[2.0]Rathik's NEWBIE FRIENDLY FUN&CHEAP FARMER, DPS Summoner. High AOE DMG, SURVIVAL."The Matriarch"

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yesmur wrote:

Alright, thank you for the replies btw! I didn't want to make the wrong choices here. I'm really going for high IIQ/IIR Soooooooo ES It is!

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yesmur wrote:

Will do. Should I just settled for a 5link chest and make sure my gear stays even? Or should I really invest in a 6 link and try to make the rest work.

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Pathological wrote:

I'd just like to add a thanks for the guide, in particular the suggestions for leveling path in terms of survival stats first > summoner points later. I leveled up my first summoner following essentially the same idea, but hammed it through and ended up with TONNES of summoner nodes as well as multi-curse by 60s, but very little personal survival in Nemesis. I made it to 61, but there were some VERY harrowing sections where the summons just don't have the survivability and I ended up often kiting around like crazy trying not to die as I madly summoned skele totems to kill stuff with explosions.

That summoner died to a disconnect at 61, so a few weeks later I have started again (sidhebreath and bones of ullr dropped, it was a sign). Just as a heads up for anyone who doesn't have the income to support the powerleveling gear suggested in your guide (it's very hard to get the important bits as a fresh starter in a new league), spectral throw is an extraordinarily cheap option for leveling very safely. Buy a couple of 2hand weapons at a couple of key points and you will easily one-shot any blue or less with a single throw.

For me, since I had no currency at all when I started, I bought a limbsplit to use from 12 for an alch, then a random 2hand axe with good dps from 18, and that axe easily got me to ~42 with very little dps issues. Assuming you go hell for leather to life nodes first, then start taking close-by summoner nodes, your summons can start being very effective pretty much as soon as you get access to the shield/explosion evangelists in sceptre of god. I am still using spectral throw along-side my summons, everything melts with no more than 3 or 4 chaos worth of gear at 42, besides what I've self-found.

The latest life video looks incredibly fun and I can't wait to get there. One question I have is how do the zombies take absolutely no damage? I understand their health pools are incredibly high but you barely ever have to replace them and I can't work out any way their health is regenerating... does the discipline do that good a job of keeping them up?

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Rathik2 wrote:

Its all comes down to cast rotation. I cast raise zombie even when they are eight of them up.

Example
I cast chains and vulnerability then drop a skeleton totem then cast EK to direct them.
After that you pretty much are waiting for monsters to die. I take that time and raise 1-2 zombies. This way I have some of them at full health in case something goes wrong.
If you can have 4 zombies at full health and 4 ready to explode then you are taking advantage of minion instability with out loosing your entire army at once.

Don't wait until you loose all your zombies to start raising them.

Every summoner should put Raise zombie in there cast rotation.

Zombies are meant to die and raised. Its way more efficient than to try to keep them alive with potions, vitality aura, rejuvenation totem. Minion instability goes to waste then.

Also take a look at this topic I just made.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/657863

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Pathological wrote:

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Rathik2 wrote:

Its all comes down to cast rotation. I cast raise zombie even when they are eight of them up.

Example
I cast chains and vulnerability then drop a skeleton totem then cast EK to direct them.
After that you pretty much are waiting for monsters to die. I take that time and raise 1-2 zombies. This way I have some of them at full health in case something goes wrong.
If you can have 4 zombies at full health and 4 ready to explode then you are taking advantage of minion instability with out loosing your entire army at once.

Don't wait until you loose all your zombies to start raising them.

Every summoner should put Raise zombie in there cast rotation.

Zombies are meant to die and raised. Its way more efficient than to try to keep them alive with potions, vitality aura, rejuvenation totem. Minion instability goes to waste then.

Also take a look at this topic I just made.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/657863

Ok, that makes sense. I guess it's hard to notice in the video when you are summoning new zombies with 8 already up, but now that you've said it, it's obvious. I guess this is easier to maintain later down the track with better gear - right now, zombies in a 4 link cost me about 160 mana out of a ~220 mana pool while running vitality/purity at 42, and my mana regen simply doesn't keep up with zombies.

Also, at my level it seems to be pretty much all or nothing - the zombies are either on full health because nothing can hurt them, or they instantly explode because I walked into a room of evangelists and they all die at once. I guess it's just a level/spec thing at this point.

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ev00lution wrote:

Using your guide to great success so far. I am using the life build on domination :D

How much dps do you get out of the etheral knives in this build? I am still only level 65 with bad gear, but i never seem to use ek, even though i have it in my gear. Could it perhaps be replaced with something else?