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

Art by CD Projekt

I impart you with these most efferous of companions:

Nurture the Spectres of icy regret, so that none will move against you.

Embrace the Phantasms of spreading vengeance, for they will reap their due from the wheat of life that stands before you.

Feed the foul Crawler of Agony, a glutton never full, consuming all.

Stitch the remains into a family of Zombie flesh, so they might see their loved ones a final time.

Sing the secret of the Skeleton bones, and return legends to the past.

Let the Charge of Lightning flow through you, out of you.

Surge forward to what calls you.

Strike with Curses,

Poison their minds,

Bleed their bodies,

Strip their protections, their pride,

Taunt, Blind, and Hinder them,

Take their Life with every Hit,

Revel in the trumpets of your Holy Relic,

Offer their Spirits,

And raze their lands so completely,

Not even the crows can scour a grain between them.

The only requirement for this build is one source of flat:

Adds x to y Chaos Damage to Spells

or

Adds x to y Physical Damage to Spells
(less recommended due to possible sources of % Physical Damage as Elemental Damage, such as from a party member's Hatred aura or a weapon mod)

Such as on:
1. Hypnotic Abyssal Jewel (as shown in My Gear)
2. Elder affix on helm (as shown in My Gear)
3. Lesser Poison Support
4. Herald of Purity
5. Envy aura from Aul's Uprising

This is important for allowing Ball Lightning to Poison when we have % Chance to Poison, which gives us Virulence stacks, even if it's only 1 point of Chaos Damage or Physical Damage. We achieve up to 80% Chance to Poison from Herald of Agony and Poison Support affix on gloves.

The other items are not required for the build to function. They only make it stronger. This makes it an ideal build in Solo Self-Found (SSF) leagues.

Avoid any source of flat Fire or Cold Damage on Attacks/Spells, since we use Elemental Equilibrium (EE). Of the three Elemental Damage types, we want to only hit with Lightning Damage, which will weaken further Lightning Damage in exchange for strengthening the Cold and Fire Damage of allies, like our minions, against the target. None of our minions use Lightning Damage, so it's okay to weaken Lightning Damage.

(Note: Physical and Chaos Damage are not considered Elemental, so they do not matter in regards to EE; the Generosity Support prevents our Hatred aura from affecting our own attacks in exchange for making it stonger on allies; and minions do not trigger EE because their damage is separate from ours.)

We do not want to deal Cold Damage, or EE will weaken the Frost Sentinels' and Hatred's Cold Damage. We do not want to deal Fire Damage, or EE will weaken the Fire Damage of the Solar Guard and Added Fire Support (if you have either; if not, don't worry about it).

If you plan to play in parties and do not wish to sabotage their damage, you must take care to coordinate what elemental damage they deal and the auras they use; or temporarily abstain from attacking; or simply remove EE to avoid any conflicts. EE is very powerful, but not party-friendly without planning.

If you do happen to find a really great weapon or ring, but it has a flat elemental damage mod, this is what you should know:

• 1. Worst = Cold Damage added to Spells. Affects Ball Lightning. Avoid at all costs.
  
  
• 2. Bad = Cold Damage added to Attacks. Affects Charged Dash. You can live with it because Ball Lightning will replace the EE applied by Charged Dash in short order, but there will be microseconds where your minions' cold damage is weakened because of this.
  
  
• 3. Not Good = Fire Damage added to Spells. You might as well forego fire damage from your minions by using only Frost Sentinels, and not bothering to get Added Fire Damage Support as a weapon affix for your Agony Crawler/Zombies.
  
  
• 4. Tolerable = Fire Damage added to Attacks. It's like #2, but since we deal far less Fire Damage (or 0 if you follow #3's advice), we can live with this if necessary.

If you're ever unsure what damage types you're dealing, you can check the DPS tooltips for Ball Lightning and Charged Dash to verify.

A quick breakdown:

• Helm has Skeletons/Vaal Skeletons.
  
• Body Armor has Spectres and Phantasms.
  
• Weapon has Zombies and the Agony Crawler.
  
• Ring 1 has Holy Relic.
  
  
• Ring 2 has Projectile Weakness.
  
• Shield has Shield Charge.
  
