[3.11] Brittleknee’s SRS Necromancer - Reliable, Beginner-Friendly. All content. Harvest Ready!

[3.11]Brittleknee’s SRS Necromancer - All Content! Reliable, Beginner-Friendly.




Greetings, Exiles! I’m Brittleknee!

I started playing Path of Exile back in Harbinger League, and have really grown to love this game. Initially I started playing as LL SRS, but eventually settled on a Life-based version of the build.

In the past two years, there have been many changes to the base build that was released in Harbinger, from the nerf of MoM in 3.1, to the ascendency changes in 3.2 and beyond. As such, I’ve taken the many things I’ve learned during this time, and I’m dedicated to continuing to offer a updated and playable SRS build so that everyone who is interested in SRS has the opportunity to fall in love with the spell as much as I did.

Catch me Streaming on Twitch or in game as @Brittleknee!

Here's the Video Overview: Check it out here!
Outdated, but beginner friendly and goes into a lot of detail on mechanics. Update video coming soon(tm).

Here's the Written Leveling Guide: Check it out here!
This is for brand new players who would like to be guided through the entire leveling process.

Art by Dave Greco: https://www.artstation.com/dgreco


Harvest League Update

3.11 Harvest League Update

Hi, everyone!

SRS should actually shine a bit with this league mechanic, since interacting with your garden is your call to make. This means you can pre-cast all 20 SRS and annihilate everything that spawns.

SRS also received a buff on the tree in the form of the re-worked Enduring Bond notable. As of now I have no official recommendations for a Cluster setup for the build, as everything is relatively efficient as-is. I'm planning on taking the Thicc Variant through HCSSF later this league, so maybe then we can explore clusters a bit, since some of them are certainly more survival oriented (Life from Death, Enduring Composure, Blessed Rebirth) than a pure DPS upgrade.

Have a great league!
<3BK




Path of Building Links:

Covenant - Moderate Gear: (7.9M Shaper DPS)

"Moderate" meaning a 6L, 20/20 Gems, Lv. 3 Emp, Spider.

Covenant - Better Gear: (17.0M Shaper DPS)

"Better" meaning a +1 6L, Awakened Gems, Spider.

Belly - Tougher Version: (7.5M Shaper DPS)

"Tougher" meaning a 8k Life, 13k Armor, Endurance Charges, Stun Immunity, VMS, and considerable block.

I use PoB Community Fork by LocalIdentity and crew.
If you're getting an error trying to import my PoB's, this is why.
Learn more about it and grab the files here: PoE Community Fork





1.0. Introduction

1.1. Pros & Cons

Pros
This build can do all content. Every bit of it. Bosses, Mapping, Labs, MF, you name it.
  • Bosser - Has cleared all Boss content including Red Elder, Shaper, Uber Atziri and Uber Elder.
  • Mapper - No ‘Dead Mods’ to speak of. You can run anything. Reflect, no regen, no problem!
  • Magic Find - Achieves ~60%IIQ with 6k HP, capable of farming up up to T15s comfortably.
  • League Starter - While some necessary uniques are somewhat expensive, with patience this build is a viable leaguestarter.

Cons
This build does have some weaknesses that should be addressed.
  • Damage Halts - Bosses with powerful AoE (Phoenix, Shaper) can wipe out your SRS with a single ability and thus halt your damage. This is especially true if you favor Ruthless over Empower. It then takes time to get the rolling wave of skulls going again.
  • Ramp-Up Time - It does take time to build up 20 skulls, especially after the nerf to Mistress of Sacrifice. Sources of cast speed plus the increased duration of SRS makes this a bit smoother.
  • Minion Build - This is a summoner build. There is no leech, or life gained on hit, no endurance charges, and only a modest amount of life regen in order to help negate the life cost of SRS. Your only defensive layers are a moderate eHP and your ability to move fairly quickly between a extremely quick shield charge and flame dash together. You cannot plant your feet for long periods of time or face tank anything. You have to stay on the move.



1.2. Playstyle


As an all-inclusive build, capable of all content with just minor tweaks to gear/passives here and there, this is the perfect build for those who like to focus on just one character at a time. With experience with new league markets, it's possible for this to be a strong league starter as well.

Primarily a bosser, but can be played both as quickly or slowly as you are comfortable with. The goal is to get a ‘rolling wave’ of SRS by casting a few skulls, using a movement skill, then casting a few more. Over time you’ll master the ‘feel’ of sustaining the SRS wave, as well as have a better grasp of the aggro range of the skulls and how to best chain them through packs.

Like other summoner builds, you do not want to be ‘in’ on the action. Apply EE, maintain Fortify, and then keep your distance. High movement speed allows for easy evasion of choreographed mechanics and a high-ish health pool in end-game gear (~7.3-7.5k eHP) allows you to live through the stray hit here and there.


