3.2 Corpse Generating Summoner - Drowning In Death Duo - Budget, League Starter, Duo Build

I know this is going to be a big source of contention here with the elementalist golem buff so I ran some numbers. The numbers are what you’re looking at total across all your golems added up with budget gear on in path of building when you have them in that sweet spot where they spam their magma ball spell.

Elementalist
7 flame golems 215k
6 flame/1 stone 212k
6 flame/charity 286k

Necromancer
5 flame golems 248k
4 flame/1 stone 220.3k
4 flame/charity 282.3k

As you can see the ending total dps is not all that much different. The necro additional benefits such as commander of darkness buffing your partner, a far tankier animate guardian and having your offering affect you for the es boost defensively or movement speed offensively just far outweighs the clear of the extra golems. It is also easier to keep 4 golems in the magma ball spam zone then it is 6. Don’t forget this is meant to be an extremely cheap league funder so leveling with SRS into spectres is just so much easier until we get our golem jewels.

Clayshaper - Allows for an extra golem.
Victario’s Chairy - Generates charges for our golems.
Alpha’s Howl - Boosts our Purities for another 1% to max resists for us, our minions and our partner.
Anima Stone - Allows our 4th golem to be summoned.
Primordial Harmony - Gives our golems massive regen.
Primordial Eminence - Gives our golems a big cast speed boost.
Primordial Might - Makes our golems aggressive to help clear speed.

Keep in mind Primordial might is not fully required and some people plain prefer not to use it due to the AI changes. Also try to find a balance between harmony and eminence jewels. Once you get a lvl 4 empower and 21/20 golems you may only need 1 or 2 Harmonies to keep them up at all times on big bosses. For Shaper/Guardians/Elder and the like you may need to drop your Eminences outright for the defensive Harmonies.

Queen’s Escape - An extra spectre along with a big boost to minion stats.
Alpha’s Howl or Skullhead
Alpha’s gives us the lower aura reservation to run all purities. If you would rather have the minion defences over your own defences skullhead is a great option. Again this is just a bare bones summoner guide you can customize to your playstyle.
Bones of Ullr - 4th spectre.

Nothing! The gearing of this build is extremely flexible and has no set requirement. However I do recommend the following uniques as I feel they create the most balanced and powerful version of this build.

Martyr Of Innocence Staff - Provides a massive amount of both damage and defence and is typically very underused and cheap. Best in slot weapon.

Kaoms Heart Chest - Fire damage and crazy life. Easily best in slot.

Stone of Lazhwar Amulet - Juicy spell block and comparatively easy to corrupt for +1 curse.

Rumi's Concoction Granite Flask - This allows us to almost cap block with Bone Offering.


Nycta's Lantern Sceptre - Weapon Swap. Extremely underrated, until you get either a Tabula Rasa or 6-link Martyr of Innocence this is the best in slot weapon. Personally I don't even plan on getting a Tabula, I will buy a Nycta as early as possible and use it until I have a 6L Martyr of Innocence.

Rathpith Globe Shield - Weapon Swap. Damage, life, spell block, easily best in slot.

Passive Tree (30 Passives)
Work your way up. Get some basic minion support passives as well as some life for yourself. The plan here is to level with SRS. You can try to keep your zombies up but at this point they probably won’t survive for a long time. Your partner is mainly picking up life at this point.

Passive Tree (60 Passives)
We want an aura cluster to start running an offensive aura for us and our partner. EE to help boost some damage. You should be trying to get your curse on hit setup rolling in a few levels. Zombies should be fairly useful at this point. I usually start feeling out my spectre survivability around this point. Remember to update them often if you begin to use them. Your partner is putting a dent in their travel nodes with minimal damage. They get Nycta’s soon which should accelerate things.

Passive Tree (90 Passives)
Aura nodes, some extra life and more minion damage. At this point you want to be generating a lot of corpses for your partner. You should ditch the SRS and go full spectres/golems depending on your choices or drop luck this far. Possibly still running zombies if you feel you need them. Try getting your vaal auras setup here too. Your partner should be hitting like a truck at this point so remember to keep spamming those corpses. It helps direct your minions as well.

