Pure Summoner Build

***UPDATED FOR OPEN BETA IN BOLD BELOW***

The summoner is one of my favorite archetypes in any RPG setting but few games have given me the satisfaction of being a true summoner and master of minions (D2 Skellymancer being the first). PoE has allowed me to tap into that distinct flavor.

When I say "pure" summoner I mean pure in the purest form. I took no talents that increase my spell power except for the first node off the starting point, which is unavoidable.

I just recently beat Merciless at level 59 with gear and gems I found myself and most of my gear is pretty bad, but have the gem combination and link combination I wanted. I did not focus on any one type of defense, but tried to get Eva/ES gear. Resists are not a factor. I solo'd the whole way.

I am almost positive I can beat merciless with white items and my current gem config and a few more points to spread into health passives. I might try this when open beta comes around.

Summoner is a very strong build and very fun if you like this kind of play style, which is slow and steady but dominating the mobs with shear numbers.

I would also like to mention that I did not die once in merciless and only died a few times prior because I rushed into rooms like a DA or went afk after changing zones thinking it was safe (it's not). Can't wait to try this build in HC in open beta.

I used the Witch of course because of how early you can get Minion Instability. I might try the same build with a Shadow in open beta as well but it will require more passive points to get where my witch is currently.

Here is the build:

Key Passives: Minion Instability, Hex Master, Eldritch Battery and Leadership.

***UPDATE NOTE***

The old build could not be viewed as it used an old skill tree build. Below is a rough copy of the build taking on the +minion skills, Eldritch Battery and Minion Instability.

Keep in mind I have not played very much since I built the last witch so I have not tested this build's viability but I assume it would work the same.

Other things to note, it is completely optional, as it was before, to pick up EB. You can go the CI direction just the same.

So here is the bare-bones build skill tree just for reference (for you and myself). If things do not seem to work, please let me know.



Here is the gear: I tried to use faster cast, max health and rarity items. I also upgraded a couple of pieces and in the process of upgrading others for more mana, but it wasn't a priority.

Key skills:

Summon Zombie (10) Summon Skeleton (19) (Zombie and Skelly are linked with Minion Speed and Minion Damage) Raise Specter (7) (linked with Lightning Damage, Increased Life and Increased Crit Damage)for a total of 36 minions at any given time.
Auras: Clarity (for myself) and Wrath + Anger both linked with Increased Area Effect.
Totems: Decoy (for initial minion build up time after zoning) and Firestorm on a Totem linked with Chaos Damage and Concentrated Effect.
Main Attack: Fireball with lesser multiple projectiles (used only for destroying crates, barrels etc...lol, I rarely ever used it)
Curse: Temporal Chains linked with Increased Area Effect I used Vulnerability for a long time but decided that I did not like monkeys and snakes all up in my grill. My build plan is to include Whispers of Doom eventually so I can use 2 curses.

Updated my gear, found some nice 30% move speed boots.



Here is a video of the game play, it's just me messing around in Waterfall Caves level 2 Merciless. I had some lag issues so it's several clips meshed together as I paused and un-paused Fraps but you can still see some lagginess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQk4_Kg-gUE

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to share my build with the masses and give hope to those of you who fear summoners are gimped by stupid minion AI.

Thanks for reading, leave some feedback!

It's the continuation of my first post with the questions about the summoner witch (here : http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/43883 ).

In fact, since it's my first time playing this kind of game, I kinda rushed the things that looked nice at the beginning, so that's why I took Minion instability really late, and that's also why I had such a hard time against Merveil the first time. But I think, if I run with more aura, those 3 modes mentionned by GoatEatingToilet allows me to take the leadership nod, which is quite good. With my low level non modified Discipline, i find that I have to stay reaaaaally close to my minions.

Btw, I saw somewhere, in an other Witch's build topic, an interesting comment considering the CI route : with only 1 hp, you can have no hp pot, so more mana pot, which can be quite good to spam. Also, maybe a totem support for the skeletons could be nice, even though I think you'll continue to spam them for the bosses.

About the specters, I think that in some areas, they're not quite useful as in others. In the jungle full of monkeys, they're quite useless, but I found that in the church dungeon or the other one with the spark users skeletons, they can be really useful. In fact, they add some dps, but they have to understand that their place is not in the melee...

