The Zombie Explosion Manifesto (3.17)

Zombie Explosion or to be more specific a Minion Instability build using Raise Zombies became practably playable with the addition of Aukunas Will to the game in Delirium League. In Heist League, Replica Earendels Embrace and Phantasmal Raise Zombie where added. So there are 2 uniques and an alternate quallity skill gem specifically designed for this kind of build. The build is very niche (or some may say a meme), but builds where made by smaller and bigger YouTubers / Build Makers in the past. However, when you look at poe.ninja you will find no one playing this build in the current and previous league (on high level, cause poe.ninja only lists high level characters, but i doubt that there are many people on lower level playing it). I have thought a lot about this build and played one variant this league to lv.91. This extensive post shall outline the problems that the build and its related uniques face and give suggestions on how to improve them. The post should not be interpreted as a „please buff my build GGG“, but mainly as realistic proposals to improve (flawed) uniques that are not played at all.


There are 4 main problems that the Zombie Explosion build faces:

1. How to make your Zombies explode (trigger Minion Instability) as fast as possible
2. How to summon / raise your Zombies efficently
3. How to get decent map clear
4. How to get decent single target damage

All these problems are connected to each other.

Let’s start with triggering Minion Instability. We actually got a decent amount of items/gems to make our Zombies take damage (or increase the damage they take). Those are Replica Earendels Embrace, Maligaros Lens; Phantasmal Raise Zombie in combination with the new Ashes of the Stars amulet, and ofcourse (Anomalous) Infernal Legion. With a build that contains all this, your Zombies explode pretty much instant. The problem is just how many item / gem slots you have to give up just to get the zombies explode fast so it can be played as a decent caster build.

Next we look at summoning / raising of the Zombies. Here the problems continue, because even tough we have several uniques specifically designed for this build, none of them solves the problem on how to efficently summon the Zombies. Unlike Summon Skeletons which summons 4 Skeletons in one cast, Raise Zombie only summons one Zombie at a time (without other support gems). Furthermore the mana cost in a 6-Link is very high. The (best) solution that people who have played Zombie Explosion found is linking Raise Zombie to Blastchain Mine Support and Minefield Support. This setup actually works pretty well, but it is a really strange way to play a minion build. And the problem is again how much we invest just to get the build going. We are now at a 4-Link (Raise Zombie, Infernal Legion Support, Blastchain Mine Support, Minefield Support), with no support gem improving our damage.

Now we come to map clear of Zombie Explosion. The radius of the Zombie Explosion is relatively small, but it can be increased via a few things in the game. But even if you get pretty much everything to increase the radius, your clear will still be pretty bad. Methods to get to decent clear are using Replica Siegbreaker, playing Occultist (with Profane Bloom) instead of Necromancer or getting a special Animate Guardian setup like Gravebind + Inpulsa’s. You also probably want to get Increased Area of Effect Support. All in all you can get to decent clear, but again you will have to sacrifce item slots, gem sockets etc.

At the end we have the single target damage where everything comes together. When I fist got into the idea of Zombie Explosion i thought the clear speed would probably suck but i will have huge single target damage because of really strong explosions. Turns out its quite the opposite. After you solved the first 3 problems, you realise that you have invested so much into getting the build working at all, that scaling damage isnt that easy anymore.


Now, lets get to the part that this is all about. Lets talk about the unique items that are either specifically designed for the Zombie Explosion build or that would be interesting to us in it. I will explain why they are not used / have flawed design and then give some general or specific proposals to improve them.


Mothers Embrace: This is the unique belt is the main thing I would want to be changed in a specific way. It has some decent modifiers (life, cold res.), but the unique effect that this item should provide does not work at all in practice (and thats why ist not used at all). The item makes your minions use your Flasks when summoned. Furthermore the minions have increased Flask duration and reduced Flask charges used (up to 40%). Now whats the problem here? So this item should obviously used by builds that constantly summon minions (such builds are mostly Skeletons, and SRS or for our case Zombies). But builds that constantly summon minions usually summon a lot of them very quick. That means you will be constantly out of Flasks, because the 40% reduced Flask charges used by your minions is not enough at all. You can just try it out in game equip Mothers Embrace with some unique Flasks that would be intersting on your minions and then summon some Skeletons for example. All your Flasks will be empty allmost instantly. And if your Flasks are empty, you have no Flasks for yourself (which is pretty bad) and your newly summoned minions will also get no effect. At this point the item is pretty much worthless.

