Full Spectrum Summoner - lvl70 build - what next ?
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A Full Spectrum Summoner is a build that actually use all seven kinds of minions in the battle.
Why all seven kinds of minions ?
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Well, first I must admit it, for the sake of having them all.
Second, each minions type has its own purpose in this build. Moreover this build also use Converted enemies, those traps are often a great relief, as explained later. Converted, although they are not minions, are nevertheless stooges who can give you some of the greatest auras, while depriving foes. The Full Spectrum Summoner is the result of my 1st character: a bit tanky, quite busy summoner, with an interesting gameplay since it uses 12-13 skills and has on-site alternate strategy, and different tactics within the main strategy. (more...)
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Obviously insisting on being full spectrum for a summoner isn’t an optimal build of this caste. However it is still an effective first build for me and an interesting challenge.
This build gives a fight feeling closer to some of the fastest pace builds. More classic summoners just direct the minion crowd, stand back, and - as I did - are able to break pots, open chests, choose loot while in the middle of a raging battle. With this build you will be much more busy on fight, pots will have to wait. See the battle sequence as example. Minions specifics used in this build:
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Animated guardian:
- Used as a minions health status bar (he’s alone of his kind, icon not grouped) - Warns about off screen mobs with his melee sounds - Free once summoned - Easy switch on/off - Log off and keep it Spectres: - Specific set of skills of your choice - Free once summoned Zombies: - heavy boosted minions (snapshotted supports) - good dps - Free once summoned Skeletons by totem: - meat shield for you and other minions - off-screen mob probe (totem shakes or not) - fire and forget (even through looked grids) - numerous (keep mobs busy) - good dps Raging Spirits - good AI : aim those wandering mobs coming too close that may have been neglected by dumb minions - draw the path to the nearest mobs - let you know if the local area is cleared when they stale - stackable proximity body guards (if you constantly renew) Animated Weapons: - far fetching - finish almost done mobs that you neglected - fire and forget - let you know about off-screen mobs by melee sounds - provide alternate strategy Dominating Blow: - fun - additional great auras - fast pace gameplay - challenging ( risk assessment required ) Some drawbacks:
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Animated guardian:
- needs a bit of baby sitting - engages far mobs without your permission - need to remember what gear you equipped to keep the best and upgrade the lowest (I use the player description to keep notes if I give him good rare gear with life regen) Spectres: - ? Zombies: - tedious snapshotting, if they all die you cry, if a few die, make new with one support snapshot less. Skeletons by totem: - ? Raging Spirits - need good support to last long enough and/or quick cast Animated Weapons: - makes the char pause to cast them instead of running down the cleared area - gathering more than 6-12 weapons is a tedious process - using magic or rare consume scrolls for id Dominating Blow: - risky practice for a summoner - know what pack it is before diving into the melee (in some case you’d better not, depending on your resistances) Converted: - Wait after the battle so they de-convert and finish killing. Don’t be caught off guard by those green outlined stooges turning red. - Some party members don't like this skill Passive skill tree:
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General guidelines:
- Start templar, don’t forget alternate skill for lvl 0-35 where your minions won’t be enough (I went for glacial hammer because this is the one I got early for this 1st char) - Get all minions nodes - Respec temporary nodes once minions nodes are almost all picked up to get them all. - When lvl 60 get more life, armour, shield, mana regen and a bit of dexterity. Lvl 69 tree Next I think I'll get Skill of the ancestors to solve a Dex balance issue (2 nodes), Purity of Flesh (2 nodes) and a set of 3x15% skill duration (4 nodes) which will benefit to many skills very duration dependent: Raging Spirit, Converted, Dominated (skeletons also but they're already ok). more tree steps details later "Deal with the Bandits" Rewards :
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Always kill all, you’ll get much better deal on your way to minions nodes (but suggestions are welcomed).
