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

"

Hercanic wrote:

I'd recommend swapping Bloodlust Support for Minion Damage Support, rather than Vile Toxins Support, since with Quality it beats out even a level 21 Vile Toxins (1% more vs. 15% increased minion damage = ~3% more damage) and is not conditional so it's always up.

When you connect GMP and Faster Projectiles to Spectres/Phantasms, you'll have a lot more coverage and freeze proliferation to protect you, so Zombies won't feel as necessary. Once you can level-stack Zombies to 26, with 20k life, you'll pretty much never lose any while mapping.

Animated Guardian can still be worked in by replacing CWDT and Spirit Offering. Elder Boots can have Fortify for additional protection for the Guardian. Moving Whirling Blades and Faster Attacks to the boots will free up a socket, too. Though having auras in your shield means losing weapon swap on demand.

In any case, you'll spend 99% of your time mapping, so while my setup is designed to push Skeleton DPS, you don't actually need that much until you get to Guardians, Shaper, Uber Elder, and other difficult content. I'm glad you've been enjoying the build and felt creatively empowered to take it in your own direction!

Wow thanks so much for your response and advice! I switched Bloodlust Support for a Minion Damage Support for my skeletons.

I am working on six-linking my Belly to benefit from that sweet GMP/Faster Projectiles!! RNG is not smiling upon me for this yet.

I didn't use Charged Dash/Cast While Channeling with Ball Lightning because I didn't enjoy the playstyle of standing still (momentarily) to cast lightning. With my setup I just Whirling Dash around while casting Ball Lightning once in a while. My gloves do still have Chance to Bleed/Poison from when I was still using Charged Dash so I guess I can look for other gloves if I stick with this playstyle.

My Guardian has Belly of the Beast, Bringer of Rain, Kingmaker (perma Fortify for everyone), Southbound, and Rainbowstride and has over 35k hp and so far has enough health for me to forget about him while mapping. I haven't been able to chase Elder/Shaper yet because my Atlas sucks, though I did do Atziri no problem.

Maybe when I do get to Elder/Guardians/big boss guys I'll alter the build again to favor Skeleton DPS. You are awesome for taking the time to respond and give advice/answers! Cheers!

Hi Hercanic,
Hi all,

I am in the process of crafting a nice claw.
So far I've managed to get a Shaped rare Gemini Claw with lvl20 Maim as the only mod.

Now, I'm thinking of bench crafting Cannot Roll Attack Mods (Suffix: 1 Exalt), which, for claws, should only leave 4 possible prefixes open (normal and shaper).

The next step would be to spam exalts for the +1 to Level of Socketed Gems (prefix) using Guff (in research for exalt spam) since there are still too many affixes opened.

After all that is done, I'll just remove the crafted mod (Cannot Roll Attack Mods) with the craft bench and then it's smooth sailing from there:
Suffix: Can have multiple Crafted Modifiers (2ex)
Prefix: Minions have 28% increased Damage/Life (4c)
Prefix: +2 to Socketed Support Gems (1ex)
Suffix: Minions have 15% increased Attack/Cast Speed (4c)

For all interested...
Final cost: 4 Exalts minimum ==> i.e. not counting the alts and annuls


What do you all think?



PS: Thank you for this beautiful build Hercanic. I too, now, speak for the dead. As all should!

(Nevermind)

"

U_s_u_l wrote:

Hi Hercanic,
Hi all,

I am in the process of crafting a nice claw.
So far I've managed to get a Shaped rare Gemini Claw with lvl20 Maim as the only mod.

Now, I'm thinking of bench crafting Cannot Roll Attack Mods (Suffix: 1 Exalt), which, for claws, should only leave 4 possible prefixes open (normal and shaper).

The next step would be to spam exalts for the +1 to Level of Socketed Gems (prefix) using Guff (in research for exalt spam) since there are still too many affixes opened.

After all that is done, I'll just remove the crafted mod (Cannot Roll Attack Mods) with the craft bench and then it's smooth sailing from there:
Suffix: Can have multiple Crafted Modifiers (2ex)
Prefix: Minions have 28% increased Damage/Life (4c)
Prefix: +2 to Socketed Support Gems (1ex)
Suffix: Minions have 15% increased Attack/Cast Speed (4c)

For all interested...
Final cost: 4 Exalts minimum ==> i.e. not counting the alts and annuls


What do you all think?



