Super Slow Mo! (All content! No uniques required! Perfect for new, SSF, & challenged gamers.) (3.4)

A new thread for the 3.5 version of this build is now out! https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2255487! See you there!

WELCOME!

Do you like to laugh at enemies? Do you like to laugh at them because they are going so slow that you have the time to laugh at them? Do you like to make enemies so slow that you can run beside them and whisper mean things to them as they run towards your old position at an embarrassing slow speed? THEN THIS IS THE BUILD FOR YOU! If you don't like to make enemies feel poorly before you kill them then you should try this build so you learn to like to make enemies feel poorly before you kill them.

This guide is written with a focus on those new to Path of Exile. For those that aren't new, thanks for your patience with all the extra bits. I've tried to make this layout easy to skip to the important bits if you don't need the filler.

About the 'Author' / Why My Builds are the Way they Are
I deal with post concussion syndrome. Without getting all "doctor" on you, if I want to play a game for a good while and be able to function when I'm finished playing, I have to avoid many things in video games. Things that I try to avoid in POE builds are: really fast character movements, unpredictable movements by the character or enemies, lots of flashing lights, anything spontaneous or unpredictable on screen, required quick reactions (like movement), quick reactions to specific things (like seeing if I'm silenced, in a bear trap, frozen, bleeding, and then needing to do something quick and specific to deal with it)...and many more basic gaming things.

The reason that I write this part isn't so that you feel sorry for me. It's to explain why there are certain elements of my builds that are not maximized in a way that the general community would typically maximize their builds. So I look for build ideas that:
- Don't require much movement (or movement that I have to focus on providing).
- Don't have emphasis on lots of specific button presses at specific times (like flasks).
- Don't require aiming with the mouse (console POE I can handle better because of analog aiming instead of mouse clicking).
- I can look away from the screen for a bit, still deal damage, and survive (hopefully).

As limiting as that seems, this game provides endless character building options. Cast When Damage Taken, curses, skills that don't have to be aimed, life regen or dodge with Chaos Innoculation are all big helps.

So my build ideas (if you like them) are great for:
- New players.
- Players that don't like button mashing.
- Players that don't like having to move lots while fighting.
- Players that like attacking/casting with only one or two skills.
- Players that like a more laid back POE experience.
- Players with medical conditions (like epilepsy or those with with physical limitations that are restricted in how they use keyboards or mice (to name a couple)).
- Players that don't want to stress about finishing maps in record breaking time.
- Players that like the best builds ever made in the history of Path of Exile (obviously).
Video
My favourite map: Racecourse (T12) :). Easy map mods, but it's an example nonetheless.
Build Explanation
How Minions Work
Raise Zombie is our main skill and it is a minion skill. Any minion's damage only increases with items or passive tree nodes that specifically increase "minion damage". If a node on the tree or mod on an item doesn't specify minion damage, it won't be useful at all. So something that says, "Increases your damage by 30%" won't improve the damage your minions make. In this build your character will do almost no damage, only your minions will.

Minions are considered Allies though. So auras, nodes, or items that improve allies will benefit your minions. (Not every skill that reserves mana is an aura.)

Zombies Attack enemies, they don't cast spells. So anything that improves minion/ally Attack Speed will help our build out, but not Cast Speed (that's for spells).

Lastly, minions are their own entity. Once you bring them into the world, they attack who they want. Some minions are summoned, others are raised. Summoned minions don't follow you, but will keep attacking and chasing enemies within their attack radius. These minions have a duration. Other minions are raised, such as our Zombies. They do not have a duration and will stay raised until dead. These types of minions will follow us wherever we go. But they're dumb...they are zombies...so to help them help you, try the following: Any enemy you hit, they will attempt to hit as well (you hit with Charged Dash). If they are having a hard time following you, use Convocation.

Lastly lastly, Zombies don't care about you. So if you're taking damage, they aren't going to run back and help you. You have to help yourself. (Convocation or panicking ;) .)
Slow Focus
I. LOVE. SLOWING. ENEMIES. So in this build, we're going to slow enemies. Why? Lots of good reasons...but the most important reason is: Because.

Path of Exile has multiple methods that can slow a character/enemy in two ways: 1-Slowing Movement Speed only 2-Slowing all actions (including movement speed). This build will focus on the two methods in the game that slow ALL actions of an enemy: Temporal Chains and Chill. These two methods of slowing can stack.

Chill - An elemental effect from Cold damage that slows all actions (movement, cast/attack speed) up to 30%. The % of slow (chill) imposed on an enemy is based on the total Cold Damage done to the enemy in one hit. So the higher the cold damage of an initial hit (not cumulative) the greater the "chill effect"...the slower the enemy is.

Temporal Chains - A curse that slows all actions (movement, cast/attack speed) up to a base value of 29% but with investment can be capped at 75%. This build will have Temporal Chains slowing enemies at 59%, 65%, or 71%, depending on the level of our Enhance Support Gem.
Curses
I. LOVE. CURSES. TOO.

Curses are debuffs that you can put on an enemy. There are quite a few curses in the game, not all of them are beneficial to every build. I have chosen two curses for this build: Temporal Chains which slows every action of the enemy; and Enfeeble which makes the enemy deal less damage and hit less often.

By default in POE, every character can only apply one curse per enemy. There is a node on the passive tree that increases this limit by one (we'll get it), a node in the Occultist ascendancy, and a few unique items in the game that we can equip that will increase our limit as well. We'll be using 2 curses so we won't need any of the uniques. We will be increasing the effectiveness of these curses as well.

Unless an enemy is "Hexproof" (curse proof), our curses will have full effect on all enemies that aren't bosses. Bosses are naturally 60% less affected by curses and the Shaper and his Guardians are 80% less affected.

