Bone Chilling Summoner Build

This is my first character, and first build I've made, though its not quite complete yet... Yes I've heard "you will always mess up your first character" but I've definitely planned out what I wanted to do from the very beginning, cause its something I enjoy doing in most games: a Frost Necromancer, and in most games, Ice element conflicts with Summoning cause it destroys corpses, however this has never once stopped me from attempting to and successfully making a chilling necromancer... Something about Freezing and slowing enemies and allowing my minions to overtake them like a wave of death, just makes me so happy:p...

Thankfully the skill Desecrate makes up for the fact I may happen to freeze some enemies and deny myself a corpse. Hatred was a bit tough for me to finally come by, but that's down to bad luck I suppose... I can also debuff enemies with the occasional curses like Warlord's mark(either from a specter or myself) or Vulnerability, however as of yet, I've almost never needed to debuff enemies unless I need them dead quickly: which I don't... not to mention the MOMENT I got Convocation from the first cruel quest my strategy has become a little different now:

I can run around all I want, when I find a group of enemies, I run straight into the middle, I cast Convocation, and suddenly I have a shield of zombies, specters, an a heavily Armored Guardian to block all enemies from attacking me, and proceed to wipe enemies from me, outward. for archer enemies, I summon a pair of skeletons on them and they die quickly too, and while I have Vaal Skeletons, I seldom ever (get to) use it, and when I do, even Dominus(normal for now) went down so quickly:p

I currently have 9 Zombies, 3 Specters, 1 Guardian Armor, and 13 skeletons(and I love that Vaal Skeletons don't count towards normal skeletons so if I summon them, there are SOOOOO many minions on my screen, I hope anyone I work with has a good comp cause I do:p)

Occasionally though I don't even have to rely on minions: I can run around and Glacial cascade everything to death, nothing seems to survive 1 or 2 hits of this, the only real reason for minions at this point is to "clean up the area" cause I got better things to do then run around to the corners of the room and kill EVERYTHING:p let them do it right? and if I EVER somehow find myself nearing death my "oh shit button" is a Spell Echoed Ice Nova I've yet to see ANYTHING survive (in big enough numbers of course(boss types excluded))

I have 2 sacred Minion Life Flasks, and the zombies and specters steal life, and have higher HP, while the skeletons have higher damage to kill the creature their summoned directly on quickly. I don't USUALLY need to use the life flasks but I always enjoy fully healed minions during times of quiet, though they have small regen normally as well... I managed to get lucky and get the Queen's Decree Greatsword which gives me those few extra minions, and i'm looking for the Boots of Ullr and the Sidhe Amulet still, which will definitely make my army that much more powerful.

I came to Path of exile cause I was mentioned that its more of a spiritual successor to Diablo 2 (which I actually find true as I play PoE now). And from Diablo 2 I enjoyed a powerful necromancer, however as the game went on, I found myself re-summoning minions more and more...

With Path of Exile, and for the time being, my Summons are utterly wrecking everything I come across, granted I'm somewhat over leveled just as I entered Cruel, and more recently, I killed Brutus with my minions without even REALIZING it(I was talking to someone, entered the room and my minions set to killing him before I finished my sentence) the first time in normal, he gave me a hard time cause I only had a few minions, and I would need to continue bringing them back.

Now for my questions:

1. As I said, in Diablo 2, I played through the first two difficulties relatively easily but I did notice my minions dying more in Nightmare, and in Hell, they needed to be resummoned nearly constantly, even with how powerful they were with my equipment, right now in PoE, I am having no trouble with minions killing things, and the same minions I summon after logging in each day... are usually the same ones i have when I sign off that day... The question is: Will my minions remain this awesome into the last difficulty?

2. I've looked up as much as I could about Animate Guardian, the whole concept when I first heard about it was awesome sounding, however it seems most reviews of it seem kinda... "meh", it seems under desired I think considering the possibilities of gear given to it, I often just give it random white gear with high armor and he doesn't go down easy, if I COULD add it to the Life on Hit effect(due to lack of sockets/links) the zombies/specters have, I'm sure he'd NEVER go down... question: with a Summoner type build, is Animate Guardian a good choice, or is it still somewhat crap? Or... "What makes people underwhelmed by Animate guardian?"

3. I've seen that most summoner builds incorporate collecting Life boosting Nodes on the skill map but as of yet, I take almost no damage, either my energy shield blocks what I would take or I'm not paying attention, I take a few life hits, then pop one or two potions(which btw regen so quickly with all the minions attacking random enemies) my questions: do I REALLY need Life boosts in a summoner build since Convolation seems to work so well?

I'll add more as I get further in the game, questions and what not...

That's quite a wall you've got there...

"

andminus wrote:

1. Will my minions remain this awesome into the last difficulty?

If you build them correctly, Summoners can be very powerful. As long as your passives and items cater towards your minions, and you're happy to resummon them every now and then; they should be fine in Merciless and even maps.

"

andminus wrote:

2. With a Summoner type build, is Animate Guardian a good choice, or is it still somewhat crap? Or... "What makes people underwhelmed by Animate guardian?"

It can be viable, though it is uncommon. If you are finding that it works for you, then keep using it! There's little harm in levelling the gem up as you go :)

"

andminus wrote:

3. Do I REALLY need Life boosts in a summoner build since Convolation seems to work so well?

Do you mean life nodes for yourself, or your summons?

Again, see how you go, but the vast majority of people will aim for 1.5% increased life per level, at the very minimum. Though if you rely on ES too, that could change things.