Normal: Kill all for 1 passive skill tree point. Cruel: Kill all for 1 passive skill tree point. Merciless: Kill all for 1 passive skill tree point. EDIT: It looks like I'd better have helped Oak in normal for the +40 life. Gems:
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1st 4L (snapshotted*): B-B-B-R
1- Zombies - minion damage* - added chaos* - added melee* 2- [ zombies] - Spectres - added chaos* - iron grip* 3- [zombies] - [spectre] - minion life - Animated Guardian 2nd 4L: B-B-B-R Skeletons - spell totem - minion damage - added chaos 1st 3L 4S: B-B-B, B Raging spirits - faster casting - chance ignite + aura Purity of Elements 2nd 3L 4S: B-R-B, R Conversion trap - inc duration - Flesh offering + Rejuvenation totem Queen’s decree sword 4L 5S : R-R-R-R, G: Dominating blow, melee splash, multistrike, inc duration, + curse Temporal Chains Other gear has: Animated Weapon, aura + reduce mana, desacrate (used for zombies and spectre setup, keep in gear for leveling). Total 12 skill gems and 12 support gems. Equipment: cheap!
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Nothing expensive, just self-found rares with resists, life max, life regen, mana. My shield is only magic ! Then later some cheap uniques.
Weapon set Any well linked weapons and shield with good resistances and life regen. Currently I keep astonishingly low gear, not even top quality!!! Use a set of 1h and shield, and a 2h 4L 5S templar weapon. When ready get Queen’s Decree Ornate Sword. Armor You will find some templar rare on your way, with life, life regen, armour, shield, resistance mods, mana. I keep my magic shield with +16% all resists implicit, +35 max life and augmented by 3 life regen. Boots: Bones of Ullr Silk Slipers Accessories Amulet: Sidhebreath Paua Amulet Rings and belt of your choice to balance resistances, have life regen, a bit of rarity is always welcomed. Flasks: Flasks are of little use for me now (>lvl 55). I have 2 life and misc utility flasks. Those minions uniques are quite cheap. First boots and amulet, then Queen’s decree (don’t pay more than 1 chaos each is they are not 4L). When with sword my current badly socketed gear cannot carry aura gem + curse + animated weapon... When I don’t run any aura, it’s still ok at the current level, but before it wouldn’t have been wise. I’ve bought the mummy skin for zombies quite early, I recommend it, base skin is awful, bandages are much better looking. Shortcuts:
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Mouse
left: Dom Blow middle: curse right: Animate Weapon Keys Q: Rejuv totem W: Skel Totem E: Conversion Traps R: Flesh offerings T: Raging Spirits (yes, that’s quite a full bar…, remap Q and right click to setup zombies and spectres) Misc advice (sugg. welcomed)
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Make Guardian with rare gears (str,str-int) with resists and life regen, shield or 2h or dual. He needs some baby sitting, raise Rejuv Totem when low life or pull him back: this means the battle is quite hard, brace yourself. Maybe the guardian is not that much useful for dps, but its life bar is a useful indicator about how hard your minions are hit. Be careful: he will often try to fetch far mobs out of screen, recall him with a local curse (Convocation not needed, I have it now and I put it back into stash...).
