SpectreMancer - A Summoner Build Guide [With Video]
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Greetings all, VoidMoon here again to provide my new favorite build that I have dubbed "SpectreMancer"
SpectreMancer is a high damage and high survivability witch build that utilizes the destructive abilities of multiple spectres and the damage absorption of many zombies and skeletons. This build is very easy to play solo, and clears faster than most other builds past level 40. It is easy for new players to play, and entertaining enough to keep veterans hooked. SpectreMancer is the best magic find build in the game, and can be optimized for both party and solo play. Click Here for an in depth video guide to this build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFOKuUMfTZE&feature=youtu.be This build was created in the new Anarchy league, and has proved itself extremely well. This build benefits from:
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*Extremely Fast clearing speed.
*High survivability due to pets. *It is an Excellent farming class thanks to the ability to stack item rarity or quantity in favor of other damaging stats *Has Easy play style, allowing for multiple mistakes without much repercussion. This build suffers from:
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*Being bad at low levels
*Reliance on getting spectres before starting *Screen Lag due to having Multiple fireballs and pets *This build is not wanted in groups. Most people will boot summoners or not allow them to join in the first place Playstyle
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The player approaches a pack of mobs and drops a skeleton totem nearby. While his minions damage the pack he will cast Flammability to increase his Flame Sentinel spectres' damage. To add additional dps the player will throw Flame Traps, and use Bear Traps against elites and bosses.
The player utilizes a Vitality aura to regenerate health to his minions, and a purity aura to offset the difficulty in achieving capped resists due to the inability to use a shield. Gear
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Only a few items are needed to make the SpectreMancer build work perfectly.
Queens decree is used for an additional spectre, as well as increased minion life and damage. Equipping this sword has a detrimental effect of not allowing the player to use a shield, hindering the ease of maxing resists in later difficulties. Although the price is usually steep, this sword is a large asset to the build, and should not be overlooked. A Sidhebreath Paua Amulet is used to increase Minion damage and life, and usually comes at a cheap price. Bones of Ullr Increase the maximum number of spectres able to be summoned, and thus are critical to the build. The price is usually not too high, and there are plenty on the market, even on the new anarchy server. With these 3 pieces acquired, the rest of your gear should include as many resists as possible, in addition to high hp. At high gear levels the player may acquire large amounts of item rarity if running in a group, or high amounts of item quantity if running solo. The ability to choose all item rarity or item quantity in favor of any damage based stat points on gear makes the SpectreMancer a top choice build for farming both items and currency. Gems
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The bread and butter of a SpectreMancer build are zombies, skeletons, and of course specters. Skeletons take a long time to summon, and do minimal damage. They are used mainly to soak up damage and thus are tied to a spell totem with faster casting to make sure they are up at all times. If a four link is available I suggest addinga blind gem to your skeleton totem to allow your minions to blind your enemies.
Raise zombie is used mainly for damage absorption but these pets can deal substantial damage given the right circumstances. They may be tied to minion life, minion damage, and a variety of other gem types. The raise spectre gem will be linked to two different gems depending on your minion. If using a flame sentinel the player will be using Added Minion Damage, Greater Multiple Projectiles, and Lifeleech. Lifeleech is a necessity and should be acquired before minion damage. It greatly improves the survivability of your spectres, and allows them to very rarely die. If a 5th socket is available, concentrated effect greatly increases the dps of the fireballs. If the player is using Voidbearers Increased Minion Damage will be replaced with Added Chaos damage. If a 5th socket is available, Faster Casting willbe used to increase both the speed and range of the minion's attacks. Vitality and purity should be linked to a reduced mana gem, greatly reducing the reserved mana taken by these auras. Vitality is used to regenerate hp to your spectres, and purity is used to offset the difficulty of obtaining resists due to the inability to use a shield. Bear trap will be linked to added fire damage and culling strike, giving it the maximum dps attainable for the gem. Fire trap can be linked to either concentrated effect or increased area of effect depending on the player's preference as well as an increased burning damage gem. Flammability is used to increased both of your pet's damage and to get through fire resistant enemies' resists. This should be linked with increased area of effect to maximize its utility Passives
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If you have any questions please feel free to ask here, my youtube channel, or ask me live on Twitch. I broadcast every day from 4:00 PM PDT (GMT -7) until around 12:00 AM. www.Twitch.Tv/Void_Moon In game name (Anarchy Server) - VoidMoons Last edited by VoidMoon on Jun 13, 2013, 7:33:18 AM
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Queens decree isn't worth it imo. Work towards getting a midnight bargain so you can use a shield. Otherwise you can dual wield midnight bargains for +2 to spectres, and then run pain attunement, using ES for survivability.
