Vixien's 1 month HC No Snapshot Summoner

Hello, I've gotten a lot of questions about my build during the one month league so I thought I would finally share it on the forums. This is a zombie tank raging spirits build with several differences from other builds you see using raging spirits. So lets get started with how the build functions and then we will move into the pros and cons.

General Gameplay

The idea and playstyle of this build is all about micromanaging your little zombie horde and raging spirits. Spectres are used in this build, but they play a backseat role in either being a buff bot for the other minions (frenzy charge apes) or by giving survivability ( evanglist bubbles). Here is an example of how combat is done.

1. Cast Desecrate
2. Cast Flesh Offering
3. Spam raging spirits while Flesh Offering in up
4. Use convocation to position minions and keep them alive longer
5. Use raise zombie if one or more have died in combat
6. Pop Vaal Skeletons for huge DPS and survivability if necessary

As you can see, I've already named 6 abilities. These are all constantly used which gives this build a more lively gameplay than spamming the same ability no matter what the situation is. Not keeping up flesh offering will cripple your damage. You need bodies that aren't always available so desecrate is required. With detonate dead being a popular spec, it is even more important in group play to be able to create your own bodies needed for optimal damage.



Pros

1. Easy to start
2. HC viable
3. Can do most map mods
4. Execellent solo and group potential
5. No snapshotting
6. Easily doable without 5L, No need for a 6L.
7. Minions do all the hard work for you

Cons

1. Specific gear requirements make finding gear challenging
2. Better off leveling up to Maps as something more efficient like Arc
3. Bloated Ability bar and lack of free sockets for things like Curses and Lightning Warp
4. You have to buy a lot of gems

Gear and Defenses

At this point you may be wondering what I mean by specific gear requirements and how can a build be easy to start yet hard to gear. The reason I listed these two things is because of the unique defense of this build. You run Arctic Armour WITHOUT Eldritch Battery! A lot of people find this out and go "Dafuq? How? You NEED Eldritch Battery!" This statement is FALSE! I am currently running lvl 17 AA (buffed by inner force) and with a new amulet and one more level, my character will be able to run lvl 20 no problem.

I consider this build complete at level 91, though there are very good nodes still available to take at this point. I am currently level 88 in the 1 month HC league and here is my current gear for this spec.





If you look at my gear, you can find a common theme on pieces. You need to find the following on your gear:

1. Dexterity
2. Maximum Mana
3. Mana regen

These three stats are important because this build could not function as it does without them. Auras like Haste require a lot of dexterity which is hard for a witch to acquire. Second you need max mana and mana regen on your gear to make up for the lack of EB. So why not just go EB and save the trouble? In groups, someone is often running discipline. This adds survivability in groups that you wouldn't have otherwise. Also, You also can benefit from people who use vaal Discipline aura which is an amazing ability.

You also may wonder why I chose to use Lightning coil instead of something like EB/MoM, especially with the difficulty of rolling the colors you need on your chest (I'm stilling working on getting bbbrrg, myself). Besides the benefit of getting survivability from Discipline and other sources of ES on your gear, I hate things like puncture. No other ailment has killed my previous characters like bleeds. I feel Lightning coil is a excellent choice for this as you really don't even need a remove bleed flask with this spec despite the lack of armor.

Lastly, I use Mon'tregul's grasp. If you can't afford this weapon, just get a weapon with resists and mana regen. Since you use minions, spell damage doesn't matter which means you can get an alternative dirt cheap. The reason I use this weapon is because I didn't want my zombies to just fall over to every AoE attack thrown at them. Also, this gives them the "infernal blow" mechanic which is really nice. The dps granted by this weapon is also very noticeable. I've seen them kill rares in high level maps on their own.

Gems

As this build constantly uses several abilities, you need a lot of gems. Thankfully you don't need a lot of links!

