[2.6] Miger's Knitted Horrormancer

"
"Embrace the serene power that is undeath"


Update:
Updated skill trees for 2.6.
Some buffs in the patch notes include:
- "Raised Zombies now have a melee attack range of 9 on their basic attack, up from 4. Their slam ability base radius has been increased to 18 units (from 10), deals 20% more damage, and will be used more readily."
- "Vis Mortis: Duration of Unholy Might increased to 10 seconds. Increased Energy Shield mod increased to 200-220%."
- "All staves have had their block values increased. Previously, staves granted either 12% block chance or 18% block chance. They now grant 18% and 20% respectively,"
- + New jewels to try out.

Profile: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/miger/characters
- Miger (93 in Essence league)

Highlights:
- Utilizes Knitted Horror spectres for clearing packs and zombies for single target.
- 9 zombies + 4 spectres + Stone Golem + Animate Guardian.
- Built around Femurs of the Saints unique staff. Uses plenty of Summoner Unique items while leveling.
- Tanky minions that simply refuse to die.
- HC and Atziri viable. You can probably do Uber Atziri if you're familiar with the fight (I'm not).
- Can farm labyrinth enchantments including Uber Izaro.
- Can do any map mod and any map including all the bosses (Atlas progression 125/125).
- Can barely do Guardians (don't recommend it) and probably Shaper but there are better builds for T16+.
- 5c budget to get started.
- Easy on the eyes as Knitted Horrors are not as flashy on the screen as flame sentinels or SRS (they're loud though).

Cons:
- Ranged monsters can sometimes surprise you with their damage.
- Need dexterity on gear or jewels if using high level dex gems.
- Low armor/evasion/energy shield without skills/potions. Should be easy enough to still play only one handed if you feel like it.
- Own and minion survivability might be iffy on T16+ bosses.

Gameplay:
- Use Knitted Horrors from Dried Lake or late maps if you're lucky.
- Guide Minions with Desecrate. Use Vaal Haste whenever you can, especially for large groups or tough packs (Perandus, Beyond, Warbands, Bosses, Boxes). Usually you can have flasks e.g. Rumi's up all the time as well.
- You should have plenty of time picking up loot while your minions do all the work.

Videos:
Spoiler

- Making friends in Dried Lake https://youtu.be/sTPq_wUqCq8
- Courtyard (Tier 13) https://youtu.be/JrTWzRu33q4
- Conservatory (Tier 14) https://youtu.be/uVkLvgx7UZQ
- Abyss (Tier 15) https://youtu.be/I28nQ7wRL7M
- Colosseum (Tier 15) https://youtu.be/yh72aJA3EGw
- Shrine (Tier 14) https://youtu.be/mZLghSdWX88
- Waterways (Tier 13) https://youtu.be/34iy90uexWA
- Atziri (The Apex of Sacrifice) https://youtu.be/lYfgwtoxHwQ
- Über Atziri (The Alluring Apex) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6LT6TJzPBk
- Palace (Tier 14) https://youtu.be/9O6iy6S86Zk
- Uber Izaro (lvl 75) https://youtu.be/5RC26bRZNOM
- Pale Council (lvl 72) https://youtu.be/bleIjTnMvMA


Defense:
Spoiler

- ~5k life
- Life regen (around 400-600 life regen/s)
- High block and spell block with Bone Offering and Rumi's (50+%)
- Powerful Temporal Chains and Enfeeble curses around you all the time
- Decoy totem (taunts the enemies)
- Minion meatshields
- Manual dodge (I like to move away from the incoming damage)


Gear:
Spoiler
Gearing can be cheap and I have done this build on self found as well.
Build heavily relies on the following uniques to maximize damage.
- Weapon
Femurs of the Saints (1 chaos): We will use zombies in the staff as we will get +2 to all minion gems. Up to 2.5% life regen for all minions and 12% damage per spectre for up to 48% increased minion damage with 4 spectres. 12% block from the staff is ok as well. 4-link get's you easily started on your mapping.

- Body armor
Vis Mortis (few chaos): +1 spectres and minion damage. We lose a bit of minion life but our minions refuse to die in most situations.

- Boots
Bones of Ullr (1 chaos): +1 spectres and zombies

- Gloves
Grip of the Council (~1-4 chaos): A bit of more damage but you can easily use rare gloves instead.

