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

@ Swaggmann:

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Reinstalled my steam POE to my SSD and what do you know -- almost no lag now

Yep, an SSD will make a huge performance difference with how PoE loads assets on the fly.

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@ Vyndicu:

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I am wondering how the change to +X to all gems affect this build

GGG said they'll be changing Taryn's Shiver (+2 cold), the four Agnerods (+2 lightning), Cane of Unravelling (+2 chaos), and The Consuming Dark (+1 fire) to affect all gems. Then we have the new Convoking Wand base that can roll +1 to all Minion Skills.

Aside from the wand, the other items don't do anything for us. Because we use so many minion types, +1 to all minions would be fantastic. However, the wand cannot be used with any of our channeled melee skills, so you'll only be able to use one if you self-cast Ball Lightning with Unleash or use a channeled spell.

GGG also said that Magic and Rare caster weapons can also roll these mods. Meaning a dagger could have them, but probably not the minion one.

What I am most interested in is just how much damage we can get out of Carrion Golems. If they are competitive with the Herald of Agony, it may be worth it to drop the Crawler. We wouldn't need to poison anymore, opening up new options (like Avatar of Fire, Winter Orb, and Siegebreaker).

@ everyone:
Earlier I had said I was leaning toward Feeding Frenzy on Spectres/Phantasms, but I take that back. Mark_GGG has said that the aggro radius of Feeding Frenzy is actually smaller than the default for Spectres, and the game uses whichever radius is biggest. So Feeding Frenzy won't affect Spectre behavior at all.

Gem reworks revealed: Skeletons and Zombie!



Oh man, this is HUGE! Skeletons summon triple per cast by default, can have 8 at a time instead of 5, and move faster! So Feeding Frenzy is what gives them the Dash ability. I was starting to worry the Dash might have come from a reworked Queen's Decree/Escape, which would have been bad for us since we want to use Victario's Charity. So I'm glad to know it's actually part of the gem! Skeleton Mages with Dash, anyone? Mark_GGG says Skeleton aggro radius is about the same as Feeding Frenzy's radius, so there will be no change there.

Zombies can have 7 at a time instead of 3 (!!), have a bigger Slam AOE and cooldown reduction, and have bonus minion life (similar to Golems). Mana cost and cast time still suck, though. Natalia_GGG says Necromancer will not increase Zombie count anymore.

With so much moved onto the gems, it makes me very excited for the Necromancer rework this weekend! I wonder if they'll have more generic minion nodes instead of minion-specific nodes as before, so more Ascendancies can become viable minion masters.

Damage numbers seem 5x what they would be for regular players, but that's true for most build guides.

Seems like a fun build to play solo.

Not sure if my friend would appreciate if I played this build with him from the start, though? :D

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Hercanic wrote:

@ Swaggmann:

GGG said they'll be changing Taryn's Shiver (+2 cold), the four Agnerods (+2 lightning), Cane of Unravelling (+2 chaos), and The Consuming Dark (+1 fire) to affect all gems. Then we have the new Convoking Wand base that can roll +1 to all Minion Skills.

Aside from the wand, the other items don't do anything for us. Because we use so many minion types, +1 to all minions would be fantastic. However, the wand cannot be used with any of our channeled melee skills, so you'll only be able to use one if you self-cast Ball Lightning with Unleash or use a channeled spell.

GGG also said that Magic and Rare caster weapons can also roll these mods. Meaning a dagger could have them, but probably not the minion one.

What I am most interested in is just how much damage we can get out of Carrion Golems. If they are competitive with the Herald of Agony, it may be worth it to drop the Crawler. We wouldn't need to poison anymore, opening up new options (like Avatar of Fire, Winter Orb, and Siegebreaker).

You missed one.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Cold_Iron_Point

Given that we absolute need to deal at least one source of elemental damage from self-cast and very few spell gems. I think it is safe to say we won't be using that one.

I suspect we will likely see an unique with +X to all minion this league based on that wand.

@ Megaddd:

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Damage numbers seem 5x what they would be for regular players

In my reply to Klintisztvud, I go over barebones DPS. 1.18M without anything significant, not even a Victario's Charity.

I don't do much trading, so most of my currency comes from doing the Chaos recipe and finding a few natural Exalted Orbs. I spent 2 exalts in Legion on a +3 Minion Damage & Minion Life helm for my character, Children_of_the_Mind. My jewels are basic, as is most of my equipment this league, and I have most of my original damage already. Surpassing my damage should be possible for anyone who's even a little bit wealthy. If you're not, you can still complete all content on a shoestring budget like I have.

As for your friend, the ideal situation would be to convince him to play this build as well so you can double the fun with double the minions! =oD

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@ Vyndicu:

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You missed one.