There is a node on the tree that acts like a curse but isn't. It's called Elemental Equilibrium. It acts as a curse that lowers enemy resists. We'll be getting that too. It can be applied on every enemy.

A big part of this build are the two curses I have chosen. Curses can be cast manually as a spell that applies the selected curse to an area for a duration, or you can link a support skill called Blasphemy which will make the linked curses Auras that are always around you. Curses turned to Auras each reserve 35% of our mana. We are going to attempt to have our curses as strong as possible. That'll take some gem and passive tree investment. Temporal Chains at its maximum level slows all enemy actions by 29%. With the appropriate investment we can make enemies close to 75% slower with Temporal Chains (this skill caps at slowing enemies beyond 75%). Enfeeble, our other curse, does not have a cap. Enfeeble has a lot of great defense, it makes us harder to be hit by Attacks (not spells), we take less critical damage, and we'll take less overall damage too. Focusing specifically on the general damage mitigation of the skill, we'll be improving Enfeeble's base damage mitigation from 30% to 45%.

(Curses are 60% less effective against Area/Map bosses and 80% less effective against the Shaper and his Guardians. That's OK though. The rest of the build is good enough. :) )

Curse Math (for those that care)
GGG is amazing at community feedback and support. For a game this complex, with its frequency of updates, it's impossible to have every iota of knowledge available and easy to access. I have done tons of research to the math of curses and have had some valuable feedback from both GGG and reliable community members...So I'm pretty sure I have the perfected. (GGG has hinted that curses will be modified greatly in a distant future update). So here's what I have:
- Things that improve a curse's quality are added together.
- Things that improve a curse's effect are added together and then multiplied with the additive sum of quality.
- The negative effect reductions of bosses/The Shaper are multiplied to the final equation of the first two points.

Let's use Temporal Chains as an example.
- Temporal Chains at level 20 slows enemies by 29%.
- The each percent of quality on TC improves the slow of the skill by .5%. So improving the quality of TC to its max slows enemies 10% (20*.5=10%).
- Linking Enhance Support to TC will improve its quality by 16%. That takes the 20% quality from TC and adds another 16% (16*.5=8%).
- 29+10+8=47%. So with those two skills Temporal Chains went from 29% slow to 47%.

- Having our linked Blasphemy Support at a full quality will improve the curse's effect by 10%.
- On the passive tree there are nodes that improve the effects of curses. They total 40%.
- 10+40=50

- So we have a 47% base slow being improved by 50%. 50% of 47 is 23.5.
47+23.5=70.5
=70% slow. You would exceed the 75% slow cap with a level 4 Enhance :). (That's as good as you get without being the Occultist or with Uniques.)

The problem (not a big one) is that Enhance is a drop only gem and takes a LONG time to improve. So once you actually find it, you'll likely only get its efficiency up to 8%, not 16%. (To get Enhance to its highest level in Solo Self Found, you'll have to likely only play this character.) To save space I'll show you what the slows would be with the three different Enhance Support levels:

- The above equation without Enhance (or with Enhance at level 1): 58.5%
- The above equation without Enhance (or with Enhance at level 2): 64.5%
- The above equation without Enhance (or with Enhance at level 3): 70.5%

As you can see in the picture below, there are a few other method of improving curses. Some options won't be available to our ascendancy class. Feel free to use the items if you get them. I'll be planning this build around not getting them.

My math for this build for both curses with an 8% (Level 2) Enhance
Cast when Damage Taken
Cast when Damage Taken (CwDT) is a gem that automatically casts spells (not attacks) it is linked to when your character takes a certain amount of damage. The lower the level of CwDT, the less damage it needs to cast its linked spells. The higher the level of CwDT, the more damage is needed to set it off. The benefit to CwDT at a high level (for our build) is that we can have high level gems attached to it (Stone Golem). A low level CwDT can only have low level gems attached to it. So in that case it's good to attach spells that don't have a great benefit to leveling.
Offerings
We will also be running an offering. Offerings are skills that consume corpses to give minions temporary benefits. The offering that I've chosen for us increases minion attack and movement speed. You'll see it as a red "ghost" while in combat. (You can only have one offering active at one time.)
Pros and Cons
Pro - As cheap as you want it to be! No uniques required!

Pro - Perfect for new players. Easy to level, easy to survive, easy to kill, easy endgame, easy solo self found.

Pro - You only use one skill/button in combat. Everything else (except for flasks) is automatic.

Pro - It clears maps quickly.

Pro - Chills and slows every enemy and boss to their max (unless immune). Great for survivability.

Pro - Has great DPS (26k per Zombie) against the Shaper with a 5 link and 38k with a 6 link (and that's with very defensive support gems for Zombies). Zombies' slam (which is our focus) does 32k per Zombie on a 5 link and 48K with a 6 link.

Pro - Can take and give good damage.

Pro - You can run any map mod in end game except one. No Mana Regen. Without Mana Regen you won't get Elemental Equilibrium, Fortify, Summon Holy Relic buffs, or Enfeeble. (Zombies can easily handle Reflect Damage mods with the new 3.4 passive tree and our defensive links.)

Con - It's a minion build (meaning you don't always attack exactly who you want).

Con - It takes time to get your Zombie fleet back in mid-combat if they all died (will rarely happen).
How I Play This Build/How it Functions in Gameplay
This build is really easy to play. Sooooo easy.

Quick Version: Charged Dash into a group of enemies, zombies kill everything, move on.

