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!
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!
... 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!
... Well written and please continue.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed my writing style! =oD There's actually a third thread for this guide, too, the FAQ. =oP
And no worries about any haters. There have only been about three negative people; everyone else has been very kind. Thanks for the encouragement, though!
Last edited by Hercanic on Aug 2, 2019, 7:29:41 PM
Having a blast and have found a place for most gems. Not sure if you can see my build or if you have any ideas for a different setup? Haven't really done much with my current worn items (several magical pieces as well), but that is also felt if I accidentally dash into the midst of the mobs of if some of the AOE's reach me.
Why for some reason dash, decides to thrust me forward, even though I haven't let go of the button, is a mystery, but it happens from time to time.
Can see from a previous thread that someone mentions Life/ES... For us newcomers, acronyms are hard to understand. ES stands for what?
Finally got a Vaal summon skeletons gem, and also opened up for using a Solar guard and a Frost sentinel. Only problem I have now is, my fps spikes with all this going on. Got a 6-7 year old computer screen, an I5 processor, 16 DDR4 ram and a GTX 970 graphics card. Most settings are at low, play in windowed form, and disabled vsync as well.
But with 9 minions, 2 of them spectres firing balls, myself firing 6-8 balls every other second, you're up against a ton of enemies also firing spells, and hey.. why not. Lets pop the Vaal skeleton gem now we're at it.
Sheesh. Very beautiful spectacle.. and mostly it doesnt lag. But will check again tonight. Maybe something was working in the background yesterday.
Still.. Im thinking I might start needing to spec some of the items. Get some more life and resistances. Tried going into POE trade and check up on 6-fully linked chest armors with 4 blue sockets and 2 green.
Cost between 25-30 chaos... OUCH. Way way too much for my wallet
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.
"
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
Ha, yep, the secret to him is just staying far away. He only has two moves aside from melee: Whirling Charge and Firebomb, both of which are centered on him.
"
Yes I did and I bookmarked the calculator right away.
Ah, crap, that section isn't actually finished. Where you want to look is in "Gem Links & Gear Examples" and the Gear section in the Leveling Guide's Epilogue.
Having a blast and have found a place for most gems. Not sure if you can see my build or if you have any ideas for a different setup? Haven't really done much with my current worn items (several magical pieces as well), but that is also felt if I accidentally dash into the midst of the mobs of if some of the AOE's reach me.
Why for some reason dash, decides to thrust me forward, even though I haven't let go of the button, is a mystery, but it happens from time to time.
Can see from a previous thread that someone mentions Life/ES... For us newcomers, acronyms are hard to understand. ES stands for what?
Finally got a Vaal summon skeletons gem, and also opened up for using a Solar guard and a Frost sentinel. Only problem I have now is, my fps spikes with all this going on. Got a 6-7 year old computer screen, an I5 processor, 16 DDR4 ram and a GTX 970 graphics card. Most settings are at low, play in windowed form, and disabled vsync as well.
But with 9 minions, 2 of them spectres firing balls, myself firing 6-8 balls every other second, you're up against a ton of enemies also firing spells, and hey.. why not. Lets pop the Vaal skeleton gem now we're at it.
Sheesh. Very beautiful spectacle.. and mostly it doesnt lag. But will check again tonight. Maybe something was working in the background yesterday.
Still.. Im thinking I might start needing to spec some of the items. Get some more life and resistances. Tried going into POE trade and check up on 6-fully linked chest armors with 4 blue sockets and 2 green.
Cost between 25-30 chaos... OUCH. Way way too much for my wallet
"
Why for some reason dash, decides to thrust me forward, even though I haven't let go of the button, is a mystery, but it happens from time to time.
Check out the FAQ. There's an explanation of this behavior under Troubleshooting.
Only problem I have now is, my fps spikes with all this going on. Got a 6-7 year old computer screen, an I5 processor, 16 DDR4 ram and a GTX 970 graphics card. Most settings are at low, play in windowed form, and disabled vsync as well.
Do you have an SSD or HDD? PoE loads things on the fly, so a slow drive can result in chugs and long loading times. I've got a piddly little 5400RPM HDD right now, and it feels absolutely terrible.
