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

@ Downswing:

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Downswing wrote:

I felt trapped, bcuz there wasnt huge improvements coming anymore from gear which would make a big difference, but my perfomance was lacking a lot.

It's times like these that I wish I had footage of your gameplay so I could better see what the problem might be.

I really need to record me facing Guardians, Shaper, and Uber Elder, so I can point at those to winnow out problems in tactics, build execution, or expectations.

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Downswing wrote:

But with this build, which probably does more dps at the end, but you have to keep track of your skeletons sticking on target and you have to ball light occasionally and this all is required, because otherwise my dps will drop significantly, whereas with just spectres basically nothing is required from me to keep dps going and I can put 100% of my focus to dodging spells

Oh, definitely, this is a more active Summoner style. It comes down to taste and comfort. A passive style is great for some, but very boring for others.

Just know that at any time you can scale back Speaker's active style in favor of a passive dodge-focused style. You can gem-swap Spectres to give them more damage instead of utility. Same with Skeletons, now that Multistrike is effectively 51% more damage, you can take a small DPS hit to not need to worry about conditionals like Bleed or Poison on a boss.

This build is kind of unique in that it actually straddles both active and passive styles. Because of how Ball Lightning is interwoven into Charged Dash, casting and moving/dodging are built into the same action. So you end up doing the same thing as most summoners, moving around, but get so much more out of it (debuffs, life on hit, Virulence). Getting used to Charged Dash, though, that can be tricky.

Unlike an SRS or pure Skeleton build, we don't have to constantly stop to cast while mapping. Unlike a pure Spectre build, we don't have to worry about their positioning or if they retreat or if they get killed (Ele reflect map says hi). Unlike a pure Herald of Agony build, we don't have to be frustrated when it makes bad calls on what to target. Unlike a pure Phantasm build, we don't have to deal with generating or replacing them.

We're not the best at bossing. We're not the best at clearing. But we do a damn good job at both all the same. We're adaptable. We are a jack, and a relatively cheap one at that, who can still do all content. We won't be the absolute fastest, but we won't cost 200ex either.

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@ Rakio:

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Rakio wrote:

My zombies (9) keep dying during hard legion encounters.
What can I do to keep them alive? Or replace them with something else?

Finding shaper claw with +1 gems is impossible now it seems. I dont really want to lose the LoH from claws, since I have seen +1 gems on other shaper weapons. Lvl 4 empower is super expensive (4-5 exs) and I only got a lvl 3 now.

21/20 Zombie gem, +1 claw (or +2 support catarina craft), and lvl4 Empower would give your Zombies another 4 levels. They'd go from 12.7k life to 13.9k with 20% quality, then to 20.2k with 4 levels. That's 46% more life from levels, and 9% more life from quality. More life means their Regeneration and Life Leech are that much more effective as well.

A Kingmaker Animated Guardian would give them Fortify, but then you'll have to worry about keeping it alive (FAQ covers more about this).

If keeping Zombies alive is proving to be too much hassle right now, you can drop them. A Chaos Golem would give you a bit of the Physical Damage Reduction back (4% vs 8-10%)(or 5% @ L22). As for the HoA link, since you're using Enfeeble instead of Projectile Weakness, Pierce Support will help if you have the mana to spare (110% multiplier).

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Rakio wrote:

Hard legion encounters is the only thing that kills me regularly now.

That doesn't sound good!

Looking over your build, you're doing well so far! (Minion Damage isn't on your helm, so use that gem instead of Bloodlust or Vile Toxins for more reliable damage. Belt craft is an odd choice, since we don't get much out of ES or Armour.)

If you could squeeze in another 200 flat life and 20% life, you'll gain +1k life, which should help quite a bit.

Is your Fire Resistance only 60%? If so, cap that ASAP.

The Life on Hit from Ball Lightning is not to be underestimated, but if it's causing performance issues for you then there's not much that can be done about that, aside from a system upgrade.

