[2.6] Zombie summoner - 6 Big Zombies

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Harakens wrote:

Alright thanks! if i would start with this build in legacy what passive tree would you recommend and what skill would you use while leveling to get at "summoner" level? sorry if this has been asked already >_<


:edit: forgot to add a word :P

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I am still updating the OP but I ould probably path towards the lowlife/ci variant while taking all the easily accessible health notes and play hybrid. If I can go lowlife I'll probably try that first

This league I have a feeling zombies will be decent quite early so I'll try to incorporate them as I go, but besides that good leveling skills to go with them are usually something like firestorm and then bladefall.

I'll add a "leveling" section soon

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zypherman wrote:

Could this be a nice addition with SRS? I feel like there is a happy medium between going full zombie and adding SRS somewhere into the mix, or am I spreading too thin.

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allana wrote:

Note: This is a build very much in progress that I will update constantly up until 2.6 starts and then iterate on it from that point on. Currently it's not any where near complete but it might have some good suggestions for what to be on the lookout for.

Hello!

As a long-time summoner fan I've decided to start the next league with a Zombie build because of the newly added changes that affect Zombies (biggest change is their range improvement which will improve their AI, ergo clearspeed, significantly).

If Zombies aren't your thing but you still like summons, I recommend my previous 2.5 build thread for all things Golems, which includes discussion and suggestions for league starters as well (I started breach league with a golemancer and it worked well!)

Link can be found here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1828990

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Now, onto the main show. Raise Zombie has traditionally mostly been used as a meatshield because they lack the clearspeed and honestly the AI to kill things effectively. These will both change after friday, the only question is how much - but we will see. It's still not a bad build by any means today (unless you compare clearing speed to the really strong AoE skills) as it can still do most content, albeit more slowly.

There are three variations when it comes to defense that are feasible; Lowlife (most expensive but usually very strong due to natural synergy with Necromancer ascendancy Commander of Darkness), Chaos Innoculation (highest effective health but less auras / blasphemy curses) or Life. With the ES variants you need to invest into anti stun and probably anti freeze or you'll have a bad time. With the life variant you can also use mind over matter and eldritch battery to reserve most, if not all, your mana while keeping ES as a secondary defense.

My personal preference would be to use one of the ES variants as they've proven more successful to me previously, as you don't leech anything yourself I prefer having as large a health pool as possible. However, it's not reasonable to start off a league with CI or lowlife as you'll be starved for gear so from the start I would just go for life until you can afford or craft decent enough ES items to make the switch. For CI that would be a decent regalia, maybe 600+ ES and for lowlife it's a Shavronne's Wrappings.


Skill tree

Spoiler

CI Endgame tree

Spoiler

poeurl.com/6YP

Note that this tree are missing a few things:

* Necromantic Aegis - it's up to your preference
* Extra ES or Jewel nodes


Aura reservations:
https://poe.mikelat.com/#iH=kzu/xB3l.yVd

The enlighten is not required but it can allow you to recast Zombies without turning of an aura. With the following links:
Raise Zombie
Minion Damage
Inc AoE/Conc Effect
Empower
Melee Physical
Poison
Zombie costs 167 mana per cast

More testing on supper gems will be required but having up to 200 mana unreserved would do very good for recastability.

Why those auras? Discipline is just more health for you, a nobrainer. Haste helps them reach their targets faster and gives you a quality of life increase as well. The biggest threat to Zombies has always been high degen damage and the more they can regen each second the better, that's why we use vitality as our third aura. This also works well in conjunction with all the regen we will get for Zealot's Oath.

Zombies will do enough damage with the flasks and the Umbilicus belt.

Low life endgame tree

Spoiler

poeurl.com/6Zf

With this build we will forego Necromantic Aegis entirely as we use Prism Guardian to stack up on Auras.

Aura reservations:
https://poe.mikelat.com/#VaThyMCd/9b.uNp/ajzc.b_/vjmVb.Bxe

Since we'll use a lot more auras we'll be more starved for gem sockets, so we will have to make due with some compromising optimisations.

The two blasphemy curses will be Temporal Chains and either Enfeeble or Vulnerability, depending on if you want more damage or more survivability. Dealer's choice.

It's also possible to remove the blasphemy and use a Curse on Hit setup instead. This allows us to run one more big aura which would in this case be Hatred.

Life with Mind over Matter endgame tree

Spoiler

poeurl.com/6ZW

With this build I would forego energy shield altogether and instead use 2x of these:

socketed with Haste and probably vitality, leaving the rest of our mana pool open so that it can be used for MoM. We could also squeeze in something cheap like an Arctic Armour if so desired.