Clearing out PoE's ShaderCache (main poe directory) and Minimap folder (\Documents\My Games\Path of Exile) can help performance.
"
Tried going into POE trade and check up on 6-fully linked chest armors with 4 blue sockets and 2 green. Cost between 25-30 chaos... OUCH. Way way too much for my wallet
Any decent 6L ES chest with high Life should be fine.
You can socket and link a Belly with 4B2G yourself if you have all the socket recipes unlocked on your crafting bench. Check out the Gear section in the Leveling Guide's Epilogue for more about this.
Hello! Would you guys know how much this build costs to put all the gear together? Thank you! :O)
This will depend on supply:demand, or how rare:popular each item is, and the perceived value on part of the seller (keep watch for great deals), and these will all fluctuate over the course of a league. The Trade & Craft section has ballpark prices shown for many of the items. The most expensive items are:
1. 6L Belly of the Beast: Optional. The armor itself isn't too expensive, but six-linking it can be in the neighborhood of ~5ex. You can instead settle on a 6L rare Energy Shield chest with high life for around ~40c.
2. L21 gems: Not required, just more power. Depends on current popularity of the skill. Right now, L21/Q23 Vaal Skeletons is stupidly cheap at only 32c. poe.ninja is great for checking the price range of multiple variants simultaneously.
3. L4 Empower: It's expensive, but you can pick up a L1 and level it to 3 yourself, or buy a cheap corrupted L3, missing out on only one level until you can afford a corrupted L4. You can also gamble for them yourself by leveling multiple Empowers in your weapon swap sockets and using a Vaal Orb on them when they ripen.
4. T1 jewels: Minion jewels tend to be on the cheaper side, since minion builds are usually niche. If you want the best and wait for good deals, it may only cost 1-2ex. If you settle for ~T2, you can find good jewels with what we want for a mere handful of chaos.
5. +3 Minion Damage Helm: These tend to be popular among other minion builds, and so go up in price. One might run you a few Exalted Orbs, but you can get +1 or +2 helms for much cheaper.
6. +1 Maim Weapon: It can at times be stupidly cheap. Our build is probably the only one that uses it, so you'll be competing against other people playing this build. The claw I show in my build, with Added Fire Damage Support, tends to be hard to find, so it's fine to ignore this mod as it only adds a bit of power.
Everything else can be found pretty cheaply if you're flexible in what you look for. As mentioned in the build, none of these items are required for the build to work, they just add power, so you can slowly work up to them as your budget allows.
For my Speaker this league, Children_of_the_Mind (note: I'm trying out hybrid Life+ES variant, so the Minion Instability keystone is actually converted to Corrupted Soul with a Doryani historic jewel), I haven't spent a single Exalted (because I hadn't found one and I don't do much of any selling).
Last edited by Hercanic on Aug 7, 2019, 4:40:40 PM
Thanks a lot man. Started playing PoE only a few days ago and had this as the first result via Google. It's working flawlessly compared to my friends that are struggling with non-minion builds. I can literally shield charge through all the acts whilst the minions do the killing and bosses die in seconds.
Been following your build but slightly modifying the spells, e.g. decay support at 6L-chest to boost damage at lower levels.
Near end of Legion so I decided to give this summoner guide a try as it seems to be the peak of summoning art, and needless to say, after certain investment your build does not let me down :D.
Today I defeated all Shaper and Elder guardians without a sweat, and Uber Elder as well (took to the 5th portal but first try). Pretty much all minions died except spectres (thanks to lv 84 and lv 21 gem my spectres have like 95k life and that's only 2 of them).
My gear:
For Uber Elder fight I switched the Stibnite flask out for an Eternal life flask for more recovery. It wasn't too bad even my zombies and crawler don't have "+1 to level of socketed gems" mod on weapon, but damage is still enough to murder everything in maps. No video recording for the fight as dying 4 times is pretty rippy in itself xd. The Elder siphon is very brutal, I just wish I had a better pair of boots for movement speed but it's okay for pretty much all gameplay. Now I'm sitting at about 6.9k life (lv 94) with 134 spare mana to cast things and with -7 to mana cost of skills craft on a ring :D.
