[Harbinger] Sarah the Self-found Solo Summoner

I really enjoy the summoner playstyle, and not only in this game: played a lot of necromancer in Diablo II, mastermind in City of Heroes, etc. In PoE, there are three distinct phases to a summoner build: early on where you have to deal most of the damage yourself (or with weak short-lived Raging Spirits), mid-game where the minions are strong but fragile and need resummoning often, and late game where you let the minion horde run wild while you direct the chaos. I enjoy the challenge of the changing playstyle. Plus summoner builds are somewhat forgiving of lag and slow reactions/mistakes; often the minions will distract the enemies long enough for you to recover (and run).

My playstyle as a summoner follows three main guidelines:

1. Minions are stupid. No matter how good the AI programming, your minions are going to do dumb things. They'll run off and aggro stuff, they'll ignore the dangerous mobs to attack harmless rats, they'll get stuck and disappear behind you, etc. Thus, the trick is to minimize their opportunity to be stupid: summon them right next to the primary target, pull mobs into good terrain with minimal obstacles, etc.

2. Minions are expendable. If you die, it's game over (or at least, loss of time/XP/league). If a minion dies, you make another one. Obvious, I know, but it's very easy to fall into the trap of focusing on the zombies or golems or whatever, and forget to watch out for that backstabbing baddie coming up behind you. It's also very easy to focus only on the minions when choosing gear and passive skills. Don't forget your own well-being!

3. Minions need focus. It's pretty hard to play a reasonably successful partial summoner. Either you're all in as a summoner, or you don't summon. There are some exceptions, like the Flame/Chaos/Ice Golems or skeleton totems that can be useful to other builds, but as a general rule you want summoning to be your main focus. As soon as the minions are able to handle the damage-dealing load, the summoner can stop attacking and think more like a general than a foot soldier. It may seem cool to rain fire from the sky or throw out a blizzard while your minions are distracting the enemy, but in the long run splitting your focus between your own spells and the minions will lead to both being weaker. Remember, summoners don't need AoE skills...summoners *are* an AoE.

Sarah will be a Witch. Back in the day, you pretty much had to play witch as a self-found summoner since the important skill gems weren't guaranteed to be available to any other class. That's no longer true, since the gems are now available from vendors, but I still think the Witch makes a lot of sense. You start near Lord of the Dead and can get Minion Instability fairly quickly, which is great in the early and middle game (and can be respecced out once your minions start surviving all but the nastiest damage). Easier to access the rest of the summoning nodes than most other classes as well.

First off, a few comments on the new UI/basic gameplay stuff.

The new character creation screen is pretty, although I kinda miss the old "buncha people crammed in a ship's brig" artwork. Fit the theme of Act I perfectly. But I suppose this new one will be just as good for the new Acts!

I love the new mini-map! Especially the bit that shows what you've explored vs the limits of the map. No more guessing where to find that little tiny bit you haven't explored! Nice that zone entrances are easy to spot now, too.

Just to see what's new, I'm leaving the tutorials on. Seems much more user-friendly now than what we've had in the past. Especially nice to have them pop up in the appropriate context, like explaining support gems when you find your first one. For some reason, though, currency items weren't explained when I found my first one - that would be a good addition.

I really wish GGG would provide an option to turn off those stupid notifications about the first people entering areas. Who cares? I keep getting distracted, thinking something of actual importance might be happening. I know, it's only an issue in new leagues or races, but it's annoying.

The mouse scroll button now lets you move NPC chat along quicker. That may not be new, but I never noticed it before. Handy for skimming through to see if anything new has been added.

I'll probably have more comments as I play along, but that's all I've noticed in the first couple of hours.

A quick glance through the passive tree shows no significant changes in the summoning nodes. I'm sure there's some minor stuff in there, but it doesn't look like there's any reason to deviate from the "get Minion Instability first, grab minion bonus nodes, respec MI out later" plan that I've used in the past. So, the plan is to take the mana nodes to Deep Wisdom, over to Lord of the Dead, through Cruel Preparation, and then up to Minion Instability.

A bit of new artwork and a few monster differences (like skeleton archers) in the early Act 1 zones, but nothing significantly different. I found an Arcane Surge support gem in the Twilight Strand, which might have just been dumb luck or might be intentional (as a tutorial on support gems). Either way, it's useful on Fireball for the very early levels.

Picked up zombies from the Hillock quest, of course. At these early levels, I'm not seeing any real changes. They survive through a spawn or two, then need to be resummoned, and aren't very useful against tougher enemies. Pretty much as expected.

