Chrises' Full Summoner CI Build Beginner Friendly

EDIT: Didn't play a summoner for a long while and a lot has changed, i suggest trying out other build, you can still read through this, it has some nice tips. I have updated the tree to patch 1.2 Forsaken Masters. I have dropped Necro Aegis since you wont need it in recent versions. There are also new monsters, so new possibilities for spectres.

I'll try to update it when i'll have time some more.


Hello dear PoE-Community,

Well you're asking yourself maybe why another Summoner Guide/Build. Well here's my answer:

I wanted to do a safe to play class, well maybe for my farm purposes so I can try out non-mainstream builds, like Facebreaker, Firestorm dual totem etc., because, well they require some gear and I need the currency to pay for mediocre-good gear.

It's also pretty fun to play aswell! (Especially 31+)

But now to the Build:

Bandit Rewards:

Normal -> 1 passive (or 40 mana if you want to try some mana hungry builds)
Cruel -> 1 passive
Merciless -> 1 passive








So I am using CI because:
-> It requires better gear to negate that huge chaos penalty
-> Those poison clouds can be sometimes hard to detect
-> Chaos Monsters or the Chaos boss at wharf map could do big damage
-> no need for health potions
-> no need for health nodes at all

The disadvantages are probably:
-> Relatively low ES total compared to heavy life builds
-> No life regen
-> Heavily gear dependant (well life gear is pretty expensive too)
-> Very weak against status ailments, I get sometimes a 13seconds shock status, and much more likely to be stunned/freezed

My ES total now is ~4150 ES WITH Discipline AND the Emphemeral Edge unique sword. (like ~3500 without sword) Switched already to ES at level ~50 with about 2300 ES.

GEAR I have is pretty cheap to get:
Ephemeral Edge ~1-3 Chaos
Shield ~2-4 Chaos
Helmet ~2-4 Chaos
Chest ~10-15 Chaos (more expensive the higher ES and links get)
Gloves ~1-3 Chaos
Bones of Ullr ~1-4 Chaos
Those rings ~1-3 Chaos each
Belt ~ 1-4 Chaos
Sidhebreath ~1-3 Chaos (I found it myself)

Note: It's almost neccessary to get a +2 to minion gem on helmet, it increases your zombies' health by 2 levels => a lot
The gloves have that high amount of Dexterity because I need that Dexterity (maybe not so much) for Green Skill/support Gems (like temporal chains).

It's a pretty cheap class to build. These items are for End Game, In act 1 - act 3 can be every item used. But when you switch to CI, you should have almost everywhere ES gear.

Usefull links:

PoE Goods
like it at the moment a bit more
PoExplorer
Nice Design & easier to navigate, but I often get to a unverified thread, so not to suggest atm
Exile Stats for Currency Exchange Rates
Why not Poeex? Because it is owned by a RMT site: ZiggyD News


Necromantic Aegis

Why do I use this? Because I want my minions to survive. You're asking yourself maybe, why don't you resummon them? Because there are a bunch of enemies that kill your minions so fast, you are not fast enough/enough mana to summon them at that high rate. So that's why I decided to get Necromantic Aegis (Get it ONLY AFTER you've beaten Piety on Merciless, you can use that extra res in that fight to sustain her lighting attacks)

My shield increases my minions resistances by 75% fire and 40% all resists +14% chaos.
There is definitely room to upgrade chaos resist, but fire damage is more important.

I am using weapon and shield and don't use midnight bargain or queen's decree since I am CI and 3 Spectres are totally enough.

AURAS & CURSES

Vitality -> One of the most powerful auras for minions, much better than life flasks or rejuvenation totem, and it saves you flask slots for res/speed/mana flasks.

Purity -> Increases your minion's res/max res, very powerful against your greatest enemy = magic/element.

Discipline -> Increases your maximum Energy Shield by a lot, especially with Inner Force and ES nodes.

Optional: Clarity -> Good until you hit something like lvl 60+ or/and have enough Mana/mana regen. It's also useful in low/no regen maps, but I personally use mana flasks(2 are enough).

When I have more Mana (plan to take 5 mana nodes for a increase of 54% to mana) then I will maybe run Grace, so me and my minions are even harder to kill, especially useful with the combination of Enfeeble Curse.

Temporal Chains -> Very powerful, it decreases the attack speed/movement speed/cast speed at once, and also increases the Burn Damage damage over time effect duration (DoT effect) of your Flame Sentinels.

Enfeeble -> Decreases the enemies damage by ~ -33% and also decreases their accuracy / chance to crit / crit damage.


MINIONS

My favorite is the Flame Sentinel

Pros:
-> it has Energy Shield
-> floats, so no fire ground damage
-> shoots from a long distance
-> relatively high health pool
-> fires randomly 1, 2 or 3 fireballs with something like 66%chance to fork without any support gems -> insane
-> no real need to use LMP or GMP until you have 5L or 6L, they do enough area damage without it

Cons:
-> eh
-> oh yeah, they are pretty bad at narrow passages/doorways, take too much space

Note: Use the Flame Sentinel for the entire ACT until you hit the same Area in the next ACT, for example use Act 2 Flame Sentinels to clear Act 3 until you reach Solaris Temple again.
You could also use other powerful minion of your level, but those flame sentinels are very owerful even underleveled.


