[Legacy] Sarah the Self-found Solo Summoner

Looking at my leaguestones to decide which to use next, I realized that I've outleveled the talisman ones that I currently have available - they only work in areas with monster level 24 and below. So I picked out beyond, rampage, and essence next. I'm not sure the first two will do a lot for a summoner, but you never know.

Into the Barracks, wiped the floor with the General (though he did kill a few zombies), and popped back to town to claim my Raise Spectre reward from Maramosa. As I suspected, there weren't enough monsters in that zone to get much use from the rampage or beyond leaguestones, but I did find the essence-locked monster and he dropped an anger essence.

I had better luck with the leaguestone bonuses in the Lunaris Temple - more enemies, closer together. Triggered minor rampage bonuses a couple of times, and saw a couple of sets of beyond monsters. None were particularly scary, although I wasn't a big fan of the slow area that showed up with one set. Orra Greengate made another brief appearance, and the horde mowed through all the uniques up to and including Piety.

Hit level 35 on my way through the temple. With that and the Piety reward points, took Mind Over Matter for a bit of extra defense then started west on the tree toward Herd the Flock/Puppet Master/Purity of Flesh (and eventually Sovereignty).

Quick jog through the Gardens and into the Library. Got my rampage meter all the way up to 50 at one point - when the beyond spawns trigger you can get a good run going. The essence-locked monsters were nasty in both the library and archives: an ancestral nemesis-mod giant skeleton, and a extra-cold-damage, extra-fast archivist. Found a Restricted Gallery corrupted area and cleared it, although if I see the same on Merciless I probably won't risk it. Ch'aska is really dangerous later on.

Made level 36, found the pages, and turned them in. Siosa's rewards were pretty terrible, but now I can buy Generosity and Item Rarity. Also picked up an Animate Guardian - not a greatly important minion but I'll use him as long as I have an extra slot. A little re-arranging of gear and I have Hatred-Generosity and Spell Totem-Skeletons-Culling Strike-Item Rarity hooked up. Eventually I'm planning to switch to using Arc and Elemental Equilibrium instead of the skeletons, but for now I still need them. The zombies aren't up to carrying the full tanking load by themselves just yet.

I'm finally starting to run short of leaguestones, which I suppose is what happens when you're using three a time. My last three at the moment are warbands, anarchy (rogue exile), and invasion (with mod for 2 extra magic packs). I figure I'll just keep using them for now, and if I run out it's not a big deal.

Sarah's trip to the Hedge Maze was eventful. In quick succession I found the Bolt Juggler, Ultima Thule, and a Redblade warband. Convocation is an MVP skill in the maze, pulling lost minions out of side passages and putting them to work on the bad guys. Solved the ascension trial, then found Vorici, who gave me the always-annoying-for-a-summoner mission to keep a target on low life. I found the guy, let the minions beat on him while I stayed as far away as possible, then as soon as the timer appeared, hit Convocation and ran like crazy. Worked this time! And then to top it all off, there was a Neglected Cellar corrupted area. Rima is another boss I don't mind on Normal but have no intention of facing when I get up to Merciless.

Apparently the RNG was listening when I complained about lack of leaguestones because I found two during that Hedge Maze run. One of those looks particularly interesting, nemesis mods with an extra mod for more rare spawns. Also ran by Fairgraves to turn in the plum, but the ring reward was terrible.

Onward to the Sceptre of God. Took out the Book Burner and a Mutewind warband in the lower levels, and then got Eoin Greyfur and Caliga in the same room. Fortunately Eoin was almost dead by the time Caliga aggroed. Hit level 37 then headed to the upper levels. Wilhelm Demontamer greeted me behind the first door, then found a strongbox that dropped items with 2 extra sockets. It dropped my first 6-socket item, but sadly it was a sword. Beat up another Redblade warband, then found Glassmaul and Paradisae in the same room and killed both with only a couple of zombies down.

At the top of the tower, the first couple of boss waves went down pretty quickly without much input from me. Just dropped a totem, cursed them, and then stayed out of the way and cast spirits while the horde went to work. Dominus hit hard enough to kill zombies, though, so I had to resummon them while on the run. Desecrate was helpful here, as there weren't always corpses handy. While Dominus was busy moving on to giant-goat form, I used the delay to resummon zombies, drop a totem, summon a bunch of spirits, make some corpses and cast Flesh Offering. With all that waiting for him, he lasted all of about 3 seconds. No great drops, but I did find a slightly better pair of boots (hooray, movement speed).