- Rest of the gear (usually couple of chaos or self found)
Look for life + elemental resists + dexterity + chaos resistance. On HC, I usually have at least positive chaos resistance so there are no surprises along the way (and I don't have to use life flasks e.g. in desecrated ground). You can craft minion damage on gloves with Catarina. You can check the rest of my gear from my profile.


Flasks:
Spoiler
Use whatever flasks suits your fancy. The following has worked for me.
- Seething/Bubbling Divine Life Flask of Dousing.
- Catalysed Eternal Life Flask of Staunching.
- Rumi's Concoction. Or you can use Granite flask of Iron skin or a Basalt flask.
- Ample/Perpetual Quicksilver Flask of Heat.
- Some kind of Warding flask for utility based on map mods/enemies. Topaz/Sapphire/Ruby/Amethyst or Eternal mana flask for curse immune/no regen maps.


Jewels:
Spoiler
We can easily get 7-8 jewels with a high end character.
Look for the following:
- Minion damage. My preferred option in all the jewels.
- Minion resists. Probably good to have at least 29% all resists so that your minions don't die.
- Minion life. Nice to have but not mandatory.
- Maximum life.
- Dexterity. Helps with gems.
- All resists. Helps with gearing.


Gem setup:
Spoiler

6L zombies in staff:
Raise Zombie + Minion Damage + Melee Physical Damage + Multistrike + Bloodlust + Minion Speed. For tougher content, you can try switching Bloodlust to Fortify or Minion Speed to Minion Life.
For 4/5 link, use what works best based on the content you're playing. You can also use Minion Life or Melee Splash if needed. Try to have at least 6 sockets (even if only 4 linked) so that you can fit as many utility gems as needed.

4-6L spectres in chest:
For mapping: Knitted Horrors
Raise Spectre + Minion Damage + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Physical Projectile Attack Damage. You can add Pierce/Slower Projectiles for 5L/6L but 4L spectres do enough damage due to Soul Weaver even when we're using Knitted Horrors from Dried Lake.
For Atziri or harder content where you need more single target damage: Flame Sentinels
Raise Spectre + Minion Damage + Slower Projectiles + Controlled Destruction + Spell Echo + Concentrated Effect.

4L (boots):
Blasphemy + Temporal Chains + Enfeeble + Enhance.
These all should be high quality for max effectiveness. You can also use Enhance if you have the sockets for overkill.

You can fill the rest of the sockets as you please for utility
4L:
Cast When Damage Taken (9) + Immortal Call (11) + Increased Duration (max) + Vaal Haste (max).
Other nice one: CWDT + Phase Run that will let you play recklessly and do magic tricks e.g. run past mobs in the labyrinth or during Haku missions.

4L:
Bone Offering + Spell Echo + Faster Casting + Desecrate.
For fast garbage creation/disposal. You should always have your offerings up. You can substitute Bone Offering with Flesh Offering but I prefer the defensive option if playing difficult content. The new Spirit Offering is a mix of defense and offense and great for leveling/end game where you might need more ES or want to bypass enemy ES with the chaos damage.

Convocation for minion placement.
Animate Guardian for more damage and curse effectiveness.
Gear: Dying Breath + Leer Cast + Zahndethus' Cassock + Southbound Gloves + Rare boots with Fire/Lightning res (35+%).
Summon Stone Golem for life regen e.g. during labyrinth/trials.
Decoy totem for taunting bosses/tough enemies.
Flame dash (+ faster casting) for movement e.g. in the labyrinth.

Other gems that might come in handy at times:
Culling Strike for bosses
Curse on Hit (and a lightning gem e.g. Orb of Storms/Ball Lightning) if you choose to spread curses manually and use auras.
Purity of Ice for harder content
Purity of Fire for harder content
Purity of Lightning for harder content
Summon Chaos Golem for mitigation e.g. lab runs
Melee Splash mainly for leveling
Added Chaos Damage - haven't tried yet but might work
Arctic Armour for harder content (phys/fire mitigation)
Vulnerability for more damage
Hatred for more damage (high dex requirement)


Passive Tree:
Spoiler
Core passive tree: All minion nodes + Whispers of Doom for extra curse poeurl.com/5Zk
You can pick Mind Over Matter or Elemental Equilibrium for harder content on a case by case basis.

Fill the rest with life, life regen, jewels as you see fit. See leveling guide below for details.
Final tree (~90) poeurl.com/5ZI


Leveling:
Spoiler
Bandits
- Normal = Help Oak for life.
- Cruel = Kill all for passive point.
- Merciless = Kill all for passive point.

