[3.2] The Phantasmal -- Necromancer/Occultist Summoner Guide

Pros:

Very budget friendly.
Great clear speed.

Cons:

Minions don't always do what you want them to.
Can feel clunky without proper setup.
On kill build which makes it not great at high end boss fights.

When you are first leveling as a summoner you will want your two basic summoning gems. Zombies to act as meat shields and summon raging spirits for damage. The build can struggle to get on its feet at times but for the most part it is pretty smooth transitioning from early game into later stages. Sometimes when you are still lower level your zombies will die and leave you vulnerable so try and keep that in mind when rolling map mods that may be to dangerous for your zombies to tank. Zombies are great early game but for later stages I feel they really fall off so I removed them from the build.

This build is designed for clear speed. Flame sentinels are the main bread and butter of the build and summon the phantasms when they kill enemies. You can find level 68 flame sentinels in the templar lab where zana is and then go into a higher level instance and summon them again there once you have them in your desecrate memory from summoning them in templar lab.

The build can struggle in higher content. This is by no means a do everything build but with enough investment you can begin to feel quite comfortable with your energy shield as a buffer and your minions on a rampage. Having lightning damage to attacks on at least one piece of equipment is important so you can proc elemental equilibrium with your shield charge.

Brightbeak is one of the best options for speed clear. If you are just starting out you can use a +1 to fire gems wand instead. There is a vendor recipe to make one. It is one alteration, one magic wand, and one ruby ring.


Victario's Charity combined with necromantic aegis grants your minions the ability to gain charges. It is very strong and improves clear speed tremendously.


Bone's of Ullr provide you with +1 to maximum spectres which is 50% more spectres than you would otherwise have and is very affordable.


Bated breath enables energy shield recharge to actually be useful. Combined with the keystone essence surge it almost instantly regenerates your energy shield. Other options are bisco's leash and darkness enthroned or even a rare crystal belt.


The jewelry is crafted with essence of fear. It is very important to have high minion speed for speed clear so your minions can quickly move from one pack to another.


The chest is there to provide a decent amount of energy shield and life and host your gem links for your specters.


The rare gloves are crafted with essence of insanity. The 16% more attack speed makes a noticeable difference for shield charge, providing a more multiplier to your clear speed. A cheaper and comparable option is grip of the council.


The helmet slot has a lot of great options. You can choose to run a helmet similar to this one or go for a lab enchant like flesh offering grants additional attack speed.


Watcher's Eye jewel is nice to have but not needed. For rare jewels you want life, minion damage, and resistances.

SPECTRES:

If you are using five link you should drop minion speed.



SRS:


AURAS:


CWDT:


UTILITY:

For bandits kill all.

For pantheon Soul of Yugul and Soul of Abberath.

For ascendancy you want to go mistress of sacrifice first then puppet master, invoker, and then finally soul weaver.

Pros:

Safe build.

Cons:

Demanding on gear.
Slower clear speed than necromancer.
On kill build which makes it not great at high end boss fights.

The build uses SRS and flame golem as its main summons. Because the gear is so demanding, I would not recommend this build to a new player or the first character of the league,
at least until around 95 or so.

One of the more expensive build enabling items are the primordial golem jewels. Without them, the flame golem would not be good enough to carry on occultist. I would say these are definitely needed for this to work and to not try the build without them.

The gear focuses on energy shield recharge as its main defensive mechanic. Because summoners have so many available points on the skill tree, this allows you to pump massive amounts of energy shield even when giving up your shield slot to your minions through necromantic aegis.

Brightbeak is a great weapon for clearing the majority of content. If you so chose you may use the clay shaper instead for an extra golem or the scourge for a mixture of damage and clearspeed.


Victario's Charity combined with necromantic aegis grants your minions the ability to gain charges. It is more vital to have on occultist than necromancer because of the lower damage and the way this build is setup to be very defensive.


Bated breath is great in combination with the other occultist stuff going on. If you find it over kill you can use bisco's leash or darkness enthroned instead for more clear speed .


The rings are crafted with essence of fear. For this build the level 3 leo craft " faster start of energy shield recharge " is important so you can get your ascendancy passive for recharge off more frequently.


The amulet is also crafted with essence of fear. High strength and dexterity with some amount of energy shield and resistances are preferred here.


The rare gloves are crafted with essence of insanity. They help the build pick up some speed where it is lacking. Another great option is grip of the council.


The helmet is used for SRS. If you can not find a decent energy shield +3 helmet you can settle for +2 or even low energy shield +3.


The chest and boots are rare high energy shield pieces. You can use Sin Trek for boots as they are a cheap option and perform well into end game.


This is the flask setup. Very important to keep your flask charges up as CI so the flask mod experimenter's is rather important.


These are the build enabling jewels.


These are the stats you want to look for in rare jewels. Should prioritize energy shield > resistances > minion damage > minion resistances > attack and cast speed.

FLAME GOLEM:

If you are using five link you should drop summon phantasm on kill.



SRS:


AURA / BLASPHEMY:

If you want more damage you can use projectile weakness and elemental weakness instead of temporal chains and enfeeble.



CWDT:


VAAL SKILLS:


UTILITY:

Bandits kill all.

For pantheon Soul of Yugul and Soul of Abberath.

For ascendancy wicked ward into vile bastion. Then profane bloom and malediction last.