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

@ Alerean:

"

Alerean wrote:

I feel like the "useful stuff" that's under leveling could be it's own section in the new player guides, if only because some of those resources are just good in general (and you could probably expand it to add a few more 3rd party tools/sites).

I considered that, too, but all those links are relevant while leveling. I might create a general Useful Links sort of section for various tools and apps, but then again those links might fit better separated out into existing sections, like trade apps in How To Trade, crafting links under Crafting, etc.

"

Alerean wrote:

I just noticed that you mention that where you put gems on gear matters, but could you expand on what you mean by that? I get that each set of links needs to be exactly as shown, but do you also mean that it matters what gear they go in? For example, the 4L's. I have my Skellies on my gloves, my Dash on helm and then hatred/spirit offering on boots. Likewise with my 3L's, I've got my Zombies on my shield and my Shield Charge on my weapon (still leveling).

Edit: Okay, I think I get it. "(w/ +3 to Level of Socketed Minion Gems)"...makes sense to put Skellies on helm then. Likewise with Empower, you want it on the Claw so you can get Maim in there as well. Until I do get that sort of stuff I'm guessing it won't make a big difference for now if I keep my current setup.

Yep. It doesn't matter where the gems go until it does, which is when you get Shaper/Elder items with the support gem affixes the build calls for. So I like to recommend people stick to that arrangement even before then, since it'll make it easier to transition when the time comes; less chromatic orbs used and all that. However, it's fine to adapt to whatever hand the game RNG has dealt to you and go from there, so it's not a hard rule or anything of the sort.

"

Alerean wrote:

"

imthedan wrote:

forgive the dumb question, but do we get multiple minion damage gems or do we just use one and move it around? if we need more than one, where do we get them?

You can have as many gems as you want. They drop as loot but you can also buy them from vendors/NPC's at various points in the game. I'm pretty sure Minion Damage is unlocked early, but once you get to Siosa in Act 3 she sells all the gems available to you (more as you progress through the story).

Siosa, a Kauri ghost coming out of a painting in the Act 3 Library, sells all level 28 and lower gems. Lilly, in Act 6 after completing her quest, sells all gems, except for Drop Only gems like Empower, Enhance, Enlighten, and Added Chaos Damage Support.

---

@ ArmedCiv:

"

ArmedCiv wrote:

Thank you so much, so helpful, you are amazing.

You're welcome!

---

@ Sharkuuu:

"

Sharkuuu wrote:

currently lvl 85 ssf, just my 2 cents here :)


leveling was rough. mostly because of syndicate, they always 1shot all minions. especially bad with the portals.

after blood aqueducts, everything was smooth. but im running it the normal zoom zoom way with solar guards, as frost sentinels wasnt even half the speed. with the frost sentinels i had problems even getting 10 phantasms up, because agony and zombies already cleared most on the stuff before the spectre even hit anything.

right now i play with 3 solar guard, 6 zombies, agony and 10 phantasms. as soon as a group is in sight, solar guards spawn 10 phantasms, and then its just shield charge until the map is done. ofc the dmg is absurd, t8 with 5 link is still just charging through everything, never stopping. skellys are nice for tanky bosses, but i dont know if its really worth it to keep them if i dont push endgame bosses, everything else is dead before i could even summon them.

this way, convocation is mandatory for me. also speed reasons, rooms are cleared like 5 times faster if i charge in and convocate instead of summonig skellys into the room

gear is far from optimal, no shaper/elder yet, no 6l, i dont even think i got life on all the items yet.


i will try your setup in later maps again, but so far the speed gain from solar guard outweights every survival gain from frost sentinels. why freeze if you can kill before they can attack :D

overall pretty nice and definitely better than a pure spectre summoner, way more stuff to do so it doesnt get boring :)


edit: SonearSkelly if any1 wants to see how bad your gear can be and still do endless dmg

Thanks for your input and alternative ideas! Faster Projectiles Support lets Frost Sentinels hit quicker, in addition to doubling Phantasms' area coverage.

The reason we go Frost Sentinels is because of the Agony Crawler. He brings 1.3M to clear. The problem is he's only one minion, and can only attack in one direction at any specific time. If he ends up spending a second turned away from a big pack to take out some trash mob to the side, clearing will take longer. So we want something to get rid of the weak but numerous normal monsters spread out everywhere. We need coverage.

That's where Phantasms come in. But they need GMP and Faster Projectiles to have adequate length and width to their damage cone. This, of course, takes away damage potential from the Spectres who spawn them.

