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

BUILD UPDATE
As of Patch 3.6.2, Spell Cascade works with triggered spells. This opens up the option to replace Ball Lightning + GMP with Firestorm + Spell Cascade if desired. Just don't use Solar Guards or Added Fire, due to EE. This puts Lightning-based Spectres back on the table, like the Slave Driver or Risen Vaal Advocate. Compared to Ball Lightning, Firestorm covers far less area but offers significantly more possible hits per second, improving recovery from Life Gain on Spell Hit by several fold against bosses.

In other news, there is currently a very overpowered interaction between Melee Splash and Frost Wall. Single-target melee attacks are now Strikes, where they will hit anything the attack physically passes over. This means Melee Splash can be triggered multiple times if enemies are close together, and thus act as a damage multiplier. A Strike passing through Frost Wall counts as hitting something. In fact, Frost Wall is composed of multiple sections, each of which will count as a hit and trigger multiple Splashes. And all of this works with our Skeletons.

Frost Wall starts at 28 units wide, increasing to 56 units @L20, and gains width in increments of 7 units every four levels. This, along with how it's animated, leads me to believe that each section of the wall is probably 3.5 units added to either end of the wall.

Each Splash deals 59% damage. Just hitting the wall once makes it as strong as Bloodlust. If the wall sections are only 3.5 units in radius, then the odds of Striking at least two or more sections are good. That'd be 118%+ damage. Use Spell Cascade on Frost Wall, and now you've got 3 walls.

As you might imagine, this quickly becomes a stupid amount of damage with 10+ Skeletons and 23 Vaal Skeleton Warriors.

This will likely be fixed eventually, since the same interaction with Frost Wall and Kinetic Blast/Lightning Arrow were removed in the past. GGG has started to adopt a policy of not nerfing things mid-league, so odds are good you can use this interaction until the end of Legion. For this reason I won't be making Frost Wall part of the main build.

By dropping Spirit Offering and CWDT, you can make room for Frost Wall and Spell Cascade. You can fit in Melee Splash on Skeletons by replacing either Bloodlust, Vile Toxins, or MPD (I'd keep this one just to ensure at least some guaranteed, non-conditional damage). Dropping Bloodlust means you don't need to worry about having Chance to Bleed on your gloves.


Art by Nate Rose

Just stoping to say good work ! Its cool to see dedicated people that keep sharing and providing ressources for everyone. I like minions builds, this one looks like a classic one but optimised to the limit and still keeping it "simple"

Have a good day everyone

I'm new to PoE and I decided to use your build. Your leveling guide and the other tips helped me a lot to get into the game.

I think I made really good progress so far because I completed my first T15 map (also made it rare and corrupted :)) today without any problems.
Yellow Elder, lvl 70 Atziri and Uber Lab are also not that difficult to complete. And when it comes to maps, the only modifier I don't like is no mana regeneration but it's doable with a mana flask.

Since I'm fairly new and don't have that much currency I'm trying to improve my gear bit for bit. But I somewhat reached a dead end. Belly of the Beast is just too expensive with all those off color sockets so I decided to go for a Vis Mortis instead. Currently I'm trying to get a 6L on a spare one.
But I think I really could profit from more eHP. I'm currently at about 5300 HP and 600 ES. But I don't really know how to improve that much further without spending lots of exas I don't have on gear.

Any general suggestions? If you want to look at my gear you can do that at
https://pob.party/share/araritorehikam or https://pastebin.com/cQu9sJPe

What do you do when your zombies die in a boss fight? There are usually no corpses around to get new ones.


Edit: I found a way to replace my crimson jewel with a ghastly eye by also replacing the enchant on my belt.

