Solo Witch 'Minion Master' (NO SNAPSHOTTING)

Hi Folks this is my first attempt at a build guide so any positive feedback is welcome. (am currently updating for 1.2. Things may have been missed)

Introduction

First of all i'm going to talk about my build and what i'm trying to achieve. So obviously i've gone for a summoner build. Ive decided to base my build around Queens decree ornate sword as i haven't come across many endgame builds that utilize it. I also wanted to TRY and maintain as much iiq and iir as possible. Another goal was to be able to run rare 75+ maps comfortably (solo) without too much death. My last goal was to achieve this with NO SNAP SHOTTING

Cost and required items

This build has cost me about 50 exalts (45 or so spent on 6 link items). This isnt cheap i know but if you maintain good iir , farm constantly and save your currency you shouldnt be far off by the time you start running 70 plus maps. Also i would recomend setting up a shop as this will boost your income significantly.

Only 2 Items are a definite must for this build

(5 Link is fine)


Items and Skills

So ive decided to utilize both spectres and zombies. I will be running Chaos innoculation so there is a heavy focus on energy shield. Im running raise zombie and raise spectre in seperate items. Ideally you want both (Queens decree and armour) to be six link. Yes i hear your laughter but both 5 linked will work too. This means that they will both be running at least 4 support gems each.

Spectres
5 Link
- Raise Spectre
- Lesser Multiple Projectiles
- Minion Damage
- Spell Echo
- Fire Penetration

6 Link
- Same as above
- Elemental Proliferation or
- Item rarity

The spectres i have chosen to use are Flame sentinels (Fs). The best place to get theses is Act 3 Solaris temple. An obvious choice for me because they fire 3 projectiles already and they fork. When you obtain and start to use spell echo, Watch out when summoning spectres as the spell repeats twice so your most likely to raise a Fs and an assault ribbon. To get around this i try and separate the fs from the rest of the pack, kill them and use detonate corpse to get rid of all other corpses on screen and then summon

Zombies (in Queens Decree)-
5 Link
- Raise Zombie
- Multistrike
- Faster Attacks
- Melee Physical Damage



6 Link
- Item Rarity or
- Added Fire damage or
- Minion Life
For your helm you want to be working towards an alphas Howl as shown above for the reduced mana and the +2 to aura gems. Un till you can get one i would advise going for an energy sheild based one with rarity and elemental resist.
Your helm will House the following skills
- Reduced Mana
- Discipline
- Hatred
- Haste or Purity of elements

For boots you could use Bones of Ullor silk slippers for the +1 to zombies and spectres but im using Goldwyrm Nubeck for the iiq, mana regen and movement speed. You could also go for es based boots with resist if your coping with 3 spectres and 9 zombies
Your boots will house the following Skills
- Reduced Mana
- Faster Attacks
- Vall Summon Skeletons
- Flesh offering

Your Gloves can be your choice but again i would advise on an energy sheild based with rarity and elemental resist.
Your gloves will house the following skills
- Reduced Mana
- Elemental Weakness
- Convocation
- Haste or Purity of elements



Your remaining ring slot and amulet should focus on rarity and elemental resist. if you have decent resists already from your other gear you could swap out your amulet for sidhebreath paua amulet for damage boost to minions.

Strategy

So i like to think this build has got some good synergy going on. First of all auras, i Use discipline and purity of elements which gives me and my minions the obvious benefits. Hatred adds a massive chunk of dps to my zombies and haste does the same for all my minions with the bonus movement speed for me. I curse enemies with elemental weak and cast flesh offering as needed. Vall skeletons is good to cast when in a sticky situation or a tough boss. Queens decree gives it a nice duration boost too.

I chose to kill all bandits.


