[2.6] Elemental Animate Weapon SRS started four(five) aura summoner

Intro
I have been playing Animate Weapon Summoner since Talisman league and like the pure power it offers.
I spend some time to read other guides about AW and I picked what I liked to create this one. I am not sure if it is unique but after all its the way I do it.

Pros/Cons
Pros:
+ cheap
+ very nice damage
+ quite save to play
+ no 6L needed
+ grants five auras to your minions. A party may like this too

Cons:
- all your animated weapons vanish after loading to a new map/level/vaal area

Build description
The build is based upon Animate Weapon. This skill creates a floating weapon from identified weapons lying on the ground. To get a higher number of weapons around you its helpful to increase your skill duration in the passive tree.
Sadly all these weapon disappear when you enter a new area(map/level/vaal area). To get new weapons again I use SRS. The more weapons I have floating around the less SRS I create.
The usual Animate Guardian support increases the minion's damage.

Estimated changes in 2.6
The patch notes and skill tree for 2.6 are released and there are a few changes that will affect the build:
Not more than 50 animated weapons.
That may sound like a debuff but I rarely have more than 50 weapons animated. So I think it will not be an issue
Spirit Guards
This jewel allows to animate up to 8 ranged weapons and is limited to two jewels in the tree. The requirements are that there are 40 dex point available in the jewel radius. But you dont need to select these. So instead of using the SRS setup in endgame it would be possible to set up a second animate weapon skill for ranged weapons. I will loose the SRS map starter and need to get used to carry a few weapons into the new map. I will try it out and report the results here.
Victario's Influence
Really nice buff to this body armour. The included generosity gem is raised from level 1 to level 30!!! That means we wont need our own generosity and we wont need any links in the armour. Great stuff.
The reduced mana reservation is raised from 20% to 30%. That will allow another aura. I will have a closer look which one I will choose. Updates here....
Tree
The only changes in the tree that affect the build are in the upper left corner. The position of Zealoth's Oath changed a bit but its in our pathing so we wont loose any points. The socket near Charisma on the lower right side is already in the tree. Thats the first candidate for the Spirit Guard Jewel. The other socket we will try to get for Spirit Guard is right and below from Exceptional Performance.

To cut a long story short, the build is buffed. Only downside is the 50 weapon limit but I think its no problem.

Video
I managed to record a gameplay video.
Rare Catacombs map: https://youtu.be/Bk9WLQ1Ujo0

New to Animate Weapon?
Playing Animate Weapon is quite different to other builds you may have done in the past. It of course is a summoner build but your summons dont last that long and you need an identified weapon on the ground to create one. That is a mechanic you need to get used to. Especially your weapons disappear when you enter a different area(map /vaal area/master area/town). You have to plan ahead to have enough weapons around to survive in Wraeclast.
A good strategy is to have some weapons with you when you enter a new area. You can get free weapons at the Grand Arena Waypoint in Act 4. There in general are some weapon racks and only a few opponents around. Fetch the weapons and start your map.
When you finished the boss you will find normal weapons too. If you see blue weapons you may identify these and use them for starting the next map.
Breaches are a great resource for a restart in a map. If your inventory is filled and you need to sell your stuff at the vendor you can leave the map, sell your stuff and return having enough weapons around to animate.
I added a 4link Summon Raging Spirit(SRS) setup to the build to kill some opponents at the map start and get the first set of weapons from their corpses.
When you managed to animate about 10 weapons you won't need SRS any more.

Achievements
I killed normal Atziri.
I did the Uber Lab.
I killed the Breach bosses of Xoph, Esh and Tul
Did maps up to tier 10

Breach League
In breach league nothing changed in the tree. I decided to use Clayshaper for a second golem and Victario's Charity to generate Power and Frenzy charges for my minions.
If you are interested in my current char using this build check out my profile https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Sammas378/characters. The character Name ist masJuliet.
I tried a chaos animate weapon and I am not sure, if I did something wrong but compared to my elemental aura based char it didnt shine. So I stayed with my build.

