Zombie Summoner help

That is the trade off really, and why I and many other have been complaining about specters.

for you see specter builds are really only competitive when you have 4+ specters , 2 specters is worthless and I would consider 3 viable , but to really get a good return out of wasting a 5 - 6l slot on specters .. you need four of them.

and right now there are only 2 items / builds that pull that off, the stupidly expensive vis mortis build , or the stupidly risky low life summoner.

Right now the current meta of summoners is to use one and only one minion in a 7link which a level 3 empower in a +1 weapon can almost do anyway. This is why SRS builds are absolutely crushing the shit out of all other summoner builds.. that damn 7l or even 7.5l if you get a 2 fire +1 all staff with cast speed.


compare that to 3 specters in a 6l and it is not even a contest , and forget the 4.5 l zombies you get from a +2 helm. *not good enough* aptly describes +2 4l zombies.


the only real downside to you using zombies , is that you lose the block of necro aegis which lends hugely to the durability of minions.

however most people tend to agree that is not much of an issue considering how much more powerful a 7l zombie in a staff is.

plus there is nothing keeping you from technically haveing a 6l specter and a 7l zombie.

if it weren't for the fact that 6l staves have quadrupled in price and I havent leveled my empower , i too would drop the +2 minion helm for a alphas howl. and rock a 7l staff.

For the Mana problem I used Vaal Clarity. Doesn't work too well if they die before it can recharge ofc.

I really don't know if 4L zombies are not so viable. Mine (http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1003665#p9071676), with 10K HP are quite durable even on 76s and die quite rarely (I can do 76 rare map with zombies and spectres summoned in spectre of god). And this with my "dps" gear, not switching to grasp or enfeeble.

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tmaciak wrote:

I really don't know if 4L zombies are not so viable. Mine (http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1003665#p9071676), with 10K HP are quite durable even on 76s and die quite rarely (I can do 76 rare map with zombies and spectres summoned in spectre of god). And this with my "dps" gear, not switching to grasp or enfeeble.

oh, if being able to not die was the only thing expected of zombies , unfortunately it is somewhat expected of the minions to do damage too,

like many things in this game , you can get away with less dps when you go solo. But my god there is nothing more depressing than to be consistently part of groups where you are the lowest dps character , by a factor of 2 or 3.

@Enky, you seem to not be knowing what you want to do with your summoner build.

1. You use a staff. Staves are used for SRS, not for anything else. Zombies benefit the most from levels, granted, but I can guarantee that a vertex or +2 minion helm with RZ - Emp - Multistrike - Melee splash does more for them then anything else.

2. You use aurseize. Are you MF or Not? because your other gear is not MF. I dont recommend taking only a small amount of MF in exhange for a huge survivability loss.

3. Alpha's howl is a nice thing for a summoner, but it doesnt do enough for you to warrant using it. You lose out on again, a lot of survivability, for +2 to aura's you dont really need that much.

4. Rainbowstrides? BIS summoner boots (unless you dont use zombies/spectres) are bones of ulr. I recommend using those. Plus, the spellblock doesnt do much for you since you arent block based.

I recommend trying to exactly figure out what you want to do with your build first. Go low life/Life/CI, auramancing summoner/MF summoner/Quad curse, and what minions. After that, look for a solid thread on the witch section on that type of summoner, or something similar. Summoners have been pretty chewed out and most of the times the individual builds found are close to the most efficient you're gonna get for that specific sub-type


@Saltychipmunk

Nice and all, +2 to your zombie's from a staff, but the overall utility you give up on by using a staff for your 6link is too big if you dont use SRS. There is no reason running a staff for a normal summoner build, since you dont do ridiculous amounts of dps so that you can annihilate before you kill stuff, which is the only reason staff-srs stays alive. The only reason. hence, it's too risky (way more risky than LL summoner) to run a staff for zombiesummoner. 4link zombies are btw very - very viable. In terms of dps and survivability. Its all about complementing that right tho, which, sadly, not every build does.

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Saltychipmunk wrote:

That is the trade off really, and why I and many other have been complaining about specters.

for you see specter builds are really only competitive when you have 4+ specters , 2 specters is worthless and I would consider 3 viable , but to really get a good return out of wasting a 5 - 6l slot on specters .. you need four of them.

and right now there are only 2 items / builds that pull that off, the stupidly expensive vis mortis build , or the stupidly risky low life summoner.

