{3.10} Speaker for the Dead | The Mass Minion Summoner | League Starter, Leveling Guide 💀

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D3VILBR1 wrote:

Do you have any lvling guide, step by step?

There actually is one. Guess you didn't find it :P

Take this: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2284653

Hitting yellow maps here and build is performing really well. Great league starter and great for the league mechanic. Tons of fun too.

I did have a question regarding fourth ascendancy. I notice Flesh Binder is listed as optional. Would you ever take Commander of Darkness instead for the flat DPS increase to all your minions? It's showing as around a 10% increase to my spectres in POB right now so I was just wondering if that might be worth it.

Thanks again for a great guide and build.

Am I missing something about the cast-on-damage-taken portion? I manually activate both my auras because neither is below the required level to be auto-cast, which I guess makes sense for damage purposes, but I don't have any space left on my actionbars.

Are you meant to juggle auras and consecrate back every wipe?

@ everyone:
Yesterday I made it to maps. While leveling, Dash proved to be a great help to scoot along, so much so I found myself forgetting to Quicksilver. Its range is shorter than Flame Dash, however, so there were times I was frustrated being unable to jump across certain things, like the rivers in The Riverways.

Once I had Shield Charge, oh boy was that a game-changer. The speed improvements combined with animation canceling of the impact made me feel like I was skating at a breakneck pace. Incredibly fast. I highly recommend using Shield Charge as soon as you can. It no longer needs a high attack speed just to feel decent. Don't hold the button down, though. Click it while only holding down Move Only, so your character runs forward the moment Shield Charge impacts. Click again and repeat. Doing this cancels the impact animation, exchanging the wait time for running. It feels really good, because you're always moving forward.

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@ Pendji:

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Pendji wrote:

Am I missing something about the cast-on-damage-taken portion? I manually activate both my auras because neither is below the required level to be auto-cast, which I guess makes sense for damage purposes, but I don't have any space left on my actionbars.

Are you meant to juggle auras and consecrate back every wipe?

Cast When Damage Taken cannot support auras, so it doesn't matter that Hatred is linked to it. Check the gem's description:

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"Each supported spell skill will track damage you take, and be triggered when the total damage taken reaches a threshold. Cannot support skills used by totems, traps, or mines. Vaal skills, channelling skills, and skills that reserve mana cannot be triggered."

Once you've turned on an aura, it does not need to stay on your action bar. If you die, then you will need to put them back on your bar, reactivate them, and then take them back off your bar. It's a bit annoying, I know, but it's all we can do.

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@ D3VILBR1:

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D3VILBR1 wrote:

Do you have any lvling guide, step by step?

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DieKao wrote:

There actually is one. Guess you didn't find it :P

Take this: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2284653

Yep, you can find the Leveling Guide in the third section of the second post, under Acolyte Guides.

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@ Mahler16:

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Mahler16 wrote:

I notice Flesh Binder is listed as optional. Would you ever take Commander of Darkness instead for the flat DPS increase to all your minions?

I'm glad to hear things are going so well!

Flesh Binder was chosen simply because it's our only 'reliable' defensive ascendancy. More damage is fine, but we have plenty, so it shouldn't come at the expense of defense.

Because we use Generosity on Hatred, we wouldn't be able to personally benefit from the other effects of Commander of Darkness without a level 1 Precision, which means dropping something else to make socket space.

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@ DieKao:

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DieKao wrote:

I can't argue with that. I also decided to say fuck it to ED+Contagion and just roll this one again, since it will work for the monolith mechanic as well. The screen coverage is huge, you're constantly moving while attacking at the same time, which means your minions are 100% aggressive all the time, which means they will clear the time-prisons really well AND this build is also extremely good at stationary objectives (like any spectre build), which I remember from leagues like Abyss. The Vaal Skeletons can be placed just before clicking the monolith or maybe a couple seconds after and they will greet the mobs when time unwinds again. Which means you're super save against being swarmed by 300 mobs.

This build will also be niche, since everyone is either playing melee or ED/trapper.

I also need to make it to the Hall of Fame this time around ;-)

Expect some videos along the way as well. I had fun doing them the last time.

Yep! This is a really great league mechanic for our build. I look forward to seeing your name in the top rankings this league! =oD

Essence Drain + Contagion have very satisfying chain clear, so they should perform great against this league mechanic, too. You'd be more vulnerable the moment everything first wakes up, though. The last time I played ED, the one-two spell use felt very clunky, which ultimately turned me off. Now that we have skill queuing in 3.7, it probably feels much better since you don't have to get the timing down manually. I felt its biggest weakness, however, was single target damage, since there were limited ways to scale it.

I made a Soulrend MoM Trickster last league. Fantastic clear, loved the seeking projectiles (TL2 Embermage's Prismatic Bolts stacked with all three elemental Brands, those were the days), but like my time with ED I felt single target was lacking. Even with dual NACDOT wands, wither from Blight totems, debuff from Vaal Blight, Despair and Temp Chains on Bane, Malevolence, Arcane Surge, and even Frenzy Charges, it all amounted to:

DoT / Shaper Damage
414k / 227k Soulrend
145k / 79k Bane
212k / 116k Blight x20
166k / 91k Essence Drain on L20 CWDT (for regen)
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937k / 513k total

While the DPS is passable, the set-up requires four skills, and single target is very slow compared to Speaker. Mind you, this was my own build with purely self-found gear, so there's no doubt an unlimited budget could easily push these results much higher with more sources of increased damage (505% on my build), NACDOT (106% on my build), Vaal Righteous Fire, Aspect of the Spider, Zealotry, and other stuff. But without crit, penetration/resist lowering, multi-hits/stacking, conversion, x-as-extra-y, or cast speed factoring in, the upper limits of chaos degens isn't as high. In exchange, they are somewhat safer: reflect immune, bypasses all shields, and freedom to dodge without losing much DPS.