1.3. Origins


This build was born in Harbinger, and is an iteration of Huy's SRS necromancer, though almost completely unrecognizable at this point. The two builds have gone two very different directions. The inspiration for creating the build was the vision of a character that could do everything in the game. I picked up the build at the end of Harbinger, and have played it as my main in quite a few leagues since. I love this build, and I wanted to make sure the guide remained updated and relevant.

A lot changed in the last two years. Things that I couldn’t have foreseen without actually playing the character through the gearing process. This guide is my attempt to share with you all everything that I’ve learned so far, some of the problems I’ve run into, and how I decided to solve them.







2.0. Skill Trees, Ascendancy, and Leveling

There are two ways to level with this build in ‘ez mode’ - Red Covenant or Brands.

Red Covenant allows SRS to stay on a 4-Link with a significant damage buff, with reduced total skulls. This is amazing early on without any Elreon jewelry, and these helmets are niche and shouldn’t be more than an alch or chaos at Leaguestart. You can also use them on this 4-Link well into early mapping if farming for a Tab isn’t your jam. Don’t forget to use an Aurumvorax as your weapon since you won’t be able to wear Goldrim for resists!

Brands are, however, a very reliable way to level, and quite ubiquitous. 4-Linked Storm Brand and a 4 or 5-L Spire trap will get you far, but it will start to break down around Act 6 and 7 unless you prioritize getting Spiritual Aid. Then Minion Damage will affect your damage and Scale your Brand/Spire Trap.

2.1. Ascendancy Choices


Ascendancy Skills
While leveling, pick the Ascendancy skills:
  • Mistress of Sacrifice (The Labyrinth)
  • Mindless Aggression (The Cruel Labyrinth)
  • Unnatural Strength (The Merciless Labyrinth)
  • Commander of Darkness (The Eternal Labyrinth)


Above is a recommended order, but Mistress of Sacrifice and Commander of Darkness can be interchanged based on preference.

If you are wanting to be more tanky, drop Commander of Darkness for Bone Barrier.


2.2. Leveling Toolkit

The extensive written leveling guide is Live! Check it out here!
This is for brand new players who would like to be guided through the entire leveling process.

Leveling Trees










Whenever you get Victatio's in the leveling/gearing process, path this way Immediately.


Skill Gem Links

Main Attack Links

3 Link SRS - BRB
  • SRS + Melee Splash (Swap w/ Melee Phys for Bosses) + Minion Dmg


4 Link SRS - BRBR
  • SRS + Melee Phys + Minion Dmg + Melee Splash (Swap with Elemental Damage with Attacks for Single target/Bosses.)


5 Link SRS - BBBRR
  • SRS + Melee Phys + Minion Dmg + Minion Speed (Swap w/ Elemental Focus for Bosses) + Melee Splash (Swap with Elemental Damage with Attacks for Bosses)


6 Link SRS - RRRBBB
  • Trash/AoE: SRS + Minion Damage + Melee Phys + Empower (at least Lv3, if not, go with Ruthless + Minion Speed + Melee Splash
    Boss: SRS + Minion Damage + Melee Phys + Empower (at least Lv3, if not, go with Ruthless + Elemental Focus + Elemental Damage With Attacks



Other Gear Links

Feel free to use zombies/spectres/skellies as you level to fill in gem slots until you can get the gems you’ll need for end game set-up. Zombies synergize the best with the leveling process, as you will take both Puppet Master and Herd of the Flock which make them pretty tough, even on their own and linked to nothing.

The following is a list of the other gems used in the build and their minimum equip level. Note that some of these will be offered as quest rewards. Others, you will have to buy from other players or wait until you can purchase them from Siosa in the Library (Act 3) or Lily in Lion’s Eye Watch (Act 6).

Shield Charge Link:
Shield Charge
Fortify Support
Faster Attacks Support

Cast When Damage Taken Link:
CWDT Support
Steelskin
Increased Duration Support

Flesh Offering Link:
Orb of Storms
Flesh Offering
Faster Casting Support
Desecrate

Other:
Hatred
Generosity Support
Vaal Haste
Storm Brand
Carrion Golem
*Remember to only link Generosity to Hatred.




2.3. Pantheons


Major:
  • Soul of the Brine King - Make sure you get the bonus effects from the Divine Vessels.
  • Solaris is also acceptable.

Minor:
  • Soul of Ryslatha - When on low life with pantheon, this provides nice recovery/survivability but becomes insane when coupled with Blood of the Karui.



2.4. Bandits

In Act 2, Kill ALL THREE Bandits to receive two passive points from Eramir.


