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

@ Aim4MyHead:
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Aim4MyHead wrote:
Hercanic, this guide is honestly the work of a mad genius. There's so many different elements to it that obviously come together amazingly.

Haha, thanks!


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Aim4MyHead wrote:
I was trying an arc build in Betrayal but gave up and decided to go back to necro as I've always loved the playstyle. I'm still working through the leveling part of the game using this build and loving it so far, but have a couple of questions:

- I'm not used to using shield charge as my main movement skill and I'm finding it pretty clunky. I'm much more used to flame dash from previous leagues. Other than proc'ing fortify is there a particular upside to shield charge I'm going to miss by changing to flame dash?

It's fine to use Flame Dash while leveling. As a full replacement, it's not the best fit. We benefit from minion attack speed thanks to Spiritual Command on the passive tree, but not minion cast speed. In fact, we barely get any cast speed, so the 0.70 cast time is a problem for twitch dodging. Cast time is also paid upfront, while Shield Charge's 0.29sec delay is mostly paid at the end, after you've (hopefully) successfully dodged a Shaper slam or whatever.

The charge system means even when at 20/20 you cannot constantly spam Flame Dash to cross large swaths of terrain. Overall, it'll be noticeably slower than Quicksilver-juiced Shield Charging. Since Charged Dash already lets us teleport, Flame Dash isn't offering any other advantage, either.

You are more than welcome to use Flame Dash if that's what you're comfortable with. Just know this build doesn't support it very well. As for the loss of Fortify, I like to use Fortify instead of GMP in Charged Dash against endgame bosses like Guardians, etc, so it's still possible to have Fortify where it counts most.


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Aim4MyHead wrote:
- If I do change to flame dash I'll have a couple of free gem slots in the shield. I see you mention in the FAQ using an animated guardian. I've previously used grimlock9999's skele build (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2114607) and found the set up for animated guardian he used made my minions feel way faster. I'd also give it minion life.

If I was to do the above would I be missing much versus using shield charge/fortify? You're obviously better at theorycrafting than I am so just double checking I'm not missing something important!

Thanks again for the great guide!

If you have enough unreserved mana, a Dread Banner and Chaos Golem might be better than an Animated Guardian. Less headache, too. Similar damage boost (though delayed), but an additional 4% physical damage reduction and less enemy accuracy that fully works on bosses (unlike Enfeeble).





@ Sfotzki:
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Sfotzki wrote:
Hi thanks for a awesome build!
Been trying to figure out why you use CWDT - Spirit offering without mistress of sacrifice?

Destroys corpses, which stops on-death monster effects and even deletes them mid-flight.
Hey I was wondering how you get 8 zombies, I can only get 6 with the nodes you picked.
Hi,

Great post. I really enjoy playing this build.

I am kinda noobish as I haven't played POE in quite a while so could you please clarify on below? :)

- How do you activate Herald of Agony with Ball lightning without poison gem in?
You've mentioned that we need source of Chaos damage but as far as I understand it is poison that deals chaos damage but Chaos by itself doesn't cause poison.
Please let me know what I am missing:)
ATM I am spreading poison casting Ball lightning with Greater Projectiles and Poison support. I don't really get it how you do this with your charged dash setup without poison gem.

- You've also wrote that due to EE we should avoid any source of elemental damage like cold but yet you're using Hatred.
Isn't that bad for mobs resistances?

- how the hell are you avoiding traps in Labs??? I cannot see a damn thing with all those minions ruining around XD

Very fun build! Thanks a lot! :)


First of all. Love everything about this guide.

Even though it can be a hell to find what i am looking for in the guide, i love the amount of work you've put into it. It's brilliant!

Just a quick question:
I swear i saw that you posted a list of what upgrades to acquire and focus on first, but i can't for the life of me find where you posted it. I've been through the guide about 10 times now trying to find it, and i'm starting to wonder if i'm just crazy.

Can anyone direct me towards that priority list? :-P

Thanks
@ Sorover:
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Sorover wrote:
First of all. Love everything about this guide.

Even though it can be a hell to find what i am looking for in the guide, i love the amount of work you've put into it. It's brilliant!

Just a quick question:
I swear i saw that you posted a list of what upgrades to acquire and focus on first, but i can't for the life of me find where you posted it. I've been through the guide about 10 times now trying to find it, and i'm starting to wonder if i'm just crazy.

Can anyone direct me towards that priority list? :-P

Thanks

I was in the middle of trying to add that to the guide when I hit the 50k character limit for posts. I have just now solved that dilemma, so you can find what you're looking for in Part 2 of the Leveling Guide: Epilogue's Gear section. There are a few more additions from what I originally posted as a response here, and I'll likely be refining it further in the future.