Detailed Version:
- Raise your Zombies
- Charged Dash into an enemy which, if the skill hits, will activate both the Fortify buff on yourself (which reduces the damage you take from hits (but not damage over time), initiate Elemental Equilibrium, and debuff the enemies with Enfeeble (makes them weaker and less likely to hit you). Charged Dash does Lightning Damage so it'll initiate Elemental Equilibrium and will make the cold damage the zombies do even greater.
- Charged Dash is a channelling skill. It can be held down.
- When you are around enemies, your Temporal Chains will immediately be applied to them. With Blasphemy at full strength, your curse aura will cover almost a standard size monitor screen. The Hatred aura that we'll have active, that gives our zombies bonus cold damage, will have roughly the same diameter.
- Unless the enemy is hexproof, your enemies will deal a lot less damage, have weaker critical hits, are a lot less likely to hit you with attacks (not spells), and are slowed substantially.
- Your zombies will destroy things quickly.
- In longer fights you will want to pay attention to the Fortify icon around your character (it looks like a star around you when activated). Fortify lasts 5 seconds, so does the Elemental Equilibrium debuff. So for your own survivability, try to keep fortify up at all times during battle.
- If/when we get hit, we have two CwDT setups. One is at the lowest level and only needs 528 damage taken to be setoff. It'll cast Desecrate which makes corpses for our offering skill, Flesh Offering which consumes Desecrate's created corpses to increase the movement and speed of our minions, and then Immortal Call which gives us a quick moment of invulnerability against physical damage. The high level CwDT requires 3272 damage taken to be set off and summons a Stone Golem, Molten Shell, and Summon Holy Relic. Stone Golem deals damage but also gives us an amount of life regen to us (not our minions. Molten Shell is a defensive skill that provides us with temporary armour and damage absorption. Summon Holy Relic becomes active with CwDT but won't do anything until you use Charged Dash. It does some damage, but also provides life regen to allies when we use Charged Dash.

So lots happens but all you're doing is using Charged Dash. ONE BUTTON FUN!

Oh! A couple tips on "controlling" your brainless tanks:
- If you want your Zombies to attack a specific enemy, hit that enemy with Charged Dash. They'll get there as soon as they can.
- If you want your enemies close because they are going to stand in really heavy "one shot kill" damage (very end game) or they just aren't coming over a ledge to do their job, cast Convocation. It'll teleport your zombies to your side.
Passive Tree
(Passive tree link, a picture of the passive tree, or Pastebin if you use Path of Building))
Passive Tree Explained
The skill tree is easy to understand:
You'll start as a Witch. We start as a witch because there is only one subclass in the game that greatly benefits Zombies and to reach that subclass (ascendancy) you must start as a witch.

Our build doesn't "need" every node on the tree I've provided but you'll still be forced to choose one benefit over another. So go any direction you like and take what seems best to you at the time (or what you're most excited for). Just make sure you have enough health to survive the enemies that you haven't seen before and have enough minion damage to kill them. No pressure. I like to follow my trees like I do my end game maps, "hugging the right shoulder". But the sooner you have all 10 Zombies and they can survive with being re-raised, you'll be dancin'.

Tree Focuses:
- Minions - We have every minion node selected which includes minion damage, speed, survivability, and maximizing our zombie quantity limit.
- Curses - This build focuses on curse efficiency which means we needed the nodes that improve curse efficiency.
- Jewels - Jewel slots are amazing. Jewels are items you can find that you can actually allocate on your tree. They can give almost anything from health, damage, resists...anything. We will only have three jewel slot selected :(. You'll have free reign with with one of them. The other two are reserved for Violent Dead. What's really neat is you can swap jewels in and out of your passive tree anytime. All three jewel slots have the proper requirements for Violent Dead so you can place them anywhere.
- Health. I've heard you need it to live. Darn.

Don't forget about attributes. You'll pass some nodes on the tree that give +30 to Strength or Dex. If you don't have items to cover what you're short in, feel free to select some of these as you pass them. You'll get respec points that will let you remove them later once you have better gear
Elemental Equilibrium
Elemental Equilibrium (EE) is a node on the passive tree. It gives enemies negative resists to elements you don't hit enemies with...if you've hit them with an element.
So if I hit an enemy with lightning, the enemy now has 25% extra lightning resistance and -50% to both fire and cold resists. If my spell or attack hits and enemy with lightning and fire, the enemy is only now susceptible to cold damage.

**A big part of the Zombie damage in this build comes from our Hatred aura. It gives cold damage to the Zombies. So make sure that ANY item, jewel, or implicit mod from the ascendancies does not have Added Cold Damage in any way. Charged Dash already has lightning as a part of the skill. So every enemy touched by CD will get the EE debuff put on them. (If you have any skills attached to Cast when Damage Taken, make sure they don't do cold damage.)

A neat thing about EE is that it is only applied to enemies by us, not our minions. So, even though our minions are hitting the enemies over and over with cold damage, they aren't giving the enemies extra cold resists.

Questions? Let me know.
Now, feel free to modify this is anyway. This is just my preference for easy Solo Self Found.

Take your time to look at each skill as they come along. Some of the nodes are pretty dramatic.

Some quests earn you respec points in case you regret any decisions you made on the tree. You can also use Orbs of Regret for the same thing.
Ascendancy
As you go through the game you'll come across Trials of Ascendancy. Starting in Act 3 you'll see their value. Once you have completed all 6 of the first set of trails, you'll get to attempt your first Labyrinth (lab). Good luck! Upon completion Choose Necromancy. You get two ascendancy points per lab. There are four labs for a total of 8 points. (Redoing the same lab will not reward you with more ascendancy points if you've already completed it.)

