{3.10} Speaker for the Dead | The Mass Minion Summoner | League Starter, Leveling Guide 💀

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Hercanic wrote:

With the Necromancer rework, minions like Phantasms, who didn't get much out of the original ascendancy, will now benefit from things like +2 levels.

Sure about that? Unnatural strength says "+2 to Level of all Minion skill gems". Seems as Summon Phantasms is a support, I assumed it would not get the benefit.

I've been brainstorming on using the new convoking wand for an additional +1 to all minions, seems to work w cyclone. Seems like it would give a lot to a build like this? Downside would be we might need to drop a minion though, not a lot of supports for zombies on wands. Zombies + meat shield might work for a defensive style build?
We don't have a lot of sense for a trigger wand I guess, with unearth and spirit offering on a CWDT.

@ NeoLearner:

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Unnatural strength says "+2 to Level of all Minion skill gems". Seems as Summon Phantasms is a support, I assumed it would not get the benefit.

All gems are Skill Gems. The difference you're thinking of is between Active Skill Gems and Support Skill Gems. Unnatural Strength should apply to Phantasms. For an example of when Support Skill Gems are excluded, look at Empower. It specifically says "+(0-2) to Level of Supported Active Skill Gems".

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Zombies + meat shield might work for a defensive style build?

Might. We'll have to see what the numbers are on its damage and defense.

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We don't have a lot of sense for a trigger wand I guess, with unearth and spirit offering on a CWDT.

Frost Bomb for -20% Cold Exposure, Cold Snap + Bonechill for 14% increased cold damage taken, Purifying Flame for 6% regen and 100% crit chance, curse so Mark of Submission ring isn't needed, Spell Cascade or Area Effect for bigger area.

@ everyone:
Blight's Development Manifesto has been released!

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Global Gem Levels
Caster oriented one-handed weapons will now be able to roll some new modifiers that grant +1 to all Fire, Cold, Lightning, Physical or Chaos Spell Skill Gems, not just ones socketed in the item (Sceptres will not have the Chaos Spell Gem mod available). Staves will able to roll a modifier that grants +1 to 2 instead, and have a rarer higher tier +3 modifier available. One handed caster weapons will be able to roll a very rare additional mod that grants +1 to all Spell Gems, and the Staff version of the modifier will grant +1 to 2 to all Spell Gems. These weapons will no longer be able to roll equivalent modifiers that only applied to socketed gems.

It's worth noting that these new modifiers don't apply to Support Gems.

Looks like you were right, NeoLearner. However, GGG is contradicting themselves with this. I hope they'll properly address this oversight or terminology change at some point.

In short, this means Unnatural Strength's "+2 to Minion Skills" will not benefit supports, most notably Phantasms. That really sucks.

EDIT: I overlooked the Spell distinction in "Spell Skill Gems", meaning the limitation shouldn't apply to Unnatural Strength. Phantasms should indeed benefit still.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Some uniques have been changed to apply modifiers to global gem levels. This is mostly the case on caster weapons, but some specific minion items like Bones of Ullr have also received this treatment. Bones of Ullr now grants +1 to all Raise Zombie gems and all Raise Spectre gems, instead of affecting the maximum minion count, as the additional maximum spectres modifier was too much power from a single item. Now, raising the level of these minion gems to a high enough level will grant additional maximum minions, so these modifiers are still useful.

Vis Mortis and the +1 crafts as well? This likely means Death Attunement also lost +1 Spectres, as well as most or all +1 Zombies/Skeletons on the tree.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Minions
All minions have had their Accuracy increased. The result of this is that a level 20 Raise Zombie, Summoned Skeleton or Raging Spirit will have an 80% chance to hit a level 84 enemy, if you have no minion accuracy modifiers.

Whew, I was worried Precision would become mandatory.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Golems have all been reviewed and adjusted, to make more varieties of golems have competitive levels of power. Chaos, Lightning and Stone Golems have been improved in various ways to make them more competitive with Flame and Ice Golems, as well as the new Carrion Golem. As an example, Chaos Golem has more Area of Effect on its Cascade, has 100% Physical Damage converted to Chaos, and its ongoing chaos storm now has "Spell Damage modifiers apply to this skill's damage over time", in addition to damage adjustments.

Nice, those golems really needed help. The difference between them and Ice/Flame golems was night and day, after all.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

If you're targeting a monster when you cast Summon Raging Spirit, the Raging Spirit created will attempt to attack that enemy first. If it can't reach the enemy or the enemy dies, it returns to its standard behaviour. This is still overridden by the Deathmark Support.

I talk about this in my reply to Rakio.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

The Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance Support has been changed to Elemental Army Support. It no longer applies to Totems, but lets supported minions apply a -10% Exposure based on their highest elemental damage dealt, and grants them More Elemental Damage. At higher levels it also grants more maximum elemental resistances.

