[3.3] FOURmulaic Summoner - Skeletons + Spectres/Flame Golems, Fast, All Content, Starter [Updated]

Some changes for 3.4 Delve. Block variant was gutted, but the dodge variant I preferred is still viable. I don't know when I'll have time to completely redo the guide. I will slowly make changes to it. Just ignore anything about block in the guide and read some of my latest replies in this thread for updated info.

Here's a Lvl 94 passive tree for Delve: http://poeurl.com/b25z
Here's a 3.4 POB based on my char from Incursion: https://pastebin.com/K34Mch3B

Sorry :(


About the build

You'll use Summon Skeletons from Act 1 all the way to Uber Elder. I utilize Skeleton Warriors for single target and as a way to direct my Spectre aggro vs anything they can't immediately kill (unique/rare monsters and monsters inside proximity shields). Once your Raise Spectre is properly set up at maps they'll do 90% of the clear while you zoom around and pick up loot.

This is one of the faster summoner builds I could think of and I was able to reach level 100 fairly quick with it. The build has good single target and the clear can be comparable to a Cospri's Discharge build. You can play slow and safe or casually play this build with one hand while you watch TV.

You can easily do full party Uber Lab carries with this build or solo farm Uber Lab. The minion taunt makes the Izaro fight much safer. I highly recommend using a Brightbeak + 3G Prismatic Eclipse to Leap Slam around with Insanity Gloves and using Flame Golems for Uber Lab. Your Spectres might die to Damage Over Time in Lab and Flame Golems are much easier to resummon.

I've done all the content in the game deathless with this build except Hall of Grandmasters (never attempted). I'm pretty awful at playing POE, so you should be able to do all the content in the game as well. Uber Elder requires much more attention to detail and you should probably change some gems /gear for that encounter.

I've spent way too much currency and time testing different combinations of gear and minion types so you don't have to. You can go max block/spell block, but I prefer taking the Necromantic Aegis keystone and getting near max dodge with the Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics keystones.

The build is a ton of fun, extremely versatile, and very flexible in gear. The passive tree solves your dexterity requirements so you can use high Dex items or go full MF. It doesn't take much to get started and Summoner builds are among the easiest builds to level. You can do all map mods up to T16 except Elemental Reflect with this build. Your minions will die to reflect. If your Spectres die to Ele reflect you'll have to go through the process to re-summon them.


Almost everything is thoroughly explained in-depth below so you can choose what's best for you.

Stats
Spoiler


Max Dodge build
~7.5k HP at level 95 with 256% increased life on tree
Dodge Attacks: 52-68% without flasks or temporary boosts.
Dodge Spells: 30-48%

Skeleton Warriors Peak Potential DPS: 1.2m – 2.0m+ (Shaper POB)
This number depends on your gear and if your minions have Frenzy Charges

Required unique items: 2
Other unique items recommended: 2
Jewel sockets: 6 - 7
Recommended Auras: Haste + Purity of Elements

*Chance to Dodge Attacks is at maximum 75% if you've been hit recently with Quartz flask active
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Max Block Build vs Uber Elder
~7.5k HP at level 95 with 248% increased life on tree
Block Attacks: 70-75%
Block Spells: 75%

Skeleton Warriors Peak Potential DPS: 600k – 1.0m+ (Shaper POB)

Jewel sockets: 7
Required unique items: 7 (5 Reckless Defense jewels)
Other unique items recommended: 3
Recommended Auras: Purity of Elements + Purity of Ice

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Additional Defensive Layers

Single targets are constantly maimed, taunted, and blinded by your Skeleton Warriors. Monsters are constantly hindered by your spectres. Enemies that hit you and proc CWDT are cursed with Temporal Chains/Enfeeble/Projectile Weakness and chilled by Arctic Breath.

*Maim is a debuff that applies 30% reduced movement speed on the affected target for 4 seconds.

*Taunted enemies deal 10% less damage to targets that aren't the source of the taunt. Taunts cause an affected enemy to focus aggro – spells, attacks and movement – on the character that inflicted it for 3 seconds.

***T16+ bosses can only be taunted occasionally. Everything below can be permanently taunted including Izaro.

*Blind is a debuff that lessens the chance to hit of the affected target by 50% and lowers the light radius to the minimum value.

*Hinder is a debuff that reduces movement speed on the affected target (30% from abyss jewel mod)

*Chill from Arctic Breath slows enemies by 10%




My Gear
Spoiler


Don't mind the gem links.

Max Dodge Gear
Spoiler









Max Block Gear
Spoiler






Max Fun Gear - 4 Spectres, 3 Flame Golems, Rampage, Unending Hunger, Skellies, Zombies
Spoiler







This requires the following jewels to get 3 Flame Golems




Gear Priority & Gem Links
Spoiler

1. Get a couple Ghastly Abyss jewels with minions taunt on hit with attacks
2. Get a 6L body armour / Tabula Rasa
3. Bones of Ullr
4. Pseudo 5L+ Helmet
5. Brightbeak

You’re ready to do up to Shaper. You'll be going slower until you upgrade your gear. Focus on farming and leveling up your character as fast as possible and get those gems leveled. Get your Desecrate and Raise Spectre gem to level 20 ASAP and work on getting the recommended items below so you can take the build to the next level.

Tip: You can put Desecrate as your left click action in your skill bar. You can freely walk around as long you don't toggle Attack in Place on the skill.


Body Armour
Spoiler

1. The best chest is a Tabula Rasa to start. You can easily reach 7-7.5k HP at level 90 with a Tabula. Get a corrupted one with +1 to maximum resists if you can afford to. The max res will boost your survivability and they usually sell for a small premium over normal tabulas. I've done Uber Elder deathless with a +1 max res Tabula stacking max cold res. You can easily get a 6L base and try essence craft your own.