You can spend your points in any order you like. My preference is as follows:
- 1st Two Points - Invoker. It's the weakest node out of the four big choices, but it leads to my favourite.
- 2nd Two Points - Flesh Binder. It's pretty self explanatory. It's like a permanent supercharger button for your zombies.
- 3rd/4th Two Points - Commander of Darkness. The aura benefits of this build are only for Hatred. Curses turned into auras do not apply to these bonuses. Hatred will therefore be the only aura that affects our zombies so they'll only get 3% increased attack speed. The 30% increase in damage is only applied once, now matter how many auras your minions have benefiting them. The 20% to resists will also cap our zombies with 75% elemental resists. Hatred doesn't apply to us because we linked it with Generosity. This node doesn't affect us at all, only our minions.
- 3rd/4th Two Points - Puppet Master. CwDT counts as "us" casting a skill. Flesh Offering is a minion skill so it counts as "using a minion skill recently". ("Recently" in PoE means 4 seconds.)
Pantheon
Choose any you like as they come across. I personally like physical damage reduction and movement speed (movement speed applies to Charged Dash). But there are no make or break options here. Just preferences.
Gem Links
PoE restricts which gems are available to each class until Act 3. Until then you can get some gems for free from quest rewards, purchase some from specific NPCs in each town, or find them as loot.

There are two NPC's that sell all purchasable gems: the first one is Siosa in the Library in Act 3 (you have to do his quest first (the Library is connected to The Imperial Gardens)), the second NPC is Lilly Roth is Act 6.

Level all these gems to their max (level 20) unless I have written a level number beside the gem name. For example: "-Cast When Damage Taken (Level 1)". If I have written a level beside the name, that's the level you need to stop leveling the gem at.

There are a couple gems that will "need" to be at full quality as well. So be sure to use your Gemcutter's Prisms on these gems first if you are following this build closely. Then you can improve the quality of any other gems you see fit. I'll have a "20%" beside the gem name to indicate it's priority to be quality first. For Example: "Temporal Chains (20%)"

My gem setup is very defensive. Zombies can do way more damage and survive in almost any circumstance. I don't like to swap gems based on circumstances though, so this setup I use all game even though it's designed for taking the occasional crazy heavy damage late end-game.

5/6 Link - Main Skill (Socket in your chest)
-Raise Zombie - Our main skill, a minion skill. They do the damage. Not you.
-Minion Damage Support - Improves minion damage.
-Minion Speed Support - Very important for YOUR survival. Without this, you'll find you'll be standing alone, without the ability to do damage yourself, while your zombies are all alive. This keeps your zombies caught up at all times without needing to hit Convocation every 5 seconds.
-Minion Life Support - Gives extra life to your zombies.
-Fortify Support - Grants your zombies the Fortify buff for 5 seconds. This gives them 20% reduced damage from hits (not damage over time). It also raises their damage a little.
-(If you get a six link: Melee Physical Damage Support - Improves melee damage, which is the only damage our zombies do.)

4 Link - Attack & Movement Speed for Minions, & Defense for Us (Socket in any 4 link)
-Cast When Damage Taken (Level 1) - Automatically casts linked spells.
-Desecrate (Level 7) - Guarantees corpses for Flesh Offering.
-Flesh Offering (Level 8) - Improves minion attack and movement speed.
-Either Immortal Call (Level 3) or Frost Bomb (Level 10). Immortal Call will give you half a second of invulnerability to physical damage and Frost Bomb lowers enemy resists to cold damage by 25%. You can pick either offense or defense. I use Immortal Call, but the items I'll have in the loot filter will accommodate both.

*Note: Cast when Damage Taken casts spells immediately (one after another, but immediately after one another). That being said, spells still take time to be cast and "appear". So, the first time this set of links will be triggered in a fresh area (instance), it will not cast Flesh Offering...unless there are already corpses on the ground. CwDT casts Desecrate and Flesh Offering so fast that Desecrate isn't finished putting corpses on the ground by the time Flesh Offering is cast. Just and FYI kinda thing. (It'll work normal throughout the rest of combat.)

4 Link - Movement, Defense, Elemental Equilibrium (Socket in any 4 link)
-Charged Dash (Level 6) - Your movement skill that does "everything". When you hit an enemy with Charged Dash, you apply Fortify to yourself, you apply Enfeeble on enemies, you apply Elemental Equilibrium on enemies, and you trigger Holy Relic to act. So you'll miss out on lots if you do maps without mana. This skill is a channelling skill. You can hold the button down or use it quickly. This skill does Lightning Damage so it automatically will initiate Elemental Equilibrium (EE) no matter your weapon. (Just be sure not to have any added cold damage to your build in any way...for the sake of EE.)
-Fortify Support - Increases our melee damage, which we don't care about at all, but gives us the Fortify buff for 5 seconds. Fortify decreases our damage taken from hits (both spell and attacks) by 20%. This does not work against damage over time.
-Curse on Hit Support - This is needed to be able to apply Enfeeble with Charged Dash. Improving the quality of this gem improves Enfeeble.
-Enfeeble - Our curse that makes us harder to be hit by Attacks (not spells), take less critical damage, and take less overall damage too. Focusing specifically on the general damage mitigation of the skill, we'll inadvertently be improving Enfeeble's base damage mitigation from 30% to 45% (since we'll be improving curses in the passive tree for Temporal Chains).

4 Link - Defense (for us and allies) (Socket in any 4 link)
-Cast When Damage Taken - Automatically casts linked spells.
-Summon Stone Golem - An extra minion for aggro and provides life regen for us, not allies.
-Molten Shell - When activated provides damage absorption and armour for us. It does explode if the maximum amount of damage absorption is exceeded. Because it's fire damage, it works well with EE.
-Summon Holy Relic - Linking this to CwDT just makes sure that it's up and running. Its damage and life regen doesn't get applied until we hit an enemy with an Attack (Charged Dash), not a spell. This will do some damage, but we care more about the life regen to us and allies...this skill gives bonus life regen to Minions.


