - Sarah was a big inspiration on me revitalizing my main (albeit mid-build - the amount of currency it'll take to fix it now is mind boggling), and I'm certainly rooting for you guys this time around.

There's a lot of nice, helpful information in here, as well as quality reading entertainment. What more could an Exile want*?

(*NOTE: No, 'not to die' is not a valid response, nor are permutations thereof acceptable.)

Thanks! As for what we could want...well, a nice +2 minion helm with life and tri-resists would be nice. :)

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Starxsword wrote:

Good stuff.
Looking at your tree. It seems like you can get rid of the 8% mana between the 20% mana regen and the 40% mana regen and replace it with the last Life and Mana node.

You mean the one by the starting area? I'm still using that as a connector node. I could replace it if I took the +10 intelligence node just the right of the start, but I don't really see a reason to swap those.

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1988288 wrote:

You seem to have too many minion nodes and too little HP nodes.
I'd say that 3 specters (going through damage nodes), 16% minion res and some regen is quite enough till 60-65.

It's only 2 spectres since the Queen's Decree is just a snapshot tool on weapon switch. The main point of all the minion nodes is to get the minion count up, since every additional minion is another target for the monsters to worry about. Lowers their damage output to my personal self as well as distributing the damage across more minion bodies, so they stay upright longer.

I certainly wouldn't mind more life, but there's not a lot of easily accessible life nodes left where I'm at on the tree. Care to make a suggestion on what you'd do differently?

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1988288 wrote:

Also could you post your gear? And if you have snapshotting gear.

You bet.


The only snapshot gear is Queen's Decree.

Level 56-57

Into the Barracks, where the invading monster group were Cinder Elementals...don't recall seeing that before. Fairly easy pickings, and didn't spot an Invasion boss on the way up to the General. Pulled his friends away with the totem-at-the-top-of-the-stairs trick, then the horde ate him in short order. Took Melee Splash from the quest reward, and finally spent some Fusing Orbs to 4-link the Goldrim so I could hook up Summon Raging Spirit-Increased Duration-Melee Splash-Flesh Offering. Also used a Vaal Orb on a Two-Stone Ring and got some decent mods.

Made a brief foray into the Imperial Gardens to get the waypoint, then back to the Barracks. Found the Lunaris Temple without further incident. Level 1 contained the usual suspects as well as Corrector Draconides, who I saw before he could leap on me so he wasn't too dangerous. Did a couple rounds of run-and-resummon since he was burning up the zombies pretty quickly, but otherwise an easy kill.

Level 2 started with Kole, which was annoying because his support group spawned a rare. So Temporal Chains was in effect the whole time, plus he had a faster attacks aura. Kole lasted long enough to kill off the zombies but the rest of the horde wiped him out, then they mopped up the rare while I resummoned. Found the stairs just a few rooms over without running into an Invasion boss.

Level 3 started off with Spinecrack, who wandered into the middle of a battle against some miscreations. I didn't even realize there was a boss in the fight until I was wondering why the last guy standing was taking so long to die. Rest of the zone was equally unremarkable, and no Invasion boss made an appearance. Upgraded my spectres to Tentacle Miscreations along the way. Piety was a pushover; she only made one form-change, and made a poor life choice by making it fire form. The horde laughs at quick melee attacks. She did cast several sets of lightning storm/ball lightning, but I think the Purity of Lightning is doing its job because the horde shrugged it off.

Piety quest skill points went to the last life/mana node in that cluster I've been working on, plus the 6% life/4% chaos resist node by Purity of Flesh. Found some decent items to swap into, including a life plus tri-resists Coronal Leather chest armor. Updated gear:



Found the Sceptre of God entrance in the Imperial Gardens and decided to go on up to grab the waypoint. Ugly fight through the very first door with a rare frog chimeral, about a dozen of his froggy buddies, and a half dozen fireblasting aristocrats. Ended up retreating near the entrance to get the rare away from the fireblasts and kill him before proceeding. Didn't see an Invasion boss, but ran across Caliga on the way up. Purity of Lightning comes through again, as the minions were mostly living through the lightning traps, but it still took quite a while to take her down since she kept retreating into new spawns, mostly of aristocrats. Lots of running back-and-forth and popping Convocation to keep the minions from chasing her into too many spawns at once. Found the waypoint shortly after finally finishing her off, and got the heck out of there.