• Gloves have Charged Dash and Ball Lightning.
  
• Boots have Hatred and Spirit Offering.

ELDER HELM (w/ +3 to Level of Socketed Minion Gems)
1. Vaal Summon Skeletons (21+3/20)
2. Melee Physical Damage (20/20)
3. Vile Toxins (21/-)
4. Bloodlust (20/20)
5. [Elder Affix] Minion Damage

A. {Optional Elder Affix} Immolate, adds ~5% more damage
B. {Optional Elder Affix} Minion Life, raises Skeleton life to ~7.5k

If you go for the Optional links, keep in mind it will increase the mana cost, which will potentially slow down getting all 10 Skeletons out.

You want a level 21 Vile Toxin for the extra 5% more damage. Quality on this does not matter, so it's far cheaper to buy uncorrupted 20's and try your luck to get your own 21 instead of buying one.





SHAPER CLAW (w/ +1 to Level of Socketed Gems)
1. Herald of Agony (21+1+4/20)
2. Raise Zombie (21+1+4/20)
3. Empower (4+1/-)
4. [Shaper Affix] Maim

5. {Optional Shaper Affix} Added Fire

There are other optional links, such as Faster Attacks, Elemental Damage with Attacks, and Increased Critical Strike Chance, but they aren't worthwhile for the mana reservation. Your call, though.

If you can find one, the suffix "Enemies have 20% reduced Evasion if you have Hit them Recently" would really help both the Agony Crawler and Zombies.

The most important bit here is the interaction of Empower with +1 to gems, giving a total of +5 levels to the Agony Crawler and Zombies. We stack levels on the Crawler because not only does it scale up its flat damage and increased damage, but it gains accuracy as well. Zombies, meanwhile, are able to reach 20,000 life from the level increase.





ELDER GLOVES
1. Charged Dash (20/20)
2. Cast While Channeling (20/20)
3. Ball Lightning (1/0)
4. Greater Multiple Projectiles (20/20)
5. [Elder Affix] Poison
6. [Elder Affix] Chance to Bleed

A. {Optional Elder Affix} Additional Accuracy

GMP is for comfort and coverage. You can swap it out if you want something else, such as Fortify or Infused Barrier for more defense. If you can't get Elder gloves or want to use a different base, such as a Grip of the Council, you can swap GMP with Poison Support or Lesser Poison Support.

If you can't or don't use Chance to Bleed Support, replace Bloodlust in the helm with either a level 4 Empower (great additional life & damage but rare and super expensive), Multistrike (locks them in place so be careful with knockback), Ruthless (requires three hits to have any effect, so it won't always be doing anything), or Hypothermia (target must be chilled, which requires a minimum hit of Cold Damage equal to 0.33% of the enemy's maximum life, which against Shaper's 20M life = 66,000 cold damage).

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.






FOSSIL-CRAFTED BOOTS (w/ +1 to maximum number of Spectres)
1a. Hatred (20/20)
2a. Generosity (20/20)
3b. Spirit Offering (8/20)
4b. Cast When Damage Taken (1/-)

You can use any rare boots with 30-35% movement speed. Do not use Bones of Ullr. The sacrifice of mobility, life, and resists is not worth +1 Spectres. Unlike many Spectre builds, we don't rely on them for damage. They exist to generate Phantasms and freeze monsters. Use 2 Frost Sentinels over a Solar Guard.

Spirit Offering is our substitute for Immortal Call. If you destroy a corpse that an effect originates from, such as porcupines, the effect is also destroyed.





BODY ARMOR
1. Raise Spectre (20/20)
2. Summon Phantasm on Kill (21/-)
3. Greater Multiple Projectiles (20/20)
4. Faster Projectiles (20/20)
5. Elemental Proliferation (21/20)
6. Minion Damage (20/20)

Any 6-link with high life and/or defense will do. 10c Tabula, 40c rare, go with what you can afford and work your way up.

If you have less than six links, gem priority is the same as listed above. As this is our main clear skill, we prioritize area coverage and safety before damage. We don't worry about damage so much because the Agony Crawler is our heavy-hitter while clearing, and Skeletons take on anything that's truly tough.

