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

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Veraclus wrote:

I can't help myself. I just have to say it again.. This build is AWESOME AF. And I used to HATE summoner builds.

@Herc you should be in the Hall of Grandmasters!

I got through most of the first wing with absolutely no issue, until I ran into a CWDT tank. He was otherwise harmless if nothing was hitting him. I popped out of the map and bought a Balefire, a few vendor supports for Scorching Ray, and Frostbomb. First I tried it on a Spell Totem, but the Grandmaster had enough DPS to kill the L14 totem too quickly, whereas I was safe due to Spirit Offering. So I directly cast Scorching Ray and as soon as Frostbomb exploded and applied EE he fell right over.


First wing completed with minor issue. No deaths, 4 portals remaining.

My foolproof tactic was to pre-place Skeletons and Storm Brands in front of the awaiting Grandmasters, then pre-place a Smoke Mine back behind a statue where I couldn't be targeted or hit. I'd walk forward, trigger the Grandmasters, and at that same moment detonate my Smoke Mine and activate Bone Armour. This kept me safe and out of harm, and most Grandmaster lines fell in a fraction of a second. Skeleton Dash is incredible.


Second wing no trouble, until this guy.


So it was mull_gubben. Trying to catch their nameplate in a screenshot while they're running around is a pain in the butt.

I either brute-forced him with Skeleton spam or swapped to Scorching Ray. I forget which I did, but he wasn't too tough.


Second wing completed with minor issue. No deaths, 4 portals remaining.


Third wing and my very first death. I had quite a long, protracted offscreen battle with the last Grandmaster. I was trying to figure out what she did for the longest time. Tons of fireballs, a caustic ground that melted my minions, and half a dozen Raging Spirits. Since she wasn't dying immediately, I wondered if she was a recovery tank of some sort, so I swapped to Scortching Ray and tried to get close. That's when I was able to see all her Flame Sentinels and realized, surprisingly, that they were a minion build. Scorching Ray was not the answer. I ended up dying to get this information.

My mistake was not getting through her minion wall fast enough. The AOE overlap of the Flame Sentinels was ripping apart my Skeleton flood too quickly, so no damage was being done. Sometimes you have to hang back, be cautious, and spam Skeletons, other times you need to be aggressive and get your full army on top of them. Her solution was the latter. I remade my army and overwhelmed her, killing her easily.


Third wing completed with some issue. 1 death, 3 portals remaining.


Fourth wing, final stairs, one Grandmaster left: TheGrandHamster. I'm feeling really good.

I had another protracted battle, giving ground since I'm not sure what she can do. She's not taking damage and my minions are melting way too fast against Blade Vortex. Spirit Offering seemed to do well protecting me against the Vaal Blade Vortex she shot out. So I swapped to Scortching Ray. And promptly died.


Hmm, what if I try sending in Raging Spirits so she doesn't have anything to target? I used this death to go out and buy a 3c L20 Raging Spirit gem.


2 deaths, 2 portals left. I'm going to try my army once more. Okay, here we go!


Nope, they got vaporized again. Blade Vortex is just too good against melee minions. I decided to replace Zombies with Raging Spirits, and keep Skeletons on standby just in case.


I wasn't sure where she was exactly, and before I caught sight of her something sniped me from offscreen. Okay, lesson learned, I needed to be placing bait Skeletons in front before walking forward.

3 deaths, 1 portal left.


Did not go well the second time, either. Before I could even get out a few Raging Spirits, Vaal Blade Vortex stunned and immediately killed me. WTH? I was surviving before, but now it dealt way too much damage.

Looking back on this now, I'm thinking my minions burned down her flasks in our earlier protracted fight, so when she was finally able to damage me I was not being hit by a juiced-up Lucky Crit Atziri Taste of Hate Vaal Blade Vortex.


4 deaths, last portal. *sigh* So close... Fuck it, YOLO!


Let's try Raging Spirits one more time. Frost Sentinels for decoys.

I reasoned TheGrandHamster must have some kind of regen mechanism, so I also equipped Frost Bomb. I specced into Avatar of Fire so Frost Bomb could also apply Cold EE. It would reduce the Fire portion of Raging Spirits, but their Cold portion was higher due to Triad Grip.

I needed more range. Hand-casting Raging Spirits didn't put them far enough out (now that I think about it, Deathmark might have been a good idea). So I put Skeletons into my weapon and Raging Spirits into my helm so they could use the two red sockets for Spell Totem and Multiple Totems.


Naturally, totems gave her a target and Blade Vortex is AOE, so this plan failed. Totems went poof. I should have had a Smoke Mine prepped to retreat in case this went south, but I was pretty groggy at 3am and didn't think it through clearly. In trying to back up, I was nipped by a Vaal BV, stunned, and eaten.

The end.

Thanks for playing.

Game closed. The preceding happiness of nearly completing all four wings turned bitter. Feeling down. Time for bed.

...

...

So what did I need to do? Raging Spirits had potential, but I couldn't execute it properly. Deathmark with a prepped Smoke Mine would have let me back away and send the Spirits in offscreen. Bone Offering and Decay Ward anointment for Skeleton spam might have also worked against the rapid hits of BV. Holy Flame Totem might have been useful for suppressing her curses (Enfeeble, Temp Chains, Assassin's Mark).

This seems to be the character: TheGrandHamster (made by Traviscosity). Occultist CI with high ES regen and Vaal Discipline. So Frost Bomb was the right call, but getting close enough to use it was problematic. Dream Fragments countered my Skitterbot chill and Triad Grip freezes.

