[2.5] Animate weapon Necromancer with MoM

New updated Filter for this build! http://pastebin.com/raw/MAK90FnS (make sure you pay attention cus t1 weapons and 6s are the same color)

^ filter not updated for 2.5, cus I'm lazy. You can see splinters and the rings, they just aren't highlighted, add them to whatever line you want.



I'm gonna be straight with everyone...This build hasen't changed since 2.1, at all.
Same pathing
Same ascendancy
Same gear*

WE GOT A NEW WEAPON!!!! About time something changed.


I don't have the upgraded version and honestly you don't need it. I cleared up to red maps in my sleep and like 99% of red maps are easy as it gets. This build is clearly broken...still.

I would post the tree I'm using but you can see the exact same tree on any low life summoner right now. Just get a ton of ES, get a Shavs, get this sword and viola, you have crushed every map boss. It's actually that simple. For jewels just get minion damage, ES(any ES mod) and then cast/attack speed to get around more and make everything smoother. Also, you can expect to pay more for jewels this league because scummoners are OP again. Just sayin.

The life version with high quant is still fine its just I wanted to use 7 aura's. Yeah.

Changes for 2.4
The one thing that you CAN do different is Switch Asramentis with "The Ascetic" and then switch a Ventors with a ring with life and ALOTTTTTT of stats. Like max strength, max dex and max all attributes. With this method you will need to somehow get more dex and strength, but you gain 5 quantity, right? :D

Essence of Fear, I don't believe this is worth using with THIS build. Maybe for someone else's version of this build you can make it work, but I don't think it would help this build at all. Your only using 1 rare item, and you NEED life and +2 minion gems on it, so there isn't alot of room for other mods. I'm not even sure if you can use that essence on helms anyway.

Cloak vs Victaro's

Victaro's
- Aura Range - Meaning you can effect your minions and be farther away from danger
- +1 Aura Gems - DAMAGE
- Aura effect - again, DAMAGE
- 20% reduced reserve - Basically you get wrath or anger for free

Cloak
- You can animate blue weapons
- leech, are you gonna 5/6l this and then put your zombies and guardian or guardian and golem in this, or are you gonna put your animate weapons in here? Either way it pretty much doesnt matter cus your guardian will almost never die. (perks of having max res and 24k life?) Your zombies and just bodies and a golem is also a body. Your weapons only last so long and if your adding gems your mana cost is gonna be too much to sustain or even use.

Unending Hunger - If you wanna drop your zombies and use Spectres, well now you have a reason. The issue is that you'll need to only animate a few weapons per pack at most because you don't want them to lose soul eater. For that reason I believe you CAN do this if you want, but I think this jewel would be better suited in a regular summoner build.

1 last thing. The new maps make this build preform great. Most of the new maps are a circle or a straight line. The majority of them don't seem to have much if any backtracking, which makes this build even better.


Update - I tried this build with Queen's Escape. The move speed is SO good! But I had a hard time getting res cap with ventors and no Aurumvorax. Also missed out on Whirling Blades. Also it was harder to get the links I wanted because I went from 2 3 links and boots, to 1 5 link and boots. In conclusion I would say if you wanna do it, go ahead. I personally would rather use Aurumvorax and them sweet, sweet dual wield passives. (just fyi, I used Animate Weapon, WED, Minion Damage, Melee Splash and Spell Totem for my 5 link)


CHANGES FOR 2.3!!


1. New uniques!~
Queens Escape - This sword is 100% worth looking at, upto 100% move speed is pretty rediculous for the weapons that are already pretty fast, now they are super sonic!! It really helps out your SRS too. not to mention it has every stat you want, minion damage, another body(zombie) and that speed man, THAT SPEED!!

Grip of the Council - My first impressions of these gloves are not amazing, yes it wll give your minions alot of damage, they have life and a resist. BUT, them being unique means you cant get minion damage on them, they also don't have quantity, they also REDUCE your minions move speed. I just don't think the damage is worth losing so much.

Cloak of Tawm'r Isley - I feel that this is more of a novelty item than a real item... 1, you need a level 8 master to even be able to get it. 2, it has 2 stats and neither one are life/resists like this build needs. 3, the ability to animate blue weapons is pretty whatever, anyone who has played this build knows that the weapons having a mod or 2 really wont change anything when you have 40+ weapons out and insta kill everything on your screen. So, I mean, if you have it go for it, but you'll be losing an aura for the ability to animate blue weapons. It really just isn't worth it.

