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

@ everyone:
I am anticipating Melee Splash to be extremely effective against Blight lanes. Not only will melee minions cause the lane monsters to stop and attack them by being so close, but as the monsters stack up our minion's Strike will pass through all of them and trigger Melee Splash on everything clustered up. That'll become massive damage.

For this same reason, Elemental Hit, Kinetic Blast, Sunder, Ice Shot, and Lightning Arrow should also be very powerful against stacked up lanes.

New minion wand base revealed: Convoking Wand!



That's pretty damn sexy. ...the wand! Yeah, the... wand. *ahem* To use it we'd have to change our glove setup, since melee skills would be out. If you manually cast Ball Lightning with Unleash, then it'd be a simple matter.

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@ Klintisztvud:

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Klintisztvud wrote:

My league start goal is to kill uber elder on day 2-3. Previously I planned to start a miner to do it, but im quite tempted to go necro. Is this build capable of doing it with gear aquirable that early? If yes, how would you adapt it? Thanks!

If you are already comfortable and confident with Uber Elder, then yes. Summoners are pretty solid when it comes to accomplishing things under-leveled and under-geared. Here's a streamer playing my build and completing Uber Lab with 3.2k life.

Since this is a complicated question, let's break it down:

GOALS
1. Beat campaign and atlas quickly: Check! Minions don't rely on gear, and are especially safe and effective at deleting campaign bosses. Clear isn't as fast early on, due to minion movement and reaction delay, but they can pick up kills as you make a B-line to bosses. Spectres typically don't come into their own until you get them to L68+, though this will hopefully be improved by 3.8.

2. No reliance on trade: Can we get enough damage, tankiness, and mobility to take on Uber Elder? All we need from most of our gear is life and resistances. We can self-cast a curse during Uber Elder, so Mark of Submission isn't required. Life Gain on Spell Hit isn't great against single targets, as it mainly shines against packs, so for Uber Elder this isn't super important either. The biggest weakness of any summoner is recovery, though, so some thought will need to go into whatever options you have available.


GEAR
1. Two 10% minion elemental resistance jewels: Craft with Alterations if necessary. Void Anomalies will melt Skeletons if you neglect capping their cold resistance.

2. Hypnotic Eye jewel: Any will do. You can use Alterations to craft the Chaos/Physical Damage added to Spells, which then allows Ball Lightning to poison.

3. Any +2 minion level helm: L20 Skeletons will be at about 38% strength without a L21 gem, +3, Minion Damage affix, Maim debuff, or jewels. That should still be 1M Shaper DPS, with another ~2.6M during Vaal Skeletons. If you cannot get a Victario's Charity shield, then Skeletons will be at ~27% strength, or 700k DPS (& 1.6M Vaal). It's not an especially rare shield, but early in the league and with summoners in the spotlight this will probably be expensive at first.

4. Poison affix gloves: Ideal, as they would allow you to link Fortify or GMP, but you can also skip this. Since it might be hard to keep pegging Elder with Ball Lightning, Vile Toxins can be replaced for something more reliable, like Maim, Fortify, or possibly one of the new minion supports if their damage is competitive. You can also skip Bloodlust Support for Minion Damage Support, since you're not likely to have gloves with Chance to Bleed affix.

5. Unending Hunger jewel: This may end up expensive, but it's such a great boon to have while clearing. It not only gives our Spectres infinite cast speed, but also 5% damage reduction (!) per stack (!!) of Soul Eater.

6. +1 Claw: The Agony Crawler has a significant DPS jump when going from L20 to L21. A L3 Empower is a 50% DPS boost for a L20 Herald of Agony, but only a 28% boost for a L21. A +1 weapon improves a L3 Empower to 43% more damage, and a L4 Empower becomes 59.7% more.


CHANGES
1. Cyclone, instead of Charged Dash, would prevent stuns while also keeping you on the move.

2. Dream Fragments (ring) would prevent being chilled or frozen by Elder's icicles.

3. Drop Zombies: They might be super good in 3.8, we don't know, but as they currently are they will simply fall over against Uber Elder, especially if we're undergeared. You can instead use the socket to further support your Agony Crawler. Minion Damage (130%), Maim (115%), or Pierce (110%) should be good, depending on your mana reservation.

