3.14 KING OF ALL SUMMONERS. Zombies & Skeletons & Spectres on STEROIDS! | League-Start to End-Game

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Trulls_Rohk schrieb:

I definitely feel your pain, I've died soo many times it's very frustrating especially when you lose your AG! Over 400 deaths so far this league!!!

Spectres really need to be aura buffing Zombies, doing range spctres and melee Zombies is splitting your resources too much. The amount of damage that Zombies get from being buffed is quite considerable.
Carnage/Host Chieftains with Merveils Retainer and/or Arena Master(Drox maps) really do boost your Zombie DPS.
Looking at your POB if I change your spectres from range to aura's and add Awaken Minion Damage/Spirit Offering and then configure pob correctly your Zombies go from 460K to 1.45M dps.
If you invested into Cluster jewels you can add far more dps to them and add more life/str to your build at the same time.
There are lots of resources to check such as going thru the pages in this thread or comparing builds using Poe.Ninja

Thanks for the response, Rohk!

I was running with Carnage/Host Chieftains in the first place to go with the zombies, until I redid my build into the ranged spectre variant in the OP. I guess I could try going back into that and just focus on zombie dmg. I just find it frustrating because I don't know what I'm doing different than the spectre variant in the OP, which he is apparently rolling with quite successfully (more so than me, for sure) and I'd like to know what the difference is. While I'm sure the budget elements (no awakened gems) lower my DPS relative to the OP, I sure don't feel like that justifies the difference I'm seeing. What am I missing here?

I did consider going into the cluster jewel variant rather than the ranged spectre variant, but I already had the mace + Saqawal's Nest (which the ranged variant uses, the cluster does not) and I invested what exalts I had left into the ranged spectre build (Empower 4, an Enlighten 4).

I've also considered just saying "forget it" and going with another build, which you suggest, but honestly, I'm not sure how to tell what's better. This build looked pretty awesome - just look how successful the OP is with it - but it does not seem to work out the same for me. I can go look at "greatest build ever!!11!!!1" videos, but this kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth that I don't actually know if I'm going to have better or worse success with that build vs this one.

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Trilecon schrieb:

I'm having the same problems with my DPS build (budget). The core issues are the small health pool (6000 HP+ES) and almost no physical damage reduction. Plus, you have to draw minions into waves using yourself as bait (Phase Run + Molten Shell). I found running multiple armor flasks helpful, yet I'm still vulnerable to map mods where monsters deal bonus physical damage as *element*. Especially when bosses are given bonus damage it's just not possible to tank their hits with a meager health pool. Fortunately, I deal enough DPS to finish most maps even if it costs me a bunch of portals. Syndicate assassins seem to one shot me often too.

I found Spirit Offering and Bone Offering helpful with hazardous map mods. I am currently trying to incorporate fortify support since I will not be using AG or Kingmaker. Specters with proximity shield are great at defending against ranged attacks (Meat Shield Support?). I recommend running at least two to have the proximity shield up most the time. Using a ranged spell will aggro your minions without putting yourself in harms way. Endurance charges are helpful too, but I don't know of any way to generate them.

The DPS build was likely optimized to be min-maxed, with players not carrying enough damage having to make sacrifices for defense.

Thank you for the response, Trilecon! This is exactly what I'm dealing with too. My DPS is sufficient to kill most things, but I die *a lot*, especially on maps with any amount of +dmg, to Syndicate assassins, to delirium, to some map bosses/conqs, and surprise deaths even in Delve.

How would you incorporate Spirit & Bone Offering? I'm still fairly new back to the game (played a bit in beta/early release, and just came back for Metamorph) and I don't really feel comfortable trying to put it all together on my own.

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justkasper schrieb:

Also if you are satisfied with damage but feel squishy i could recommend checking Diabolist spectre with Enfeeble. This one helped me a lot.

Thanks for the response, Kasper! I was considering this when I was similarly squishy when I was concentrated on the original build with Zombies. I didn't have a level 21 Spectre gem (had initially missed the requirement for that) and was running with Host/Carnage Chieftains, doing sizeable DPS but dying a lot. I went into the ranged Spectre build instead, but if I go back to focusing on melee/zombies rather than double dipping ranged Spectres/melee Zombies, I'll definitely have to try that, because the frequency with which I'm dying is really not fun, especially when I would like to be able to try some maximum Delirium/Simulacrum but I feel like I won't be able to stay alive enough to be successful.

I would just really like to know what I'm missing though compared to the OP, because I feel like the cuts I've made into the build due to budget are only really hurting my DPS and shouldn't hurt my survivability so much. Is the success of the OP's builds just misrepresented, or am I missing something? Very frustrating.

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Iceman079 schrieb:

Guys if you want to be tanky play tanky build :)
I play hybrid between tanky and clusters version and barely die.
5.7k Life and 3.2k ES + 45% phisical damage reduction from armour.
Only -37% chaos res.
Recently I was able to defeat Sirius A8 deathless or Uber Elder deathless in approx. 2 min. 2 Full simulacrum runs also deathless.
I use Bone Armour on left click so whenever is ready I get extra 2200 extra life pool (saved me quite few times) on top of that I gave Garb Of Ephemeral to my AG to prevent monsters to crit on me (not sure if works all the time as it is only nearby monsters).
And as many said before when in delirium do not stop and try to move all the time.
Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for the response, Iceman! While ideally I would never die, I don't mind playing a style where if I'm careless or reckless, I'm going to get gibbed. However, I don't feel like that's even the case with where I'm at - I just frequently die, most frequently in an instant, and commonly without even knowing what the hell I did. I was hoping for something a little more in the middle between "total glass cannon" and "juggernaut tank god". Especially being newer to the game (this is my second season), I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong here, or if the expectations the OP gives are just overhyped.