1-7:
Tree at level 8: poeurl.com/5ZN
Spoiler
Pick up Raize Zombie and Freeze Pulse.
Head towards Lord of the Dead.


8-23:
Tree at level 24: poeurl.com/5ZU
Spoiler
Pick up Minion Damage x 2, Melee Splash x 2 and Spell totem. Switch to SRS and ditch Freeze Pulse.
+1 Fire wand with Summon Raging Spirits + Minion Damage + Melee Splash or you can use Lifesprig.
You can use self cast zombies or spell totem zombies as meat shields or level as a spell caster.
Head towards Herd of the Flock.
Pick up Flame Dash and Clarity.
Pick up Spirit Offering and level Flesh Offering and Bone Offering offhand.
Get Ample Bismuth flask of Resistance.
Pick up Desecrate if you have the dexterity (level in offhand). You can use Perandus Blazon belt for the dexterity.
Pick up Stibnite flask of Staunching. Great synergy with Briskwrap.
Pick up Survival Instincts (dex+all resist) jewel and jewel socket if you're doing the Through Sacred Ground quest.
Pick up Faster Casting, Minion Life, Melee Physical Damage (level in offhand). You can probably use Minion life instead of spell totem for your Zombies.
Keep an eye out for Bloodlust gem (18).
Keep an eye out for Physical Projectile Attack Damage gem (18).
Head Towards Gravepact.
You can switch to Bones of Ullr but there isn't much of a need yet if you have better boots. Boots links: Faster Casting + Desecrate + Flesh Offering + Flame Dash. You can also use Matua Tupuna (+2 Minion Gems) as your SRS setup.

Vaal: https://youtu.be/EqrznADWwbc


24-31:
Tree at level 31: poeurl.com/5ZY
Spoiler
Head towards Sanctity.
Pick up Convocation and Enfeeble (level in offhand).
Keep an eye out for Temporal Chains gem (24).
Keep an eye out for Vaal Haste (24).
You can change Stibnite flask to Perpetual/Ample Granite Flask of Iron Skin.
Pick Raise Spectre and Animate Guardian (level both in offhand).
Head towards Constitution.
Pick up Blasphemy (level in offhand).
Keep an eye out for Fortify gem (31).
Keep an eye out for Increased Duration gem x 2 (31).
Head towards Sentinel.

Piety: https://youtu.be/fVuHQ5VMeRk
Dominus: https://youtu.be/HTZG-iC_uSQ


32-42:
Tree at level 42: poeurl.com/5Z0
Spoiler
Make sure you have Flask of Staunching when heading out to Dried Lake.
Pickup Summon Stone Golem
Keep an eye out for Immortal Call gem (34).
Keep an eye out for Phase Run gem (34).
You can switch to Skullhead unique helmet for minion regen and life, your Zombies should not probably die so often any more. Good helmet for your CWDT setup: Cast When Damage Taken + Phase Run + Immortal Call + Increased Duration. Make sure to rotate gems so that Immortal Call is triggered first and then followed by Phase Run.
You can change Clarity to Blasphemy + Enfeeble/Temporal Chains for added defense.
Head towards Quick Recovery.
Fill out the rest of the Scion life wheel in preparation for Malachai/Normal labyrinth if you choose to do it as soon as possible.
Pick up Cast When Damage Taken, Greater Multiple Projectiles, Multistrike and Spell Echo.
You can do the Normal Labyrinth trials after you have beaten Malachai in Normal.
Push through Act I on Cruel and do the Cruel Bandit quest (kill all for skill point). You should now be about level 42 and you have additional life, resists and access to Hallowed Life flasks. Ready for Lab! Pick Necromancer as your Ascendancy class and choose Mistress of Sacrifice as the first notable.

Malachai: https://youtu.be/kcnE_eivcbw
Izaro: https://youtu.be/SDgdowfjqSw


43-59:
Tree at level 59: poeurl.com/5Z6
Spoiler
Head towards Death Attunement.
You can pick Agility/Puppet Master along the way.
Head towards Lord of the Dead when you get to Death Attunement to connect the two routes. You can now equip Bones of Ullr as we get 3 spectres now and should be in Cruel Dried Lake (or soon any way). Start connecting the Witch alternate start nodes to Lord of the Dead so that we can respec out of the cast speed and spell damage when we're close to being able to equip Femurs of the Saints and Vis Mortis. When you hit 59, equip Vis Mortis and Femurs of the Saints. We can drop SRS now as our minions should be doing enough damage by themselves (with 4 links). Respec the passive points and now we should have 8 Zombies and 4 Spectres. I chose Whispers of Doom and minion nodes near Grave pact but you can choose life or additional Zombie as well. I used Temporal Chains and Enfeeble with Blasphemy as we don't need mana anymore for casting. You can drop Lochtonial Caress for some dex gloves if you're still wearing them! (maybe I just forgot?)

