Best Spectres

What are the best monsters to use as spectres?
I have compiled the following list, please fell free to disagree and point out flaws in an intelligent, constructive way. No really try...

Melee monsters except:
Bears
Rocks
Don't bother, will die too fast

Rocks:
OK, I guess, the burning ones can do appreciable damage to a long row of bad guys, but seem to take too much damage in the process.

Bears:
OK as well, have appreciable life, but that kinda works against them when you want to heal them. ({Pro Tip: visit Act 1 to heal minions, their life scales with the level you are in, so that 1,000 life flask insta-heals them)

Archers:
These guys all use similar AI, so best to get the toughest ones, which are the statues from Act 3. I still think these guys only do average DPS though.

Fire/Chaos bombers:
I used to think these guys were #1 summon, but they are too fragile, and have poor defensive AI. In other words, they die too quickly.

Apes:
The big guys give a useful charge bonus...if you are using charges...otherwise forgetful

Necromancers:
No, not the white-skinned dudes from Diablo 2, the red haired floaty guys.
Pro: Inflict a curse on enemies
Cons: Everything else...
Don't bother!

Skeletal Mages
Nope, they die..often and quickly see Archers^

Tentacled Monstrosities
Or "Machine gun topless women"
One of the best summons, particularly if you can keep them behind you. not so good for open areas, but in narrow corridors and connected rooms, they are tops. High burst damage, short reload, easily healed with life flasks.

Ribbons:
Don't laugh, not until you've seen what havoc can be wrought by 4 fire ribbons pounding some poor mob of monsters!
This is the ultimate summons for open areas, not so good in tight quarters, but very good AI enables them to stay alive. When other summons are content to stand in the thick of a battle, the ribbons know to stand off and blast from range, what fun!
For a laugh, mix in some Galvanic, so the poor monsters get max damage inflicted on them to boot!

OK, I'm sure I've overlooked some awesome possibilities (maybe on purpose...?), so why not reply with your fave summons, and why!

Titty Machines with LMP and Faster Attacks. Fun times.

My experience is that most melee mob types are lame for spectres.

The exceptions seem to be (for me):

Frenzy Apes - love them they help my party and any other summon.
Bears - they have good hp. I like the ones that cause life degeneration.
Bandit - the type that casts warlords mark. I like them in some circumstances.

My experience is that archers disappoint me. They tend to be too fragile and perhaps it is mostly their AI that hurts them.

My top choice for spectres all around is:

Fire Ribbons - they kick butt try it (give your spectres lmp or gmp)
Tentacle Monstrosity - again, you must try these (and lol)
Carrion Queen - easily my first choice. They are beefy and do great damage.

Other things I use on occasion are things that cast curses. I expect that is just a laziness thing. I do not tend to go out of my way to get the perfect spectre unless I feel I am facing a serious challenge.

You forgot Burned Miscreations and Voidbearers. I find those two the deadliest of all spectres. I go through a corridor in Lunaris, 3 seconds, all mobs dead. I always raise Voidbearers on my raise spectre characters while farming Docks.

voidbearers with lmp+projectile speed is very good

I like using a full set of rhoas or flicker mobs, especially when fighting against the same types of mobs.

Get some flicker specters with added damage and minion speed, put punishment curse on a totem, combine with a full team of skellies and zombies = profit.

Rarity and quantity gems make for some extremely entertaining farming.

In terms of pure killing power I think the fire curtains or the carrion queens that already have lmp built in.(saves a gem slot)

"

Lyralei wrote:

Titty Machines with LMP and Faster Attacks. Fun times.

It depends on the support gems you use.

For voidbearers if you use added chaos damage (or any added XXX damage), it is added to EACH projectile they fire, and as they fire so many, it is really deadly. It is not so powerfull with other specter (flame sentinel or tentacle miscreation).

The best combination for me is voidbearer + added chaos damage + GMP
or tentacle miscreation + specter damage + GMP. In open area 3 of these clear anything in a second (plus wrath and anger applies to the projectile they fire, cause it's not a spell)

For melee, my favourite are the flame rocks that rolls on ennemies. They have such a massive aoe dps + they are really tanky.

There are a handful that come into immediate consideration, although the utility is partially dependent on what you're doing (running maps ≠ farming docks) When you're in open or relatively open zones, there are two minions that are immediately clear picks due to their massive damage and survivability: Flame Sentinels and Carrion Queens. Slap on GMP and Life Leech, and watch them tear through everything. The only downsides are that they can be a bit of a pain to collect, and that they're hard to move through dungeons (especially the queens). For open spaces, nothing beats a GMP'd life leech carrion queen for survivability and damage.

For basic farming, you're better off with faster-moving lightweight mobs; the best there are hands down Voidbearers with GMP/LMP and Added Chaos Damage. They're also not awful for maps with tight corners; the problem is, they are quite fragile. If you're farming docks, you want to have a Burned Miscreation; that DoT is just absurd. That's from my experience, anyways. Tittybitches are pretty damn good as well - slap on an LMP and some damage things.

So, TL;DR:

Best specters are Flame Sentinels and Carrion Queens for maps, Voidbearers/Tittybitches and a Burned Miscreation for farming.

Titty Bitches
Fireball Ribbons
Voidbearers
Arc Mage Chicks from Barracks

These are my go to specters in that order.