🌌 [3.8] Cyclone Zombiemancer ✦ Automated Necro ✦ Fluid melee combat ✦ 8k hp+ ✦ 5*10⁶ dps+ 🌌
" Cyclone Zombiemancer takes everything great about Necromancer Ascendacy and, puts it in the heavy utility melee package with Cyclone. This build is tight melee playstyle that is always on the front line with life leech both from Cyclone and Zombies. ✦ Your Zombies obliterate everything by your side with 4mil+ dps on a budget of several Ex and with some investment can easily hit 7mil+ dps with 15 Zombies and 1200 STR. ✦ You can easily get over 8k life with this build on level 90+. ✦ This build allows you to replenish your undead armies at will and eliminates every aspect of mana management with Blood Magic Keystone. ✦ This build automates Desecrate and Flesh Offering with Cast When Damage Taken, so you can focus on actual game. ✦ And to spice it up you use one of the best utility movement skills - Shield Charge with curse on hit.
How_does_it_work?
✦ Shield Charge into the enemy, apply Curse on Hit (Vulnerability). ✦ Cyclone hit enemy, you get Fortify, life leech from Life on Hit Support and Claw implicit (around 1.5k HP/s per enemy easy). ✦ If Zombies kill everything go to beginning, if not continue chain. ✦ Monsters hit you, Cast When Damage Taken trigger Desecrate and Flesh Offering in sequence resulting in trigger of Shock and Chill from Corpse Pact Ascendancy (huge utility and DPS boost). ✦ You gain life leech from Zombie DPS via The Baron and 1k STR, additional defenses from flasks and Vaal Molten Shell. ✦ Stuff dead. ✦ You have Pride Aura for extra minion DPS. ✦ Specters used for this build gives Frenzy and Power charges (huge DPS and utility boost). ✦ Carrion Golem and Holy Relic top up useful buff pool. ✦ Infinite mana from Blood Magic.
Videos
Build_Checklist
⚠️ Physical reflect - Unavailable ✔️ All other map mods ✔️ T16 easy clear speed ✔️ T16 Guardians ✔️ Elder ✔️ Shaper ✔️ Mastermind lvl 83 ✔️ T16 Elder Guardians ⚔️ Uber Elder (My FPS do not made it in 3.8 content) ✔️ Delve Depth pushed so far - 204 📌 Delve Bosses WIP
Keybinds
Actually rather important section. To achieve fluid gameplay, this build would require some keyboard action, but it by no means repetitive strain (I am gamer with almost 3 decades of clicking so I have some hate to big repetitive APMs). I do list my keybinds, your mileage and habits may wary. 3.8 finally unbound summoners and people who lacked keybinds and used macro for basic movement binds. W and M1 - Bind to walk (Your basic WASD movement habits and mouse utility) Q - Cyclone (Natural position for constant press under 4th finger) E - Shield Charge (Natural position for constant press under 2nd/point finger) R - Molten Shell (Reachable, optional) M2 - Vaal Cyclone M4, M5, Space, - Vaal Molten Shell, Counter Flasks (Natural panic positions) F1 - Zombie F2 and F3 - Golem and Holy Relic F5 - Spectres
Passive_Tree
Ascendancy_Gods_Bandits
Unnatural Strength - Corpse Pact Feel free to use defense nodes while you level up and yet to fix your resists (Commander of Darkness, Bone Barrier) Solaris, Lunaris, Garukhan. Kill all bandits.
Gems
Cyclone
Slot in gloves or boots on alternative version. Cyclone is your survival juice as well as CC for stationary encounter like Breach, Abyss and Blight in Vaal version. - Cyclone lvl 20 or 21 in boot version. You can get craft on gloves to hit lvl 21 and 7 stages. Vaal version for extra lulz. - Live on Hit Support. Your life saviour when Zombies not yet on point or even dead. - Fortify Support lvl 20. Either from Gem or Elder Boots on alternative version
Slot_4_options
- Faster Attack Support lvl 20. Either from Elder Gloves or Gem in alternative version - Increased Area of Effect Support. Best synergy with Cyclone and Live on Hit. Can be swapped for extra Life Leech Support for bosses. - Live Leech Support for extra life leech
Shield_Charge
Slot in boots or gloves on alternative version. We automate our curse application on this skill. Since we have Blood Magic from passive tree we are free to have 4 link with faster attacks and curses on hit. Shield Charge - Faster Attacks Support - Curse on Hit Support Curse of your choice: I do prefer Vulnerability since we run pure physical Zombies.
Buff_Automation
Desecrate and Flesh Offering are automated through Cast When Damage Taken Support. Last one should be level 1, while Desecrate level 7 and Flesh Offering level 8 to work as intended. Remember lower damage threshold = more reliability for this automation. While one can say that it will not proc every time, it would actually proc where it is essential - when you take damage and enemy is not dead in first Zombie spike. Also automatic Desecrate leave corpses behind even with Flesh Offering proc, so you have Zombie fuel even in corpse-less encounters. Feel free to slot gems into Claw or Shield.