2.5. Build Overview & Keystone Explanations

Elemental Equilibrium
Elemental Equilibrium is an amazing damage boost for this build. SRS uses physical and fire damage, and we add additional cold damage through Hatred. This leaves lightning as the remaining element to proc the effect, and this build includes three different ways to do so. EE lasts 5 seconds at a time and can be refreshed as needed to keep 100% uptime.

You will know when EE has been properly applied to an enemy by the Pink/Purple/Blueish spell affect at their feet, which is seen below:



You will also see a written confirmation that EE is both active and attuned to the correct element when you see “Vulnerable to Fire, Vulnerable to Cold” listed on the mob’s affixes. With trash this may be hard to see, but with rares and bosses, you should be able to see this on mouseover targeting. It will look like this:





The first way we apply EE is through Orb of Storms, which can be taken very early on in the levelling process, allowing players to start dealing tremendous amounts of damage early on. Orb of Storms is a Cast-at-Player lightning skill, which leaves an area of lightning damage which will continually apply EE a to mobs within its effect. Later on, we'll switch to Storm Brand, though OOS is great to keep on hand for a plant-and-cull AoE effect to leave on bosses.

The second is through Shield Charge, which takes advantage of the ‘Adds x to x lightning damage on Attacks’ affix found on jewelry, or which can be enchanted on jewelry by Elreon when he reaches level 6. Shield Charge will deal Area of Effect damage at the end animation of the charge in a circle in front of the player. This AoE damage will apply EE to any mob affected by the AoE damage it causes, therefore allowing you to blanket a tightly packed mob group with EE all at once.



Necromantic Aegis
Necromantic Aegis is the other passive skill this build utilizes. It removes all bonuses provided by modifiers on the equipped shield and applies those modifiers to the player’s minions instead. This includes implicit modifiers such as armor rating, chance to block. In the case of Lycosidae, the ‘Hits Cannot Be Evaded’ passes directly to minions, thus negating any accuracy requirement whatsoever. In Path of Building this was shown to be an absolutely astronomical increase to DPS, far more than any other shield available, including Victario’s Charity.





Check me out on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee
All of my builds are here: https://tinyurl.com/y5vwayk2
Last edited by brittleknee on Jun 19, 2020, 2:02:20 PM
Last bumped on Sep 24, 2020, 7:30:06 PM


3.0. Early Gearing

3.1. Required Uniques


Grip of the Council
These gloves are best in slot for damage, due to the fact that they are in essence, a mini-hatred buff. By equipping these, your minions deal an additional 20% damage as cold. Unlike some uniques, they also offer a balance of other stats, including modest life, cold resist, and some strength. While these can be very expensive at the start of a league, they quickly fall in price and are easily obtainable within a few weeks for more frugal players.



Blood of the Karui
This potion is extremely powerful when combined with Belly, Ryslatha’s Pantheon, and passive tree nodes. It has the ability, when at low life, to heal you 8410hp over 1.67 seconds. This provides a tremendous amount of survivability, plus the instant heal to full life at the completion of flask effect is quite nice.



The Covenant
This chestpiece completely solves the mana issue that plagues SRS, once and for all by having ‘Socketed Gems are Supported by Blood Magic.’ So, instead of using mana to cast SRS, you use life, and with what life regen is build into the passive tree (and maybe Stone Golem if needed), this is easily sustainable.



Victario’s Charity
This Shield allows your SRS to maintain Frenzy and Power charges on themselves, which is quite the DPS upgrade. This way, you will not have to worry about keeping the Charge Monkey Spectres alive and can just focus on killing things!



Careful Planning
Easily solve the Dexterity requirement most Summoners face with one simple jewel. Careful planning, when socketed in the jewel socket west of the witch starting area, provides a total of 114 Dexterity if it is a +24 Roll.




3.2. End-Game Gem Setup

Chestpiece:
Summon Raging Spirits, Minion Damage, Melee Physical Damage, Empower, Elemental Focus, Elemental Damage with Attacks

Helm:
Cast when Damage Taken, Steelskin, Increased Duration, Precision (Lvl 1)

Gloves:
Orb of Storms, Curse on Hit, Elemental Weakness, Flame Dash

-OR-

Orb of Storms, Culling Strike, Flame Dash, Portal (If you have Curse on Hit Gloves)

Boots:
Shield Charge, Fortify, Faster Attacks, Carrion Golem

Main Hand:
Desecrate, Flesh Offering, Storm Brand

Shield:
Generosity and Hatred, Unlinked Vaal Haste/Haste.


3.3. Flasks


No need for a mana flask! Use whichever other Utility flask you prefer, such as a Basalt, Stibnite or Granite!