However, I did make some tweaks to your original build guide. Instead of Shield Charge and dashing into enemies to gain fortify is another layer of defense, I figure if Acro and Phase Acro are chosen then probably an alternative is to play around dodge, pretty much like a ranger. So I pick Vaal Grace to easily cap dodge with pantheon + flasks and all that. I still have an open gem slot, so I slot in a lv 21 Steelskin, absorbing up to 2.4k dmg for me when I need it, and with 20% quality I can press it once every 2.73 seconds, which is enough to save me in a pinch in quite a few moments. Movement skill is Flame Dash since I've been familiar with it, as Charged Dash keeps lunging me to death spots. I still want to make use of the LGOH effect from using an Attack skill that hits a lot in quick succession so Blade Flurry is my choice and it's great! (No Cyclone because pretty much everyone uses it and it's completely busted in the meta).
Nevertheless with all that said, your guide really stands out to me because of how versatile it really is, that you can literally use any minions and they can all work out. Love your idea and your passion for writing this colossal guide and addressing common questions (Thanks to that I decided to use Blade Flurry). Keep up the great work!
EDIT: Did Uber elder for the 2nd time today, only 1 death this time. Gear and gem setup is like the first time, the exact same. No deaths on Shaper guardians whatsoever, though there were some very close calls. Projectile Weakness, Phantasms, etc all stay. This build CAN farm uber elder, I kid you not.
EDIT: Currently at Depth ~570, very rippy, but I can survive some nodes without dying. Nodes I die often have "Monsters penetrate x% ele res", "Onslaught" or some other similar bs.
A filthy casual
Last edited by Hologram_o on Aug 13, 2019, 1:14:21 PM
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.
"
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'd say we've got a 95% chance of Legion going core. It's well-liked and fits in with other map encounters like Breaches and Abysses. It may take another league before it goes core, though, and the jewels will likely jump up in price if Emblems take as long as Breachstones to save up.
"
Also change my gear a bit.
Inspired by our whole conversation, I slotted a Doryani onto my ED Trickster and he's rocking 12k eHP with mediocre gear. Corrupted Soul is a really great hybrid keystone, not just for the ~2k ES it grants but also by allowing half damage to bypass. You can make full use of dual Life/ES recovery (Patient Reaper, Cinderswallow, Gain on Hit), instead of one waiting on the other to be fully depleted. It just comes at the cost of capping your ES to your max Life.
I slotted another Doryani in my Speaker build for this league. I wanted to see whether hybrid can compare with Acrobatics without ES on Hit and Discipline. I managed 8k eHP (5k life) at level 86 with just a rare 465 ES chest and the keystone.
Then I ran a T14 Wasteland with 100% extra cold, 25% damage, 25% attack/cast/movement, 100% AOE, crit and crit multi. Holy crap, the Templar Legion rares absolutely destroyed me!
Some deaths I don't even know what killed me. I used Skeletons to breadcrumb and separate out a few of the rares. I pulled one halfway across the map. He finally fell over. There were no visible effects, no other monsters nearby. So I stepped out from behind the rock I was hiding behind, nearly an entire screen away, and bdssssssshhhhooooooooo -- I just fell over dead.
...W...T...F...?
Absolutely nothing else was nearby. Some invisible on-death effect? Did the game not load a visual asset? Server lag discrepancy? That was a head-scratcher. I got down to my last portal, something I've never before experienced with Speaker, and finally had to call it and switch over to my ED Trickster to finish everything off. And he did it effortlessly.
Ugh. What a total defeat. My Skeletons were missing 3 levels and not resist capped, nor any Blind/Taunt jewels, and the map was a worst-case scenario with stacked damage multipliers, but it was still embarrassing how squishy both they and I were. Even tissue paper would hold up longer. If the rare has Life Leech and AOE, hot damn is that a grind.
Cyclone with Soulrend felt nice. I liked the built-in ES Leech for Hybrid and no worries over Reflect. It's smooth, right up until I relaxed and became cocky, then something just blew me up. Hrm... I'll try Ball Lightning with Cyclone next, to see if the Life on Spell Hit helps.
I really wish I had the mana to run Sand. The Blind aura is, in many ways, superior to Acrobatics. It's the Saboteur node for 25% reservation.