Excellent. M&TER becoming Elemental Army is, for one, much easier to type out, and two, very needed to pull the gem out of its niche obscurity. I wish the Exposure were equal to the existing -20% Exposures, though, since they don't stack. But since non-minion builds can simply incorporate a golem with this support for hands-free Exposure, they probably didn't want to make it as strong as other options that take a little more effort, like Frost Bomb or Wave of Conviction.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Convocation's cooldown has been shortened, now that the Necromancer no longer has a notable that grants cooldown recovery to it. Its life recovery is now a percentage of maximum life, rather than a flat value, letting it scale to higher levels a little better.

I figured they'd do this, and the % regen was long overdue. The flat regen was a joke since its inception. Since we lost Invoker's regen, this'll be a big help.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Desecrate has had its cooldown removed, and now has a shorter cast time. It has a shorter duration and a lower corpse limit now, but this will make it a much more reliable tool for both Minion builds and builds that explode corpses.

YES! This saves us a socket on GMP Unearth! Every socket is precious to a summoner, so gaining one back is huge.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Offerings are now more reliable and easier to manage. They now have a higher base duration, gain an additional second for each corpse consumed, consume half as many corpses, and they have an ongoing marker over the player rather than on the ground, so you'll always know when they expire.

YES! I talked about Offering duration before, so I'm very glad to see this change. The visual being attached to the summoner is more clutter, but it's great to finally have a better indication of when it expires.

Offerings currently consume 1+8 corpses. Half of that, I imagine, will be 1+4, or 5 total corpses. This will align perfectly with Desecrate's 5 corpses. This would give a bonus duration of (5 * 1.5 =) 7.5 seconds compared to (9 * 0.5 =) 4.5 before.

They do not mention nerfing Offerings, so I assume they'll be doubling the effect of Spirit Offering to compensate (2% -> 4% life as ES per corpse). If not, then it'll be a hard nerf even with the buff to Mistress of Sacrifice.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

The Dead Reckoning Unique Jewel can now turn up to 15 skeleton warriors into mages, up from 5 and is now limited to 1. Using multiple copies of the jewel was an unnecessary cost for the power provided, and this should make the build more accessible as well.

Finally. The jewel investment was honestly way too much for what amounted to weaker random-ele skeletons that shoot such slow, basic, cluttery projectiles.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

There have been many changes to crafting modifiers that affect minions, including:

• A new Atlas-specific base type, the Convoking Wand, which has an implicit that lets it roll new Minion modifiers.
  
• Essence of Fear has been changed to match other minion bonuses, which means it grants higher values of increased minion damage on weapons.
  
• Incursion item Minion modifiers have been changed and improved.
  
• A new Elemental Resistance and Minion Elemental Resistance crafted modifier has been added.
  
• A new craftable Minion Movement Speed modifier has been added.

Nice! More minion crafts are extremely helpful in rounding out our minions.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Mana for Spellcasters
Mana Flasks have received a major review. Values have been adjusted, recovering more mana and having more uses available, so they're more reliable for longer encounters. We've introduced a selection of new modifiers for mana flasks, including a new "Enduring" modifier that lets the mana flask remain after reaching full mana at the cost of duration.

Whenever I played a MoM build, I always hated how big the gap was between Life and Mana flasks. So I'm glad to see this change finally.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Melee
We've increased the base damage of Multistrike, while lowering the bonuses for the second and third swing, so the skill is much less punitive if you only perform one or two attacks. Multistrike being cancelable is something we've decided to stick with, to keep melee characters more mobile. Multiplicative attack speed is very dangerous from both clear capacity and performance, so we're reticent to give a single support gem any more.

I am hopeful this will be a viable link for Skeletons when not using Knockback.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Ranged
We've also made some improvements to how all projectiles select targets when chaining. Previously, two projectiles from a single attack could attempt to chain to the same target, but only one would be able to hit. Now chaining projectiles won't attempt to chain to the same target unless no other targets are available, which significantly improves the clearing capabilities of Chaining projectiles when used with additional projectiles.

I wonder if this will affect monster chains and how dangerous it will be to summoners?

I miss the days of five-base-projectiles, high-damage Stygian Revenants and Chain. It's kind of frustrating that they, along with Undying Evangelists, still have Spectre-specific damage nerfs:

"RevenantSpellProjectileSpectre" Deals 1301 to 3035 Lightning Damage
"RevenantSpellProjectile" Deals 1951 to 4553 Lightning Damage

While Tukohama Vanguards were specifically protected against nerfs to the base monster, unlike Cannibal Fire-eaters more recently who lost significant cast speed with the 3.7 Act 1 rework.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Other Spells
Bodyswap has been significantly reworked. The most notable change is that you can target a living enemy to warp to their location, though the skill benefits from more area of effect and a corpse explosion when destroying a corpse. There are other mechanical damage changes that make it a more flexible and powerful spell, especially when teleporting around a single target.

Nice. I had just made a suggestion for improving Bodyswap, too.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Changes to various Ascendancies
...we've also changed the Guardian so he no longer grants specific bonuses to Herald of Purity and Dominating Blow minions, and have built the Crusade Slam effect into the minions themselves.

Great! Those bonuses never struck me as compelling for that Ascendancy anyway, so I'm doubly-glad for having them baked into the gem.