Malachai: https://youtu.be/gzCNH9zzoEg


60->
Finalize your gear, flasks, jewels, gems and passive tree and you should be ready for mapping!


Ascendancy:
Spoiler
- Mistress of Sacrifice
- Flesh Binder
- Soul Weaver
- Spirit Eater (or you can take Beacon of Corruption or maybe Commander of Darkness if you want to go Hybrid and use Discipline)

I recommend doing the normal labyrinth after you have beaten normal Malachai around 42+ as Mistress of Sacrifice will greatly boost your SRS cast speed.

You can do Cruel and Merciless Labyrinths when you feel you have enough single target damage from your zombies e.g. after level 75 and pick Soul Weaver to win the game. For Uber Lab, I recommend you have at least a 5-link Femurs and high Curse Effectiveness for Temporal Chains and Enfeeble.


Enchantments
Spoiler
Boots
- Regenerate % of Life and Mana per second if you were Hit Recently
- % increased Movement Speed if you haven't been Hit Recently
- % chance to Dodge Spell Damage if you've taken Spell Damage Recently
- % chance to Avoid being Stunned if you've Killed Recently
I went with Life and Mana regen

Gloves
I'm not familiar with the Glove enchantments because I never bothered to try them out and there isn't good options for Summoners in general.
- Cast Decree of the Grave when your skills or minions kill

Helmet
Priotize what you like and be happy what you end up getting:)
- % increased Temporal Chains Curse Effect
- % increased Enfeeble Curse Effect
- % increased Convocation Cooldown Recovery Speed
- Flesh Offering grants an additional % increased Attack Speed
- Bone Offering grants an additional +% Block Chance
- Zombies deal % increased Damage
- +% to Raised Zombie Elemental Resistances
- Zombies have % increased Attack Speed
- % increased Flesh Offering Duration
- % increased Bone Offering Duration
- Desecrate summons additional corpses
- Spectres have % increased Attack and Cast Speed
There's bunch more but I went with the following:
Last edited by Miger on Mar 19, 2017, 10:29:02 AM
Last bumped on Mar 7, 2017, 11:19:54 PM
Hey, you're the current #3 Overall (#1 Alive) Necromancer.


Mind posting a video if possible?
IGN: BBQ_Ribs
Last edited by Alpralozam on Sep 28, 2016, 5:49:05 AM
Hi, we just hit our first level 95 char and are still alive and kicking and trying to push the ladder. We just recently did our first tier 13 maps and downed our first Abaxoth in Wasteland as well. Had to change Bloodlust for Added Minion Life but we managed although it was a bit slow (temporal chains) at times.

I can look into doing some tough maps and posting videos after the race has ended.

Let me know in the comments if you have something you want to see specifically.
My game just crashed and I lost my beautiful spectres. Apparently 2-3 days of mapping is the limit for the game to crash if you don't restart your client (8GB memory). And who self-respecting summoner would voluntarily kill their friends?

Here's a quick trial on recording (Windows 10 DVR) while I'm making some new friends in Dried Lake.

Can you feel my pain? https://youtu.be/sTPq_wUqCq8

Added a bunch of videos. We made it to level 96 but lost the ladder. See me encounter some of the red maps for the first time, followed by a touch of god and some Atziri action. Unfortunately the recording for the Über fight was lost to the abyss but you can follow the transcript in the video.
Added a more detailed leveling guide with a few boss videos until we kill Cruel Malachai and are ready to equip Vis Mortis and Femurs of the Saints. I will play as Horrormancer in the Prophecy league so let me know in the comments below or in game if you have any questions. I will look into getting end game enchantments, finalizing the loot filter for leveling and end game and pushing for 100.