Aura reservations:
https://poe.mikelat.com/#4_uSb/9b.iyFh/9b.ZpJh/9b.cZb

Gear

Spoiler

There are some items that I consider mandatory and some items that you can choose from. Seeing as the upcoming league will contain every unique added to the game aside from drop-restricted items such as Demigod's pieces, the availability of a lot of oddities will increase. Here are my current thougts:

Required uniques

Bones of Ullr should be your first purchase and they're common enough to not cost more than a chaos or two. It's one more zombie and one more spectre, can't beat that even with the lackluster stats. We want to get at least 5 big zombies with mon'treguls so this will be required.

Secondly, mon'tregul's grasp is receiving some huge buffs and it's looking like a great item. A problem with Zombies has been their survivability end-game and this item should help a lot with that, while making sure they pack a damn big punch.

Third we got Umbilicus, one of my favourite summoner items. This allows you to scale the survivability, movement speed, damage or whatever you want of your minions - Substantially. The downside is that you can no longer flask yourself so keep that in mind and don't go bananas with corrupting blood stacks. Luckily as a summoner we hardly attack as it is, and with some ES regen from the tree (and the belt itself) we'll usually have no problems withstanding a few stacks of it. Being frozen is scarier though, but definitely worth the tradeoff.

Now, when it comes to your chest armor there are many good suggestions, depending mainly on your choice of defense type. I'll outline some good ones below

High ES regalia with +1 Zombies mod (or just even higher ES) - this allows you to get the 10th Zombie which gives us the 5 we want from Mon'treguls grasp, while you can use Eye of Chayula to be immune to stun. Great for CI since it will add the highest possible effective health to you.

Shavronne's wrappings - necessary for lowlife. If you want to be a more supportive and aurabased character, there's no better choice

Vis Mortis - solid choice for either life based with MoM or CI. You'll have less ES than with a regalia but after the buff to it you'll be in a decent place. Great about it is that your minions will gain unholy might and another spectre never hurts, even if they aren't our main focus.

Belly of the beast / generic rare chest with life and resist - if you want to go a life-based summoner something like this isn't half bad. Belly is fairly easy to roll the colours needed on as well, since we usually only want 2 blue and the rest red/green

Rings:

Unset rings rolled with Essence of Fear. With the new + skill mod, trying to get one with +3 would be ideal, so you can get beefy auras to go with your Zombies. Or a good place to put a stone golem.

Gloves: Generic ES gloves with what you're missing - resistances or stats. Can craft minion damage if there's an open prefix

Shield:

This is where it gets interesting. With a lot of unique shields being buffed in 2.6, there's options for more things with Necromantic aegis if you wish to take this route. I am currently eyeballing this item:

Which are receiving some substantial buffs. With enough block from jewels and the shield itself you'll be able to make the zombies keep up unholy might nonstop, while also getting a flat bonus to their damage.

Other options include

to give your minions charges

If you don't want to use necromantic aegis but rather be more defensive yourself, you can run one of the following:

I would only use the rathpith on a life-based build since the other defenses are so low.

Amulet:

If you're running CI you usually want eye of chayula, unless you get stun immunity/avoidance from other sources. For lowlife presence of chayula is simply the strongest due to the massive survivablity buff you get.

However, if you want to maximise your minions you'll either want to use a talisman with +1 zombie or +1 zombie enchanted on your chest armor so that you get a total of 10 (5 big ones). If you happen to get lucky / rich enough to afford a greatwofl talisman with +2 Zombies you can combine both of these and get a total of 6 big zombies for maximum cool factor. Chicks dig many big zombies.

Gem links

Spoiler

Chest:
Order of importance
Raise Zombie -> Minion Damage -> Melee Physical Damage are mandatory links. Then we will have to do further testing but Empower 4 is going to be solid, but hard to get early.
Poison should be your 5th link and depending on how the slam works, we will want to use Conc effect / Increased Area of effect. With Mon'tregul's I don't think Melee splash will be needed.

So, suggested links:
Raise Zombie, Minion Damage, Melee Physical Damage, Increased Area of Effect, Poison, Empower

Other mentions: Faster attacks, melee splash, added chaos damage, added fire. Testing after 2.6 will allow me to update this list.

The rest will be dependent on your build choice but there are some in general used across all builds:

Stone golem is our goto golem

We need to decide on offerings to use. Flesh Offering or Spirit Offering are more offensive, while Bone Offering is defensive. I usually run with Flesh but since Zombies deal physical damage, Spirit offering is an alright choice for them. It's extra good if you run lowlife as you'll heal yourself every time you use it as well.

There's some other abilities we always use which include Convocation, Desecrate - general summoner quality of life. If possible to fit in a cast when damage taken / immortal call is helpful.

If you play ES and have a decent amount of aura effectiveness I recommend running vaal haste/disc with increased duration as well.

Strategy

Spoiler

To be added