2. TREE CHANGES!!!!~~~ there are none, again. Our ascendancies got better and now we get Bacon of Corruption. woo flippin hoo.

3. Honorable mention for Deidbellow, 20% move, cast/attack speed aura every time you use a warcry, it it better than a +2 helmet? Probably not, but, it's pretty interesting and I think that if you can't afford a decent +2 helm this might work good for you.

4. Lastly, Spirit offering! I think this skill could be REALLY strong...but...you can only have 1 offering up at a time and Flesh Offering is a Vaal Haste you can use at any time. That being said, if you wanted to use Spirit offering to help out against a boss I could see that being viable. But again, Flesh Offering is a HUGE speed buff to you and your minions so I really can't see changing it

TLDR!
Queens Escape - Could be good.
Grip of the Council - No.
Cloak of Tawm'r Isley - No.
Tree Changes - Got buffed, nothing new.
Diedbellow - Maybe? If your in a group, hells yes.
Spirit Offering - Not as good as Flesh Offering.

Changes for 2.2


Gear
I'm changing my gear alot from my original post, I'm going to be using high life boots and glove with minion damage and 2 Ventor's with high quant and around 0 rarity, besides that the gear is unchanged and once I get my gear right I'll make sure to post it.(need to get new ventors cus -100 rarity means I get no rares LOL)


Gems and Jewels
The gem setup is largely the same, the main issue I'm having right now is how to get Stone Golem in the build and have it be more effective, honestly it might come down to having to use a Clayshaper and I think with Clayshaper the level 12 Golem will have around 18k life. I need to test that some and I'll get back to you about it.

The other thing is I'm not using Vaal Haste anymore because Flash Offering with Mistress of Sacrifice is about the same as a Vaal Haste and I dont need souls for it. Instead of Vaal Haste I'm gonna use Desecrate so that I can use Flesh Offering on command if something goes wrong, AND because you can't use Vaal Haste in Lab and this character does lab so amazingly easy.

As for Jewels
Completely unchanged, albeit more expensive. I blame myself for that.


New Q & A
Q - Why not use the Animate Weapon mace?
A - LESS DURATION ON ANIMATE WEAPON, da a nono, I mean if you want to use it go ahead, but you HAVE TO get EB and stack ES so the build will look alot different and your jewels will change alot.

Q - Helm Enchant, what one should I go for?
A - 24% chance to copy a weapon is obviously the best and if you farm for it you can get it, this build is great for Lab. If you get Animate Weapon duration, 150% stone golem buff, 45% Flesh Offering Duration, Convocate recovery speed or clarity/wrath/anger reduced reservation would all be acceptable substitutes.

Q - Does this build have a low-life version?
A - Yes and No, you CAN do it but you'll need to drop SRS and really you don't get alot of benefit from it. The only thing you get is a bigger effective life pool and the tree will look ALOTTT different. I'm just saying that it is possible, but I wouldn't do it.

Q - Summoner Staff, Femurs of the Saints?
A - For this build it's effectively a 3 stat item, you get +2 minion gems, the regen and some duration. If this staff had like 15% cast speed it might be considered, but right now I wouldn't use it.

Q - Umbilicus Immortals?
A - LUL No.

Q - Unique Jewel, Spirit Guards?
A - Come up with a spot to put it. The jewels was meant to be used with Null's...unfortunately Null's is garbage tier. To go Null's you either drop all your duration and minion damage or you get no life nodes so that you can get proj damage, if you start shadow and dont get Mistress of Sacrifice. Every option there is to use that bow is bad and by extension it ruined a good jewel. BUT, if they changed Spirit Guards to a cobalt jewel and have it be 50 int instead of dex, I would use it then, maybe 2 of em.

Q - Clayshaper
A - No, and heres 2 images to show you why.
First, WITHOUT Clayshaper(gem level 15) http://i.imgur.com/qaX1yOi.png?1
Second, WITH Clayshaper http://i.imgur.com/mAyVBXN.png?1



Original 2.1 Post for this build
Hello everyone, this is my guide for an Animate Weapon build for the 2.1 Patch.

Pros
- You have so many minions out at any given time that you can pretty much insta kill anything
- Along with doing so much damage there are alot of bodies between you and danger that your very safe
- If you don't wanna use Quant gear the build can be DIRT cheap, I'm talking less than 1/2 of an exalt.
- MoM makes your VERY low life pool fairly effective
- With high quant you get alot of raw currency
- You can level with this build from level 4

Cons
- I'm level 84 and I dont have a combined 4k life pool, it's VERY low
- Mobs with pierce can annihilate you before you can react(sarn lmp snakes)
- Chaos damage is a real problem(currently sitting at 3k life)
- Subject to RNG cus you need to get alot of white weapons for the build to even work(hence high quant and negative rarity)


Gear Explenation
1. Negative Rarity, right now I'm sitting at -41
2. Positive Quantity, currently I have +51 Quant

Uniques that are strongly reccomended


The swords alone will give you SO much resists that you won't really need any on gear.
Astramentis will give you all the stats you will require and more.
Ventors with high Quant and negative Rarity is more for flavor, it's note required but it does help.
The Gloves, Boots and Belt are simply quantity, the boots give us the bonus of really really high mana regen and the belt secures that you wont need stats on gear.



This chest I was never planning on using but once I put it on my damage went up SO much that I can't help but love it. Also it gives you enough ES to make "hybrid" almost viable.(I's going hybrid even tho my helm isn't perfect.)



The helm is pretty much required for summoners, you need a +2 minion heml for your tanky minions, in this case Animate Guardian and Zombies.
The ring is simply as much Life and ES as possible, and because I needed lightning res I got that, you could probably get more survivability with max Life/ES AND Mana/Mana regen.



1 instant life flask with freeze, 1 instant minion flask, 1 duration minion flask(Sapping would be better, I just got tired of wasting alts and ended on this.) Adrenaline Quicksilver(almost required for every build) and lastly a Bleeding Granite.
Optionally you could use a Jade, it's up to you, I use a granite cus it's more reliable.


Passive Tree
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMAAQPuBLMI9AthDc0RDxEtFCAYPBhWHM4c3B2-IuIqTSqYK1AsnDLRM4c1kjpYOuE7DTvjPC09_D8nQYdEBET7RUdFnUfiSshMLUyzUEdTUlXGVytYY1ltWpFewF8qXz9fmGQJZ5to8mpDaqxr220ZbqpvO3RVeA17w3xLfIN9GILHg1-DzIUyhWCIQIhaiiiKr4zPjxqQEZAzlnSa4KIApDmmV6aspwiofarErJiuPq9sr6e18rc-vSe9gsAawFTAZsT2xq7MvM8y0B_T-9i92QvfiuRR6QLr7uyK7w7v6_Af8kX2SPfX-ej6gP4K_lT-sw==


For going through the tree you only need to do a few things, Dark Arts(Dual Weild cluster above Witch) then Herd the Flock(16% minion res node above templar) then get Duration nodes, either 1 cluster or both, up to you, lastly get the 4 reduced mana nodes in Templar and between Scion and Marauder. After that you just fill in life and minion damage and thats it.
Honestly you don't need to path hte way I said, but I strongly recommend Dark Arts first.


Gems and Guardian
Because we don't use a Staff and our chest is taken from Auras and Vaal Haste we only get 4 links

Helm(WITH +2 minions) -- Animate Guardian + Raise Zombies + Minion Life + Fortify
Chest -- Wrath - Anger - Vaal Haste + Convocate + Flesh Offering + Increased Duration
Gloves -- SRS - Echo - Minion Damage - Melee Splash(we don't use WED because you need them to have AoE to start a map)
Boots -- Animate Weapon(With quality) + Melee Splash + WED + Duration(if you dont want to use duration for some unholy reason you can use Minion Damage)
Weapon 1 -- Whirling Blades + Faster Attacks + Clarity
Weapon 2 -- Portal

Because I chose to use Animate Guardian I had to give him good gear and gear to make him a "stat stick" and the first 2 things you need are Dying Breath and Leer Cast. Once you gear him with that you need to get him to max resistances so that he never dies, and BTW if he has max res he should never die. Now what you need to cap his res is double res items with 35%+, example the chest has 35%+ Lightning and Fire res, the boots have 35%+ Cold and Fire res and the gloves have 35%+ Lightning and Cold res.


