[2.4]? Minion Instability Zombies, fun but unsure about viability
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NOW WITH VIDEO
First I'd like to repoint out the title, this build probably won't get you through atziri or uber laby or shaper or whatever you want a super hardcore endgame build to do, this is just a fun build utilizing a few mechanics of unique items. The other reason why this build is just not that great is that it requires this thing which is a perandus exclusive unique. Now that we got that out of the way lets get into the juicy details. First, Minion Instability. Most people would probably just slap MI on a summoner build just for the rare occasion where their minions get shrekt by bosses or particularly strong rares, this is not one of those builds. The core feature of this build IS Minion Instability and basically thats where this build is stupid and dumb and you shouldn't play it. But how do you reliably get Minion Instability to function? you either have crappy minions that die often (that are a chore to resummon) and even then the MI damage isn't that great. Or you have minions that are really strong and you can't get them to die. Well with a couple UNIQUE items you can circumvent this issue. I'm talking about these 2 in particular: Umbilicus Immortalis causes your flasks to affect your zombies and spectres instead of you, while Coruscating Elixir causes you (in this case your zombies) to sacrifice all but 1 hp, which then triggers Minion Instability. Basically imagine your zombies wearing suicide vests and you click whatever hotkey Coruscating Elixir is on to detonate them. Allahu Ackbar!
Gear
As a necromancer you can get away with having shitty gear. Though in my case because of Umbilicus I decided to run life based with armour, which can make getting all the blue sockets needed a bitch. Here's some more uniques to consider though: I went with Clayshaper mostly for the minion life roll and the second golem, the minion physical damage is just a bonus, and the level 12 stone golem is great for leveling if you pick this up early. This shield.. where do I begin? I'm running Necromantic Aegis, so this shield benefits my minions more than anything. The life, attack speed, and aoe radius are great on my minions (especially stone golems), but mostly what is great about this shield is the 'nearby allies recover 2% of your maximum life when you die', so now your zombies explode dealing damage and leaving fart clouds behind but now THEY EVEN HEAL YOU TOO! Though for a second I feel like I should cover flasks, since your flasks affect your zombies and spectres, the other 4 flasks are best suited for anything that creates a ground effect, seeing as how it now drops from every zombie and spectre instead of you. I'm using these: The Sorrow of the Divine flask is a great choice since you completely bypass the Zealots Oath aspect of it (since it applies that to your zombies and spectres) and you get a lengthy duration consecrated ground. Basalt is mostly just for the phys reflect, since your zombies are getting smacked quite a bit. Affixes don't really matter, besides Experimenter's which increases the duration of the ground effects.
Skill Gems and Links
So the main skill is surprisingly Summon Zombie. Supporting it is Minion Life and Minion Damage, along with either Increased Area of Effect or Concentrated Effect, which modifies the aoe on instability and Beacon of Corruption's Caustic Cloud. for 5th and 6th link, gems might be Fire Penetration, Minion Speed, Melee Physical Damage, or taking both Inc aoe and Conc Effect. It's also possible to take Chance to Ignite and Increased Burning Damage if for some reason you wanted your exploding zombies to ignite enemies.
You can take Raise Spectre as well, gem links above apply. For golems (2 if you have clayshaper) I would take stone golem with Minion Damage, Life, and Melee phys. Chaos golem also works nice. Keep in mind that you don't get to double dip on the buff if you have 2 of the same golem, but if you had to have 2 different golems i'd suggest dropping Melee Phys and 4 socket 2 golems on Minion Damage and Life. I wouldn't suggest taking flame golem or ice golem, as you don't really benefit from the buffs of those 2 golems. With auras i'm running a dual curse Enfeeble and Temporal Chains Blasphemy. There really aren't any auras that would benefit your minions greatly for Minion Instability, while these 2 curses are ridiculously strong together. other skills you'll need include desecrate and bone offering, and a skeleton totem is always useful. If you have an extra slot Vaal Summon Skeletons is good. As for movement skill I'd recommend flame dash, though with Clayshaper we can run Leap Slam with Fortify.
Passives and Ascendancy
As for passives, pretty much go for a standard necromancer build. I went life based so I have passives reaching down into marauder, but you're a necromancer so who cares what your defenses are, you shouldn't really be worrying about dying. Ascendancy, I went Beacon of Corruption for poison cloud on zombie death, Mistress of Sacrifice for that sweet block and life gain from Bone Offering, and will probably take Spirit Eater if I ever go through merciless lab. I highly doubt this build will make it through map lab but otherwise I'd go for Flesh Binder, as we aren't running any auras that would benefit from Commander of Darkness. tl;dr I made a suicide bomber zombie build, and am currently sleep deprived as I write this because I just wanted to put this out here. I might consider putting a video in for kicks but there's not much reason to. Last edited by caucheka on Oct 5, 2016, 10:32:06 PM Last bumped on Oct 6, 2016, 8:23:47 AM
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my wife left me because of this build.
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For a MI zombies build using mon'tregul's grasp instead of clayshaper is mandatory imo. All damage bonuses that apply to secondary damage like minion damage, concentrated effect, fire penetration etc also apply to the damage of the exploding enemy corpses.
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" i remember wondering if the explosion on mon'tregul could be applied from the MI explosion, but forgot to snoop around for it. Either way gonna be completely honest the witch in question isn't high enough level to use it. Appreciate the feedback though. | |
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Great idea, it is certainly an interesting concept for a zombie build.
I think you would have better results using the explosions to spread ignites around. I would suggest using a Blasphemy Flammability curse and linking your zombies with (in order of importance:) Minion Damage, Elemental Proliferation, Chance to Ignite, Fire Penetration, and Increased Area of Effect/Concentrated Effect (swapping out for bosses). If you end up using a Mon'tregul's Grasp, I do think that the explosions will be affected by those support gems. More testing would be required ultimately. These are very cheap items so they should be easy to acquire. As great as the damage from minion instability is, the area of effect is too low for a realistic clear speed. This is what the ignites are for, additionally minion damage should also scale the burning damage because it was applied by minions, though I could be wrong on that count. You should also have a stone golem with a similar setup. Golems can get a lot of life. If using Clayshaper, get two of them. Chaos golems have a little less life, but the 4% physical damage reduction is a nice boon. I recommend having one of each since their defensive benefits do not stack, though it's not as if they would be active for long in combat anyway. Another thought that just occurred to me is that it would be very tiring to constantly be raising zombies. It might be worthwhile to use two Heartbound Loops or, if you can acquire, Scold's Bridle to automate the raising of zombies with Cast When Damage Taken. Just a thought to go towards the dark art of necromancy. Light as a neutral force. The new flesh emerges. Last edited by Baronfuming on Oct 6, 2016, 5:21:19 AM
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all good suggestions baron, i'll mess around and see what works out best.
as a note, if i do the burns a witchfire brew sounds good, though i'll have to get another curse. |
