{3.2.0} Spectral Gods: [Life Based Spectre/Golem Hybrid Summoner | Clear Speed | End Game Bossing]

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Moose65 wrote:

Actually, Raging Spirits die quite easily to AoE, at least I noticed it in the earlier levels. Totems take a hefty chunk out of their damage too. I honestly don't see raging spirit as that useful for normal summoners simply because........when do we cast it? You've got curses to apply, offerings, rejuv totem, desecrate, and EE, all while trying to move out of the way of stuff. I actually dropped EE out of my build because I'm finding it hard to have gem slots and time to apply it now anyways.

I honestly wish the cast time wasn't so atrocious on desecrate. I got lucky and had a 15% quality one drop, and even after bumping it to 20%, if your trying to drop a 3 stack for corpses its just.......painful. Makes me wish I still had room for Haste Aura.

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grepman wrote:

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Moose65 wrote:

Actually, Raging Spirits die quite easily to AoE, at least I noticed it in the earlier levels. Totems take a hefty chunk out of their damage too. I honestly don't see raging spirit as that useful for normal summoners simply because........when do we cast it? You've got curses to apply, offerings, rejuv totem, desecrate, and EE, all while trying to move out of the way of stuff. I actually dropped EE out of my build because I'm finding it hard to have gem slots and time to apply it now anyways.

I honestly wish the cast time wasn't so atrocious on desecrate. I got lucky and had a 15% quality one drop, and even after bumping it to 20%, if your trying to drop a 3 stack for corpses its just.......painful. Makes me wish I still had room for Haste Aura.

well EE is -50% to resists, which is basically a nonquality lvl 21 ele weakness to 2 resists of your choice.

cast speed yes, in general I personally try to max out cast speed on weapon. we needed it even before to cast shit fast, now its mandatory.

desecrate I feel isnt really mandatory until boss fights where you'll need extra corpses for offerings.

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Lacceh wrote:

TLDR: Patch is great for now, more changes needed in the future.

For anyone interested, I've asked Mark_GGG about the interaction of Skullhead and Saffel's:

Spoiler

Q: If I have Necromantic Aegis keystone and wearing Saffel's Frame shield(gives minions spell block but removes blocking regular attacks), and also wearing Skullhead, the 10% block chance Skullhead gives to minions... will it be spell block, or regular attack block, or nothing, in this particular case?

A: Skullhead gives minions block chance, which is a stat that applies against attacks.
Saffel's Frame also gives block chance (from being a shield), and has a stat that applies a % of block chance against spells. This applies to all block chance that the minions have, including that from Skullhead or passives.

So if I interpret it correctly, the following happens: Skullhead block chance is added to Saffel's block chance, then the spell block % is applied, then the 'Cannot block attacks' is applied. In any case, I think this patch made Saffel's quite obsolete and I've stopped using mine, so this seems less relevant now. Saffel's is probably still decent in particular scenarios, and an OK shield to use for yourself without NA.

Yesterday I've played around quite a bit with the new stuff in the patch, and I'd like to share some of my experiences.

So first of all, Bone and Flesh Offering. Only one of them can be active - did not know that until I've tried. This made me lean towards using only one of the two. The problem is that Flesh Offering's cast speed bonus is basically worthless unless you're using flame sentinels or something for whatever reason. Movement speed is nice but not crucial, attack speed is great but now we have 20% from passives, and you have 40%+ from faster attacks for zombies. The block+spellblock from Bone Offering is infinitely more valuable compared to Flesh. So I simply can't justify the gem slot AND more importantly the skill bar slot for Flesh.

