[3.0] The Lazy Minion Commander - 6k+ EHP - 400K+ DPS - Budget Friendly - Auto Offering

Thanks for the complement! Please let me know how you like it once you've played it awhile.

That's a great suggestion on the gems! Quality definitely helps a ton and you're right that they can be had cheap as well if looking for high quality, but not 20%...for an alchemy lol.

Quality means life and speed for Zombies, speed for spectre and Guardian, and damage for skeletons. Minion damage gem gives more damage with quality. I'll definitely add that into the guide.

As a side note, I've dropped the fire golem links and have been running with the 1 level 12 stone golem you get from clayshaper and the animate guardian setup that I listed under the Optional Build Changes section. IMO, this feels a bit better with the extra buffs from the guardian. As I said in the guide, the flame golem didn't add much to begin with unless you have tons of cash for the primordial jewels you see pure golem builds using.

I like the build so far (lvl 41), but I have a +34 str belt and am still +46 str away from being able to equip the clayshaper..

How did you do it?

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ejams wrote:

I like the build so far (lvl 41), but I have a +34 str belt and am still +46 str away from being able to equip the clayshaper..

How did you do it?

Glad you're liking it so far!
While leveling I grabbed the +30 strength node that is next to the +30 Dex node in the final tree. I also had strength on another piece of gear. Once you are around level 60 and have grabbed some of the other nodes that give strength you'll be able to refund the +30 strength if one of your jewels has strength. One of my current jewels gives +13 strength.

I really like the look of the build so far, it looks close to what I was wanting to do (Just having a massive army of everything). After trying a few minion characters, I just wanted an actual army behind me. And in front of me for that matter. I might try and personally work in AW over the Golems since I love that spell dearly. Other than that, it looks really fun!

Well put together!

Couple of questions. I haven't played in ~ 3 years and I am going to start up on the Xbox One.

Is this a good build from scratch? (zero resources to start)
Is this build pretty good with not needing precision? I play D3 on console and one thing I've noticed is your aiming suffers a lot vs. PC. I assume POE will have the same issue.
I think the answer to this is yes from the video but wanted to ask.

I love zoo builds and I'm thinking this one might be the one for me.

"

Rhinobane wrote:

I really like the look of the build so far, it looks close to what I was wanting to do (Just having a massive army of everything). After trying a few minion characters, I just wanted an actual army behind me. And in front of me for that matter. I might try and personally work in AW over the Golems since I love that spell dearly. Other than that, it looks really fun!

Thanks! AW would definitely be an option instead of the golems.

"

Jauron wrote:

Well put together!

Couple of questions. I haven't played in ~ 3 years and I am going to start up on the Xbox One.

Is this a good build from scratch? (zero resources to start)
Is this build pretty good with not needing precision? I play D3 on console and one thing I've noticed is your aiming suffers a lot vs. PC. I assume POE will have the same issue.
I think the answer to this is yes from the video but wanted to ask.

I love zoo builds and I'm thinking this one might be the one for me.

Thanks for the compliment!

1. Good to start? Absolutely. This was my league starter and still my only character in this league. Recommended items are all very cheap and are only recommended, not required.
2. Good without precision? Yep. Minions have an agro range and as long as an enemy is within that range they'll attack. In the videos you'll notice them sometimes moving to areas where there isn't an enemy. That's because they move to where you click. This combined with their agro range means you only have to click close to the thing you want them to attack. No precision required.

Nice job on your first guide!! A pleasure to read and kudos from a person from a similar standpoint (father, job, etc.) who had done something similar in the past :) Thumb's up!

Just a couple of friendly suggestions or questions:

1. You have two offerings both slotted with level-1 CWDTs. Are you satisfied with how this is working for you? I cannot imagine this being to your satisfaction, since the offerings will overwrite each other (you may only have one offering active at a time). I wasn't able to watch your video, I'm not sure if that is from the recording or what, but I was only able to see a few frames.

2. If you put 1 desecrate into your CWDT setup right before the Offering gem, or in place of one of your offerings (you can only have 1 active at a time, see above), then you will have corpses around and still won't have to push the desecrate button.

3. What is the benefit of (two) flame golems for you or your army? If you really must have two golems active, wouldn't stone golems suit you and your army better? But ... do you have a compelling reason to have two golems?

4. While I was doing my own little Army of Everything build, I found a skelly totem to be much more useful than self-cast. Then you won't have to constantly spam that button (which you seem to find bothersome and keeping you from self-casting desecrate). A skelly totem is also great as a scouter, because you cast it at range and then *it* casts skeletons at range. Try it, maybe you like it?

5. It's not clear (at least to me) why the Heartbound Loop is required or even needed for this build. It would be nice if you could write 1+ sentences as to its purpose and place in this build. Alternatively, you could consider removing it entirely (my humble suggestion) and just call this The LazyMinion Commander.



