The Downfall of Zombies and Spectres in late game

"

Saltychipmunk wrote:

i still think it would be easier if the specters you summon from the corpses of desecrate .. were actually the level advertised on desecrate....
between that and the removal of the arbitrary and .. rather perplexing specter deleveling mechanic and you have a fixed gem

can anyone actually explain to me why specters have to lose power when going into lower level areas?
i mean my zombies dont , my skelleys dont , franky the guardian doesnt.

crit builds dont suddenly go from 100k+ dps to 10k just because they go into cruel difficulty .

i dont get it , i just dont. the summoner isnt nearly powerful enough to warrant such a mechanic and seems like it needlessly complicates things.

The desecrate gem, like specters themselves, are capped by zone level, this is mostly to balance Detonate Dead builds(as to why they downlevel raised spectres I haven't the slightest clue).

Since Detonate Dead is dependent on the max life of the corpse and a level 20 Desecrate creates level 100 corpses(a level 18 gem creates level 75 corpses and only requires you to be level 64 to use it), not having the corpses capped by zone would make DD stupid overpowered.

That being said it would be very nice if spectre level was determined the the actual level of the Raise Spectre gem, raising anything other than an evangelist is already a risk by itself, it really doesn't help spectre variety that most other viable spectre mobs are just to low for anything past level 70 maps.

Until we get renewable spectres, a major buff to spectre survivability, or on demand access to specific high level corpses, we will continue to be shoehorned into using exclusively evangelists from the Scepter of God, who still fall short in the later maps.

does additional accuracy work on zombies? I have always figured the only way to make them good is to have them doing lots of damage with high resists and leech.

Spectre is a lost cause because you cant resummon anything good on will.

"

can anyone actually explain to me why specters have to lose power when going into lower level areas?
i mean my zombies dont , my skelleys dont , franky the guardian doesnt.

Probably because level 100 Spectres will steam roll content.

"

does additional accuracy work on zombies? I have always figured the only way to make them good is to have them doing lots of damage with high resists and leech.

Yes, but Zombies seem to have high accuracy, so there is no real reason to do this.

"

Jiero wrote:

"

Earthslug wrote:

my 40 dps ball light is great cullingspell.
srs too random and was 3 link supported anyway.
i actually never use it

SRS is still worth trying at least with blind attached to it if nothing else, keeps your other minions alive a lot longer vs non-spellcasters

It's MF config for guild domi farm
srs is too random and balls only purpose = culling

I can solo domi np and works even better in party
ball light goes where I want ti to... domi FACE

"

Saltychipmunk wrote:

can anyone actually explain to me why specters have to lose power when going into lower level areas?

Yup... hate that BS as well.

Lost 2 spectre on merveil easy.


Lvl 83 char
lvl 18 gems
5 linked spectres
incr duration and minion life linked to evangelists.

Lost them...

What shit is that

"

Earthslug wrote:

"

Jiero wrote:

"

Earthslug wrote:

my 40 dps ball light is great cullingspell.
srs too random and was 3 link supported anyway.
i actually never use it

SRS is still worth trying at least with blind attached to it if nothing else, keeps your other minions alive a lot longer vs non-spellcasters

It's MF config for guild domi farm
srs is too random and balls only purpose = culling

I can solo domi np and works even better in party
ball light goes where I want ti to... domi FACE

The method of deploying them I used to use was via traps when I wished to keep a single target blind. Drops them right at the feet of the target I wished to keep blind and with dominus it helped with his touch attack on my minions to be able to ranged blind him when I wanted to. Otherwise I would use a spell totem as a ranged pulling device to drag blind mobs to my army while they kept fighting in a open space instead of walking from group to group as it helped prevent some issues with them desyncing like mad on doorways (now that smoke mine is removed from us).

But now I've been avoiding summoner builds until they fix the issues I have with the changes they have done to it... which considering I said the same with spork totem builds doesn't give me any hope.

"

Starxsword wrote:

"

can anyone actually explain to me why specters have to lose power when going into lower level areas?
i mean my zombies dont , my skelleys dont , franky the guardian doesnt.

Probably because level 100 Spectres will steam roll content.

Its sad but I agreed to this fact.
Mirrored gear didn't get nerfed or toned down in higher level maps while Spectres do.
Why is that, it might due to the nature that anyone able to summon a Spectres and facerolling even ultra end maps without much effort such as cost investment, farming and etc IF they didn't get toned down by area level.
Basically, spectres get tonned down so the game can drive summoner to get better gears and not just blindly use the strongest Spectres and do Maps easier than other build.

However, this is where it fails at.
Spectres as in current state is not afforable to be beared with. Its too much hassle to repick spectres corpse when it's dead. All issues have been mention in previous posts, won't even bother to retype.

Sad to see how GGG intend to do that but indirectly caused spectres pretty much dead and non viable.
In the other hand, Zombies kinda okay, but just need the same fixed and boring gearing and high cost to be effective in ultra end maps.

Some might say Zombies are doing fine, but in fact they just linked the same gem, items to make them viable for lvl76 and beyond maps specifically those Map with boss dealing high elemental AOE DMG.

"

Earthslug wrote:

Yup... hate that BS as well.
Lost 2 spectre on merveil easy.
Lvl 83 char
lvl 18 gems
5 linked spectres
incr duration and minion life linked to evangelists.

You might want to try discarding that Increase Duration and get Life Leech Gem instead.
Perhaps this is personal peference but I think Increase duration for Evangelist bubble is not that effective. It kinda feels like running in a RNG to bet on his Bubbling cast in critical moment so that they can stay alive.

Okay... swapped inc dur for LL and rolled a new turbo flask


I'll see where that gets me :)

"

Its too much hassle to repick spectres corpse when it's dead. All issues have been mention in previous posts, won't even bother to retype.

Sad to see how GGG intend to do that but indirectly caused spectres pretty much dead and non viable.
In the other hand, Zombies kinda okay, but just need the same fixed and boring gearing and high cost to be effective in ultra end maps.

Some might say Zombies are doing fine, but in fact they just linked the same gem, items to make them viable for lvl76 and beyond maps specifically those Map with boss dealing high elemental AOE DMG.

You know what the sad part is? GGG had intended a sort of "Summoner Graveyard" feature for hideouts that would allow you to spawn corpses for raising minions without having to go to a specific zone to retrieve them. Unfortunately the feature was scrapped because it ran into "practical problems", most likely something to do with the coding involved. Heres hoping they still have us in mind for the coming updates(wouldnt hold your breath though).

the reddit page where this is stated for the record
http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/2fitkt/catarinas_headstones/