"

Whispering Oculus
Ghastly Eye Jewel
Unique ID: 30a4c3cd8c266f679ed4ecfe22ba5b3d224b22f0ad8b51f42387787f97c88b53
Item Level: 80
LevelReq: 59
Implicits: 0
+34 to maximum Life
+29 to maximum Mana
+10% to Fire and Cold Resistances
Minions have 4% increased Attack Speed
Minions have 4% increased Cast Speed
Corrupted

"

Hercanic wrote:

BUILD UPDATE
In other news, there is currently a very overpowered interaction between Melee Splash and Frost Wall. Single-target melee attacks are now Strikes, where they will hit anything the attack physically passes over. This means Melee Splash can be triggered multiple times if enemies are close together, and thus act as a damage multiplier. A Strike passing through Frost Wall counts as hitting something. In fact, Frost Wall is composed of multiple sections, each of which will count as a hit and trigger multiple Splashes. And all of this works with our Skeletons.

Frost Wall starts at 28 units wide, increasing to 56 units @L20, and gains width in increments of 7 units every four levels. This, along with how it's animated, leads me to believe that each section of the wall is probably 3.5 units added to either end of the wall.

Each Splash deals 59% damage. Just hitting the wall once makes it as strong as Bloodlust. If the wall sections are only 3.5 units in radius, then the odds of Striking at least two or more sections are good. That'd be 118%+ damage. Use Spell Cascade on Frost Wall, and now you've got 3 walls.

As you might imagine, this quickly becomes a stupid amount of damage with 10+ Skeletons and 23 Vaal Skeleton Warriors.

This will likely be fixed eventually, since the same interaction with Frost Wall and Kinetic Blast/Lightning Arrow were removed in the past. GGG has started to adopt a policy of not nerfing things mid-league, so odds are good you can use this interaction until the end of Legion. For this reason I won't be making Frost Wall part of the main build.

By dropping Spirit Offering and CWDT, you can make room for Frost Wall and Spell Cascade. You can fit in Melee Splash on Skeletons by replacing either Bloodlust, Vile Toxins, or MPD (I'd keep this one just to ensure at least some guaranteed, non-conditional damage). Dropping Bloodlust means you don't need to worry about having Chance to Bleed on your gloves.


How do I use frost wall effectively? When, where and for what enemies would I use it?

I did it! My first level 100! Thanks for the super fun build! I'm a huge fan of minion builds and my previous fav was flame golems (played it twice) and I think this build takes the cake.

Just wanted to show off my items before I start vaaling because why not.



Since I hit 100, instead of starting a new character I think I'm gonna do some deep delving. Maybe 1000 depth? Anyways at this point I'm min-maxing so I paid a crazy amount just for a HoA enchant on an elder bone helmet and made this.



Also in delving I don't find myself using skeletons all that often since I'm not bossing (like at all) I swapped in the 3 support gems for CWDT+bone offering+duration and Bone Sculpter for Mistress of Sacrifice.

@ Ild_Heim:

"

Ild_Heim wrote:

Just stoping to say good work ! Its cool to see dedicated people that keep sharing and providing ressources for everyone. I like minions builds, this one looks like a classic one but optimised to the limit and still keeping it "simple"

Have a good day everyone

Thank you for your kind words of encouragement!

---

@ Camu:

"

I'm new to PoE ... I completed my first T15 map (also made it rare and corrupted :)) today without any problems.

For someone new to PoE, congrats on making it to T15 maps already!

"

And when it comes to maps, the only modifier I don't like is no mana regeneration but it's doable with a mana flask.

Yeah, No Mana Regen is annoying. I usually disable Herald of Agony and swap in a Mana Flask.

Although I never bothered to set this up, another approach is to use a low-level Mana Flask to give yourself a constant trickle of mana without ever filling up your mana globe and thus ending the flask's effect.

You can also completely eliminate the problem of mana if you ever manage to get a Gemini Claw with the +1 Maim stats we want (or just Maim, then craft +2 Support Gems from the Syndicate Mastermind unveil), since it gives Mana on Hit.

"

Belly of the Beast is just too expensive with all those off color sockets

You read the bit about how to use the crafting bench and socket recipe to get off-colors, right?