Lab running
Well to be honest. Its quite easy to kill Izaro. Just collect some small weapons on the way (The filter highlights the small 1x3 and 2x2 weapons with a white border). Animate them and wait a few seconds. But the trap running without high speed and without life regen is quite painful. I did the Uber Lab and its ok to get the missing ascendency points, but its not that easy to farm Izaro for multi key runs.

Mechanics
- Mana
AW is quite mana hungry. So I took Eldritch Battery and Zealot's Oath to use ES as mana and recharge it quickly. The Stone Golem and life regen from the tree give the needed regeneration.
- Aura
Haste : speeds up my minions in movement and attack
Wrath : elemental Damage
Anger : elemental Damage
Hatred : elemental Damage
Clarity : only lvl 1 just for the bonus from Commander of Darkness
Vaal Haste : nice speed boost, it would be nice to find a free red gem slot tu use increased duration with vaal haste. The durations nodes in the tree increases the duration a bit.
- Vaal Summon Skeletons : great for extra boss damage and distraction
- Flesh Offering : combined with Ascendencies "Mistress of Sacrifice" and "Spirit Eater" its a good damage boost
- Desecrate : I use it to position my minions and to get some corpses for Flesh Offering
- Flesh Offering : I use this to improve the damage output of my weapons. I considered Bone Offering for defence but till now I have no problems if I have enough weapons animated (25+)

Gameplay
I start a map with SRS to kill the first opponents. I use Desecrate to create corpses for Flesh offernig and to lead my minions to the target. When I animated enough weapons I stop using SRS and try to create about 25-30 weapons at a time. Thats in general enough to clear the map. I dont pick up weapons to use in the next map.


Tree


Gems
Body Armour (5L6S):
Haste, Anger, Hatred, Wrath, Generosity
Convocation
I decided to put my auras into Victario's Influence. It allows me to use 5 auras. Where clarity is just used to gain the bonusses from Commander of Darkness.
The body armour gives +1 to my aura levels, increases the aura radius (10-20%), the aura effect (10-15%) and reduces the mana reservation by 20%(allows me to use the five auras).
After a hint from Kwitch I am playing around with 4 auras(removed Anger) and a six linked animate weapon(in my armour). I will report about it later.

Helmet:
AnimateWeapon, Minion Damage, Minion Speed, Melee Splash
You need 20% quality on your animate weapon gem. That will speed up your weapons significantly. Try to buy one with 15% or more as soon as possible to level it. You will find enough gemcutter's prisms to increase the quality to 20. And you can use the vendor recipe to create gemcutter's prisms.

I need to use my auras in my body armour. So the +2 to minion gem helmet is the best spot for my animate weapon. If you decide to use Jorrhast's Blacksteel you may add melee physical damge/multistrike/added fire/Weapon Elemental Damage to Animate Weapon.
Melee Splash is used to increase my AOE. For hard bosses its possible to exchange it with Multistrike. The disadvantage of Multistrike is that it attacks three times wether the target is dead or not. So for normal mobs too many attacks aim into the void.
I tried out totems to create weapons but I think the totem cast speed is too slow to generate enough weapons. So I changed back to self casting.

Gloves:
SRS, Spell Echo, Minion Speed, Melee Splash

Boots:
Raise Spectre, Animated Guardian, Minion Life, Minion Resistance

Main hand:
Desecrate, Vaal Haste, Flesh Offering

Shield:
Clarity, Vaal Summon Skeletons, Stone Golem


If you dont like Spectres you can change to Zombies as meat shields. And if you dont like Zombies too, use none of them. (As I do at the moment)

Ascendency
Mistress of Sacrifice
Spirit Eater
Commander of Darkness
Flesh Binder

Bandits
Oak
Kill
Kill

Flasks
Two Healing, one Phasing, Two Quicksilver. Thats my choice. If you prefer anything else, feel free to change it.