2nd Place would be Tentacle Miscreation but wouldn't suggest it that much because:

Pros:
-> Insane damage and AoE potential with faster attacks+GMP+added fire damage and hatred aura
-> Partially fire based damage
-> High fire rate with 10 shots per shot (with 8volleys per attack pattern) = meaning like 80 projectiles per attack
-> Good Minion Size

Cons:
-> Low health pool/no ES
-> Are pretty near to the opponent when firing(but not as near as for example the Undying Incenerators)
-> burning ground/patch destroys them
-> rare RED/GREEN gem slots needed for them

Minion Support gems:

Flame Sentinels -> Raise Spectre + Minion Damage + Faster Casting + Item Rarity/LMP/GMP + Item Quantity/Fire Penetration + Anything you want/Minion Health

Tentacle Miscreation -> Raise Spectre + Minion Damage + Faster Attacks + GMP + Added Fire Damage/Item Quantity + Anything you want/Minion Health/Item Rarity/(Fire penetration)

Raise Zombie + Mnion Damage + Minion Health + Item Rarity

Summon Skeletons + Spell Totem (saves you mana/time to cast all those skeletons and acts like Decoy Totem doing damage) + Minion Health + Minion Damage

Skill gems:

I use Arc without Chain (with Chain it drains too much mana which isn't worth it) to proc Elemental Equilibrium. Edit: I did remove EE to save 2 points.

I recently got a Quality 18% Conversion Trap, so I thought why not to use it. Turns out it's pretty good, but not neccessary.

Don't use Frost Wall, but it can be helpful at times, maybe I'll replace some of my gems with that.


LEVELING

lvl 1-10 -> maybe using raise zombie to support, but you can use frost nova or whatever you want to kill most stuff

lvl 10-25 -> You'll probably face Merveil and Vaal Oversoul, minions help a bit but those are the most difficult bosses right now. You can spam skeletons, have like 5-6 zombies and maybe a spectre or two to assist, but it will be a bit hard. But you will not loose any EXP, so it's no problem.

lvl 25-65 -> Well after you get Queen's Decree (which I recommend to level until you hit like level 60-65), it's really easy, but you also can just use 3 Spectres, it's ok too. After you hit 31, you should link Skeletons with Spell Totem and Piety will be really easy to defeat. All the Bosses until Piety Merciless should be a walk in the Park. Piety in Merciless can get pretty hard.

Good Spectres to get before you get to the Flame Sentinels in Solaris Temple are:

-> Undying Incenerators
-> Alchemists
-> Fire Golems
-> Any caster type monster

For leveling it's good to use leveled Arc with maybe Chain, it's a good support damage skill. But isn't worth the cost after level 50+. You then need only a plain lvl 1 Arc to procc Elemental Equilibrium and also to navigate your Minions, because they don't attack far away enemies, you have to attack them to make your Minions attack them.

You should also rush at the beginning to Minion Instability (Those exploding Minions are pretty good against most Bosses even early game. Necromantic Aegis is only good after like lvl 65-70 when you hit Maps.


LAST WORDS

I am not sure how it would work in hardcore, but if you specc more into survivability it could work pretty well (I'm playing default because I hate desync until it's fixed).

If you have any further questions, or I forgot something to add, please leave a post below!

Thank you for reading.




To do list:

Make it visually more appealing

i love the build so far, what would you suggest to use if your group with someone using lightning dmg and dont want to add lightning resists.

also would warlords mark be any good for a curse?

Then remove elemental equilibrium. It isn't really neccessery to make this build powerful, just adds a bit flavour when you solo.

Warlords mark isn't worth the curse slot, it just adds life leech+ endurance charge for your minions. that life leech can ne ignored if you have vitality aura -> 100seconds playtime = 100% regen for minions

Edit: Also, reflect mobs (elemental) don't kill your spectres if you don't face 2-4 reflect packs in a row, 1-2 packs (5-15 monsters a pack) are not a problem as reflect.

Updated with useful links and Skilltree progression

Minor update

Great post, thanks. I was looking for the pros/cons of a CI summoner build. Just trying to make a new summoner on hardcore but I lack decent ES so, looks like I'll be using life build!

you're maybe wondering yourself why my gear is unverified? I got hacked just minutes/hours ago when I noticed a confirmation code in my email box. So there won't be any updates very likely for well... ever.

"

chrisstian5 wrote:

you're maybe wondering yourself why my gear is unverified? I got hacked just minutes/hours ago when I noticed a confirmation code in my email box. So there won't be any updates very likely for well... ever.

It has to be someone how knows both what your email is and its password as well as your account. I would check with people who know this information or you should check your computer for any spyware or keyloggers

I almost had this happen to me someone logged into my account from China. Thank god they didn't have my email info =X

It was someone from china too but I don't give my info to ANYONE and it didnt happen to me in my whole life. I don't surf suspicious sites and use adblockers and web firewall and virus detector.

It has also 80% on passwordmeter.com, actually not my strongest pw, but surely it doesn't make any sense at all (the password meaning)

Best all around necro build i found.
Actually i have serius problem about survability, maybe this guide will help me at fix.

Really low life and es at liv 26, and boss are a pain. Minion seems die fast too..but i will wait highter lvl

p.s. so sorry for your account mate....u think to reroll a necro and update the build?