3 Link - SLOOOOOW - (Socket in any 3 link)
-Blasphemy Support (20%) - Turns Temporal Chains into an aura.
-Temporal Chains (20%) - Our curse that slows the enemy. With the improvements discussed above, this will slow all enemy actions from 29% to +70%.
-Enhance Support - Enhance is a DROP ONLY gem. It greatly impacts the value of Temporal Chains' slow, so as soon as it drops, start leveling it. It only has three levels and each level takes a LONG time to level up. It's first level gives no benefit, second level gives +8% to linked gem quality, third level gives 16%. It takes so long to level that you will only earn level 3 by yourself if this is the only build you play all league ;)...if you play lots. If you find an Enhance with quality, lucky you...it'll level faster.

3 Link - Ally Damage and Chill, and Minion Babysitting (Socket in any 3 link)
-Hatred - Adds cold damage to our zombies, as a result increasing the chill effect on enemies.
-Generosity Support - Greatly improves Hatred. Typically, auras affect both the caster and their allies. When you attach Generosity to an aura, it improves the aura substantially for your allies, but removes the entire affect on yourself. Perfect.
-Convocation - This skill teleports your minions that follow you, like zombies, to your side. It also gives a little bit of life regen to the teleported minions. I use this typically in two situations: 1) To get the zombies out of harm's way when a boss is going to do one of their "instant kill" mechanics. Zombies don't get out of the way of anything. 2) If the zombies are having a hard time getting to you. They may be caught up somewhere (like a ledge that's close to you...but not close enough) and not able to protect you.
Gear
Short Version - All Rares! You'll want a Bone Helmet for bonus Minion Damage. Then just get lots of life and resists on all your items. I like having a shield and one-handed weapon instead of a two handed weapon. It's just a preference; no right or wrong there.
- Also, in Act 5 there is a quest called Death to Purity. Select the Violent Dead Jewel as a quest reward.
More Helpful Version
Mods
When an item drops in POE, it is completely random to what it is. It has the chance to be a: Normal, Magic, Rare, or Unique item. Each more rare than the previous. On magic and rare items different modifiers (mods) are randomly assigned as well. There are hundreds of modifiers in the game, not all can roll on all items. Examples of a mod are: "+30 to Maximum health" or "Adds 1-3 damage as lightning". Sometimes the mods work well together. Sometimes they contradict each other. If you're using a spell, you won't benefit from an increase in Attack Damage and Casting Speed, but you would from Spell Damage and Casting Speed increases. Rarely, you'll find a Rare item where all or most of the mods work perfectly for your build.

- Normal item: are white and have no mods.
- Magic item: are blue and have up to 3 mods.
- Rare item: are yellow and have 4+ mods on them.
- Unique Item: predetermined mods.

In this build, you'll want increases to:

- Anything Minion
- Increases to Maximum life
- Increases to Resists
- Increases to Movement Speed
- Increases to Mana/mana regen (only if you're struggling for it. The skill tree will give you just enough).
Implicits
An implicit is a guaranteed mod. It will show up on ALL rarities of a base item except the unique. So for example, the Bone Helmet gives 30%-40% extra Minion Damage. All helmets do not give this bonus to minion damage, only the Bone Helmet. The Normal, Magic, and Rare versions all have this implicit mod. If you use an Orb of Alchemy on a normal Bone Helmet, the implicit mod stays, and the item gets the amount of extra mods a rare item gets. If you use an Orb of Scouring on a rare Bone Helmet, it'll change the helmet into a normal Bone Helmet but keep the implicit.

So mods don't replace implicit mods. But implicits replace implicits. When you are doing your Labs (where you get your ascendancy points), you'll get the option to add random implicits mods to an item. That can be good or bad, just be sure not to do it to an item that already has an implicit that works well for you. (You cannot reverse any crafting actions in this game.)
Essences
On occasion in maps, you'll come across a bunch of enemies that are frozen in place in kind of a circle...and you didn't do it. These are Essence Circles. You have to click on the enemy in the middle 3 times to release the trapped enemies so you can kill them. Killing them results in the middle enemy dropping the essences that they held.

Essences are like an Orb of Alchemy. An alchemy changes a normal (white) item to a rare (yellow) item. All the mods are randomized in the process of course. An Essence is just like using an Alch but give you a guaranteed mod.

So for our build we're looking at essences of Fear which add Minion modifiers to our items. Once you have three of one type of essence, they can be upgraded to the next more powerful version of the essence.

There are multiple levels to each type of essence that give it greater impact the higher you get. So a Weeping Essence of Wrath gives your weapon 58-61 lightning damage. A Deafening Essence of Wrath gives 162-172 lightning damage.

And now you know.
- Weapon - Any one-handed melee weapon you like. I like the look of the Void Sceptre. That's the only reason I use it. Well, it's also in the filter as a "chance item" so you can use your chance orbs on normal Void Sceptres and hope that it turns into the unique Mon'tregul's Grasp. Now remember, make sure your weapon doesn't have any cold damage on it or we get the negative effect of EE, not the positive part. Besides that, pick anything you like. The only mods that apply to minions will state "minion" or "ally". (There are some insanely good damage rolls for minions that you can get with Delve crafting.)
- Shield - Anything you like.
- Head - A Bone Helmet. They are the only rare in the game that carries a natural Minion Damage implicit. Be sure not to replace it at the end of a Lab. They start dropping around character level 73.
- Chest - Anything you like.
- Hands - Anything you like.
- Feet - Anything you like.
- Amulet - Anything you like.
- Ring - Anything you like.
- Ring - Anything you like.
- Belt - Anything you like.
- Jewel - Violent Dead. An Act 5 quest reward for Death to Purity.
- Jewel - Violent Dead. We can have a maximum of 2 Violent Dead jewels. Only one is given as a quest reward. A second one will eventually drop. They are common in terms of unique jewel drops. Very cheap to buy if you're not SSF.
- Jewel - Anything you like.
- Flasks - Anything you like. I simply use 4 health flasks (all modified to remove bleeding) and Quicksilver Flask.
The beginning of your first playthrough, or with SSF, can be hard gear wise. Hang in there, the good gear with the links you want will come. Don't waste your currency (orbs and fusings) on your items until you reach endgame. It might seem like you have a lot, but soon you'll see that it takes a lot of currency to get what you want on an item.
Socket Colours
To save some Chromatics (orbs that change socket colours), here's some basic info:
- Use the Vorici Calculator
- Items that have Strength requirements are more likely to roll red sockets, Dexterity-green, and Intelligence-blue. If an item has a base requirement of Strength and Intelligence (Bone Helmet) it is more likely to roll red and blue sockets.
- 4 linking an item is easy-ish (25 or less fusings at worst) (5 with Vorici's bench).
- 5 linking an item will take a couple hundred Fusings (150 with Vorici's bench).
- 6 linking an item is not for the faint of heart. In a recent league I spent over 3200 fusings trying to 6 link an item by chance...I didn't get it (1500 with Vorici's bench).

Try and level Vorici in your hideout. He'll save you tons of currency on getting the right amount of sockets and links on the items you really want/need.
Your goal on every single piece of gear is to get:

- Anything Minion
- Increases to Maximum life
- Increases to Resists
- Increases to Movement Speed
- Increases to Mana/mana regen (only if you're struggling for it. The skill tree will give you just enough).

Some people say to ignore chaos resists. This is not bad advice but you'll have 10 rare items to get 135% resistance on all three elements and chaos. It's doable...and so relaxing when accomplished. I say 135% resists because by the time you finish the story and get to endgame, POE hits you with a -60% to your fire, cold, lightning, and chaos resists. It is very important to have those capped at the +75% or more. It's not a waste to go over the 135% as some endgame map modss will lower your resists by another 60%.

I have included an item filter (in the URL section) that will ease the looting pain for those that do SSF.
Endgame Mods to Avoid
At the end of the game, the levels (maps) you try and clear will have random modifiers (mods) allocated to them. There are A LOT of mods that can go on a map.

There is only one mod that we can't run: No Mana Regen. We get a lot from our movement skill. It helps us escape from tight situations, it gives us Fortify, it applies Enfeeble to enemies, it debuffs enemies with Elemental Equilibrium, and activates Holy Relic's skills. - But that's it! Just the one mod!

Some mods will be inconvenient, but they won't be impossible to run.
Hexproof maps (curse immune enemies) would suck, but it's not the end of the world. You just have to be a little more on your toes cause enemies will deal full damage and be at full speed.

(The 3.4 passive tree buffed minions up a bit and with our defensive links you minions can easily handle the highest tier reflect damage mods.)

You'll learn your personal preferences over time, but only No Mana Regen must be avoided.
Leveling/Quests - Solo Self Found - Quick Reference
- I suggest doing every quest in the game. It doesn't take long. If you're too eager to get to mapping in the endgame, here is a link to all the quests that give Skill Points as a reward.

Bandits - With the Bandits in Act 2, I kill them all for the extra 2 skill points. You, of course, do what you like.

**Remember to prioritize. You may not be lucky enough to get the gear that'll let you play with all your gems as soon as they are available. So do what works best for you until the gear comes (don't be quick to sell your old gear in case something doesn't work out).
This is the order for those that go Solo Self Found (in order by unlocking via story):
Drop Only - Level 1 - Enhance Support
Act 1 - Enemy at the Gate - Reward - Level 1 - Raise Zombie
Act 1 - Breaking Some Eggs - Purchase - Level 4 - Summon Holy Relic
Act 1 - The Caged Brute - Reward - Level 8 - Minion Damage Support
Act 1 - The Siren's Cadence - Reward - Level 12 - Flesh Offering
Act 2 - Deal with the Bandits - Reward - Level 15 - Kill Everyone - 2 Skill Points
Act 2 - Intruders in Black - Reward - Level 16 - Desecrate
Act 2 - Sharp and Cruel - Reward - Level 18 - Minion Speed Support
Act 2 - Sharp and Cruel - Purchase - Level 18 - Minion Life Support
Act 2 - Sharp and Cruel - Purchase - Level 18 - Melee Physical Damage Support
Act 3 - A Fixture of Fate - Purchase - Level 4 - Molten Shell
Act 3 - Lost in Love - Reward - Level 24 - Convocation
Act 3 - Lost in Love - Purchase - Level 24 - Hatred
Act 3 - A Fixture of Fate - Purchase - Level 24 - Enfeeble
Act 3 - A Fixture of Fate - Purchase - Level 24 - Temporal Chains
Act 3 - A Fixture of Fate - Purchase - Level 28 - Charged Dash
Act 3 - A Fixture of Fate - Reward - Level 31 - Blasphemy Support
Act 3 - A Fixture of Fate - Purchase - Level 31 - Generosity Support
Act 4 - Breaking the Seal - Reward - Level 34 - Summon Stone Golem
Act 4 - The Eternal Nightmare - Purchase - Level 38 - Cast when Damage Taken x2
Act 4 - The Eternal Nightmare - Purchase - Level 38 - Curse on Hit
Act 5 - Death to Purity - Reward - Level 1 - Jewel - Violent Dead
Act 6 - Fallen from Grace - Purchase - Level 31 - Fortify Support x2
Act 6 - Fallen From Grace - Purchase - Level 34 - Immortal Call
This is the order for those that buy gems ahead of time (in order of gems starting level):
Level 1 - Enhance Support
Level 1 - Raise Zombie
Level 1 - Jewel - Violent Dead
Level 4 - Summon Holy Relic
Level 4 - Molten Shell
Level 8 - Minion Damage Support
Level 12 - Flesh Offering
Level 15 - Kill Everyone - 2 Skill Points
Level 16 - Desecrate
Level 18 - Minion Speed Support
Level 18 - Minion Life Support
Level 18 - Melee Physical Damage Support
Level 24 - Convocation
Level 24 - Hatred
Level 24 - Enfeeble
Level 24 - Temporal Chains
Level 28 - Charged Dash
Level 31 - Blasphemy Support
Level 31 - Generosity Support
Level 31 - Fortify Support x2
Level 34 - Summon Stone Golem
Level 34 - Immortal Call
Level 38 - Cast when Damage Taken x2
Level 38 - Curse on Hit
- There are two NPCs that sell all purchasable gems: the first one is Siosa in the Library in Act 3 (you have to do his quest first (the Library is connected to The Imperial Gardens)), the second NPC is Lilly Roth in Act 6 (Do her quest in Act 6).
URLs
- Path of Building - The character planner I use.