I also wish I had the slots to socket Fortify without losing GMP. If I got myself a pair of boots with the Fortify affix, and just relied on the poison chance from Herald of Agony, could I manage? ...Doubtful.
The ultimate downside to Hybrid is not recovering ES fast enough. Acrobatics always works, and thus synergizes with life recovery. Yet when ES is stripped down, you are naked. Normally you could just hide behind your minions to let ES recharge, but between YOLO cycloning and the myriad of AOE effects from Legion rares that pierce minions, it's not working well.
...
...
Time has passed. I wrote the above several days ago, but hadn't finished. Since then, I fixed the problems. I succeeded in making the ultimate Poor Man's Hybrid! I'll be reporting on this in my next post.
Thanks a lot man. Started playing PoE only a few days ago and had this as the first result via Google. It's working flawlessly compared to my friends that are struggling with non-minion builds. I can literally shield charge through all the acts whilst the minions do the killing and bosses die in seconds.
Been following your build but slightly modifying the spells, e.g. decay support at 6L-chest to boost damage at lower levels.
Keep up the great work!
"
had this as the first result via Google.
Neat! What were your search terms?
"
It's working flawlessly compared to my friends that are struggling with non-minion builds.
Haha, awesome! There's nothing quite as sweet as a little schadenfreude.
Near end of Legion so I decided to give this summoner guide a try as it seems to be the peak of summoning art, and needless to say, after certain investment your build does not let me down :D.
Today I defeated all Shaper and Elder guardians without a sweat, and Uber Elder as well (took to the 5th portal but first try). Pretty much all minions died except spectres (thanks to lv 84 and lv 21 gem my spectres have like 95k life and that's only 2 of them).
My gear:
For Uber Elder fight I switched the Stibnite flask out for an Eternal life flask for more recovery. It wasn't too bad even my zombies and crawler don't have "+1 to level of socketed gems" mod on weapon, but damage is still enough to murder everything in maps. No video recording for the fight as dying 4 times is pretty rippy in itself xd. The Elder siphon is very brutal, I just wish I had a better pair of boots for movement speed but it's okay for pretty much all gameplay. Now I'm sitting at about 6.9k life (lv 94) with 134 spare mana to cast things and with -7 to mana cost of skills craft on a ring :D.
However, I did make some tweaks to your original build guide. Instead of Shield Charge and dashing into enemies to gain fortify is another layer of defense, I figure if Acro and Phase Acro are chosen then probably an alternative is to play around dodge, pretty much like a ranger. So I pick Vaal Grace to easily cap dodge with pantheon + flasks and all that. I still have an open gem slot, so I slot in a lv 21 Steelskin, absorbing up to 2.4k dmg for me when I need it, and with 20% quality I can press it once every 2.73 seconds, which is enough to save me in a pinch in quite a few moments. Movement skill is Flame Dash since I've been familiar with it, as Charged Dash keeps lunging me to death spots. I still want to make use of the LGOH effect from using an Attack skill that hits a lot in quick succession so Blade Flurry is my choice and it's great! (No Cyclone because pretty much everyone uses it and it's completely busted in the meta).
Nevertheless with all that said, your guide really stands out to me because of how versatile it really is, that you can literally use any minions and they can all work out. Love your idea and your passion for writing this colossal guide and addressing common questions (Thanks to that I decided to use Blade Flurry). Keep up the great work!
EDIT: Did Uber elder for the 2nd time today, only 1 death this time. Gear and gem setup is like the first time, the exact same. No deaths on Shaper guardians whatsoever, though there were some very close calls. Projectile Weakness, Phantasms, etc all stay. This build CAN farm uber elder, I kid you not.
EDIT: Currently at Depth ~570, very rippy, but I can survive some nodes without dying. Nodes I die often have "Monsters penetrate x% ele res", "Onslaught" or some other similar bs.
"
needless to say, after certain investment your build does not let me down :D
=oD
"
Today I defeated all Shaper and Elder guardians without a sweat, and Uber Elder as well (took to the 5th portal but first try)...
...EDIT: Did Uber elder for the 2nd time today, only 1 death this time.
...This build CAN farm uber elder, I kid you not.