Jewels
Life and Minion Damage. Minion Resistance may help

Gear
Spoiler

Uniques

Leveling:

Lifesprig

Its an easy level for AnimateWeapon until you can use a Reverberation Rod. A second one or any +1 fire gem item would work for your SRS.

Matua Tupuna

Nice +2 to minion gems

Reverberation Rod

Change in this one for Animate Weapon. It gives the +1 gem level and an echo.

Lategame

For fast minions:

Queen's Escape

A lot minion movement speed and minion damage.

For many weapons:

Jorrhast's Blacksteel

Double the weapon count but they dont last that long.

For a bit safety:
Advancing Fortress

More block chance. Some life and ES. You may use whirling blades.

In any case:
Victario's Influence

That grants you your 4 auras based on life.
Goal is to get 5L6s to use your four auras with an explicit generosity

Victario's Charity

Power and Frenzy charge generation powered by your minions.

Essences:
With Essences of Fear you gain minion speed on your jewelry. Or you can increase minion damage on your weapon(s). That may be an alternative/addition to Queen's Escape.

Labyrinth Enchantments:
Helmet:
16% chance to create an additional Animate Weapon copy
24% chance to create an additional Animate Weapon copy
Animated Weapons deal 25% increased Damage(If you use a bone helmet the up to 40 % increased minion damage will be better)
Animated Weapons deal 40% increased Damage(If you use a bone helmet the up to 40 % increased minion damage will do the job too)
20% increased Animate Weapon Duration
30% increased Animate Weapon Duration

Boots:
found nothing of interest. Suggestions are welcome

Gloves:
Cast Word of the Grave when your Skills or Minions Kill
Cast Edict of the Grave when your Skills or Minions Kill
Cast Decree of the Grave when your Skills or Minions Kill
Cast Commandment of the Grave when your Skills or Minions Kill
All these will create additional attacking skulls.

Cast Word of Reflection when Hit
Cast Edict of Reflection when Hit
Cast Decree of Reflection when Hit
Cast Commandment of Reflection when Hit
These are nice to add some distraction with the created copy of yours.

Cast Word of War on Kill
Cast Edict of War on Kill
Cast Decree of War on Kill
Cast Commandment of War on Kill
Creates a copy of your aniamted weapon. Though I didnt test it I am not sure if my minions will trigger this.

- Animated Guardian
There are two items that grant auras to the minions:
Leercast: 15% increased damage to you and your allies
Dying Breath: 18% increased radius of curses, auras; allies gain 18% increased damage, 18% increased aura effect
All other item slots are used to gain resi and life


My Gear
Spoiler




Leveling
Spoiler
There are basically two options to level. First one is to use any boring power spell to kill your way up to level 60. But I recommend to start with SRS and AnimateWeapon right from the beginning.
If you like to switch from a boring power leveling spell at level 60 I have no idea what to use. I guess you know it better or may find it somewhere in google...
If you like to use all the fancy summoner stuff right from the beginning and see your skills improve and your power rise, use AnimateWeapon and SRS. All listed gems below should be put in any socket to level them.