3.4. Jewels



Your priorities for stats on Abyss Jewels should be:
  • 1. + Life (40 or Greater)
  • 2. Minions deal x to x Physical Damage (converts better than Fire)
  • 3. Minions Deal x% Damage when using a Minion Skill
  • 4. Resists or Attack/Cast Speed



3.5. Crafting

Crafting Jewelry

Using a Essence of Fear on a ring or amulet will result in a minion movement speed affix. This is a huge quality of life improvement and works several ways synergistically with the build. It first helps by allowing your minions to chain between packs of mobs more easily, as this seems to lengthen their aggro radius since they can cover more distance. This contributes to the ‘rolling wave’ playstyle by limiting your need to resummon once you arrive at a new pack, allowing you to supplement your existing SRS as you go, rather than having to rebuild your SRS between packs. Furthermore, since this is a all-in-one build, faster minion speed means faster farming. It also means faster arrival time for your SRS to bosses which change positions during a fight, resulting in a higher DPS uptime.

Ideally, you’ll want high life (70+), a resist or two, and maybe a helpful stat such a Dexterity for a ring or amulet to be ‘good.’ But there are plenty of other combinations of stats which can also be useful, such as Mana Regen, + Mana, or even Rarity. A Screaming Essence of Fear will net you 19-22% minion movement speed per jewelry item.


Some examples are:


Crafting a Helmet

While crafting a helmet with an Essence of Loathing is not remotely required, freeing up some of your mana from reserve due to the recent nerfs to MoM can provide some wiggle room in talents, allowing you to skip some Total Mana % nodes in lieu of damage, or simply provide a larger mana pool in which to cast SRS and take hits.
Screaming Essence of Loathing results in a 3% mana reserve reduction, and scales up to Deafening, which provides 5% mana reserve reduction. Craft with what you can afford. A bone helmet with this essence can be an excellent starting helmet until the helmet enchant from Uber Labs can be acquired, either on a different Bone helmet, or until you are lucky enough to get the Enchant yourself on a bone helmet.

Some examples are:



Crafting a Sceptre

You can either buy the base, or farm it from a T3 Minion room in the Temple of Atzoatl. If you can acquire it form the temple, then it should only have the Minion Damage mod on it, allowing you to regal it for a 50/50 shot at the correct Annul. From there, multimod Trigger Socketed Spells, Minion Attack and Cast Speed as well. You may Add Lightning to Attack and Lightning to Spells if you do not have it anywhere on your jewelry for EE distribution.

Some examples are:










5.0. End Game

5.1. Final Build Gear

This character didn't end up as heavily geared as my last few, as I was working on other characters this past league. However, she will be the blueprint moving forward.

If I had had more time and money, I'd have gotten her a +1 Covenant and 21/20 Gems, and better Abyss Jewels.




5.2. Improving Further



Aspect of the Spider
For now, Aspect of the Spider has been chosen over Aspect of the Avian. It is more reliable and has a defensive aspect that cannot be overlooked. Due to the Changes in the Tree to support the change to the Covenant Chestpiece, you will have to both Craft a Mana reduction helmet as well as craft/purchase a Shaper Amulet with 5% Reduced Mana Reserved to make up for the fact that we no longer go all the way over to Charisma on the Tree.

Delving
I’ve been tinkering with a Delve-specialized Tree and have included it for consideration. It is not yet field tested. You can find that here: https://pastebin.com/wDQn0CP7
It changes over to Zombies & Spectres and gives up back some block.


5.3.GearSwaps/GemSwaps

Magic Find

With this build you can get around 60% IIQ with using Distillate. You also will end up with around 5.5-6.0k life, so farming T14-16 is extremely viable.

I don’t know how you’d work in Distillate with The Covenant, but it easy enough to throw on a Tabula. You might want to couple it with a 10% Shaper Quant ammy with just a touch of Mana Regen since you won’t be getting very much Mana from Distillate. May need to use Clarity as well.

Remember you can’t use Sadima’s Touch as it will mess up EE.


Belt Swap


Rampage is fantastic for clear speed since it adds damage and speed the higher number of stacks you get. You don’t have to reconfigure your gear at all to get the benefit from it, just swap in one of the two items start killing, then swap back to your normal item, and just keep killing to maintain stacks.


The Belt is probably the most common, but it does require fairly quick clicking.

Hall of the Grand Masters


For the most part, this build does great in Hall of the Grand Masters, with one caveat. There are a few Max Blocker exiles mixed in, and these can present a problem for the build. ‘Blockers’ refer to full aegis/regen/immortal block builds, which means that they can sustain their eHP when they get hit by quick attacks. Fast-hitting SRS will not be able to kill them. In this case, you simply swap in the Scorching Ray Setup to melt them down (since it does not ‘hit’), then switch back to SRS. The easiest way to accomplish this is to have a spare chestpiece so swapping can be done quickly, as the gems do differ and you may not be able to swap so many so quickly without dying.