You can read about how to off-color four blue sockets on Belly of the Beast in the Gear section of the Epilogue in the Leveling Guide.

If you somehow end up stuck with three green sockets, Hypothermia can take the place of Minion Damage. If a red socket, Added Fire Support would be the best of the bunch for Phantasms. If you are not using Phantasms for whatever reason, Cold to Fire Support would work for Frost Sentinels.

One of Vorici's rewards when on Research in the Immortal Syndicate is crafting white sockets, so that's an option as well. Incursion's Temple of Atzoatl can have a Corruption Chamber room where you can potentially turn all sockets white on an item, but it's fairly risky.

You want level 21 gems of SPoK for the extra Phantasm and higher monster level, and of EP for the increased proliferation radius.





VICTARIO'S CHARITY
1. Shield Charge (16/-)
2. Faster Attacks (20/20)
3. Fortify (-/20)

Strength is strapped in this build, so you won't be able to fully level Shield Charge unless you get some Strength on gear. It's not worth going out of your way for, though.

Quality on Fortify increases its duration. Gem level doesn't matter.





MARK OF SUBMISSION
1. Projectile Weakness (20/20)

On Hexproof maps, swap to another ring of your choice. I use a second Shaper ring with Life on Spell Hit and high life.

In very dangerous areas, like Delve's Vaal Outposts and Abyssal Cities, you can swap Mark of Submission for a second one socketed with Enfeeble. No need to recolor equipment.





SHAPER UNSET RING (w/ +15 Life gained for each Enemy hit by your Spells)
1. Holy Relic (21/20)




AMULET
Optional: Rare w/ Life & Resistances, +1 Skeletons (craftable)
Optional: Bloodgrip (anti-bleed, double life from flasks)
Optional: Perquil's Toe (lucky minions, damage rolled twice and highest used = ~20% more damage)
Optional: Hinekora's Sight (stack dodge/spell dodge)
Optional: Aul's Uprising (free Hatred, Envy, or other aura)

I chose Bloodgrip because it's a super cheap 1c Unique with solid life. It's common enough to buy up and mass-Vaal for +1 curse. Doubled life from flasks means one use of my two flasks can give 6271 instant life, restoring me from near death to full life in a heartbeat. The value of this should not to be underestimated. It also makes me practically immune to bleeds. Perfect against Labyrinth traps. I only take the base 10% damage per second from a monster (70% from players), instead of 210% while moving. It doesn't protect against Corrupting Blood, but I could get immunity to that on a jewel corruption. Finally, the 1.6% life regen mitigates damage over time like burning ground, desecrated ground, caustic cloud, poison, ignite, bleed, etc.

If you want a DPS necklace, I'd go for a rare amulet with +1 Skeletons. You could then craft +1 minimum Endurance Charges for more Physical Damage Reduction, or 10% chance to summon Spectral Wolves on Kill (Jorgin unveil) for more minion fun.




BELT
Life and resists are all that matter here. A Stygian Vise would be best, but I've had no luck in crafting, and buying one that matches my current self-found belt is outside of my price range for now.






JEWELS (Ghastly Eyes)
1. Life > Added Chaos Damage to Spells
2. Life > Taunt / Blind / Hinder
3. Life > 10% Minion Elemental Resists
4. Life > Minion Attack/Cast Speed > Minion Attack/Cast Speed if Killed Recently

Flat life on all your jewels is a must. When you have 2000 base life and 200% increased life, 50 flat life = 7.5% increased life.

You need one source of flat added Physical or Chaos damage to Spells. Mine is a prefix on my helm, but this isn't ideal since I lose a life prefix. This is what will allow Ball Lightning to Poison. If you cannot find or afford a jewel like this, use Lesser Poison with Ball Lightning until then. Envy on an Aul's Uprising amulet can also work.

Get one source of each of the three defensive mods, Taunt/Blind/Hinder.

Frost Sentinels and Solar Guards are capped by default on their resistance to their respective element, so that helps them against reflect damage. The other two elemental resists, however, are under cap by 30. One or two sources of 10% minion resist on your jewels will help shore them up together with Spirit Offering.

20% increased minion damage and 8% increased minion attack/cast speed are about equal (4% more damage), so I prefer minion speed to help with my own Shield Charge.