Lvl 1: get Raise Zombie. Ok, you need any spell to get to level 4. Choose what you like from Fireball, Freezing Pulse, Lightning Tendrils or Magma Orb. It wont last that long.
Lvl 4: Hurray, your build starts. Get SRS and AW. Useful items are Lifesprig for AW and any +1 fire wand/sceptre/dagger for SRS. (Don't forget the +1 to fire gems vendor recipe)
Lvl 8: Minion Damage(2x), WED and Melee Splash(2x) become available. You need to decide what support gems you will use at the end, have a look at the gem section. Get them now and level these. You can support AW and SRS with Minion Damage and Melee Splash in the 3 linked one hander(Lifespring and +1 fire wand/sceptre/dagger). Since you have no auras WED wont help much.
Lvl 10: get Vaal Summon Skeleton. get Clarity and keep it on lvl 1. Its only use is to count as aura for Commander of Darkness. You may get another Clarity to help with your mana until you skill Eldritch Battery.
Lvl 12: get Flesh Offering and boost your minions as often as you have corpses on the ground
Lvl 14: you may get hands on a helmet with +1 to socketed minion gem. If you manage to 4L it, use it either for SRS or AW.
Lvl 16: get Desecrate to enable your own corpse generation. If you cast it on a group of monsters your minions will move there and attack. You can add a Flesh Offering on the new corpses to boost.
Lvl 18: get Minion Speed and Minion Life. If you have a 4Link you can use Minion Speed for AW and SRS. I never compared 4L with Minion Speed against 3l with +1 to level. Both work fine so decide yourself. If you stay with the 3L you should level the Minion Speed for later use.
Lvl 23: get a Matua Tupuna. That nice one give your minion gems +2 gem level. Nice stuff.
Lvl 24: get your Auras: Haste, Wrath, Anger, Vaal Haste. Buy Convocation and Temporal Chains. You wont be able to use all Auras at once. Start with Anger. Use Vaal Haste for tight situations. You will match the requirements for the Reverberation Rod. Thats a better choice for your SRS now. It adds +1 to gems and Lvl 1 Spell Echo.
Lvl 28: get Animate Guardian
Lvl 31: get Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance, Generosity and Increased Duration. You may link Increased Duration to Vaal Haste, Flesh Offering and/or Temp Chains.
Lvl 34: get the Stone Golem. The life regen is nice and you will like the ES regen once you took Zealot's Oath and Eldritch Battery.
Lvl 38: get Spell Echo for your SRS to put it in a 4Link later. Get a Queen's Escape if you like the minion speed. Check the variations to decide what you like most.
Lvl 44: get Jorrhast's Blacksteel if you like many minions. Again check the variations.
Lvl 46: get Advancing Fortress if you prefer two shields. After all the variation explain more.
Lvl 52: get Victario's Influence. Without alternative.

Tree Lvl 20:
Spoiler
Get to the Sovereignty Node to get 2 auras running and have some mana left for casting your spells.
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMAAN-K6QL-s1crvYJtGX0Ya9vsiiycES18g-vupwidrhpsNukkqhZv-tI=

Tree Lvl 40:
Tree Lvl 60:
Final Tree:


Loot Filter
Well, I took neversink's filter template and made my own focused on animated weapons and small valuable items. I hear all those streaming power poe player say its more efficient to only collect small items like currency, rings, amulet and belts and ignore the chaos/regal recipe.
You can merge this section into any lootfilter you like. When neversink launches an update on his filter I usually put this part into the animate weapon section in his filter. Here you go:
Spoiler

# this is for the bigger weapons. I animate these as I see them. You may like to add a sound then uncomment the PlayAlertSound lines.
Show
Class "One Hand" "Two Hand" "Staves" "Daggers" "Thrusting" "Sceptres" "Claws"
Rarity Normal
SetBackgroundColor 150 0 0
SetTextColor 250 250 250
SetBorderColor 250 250 250
SetFontSize 60
# PlayAlertSound 4
Width 2

# this is for smaller items. Easy to detect to collect them for the next level as initial weapons
Show
Class "One Hand" "Two Hand" "Staves" "Daggers" "Thrusting" "Sceptres" "Claws"
Rarity Normal
SetBackgroundColor 150 0 0
SetTextColor 250 250 250
SetBorderColor 150 0 0
SetFontSize 60
# PlayAlertSound 4
Width 1

# if you like the idea of ranged animated weapons, use this
# Show
# Class "Wands" "Bows"
# Rarity Normal
# SetBackgroundColor 80 80 150
# SetTextColor 250 250 250
# SetBorderColor 80 80 150
# SetFontSize 60
# # PlayAlertSound 4
# Width 2

# Show
# Class "Wands" "Bows"
# Rarity Normal
# SetBackgroundColor 80 80 150
# SetTextColor 250 250 250
# SetBorderColor 250 250 250
# SetFontSize 60
# # PlayAlertSound 4
# Width 1



Variants

Really fast minions:
When using Queen's Escape you get some fast minions. I like it that way. Combined with Essence of Fear jewelry and Flesh Offering and Vaal Haste you will be sure your minions are on some strange drugs you never heard of.