Spectres choice: it’s up to you, the usual BM/FS/UE… Using ranged ones is a good idea. I use goat shamans from the climb (e-shield, fireball, molten shell). Not the best but they last and I like the sound of their MS *boom* . MS startup is also a warning: mob proximity. Sometimes I pick up some ranged rares on my way. Battle sequence:
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Get ready: - Aura is on - Animated Guardian, Spectres, Zombies are up - Animate some weapons along the way, if any Pack attack phase, three tactics, a, b or c: a - Routine attack, normal mob pack: 1- Raise Skel Totem ahead (if it don’t shake, move on) 2- Protect it with 3 Conversion traps. 3- Curse the whole pack (vulnerability) b- Cautious attack, mobile and risky mob pack: 1- Disrupt pack’s assault with Conversion Traps, aim rare mob with auras if any 2- Curse once (I stick to vulnerability but you may prefer enfeeble or other defensive curse) 3- Raise Skel Totem between pack and you c- Emergency response for sudden spawn of pack: 1- Lay all Conversion Traps close to your char to stop aggression and get a quick line of defence (minions can be behind you, mobs between). 2- Raise skel totem close to your char 3- Curse Pack meltdown 4- Initial flesh offering - short boost 5- More Conversion Traps - as a close defence and against rare mobs 6- Spam Raging spirits for 2-3s - ignite some mobs 7- Optional Rejuvenation Totem when skeletons reach maximum number, maybe later on, depending on your maximum. 8- Again flesh offering (big) 9- Traps everywhere or renew the conversion of the rare mob aimed for its nice aura (keep one trap handy for him, get used to the conversion duration) 10- If the mobs are not all far shot or AoE, dive in melee for Dominating Blow on the 20%-10% life mobs (minions do the final blow, mostly) 11- When low on mana (DB can drain it) spam Raging Spirits, it should be sustainable by the mana regen. 12- Renew skel totem forward (need mana, little 1.5s pause, have a look at the loot) 13- Animate some dropped weapons that you just spotted, if you wish 14- Flesh offering (massive) 15- Spam Raging spirits again 2-3s, for additional protection of your char. The local area is cleared when they stale. 16- If not, back to 9 Pack finish 17- Wait the last de-conversion while spamming Raging Spirits Special rare mobs and boss: (and misc tips)
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Switch to more defensive gear with 1h and shield, you may unplug the Animated Guardian to keep him safe.
In case of boss or rare mob with extra life + high life regen + bloody soul sucker of a kind + low cooldown massive energy shield, and party members gone away… there an alternate strategy: gather an obscene amount of weapons, animate most of them and curse the mob (even if curse proof, just send minions to him), animate the remaining weapons. How many weapons are enough ? I tried 80 but boss died before I could use them all, it’s 25-55 depending on the boss (more feedback welcomed). You should use your best linked weapon to boost the animated weapons with support gems, increased duration is a must-have, and faster casting a very good idea. Get mana flasks this time. Tip: animate 2-3 trash weapons first, wait a bit, then really start animating. When you hear those drops, it’s time for assault with first wave. Remote off-screen battle or captive mobs : At screen limit (or in cage), lay traps and raise skel totem. Find some occupation (IG, not IRL!). Raise new, if it’s calm then go and collect loot. Report:
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Minions:
1 Animated Guardian 4 Spectres 10 Zombies 14 Skeletons 5-7 Raging Spirits 5-40 Animated Weapons (a handful for classic battle, dozens for boss killing time) 5-15 Dominated, YMMV (not the main skill, specialized builds can have 100) and 3-6 converted as non-minion stooges Mapping: Magic dry lake map with 2 uniques and frenzy charge on mob every 20s : easy clearing. I was just cautious because it’s my first map. With my -60% chaos resist I had to be careful with the poisonous unique pig-chicken, I hit both life flasks once. Conclusion:
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So far it's a great first build very enjoyable (I'm also building others in parallel).
The build is not typical or aligned on proven design and I like that. There is a lot of room for upgrade: 3 armour pieces, belt and 2 rings to change, only lvl70. And, as I’m already ok with areas, most corrupted areas and easy magic map, I think the build is viable without much expensive gear. I just have to get the usual 75% elemental resists, along with more life and armour/shield, while keeping my good life regen. Feedback welcome. Last edited by Bluflonalgul on May 18, 2014, 4:49:40 AM
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Passive Skill Tree:
1. Get the three Witch flask nodes. No reason not too. 2. Get Inner Force and Holy Strength. No reason not too. 3. Get Elemental Adaptation. No reason not too. 4. Start as Witch. 5. Get the Sovereignty and Influence circles. Summons are weak without auras, and auras are weak without increased aura effect. 6. Decide if you want to either get Ancestral Bond or Whispers of Doom. Both are essential to summoners. The additional totem allows you to put up either a Rejuvenation Totem or a Spell Totem to summon more Raging Spirits or Skeletons. Whispers of Doom allows you to double curse, and this is extremely effective. Ancestral Bond doesn't conflict with Dominating Blow since it's an on hit effect. 7. Dump the Scion resist nodes and the life nodes getting there. Get the hybrid life/mana nodes instead. 8. Get the Purity of Flesh circle. You're life, so no reason not to get it. 9. Get the Clear Mind notable. This will help a lot. Bandit Rewards: 1. Help Oak in normal for the +40 life. No need for the skill point compared to this. 2. Kill all for the passive point in Cruel. 3. Kill all for the point or help Oak for the Endurance charge. Your clusterfuck of gems: Instead of going over all of them individually, I'll point you to this old thread of mine that I'm redoing. Go down to the "The Easiest Build" spoiler and look it over. | |
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Thank you Natharias for this detailed answer, I'm very grateful and I agree with almost all your views in your build guide.