"

so I decided to go for a Vis Mortis instead. Currently I'm trying to get a 6L on a spare one.
But I think I really could profit from more eHP. I'm currently at about 5300 HP and 600 ES.

Any decent 6L ES chest with high Life should be fine. They're usually much cheaper than a 6L Vis Mortis. Although another Spectre might be tempting, we don't really need it. Unholy Might is cool for the Agony Crawler, but isn't reliable and I'd rather have Life on my body armor.

Although far from cheap, if you want a ridiculous eHP take a look above at my conversation with Bibpanana about the Hybrid variant. I'll be looking into how effective it can be without the expensive key bits like the Aul's Uprising amulet (15ex for Hatred, 5ex for Discipline version).

"

Any general suggestions? If you want to look at my gear you can do that at
https://pob.party/share/araritorehikam or https://pastebin.com/cQu9sJPe

Did you look over the FAQ's gear check section?

"

What do you do when your zombies die in a boss fight? There are usually no corpses around to get new ones.

I wouldn't worry about it, they're only tertiary minions to us. Just raise them back when you can.

---

@ Gwen_Stefani:

"

Gwen_Stefani wrote:

How do I use frost wall effectively? When, where and for what enemies would I use it?

Just for the hardest bosses, where you'd want to down them ASAP. Most map bosses fall over to us anyway, so for normal mapping this build alternative won't be practical. If you wanted to farm Shaper or Uber Elder, though, then there's potential there.

Surround the boss with Melee Splash Skeletons, then cast a Frost Wall on top of him. Knockback from Projectile Weakness may mess this up, so switch curses.

@ Bibpanana:

"

I did it! My first level 100!

Fantastic! You reached 100 much sooner than I thought. Weren't you only 96 on the 23rd? So 6 days? Great job!

"

Just wanted to show off my items before I start vaaling because why not.

Thank you for posting your items. I'll be able to copy their item codes from your post to add to the Hybrid section. Only thing missing are your jewels, but those are a pain since you'd have to unsocket them and leave them in your inventory to link them in a forum post.

I also grabbed a snapshot of your character in PoB.

"

I think I'm gonna do some deep delving. Maybe 1000 depth?

Also in delving I don't find myself using skeletons all that often since I'm not bossing (like at all) I swapped in the 3 support gems for CWDT+bone offering+duration and Bone Sculpter for Mistress of Sacrifice.

Spirit Offering would give you 984 ES if it pops 9 corpses. (9% * 2112 base life = base ES 190 * 5.18 Life/ES % = 984 Extra ES). If you replace Duration with Desecrate and only popped 5 corpses you'd still get 547 ES, completely countering the 528 damage required to trigger a level 1 CWDT. The only limitations would be the 0.25 second cooldown (can't trigger from more than 4 hits per second) and large hits (can't trigger more than once per hit).

Since you're doing deep delves, though, avoidance wins out as incoming damage grows beyond any possible eHP, but survival will then come down to a matter of lucky streaks.

According to PoeDB, at depth 1000 monster scaling is 258% life and 516% damage. So 6x normal damage. Level 83 monsters have a base damage of 783.

A normal Unstable Weta would deal 4,823 melee damage (= 783 base * 1.00 monster type damage * 1.00 rarity * 6.16 depth mod) and its Cold Snap on Death would deal 37,742-56,622 (= 6127-9192 * 6.16) cold damage. 75% cold resistance would bring this down to 9,436-14,155 cold damage. Meaning even with 13k eHP, a single normal Unstable Weta death could one-shot you if Fortify isn't up.

The rarity of a monster further multiplies its damage, with Magic receiving 30% more and Rare 50% more damage.

And then there's biome mods that will push damage even further. In short, yeah, between the two Bone Offering will be better than Spirit Offering. It'll mainly help your minions avoid being immediately decimated, though, since for you it'll only grant 14% block. Under normal circumstances, this would work out to be worth 2,121 eHP (while Spirit Offering would make you immortal under certain circumstances). But if it manages to block a 14k Cold Snap hit, although very unlikely, it can be the difference between completing a Delve node or not.

