Feedback: Necromancer Zombies/Minions Feel Weak

Hi GGG team,

First, I want to say that I love Path of Exile, even though I’m not the best player (more of a noob, to be honest). I’ve been getting a lot of help from other players and learning as I go.

I wanted to share my experience with the Necromancer class, specifically with zombies and minions. Honestly, they feel very weak compared to other builds.

Frost Nova Build (T16 Bosses and 8-Mod Maps) When I play with a Frost Nova build, I can easily tank T16 bosses and handle 8-mod maps. It feels strong and fun, and I don’t have to struggle too much to survive. I feel like I can handle any challenge that comes my way.

Necromancer Build (Zombies/Minions Struggle) But when I switch to my Necromancer and try to play with zombies and minions, it's a whole different story. They feel so weak. Even with good gear, my minions barely do any damage and die so quickly. It’s frustrating because I want to enjoy the Necromancer playstyle, but my zombies can't even handle basic enemies properly.

I hope minion builds, especially zombies, get a buff because right now, they’re not enjoyable. Thank you for listening and for all the work you put into the game!

um...


I really hope you arent referring to the summoner you currently have in settlers and some other character.

That thing has ... abnormally no life, no energy shield, no armour, not even cap block with rumis on + bone offering, 10% chaos res WITH amethyst up, uncapp suppress WITH quartz and tree nodes... curses or exposure would kill you you arent over capp res enough... and reliant on a flask suffix for it as well


I dont know what your spectre and AG setup is but ... all of these values are extremely low for a necro. I have a more tanky necro coming out of the campaign than this level 89 of yours.


Your main gems arent even level 20... what are you on about "Good gear" ??? You have a wand I GUESS. Svallin isnt helping you with how low your base block chance is, and even if your block was high you still have no health

I mean just look at this on base mobs and not bosses, I gave you endurance charges and 10 fort assuming spectre and kingmaker:



Even if I added a little bit more conditionals your character is made of nothing.

Edit: just noticed it was a bumped oct 6 post....

oh no the current character isnt proper anymore ive been messing around a whole.... lot ingame on the original date of the post it was better then its now cuz ive just beeng messing around see what works what doesnt.

PoB tells me so much but theoretics and feeling ingame can be different sometimes i feel so ive just been trying lots of random things out since the date of posting.

Necromancer zombies/minions feel incredibly powerful, if you have the right gear and skill gems. I have many minion builds, none which compare to what i've managed to build in settlers. I can walk around t17s comfortable, face tank most bosses, with good dps... all but abomination boss, all those curses stacked on minions just melt them.
But I can confirm good builds exist for necromancer zombies/minions, just all about the right combination of gear and skill gems.
Wretched defilers and Forged Frostbearers are carrying spectre builds right now, they're so good you can be a pathfinder just for massive tank and they still clear t17s.

Don't lose faith just because you tried one or two builds and it didn't work for you, they take effort, currency and knowledge.

Hey, thanks for sharing your insights! It’s really cool to see how far you’ve pushed Necromancer builds—I can’t even imagine clearing T17s that comfortably. That said, I’ve got to admit, as someone pretty new to the game, minion and zombie builds have felt really underwhelming for me so far.

I think a big part of that is how gear-dependent they are compared to other builds. Until you get godlike gear—like your Mageblood—it feels like zombies and spectres just don’t hold up as well as a lot of the other meta builds out there. It’s encouraging to hear they can become so strong, but it seems like they need way more investment to get there than most other setups.

Thanks for giving me hope, though! Maybe once I get more currency under my belt, I’ll give minions another try. For now, I’ll stick with something a bit more forgiving for my skill level. 😅

The only thing that takes spectres to come online is getting the ones you need. Which none of the $$$$ are required.

Proper tree (they are all the same pretty much for any minions)

Wraithlord helmet

Some ghastlies rolled with a bit of harvest

Wand with a minion damage alt roll

And that’s about it your tree loads you up with defense.

Not much investment to really get it going at all, probably the cheapest of them all really nothing is expensive

"Thanks for the tips! I'm super new to the game and still trying to get the hang of it. I’ve heard about spectres being affordable, but with my limited resources (lucky if I get a few divines), it's hard to know where to start. The game doesn’t explain much, so it's been tricky figuring out what's essential versus optional.

I do find it annoying that the only real way to make many of the legacy minions work is to bundle them with better minions or to wait for ggg to make an extremely niche item that makes them decent on their own.

I also think poison once again has become a crutch for minions builds.

zombie builds - are bad, zombies are pretty much only used as meatshields or by new players

what you want is spectre build (or few other 'workable' minion setups)

since its begining necromancers were in a weird spot when SOME of thousands mobs were just outright hilariously stronger than alternatives

there is no science to it - if you use these busted strong spectres - youll do milions of damage with garbage gear. but the same build but wrong spectre - no, just no

so do not try to brave it yourself - just get a guide, read what spectrs are broken this league and copy it 1 to 1

necromancer builds were and still are the lowest effort build out there - just copy. if you hear people play 'poison SRS' you can accurately draw their entire build, slot by slot. same with spectres, absolution or whatnot.

the gear is important, but if you use the 'right' spectres/skills - it matters surprisingly little.

on the other hand if you want to make zombies deal damage (like in hit enemies and kill them, not ignite explosions) - youll need any gear you can find, it gonna be tough


go to poe.ninja and look what people play. you wont see their spectres, but it should give you enough of an idea

"Thanks for the explanation! I’ve checked out PoE Ninja before, but those builds usually don’t have any explanation, so I’m left guessing about the details, like which spectres to use. Most YouTube guides I’ve found also don’t mention the exact spectres, which is frustrating.

The lack of in-game information makes this so much harder—feels like you’re just thrown into the deep end with no direction. For a game this complex, it’s weird how little is explained, especially for new players like me.