Guide: The Ultimate Pure CI Summoner (UP: 13.April 2013)

Just wanted to say thanks for the guide. I tried summoner using the HP vs shield method prior to this and was not to happy with it. I had some nice shield pieces so this is working out good so far.

Some notes...

Im 35 now. Had to add a dex and str node early on for some of my gems. I have 6 zombies out right now. 1 spec and a pack of skellies on a totem with first hit on melee linked.

I have been using nova a lot more than pulse. I have it linked to Flee and added cold damage. This works excellent and allows me to walk into large zerg groups. mobs that are fleeing are easy targets for the pack. Frozen and fleeing mobs are no threat.

I use my skellies for something I call walking the dogs. I throw the totem out far in front of me as I walk. I see it go off I know I have mobs. In I go. Lets you waltze in without getting targeted.

I use firestorm for long range. The cold susceptibility curse and rejuve totem at times.

Most of this will change in the future as the pack gets stronger.

Nightstone

You could also add to the spectre list:

- Burning Miscreation, Lunaris Temple lvl 2,3 - durable with decent HP have incredibly strong AOE DPS aura, support with increased area of effect + fire pen / culling strike to ensure they always get a guaranteed last hit
- Explosive arrow archers, Act 2, Broken Bridge (kraitin's sniper or something) Explosive arrow, a couple of volleys from them literally clears out screen instantly, however they do not fire Explosive arrow all that frequently
- Snakes with Incinerate (act 2, dark forest), relatively squishy, but with LMP/GMP their incinerate is as good if not better than the voidbears', they are also extremely fast

Just a quick update. I'm in merciless now. All going good. I took a minor detour though. I went attack less and got the dual totem skill. I was real close to it and figured I would give it a go. So far so good.

I hook up spark on a totem chain and its pure chaos lol. Skellies, zombies, specs and the sparks are a flying. Pandemonium.

One big plus now. I can concentrate on not getting targeted and cursing. I don't get much agro now.

It's more like army commander now. I like it.

Oh... The specs are bad @$$ but I still like the skellies best. Nothing pulls agro better. My little buddies.

Nightstone

Hi,

Have you considered trying Elemental Equilibrium ? I never saw it in any minion build guide, so maybe I'm missing something, but for only 1 point invested and with Freezing pulse + GMP + Faster projectiles, it's a -50% fire resist for your spectres to do even more insane damage.
As minions don't trigger the EQ debuff, a single Freezing pulse wave acts as a second Flamability.

And personally, I like casting some spell because it makes minions more aggressive toward your target, which is pretty handy.

Oh and it's awesome for breaking pots too :p.

1) What about a second totem (with Ancestral Bond, or instead of the skeletons without it) that spams shock nova with elemental proliferation?
A high quality nova should have a high chance to proc shock, isn't it worth it?

2) Also, I'm still low level, but I see my army get ra... umm... killed fast against bosses and many elemental damage enemies, with such a meat army to protect me already, isn't it really worth it to boost the army defences and go for Necromantic Aegis?
I actually risk my life by far more when my army gets nullified rather than any other situations.
3) Is this only about me being low level, and with levels my minions will be a lot harder to kill? I see you didn't take even +20% minion life from passives, as the situation being I wouldn't think about it 1.1 times.

4) Minions don't take the block chances from shield, but only the armor/evasion/es + other bonuses right?
5) What about the passives that gives me +15% elemental resistance?
They get wasted, go to minion, or are still applied to me?
6) What about block chances? It says "bonuses from an equipped shield apply to your minions instead of you". It doesn't say I get shieldless, I can still block and benefit from + block chances from passives?

7) Why Firestorm? I don't think you have it for dealing damage, it has to be pretty bad even compared to freezing pulse + elemental equilibrium...

How do you run with more than 2 aura's? I'm running with Discipline and Clarity right now. Leaving me with about 280 mana. Not enough to cast Haste or Vitality.... I'm level 47 atm.

Using this guide, rough until around level 20 then it got tolerable. Once I hit level 31 with spell totem linked to skeletons it hit easy mode

Loving this build : XD

I have an end game Ranger that farms well so I was able to 'twink out'. Already running with SidheBreath and Bones Slippers,Perandus belt and borrowing the Andevarius off my ranger :D.

I'm also using a fire wand and a Flame Cloth Cloak (just because I wanted to say I'd used it for something) and backing up the Army of Darkness (which is already 7 zombos 8 skellies and 2 spectres strong at lvl 30) with Flammability curse and fire from the sky.

I have a Queens decree I was considering using, but I must agree with the OP - I have a good ES/mana regen spirit shield giving me much more bang for my buck and furthermore the Strength requirement on Queens Decree even with the Perandus Belt is a stretch when you're running full mf gear and I would really rather not waste passive points on picking up a +30 Str node just to enable one piece of gear.

If I was to run with a 2 hander I would strongly consider picking up a 5L Searing Touch staff as I just can't get enough of that firestorm spam, but sadly I understand I will need to stop with the scorched earth policy once I start running quantity and rarity gems as they don't proc on any DoT effects currently :(

"

Tr0j4n wrote:

How do you run with more than 2 aura's? I'm running with Discipline and Clarity right now. Leaving me with about 280 mana. Not enough to cast Haste or Vitality.... I'm level 47 atm.

Link your auras with a Reduced Mana gem, will reduce both percentage and flat-based auras.


To the poster that asked about a similar build, check this one:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/363655

Are there any updates to this build after 0.11.0 patch? Neferti? Anybody?