The Arch Demon Summoner Build

Adramelech is an Arch Demon whose name means, "King of Fire".
*Note*: This is a no shit name of a demon, not just somehting I made up.

This particular build is based on a character that summons minions to do his dirty work (as an Arch demon would) and he uses fire based supports and skills as well (as the king of fire would). The name was actually chosen after the build was already in the state it is in now.

This section will probably serve no purpose other than to give you something to do. It is basically me telling the story of why I made this and (sort of) how it evolved due to changes. Skip it unless you are either really bored or really love this build.


If I remember correctly, this was actually the very first character I created in Open Beta. I had played other things in Closed Beta for a while and after the final account wipe that brought us to Open Beta, I decided that I wanted to try out a summoner. The reason was three fold:

1. I had never played any sort of character that used minions (or ‘pets’ in some games) before and I wanted to try something new.
2. Summoner gear is cheap and I don’t play enough to get rich, so if I wanted a build that can do ‘endgame’ content, I figured this would be it.
3. The first unique that dropped for me was a Sidhebreath; maybe not a great reason to base an entire character on, but that’s how I roll.

The vision of the build was to have the maximum number of minions possible to create an army that kills for me. Maybe it says something about my personality that I want to have an army of minions to take out my enemies who knows, I just though tit would be cool.

I started the build as a Templar to help with early game survivability. The templar has two things that not many of the other classes had at that point: access to life nodes early on and access to mana nodes early on (now, the Scion has those too, but the Templar still makes a better summoner I think). I figured I would be pretty squishy at first (YEP!), so I wanted to be able to protect myself until I got my army going. The plan was to spend the first 10 or so passive points on life nodes and then rush Minion Instability to allow my dying minions to do some extra damage. Then I would start picking up the minion nodes and progress from there.

This actually seemed to work quite well and I had beat Merciless Piety (then the final boss) at level 58. This might not seem too impressive, but you have to understand that I am not a good player. Beating her at all was WAY more than I expected. By then I had either traded for or found several pieces of gear that gave me additional minions (Bones of Ullr and Midnight Bargain in addition to the ammy) plus the + Max Number of (minion) nodes. I had my army steadily growing.

I started the build using Arc because it is instant hit. There is a term for it, but I can’t remember what it is. Basically, unlike Fireball for example, Arc hits the target as it is cast, there is no time period in between where it travels. This seemed good because of the way minions work. I was using Conductivity to help with the damage as well. I realized that Minion Instability could be even better is I was casting Flammability instead, so I switched out Arc and Conductivity for Firestorm and Flammability and began running Anger instead of Wrath (this was before the change to auras so it was much easier to run multiple auras at once).

The problem with this was that I was playing on a laptop that was relatively old for laptops (like 3 years old at the time) and I am running around with minions in the upper 20’s and casting Firestorm. We all know that PoE can be draining on machines. Even though it does not take a lot of power to run it, it takes a lot of power in your graphics card to run it well. My laptop didn’t have the power needed, so even at the lowest resolution, I felt like I was playing ‘PoE: Flip Book Mode’. It felt like my game was running in terms of SPF not FPS ('Seconds Per Frame' not 'Frames Per Second').

Unfortunately, I decided I had to shelve the build until I could upgrade the hardware. So I did and I started playing some other, less graphic intensive builds for a few months while I learned a bit about desktop PCs and how to build one. Eventually I built my own desktop with a bit above average specs (not by much, but just enough) and by this time the game had entered Full Release and there had been numerous changes to the way the tree looked. When I went in to look at the summoner, I was a bit disappointed because the tree had changed enough that I would not be able to get all of the same nodes at the level I was at (only by like 2 points) but more importantly, auras had been changed so that they are % based (for the most part) instead of based on flat numbers. Damn.

I had been running Anger, Haste, Determination, Purity (this was just Purity at the time, not Purity of Elements), and Clarity. Now, I was looking at picking two. Piss on it, I will play something else.

Eventually, I decided to go back in a give it another shot. I now have him leveled up to 69 and I am liking the build. I see lots of people say that summoners can’t do bosses well, or can’t do maps well, so my goal is to disprove that.