Congrats! For a couple people, Uber Elder has been a sticking point. Since I have yet to make a video, assuring them in words only goes so far. So thank you for the backup! =o)
"
EDIT: Currently at Depth ~570, very rippy, but I can survive some nodes without dying. Nodes I die often have "Monsters penetrate x% ele res", "Onslaught" or some other similar bs.
Excellent! I'm always glad to hear about how far people have been able to push this build.
"
However, I did make some tweaks to your original build guide. Instead of Shield Charge and dashing into enemies to gain fortify is another layer of defense...
With the 3.7 change to movement skills not needing any supports to function well, our shield sockets have gained flexibility.
I'll be posting in a bit about a new Hybrid variant I've been nurturing, but as a spoiler: You can replace GMP with Fortify on your Blade Flurry, then use a Dying Sun flask (only 18c right now) to get free LMP Ball Lightning while clearing. Constant Fortify should be worth replacing a defensive flask for.
"
Nevertheless with all that said, your guide really stands out to me because of how versatile it really is, that you can literally use any minions and they can all work out. Love your idea and your passion for writing this colossal guide and addressing common questions (Thanks to that I decided to use Blade Flurry). Keep up the great work!
Thank you!
Last edited by Hercanic on Aug 16, 2019, 2:17:54 AM
BUILD UPDATE
AH-HAHAHA! I did it! I finally did it! Oh, but was it ever so painful. Dreadful. A sick mush of unpleasantries. I sought to craft the Poor Man's Hybrid, and it punched the wind from my gut, twisted its disfigured fist, and thrust up my stomach through my mouth. In a word, terrible.
Then I beat it, that tittering, petulant thing. I made it sit. I made it beg.
You thought me conquered? Me?! Eheheh. No, I will show you a dark little inspiration: the dredged up dead, an ancient knowledge forgotten hence, sheared of its pustulant rot, mashed and splashed into an elegant form. The respectable variety: messy, but necessary, and oh so satisfying.
What ES can do that Armour, Evasion, and Dodge fail at is taking big hits. But the very next gentle breeze will knock us down to Tartarus. It's not enough to stack ES and call it a day. We need Recovery. ES comes with 20% recovery per second after a 2 second delay. Too little, too late. We need something better. We need something instant.
Even with over 10k eHP, I died in a T10 map. T10! What the hell happened while I was away?! I could recover my Life with flasks, Life Gain on Hit, and regeneration, but without anything similar for ES a single pack could strip it down and keep it down, leaving me at a naked 6k if I didn't retreat. And I don't retreat. Not from basic mobs.
If you're rich, you can solve ES recovery with a Watcher's Eye that gives 30 ES on Hit when you are affected by Discipline. With an Aul's Uprising amulet, you can make Hatred or Discipline reserve no mana. But both the Watcher's Eye and Aul's Uprising cost multiple Exalted Orbs. I am not rich. This was not an option for me. I needed to go cheap.
The solution was Mistress of Sacrifice, the ascendancy node that allows Offerings to affect you, combined with Spirit Offering on Cast When Damage Taken Support (CWDT). I used to use this technique all the time back when it was lowkey OP, before the 50% reduced effect nerf to Mistress of Sacrifice, when everyone was obsessed with Bone Offering and stacking block. I abandoned it because, after the nerf, it just didn't hold up after Red Maps and selfishly required a full 4L to function reliably. Socket space is a premium for Summoners, after all.
So what changed? Why is Spirit Offering good now? Several things:
1. As of Patch 3.7, mobility skills like Shield Charge and Flame Dash actually work well without support, freeing up socket space.
2. The Corrupted Soul keystone, which gives 20% of Life as Extra ES, made pursuing hybrid Life/ES far more practical despite our gear limitations. We can now drop Acrobatics, freeing up passive points and eliminating its 30% Less ES effect.
3. 50% of Damage bypasses ES. This effect of Corrupted Soul splits damage between Life and ES, like a 50% Mind Over Matter, which allows Life and ES recovery to work simultaneously, potentially doubling our effective recovery. Since it halves the damage that ES would normally receive, it doubles how long ES lasts.