#1 - Lets start with raging spirits. It uses the following links:

Raging spirits - Multistrike - Melee Splash - Spell echo

These are stored in a +2 minions helmet to create a cheap but effective 5L. Due to lack of stacking cast speed, you can only get about 10 spirits out at a time. With few amount of zombies and spirits, melee splash is important to get your clear speed up.

#2 - Raise zombies. It uses the following links:

Raise Zombies - Melee Physical Damage - Multistrike - Minion Damage - Minion Life

If you notice in my gear, I have added fire instead of minion damage. Due to the high cost of zombies (over 230 per cast in a 5L!) For the longest, I could only use a 4L zombie since I didn't have enough unreserved mana for a 5L. Now that I do have enough mana, I'm still trying to chrome bbbrrg on my lightning coil which isn't easy so added fire is just in there til I get more chroms. I don't use melee splash because Mon'tregul's grasp gives them splash damage whenever they kill a mob.

#3 - Flesh offering + convocation + increase duration

This setup is important because it majorly affects your damage. Flesh offering is a short buff to your minions. The more often you have to stop and cast it, the less time you are spawning raging spirits. Convocation heals your minions over time. Increasing the duration of this ability will increase the amount of healing they recieve.

#4 - Spectres. The links are the following:

Raise Spectre - Minion Life - Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance

As I said before, your spectres take a back seat role in this build. You don't have sockets available to buff them to an important part of your damage. Using them for support is a great way to get a lot of use out of so few links. The frenzy apes can really increase your party's clear speed and evanglist can increase your survivability. The reason you use the resistance gem on these and not your zombies is because the unique weapon gives it to them for free. It's also not required in your raging spirits because they expire after a short time so it would be a waste.

Now let's talk about the passive tree! The backbone of the build you've been dying to see that I haven't revealed yet.


As you can see I took a lot of aura nodes along with minion damage, but the life pool seems smaller than what you think you need. I think with GG gear this build tops out around 5k hp if you decide to go beyond level 91. This is plenty as you have your minions blocking damage for you while also running a high level arctic armour for when you do get hit.

Back to the aura nodes, I run 4 auras with this build. Haste, Hatred, Clarity, Purity of Lightning. Haste is your biggest dps increase of the possible damage auras. It allows you to cast minions faster, your minions get to their target faster, and they hit more often. I also chose Hatred over Wrath + Anger because of several reasons.

1. Minion do physical damage that is easy to augment with melee gems
2. It is less mana reserved which this build can struggle with
3. With spell echo out, hatred is far less common in groups than Wrath + Anger (ele buzzsaw)

Conclusion

This is a very fun and active build that won't put you to sleep (sorry searing bond!) that is competitive in both groups and solo play. It also can easily clear high level maps.

Nice Build :) i might consider switching from my snapshot summoner to this.
Btw where did you get that Mon´tregul´s from (and what did you pay for it ? ) it seems impossible to me to get one in the 1MHC .

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das_punkt wrote:

Nice Build :) i might consider switching from my snapshot summoner to this.
Btw where did you get that Mon´tregul´s from (and what did you pay for it ? ) it seems impossible to me to get one in the 1MHC .

I paid 5ex for it and I spammed trade at random times and my friend's list Status as "Wtb mon'tregul grasp - paying in pure exalts". Eventually some random person whispered me while I was mapping that he saw me asking for one in trade and he had just got one.

How exactly did you level and is there any chance you could post what your tree looked like around lvl 20/40/60

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Bonefide wrote:

How exactly did you level and is there any chance you could post what your tree looked like around lvl 20/40/60

+1 That would help alot

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Bonefide wrote:

How exactly did you level and is there any chance you could post what your tree looked like around lvl 20/40/60

I leveled with a +1 lightning sceptre using arc that can be used at level 19. I used arc for AoE while leveling and raging spirits for single target.







You could level just using summoner abilities, but arc is just way faster and it is better to use it until you get enough passives to make it better to not use arc. I ended up swapping to all out raging spirits when I got a +2 minion helm around the time I was starting maps

could you please sort gems by order of importance ?