6. I imagine the combination with Heartbound Loop that would tickle your fancy would be Maligaro's Lens (https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Maligaro%27s_Lens). At the price of losing the frenzy charges of your Victario's you would not have to worry about killing yourself quite so much. Even without Heartbound Loop, Maligaro's Lens could be a fun thing for you. It's also dirt cheap (they cost an alt or a chrome or so, or you can have mine for free).

Thanks for your work!

"

onomastikon wrote:

Nice job on your first guide!! A pleasure to read and kudos from a person from a similar standpoint (father, job, etc.) who had done something similar in the past :) Thumb's up!

Thanks! I appreciate it!

"

Just a couple of friendly suggestions or questions:

1. You have two offerings both slotted with level-1 CWDTs. Are you satisfied with how this is working for you? I cannot imagine this being to your satisfaction, since the offerings will overwrite each other (you may only have one offering active at a time). I wasn't able to watch your video, I'm not sure if that is from the recording or what, but I was only able to see a few frames.
2. If you put 1 desecrate into your CWDT setup right before the Offering gem, or in place of one of your offerings (you can only have 1 active at a time, see above), then you will have corpses around and still won't have to push the desecrate button.

You're absolutely correct. I've already dropped one of the offerings, but haven't updated the gem links in guide because I'm still trying to decide which I like best. Currently using cwdt + convocation + bone offering.

The second cwdt was dropped completely and replaced with shield charge + faster attacks + less duration. I realized after trying Atziri that I really needed a movement skill.

"

3. What is the benefit of (two) flame golems for you or your army? If you really must have two golems active, wouldn't stone golems suit you and your army better? But ... do you have a compelling reason to have two golems?

Another thing I need to update. I've dropped the flame golem and have been using the animate guardian links and gear I posted in the Optional changes section along with the 1 level 12 stone golem you get from disheveled. I like this a lot better.

"

4. While I was doing my own little Army of Everything build, I found a skelly totem to be much more useful than self-cast. Then you won't have to constantly spam that button (which you seem to find bothersome and keeping you from self-casting desecrate). A skelly totem is also great as a scouter, because you cast it at range and then *it* casts skeletons at range. Try it, maybe you like it?

I'll give that a try and see how I like it.

"

5. It's not clear (at least to me) why the Heartbound Loop is required or even needed for this build. It would be nice if you could write 1+ sentences as to its purpose and place in this build. Alternatively, you could consider removing it entirely (my humble suggestion) and just call this The LazyMinion Commander.

Spoiler

I cannot imagine that you are not better served with a rare ring with life and resistances you have found yourself along the way (or just an unset ring to offset your need for slots, for example for desecrate, which would surely benefit your offerings). I am guessing you enjoy having Offering(s) cast from your cwdt-setup(s) when you take damage from a skeleton dying -- if so, have you actually tried without the ring? A lvl-1 cwdt should be getting you offerings a-plenty, especially if you link desecrate up in the link right before it! Don't forget, you have 18 easily killable minions running around with you; while your spectres will be a bit tougher, your 9 skellies are quite fragile, and your zombies *will* die -- that's at least 3150 physical damage you will need to mitigate that you have done, more or less, to yourself.

6. I imagine the combination with Heartbound Loop that would tickle your fancy would be Maligaro's Lens (https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Maligaro%27s_Lens). At the price of losing the frenzy charges of your Victario's you would not have to worry about killing yourself quite so much. Even without Heartbound Loop, Maligaro's Lens could be a fun thing for you. It's also dirt cheap (they cost an alt or a chrome or so, or you can have mine for free).

Thanks for your work!

I'm using heartbound loop for the buffs it gives the minions. The automatic casting of offerings, desecrate, convocation, etc is just a bonus. If I wasn't able to cap my resistances from other gear I definitely would have considered an alternative. I've got the maligaros lens shield but haven't had a chance to play around with it much.

Thank you very much for the constructive feedback!

"

stoudtlr wrote:

I'm using heartbound loop for the buffs it gives the minions.
[...]

Thank you very much for the constructive feedback!

My pleasure.

If I may: Heartbound Loop gives you a small bonus to minions' area skills, which your minions really do not use (you are using mainly projectile throwers, not Evangelists or Wicker Men or what have you), and 15% additional minion life. Considering you already have 110% additional life from the tree alone, plus the numerous boni you get from your other gear as well as gems, you are adding an insignificant bonus on top of a large statistic your build hardly needs. Of all of the cheap items you could choose, this one seems the least enticing. Getting a decent replacement (anything, really, with some life and some resists) would free up your other slots for more options. Just an idea. GL!

Just checking in now that I have enough strength to use to the Clayshaper.

Level 55 and I feel invincible.. It seemingly became easy mode.

Just stuck in a Violent Dead Cobalt Jewel and my zombies are much more powerful now.