Found my first Harbinger spawn in the Tidal Island, using storm call. Looks like Harbingers don't leave corpses, which is going to be moderately annoying, but otherwise it wasn't a problem. I'm sure they'll be rough at higher levels if you don't have the right resists, though.

Went through the Mud Flats quickly, no trouble finding the glyphs. Not sure if they changed the range of quest icons on the mini-map or not, but it feels like they were showing up a long way away. In any event, it was easy to spot them.

Opened up the Submerged Passage and headed back to town to talk to Tarkleigh. Took Summon Raging Spirit from the passage quest, replacing Fireball. Nerf or not, they're still a great skill for a summoner.

Encountered Haku as I went back through the Mud Flats on the way to the Fetid Pool. First time I can remember finding him before Elreon. Got to work clearing the Pool, killing off another Storm Call Harbinger in the process. That took a little work since he kept running off and aggroing more skeletal rhoas, but retreating to a cleared area to finish him off took care of that. No trouble with the necromancer, through the usual method of stealing his corpses by raising zombies.

Killed a Flame Dash Harbinger in the Submerged Passage on my way to the Flooded Depths. Then a Righteous Fire Harbinger in the Depths. I'm finding no lack of these Harbinger guys in the early areas!

By the time I'd killed the crab in the Flooded Depths and the Brood Princess in the Submerged Passage, then picked up the Ledge waypoint, Sarah was level 9. That's enough to finish off the Lord of the Dead cluster on the passive tree.

Found Harbingers in nearly every zone the rest of the way through Act 1. In some cases, more than one. Going to be no lack of those guys to kill in this league, apparently.

Dreadwheels in the Climb are the first real new monster type I've seen. Animated angry wooden hoops, sure, why not? No stranger than zombies and ghosts, I suppose.

Nessa gave me a Minion Damage after reaching the Prison, and I also bought a Melee Splash. Hooked both up to the spirits, thanks to a BBR linked armor that I happened across. I notice that you can use (non-chromatic) orbs on items now without taking all the gems out, which is a nice little quality-of-life thing.

Picked up a prophecy from Navali while I was in town. Unfortunately, it was The Forgotten Soldiers, meaning I had to go back into the Climb to take care of it. Oh well, more XP isn't a bad thing.

Found my first strongbox and essence monster in the Prison. Helped Haku again, too. Beat up the Warden easily and hit the Prisoner's Gate waypoint. Took Clarity from the quest reward, and bought Spell Totem + Summon Skeletons from Nessa. The Skeletotem is a short-term thing for the next 25-ish levels. I'll be able to ditch it once the zombies are doing all the tanking, but until they're strong enough I'll need the skeletons against bosses.

I've also picked up an Orb of Storms, which I might try using in the later game once I pick up Elemental Equilibrium. One less gem slot needed than the Arc + Spell Totem combination that I've used in the past.

Prisoner's Gate was a bit of a pain, as usual, with lots of fire dogs. I'm not a big fan of their new artwork - the fiery-glowing version fit better in my opinion. Fought both Ungulath and The Burning Menace along the way.

Found my first unique in the Ship Graveyard Cave, a Fairgraves' Tricorn. Might as well use that until I start finding good rares with minion bonuses that I can 4-link. Killed off Fairgraves, and helped Elreon for the first time on my way through the Ship Graveyard.

Found the Cavern of Wrath waypoint, then grabbed Flesh Offering from Nessa for the quest reward. Most fights now consist of skeletotem, summon a few spirits, flesh offering, a few more spirits, repeat as necessary. Every few fights I still need to resummon the zombies, too.

In the Caverns of Wrath and Anger, Elreon made another appearance, as did several Harbingers. Beat up both of Merveil's daughters on the way through. Found a Ceremonial Strange Sinkhole corrupted area and cleared it, netting a Vaal Power Siphon.

Merveil wiped out the zombies pretty fast, but the skeletons kept her busy while I summoned enough spirits to take her down. Her second form was easier since the occasional squid swarm left corpses to resummon zombies and cast Flesh Offering. No drops worth mentioning.

A quick trip through the Southern Forest and Sarah entered the Forest Encampment. She's now level 16 and one passive point away from Minion Instability.

Into the Old Fields, where I was very happy to find a strongbox that dropped four silver coins. One of them was God of Misfortune, so I took a quick trip back to the Ledge to complete it. The others were all for Act 2 mobs/areas. The rest of the Old Fields and The Den went quickly, stopping only to help Elreon again.

Hit level 17 and picked up Minion Instability. Current passive tree. Next I'm going to grab Heart and Soul for myself, get the Death Attunement cluster (except the one 10% minion life node) for the minions, then head south past Agility and Might on my way to the Gravepact cluster and Elemental Equilibrium.