Really a lot of minions:
Using Jorrhast's Blacksteel grants you far more minions. They dont last that long.

Really some quite fast minions:
Using the Advancing Fortress gives you additional block chance and you may whirl around if you like that movement style. You have the standard amount but not that crazy fast minions for being more save.

Two Golems
You can use a Clayshaper to get another golem. I added the fire golem for more damage.


SC/HC

I have no experience in playing hardcore. So this build may work in hardcore if you play with some patience. Sadly thats not my style. I am too often too greedy to survive anything. If you like hardcore and want to try this build, just tell me if it works.



Disclaimer
I didnt invent that wheel. There are some guides about animate weapon. I took what I liked. Perhaps exactly whyt you read here is somewhere on the web. I dont know. If I did offend someone with writing this down the way I did, I am sorry. If I helped someone with writing this down the way I did I am happy.

So have fun and stay save.

After all the whole game are only some bits on a server far far away from your home.

Thanks
I want to thank those guys who worked around with animate weapon and the information they gathered and they made public.
And I want to thank Kwitch for his constructive criticism at my build. I hope his ideas and my changes improved it to a better read and a better play for you all.

Changes
Spoiler
2017-03-02 Added changes on 2.6

Spoiler
2017-02-17 Added a section for Animate Weapon beginners. Added some words to my body armour choice.

Spoiler
2017-02-16 Added some more infos to the guide concerning Kwitch's remarks.

Spoiler
2017-02-11 Added my first video link for a gameplay impression. Comments on Breach league.

Spoiler
2016-12-02 Changed tree to respec the starting mana nodes to int nodes shortcut.
Last edited by Sammas378 on Mar 3, 2017, 1:06:55 AM
Last bumped on Jun 28, 2017, 3:11:49 PM
first, did you find a dmg spreadsheet for animate weapon somewhere?. almost all builds(except some from older patches) use anger and wrath but not hatred.
since AW's dmg is pure phys, wouldn't hatred be the nr.1 choice?.

second, why did you took the starting mana nodes at whitch and not the ES ones?. your EHP becomes life+ES with mana being only an aura dumpster. increasing its value and its regen does nothing.
I never found any numbers. I just can tell that hatred increases clear speed, so I use it.

You are right about the mana starting nodes. Its a relict from leveling. At leveling you will need the mana bonus and as soon as you switch to eldritch battery you have no mana problems any more. Its not really required to respec the nodes. I seldom run in mana problems at endgame. Only when my golem dies.
was inquiring more for theorycrafting reasons. i most likely will play a templar AW.
i believe the resistance increases for minions/totems in 2.5 are a trap; sure they help but i'm thinking the bosses of elemental breaches will tear minions a new one ... (with weird ele pen bs probably) so i'll go for the defense counting on 1 - 2 purities.
if you also take into account the forever ignited map mod ..., i don't know, AW's have good dmg anyway.

i found this though https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1741922
"
As with any other skill, you have a base and you have multipliers. Animated Weapon base is whatever the weapon has plus added physical damage on the skill plus added damage supports, auras and so on.
That base is then multiplied by skill damage multiplier (204%), sum of minion damage and support gem increases, support gem multipliers and so on. Chaos damage will be affected by generic increases and multipliers but if you link something like Fortify or MPD that specifies physical damage it obviously won't work on chaos part of the base.
and i can figure out some math from there.