Scorching Ray Links for HotGM:
Scorching Ray + Controlled Destruction + Elemental Focus + Empower + Burning Damage + Swift Affliction


5.4. Tough Version Loadout




Boasting 8k Life, 13k Armor, Bone & Flesh Offering with Stun Immunity and Endurance Charges, I have for your consideration a THICC version of the build that stays true to the original build's core ideals. The damage on the high-end of this loadout is also not inconsiderable. Its around 7.5M sDPS.






Check me out on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee
All of my builds are here: https://tinyurl.com/y5vwayk2
Last edited by brittleknee on Mar 13, 2020, 9:30:44 AM


6.0. Frequently Asked Questions

6.1. Frequently Asked Questions

Empower vs. Ruthless

The Ruthless plus Empower debate was a common one on Huy’s guide and I wanted to just take a few moments to write a bit about it. Yes, when you plug it all Path of Building it is more damage. If what you want to focus on is the most amount of damage, then by all means use Ruthless.

Since we’re pure SRS, some thought should be given to their survivability. If you go Ruthless and drop Herald of the Flock and Puppet Master in lieu of more gem sockets, you will end up with SRS that die very quickly. Even with both passives, Ruthless without a +1 can mean your SRS can be wiped out instantly by any powerful AoE.

Here’s an example from a T14 Plateau after changing out to Ruthless EVEN WITH a +1 Belly. Watch how fast the AoE drops the skulls:
Shaped Plateau

So, it shouldn’t be much of a stretch to see that losing the extra health from the SRS losing total level could complicate things. Without Empower there’s no way to really move to the ‘final’ tree with the 8 jewel slots for maximum damage. Things like Shaper and U-Elder wouldn’t be possible due to how fast the SRS would be taken out by AoE damage.

Either way, you can choose for yourself what works best, but that’s my official 2 cents. To me, I’ll take the hit in damage for better minion survivability.


6.2. Troubleshooting Common Issues

Survivability

With the ability to exceed 7.5k eHP fully geared, this build has the potential to take some hits. While being somewhat ‘tanky’ you should never put yourself directly in harm’s way. This build is meant to live through spike damage and rapidly replenish lost life through our life flasks.

There are a few things to remember when playing to maximize your survivability:
  • Life. When purchasing rares, remember +Life is very important, as the higher the base +Life, the more you get out of all your various multipliers, from your passive tree, to jewels, to Belly.
  • Resists. Cap your resists, and get chaos at least to 0%
  • Fortify.Ensure 100% uptime on Fortify. All you have to do is hit. Aim for outliers to the pack. Charge quickly to the boss, then through them to their backside. Shield charge + Faster Attacks + Flesh Offering gives you plenty of mobility. With finesse you can maintain your fortify and minimize the danger you put yourself in to do so.
  • Flask. If you’re pushing into higher content and are having a difficult time, work in a Basalt Flask and use it accordingly. Keep a Basalt of each element type (Heat, Dousing, Grounding) to use depending on boss damage or map mods. Even Dabble with a Rumi’s if you’d like. Find what works for you.
  • Jewels. Yes, perfect jewels will cost anywhere from 2-6 ex. However, don’t be afraid to, early on, if your damage is good but you’re dying, to invest in some resist and life% jewels without the minion damage. You can potentially get two resists and max life %. These are usually substantially cheaper and can be a good placeholder until you can save up for or craft a gem you’re looking for. Likewise a high health, resist, and %minion damage Abyss Jewels will be substantially cheaper than the Life, x to x phys, %minion damage jewels.


Edit:
After being featured so kindly by LNB, there are a lot of new people playing the build that may have never tried it otherwise. Similarly, there are a lot of people playing Summoners who haven't before. I feel like I need to clarify a few things here to keep repetitive posts from happening:

  • 1.) This is a summoner build. There is no leech, or life gained on hit, no endurance charges, and only a modest amount of life regen in order to help negate the life cost of SRS. Your only defensive layers are a moderate eHP and your ability to move fairly quickly between a extremely quick shield charge and flame dash together. You cannot plant your feet for long periods of time or face tank anything. You have to stay on the move.
  • 2.) This is a pure SRS build. Other minion builds will include meatshields such as zombies, have a tree capable of equipping Baron, have defensive spectres, or have the benefit of having specialized minion jewels and and can scale back tree-investment and focus on block (golemancers). SRS are non-leashed minions that don't taunt, cannot aggro, or body block. They can blind only with the addition of a Ghastly Eye with Blind on it.
  • 2.) If you are actively trying to gain levels especially in the 90+ range, understand that this may take certain sacrifices like rolling maps more carefully in order to avoid bad situations before you find yourself in them. You may also have to specifically avoid certain legions on the battlefield the same way if you see them spawn and know they are particularly deadly by trying to keep your distance from that side of the battle field. Similarly, knowing what mechanics that are one-shotting you (like Vaal guys ground burst) adapting a more defensive playstyle like moving every moment you possibly can to keep them from casting directly under you may be necessary.