- Tons of minions; With everything out and about I have 29 Minions out. That breaks down as 10 Zombies, 15 Skeletons, and 4 Specters. *NOTE*: There is some sort of bug/glitch with having Summon Skeletons on spell totem that allows the totem to summon 15 instead of the technical max which is 14.
- Great survivability all the way through the game
- Tons of damage, and you don't have to do it!
- You can stack IIR fairly easy without worring about losing DPS or survivability
- It looks fucking cool
- There are almost no gear 'requirements' at all, and the recomended gear itself is very cheap. Especially compared to other builds that can obtain the same IIR, survivability, or damage output let alone all at once

- Graphic intensive
- Like most builds there is a block of levels where you are more squishy than normal (45ish-50ish)
- Until you have lots of minions at your disposal you will need to invest in Life and Resistances on gear, but this is low-mid levels so nothing expensive
- It can get a little boring because you don't actually DO much
- It can be annoying to get your summons set up at the start of each gamming session or if/when you get kicked off the server
- People in parties don't liek summoners (because they are jelly of your badass effects)

The build is designed to have the maximum number of Zombies, Skeletons, and Specters up at all times. I think I might actually be short now that there are more minion uniques out, but I am pretty damn close. The character uses Firestorm to direct minions (because it looks fucking cool) and buffs himself and the minions with Anger and Haste to provide more damage. Flammability curse helps increase damage dealt as well.

Some people are not too familiar with how minions work. Basically, they attack whatever they are closest to or whatever is attacking them. If YOU attack something, then they will leave whatever they are attacking and go attack your target instead. This is true not only for attacks, but for curses as well. So casting Flammability on a group of enemies tells your minions to go kill them. Personally, I think Firestorm has a slight advantage here over other possible spells because it does not target a single enemy (I cast by holding shift so it centers the spell where my mouse is). That means that instead of all of the minions trying to hit ONE enemy at the same time and leaving all the rest of them to swarm you, they break it up and take out the entire group at once. This works as the number of enemies decreases too; then your minions all just gang up on the enemies and overwhelm them with numbers.

Here is the Current Passive Tree.



I will add the various stages of leveling up later.

You don’t need a 6L for this build. You don’t even need a 5L. I don’t use one. It might help a bit with something, but I think the way it is set up here works great.

Helm: Raise Zombie + Minion Life + Minion Damage + Minion Speed
There is no requirement for the helm, but a +1/+2 to Minion Gems helps tons. If you do not have one, then this set up can go in any 4L item, but I highly recommend at least a +1, and there is a cheap recipe to get one now too! This is the only group of skills that really has to be in a specific location. The idea here is that Zombies will be your front line troops so you want them to be tanky. They are. They are fast as hell, and never seem to die. In the off chance that they do die, they are cheap to raise again and it is almost a grantee that there will be bodies lying around to raise.

Firestorm + Chance to Ignite + Fire Penetration
This is your command spell; meaning it is used to tell your minions where/what to attack. Honestly you are not going to be killing stuff, so the damage is not important. I could probably safely remove Fire Penetration and have the same clear speed. Chance to Ignite is nice because it just helps your minions by doing a small amount of DoT, but again, it could be removed with almost zero effect.

Raise Specter + Minion Damage + Minion Life + Greater Multiple Projectiles
This might be where my build really separates from other summoner builds. I use Flame Sentinels from Solaris Temple exclusively as my specters. There are a few reasons for this:
1. They are ranged so they have better survivability.
2. Since they are ranged, they tend to be close to you, which allow your auras to buff them while keeping you a safe distance away from the enemies.
3. They fire augmented fireballs that have Fork, so with GMP, each specter is firing 5 fireballs that can split for 10 per specter.
4. Again, since they stay close to you, you almost always have a wall of minions around you, even when the zombies and skellies are off doing your dirty work across the screen.
5. It looks REALLY fucking cool.

