[1.1.X] Raging Spirits/Animated Weapons Summoner (with a video)

109 points passive tree



105 points passive tree





As far as I know, most (if not all) Raging Spirit builds guides that have been posted are centered around either Totems or Cast on Crit.

Personally, I think the advantages of self-casting Raging Spirits are big enough to justify a self-casting Raging Spirit Build.

Compare to Cast on Crit builds :

-Self-casting build require 2 less Support gems (1 less if you use faster casting)
-It requires less passive and gear investment in things that do not directly benefit Raging spirit such as Crit chance, Accuracy, Attack speed, etc.
-You can summon Raging Spirits without having to directly attack a target
-Your Raging Spirits summoning is very reliable and stable. It isn't based on multiple random events : chances to hit + Chance to Crit + Chance to cast on crit.

Compare to Totem builds :

-Self-casting require 1 less support gem or doesn't have to deal with Soul Mantle penalties (low defense + random level 20 curse on yourself when a totem dies)
-Self-Cast Raging Spirits deal 100% more damage and cast 30% faster (more).
-If you don't use totems to summon Raging Spirits, you can use one for other useful things such as triggering Elemental Equilibrium.

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So, with that in mind, I created a Self-Cast Raging Spirit character. The main idea is to have very fast casting (and high mana regen!) to be able to spam Raging Spirit at a very high rate. I also knew that boosting the elemental damage of Raging Spirit with Anger and Wrath as well as their movement/attack speed with Haste would be very beneficial.

So the build invest heavily in Aura passives to be able to run 3 auras : Anger, Wrath and Haste (Run+attack speed for Spirits, Cast speed for caster). In addition, the build use Alpha's howl to boost these 3 auras even more.

In term of defense, a key piece of equipment is Cloak of Defiance. With that amount of mana and mana regen%, the 40% mana over life from Cloak of Defiance is simply amazing.

Other pieces of equipment simply focus on life, resists, mana regen and attributes. I hesitated between using a wand/scepter and a shield vs a Chober Chaber for the 15% increased skill duration, 25% to mana and +1 to minion gems. Another decent choice for the build would be Dying Breath for the 18% cast speed, +18% mana, +18% damage for allies, 18% effect of curses, +18% radius of auras and +18% chance to block. For now, I picked the wand and shield. In the end, I think the extra defense and cast speed from the wand+shield setup is more beneficial when soloing. In party, I may use the Dying Breath. A 5L Dying Breath would also make stronger Animated Weapons.

The character is level 70 right now (Name is Skullier). I'm using 2 auras for now because I don't have all the aura passives required for 3. But with Haste and all aura passives, I expect my Summon Raging Spirit cast speed will be around 0.3 second. With 7.67 seconds duration Raging Spirits, that means a max number of Raging Spirits of about 25-26. That also means I'll be able to cast 10 Raging Spirits in 3 seconds.

Skills

Summon Raging Spirit : Supported by Increased Duration, Faster Casting, Minion Damage and Melee Splash. For bosses without add, I can replace Melee Splash by Multistrike.

Animated Weapons : Supported by Weapon Elemental Damage, Multistrike and Increased Duration. The Animated Weapons are boosted by pretty much the same passives than Raging Spirit. They also last for a very long time compare to RS (82 seconds) so I usually start a fight with a bunch of Animated weapons and 0 RS. So its very helpful to keep rolling. In high quantity maps, its not uncommon to have 15-25 Animated Weapons fighting alongside the Raging Spirits.

Ice Spear + Blind totem : To trigger Elemental Equilibrium (EE) and to Blind. Affected monsters get 50% less resistance against Fire and Lightning Damage and 75% less Chance to hit. So, its great offensively and defensively. Supported by Greater Multiple Projectiles to hit as many targets as possible.

Cast when damage taken + Temporal Chain + Enduring : A good defensive combo.

Flesh Offering : 50% faster attack speed and run speed for minions ? Simply too good to ignore.

Elemental Weakness : -59% elemental resist. Again, too good to Ignore.


Reasons behind the choices of Support gems and Auras (taken from my page 2 post)



Equipment and skills setup :



Gameplay video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOyKdAm6XmU&feature=youtu.be (level 86)

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Any comments, questions or suggestions are welcome !

Nice setup. I found your build from MaddBomber's thread.

- While I like the damage boost from self casting, by not hitting 50 spirits your damage is exactly the same as a tritotem build, assuming they don't pick up totem damage nodes.

- I'm with MaddBomber in that melee splash isn't as effective as more damage. I'm 50/50 on multistrike vs melee phys. Minion Damage isn't a more modifier, so once you have enough minion damage gear/passives, melee phys would be more effective.

- Take a look at Nycta's lantern until you have a five link. You'd be switching from SRS + Increased Duration + Faster Casting + Minion Damage to SRS + Increased Duration + Faster Casting + Fire Pen + Added Fire + Cold to Fire. The cold to fire only helps in getting hatred to benefit from fire pen, but the rest should buff your damage significantly.

- I'm afraid of the mana costs of when you're self-casting on a 6L with a build without clarity that cannot take use of mana leech. You also have the added issue of not having mana after taking a hit with cloak of defiance.

- Standing still self-casting vs. totems is a personal preference. I like being able to drop totems and run like a girl. :) I do self cast as well to hit the spirit cap.

Just some thoughts. We should run together sometime, it'd be a blast to see 75 spirits on the screen!

50 Totemized Spirits = Same damage as 25 Self-Cast spirits.

Spell Totem has 50% Less (multiplicative) damage.

So as long as you can self-cast 25 spirits.

All Totem Damage nodes = +90% Totem Damage. If that's the only additive source of damage it would bring the number required up to 47.5. However since it is additive it is more likely to be +90% to an existing 150-200% from Minion Tree nodes + Support Gems that have Increased Damage.

I'd say you're likely to be at ~35 self-cast to outperform any totem build (assuming you don't self-cast to increase DPS further).

Tri Totem maintaining exactly 50 spirits = 16.67 per totem. 16.67 / .7 (Spell Totem cast speed multiplier) = 23.8 maintained self-cast. So you're already at roughly the same DPS self-cast as Tri-totem once you reach 50 spirits from 3 totems.

"

FutileEmotion wrote:

Nice setup. I found your build from MaddBomber's thread.

- While I like the damage boost from self casting, by not hitting 50 spirits your damage is exactly the same as a tritotem build, assuming they don't pick up totem damage nodes.

I could ramp up the number of spirit by using a raging spirit totem (in addition to self-cast) instead of Animated weapons. According to my estimation, the totem would spit out a maximum of about 19 Raging Spirit. But I think I'd rather having the Animated weapons.

"

- I'm with MaddBomber in that melee splash isn't as effective as more damage. I'm 50/50 on multistrike vs melee phys. Minion Damage isn't a more modifier, so once you have enough minion damage gear/passives, melee phys would be more effective.

More than half of my damage comes from both Wrath and Anger (elemental damage) so I don't think Melee physical damage (49% more physical dmg) would be as effective as Minion damage (92% increased all damage). Lets do the calculation :

Damage of level 20 Raging Spirit :

Base Damage : 381 avg damage (50% conversion to fire) (According to the wiki)
Wrath Damage : 179 avg damage (with +70% aura effect)
Anger Damage : 149 avg damage (with +70% aura effect)
Total Damage : 709 avg damage (190 physical, 340 Fire and 179 lightning)

92% increased damage from the minion damage gem would apply to total damage and would increase damage by 652.

Considering the 81% increased physical damage from passives and gear (silverbreath Amulet) and +77% increased damage from Multistrike and quality Melee physical damage, the 49% more physical dmg from Melee physical damage is the equivalent to 126% increased damage. But this 126% increased damage would apply only to the base damage of Raging Spirit and in the end, would increase damage by 482, about 75% of what Minion Damage offers.

"

- Take a look at Nycta's lantern until you have a five link. You'd be switching from SRS + Increased Duration + Faster Casting + Minion Damage to SRS + Increased Duration + Faster Casting + Fire Pen + Added Fire + Cold to Fire. The cold to fire only helps in getting hatred to benefit from fire pen, but the rest should buff your damage significantly.

Cold to Fire would be useless since I don't use Hatred. The choice is then between Minion damage (+92% increased dmg) and +18% faster casting/21% mana regen from my scepter vs level 10 Fire penetration (25% more damage applied to half of my damage) and level 10 Added Fire (29% added damage applied to less than half of my damage). Again, I'm not sure I would end up with higher damage and the mana multiplier would be higher. Anyway, I plan on 5-Linking my chest very soon and get a better 1h with higher cast speed and mana regen.

"

- I'm afraid of the mana costs of when you're self-casting on a 6L with a build without clarity that cannot take use of mana leech. You also have the added issue of not having mana after taking a hit with cloak of defiance.

Currently, at level 67, with non-optimal gear (low mana regen on weapon) and with a shield with no energy shield, my mana regen per second is about 130. A 5L Raging spirit with Multistrike, Inc duration, Faster casting and Minion damage could cost 92 mana per cast or about 306 mana per second. So, if I want to use Multistrike, my mana regen needs to be higher. I'm confident that with a shield with high energy shield and with higher mana regen from my weapon, I can easily achieve 200-250 mana per second. With 250 mana per second and the buffer mana from my available mana pool, I could spam my raging spirit non-stop for a long time. If its still not enough, I could consider picking up extra mana regen passives or using melee splash instead of multistrike (270 mana per second instead of 306).

"

- Standing still self-casting vs. totems is a personal preference. I like being able to drop totems and run like a girl. :) I do self cast as well to hit the spirit cap.

Yup. I think both choices are totally valid. I'm curious to see which one has the fastest clearing speed.

"

Just some thoughts. We should run together sometime, it'd be a blast to see 75 spirits on the screen!

That would be fun. 75 spirit + 15-20 Animated weapons :p ! Are you playing Standard ?