And thank you for the compliments! I do strive to make it as 'easy' as I can to find information, but there's just so much! Refining the guide is an ongoing process, and each time someone is stumped I have another clue on where I could improve.




@ BrainPls:
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BrainPls wrote:
Hey I was wondering how you get 8 zombies, I can only get 6 with the nodes you picked.

Flesh Binder ascendancy gives +2 Zombies.




@ pkDurzoBliint:
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pkDurzoBliint wrote:
Hi,

Great post. I really enjoy playing this build.

I am kinda noobish as I haven't played POE in quite a while so could you please clarify on below? :)

- How do you activate Herald of Agony with Ball lightning without poison gem in?
You've mentioned that we need source of Chaos damage but as far as I understand it is poison that deals chaos damage but Chaos by itself doesn't cause poison.
Please let me know what I am missing:)
ATM I am spreading poison casting Ball lightning with Greater Projectiles and Poison support. I don't really get it how you do this with your charged dash setup without poison gem.

We get Poison Support as an Elder affix on the gloves themselves, so we don't need the actual gem because we're getting it for free:


If you do not have something like this, you must use Lesser Poison. You can use Poison Support only if Ball Lightning is receiving Chaos/Physical Damage from another external source, as described in the guide.


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- You've also wrote that due to EE we should avoid any source of elemental damage like cold but yet you're using Hatred.
Isn't that bad for mobs resistances?

Generosity Support prevents supported auras from affecting the caster. So only your minions/party members benefit from the aura.


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- how the hell are you avoiding traps in Labs??? I cannot see a damn thing with all those minions ruining around XD

Very fun build! Thanks a lot! :)

You're welcome! =o)

With the Bloodgrip amulet I just brute force them with Shield Charge. The teleport on Charged Dash/Flame Dash can help you avoid some traps altogether.
Last edited by Hercanic#3982 on Dec 19, 2018, 7:22:22 PM
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krut0n wrote:

Thank you for your response. I am playing around in PoB and having a hard time coming up with anything over 4.5k life even by respecing some dmg nodes for life nodes and leveling 90+ in lvl. Do I just need to farm and save up to afford better gear with life/resists on them? Just seems with my life at only 3600 at lvl 78 right now and making a few adjustments in gear and skill tree it is still pretty low. I just want to figure out where is my best options to get my life and survive ability up.


you got no life on helmet, chest and 1 ring, you have very low life on boots, 1 ring and amulet and belt+gloves could also have more. if you go into pob, change those items to 70+ life, you should get at least 5k life, possibly even more. i know that call to go for more damage, its hard to resist, but if you want more survivability, you have to make sacrifices in other areas :)

at 91 i got 6,1k life and still many possible upgrades left, think i can hit 7k+ life with better rolls


edit: https://pastebin.com/Fr649gdZ
just some random gear changes, alira to kill all, and some swaps with the passive points. biggest difference i think is skelly only +1 level and only 5l chest.
rest is just random gear with some resist, mostly crafted and 70 life. there you go, already 5,1k life :)
Last edited by Sharkuuu#0011 on Dec 14, 2018, 2:55:14 AM
@ ColeonePS:
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ColeonePS wrote:
Is there a easier way to ressurect your frost spectres without having to go back to the bridge area? Its a pain in the ass to specifically target them when there is dead ribbons everywhere.

Once you've entered an area with your Spectres, their monster type is added to the zone's Desecrate table of possible corpses to create. Even if all your Spectres die, you can still make more of their corpses with Desecrate in that zone.

Spectre level does not automatically change. They stay the same level as what you raised them at. So if you get them from Harbour Bridge, they are only level 60. They will have very low damage and life, easily dying as a result. You want to re-raise them in the highest level zone you can, and keep updating their level by re-raising them when you work your way even higher. Their stats grow exponentially with higher monster level, so don't neglect it!




@ Viktorious1:
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Viktorious1 wrote:
Hey! Btw I was able to load passive tree on Microsoft edge. Must be a prob with my Chrome.

We're talking about this GIF, right? Do you have any settings in Chrome disabled?


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But I am wondering now..
What craft do you recommend for boots?

How to make them with fossils, or master crafting? You can check out the Crafting guide in More Guides about Fossils. Master craft should be whatever your boots are lacking when it comes to movement speed, life, and resistances. Are there any special crafts you have your eye on? I have not yet looked through all the new veiled mods.