Took a walk from the Crossroads to the southeast through Fellshrine to the Crypt waypoint. On the way, found Catarina for the first time. Back to the Crossroads and northwest, to the Chamber of Sins and the waypoint (newly located on level one). On the way, took out a Harbinger, Bravalo, Calaf, and the Black Death.

Finished off the Ascendancy Trial in the Chamber level two before beating up Fidelitus. There was a tormented spirit in his chamber, but it was down near Piety and disappeared before I could kill it. Picked up Desecrate from Greust for the quest reward, useful for making corpses when I need them. Hit level 20, finishing off that Heart and Soul cluster.

Third time setting out from the Crossroads waypoint, north to the Broken Bridge. Helped Catarina again on the way, and cleared out an undead army for a prophecy. Not much of an army, really - mine's bigger. All the new bandit rewards are pretty nice, but compared to two more passive skill points...just kill 'em all.

Onward through the Riverways, west to the Western Forest. Those broken bridges reminded me that I haven't grabbed a movement gem yet, so I stopped by Act 1 to pick up a Lightning Warp. Nothing in the Riverways of interest besides a couple of Harbingers, but the Western Forest was pretty full: Alira, the Echo of Doedre from a prophecy, and Captain Arteri. Then into the Weaver's Lair to kill the spider, uneventful other than another Harbinger.

Found a nice iron mask with +1 to minion gems and both fire and lightning resists, though it only has two sockets and it's not worth wasting orbs to get three. Still, should be good for a while. Put the zombies in it, with a Melee Physical Damage support.

I have enough shards from Harbinger kills now for an Orb of Binding, which looks like a nice item. Four-link and rare in a single item should be handy, assuming my rare mods don't completely suck. But I'm not a big fan of all these shard drops in general, clutters up the inventory. I get that GGG wants players to see results from each Harbinger kill, but adding more inventory items is a poor way to do it. I'd much rather have a 1-in-5 or 1-in-10 chance of getting the actual orb, rather than seeing 2-3 shards drop every time. Or if we must keep the shards, maybe some additional shard-only inventory slots that you can pop up in a separate UI panel.

North from the Riverways into the Wetlands, where I killed off Oak and the tree. Helped Elreon on the way. The two skill points from the bandit quest finished off the Death Attunement cluster. Too early for the +1 spectre to do me any good, I know, but it'll be useful eventually and 8% attack speed is nice for the minions.

Side trip to the Crypt before heading into the Vaal Ruins. Nothing particularly noteworthy: cleared the Ascendancy Trial, killed a couple of Harbingers, helped Catarina, beat up the Archbishop. Found my first Chaos Orb, hopefully of many to come. Took Survival Instincts from Yeena for the quest, will slot that once I get the jewel slot on my way to Gravepact.

Now for some Vaal fun, through the Ruins into the Northern Forest. I see there's been no effort to shorten the Vaal Ruins zone, still long and twisty, but I found my way through eventually. Made a side trip to the Dread Thicket while I was in the forest, but found nothing of interest. Killed off Tailslinger, then into the Caverns. Just a couple of Harbingers in my way to the Pyramid.

Climbed the Pyramid without meeting anything more dangerous than a couple of Harbingers. Stopped to help Catarina again, then took the horde up to the pyramid apex and smote the Oversoul. It summoned one set of minions, threw around some ice, and was dead. No useful drops, sadly. But Sarah did make level 27, and grabbed that jewel node so I can put Survival Instincts to use.

There's still one Act 2 prophecy left in my list, to beat up a rare Oak's Devoted. So I went back to the Wetlands to find one. Had to go back a couple of times, but eventually found one. Dropped a Roth's Reach unique recurve bow, useless for Sarah but seems nice for a leveling archer. While I was there, killed my first two rogue exiles - Eoin Greyfur and Torr Olgosso.

Also helped Catarina again in that process, getting her to level 3. Hideout time! Set it up with workbenches from the three masters I have so far (Catarina, Elreon, Haku) and did daily missions for Catarina and Elreon.

Onward to Act 3! Breezed through the City of Sarn, just two Harbingers and the Guard Captain as far as notable fights. Entered the Sarn Encampment, and was midly disappointed to find that no one has built a bridge from the entrance to the waypoint.

Picked up a silver coin along the way, so I sought another prophecy...which is again back in Act 2. Bleh. Back to the Western Forest, killed off the Echo of Doedre again. She dropped several rares, but nothing useful.

OK, now we can get back to forward progress. Nothing of note as I went through the Slums to the Crematorium waypoint. Had to slow down a bit in the Crematorium itself as I went through the Ascendancy Trial and then faced Hatebeat, a Harbinger, and Piety. No real challenge to any of them, though, as the horde's damage just overwhelmed them.

