[3.5] Rasgeroth's Soulblast: Uber Elder Viable Soulwrest Necromancer. (Detonate Dead/Spectres)

For this build, the first thing you have to do is to go watch too many Michael Bay movies, so you start thinking explosions are the coolest thing in the world. (For those who can't do without math, that's 1 movie.)

Second, and let me save you from the legal shenanigans, find out that explosions are somewhat illegal in mostly pretty much everywhere.

Third, log on to Path of Exile, create a Witch, follow this guide, and have your very own Detonate Dead build.

The build focuses on turning corpses into explosions, which then turns them into ghosts that follow you around and further kill things for you. You also have 3 Tukohama's Vanguards, because that many explosions isn't enough to keep things properly engulfed in flames. (You done watching that movie yet?) You also have Herald of Ash because special effects like in the movies are expensive, and if you feel lazy, you can press Vaal Detonate Dead so corpses around you explode themselves. (Ka-Bloooey, very boom boom.)

Here's how it looks:

The build focuses on making the best use of one of most dangerous and often overlooked threats in Path of Exile, corpses. It also makes Bameth cry everytime he shows up, and ever saw a green strongbox? Vaal Detonate corpses before it can, and you will see.

Thanks to Soulwrest, consuming any and all corpses is now an advantage for you. It turns each corpse into a Phantasm that has a physical spell that pierces, and you have two skills that can consume corpses. (Vaal Detonate Dead and Flesh Offering) This gives you a lot of life regen, which stacks on top of your life leech, which means you can play a bit carelessly as long as you can hit something. Add in Stone Golem for more regen, and three Spectres (Tukohama's Vanguards) to increase your single target damage. While Phantasms are deceptively strong on single target even without arranging your support gems for it, I like to keep them on area clear duty along with Detonate Dead, and watch my Boy Band Backup Dancers (TV's) to melt anything else that is still left standing.

You need this:

and one these:

for your vaal detonate dead. The best sixth link for the spell is Spell Echo, and Vaal version ignores it, so you can too. DD is there for area damage, and proc the leech, though thanks to Desecrate it can do respectable amount of single target damage as well. (The main problem for it there is the desecrate cooldown, not detonate dead or its links.)

Soulwrest creates one phantasm per corpse you consume, so Flesh Offering can yield them in batches of nine per cast. Vaal Detonate Dead keeps them at cap. (20 or 21, Depending on Gem Level.)

Supporting Cast Member:
Watcher's Eye, Prismatic Jewel You have two options here:
Anger, % Fire Damage Leeched as Life: The main choice, as anger adds both to our damage and to the damage of the phantasms.
Vitality, % Damage Leeched as Life: The secondary option, you will need a LVL 1 Blood Magic to get the Low Life for Pain Attunement. This'll get you some more regen, but a bit less damage.

Option 3: Don't get the jewel. In that case, you will still go Vitality route, as regen is your only defense. Don't go for the Ghost Reaver, and save those 2 points. Then, delay the 7% Minion Life, 1% Minion Regen talent next to Death Attunement and get Growth and Decay near the Shadow area of the tree. (Vitality will provide more than 1% life regen to your minions anyway.)

The build here will be focused on the Energy Shield/Low Life version, with the Watcher's Eye, but there is a Life version at the Variations section. (That part is theorycrafted on Path of Building, items are cheap and should be accessible. I designed it to be a decent league starter build for the next season. Because I've lost about 6 weeks in this league thanks to my glorious ISP, I didn't had time to level that version in this season.)

Pro's:

Cons:

Passives:

Bandits:

Pantheon:

Ascendancy:

Current Gear:

Jewels:

Enchantments:

Soulwrest:

Vaal Detonate Dead:

Raise Spectre: Tukohama's Vanguards. (Act 6)

Orb of Storms:

Mana Reserve:

Life Reserve:

Golems, Movement, Utility:

• Elemental Reflect: (A.K.A. Slightly Boring Maps.)YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE. DO NOT DETONATE ANYTHING! Instead, focus on replenishing your Phantasm count using Desecrate + Flesh Offering. Watch your minions do the dirty work. Though I absolutely love watching Detonate Dead do its thing, I reroll these if I have currency to burn.
• Physical Reflect: Your Phantasms in these maps will be even shorter lived then usual. They are not exactly a chore to replenish though, so while this mod may affect your speed a bit, it has no real consequence on the build.
• Cannot Regen: Bit of a pain in the neck, as these maps will stop one of the strong points of the build. Take your time, plan your detonate dead usage and never go full spammy as that will drain you. Your leech can still keep you alive.
• Cannot Leech: The stronger recovery effect, so don't try to facetank stuff in these ones. Also forces you to rely on Vaal Detonate Dead as your base mana regen makes it impossible to spam regular version.
• Hexproof: You do not rely on your curse for your damage. Has no noticeable effect.
• Less Recovery: You will feel the effect, but it is not something that'll kill you if you are careful.
• Elder boss kill/spawn animation taking enough time to see your children graduate from college: Dude, I KNOOOOOOOOOOOOW, right? To be perfectly honest, don't you just love a game that loves you enough to know that you may need to go to toilet?