FLASKS
Flasks can be whatever you like. Just cover Bleed, Freeze, and Curse Immunities as a bare minimum. Keep a mana flask to the side in your inventory for when an unID map turns out to be No Regen. A low level, long duration mana flask would be best, as it'll give you a steady supply of mana without filling you up completely and terminating its effect prematurely.




INVENTORY
You can swap Desecrate in if you want to make Zombies at login. I usually just raise them on-site with corpses freshly created by my other minions. Otherwise, we just keep Desecrate handy in the very rare event that we lose our Spectres. Jumping to a completed Delve node post-270 depth ensures level 83 corpses for free. To get level 84 corpses, you'll need an Oba's Cursed Trove unique map or access to someone's Shaper's Realm.



WEAPON SWAP
Your weapon swap is up to you! I use a couple 6% Haku weapons as incubators for any Empowers, Enhances, or Enlightens I find. You'll want to keep your Desecrate here if it's still leveling up.

This Summoner build freezes, poisons, bleeds, blinds, maims, hinders, taunts, generates frenzy charges for allies, curses, lowers resists, gains LoH from attacks and spells, knocks back, and teleports, all as one action; and is assisted by two Frost Sentinels, a Solar Guard, an Agony Crawler, eleven Phantasms, eight Zombies, a Holy Relic, ten Skeletons, and fourty Vaal Skeletons.

The goals of this build are to field as many minions with as many supports as possible, push summoner DPS to new heights while remaining tanky, be adaptable, and play fast, smoothly, and with minimal fuss.

Our large roster of minions include:

(#L = number of links, indicating the relative power of a skill)

• 1. 5L Frost Sentinel Spectres for Freeze proliferation, Hinder, and spawning Phantasms.
• 2. 5L Solar Guard Spectre for Ignite proliferation, Special Beam Cannon into rooms, Hinder, and spawning Phantasms.
• 3. 5L Phantasms for general map clearing, Hinder, and more Freeze proliferation with cold damage from Hatred aura.
• 4. 5L Agony Crawler for hardened targets, Maim, and Blind.
• 5. 5L Zombies for protective meatshields, Taunt, Maim, Blind, and counter to Proximity Shields.
• 6. 6L Skeletons for boss slaying.
• 7. 6L Vaal Skeletons for defensive or besieging events.
• 8. 1L Holy Relic for minion regeneration and minor trash clearing.

We are able to grant so many minions more supports than normal through Shaper and Elder items.

We further aid these minions with an 8L Charged Dash that casts Ball Lightning while channeling and applies numerous effects to enemies on hit:

• 1. -50% Cold and Fire Resistances (Elemental Equilibrium keystone)
  
• 2. 54% increased projectile damage taken (Projectile Weakness curse)
  
• 3. Projectiles pierce target (Projectile Weakness curse)
  
• 4. 25% chance to Knock Back (Projectile Weakness curse)
  
• 5. Poison for Virulence stacks (Herald of Agony)
  
• 6. Poison to enable Vile Toxins support (Skeletons)
  
• 7. Bleed to enable Bloodlust support (Skeletons)

We also gain ~440 Life on Hit per second per target and rapidly self-generate Frenzy Charges for nearby allies (Victario's Charity shield) with how frequently we are able to hit a target (19-22 hits per second).

The build has one active skill (Charged Dash), one dodge skill (Shield Charge), and six prep skills (aura, herald, three persistent minions, and two long-duration minions used only for bosses and events). Everything else is automated. It doesn't rely on flasks, so it can be played primarily mouse-only. Aiming, positioning, and incoming damage have far less pressure than other builds. There are no timers or cooldowns you really need to be concerned about.

Playstyle can be adapted to your preferences, dynamically adjusted from passive to very active at whim:

• Defensive style - Hang back behind your minions and let waves of Ball Lightnings wash over monster packs for a relaxed and safer experience. You can also employ tactics like summoning Skeletons into a room before entering to draw attention away from the doorway. On easy content, you can simply use just Shield Charge, as Phantasms, Zombies, and Spectres will carry you and leave nothing but treasure in your wake.
  
  
• Aggressive style - Dash immediately after releasing a volley of Ball Lightning, rocketing forward into the face of your enemy. Your minions will often teleport onto you in a staggered fashion, causing them to immediately engage the closest threats. You aim for optimal teleport positioning and zip around the battlefield so no monster can get a bead on you. This puts you at greater risk for the sake of speed and fun.

Source

STRENGTHS

• 1. Fast - You are able to be constantly on the move, even when you aren't, leaving a trail of death behind you. The only thing slowing you down is how quickly you can pick up items.
  
  
• 2. Versatile - All content (mapping, bosses, delving) and all map mods (enjoy unID maps). The different minions are each specialized so together they can overcome any problem. You deal all damage types with all sources (melee, attack projectiles, spell projectiles), so no single monster defense cripples you (e.g. Proximity Shields).
  
  
• 3. Cheap - Only needs vendor gems to start. Grows with steady investment. Maximum cost depends on gear availability, but should not exceed more than a handful of Exalted orbs. I funded this build through the Chaos vendor recipe, several natural Exalted drops, and a few sales in the range of 1-3 Exalted orbs.
  
  
• 4. Powerful - Many builds cannot focus on more than one skill without interfering with their main ability. We bring to bear all our skills simultaneously. 4.7 million is a real, constant DPS that is independent of temporary buffs like flasks or Vaal auras.
  
  
• 5. Safe - Moderately high ~7k health, fast recovery, strong avoidance, some mitigation, proliferated freezes, 32-72 minion decoys, and constant mobility. Very few things pose a problem. Just don't get cocky, you're not a tank. Watch out for one-shots like Enhanced Vaal Fallen leaps in Vaal Outposts or the scything attack of cloaked Cavestalkers in Abyssal Cities post-300 depth in delves.

WEAKNESSES

• 1. Ramp-up Time - Full damage potential requires an initial set-up of several seconds, including four 0.43sec casts of Skeletons and several 0.35sec volleys of Ball Lightning. This makes it tricky to, for example, phase-skip and immediately kill the T15 Carcass boss (Amalgam) despite having the damage to do so.
  
  
• 2. Vulnerability to AOE - Skeletons, with 5771 life and 55% elemental resistance without jewels or Spirit Offering, are weak to hard-hitting area damage from some endgame bosses. Losing them can feel awkward, since you must interrupt your Charged Dash routine to resummon. Your ramp-up is somewhat restarted by this, since fresh Skeletons lack Frenzy Charges. Spectres and the Agony Crawler can keep your damage output above a million while you reorganize your forces.
  
  
• 3. Maze-like Rooms - Even when you can shoot into a room, it doesn't mean your minions who have lagged behind will have the same line of sight. Doorways and corners restrict your minions' clearing potential, so be mindful of their position. Sometimes it's best to take advantage of their straggling by quickly diving into a room so they auto-teleport onto you when you get too far away. The Holy Relic, who keeps close, will be there to back you up if they don't. Even a few kills by your Spectres can spawn Phantasms in a room, who will then clear the rest of it. For truly dangerous rooms, such as a shrine pack, summon Skeletons as far back into the room as possible to draw attention away from the entrance so you can burst in without taking a firing squad to the face.
  
  
• 4. Socket Starved - Like most summoner builds, we don't have the luxury of free socket space. The gear each gem must go in is also inflexible. Without overly changing the build, you can at best only drop Cast When Damage Taken, Spirit Offering, Greater Multiple Projectiles on Ball Lightning, and Fortify on Shield Charge for something else. (I like Fortify on Charged Dash when up against endgame bosses for consistent uptime.)
  
  
• 5. Visual Clutter - It goes without saying, but 74 minions take up screen space. With Ice Spears and Ball Lightning flying everywhere, it can be overwhelming for some. Alternatives for some of these are detailed in the FAQ, especially useful if your computer has trouble, but a certain level of mental parsing will still be required to play this Mass Summoner. If you're comfortable with a hectic game like Starcraft, for example, and the videos don't scare you off, you should be fine.
  
