===========[3.1] "The Battle Queen" | Physical Melee/Summoner============
//GENERAL//
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Introduction
I've always loved the idea of melee summoners and recent game changes in 3.1 have made it increasingly plausible. However, most melee summoners I’ve seen are for the Witch; this is understandable, but I personally feel the Ascendant is more intuitive for this build.
The Battle Queen attacks with Blade Flurry for raw physical damage alongside five Zombies augmented by Mon'tregul's Grasp. The build also utilizes The Scourge for "Minion Damage" increasing Blade Flurry damage and The Baron to scale Strength for loads of benefits. The Ascendant passives for Slayer and Inquisitor are chosen for their unique interactions with selected skills and items.
The build concept is simple: You heal your minions and your minions heal you. Here is a visual representation (lol @ MS Paint):
Spoiler
* The player provides Consecrated Ground and other life regeneration for minions (Vitality with Generosity, plus a minor minion node).
* Zombies' damage is leeched to the player. Leech Rate is doubled by Vaal Pact and life leech is not removed at full life.
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Pros & Cons
+ Easy to play. You only actively use a handful of skills (Blade Flurry and Whirling Blades at most, with the occasional Convocation), thus allowing you to better concentrate on your character's actions.
+ Relatively cheap. The most expensive thing [aside from 5/6-link armor] is Astramentis, which can cost around 35 Chaos in Standard - almost everything else is super easy to acquire.
+ Sheet DPS may seem low, but a chunk of damage from this build comes from things that aren't calculated in sheet DPS. As of now, I can complete T12 maps relatively easily; my furthest push is T14.
+/- I made this build purely for fun :) As such, I take a more casual approach to this build and I probably won't make it a life goal to push it to being Shaper viable (or anything of the sort). You can view this as either a positive or negative (lol).
- As with any other summoner build, it's slow to level and a late bloomer.
- As with any other Baron build, it requires a large investment in Strength, which reduces flexibility in gear choices.
- If you're looking for a build that can clear the end-end-game content, this probably isn't for you as this build isn't designed to handle uber bosses.
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Why Ascendant?
First and foremost, I understand that the Necromancer has many minion-specific benefits. However and again, I firmly believe the Ascendant is far more intuitive.
If you want specific details:
Spoiler
* The 3.1 change to Vaal Pact actually works in The Baron's favor. At the cost of having no Life Regeneration, you have double Leech Rate. With at least 1,000 Strength, your Zombies will leech their damage to you, which is affected by Vaal Pact. The Ascendant's ability to "jump" across the passive tree saves points to travel to Vaal Pact.
* The Slayer passive gives you "Life Leech effects are not removed at Full Life," which synergizes extremely well with The Baron + Vaal Pact combo - you never have to worry about hits [that aren't one-shots] because your life will shoot right back up. The Slayer passive also grants "50% reduced Reflected Physical Damage taken," which is nice since you'll be doing pure physical damage.
* The Inquisitor passive gives you a "30% chance to create Consecrated Ground on Kill." Since you have Vaal Pact, you will not benefit from Consecrated Ground's regeneration. However, since your Zombies have nearly 20,000 life, they can recover around 1,800 life per second with Consecrated Ground and all other life regeneration mods that affect them. You won't gain any benefit from the increased elemental damage or critical chance mods, but they're negligible.
//SKILLS//
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Passive Skill Tree
[Here] is the link for a passive tree for the build that is approximately Level 85.
Here is a leveling guide:
Spoiler
*Level 1-12: Head straight towards "Resolute Technique." This really helps leveling as you never have to worry about accuracy. Pick up the sockets because why not~
*Level 13-24: Start moving into the Witch starting area and pick up the first set of minion nodes. Place one Efficient Training jewel in the socket directly left of the Witch starting area.
*Level 25-40: Pick up the remaining minion nodes and any life nodes along the way.
*Level 41-51: Assign the socket near the top of the Witch starting area and place another Efficient Training jewel. Pick up "Might" for additional Strength and start assigning points in the life node cluster near the Scion starting area.
*Level 52-59: Allocate the socket above "Resolute Technique" (below "Ancestral Bond"); place one copy of Violent Dead here, and another in the first socket you allocated in the Scion starting area.
*Level 60-76: Assign points for "Born to Fight," "Heart of the Warrior," and "Warrior's Blood" in the Marauder starting area. Jump to the Duelist starting area, head towards Vaal Pact, and pick up the life nodes.
*Level 77-85: Allocate the socket in the Duelist starting area and place an Inertia jewel. Assign points for "Vitality Void" and "Hematophagy" for a considerable boost in Leech Rate.
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NOTE: If you haven't completed Uber Lab yet, you can allocate points to connect the two parts of the passive tree. Once you complete Uber Lab, you can jump to the Duelist starting area and refund the points you've used to make the connection.