From the start, your main goal is to reach Spiritual Aid notable through Righteous Army notable. These two will increase your damage, your minions' damage, and give you and your minions some base regen so the leveling process becomes smoother. As Soulwrest is a LVL 64 item, and Detonate Dead is pretty useless without Desecrate to back it up, you can focus leveling using Skeletons, Zombies, Firestorm or Arc.
Here's how your LVL 20 should look like:
https://poeplanner.com/AA8AADkADzMAABnfiukCS64bJdlbbRkRUKcrNbl9GGvbIvRsC5MnvorK07QMoS_qug18V8ko-riTHNyPGgAAAAAA

Then, your main focus is to increase your minions' and your own survivability through regen, so you can grab all the minion utility passives you can.
Level 40:
https://poeplanner.com/AA8AAGsADzMAADLfiukCS64bJdlbbRkRUKcrNbl9GGvbIvRsC5MnvorK07QMoS_qug18V8ko-riTHNyPGuvuMtFFR8BmYPimrKqpKpiQM6cIj0YdFPrSZp6g5mdxSp-JvBBRtzGMdpuh99fsg9OPAAAAAAA=

After this point, you need to grab some more hit points for yourself, as you are in A5 Kitava + Cruel Affliction territory.
Level 60:
https://poeplanner.com/AA8AALEADzMAAFXfiukCS64bJdlbbRkRUKcrNbl9GGvbIvRsC5MnvorK07QMoS_qug18V8ko-riTHNyPGuvuMtFFR8BmYPimrKqpKpiQM6cIj0YdFPrSZp6g5mdxSp-JvBBRtzGMdpuh99fMvKrEhWBNuYRIXGvDbe-I-TfXz0mxf8YRlgcelS7w1UlRDkgrChEvXfKCx9P7qH1akWqsFy9k51XWgKTYJFZI-ejsg9OP2V7-gQAAAAAA

Since now you are pretty close to using Soulwrest, you can grab remaining minion talents, and try to get some jewel sockets as well. Get Zealot's Oath as soon as you got a Shavronne's. Fire Damage nodes will be your last pick-ups as you can scale through minion damage as well.
Level 80:
https://poeplanner.com/AA8AAOEADzMAAG3fiukCS64bJdlbbRkRUKcrNbl9GGvbIvRsC5MnvorK07QMoS_qug18V8ko-riTHNyPGuvuMtFFR8BmYPimrKqpKpiQM6cIj0YdFPrSZp6g5mdxSp-JvBBRtzGMdpuh99fMvKrEhWBNuYRIXGvDbe-I-TfXz0mxf8YRlgcelS7w1UlRDkgrChEvXfKCx9P7qH1akWqs-egXL2TnVdaApGh02mIYVo_60NBfanvXXIqt8RhdPO9o8uwYcLvZEy9vNAo3ZiymkNb3wdgkVkhEBOyD04_ZXv6BFSeMsQAAAAAA

Level 90: (Basicly completed here.From here you take all fire damage, all the way.)
https://poeplanner.com/AA8AAPUADzMAAHffiukCS64bJdlbbRkRUKcrNbl9GGvbIvRsC5MnvorK07QMoS_qug18V8ko-riTHNyPGuvuMtFFR8BmYPimrKqpKpiQM6cIj0YdFPrSZp6g5mdxSp-JvBBRtzGMdpuh99fMvKrEhWBNuYRIXGvDbe-I-TfXz0mxf8YRlgcelS7w1UlRDkgrChEvXfKCx9P7qH1akWqs-egXL2TnVdaApGh02mIYVo_60NBfanvXXIqt8RhdPO9o8uwYcLvZEy9vNAo3ZiymkNaIQKyYdFVfKnIPlG9mVEQEEQ87De_r98HYJFZI7IPTj9le_oEVJ4yxAAAAAAA=

Level 95:
https://poeplanner.com/AA8AAP8ADzMAAHzfiukCS64bJdlbbRkRUKcrNbl9GGvbIvRsC5MnvorK07QMoS_qug18V8ko-riTHNyPGuvuMtFFR8BmYPimrKqpKpiQM6cIj0YdFPrSZp6g5mdxSp-JvBBRtzGMdpuh99fMvKrEhWBNuYRIXGvDbe-I-TfXz0mxf8YRlgcelS7w1UlRDkgrChEvXfKCx9P7qH1akWqs-egXL2TnVdaApGh02mIYVo_60NBfanvXXIqt8RhdPO9o8uwYcLvZEy9vNAo3ZiymkNaIQKyYdFVfKnIPlG9mVEQEEQ87De_r98HYJFZI8Ww22EkbKo3sVeyD04_ZXv6BFSeMsQAAAAAA

Level 100:
https://poeplanner.com/AA8AAQkADzMAAIHfiukCS64bJdlbbRkRUKcrNbl9GGvbIvRsC5MnvorK07QMoS_qug18V8ko-riTHNyPGuvuMtFFR8BmYPimrKqpKpiQM6cIj0YdFPrSZp6g5mdxSp-JvBBRtzGMdpuh99fMvKrEhWBNuYRIXGvDbe-I-TfXz0mxf8YRlgcelS7w1UlRDkgrChEvXfKCx9P7qH1akWqs-egXL2TnVdaApGh02mIYVo_60NBfanvXXIqt8RhdPO9o8uwYcLvZEy9vNAo3ZiymkNaIQKyYdFVfKnIPlG9mVEQEEQ87De_r98HYJFZI8Ww22EkbKo3sVeyKmE06xjwF73zsg9OP2V7-gRUnjLEAAAAAAA==

Life/League Starter: