[3.4] LL Classic Summoner - Shaper/Elder/Guardian Farmer

Just did core at lvl 73 and random low gem levels cause i just threw the build together and tried it
Only 7k es which is a bit low but i can get a crystal belt, lvl 21 discipline, prob a better circlet, more es on the tree possibly . i could see it going to 9k. hope it stays good in 3.0
edit: yeah i got 9k es now at level 90. in 3.0 i'll only lose 100 flat es from discipline and everything else will go legacy. still using bated breath too

HI,

I just breezed through the Patch notes for 3.0 and found two really interesting parts for this build:

"

All minions other than Raging Spirits deal more damage at lower levels. This damage bonus levels out to no change at minion level 70 for minions other than Raised Zombies and Summoned Skeletons. (Minion level is based on the level requirement of their gem).

Does this imply, we do not have to have high level maps to get high level spectres? At least this is how I read it.
Would be interesting, if a lvl 20 spectre gem really only produces lvl 70 spectres as implied by the level requirement. That would be a really heavy nerf.

"

The Necromancer's Commander of Darkness skill now grants 3% increased Attack and Cast Speed to you and Allies per aura (down from 5%), and 30% increased Damage for you and Allies affected by your Auras (instead of 10% increased Damage for you and Allies per aura).

With the increased damage from auras through the Ascendency Path itself (30% up from 15%), we would reach 60% increased damage with one aura compared to the 95% from 7 auras in the old system. Basically the additional benefit for each new aura after the first will be the 3% cast and attack speed (except of course the aura specific benefit).
Might this open up the opportunity to switch from LL to hybrid whith only limited losses?


There are ofc many other changes in the notes, but those two seem to be the most unexpected.

"

Geriun wrote:

HI,

I just breezed through the Patch notes for 3.0 and found two really interesting parts for this build:

"

All minions other than Raging Spirits deal more damage at lower levels. This damage bonus levels out to no change at minion level 70 for minions other than Raised Zombies and Summoned Skeletons. (Minion level is based on the level requirement of their gem).

Does this imply, we do not have to have high level maps to get high level spectres? At least this is how I read it.
Would be interesting, if a lvl 20 spectre gem really only produces lvl 70 spectres as implied by the level requirement. That would be a really heavy nerf.

This is not, how i read it. It says "This damage bonus levels out to no change at minion level 70". Our spectres before level 70 will be a bit stronger, possibly making leveling with them a bit more viable (i think raging spirits are still better for that, but we will see - maybe even skeletons worth a try?), past that there will be no change. A lvl 20 Raise Spectre gem does not produce lvl 70 spectres, the level of the spectre is determined by the level of the corpse you raised it from (unless they changed that, and i dont see any changes to that). unless they stealth changed anything about spectre mechanics this change is just a slight buff to spectres in early game.

"

"

The Necromancer's Commander of Darkness skill now grants 3% increased Attack and Cast Speed to you and Allies per aura (down from 5%), and 30% increased Damage for you and Allies affected by your Auras (instead of 10% increased Damage for you and Allies per aura).

With the increased damage from auras through the Ascendency Path itself (30% up from 15%), we would reach 60% increased damage with one aura compared to the 95% from 7 auras in the old system. Basically the additional benefit for each new aura after the first will be the 3% cast and attack speed (except of course the aura specific benefit).
Might this open up the opportunity to switch from LL to hybrid whith only limited losses?


There are ofc many other changes in the notes, but those two seem to be the most unexpected.

First, that last change is a bit unclear unfortunately, it says "The commancer of Darkness Skill grants...", however at the moment the node says "Auras you cast grant...". This is a huge difference, if the bonus is granted by the node, it is just a flat bonus, if it is granted by the casted auras, it is affected by aura effectiveness, which we do have a lot of (52% if i am not mistaken). i will see what exactly changed once 3.0 releases.

We also are running 6 Auras, not 7, since arctic armour counts as a self buff, not as an aura.
previosuly the node gave us about 90% increased damage and about 45% increased attack and cast speed, while the attack and cast speed is the bigger part. the attack/cast speed bonus will be at about 28% after the change, which is a significant nerf to the node without a doubt. however let me tell you the following:'
Even before ascendancy low life summoners where able to take down any boss in the game, even if they removed the entire necromancer tree exept for the "Spectres have 100% increased life" part i would not be worried about being able to take down shaper and friends. unless i find something like "oh, by the way we nerfed spectre damage by 80% at all levels" in the patch notes i will not worry about the damage part of the build.

you always had the opportunity to go hybrid, but you will be less tanky, will do less damage and will be slower in general. if you can afford going low life i do not see why you wouldn´t. yes, energy shield has been (or will be) nerfed, but as i explained in the part about 3.0 changes, this build has more to offer than just a raw energy shield number. loosing the purity auras would make the build significantly worse and probably also much more expensive to build to max out, since you will need to get a lot of life, energy shield AND resistances on all non-unique gear pieces, while at the moment you pretty much need a shav´s and the rest can be bought for for very cheap, since you just want a decent ES number and nothing else on the rare pieces, which might be even cheaper in 3.0 since a lot of the ES builds will not be viable any more (for example every CI build that relied on vaal pact).