All the fire did prompt me to look at my resistances, though, and move some items around. Can't max them out with my current gear options, but 71/45/69 should be fine for now.

With the quest reward from Maramoa, picked up Convocation. Bought Hatred, useful now and later on to be enhanced with Generosity. Also bought an Elemental Weakness, leveling up with Orb of Storms on weapon switch. Kind of thinking about doing Orb of Storms - Curse on Hit - Elemental Weakness later on. Or maybe Orb of Storms - Culling Strike - Item Rarity instead. Something to figure out later.

The Sewers section is so much nicer now with only one zone! Found all three busts easily, great to do that all in one place. Ran across everyone's least favorite Master (for missions), Vorici, and did his mission. Glad it was the easy kill-'em-all-in-a-minute version. Of course it was made harder by his target spawning right on top of a prophecy-driven Warband, but fortunately I'm overleveled and the horde mowed them down.

Into the Marketplace...no more Warehouses zone, hooray! Defeated a Harbinger using multiple skills, first of those I've seen, and found a Peregrine unique visored sallet in the process. Picked up Fairgraves' hip flask, didn't even have to go out of my way to look for it. Beat up Marceus the Defaced and grabbed the waypoint. Found a 4-link Silken Garb along the way, which I was able to alchemy into a useful body armor.

Side trip to the Catacombs to clear the Ascendancy Trial, no issues there. Then back to the Marketplace, where I found and cleared a Neglected Cellar. At this level, no real issues despite extra totems and slowed recovery. Found a Vaal Rain of Arrows and completed the first Plaguemaw prophecy. Moved along briskly to the Battlefront and picked up the waypoint.

Hit level 30 in that last bit and took Shaper. Here's the passive tree thus far. Puts me in position to take the Gravepact cluster, the Quick Recovery cluster, and then head over toward Herd the Flock/Puppet Master/Purity of Flesh. At some point I'll also swap Minion Instability for Elemental Equilibrium and probably also pick up Mind over Matter, but I'm in no rush for either right now.

Picked up the Ribbon Spool, then headed to the Docks since it was conveniently located close by. Ran into The Shipyard Terror and a rare Voidbearer right away, but the minions ate them without needing much help from me. Picked up the Sulfite, found Fairgraves and the waypoint, and then cleared out a Stagnant Canal corrupted area (Vaal Righteous Fire). Found Vorici, too, but he wanted his target kept on low life, and I wasn't able to keep the minions from killing it.

Solaris Temple next. Finished off a Harbinger and got an achievement for killing Harbinger summons, not surprising considering how many I've been seeing. Found the new waypoint in level 1, which seems to be a more convenient location. Killed the Seals and another Harbinger, then on to level 2. Came across my first Gemcutter's Strongbox, and got about half a dozen support gems, but none that looked useful. Beat up the Goddess of Purity and then found Tora. Strange place to meet a hunter, but it worked out fine as I just had to take out a few packs of corrupted beasts. Two of those packs were in the Eternal Laboratory, strange but not difficult. Turned in the spool and sulfite to Dialla, got a mediocre amulet from her and the blockage-buster.

Through the sewer blockage and into the Battlefront. I see Gravicius still hangs back if you don't walk forward onto the carpet at the top of the stairs, so I let the horde destroy his helpers first before triggering him. Easy battle, probably would have been fine without that little trick. No other interesting fights until I moved on into Lunaris Temple level 1, where Fleshrend was another easy kill. Kole was harder because he spawned right next to a Lightning Shrine and a rare Reanimator mage. They killed my zombies, but the skeletotem kept them busy and I used Flesh Offering to keep from having to worry about too many enemy zombies.

Went back to town once I hit the waypoint, and picked up Raise Spectre. Bought an Animate Guardian, too. I don't have room on my skills bar for either, so I'll have to do the same as with my auras - temporarily switch out a skill to summon them outside of battle. The Guardian isn't particuarly important, but as long as I have a spare red gem slot I might as well use him.

Lots of Tentacle Miscreations in the Lunaris Temple level 2, which make fine spectres. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they survived fairly well, only had to resummon them twice. I'm used to them being very fragile until later on when I have more minion survival passives and higher gem levels. The horde mowed down everything with little trouble, including Piety. With the quest reward, picked up Gravepact - finally another zombie!

Next up, a nice walk through the Imperial Gardens and the Hedge Maze. Helped out Catarina again and finished off the Ascendancy Trial in the maze. Picked up the Plum and took it to Fairgraves, who gave me a ring with a bit of life and resist all. It's not very good, but I'll still use it for now since it's better than the terrible magic one I've had since level 12.