Maim applies a debuff that makes affected targets take more physical damage, which also increases the damage of your Zombies. Brutality negates all elemental and chaos damage, which is fine since the build is centered on physical damage. Blade Flurry ensures all damage is coming from The Scourge. If you have a 6-link, use Chance to Bleed (for the flat added physical damage) or Culling Strike (for more consistent Consecrated Ground) for the last socket.
NOTE: I highly suggest this setup in The Baron! Melee Splash is not necessary because two copies of Violent Dead will essentially make your Zombies use their AoE attack all the time. Brutality negates the damage from the on-kill fire explosion effect from Mon'tregul's Grasp, which is also fine since, again, the build focuses on physical damage.
Flesh Offering is optimal because a low-level Bone Offering is inadequate for an auto-cast setup and Spirit Offering's chaos damage is negated. Ensure Desecrate is placed before Flesh Offering in the link; this makes Desecrate trigger before Flesh Offering.
Convocation is for moving your minions around obstacles. Blood Rage is for Frenzy Charges; the degen effect is nullified by the life leech you get from your Zombies.
Vulnerability increases the physical damage taken by enemies. Vitality linked to Generosity increases your Zombies' life regeneration by about 1.8%. Another alternative is Purity of Elements (not linked to Generosity) to cover any gaps in your resistances.
Whirling Blades + Faster Attacks + Fortify
NOTE: I highly suggest this setup in The Scourge! Although Whirling Blades is a standard gem for mobility, this setup will also grant Fortify, which is a great defensive buff. Faster Attacks and Fortify will also support any Spectral Wolves summoned from The Scourge.
//ITEMS//
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Equipment
Core Items: The Baron, The Scourge, and Mon'tregul's Grasp are necessary for the build to function. Fun note: The Scourge gives you an additional 2% life leech for physical damage :D
Recommended Items: Astramentis and Alberon's Warpath are common items for any Baron build. If you're in dire need of more Strength, you can use Meginord's Vise until you can find something better.
Other Items: Belly of the Beast is not a required item, but it's definitely suitable for more life (and I don't have any other life-based 5/6-link armors at the moment). Also, I was SUPER lucky with those corrupted gloves.
The rest of your items should focus on core stats (life, resistances, etc.) or stacking more Strength. You'll also need two Violent Dead jewels, two Efficient Training jewels, and one Inertia jewel. Furthermore, I strongly suggest using Deafening Essence of Fear on both your rare rings; the increased minion movement speed makes a huge difference.
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Flasks
I recommend having at least two "Of Animation" flasks to help upkeep your minions' life pools. For your other flasks, use Sulphur flasks to actively create Consecrated Ground; this is primarily for boss fights. Alternatives include Quicksilver flasks for increased movement speed or Stibnite flasks for applying Blind.
//DISCUSSION//
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Videos
Working on it! :)
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Question & Answer
Q: Why not Necromancer?
This is undoubtedly the question I receive the most. Again, I understand the applicability of the Necromancer. Please refer to the "Why Ascendant?" subsection under "Introduction" for further details about my choice in Ascendant.
Q: What are the Bandit rewards?
Definitely go with Eramir's reward (+2 passive skill points). Alira's and Kraityn's rewards aren't too applicable for the build. The life regeneration from Oak is negated by Vaal Pact.
Q: What about the Pantheon?
For the major god, it's between Solaris (for general defense against bosses) and Brine King (for defense against frozen, chill, and stun). For the minor god, go with Ryslatha because the "Of Animation" life flasks benefit both you and your minions.
Q: "The Battle Queen"?
In late 2016, I made another build called "The Battle Queen." It was a Double Strike/Auto-Summoner Ascendant. I eventually moved it to Necromancer to take advantage of poison double dipping at the time (remember that craziness?). When double dipping was fixed, I essentially gave up on the original Battle Queen because it just couldn't keep up with the game changes. I believe it's been long enough that I can recycle the name - I'm so original, huh? :P
//MISCELLANEOUS//
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Change Log
* 1/17/18: Initial guide posted. * 1/18/18: Added a "build concept" spoiler. Condensed the leveling guide into a spoiler. Corrected the "Ascendancy Allocation" image. Fixed grammatical errors.
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Conclusion
While The Battle Queen isn't the strongest build in the game, it's certainly a different take on a melee summoner and the idea of fighting alongside a cadre of minions will always be fun and exciting (at least for me, lol). Overall, I thoroughly enjoy this build and I hope you try it out! Thanks for reading~
Yeah, would love a video. Is there a PoB? I didn't read clearly and can't see on this page lol.
You have a lot of defensive stuff for the zombies - its frustrating they die so often... Would it work to run only 1 life flask and just summon a new one every once and awhile.
I really like the idea of combo classes like this :)