I know the first thing you’re probably seeing is the level 95 required for the build. You do not need all the jewel sockets I’ve picked up at all for the spectre version. For the golem version the last few jewels are the last things you pick up. I’ve done shaper with just 1 of each golem jewel plenty of times. Try to prioritize getting your aura nodes while balancing life and minion damage. Finish your life nodes second and mop up the minion stuff third. Then just go for your jewel sockets. You should be clearing fairly easy as both spectres or golems easily so remember you are the weakest part of this build. Don't be afraid to prioritize your defences. Try to pick a spectre that fits your style. Queen’s escape minion speed even makes melee spectres a fun and viable option. If you go golems remember they don’t defend you like spectres. Either way try to remember to keep EE and your curse up while spamming away unearth.

Partner Volatile Dead Build

Screenshots will be added when I have more time. With 21/20 golems and a lvl 4 empower which is the dream here we’re looking at 66k per golem with vaal haste up. This is to shaper with only frenzy charges on minions, Shaper, hit by lightning recently and flammability on. Spectres vary highly based on spectre type.

Will also be added when I have more time. 5.2k hp/1.7k es on golemancer. 5.5k hp/1.7k es on spectre build. I prefer using spirit offering for the es boost and recovery as well.

Will be linked when build is leveled. Just remember no fire damage to spells on anything or Anger aura. These will cause your arc to give extra fire resist and lower your duo damage.

Leer Cast - Gives damage to your golems and your partner.
Southbound Gloves - % life to keep it alive
Kaom’s Roots - Keeps it moving slightly slower to hopefully keep it out of harms way
Ambu’s Charge - Endurance charges to help keep it alive along with some resists.
Dying Breath - Damage buff for golems and partners as well as increased curse effect on your enemies.

Main DPS Setup

Raise Spectre gem links will change depending on your choice of spectre. I highly recommend flipping through the above link to the necronomicon to help you with your choices. Full credit there to the amazing people who keep that invaluable summoner reference guide updated.

Golems
Summon Flame Golem - Best AOE clear and golem AI
Greater Multiple Projectiles - Flame golem magma ball spell is the strongest spell on your golem. It can shotgun as well which makes this a very strong support.
Minion Damage Support - MORE DAMAGE!
Fire Penetration Support - Another big damage boost. Between EE, our curse and this we have quite a bit of pen.
Spell Echo - Twice the fireballs, twice the damage.
Empower - It not only makes our golems hit harder but it adds a HUGE amount of life. Our golems have 25.2k hp at 21/20 with no empower. 30.9k with a lvl 3 empower. 34.2k hp with a lvl 4 empower.

Animate Guardian

Animate Guardian - Big damage boost for the party.
Minion Life - A must to keep your guardian alive.
Minion and Totem Elemental Resistances - Really helps since there are no other melee minions. It will be eating a lot of spells face first.
Empower - Again more life. Lvl 4 is definitely not needed here.

Alpha’s Howl
You want your purities placed in here to give an additional 1% to max resists. Feel free to swap haste out for purity of cold here if you want the +2 to aura level boost on it in exchange for the cold resist.

Purity of Fire - Fire resists
Purity of Ice - Cold Resists
Purity of Lightning - Lightning Resists
Offering - I prefer spirit offering for the es on yourself as clear speed will be fine either way but feel free to use flesh offering to crank up the dps if you want. Flesh offering in duo does help give you movement speed while you're using Queen's Decree due to lack of movement skill.

Corpse Generation
The only thing limiting your partner’s dps is how many corpses are around. This helps push your partner’s dps into the realm of ridiculous.

Unearth - Generates corpses with no cooldown
Greater Multiple Projectiles - Corpses x5
Spell Echo - Faster generation
Faster Casting - Again more corpses

Vaal Auras

Now there are two ways to go here. 2x Vaal Haste for double the uptime clearing or 1 and 1 with Vaal Grace for a defensive option.

Vaal Haste - Major cast speed buff for your partner and your minions as well as more corpses generated by you.
Increased Duration - Gets the most out of your vaal auras.
Vaal Grace - I would recommend grace with all the fireballs flying around giving you limited visibility but I understand the need for the deeps swaying you to double vaal haste.