Also not using remote mine on spectres is pretty fail. Its additive! My Shop: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1338089 Last edited by conall88 on Jun 13, 2013, 9:53:59 AM
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" how exactly does remote mine work on summons? what would your links for spectre zombie and skele? also do you focus on ES armour with +life or try to get armour Last edited by ChickenNuggetsQT on Jun 13, 2013, 11:28:34 AM
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Hello I am new to witch class.
Havent seen build where a summoner does not get minion instability Since you are 1pt away from MI why is it not worth it? Last edited by oreo1981 on Jun 13, 2013, 11:24:10 AM
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" Oh the irony... (psst, the word you're looking for is 'multiplicative') @oreo1981: MI causes all your minions to blow at ~33% HP, which basically means you lose one-third of your minion's HP. If your goal is to keep Spectres alive and you only want to use Zombies as meatshields, skipping MI will keep your minions tanky. @Cooldoggie: Remote Mine will cause Summon Zombie to set mines. When you detonate these mines, they target nearby corpses with the Raise Zombie spell. The end result is a Zombie with a MORE damage multiplier from Remote Mine. Raise Spectre works the same way, but since you have no control over the targeting, you must clear out any nearby corpses you don't want to raise. Last edited by Hercanic on Jun 13, 2013, 11:54:28 AM
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" I would advise to take it at low level, it helps a lot. VoidMoon probably don t need it though, as most of his damage comes from specter and they are not suppose to die. If you want to optimise Minion instability, you have to add minion life gem to your zombies. In this build he focused himself on the specter. Anyway I would take minion instability to help in the low levels and maybe remove it later to save one skill point. | |
" This is correct. I don't use MI because this is a spectre build. Thus you don't want them exploding if they haven to get to 30% hp. I also WOULD take MI until you get 3 spectres. | |
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I have a lot of experience with summoner builds and there are several points that seem questionable. Your gimping yourself by not exploiting certain mechanics...
No dual cursing? No shock Stats? Why you grab the minion hp nodes over the minions nodes on top of lord of the dead that also gives 15% additive. 15% may not seem like a lot but its quite significant with multipliers. You choose to connect the two sides of the witch area using 6 nodes instead of bridging the gap at the bottom with 3 nodes? Why? " False. Spectre will die to extreme damage spikes regardless if you have MI or not. (Maybe not too much a problem after mob dmg nerf) " I tested both extensively, they are both subpar. 3 spectre is enough via bones of ullr. Both uniques seems to trade too much for dps. Of course you can get away with using either if u don't mind dying once in a while. " Incredible pain in the ass. But its worth it if your patient and don't have a tendency to want to hulk smash your screen if you miss your mine. Necronomicon: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1617098 Build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/409940 Summoner Dischord: https://discord.gg/XwWdSUa Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/zhoukon Last edited by mattc3303 on Jun 13, 2013, 5:08:29 PM
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" If I was thinking END game here I would be dual weilding midnight baragains with a Shavronne's. But seeing how that would completely change the build, that is for another post :) | |
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In addition to the points Matt raised above, not taking elemental equilibrium in a spectre DPS build is suboptimal. For a 2 point spend, you can keep mobs -50% to fire (assuming you are using spectres that deal fire damage), which applies even to curse immune mobs and stacks with any additional resist reductions from your curse(s).
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