7.0. Media

7.1. Videos, Gifs, Clips

I will create updated bosskill videos soon. Until then, here is a collection of kills from a while ago.

https://www.twitch.tv/collections/SMjjL484FxV9Eg









8.0. Credits, Updates, Changelog

Credits

People who have made this dream possible are:
  • iHuy - For answering all my questions when I was a newer player, for talking through some ideas and theorycrafting when I was more experienced, and for wishing me good luck on this journey of mine to strike out on my own.
  • Touchnova - For all of the hours of helping me with my design work. From my logo to my forum banners, his work has been professional and super clean. I cannot recommend him enough for any and all graphic design needs.


I’d also like to thank all of my followers as well as subscribers, in addition to those of you in-game on the forums who have helped me work on this build and recommend things to try and content to write. You’re all legends!

Previous Updates

Delirium League Update

3.10 Delirium League Update

Over the course of this past league, I put together and field tested a "tougher" version of this build for your consideration. There had been some concerns about the glass-cannon-ish nature of the original build due to the shift in PoE's focus to making content more difficult.

However, I didn't want to sacrifice the build's core concept which was a pure SRS build. I was not satisfied with just slapping in 4L Zombies and calling it good.

Boasting 8k Life, 13k Armor, Bone & Flesh Offering with Stun Immunity and Endurance Charges, I have for your consideration a THICC version of the build that stays true to the original build's core ideals. The damage on the high-end of this loadout is also not inconsiderable. Its around 7.5M sDPS.

A few of the new cluster jewels are interesting, but for the purposes of SRS, Ghastly Eyes in as Many Sockets you can path to is likely going to outweigh any considerable cluster chaining. However, you should endeavor to at least pick up Blessed Rebirth, as the 4 seconds of immunity is a huge QoL boost for SRS bossing, allowing the SRS to navigate from you to the boss and start dealing damage rather than get wiped out on the way due to arena/boss damage.

I've also included a spoiler with all the new notables I think are relevant to the build so you can keep an eye out as you level and pick up clusters.

Have a great league!
<3BK

Cluster Notable List

SRS DPS
=======================
Renewal
Minions Regenerate 1% of Life per second
Minions have 10% chance to deal Double Damage while they are on Full Life

Call to the Slaughter
Minions deal 15% increased Damage
Minions created Recently have 10% increased Attack and Cast Speed
Minions created Recently have 30% increased Movement Speed

Blessed Rebirth
Minions have 20% increased maximum Life
Minions created Recently cannot be Damaged

Fettle
+20 to maximum Life
10% increased maximum Life

Surging Vitality
8% increased maximum Life
Regenerate 0.5% of Life per second
Every 5 seconds, Regenerate 10% of Life over one second

Prismatic Carapace
30% increased Armour
+1% to all maximum Elemental Resistances

Militarism
30% increased Armour
8% increased maximum Life

Second Skin
3% Chance to Block Spell Damage
30% increased Armour
+3% Chance to Block Attack Damage

Enduring Composure
30% increased Armour
Gain an Endurance Charge every second if you've been Hit Recently

Flexible Sentry
3% Chance to Block Spell Damage
25% chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments
+3% Chance to Block Attack Damage

Rote Reinforcement
+20 to maximum Life
20% chance to gain an Endurance Charge when you Block
+4% Chance to Block Attack Damage

One with the Shield
Recover 50 Life when you Block
50% increased Defences from Equipped Shield
+5% Chance to Block Attack Damage while holding a Shield


Metamorph League Update

3.9 Metamorph League Update

ANNOINTS: Ravenous Horde, Influence, Golem Commander (Use Carrion & Earth/Chaos for defense, or Lightning Boi for the haste aura).

Per the patch notes, the loss of base movement speed feels a bit bad, but we can still prioritize this on jewelry. It would be neat if the new catalysts could augment it further? Call me a simply lady but I love some old school essence crafts.

The adjustments to feeding frenzy/minion damage are unfortunate, but far from anything to be particularly worried about. They could cut the end damage of SRS by 50% and we'd still be ahead of the DPS we did before 3.8 Minion changes.

Also, I'd like to casually point out that one can theoretically use 5 Awakened Gems in the SRS links, so I'm excited to know what that means for what our new top end is like for those whom are VERY dedicated to playing this build.

I also haven't bought a good convoking wand and all the good ones are going legacy, so I'll likely wait and craft this one this league with the new modifiers then update.

TL;DR The build is still as strong as ever.

Have a great league!
<3BK


Blight League Update

3.8 Blight League Update

Whewwww, lad. The damage SRS can do now is honestly kinda bonkers...