It's not unusual for new League monsters to be overtuned. Pay close attention to what killed you, so in the future you can notice them sooner and take preemptive action. There are several types of long-range AOE effects that pierce through our minion wall, negating our biggest defensive advantage. You can avoid these, but you gotta keep a sharp lookout. Sometimes it's best to make a tactical retreat so the enemy groups up while giving chase, then circle-strafe around the group while your minions flex on their faces.

In any kind of dangerous situation, don't let yourself stay surrounded, since dodging one hazard can waltz you face-first into another (a downside of minions is the targeting direction of monsters is less predictable, as in not always aimed at your current/last location, which lessens pressure on you but can turn the area into a minefield of uncertainty when AOE is involved). You want danger to come from only one direction whenever possible.

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Rakio wrote:

Btw with the Bloodgrip corruption and applying an additional curse - where would the course come from? Another auto-curse ring? Manual casting?

Second curse would come from a glove corruption. The #2 pair of gloves shown in Gem Links & Gear Examples is what I'm talking about.

A CWDT-triggered curse is another option.

Manually casting is possible, but I would only do that against bosses. You don't want to waste time fussing on trash mobs.

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@ amadnei:

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amadnei wrote:

hey ! I was wondering if its possible to use energy armor over hp ?

Hybrid? Yes.
CI? No, unless you make significant changes.

The main issues are:

1) No mana for Discipline. An Aul's Uprising amulet that makes Hatred or Discipline free would solve the problem, but these can be pretty expensive.

2) Victario's Charity has crap ES. The shield slot is a huge source of ES (~400), but ours only has 26. You could drop Charity, but it's comparable to an entire damage gem for all our minions. It's a lot of damage to pass up.

3) We want specific things on many of our slots, so adding high ES to our search terms cuts down on our pool of options. For example, we might be able to find a ~200 ES helmet with +3 & Minion Damage, but probably not a 400 ES one. In short, good ES gear that meets our needs will be far rarer and possibly very expensive.

4) We would need to drop Acrobatics. This is worth 67%/43% more life against attacks/spells from rapid hits. ES, though, would be better against singular large hits from bosses.


There is some good news: A +30 ES on Hit Watcher's Eye would be fantastic recovery with our Ball Lightning spam; and on the passive tree we're very near all the major ES clusters (with points to take them coming from reclaiming Acrobatics).

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@ Di-Dorval:

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Di-Dorval wrote:

Do you take flesh binder for the phys dmg reduction? Both other options seems to offer more dps?

Yes. Taking 10% reduced physical damage is like having 11% more life against it (1/0.9). If you stack other sources of Physical Damage Reduction, it becomes far more potent (e.g. Chaos Golem, +Zombies craft, +Minimum Endurance Charges craft, Basalt Flask). For example, 50% reduction halves damage, meaning you double your effective life (1/0.5).

The Necromancer ascendancy doesn't offer much in the way of reliable or unique defenses. Flesh Binder is really our only option in this regard. More damage might be nice, but personally I'd rather survive a one-shot than kill a fraction of a second faster:

30% increased minion damage = ~6% more damage.
12% increased attack/cast speed = ~6% more damage.

We have plenty of damage, so defense takes priority.

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Di-Dorval wrote:

Also people talking about using cyclone instead.. how do you live without a teleport skill to jump over edges and chasms? I would be going insane or wasting another slot for flame charge.

Since movement skills now activate immediately, Faster Attacks/Faster Casting aren't anywhere near necessary anymore. All it does now is cut down on the delay at the end before you can use the skill again (which is still nice, but you probably won't notice it until you pay attention). So you could drop Faster Attacks on Shield Charge to make room for Flame Dash.

Right now I'm testing alternating between the two (Charge -> Dash -> Charge -> Dash) for greater speed, while favoring Dash when there's a lot of obstacles and favoring Charge when there might be enemies ahead (so I will see them on approach instead of just popping in front of them and giving me little time to react).

This is the coolest build guide ive ever seen.

Hi!

I've been playing your build for a while.

Question!

What's the purpose of the victario's charity shield? The frenzy/power charges practically never proc for me.

Anyone having the same problem?

Thanks!

@ OGbigwhale:

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OGbigwhale wrote:

This is the coolest build guide ive ever seen.