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Why is the accuracy on gloves good?

Not necessary, but nice to ensure Charged Dash hits more reliably to trigger Bleed for Bloodlust on Skeletons.


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I see you recommend the extra curse on amulet. I assume to use 2 rings that apply curses. Would you not use holy relic in that case?

No, you do not change the Unset Shaper ring. +1 curse is only if you can pair it with an implicit curse from glove corruption:



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Also, you had asked where I had seen the build or something since I couldn't find the Overview.. I just had the leveling section open and followed that at the beginning. :)

Ha! What convinced you to follow it in the first place, then?




@ zackforbing:
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zackforbing wrote:
Hope I didn't miss this anywhere, but what is best for extra glove affixes beyond poison/chance to bleed? I've got faster projectiles on mine, but I wasn't sure if additional accuracy or slower projectiles would be better. Faster projectiles gives my ball lightning a longer hit cone (which means farther application of projectile weakness), but I get less hits per ball per enemy because they're moving so fast. My herald stacks are pretty much pinned to 40 regardless, but do you think the shorter hit cone of slower projectiles would be better if we are only using this to proc poison stacks for the crawler?

Faster Projectiles is nice while clearing, but each Ball Lightning will not get as many hits on bosses. It does not change how far the balls travel, only how quickly they reach their max distance. Yeah, I know, I thought the same at first, too, but they have both a max distance and a lifespan.

Slower Projectiles affix only exists on Shaper gloves, which means no Poison or Chance to Bleed.

I wouldn't worry too much about a third Support affix. None of them add anything big.




@ Alerean:
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Alerean wrote:
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Hercanic wrote:
However, what other builds take up two entire threads? I think it might be presumptuous of me to do something like that.

When you've put as much as effort as you do into the content I think it starts to matter a lot less. Personally, I think quality content that doesn't need to be shortened artificially can be of benefit to everyone (even if it's just to encourage other people to do the same). Like you said though maybe that's not what you want. Up to you really :)

Thanks for the vote of confidence! For now I'll cannibalize. If I run out of room again, I may restart the guide in a new thread with a link back to here for archiving all the comments.


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Alerean wrote:
Somewhat related to this is I've been trying to figure out my optimal setup so I have all my buff/non-active skills out of the way (we have so damn many). Ideally I think I'd want to put them into my alternate weapon, but I don't have duplicate high level gems (Zombies). How are you guys managing this stuff? Dying is a bit of a pita if only for this micro-management of heralds/relic/minion summoning.

If I die, I swap Hatred back onto the bar, turn it on, swap back to Herald of Agony, turn it on, and done. If Zombies are down, I just bring them back as I go.
Is violent dead, from/to dust a choice for this build? Or is other abyss jewels just better? Also, I want to use ice bite in place of Elemental prolif. is that viable?
Last edited by Ammoconda#0293 on Dec 14, 2018, 7:35:09 AM
Hi Hercanic, you champion. If any guide deserves two threads, it's this one.

I say be presumptuous. Start the levelling guide, and let people use the 'witch build list' to find niche threads that may get hidden by popular ones.
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Hercanic wrote:

I was in the middle of trying to add that to the guide when I hit the 50k character limit for posts. I have just now solved that dilemma, so you can find what you're looking for in Part 2 of the Leveling Guide: Epilogue's Gear section. There are a few more additions from what I originally posted as a response here, and I'll likely be refining it further in the future.

And thank you for the compliments! I do strive to make it as 'easy' as I can to find information, but there's just so much! Refining the guide is an ongoing process, and each time someone is stumped I have another clue on where I could improve.


Thank you for adding the priority list to the guide! I did eventually find it on page 28 after a long search, but i'm happy it's in a more obvious place now :P

And again, just want to let you know what an awesome guide this is.
The amount of work and detail you've put into this is so appearant and helpful.

Also, the build itself is by far the most fun minion build i've played so far.
I used this as my league starter, and i've only just reached maps, but so far the experience has been an absolute joy. As soon as you get the charged dash / ball lightning going with poison for your herald of agony, it feels so amazing to play. There is so much happening at once, but even though your damage comes from so many sources that is not yourself, that charged dash combo makes it feel like you're wreaking havoc to the mob packs all by yourself.

Such a clever build, and obviously a major amount of thought went into creating this. Huge kudos to you for figuring this playstyle out, and i would love to see this build pushed to its limits!

All in all big thumbs up so far, and i can't wait to see what this build can do once i get more currency (Even though i was lucky to get some kind of shard from my first incursion temple that was worth 2ex, so pretty good start)

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