In the interest of freeing up inventory space, I got rid of the key by opening up the Sceptre of God and going through the first level. Met one Harbinger and Caliga, neither of which was a major challenge. I still remember when Caliga was insta-death for a lot of people, glad those days are over! Convocation really shines in this type of zone, allowing me to avoid the chokepoint-of-death problem when the horde tries to get through doorways. Instead, I drop a skeletotem in front of the door, and then just run through and hit Convocation on the other side. Left the tower after finding the waypoint, will come back to finish it after the rest of Act 3.

Next stop is the Library. Picked up the waypoint, found the Archives, and gathered the pages. Along the way, defeated Tyrannursus Maximus and a Harbinger. Never did see Trinian, maybe he was off reading in a corner. Also found Vagan for the first time.

Picked up a new set of gloves, 4-linked with some fire resistance. I've decided that I'm going to stick with the Spell Totem - Summon Skeletons link for now, so I added Culling Strike and Item Rarity to the 4-link in the new gloves. It's not quite as good as it used to be with the lower number of skeletons roaming around, but it should still work to get last-10%-of-life kills with better rarity drops on big bosses and strong rares. While I was re-arranging gems anyway, also found a spot to link up Lesser Multiple Projectiles to the spectres.

That's all of Act 3 except the very end, so it's back to the Sceptre of God and up to face Dominus. I suppose I could do the Labyrinth first, but I think I'll come back to that after the first bit of Act 4. Hit level 36 on the way and grabbed Elemental Equilibrium.

I've played around a bit with Orb of Storms and decided I don't like it - range for the initial hit is too limited and I can't place it away from Sarah. So I'm trying Ball Lightning instead as my apply-lightning-damage-and-eventually-curses skill. It's more work than an Arc totem (with manual-cast curses) like I used in the Legacy league, but this way I get to keep the skeletotem to tank for me.

Also, I'm going to try keeping both Elemental Equilibrium and Minion Instability for now. No reason I can't have both, and since the minion death explosion is fire damage, they work together as long as I'm only dealing lightning damage. Since the minions will die a bit more easily this way, I'm also keeping Desecrate on my skills bar (no room for Lightning Warp so it goes on weapon switch) for cases where there aren't convenient corpses. Such as just about every Harbinger, for instance.

The Dominus battle was over very quickly. The waves of sub-bosses killed off my spectres and zombies, but the skeletons and spirits finished the job. They also handled the Dominus templar phase while I just threw the occasional Ball Lightning, summoned spirits, and stayed out of his way. Got the zombies back up to full strength for the Dominus demon-goat fight, which lasted all of about 3 seconds. A few rares dropped, but nothing useful.

Uneventful trip through the Aqueduct to Highgate. When I got there, picked up a prophecy which once again is back in Act 2. So, another quick trip backward, this time to the Crypt to kill off more Plaguemaw followers. Didn't take long and they dropped an Abberath's Hooves unique goathide boots, so I suppose it wasn't a terrible waste of time.

The horde enjoyed their outing in the Dried Lake, if kill speed is any indication. Mowed through swathes of enemies in no time. Voll lasted a few seconds and killed one spectre, but never came near Sarah. Picked up a Chaos Golem from the quest reward.

The descent into the Mines went smoothly. Killed off Pikerivet and Hammerstorm along the way; never saw Voidscream or the Burning Man. Didn't come across any other interesting mobs or areas, either. Quick and easy. With the quest skill point, finished off the Quick Recovery cluster.

This seems like a good time to take a look at the revamped Labyrinth. Definitely shorter, which I appreciate. I still managed to nearly die to a trap, impaled on those bleeding floor spikes when I mis-clicked and Sarah walked right into them. Had just enough flask charges to live through it. Found a Karui Ward unique amulet. Didn't have any real trouble with Izaro, though he killed both spectres and a zombie or two during each fight. As long as I kept Sarah out of his direct fire, the minions were able to knock him down quickly enough.

Ended up with three treasure keys, so a good chunk of loot at the end, though none of it ended up being useful. Picked up the Necromancer ascendancy class, of course, and took Commander of Darkness. The extra resistances will be nice when I hit the what-used-to-be-Cruel penalty after Act 5. Hit level 39 in the middle of the Labyrinth, too, and took Mind over Matter for a bit more survivability.

The horde rolled through Kaom's Dream easily up until reaching the grove of fire trees, which laid the smack down. Lost all the zombies, both spectres, and the chaos golem. Skeletons and spirits (and that plucky guardian, who almost never dies) finished them off while I ran around avoiding fire.