Jewels and how this build makes use of MoM

Animate weapon costs ALOTTTT to cast, and my original plan was to use a 6l chest and after I put on Victario's I gave up on that, but at that point I already had 4/5 of my jewel slots and already have all 4 of the reduced cost nodes and now that I have them I'm going to keep using them.

When I was buying jewels I went for 5% reduced mana cost and any roll of Minion Damage, it just so happened when I was looking for them I could get ones with attack speed and cast speed.

I have about 2k Mana, 166 regen and after reservation I have 500 mana left, so I have more than enough to sustain SRS and Animate Weapon while taking damage.


A few Screen shots
Animate Guardian's life, quite alot and I'm missing a life cluster for him



Zombie's life, not nearly as much as Guardian but I got 7 of em.



Defence stats in merc Sarn(1st zone in a3m so I could show clarity regen) as you can see I'm very very overcapped.



Animate Weapons stats, as you can see that with jewels and passives I got alot, but with Guardians 33% buff I get them over 200% damage, plus WED and the 244% base damage.




Helpful tips for playing this build

1. Know map layouts so that you can have Vaal Haste up when you go to kill them.
2. hen you killing the boss DO NOT animate any weapons, so that after you kill the boss you can pick up weapons to be able to get a jump start for the next map.
3. Weapon types that are best for this build: Corsair, Skean, Ambusher, Impearial Claw, Hellion Claw, anything that you can stack up alot of that are very fast. Think about it this way, you can pick up a 2 hander and that takes up the same space as 2 Ambushers and 1 claw.
4. Use Convocate to save your minions OR to get them on top of a cannot be killed totem/rare.
5. Maps with layouts like Strand/Gorge are the best for this build because there is no backtracking AT ALL.



I never make a video because of my junk computer but with this build there is another reason why i'm not making a video. This build, even tho I have 50 quant and I only run maps over 80 quant 75% of my damage is based on how many weapons I get. I have done 120 quant maps where I can barely sustain 20 weapons, I have also done white maps and able to sustain 50 weapons, no problem at all.


MAPS and what you need to know about them while playing this build

1. Know your layouts and bosses, maps like Strand and Gorge are GREAT for this build. the bosses will target your minions and leave you alone(mostly) and if they do try and get you, whirling blades in very fast and you can get away from that mess.
2. Mod combos you NEED to be careful with. Animals + Crit + Damage will make LMP pierce snakes almost 1 shot you through MoM, 1k ES and 3k Life. I'm not joking at all, I have been insta killed by 4 snakes through MoM, 1k ES and 3k life so you really really need to be careful.
3. Atziri - Atziri is really easy for this build if you plan right, unfortunatly I'm a scrub and the couple times I tried it she killed all my weapons before phase 2 ended and then I died and the run was over. That being said you can insta kill Vaals and Trio without too much set up.(50 or so weapons)


Made up Q&A

Q - Why don't you use Fortify on Whirling Blades?
A - At no point should I ever be that close to mobs, I am a squishy auras bot for my minions and I could EASILY be killed by a few white mobs with no damage mods.

Q - 4th guide I have seen from you, still no video?
A - Shitty computer, I mean I can take a crack at it but it'll be the most raw shit tier video ever.

Q - Considering how much your overcapped have you tried any other weapons or a shield?
A - I did try a Mote'gruls Grasp and it makes my Zombies have about 16k life, but I only have 3 of them. And besides that the other option I can think of would be Prism Guardian and put Clarity in it, and you could, but GL finding 20% attack and cast speed in 5 points while holding a shield.

Q - Why did you go for high quantity and low rarity instead of just using really good gear?
A - 2 reasons, 1. SC 2. I would rather play a build with flavor than just getting stupidly tanky on a character that doesn't need that.

Q - Do you use a filter for this build?
A - Yes I edited my filter to show weapons, here it is. http://pastebin.com/EAUd48rL

Q - Have you tried Null's?
A - Yes and it's slow and not nearly as many minions, I can sustain 40 weapons no problem, with Null's I was having a hard time even getting 10 weapons. Not to mention how much all res I would lose.



