Merciless Scepter and a Summoner Witch

I entered the (merciless) Scepter today for the first time. The mobs wadded me up and threw me out the door. I was in no way competitive.

Each time I entered a room, the mobs killed my zombies. I could not heal them quick enough. I didn't kill enough mobs to refill my potions.

How does a soft character survive there, and what are those mobs with the golden 'force fields'? They blew me to pieces.

I play a summoner as well and I don't have any issues with the mobs in Spectre with the exception of Dominus in phase three tends to destroy them, but there are plenty of bodies to respawn them.

You should be running vitality, purity of elements, grace and determination for auras if you can.

Your helmet should be a +2 minion helm and you can do single target zombies
Single Target = Raise Zombie + Multistrike + Minion Damage + Minion life
AOE splash = Raise Zombie + Melee splash + Minion Damage + Minion life

If you haven't snapshot your zombies with a chober chaber great mallet unique and a sidhebreath. That should definitely help with their HP if they are lacking.

Its hard to tell what to fix exactly without posting your skill tree and a list of what your current gem set up is for Spectre and for Zombies.

"

TigerSpook wrote:

I entered the (merciless) Scepter today for the first time. The mobs wadded me up and threw me out the door. I was in no way competitive.

Each time I entered a room, the mobs killed my zombies. I could not heal them quick enough. I didn't kill enough mobs to refill my potions.

How does a soft character survive there, and what are those mobs with the golden 'force fields'? They blew me to pieces.

theres no secret really that area is much harder than the other zones in act3

the mobs with the force field are immune from damage coming from outside of the field and they cast a ground spell which deals (a lot of) physical damage

Silly me. I didn't include my stuffs.

Here's what I use once I'm zombie'd up.



For snapshotting, I'm using



During a battle I can generally swap in the Chober and make a semi-tough Zombie. I'm not using any of the gems in the Chober. They are only there so they level up.


My skill tree is



I'm running Hatred and Purity of Elements. I can run two 60% auras, but I can't / don't know how to run more.

Snapshotted zombies have 3800 Life. I have 2,400 Life and about 700 ES.

My gearing strategy has been around Life, mana regen, and MF. My witch's damage is low. I use Arc mainly to target mobs for the zombies. I don't generally run the Skeletons. They tend to be my 'get out of jail free' card. That totem spews out decent skellies, and keeps doing it for long enough for me to escape or prepare more zombies.

"

I'm running Hatred and Purity of Elements. I can't / don't know how to run more.

Snapshotted zombies have 3800 Life. I have 2,400 Life and about 700 ES.

Strange... at your level i was using headgear (+2 minion gem lvl) with Raise specter + Raise zombie + Minion life + Minion and totem ele-res, my zombies had 4k+ hp. That's with Sidhebreath and Midnight's bargain.
Used Hatred and Purity of elements too, and the most troubling part was to kill at least one evangelist. Then it's cakewalk except for that jumping bastards (croaking chimeras iirk). You just have to stick to your evangelist specters and (almost)nobody will be able to hurt you ever (i think they will nerf proximity shields of specters in a couple of patches :))
If you are having troubles with scepter then Dominus will rip you to shreds... well, first minions then you )

"

I can run two 60% auras, but I can't / don't know how to run more.

Look for that pretty "reduced mana reserved" nodes in tree. For example, that's my summoner
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMABAcGSQdjDY0QlxFQEZYTbBVQFy8ZihpsGo8c3B0UHaofAiL0JLAnqSj6KpgtHy9vNsU26TvhRARGcUjnTLNNuVM1VdZWLVcrWpFk52qsa9tsC20Zb55wu3NTeqp9GH3Sfll_xoCkgseDCYVghtGIQI9GkDOTJ5itmuCboZu1na6mrKcIpyuofarEtAy4k7vWv5fAVMM6yT3KSsy80NDT-9gk2QvZE9rd4Yji9-Nq5oHr7uyK8h722vfX-ej6gPrS-wn-SQ==
and that allows me to have haste+hatred+discipline(with reduced mana, of course) activated all the time and have 200+ spare mana for all my cursing/summoning needs.

When snapshotting you have to put the minion gem back into something that was the same item type as what you snapshotted them in ie:

For my zombies I use



For Spectres I use



Once I have finished snapshotting the zombie /Spectre gems go back into the same socket on my normal gear

It seems like an experiment in PoE costs 1 Chaos. I bought a +2 minion helmet...



It's common, but it has +2 minion level goodness. Unsurprisingly, then I moved the Summon Zombie gem from my 5L chest to my 4L head. Now the zombies have something like 5,200 Life. They did lose Item Quantity, sadly.

While having the zombonies amp'ed up by 2 levels increased the Life as expected, I did not expect the delightful improvement to their DPS. I visited Kole twice and aced him both times. The second time he surprised me and had 2 Yellow attendants. I lost 2 zombs. Might have lost them in the post-death Detonate Corpse cheapshot.