4. Hybrid: Optional way to increase your eHP. Check out my Poor Man's 11k ES Hybrid build variant. The main thing to take away is how Spirit Offering and Mistress of Sacrifice with 200% increased ES grants 500-1000 ES for taking 534 damage, triggering up to 4 times per second. This may change with the Necromancer rework, however. Also of note is the new Sorrow of the Divine flask, which can recover both life and ES.


BAREBONES SHAPER DPS
650k = L20 Skeletons (65k each x10)
1.5M = L20 Vaal Skeletons (x22 and ~10% more from Archers/Mages)
(w/ Minion Damage, Melee Physical Damage, Fortify)

82k = L20/ML84 Spectres (41k each x2)
196k = L20/ML70 Phantasms (19k each x10)
(w/ Minion Damage, Controlled Destruction, Faster Projectiles, GMP)
(You can change these links up; I left them clear-oriented for Portal Phase)

255k = L20 Agony Crawler (40 Virulence)
(w/ L3 Empower, Minion Damage = 10% unreserved mana)
(or 319k in +1 claw, 369k w/ L4 Empower)

1.18M TOTAL
2.68M VAAL TOTAL

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@ KoalifiedPanda:

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carrion golem?

Check my last two posts, I talk about it there.

If we assume it'll be as good as an Ice Golem's Cyclone, then we could get it past 200k in our boot slot. The 80% more damage buff would push it to nearly 400k. With Notable and Anima Stone we could have 3. So a possible 1.1M DPS.

GGG said its Slam is "multi-cascading", which makes me wonder whether it's like Glacial Cascade and Spell Cascade where a target can be hit more than once.

Man, thank you so much for taking your time to write all that up, holy shit. I never played necro before so I really appreciate all the effort!

@ everyone:
New Unique belt revealed: Siegebreaker!



For us it's no good. 10% @ 2000 flat = 200 life, while a normal belt can have over (140 * 200% =) 420. The belt slot is a huge source of resistances as well. The Taunt effect can be acquired from a jewel. We don't blow up our minions, either.

Caustic Ground does not stack. So against bosses the best way to use this item is with a singular minion with massive life like a Spectre or Golem. For clear, you'd want a minion who quickly spreads out to cover as much area as possible, like Raging Spirits.

This item makes me wonder whether Zombies will still have this effect after the Necromancer rework. On one hand, the item is a way to move it off Necromancer, like they did with Occultist and the Wicked Ward keystone. On the other hand, GGG has been working in Ascendancy perks into other places so players are not completely restricted in their Ascendancy choice. For example, Inquisitor and Bottled Faith, Trickster and Cinderswallow, Slayer and Soul Tether/Offering to the Serpent, Saboteur and Flesh and Stone's blind aura.

New gem changes revealed: Cyclone and Multistrike!



Cyclone's flat damage has been dropped, meaning less reflect damage for us. Its stage gain has been locked to 0.2 instead of being based on attack speed, allowing us to use slower weapons without much detriment. It loses stages slower than before, so we can stop to Flame Dash without as much loss. It gains 48% increased AOE at max stages, which is great for us since we don't have any sources of AOE otherwise. Unless +1 Radius doesn't count as +1 Melee Range, then there's no change. Base weapon range is now set to 11, which is the same range as claws so no effect there. Overall the changes are pure buffs for us.

Multistrike used to be 51% more damage [0.7 * 1.44 * (1 + 1.5 + 1.99) / 3]. Now it's 58.112% more damage [0.9 * 1.44 * (1 + 1.22 + 1.44) / 3] with only a small Spell Echo-level penalty. It is now a very competitive link for our Skeletons. Very nice!

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@ Klintisztvud:

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Klintisztvud wrote:

Man, thank you so much for taking your time to write all that up, holy shit. I never played necro before so I really appreciate all the effort!

You're welcome! First time, eh? Awesome! Summoners aren't for everyone, but I'd say you're in for a treat. If you've played an RTS, it's like leading a small army into battle. Just no unit micro.

The biggest difference to other archetypes will be the setup procedures, which might feel pretty complicated at first. Spectres, for example, have their own permanent monster level based on the corpse they were raised from. The "Minions Explained" section goes over this. Once you've got all your minions ready, it's fairly easygoing for the Speaker build.

