Witch Minions - What worked for you!?

We have many threads that people say mainly they are having problems, one megathread as well. So with that said, what worked for you? You may describe what failed if you swapped to something and the next change worked better, but if we can keep the negative "this failed" to the other thread that would be great.

Skills, supports, in what acts?

For me I was having a lot of problems when I tried ED, contaigen, bonestorm, with skeletons, and one ranger/ice mage with pain offering, and enfeeble. I barely made it past act 2 with many many deaths.

I swapped to the below and I've coasted through act 3, now lvl 46. I don't have any issues with minions surviving as the empowered zombies do really well. It's a lot of getting power charges from culling/rituals.

Skills:
Power Siphon (wand)
Skeleton Warrior (lvl 9) sceptor
Skeleton Warrior (last grasp, brutality)
Summon infernal hellound,
Pain offering (elemental army),
Sketon Storm Mage,
Raise Zombie (Perpetual charge),
Vulnerability (Decaying Hex, Impending Doom)
Profane Ritual
Raging Spirits (Fire Penetration, Ignition Minion Instability)
Flame Wall (Fortress)
Bonestorm (Energy Barrier)

Passive Notables: (I aquired these in this order, may want to do crystalline flesh and resltess dead first)
Power of the dead, Necrotised flesh, Fear of Death, Restless Dead, Crystalline Flesh, Lord of Horrors.

Ascendency:
Infernalist: Hellhound
- Have not completed the rest.

I'll probably continue to edit this post as I play along.

I missed SRS (it was not shown on that recommendation screen) so i am doomed, lvl 17 now in act 1 endboss and its hard af. Assume i have to farm/grind now until 20+. The extremely bad drops made it even worse. I even collect all white items and sell them because everything is so rare.
I have 2 skeletons from the cepter and 3 skeleton archer. Unfortunately, they are one-hit on some bosses or they stay on spells (the ground turns red and does a lot of damage) and they just die. IMO the minions are way too stupid or suicidal.

Its pretty hard to play now, i use cursing and weakening and some other stuff to at least get a bit less damage from the bosses.

Small update: i was able to get better gear and the wolf was ok. Was my 3rd try then i won. Act 2 is way better, more drops and more minions. But they are still pretty stupid :>

When you miss SRS you can buy it on trade for 1 exalted or, that's what I did. It's a huge difference in my built

I have it now. Found it in act 2.

Reavers with more physical damage and more physical damage against bleeding enemies (coming from Bone Blast on wand). Hellhound with more hp and ignite duration. One sniper with corrosion and increased aoe. It works, to the point even without casting SRS mobs in act3 die.

My personal "tier" list:

Skeletal warriors: terrible. Just terrible. They're very slow, very passive, and will keep the shield up instead of attacking. In theory they should have excellent damage by the virtue of costing very little spirit and having decent damage per swing. In practice they dont' swing as often as I'd like, and since they're so many, they keep blocking each other.

Skeletal archer: 1: top tier. >=2: mediocre. The ability the archer provides is fantastic. The damage the archer provides on its own it's not. This said I think one is more than worth its weight, as the poison cloud can both be used for explosive combos and for armor breaking.

Skeletal bombers: middle-high tier. The damage is fantastic and they deal it in an aoe, and the ability is good. On top of this, their cost isn't too high. This said, they have issues: the travel time of the grenades will make them miss fast enemies, and they're VERY frail.

Skeletal ice mages: middle tier. Costly and with mediocre damage. On the other hand they freeze stuff and the ability is good.

Skeletal lightning mages: middle-low tier. They're basically ice mages that exchange freeze for arc, and have a worse ability.

Skeletal reavers: high tier. Personally I used them from act 2 until I got brutes. They're fast, aggressive, they deal excellent damage (higher than bombers), and the ability, while situational, is good, and pushes the damage even higher.

Skeletal brutes: top tier. Damage wise, they're on par of unenraged reavers. They're incredibly durable, to the point that you don't need to devote one slot to Last gasp to make them work. They don't have an usable ability, because they use it on their own, creating a small aoe whenever they stun something - and stun they will.
The only two issues I have with brutes is that they are big, and often they'll get stuck in doorways, and the fact that their aoe clearing ability is not the greatest. Oh, the fact that the hammer is really goofy, look-wise.

Skeletal priest: bottom tier. While funny, the priest doesn't provide anything valuable. If you want to have durable minions, spec in minion health and use Last gasp rather than using spirit for the priest.
Maybe it could work with warriors + elemental army + infernal legion, but still seems clunky.

In short
1 archer = brutes > reavers >>> bombers > more than one archer > ice mages > lightning mages >>> warriors >>> priest

Just reached maps, lvl 68, currently I'm using the following setup:
1) Flamewall + SRs (5L)
2) Hellhound (5L) + Fire Exposure/Blind/Maim/Meat Shield
3) 4x Skeletal Arsonist (4L) + LMP (their explosions shotgun)
4) 1x Skeletal Cleric (3L) - mostly to revive instantly the skeletons I sacrifice for Pain Offering
5) 3x Skeletal Warrior (4L) - Discombobulate/Brutality/Heavy Swing (might not be the best setup, but occasionally prevents bosses from chasing me)

I prefer Skeletal Warriors over Revers and Brutes because they reserve less spirit. 3x Skeletal Warrior reserve the same spirit as 1x Brute. If I get a sceptre with Skeletal Warriors, probably I'll get another Arsonist instead of 2x Warriors.

The key is to get a Sceptre with +2 all minion skill gems. Once you get the sceptre, the game will be a lot easier. You don't need other stats.

Only been able to find and run up to tier 5 maps so far but I'm not having any damage problems. Simply fill the screen with fire and drop gas arrow explosions. Use pain offering on rares. 5 snipers and 2 clerics. Might be able to add a blasphemy aura with more spirit once they fix ascendancy trials.

Skeletal Warrior (Weapon): maim, culling strike, elemental army
Infernal Hound: magnified effect, fire exposure, strip away, meat shield
Raging Spirits: immolate, clarity, fire infusion
Skeletal Sniper: Scattershot, fire pen, feeding frenzy
Flame Wall: Spell cascade, arcane tempo, persistence
Skeletal Cleric: Minion mastery, minion instability (no good options)
Pain offering: inspiration, expanse. Still testing different supports

"

Vertal0#7574 wrote:

...
Skeletal Cleric: Minion mastery, minion instability (no good options)
Pain offering: inspiration, expanse. Still testing different supports

Skeletal Cleric: Ingenuity - reduced cooldowns (revive/heal faster)
Pain Offering: Expanse, Ablation, Font Rage