"

Zinsho wrote:

50 Totemized Spirits = Same damage as 25 Self-Cast spirits.

Spell Totem has 50% Less (multiplicative) damage.

So as long as you can self-cast 25 spirits.

All Totem Damage nodes = +90% Totem Damage. If that's the only additive source of damage it would bring the number required up to 47.5. However since it is additive it is more likely to be +90% to an existing 150-200% from Minion Tree nodes + Support Gems that have Increased Damage.

I'd say you're likely to be at ~35 self-cast to outperform any totem build (assuming you don't self-cast to increase DPS further).

Tri Totem maintaining exactly 50 spirits = 16.67 per totem. 16.67 / .7 (Spell Totem cast speed multiplier) = 23.8 maintained self-cast. So you're already at roughly the same DPS self-cast as Tri-totem once you reach 50 spirits from 3 totems.

Nice analysis. However, by investing so many points in totem passives, can a totem build afford to spend as much as a self-cast build in aura passives ? My self-cast build includes +70% to aura effect and -45% to mana reserve to be able to use 3 auras.

I made no attempt to optimize a build that included Totem passives. I simply grabbed all the totem passives off the tree to ensure I had the appropriate +%Damage values.

You would end up torn between +%Totem, +%Minion Damage, +%Cast Speed, +%Aura.

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Damage Calculations (Assuming 20/20 gems in all cases for consistency):

Level 20 Raging Spirit:
With no Faster Casting or Increased Duration: 4.38 spirits are maintainable
Average of 365.5 physical damage per attack at 1.63 APS = 595 DPS each, or 2,603.13 DPS for all.

Add 20% Attack speed and 105% Damage from Tree : 1,463 DPS each for 6,403.69 total
Add Increased Duration and Faster Casting and you increased to 11.34 maintainable spirits:
16,602.2 DPS total

Add Level 20 Haste and Level 20 Flesh Offering, 2,268 DPS each, 12.56 maintainable for 28,497.73 DPS

Add Wrath and Anger, accounting for the 70% Effectiveness -> +530 Damage per attack, 3,872.7 DPS each, 48,643.6 DPS total

Adding a 4th link increases damage as follows:
Multistrike = 76,781.7 DPS total
Melee Splash = 47,516.39 Single Target, 37,790.8 per splashed target (2 targets = 85k dps)
Melee Physical Damage = 64,678.3 DPS
Minion Damage = 70,711.3 DPS
Faster Attacks = 62,766 DPS
Added Fire Damage = 56,992.5 DPS (+55 damage per attack from Added Fire Quality, have not accounted for this automatically, ~2k DPS)

As a side note, swapping out Hatred for either of the other two elemental auras will increase your DPS. When running it Melee Physical Damage becomes significantly superior since it increases both physical and cold damage simultaneously.

"

Zinsho wrote:

As a side note, swapping out Hatred for either of the other two elemental auras will increase your DPS. When running it Melee Physical Damage becomes significantly superior since it increases both physical and cold damage simultaneously.

Looking at the Base damage of Raging Spirit from the wiki, I realize that Hatred wouldn't be as bad as I first thought. So, I could swap out Wrath for Hatred for 7.5% bonus to Raging Spirit dps. If I do that, I'd need to use lightning dmg (instead of cold dmg) to trigger Elemental Equilibrium.

But how would Hatred perform compare to Wrath with Animated weapons ? My guess is not nearly as well, especially with fast weapons. Considering that half of my damage comes from Animated weapons, I think the better thing to do is to keep using Wrath instead of Hatred.

The other question is how accurate is the wiki info about Raging Spirit base damage ?

Damage values come from the spreadsheet here : http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/20vlhg/zombie_skeleton_and_raging_spirit_minion_damage/

As acknowledged by Rory the damage isn't perfect due to rounding in calculations, but it should be close enough to provide valid calculations.

"

Zinsho wrote:

Damage values come from the spreadsheet here : http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/20vlhg/zombie_skeleton_and_raging_spirit_minion_damage/

As acknowledged by Rory the damage isn't perfect due to rounding in calculations, but it should be close enough to provide valid calculations.

Thanks ! Finally some official numbers for minions.

I'll post the direct link for the google spreadsheet here :

Calculating on Animate Weapons is slightly harder since they are % of base damage, rather than fixed damage.

However:
Level 20 Wrath + 70% effectiveness = 255 average damage per hit
Level 20 Anger + 70% effectiveness = 212.5 average damage per hit
Level 20 Hatred + 70% Effectiveness = 61% Added Cold

Level 20 Animate Weapon deals 252% of base damage + 38-56 Damage
With 105% Minion Damage (full tree): 517% of base damage and 78-115 Extra
Extra damage works out to 59 Cold damage per hit (average from Hatred)
Base Damage converts to 316% of base damage as cold damage.

To match Wrath in added damage by using hatred, weapon must deal 62 average damage per hit (before animating)
To match Anger -> 48.5 average per hit.