How it works: We take at least 528 damage, triggering CWDT Unearth (for corpses) and Spirit Offering (consumes corpses). We gain 1% of Life as Extra ES per corpse, meaning a minimum of 5% from Unearth or as much as 9% with surrounding corpses. For me, this works out to be ~108 ES per corpse. Our ES pool only takes half damage, or 264, while gaining at least 540 ES. This is instant recovery when we need it.
If there are 9 corpses, we could take a 1944 hit and our ES wouldn't deplete, while our Life pool only takes half and quickly recovers from our LGOH. This is like a Steelskin on a 0.25 sec cooldown instead of 3.00 sec. With 20% cooldown recovery on our belt, we can drop this down to 0.208, or nearly five triggers per second.
As a result, Spirit Offering is ~four times more effective for me than what it once was. Let me put it this way, I can Cyclone through Legion rares in T16 maps and my ES doesn't even move. Without Spirit Offering, such a thing was impossible.
How to implement:
1. Move Fortify onto our Ball Lightning setup by replacing GMP. Use a Dying Sun flask (~18c right now) to get LMP, but it's not necessary. We now have permanent uptime on Fortify, worth 25% more eHP.
2. Remove Faster Attacks. I am using Flame Dash with Cyclone, so I still have a teleport, but you can continue to use Shield Charge with Charged Dash.
3. Move Hatred and Generosity to our shield sockets. This gives CWDT two more sockets. Fill these with GMP and a low-level Unearth to guarantee 5 corpses for Spirit Offering. Dying Sun doubles up and gives us another 2 corpses.
4. Spec out of Flesh Binder for Mistress of Sacrifice as your Ascendancy. While leveling, I recommend taking MoS as soon as you can use CWDT+Spirit Offering, as it'll immensely improve your survival.
5. Change your passive tree to the Life/ES Hybrid variant. You will need a Glorious Vanity historic jewel, Doryani version. Place it in the upper left jewel socket, so Minion Instability is converted to Corrupted Soul.
6. You can now use a cheaper rare ES chest with life instead of Belly of the Beast and gain ~twice the eHP. (400 ES * 200% = 1200 + 300 life (100 flat) = 1500 eHP vs. 800 life.)
7. With the removal of Flesh Binder, Zombies provide less benefit to us. If keeping them alive is too annoying, you can replace them. Right now I'm experimenting with the Holy Relic, since I am using Cyclone and often on top of enemies. You could also add another support onto the Agony Crawler if mana reservation permits, use a Golem, or even an Animated Guardian.
8. DEXTERITY. Without the travel to Acrobatics, we're missing a lot of DEX. We need 155 DEX for Herald of Agony and Projectile Weakness, but only have 64 from the new passive tree. So we'll need another 91 from gear or additional DEX nodes on the passive tree. I have 40 on my amulet and 53 on my gloves. You can also take Alacrity (30) and Fangs of the Viper (20) on the tree for 3 points, requiring just one piece of gear to have 41 DEX.
As mentioned, I am using Cyclone rather than Charged Dash. Spirit Offering is giving me the tankiness to YOLO into packs. With a Quicksilver flask going, Cyclone is as fast as Ball Lightning, so I end up ramming into packs with 8 Ball Lightnings in tow. It feels exceptionally smooth, and gives several defensive advantages: stun immunity, free phasing (go right through Frost Walls), and the constant movement actually avoids a lot of damage. Projectile Weakness's knockback keeps most melee monsters from ever even getting close enough to strike. Cyclone has the level of position control we get from Blade Flurry with the forward momentum of Charged Dash. It just doesn't have a teleport, so I use Flame Dash instead of Shield Charge.
One other change I have made is to replace Elemental Proliferation with Controlled Destruction. Time-frozen Legion mobs require damage over freezes, and Spirit Offering is protecting me well enough that damage is preferable. I went with Controlled Destruction over something like Spell Echo because while Echo works out to be a 53% more multiplier, it locks the minion's targeting down for two casts. Since those casts are only 70% faster rather than 100%, they are locked down 18% longer and cannot switch targets.
I am tempted to make this the default build, but that won't be viable until we know whether the Glorious Vanity jewel will be accessible in future leagues. I still have plenty more testing to do, too.
Last edited by Hercanic on Aug 21, 2019, 1:51:31 AM