" I've read your guide about this, I'm not sure about that since I barely use flasks... " Holy: on my way to other node you pointed. Inner: I'll check what buffs are illegible to that. " The reason is that I'm still far from +75 resists, so it won't change anything for me now, will it? " Yeah... too late. Doing a summoner wasn't the idea at the beginning. " I'll keep an eye on that, but I also have other good nodes to get and I remind you that my build has two other ways of getting very good auras solo. Not at all times but quite often. " I think I'll go for one more totem since I already do Whispers with a party support Witch. This will give more time to my busy summoner. And I have no more key bindings to dual curse... EDIT: Ancestral Bond makes me deal no damage, I hope it won't reduce my Dominating Blow, I will have to rely only on short tag + minions' blow. " Ok... well... I'm a bit low on resists and these are on my way to increased skill duration nodes... I'll try to dump some. " Yes. Already planned! Well, maybe not the last little node. " I was really wondering about this, since I got out of chaos attacks by unique mobs and my good life regen helps a lot against degeneration. I'm still at -60% chaos resists and didn't felt any urge regarding to this, but I might be wrong somewhere. " Right. Too late anyway. 1st build mistake. " I've read it all that part, trees also, and I really agree with 98% of your ideas, with some very good points I didn't thought about. But I have a question about the flasks nodes. I've read the other part about that also. Since I don't use my flasks unless one hit or two for life once in a while and speed flask to save time going back to town when area is cleared, I can hardly see the point about getting that. => Can you elaborate ? Other point: You skipped the minion speed nodes of Gravepact cluster, any reason ? I got them and I think they are like a multiplier for the damage. And I would like to advocate for the duration nodes: I need them for Conversion, Dominated, Raging Spirits, Animated Weapons... I guess curse will also take advantage of these. BTW you didn't express any view (or feedback) about Dominated and Converted stooges, I'd like to stress they are a good part of my 'full spectrum' summoner. This may influence the passive tree quite a bit. Last edited by Bluflonalgul on May 17, 2014, 4:59:31 AM
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" Flasks are especially important to summoners: 1. Flasks can offer life recovery for minions, and I think this increases the amount they gain. I'm not 100% certain. 2. Since most of your effort is put into minions, you cannot effectively put points into damage. This means flasks are a huge factor in recovering life/mana, since you leech much less than other builds. 3. Increased effect gives you more resistance and max resistance from resistance flasks, making some fights many times easier. Sure, you barely use them. But having this increase will make the times you need those flasks much easier. " Inner Force affects all buffs. Auras, Arctic Armor, and so on. It does not affect flasks. " You'll still need it when the time comes, and when you use a flask that overcaps you it will then affect you. Also, if you have resistance auras overcapping you, this will still apply. If you are so low on your resistances that you're below 75%, you need to regear immediately. " You can always reroll. The points spent early on as Templar are wasted for summoners. By the time you deal any damage your minions have completely destroyed a room. Once you have the correct supports and all of the passive nodes for minions, everything but unique monsters will be cleared in very short periods of time. " You can't rely on rares being killed by your Dominating Blow. You won't get any auras in this case when fighting most unique monsters, and they are the reasons you need auras. Not sure of your other way. " Yes, Ancestral Bond prevents you from dealing damage, but not on hit effects. If you hit an enemy with Dominating Blow + Culling Strike, it will cull the target and raise it as a minion if it has 10% or less life. The reason you want it is because you will never deal more than 10% of your total possible DPS, since your minions are such a huge part of it. So no point in trying to deal DPS. This way you can have another totem summoning more skeletons or raging spirits to boost your DPS way more than you doing so directly. " That might not be worth it. Minions already have insane clear speed, and having a second totem can do much more than 45% increased duration of Dominated minions. " I would and do, especially for my low-life builds. The chaos resistance is priceless, hence the importance of Chaos Inoculation. Some bosses deal mostly