- Pastebin - A link to import my specific build into Path of Building.

- Passive Tree

- Video - My favourite map: Racecourse (T12) :). Easy map mods, but it's an example nonetheless.
OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! I MADE MY OWN FILTER FROM SCRATCH...and it's awesome.
To download it, click this link.

It won't look legit but it is. Click the blue "download" button. Once downloaded, rename the file to whatever you like. Put the file in: Documents\My Games\Path of Exile. Once POE is loaded, hit "O" for Options, go to the "UI" tab, scroll to the bottom, and select your new filter from the drop down list beside "List of Item Filters". If it doesn't work, let me know.

This is a SSF filter, not a "get rich" filter (though I get rich enough by selling what drops anyway).

This is a summary of the filter:
- It's POE's Default filter severely specified (and I jazzed up some of the graphical effects so that stuff is easier to see).
- It'll show all league specific drops (old leagues too).
- It'll show all Divination cards.
- It'll show all currency.
- It'll show all maps (even low level ones in high level maps).
- It won't show gems without quality that drop that are high level.
- It'll drop all quality gems. (Save the quality gems. You can trade quality gems adding up to a total of 40% to a vendor for one Gemcutter's Prism. You want lots of these as we will benefit from having lots of gems at max quality (I guess every build does...).)
- It'll show all 5 linked items.
- It'll show all 6 socketed items.
- It'll show all small gear/weapons that have a red, green, and blue socket linked (can be vendored for a chromatic orb).
- It'll show you only life flasks, and only highest level flask for the area you are in. No mana or utility flasks.
- It'll show all flasks with quality. (Just like gems, vendoring 40% total of quality flasks gives you a Glassblower's Bauble. These improve flask quality and can make a big difference.)
- It'll show all rare jewelry.
- For weapons, it'll only show the normal version of the Void Sceptre. The normal version can be "chanced" with a Orb of Chance and hopefully turn into Mon'tregul's Grasp or can be crafted with an Essence or Delve items.
- For Armour it'll only show us the rare version of armour that has a base of Strength and Intelligence. (Gear with a Str. and Int. base will save us greatly on chromatics but also give us some minor bonus defense. Our build doesn't focus on Armour or Energy Shield (its defense is an improved Enfeeble and Fortify). In SSF, when you find a new, sweetly rolled piece of gear, it's nice to make it work quickly, for cheap. We'll also have enough Str. and Int. for all these pieces because of our tree and skill requirements. It's fun to Wisdom everything you find and implement new gear right away instead of needing to reorganize all your gear/links for one new item that dropped.) (I included chest pieces here in case you found an amazing chest worth using 150 Orbs of Fusing on to 5 link...SSF is SSF...)
- It'll only show you the rares of the shields that have the implicit of 12% to All Elemental Resists.
- For leveling you'll have the limited amount of rares listed above along with any gear that matches the linked socket combos you want (any rarity). These appropriately linked gear will appear until level 68 which is when most of the highest end of our rares will start appearing. By then you should have the currency to hesitantly craft decent rares that come across your path to start the slow progress of replacing and improving your gear.
- Oh, and I have all rarities of the Bone Helmet showing up.

If you have any questions or see any issues let me know.
Awesome. So if you have any questions let me know and I'll respond the best I can. If you don't like my build I hope your build ideas lack success and then you come back to mine and go, "huh. I like this...a lot."

OH! Don't forget, to support GGG by buying a skin for all your favourite skills you use. They last forever, you look rad, and it keeps POE going too :).


https://www.ForeverExiled.com/: Forever Exiled, A Path of Exile Podcast
Last edited by Wrecker_of_Days#7691 on Dec 4, 2018, 9:49:24 PM
Last bumped on Dec 25, 2018, 2:35:47 AM
Looks solid man. Thanks for sharing!
Fantastic news that you're planning to update this build for 3.4 :)

Now that the tree is out (at least for PoB) could you show us the tree you're considering?

I've done some different plans, and the one I look forward to using looks like:

Level 80 tree (copy and import into PoB)

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.3.0/AAAABAMDAGKGm6EdFDwoFm-PGlqRvOpqQ6IAJbKbijWSvk_-j_fXFy-QM8k9wGaYrekCOuFVxhNstz6_l9P7uJOqxILH8B9EBE5tEJfv66EvaqyevSUh34oEsxEPGGrYvWwLTeNMsw0ffOUGSWD4Nuk7DeNqCPTsGEGHvooi9KqprJh_xtOPTbmFYMy8U1I6WIPbZrqlxCqYJKqApFgHj_rsg6h9MtGPRqasnDJV1vrSR4X56BzcLOI5C8HFSVFk5_Ie0B_-CkWda9ua4G0ZRUd4L6ZXKPqnCJy-8NXyRX0Y6-6TJw==


Until I get all the aura-nodes (lvl 90+) I plan on running Hatred (with Generosity), Clarity (lvl1), AA and the new Herald of Purity.