Kaom's Stronghold was a bit tougher because so many of the regular enemies there have area attacks. I stopped bothering to raise new spectres after the third time they went down, and even had to resummon zombies once. Sarah was never in any danger, but the horde was definitely taking damage. Kaom himself, once I reached the Caldera of the King, was a pushover. Lived just long enough to yell for Hyrri before he croaked. No worthwhile drops, so I just dropped off the Eye with Dialla and moved on.

On Daresso's side of the dream, found a strongbox guarded by Wilorin Demontamer. Killing him was good for an achievement. In the very next little pit area, killed off Steelchaw, Eyepecker, and Minara Anemina all together. Later I ran into a Flame Dash Harbinger in one of those tiny passageways between pits, and he wouldn't follow me out, so I had to keep pulling the horde back with Convocation so keep them from getting toasted. And of course there was Barkhul and his horde of dogs and roosters.

Most of the drops from all that were terrible, but Minara dropped a rare satin slippers with 20% movement speed - finally, some more speed! Unfortunately, those slippers have only one gem socket, and I'm out of jeweller's orbs. Eventually I'll be able to roll it into four sockets.

Took a side trip to my hideout for daily missions, and found a Ungil's Gauche unique boot knife. Then it was on to the Grand Arena, with the usual mass slaughter of wave after wave of gladiators and fire dogs. The three gladiators in the last arena area were barely a speed bump; the horde killed them so fast that Dimachaeri Cassius was the only one I saw. Daresso was tougher, doing enough damage to put down the spectres and zombies and even the guardian. The skeletotem came through again, though, tanking him and doing damage with the Minion Instability explosions while I tossed around Ball Lightning and summoned spirits. Terrible drops again, but the important thing is the Eye. Got Spell Echo for my Raging Spirits link from the quest reward.

Found an essence bearer in the Belly of the Beast, first one I've seen in a while. Essences are nice to have for when I come across white linked items. Right next to it was an Arcanist's Strongbox, which dropped a good amount of currency including a Chaos Orb. Found the Bone Queen and her horde of undead, but my horde is better and she didn't last long. Piety hit Sarah with the red ray of death briefly, but the minions killed her before she could complete a full turn.

Found a sage's robe with 5 sockets, 4 linked, and used that essence on it. Got a reasonable roll, so that's one additional socket to use. Also linked to zombies up to both Melee Physical Damage and Fortify, though I had to use a sub-optimal helm to get the sockets. Eventually I'll find a good 4-linked armor/ES helm; until then, this will have to do.

In the Harvest, all three of the gut guardians posed little challenge. I think one of them killed a spectre, otherwise no losses. Hit level 42 as I was killing them, just one point short of Herd the Flock. Malachai was a pain in the rear, of course. He killed zombies and spectres left and right, so again it was the skeletotem and spirits doing the work. I managed to keep Sarah out the real danger zones - the teleport/pop-up explosion thing, and the giant tentacle spam - and let the skeletons and spirits do their thing. No useful item drops.

Hooray, new content! The first four acts had minor tweaks, but for the most part it was the same stuff as pre-3.0.0. The only new enemy I remember seeing is those wheels way back in the Climb. Time to see what GGG has been working on so hard!

Pretty bleak-looking place, the Ascent. This is the first I remember seeing goat shamans that use ice, which make nice spectres. The vendigo guys took me by surprise the first time one teleported over and attacked Sarah, must be using Flicker Strike. Found and killed The White Death and a Harbinger vendigo, no special tactics required other than moving quickly if they flickered behind Sarah. I had to use the mini-map a couple of times to find the tiny little pathways leading between areas - those map improvements continue to come in handy!

Made my way through the Slave Pens fairly smoothly. The slave guys that throw those little bouncing fireballs are interesting, but they didn't seem to do any real damage when they hit Sarah. I assume Overseer Krow has some attacks, but I didn't see them since the horde ate him in seconds. I know he didn't kill any minions other than maybe a skeleton. There was a Harbinger right next to him that distracted me, but the horde had no trouble handling both.

Upgraded my zombies again when I bought an armor/ES helmet and used an Orb of Binding on it (followed by a couple of chaos orbs). No +1 minion modifier, but it has life and lightning resist. The helm now has Summon Zombie - Fortify - Melee Physical Damage - Minion Damage linked. It'll do until I find a really good minion helm.

Going through the Control Blocks, the main thing I noticed was that it's a long zone. Three or four of those long corridors where enemies attack from up above, which didn't bother me much since the spirits just flew up and killed them. Found the Miasmeter easily enough, again thanks to the mini-map improvements that showed it on the map from a good distance away. Justicar Casticus didn't pose any threat - he summoned a swarm of some kind but the horde was equal to the task. Picked up the eyeballs...ew...and moved on.