chaos damage, keep that in mind. " Chaos resistance is known as a luxury, or at least from what I've heard. However, chaos resistance is very hard to come by and it is right there in the passive skill tree. It's easier to get elemental resistance on gear and harder to get chaos resistance. Every little bit helps. " Again, you can always reroll. " Flask effect applies to all effects from flasks. More life from life flasks, more mana from mana flasks, more speed from quicksilver flasks, more armor from granite flasks, and more IIQ/IIR from the Divination Distillate. If there is even one time, ever, that you have to pop a flask to survive or to make sure you survive, get the nodes. If you never use flasks besides quicksilvers, then don't get them. It's one of the "I would rather have it, and not need it, than need it and not have it", things. I personally get it on all builds within ten points, since I use flasks constantly on most builds. Even if all I use are quicksilvers, I get them. " Yes, but note that I grabbed three points in the Phalanx circle for resistances. Also, 12% minion attack/cast speed isn't that important. Yes, it affects their DPS, but not that much. " Very good points, but look at the trees I linked. They are focused on survivability and minions, which are the only things it should focus on. Dominating Blow, Conversion Trap, and Animate Weapon rely heavily on the RNG of the game, while Animate Guardian, zombies, skeletons, raging spirits, and spectres do not. You can easily clear everything with the latter minions without problems. So spending 12 points to increase their duration by 45% isn't worth it. It's not worth it even when you consider the 18% elemental resistance you gain. " Because, as just previously mentioned, they are not reliable. Sure, having the speed aura drastically helps clear speed, but it is only for a short time. If you really wish to benefit from this, then a max level Increased Duration support should be used with Dominating Blow at all times. It is also important to remember that timed minions won't effectively augment your DPS since your other minions already deal so much damage, especially if you use snapshotted Montregul's zombies. You should also note that I didn't really mention Animate Guardian. This minion is only useful if you have very good gear to use for it, and even then there is a chance of losing that minion and thereby the items you used. Because of this, you can only reliably use it if you have good gear to invest into it each time it dies. If it never dies, or dies so rarely that you find good gear for the next summon, then it can be relied upon. | |
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Thanks again Natharias for your time and advice.
I'll re-gear as soon as I can ( at the moment I'm quite stuck with it because of dexterity I need from it for my too high level green gems). Then, although I agree with your analysis, I'll get those duration nodes: Maybe not worth it globally to optimize the build, but I remind you that this build is constrained by a theme/dogma: really use all kind of minions. Even if this lead to a sub-optimal build (as I acknowledged before). From this point of view, +45% lifespan on all those four temporary stooges is almost compulsory. I think they're like the +30% on flasks for a build which rely on them. " Game RNG? There a bit of luck in the sense that Traps aimed at rare mobs must be laid with precision, not easy. Also hitting with Domination Blow need quite a good timing for best results. Animated weapons... I don't see. Apart from the player coordination and dexterity that may be "unlucky" I see no randomness here. Those skills are a bit unreliable regarding those difficulties, I must admit it. Many times I failed to specifically convert the totem/mob giving aura on first trap. Regarding auras, I really would like to run two. Then the aura buffs node would be totally worth it. But I'm afraid my Dom Blow bursts require a good stock of mana, I may not be able to handle both auras and effective Dominating. I'll see. Maybe a 5L with mana reduce will enable this. Ancestral Bond: ok I'll buy it :) Still a long way, but respec nodes will help. Reroll: I guess this means doing it all over again from scratch. Then no, I have to play less, not more... Other characters on the way also, one of which is much worst than my summoner, with a crazy base idea, but I'll present it later. I forget to mention my life regen of 39.1 /s (on my defensive gear, with sword it's 34), I'm not sure how it compares to others but I find it very convenient. This regen I want and dex requirement make my re-gear difficult. |
