Minions and resistances

I've heard good things about the minions build for end-game.

Here I have a level 30 character with focus on minions, and they are somewhat viable through Act 1 and a big part of Act 2. That is, until I reached the Vaal Pyramids. Now, it is predominantly lightning damage, and they get shocked down so quickly by the skeletal mages it isn't funny. I managed to put on a lightning resist ring and escape with my tails between my legs. Probably died more times in those 3 levels than the entire game combined so far.

Elemental damage is obviously going to scale up with each Act, and with each difficulty. The minions have no way of increasing their resistances via the skill tree, just life and damage nodes alone. There is a Necromantic Aegis node that allows shield bonuses to be transferred to minions, however.

Now to the question. How do minions survive in Ruthless and Merciless? Suppose we don't take the Aegis node, they literally have no elemental resistance... or do they? How do minions mitigate elemental damage, even with all their life nodes? They'll probably get zerked down in PVP as well.

Perhaps someone with a high level minion build can advise on this.

They do have elemental resistances besides the Aegis Keystone you've already mentioned the only way these resistances get increased is by the skill gem simply leveling up.

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JusticeAndLiberty wrote:

They do have elemental resistances besides the Aegis Keystone you've already mentioned the only way these resistances get increased is by the skill gem simply leveling up.

If that is true, it is good to hear. That said, I do wonder at the highest level of minion gems, do they have sufficient elemental resistance to tank merciless mobs?

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Hayrich wrote:

If that is true, it is good to hear. That said, I do wonder at the highest level of minion gems, do they have sufficient elemental resistance to tank merciless mobs?

I don't play a minion build myself so someone might come up with a bit more insight into this but one of my friends is running a full minion build and is even doing maps with it quite successfully.

1) they are not meaned to have a very long life ^^

but 2) you can greatly improve their survivability with the available options to increase their life: Minion Life passive nodes, ML support gem, skill gem upgrade/levelling, even Life on Hit/Leech support. The possible life pool they can get is high enough to make them useful even in maps (but, from 1), get used to recast them from time to time ^^ )

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Hayrich wrote:

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JusticeAndLiberty wrote:

They do have elemental resistances besides the Aegis Keystone you've already mentioned the only way these resistances get increased is by the skill gem simply leveling up.

If that is true, it is good to hear. That said, I do wonder at the highest level of minion gems, do they have sufficient elemental resistance to tank merciless mobs?

Minions aren't meant to really "Tank". I have a lvl 75 pure summoner witch and she does very well in the end game. For the majority of time that I have played her, I normally had to spam minions continuously (unless using a totem with skeletons). You can get your zombies and spectres to live a lot longer by using necromantic aegis and support gems. There isn't much you can do to get skeletons to live for very long.

Edit: and of course take every minion passive!

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Mr_Cee wrote:

1) they are not meaned to have a very long life ^^

but 2) you can greatly improve their survivability with the available options to increase their life: Minion Life passive nodes, ML support gem, skill gem upgrade/levelling, even Life on Hit/Leech support. The possible life pool they can get is high enough to make them useful even in maps (but, from 1), get used to recast them from time to time ^^ )

How does mana leech help them survive?

Just curious...for those who know, what happens when you attach a single Spell totem gem to both Raise Skeletons and another spell, such as Ice Spear?

Does a single totem cast both spells, or do you get an option to bind 2 types of totems?

They also benefit from the purity Aura, but clearly you need them to be fairly close to you in terms of still receiving the aura benefit.

However as Mr Cee points out they are not really supposed to live for ever.

Get the minion instability key node as well and their lack of extended viability becomes and advantage not a problem.


This is them at level 17 with added lightning damage, faster attacks and minion damage supports linked

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iamstryker wrote:

Minions aren't meant to really "Tank". I have a lvl 75 pure summoner witch and she does very well in the end game. For the majority of time that I have played her, I normally had to spam minions continuously (unless using a totem with skeletons). You can get your zombies and spectres to live a lot longer by using necromantic aegis and support gems. There isn't much you can do to get skeletons to live for very long.

Edit: and of course take every minion passive!

Other than Minion life/damage/speed, what else would you recommend?

I'm currently trying out for Templar, since I'm interested in Totems too...could you link me your gear and skill tree just for reference? If you're not comfortable posting it on forums, please do message me in private. I want to know what to gun for.

Thanks!