(+raics)
Last edited by kreca73 on Dec 2, 2016, 5:15:11 AM
Just tell me how you proceed with the templar AW. I had some internet problems the last days so I iwll start with the new char today.
Perhaps its a good idea to push the physical damage. I will play around with it.
I HAD PLANS! for some hipster things but they fell short of a totem for now.

i went with a guardian and leveled with SRS. the goal of the build was to play totems with minions. SRS in a +2 helm -> spell totem/SRS/minion damage/melee splash and AW in a 6 link(eventually) in either chest or main hand.
the missing totem is supposed to have spell totem/arc or ball lightning/curse on hit/<2 curses>(eventually). the totem will also trigger EE for my cold+fire dealing dmg minions but that means another 5L(i will probably settle on a 4 link on it thou but the problem that will remain is that it will unsummon one of the other totems).

i play BSC, currently lvl 82. the leveling(with totem srs) was mostly fine but i hit a brick wall around ~t5 maps; there was an acute lack of damage. i literally couldn't kill some bosses until i got another lvl on srs (from 18 to 19) and went full guardian mode with victario's influence and prism guardian(generosity+haste+hatred+anger for minions).
(edit: and also started using AW(16q gem) in a 4l totem setup)

Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAUAAE8EQ8hxTZrPQ2No8q9sC2HGrgxfHKdTpTwtg1-DzLc-QYf56ILHHb4zhwPu0_uofVqRaqwo-pituJMc3I8a6-6nCJ2uGmz3wY9GHRT60hcvZOdV1oCkZp5Y5bcxjHYqE1oro_IksJuh99eESFxrw21XyQ186rq0DMrTvoqhL5MnbAsi9G0ZEVA1uacr2VsbJUuu6QJ9GGvb7IpMs9Af7-tFfg5cavp_xsHF7Bhwu9kTL29GcYMJb57KSl-wm7WExcM6GYr7CfbaGo9RTKxHfVsqTT8nX5hZbc8ySsg=
lvl ~87 tree then go dual curse and jewels; most of the minion dmg will come from jewels. i'm capped on chaos res with a little over 6k ehp.

Edit: the thing with the totems is that you can lead(within reason) your minions with the totem placements.
Last edited by kreca73 on Dec 7, 2016, 3:22:51 AM
"
kreca73 wrote:
I HAD PLANS! for some hipster things but they fell short of a totem for now.

i went with a guardian and leveled with SRS. the goal of the build was to play totems with minions. SRS in a +2 helm -> spell totem/SRS/minion damage/melee splash and AW in a 6 link(eventually) in either chest or main hand.
the missing totem is supposed to have spell totem/arc or ball lightning/curse on hit/<2 curses>(eventually). the totem will also trigger EE for my cold+fire dealing dmg minions but that means another 5L(i will probably settle on a 4 link on it thou but the problem that will remain is that it will unsummon one of the other totems).

i play BSC, currently lvl 82. the leveling(with totem srs) was mostly fine but i hit a brick wall around ~t5 maps; there was an acute lack of damage. i literally couldn't kill some bosses until i got another lvl on srs (from 18 to 19) and went full guardian mode with victario's influence and prism guardian(generosity+haste+hatred+anger for minions).
(edit: and also started using AW(16q gem) in a 4l totem setup)

Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAUAAE8EQ8hxTZrPQ2No8q9sC2HGrgxfHKdTpTwtg1-DzLc-QYf56ILHHb4zhwPu0_uofVqRaqwo-pituJMc3I8a6-6nCJ2uGmz3wY9GHRT60hcvZOdV1oCkZp5Y5bcxjHYqE1oro_IksJuh99eESFxrw21XyQ186rq0DMrTvoqhL5MnbAsi9G0ZEVA1uacr2VsbJUuu6QJ9GGvb7IpMs9Af7-tFfg5cavp_xsHF7Bhwu9kTL29GcYMJb57KSl-wm7WExcM6GYr7CfbaGo9RTKxHfVsqTT8nX5hZbc8ySsg=
lvl ~87 tree then go dual curse and jewels; most of the minion dmg will come from jewels. i'm capped on chaos res with a little over 6k ehp.