2. My first choice for an upgrade would be a rare Evasion/ES body armor with high life and T1 dodge for the suffix (5-6% divine it to 6%). Try to get an uncorrupted one with an open prefix so you can craft +1 to maximum Skeletons on it via Catarina.

3. Hyrri's Ire is a great unique choice for mapping that gives 10% dodge, 10% spell dodge, very high evasion rating, and adds cold damage to your attacks to proc Elemental Equilibrium.

4. Vis Mortis is fine if you want a fourth Spectre or if you want to keep the third Spectre and wear Goldwyrm boots for MF or use Kaom's Roots vs Uber Elder. You clear perfectly fine with three Spectres.

You can use a Belly of the Beast to get more life, but getting the right colors 3G3B could be hard.


Gem Links for Body Armor
Raise Spectre
Spell Echo Support
Minion Damage Support

Greater Multiple Projectiles Support / Slower Projectiles
Pierce Support
Faster Projectiles

There’s no other slot that you can achieve these links for your Spectres. If you don’t have Pierce AND Faster Projectiles your clear will be much slower. You'll have to wait for the projectiles to hit packs of monsters without Faster Projectiles. Without Pierce one projectile will only hit one monster. The only other way your minions can pierce is if the enemy is cursed with Projectile Weakness, but we move around way too fast to stop and do that. You don't need a Lvl 21 Raise Spectre gem, but it does give a small boost to their damage.

Swap GMP for Level 1 Slower Proj with 20 quality vs T16 Guardians+. If you level up your Slower Projectile gem you lose a TON of Projectile Speed. The extra damage from a leveled Slower Proj gem is not worth the tradeoff because monsters are much more likely to avoid the projectiles before it hits them thus lowering your actual DPS.

For Uber Elder and for maximum single target I recommend these gem links
Raise Spectre
Spell Echo
Minion Damage Support
Concentrated Effect
Controlled Destruction
Combustion / Elemental Focus
/ Pierce

Go to town before you unequip your body armour so you won't have to re-summon your Spectres. You can use another chest as placeholder for your Raise Spectre gem if you need to craft your body armor.




Helmet

Spoiler
You want an Elder Helm with Minion Damage, +2/3 to level of socketed minion gems, and life (or an open prefix to craft up to 64 life via Haku). Less Duration is another prefix that benefits your Skeleton Warriors, but it'll reduce their base duration from 20 seconds to 10. It's not often your Skelly Warriors will go more than 10 seconds before killing everything or needing to be resummoned. These are all prefixes, so if you're going for maximum damage and don't care about life you'll want +2/3, Minion Damage, and Less Duration. Try to get some resists for your suffixes to help fill them out.


Gem Links for Helmet
Summon Skeletons (Lvl 21/20) or Vaal Summon Skeletons (Lvl 20/20)
Brutality
Melee Physical Damage
Maim

Minion Damage (from Elder helmet)
+level of socketed minion gems (from Elder helmet)

Less Duration (from Elder helmet)

A level 21 Vaal Summon Skeleton gem is expensive and your Vaal Summon Skeleton skill won't be of much use for T16+ content or vs bosses with phases. Your Skeleton Warrior damage strongly scales with gem level, so acquire a Level 21 Summon Skeleton gem with as much quality as you can get when you do T16+ content.





Gloves
Spoiler

1. You want gloves crafted with an Essence of Insanity with over 60 life and an open prefix to craft increased minion damage. You can try to Essence craft your own. If you can't acquire one with life and an open prefix you can skip crafting minion damage and look for a pair of gloves without life and an open prefix. You can craft up to 64 life on it via Haku. Any suffixes providing resists will help fill them out. Make sure you don't any added fire damage that'll ruin Elemental Equilibirum.

INSANITY GLOVES ARE NOT OPTIONAL IF YOU WANT MORE MOBILITY AND SURVIVABILITY.

The increased mobility not only helps you clear faster, but you play safer by repositioning faster and moving past packs of monsters faster than they can detect you.

2. If you can’t afford Insanity Gloves then get gloves with high life and high (preferably T1) increased attack speed for less than 10c with an open prefix to craft minion damage.

3. If you want to go for maximum damage you can use Tombfist gloves socketed with a Murderous Eye to intimidate enemies when you hit them with your movement skill. You only need a pair with one Abyssal socket. This will temporarily boost your Skeleton Warrior damage.

4. If you're going max block you can acquire Elder gloves with % Chance to block as a suffix (up to 5%) to help you reach block cap if you can't get a shield with 35% block chance. Getting Insanity gloves with this mod is hard to acquire.

You can use Sadima's Touch for MF but your attacks will ruin Elemental Equilibrium with Solar Guards and any Spectre that deals fire or lightning damage.

Gem Links for Gloves
Shield Charge / Leap Slam
Fortify

Faster Attacks (20/20)
Culling Strike with 20 quality / Desecrate


I prefer Culling Strike as my fourth gem link if I have an unset ring to put Convocation in. It needs to be 20 quality so your movement skill can benefit from the increased attack speed and works great to cull tanky bosses. If I'm starved for sockets I swap Culling Strike for Desecrate.

Shield Charge is the fastest movement skill for open and linear layouts once you have the proper Silver and Quicksilver flasks. You can use Leap Slam if you want to drop the Quicksilver flask for another utility flask. I use Leap Slam for Lab with a Brightbeak and a three green socket Prismatic Eclipse on weapon swap. I also use Leap Slam for maps that have a lot of obstacles you need to jump through/over. I keep both gems with me while completing my Atlas.



