The Headbang Gang 2.0 - Raging Spirits madness - now with cheap version + leveling guide

Lawphill made an easy to use version of a chrom calculator.

This build is good, but I believe I have improved on it. I started this build and things went well but the build REALLY took off when I made 1 slight change which has more synergy.

Instead of using spectres, I used animated weapons. This allowed me to save 5 points used to head to death attunement, which I could then use on minion life nodes or graveintentions(minions chaos resist). That combined with minion instability works well because you have a huge army of minions, all of which have more life and all of which hurt more then they explode. Furthermore, the animates provide a larger defensive bonus than do 2 spectres. They "eat" projectiles like the raging spirits but they can also be targeted like the spectres, there is just a lot more of them. I do not bother collecting weapons in inventory like 1 would for an animate build but just use what drops to the ground.

Lastly, the 3 "skill duration" nodes that this build already gets affects the lifespan of animates, as does hatred, which would normally only help a spectre if it was a phys dmg spectre(most dont.)

Overall, I felt this improved DPS and defense.


Hope it helps, just my 2 wisdom scraps

I chose not to use Animate Weapon with this build for multiple reasons :

- (possibly the most important one) I played a lot with that skill, and I'm fed up with having to read the text on every white piece of trash that drops. Animating also breaks the pace of the gameplay IMO.
- tanking is actually not that necessary in an endgame version of this build anyway. My current iteration, the dominating tank, has no tanking minions (outside of Dom Blow'ed mobs), and I don't miss them. We take death attunement for the minion damage and attack speed, not the +1 spectre.
- Dominated mobs have the same duration, a lot more health, and a whole lot more utility (auras, etc). There is no cap on their number either.
- AW's potential as a damage dealer is wasted without flat ele auras.

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PepprmintButler wrote:

I chose not to use Animate Weapon with this build for multiple reasons :

- (possibly the most important one) I played a lot with that skill, and I'm fed up with having to read the text on every white piece of trash that drops. Animating also breaks the pace of the gameplay IMO.
- tanking is actually not that necessary in an endgame version of this build anyway. My current iteration, the dominating tank, has no tanking minions (outside of Dom Blow'ed mobs), and I don't miss them. We take death attunement for the minion damage and attack speed, not the +1 spectre.
- Dominated mobs have the same duration, a lot more health, and a whole lot more utility (auras, etc). There is no cap on their number either.
- AW's potential as a damage dealer is wasted without flat ele auras.

I do understand the pace thing, although I find the kill pace is significantly faster with AW over spectres and that more then makes up for the time spent glancing at whites as you run by. Even if you do get the minion dmg nodes(by attunement,) I still think an Animate gem is more valuable than a spectre gem. I typically end solo maps with 20+ animates, skipping a lot of weps for speed sake, and the potential dmg and defense from that far outwieght 2 specs.

Furthermore, I do not agree about AW potential "being wasted". Sure, if your doing a pure animate build it is true that the other auras are better, but the way they are used here they still do a lot of dmg and eat a lot of attacks for you. But that's kind of irrelevant. We are comparing 1 gem to another, spectre gem to the animate gem, and in the posted build and in this build animate is FAR more valuable even in it's "wasted potential" form. The build states the non raging spirit pets are primarily for defense and animates with hatred do freeze mobs and eat attacks, which is a huge defensive bonus over spectres. With all those minion dmg nodes, on top of hatred, it is a significant boost compared to spectres as well. On top of that if you do group with people who run other offensive auras, the animates make group clear speed much faster than a meager spectre or 2 would add. So, it is a more group friendly version than just specs as well.

I do agree that Dom mobs are also a great option. In fact, they may be the best option. But, for those who want to hang back this is another way to go. I was replying to the original build, which I did not see any mention of dom blow.


*edit* I forgot to mention that I use flesh offering as part of the build too.

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PepprmintButler wrote:

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belac9001 wrote:

Thanks for this build, I'm doing the Poor Man's version without the leveling plan, just building straight into the full passive tree.

I've never played a SRS build before, and would like to know what I should prioritize when building the tree. I was planning on going into Minion nodes first, then get some HP nodes, until around level 48 where I get aura nodes.
-Would this be the best way to prioritize building the tree from start to finish without the leveling plan?-

My highest level character is 80 and the tree is level 87, and I wasn't sure which nodes should be left out if I don't make it high enough.

Bad timing, I'm just fleshing out the leveling plan right now. It's build around not playing SRS until late game, which is optimal but slightly unfun. If you have already started playing SRS, getting minion nodes first, then HP, then auras sounds reasonable enough.
Are you leveling with 0 ressources available or do you have gems and such from previous characters ? I want to also make a leveling strategy for the latter case, where one can start using SRS very early.

Yeah, I have some gems and leveling uniques and some currency that I'm able to spend while leveling, but I just got back into PoE after like a 3-4 month break and don't mind the slower gameplay for now while I get used to the game again.

I would like to set a friendly challenge to anyone who uses animated weapons in the endgame version of this build to beat my 3:20 gorge speedrun time. In it I don't use any summons except spirit.

On vacation, no computer capable of running poe or time to do so. Going through withdrawls.

@consequence
Flesh offering is used in this build as well. It's a common bonus not generally mentioned more than once.

The OP has this labeled 2.0 because 1.0 je had raging spirits and animated weapon. So, he does know what you're talking about. Thing is when he mentions pace of play he means reading which whites to animate slows running through a map or zone.
I forget and am on my phone so havent checked but i believe spectres arent necessary for the build in the 1st post. It's mostly something people like to ise as meat shields. Sure, swap out zombie, skellie, animated weapon. Probably doeant matter. The core build really is raging spirits. The ancillary skills are more educated recommendations based on experience.

You dont seem to care which whites (or drops) to animate so unlike op it wont alow gamellay as much. Whatever you feel is optimal you should do and sharing your experienece is welcomed.

I found minion instability not much worth it myself since most (spirits) dont get much pop from it vs taking a life/mana node. Also, i do grab that cluster as well by minion instability for the damage/attack speed. +1 spirit is a bonus i tend to ise just because it's there.

Enjoy playing. Good luck

On a side note, fuck that BOTW ep. Every single person I party with who sees I'm using SRS goes "um, why aren't you using Chober Chaber?" like I don't know wtf I'm doing.

Seems like no one is selling a +3 fire gem staff :(

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ThePathOfExile wrote:

Seems like no one is selling a +3 fire gem staff :(

More like everyone who was selling one probably got quite a few tasty offers when the idea started to gain momentum. There were around 8-10 in standard when this thread started, now there are 2... and neither of them were part of the original 8-10, lol.

They vanish just as quickly as they appear in the 1-month league, too. I think there is currently a 6L one up for sale, but good luck affording it, as it is apparent that the seller knows how much of a hot item they are at the moment.