Stress-Free PoE :-) | BONE ZOMBIES: No Required Items, 1-Button Play, SSF League Start-End | 3.15

So I started off with a creeping frost build, because freezing and chilling everything in your path looks very good on paper. Sadly my hands do not work that way, especially not after GGG nerfed us the way they did this league, not amused about that.

So the wayward daughter comes back to Wrecker's good old trusty Bone Zombies. Cos dying in T1 maps on account of insufficient button mashing is just a no go! So as soon as I can afford a respec, I'll be raising those bad boys again! Thanks for updating the build, Wrecker!

I also greatly prefer your filters over the other pretty good ones (sounds are much better for one). But I never managed to get it to work to show ALL quality gems, not only the higher percentages and ALL rare accessories in a different color. Any tips how to do that and is it even still possible with the progressive filter?

Just a sidenote:

Yesterday, Kay (of Kay’s Summoner guide) released her review of Summon Reaper (after the buffs) – final verdict: “It’s not good”, “I cannot recommend using Reaper”

Reddit discussions on the video seem to agree that fully leveled Reaper has less health than a single zombie(!) and doesn’t have the clear or bossing to compensate …

So … yeah … just stick with Wrecker’s build ;-)

Thank you very much for the guide, it is really clear and easy to follow.

I do have a question about survivability.
I'm right now level 43 starting Act 5 and have all the needed gear to be able to do all links up to now (missing the gems from Act 6, of course) and have done the first Lab to get my first 2 points into Necromancy.

I feel very squishy. It feels like I die if an enemy just looks my way.

Is it because I'm still missing many passive point skills and Fortify gems?

"

Elocara wrote:

Spoiler

So I started off with a creeping frost build, because freezing and chilling everything in your path looks very good on paper. Sadly my hands do not work that way, especially not after GGG nerfed us the way they did this league, not amused about that.

So the wayward daughter comes back to Wrecker's good old trusty Bone Zombies. Cos dying in T1 maps on account of insufficient button mashing is just a no go! So as soon as I can afford a respec, I'll be raising those bad boys again! Thanks for updating the build, Wrecker!

I also greatly prefer your filters over the other pretty good ones (sounds are much better for one). But I never managed to get it to work to show ALL quality gems, not only the higher percentages and ALL rare accessories in a different color. Any tips how to do that and is it even still possible with the progressive filter?

Aw. That sucks Elocara. I'm sorry your first build didn't work out. But I'm glad you have a go-to build that works well for you. It makes league starts less risky when you want to try something new.

Thanks for the kind praise on the build, guide, and filters! That's very kind of you and I really appreciate it :).

In terms of changing the quality for vendor recipes, you'll want to copy the filter, click WITHIN the filter, the CTRL+F. Type "Quality". Change all the GEM qualities that are at 14 to 1. (There are other quality levels that are shown for other reasons.) Make sure to keep the spaces between symbols too. Just change the number and then save.

Keep in mind that by copying a filter you won't get any more automatic updates. You'll get all my updates when you re-copy my filters for the next league.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Oh right! Acc. What filter are you using? The "guide" or "everyone" filter?

"

c3rement wrote:

Spoiler

Just a sidenote:

Yesterday, Kay (of Kay’s Summoner guide) released her review of Summon Reaper (after the buffs) – final verdict: “It’s not good”, “I cannot recommend using Reaper”

Reddit discussions on the video seem to agree that fully leveled Reaper has less health than a single zombie(!) and doesn’t have the clear or bossing to compensate …

So … yeah … just stick with Wrecker’s build ;-)

Good to know c3rement! I'm levelling with Reaper right now with zombie tree and some modified gems. I'm curious what it'll be like endgame myself. Thanks for the post.

"

bojzee wrote:

Spoiler

Thank you very much for the guide, it is really clear and easy to follow.

I do have a question about survivability.
I'm right now level 43 starting Act 5 and have all the needed gear to be able to do all links up to now (missing the gems from Act 6, of course) and have done the first Lab to get my first 2 points into Necromancy.

I feel very squishy. It feels like I die if an enemy just looks my way.

Is it because I'm still missing many passive point skills and Fortify gems?