What an update this is going to be. We have been given so much this league, and it's so nice to have some pretty major updates to publish.

The passive tree and ascendancy changes are huge. There's quite a bit across the board to offer the build, and the damage is pretty decent. I never thought exceptionally-geared SRS would only be a few million short of my Scourge Arrow character... what a time to be alive.

Right now aside from Carrion Golem being a must (please read 'Notes' in PoB to know where to place him, for now we'll treat the other possible supports on a personal-preference basis. The mouse-over targeting behavior of SRS will be extremely nice, much to the point that with the higher damage, Deathmark might not even be needed for Atziri split phases and otherwise.

Feeding Frenzy definitely seems like an alternative to Unleash/Minion Speed as far as clear gem swaps are concerned, so make sure you play with it in your links and see what feels best for you and the speed which you like to clear at.

We are still a bit squishy, but now there's an alternative in the Ascendancy. Going Bone Armor vs. Commander of Darkness is completely up to you. You can also drop Shield Charge if you don't like the changed behavior on it for some 4L Meatshields. Damage is so high that you can drop Necromantic Aegis, keep your shield and put those saved points into some block and run a Rumi's if you prefer safe over spicy.

TL;DR The build is as versatile as ever. And as strong as ever.

Have a great league!
<3BK


Legion League Update

3.7 Legion League Update

Hey, everyone!

I am finally done with updating the guide! Huzzah! It really should have been done last league but I was distracted by writing the leveling guide, and for that, I’m sorry.

For now, I’m going to simply update the tree and the guide. The area near the Marauder’s starting area changed slightly, but this is not a big concern.

The major update here, is we have confirmation that the changes brought to melee in general regarding attacks and attack area of effect is indeed being applied to our SRS. Confirmation of such can be found here.

In addition to this, there are several new Auras and Supports being added to the game, and until I can sit down and do some practical testing, I’m not sure what is best to recommend. I am particularly interested in the Physical Aura, due to scaling. Physical damage is one of the most powerful tools we have to scale SRS’s damage.

It should be a fun league! I hope it goes great for all of you!
<3BK

Edit:
After being featured so kindly by LNB, there are a lot of new people playing the build that may have never tried it otherwise. Similarly, there are a lot of people playing Summoners who haven't before. I feel like I need to clarify a few things here to keep repetitive posts from happening:

  • 1.) This is a summoner build. There is no leech, or life gained on hit, no endurance charges, and only a modest amount of life regen in order to help negate the life cost of SRS. Your only defensive layers are a moderate eHP and your ability to move fairly quickly between a extremely quick shield charge and flame dash together. You cannot plant your feet for long periods of time or face tank anything. You have to stay on the move.
  • 2.) This is a pure SRS build. Other minion builds will include meatshields such as zombies, have a tree capable of equipping Baron, have defensive spectres, or have the benefit of having specialized minion jewels and and can scale back tree-investment and focus on block (golemancers). SRS are non-leashed minions that don't taunt, cannot aggro, or body block. They can blind only with the addition of a Ghastly Eye with Blind on it.
  • 2.) If you are actively trying to gain levels especially in the 90+ range, understand that this may take certain sacrifices like rolling maps more carefully in order to avoid bad situations before you find yourself in them. You may also have to specifically avoid certain legions on the battlefield the same way if you see them spawn and know they are particularly deadly by trying to keep your distance from that side of the battle field. Similarly, knowing what mechanics that are one-shotting you (like Vaal guys ground burst) adapting a more defensive playstyle like moving every moment you possibly can to keep them from casting directly under you may be necessary.


Synthesis League Update

3.6 Synthesis League Update

Hey, everyone!

I am working hard to finally bring this build guide up to date. My initial estimate of when I'd have the reworked guide done was a bit off. When I heard of the initial proposed increased mana cost, I started gutting large portions of the guide in lieu of simplicity. They then rolled back the mana cost and added increased accuracy, and now I have 2x the work I thought I was going to have. This means I will have to sort this out over the coming days the best I can.

I have been working mostly on an extensive Leveling guide as it was something that was requested, and it has been a huge undertaking (17+ pages). I am doing everything I can to finish it so I can move back to this guide and finish it as well.

If you're wanting to play SRS this league, then use the PoB below. The tree is far different than its predecessors.

Bear with me, the PoB link below was a test build I worked out once I thought there was going to be an increased mana cost. It's in average gear and I'm looking for a +1 Covenant and other things to fully optimize. It was smooth, and felt as tanky as the old Belly Variant, and I think it has a lot to offer for the future of the build. There is far more flexibility to it than previous builds, and I look forward to optimizing it further for delving, etc. Test runs on Shaper, Guardians, etc all felt.