PS: Thank you for this beautiful build Hercanic. I too, now, speak for the dead. As all should!

I've never had Guff in research before. Are you guaranteed to remove the undesirable prefix with his annulments? if so, then I see no flaw in your plan. Good luck!


A different question about Animate Guardian. If I feed an item to him that says "minions have... (eg increased damage)", does it affact all the zombies and spectres? Or are they considered MY minions and not HIS?

the reason I ask is because I've finished my weapon, too. Behold the mass minion summoner...bow!


I had my animated guardian die with ~100c worth of items and wanted to prevent that in the future. My solution was stacking +lvls and a 6-link item was the natural candidate. Unfortunately I cannot equip Victario's Charity shield myself anymore and have to feed it to the guardian. That's why I'm looking for an accompanying one-handed weapon.

what about skeleton mages using this dead reckoning gem
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Dead_Reckoning
and what about using a 6link queeen's escape
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Queen%27s_Escape
Sry idk how to put images am noob ty

So does anyone have any advice on how to keep Spectres alive t10+? I feel like I am spending more time going to raise spectres than I am mapping lol

"

Phoenix320 wrote:

So does anyone have any advice on how to keep Spectres alive t10+? I feel like I am spending more time going to raise spectres than I am mapping lol

Are you using desecrate? You only really go to get them from the zones they normally spawn once; after that, you go to a high level zone (like the beginning of one of your highest tiers of map, or deep in delve, or a high level memory in the nexus) and use Desecrate to spawn new corpses of the level of the zone, then raise those. That gets you spectres of an appropriate level, and they shouldn't die very often.

(Spectre level is the lowest of the listed level on the raise spectre gem, the listed level on the desecrate gem, and the level of the zone you're in. Assuming you have level 20+ spectre/desecrate gems, you're limited by the zone level.)

"

Sorator13 wrote:

"

Phoenix320 wrote:

So does anyone have any advice on how to keep Spectres alive t10+? I feel like I am spending more time going to raise spectres than I am mapping lol

Are you using desecrate? You only really go to get them from the zones they normally spawn once; after that, you go to a high level zone (like the beginning of one of your highest tiers of map, or deep in delve, or a high level memory in the nexus) and use Desecrate to spawn new corpses of the level of the zone, then raise those. That gets you spectres of an appropriate level, and they shouldn't die very often.

(Spectre level is the lowest of the listed level on the raise spectre gem, the listed level on the desecrate gem, and the level of the zone you're in. Assuming you have level 20+ spectre/desecrate gems, you're limited by the zone level.)

Pretty sure Spectre level doesn't matter anymore? Correct me if I am wrong!

@ Phoenix320:

"

Phoenix320 wrote:

Pretty sure Spectre level doesn't matter anymore? Correct me if I am wrong!

Spectres do not scale their monster level with gem level like other minions. This has not changed. Their level is the level of the corpse, forever. The only recent change from GGG was that Spectres are preserved when logging out, and a level cap was added to the gem (preventing a low level player from getting permanent high level Spectres).

"

Sorator13 wrote:

"

Phoenix320 wrote:

So does anyone have any advice on how to keep Spectres alive t10+? I feel like I am spending more time going to raise spectres than I am mapping lol

Are you using desecrate? You only really go to get them from the zones they normally spawn once; after that, you go to a high level zone (like the beginning of one of your highest tiers of map, or deep in delve, or a high level memory in the nexus) and use Desecrate to spawn new corpses of the level of the zone, then raise those. That gets you spectres of an appropriate level, and they shouldn't die very often.

(Spectre level is the lowest of the listed level on the raise spectre gem, the listed level on the desecrate gem, and the level of the zone you're in. Assuming you have level 20+ spectre/desecrate gems, you're limited by the zone level.)

Unless you're in early leveling, your Spectres shouldn't be dying. They are definitely too low of a level. Be sure to read Spectres 101 in Minions Explained. There's a video, too.

---

@ U_s_u_l:

"

U_s_u_l wrote:

Hi Hercanic,
Hi all,

I am in the process of crafting a nice claw.
So far I've managed to get a Shaped rare Gemini Claw with lvl20 Maim as the only mod.

Now, I'm thinking of bench crafting Cannot Roll Attack Mods (Suffix: 1 Exalt), which, for claws, should only leave 4 possible prefixes open (normal and shaper).

