The Baron: Some testing and opinions.

Hi,
I play in standard, but everything I tried could be done in league.
I wanted to try a zombie focused build using The Baron


I am using no specters, no ranged golems.
I use a chaos golem for the 3% phys damage reduction, and a Animated Guardian for the various buffs it can provide.

I am Zombie focused, so to maximize my zombies i am using a +1 gem Tabula Rasa, with a level 21 zombie gem, and a level 4 empower. My zombies are level 26!

Getting to 1000 str is a pain as a witch, but its doable.
You can check my gear in my profile.
I use 3 Efficient trainings, and several rare jewels with 20+ str.
I made it to 1000 str at level 69.
I had to skip a lot of life nodes, and have been back filling life nodes ever since.
My toon is level 82, at the time of this writing

FYI: The leech from The Baron is AMAZING, simply AMAZING. So worth the investment in str.
You have to experience it to see just how good it is. Running around in circles, I heal nearly instantly any damage done to me. The only concern is low health pool and a one shot. Has not happened yet, zero deaths so far. (Hope I did not just jinx myself.)


My level 82 skill tree.


So far I have not tried any maps over tier 9, as my life is only 4.2k and I am waiting till it gets higher to try higher maps.
The dps is just INSANE. The 200% phys melee damage bonus from having all minions get 1000 str is crazy strong.

Clearing trash is not as fast as I would want, as zombies take time to run up and engage. ( I use a minion speed gem in the zombie link, and have a ring with 30% minion speed, but it still takes time.)

Boss kills are crazy fast.
Tier 9 bosses die in 1-3 seconds!

I don't have one of the new zombie slam jewels yet, as I used up all my currency buying what gear he has on, plus I don't have a free jewel slot for it yet. But even with the default slam, its so improved I don't see the need for melee splash gem, freeing up a gem slot for minion speed.

I tried the new Mon'treguls Sceptre

And it was sub par. I would not reccomend it.
Sure the zombies hit twice as hard, but there were half as many of them, fewer meat shields, less phys damage reduction from Flesh Binder ascencancy.
On the plus side, it sent my zombie life from 18k to 29k, a full 11k increase!
So, if in tier 15 maps my zombies start dying, perhaps I will use it.

I was using bone offering, but the zombies are so tanky, that I switched to spirit offering. It gives a big dps boost, and the 2% per corpse life --> ES really helps my survivabilty more than block would, as my base block is zero (necro aegis) and the leech from The Baron heals me up from anything that does not one shot me, the boost to ES makes me temporarily harder to one shot.


Anyway...
I am curious what others have experienced using The Baron.
Perhaps if you have taken to higher maps, feedback would be great.
I seeking other opinions.

p.s.
The Baron allows me to use Meginord's Vise on my Guardian, for an extra 2% life regen for him.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Meginord%27s_Vise


EDIT:
On page two I detail why I swtiched from using zombies as my main dps, to using Stone Golems.

"

Odif wrote:

FYI: The leech from The Baron is AMAZING, simply AMAZING.

Well shit. Now you said it they'll nerf it :(

I just hit Merciless on my Warchief hybrid Zombiemancer and I can say this about Baron:

- it's AMAZING during levelling
- works well with hybridding: I couldn't get into summoner builds before because clear speed is trash and minion AI can be frustrating. When hybridding, I can deal with trash myself so clear speed is great and bosses get overwhelmed by Zombies. And so much strength give me enough damage to do that :)

Edit
- Zombie slam can be improved by using Multistrike, so it's 3 slams in a row instead of just one. Works well with new threshold jewel which reduces slam cooldown.

I initially was doing a Baron Build with a Champion until I switched to Scion for Double Aura Synergies from Necromancer/Guardian and easier part of stacking STR But on Duelist Champion seems feasible as well.

www.poeurl.com/9kH

My biggest gripe is you're going to have alot of Uniques stuck on specific slots so capping Resistance can be slightly hard later on. The only expensive piece IMO is the Astramentis really so you can hit the 1000 STR Cap. My Scion pathing follows the same route to the Champion Build.

The Tree lets you accomodate Efficient Training on the Witch Jewel Socket giving you 120 STR from there. 2x Violent Dead Jewels (From Scion LR/Mana Cluste & Socket between Templar/Witch) with Max STR Rolls on other slots I'm certain you can easily hit the 1200 STR needed to get at least +4 Zombies which will help you keep 6 Zombies if you plan on using Mon'tregul's Grasp.

there is a build guide on this topic in the witch forums.

Im certainly doing this as a witch, but will have space for only one zombie jewel. it should be fine though because of multistrike, 2nd jewel would have much lower effect than the first anyways.. Should be doable without astramentis (but maybe I will change my mind due to dex requirement of auras)

The thing with Mon'Tregul's Grasp is that if you're using the Beacon of Corruption node in Necromancer Ascendancy, that 5k flat life boost is a monumental damage buff to the caustic clouds you can drop. A 30k health zombie leaving behind a caustic cloud deals 3k DPS, before any sort of Chaos scaling you may or may not do. As I recall, those BoC caustic clouds are also scaled by minion damage nodes for some reason (I seem to remember someone mentioning this was the case, at least), so you end up leaving clouds of horrifying evil murderpoison whenever your critters die. Which you can do simply by resummoning a zombie while the first one is on the boss, forcing said boss to stand in a cloud of horrifying evil murderpoison whilst also getting slapped around by GigaZombies.

That and you can supplement clearing by using Summon Raging Spirts in the Baron helm itself, for the +2 to Minion gems boost. SRS > Minion Damage > Melee Splash > Echo/Minion Speed, and those suckers will wreck packs for you no problem. They also leave (significantly smaller) caustic clouds everywhere since they die relatively quickly unless you spec heavily into duration.

Between Beacon of Corruption letting you poison the entire battlefield, SRS chewing up trash like a boss, and giant zombie monsters pummeling bosses into submission, the BoC/SRS/Mon'Tregul's Zombie Legbreaker plan has a lot to recommend it. My own is really low level right now since I'm largely out of currency to grab leveling uniques with, but I'm very much looking forward to the results.

I have cleared a T16 map with baron zombies and I'd say that at higher levels mon'tregul very much outperforms severed in sleep / united in dream.

The big 2h sword might be best for clearing though, but mon'tregul with 2 zombie jewels and slotted increased area of effect makes for quick and efficient clearing

"

allana wrote:

I have cleared a T16 map with baron zombies and I'd say that at higher levels mon'tregul very much outperforms severed in sleep / united in dream.

I am mostly concerned with zombie survival.
Do the zombies survive a t16 map with Severed in Sleep, or is Mon'trugul's 11k health bonus necessary to keep the zombies alive in a t16 map?

So, I decided to take my zombie dps out for a spin with Uber Izaro.

Uber Izaro died to my zombies in under 3 seconds!

The boss dps of these zombies is just crazy.

I am loving this helmet!