Theory Crafting crazy totem + minion build

So I've been thinking about making a ridiculous minion build. At first I started as a ranger considering using Auras to buff my minions while I shot AoE damage like poison arrow. I ditched that idea because aura sized in PoE are very small. (I made a thread about it actually)

ANYWAY
Here's the theory so far:
Grab Ancestral Bond for 1 Additional Totem
Put points into Maximum Health and Resistances
Grab any +1/+2 max skeleton traits on the way to Minion Instability
Link both spells to a spell totem + cast time + Area of Effect
Take curses because it's close
Grab Spectres to enhance your exploding minion barrage
Head down to the middle of the tree and pick up Necromatic Aegis
Use Wands and build power charges, apply the shocked effect for bonus DMG



Is something like this possible? I dislike the zombie spell because it requires corpses.

I don't like necromatic aegis if your blowing up summons imo. They are plenty tanky enough later on in the game that is only gonna take away from the amount of time for them to explode.

"

Aziah wrote:

I don't like necromatic aegis if your blowing up summons imo. They are plenty tanky enough later on in the game that is only gonna take away from the amount of time for them to explode.

Well the damage is based on 30% of total minion health. I was wondering if putting points into lightning damage is a waste because of the no spell damage trait?

Like can I just rely on wand elemental damage of a single type? What kind of damage source could I use along with the totems?

If you take the additional totem node, you will lose the ability to deal damage. Making you unable to gain power charges. There is a spell that does this, that is power siphon and as i said, you wont be able to use it.

Id suggest maybe having a totem that deals damage instead, and resummoning stuff yourself, as you wont be able to cast anything but summons and curses.

Just my opinion.

I myself like fire damage because it increases the damage of corpse explode.

"

Dracule wrote:

If you take the additional totem node, you will lose the ability to deal damage. Making you unable to gain power charges. There is a spell that does this, that is power siphon and as i said, you wont be able to use it.

Id suggest maybe having a totem that deals damage instead, and resummoning stuff yourself, as you wont be able to cast anything but summons and curses.

Just my opinion.

What a build killer man. That talent is really hard to use.

"

Dracule wrote:

If you take the additional totem node, you will lose the ability to deal damage. Making you unable to gain power charges. There is a spell that does this, that is power siphon and as i said, you wont be able to use it.

Id suggest maybe having a totem that deals damage instead, and resummoning stuff yourself, as you wont be able to cast anything but summons and curses.

Just my opinion.

Would you perhaps know if Poison Arrow's debuff mechanic function bypasses Ancestral Bond's damage restrictions (since its not technically player dealt damage per-se.)?

"

Aziah wrote:

I myself like fire damage because it increases the damage of corpse explode.

If this is true... well here's some modifications. If you really wanted to you could test to build pretty easily by adding/removing ancestral bond. Like for example say you can't handle no spell damage yet you remove that talent and cast fire spells.

If I count right...
102% increased Fire damage
80% increased Burning damage

Flammability Curse
Elemental Weakness Curse
Warlord's Mark? Could be used to add endurance charges and then pick up conduit. Does conduit also apply to minions?

just an FYI, you can still use any and all skills. they will just deal no damage.

power siphon doesn't require you to kill an enemy with it, the enemy just has to die within a few seconds of being hit by power siphon. i haven't tested this, but you should be able to get power charges by hitting enemies with power siphon for 0 damage and have them die from totem damage.

ill test this and repost later.

[edit] power siphon CAN be used to gain power charges while the player has ancestral bond. i talked to a mod in chat about it and he mentioned that the culling strike portion of power siphon should still be able to trigger instant kills on enemies at or below 10% life, even though you deal no damage. im not sure if the power charges i got were from culling strikes or enemies i struck that died from totem damage.


now i just need to see if that unique armor that grants power charges when you crit will work off of your totems crits... cause that would be gnarly.

right now im lvl 30 and have a very similar build... i dont know if its my gear or what, but some areas of the game my minions just cant live long enough to do anything worthwhile.... such as on bosses. they'll literally die in 1 hit from a range attack.

i have yet to get the totem node because i dont have a single good totem. but i do plan to get it when i do get 1.

the build is kind of fun, just in some areas of the game its really hard to get your minions to actually do anything. im thinking you pretty much have to use spells/auras/items/nodes/whatever that buff your minions survivability BEYOND the increased health nodes.