4L Femurs of the Saints vs. Cruel Malachai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzCNH9zzoEg&t=2m50s
Last edited by Miger on May 22, 2016, 1:33:23 PM
Updated for 2.3. We did our first End game Labyrinth (75) in Prophecy HC, added a video of the Uber Izaro kill. https://youtu.be/5RC26bRZNOM

Updated Ascendancy choices, now with 8 Ascendancy points. Added also information about what enchantments you should aim for as we did a bit of lab farming as well.
I like the concept but the choice of using femur of the saints gimps your build. It wouldn't be AS bad if you ran 6l specters. The 100% increased damage from the ascendancy doesn't even come close to making up for the 2 potential %more damage multipliers you lose from 2 gem slots. Your specters could be doing literally double damage EACH specter. That's almost a 400% increase in clear speed for no tradeoff.

Also you aren't running any aura supports. Combined with the ascendancy node that gives damage, resists, and attack/cast speed per aura which is another reason your damage is so low. I mean I guess you're doing hc which is why you run Temp chains enfeeble, but do you really need that much? From watching your videos you're hardly in range for blasphemy to do anything because you just sit offscreen and your ic setup doesnt do much either.

I guess this is a case of better safe than sorry? There is a saying Though that what's dead can't kill you. Specters could easily be one shotting even t15 maps with all the buffs we've gotten over the last couple patches.

Iono not trying rip your build or anything.
Hi, thanks for the feedback.

It's more of a safe choice both for me and my character. In HC, Temporal Chains and Enfeeble is most of my defense as we're not stacking any major defenses other wise. Ranged can be a problem which is why you should be hugging Izaro and other high damage dealing enemies to make sure they are in range of your Blasphemy.

As for some of the choices, some of it is due to budget and some of it is for me getting old:) Too much of clear speed and I'll have a head ache due to the screen tearing, etc. and running any other spectres/skills pretty much the same (too much flashy effects on the screen). Using SRS hurts my hands which is why we opt for a build where you can play with one hand if needed that still clears on my own pace.

Couple of leagues ago I tried 5-6linking my Vis Mortis but the issue was getting the right colors as you need a lot of green for Knitted Horrors so I gave up on the idea. We could get a Kintsugi or Cospri's Will and have better luck getting the right colors. For me the 4-link damage is enough in most cases especially if you have high level spectres. I think the spectre AI plays a bigger part in clear speed e.g. are the spectres still in the previous room or how fast they trigger their projectile attacks rather than what their damage actually is. Which is why now I have the 30% cooldown recovery for Convocation and will have to test it out whether it makes a difference.

Sure, we can run with Hatred/Haste or with something else, but for me it's still learning how the red maps play out as I was doing them for the first time in the videos.

If Femurs of the Saints is a bad choice, can you recommend an alternative weapon to use?

Edit: Added video for Pale Council https://youtu.be/bleIjTnMvMA
My Ping/Performance is not sufficient for high clear speed and ultimately you just end up dying anyways. We did manage to get the 1000 kill challenge though on a Sea Witches map.
https://youtu.be/vLnB4iN3Cfk
Last edited by Miger on Jun 8, 2016, 1:29:30 PM
It depends on what you're looking for really. Clayshaper is a popular weapon for obvious reasons. Aurumvorax has been a staple for Summoners as we sometimes have issues capping our resists. If you want to go a low life build with shavs, midnight bargain is an option.

As for shields my #1 would be victarios charity. It isn't the best in terms of surviva ility but the stats are very good. Since frenzy charges are granted on hit you don't have to run necrosis aegis if you don't want to, just cast ball light with curse on hit or something. It gives chaos res increased aura radius and decent life.
If you want survivability there is also Rath pith and saffells frame or a rare shield if you want. If you opt for the low life spec, prism guardian is BiS.

Sire of shards + revenant specters is another 2 handed option.

There are probably more things I am forgetting about but yeah.

I think you're underestimating the dps you would gain from 2 more multipliers on specters. If it is good ai you want flame sentinels and undying incenerators have the best most aggressive ai in the game. Try 6 linking those things in your staff if you can afford it just to see what i mean.

specter + multiple traps + spell echo + controlled destruction + elemental focus + fire pen + minion damage. For sentinels you would swap traps for pierce or slower proj.

You did mention headaches so maybe all the fire explosions from incinerators wouldn't be the best though they are the highest damage specter in the game. You could try their brothers, the undying alchemist and do a chaos/ poison degeneration setup. It is much easier on the eyes and nearly just as strong.
Spectre + spell echo + cluster/multiple traps + void manipulation + controlled destruction + minion damage

Anyway my bad, I'm not here to tell you how to play the game. I understand the hardcore struggle. Cheers!

Last edited by boogboi on Jun 8, 2016, 2:06:13 PM

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