[3.6] Zombiemancer - High Survivability - End Game Viable

My zombies got smashed by Piety in a T13 Malformation map. Her beam almost one shots them. Is an empower level 4 a must have? I'm running a 5l and that's the only gem I'm not using.

I dont know your current build, your zombie stats and the mods of that T13 map.
But yes, i would say an Empower is a must have link, a level 3 one at least. It adds both a good amount of damage and survivability to the zombies.
Core links are Zombie + Empower + Minion Damage + Phys Damage. Then Minion Speed if you value clear speed and last a Ruthless, Multistrike, Accuracy or Maim.

Could an item like this work for the build or is it not worth it?

in a pure life version sure, but this build is leveraging the interactions of a few unique items to generate a larger than normal hitpoint pool.

and for that you need geopheries

Love the build but maybe I'm just doing something wrong.

I'm a bit tilted I will admit I've tried the Shaper twice now and even with all the proper gems my max geared animate guardian dies half way during the encounter...I'm starting to feel at least with some minion based builds some are just not cut out for end game encounters which makes me wish GGG would add some sort of minion avoidance stat that makes minions take reduced damage from boss encounters.

As someone that use to play World of Warcraft back in the day playing warlock demonology builds before Blizzard added minion avoidance having to resummon your felguard 3 times during a fight because it died to a random cleave crit just made pet based builds pretty much non-viable until something was done.

I personally had no problem with keeping the guardian alive when i did shaper. and it even was with the Minion Life jewel last league, which got a huge buff this league.
You say "max geared", so i assume he uses Meginord's and Ambu's.
Maybe it is your empower being level 2 instead of 3, This would add about 6k life.

And yea, it is a struggle to keep some minions alive during endgame bosses. Golems have the stacking life regen jewels for that. Zombies need to usually rely on bone offering and United in Dream.
I also tried the life leech gem, but that still wasnt enough leech for his beam. Resummoning them seems to be the best option.
How did your zombies do during that fight?

"

Clooney_is_best_Batman wrote:

I personally had no problem with keeping the guardian alive when i did shaper. and it even was with the Minion Life jewel last league, which got a huge buff this league.
You say "max geared", so i assume he uses Meginord's and Ambu's.
Maybe it is your empower being level 2 instead of 3, This would add about 6k life.

And yea, it is a struggle to keep some minions alive during endgame bosses. Golems have the stacking life regen jewels for that. Zombies need to usually rely on bone offering and United in Dream.
I also tried the life leech gem, but that still wasnt enough leech for his beam. Resummoning them seems to be the best option.
How did your zombies do during that fight?

For the most part, my zombies actually felt more resilient than my animate guardian. Sure a few died from some of the Shaper's key abilities specifically the orbs he shoots out,but I am able to quickly re summon them. But the AI on my animate guardian has been wonky he just stands in the shaper's beam the whole duration of the spell multiple times.

Hm, that's a bit strange that they feel tankier than the guardian. He has double the life and over 3 times the life regen, even more when he got hit.
Is it just because of his AI like you described? You could use a high level convocation for the fight, so you can manually reposition him whenever he's in a bad spot.

if the guardian gets into too many of shapers mechancis during the later stages of the fight nothing will keep it alive.

either manually control where it goes with convo or just drop it. with exception to burn minions guardians have never had a massive impact .. they have always just been some extra minion damage and some curse effect but we are at a point in the game where curses already do too much to trash and never do enough vs bosses due to curse reduction multipliers and 33% minion damage is trivial .

I just wanted to say a huge "Thank You!" for this build. I am a complete noob (Started Jan 30th, 2018) and I wreck everything in T6 without Geofri's and The Baron. In fact, level 1 to 76 was a breeze and super fun.

I have 1 question though. Should Shield Charge be level 1 or 8 like your guide?