Summoner mechanics, SRS/Flame Sentinels w Searing Touch and else

So here is a couple of loosely related mechanical questions about summoners. I know some have been discussed but i could not find answers that were backed up well by sources or experiment.

1) So my most important question is if the increased fire damage and increased burning damage apply to any of my minions. In particular i use SRS (which is 50% fire damage) and Flame Sentinel specters, does the staff help them at all (other than the +2 skill level on srs and added fire ofc)?

2) What support gems exactly help Flame Sentinels? Does Faster cast actually work? Conc effect, fire pen, leech, etc? I saw people suggesting remote mine but can not possibly imagine why, it seems to turn the spectre cast into a remote mine but not do anything to the actual Sentinels once summoned.

3) I am 90% sure about this just checking: if you support srs with melee phys damage gem, then basically the bonus you get is 50% of the value on the gem since half of the damage of the srs is elemental - is this correct?

4) If two summoners run together (because they have no fear of lag) and one casts Flesh Offering, it should apply to the minions of both of them, right?

Your wisdom will be appreciated.

1) no. minions are different entities and use their own skills, thus the mods affecting you dont affect them. They cant benefit from your gear/passives unless clearly stated otherwise

edit: srs will get +2 level from searing touch though, it does not care what the gem is, as long as it has "fire" tag. IMO best weapon for srs is a +2 fire, +1 gems, %cast speed staff

2) yes. support gems affect the skill directly, all applicable support gems will work. Flame Sentinels use fire projectile spell (fireball)

3) no it is not. it will boost both phys and fire, because their 50% fire is converted from phys (similar to Infernal blow skill)

4) probably not. I havent tested it (or read about it on forums) but based on the wording, it affects only the minions of player who casted it.. it says "empowering your minions"

Just a little note in regard to #2: Mine and trap supports don't work with minions since 1.2.0. They used to be very popular because they both have a multiplicative (text says more damage, not increased) damage boost. You can still link them to spectres, but it only makes them more annoying to summon.

Since 1.2 traps and mines only increase the damage of a spell or attack that the trap or mine ITSELF cast, the damage boost is not inherited by any entity summoned by them.

Dont forget about Echo btw, it works on sentinels just fine.

Thanks to both of you for the answers!

I have one more question left.
You wrote:

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Ludvator wrote:

3) no it is not. it will boost both phys and fire, because their 50% fire is converted from phys (similar to Infernal blow skill)

Does this mean that if i gem say added fire damage on srs then to bonus from that also gets calculated from the full original damage of the srs and not just the 50% phys component?

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Artagas wrote:

"

Ludvator wrote:

3) no it is not. it will boost both phys and fire, because their 50% fire is converted from phys (similar to Infernal blow skill)

Does this mean that if i gem say added fire damage on srs then to bonus from that also gets calculated from the full original damage of the srs and not just the 50% phys component?

SRS deals both physical and fire damage.
Melee Phys.damage gem will boost physical part (for full gem's bonus) and additionally, 50% of the gem bonus will go to fire damage through conversion

flesh/bone offering only works for the minions' summoner who casts this spell.

Flame sentinel are well supported by, for instance, GMP - fire pen - faster casting - echo. (and off course any Minion-specific gem)
You can switch fire pen to life leech but you can already have 4% life leech for your spectres on the skill tree. In fact, you should check your spectres' life from time to time and use convocation when they are in a bad situation.

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HarukaTeno wrote:

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Artagas wrote:

"

Ludvator wrote:

3) no it is not. it will boost both phys and fire, because their 50% fire is converted from phys (similar to Infernal blow skill)

Does this mean that if i gem say added fire damage on srs then to bonus from that also gets calculated from the full original damage of the srs and not just the 50% phys component?

SRS deals both physical and fire damage.
Melee Phys.damage gem will boost physical part (for full gem's bonus) and additionally, 50% of the gem bonus will go to fire damage through conversion

false

fire damage is converted from phys -> melee phys affects all damage, added fire (or cold from hatred) is based on phys before conversion

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Ludvator wrote:

false

fire damage is converted from phys -> melee phys affects all damage, added fire (or cold from hatred) is based on phys before conversion

Bad wording from my side (and small issues of translating to English).
Still, the conclusion is that fire damage would be also boosted as well as physical with the help of just one support gem.

Hello guys. I found this thread in google. So if it is not actual please tell.

Im searching which 6-link gems will have best profit dealing maximum DPS with SRS gem in 2.3.0.

I use 6-link Pledge of Hands. Now i use this gems:

1. SRS
2. Minion Damage Support
3. Added Chaos Damage Support
4. Added Fire Damage Support
5. Elemental Focus Support
6. Multistrike Support / Melee Splash Support

According to Wiki preferences list.

I dont have 4lvl Empower gem yet.

But i see there is also Melee Phys.damage gem, as it says here gives good profit. But WIKI does not recommend it in preference list.

So what will be the best ways for solo target and for AOE?

These "what is the best.." questions are very problematic, because there can be many variants of SRS builds and each could benefit from different setups

in my opinion, using pledge, you will have only one setup both for single target and AoE. Most single targets are surrounded (or spawn) trash mobs, and you cant effectively force your minions to attack what monster you want. This makes melee splash support mandatory for each SRS build variant (IMO)

minion damage support will work with any damage from any source which makes it a good choice for any build variant, similar to multistrike (although it has slower dps boost, ~36% more at lvl 20)

other supports greatly depend on your build. if you scale damage from SRS base damage, youd want things like Empower, Melee phys damage, added fire damage.. with hatred aura

you can also do other things (ofc I dont know all the SRS variants people do), what comes to my mind is for example converting rest damage to elemental (phys to lighting) to benefit more from EE, using added flat damage.., then elemental focus would be great, etc
____

in your current setup, for example, elemental focus affects only elemental damage, but you also deal phys and chaos (=> low effectiveness).

there are lot of factors, and I cant see your character/tree, so I cant fit my suggestions to it. If you allow us to see it you can get other suggestions, because SRS damage is not only about support gems

If I would be forced to shot in the dark, Id say: splash, echo, minion damage, multistrike, melee phys damage, added fire/chaos