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" I want to make sure you understand I'm talking about efficiency, not preference. This game is about fun, just like any video game, and there are some things that are better and some things that are just preference. The increased duration nodes won't get you much for the investment, at least from what I can tell. " Note that increasing the duration of half of your minions by 45% isn't a requirement to be an omni-summoner. If you want to maximize your minions then the nodes are required. Besides that, the duration nodes are not a pre-requisite. " A rare spawning with a critical chance and damage aura or a rare spawning with a extra physical damage mod. The latter would be infinitely better, since it would put your minion's damage through the roof. That RNG. " Buffing existing minions is more important than getting more minions out. The first and most important way for a summoner to augment minions is through auras, so use a Blood Magic gem if you must. This is another place where mana potions and the flask effect would help, so you could get away with more auras. " Rerolling does mean making a brand new character. And you would actually have to play more, just to get where you are now. " My Rejuvenation Totem gives a minimum of 175 life regeneration on my aura build, and 198 if you have Holy Strength and Inner Force. The 78% increased aura effect and 24% effect of buffs. You won't be able to get that easily, but increased aura effect can make RT and auras much better for you and your minions. So anything less than 50 is very low. You also mentioned having low attributes. This can easily be fixed by grabbing +30 nodes and there is a dex/str pair on the other side of the Witch area, and it would be more accessible if you were a Witch. | |
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I get it for RNG :)
I must admit that I did managed to equip my minions with permanent not-dying aura on zone only once. And it was costly, tricky, and depends on finding the “other allies do not die” quite soon upon starting the zone (RNG there), to be able to clear the rest with invincible minions. I’ve changed my mind about flasks: they are an available advantage I should try to use for any build, not using them means I do too well in some parts of the char, missing some other good opportunities. However it would be a mistake to structurally need them for a long boss fight, in such case all flasks would be emptied quickly with no refill. There’s the obvious usage of life flasks for once in a while for hard it or strong AoE by surprise. Then the mana flasks for Dom Blow bursts in packs (flasks refill in that case). I guess I would need two of each. Then an utility flask, depending on context. Some more thoughts about skill duration nodes: I need to think of two distinct kinds of battle. The mob pack and the solo boss. The first will take advantage of long lasting converted, dominated, offerings, curses, raging spirits (and thus more of them), totems (for raging spirits and rejuvenation, skel totem already last long enough).Regarding the build theme (or constraint), if I barely get an average of 2 converted and 3 dominated once in a while for typical mob pack fight, my char won’t be that much “Full Spectrum”. The second won’t have converted or dominated (boss is alone), offerings will soon deplete corpses but desacrate may be a good option. Rejuvenation and Raging spirits Totems and are still at stake here. But the biggest advantage will be for Animated Weapons who really drop too fast without proper support. And they’re my alternate strategy of choice in several cases (I’ve stressed that). I’m planning my new tree with some nodes respect (no reroll…), I’ll buy regrets. My templar would start with little Increased AoE nodes (8% total), remove all damage fight nodes (as much as possible), make his way to Ancestral Bonds and also get Resolute Technique next to it for his Dominating Blow. Reworked Templar for 100 points. |
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" Yes, that aura is the most powerful for minions, especially since it prevents you from dying as well. " Most boss fights have trash that come in and offer you a chance to refill flask charges. So this isn't a worry for boss fights unless you burn through your flasks. " No summoner should ever run without Desecrate and Bone Offering. Those are two powerful skill you cannot ever miss out on for ANY reason. 1. Clear Mind is right there for you to take. Try to get it. 2. To help make gearing easier, you might as well take the Scion 18% res nodes. You're investing effort in getting the duration nodes, might as well take full advantage of the investment. Also, you might want to note that you only have 86% increased life, and that's very low. You should aim for at least 125% with your Templar Summoner. |