Thanks! =oD

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@ FenixLeeYiRen:

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FenixLeeYiRen wrote:

What's the purpose of the victario's charity shield? The frenzy/power charges practically never proc for me.

You don't get charges, but your minions will if they're within 40 radius of you when your Balls of Lightning are hitting enemies.

Charges have a much bigger effect on minions. 3 Frenzy Charges on a minion gives them 45% increased attack/cast speed, 15% increased movement speed, and 12% more damage.

We don't worry about the Power Charge mod. 3 Power Charges would give a minion 600% increased critical strike chance (=35% chance to crit from a 5% default base, but with a damage multiplier of only 30%), so it'd be nice, but unless you get a Culling Strike weapon corruption it's unlikely to proc reliably.

@ RivvenStarkker:
You PMed me, but however I try to submit my reply I get an error message. My only option left is to post my response here in the hopes that you'll see it.

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thanks so much for your guide, its been great for me as i learn to love poe :)
I had a couple of questions and i would love to hear what you think about it.

I read the faq and searched the info list so hopefully this is all new.

1, about the hungry loop, the only option you didn't lay out was the herald of agony. I don't know what would be good to add but, since its great with 3 slots, its potential with 5 must be better? just wondering what your buildup of that would look like.

also i found a queens decree, which seemed like it would be nice if i could 6 slot it, so it could cover the sockets of sword and shield. I really want a 4th spectre :)

anyway thanks for everything you do,

Herald of Agony reserves mana. The more supports you add, the more mana it reserves. Three supports already push it to the limits when we have Hatred, so five would definitely reserve too much. You'd either need several sources of reservation reduction, an Aul's Uprising amulet that makes Hatred free, Coming Calamity chest armour that caps Herald reservation, or you'd have to drop Hatred (which is worth ~43%-65% more damage for our army).

Queen's Decree is no good. I've covered it before, but it looks like I haven't added it to the FAQ nor is it labeled in the Reply Index. Drat. Quick answer is it's not worth losing Victario's Charity or the +1 Maim claw.

Fewer Spectres also mean souls for Unending Hunger are less split (40 souls split four ways = 10 each or 50% cast speed each, while split only two ways = 20 souls each or 100% cast speed each).

If you really want a fourth, you can use a Vis Mortis chest armour. I wouldn't recommend it because of the sacrifice in life, but going hybrid life/ES is an option.

Please ask any further questions in the build thread. The reason is covered in the FAQ's very first section: "If I have questions, what's the best way to reach you?"

Is there a good alternate for Frost Sentinels because as much fun as this build is, I get horrid frame rates. (I have a GTX 1080TI and i7-4690k) but there's just so much going on screen lol.

Would Kitava's Heralds work well?

Man I want to like this build, I really do. It just has a lot of trouble with the late game content. Im literally running the same gear plus on some stuff and there are legion mobs that will just 1 tap kill you from full screen. I love the concept and really wish this could work, but I'm just not seeing how it can. I've been stuck at 91 farming extremely slow in T13 for awhile. It dies so much and is so rippy on certain stuff that if your not paying attention you get 1 tapped. I guess the witch is truly dead which is unfortunate based on how fun this was for awhile.

@ marvinpunz:

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Is there a good alternate for Frost Sentinels because as much fun as this build is, I get horrid frame rates. (I have a GTX 1080TI and i7-4690k) but there's just so much going on screen lol.

Would Kitava's Heralds work well?

FAQ covers this.

Kitava's Heralds should be okay, but not great. They can inflict Bleed, which lightens the burden off you for supporting your Bloodlust Skeletons. They're very tanky with 360% base life, which means you could probably get away with not taking the Soul Weaver ascendancy. Dealing Physical Damage means they'll benefit from Hatred and can thus Freeze.

All this aside, their downside is extremely limited range (mainly melee) and area coverage (projectiles are mortars and not used very often). They should deal decent enough damage to spawn Phantasms, but they won't be spawning them very far out like Frost Sentinels.

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@ FallenLee:

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FallenLee wrote:

Man I want to like this build, I really do. It just has a lot of trouble with the late game content. Im literally running the same gear plus on some stuff and there are legion mobs that will just 1 tap kill you from full screen. I love the concept and really wish this could work, but I'm just not seeing how it can. I've been stuck at 91 farming extremely slow in T13 for awhile. It dies so much and is so rippy on certain stuff that if your not paying attention you get 1 tapped. I guess the witch is truly dead which is unfortunate based on how fun this was for awhile.

It shouldn't have trouble in red maps. You need more life. 5.5k will be a bit risky in red maps. You don't want DPS jewels unless they have max life. Check out Passive Tree #1, it'll give you far more life.

You are getting 236 life from 8 jewel sockets, compared to my build which had 362 life from 9 jewel sockets (difference of 126 life; abyssal jewels are -10 max life now, unfortunately, so I'd lose ~70 life here if not for legacy gear). My build is at 6815 life, yet compared to you it only has 16 more life from items, 60 life from +5 levels, and 30 life from the tree.

1878 * 2.95 = 5540 life vs.
2110 * 3.23 = 6815

(Since my helm slot has 0 life, I could add another 323 life, from a 100 life helmet, for a total of 7138 total life.)

You could drop Foul Vision (26 life) and Hollow Leer (30 life), then take back 6 points from the Scion jewel sockets (Shield Charge level will take a hit from losing 20 Strength unless you get some on an item). Investing those points into 5% life nodes would give you another 30% life, but it looks like you haven't taken "Discipline and Training" (30 life, 10% life) nor the 6% node after "Devotion". So you'd net 36% and 30 life (pretty much another Belly of the Beast) in exchange for 56 life and 18%/17% attack/cast speed (=~9% more DPS). You'd have 1852 flat life and 231% life, for a total of 6130 life. That's a net gain of 590 life. If you could get 100 flat life on your helm slot, that'd be worth another 331 life, putting you at 6461.

Life and Mitigation are key to avoiding one-shots. Bloodgrip and Life on Spell Hit give us solid recovery, but they're meaningless if our life can't take the first hit. Alternate between Charged Dash and Shield Charge to keep Fortify up.

Lastly, keep moving. There are a lot of harsh area effects from Legion monsters to be wary of.

Thank you for the tips! Ill get on getting a few levels and replacing the jewels. As I said I love this build and it is super fun to play so thank you for the advice.

I've also been getting one shot randomly in t16 elder maps so I've done a bit of shifting around to spec for survivability. I socketed Enfeeble on Mark of Submission ring and Magna Eclipses with balanced resists for The Wise Oak Flask. Obviously stack as much HP as you can. I considered using Lioneye's Remorse for 350 more HP than Magna Eclipses but I thought a 1k ele shield combined with 10% reduced ele damage from The Wise Oak flaks was more effective.



If you want to use an alternate shield to Victario's Charity you have to have a different source of frenzy charges for your minions. For me I have a Poacher's Mark on hit ring which works great.



Other's have commented about a Cyclone CWC setup and I liked it at first but since you're in the middle of everything you're more at risk to taking hits. Then I swapped for the original Charged Dash setup and I feel it's way better. You're out of the way from danger and since I use Kitava's Heralds (melee minions) I can easily direct all my minions to a certain direction/enemy.

I tried the soulrend setup w/ added lightning damage mod and I like it much better than ball lightning (mostly because it's less visual clutter and a lot less loud).

My zombies also have been dying (I don't really like keeping track of my minions) so I swapped out Shield Charge/Fortify/Faster Attacks for Animate Guardian/Flame Dash/Minion Life Support. My Animate Guardian has Kingmaker so all my minions have perma-Fortify. Since Magna Eclipses has +2 to level of Socketed Gems, Animate Guardian has more HP. Combine this with an "of Animation" flask and my minions never die.



You could also look into the Corrupted Soul timeless jewel. I went from 6.4K HP + 200 ES to 6.3k HP + 1.2k ES. There's a notable right next to it for only 1 point which gets you a nice minion life/damage node. So for 2 points I think this is really effective.