The first half of the Aqueduct was uneventful, but it got more interesting at the end. First there was a Brinerot warband, then the Hundred-Foot Shadow with a Chronophage nemesis rare nearby. Cleared that and hit level 38, picking up Herd the Flock. Next I found an essence-locked rare, and right after I freed it, Wonderwalker wandered in from just off-screen. Then in the Dried Lake, fought Jonah Unchained, Droolscar, Nightwane, and Voll in quick succession, getting level 39 along the way. Voll hit Sarah once with a charge that I didn't dodge fast enough, but it barely cleared her energy shield. After grabbing the banner and breaking the mine seal, picked up Chaos Golem from the quest reward.

Some complicated fights, but for the most part the minions had no trouble surviving. Which tells me that it's about time to drop Minion Instability, get Elemental Equilibrium, and switch from skeletotem to Arc totem. Used one respec point for that and switched gems. I also had to swap out my wand, which was adding cold damage to my spells - bad for EE when Arc does any non-lightning damage.

New leaguestones: warbands, nemesis mods, and strongboxes. On the first mine level, fought a Redblade warband as well as both Torr Olgosso (from Vorici) and Ulysses Morvant (from a strongbox). In level 2, found a box that dropped a six-socket ringmail, and was lucky enough to roll it into something useful with an anger essence. Linked 4 and 2, with fire and cold resists plus life. Fought yet another Redblade warband, and took down Voidscream and Hammerstorm with no problems. With the passive point from freeing Desheret, picked up Puppet Master. Up to seven zombies now.

Rude greeting in the Crystal Veins, with a Mutewind warband plus two nemesis-mod rares all crowded into a small intersection. The minions did fine but that would have been dangerous on higher difficulties. Beat up the Burning Man - Convocation saved the zombies from his death explosion - and opened a couple of unremarkable strongboxes on my way to the waypoint. Made level 40 on the way.

Now seems like a good time to backtrack and run through the Labyrinth, since I'd like as much advantage as possible for the Kaom/Daresso fights coming up. I suppose I should have gone sooner, but in my limited prior experience, the final boss fight is much more dangerous than the zone level (33) indicates. Shouldn't be a problem with Sarah at 40, though, barring some major bad luck.

Look, some major bad luck! Sarah died to one of those floor-wheel bleeding things, which I accidentally ran into and couldn't get away from fast enough. Chewed through 1100 life (plus whatever the flasks I hit gave me) in just a couple of seconds.

Not a lot of detail needed on these low levels, since I pretty much did exactly the same things as before. It went a bit faster since I could make use of some items that my other SSF characters left in the stash. Particularly useful, low level boots with move speed! A few notable happenings along the way:

- Found a Crown of Thorns in the Mud Flats. Pain Attunement in hardcore, how useful.
- Somehow I'd overlooked Flame Dash on Sarah's previous incarnations, but I've equipped it now. Just using it to get over random terrain hurdles.
- I had equipped an invasion leaguestone when entering the Western Forest, and found Granitecrush. Even in Normal, he's a real problem for summoners with the combination of high life and discharge AoE. Very glad that I had the skeletotem to keep him away from Sarah, because he just decimated the zombies.
- Found my favorite low-level leaguestone thus far in Act 2: Thief's Nemesis Leaguestone of the Prism. Nemesis rares, gain one of their abilities after they die, chance for a rare prismatic ring drop. Ended up with a half-dozen prismatic rings, though most were pretty bad even considering the low level.
- A pair of Deerstalker unique boots dropped in the pyramid, and then the Oversoul dropped a Coated Shrapnel unique jewel. Nice if I ever decide to level a trapper.
- Found another stone circle in the Warehouses, at level 29. You can bet I was careful about what talismans I used this time! Max item level 28.

I'm now more or less back to where I was on Sarah I. Just a few more levels, and Dominus left to fight.