What exactly are you running at the moment that is having success? I'd be curious to see, as I'm not really comfortable trying to make it up on my own.

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Linus1985 schrieb:

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sylmarin schrieb:

A question : is it possible to cumulate "punishment" and "vulnerability" if we're playing 2 curses setup ?

You need can apply additional curse. But if you want more dps Assassin's Mark is way more strong than punishment.

Thank you so much .. the bump to dps is absolutly astronomic !

2 curses is really interesting. You can maanage to play with temporal (in the place of assassin's mark) to play a more defensive play and go to lvl 100 ^^.

Thansk.

ps : assassin's mark is really good because of life per death. its helps minions to sustain maximum life and this buff "renewal". Very very very intersting.

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Seraphgrim schrieb:

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Iceman079 schrieb:

Guys if you want to be tanky play tanky build :)
I play hybrid between tanky and clusters version and barely die.
5.7k Life and 3.2k ES + 45% phisical damage reduction from armour.
Only -37% chaos res.
Recently I was able to defeat Sirius A8 deathless or Uber Elder deathless in approx. 2 min. 2 Full simulacrum runs also deathless.
I use Bone Armour on left click so whenever is ready I get extra 2200 extra life pool (saved me quite few times) on top of that I gave Garb Of Ephemeral to my AG to prevent monsters to crit on me (not sure if works all the time as it is only nearby monsters).
And as many said before when in delirium do not stop and try to move all the time.
Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for the response, Iceman! While ideally I would never die, I don't mind playing a style where if I'm careless or reckless, I'm going to get gibbed. However, I don't feel like that's even the case with where I'm at - I just frequently die, most frequently in an instant, and commonly without even knowing what the hell I did. I was hoping for something a little more in the middle between "total glass cannon" and "juggernaut tank god". Especially being newer to the game (this is my second season), I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong here, or if the expectations the OP gives are just overhyped.

What exactly are you running at the moment that is having success? I'd be curious to see, as I'm not really comfortable trying to make it up on my own.

I don't play speed build so can't tell you what is wrong with your setup. I play hybrid version and still using cyclon to autocast desecrate + offerings. Whenever I am runing into pack of mobs I am spaming convocation to bring minions to defend me. when in big group trying to run around mobs and let minions to deal with them (with big life pool minions barely dies - I lost 1 zombie once and once 2 zombies to metamorph only) use flask all the time as they will fill up very quickly in large groups of mobs so extra armour or evasion is always good). Feel free to check my character (geear + skills + tree).
Ps. don't rush into mobs but keep moving don't stay in one place.

I have a few questions for the group. First off let me say how much I appreciate this build and thread. I have enjoyed using this for last season as well as playing it on STANDARD this season due to lack of time.

I have a number of general questions about the game itself because I only play by myself and thus learn nothing from others. I play on Xbox One for what that is worth. Trading is a bit of a nightmare as anything that is useful costs multiple Exalts.

1) When I die, I have no idea why. Does this game ever give us a clue as to what killed us? I would love to understand what type of damage killed me to give me a chance to change my build to react to it. Is there a way to know what killed you?

2) I am playing STANDARD this league on account of a lack of time. When I play I pretty much either delve or run maps. Is there anything else end game that I am missing that I should be doing?

3) I use to play Diablo 3. One thing I enjoyed about Diablo 3 was the end game you could run maps that took a while to finish. I think they were called greater rifts or something. I feel like the maps in POE are over too quick and I have to come out, load in a new one, and start it back over. Just wondering if I am missing anything.

4) The game itself is so freaking DARK that its hard to see what is going on in Delves and on half the maps. There is no GAMMA setting like most games. Am I missing anything with this? I pretty much like the brightest maps simply because I can see what is going on and appreciate the graphics. The dark maps all look alike and are hard to see. I hope you guys can help me here.

I will check back later to see if anyone can help. Thanks if you do.

Hi!
I apologize if this question has already been asked.
How to raise 1 spectre at a time with Hungry Loop and Spell Echo in it?
it turns out that when raising the spectre the spell is duplicated and a nearby corpse is called to the spectre.

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fatbanana schrieb:

can i ask how can you have "flesh and stone/skitterbot/purity of elemental/Dread banner/Aspect of the Avian" all together ? thx
and what is skitterbot for ? thx

I stopped using Avian and use the rest of the Aura's with Enlighten lvl3.
Skitterbots are great in that they chill/shock enemies which helps us increase the damage Zombies do, and slows down monsters to a degree, they also can't be killed.

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TsunamiTula schrieb:

Hi!
I apologize if this question has already been asked.
How to raise 1 spectre at a time with Hungry Loop and Spell Echo in it?
it turns out that when raising the spectre the spell is duplicated and a nearby corpse is called to the spectre.

Use raise Zombies until only the required spectre is left.