Luckily, we have several non-link sources of damage, such as Frenzy Charges, EE, and Projectile Weakness. Compared to a build that doesn't use one of these things, it's like having extra damage supports.

So if we don't need our Spectres for damage, Agony Crawler is doing that, and we don't need them for coverage, Phantasms claim that, what should our Spectres offer that we might be lacking? Even more damage isn't bad, of course, but 50% more of 170k isn't much. We need to stack several damage supports before Spectres get competitive.

That's why we go Frost Sentinels and Elemental Proliferation. When all our gems are maxed, a bit more damage isn't as helpful as freezing or the extremely long and wide range of Frost Sentinels. Solar Guards have great range with their Special Beam Cannon, but that has a charge up animation that locks them in place, and a cooldown. The Frost Sentinel's Ice Spears have the same range as the Special Beam Cannon, or twice the range of the Solar Guard's fireballs. Plus extra projectiles and fork. This translates into something similar to the Special Beam Cannon over a wide cone instead of a small area, with no delay or cooldown so it benefits from Unending Hunger.

At lower level, lower Spectre level, and lower gem level, Solar Guards are definitely stronger. But that'll fall off. Solar Guards are of course strong in general, especially if their fireball AOEs overlap, but when they stop one-shotting, freeze becomes more important to keep you safe until the Agony Crawler one-shots.

@ Truppensturm:

"

Truppensturm wrote:

Noob here have a question about EE.

In the OP it says:

Just make absolutely sure none of your gear adds fire or cold damage, or EE won't be worth taking until you replace those items.


Why only fire or cold damage?

I have hatred which gives enemies 25% resist to cold and static strike for 25% to lightning, if I understand this correctly. Then it gives me -50% resist to poison? My poison damage comes from herald of agony.

What does it matter then if my gear has fire or cold damage?

I'm confused. If anyone could help me clear this out, that would be much appreciated. Thanks for the great guide!!

Poison isn't elemental. Lightning, Cold, and Fire are what's considered Elemental Damage. Physical and Chaos Damage are not. Poison is Chaos Damage.

Hatred does not affect you when linked to Generosity Support. You do not want to deal Cold Damage, or you will weaken Hatred with Elemental Equilibrium. You do not want to deal Fire Damage, or you will weaken the Fire Damage of the Solar Guard and Added Fire Support with EE.

Of the three elemental damage types, you want to only hit with Lightning Damage, which will weaken further Lightning Damage in exchange for strengthening the Cold and Fire Damage of our minions. None of our minions use Lightning Damage, so it's okay to weaken Lightning Damage.

We don't deal damage of any significance ourselves. That's the job of our minions. We support them. So our poison damage doesn't matter. We just want to apply poison, even if it's only 1 damage, because it gives us Virulence, and Virulence gives us the Agony Crawler minion.

---

@ midknight90:

"

midknight90 wrote:

Thanks for the build, running this in betrayal league and it is working like a charm. I do a questions though. How are you able to raise 3 spectres? 1 default + 1 with Death Attunement... what am I missing?
Sorry if the answer is obvious or has been answered before, I am new and 24 pages of comments is a lot.

Boots. This is also described in the Gem Links and Gear section.

"

Hercanic wrote:

Yep. It doesn't matter where the gems go until it does, which is when you get Shaper/Elder items with the support gem affixes the build calls for. So I like to recommend people stick to that arrangement even before then, since it'll make it easier to transition when the time comes; less chromatic orbs used and all that. However, it's fine to adapt to whatever hand the game RNG has dealt to you and go from there, so it's not a hard rule or anything of the sort.

Yeah, for the sake of consistency and simplicity I've taken that advice and swapped them around to the proper set up, just to make the upgrade path later a bit more linear.

Great guide man! I got to act 2 last night playing around with it.

is there any stats we should be looking for on gear when leveling up or is it just about making sure we have the sockets?

@ ArmedCiv, Genslus, and Dapop:

"

ArmedCiv wrote:

"

Genslus wrote:

"

Dapop wrote:

I think CWDT and Cast when damage taken doesnt work? (CWDT lvl 1 and spirit offering lvl 8 so it should work technically). I have not seen it activate ever

I asked this myself. Can anyone explain? In my Skill list it says I cant use Spirit Offering directly (which indicates that the CWdT is working). Still I haven't noticed any effect (like Immortal Call). Or am I just blind?