The next step would be to spam exalts for the +1 to Level of Socketed Gems (prefix) using Guff (in research for exalt spam) since there are still too many affixes opened.

After all that is done, I'll just remove the crafted mod (Cannot Roll Attack Mods) with the craft bench and then it's smooth sailing from there:
Suffix: Can have multiple Crafted Modifiers (2ex)
Prefix: Minions have 28% increased Damage/Life (4c)
Prefix: +2 to Socketed Support Gems (1ex)
Suffix: Minions have 15% increased Attack/Cast Speed (4c)

For all interested...
Final cost: 4 Exalts minimum ==> i.e. not counting the alts and annuls

What do you all think?

PS: Thank you for this beautiful build Hercanic. I too, now, speak for the dead. As all should!

Doesn't Tiny's Trial require a normal item?

If you only craft "Cannot roll Attack Modifiers" with Maim, you leave one suffix open. You want to close that off by first crafting "Can have multiple Crafted Modifiers", which is itself a suffix.

You could also craft the Mana prefix to block, leaving only three possible mods for the Exalt slam, but then you wouldn't have an open prefix to craft "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" after failing, which allows you to scour and start again without losing Maim.

---

@ blzingeyes:

"

blzingeyes wrote:

what about skeleton mages using this dead reckoning gem
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Dead_Reckoning
and what about using a 6link queeen's escape
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Queen%27s_Escape
Sry idk how to put images am noob ty

Mages don't do nearly the same DPS. They have lower base damage, slower cast speed, weaker support multipliers, and their random element means only cold mages will benefit from Hatred and lightning mages will deal significantly less damage due to EE. They cost two jewel sockets on top of it all, too.

Queen's Escape is no good, either. We don't need the movement speed, Bone Sculptor already gives movement speed and we summon on top of bosses anyway, or the extra Spectre, as they're just here to spawn Phantasms. You'd be trading crazy-strong Frenzy Charges, Shield Charge mobility, and level stacking on the Zombies/Crawler for things we don't really need. 6L might sound great, but you're actually losing sockets in the end. It's a bad trade-off for this build.

---

@ banang:

"

banang wrote:

A different question about Animate Guardian. If I feed an item to him that says "minions have... (eg increased damage)", does it affact all the zombies and spectres? Or are they considered MY minions and not HIS?

the reason I ask is because I've finished my weapon, too. Behold the mass minion summoner...bow!

I had my animated guardian die with ~100c worth of items and wanted to prevent that in the future. My solution was stacking +lvls and a 6-link item was the natural candidate. Unfortunately I cannot equip Victario's Charity shield myself anymore and have to feed it to the guardian. That's why I'm looking for an accompanying one-handed weapon.

"Or are they considered MY minions and not HIS?" Yes.

Frenzy Charges won't be anywhere near reliable coming from only the Animated Guardian.

Relentless Fury would give Culling Strike to the Guardian, but it only has 1.2 attack speed.

Razor of the Seventh Sun with Combustion Support would be nice for the 1% life recovery on ignite. But we don't have the luxury of sockets.

Advancing Fortress offers 15% block.

Brightbeak has the fastest one-handed attack speed of all unique weapons at 2.10 APS, good for triggering Victario's Charity more.

Singularity would give the Guardian a small 25% Hinder aura. Irrelevant if you have a Ghastly Jewel with minion hinder, since two sources of Hinder do not stack.

A Shaper rare with:
One Hand Axe: (5–10)% chance to gain an Endurance Charge on Critical Strike
Claw: Enemies have 20% reduced Evasion if you have Hit them Recently

An Elder rare with:
One Hand Swords / Thrusting One Hand Swords: Gain an Endurance Charge every 4 seconds while Stationary + (20–25)% chance to gain an Endurance Charge when you Block
One Hand Axes: Hits with this Weapon have Culling Strike against Bleeding Enemies + (5–10)% chance to gain an Endurance Charge when you Hit a Bleeding Enemy

Endurance Charges on minions grant 15% Physical Damage Reduction and Elemental Resistances each. So three grants 45%. Very powerful.

Does anyone tried to do Hall of Grandmasters? My spectres (lvl 84) and all the other minions are dying instantly and I am only left with the Agony Crawler which is not enough.

Any advice what to change to complete the bonus atlas for this map? Thank you.