Got to level 44 along the way, and with that point plus the Miasmeter quest point made it to Puppet Master. Zombie posse is now seven strong. Still heading in the same direction on the tree, with Purity of Flesh up next.

Oriath Square reminded me of the Barracks, which makes sense thematically...pretty much the same army. Kind of neat how the occasional rebel will fight alongside you, once you take out the soldiers near him. Found the Matriarch halfway through and only lost one spectre in the fight. I like the spectral throw guys with the proximity shield as spectres, works well with LMP. Found a Jeweller's strongbox which was guarded by some rogue exile (died too fast to see which one). Not much else of interest found until reaching the doors and moving on into the Templar Courts.

Found Elreon in the Templar Courts, which seems appropriate...seems he'd be right at home with the monastary/church decor. Not much else but a few rares in the courts, so I moved right on to The Chamber of Innocence. The templars and prayer guys were out in force, gained almost an entire level clearing them out of my way. There was enough ranged and area damage that once or twice they actually damaged Sarah, but never seriously.

I was afraid Innocence would be a real problem for the horde, but it turns out they had little trouble with him. The light-beam-of-death did a decent chunk of damage to Sarah, but I just hit my Quicksilver flask and outran it. He didn't have any big area attacks that wiped out zombies, so they just kept on chewing up all of the various summonings.

I took the Violent Dead jewel for the quest reward, of course. It fits nicely into that socket where I used to have Survival Instincts. I actually want to use them both, so I think I'll use my next couple of passive points to pick up another jewel slot.

The way the zone art and enemies change after the Innocence battle is pretty neat. Plenty of fire and lightning damage as I went back through the Torched Courts, spread out enough that Sarah was taking some hits. No real problem as long as I kept moving, though. Killed a Harbinger and then Cato the Scholar of Light, dodging his light beam attack.

Moved on to the Ruined Square and picked up the waypoint. Didn't go into the Ossuary right away, though, instead went Utala hunting. Took out a Harbinger and essence-locked guy on the way. Found Utala after a good long walk, and knocked him out quickly enough. Took the Assassin's Haste jewel from the quest reward, although I'm not sure when or if I'll use it.

Wandered around a bit more and found the Reliquary. Pretty place, nice work on the decor. The little floating head attackers are amusing, although it's annoying that they don't leave explodable corpses. No encounters of interest on my way through the place to loot the three artifacts. The quest reward point went to get that other jewel slot, so I've got my Survival Instincts jewel in use again. Here's the current passive tree.

Next stop, the Ossuary. All the undead, all the time. Where's a cleric with Turn Undead when you need one? They came up with some strange ones in there, like the weird scorpion/spitter dudes. I like the new twist on chests with those remains drawers that you can open, nice little bit of flavor. No interesting spawns, so I just opened the Tomb of the First Templar and headed on out.

Took me a little while to find the Cathedral Rooftop, but I got there eventually. Not a big fan of the demon dudes that leap slam over the minions and hit Sarah - no major damage, but it gave me a bad moment or two. Outside of those guys, it was a pretty easy trip over to the Apex.

Kitava handed me my first death. Things were going swimmingly until the second set of minions were summoned and the horde was fighting them off. I'm not entirely sure what Kitava did, but some kind of big attack took half my life in one shot and then I was dead immediately thereafter. There was probably some kind of indicator I need to look for, but I didn't know what it was. Looking at a mechanics video afterward, I think it was the X-grasp...if I'd had a Cast when Damage Taken-Immortal Call link, it probably would have saved me. Next time! When I resummoned the horde and went back in, it was easy to finish up...the fight ended before I had taken any more damage. Not bad for the first time against an act boss. I don't think I managed only one death on any of the others during my first attempt!

I like the flavor bit where you're told that the -30% resistances came from Kitava's curse. Nice to roll that difficulty modifier into the story. I'm less happy that you don't get any loot from the Kitava battle, but I guess that's what you get for not actually killing the god and getting yourself cursed.

On to Act 6! Interesting concept, reworking the areas with upgraded quests and enemies. I definitely like it better than the old "same stuff but harder" approach.

Quick clear in the Twilight Strand, nothing really dangerous out there. As I'm sure was the intent. Hardest part was finding the one pack tucked into a little corner that I missed on my way to the unique guy at the end. Found a Ignomon unique amulet.