Can confirm mine is working, even with all the acrobatics on the tree allocated, which is what i was worried about. But it could be because i haven't upped my resistances yet, that i'm noticing it. Will see when my resistances are fixed.

"

ArmedCiv wrote:

I also wonder about CWDT as the previous poster said, won't that be counter intuitive to use with acrobatics since you won't be getting hit as much so will it proc enough? I don't know because I don't have Acrobatics yet, but i did wonder the same thing as I am getting it soon.

It'll work, there just needs to be corpses around. We don't worry too much about whether the Spirit Offering buff is in effect. It's just a bonus. The real function is to clear corpses when we take burst damage. This situation happens when a bunch of Porcupines or Unstable Wetas die around us. The moment we take over 538 damage, corpses nearest whatever triggered CWDT are destroyed, which also eliminates any effects that originate from those corpses. Such as the quill novas released from slain porcupines or the icicle spikes that erupt from dead Unstable Wetas.

---

@ Alerean:

"

Alerean wrote:

Speaking of...I have a Filterblade loot filter question for everyone; does anyone have a good guide on how to properly customise their filter through the website? In general but also specifically for SSF. It seems like 75% of the stuff that pops up even on Strict isn't very useful for me. I've gone into the "hide rares by slot" section and disabled all the stuff we don't want like 2H weapons, and I've added some basetype rules with socket/link requirements based on what's been mentioned in this guide, but I'm not sure what else to look out for. I've also added the BiS unique's to Tier 1. I'm aiming for as little useless stuff as possible, so any advice would be appreciated.

Here's what I've got so far: http://www.filterblade.xyz/#KtSIhDNcAY9J

I just use Strict unless I'm loading up on rares for the Chaos recipe, so I can't offer any advice about this. You might have better luck asking the Filterblade community itself.

---

@ ArmedCiv:

"

ArmedCiv wrote:

Got a question about Ascendancy and couple other little things.

I was thinking for Getting Flesh Binder Ascendancy next, because that is the core of my Army, the Zombies, and it would be great to have that extra defensive physical damage reduction. (i like to minimize deaths as much as possible)

Then I was thinking of getting Soul weaver because that is the other main stay of my army the Specters.

And lastly I would get Bone Sculptor because I only really call them in for tough big fights such as bosses and huge powerful crowds.

Doing it this way would increase the minions life and damage sooner. But I would miss out on the skeletons hits not being Evaded, is that the main reason for taking that first in the guide?

But i'm a noob at this game and don't know if that is the best thing to do. It seems like it to me, but I don't know, is there an important reason to take Bone Sculptor second instead of last?

I'd just like to know what the reasons are behind choosing the order recommended so I can know if It would be best to follow the guide or if it doesn't matter too much.

Thank you,

We take Bone Sculptor first because it's a massive improvement to Skeletons. The skill is just unwieldy before then. It gives us three Skeletons in one cast, doubles their movement speed, and makes their hits reliable. Bosses are the only true threat while leveling, especially in Act 6 and up, so we want our bossing skill to be in order. Tough encounters like Betrayal events will also benefit from having a strong DPS skill you can place on demand.

Since your personal build variation isn't using Shield Charge, your ability to dodge boss mechanics is lessened, so killing them fast with Skeletons will be even more important for you.

Soul Weaver is taken for the 100% increased life. We don't want our Spectres to die, because it's super annoying, especially once we've invested in acquiring level 84 Spectres. The damage boost is nice, but Phantasms are the bigger part of our clear, even if Spectres are more flashy about it.

Flesh Binder is last because it has the least impact on us.

"

ArmedCiv wrote:

Also appreciate a pro looking at how my build is going and give me any tips on the upcoming priorities that you think I should take care of.

Currently my focus is to eventually get a glove that gives poison so i can free up that poison gem, i'm also focusing on getting to maps, i'm on act 10 now. And i'm wanting to get the Acrobatics nodes next.

What things should I focus on next? I'm starting to notice now that my clear isn't as fast and i'm beginning to feel some of the damage coming in. But did that last Act 9 boss without dying, but something they did, was pretty scary and took me down quite a bit and was sketchy for a second there. But wasn't too much trouble outside of that.

The later Acts are meant to spike up in difficulty. Monsters have more dangerous AOE and such that can bypass our minion wall. Resistances, life, and staying aware and cautious are what you want to focus on.

