To soulwrest or not to soulwrest

I was planning to buy a soulwrest staff as soon as they become affordable, and it looks like they have. (now that I say that, y'all are going to rush out to buy them and then you'll drive the price up. Thanks. Thanks a lot.) In the meantime I've been playing a kitchensink-omancer, with SRS, zombies, spectres, a chaos golem, skeleton mages and phantasms summoned by the mages. I swear, if I could summon a brick to throw at boss's heads as well, I would. At any rate, as long as I manage to dodge the worst of what is thrown at me, that mess of summoned stuff does all right by me. What's a game crash or two during the busier fights compared to all that face-melty damage, eh?

So here is my dilemna. Should I even bother getting a soulwrest staff at this point? I don't mind giving up a category of summoned thingie to do so (those stupid zombies rarely get a chance to get into the fray anyways), but I wonder whether it would be worth it in terms of sheer DPS. I think I lucked into a pretty spiffy weapon/shield combo even if I am ignoring most of what my weapon potentially does for me. (+2 to socketed melee gems. Pfffft!) So at this point I am not so certain the switch to soulwrest would serve as an improvement. Here is my weapon and shield combo as-is:




I really gots no ideer whether I should switch to a soulwrest or not. So could someone with the appropriate math skills/game chops tell me whether the switch would really be worth it for me?

Definitely, do so. Soulwrest is op right now. With gmp, faster projectiles and faster casting, phantasms will have done 2 mill screenwide dps while zombies are still arriving.

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grimlock9999 wrote:

Definitely, do so. Soulwrest is op right now. With gmp, faster projectiles and faster casting, phantasms will have done 2 mill screenwide dps while zombies are still arriving.

Screw the zombies. They're fired. Never liked 'em anyways. But it's the skellies and spectres that'd be stuck with a demotion if I made the switch.


I'd lose 2 levels on the spectres plus go down from 3 of 'em to 2 when I switch boots (bones of Ullr right now), as well as lose this bump on all minions that I am getting from the mace:

Minions have 13% increased Attack Speed
Minions have 14% increased Cast Speed
Minions have 20% increased maximum Life
Minions deal 24% increased Damage


So I would lose all that merely to boost my phatasm count from 10 (current, from socketed support gem on the skellie mages) to 20. Is that still worth it? I'll happily switch it up if so, but I'm not yet convinced. Someone crunch numbers, it all gives me a headache.

Edited to add: may as well show the entire set up I'm using now, if that helps. No laughing! I know there's room for improvement here, but most of it is found gear and I get attached....

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So I would lose all that merely to boost my phatasm count from 10 (current, from socketed support gem on the skellie mages) to 20. Is that still worth it? I'll happily switch it up if so, but I'm not yet convinced. Someone crunch numbers, it all gives me a headache.

As long as you get bubonic trail boots, then yes. This will increase your damage, QoL and movespeed.

The important thing to note is that Your 20 phantasms will get full 6 linked.

By mixing phantasms and skellies, you dilute the damage and efficacy of both.

The skellies will do maximum of about 300K dps, the phantasm max will be about 2 mill dps, but with the added benefit of a free pierce and less button pushing. skelly mages = weak, phantasms = op

Spectres are also hard to scale damage past about 300K per spectre. Losing one is usually worth it.

If I were you, I'd get the soulwrest, aim for a better rare elder helm that can get you the minion damage and minion life.
Then reroll the colours on the chest, use skellies as more defense: put knockback and blind with faster projectiles.

Put spectres in the helm, or better yet, use carnage chieftan spectres to buff the skelly mages and the phantasms.

If running hatred or anger, then use phantasms, minion damage, faster projectiles, faster casting, controlled destruction, GMP. If not, then use brutality instead of controlled destruction.

All up this should cost you about 35 chaos for the staff and 5 chaos for a cheap helm. It should give you about 300 extra life regen, 30% increased cast speed, 20% extra move speed, an extra abyssal jewel slot and a pretty easy extra million dps depending on how you support your phantasms.

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grimlock9999 wrote:

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So I would lose all that merely to boost my phatasm count from 10 (current, from socketed support gem on the skellie mages) to 20. Is that still worth it? I'll happily switch it up if so, but I'm not yet convinced. Someone crunch numbers, it all gives me a headache.

As long as you get bubonic trail boots, then yes. This will increase your damage, QoL and movespeed.

The important thing to note is that Your 20 phantasms will get full 6 linked.

By mixing phantasms and skellies, you dilute the damage and efficacy of both.

The skellies will do maximum of about 300K dps, the phantasm max will be about 2 mill dps, but with the added benefit of a free pierce and less button pushing. skelly mages = weak, phantasms = op

Spectres are also hard to scale damage past about 300K per spectre. Losing one is usually worth it.

If I were you, I'd get the soulwrest, aim for a better rare elder helm that can get you the minion damage and minion life.
Then reroll the colours on the chest, use skellies as more defense: put knockback and blind with faster projectiles.

Put spectres in the helm, or better yet, use carnage chieftan spectres to buff the skelly mages and the phantasms.

If running hatred or anger, then use phantasms, minion damage, faster projectiles, faster casting, controlled destruction, GMP. If not, then use brutality instead of controlled destruction.

All up this should cost you about 35 chaos for the staff and 5 chaos for a cheap helm. It should give you about 300 extra life regen, 30% increased cast speed, 20% extra move speed, an extra abyssal jewel slot and a pretty easy extra million dps depending on how you support your phantasms.

Looks like it's time to go shopping. At least I already have one of the items: I found some bubonic trail boots a week or two ago, they've been gathering dust in my stash ever since.

Can't thank you enough for throwing some math at this for me!

Okie, next silly question now: if I move my empower support into the shiny new soulwrest I just bought, would it buff:

a) all the phantasms that spawn
b) ONLY the 10 phantasms that spawn from the "summon phantasm on support" gem I have in there
or
c) NO phantasms. No buffed phantasms for you, greedyguts!



Follow up silly question: knockback and blind both work on skellie mages?

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Okie, next silly question now: if I move my empower support into the shiny new soulwrest I just bought, would it buff:

a) all the phantasms that spawn
b) ONLY the 10 phantasms that spawn from the "summon phantasm on support" gem I have in there
or
c) NO phantasms. No buffed phantasms for you, greedyguts!

Ha....Door C, no empower for phantasms.

Yes, knockback and blind work a treat on skellie mages. Especially the knockback I find great. For videos of how good knockback is defensively, check out my "drunken moonwalker" post.

Also, you should download Path of Building and play around on that. It'll do most of your math for you!

"

grimlock9999 wrote:

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Okie, next silly question now: if I move my empower support into the shiny new soulwrest I just bought, would it buff:

a) all the phantasms that spawn
b) ONLY the 10 phantasms that spawn from the "summon phantasm on support" gem I have in there
or
c) NO phantasms. No buffed phantasms for you, greedyguts!

Ha....Door C, no empower for phantasms.

Yes, knockback and blind work a treat on skellie mages. Especially the knockback I find great. For videos of how good knockback is defensively, check out my "drunken moonwalker" post.

Thanks grimlock. Just tested out the new set up, and gotta say I'm right pleased. Just the movement speed boost alone was worth the price of admission. Now that I've crested level 90, I need all the map clear speed I can get. Plus, being forced to jettison those slacker zombies has opened up a spell slot for the vaal haste I've been ignoring until now.