Edit: the thing with the totems is that you can lead(within reason) your minions with the totem placements.


Bump bump bump guys i found Kripp's inspiration post for his secret build!
I've got to be honest with you. This is really lackluster.

There is not discussion about bone offering versus flesh offering. Vaal haste has no discussion for increased duration. your map clear of a tier 7 map took well over 5 minutes without any difficult mods on it. (p.s. your video has a very loud noise for the duration)

As an animate weapon player, you didn't bring weapons with you into a map. You did not prioritize picking up 3 x 1 weapon types and keeping them in your inventory, or prioritize weapons to focus on for animating. None of these things were in the guide either.

Your loot filter section shows what you add to neversinks, but you did not actually include your filter. If people are just going to download neversinks filter because you don't offer yours, why wouldn't they just follow an animate weapon guide that does?

What bosses has this build managed to do?

Summon spectres, SRS, AW, and desecrate.... so much going on in this build.

why on earth are you only using AW in a 4 link, when you are going elemental based? How could you not want to add fire damage to every weapon you make?

In the comments section totems are brought up as a method to cast your AW for you... but it certainly is not in the guide. Thoughts?

Lab enchants? You linked a lot of gear as 'ideas', but where is your current gear? Why wouldn't you craft essence of fear jewelry?

melee splash over multistrike? explain your reasoning? (Again, run your main skill in more than a 4 link)

I ultimately don't even think this is an animate weapon build. It just seems to be a generalized summoner. I can't even think of where to add it to the witch builds listing because I don't know what category to place it in.

Lots of questions. Yet to be answered.
Hot Flashes: poeurl.com/bPZT
Balance: poeurl.com/btzp
Shocking EleHit: poeurl.com/bZXo
"
Kwitch wrote:
I've got to be honest with you. This is really lackluster.

There is not discussion about bone offering versus flesh offering. Vaal haste has no discussion for increased duration. your map clear of a tier 7 map took well over 5 minutes without any difficult mods on it. (p.s. your video has a very loud noise for the duration)

I didnt mention bone offering since I didnt have problems with dying weapons.

"
Kwitch wrote:

As an animate weapon player, you didn't bring weapons with you into a map. You did not prioritize picking up 3 x 1 weapon types and keeping them in your inventory, or prioritize weapons to focus on for animating. None of these things were in the guide either.

I start a map with SRS. After a few monsters killed I use the dropped weapons to animate. It works good and I see no need in collecting weapons to carry into a new map. That mechanic is shown in the video as well. Only when I do a lab I collect small 1x3 and 2x2 weapons to animate them for Izaro.

"
Kwitch wrote:

Your loot filter section shows what you add to neversinks, but you did not actually include your filter. If people are just going to download neversinks filter because you don't offer yours, why wouldn't they just follow an animate weapon guide that does?

I included the part that can be used instead of the neversink animate weapon part. And this section can be copied to any other filter. I tried to explain, that I used my white weapon visualisation instead of neversinks. So you could take it and the current neversink filter variant of your choice to make your filter.

"
Kwitch wrote:

What bosses has this build managed to do?

I added a section called Achievements where I wrote down what bosses I did.

"
Kwitch wrote:

Summon spectres, SRS, AW, and desecrate.... so much going on in this build.

Sure, after all you can add variations to your animted weapons. I said that you can use zombies as meat shield or even (defensive) spectres depending on your personal taste.

"
Kwitch wrote:

why on earth are you only using AW in a 4 link, when you are going elemental based? How could you not want to add fire damage to every weapon you make?

Its powerful enough to use it on a 4-link. And I need the six sockets in my body armour for 5 auras. So I can only use a 4-link for Animate Weapon. My choice is to use aw, minion speed, minion damage and melee splash. That combination worked for me. Damage is not the problem in this build.

"
Kwitch wrote:

In the comments section totems are brought up as a method to cast your AW for you... but it certainly is not in the guide. Thoughts?