Purity is a nice addition to Zombies while leveling, and this just makes them that much better.

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Natalia_GGG wrote:

Other changes
Monster Accuracy has been lowered, as 3.7.0's accuracy/evasion calculation change resulted in monsters being noticeably more likely to hit a character with medium investment in Evasion. This change brings an evasion focused character back to the previous evade chance against monsters, though characters with low evasion will still be more likely to be hit than prior to 3.7.0.

Likely the reason for Spectres receiving a buff to their Accuracy bonus.

Hercanic,

Will you be able to edit main walktrough leveling guide or at least give us some short pointers when they release patch notes so that we can get to maps as quick as possible?

Hello!
I've watched your recent video https://youtu.be/cUFmr5Ou1Z8
and saw you say that you use Cyclone.
Can you explain how do you trigger Herald of Agony? And do you still use Ball Lightning?

@ Saint_and_Sinner:

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Saint_and_Sinner wrote:

Hercanic,
Will you be able to edit main walktrough leveling guide or at least give us some short pointers when they release patch notes so that we can get to maps as quick as possible?

I'll be providing as much as I can in the Roundup post. Unfortunately for build creators, we only get the patch notes 2 days out from League start like everyone else, and no chance to test until the day of release. So it won't be possible for me to rewrite the leveling guide so soon.

The main differences will be tree pathing, which of the new minion supports we incorporate when (Feeding Frenzy on Zombies and Skeletons ASAP), and Ascendancy order (by level 38 get Mistress of Sacrifice with L1 CWDT + L1 Desecrate + L8 Spirit Offering = fantastic defense). Given that early minions are being buffed, and this build already levels up very smoothly, it'll just be that much harder to fail at leveling.

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@ Singrave:

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Singrave wrote:

Hello!
I've watched your recent video https://youtu.be/cUFmr5Ou1Z8
and saw you say that you use Cyclone.
Can you explain how do you trigger Herald of Agony? And do you still use Ball Lightning?

Same as the main build: Ball Lightning on Cast While Channeling (w/ Poison Support affix gloves and +flat chaos damage Hypnotic jewel). Cyclone is a channeled skill now, and I'm actually preferring it to Charged Dash.

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Same as the main build: Ball Lightning on Cast While Channeling (w/ Poison Support affix gloves and +flat chaos damage Hypnotic jewel). Cyclone is a channeled skill now, and I'm actually preferring it to Charged Dash.

ahh, the Poison Support affix. thanks! i'm fairly new to game.
I've tried other summoner paths, but enjoy yours build mostly (4 days ingame thou).
I'm still with ball lightning + lesser poison and only in 5th act, but will start over in Blight.

So, "socketed gems supported by poison", am i right? Can you craft it or is it only on dropped items?

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Hercanic wrote:

@ Saint_and_Sinner:

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Saint_and_Sinner wrote:

Hercanic,
Will you be able to edit main walktrough leveling guide or at least give us some short pointers when they release patch notes so that we can get to maps as quick as possible?

I'll be providing as much as I can in the Roundup post. Unfortunately for build creators, we only get the patch notes 2 days out from League start like everyone else, and no chance to test until the day of release. So it won't be possible for me to rewrite the leveling guide so soon.

The main differences will be tree pathing, which of the new minion supports we incorporate when (Feeding Frenzy on Zombies and Skeletons ASAP), and Ascendancy order (by level 38 get Mistress of Sacrifice with L1 CWDT + L1 Desecrate + L8 Spirit Offering = fantastic defense). Given that early minions are being buffed, and this build already levels up very smoothly, it'll just be that much harder to fail at leveling.

You already answer me in a way..i was mostly concerned about gem links and maybe some items..rest is more or less = same.

So...when we see patch notes,if you update only gems to pick while leveling, that would be huge!

Thx!

Is it possible to play this build without Glorious Vanity on HCSSF?

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Saint_and_Sinner wrote:

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Hercanic wrote:

@ Saint_and_Sinner:

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Saint_and_Sinner wrote:

Hercanic,
Will you be able to edit main walktrough leveling guide or at least give us some short pointers when they release patch notes so that we can get to maps as quick as possible?

I'll be providing as much as I can in the Roundup post. Unfortunately for build creators, we only get the patch notes 2 days out from League start like everyone else, and no chance to test until the day of release. So it won't be possible for me to rewrite the leveling guide so soon.

The main differences will be tree pathing, which of the new minion supports we incorporate when (Feeding Frenzy on Zombies and Skeletons ASAP), and Ascendancy order (by level 38 get Mistress of Sacrifice with L1 CWDT + L1 Desecrate + L8 Spirit Offering = fantastic defense). Given that early minions are being buffed, and this build already levels up very smoothly, it'll just be that much harder to fail at leveling.

You already answer me in a way..i was mostly concerned about gem links and maybe some items..rest is more or less = same.

So...when we see patch notes,if you update only gems to pick while leveling, that would be huge!

Thx!

Yeah, leveling gems and passive point allocation alone is awesome.