Early in the league I put my Spectres or Flame Golems in Wyrmsign gloves for a pseudo 5L. You can use Enduring Cry to get rampage. I put my movement skills in one of the weapon slots when I do this.




Boots
Spoiler
Use Bones of Ullr boots with the highest movement speed you can afford. Ideally, you want one of the two dodge corruptions (dodge or dodge while moving) if you're stacking dodge for defense. I use a Master service to have them master crafted with a Level 8 Vorici to get the right links and colors. Alternatively, you can get an uncorrupted pair with 10% movement speed enchant or 2% life regen when hit enchant. You can use Goldwyrm boots for MF and a Vis Mortis to keep your third Spectre.

Gem Links for Boots
Increased Duration
Vaal Haste
Flesh Offering
Purity of Elements
/ Phase Run

Purity of Elements could go in an unset ring, but plan on putting it here. If you need to unequip your Bones of Ullr for whatever reason you can swap them with another pair of Bones of Ullr boots so you don't lose a Spectre.





Weapon Slots
Spoiler


Weapon

I would start off with a Brightbeak. It has 50% increased attack speed and gives you more mobility than any other weapon. You can use a Brightbeak to do all the content in the game. Make sure you're capped on Fire and Lightning res without a Brightbeak so you stay res capped if you swap to another weapon.

You can get a weapon from the temple of Atzoatl that has up to 95% increased minion damage with T1/T2 increased attack speed. It’ll give your minions about 20% more damage.

I prefer crafting a Tiger Hook with an Essence of Fear. We use that base for the 6% dodge implicit. It's a great boost to our defense. You can potentially craft up to 30% minion damage and hit T1 attack speed and +1 to socketed gems. If you're mainly concerned with mobility you can craft a Tiger Hook with a Deafening Essence of Zeal to get 30% increased attack speed. Make sure you don't have any added fire damage rolls as a prefix or your attacks will ruin EE.

You'll want to use an Advancing Fortress if you go max block. It's slow, but it gives you 15% block and up to 50 life.



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Shield

If you're using Necromantic Aegis you're going to use a Victario’s Charity to boost your clear speed and single target. If you're just starting out any shield you can afford with very high life will do.

If you have some currency and you're going max block I recommend The Anticipation for the 30% block chance and permanent Intimidate on block. A shaped shield with high life, high block chance, and +1 to maximum resists is another great option.

You can essence craft a Shaped Shagreen Tower Shield or Shaped Corrugated Buckler with a Deafening Essence of Loathing. Those bases have the highest block chance and good implicits. You'll guarantee a shield with 34% or 35% Block Chance and hopefully hit high life and another great mod like +1 to maximum resists, life recovery on block, dodge, shock, attack speed, etc. If you can craft a good shield you won't need Elder gloves, The Anvil, Tempest Shield, or a Rumi's flask to stay block capped with five Reckless Defense jewels.

You could also use a Magna Eclipsis and put your Animate Guardian, Golems, or Raise Zombie there. It grants +2 to level of socketed gems which will greatly increase their HP.

Gem Links

Cast When Damage Taken (Level 1)
Level 5 Curse with 20 Quality: Temporal Chains / Projectile Weakness / Enfeeble
Arctic Breath

This is the best CWDT setup I've used. It provides defense and offense. Arctic Breath will chill and slow enemies by 10% and proc Elemental Equilibrium. You can use whatever curse you prefer to protect you vs packs of monsters.

Temp Chains will slow monsters by 20% and cause other effects like chill and hinder to expire more slowly. Enfeeble will reduce monster accuracy and damage by 20%. Projectile Weakness gives your Spectres knockback, 100% pierce, and 25% more damage. These curses are great while clearing but they're less effective vs bosses and 80% less effective vs Guardians and higher.

Animate Guardian / Utility
Minion Life / Utility
Convocation / Summon Chaos Golem / Summon Stone Golem / Desecrate / Utility

If you're using an Animate Guardian then it's ideal to socket it in one of the weapon slots. Keep an eye on its HP. If it starts to get low just weapon swap to prevent it from dying and save yourself the hassle and currency of re-equipping it with items.

If you put your Desecrate gem here you can easily swap Spell Echo from your Spectres with Minion Life. It'll make raising Spectres much easier.





Rings, Amulet, & Belt
Spoiler

Ring 1 - As much life and resists as possible.
Ring 2 - As much life and resists as possible. You preferably want at least one unset ring to put convocation or purity of elements in there. Very good unset rings can get expensive. A Pariah is great unset ring for MF but expensive. You can use two Ventor's gamble rings for MF and replace Culling Strike with Desecrate and put one of your utility gems in your shield/weapon slot.

If you want to add Flame Golems you can put them in a Hungry Loop ring.

Amulet - As much life and resists as possible. You can get +1 to maximum Skeletons from an Elder amulet. You can get Increased Item Quantity from a Shaped amulet. If you find either one that's affordable and doesn't gimp your life and resists too much then go for it.

Belt
Stygian Vise - You'll use this belt base to make use of another abyss jewel and get more life than any other belt base.

Bisco’s Leash – nothing is beating this belt for clear speed. Rampage affects your minions and this is the only way to get Rampage without sacrificing your Insanity gloves. It gives cold res and Increased Item Quantity. If you're going to swap between this and another belt make sure it has cold res or you’re already cold res is capped without this belt.

Darkness Enthroned – I use this unique vs Uber Elder with a couple abyss jewels that give 10% minion resists so they're close to res cap when not affected by Purity of Elements. The 50% increased effect of socketed abyss jewels gives them 30% ele res. This is very important vs Uber Elder.