The key to deep delving is to never be hit in the first place, and to destroy corpses so their ground degens are also eliminated (4255 * 6.16 = 26,213 * 0.25 resistances = 6,553 dmg per sec). One tactic deep delvers use is Frost Wall to keep monsters at bay. The biggest challenge for a summoner, though, will be minion survival, since they are our damage source. Only the Agony Crawler will be guaranteed.

I would recommend dropping the Charged Dash setup in favor of Ball Lightning + Unleash + Knockback + GMP or Slower Projectiles. Or Poison Support with Shaper gloves that give Faster Casting, Slower Projectiles, and Blind (or drop Poison for GMP since you're facing packs rather than bosses). Putting another Ball Lightning in your CWDT can also help ensure you'll have a source of recovery even if stunned/frozen or trying to move.

I'm optimistic that you can make it to 1k, but as you get closer to that goal you'll likely be one-shot more and more often and will need to ratchet up your vigilance.

"

Hercanic wrote:

Spoiler

@ Bibpanana:

Full Post

"

Bibpanana wrote:

I did it! My first level 100! Thanks for the super fun build! I'm a huge fan of minion builds and my previous fav was flame golems (played it twice) and I think this build takes the cake.

Just wanted to show off my items before I start vaaling because why not.

Gear

Since I hit 100, instead of starting a new character I think I'm gonna do some deep delving. Maybe 1000 depth? Anyways at this point I'm min-maxing so I paid a crazy amount just for a HoA enchant on an elder bone helmet and made this.

Also in delving I don't find myself using skeletons all that often since I'm not bossing (like at all) I swapped in the 3 support gems for CWDT+bone offering+duration and Bone Sculpter for Mistress of Sacrifice.

"

I did it! My first level 100!

Fantastic! You reached 100 much sooner than I thought. Weren't you only 96 on the 23rd? So 6 days? Great job!

"

Just wanted to show off my items before I start vaaling because why not.

Thank you for posting your items. I'll be able to copy their item codes from your post to add to the Hybrid section. Only thing missing are your jewels, but those are a pain since you'd have to unsocket them and leave them in your inventory to link them in a forum post.

I also grabbed a snapshot of your character in PoB.

"

I think I'm gonna do some deep delving. Maybe 1000 depth?

Also in delving I don't find myself using skeletons all that often since I'm not bossing (like at all) I swapped in the 3 support gems for CWDT+bone offering+duration and Bone Sculpter for Mistress of Sacrifice.

Spirit Offering would give you 984 ES if it pops 9 corpses. (9% * 2112 base life = base ES 190 * 5.18 Life/ES % = 984 Extra ES). If you replace Duration with Desecrate and only popped 5 corpses you'd still get 547 ES, completely countering the 528 damage required to trigger a level 1 CWDT. The only limitations would be the 0.25 second cooldown (can't trigger from more than 4 hits per second) and large hits (can't trigger more than once per hit).

Since you're doing deep delves, though, avoidance wins out as incoming damage grows beyond any possible eHP, but survival will then come down to a matter of lucky streaks.

According to PoeDB, at depth 1000 monster scaling is 258% life and 516% damage. So 6x normal damage. Level 83 monsters have a base damage of 783.

A normal Unstable Weta would deal 4,823 melee damage (= 783 base * 1.00 monster type damage * 1.00 rarity * 6.16 depth mod) and its Cold Snap on Death would deal 37,742-56,622 (= 6127-9192 * 6.16) cold damage. 75% cold resistance would bring this down to 9,436-14,155 cold damage. Meaning even with 13k eHP, a single normal Unstable Weta death could one-shot you if Fortify isn't up.

The rarity of a monster further multiplies its damage, with Magic receiving 30% more and Rare 50% more damage.

