A few questions about Summoner build

Summonner build

The build's idea is to gets all of the bonuses for minions and to recast only minions and totems, no spells at all. The required lvl for the clicked passives is 60. For last points I picked up a lil' bit of the +energy shield and recovery passives.

Is this build viable?

Also it gets the +1 totem passive and the +1 courses passive.

What auras is good to be used on this kind of characters?

Q1: Does the totem has mana? Will it spam spells forever or it gets the characters mana and mana regen and after the mana is depleted it waits for mana recovery?

Q2: How much life and dmg does the skeletons/zombies have/do? I do not see numbers anywhere, neither hardcore numbers like 10-20 neither something like 40% of the character's DMG.

Q3: What is good combo for the support gem that makes totem? I experimented with that frost wall and it's pretty good, it casts the wall again and again and pushes away the mobs, pretty good at doors you stand at the door to block and the totem pushes them back with the wall.

Q4: Is there a unique that grants +1 max totems? I saw that there is a ring for +1 curses. How many and which are the uniques that gives +1zombies/skeletons and +totems, if there are +totems.

Q5: Necromatic Aegis - which gives the shield bonuses to the minions, not to the character itself. What shield is good for this passive?

Q6: Does Conduit share the Frenzy and Endurance charges with the minions aswell? If yes it will be a good idea to place 1 point there and use frenzy and endurance call every few seconds to buff the minions.

Bump?

I attempted to build this same character over the weekend and it's not too bad, I stayed in hard core for fourteen levels, but I put the concept down shortly after getting skeletons.

Skeletons are very short lived spawns, they only last about thirty seconds, so you find yourself casting them constantly at the start of a battle rather than throwing down a curse or an A.O.E.

They didn't seem to do enough DPS to be really viable early on, and even if I got a totem support gem there are posts suggesting that the combination is bugged and skeletons summoned by such a gem seldom have time to actually attack before they are banished to make room for new minions.

The specter also has been limited to only having at most two minions out at a time. From reading the forums these should be ranged minions, and they need to be summoned using a corpse so in boss fights you need to defend your good minions while spamming skeletons and feeling like you'd be better off with some sort of ranged damage.

That is where I left off. It has been a viable build but it feels weak at all points, and needs a lot of points invested to make the zombies really worthwhile. Plus your constantly summoning zombies and skeletons.

At least early on these guys don't last long. They simply don't have the smarts not to stand in fire patches, and they aren't supper buff to withstand all of that damage. It also seems like the only way to heal your zombies is to summon an entirely new batch though I think support gems will help with this once I get to act 2.

I'm considering modifying the build to get more durability and also focusing more on auras and expanding areas of effect so more of my minions will remain in range of my auras longer. I'm also considering changing my base attack over to power siphon, perhaps with the multiple projectiles support if that works with wands.

My aim is to get rid of needing spell support altogether, but right now the minions are balanced around curses or spells like firestorm which was my low level "filler". So I'm hoping the auras help the minions to live longer and be more worthwhile as a summons, I'm also hoping that by using conduit I can share power charges with my minions and again make those skeletons a more powerful "secondary" attack skill, rather than just a weaker form of sparks.

I guess I learned a lot, and my new concepts are more of an auramancer-necromancer, than a pure summoner of stuff.

I play summoner with firestorm, I did like necro in D2 so I tried this after last patch.

Currently lev 37 with 5 zombies 8 skeletons with minion life and damage. Also discipline to give them some ES and Necromancer Aegis for defence and resist (kite shield with 16% resist all). Last passive is a must, gives them a lot more survivalibility. Minion instability - 5 zombies with 450 life each and 8 skeletons with 250 life exploding around boss will kill it easily.
Currently looking for 4L item to add minion speed to zombies and skeletons.

My build and facerolling cruel
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQMBBybKlgvqr3MNMSecD2ZMTBNrI74X7xjeIXnaeievXwMy6rnsP55fTUJM1rxGr_7zSUc4nE0zvqtmEqjuZ-ky1HcAFgl6ccf8i2a2EpBpUyWWHGVqoQiZv6NZqk2pvwdirXb3LrBJfaK49ymjuWOOxb0hu1a9-6lxwL_LyMKFOfrIOTABy0EdEc3KZmPZCR3Z4jL7deL2Bz3t17l49Tm6j_rjGZP9mG3T

I will get more minion passives and some mana nodes, Clarity and Discipline takes a lot. I have enough mana regeneration to spam skeletons (60 mana each) and firestorm though.

Brutus and Merviel were piece of cake, didn't even touch me.

For me it's fun. Safest way ever to play, died only once due to my own stupidity.

Small update - my zombies just killed Weaver in 20sec :).

Thx for the replies.
Please who can answer my questions 1-5 from 1st post.

Also now on global chat I saw someone saying that he would be happy to have Marohi Erqui - the unique hammer with 350+ - 550+ dmg, can be found here - http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/12056 , to cast his auras for his minions.

So this works? To use swapped weapon the hammer - cast, for example, Wrath - which gives 20+% of phis dmg as cold, then switch back to wand and shield and you will have Wrath with ALOT of dmg?
Is this tested?

You don't need totems to be a pure summoner. All my character does is make minions and use at least 1 curse. I have used a totem for my skeletons before but its not essential.

Summoners are awesome.

My PowerSiphon (wand) Summoner face-rolls everything. Vaal Overseer in Ruthless was a 30 Sec fight.

I have maxxed my Minions, 9 Zombies, 3 Spectre, and 12 Skelles.

I use a Skelle Totem to lead into any area, then wade in with the Zombies and Spectres with my wand blazing.

Support gems are your friend, it also helps to have a +1 to Minion Gems Hat or Shield.



I'm coasting through A2 now, Bandit Bosses have no chance.

I'm really looking forward to trying Maps with this build.

Also you missed a minion ring on the left side at 10:00 next to the Templar fire ring.

Second set of totems will hurt you more than help:

Here is my build so far:Ziyl

I will be getting more ES nodes and Lightning damage. I went with hex master because I like to toss Random Temporal chains into large groups with a shift-click so I don't even have to target.

Why you say that 1 more totem will more hurt then help?

My summoner just finished act 1 at normal and I got to say - all my other characters were stronger at that level.
It's just hell, zombies and skeletons die so fast I can't recast them, the character has so low life, I can not 1v1 champions, it's just hell.
I really hope it gets better with time. I still don't have that explode passive though.