I may have been running Hatred and Determination for these fights; I don't recall now.

I also tried putting a curse and a rejuv totem in the Chober, and swapping weapons when I wanted to use either. I was basically not coordinated enough to do so.

I hit 70 last night, so it's a good time to return to the Scepter to see if the extra life helps.

Thanks for the tip on the +2 hat, I knew it would be better, but didn't really understand how much better 2 levels really is.

Visited Lunaris. Aced Kole, very clean; no zombies lost. Went to the 3rd level, plowing through the mobs without difficulty on the way to Piety. Cleanest kill on Piety ever. She got away from me for a few seconds and it got interesting, but I re-engaged and finished her. No zombies lost.

Then to the Scepter. It was by no means easy, but I cleared to the portal. Zombies died, zombies were reborn. Not surprisingly the toughest fight was with Caligula. He almost got me before I realized that was happening but I recovered. The zombies were too dumb to live. Got him by running into his room and either spamming skellies or desecrate/raise zombie. I basically pulled his defenders out of his room, dispatched them, then wore him down.

A fine no-death evening.

Whenever I post a whiny "why do I fail" post, I like to follow up with the actual result.

I improved my efficiency by relocating Desecrate to my alternate weapon spell bar, replacing it with Enfeeble which I spam like it's going out of style. ("I wish I hadn't cast Enfeeble so much", said no Witch ever.)

I added a few GCPs to the Raise Zombie gem. My best Zombies are just under 6K Life now.

I've been practicing on moving fast(er) and killing. I pretty much cruise through Kole, Lunaris 3, and Piety. She has not really come close to killing me.

Back in the Scepter, it gets dicey at times but the monsters are no longer dominant. I went all the way up to Dominus' door without really having to stop more than once or twice. Firedogs ate my Zombies once.

When I lose the Zombies, I swap in my alternate weapon (Chober) and cast Desecrate 3 times to make 9 corpses. If I have time, I'll equip Sidehbreath. Then I'll cast Raise Zombie 8 times. This takes about 30 seconds total.

I looked at Dominus' door, and basically said, "That the hell." I decided I should test myself and figure out what to improve. I expected to be mauled. I made eight of my best zombies and walked through.

On the first skirmish with the tornado spinny guy, something went wrong and 6 zombies died almost immediately. I don't know why. Maybe he got a lucky string of criticals. Maybe other named mobs were in the fight too. Tornado Spinny Guy chased me out of the zone, back into the Scepter.

I decided there was no way that Dominus' underlings could be that dominant. I was the victim of misfortune, or something.

I recast my best zombies (again), switched my Auras to Purity and Determination, and zoned back in. Tornado guy went right down. Then the named TBCH and caster followed without issue. Dominus engaged, and I ran to the lower left area. I like fighting him there as it affords room enough to work in, but is away from the monsters by his platform.

Zombies started dying, but they were getting some licks in. I'm pretty sure Enfeeble stuck on Dominus. I had a Skelly totem pumping out fodder while I switched to the Chober to cast Desecrate/Raise Zombie as quickly as I could. I cast two Raise Zombie and one Flesh Offering per Desecrate (this was an on-the-spot innovation.) Dominus got the upper hand and turned his attention to me; things started coming apart. Most of the zombies had died, as had the Totem.

I fled around the bottom edge to the exit. I stayed in the zone, however, to figure out how to recover. My failure ought to be a learning experience, after all - it was hard enough to get there! With full life and ES, Dominus wasn't going to kill me before I could zone out. (Yes, zoning to live is lame, but it's better than dying, and then re-entering through that same entrance...)

The solution to most of my problems is "more zombies!" Only two remained, and they weren't my best. I had trouble targeting the narrow walkway (where the zone entrance is) with Desecrate. After what seemed like an eternity, I had enough corpses. I cast more zombies. I don't recall if I took the time to equip the Sidhbreath.

Before I could re-enter the battle, the zombies attracted Dominus - he appeared in their midst. Well, ok, so I Enfeebled him. In that tight spot, 8 healthy zombies took him down from 50% without issue. I think I might have gotten a Flesh Offering to cast.

The Zombies all lived, so I gave them a few seconds to heal and went to the 'Dying Monologue' area. I dropped a skelly totem about halfway through the manifestation of The Cockroach. When it became targetable, the totem puked skellies on it while the zombies hammered away. I added a Flesh Offering or two, and otherwise cycled through my minion heal flasks.

The action was stopped by a Yellow Loot Fountain and an Achievement. I give myself a "B" for not dying in this Witch's first attempt at (Merciless) Dominus, but for having to zone after that first skirmish.

It was not a smooth effort, but was a good lesson in recovery and flexibility. Not everything goes to plan!