Help with support gems for necromancer

I'm roughly following this build, but I've just come across a bunch of information with support gems and I'm wondering what you guys would recommend.

The way I'm currently playing is I'll always have the zombies for wiping out smaller groups, and before a big battle (or ahead of me to aggro the enemies) I'll place the skeletons as they're cheap to cast but do a decent amount of damage. During a battle I'll occasionally lay down skeletons if the numbers drop but otherwise fire as many raging skulls as I can while running around. I'll keep spectres up but I'm not particularly bothered about them.

Current links:
Zombies: multistrike, minion speed, minion damage
Skeletons: minion speed, minion damage
Raging skulls: spell echo, added lightning damage

I started looking up other things yesterday when I noticed the build used skeletons with a totem, and realised there was an awful lot more combinations than I'd realised.

Questions:
1. Should I use a totem for skeletons, or would it be better with raging spirits, since it'll cast a lot and I can still run around? Skeletons seem really cheap to create and I'll tend to put them near me to absorb damage.
2. How does a remote mine work with summons and is it worth using?
3. Multistrike seems really OP (3x damage overall) - is it, or have I worked it out wrong? The wording is a little weird
4. Is physical damage support pretty much always better than minion damage?
5. Is fortify support and melee damage on full life useful on raging spirits?
6. Should I be using splash damage, and on which minions?
7. Does minion speed really matter? 17% increased speed vs 45% increased damage doesn't seem great.
8. Should I be aware of any skills that might not be obvious that it doesn't affect a minion.

Finally, for each of the zombie, skeleton and raging spirits, what would be your recommended 4-6 sockets?
I also heard multistrike + melee splash + melee physical damage is best for zombies, is that roughly correct?

uhhh... um. you do realize that dudes gear is like 150+ exa right?

there is ton of things you can get way with when you have that kind of money that you cant when you dont so i am not sure why you would pick that one


Some things to consider.

multi strike is not a good primary gem for zombies if you are using them for trash clearing. zombies have an inherently low base attack speed and multi strike forces them to attakc the same target 3 times.. even if they kill the target in one hit .. they will still spend 2 hits smacking air.

minion speed is a universally terrible gem. the speed portion is decent as a start but not enough to make a real difference and certainly not enough to justify a gem slot


also you wont be killing much of anything with a bunch of 2 link and 3 link skills.



1 totem skeletons has one purpose .. distraction .. it is a purely defensive option and will do next to nothing for damage

2 remote mine does not work

3 multi strike is effectively 30% less damage but twice the attack speed most people maths it out to be a gain of about 30% dps but is is hugely situational.

4 melee physical damage support is never better than minion damage support

5 fortify is not useful on spirits , melee damage on full life is debatable since they are not directly targeted

6 you use melee splash on what ever minion is your clear speed

7 minion speed matter .. everywhere except as a gem. the gem is pure aids and needs a refactor. but minion speed on gear is extremely useful for clear speed

8 minions love elemental equilibrium , auras and curses



raging spirits need a ton of mana as a 4- 6l
zombies are decent but need a specialized build
skeletons are ok but need a specialized build

incorrect . the best gems for a 4l zombie are minion damage ,empower, melee physical , poison , multistrike/melee splash, faster attacks, in that order exclusively

Nope I didn't realise, but like I said, I'm roughly following it haha (I googled path of exile necromancer build and that was the main result). Just getting back into the game after 3-4 years so I'm following the general idea of the skill tree but making up the rest.

Thanks a bunch for the info anyway, I'll just reply to a few points if you can clarify them though :)

1. Should I probably just totally forget about totems for my current play style then?

2. Not arguing with you here, but if it doesn't work, why are there so many mentions of it being used? I know I couldn't find how it worked, but there were plenty of people who were saying it should be used.

3. If multistrike is roughly 30% increased damage but situational - if it's actually worth using it, what should I use it for?

4. I heard minion damage support was added % over the skill tree whereas physical damage support was a multiplied %. Like if you had 100 base damage and 200% minion damage passives, then a 30% minion damage gem will result in 230 damage, but 30% melee physical damage will result in 260. Is it something a bit different?

8. Why do they love elemental equilibrium? It looked like a semi useless skill to me unless you properly built around it

1. Its up to you. But later on skeleton totems are largely unnecessary in favor of just killing bosses/mobs fast with minions that deal much more damage namely srs, spectre, golems, animate weapons.

2. Have you checked the date of those posts regarding remote mine. It used to work but that was 2 years ago.

3. It is a nice boost to single target on something with substantial hp like endgame bosses

4. If you pay attention to the gem minion damage is actually more damage now and has the added benefit of buffing all kinds of damage, dots, phy, ele. Not just physical.

5. Elemental equilibrium is basically free damage for summoner type builds. Say your using your zombies your probably going to use hatred aura to give them a massive cold dmg boost. Hit them with lightning or fire damage and now they have -50% resistance to cold making zombies pretty much ignore monster's cold resistances. Minions cannot trigger EE themselves.

Does anybody know if the physical damage from chance to bleed support is added to minions or not?