Zombies
Main DPS of the build. You rely on their life leech. Having 12 Zombies is ok, but with big investments you can get to 14. Pure physical route is better with Blood Magic, Vulnerability and Pride setup of the build. - Feeding Frenzy OR Meat Shield. Both work, dps around the same. Meat Shield have better dps performance on bosses and have additional survival utility for your Zombies. Try both, they just offer different response for your playstyle. - Minion Damage Support. Best in slot. - Brutality Support. Best in slot for physical build.
Slot_5+6_options
- Melee Physical Damage Support. Raw DPS option. - Maim Support. Essential for leveling. You could swap it when you have enough DPS for clear and covered by Vulnerability curse for boss DPS / have Maim chest / use Flesh and Stone. - Fortify Support. Good DPS option with additional protection for your Zombies. - Bloodlust Support. Insane DPS option when you have 6l gloves with Chance to Bleed and enough clear DPS otherwise. - Empower lvl 4 + Zombie lvl 21. Great option if you think that your Zombies are lacking in survival department. Still solid DPS only 5-10% lower then other options. Cost some exalts tho.
Spectres_Golem
Host Chieftain and Stygian Silverback. 2+2 Ape Spectres are utilized to free up your shield slot and have more constant Frenzy+Power charge generation. Frenzy+Power Charge are essential for good minion dps. You would get less by trying to squeese dps from spectres in this build. You can get Host Chieftain and Stygian Silverback in both Riverlands locations of act 2 and 6. Do not forget that you can you button A (default) to target specific corpse. - Raize Spectre lvl 20. No need to have lvl 21 aside life boost, your Spectre count is 4 from passive tree bonuses. - Blood Magic. Without it Apes do not spam Charges as intended, they lack mana pool - Minion Life. Best survival option fro your buffers - Carron Golem. Solid addition for pure Physical Zombies
What_do_not_work
- Meat Shield. Changes behaviour and you lose your charges when you need them the most. - Minion Elemental. Life is straight up better with all the regeneration buffs. - Proximity Shield Spectres. To slow for this build. Better to have double redundancy over useless buffs
Other
Holy Relic solid minion buffs. Pride is the best Aura for pure physical build. Vaal Molten Shell is QoL on Legion encounter and strongboxes.
Gear
Essential
Helmet - The Baron. You need to hit 1k STR to have major benefit of this helmet - Zombie life leech to you. (costs are mediocre even with 3.8 summoner craize) Amulet - Astrementis. Essential evil to hit 1k STR and cover up missing DEX. (couple Ex) Feel free to grab Master of the Arena anoint to buff Cyclone Utility and have extra 20 STR Jewel - Efficient Training. Essential evil to hit 1k STR. (couple Ex) Jewel - Brawn x2. Essential evil to hit 1k STR. (dirt cheap)
Nice_to_have
Gloves_and_Boots
Strength, Resists, Life, Movement speed are priority here. You would need to fit two 4 link gems here. Your Cyclone setup and Shield Charge / Curse on Hit setup. Since lvl 21 Vaal Cyclone cost several Exalted Orbs and to good to ignore extra 7th stage we can cut some corners and achieve level 21 Cyclone with cheaper craft or corruption. Elder Gloves overall have good synergy mods. Built in Faster Attacks and Chance to Bleed can really benefit both utility (allow use of Increased Area of Effect) and DPS of this build (if you use Bloodlust Support with your Zombies). You can craft prefix +1 level of Socketed AoE Gems or +1 level of Socketed Melee Gems on gloves. Alternatively you can buy/corrupt Meginords's Vise with +1 level of Socketed Gems or +2 level of Socketed AoE Gems. Meginords's Vise especially good for raw +100 STR and extra life regen for this build, however have no resists. Last option is to move Cyclone setup to boots with built in Fortify Support and use lvl 21 Cyclone, if you can afford it.
Chest
Crafted Maim chest. Astral Plate or other high armour base. Craft is straight and simple. ZiggyD ✦ PATH of EXILE 3.7: How to Craft a BIG Maim Life Chest for Melee Tabula Rasa. Used one until level 92 even in red maps. Best in slot on a budget.
Shield
I found that I can fix resists elsewhere Lyoneye's Remorse is the best flat armor and life in the game.
Weapon
Simple and Cheap solution. Just search for one with high attack speed, big life on hit and the open prefix for the minion damage craft. Multicraft Claw could be real endgame goal. However it is rather minor dps/speed boost for 3 Ex craft effectively. Also would recommend getting blind only for Endgame content and Delve 200+, where packs are beefier and really hurt. Earlier it is to much of a conflict for Corpse Pact + CWDT Desecrate. If you do not have Empower lvl 4 for endgame bosses. Big stick Zombies if you have insane DPS rolls on guardians or struggle with Chicken. Also could be useful for Shaper and Uber Elder.
