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

I use dual Shockwave Totems with Added Cold Damage and Increased Area of Effect to apply EE. They are much faster to cast than an Ice Nova Spell Totem (0.75 base vs ~1.21 base) while still having almost the same coverage, quality gives Shockwave 30% more life, it's a ranged ability and therefore safer than trying to run up to mobs and cast Ice Nova yourself, and has fun knockback utility. The double-knockback clears paths through doorways, protects you and your Sentinels from melee mobs, and can prevent mobs who retreat often from doing so by placing one behind them. If I group with a majority of cold users, I have the option of swapping in an Added Lightning damage for EE instead. I could also use the Hatred aura to add cold damage to Shockwave Totem, but right now I don't have the mana to support another aura.

Note: Try to avoid putting two totems next to a rare, boss, or any target you value killing who is against a corner or impassable object, or you risk pushing them through it. The risk is small, but when this happens they will stop attacking and cannot be attacked either. This has only happened to me once, and was avoidable if I had realized the risk. If you're ever worried, just place another totem behind them at the wall to push them away from it.

My curses are Flammability, Elemental Weakness, and Temporal Chains, cast in that order. I used to do Temp Chains first to keep a pack together longer so my other curses were more likely to hit, but with Flame Sentinels they already have fireballs en route, so by changing to Flammability first that initial fireball volley hits much harder. I have Faster Casting linked to Flammability and Elemental Weakness so I can chain them easier.

My auras are:
1. Purity = +max resist
2. Determination = armor multiplier
3. Grace = huge base armor
4. Discipline = +max mana
5. Clarity = MP regen, which supports rapid totem placement and chain-cursing. I really want to be able to run a high-level Arctic Armor, but I need better gear for regen.

My seven Zombies are in a +1 helm right now, linked to Added Fire Damage, Chance to Ignite, and Elemental Proliferation. This combo gives my Zombies an AOE attack, helping make up for their slow attack speed. I have less Minion Health nodes, which actually proves to be an advantage. When I had all Minion HP nodes, my Zombies barely ever died, squandering Minion Instability. With less health, they explode much more often, and my gem setup really takes advantage of this. The MI radius isn't terribly large, but Chance to Ignite and Elemental Proliferation act to increase its reach. Not only that, but it lingers for several seconds (longer with Temporal Chains) even if the monster dies. This means new monsters entering the area will immediately inherit MI-level burning damage. I like to think of it as 'radiation' from my 'nuke'. Scorched Earth policy, yo!

Burning damage is especially powerful when you drop a monster's resists by -150% from EE, Flammability, and Elemental Weakness. Normally, burn damage is screwed over by monster resist because it checks them twice -- once for the initial hit that establishes the base burn damage, then again while burning, reducing it twice. With negative resists, though, it is multiplied twice! (And doubled by Temp Chains) MI damage is already huge, and it's all fire damage. When my zombies blow, even the strongest rares melt. With a good contain, solo Piety goes down within seconds.

I exclusively use Flame Sentinels as my Spectres, who are linked to Remote Mine, Minion Damage, and Life Leech. I have Bones of Ullr to give me a bonus Spectre for 3 total. My goal here is to give my best DPS the hardest hits possible, while also keeping them alive as long as possible.

I dislike LMP/GMP on Flame Sentinels, which has been a common suggestion in many summoner builds. I feel like it's a waste. More often than not, many of those fireballs don't hit anything, and you're eating a huge LESS damage penalty for the privilege. They already shoot bonus projectiles, quickly too, and you have three of them to multiply the amount of projectiles. It's like stacking crit chance and ignoring crit damage, or % health and ignoring flat health. It's just not optimal.

I have considered Concentrated Effect over Minion Damage, but the tradeoff is less damage on non-exploding Fork hits and reduced Fireball AOE. I do plan to test this, though, and it may prove to be worth the cost.

If I had a 6L for them, I'd go Chance to Ignite and Elemental Proliferation, like my Zombies. Their fireballs are pure fire damage, and they hit really hard, so everything would be burning for quite a bit of damage.

I use Lightning Warp for its teleport utility and to break clusters of barrels. I also have a quality level 1 Arctic Armor I use for its movement speed buff and free chill effect (with Temp Chains, monsters I pass are slowed by a devastating 64%).

Finally, I squeeze in Skeletons on a Spell Totem and Faster Casting by trading out my Spectre gems (two blue, one red) once they've been raised. With dual totems, I can have one of each totem type on the field, or go double-skeletons to get all of them on the field much faster. Dual skeleton totems also surround bosses wickedly fast and keep them locked down. During normal runs, I'll use a skeleton totem to block my flank when surrounded, but otherwise I can get by without them. It's more of a useful emergency button than a mainstay ability, for when you need more meat to distract.

For Flasks, I have two Seething HP pots with Freeze and Shock removal, a high-regen HP pot that heals minions, a Granite with +% armor buff, and a Quicksilver with +% movement speed.

The only uniques I currently use are Doedre's Damning for a third curse and Bones of Ullr for a third Spectre (both cheap). Everything else is geared for health and resistances. On my wand the only things I care about are resists and mana, though cast speed would be nice to get totems and curses out faster.

My general play style is fairly aggressive for a summoner. With 7.6k armor (much more if I follow my planned respec) coming from Grace, Determination, and one 1,600 evasion shield, I don't have to hang back. When running an area, I can throw out a Shockwave Totem ahead to bait monsters, curse everything that rushes it, and then run to the totem and cast another ahead, cursing those who rush that and running toward it. Before I even get to the second totem my minions have killed the first group and are starting on the second. I repeat, leapfrogging totems and killing with an awesome feeling of momentum. Other times I can double-up my Shockwaves in the middle of a large pack to knock them around and clear a space for me. In tight corridors the totem is an even better scout, and minions will auto-attack anything the totem is attacking, improving minion response time and motivating them to go through doorways. Because of my tankiness, I can also personally bull-rush through a doorway to get all my minions into the chamber, with Shockwave totem giving me some breathing room. In wider arenas, I can put a totem on either side of my group to protect against flanking and deal with two groups simultaneously.

It's a fun, active build, because you are constantly re-positioning your totems and diving into the action. Clear speed is respectably high, gear requirements are low, and it's very safe. I can still die if I'm foolish, but every tough situation I've come across had a solution within this build.