Proposal for improvement: I have very specific changes in mind to improve Mothers Embrace (which I allready posted once in the forums). First lets make only one Flask apply to our minions. The modifier would be something like „Your Minions use your first flask when summoned“. Furthermore the minions should not need any Flask charges at all, to ensure that all minions get the Flask effect all the time ( so that the item actually works and makes sense). This would be soemthing like „Your minions dont use flask charges“ or „Your minions have 100% reduced flask charges used“. If this effect would be somehow OP for some builds I also have proposals to balance it a bit. You could make the player himself unable to use his first Flask ( which punishes the player similar to Umbicilus Immortalis but not as unreasonable hard), and you could give the minions reduced Flask duration ( so the opposite what the item has right now). Those changes would make the item interesting for differnent builds (I think). For Zombie Explosion I have a very specific usage in my mind. You could also apply the changes to Umbicilus Immortalis instead of Mothers Embrace. Right now both items are useless and not played at all because there design is fundamentaly flawed (Mothers Embrace) or they unacceptably punish the player (Umbicilus Immortalis)

What would my proposed mothers embrace change do for zombie explosion? It would give us the possibility to constantly apply Coruscating Elexir to our Raised zombies. Our Zombies life drops instantly to 1 when summoned and they explode (you can try that our in game with Mothers Embrace, but you can not implement at into a build, because of the design flaw the item has which I explained above). This mechanic would be a blessing for Zombie Explosion builds. It would be an easy straightforeward way to instantly trigger minion instability, by using a unique Belt and sacrificing one of your Flask slots. It would solve one of the fundamental problems of Zombie explosion Builds: the really high investment just to get your Zombies explode fast. Right now you can make your Zombies explode allmost instantly by using: Replica Earendels Embrace + Maligaros Lens + Anomalous Infernal Legion + Phantasmal Raise Zombie in combination with Ashes of the Stars + Avoiding everything that gives your minions elemental resistances. As you can see that is a lot of stuff just to make your Zombies pop so fast that it is comfortably playable.

Aukunas Will: Aukunas Will is the build enabling unique for Zombie Explosion, because it lets you summon zombies without corpses. This build enabling effect lying on Gloves kind of sucks, because there are many other intereting Gloves for Summenors like Breathstealer, Gravebind, Triad Grip etc., but we have to live with that. Furthermore Aukunas Will gives us up to 100% increased maximum life for our zombies which is solid. The rest of the modifiers of Aukunas Will are pretty bad (some Dexterity, Cast Speed, Evasion/ES), no resistances no life or something other usefull. The last modifier is the „Your Raised Zombies count as corpses“ one. This may sound interesting but there are few things in the game that effect this (mainly the Necromancer Acendancies Plaguebringer and Corpse Pact). That brings us to an item with one build enabling modifier, one solid modifier and the rest being pretty bad.

Proposal for improvement: I dont have a specific proposal to improve Aukunas Will. It would be nice to see the problem with summoning zombies efficently adressed, or some interaction build on your Zombies counting as corpses. The rest of the modifiers could also see some changes, but thats not that important for me.

Replica Siegebreaker: Replica Siegebreaker is a decent item that mostly does what it is designed for. It has some mediocre stats which is ok, and the on death effect for your Zombies provides you some better clear. The chance to maim enemies on hit is kind of useless, because zombie explosion builds try to trigger minion instability as fast as possible. That means your Zombies should instantly explode and never hit an enemy (and the Minion Instability explosion dont count as a hit by your Zombies).

Proposal für improvement: -

Replica Earendels Embrace: Attributes and increased minion damage is solid. The cover enemies in ash on hit is useless for the same reason explained for Replica Siegebreaker. Avatar of Fire for your Zombies is not really usefull. The raised Zombies take (up to) 30% of their life per second as fire damage is solid. Zombie explosion wants to take your minions as much damage as fast as possbile and this item is another source to do that. However 30% is not that good.

Proposal for improvment: No specific idea. Maybe change the Avatar of fire for something more usefull.

Maligaros Lens: This shield can be used for zombie explosion in combination with the necromantic aegis keystone. It will give our zombies some increased maximum life and area of effect which is good. It will reduce our minions fire resistance by 50% which is also good, because our Zombies will explode faster. The „Nearby allies recover 1% of your maximum life when you die“ is the really interesting modifier of this item. If you scale your zombies life this has the potantial to recover a lot of life for you. However the radius of this item is pretty small (35 units according to wiki), so in practice it will not effect you allways.

Proposal for improvement: Maybe increase the radius of the recover effect

Other general Proposals: Make the Minion Instability explosion count as a hit by your minions.


Feel free to comment on what you think about my suggestions, and if you have different suggestions for the uniques I mentioned post them. It would be really nice to see some of the issues with the uniques (mainly Mother’s Embrace) adressed in the future. Also feel free to comment what Flask you would use for your minion builds if my proposed change to Mother’s Embrace would come to the game.