  

OVERALL DPS
(target: Shaper)

• 4,726,230 total DPS
  (all minions at peak)
  
  
• 3,722,537 boss DPS
  (no phantasms, zombies nuked, relic out of range, too lazy to gem swap spectres)
  
  
• 3,117,802 clear DPS
  (no skeletons, target not boss)

If Spirit Offering isn't up, divide the above numbers by 1.10.

If you swap the Flesh Binder ascendency to either Commander of Darkness or Puppet Master, you'll gain around ~8-12% more damage. Right now I'm testing how I like the Physical Damage Reduction.


DPS PER MINION
(glvl = gem level, mlvl = monster level)

• Skeletons x10 (glvl.24, mlvl.78)
  2,762,414 shaper DPS
  3,151,160 trash DPS
  (not including Vaal Skeletons)
  
  
• Agony Crawler x1 (glvl.26, mlvl.82)
  789,681 shaper DPS
  1,362,828 trash DPS
  (not including Mortar, which is 6x hits every ~7.5sec)
  
  
• Zombies x8 (glvl.26, mlvl.82)
  338,312 shaper DPS
  400,296 trash DPS
  (not including Slam attack, which is 45% more damage every 2.5sec and cannot miss)
  
  
• Phantasms x11 (glvl.21, mlvl.72)
  623,282 shaper DPS
  980,837 trash DPS
  
  
• Frost Sentinel Spectres x2 + Solar Guard x1 (glvl.20, mlvl.84)
  170,446 shaper DPS
  325,768 trash DPS
  724,351 endgame boss DPS if gems swapped from clear to damage (Controlled Destruction, Spell Echo, Pierce, Vile Toxins)
  (not including Unending Hunger jewel, which is roughly 1% more DPS per 3 nearby deaths within the last 30sec; Spectres don't have to be the one to get the kill)
  
  Frost vs. Solar
  55,806 vs 58,834 shaper DPS
  106,669 vs 112,429 trash DPS
  
  Frost Sentinels have 63% of the base damage of Solar Guards, but their Ice Spear gains 50% more damage in its second stage, putting them at 94% of a Solar Guard's damage.
  
  
• Holy Relic x1 (glvl.21, mlvl.72)
  42,099 shaper DPS
  48,073 trash DPS
  

MITIGATION

• Over 7k life possible
  
• 20% reduced Damage taken, from Fortify (on Shield Charge, optionally on Charged Dash)
  
• 10% less Damage dealt, from Taunt (T1 Ghastly Eye Jewel = 6-8% chance x 18 attack minions)
  
• Option to swap in Enfeeble on demand

RECOVERY

• Over 500 life regen
  
• 2.2 life flask multiplier x 1.7 rate for rapid recovery
  
• 40-50 life on attack hit (= 140 per sec per target)
  
• 15 life on spell hit (= 300 per sec per target vs. radius 4 enemy)

AVOIDANCE

• 40% Attack Dodge, from Acrobatics (50% w/ Quartz flask)
  
• 17% Attack Block, from Victario's Charity shield
  
• 50% Attack Miss, from Blind (T1 Ghastly Eye Jewel = 5-6% chance x 19 attack minions)
  
  
• 30% Spell Dodge, from Phase Acrobatics (40% w/ Quartz flask)
  
  
• Freeze/Chill proliferation (20% chance x 14 minions)
  
• 30% Action Speed Slow, from Chill (if cold hit deals 10% of target's life, scaling down to 1% slow at 0.33% life; all minions except the Solar Guard deal significant cold damage)
  
  
• 30% Movement Slow, from Maim (30% chance x 9 attack minions)
  
• 30% Movement Slow, from Hinder (T1 Ghastly Eye Jewel = 6-8% chance x 15 spell minions)
  (Note: Maim and Hinder stack additively, for a 60% slow)
  
  
• Knockback (25% chance on hit x 36+ sources of hits)
  
• Automated Corpse Destruction, from CWDT + Spirit Offering
  
• Distraction/Body-blocking (33+ minions impede many projectiles and melee monsters)

MOBILITY

• +30% increased movement speed from boots (free to use any boots, including 35% ilevel 86 boots or 50% Seven-League Steps)
  
• +70% increased movement speed, from Quicksilver of Adrenaline flask
  
• +125% increased movement speed, from L16/Q20 Shield Charge
  
• 1.3x More movement speed, from Charged Dash
  
• (= 325% total move speed with Shield Charge, or 260% with Charged Dash)
  
  
• Teleportation, from Charged Dash

1. Use Charged Dash to launch a volley of GMP Ball Lightning at monsters. This is your workhorse skill, and it accomplishes eight things simultaneously:

• a. Poisons - Summons the Agony Crawler and strengthens Skeletons (via Vile Toxins support).
  