There were some strange moments in the Coast with the Searing Bond totems that pop up. They look a lot like my Tiki-skin skeletotem, which was confusing, and I sometimes would see Sarah had the burning icon and life going down even without any fire line visible on screen. Maybe she was burning from something else? Anyway, it seemed that I could never be sure if I was in range of one or not. Didn't much matter since the horde killed everything quickly anyhow, including the unique guy whose name I didn't bother to remember.

Rolled through the Tidal Flats and found Bestel's play. Riptide killed a couple of zombies and hit Sarah hard enough to notice, but just once. Also found a rare strongbox guarded by a rogue exile, but sadly nothing of use dropped. Took a belt from Bestel for the quest reward, but it wasn't as good as my current one.

Lots of area damage in the Mud Flats from all the Karui, including more of those totems. I lost a few zombies and spectres in several battles, including a Harbinger and the Matriarch unique. The skeletons and spirits were fine, though, and it's easy enough to resummon the others. Found mermaid Nessa and watched her swim off...I like that little bit of flavor in the quest line, kind of reversing the Merveil line from Act 1.

More of the same in the Karui fortress as far as fighting goes. Found Tukohama and took him out fairly easily, although it did take me a minute to realize I had to kill the totems around the outside of the arena. Other than dodging the giant line of fire from the big totem in the middle, pretty much the same as any other unique fight. Got my first look at the Pantheon screen - the Tukohama bonus seems worthless since standing still is a death wish in this game, but I look forward to seeing what else is out there. The skill point quest reward from Tarkleigh puts me just one node away from Purity of Flesh.

So the Ridge is the new Ledge, huh? Got a few wheels along with the regular skeletons. I think they look funny and are kinda hard to take seriously, but Fleetfreak was no joke. Charged through the horde and hit Sarah a couple of times, actually had to use a life flask! Found a rare Gemcutter's strongbox that dropped 12 support gems and a Vaal Spectral Throw. Not sure I'll use any of that but it's a nice little chunk of loot.

Here we are at the Lower Prison again. Doesn't look any prettier than the last time I was here. Definitely not a big fan of the Rattling Condemned guys that whirlwind around, moving right through the horde and often hitting Sarah. So of course a whole bunch of rare versions of them showed up...no real danger but it did keep me on my toes, dodging them as they went past. Went through the Ascendancy Trial easily enough, although the bleeding traps killed some of the minions. That never used to happen, so I guess the reduced effect of traps on minions must have been scaled back. Hit level 50 and picked up Purity of Flesh.

Climbed Shavronne's Tower, killing an essence monster, opening a strongbox, and clearing a Forgotten Oubliette corrupted area on the way. That area had Elemental Equilibrium as one of its mods, which is always nice since it has exactly zero effect on me. The boss was Coniraya, which I had to learn by identifying the corpse since the horde killed him while I hung back off-screen out of arrow range. Found a Vaal Lightning Strike. Found a Harbinger in one of those thin little bridge areas, which was a pain until I pulled the horde back with Convocation so he'd come out. No problem once I had a bit more room to work.

Shavronne was easy enough, just had to avoid her little lightning things and make sure to move well away when she did that big area thunderclap. I tried to pull the horde out of there with Convocation also, but I was a little late and she got one zombie with it. The lightning-enhanced Brutus bit looked kinda cool, but the horde killed him so fast that he wasn't much of a threat. That's par for the course with this build...as long as your enemy isn't spamming so many area effects that the horde is decimated (i.e. Malachai in the Black Core), they'll be eaten in short order. No drops worth mentioning, and the quest reward helm was pretty bad too.

Time for a few gear updates. I found a 10% quality Skeletons gem so I'm leveling that on my weapon switch. Bestel sold me a couple of unset rings that I rolled into rares with decent mods. That's the new home for Desecrate and Clarity. I added Generosity linked to Hatred, and Ball Lightning is now linked to Curse on Hit and Elemental Weakness. I also added the Cast when Damage Taken - Immortal Call link on a new shield (which I crafted from a white ceremonial kite shield bought in Act 5). That's five new gems and only two new sockets (on the rings), so I'm moving the LMP on the spectres plus the Guardian and Golem to weapon switch. I have 25% movement speed boots now but they still only have three sockets, and I'm still short on jeweller and fusing orbs so I can't really make the right links. Once I get the fourth socket there I'll add back in one of those gems. Here's the current passive tree and all my current gear:



Elemental resists are capped, chaos resist is only -10%, and Sarah has 1674 life and 394 ES. I could certainly use better life mods on my gear, hopefully some good drops will show up as I move along. My flasks are terrible at the moment, so I'll be looking to upgrade those along the way. I'd particularly like to find a Quartz Flask, it's handy when opening strongboxes.