As of Patch 3.2, Grandmasters generate 2 Vaal Souls per second. This means TheGrandHamster could spam Vaal BV and Vaal Discipline.

Grandmasters are not affected by any patch changes to their class, so she should also have the 30% ES regen for 30 kills, at least 121% faster ES recharge (0.9sec delay), and the original Occultist Wicked Ward for uninterruptable ES recharge. With at least 110% recharge rate (not sure if grandmaster created before or after Discipline was nerfed and gained 30% recharge rate as compensation), she can recharge 42% per second. Zealot's Oath, 1% regen on tree, and Consecrated Ground would be another 7% regen. 30% Vile Bastion + 42% recharge + 7% Oath = 79% regen. Frost Bomb would cut this down to:

37% * 0.25 = 9.25%
42% * 0.75 = 31.5%

So still 40% recovery even with Frost Bomb. Jeeze.

Profane Bloom with all the Minion Damage she gets means even if Skeletons have Bone Offering, they would all still instantly die the moment one of them dies. Holy Flame Totem probably wouldn't survive long enough to keep suppressing the curses, either.

Vaal Discipline lasts 3 seconds and has (67% + 45% =) 112% increased duration, so 6.36 seconds total. It costs 50 souls, so at 2 souls per second she can use it every 25 seconds. Soul Gain Prevention doesn't seem to apply to Grandmasters, so the real gap is (25 - 6.36 =) 18.64 seconds.

Vaal Blade Vortex also lasts 3 seconds and has (20% + 45% =) 65% increased duration, so 4.95 seconds. It costs 30 souls, so she can fire one off every 15 seconds, meaning a gap of only 10 seconds.

This character is especially tough for summoners due to Vile Bastion regen, Profane Bloom explosions, and strengthened triple curses that, unlike players with curse ward flasks, can't be removed from most minion types (just Zombies and Spectres through Ascent from Flesh). Holy Flame Totem isn't practical in this situation. You can't let up for more than a second or Wicked Ward ensures crazy recharge.

The good news is she doesn't recover per hit, so she can be overwhelmed. You need to be able to keep on her, though, and that's the tricky part. If Raging Spirits cause her to retreat too far, just one second and Wicked Ward is enabled.

The crit damage, freezes, and doubling up with Vaal BV are very problematic. Flame Dash and Consecrated Path allows her to stick to a target.

Taste of Hate flask meant she was taking far less damage from my Cold Triad Grip. 20% less Cold Damage on top of 50% cold resistance mitigating EE. But I at least avoid the reflected damage from Basalt.

If Raging Spirits didn't work, then my last hope would be Skitterbots with a buffed up Infernal Legion in a +3 Minion Damage & Burning Damage helm. It'd be like Scorching Ray without putting myself in danger. Immortal minions like Spectral Spiders or Herald of Agony might work, too. As long as she takes constant damage, can't get any kills, and can't jump on anything with ConPath, her recovery would only be 1%. That's the key to defeating TheGrandHamster.

Skitterbots (35% reservation)
0a. +3 to socketed Minion Gems
0b. Minion Damage (49% more, 1.3 reserve = 45.5)
0c. Burning Damage (54% more, 1.2 reserve = 54.6)

1. Infernal Legion (+5 levels, 1.3 reserve = 70.98, 2378 DPS @L25)
2. Deathmark (61% more, 1.3 reserve = 92.27)
3. Combustion (29% more, 1.2 reserve = 110.72)
> Sovereignty passive node (4pts, 0.86 reserve = 95.22)


Other supports:
A. Concentrated Effect (54% more, 1.4 reserve)
B. Elemental Focus (49% more, 1.3 reserve)
C. Elemental Army (31% more, 1.3 reserve)
D. Meat Shield (30% more, 1.3 reserve)
E. Efficacy (24% more, 1.3 reserve)


Other damage boosts:
1) Wave of Conviction (-20% Fire res Exposure) + Combustion (-19% Fire res) --> reset EE w/ Storm Brand

2) Flammability (-44% Fire res)
3) Elemental Weakness (-39% Ele res)
4) Despair (25% increased Taken or 35% w/ 20 quality)

5) Malevolence (50% reservation, 20% more or 28% w/ Generosity)

To counter regen, use a Frost Bomb + Increased Area + Intensify + Spell Cascade to make hitting with it easier.



Skitterbot Damage Multiplier = 1.49 * 1.54 * 1.61 * 1.29 = 4.77 more damage * 5.27 inc.dmg = 25.12% total multiplier

2378 dmg * 25.12 = 59,724 DPS

Then we have 24% inc.dmg Taken from Shock. Depending on how overcapped the Grandmasters are, most, if not all, of their resistances can be taken care of with -50% res from EE and -39% fire res from WoC+Combustion. Curses can further drop it.

Finally, we have PvP scaling:

(Damage / (15 override Time for Infernal Legion * 150)) ^ 0.55 * 150 * 15 Time

(59,724 / 2250) ^ 0.55 * 2250 = 13,657 PvP DPS



For comparison, 8 stages of Balefire would be:

1.54 Burning Damage * 1.49 Ele.Focus * 1.2 Efficacy (spell) * 1.24 Efficacy (DoT) = 3.41 multiplier * 5.53 inc.dmg = 18.88 total multiplier.

738.9 base dmg * 5.2 (stages) * 18.88 = 72,548 DPS

(Damage / (0.2 override Time for SR * 150)) ^ 0.55 * 150 * 0.2 Time

(72,548 / 30) ^ 0.55 * 30 = 2,178 PvP DPS

...Wow, okay, that's a huge difference.