And then there's biome mods that will push damage even further. In short, yeah, between the two Bone Offering will be better than Spirit Offering. It'll mainly help your minions avoid being immediately decimated, though, since for you it'll only grant 14% block. Under normal circumstances, this would work out to be worth 2,121 eHP (while Spirit Offering would make you immortal under certain circumstances). But if it manages to block a 14k Cold Snap hit, although very unlikely, it can be the difference between completing a Delve node or not.

The key to deep delving is to never be hit in the first place, and to destroy corpses so their ground degens are also eliminated (4255 * 6.16 = 26,213 * 0.25 resistances = 6,553 dmg per sec). One tactic deep delvers use is Frost Wall to keep monsters at bay. The biggest challenge for a summoner, though, will be minion survival, since they are our damage source. Only the Agony Crawler will be guaranteed.

I would recommend dropping the Charged Dash setup in favor of Ball Lightning + Unleash + Knockback + GMP or Slower Projectiles. Or Poison Support with Shaper gloves that give Faster Casting, Slower Projectiles, and Blind (or drop Poison for GMP since you're facing packs rather than bosses). Putting another Ball Lightning in your CWDT can also help ensure you'll have a source of recovery even if stunned/frozen or trying to move.

I'm optimistic that you can make it to 1k, but as you get closer to that goal you'll likely be one-shot more and more often and will need to ratchet up your vigilance.

I don't mind. I also have my timeless jewel but I don't know if that'll be relevant for future leagues so I just left it out.



I had no idea damage is so crazy in those levels. I'll definitely look into the ball lightning setup if I ever get to that point.

Also change my gear a bit. I vaaled like 200 Victario's Charity to get the "Grant level 23 discipline" implicit which frees up a gem slot. Moved animate guardian to my helmet which has a minion life support mod so in total I freed up 2 gem slots so I was able to fit in a chaos golem and empower support.

Thanks for the T16 tips. I already defeated Phoenix on a rare corrupted map with +100% aoe range for the boss. Wasn't fun but I managed by staying as far away as possible ;)

"

You read the bit about how to use the crafting bench and socket recipe to get off-colors, right?

Yes I did and I bookmarked the calculator right away. 2000 chromatics on average aren't too bad. Although I thought it was much higher. Maybe I put in some wrong stats.

"

Any decent 6L ES chest with high Life should be fine. They're usually much cheaper than a 6L Vis Mortis. Although another Spectre might be tempting, we don't really need it. Unholy Might is cool for the Agony Crawler, but isn't reliable and I'd rather have Life on my body armor.

You were right. A 6L armor with lots of life on it is really cheap. So I bought one for 35c with 150 life.
I might grab a Belly of the Beast in the future to get more HP and also some buffer for resistances in case I want to swap out gear. My main issue is that I'm only slightly over cap which makes it really difficult to find a suitable replacement for some things.

"

Did you look over the FAQ's gear check section?

Yes but I did it again and after doing some tests in PoB I got rid of a couple of jewel sockets and skilled life instead which boosted it up by 200 or so.


I got about 1000 more life after changing my gear and skills a bit. Let's see how it goes. I hope I won't die as often so I actually could level up a bit more. Getting experience on this level is such a pain.
Bibpanana has my greatest respect for getting to level 100. Even if I had their gear I'm not sure if I could force myself to do it.

"

Starbuckz42 wrote:

So.. no videos? The guide is virtually worthless without proper video proof, why go through all the effort but miss the most important part :/

Don't listen to the haters! I typically play summoners every league, started with Cyclone this league, for obvious reasons, but was looking for something more fun. These two guides you put together for this build are superb. Tons of tips to let us go off on our own with it and I laughed so hard at some of your funny points!

"

Hercanic wrote:

Because minions are so effective, you likely won't experience how dangerous some monsters really are. It's the affluenza of having your own personal army at the frontline doing all the dirty work for you. As a result, you might learn the hard way by waltzing straight into a tiger's one-shot mouth. Sorry!

Well written and please continue. No video required!