Curse on Hit Setup

Arc - Easy auto aim curse spell
Curse on Hit - Lets your curse and apply EE at the same time.
Flammability/Elemental Weakness - Flamma for golems/Elemental Weakness if you use non fire spectres. Do not use lightning spectres or your arc will reduce their damage heavily.

Unset Rings

You want at least 1 to run a 4th aura out of when you solo. Remember not to use anger or you will mess up your EE for your golems and partner. I prefer haste myself but a defensive aura such as discipline or grace is always helpful.

If you are able to get a 2nd unset ring I would highly recommend Convocation for emergencies.

If you go golemancer you’re going to want to use the primordial jewels listed in the mandatory unique section. Try to find your Primordial Harmony vs Eminence balance that works for you and get a feel for whether or not you like Primordial Might.

For the spectre version this would be the dream.
Minion Damage > Maximum Life (for you not your minions) > Cast Speed (More corpses) > Utility as you feel you need it. (Resists, energy shield, mana, minion life)

SRS is the easiest way to go. Try to get a balance between minion nodes and life nodes while pushing to get your aura clusters rolling. Once your partner gets their nycta’s they’ll be able to carry pretty hard. Try to keep an eye out for any minion leveling uniques. Sidhebreath, skullhead, midnight bargain, bloodbound, mark of the red covenant, wraithlord, ashcaller and queen’s decree are all great in their own way.

This build is setup a little odd but it is meant to be highly flexible. It can be almost whatever you want it to be as a spectre summoner. As a golemancer your only concern will be making sure you don’t die in the chaos of your golem spam mixed with your partner’s spam. As a summoner you already need to cast to direct your minions so think of your duo partner as just another one of them. Yes their dps is good but following your lead will make them run so much smoother that you’ll quickly find that they stick very close to you. Your curse on hit with EE setup is a massive damage boost for them as well as your auras with commander of darkness giving them cast speed. For single target your corpse generation ability raises their dps exponentially and really takes the clunk out of their build. Just remember not to get too far ahead of them or your minions unless you manage to get a hefty life/es pool.

Partner Volatile Dead Build

Solo you’re going to want to take things slow. Sit back and let your minions clear for you. Try to direct and lead with unearth as you can. You’ll only need your arc for big rares and unique mobs. Rushing ahead of your minions will mean certain death. Make sure to always keep an eye on your guardian as well. Run a 4th aura. Haste/discipline/grace are my suggestions here. You won't need much mana unreserved for arc.

Only run the 3 purities here, possibly discipline if you have enough mana to spam unearth with a mana flask on. As a duo you want to spam unearth in a smart way. You want to aim for a location that your partner can easily spot or get into a routine where you cast just before or on packs. With the homing missile effect and your duo clear speed the only limitation to clear is how fast you can run and how well you aim your unearth. Landing corpses in key locations can significantly save time. For big rares and unique mobs you want to hit them with an arc to curse and setup EE. Don’t waste your time cursing everything as your minions and your partner will erase normal and blue mobs very quickly. Try to keep a defensive offering up for yourself as there will be a lot of skill effects going off and there is nothing more frustrating than a death to a white mob because your partner blinded you with fireballs. Try your best to wrangle your guardian as well. Letting your guardian die too often can end up being quite the early league currency sink.

Partner Volatile Dead Build

Can we contact you in-game or through message?

No. Please keep all questions to our forum posts. We check them frequently and will answer all questions we can in the threads.

Why aren’t you telling me what spectres to use?

This is meant to be a highly adaptable build to suit your playstyle on a budget. With a higher budget or different spectres you wouldn’t recognize one person following this guide from another the differences can be so vast. Feel free to explore spectre/gear/passive/jewel combos. The only thing that needs to be constant is the unearth spam for corpse generation.

If your partner relies on you, and your movement speed is the only thing holding them up why don’t you move faster?

With Queen’s Escape our movement skill options are limited. As clayshaper/charity dropping your vaal auras for shield charge as a duo may be well worth it. Solo however getting too far ahead of your minions is very dangerous and I would highly recommend keeping them and just hoofing it the old fashioned way.