So by using the Flame Sentinels as specters in this build you will have 4 specters floating around you firing 5 fireballs that can Fork to 10 each so you are looking at up to 40 fireballs augmented with Anger with the added benefit of survivability due to range. To be honest, I have never tried the Miscreations from Lunaris that cast Righteous Fire, so I can’t say for sure how they would compare in terms of damage, but I can almost guarantee that survivability (both for the specters and for you) is better with Flame Sentinels.

Summon Skeletons + Spell Totem + Minion Damage + Minion Speed
Here you are looking for a ‘fire and forget’ type effect. The spell totem allows you to cast this once as you move towards a new mob. This does two things:
1. It causes the mobs to attack the totem, giving your zombies/specters a chance to do some damage for free.
2. If the totem does not get killed before the first wave of zombies hits, then it starts casting zombies!

Well, duh it casts zombies. That is what it is intended to do, so if it DOES die, just cast it again after you have cast Flammability to get your zombies/specters locked on target. Here you gotta remember that the skellies are going to expire after a certain amount of time, so Minion life is wasted on them. You want the Minion Speed to help them get from where the totem spawns them to the next pack of enemies as fast as possible to ensure they are doing damage for as long as possible. Minion Damage just helps kill stuff.

Reduced Mana + Anger + Haste + Clarity
Anger and Haste are primarily used to augment your specters. If you are standing close to your other minions then it helps there too, but this is generally not the best idea. Clarity helps to quickly regenerate mana. You are going to have a fair amount, especially with EB, but making sure that you can cast Skellie Totem + Flammability + (possibly) Skellie Totem again the moment you enter a room/area and then non-stop cast Firestorm until everything is dead means you need to regen mana FAST. Having a clarity that finds a balance between quick regen and not reserving too much mana is a must (level 12 seems to work best for my current mana pool).

Flammability + Reduced Mana
Curse means more damage. Obvious. Reduced Mana aids in the casting we just went over. Also obvious. Moving on.

Those are really the only skills you NEED. If you do some simple counting, you will see that you need four 4Ls, one 3L and one 2L to make all that work. Meaning that if you have a shield (you should) then you will have one extra socket. If you have a 6s chest with say a 4L+2L (which is really easy to find cheap or from drops) then you can actually have your shield empty.

If you just have the single socket open, you could go with something like Increased Duration on your Flammability curse, or just pop in a portal gem, or use the slot for Lightning Warp to aid in movement. If you have the 4L+2L chest (I would aim for this), then you can toss in some survivability skills into it. Cast When Damage Taken + Enduring Cry + Immortal Call is a pretty default choice here. Personally I went with Vaal Summon Skeletons + Added Fire Damage + Convocation. This allows me to either save up my Vaal Skellies for a boss, or when I get in a tight spot. Plus, I now have access to Convocation which both helps me keep the minions alive via regen and it helps keep me alive by creating a huge wall all around me when I call them back. Consequently, this also helps with the stupid minions that insist on standing just on the other side of the wall while you try not to get destroyed because they didn’t go through the door.

I would go so far as to say that there is no single piece of gear that is necessary for this build to work. That is one of the beauties of Summoner builds. Some builds require certain gear to function at all For example, pretty much anything that runs more than 3 auras NEEDS Alphas Howl. Summoner builds can run off of white gear as long as it has the sockets, and since you only need a 4L at most, it’s cheap. Another thing I like about this build is that you see an actual difference every time you get a new piece of summoner specific gear. Get a +1 helm, minions get better. +2, better again. Bones of Ullr, MOAR MINIONS!!!

So, the gear here is just a recommendation or something to aim for long term. Or just buy if you’re a baller.

Helm: Any helm with +2 to Minion Gems in this Helm. The rest of the stats as needed (IIR/Res/etc)
I do not have a Skullhead, so I can’t say how it would compare in terms of minion survivability. It would certainly mean less minion damage and less speed, but the increased minion armor and life regen might be worth it. My guess would be that it would be good mid-game, but once you hit level 55 or so and really start getting all those minion passives, it would be better to switch to a +2 to Minion Gems helm. That way you can focus on resistances, life, and IIR on your helm.