I hope this will temporarily suffice! At the time of this posting the changes to SRS's accuracy increase has not been added to PoB to the numbers may look a bit low until then. Theoretically we should be able to get away with not needing Command of the Pit or Lycosidae. Worst case scenario is we add War banner to the mix. Best case scenario, SRS becomes the most playable it ever has been now freed from one of its biggest downsides.

THIS IS THE ONLY PART OF THE GUIDE THAT IS NOW UPDATED. THE SUBSEQUENT SECTIONS HAVE NOT BEEN TOUCHED.

<3 BK


Delve League Update

3.4 Delve League Update
Holy Minion Updates!

This is going to take me a considerable amount of time to fully update this guide in lieu of the changes. We now have options and choices for what shield we can use. Lyco is no longer a 100% requirement.

In the updated tree there's 150% Bonus to Minion Accuracy, and when combined with Command of the Pit's +1000 Accuracy rating, you are up to 92% hit chance on Minions without any further gear or talents on Shaper. Now, we know that Delve monsters will scale beyond ilvl 84, and late Delve spelunking may require a swap back to Lyco, but for a majority of players it is now a choice, not a requirement.

As for the Fate of Necromantic Aegis, it remains to be seen. For now I have continued to use it with Victario's Charity for generating Frenzy charges. For Hardcore players, you can drop it entirely and spend some time picking up extra life and utilizing a more Tanky shield to protect yourself.

The thing that actually makes me the most excited is that the changes to minion playstyle actually even out the playing field between the three body armors. In their PoB's, they all do around the same damage, or close to it, which means its finally and TRULY a playstyle decision when it comes to picking which one. Of course, a +1 Corrupted Skin is still the end all for damage, and always will be.

I will roll out full updates on the guide as soon as I am able, but for now I've changed the Path of Building Links below. I'll update this again when I finish updating the leveling sections, etc.

Happy Delving, Exiles!
<3 BK

Incursion League Update

3.3 Incursion League Update

So, this league is pretty fun! Nothing major outside of the vaal gem reworks affect this setup. Damage should hopefully and potentially be better with the constant regeneration of vaal skills, plus the introduction of using aforementioned vaal skills during the U-Elder fight will make that fight MUCH easier and require less gear swaps.

The consolidation of the vaal skills into a single gem with their equivalent uncorrupted skill gem will free up a few gem slots. I’ve updated the guide as well to reflect this. What to do with these suddenly free slots is up to you! As of now, I have no official recommendations, but this will likely change as I get into the league and test things out!

There is also a POWERFUL minion enchant on rares which come from the temple, which alone, outweigh the 70% The Scourge can give us. I’m thinking they will be great weapons to use until you can use The Scourge. To my knowledge the new rares can only have one "temple affix" so the attack speed + damage on the Scourge nets more damage than the temple rare, even with all that extra damage (there's a reason we use the Flesh Offering enchant rather than the SRS ones!).

<3 BK



Changelog


13 March 2020 - Updated for 3.10 and am adding a Tougher Version of the Build.
5 Sept 2019 - Update for 3.8 Blight, which featured a heavy minion rework.
7 Jun 2019 - Massive Build Overhaul, Dropping Support for Belly and Shavronne Variants
10 Jun 2018 - Build Guide is Live.
29 Aug 2018 - Preliminary Delve Update Done. PoB Updated.





Check me out on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee
All of my builds are here: https://tinyurl.com/y5vwayk2
Last edited by brittleknee on Jun 18, 2020, 2:25:36 AM
Great build guide. Thanks!
Hi Brittleknee,

Thank you so much for this guide! I'm following it now to some success (though i'm still only level 60) - would love some more videos if at all you get the opportunity to make them :)

Thanks
"
Kidkanevil wrote:
Hi Brittleknee,

Thank you so much for this guide! I'm following it now to some success (though i'm still only level 60) - would love some more videos if at all you get the opportunity to make them :)

Thanks


It's definitely on the ever-growing list of things to do!

I'm hoping to have the following videos soon:

Overall Build Guide
Leveling & Gearing
Boss Strategies
Check me out on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee
All of my builds are here: https://tinyurl.com/y5vwayk2
Sounds great, look forward to them! :)
Interesting thanks
"
Kidkanevil wrote:
Sounds great, look forward to them! :)


Here's the first!

https://youtu.be/6oHJcOixwvY
Check me out on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee
All of my builds are here: https://tinyurl.com/y5vwayk2
Uber Elder isn't too difficult using the Covenant setup.

I switch in Kaom's Roots and run 4 life flasks + onslaught flask. Also dropped lvl4 Empower for Ruthless.

Granted this is my standard character but I don't believe there is anything that cannot be acquired from Incursion.
Last edited by Eathb on Jul 7, 2018, 9:34:27 PM

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