There's also monsters in Act 10 with Proximity Shields that'll block all damage outside those shields. Your Zombies will usually take care of them, but you can speed up the process by giving them the gift of love. And by love I mean Skeletons.

Looking over your build:

1. You don't need 2 Phantasm gems. You want them only on Spectres so you can support their projectiles with GMP and Faster Projectiles.

2. You don't need both a Skeleton gem and a Vaal Skeleton gem. Vaal Skeletons can also cast normal Skeletons. All Vaal skills now give you the original skill in addition to the Vaal version. In other words, it gives you two skills in one.

3. You don't need Minion Speed on Spectres. Minion Speed is only decent for melee minions, so they can get into melee attack range faster. If you're going to share links, do it with Skeletons and Zombies because they are both melee attackers.

4. You are using the Poison gem but I can't find a source of Chaos/Physical Damage for Spells. Ball Lightning will not poison unless you do. Switch to Lesser Poison until you can get a jewel or other source with flat Chaos Damage for Spells or flat Physical Damage for Spells.

"

ArmedCiv wrote:

I was wondering about how I would include enfeeble with CWDT into my setup, but i can't decide what i'd sacrifice and how I would do it. Do I just use that and Projectile Weakness on a Ring? But then I lose all my resistances and life. So not sure how to handle some of these things.

Also is my 6 link Tabula ok the way it is?
Would you guys recommend different setups and improvements?

I will eventually transition more into what the build recommends. It's just at the time it seemed like a good idea to mix specters and zombies into the same links, is that bad?

I thought i'd try that banner thing I found, is it worth it? Or just waste and replace it?

If you feel vulnerable, you can use Enfeeble or Temporal Chains over Projectile Weakness. The Pierce from Projectile Weakness will be sorely missed, but Phantasms pierce by default so only Spectres and the Agony Crawler are affected.

Tabula is fine to get you started, but it obviously lacks defenses, so your tactics should keep that in mind. 6L rares will come down in price, being no more than 40-80c, which you can earn with 20-40 unID'd rare sets for the Chaos recipe.

Dread Banner is ~8% more damage for your Skeletons, ~4% for your Agony Crawler, reduces enemy accuracy, gives an improved Fortify when placed, and can build stages on bosses. War Banner is similar in damage and also benefits Phantasms, but doesn't give any defenses and you won't be gaining any stages on it.

If you have a spare red socket and enough mana to handle the reservation without hurting Skeleton casting, go for it. It'd also let you benefit from the Commander of Darkness ascendancy if you don't want Flesh Binder.

"

Hercanic wrote:

---

@ Yloss:

"

Yloss wrote:

"

DieKao wrote:

Well you did it. You actually made the best Summoner build this game has ever seen...

---snip---

This.
And also, in 3.4 i could kill red guardians with sub-optimal gear and lvl 19/0 gems (videos in the "Other videos" section)
I join DieKao in congratulating and thank Hercanic for an outstanding Summoner build :D

Glad to see you back, Yloss! I'm looking forward to that Uber Elder video you are totally going to do this league, am I right? =oD

Heh that's the goal this league, althou currently i'm struggling in white maps (squishy) due to gear being unavailable (yet) or totally overpriced and out of my league (sigh).
Oh well, here they say that patience is the strongs' virtue (or something like that) ;P

"

midknight90 wrote:

Thanks for the build, running this in betrayal league and it is working like a charm. I do a questions though. How are you able to raise 3 spectres? 1 default + 1 with Death Attunement... what am I missing?
Sorry if the answer is obvious or has been answered before, I am new and 24 pages of comments is a lot.

Third is from boots.

These are rather weak:

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Bones_of_Ullr

But you can wait a bit for Elder rare boots. Currently, there is nothing on the SC market.

Is farming Tabula the way to go for SSF? The odds of getting a 6L any other way seem pretty remote... Also someone recommended Vis Mortis as a chest if I can't find Belly. I'm guessing because Spectre isn't really there for the damage that the loss of toughness isn't worth it.

@ Alerean:

"

Alerean wrote:

Is farming Tabula the way to go for SSF? The odds of getting a 6L any other way seem pretty remote...

Probably the easiest and most reliable, yes. Might take 4-8 hours if unlucky. There are other Divination cards that can give 6L body armor:

• 1. Emperor of Purity - Six-Link Holy Chainmail. Drops from Fungal Hollow, Overgrown Ruin, The Chamber of Sins Level 1, The Western Forest.
  
  
• 2. The Celestial Justicar - Six-Link Astral Plate. Drops from Cursed Crypt, The Crypt.
  
