[3.4] Minion Instability and Spell Echo?

... I've been working on my own blow'em up build.
I can't tell if the explosion is a spell or an attack. Also I can't tell if it even counts as a hit that can do critical strikes.
If you look at my pastebin pob:

https://pastebin.com/BK8vNNNb

You'll see that when I look at minion instability dmg for the summon skeletons skill: checking and unchecking spell echo gives an enormous difference, it looks better than fire penetration. I can't figure out why because I'm assuming these damages are for only one minion. The total life of the minion doesn't change.
thanks for answering!


I took my inspiration from this guy:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2173197
and the people that commented.

Thanks for replying!

I've done a skeleton popcorn build before and the instability doesn't repeat with spell echo, but you will summon twice as many skeletons which doubles your damage essentially because you have twice as many exploding. It is a hit, but I have absolutely NO idea how crit would factor in.

I did a zombie popcorn build a while back and can answer some questions.
Minion instability is a skill used by the minion. It is not a spell, but it does have the fire and area tags. This means that you can support your minions with area or fire support gems.

First off, don't go crit, but here's some info:
The zombies or skeletons has 0% base critical strike chance, but if you use increased critical strikes gem, you could increase the critical strike chance. The weird part is that though summon zombie/skeleton/whatever has a spell tag, the "spell" part is the summoning of the zombie. So the "socketed spells have +3.5% crit chance" mod doesn't give the zombie crit chance.

Another way to (indirectly) give crit chance is through assassin's mark. The curse gives enemies a chance to take a critical hit. Since this is an effect on the enemy and not the zombie, none of your critical strike chance modifiers apply to this percentage, but its better than nothing if you really want the crits.

"

Troy1191 - It is a hit, but I have absolutely NO idea how crit would factor in.

https://imgur.com/a/AYKYaCB

Hey if it's a "hit" would that benefit from immolate?

I crafted this helmet and considering making a popcorn skele build . . .

Link above:

Reckon it's worth it?