Jewels (VERY IMPORTANT!)
Spoiler


Watcher's Eye Jewel

I STRONGLY recommend you get a Watcher's Eye jewel that gives "You have phasing while affected by Haste" ASAP

This is a HUGE boost to your clear speed and survivability while mapping. You can rely on Phase Run or a Quartz flask for phasing until you're able to acquire this jewel. I use Haste as my damage aura. It buffs you, your Skeleton Warriors, and your Spectres. You can also get Spell Dodge while affected by Haste and physical damage taken as elemental damage while affected by Purity of Elements or Purity of Ice.


Abyss Jewels

Abyss jewels are vital to this build! The better your abyss jewels are the better your build will be.

You preferably want at least 7% total chance to taunt on your abyss jewels. Get as much life, damage, hinder, blind as you can.


I got the taunt total by observing how quickly Izaro would get taunted by my Skeleton Warriors during Uber Lab runs. The magic number seemed to be 7% when Izaro would stop aggroing me after his first attack.

Here is a breakdown of important mods you can find on Ghastly Abyss jewels.

Prefixes
1. +# to maximum Life
2. Minions deal # to # additional Fire Damage (if you're using Solar Guards)
3. Minions deal # to # additional Physical Damage

Suffixes
1. Minions have 3-8% chance to Taunt on Hit with Attacks
2. Minions have 3-8% chance to Hinder Enemies on Hit with Spells, with 30% reduced Movement Speed
3. Minions have 3-6% chance to Blind on Hit with Attacks
4. 0.5-1% of Life Regenerated per second while moving
5. Minions have 4-6% increased Attack Speed / Minions have 4-6% increased Attack Speed
6. 15-20% increased Minion Damage if you've used a Minion Skill Recently
7. Minions have +6-10% to all Elemental Resistances (until they're res capped)
8. Minions Regenerate 0.4-0.8% Life per second (get this mod on one jewel to save yourself one point and not take the passive Minion Life and Life Regeneration point on the tree. Otherwise your minions won't have any regen)
9. 2% chance to Dodge Attack and Spell Hits if you've been hit recently
10. 3-4% increased Movement Speed if you haven't taken Damage Recently
11. Minions have 7% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you or your Minions have Killed Recently
12. 2% additional Physical Damage Reduction if you weren't Damaged by a Hit Recently

Unending Hunger

This jewel is good for clear and fun to use when you're chaining maps, but it's a VERY low priority until you've fulfilled the stats on the rest of your Ghastly Abyss jewels. This jewel doesn't have life, it's pointless for bosses, and the mods only buffs your Spectres. When your Spectres are extremely buffed with Soul Eater and Rampage their cast speed gets insane and your screen gets filled with their projectiles.



These are examples of some of the abyss jewels you're looking for


You need these jewels if you want three Flame Golems. You'll have to use a Clayshaper to get a fourth.





Flasks
Spoiler
You want a minimum of two Seething Divine Life Flask. It's the highest amount of instant heal you can get from a life flask.

I use a Writhing Jar (wormblaster flask) to maintain Rampage between packs of monsters when I use a Bisco's Leash. It also provides instant life and mana recovery. You should swap this for a another flask when you do lab or T16+ content.

I use a Quartz flask to stay near dodge cap.

For mapping I use a Quicksilver Flask and a Silver Flask with an "of Adrenaline" suffix on one of them to boost my Shield Charge speed and "of Warding" suffix on the other to remove curses. If you use Leap Slam you can replace the Quicksilver flask with a Basalt or Stibnite flask of Warding for lab.










POB Links, Passive Trees, Pantheon
Spoiler


You'll get all your minion damage nodes before you reach maps. After that, you're just pathing to life nodes, jewel sockets and Keystones so level as fast as possible to increase your life pool.

POB Links
Level 95 Necromantic Aegis: http://poeurl.com/b1yN
Level 95 Necromantic Aegis POB: https://pastebin.com/LJFfaRDy

Level 95 Max Block Passive Tree: http://poeurl.com/b1vp
Level 95 Max Block POB: https://pastebin.com/dZuhVBNw


Pantheon

Major pantheon

1. Soul of Lunaris - fully upgraded if you're stacking dodge

2. Soul of Solaris - fully upgraded if you're stacking block with Reckless defense jewels

3. Soul of Arakaali - fully upgraded if you're doing Uber Elder or using a Forbidden Taste flask with high chaos res to proc the increased life recovery.

Minor Pantheon

1. Soul of Ryslatha - fully upgraded for life flask sustain

2. Soul of Garukhan - fully upgraded for chaining maps and increased clear speed



Minions Explained
Spoiler


I've settled on three Spectres and 9 Skeleton Warriors as a base for the build. You can add Golems and decide the other minion types you want to play for fun.


Skeleton Warriors - Essential to build
We heavily rely on our Skeleton Warriors for single target. Each Skeleton Warrior deals between 115k – 250k DPS individually depending on your gear and minion buffs. Multiply that by your maximum number of skeleton warriors and that is the peak potential DPS they can deal. If you have 9 they usually deal at least 1.0m pure physical damage at 20/20 unaffected by the 30% and 40% elemental resistances from map bosses and T16+ bosses respectively.

Everything below T16 dies quickly. There’s no true “one shotting” bosses with this build which is why the taunt, blind, and maim your Skeleton Warriors apply to monsters helps to keep us safe during extended engagements.

The downside to all Summon Skeleton minions is that they have very low health. They can easily die and it takes time for them to begin attacking after being re-summoned. These ladies are meant to be re-summoned, but they're not meant to be constantly spammed. You want to do as much as you can to keep them alive as long as possible for their duration. Be mindful where you summon them, and make sure you try to get them as close to resistance cap as you can when you’re doing T16+ content.