Most Summoners will get a reasonable amount of life for their minions too. Convocation is great until mid-late-game (ie. Merciless Act 2 or 3). But if your minions don't have much life, they WILL get one-shot quite often when you're mapping.

The Zombies and specters have a Minion HP Gem linked and whenever I come across a 6 socket chest, I may make 2 HP gems depending if I find them going down... like at all... The Skeletons are "flimsy" as they have damage gems instead but those summon in pairs and don't require corpses so their not as big a deal replacing...

And as far as nodes pertaining to minions: I believe I got them all:p now I'm working on increasing the power of my auras(Hatred mostly), and after I've achieved a nice ammount of that, I'll work on cold damage/freezing chance, hopefully that'll (cold/freeze nodes) will take up the rest of my levels:p

If you don't take any/many life nodes and still rarely/never die, then you're doing something right. Just remember you'll be very prone to one-shots later on. Sure, most of the time your minions will tank, but enemies could just ignore your minions and run straight for you; or you could come across a boss with huge AoE/piercing damage. Hailrake is one that comes to mind... and that's not even factoring in maps.

1. Yes, the only thing minions can't kill is the boss Atziri, which is entirely optional.

2. Animate Guardian is WORTHLESS. Just don't bother.

3. Convocation scales very poorly into the late game where it heals for 150/sec minions who have hp in the range of thousands. In any case you need to pick up as many Minion HP nodes as possible.

If you are talking about personal HP, yes you do need at least 100% life increased at the very least. There are certain minion types and bosses who can ignore your meatwall and one shot you.

What would you guys suggest for self-defense? I got that problem where I get OHKO by things even in A3 Merc. Mainly they are things that exactly like what you guys said: they ignore my minions and rush straight at me (eg those leap slam thingy in Dom's tower). My only tactic is running and hope it doesn't desync.

"

ariesdante wrote:

What would you guys suggest for self-defense? I got that problem where I get OHKO by things even in A3 Merc. Mainly they are things that exactly like what you guys said: they ignore my minions and rush straight at me (eg those leap slam thingy in Dom's tower). My only tactic is running and hope it doesn't desync.

Skeletotems. Use curses to direct your minions, it gets a faster response than mouse over (which I think affects them somewhat). Stack both HP and ES if you use Midnight Bargain.

Jumpy guys are easy to dodge, just don't stop moving. And if you're not sure, always play cautious and skeletotem into the room.

I think most builds don't use skeletotem but Raging Totem, but skeletons are still nice for drawing a lot of aggro.

"

If you don't take any/many life nodes and still rarely/never die, then you're doing something right. Just remember you'll be very prone to one-shots later on. Sure, most of the time your minions will tank, but enemies could just ignore your minions and run straight for you; or you could come across a boss with huge AoE/piercing damage. Hailrake is one that comes to mind... and that's not even factoring in maps.

SponTen

I gauge an area by running in recklessly:p, if I find a big group, I cast Convocation not for the life regan on my minions but to simply bring them to me, I then summon 2 skeletons in places I might need them where enemies are able to reach my minions but they can't(over cliffs and things) Once I start to notice my energy shield taking a hit or two, then I call my minions... so far it's worked out, and since they have a Life Gem on em and life on hit gem it takes alot to kill them... I've also not really found a case where enemies HAVE ignored my minions and went straight at me UNLESS I already provoked them.

on the subject of AoE/Piercing: I don't find "enough" enemies with these effects but I can easily see how they CAN be deadly when I watch my own Glacial cascade basically cut a path through charging enemies, and my Vaal Ice Nova turnings everything around me into frozen death:p if I EVER find an enemy that casts vaal Ice Nova or anything that jumps from target to target and then back to original target, my minions might not stand a chance, not to mention I'd probably go down like a sack of stones, but again, thats also if I'm ANYWHERE near the fight:p which I'm usually not:p

"

Skeletotems. Use curses to direct your minions, it gets a faster response than mouse over (which I think affects them somewhat). Stack both HP and ES if you use Midnight Bargain.

Jumpy guys are easy to dodge, just don't stop moving. And if you're not sure, always play cautious and skeletotem into the room.

Exialis

Those Leaping Grasshopper and Goatmen monsters do tend to provide a lil bit of annoyance but as they said, if I keep moving I'm left relatively unscathed, though when fighting either of those creatures I usually find myself simply standing still, letting them hop to me, and cascading them into a quick pile of icy chunks... to each their own right?

Now I hear alot of people at Endgame use Skeletotems, atleast from what I've seen on youtube and such, however, I have an idea with Skeletons + Spell Echo>_>, 4 skeletons for the price of 2, whenever I get a second Spell Echo from my dear friend Catarina, I'll try it out if it works how I want... I have no issues casting skeletons, and in fact most times, my zombies are enough, and I don't need to bother with skelys, except maybe on some boss fights...

and to clarify, as it stands I have all minion related nodes I think except for MI(cause thats 30% less health they would have), and Ageis(Which from what I heard is useless, but I'm using a Two handed atm so I can't exactly use it ANYWAYS) I've finished with my minion nodes, and have moved on to hunting some Aura nodes, before finally grabbing some cold/freezy nodes... In my skill tree, I went the straightest possible direction to each Minion count increase and as far as I see I have NO HP bonuses for myself and a tiny 20 mana shield Boost from like near the start point...

New Question: Since I've obtained (relatively) all Minion based Nodes, will I start to see a decline in their power(since their no longer gaining new nodes)?