  
• 3. The Chains that Bind - Six-Link Body Armour. Drops from Cage, Lava Chamber, Pen, Pit.
  
  
• 4. The Dapper Prodigy - Six-Link Body Armour. Drops from Residence.
  
  
• 5. The Ethereal - Six-Link Vaal Regalia. Drops in The Apex of Sacrifice.
  
  
• 6. The Sacrifice - Six-Link Sacrificial Garb. Drop location unknown, may be a general drop anywhere.

List of Divination Cards on poeDB.

"

Alerean wrote:

Also someone recommended Vis Mortis as a chest if I can't find Belly. I'm guessing because Spectre isn't really there for the damage that the loss of toughness isn't worth it.

Unholy Might is nice, but no we don't need Vis Mortis. We want life and mitigation.

It could potentially work on a non-Acrobatics ES variant I mentioned awhile back. But it gets expensive, needing an Aul's Uprising and Watcher's Eye.

"

I see, priorities on what to invest in. That's a good idea. Quick version: #1 is elemental resistances, so items with big resist values are important to get squared away. A solid budget belt, ring, and amulet will carry much of your resistance burden. Boots are also a good source of resists, though 30% movement speed takes precedence.

This depends on market prices, but offhand I'd recommend items with two high 45-55% resists over an item with three low 20-30%. Triple resists usually cost more because of rarity and you don't have to balance so much. Victario's Charity has 30% Lightning Resistance, so you're ahead there right off the bat compared to Cold and Fire.

#2 priority is Life. You can settle for less life if it gets you more resistances. You eventually want to upgrade to the best of both worlds, but in budget land we can only look at the cake.

#3 is Minion Blind, Taunt, and Hinder on ~two Ghastly Jewels. You can settle for ~30 life to start, but eventually you want to upgrade to T1 50 life.

For big items, I'd go 10-20c for 6L Tabula Rasa, upgrade to a 40-80c 6L rare with high life/resists, then finish off with Belly of the Beast. I haven't confirmed if we still have the Vorici coloring trick, though. We want a 6L so our main clear skill can do its job as well as protect us with reliable freezes.

Once you have a 6L chest, you want a +1 w/ Minion Damage Support Elder helm, then a +2 w/ Minion Damage Support, and eventually a +3 w/ Minion Damage Support later into the league. Life and resists are important as well, but don't break the bank unless it's for a perfect helmet that won't come along very often.

Gloves with just a Poison Support affix and high life should be super easy to get. That's all you need at first. You don't need a Chance to Bleed Support affix until you have your helmet situation finished, since Skeletons won't have a socket for Bloodlust until you do.

A Shaper ring with any amount of +LoH from Spells that also has solid life and resists will go a long way toward protecting you while mapping. Ball Lightning hits an absurd amount of times, and with GMP it covers the whole screen. Your life will rarely appear to drop, as you can see from my videos, and part of that is because of freeze and minion body blocking, but the other part is the huge incoming recovery you're constantly getting. But you need to have your Gloves with Poison before you can use GMP and take full advantage of screen-wide LoH.

A Shaper claw with Maim is a good starter. That gives you the protection of Maim's slow and boosts Skeleton DPS. The +1 to gems isn't as impactful until you can afford an Empower Support. Minion Damage Support can sub in for it until then.

You can now start investing more into your jewels. T1 life, T1 minion attack/cast speed, T1 minion attack/cast speed on kill. You do not need any flat damage on jewels. That's just a bonus if it has one, or something you end up with after you try exalting your own T1 3-property jewels.

All that's left are +1 Spectre boots. These are not a priority. Two Frost Sentinels are enough. But once you have a few exalts burning a hole in your Currency tab and everything else is on the higher end of your budget limit, then you can think about luxury boots. Don't compromise on life or resistances and especially not on movement speed.

You're pretty much done, anything more is icing. Eventually you'll want a +1 curse ring and a curse corruption on gloves.

I am enjoying this build quite a bit, it's my first summoner build and learning allot from your guide. I have quoted the above from your previous post reply. Could you take a look at my profile http://poe-profile.info/profile/krut0n/Krunect and let me know what you would prioritize as upgrading/changing. I only have about 1.5ex to spend right now. My life seems low for level 75 and pretty squishy, only gotten to Tier 4 maps atm. Clearing is pretty quick but this betrayal encounters are really giving me a hard time. Thanks again for your detailed guide and time.