Spectres
I would do a pure Spectre build if they could clear fast and the single target was strong without swapping gems requiring different socket colors. Their AI can be pretty bad at times too without a way to direct them. I mainly use Level 84 Solar Guards. They're easy to acquire, great for clear, and have solid single target when you swap their gems around. They pretty much never die to anything besides bleeds and heavy chaos damage as long as they're res capped with a little bit of minion leech and regen.

The downside to Spectres is that summoning them can be a time consuming process. You want a level 20 Desecrate and level 20+ Raise Spectre gem. You have to go to an area they naturally spawn, desecrate until their corpse appears, raise them as a Spectre, then go to a level 84 zone (I prefer the last room of Oba's Cursed Trove or an Abyssal Depth in a T16 map), desecrate again until their corpse spawns, and raise them again to increase their level to boost their damage and HP.

1. Solar Guard
They're found desecrating in Act 8 Solaris Temple. They deal fireball projectiles and a powerful beam cannon that sometimes hits monsters through walls! They're shiny and obvious to spot which makes targeting and raising the right corpse easy.

2. Risen Vaal Advocates (Lightning)
They're new to Incursion league and only spawn in the Temple of Atzoatl. There are three(?) variants. Getting the lightning variant to spawn can be time consuming. Their damage output is slightly lower than Solar Guards, but they have way more HP and clear just as well as Solar Guards. They're a solid alternative to Solar Guards and use the same gems.

3. Flame Sentinels
They're found desecrating in Act 8 Solaris Temple. They deal fireball projectiles that can utilize the same support gems as Solar Guards. They’re slightly more aggressive than Solar Guards. Their projectiles travel slightly faster and seem to have a larger AOE damage radius on impact. Their HP is much lower than Solar Guards and their damage output is lower than Solar Guards.

4. Frost Sentinels
They're found desecrating in Act 8 Lunaris Temple. They deal Ice Spear projectiles that can utilize the same support gems as Solar Guards. They have a very aggressive AI. Their HP and damage output is much lower than Solar Guards and their blue projectiles are pure eye cancer.

5. Cannibal Fire-eaters
AFAIK, they're only found in maps with humanoids like Shore and maps with the mod "Area is Inhabited with Humanoids". They can use the same socket colors as Solar Guards. They’re slow for clear, but they’re better for bossing.

6. Tukohama Vanguards
They're found desecrating in Act 6 The Coast, The Mud Flats, or The Karui Fortress. To properly use them requires completely different socket colors 4B1R1G. These were the top spectres for bossing, but the recent nerf to Dyadus hurt them and their totems easily die vs Uber Elder. They’re godawful for clear, and bad vs enemies that constantly move around.


Summon Flame Golem
I put them in a Hungry Loop ring to add them to the build. You have to sacrifice one OR FOUR jewels that could have life and useful abyss jewel mods to get two or three of them. You can use a Clayshaper to get additional Flame Golems.

These guys are MUCH worse for map clear than Solar Guards or any Spectre you'd use for clear in the list above. Their projectiles don’t travel as far and you can't really scale their projectile speed. They also use a projectile that can’t pierce. They're good up to yellow maps or narrow red maps. They'll die when doing T15+ content because we’re not an Elementalist that gives them immunity to Elemental damage and we’re not fully investing into them in a 6L with a Level 4 Empower because it's not worth it. I still think they're fun to map with even if they're not as efficient.

Flame Golems are great for lab! Your spectres will occasionally die to bleed traps. Flame Golems can easily be resummoned unlike Spectres. You can use Flame Golems to safely escort you to Izaro/Argus where your Summon Skeletons will go to work. I’ve done 200+ carries with this build between Bestiary and Incursion league and Flame Golems have helped me in a pinch when my Spectres died waiting for people to get through traps. If you were to commit to farming lab for yourself you could dedicate using Flame Golems in your 6L chest instead of Spectres so you can easily un-summon and re-summon them to do full key runs.

I would use these gem links in a 6L for lab

Summon Flame Golem
Spell Echo
GMP / Slower Proj
Minion Damage
Controlled Destruction
Concentrated Effect / Elemental Focus / Combustion

Summon Stone Golem

Utility minion. This golem provides some life regen. It has a ton of life, rarely dies, and occasionally taunts monsters. It's a solid choice to use.

Summon Chaos Golem

Utility minion. This golem provides some physical damage reduction. It has a decent HP pool and doesn't suicidally charge into packs of monsters like other golems.

Raise Zombie
Utility minion. These guys are meat shields that can help generate frenzy charges with a Victario's Charity. They can help taunt and blind monsters. That’s it. I've tried making them more useful in this build, but they’ll definitely die when you’re doing T16+ content even if they have 25k+ HP. They should mostly survive everything else. They’re not worth using if you're struggling for gem sockets and they're not worth re-summoning during boss fights.

Animate Guardian
Utility minion. I wouldn’t use an Animate Guardian gem unless it’s at least level 19. Keep this guy alive and he’ll buff you and allies. Don't break the bank equipping your AG. Eventually, it will die when you aren't expecting. Here are items I use for my AG.

Weapon
1. Kingmaker - Expensive early on in leagues, but gives Culling Strike & Item Rarity to allies.

I highly recommend this item if you're going to do lab. Make sure your AG is only summoned for Izaro fights or it might die to lab traps. 99% of the time it’s cheaper to make yourself. Vendor a Soul Taker + Heartbreaker + 1 fusing

2. Dying Breath - Budget option that gives a damage buff to allies & provides your Animate Guardian with some block chance

Body Armour
1. Bloodbond - Budget belly that gives increased life & 1% Life Regen
2. Belly of the Beast - Increased life and some resists
3. Hyrri's Ire - 10% Dodge & Spell Dodge
4. Zahndethus' Cassock - Great with Skullhead and if your AG has block chance.

