[3.6] Zombiemancer - High Survivability - End Game Viable

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ClaudiaOctavia wrote:

Hi, I just (very expensive) converted to this build from a (very broken) ES/Spark and I am loving it, after some work I have managed to achieve 1000 str, but not sure where the next 200str are going to come from. I am new at this, so I may be missing something obvious. Seems if I follow the tree most of the rest of the nodes left are damage nodes. Mind taking a peek at mine and make a suggestion? Thank you very much, and thanks for the fun build guide :)

The rest comes from items. Your rings dont have any strength right now, your boots have the lowest strength roll, your amulet almost has the lowest attribute roll (worth to use at least one divine orb on it, can only get better, maybe you are lucky and it rolls to almost 100).
After this you can get better rolls on your Baron and on your jewels, but focusing on rings, amulet and boots is easier/more important first.

Other than that your setup looks fine so far. But you should use something else than Empower for now in your helmet and in your chest, because it does nothing at level 1. If you want to level them, you need to quality it to 20 and put it in a weapon with the "Haku's" prefix (adds quality to socketed support gems), otherwise it takes an eternity to level those to 3.

Hope this was helpful.

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Clooney_is_best_Batman wrote:

But you lose a lot of dps when you proc Elemental Equilibrium with that gem. I dont know what your current zombie damage is, but later on i dont think that would be enough to prevent them from killing themselves to reflect.

Completely forgot that EE would reduce its damage, but they're near 100% life versus reflect in at least T12-13s. I had zero issues with clear speed or survival, but unsure for T14-15s.

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Clooney_is_best_Batman wrote:

So you actually take enough crits that it triggers often enough to justify it?

"Of light" triggers frequently on the initial charge into packs before convocation, but not a ton once summons get in the way. Consecrate ground provides me ~400 ES/sec, which is also helpful against any boss crits. One of the best enchants in my opinion for any non-VP character.

Degen on the other hand has been a bigger issue for me. Only real options for more chaos resistance are between the 3 rares, corrupted jewels, or Beacon of Corruption. The first two are pretty expensive and Beacon would replace 6% reduction from Flesh Binder so also not a great option.

All the uniques have been pretty easy to gear, but those 3 rares are really hard to get substantial upgrades. Ideally was trying to get enough strength to be able to use Bisco's Leash, but still about 19 strength short.

the only reason to ever take flesh binder is because its on the way to a much better set of nodes .

its a horrifically limited ascendancy node. of light is a good choice for a glove enchant .. as is spite since the chilled ground is useful. but frankly of light is also the kind of enchant that really only works if you are deliberately trying to get hit


for reflect diluting the pool of damage using things like physical to lighting is actually a very good idea.

as ee you can always switch between ball lightning and fire storm to keep your ee and damage sources in line.

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antibreeder wrote:

Completely forgot that EE would reduce its damage, but they're near 100% life versus reflect in at least T12-13s. I had zero issues with clear speed or survival, but unsure for T14-15s.

Oh wow, didnt think the regen/leech is enough to run phys reflect this way. I still would just reroll those mods, cause EE is a lot of damage for bosses and im just too lazy in general. Maybe it's worth to run that mod in 3.1 or they even remove reflect completely, who knows.

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antibreeder wrote:

"Of light" triggers frequently on the initial charge into packs before convocation, but not a ton once summons get in the way. Consecrate ground provides me ~400 ES/sec, which is also helpful against any boss crits. One of the best enchants in my opinion for any non-VP character.

I should add that to the guide. Do you know if that stacks with other sources of consecrated ground? It says that the enchant is weaker than normal consecrated ground. Would be super strong to have 10% life regen versus bosses. Might even be worth to give the Animated Guardian a Zahndethu's.

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antibreeder wrote:

Degen on the other hand has been a bigger issue for me. Only real options for more chaos resistance are between the 3 rares, corrupted jewels, or Beacon of Corruption. The first two are pretty expensive and Beacon would replace 6% reduction from Flesh Binder so also not a great option.

When do you have a problem with that? The only time this bothers me is in desecrated ground or monsters poison on hit maps, but it's more annoying than dangerous. A "sapping" life flask is enough for that in my experience.

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antibreeder wrote:

All the uniques have been pretty easy to gear, but those 3 rares are really hard to get substantial upgrades. Ideally was trying to get enough strength to be able to use Bisco's Leash, but still about 19 strength short.

Yea, it's a pretty unique heavy build, those 3 rares have to make up a lot of stats because of that. If you wanna use a Bisco's, you need some really dope rings and maybe even perfect strength rolls on everything else.

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Clooney_is_best_Batman wrote:

I still would just reroll those mods, cause EE is a lot of damage for bosses and im just too lazy in general

I was too lazy to recast zombies in pub maps lol. Plus it takes less time to swap the gem than to reroll a good map.

Added Fire may also work since zombies are losing a more physical gem for either. Plus won't really hurt damage if you forget about it.

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Clooney_is_best_Batman wrote:

Do you know if that stacks with other sources of consecrated ground?

"Of Light" is consecrated ground so won't stack, but also means that any difficulty works (I have Cruel). Zahnedthus' helps provide a higher up-time, which is usually what I put on AG instead of Ambu's Charge.

My laziness is also why I prefer consc to cast itself when I need it. Lets me swap out Sulphur for another Quicksilver or a Basalt.

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Clooney_is_best_Batman wrote:

When do you have a problem with [Degen]?

Honestly don't know what degen it is, but sometimes I just take a huge amount of DoT that require I flask or die. I figured it was some sort of chaos attack, but usually catches me off guard so never see what it is.

Poison, Desecrated Ground, and even Vulnerability aren't terrible since I can expect them.

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Clooney_is_best_Batman wrote:

If you wanna use a Bisco's, you need some really dope rings and maybe even perfect strength rolls on everything else.

Ya, with two ~55 STR rings I think I needed a near perfect Astramentis and/or 1-2 strength nodes. Losing a bit of life for Rampage isn't too shabby though.

Also realized I can save a ring mod plus get conversion on Blade Vortex! Colors are flexible, just needs to have only 1 Red.

Also found that Doedre's Elixir is helpful when you're not taking enough CwdT damage (groups or lower level maps).

If you're killing fast enough you're getting 12% IAS and phys damage reduction so may work well even in higher tier maps if you can keep them up.

Awesome build. Good work. Thanks for sharing.

Update:
-Added enchantment section
-Completed the Guardian and Shaper section
-Added a section for the 3.1 changes

Hi, nice build. I am wondering why Desecrate is kept at level 1 instead of level 7?

Also can we put another Efficient Training jewel to the right of the witch's starting area? Would that be better than a Brawn Crimson Jewel?

nice build i like it