Through the Gardens again to the Library. Corrector Draconides made an early appearance, requiring some run-and-resummon tactics before he died. Picked off Tyrannursus Maximus as well along the way to the waypoint. Made my way to the Archives, and found the first three pages quickly. Killed Trinian along the way; he was almost dead by the time I realized he was even in the room. Mammothcage was hanging out next to the fourth page, so had to do a bit of hit-and-run to get his friends far enough away to kill them. Once he was alone, no problems.

Got level 57 during the library expedition and took the intelligence node on the way up to Sovereignty. Picked up Purity of Fire from the library quest and put in on my weapon switch to level up. Would be nice to be running both Purity of Fire and Purity of Lightning at some point.

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ineffablebob wrote:

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1988288 wrote:

You seem to have too many minion nodes and too little HP nodes.
I'd say that 3 specters (going through damage nodes), 16% minion res and some regen is quite enough till 60-65.

It's only 2 spectres since the Queen's Decree is just a snapshot tool on weapon switch. The main point of all the minion nodes is to get the minion count up, since every additional minion is another target for the monsters to worry about. Lowers their damage output to my personal self as well as distributing the damage across more minion bodies, so they stay upright longer.

I certainly wouldn't mind more life, but there's not a lot of easily accessible life nodes left where I'm at on the tree. Care to make a suggestion on what you'd do differently?

Something like this seems more appropriate, I guess, as it has 216% life and access to minion nodes.
Of course you can drop some HP nodes into +30 dex/str ones, if you lack. Also Elemental Equilibrium is a very useful tool, if you're using Fire Curtains as your specters. It's also good if you're using Searing Bond on top.

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ineffablebob wrote:

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1988288 wrote:

Also could you post your gear? And if you have snapshotting gear.

You bet.

The only snapshot gear is Queen's Decree.

Well, if this was me playing Self-found, I'd farm Cruel Merveil for some time to get Trap boots + Bones of Ullr, that way you have a 5 Link + additional specter. And there's also quite high chance to get Summoner amulet.

Also I'd swap out that Fire Penetration for Remote Mine, if you have such gem.

Zombies I'd make more tanky, and let the specters do the deepz, with Remote mine they should hit well hard, and if you can - add a Searing Bond + Burning damage in.

p.s. Your new body armour looks sexy.

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1988288 wrote:

Something like this seems more appropriate, I guess, as it has 216% life and access to minion nodes.
Of course you can drop some HP nodes into +30 dex/str ones, if you lack.

Interesting passive build, thanks. I might head down into the Shadow area for those life nodes if I live another dozen levels or so. I wouldn't feel comfortable going without the Gravepact cluster, myself, though I could see dropping Grave Consequences. Don't think I'll make any wholesale changes right now, but appreciate the ideas.

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1988288 wrote:

Also Elemental Equilibrium is a very useful tool, if you're using Fire Curtains as your specters. It's also good if you're using Searing Bond on top.

I'd considered that but I'm not sure what I'd use to trigger EE. The only cold/lightning skill I have available that does good area of effect is Ice Nova, and I have no desire to be that close to any monster big enough that it needs to be debuffed. I suppose if I found an Arc, but so far I only have the Vaal version.

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1988288 wrote:

Well, if this was me playing Self-found, I'd farm Cruel Merveil for some time to get Trap boots + Bones of Ullr, that way you have a 5 Link + additional specter. And there's also quite high chance to get Summoner amulet.

Hadn't really thought about farming for items; XP, yes, but not uniques. Are the drop rates really good enough to get a unique in a reasonable amount of time? Something to consider on a future Sarah, perhaps; for now I'm not really interested in rolling those particular dice.

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1988288 wrote:

Also I'd swap out that Fire Penetration for Remote Mine, if you have such gem.

No such luck yet. If I do get a Remote Mine, and decide I want to put up with the hassle of using it, I'm not sure if it makes more sense to to change out Fire Penetration, or Minion Damage.

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1988288 wrote:

Zombies I'd make more tanky, and let the specters do the deepz, with Remote mine they should hit well hard, and if you can - add a Searing Bond + Burning damage in.
p.s. Your new body armour looks sexy.

I think that's a philosophical difference in playstyle; you're looking more at spectres for damage, while I'm mainly using the zombies and spirits. I didn't even have spectres active in my Cruel Dominus fight since they died so quickly, but the zombies/spirits were able to carry the damage load. To get the most out of the spectres you really need the gear to get 3 or 4 of them out, while with zombies you can get by without uniques; on the other hand, the zombie approach requires more passive points than focusing on spectres. Nothing wrong with either approach, I think, just a matter of where you want to focus your efforts.