Helmet
1. Leer Cast

Gloves
1. Any glove with Curse on Hit Vulnerability corruption
2. Any glove with Curse on Hit Elemental Weakness corruption
3. Southbound
4. Rare gloves with resists, chaos res

Boots
1. Rare boots with resists, chaos res, and movement speed
2a. Atziri’s Step for the Spell Dodge
2b. Rainbow Stride - use this if using a Dying Breath or you equipped your AG with a shield
4. Vicatorio’s Flight - You’ll outrun the movement buff all the time so it gets bumped down the list, but your minions should benefit from this buff


Leveling
Spoiler


As soon as you reach Part Two try to get a Ghastly abyss jewel with taunt.

I've leveled deathless and finished my own Uber Lab with 3k HP and SSF gear utilizing that jewel mod. Your life will be on the low side all the way to maps if you don't have good gear. That jewel mod is very important to your survivability when you're starting out.

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Level 77 passive tree: http://poeurl.com/b1wL

That's the tree you should plan to have once you reach maps. Rush to Lord of the Dead, then Quick Recovery, then down to Gravepact on the passive tree. Those nodes will strengthen your minion army and provide life & mana regen. Work your way down to the Scion life wheel and left side of the tree for strength and right side for dexterity. Get any jewels that can help you level. Start pathing to Death Attunement towards Act 10 so you'll have the +1 Spectres node ready to pair up with your Bones of Ullr boots when you finish Uber Lab. You can temporarily take Mind Over Matter for the extra eHP if you can stay res capped without reserving mana and respec once you've upgrade your gear.

Ascendancy Order
1. Invoker
2. Bone Sculptor
3. Commander of Darkness
4. Soul Weaver

Rush to Bone Sculptor for your first two major Ascendancy points so your skellies move faster and their hits can't be evaded. Your Skeletons will destroy everything after that while leveling. Commander of Darkness will help you stay res capped after the resist penalties.

Don't worry about using Spectres until you finish Uber Lab and you can use a 6L and higher level Desecrate and Raise Spectre gem. Otherwise, they won't have much life or damage and you'll risk wasting time re-summoning them and raising their level multiple times over. You can use the vendor recipe for a +1 chaos wand and place a Level 19 Desecrate gem in there to summon your Lvl 84 Spectres sooner if you're just short of the dexterity requirement. Any +1 to socketed gems or socketed spells will also work. That will temporarily raise the Desecrate level.

Bandits
Kill all for two points. You can help Alira if you're SSF or first character of league and want the resists. You can later use the vendor recipe to reclaim the two points when you have better gear.

Leveling Skills

The skills you'll start off with are Raise Zombie, SRS (Summon Raging Spirit), and Summon Skeleton as soon as they're available to you. You can use Fireball (or whatever you want) at the VERY beginning of Act 1 to kill monsters and raise zombies until you get SRS and Summon Skeleton gems. SRS and Summon Skeletons will be your main skills. Use SRS to stay ranged and offscreen enemies. Use your Skellies for single target. SRS can help you clear all the way up to yellow maps. For your Act 4 quest reward you can pick a Stone Golem (life regen, tanky and taunts) or pick Flame Golem if you can acquire a Clayshaper and put it in a 4L+. Level your gems up along the way and make sure they're the max level you can use!

Starter Leveling Tips
Getting four link+ items is more important than the item stats. You can use the vendor recipe on a 3L wand to get +1 to socketed Fire gems and place your SRS there in Act 1. That can carry you for several acts. Find the 4L items with the right colors or take them from the quest rewards. Try to get as close to resistance cap as possible and pay special attention to your fire res to deal with all the Tukohama Vanguards in Act 6. You can run a couple Purity auras to fix your resists while leveling with res rings off the ground or NPC's in town. Don't worry about using the any other auraa while leveling. You might have to spec into some resistance nodes on the tree in the Witch and/or Scion area to stay res capped for mapping. Use the respecs you earned from the quests to remove those points ASAP once you upgrade your gear. This setup will carry you to maps deathless. You can easily farm a Tabula in Blood Aqueducts.


Twink Gear Leveling
If you're able to use a Tabula Rasa while leveling I highly recommend putting your SRS or Skellies in there until Act 4. Then, I'd equip two Clayshapers and switch to 6L Flame Golems and put my Skeletons in the Baron or another +2 4L. You'll clear while moving and your single target will get you to maps very fast (under six hours if you're experienced).

You could use weapons that give ~90% increased damage with low level requirements. You want two 1H weapons, but you can use 2H weapon types if that's all you can get. Your SRS and Skellies will completely destroy everything while leveling.

Good twink leveling uniques for this build

Body Armour: Tabula Rasa
Helmet: Goldrim, The Baron, Wraithlord, Skullhead
Gloves: Flesh and Spirit
Boots: Wanderlust, Seven League Steps (not budget)
Rings: Praxis, Le Heup of All
Amulet: Sidhebreath, Karui Ward, Atziri's Foible, Shaper's Seed
Belt: Darkness Enthroned, Belt of the Deceiver
Weapon Slot 1: Brightbeak
Weapon Slot 2: Matua Tupuna, Nycta's Lantern

Gem Links for leveling

SRS (Summon Raging Spirit)
Melee Phys / Melee Splash
Minion Damage
Added Fire / Melee Phys
*Multistrike
*Minion Speed / Spell Echo

Summon Skeletons
Minion Damage
Melee Phys / Melee Splash
Brutality / Added Fire
*Maim
*Multistrike