Rest
You left up with 2 ring slots, belt and other jewels. Belt is good place to get more STR. Jewels are awesome budget resist patch Priority preffix/suffix: - Strength - Elemental Resists - Life or open prefix to craft +life - Chaos Resist or empty suffix to craft ELE Resist + Chaos Resist Bonus preffix/suffix: - Attack Speed - Flask Duration - Less Flask Charges used - Energy Shield - Armour - Evasion - Dexterity
Flasks
Standart complement of: - antiShock - antiBleed - antiCurse - antiFreeze - antiIgnite Make sure that antiCurse is on the longest flask. Consecrated Ground Flask is awesome option for minion build to have extra AoE 4% life regeneration with crits.
Leveling
The best gear to reach 79+ when you can equip anything is Tabula Rasa. Paired with Goldrim and mana management of Gemini Claw you are pretty much set until red maps. In 3.8 Zombies do have awesome power curve all the way from the first levels to the endgame. In the first act I highly recommend start using them ASAP. Second skill that is effective in first acts is Summon Raging Spirit. When you would start feeling that SRS do not do enough damage switch it to Summon Skeletons. The optimal way is to utilize Tabula Rasa as 5-link for both Zombies and second active minion skill. Add support gems that you would use in the end as they start to be available. There is no need to use "extra" supports for leveling. On the tree I recommend to aim first on Lord of The Dead, then go up to Death Attunement, after that go for Spiritual Command, Redemption, Righteous Army. Feel free to use +30 DEX Agility node. Commander of Darkness Ascendancy while leveling, you have 19 free respec points from the story. Start using Cyclone around act 8-10. Do not forget to pick Resolute Technique Keystone at this point. Blind Support could be useful for extra survival utility. Travel down to Utmost Might when you have the Baron and convert to Blood Magic + Mortal Conviction in maps. All the survival nodes afterwards or as you feel need. Overall leveling with this build is easy and painless. That is why is more recommendations then guidelines. Use whatever suits your playstyle. Last edited by Atataforthewin#6363 on Sep 23, 2019, 9:32:30 AM Last bumped on Dec 22, 2019, 5:12:12 PM
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Last edited by Atataforthewin#6363 on Oct 12, 2019, 3:21:22 PM
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Added video.
First Elder kill T13 (1:20 start of fight) Was rather smooth. Red Elder Guardians were easy, only shock one required some movement. |
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So was testing today Shaper. Without Empower lvl 4 + lvl 21 Zombies. Went better than I expected. Was more worried about dying to lags than anything.
Tried big Zombie stick for boss killing. A bit more comfy fat Zombies, but in the end result is the same - Shaper goes down with same speed and Specters die in the last phase. See no real reason to sacrifice Cyclone comfort for Zombies that do the same job. Buy the looks of it Uber Elder doable even without Empower lvl 4. Would be posting kill video. Most likely would be hectic, so yea need to farm some Ex for Empower anyway. 8.5k life is more than enough to react to anything even with lags of Blight league. Shaper testing with big stick Last edited by Atataforthewin#6363 on Sep 17, 2019, 2:12:34 PM
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Uber Elder would not going to be posted at least before next performance patch. TOTALLY unplayable encounter this league. Starts with huge FPS spike and lag all the way.
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Added leveling section.
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I'm really enjoying this build setup. Have you looked into using Triad grip for the glove slot or do you have any suggestions for how I could integrate them?
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" There is no real options for Triad Grip on Brutality. Option is to ditch completely blood magic and do ele conversion with Hatred and maybe Haste. So it would undermine simplicity that Blood magic gives this build. But other interesting route that I found actually is using Essence Worm ring to have Shock from Skitterbots. Than you can comepletly abandon Corpse Pact shock in favor of Commander of Darkness + Mistress of Sacrifice and use Bone Offering for extra defence. Commander of Darkness is not viable for Pride, since it do not affect you. So Hatred and ele conversion sound reasonable if you able to fix resists with only 1 ring slot. And you would still use Blood Magic! since Skitterbots do not count as actual Aura and 1 real aura do not reserve any mana with Mortal Conviction. Last edited by Atataforthewin#6363 on Sep 29, 2019, 6:52:11 PM
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Im trying your build out as my last summoner ripped a week ago in maps and IM enjoying it so far. I play HC and through act8 its all smooth so far. I have a decent gemini claw waiting for level 57 but until then Im using the Ornament of the East for the cannot be evaded mod. Im also not using shield charge because I want to kite more with flamedash. IM also going to mix in that Doedres armor that allows you to have up to 6 curses active as I have that in stash for lvl 65. So far so good !!!
In game since Minotaur League..
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