Thanks for the kind words bojzee! Sorry, you're a little squishy. I can't see your character as your character tab on PoE's website is private, but levelling is full of tough choices.

So, I'm not sure if you've saved your life nodes for the end or not. If so, that of course has its short-term consequence. But you can't pick every node right away either. So if you do have some life nodes in there, it could just be gear.

The hardest part about levelling is choosing gear. Do you want good mods on your gear while not having all the proper links? Or do you want all your gems/links setup nicely but on white items. The first keeps you alive but with slower progress while the second gives you faster progress but with way more deaths.

Hopefully, that helps. Sorry, it's generic.

"

Thanks for the kind words bojzee! Sorry, you're a little squishy. I can't see your character as your character tab on PoE's website is private, but levelling is full of tough choices.

So, I'm not sure if you've saved your life nodes for the end or not. If so, that of course has its short-term consequence. But you can't pick every node right away either. So if you do have some life nodes in there, it could just be gear.

The hardest part about levelling is choosing gear. Do you want good mods on your gear while not having all the proper links? Or do you want all your gems/links setup nicely but on white items. The first keeps you alive but with slower progress while the second gives you faster progress but with way more deaths.

Hopefully, that helps. Sorry, it's generic.

Thank you for your answer! :)
And no worries, the answer is certainly good.

I've unlocked my profile now (I have to admit that I didn't know that it was hidden as I'm quite new to the game) so if you have any suggestion, I'm more than open to it.

I'm actually ok in most situations, but bosses are a bit of a headache and one shot me most of the time (Kitava at the end of Act 5 now managed to kill me once and it was an absolute one shot).

If one wanted to use Commander of Darkness in place of one of the ascendancy paths, which would you recommend dropping? I really like the increased resistances because it frees up gear options in places.

Do you have any suggestions on either making up the resists OR dropping one of your recommended ascendency choices in favor of Commander of Darkness?

As always, thank you for your guides every league. I use this build, the zombies, every single league because I enjoy it so much.

Hi :) can u check my gear on this league :D and send opinion ?

"

Wrecker_of_Days wrote:

Aw. That sucks Elocara. I'm sorry your first build didn't work out. But I'm glad you have a go-to build that works well for you. It makes league starts less risky when you want to try something new.

Oh, I always choose a witch build if I'm gonna experiment to have the option to just switch to zombies if it doesn't work out. Last league I had quite a bit of fun with the (now pretty much dead) fire burst autobomber. Similar playstyle, just kick of the chain reaction and then just run around in circles. Glad the zombies did not get destroyed by the nerfs!

"

Oh right! Acc. What filter are you using? The "guide" or "everyone" filter?

I tried out the "guides" filter just now, but it doesn't show any yellow gear anymore and it kinda defeats the purpose to keep pressing Alt when looking for items for chaos and alts. Is the "everyone" filter less strict?

Edit: hardest thing for me is to find regular (not leveling) rare belts amulets rings and make all from ilvl 60 onwards show and give them a more noticeable color.

Any thoughts on good anointed passives?

For non-league content, bone zombies is still working very well till red maps (tested the old build in standard). Adapted my zombie frenzy, spectre meat-shield variant based on this guide. You can feel the reduced dps, and it's not as OP as earlier, but it definitely works (with minimal investments in changing some gem links)! Thank you for introducing and maintaining this super-robust build, which is so adaptable (if not immune) to nerf hammers!

Trying out Reaper-Phantasm-Zombies (reaper dps 5/6 link, zombie meatshield 4/5 link, phantasm support on both) in league. Especially with a crowd of phantasms, the zombie death rate seems minimal, and given that reapers + phantasms are primary dps, have 1-2 less zombies doesn't seem to matter as much. What's interesting is reaper-phantasm dps seems to be higher than reaper's own dps (even when considering the "ultimate slash" on PoB). :)

Would be awesome to get a bone-reaper build (not-guide) for checking vs what I'm doing, and further testing.

Also, would like to get your thoughts on a few under-used gems from the previous league:

1. Arcanist brand instead of CwDT as a spell trigger. Seems to have escaped the mana nerf hammer, and the downsides don't affect most of what we want to trigger...

2. Petrified blood replacing one of the damage auras for survivability (maybe flesh and stone). Can get maim support on the zombie-phantasm link instead?