Raise Zombie
Minion Damage / Minion Speed
Minion Life
Melee Phys / Minion Speed

Leap Slam / Shield Charge
Faster Attacks
Fortify

Desecrate

Flesh Offering

Purity of Elements

Summon Flame Golem
Spell Echo
Minion Damage
GMP / Slower Proj
Conc Effect
Controlled Destruction / Combustion / Elemental Focus


Other tips:
Use a Quicksilver flask (of Adrenaline if you can) to move around faster. Try to fit in Leap Slam or Shield Charge to move faster when your Quicksilver is empty. You don't need to kill every monster. Skip rares (yellow) and individual monsters. Only kill large packs while leveling. You can go back to finish achievements and quests that don't reward skill points when you have MUCH better gear. Be sure to upgrade your gems and life flasks as you level. You'll sometimes have to use a mana flask while leveling. You gain more maximum mana as you level. Remember not to spam your Summon Skeletons and remember you won't need to summon them as often once your Spectres are properly setup. If you're in a trade league check Global 820 and see if anyone is offering free Level 84 zones to raise Spectres when you're able to use a Level 20 Spectre and Desecrate gem.

Good luck with your maps and have fun with the build


Videos
Spoiler


Outdated Build Guide Video with Boss Kills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYpBlNVuzfk

T11 Shaped Underground Sea
https://youtu.be/5TSRCiRC6-M

T9 Shaped City Square (you can see minions buffed with Tailwind)
https://youtu.be/UUU3ElK1OoA

Montage - T16 Incursion clears
https://youtu.be/k9EJnEVH-cY

Montage - T16 Shaper/Elder Guardian all deathless (Spooky 170% Inc AOE Phoenix)
https://youtu.be/7S9_EDaNMCw

Uber Elder 1 death: +1 max res Tabula Rasa + Tiger Hook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOkTG9F7tK4

Uber Elder 1 death , Kaoms Roots, Vis Mortis, MD Weapon
https://youtu.be/YjnMYN2DFQc

I'll try to upload a deathless sub 3 minute Uber Elder someday. I'm just bad, lazy, and lag while recording Uber Elder. I've done it deathless multiple times and under 3 minutes a couple. You get the point from the videos



Changelog & Notes
Spoiler

10 AUG 2018
Uber Elder videos, T16 videos, tree changes, leveling updates. Waiting for 3.3

05 AUG 2018
A little late for the Incursion race event, but I can finally answer what build is best at what. I've optimized as best as I think I can, so I'll be moving on from this build for now. I'll continue to answer any questions. I put Uber Elder on farm status and improved my mapping experience.

16 JUL 2018
I've attempted Uber Elder six times with this build in Incursion. I failed the first four times because I'm bad. I finally did it with max block. One was deathless. I died once over those two attempts with max block. I've successfully defeated Uber Elder on Standard a couple times with my old build, but I had more experience with the encounter.

I think max block is the way the go if you want to repeatedly do Uber Elder, so I updated the max block setup.

08 JUL 2018
Added Bandits and max block build

03 JUL 2018
Forgot to include Tombfist gloves and ways to achieve max dodge. Updated Abyss jewel section.
*Added leveling gear, fixed POB and skilltree links, reworded Flame Golem section because they didn't deserve the harsher wording

02 JUL 2018
This build is now faster. Added some videos. Incorporated Vis Mortis, Unending Hunger and other items into build. Changed gem links. Updated and added sections. Put a ton of work into revamping build guide to make it better for newer players.

Easily did everything up to Shaper again this league. Uber Elder 2nd attempt should be soon. I'm bad and forgot you have to finish the entire Zana questline before you can lure him to the center because I turned off track questing. I know what to expect now (videos don't do it justice) and will try for deathless this time.

Reached Level 100 in 9 days 6 Hours according poe-racing.com and 10 days 17 hours according to /played which is pretty solid for a league starter. I didn't do PJ rotas until 98.3 and I didn't switch to a Vis Mortis with Faster Projectiles until 99.4 so it could've went MUCH faster if I figured things out sooner and not farmed Uber Lab early league and died dozens of times doing stupid stuff.

This was a fun build to play. Easily the most versatile and smoothest build I've played to 100. I really wish I had optimized the speed sooner and had even more fun.


01 JUN 2018
Post created.

I give much credit to Ghazzy and UberElite for all the helpful content & information they provided on and off stream and all the summoner cultists sharing information. I knew nothing about summoners. Thanks.
Last edited by FOURmulaic#4690 on Aug 30, 2018, 9:13:06 PM
Last bumped on Dec 28, 2018, 7:17:31 AM
Well bro just modify that part
Use Brutality gem
Hatred is a wasteful aura that does not benefit you or your spectres. Use Haste instead.
You no longer need Grip of Council. Your Skellies and Spectres will do the same or more damage.


for that maybe XD:

Use Brutality gem
Hatred is a wasteful aura that does not benefit you or your spectres. Use B R U T A L I T Y instead.
You no longer need Grip of Council. Your Skellies and Spectres will do the same or more damage.



for the guide, i may use it for starter. I just need to decide if i want to farm labs or not XD

Ty man
Fun build!
nice build to go with. got some really nice tips from your build. But did you mention Ascendancy ? which one and which path ? and what about including zombies in an army. ? both of the options may impact map clear speed issue. :)

Though, i like your approach on defensive nodes. Cool
"
MrMohit wrote:
nice build to go with. got some really nice tips from your build. But did you mention Ascendancy ? which one and which path ? and what about including zombies in an army. ? both of the options may impact map clear speed issue. :)

Though, i like your approach on defensive nodes. Cool


For Ascendancy points: I rush to Bone Sculptor so my skellies can move faster than molasses and destroy all the act bosses. Then, I take Commander of Darkness before fighting Kitava for the extra resists before the last resistance penalty. I take Soul Weaver when I do Uberlab (easily done with 3.5k hp and gear I found off the ground with one taunt jewel) and and then I start worrying about properly setting up my spectres.