Weapon: Midnight Bargain. It reserves 30% of your life, so it is not something you want until your minions can protect you pretty well, but it adds to the total number of minions you can have which means more damage and more survivability.
There are some other options for Summoner weapons. Here is what they are and why I don’t recommend them:

Mon'tregul's Grasp: Really buffs your zombies, but it cuts the max number in half. That. Sucks. As a side note: I think this is a very well designed unique, good balance. I might try and play around with it to see if it is worth it, but I don’t have one so I can’t say when I will get to.

Chober Chaber: Another decent buff to your minions, especially the +1 to Minion Gems. But I feel like for this build some of the stats are worthless (Increased Physical Damage, +1 to Melee Gems, 20% Increased Stun Duration on Enemies, and Reduced Strength Requirement).

The biggest downside to both of these is that you are missing out on the + Total number of (minion) that you get from Midnight Bargain. With the wand you are getting 4 additional minions.

Queen’s Decree: With Queens Decree you still get the same number of minions as with Midnight Bargain, so that’s good. Plus your Skellies stick around longer, also good. But you are forgoing a shield: not so good. I found that especially around the late 50’s I was wanting better resists than my shield had, so not having a shield at all would have probably been a real pain in the ass. If you are going to use something other than Midnight Bargain, this should probably be it, but only if you plan to get a 6L and pimp out your specters or skellies.

Boots: Bones of Ullr. More minions=win. Getting a good move speed roll here is nice since you are going to be pretty slow otherwise.

Chest: Optimally you want a 4L + 2L chest. Aim for something with Life, Res, and ES.

Shield: For the longest time I was using a GG Legacy Archon Kite Shield with tons of all res. I began to realize that as I played smarter and stayed behind my minions (and as I got better resistances on other gear) I didn’t need it as much, so I switched over to Matua Tupuna. This gives my Vaal Skellies +2 and it really buffs my mana pool (it actually really buffs ES, but EB converts it) and it makes my auras even better for me and my minions. If you are having issues with elemental damage, stick with a good res shield, but once you have the resistances elsewhere, switch to this.

Gloves: Nothing special as long as it is 4L. Good spot to get some IIR!

Amulet: Sidhebreath goes here. Again, more minions.

Rings: Anything goes! Get some IIR or Resistances, whichever you prefer. Dream Fragments might not be a bad idea to prevent freezing, but that would be a situational thing.

Belt: Life/ES and res.
Flasks: I’m not sure how important flasks are to most builds, but here you want Health flasks of Animation. They heal your minions too! I would say that once you have a decent mana pool, a single mana flask will suffice. Maybe a granite flask for help with shield charge enemies, and then three (Some Desired Mod) Health Flasks of Animation.

One of the benefits of setting up the skills the way I suggest is that you can set up an alternate weapon set without losing all of your minions (unless your Vaal Skellies are out). For that, it might not be a bad idea to get that resistance shield along with a 1H weapon. Toss in some skill gems that are good for specific situations (desecrate to make corpses is a good idea, a move skill like Lightning Warp is a good idea too) or a portal. Just don’t forget that you are going to lose 1 zombie and 1 specter when you switch to this set. If you are about to RIP, then it is probably worth it to get your entire life pool available, plus more resistances and a move skill to GTFO of the way, but don’t do it unless you can quickly go back to Solaris and get another Flame Sentinel.

This is assuming a character that can run Haste, Anger, and Clarity and cast Skellie totem, Flammability, and Skellie totem in quick succession without using a mana pot.

The start of each time you play will be when you are the most vulnerable so be careful until you have at least your 10 zombies. When you start playing, WP to Solaris Temple. And cast your three auras first. You are going to encounter those little annoying Assault Ribbons first, and they can hit you pretty hard. Especially if you get hit by 3-4 quickly and they crit. Granite flasks help here. Anyway, as you walk away from the WP, cast Skellie Totem at the edge of the screen and walk towards it. When you get to it, cast it again at the edge of the screen. Wash, Rinse, Repeat until it spawns skellies and they kill stuff, and then you can start to raise zombies. Now just go seek out 4 Flame Sentinels and make them specters. Take your time when clicking the corpses to make them. It sucks to make Flame Sentinel specters and then accidentally make the fourth specter an Assault Ribbon because then you have to start over to get 4 of them.