Level 95 tree (copy and import into PoB)

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.3.0/AAAABAMDAGKGm6GbtR0UPCgWb9-KWpF9GI8a8kUPq_6PJSG86mpDogAlsvfXGGo1kvsJ8NUo-mwLFy-mV4LHkDPJPcBmmK3pAjrhJpVVxkGHtz6_l9P7uJOqxITF8B8I9BmKVUvv66EvIvRqrJ69muAWvwSzcLvyHti9Tm2MNkyzDR985Wa6YPg26cM6RZ3BxewYhWCD20lRvoqnCBqP_gp_xtOPTbk6WMy8-tJtGSqYJIumrCziJKoc3FgH9trsg6h9MtH56I9GnDJV1uNqR4Vh4jkLrJiP-oCkpcRk51NS0B8GSVBCa9uqqUVHeC87DU3jUzWcvr5PEQ-biuvukyc=


At this time I plan on running Hatred (with Generosity), Clarity (lvl1), HoP and Haste.

But if I at some point find/farm an Alpha's Howl, I might skip going towards Charisma all together and just get the small mana-reservation-node by Hex Master to run Hatred (with Generosity), Clarity (lvl1), HoP and Haste on that.

I will also plan to get myself a 6-link staff and Doedroe's Damning to use 3 curses (TC, Enf and Frostbite) and drop Enhance.

Well, anyway, I was mostly posting to hear your thoughts on the new tree and to let you know that I really enjoy playing this build (although I've never srvived to over level 70 - ssfhcbtw) but got carried away...
"
kruff wrote:
Fantastic news that ... got carried away...

Hey! Thanks for the post! I like your tree! You have a cool sounding setup! And decent health for all the mana reservation and curse commitment you have! I suggest you use Windscream or WindShriek instead of Doedre's Damning. You get more bang for your buck...unless there was something you really liked about the ring besides the additional curse. Let me know how the build goes as you progress. You have quite a different layout to me and I'd love to hear how it goes for you! (I'm an aura freak :).)

I really like the new tree. They added lots of survivability on the tree which was the biggest downfall to minions...especially Zombies. There was no damage mitigation and the life regen was too low. This new tree gives sooooo much more damage and survivability that I can make my zombie links purely defensive and I'll have over double the damage that I did in 3.3 (and damage wasn't an issue). That on top of way more survivability (along with the sexy sounding Holy Relic...I think we'll have a great league this go around :).

I'm really excited for this league and the minion changes!

Thanks again for the kind words. I'll post my tree in a few hours and we'll be able to compare notes :).
https://www.ForeverExiled.com/: Forever Exiled, A Path of Exile Podcast
Last edited by Wrecker_of_Days#7691 on Sep 27, 2018, 1:12:41 AM
The build is now completely up to date with the exception of the videos (I haven't started playing yet ;) ). All links are 3.4. Have fun! Let me know what you think!
https://www.ForeverExiled.com/: Forever Exiled, A Path of Exile Podcast
Last edited by Wrecker_of_Days#7691 on Sep 27, 2018, 1:12:57 AM
This is a fantastic effort triniparty, I have to say that this build/concept is really well done.
Great concept, great write-up, very detailed and concise explanations.

I'm still fairly new to the game, and really looking forward to the Delve content. However, I'm someone with very limited playtime that is prone to tons of interruptions - so I've been really pouring over the forums looking for the best "casual" build with great survivability (and minimal twitch button-mashing needed). Yours is the best by far!
Even as a newbie I was able to follow along with your explanations, and really benefit from the step-by-step gem and gear sections.

Please keep this thread updated as you continue to develop the build through Delve, and I'll be really interested to see how your tree comes out.

Again, a sincere thanks for all your time and effort in making this thread, it's very much appreciated!
"
AbsoluteZero45967 wrote:
This is a fantastic effort triniparty, I have to say that this build/concept is really well done.
Great concept, great write-up, very detailed and concise explanations.

I'm still fairly new to the game, and really looking forward to the Delve content. However, I'm someone with very limited playtime that is prone to tons of interruptions - so I've been really pouring over the forums looking for the best "casual" build with great survivability (and minimal twitch button-mashing needed). Yours is the best by far!
Even as a newbie I was able to follow along with your explanations, and really benefit from the step-by-step gem and gear sections.

Please keep this thread updated as you continue to develop the build through Delve, and I'll be really interested to see how your tree comes out.

Again, a sincere thanks for all your time and effort in making this thread, it's very much appreciated!
That is a very generous and thoughtful post. Thanks for taking the time to do it :).

I just finished adding 3.4's passive tree (and everything else that was waiting for the update) just as you posted. :)

Please feel free to give me feedback on the build throughout the league. I'm always up for improvement.

Thanks again for your kindness.
https://www.ForeverExiled.com/: Forever Exiled, A Path of Exile Podcast
Last edited by Wrecker_of_Days#7691 on Sep 27, 2018, 1:13:25 AM
Also, my video links will not be updated quickly :(. Life won't have me start the league until a few more days from now, and I've also decided to teach myself how to make my own filter in notepad. Eeeeek! I won't forget though. I'm excited to show the build for those that needs video proof of efficiency :).
https://www.ForeverExiled.com/: Forever Exiled, A Path of Exile Podcast
Last edited by Wrecker_of_Days#7691 on Sep 27, 2018, 1:17:26 AM
Thanks so much for this guide! I am excited to try this build as my league starter for Delve. I do not have post concussion syndrome, but my playstyle is very similar to yours. I prefer reliable over min-maxing, and with minions and MTX, I lose sight of my cursor on screen a lot.
triniparty, thank you very much. I had problems in previous leagues because I have potato pc, now I hope your build will help me with ending all acts and atlas.
Last edited by Riddlenigma96#1051 on Aug 31, 2018, 3:28:59 PM

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info