Spectre doesn't persist after changing items when placed in a specific socket

I was testing the raise spectre "snapshot" mechanic and found that it behaves inconsistently when socketed in the bottom left socket of a 5 or 6 socket body armour, as compared to when socketed in any other position.

To test the mechanic, I:
-raised a spectre
-returned to town
-swapped out the armour for another item
-in the new armour, placed the raise spectre gem in the same position as the gem was previously
-went outside the town

For every socket except the bottom left one, the spectre remained summoned. However, when using the bottom left position the spectre despawns on zone in. This occurs when using both 5 or 6 socket body armours.

I first noticed the problem when trying to snapshot a spectre raised using this armour with the gem in the bottom left socket:

and then putting the gem into the bottom left socket of:


I then tested each of the socket locations using this for raising:

and various armours for the swap.

Ah, I didn't realise they had to be the same group as well as position. How to do obviously unintended things with the gem system needs better documentation. :P

Thanks for the explanation.

"

Lodavier wrote:

Ah, I didn't realise they had to be the same group as well as position. How to do obviously unintended things with the gem system needs better documentation. :P

Thanks for the explanation.

You unlinked the gem from the Support Gems, the game kills off your minion so that you have to resummon it under the new conditions the gem is placed under! It's changed like this to prevent exploits you seem to indicate you're aware of.

I hope it never does I love my Tittybitch 6l combo spectre-gmp-chain-remote-MinionDMG-Faster attacks

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Mark_GGG wrote:

There's your problem - the sockets don't match.
In the first armour, that socket is in the first group, in the others, it's in the second group. If you want the skill to be detected as the same, it has to be in the same socket group.
Note that this may not always work in future - this isn't a mechanic, it's simply a consequence of how skills are identified. Should that change, you can't rely on swapping this stuff around and still counting as the same skill long term.

Hi Mark
Thanks for this answer
I hope you guys are thinking on a way to improve the way spectres are managed
With or without item swapping it takes a very long time to summon a good spectre, at least compared to casting and aura or spamming an active skill. I am talking about ~10 minutes of prep work before start playing
Then spectres are lost if you dc or go offline, and you have to start over again

That is one of the reasons that item swapping is so popular among summoners. In some cases it is the only way to keep the spectres alive for a reasonable period of time, even using Necromantic Aegis and good defensive support gems

I would not mind losing some dps from my spectre, but losing spectre survability would be quite a big hit for some of us

I bet you guys would come up with a solution that fixes the item swapping abuse but at the same time fixes the #1 issue with the Summon Spectre active skill gem