Right now the current meta of summoners is to use one and only one minion in a 7link which a level 3 empower in a +1 weapon can almost do anyway. This is why SRS builds are absolutely crushing the shit out of all other summoner builds.. that damn 7l or even 7.5l if you get a 2 fire +1 all staff with cast speed.


compare that to 3 specters in a 6l and it is not even a contest , and forget the 4.5 l zombies you get from a +2 helm. *not good enough* aptly describes +2 4l zombies.


the only real downside to you using zombies , is that you lose the block of necro aegis which lends hugely to the durability of minions.

however most people tend to agree that is not much of an issue considering how much more powerful a 7l zombie in a staff is.

plus there is nothing keeping you from technically haveing a 6l specter and a 7l zombie.

if it weren't for the fact that 6l staves have quadrupled in price and I havent leveled my empower , i too would drop the +2 minion helm for a alphas howl. and rock a 7l staff.

Whats a vis mortis summoning build?

exactly what it sounds like , its the traditional summoning build , but you own a 5l+ vis mortise unique chest so that you can get 4 specters while not needing to give up your wand hand for midnight , though in the cases of farming dominus , there is no appreciable chaos damage so some low life builds will rock both the Vis and the mid night for 5 specters or 4 specters and a wonder trap.


admittedly the issues with 4l zombies now are mostly caused by the recent nerf to aura nodes and the buff to blood magics second notable.

meaning if you want a properly buffed 4l zombie you need alot of aura's since said auras are your pseudo 5 and 6l ( especially haste and hatred with generosity).


but if you dont go blood magic , realistically you will not be able to run that many auras.

Hell this is why i bought my self a 5l lorica and am rebuilding my summoner on another account.

Im using a summoner build using Arc to curse on hit everything I come across. I use 3 curses: Enfeeble, Vulnerability, and Temporal Chains. Temp Chains is from Corrupted Gloves so the gems just go in my boots. In fact the problem I have is I die. 99% of the time when I die all of my minions are still alive. Also one VERY important thing you seemed to have left out. Are you using a Q20 level 20 zombie gem? Have you tried using

Do you have a good shield like a Rathpith along with Necromatic Aegis? My gear and passive setup lets me run 10 zombies and 5 Spectres. Stuff just throws loot at me. I also use 2 instant health pots that give health to minions.

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Saltychipmunk wrote:

like many things in this game , you can get away with less dps when you go solo

Yes, I play only solo, but I don't think that my 9 zombies and 3 evangelists do small DPS, usually mobs just evaporate. On spectres I use Hatred and Added Fire Damage, and this coupled with 3 curses (TC, Vulnerability and Elemental Weakness), EE and quite often shock from quality Arc gives quite nice results.

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Thomasmgp wrote:

In fact the problem I have is I die.

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Thomasmgp wrote:

My gear and passive setup lets me run 10 zombies and 5 Spectres.

No wonder that you die, as I understand, use both Vis and MB. Probably with Necromantic Aegis, right? And maybe you even use "great" summoner amulet?



I would say, that my summoner, even if I play Standard, have HC grade survivability (3,9K HP, 0,9K mana for Cloak, 23 lvl AA with room for 24th lvl if I finally level up my Empower, 160 HP/s, 287 m/s, reses ovecapped for any ele weakness).

In reply to Leary :)

I should mention i only ever solo, so DPS is a concern for me, not just tankyness.

I run as much IIQ as i can get away with. At the moment i have +92%iiq and 48%iir.
Aurseize is one of the pieces i may swap. Is there another Unique i should be saving up for? (besides that ridicules 200ex Atziri one) or should i just get a high es rare?


Running Alpha's Howl allows me to run Vit//Haste/Hated/Purity and still have enough mana to cast as much Flesh offering/Convocation/Arc(to curse) as i need to without running out of mana.
If i find some more gear with mana or get some more levels i may be able to drop Alpha's.
That or i could drop Vitality. But to me honest Vitality allows me to not have to break to wait for ES regen while mapping.
An ES based Vertex does look very tempting. I would only have 4L zombies then and would be unable to run IIQ with them without massively gimping my dps.


Did have Bones of Ulr. +1 zombie vs +10%movement/20resist all/440es.
In the end the Sunstriders won out for me, since having Resist all on them allows me to free up rings/amulet for base stats i need and iiq.
I do realise this is a close one though, and one of the more recent changes i made. I only ever die now to a few select boss's.



I may try the old stype of 4L zombies in helm and 6L specters again in the future, or swap over to Srs build. But for now i just want any tips for my current build. I think i might bow out of this thread now as I cannot find the specific info I want. I gained a lot of valuable info from this thread, i just think i asked a much too broad question at the start.

I thank everyone who contributed their time and effort trying to help me.
Offer is still up for anyone who wants to show off their Specter or Zombie based Summoner to me in game :)