I tried the 4L CWDT + Unearth + Spirit Offering + GMP combo and I'm having trouble figuring out how often you are actually getting it to heal you, because for me at least, it needs to cast CWDT + Unearth AND THEN i have to get hit again to trigger the CWDT + Spirit Offering.

So I have to get hit for 528 damage twice, in the same area, to get healed 5-9% of my max life as ES. Is that how it works for you or do I need to get my gems in a different order or something?

@ KoalifiedPanda:

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it needs to cast CWDT + Unearth AND THEN i have to get hit again to trigger the CWDT + Spirit Offering.

You are correct. There is a travel delay for Unearth's projectiles, so only from the second trigger onward will Unearth assist Spirit Offering. In practice, while clearing there will be plenty of corpses to get it going. Once those corpses run out Unearth will keep up the supply. Against a boss, since you're usually in a small arena, it's not a problem after the first hit.

I originally used Desecrate, since it's instant, but its charges deplete FAST and then the whole thing just fails. Unearth keeps going indefinitely, so despite costing an additional socket it is well worth the price.

Reflect maps are pretty hilarious, because Cyclone and Ball Lightning cause you to take lots of small hits that constantly trigger Spirit Offering, so it's pretty much always up.

Just wanted to say thanks for the guide...I have always played summoners and this is the best ever.

It is particularly good how others share their info allowing me to improve the char based on their experience.

I took a month break and am sorry about that now heheheh

Only problem I really have is that the screen gets all laggy sometimes...tried playing with settings but seem that there is little I can do about it...the more POE develops the laggier i seem to get.

Cheers for your hard work.

I haven't played summoner in over a year and was following your guide to get a feel for it again. I'm currently level 38 and notice that you have an update on page 118. My question is should I continue following the guide on page one or implement the updated portion when I'm able to? Thanks.

@ IchiMorghulis:

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should I continue following the guide on page one or implement the updated portion [on page 118]

Up to you. They are both valid. I don't plan on officially adding the Hybrid version until I get a better sense of how much Glorious Vanity will cost after Legion ends. It'll still function without it, but not having the damage split means ES is more likely to be overtaken.

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@ Swaggmann:

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Just wanted to say thanks for the guide...I have always played summoners and this is the best ever.

You're welcome!

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It is particularly good how others share their info allowing me to improve the char based on their experience.

Great! Which changes did you like the best?

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I took a month break and am sorry about that now heheheh

With 3.8 on the horizon, it's an exciting time to come back if you love summoners!

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Only problem I really have is that the screen gets all laggy sometimes...tried playing with settings but seem that there is little I can do about it...the more POE develops the laggier i seem to get.

This can be tricky to narrow down. It might help to jot down the situation when it happens, to look for consistent patterns.

For me, I'm still getting lag from Syndicate encounters if I've recently logged into the game. I've got a slow 5400RPM HDD, so that's part of the issue when the game tries to load assets on the fly, but Syndicate in particular creates nasty lag spikes.

PoE can get laggy in general when a lot is going on at once.

If the build itself is causing trouble, then there may be a few culprits. High stacks of Poison are known to cause server lag, so if monsters aren't dying quickly (Divine Shrine or Allies Cannot Die) this could creep up. Elemental Proliferation was removed from the Elementalist, with GGG's reason being it was causing performance issues. Also, one player felt Frost Sentinels were causing them lag, so they used Kitava's Heralds instead.

Finally, some people have claimed significant improvement in game performance after they cleared out their Minimap and ShaderCache folders.

Hope this helps!

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Cheers for your hard work.

Thanks!

"

This can be tricky to narrow down. It might help to jot down the situation when it happens, to look for consistent patterns.

I had already deleted those files, and changed the graphics settings.

Reinstalled my steam POE to my SSD and what do you know -- almost no lag now...a split second when doing Alva or Legions so that worked. Now there is no need to avoid them or syndicates so I dont lose my 10%xp heheh


Thanks!

I am wondering how the change to +X to all gems (not just socketed; On cane of unwavering) affect this build in blight?

Edit: Just to clarify. I am thinking of all possible +X skill gem not just chaos.

https://twitter.com/pathofexile/status/1166182971465814016

P.S. Thank for the great, useful, and super-long guide.