The horde tore through the Sceptre of God fairly easily, though I did make it a little easier on them by swapping out an Onslaught leaguestone before entering the Upper Sceptre. Figured Dominus and his minions didn't need any help. Picked up the Herd the Flock node on the passive tree along the way.

After traveling the Aqueduct to open up Highgate, I decided it was time to take care of the Labyrinth. Having learned my lesson from Sarah I, I was extra careful around the traps, especially those spiked Roombas. Still had some bad moments when Sarah seemed intent on moving anywhere except where I was pointing her, but in the end she made it through.

I chose the Necromancer ascendancy class, of course. I decided to start with Mistress of Darkness because I really like having the Flesh Offering effect, and at least for now my resistances are all right so I don't mind delaying Commander of Darkness. The only downside is that I tend to run short of mana when chain-casting spirits while under the increased cast speed effect, but that problem will solve itself as I upgrade gear and pick up more Intelligence nodes.

In the Dried Lake, Sarah hit level 39 and picked up Puppet Master. She now has seven zombies and they pretty much never fall down. Even when Voll charged at them and did his slam attack (with an Onslaught leaguestone bonus, even), they just kept on chugging. That tells me that the skeletotem has served its purpose as a tanker, as the zombies (and Stone Golem just obtained from the quest reward) can pick up that role.

So, respec time, dropping Minion Instability and picking up Elemental Equilibrium. Out with the skeletotem and in with the Arc totem. In case anyone not familiar with this setup is reading this, the core concept here is to use the elemental resist lowering of Elemental Equilibrium to multiply minion damage. Drop a totem, which casts Arc to hit all the bad guys with lightning damage, lowering their fire/cold resists. The horde then proceeds to hammer them with fire (Raging Spirits) and cold (Hatred aura). It works because the minion damage doesn't trigger the resist reset effect of Elemental Equilibrium. I also use Culling Strike + Item Rarity on the Arc totem, so that it has a good chance to get the killing blow on big monsters and get better drops.

Got to level 40 going through the mines, and also found a 5-socket/4-link cabalist regalia which rolled up nicely with a +life mod essence. Best I'm going to do until I manage to find a 6-socket/4-link chest armor. I suppose now is a good time to summarize current character status. Gear:

And here's the passive tree. On several of those gear pieces, I've not yet used my master upgrade, so I have some room to add extra resists or life or whatever when I feel the need. You might note the lack of a Desecreate gem there - it's on my weapon switch since I'm only using it when summoning immediately after login (or in theory a minion wipe, which hasn't happened in a good long while).

Invaded Kaom's mind with great success. Don't think I lost a minion the whole way (other than spectres, which are still fairly weak), although the fire trees came close to killing one. Ran into rogue exiles along the way thanks to an anarchy leaguestone, but they were no threat. In one case I didn't even realize the exile was there until the item explosion. Got to level 41 on the way and started in on the life nodes headed to Purity of Flesh. Kaom himself jumped on Sarah a couple of times before croaking, but didn't even breach her ES.

Heading into Daresso's side of the dreams, I took a look at my leaguestones and saw ones for a breach, beyond monsters, and a shrine. That's a *lot* of spawn potential combined with everything already in the pit and arena, but I've got plenty of horde, so in they went. And it worked out just fine, with the minions murdering spawns by the dozen and Sarah rarely even getting hit. Found a Meginord's Girdle from one of the bull rares, which is a nice gear improvement. Got level 42 and knocked out an invading Tailslinger (via prophecy) along the way, too. The triplets and Daresso actually did some damage to Sarah, but the horde took them out quickly enough to avoid any serious danger.

Pretty much the same story through the belly of the beast. The Bone Queen and Piety went down almost as quickly as the normal monsters. It's nice being able to revive a Stygian Revenant for artillery support now, even if it does occasionally make some annoying noises.

Time for some reworking of gear and gem links. Switched to a helm with life/mana/lightning resist (more important than the +1 to minion gems for the moment) which also has the right colors/links for Summon Zombie-Faster Attacks-Fortify-Multistrike. For some extra defense, added a Cast When Damage Taken-Immortal Call-Tempest Shield link. Switched gloves as well. To make room, my Lesser Multiple Projectiles and Summon Guardian gems had to be sacrificed. Once I get some more slots via unset rings and/or a sixth chest slot, they can come back.