Only Herald of Agony has the Physical tag, meaning no other minion will benefit from Cold Iron Point. Since it also removes EE, I just omitted it.

I was planning to either do your build or a miner build for the league start, but the Zombies and Skelly gems blew my mind. I'm now thinking I can do a combo minion miner. I can't wait to see the sabo and necro ascendancy rework.

@ IchiMorghulis:

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IchiMorghulis wrote:

I was planning to either do your build or a miner build for the league start, but the Zombies and Skelly gems blew my mind. I'm now thinking I can do a combo minion miner. I can't wait to see the sabo and necro ascendancy rework.

If you want to use both, I'd recommend using one to supplement the other, or you'll likely be stretched thin. The most natural would be a miner who uses tanky minions to keep enemies at bay while throwing mines.

Example:
Dark Pact + Mine Support + etc.
Skeletons + Totem + Minion Life + Feeding Frenzy

AND/OR

Cast on Skill Use craft #1 with Skeletons + Minion Life + Feeding Frenzy (+ From Dust jewel)

Cast on Skill Use craft #2 with Despair + whatever else (skills in the same weapon will cast sequentially, while skills in different weapons will cast simultaneously, so with this setup both Skeletons and Despair would be cast at the same time). Additional skill options would be Area Effect Support, Cold Snap, max level Steelskin, Temporal Chains for defense and longer Wither stacks, Enfeeble for defense, Purifying Flames for Consecrated Ground and crit chance, Desecrate & Bone/Spirit Offering.

Feeding Frenzy lets the Skeletons dash onto enemies while you prep your mines. Minion Life makes them tankier and adds damage to Dark Pact. Totem and/or Craft automates Skeleton creation, with From Dust adding another 2 Skeletons per cast (adds a 1sec cooldown, so not great for the totem, but fine if you're only using Cast on Skill Use craft since it has a 4sec cooldown).

You can get a helm with +3 and Minion Life to further boost skeletons and free up another socket for them, like Withering Touch Support, Empower, or Multiple Totems Support. You can also use the upcoming Withering Step mobility skill for more Wither stacks.

Craft cooldown recovery on your belt to increase skeleton generation from Cast on Skill Use, From Dust on Totem, as well as CWDT trigger rate.

Spiritual Aide notable would let you use increased minion damage to scale both Dark Pact and Skeletons.

Undying Evangelists + AOE/M&TER + Increased Duration + Meat Shield might be nice for the bubble shields.

L1 CWDT + Purifying Flame + Cold Snap + Immortal Call. Consecrated Ground would heal you and skeletons while also increasing crit chance by 100% against monsters on it. Cold Snap gives a guaranteed 10% chill and awards you Frenzy Charges for enemies that die on it (= 12% more damage; you needn't make the kill, so no worries about using mines). Immortal Call is stronger than the other guard skills at low level.

L20 CWDT Essence Drain w/ damage supports and a separate L1 CWDT + Contagion is surprisingly nice anti-swarm protection (e.g. Delve nodes) when you're scaling chaos damage. I used this on Mortichus, my Soulrend character during Synthesis.

Flame Dash + Arcane Surge.

Lots of Minion Life on tree + Zombies/Carrion Golem + Melee Splash + lots of Taunt/Blind chance from jewels. + Meat Shield or Feeding Frenzy. + Minion Life Support, Empower, M&TER, and/or Fortify to further their tankiness.

Animate Guardian + Meat Shield + tanky supports.

The upcoming Skitterbots.

Since Dark Pack is tagged as a minion skill and gains bonus damage from Skeleton life, you can double up on the benefits with dual Convoking Wands for +2 to all Minion Skills.

You can check out my character, Artune, for an example of a miner I made awhile ago.

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If you want to use both, I'd recommend using one to supplement the other, or you'll likely be stretched thin. The most natural would be a miner who uses tanky minions to keep enemies at bay while throwing mines. ./.

Wow, what a detailed response. You gave me a lot to think about. I can picture rapid fire Dark Pack mine being toss at the boss surrounded by my skeletons. I hope the mine reveal is today.

Btw, I level to maps yesterday and the leveling process using your build was the smoothest I ever had. Thanks.

Should I be leveling up Ball Lightning? I notice in your PoB that it is marked as lv.1. Do I not level it up then? If so, can you let me know why please? Thanks.

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Should I be leveling up Ball Lightning? I notice in your PoB that it is marked as lv.1. Do I not level it up then? If so, can you let me know why please? Thanks.

Under "Gem Links and Gear Examples" it says,

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I keep Ball Lightning at level 1 so I don't have to worry about reflect damage. It's up to you if you want to try squeezing some damage out of a fully leveled Ball Lightning.