Auras
Obviously you wont be able to run all auras straight off. Once you acquire Alphas Howl and all of reduced mana reservation nodes you will be on your way there. Currently haste, discipline, and hatred are at 22 percent reserved and purity of elements and vitality are at 15. This leaves me with a total mana pool of 44! lol. But with mana regen and reduced mana on all but flesh offering this is not a problem. (Apart from some map specific mods ie blood magic or no health or mana regen). To start with you want to run hatred and purity of elements first off. Then as your reduced mana gems level up and you acquire reduced mana reserved nodes add in discipline, haste and vitality last. (Not running vitality since 1.2)

Chaos Inoculation
I would recommend getting CI around the start of act 3 Cruel. You definitely want to be running discipline when you get this and you want a decent energy shield pool already around 1300 - 1600 at least. Remember your MAX LIFE WILL BE SET TO 1 when you activate this so you need all the es you can get. Might be worth saving your points till you can activate the 3 es nodes behind it at the same time.

Skill Tree

For the skill tree i focused on three things. Energy sheild, Minion Supports and Reduced mana/reservation. The 1 keystones i used are chaos inoculation. ive played about with my tree to get optimum pathways so expect to respec a bit on the way.

Early Play

Use a tabula resa if you can early on as it will be a massive boost to your minions. Try and get hold of a 5 link queens ( I Have one for sale) asap as this is a necessity later on. I used Firestorm early on till i had enough minions to cope. I would recommend running hatred as soon as possible and to get those reduced mana clusters early too.

Here is a link to my tree
Passive skill tree build
My Current Build



A couple of notes on my build. Im in the process of getting the right colors on my sword and boots. Im also not running sidhebreath yet because i need some more strength for my reduced mana but this will be resolved next level. I know i have a few legacy items in their (goldwyrm and Iron Ring) but i guess thats the perks of being a long time player. Had both of those drop before iqq was nerfed. My current Zombie dps is around 9500 per zombie but istill have some gem leveling and chroming to do. My projected zombie dps is about 14000 per zombie when i have everything leveled and the right colored sockets. I don't know about spectre dps so if anyone knows a way to calculate this please let me know.

Again my first attempt at a build guide so sorry if ive forgot anything. Any advice very welcome too!!
Happy summoning

Ok Guys im back to make a few adjustments. Ive decided that i no longer need hex master and dual curses so i swapped out deodres damning for and iir based ring and respeced the 3 or so points from hex master. Still running maps comfortably and minions are surviving well. Am using elemental vulnerability now for benefits to zombies (hatred) and the flame sentinels. Have managed to run vitallity too and still have enough mana for curse, flesh offering and convocation!! I have added in convocation and flesh offering.

Current Gear
This current build is iir and iiq based with both quantity and rarity supporting both zombies and spectres. If in new league or are struggling i would swap for fire penetration on spectres and added fire damage on zombies.

Current Tree
Passive skill tree build
Will add some tree links at specific levels when i get a chance.

in my opinon you shouldn't advice remote mine, as a support for minions this close to the snapshot fix, as remote mine won't work anymore with minions skills.

i think that fire penetration, and concentrated effect are more valueble choisces dps wise for the sentinels.

you should also post a progression of the skill tree (sthing like 30, 60, 90 pomits...) that way peeps can have a better time playing the game (for neww players going CI as soo nas they get there can make them hate the game)

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in my opinon you shouldn't advice remote mine, as a support for minions this close to the snapshot fix, as remote mine won't work anymore with minions skills.

i think that fire penetration, and concentrated effect are more valueble choisces dps wise for the sentinels.

you should also post a progression of the skill tree (sthing like 30, 60, 90 pomits...) that way peeps can have a better time playing the game (for neww players going CI as soo nas they get there can make them hate the game)

I beg your pardon sir, didnt realize this was classed as snappshotting. thank you for bringing it to my attention.

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Body & Soul is way better than Nullification with your tree. Also use eleweakness since it gives -59% res vs -49% from flammability and hatred benefits from it too. Alternatively use evangelists and vulnerability.

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MatrixFactor wrote:

Body & Soul is way better than Nullification with your tree. Also use eleweakness since it gives -59% res vs -49% from flammability and hatred benefits from it too. Alternatively use evangelists and vulnerability.

Cheers dude some sound advice. Gonna make changes when i get on later. Thanks for the tip!!

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Hey, I'll try it out :) Which bandits did you take?