After you have your specters, go kill shit! Well, go point at shit and let your minions kill it.

Let’s just say you are in Lunaris now, this is the order of events: Open door cast -> Skellie totem as far into the room as you can -> Cast Flammability in the same location -> Your Zombies and Specters (and a few skellies) should now be attacking any enemies in sight -> If the skellie totem is still alive it will probably stay that way, if not cast it again -> Now sit in the corner and hold down Shift + RMB to cast Firestorm constantly -> Collect loot.
That’s it! With a few enemy types you might need to move a few times (Arc mages,those frogs and the things that cast Storm Call in the Scepter of God and anything that targets you specifically to explode on you like the bugs in City of Sarn) but for the most part you can just hang back and laugh. Keep an eye on your minion count. If you see the number of zombies go down, stop raining fire from the heavens long enough to raise a zombie. If you see your Skellie total drop quickly it means your totem is dead and needs recast. If your specters start to die, then GTFO; you’re next! I pop my health flasks just randomly even if I don’t need it because it heals the minions. Your minions will be killing things so they will refill. If you start to take damage that you can’t just move out of the way from, use convocation to get an insta-shield of bodies that will gladly die for you.

Odds are you are going to have no fucking idea what is going on in the center of the fight. Between the 40-50 fireballs on screen, plus your Firestorm and just the general clusterfuck of minions/enemies I just keep casting Firestorm until I see my Skellies walking around with nothing to do. Be sure to re-cast Flammability as needed in long fights.

I have no idea. I have never shared this build before in a formal manner like this, so I have never been asked anything. But here are some that I think might pop up:

Q: Why are you using Minion Instability? Doesn't it kill your minions off early?
A: Well, Since I am trying to stack fire damage, it works and deals more than the 33% of the minions maximum life. Mostly due to Flammability on the enemies. I honestly don't know if Anger affects this or not. But the truth is that my minions rarely die. Against White/Blue mobs, they just won't. Against Rare mobs I might lose one or two zombies against really tough enemy types with Nemesis mods or something. Against bosses, I look at it like this: If they all die fast, then an extra 35% of their life woudl not have helped them stay alaive long enough to do the same amount of damage that they do by exploding. If they live for a long time (meaning that they could do more damage if they stay alive) then I either have enough time to rasie more (if zombies) or kite and let the skellies do the work (if it is the Specters dying and I cant leave and get more). So in the long run, I think that using Minion Instability helps more than it hurts. The exception to this was against Merciless Dominus. His Blood Rain was causing them to bleed out and die quicker than they could get to him. So for that fight, I spec'd out of MI, and put it back afterwords.

Q: Your gear sucks, why don't you use [Insert Unique] or gear with more [Insert Stat]?
A: I went over some of the reasons I don't use the other summoner specific gear in the gear section, so if you are asking about that, see there. If not, then it is either because I don't have [Insert Unique] or gear that has better [Insert Stat] OR because I want a different effect more. I have juts found that with the gear I have access to right now, the gear I am using is the best.

Q: Why don't you use [Insert Skill] instead of Firestorm?
A: I tried using Arc and it worked well. I just think that Firestorm syncs better with the minions. Between MI and the Flame Sentinels, I wanted a fire based skill. Fireball was my first thought, but I then ran into the problem of creating a 'single target' for my minions. I found that Firestorm allowed me to command my minions to focus on a specific area instead of one enemy in a room of 30.

And it looks so fucking cool.

Q: You are not stacking much IIR, why?
A: Mostly because I don't have much IIR gear that is worth replacing my current gear with. And what I do have, I am using on other characters. If I start doing high end maps I will probably swap out my gloves and rings for some good IIR gear. I doubt I could find a helm with good IIR AND +2 to Minion Gems that I can afford (I'm broke).