Thanks for reading
~Lorewyn
Last edited by LorewynGaming on Dec 21, 2016, 1:11:13 AM
Last bumped on Dec 21, 2016, 1:11:44 AM
Updated for 2.2, not a whole lot changed really.
Hey!

Your trees aren't working for me. I'd love to take a look at your skill tree but the links you have appear to be for the old skill tree. :)
IGN: PortiaDeRossi
Thank you, I'll update that.
I'm curious why you spec into Dark Arts? It seems like a lot of invested points for little payoff. is it for the Dexterity? If its for the attack/cast speed, you get all that and much more just from Mistress of Sacrifice & Flesh Offering.

I am playing Animate Weapon myself and the build definitely works using only the %Quantity modifiers on maps. Like you said at the bottom of your post it is much more worthwhile to find gloves/boots with better defenses. Before maps though Sadimas/Goldwyrms are probably the best things you can use.

If you get decent gloves/boots with resists, I highly recommend using an Advancing Fortress. You can get ridiculous amounts of block with Mistress of Sacrifice. Just because our characters are aura bots for our weapons doesn't mean we have to be squishy!


Your build is definitely a lot different from mine. Its very interesting!

IGN: PortiaDeRossi
Actually i'm playing this build again for Perandus and I'm changing it alot. It's gonna have more life and damage because I'm not using Sadimas and Goldwym. Also gonna be much much more tanky with Stone Golem.

From playing this build last league I can tell you the build has 2 weakensses.
The first is mobs with Pierce, mainly pierce snakes and them are fairly rare to find while mapping, and really they are only dangerous at the very beginning of a map. Once you get rolling they arent an issue because everything dies the second it gets on your screen.
The second is Perandus boxes with mobs that use Bladefall, thats only an issue because the base damage on that skill is broken. But I have a sneaking suspicion that once I get a little more damage and life they will all die instantly like everything else.

Lastly about Bone Offering to get more block, I just simply dont want to. Really going block is better for a full summoner build where you are only an auras bot and you really are just running around trying to not die. This build is a little more interactive because you need to cast SRS, you need to use Flesh Offering alot and you need to obviously be casting Animate Weapon.

Also I'm gonna really overhaul my original post.
Updated build for 2.3

We got buffed but really nothing new.
Spirit Offering has its place. The interesting thing is I can animate weapons, run out of ES (Eldritch Battery), then use Spirit Offering to get free ES and keep going. So for an Eldritch Battery character Spirit Offering can be like Vaal Clarity. I've used Vaal Clarity for my endgame animators before. Maybe against Elemental Bosses the big +elemental resistance will be similar to the Gluttony of Elements skill from that corrupted amulet.

I'm using the Cloak of Tawm'r Isley since I could finally afford one with 2 weeks left in ProphecySC. I have SRS on my swap to start the map, then once i have enough animated weapons I swap to my main hand. I will probably make a video guide since not many players will experience the chest.

Cloak is...ok - you have more weapons and you can now equip positive item rarity (instead of negative item rarity) to good effect. But yes, more than 30 weapons means you're standing around animating stuff too much, and/or you're running to the boss or being overly cautious in a Beyond map.

I'm filling a stash tab with the "decent" blues that I eyeballed on the ground to eventually regal. The one thing Cloak enables is "digging through (blue) trash" which was a skill playing animate weapon required before loot filters. I don't think it will be a appreciable amount of wealth gained considering the time spent looking at blues on the ground. Hopefully I'll get better at it over time.

I'm not sure how good the blind and leech parts are. Life leech support is a 130% mana multiplier and animate already costs tons of mana. I've been using purity of elements so I'm not sure if my weapons ever get killed with this setup, so the blind and leech may start shining if I push up to red maps (still getting resistances in order).

I mean, I'm still running with it despite my low defense because Animate Weapon got its own chest piece!

That said, Victario's Influence impressed me more because of how unassuming it looks, but in practice Victarios is a super strong summoner chest! I actually preferred my Victario's chest to my first ever Shav's Wrappings I bought for 8ex because Shav's felt like playing the same Victario build, except I have twice as many sockets filled with aura stuff and my tree is totally gimped up to be low life instead of normal life with Victario's.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1679881
Can you update ur guide for 2.4 id you dont mind.
Your item filter doesnt work. It need editing !

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