Now that you can keep up Bone Offering indefinitely, I think Saffel's is a pretty poor choice for NA. Even NA itself is questionable and probably you can get away with not having it post-patch, although I choose to have it for now. The 6% block behind NA for 3 points aren't worth it either, imo.
The problem with Saffel's is lack of normal block. I like to farm Poorjoy's map for fun and the tentacle miscreations used to absolutely wreck minions pre-patch, because of that reason.
For now I'm using Lioneye's shield for NA(~1600 armor), coupled with Skullhead(snapshot) and minion survivability has just skyrocketed. Kole's blood slam in maps for example used to hurt minions a lot and probably kill a few zombies, but now it's a joke and I think that's due to the high armor. Same thing with Evangelists' physical dmg spell, same thing with Tentacle miscreants whom I've heard have something like 80% phys and 20% fire dmg - can't confirm that but it'd make sense. So I'm pretty satisfied with the improved minion survivability atm, and going with Lioneye's shield for now. Just killed map Vaal with half regen curse immune mod, Igna Phoenix was in the boss room(at first I was like, lol, really?), but it was pretty easy anyway. I have to look out for my own safety and not worry so much about minions getting wrecked just keep Bone Offering up. Jungle Valley boss has never been easier, same with Temple Piety and Poorjoy's. I'm looking to try other bosses next like map Dominus perhaps - haven't done him yet.

Also another reason against Saffel's or NA is resists, although this really just depends on your build. I used to run IR+Grace but it felt like bit of a luxury when I could get away with a perp granite of iron skin + enduring cry, so I dropped it in favour of more minion nodes(which turned out to be a great choice since now they're way more interesting than pre-patch). I also had Hatred but decided it wasn't really that needed. I'm using Vuln over ele weak anyway - seems better suited for parties, both degen and phys benefit(BM and zombies).
So atm I run Clarity, Discipline(soon max lvl AA + Cloak of Defiance since I specced out of IR/MoM, so disc helps a ton), and the 3 single element purity auras. (Vitality is now obsolete imo with 2.5% passives + 2% skullhead + 4% leech so dropped it). Leaves me with 700+ mana remaining which is awesome for safety and I can do half regen comfortably with AA on.
Anyway the point is, with +70% aura effects the purity auras give 66% resist and 6% max resist. With the new 16% resist from passive, this amounts to 82%(81%), no need for gem or anything - perfect. Leadership passive is recommended for radius.

One more thing I'd like to talk about is Animate Guardian. Actually I'm looking for help here, because I just started lvling the gem so I have no experience with it. What kind of survivability can I expect from him, do I need to babysit him? Wouldn't want to have him die ann lose the gear I guess. Do I need to link minion life with it? For weapon and helm Dying Breath and Leer Cast are the go-to choices if I understand it correctly - what about chest/helm, any recommendations?

In closing I'd like to say the patch changes are good IMO and take things into the right direction, remedying summoner endgame issues. However I think that ultimately snapshot mechanics need to go, they just feel unnatural and shuffling around gems and gear is super tedious. Minions disappearing when logging out also needs to go(either permanent minions or some other solution). If they do remove snapshotting, we'd need a bit of an overhaul again since without it we're pretty lackluster and much less capable.
Summoners might be borderline overpowered now, considering how gear independent they are, although this is highly debatable, and you have to factor in minion gear investment and effort of acquiring minions or them dying.
But I assume snapshotting is here to stay with us a while longer.

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plasticeyes wrote:

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xSyK0TiC wrote:

Im a 78 summoner, my passives are pretty much the same as the OPs. My zombies have 5k life and usually do ok, until Piety time. Killing her is easy thanks to Skele totem but my minions die way to quickly, even with my auras and resists on them, and life leech from passives. I'll have 3 total spectres soon from the passives and was wondering if there is a superior spectre to run with. I love running BMs as they melt trash and rares and bosses up until they die :/
Also whats recommended gem setup to fit my desecrate in...I have no room for gem usage lol.

piety can be very tricky because of her teleporting and off-screen attacks which are very high damage aoe.

temp chains is _very_ useful (you are dual-cursing right ?)

make sure you have vitality up. make sure you are using the _per element_ purities not "purity of elements". they give the minions increased max resistance.

rejuv totem is also _very_ helpful.

KEEP AFTER HER. lightning warp/reduced duration/faster casting. She teleports away, gets off-screen and then launches cold attacks. A few hits from that and all your minions are dead, so keep after her! Make sure you are using a "targeting attack" like arc to keep the minions on-target.

At level 78 you can absolutely take her out consistently but your build has to be tuned to protect the minions and you have to keep after her. Even though i'm level 81 and use all of the above tricks, if she gets off-screen things can go sideways in a hurry.

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lk_77lk wrote:

you are speaking about map piety not the normal merciless piety right? Cause my minions dont even let her have the time to warp she just dies quckly