I run with Increased dmg and increased life (since I only have that) on my Zombies, and increased dmg or health, forgot, on my skeletons. I saw that in your build Sickman, you run without increased health, so I was wondering why, since it gives your summon more survivability and dmg when they explode.

I have not tested the hexs yet, but I think it can be good. Though, if I don't go Eldritch Battery but CI for more survivability, it may be a bit too much sp to spend.

"

Nobuyoki wrote:

Sickman, you run without increased health, so I was wondering why, since it gives your summon more survivability and dmg when they explode.

If I had the item with enough gems linked I would use the increased health but I don't currently. I like the minion speed because it makes zombies super fast and the skeletons are way too slow for my taste without it. My zombies have 1600 HP with just the passives.

As for your discussion on CI vs EB I guess it's personal taste. I like the large mana pool (currently 1360) and I rarely take any damage unless I'm just not paying attention to where the mobs are. I never got hit with chaos damage that I can recall or if I did, it wasn't enough to warrant me wanting to be immune to it.

i got a couple questions regarding this build... ive always been a huge fan of summon necro in D2 so this seems right up my ally.... first question is what path did u go first for your talents? did u go directly to instability? or did you choose a couple of increased # of minions before acquiring that? and what type of stat priority do you use for gearing yourself?

Same as many that like the Summoner. I loved it in D2 and wanted to try it here. I was deciding which class to go with, but after reading the Witch seems the best choice.

You should do a video of your build man. It would help people out like myself that really want to see it in action.

Probably a stupid question, but what is your play style like? Do you play it like a Fishy from D2 where you stand back and let your minions kill everything? If so, what's the point of Minion Instability? Don't you want to keep your minions up at all times?

If your goal is to have them die and act like bombs, then how does that work for you later in the game?

"

bignyasty1 wrote:

first question is what path did u go first for your talents? did u go directly to instability? or did you choose a couple of increased # of minions before acquiring that? and what type of stat priority do you use for gearing yourself?

I went right for the instability node. My thought was that going that way would be the biggest damage boost I could give them early on and it worked like a charm. Right now, I look for high ES on my equipment. Once I make it to the end of Act 2 in Merciless, I will start to actively seek out completely linked pieces and go from there. As it is now, I don;t need that much ES cause of my minions anyway, but better safe than sorry right now.

"

imthedan wrote:

Probably a stupid question, but what is your play style like? Do you play it like a Fishy from D2 where you stand back and let your minions kill everything? If so, what's the point of Minion Instability? Don't you want to keep your minions up at all times?

If your goal is to have them die and act like bombs, then how does that work for you later in the game?

Personally, I guess I play like a Fishy. My minions pack quite a punch and the great thing about MI is that even if they are getting mauled, they get the final laugh with that huge explosion when they hit low life. It takes quite a few hits to make my Zombies explode and, even when there are no corpses to keep me knee deep in zombies, the Skeletons are up at all times because they are connected to a totem and you do not need a corpse to summon them, just the mana to do so.

Is there a curse like amp damage from D2? if not, any plans to add one? that would go a long way for us pure summoners, i'd think...

"

imthedan wrote:

Is there a curse like amp damage from D2? if not, any plans to add one? that would go a long way for us pure summoners, i'd think...

There are curses like that, yes.

- Vulnerability, which curses all targets in an area, making them take increased damage from physical attacks and degeneration, and easier to stun. The target's energy shield will regenerate more slowly.
- Temporal Chains, which curses all targets in an area, making time pass more slowly for them. They will move, attack and cast at a reduced speed, and effects on them will expire more slowly.

There are more curses than these two, but these closely match what you were curious about.

Which works best with a summoner build? I see the OP using temporal chains, but the other seems to resemble amp damage and would help kill faster.

I also forgot:

Elemental Weakness, which curses all targets in an area, making them less resistant to elemental damage and giving elemental damage a chance burn, freeze, or shock. (This works really well when adding an elemental damage type to your summons as well)

As far as what works best, well, it really depends on what direction you plan on going in. Even as a pure summoner, you will have more than enough left over skill points to invest is something else as well (even if only a little bit) once you select all of the minion nodes (there may be others, but way far away).

There are also minion damage, speed and life support gems to consider as well.