  
• b. Curses - Paired with the Mark of Submission ring, Projectile Weakness grants Pierce to your Frost Sentinels and Agony Crawler. You also gain Knockback to keep away melee monsters and cluster them up for AOE damage.
  
  
• c. Applies Elemental Equilibrium - Significantly boosts Fire and Cold damage for stronger freezes, benefiting Spectres, Hatred, and Added Fire. So all your minions, basically.
  
  
• d. Gains Life on Hit - With a LGoH for Spells Shaper ring, Ball Lightning will give you fantastic recovery that lingers as long as the balls do. With a flat LGoH claw, Charged Dash can give stronger additional recovery in a smaller area.
  
  
• e. Bleeds - Against bosses, hit them with Charged Dash a few times, giving your Skeletons a massive 59% damage multiplier with Bloodlust support.
  
  
• f. Triggers Holy Relic's AOE spell - This kills off weaker mobs that get close to you, and grants 110 life regen to you and 320 to your minions. This helps keep your Spectres, Skeletons, and Zombies alive. It's equivalent to 1.5% minion regen for Zombies and 5.6% regen for Skeletons.
  
  
• g. Generates Frenzy Charges for minions - 5% chance on hit, and Ball Lightning hits an awful lot of times. You will easily cap your minions on Frenzy Charges, even against bosses. No need to waste 6+ passive points and lose your shield for Necromantic Aegis. Three Frenzy Charges grant minions 45% increased attack and cast speed, 15% increased movement speed, and 12% more damage.
  
  
• h. Teleports - On release of the channel (or if stunned/frozen), you teleport to your illusion. It's like you never lost travel time from stopping to cast, and it'll get you across gaps and over cliffs. There is a bit of a learning curve in getting used to navigating your illusion optimally. Stick with it, it's worth it. If you absolutely cannot stand it, though, sub in Blade Flurry.

2. Shield Charge to dodge as needed and travel long distances. Use Charged Dash to bypass obstacles. One of the best defenses is simply staying mobile.


3. Your minions will do everything else for you. Frost Sentinels and Phantasms provide general clear and proliferate freezes, helping to keep you safe and destroy pesky corpses. The Agony Crawler will demolish any tanky rares. Zombies take down Proximity Shield monsters.


4. The one lone Solar Guard is there to proliferate Ignite. Any kills with Damage Over Time count as your own, which in turn will trigger Victario's Charity's 10% chance to grant a Power Charge to nearby Allies on Kill. A single Power Charge grants your minions 200% increased critical strike chance. Minions have a base 5% critical strike chance and 30% critical strike multiplier. Three Power Charges amount to 35% chance to crit, but this is very unlikely to occur due to how quickly other minions steal kills from the Ignites.


5. Only against bosses will you bother to summon Skeletons. After four quick casts, you'll have all ten out. Then hit the boss with Charged Dash and Ball Lightning to poison and bleed the boss, enabling the Vile Toxins and Bloodlust supports to more than double Skeleton DPS.


6. Use Vaal Skeletons whenever you want to throw a surprise party for bosses, Breaches, Abysses, and other defensive situations.


Art by Chris Rallis

Video from Yloss (character: Chirdina with 19/0 gems)
Shaper Guardian: T16 Phoenix
Elder Guardians: T13 Eradicator, T13 Enslaver, T14 Constrictor


How to raise Spectres - A short video guide by DieKao.
[L61] Blood Aqueducts Leveling - How the build performs at low level, by DieKao.


I welcome user contributions! To record gameplay, I use the free and open-sourced Open Broadcaster Software (OBS).

I ran out of room, so I moved the FAQ to its own thread:

[FAQ] Speaker for the Dead
74-minion Mass Summoner