I might start an ED character later on to see how it measures up against the league mechanic.

Hi all,
I chose this build as a starter this season, no regrets ! Very smooth to play.

I'm one of those who don't like charged dash so much so i'm trying to use cyclone instead, maybe we can do something nice there.

Anyone has advice for this or any insight on how to set it up ?

Thanks !

If you haven't made a note of it, you may want to mention that while you can now use Shield Charge with a wand in your mainhand, it won't proc Fortify. We're not sure if that's intended or a bug, but that's how it functions at the moment.

I'm wondering is this build by any chance is viable for console?
Afraid not because it has too many active skills (8, i think?) I'm not sure there are so many buttons :D

Could you please advise?

Hi again!

Great guide. The build really start to make sense once you get charged dash and some ascendancy. Everything melts and your are constantly mobile with charge dash or shield charge.


I found the unique Throat Grabber

Is it any good?

Or shall I just buy a cheap 1c shaper claw with poison?

I want to be able to use GMP on Charged Dash asap so it will cover the screen quicker. Good for Legion monoliths I think. To be able to drop Poison gem for Charged dash, I also need added chaos damage to spells somewhere?


Also when do you get the other spectre than flame sentinel?
I cant find the reference for it. Is it only if you have 3 spectres?

Thanks a bunch for the guide!

@ WAAZABI:

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WAAZABI wrote:

Hi all,
I chose this build as a starter this season, no regrets ! Very smooth to play.

I'm one of those who don't like charged dash so much so i'm trying to use cyclone instead, maybe we can do something nice there.

Anyone has advice for this or any insight on how to set it up ?

Thanks !

Just replace Charged Dash with Cyclone. Nothing else really needs to change. Try to get as much movement speed as possible.

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@ Sorator13:

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Sorator13 wrote:

If you haven't made a note of it, you may want to mention that while you can now use Shield Charge with a wand in your mainhand, it won't proc Fortify. We're not sure if that's intended or a bug, but that's how it functions at the moment.

They're aware, and it'll be fixed:

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Bex_GGG wrote:

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mannymota2 wrote:

Shield charge doesn't activate fortify with my wand

The team is aware of this and working toward a fix.

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@ ignalion:

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ignalion wrote:

I'm wondering is this build by any chance is viable for console?
Afraid not because it has too many active skills (8, i think?) I'm not sure there are so many buttons :D

Could you please advise?

As mentioned in Overview, most of our skills are permanent effects, so after we set them up and cast them once we usually don't need to use them again. It's fine to take them off your action bar until you need them. The only skills we consistently use are:

1. Charged Dash - Main skill.
2. Shield Charge - Dodge and travel.
3. Skeletons - When we need to kill a boss or a tanky rare.
4. Vaal Skeletons - When we need to kill a boss or for reinforcements.


The skills we setup once:

1. Raise Zombie - Used only when we first log in or if they die.
2. Holy Relic - Used only when we first log in or if it dies.
3. Raise Spectre - Used only if they die.
4. Hatred - Used only if we die.
5. Herald of Agony - Used only if we die, or turned off if we need a bigger mana pool in a No Regen map.

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@ Rakio:

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Rakio wrote:

I found [The Wasp Nest claw]. Is it any good?

Poison on Hit from a weapon only applies to Attacks with that weapon. Meaning it does not apply to Spells like Ball Lightning. None of the other mods on Wasp Nest affect us, either, so there's no reason to use it.

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Rakio wrote:

To be able to drop Poison gem for Charged dash, I also need added chaos damage to spells somewhere?

You need "Added Chaos Damage to Spells" so Ball Lightning can Poison. The most convenient source is from a Hypnotic Eye jewel.

Poison only scales from the Physical and Chaos Damage of a hit. Having 0 of both means 0 poison damage, and thus no poison is ever inflicted. Ball Lightning only deals Lightning Damage by default, so we have to add Chaos Damage to it.

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Rakio wrote:

Also when do you get the other spectre than flame sentinel?
I cant find the reference for it. Is it only if you have 3 spectres?

We use Flame Sentinels from Act 3's Solaris Temple while leveling, until we get to Act 8's Lunaris Concourse or Harbour Bridge, where we can get Frost Sentinels. We use 2 Frost Sentinels.

If you happen to get +1 Spectre boots, which are not necessary, you can add one Solar Guard to the mix (Act 8's Harbour Bridge or Solaris Concourse). The only reason for this is to make use of its Fire Damage and Elemental Proliferation, so we get Ignite Proliferations. Monsters who die to degens like Ignite count as our personal kills, which have a chance of triggering the Power Charge mod on our shield.

Be sure to read Spectres 101 in Minions Explained, if you missed it.

Thanks for your patience and effort @Herantic!

I have read your guides, FAQ and leveling thread several times. Quite a lot of things to remember and take in to a relatively new player. Minions rocks and this build really shines now I got the proper/bought starting gear at lvl 62.

Such a huge difference in having GMP and Frost Sentinels!
And the shield being so cheap at 1c. Couldnt get RRG though only RRR, so I added a Stone golem for now. Any other alternatives for a red gem?

Rest of the gear were purchased for 0.5-2c max but made huge difference. Found a functional gloves with poison and faster projeciles that works for now. Wont need the added chaos dmg jewel for a while but will look for it later.

The Wasp Nest was pretty worthless as I discovered. Did some experimenting after my post.


My main concern now is how this build impacts the performance of the game when I discover monoliths and start to spam lightning balls. Probably my 10 year old i7 CPU that is pushed to its limit...

Would switching to Culling Strike instead of GMP for charged dash do anything? I can try the other alternatives later (Fortify and the wall gem)