Yes, you are right.


"
Kwitch wrote:

Lab enchants? You linked a lot of gear as 'ideas', but where is your current gear? Why wouldn't you craft essence of fear jewelry?

I linked my profile in the guide. The crafting section is missing thats a point I will add these days.

"
Kwitch wrote:

melee splash over multistrike? explain your reasoning? (Again, run your main skill in more than a 4 link)

I dont use multistrike cause the weapon will be stuck in attacks after the target is already dead. And the melee splash is the aoe variant. I didnt have problems with single target damage as long as I have 25+ weapons. The melee splash could be exchanged with multistrike for single targets if needed. I will this info to the gem section.

"
Kwitch wrote:

I ultimately don't even think this is an animate weapon build. It just seems to be a generalized summoner. I can't even think of where to add it to the witch builds listing because I don't know what category to place it in.

As I play this build I am sure its an Animate Weaopn build :)). The zombie and spectre part isnt that important. And the SRS are only used to start into a map. So I think you can add it as an ANimate Weapon build.
"
Kwitch wrote:

Lots of questions. Yet to be answered.

I tried to answer your questions here. I will put these answers in the guide too.
And I really appreciate your criticism. It my sound like I am aggressively defending my build. But I just try to explain how it works and whats my fun about it. (English isnt my native tongue, so that may be a problem too :)) ).
And I am not sure if you wrote this after my last changes on the build description.
"
Sammas378 wrote:

Ascendency
Mistress of Sacrifice

"Your Offering Skills also affect you"
...

I didnt mention bone offering since I didnt have problems with dying weapons.
hmmmmmmmmmmm.

"
Sammas378 wrote:
Only when I do a lab I collect small 1x3 and 2x2 weapons to animate them for Izaro.
So add that then! For someone who is about to start playing animate weapon, it is a good idea to explain that this behavior is suggested for players following your guide to adopt. Animate weapon has a higher threshold over other builds in learning how to play it, which is why I have such high expectations for AW guides. It's not as simple for players to play AW as to socket in the skill gem and go. Play style is dramatically altered.

People don't want to make filters. Nuff said. Provide yours or don't, it's up to you.

My comments about so much going on with the build was not a compliment. I was suggesting that you tone down the number of things that it is doing poorly, so that it can focus on doing a few things very well. It would be very easy, for example, to move your auras to two different locations (If you're going to run your own generosity anyways for example) just to beef up your AW. You might consider this.

"
Sammas378 wrote:
I need the six sockets in my body armour for 5 auras.

Please understand that I read your guide, thoroughly, and my questions were the product of considering it for it's merits versus it's weaknesses. I did in fact see that you chose to run your own generosity in your chest to give your auras up to 19% greater effect, however Victario's Influence still produces some interesting restrictions and concerns for the build overall. Low defensive stats, allowing you to run a single additional aura, and already providing 20% increased effectiveness which you are ignoring. I never saw a good argument from you to keep your socketed gems in your chest for the +1 versus running your AW with actual damage links. It seems as if that section of the guide is strangely missing. 19% of Hatred, Wrath, and Anger for a combined total of 57% increased effectiveness does not defeat 2 extra support gems on your AW.

Increased duration alone would be substantially beneficial for your AW. Likely better than any other support you could add.

-- You don't have to have made the best build possible here, I'm just adding criticisms that I was surprised were not addressed or considered, or discussed. You have addressed many of them as I requested, and I am sure both your visitors to the guide and the work itself are improved by your further attentions. It initially didn't seem so much a build guide. That is the only criteria I actually filter submissions for. Thank you for your continued efforts.

*edit*
Would you mind if the title was changed to be " [2.5] Elemental Animate Weapon SRS started four aura summoner " ?
Hot Flashes: poeurl.com/bPZT
Balance: poeurl.com/btzp
Shocking EleHit: poeurl.com/bZXo
Last edited by Kwitch on Feb 15, 2017, 4:55:49 PM

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