[2.6] Zombie summoner - 6 Big Zombies

@ 1 ... frankly i am not impressed with what i have seen from the changes. we get enough passive points to get what we need as witch anyway which means it all boils down to this

which ascendancy gives me more powerful perks


and so far all both the guardian and the witch nodes for the scion are just simple stat increases

they dont do anything cool like your offerings apply to you as well as your minions which is stupidly powerful and stupidly flexible

and an un changed commander of darkness is unmatchable it is considered one of the most broken ascendancy points in the game.




@2 i have a ci zombie build and this is the life verion of it i would do. regardless a key bonus to summoners and especially permanent minions is that you can summon other minions with them

so just doing zombies is rather pointless if you give up something easy and powerful

it is why you see spectres in this build .. because even if all they do is provide frenzy charges .. that is a ton of bonus damage for your zombies.




pure life based summoners that arent srs kind of suck. and life based regen summoners are the worst of all. most of the time they are budget builds designed to farm you the currency to transition over to hybrid low life or ci

as it stands the current version of es we are seeing going into 3.0 will probably be changed because its effectively unusable .. that being said even with the changes for life going in next patch you will barely make it to 6k life as a life summoner and that is with an absurd investment on the tree and belly of the beast.

and then you would need to invest points into life regen nodes ..

after all that nonsens you wont have many points for minion nodes.

it also doesn't help that none of the minion nodes are in the part of the tree with plentiful life nodes

all in all it is just not efficient to go regen based pure life summoner

So it looks like even though this build is pretty popular, there is not really a late game section.
Like for example: What is the definite best 6L setup for Zombies? Any other changes for late late game? Luxury Upgrades?

well there are the main stays

zombie (skill)

level 4 empower (l1)
melee physical (l2)
minion damage (l3)

the next links depend entirely on your setup...

do you use violent dead? if that is the case you will probably want increased aoe gem with a switch of conc effect.. because frankly the base oaoe of zombie slams is .. sad

if you want to save 2 jewel slots for some 3 -4 staters then melee splash with a switch multistrike is your go to


do you use an item that grants minions poison? if yes then:

do you have good minion speed? ?( anything below 100% minion speed is not good minion speed)
if you do then you could use faster attacks

if you dont then you probably want minion speed as your 6th

if you dont have poison on an item than poison gem is probably either your 5th or 6th link



luxury upgrades are a bit hard to nail down since this build already has so many uniques

your ammy is taken
your chest is taken
your feet are taken
your gloves are taken

that does not leave much space.

Why no multistrike gem?

Multi strike is a very clunky support gem.

in terms of clear speed zombies do enough damage to one shot mobs .. even while under the effects of melee splash. this holds true up the tiers all the way to t16 assuming you have proper investment.

at the same time zombies dont have a fast attack speed .. even with multi strike it is pretty slow.

so you end up with zombies uselessly slamming .. thin air for attacks 2 and 3 of the three attack multi strike.


this is also clunky for bosses that move as well for the exact same reasons.


its not worth the rather modest dps increase of around 30% .. 30% more damage with those kinds of draw backs is just .. no. noway is it worth it.




keep in mind that the current difficulty of the game.. it is very easy to get to dps levels that trivalize content so how things feel .. how smooth they clear .. far more important than raw dps.

This is also why queen's escape is probably the best unique for zombie builds .. just because 100% increased minion movement speed makes them feel that much better to play...

hell i would use queens escape over a +3 staff as srs .. that is how awesome 100% ms is

Isn't multistrike making zombie slam attack twice?
Just don't know what should I use instead of empower 4lvl

why would having zombie slam more than once be a good thing? against static objects that dont move alot .. sure multi slam is funzy. but summoners are already among some of the slowest clears out there .. especially zombie focused ones.... you dont need it being any slower.


there is no alternative to empower if you cant get level 4 then get a level 3 and save up for a level 4.

the combination of stats +levels gives is too important.

Thanks for the guide. It helped with a few things I wasn't too sure about.

"

Saltychipmunk wrote:

and an un changed commander of darkness is unmatchable it is considered one of the most broken ascendancy points in the game.

In the 16 months since Ascendancy released I have not once seen that node mentioned as "one of the most broken". Imho it is not even close to the top 10 most powerful single ascendancy nodes. But ok, to each their own I guess :D

"

Mecielle wrote:

Thanks for the guide. It helped with a few things I wasn't too sure about.

"

Saltychipmunk wrote:

and an un changed commander of darkness is unmatchable it is considered one of the most broken ascendancy points in the game.

In the 16 months since Ascendancy released I have not once seen that node mentioned as "one of the most broken". Imho it is not even close to the top 10 most powerful single ascendancy nodes. But ok, to each their own I guess :D

You do realize it is the single node powering damage oriented support builds right?


properly utilized that single node can provide 200% increased damage (of any type) and 80% increased attack speed/ cast speed and 20% all res to an entire party minions included.

show me another ascendancy node that can do that

"

Saltychipmunk wrote:

"

Mecielle wrote:

Thanks for the guide. It helped with a few things I wasn't too sure about.

"

Saltychipmunk wrote:

and an un changed commander of darkness is unmatchable it is considered one of the most broken ascendancy points in the game.

In the 16 months since Ascendancy released I have not once seen that node mentioned as "one of the most broken". Imho it is not even close to the top 10 most powerful single ascendancy nodes. But ok, to each their own I guess :D

You do realize it is the single node powering damage oriented support builds right?


properly utilized that single node can provide 200% increased damage (of any type) and 80% increased attack speed/ cast speed and 20% all res to an entire party minions included.

show me another ascendancy node that can do that

You mean for a support build, ok. Was only looking at it from the perspective of a strength stacking summoner. I stand corrected ;)

Different question: Best way to get high level Carnage Chieftains? The ones from the merc Old Fields can only take so much beating before they die in high damage maps.