What i gathered so far fro mthe patch notes were 3 things:

1) The obvious nerf to our ES pool (which replying to the guy earlier who said everything would go legacy also applies to your current Shav as i read it so no legacy item)
2) The change to the Commander of Darkess ascendancy node
3) A slight nerf to the basalt flask giving 15% phys dmg reduction instead of the normal 20% and a slightly shorter duration

We can always boost our ES by taking more ES nodes or improving gear wise so not too worried about that. Like xxWolf said the damage is still very good for this build so also not worried about that.
The third change although not good isn't huge either.

I rather would see they fix summoning specters when you log in. I thought that was a thing being looked at for 3.0 but i guess not :(

Just did some calculations, single target dps of fire-eaters (all 4 together) in 2.6 is about 2.2 million, in 3.0 it is about 1.8 million, i calculated without flesh offering, since we do not use it against hardest bosses. definitely a nerf (mostly because of the commander of darkness nerf, the damage increase indeed does not scale with aura effectiveness any more), but i do not mind needing an extra 5 seconds for shaper and friends.

I'm considering playing this in a party with a kb/barrage wander in 3.0; since the wander will probably provide all the clearspeed I should ever need, I figured I might as well focus on granting meatshields, aura support and single target. Also considering baron zombies for pretty much the same reasons.

Question: With the nerfs to commander of darkness making aura stacking not as appealing as before, wouldn't Victario's Charity be good instead of Prism Guard?

"

Fawkse wrote:

I'm considering playing this in a party with a kb/barrage wander in 3.0; since the wander will probably provide all the clearspeed I should ever need, I figured I might as well focus on granting meatshields, aura support and single target. Also considering baron zombies for pretty much the same reasons.

Question: With the nerfs to commander of darkness making aura stacking not as appealing as before, wouldn't Victario's Charity be good instead of Prism Guard?

I think it would be hard to implement a baron helmet into a low lofe build, especially with so many unqies required. of course you can make a baron build, but i suggest going for a life based summoner then.



About your question:
I did not decide to stack auras because of the Commander of Darkness node, the main reason to go Low Life is that you get the purity auras, which make you A LOT tankier and also prevents your minions from dying to heavy elemental damage (like Shaper Beam). Additionally the Copmmander of Darkness node is still rediculously good, it still grants you about 25% more damage with this build. Oh and unless i got something wrong frenzy charges should only work for attacks now, so spectres will not benefit from them.

"

xxWolf wrote:

I think it would be hard to implement a baron helmet into a low lofe build, especially with so many unqies required. of course you can make a baron build, but i suggest going for a life based summoner then.

Oh, of course. I didn't mean this build as baron zombies, I meant this one OR baron zombies. I might just start out as life based barebones summoner, then see what drops and go one way or another from there.

"

About your question:
I did not decide to stack auras because of the Commander of Darkness node, the main reason to go Low Life is that you get the purity auras, which make you A LOT tankier and also prevents your minions from dying to heavy elemental damage (like Shaper Beam). Additionally the Copmmander of Darkness node is still rediculously good, it still grants you about 25% more damage with this build. Oh and unless i got something wrong frenzy charges should only work for attacks now, so spectres will not benefit from them.

I think the charge rework was revoked; at least I can't see anything about it in the patch notes. They only mention power charges nerf (to 40% crit instead of 50% per charge).

Hm. Purities will probably go a long way to fix my teammate's resists as well. Allright. Was just wondering why everyone else seems to suggest nec aegis + charity and You don't =) thanks for the reply!

"

Fawkse wrote:

I think the charge rework was revoked; at least I can't see anything about it in the patch notes. They only mention power charges nerf (to 40% crit instead of 50% per charge).

Hm. Purities will probably go a long way to fix my teammate's resists as well. Allright. Was just wondering why everyone else seems to suggest nec aegis + charity and You don't =) thanks for the reply!

I did not notice the frenzy changes were revoked, thanks for the info! :D
nec aegis plus victario´s charity is a very good build, i actually played a lot of it before i put the low lofe summoner together. due to frenzies it actually has better clearspeed than low lofe version, but in survivability and boss killing low life outperforms it easily.

Thanks for sharing your build.

Would you mind sharing your progression and end tree as well?

I planned something like this as life based.

http://poeurl.com/bphI

And this as CI/LL version.

http://poeurl.com/bphA