So it goes, Invoker > Bone Sculptor > Commander of Darkness > Soul Weaver

You can put zombies on the same link as your gloves or Animate Guardian. I mainly use them as meatshields for protection against porcupines with a CWDT + convocation setup. They also help generate frenzy charges faster with Victario's charity, but they'll constantly die to any late game content because I'm not investing much into them. They're good to map with, but I don't even bother with them if I'm doing T16+ content.

Last edited by FOURmulaic#4690 on Jun 5, 2018, 5:29:34 PM
hey was wondering why pierce instead of minion dmg? i tried both and with pierce my dmg seems less? also my character seems squishy even tho im 65 with 3.5k hp but i still get 2 shots and im dead .. got my spectres/golem combo but no zombies.. i can share Poe link if u want

Also, im using tabula and with skellys i removed the Ruthless and used Melee splash to be just a bit faster on clearing since i dont have perfect spectres or gear yet, whats ur thoughts?should i replace other gem? my gear now is complete for beginning

https://pastebin.com/CjcmSgBF
check it if u can or not np ..thanks
Last edited by mohamed94#7813 on Jun 7, 2018, 4:22:02 PM
"
mohamed94 wrote:
hey was wondering why pierce instead of minion dmg? i tried both and with pierce my dmg seems less? also my character seems squishy even tho im 65 with 3.5k hp but i still get 2 shots and im dead .. got my spectres/golem combo but no zombies.. i can share Poe link if u want

Also, im using tabula and with skellys i removed the Ruthless and used Melee splash to be just a bit faster on clearing since i dont have perfect spectres or gear yet, whats ur thoughts?should i replace other gem? my gear now is complete for beginning

https://pastebin.com/CjcmSgBF
check it if u can or not np ..thanks


Because you can get Minion damage on an Elder helm for a pseudo 5L+. Your clear speed will be MUCH slower without Pierce Support linked to your Summon Spectre. I mainly use my spectres for clear and my Summon Skeletons for single target. You can swap Pierce Support for Slower Projectiles for difficult encounters. I only do this for T16+ with more life as a map mod or if I'm carrying a party.

Using Melee Splash instead of Multistrike or Ruthless Support is fine. I started using that too to improve clear speed. I keep it linked with my Vaal Summon Skeletons, and the single target is fine all the way up to T15. VSS steamrolls everything up to T15.

The main issue is that you're low level. The rest of your skilltree after level ~60 is just pathing to life nodes and jewel sockets. Your life will greatly increase as you approach level 90. You're not following any of skilltrees I suggested, so I assume you're actually following another build. You had to get a lot of dexterity on your gear and you took Necromantic Aegis so you no longer have any block chance and you have almost zero hit prevention.

You should make sure your flasks are setup properly ASAP. Get several Seething Divine Life flasks for instant heal and mind your positioning during encounters. Make sure you have bleed, freeze, and curse removal flasks. The suffixes are "of Staunching", "of Heat", and "of Warding" respectively. Your abyss jewel mods are lopsided towards damage. You can get taunt, blind, and hinder (in order of importance) as mods on abyss jewels to further improve your survivability. I did Uberlab with 3.5khp using a self-crafted abyss jewel with minion taunt on hit and the rest of my gear was crap I found while leveling.
Last edited by FOURmulaic#4690 on Jun 10, 2018, 11:45:04 AM
hey thanks for ur reply, i changed my tree heavly with some items and jewels/path.. and no i didn follow anyones tree i was just interested in ur build and i took my path .. now i have 7k hp/ removed necro aegies and using some good shield now and fixed my flasks/+1 tabula ...etc the only thing im missing is abyss jewels with life / taunt or blind because they are very expensive .. for links im using melee splash / multistrike / brutality as my main clearing .. i swap splash for Ruthless but i dunno is multistrike any good for clearing or should i swap.. my spectres doing fine atm didnt get to t12+ because no luck but they are not that fast clearing for me ..elder helms are very expensive as well but so far build is great and im having fun thank you
Last edited by mohamed94#7813 on Jun 12, 2018, 2:31:48 PM
I played Ghazzy's spectre+skele summoner last league and I had a great time. I'm now leveling a witch to play your build! It seems like a similar premise but different which appeals to me.

I noticed you don't get almost any minion damage nodes on the tree for your first 75 levels. Even with a +1 want I'm not finding the SRS leveling as good as I remember from before! I've got a tabula though so I'll be trying out the 6l flame golem + clay shapers leveling. What are the links for that?
"
m0onknight wrote:
I played Ghazzy's spectre+skele summoner last league and I had a great time. I'm now leveling a witch to play your build! It seems like a similar premise but different which appeals to me.

I noticed you don't get almost any minion damage nodes on the tree for your first 75 levels. Even with a +1 want I'm not finding the SRS leveling as good as I remember from before! I've got a tabula though so I'll be trying out the 6l flame golem + clay shapers leveling. What are the links for that?


Links for Flame Golems would be same as Flame Sentinels or Solar Guards.

Flame Golem
Spell Echo
GMP
Pierce
Minion Damage
Ele Focus or Controlled Destruction

You can swap out Pierce for Slower Projectiles, Ele Focus or Controlled Destruction vs bosses if you want, but they should die pretty fast.

After you get your Bone Sculptor ascendancy nodes you can use the respecs from the quests to remove some of the minion nodes on the tree. Once you get all your ascendancy points and proper abyss jewels you don't need as much minion damage on the tree.
Last edited by FOURmulaic#4690 on Jun 14, 2018, 12:48:26 AM

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