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League Starter / SSF

This build is designed as a league starter and SSF build.

It will take you from a fresh league start all the way to endgame bossing on cheap or self-crafted gear.

It is focused on having high survivability while still having good DPS.

Path of Building Pastebin
https://pastebin.com/UUz1EdjT
(includes levelling trees)

Passive Skill Tree

Level 100

Bandits
Kill all

Ascendancy

1st: Mindless Aggression
2nd: Unnatural Strength
3rd: Bone Barrier
4th: Mistress of Sacrifice

Pantheons
Major: Soul of Lunaris - avoid projectile, extra dodge, avoid chain
Minor: Soul of Shakari - poison immunity

Note: Always look for highest total life and any resists you need.
See: Crafting section below for how to craft your gear.

Armour

Weapons

Accessories

Jewels & Flasks

Death Attunement

+1 to Maximum number of Spectres
Minions have 8% increased Attack Speed
Minions have 8% increased Cast Speed
+1 to Maximum number of Raised Zombies
+1 to Maximum number of Skeletons

For mapping, the standand gem and equipment set up has enough DPS. But you might want a DPS boost for boss fights. You can do this when the boss's attacks are easy to dodge and it's safe enough that you don't need max block.

The easiest way to do this is to have a second weapon set using Victario's Charity with Holy Flame Totem, and Flesh Offering instead of Bone Offering in a second trigger wand.

Your mapping weapon set will be the same as in the guide.


Your DPS weapon set will look like this:


Note that you need Holy Flame Totem to generate frenzy charges. Arma Brand doesn't hit quickly enough.

This combination can give double your DPS.

EB & MoM

This build uses Devouring Diadem and some new gem combinations to give about 50% more DPS compared to the base build.

The build is recommended if you enjoy playing spectres and want to invest more currency.

Path of Building Pastebin
https://pastebin.com/ByTnGEq0

Passive Tree

Level 100

Ascendancy
1. Mindless Aggression
2. Unnatural Strength
3. Mistress of Sacrifice
4. Commander of Darkness

Pantheon
Soul of Lunaris / Arakaali
Soul of Shakari

Note: There are some required equipment for this build.

Armour

Weapons

Accessories

Jewels & Flasks

Body Armour - Spectres

Boots - Support minions

Helmet - Auras

Gloves - EE & Curse, Phase Run

Wand & Shield - Weapon Set 1 (Survivability)

Wand & Shield - Weapon Set 2 (DPS)

Pledge of Hands

This build is focused on having massive DPS. It uses Devouring Diadem and Pledge of Hands to boost spectre DPS, aoe range and clear speed. It does, however, have less survivability compared to the base build and EB & MoM build.

PoE 3.8 - Pledge of Hands EB/MoM - Video Build Guide

Path of Building Pastebin
https://pastebin.com/mkEh23nU

Passive Tree

Level 100

Ascendancy
1. Commander of Darkness
2. Mindless Aggression
3. Unnatural Strength
4. Plaguebringer

Pantheon
Soul of Lunaris
Soul of Shakari

Weapon, Armour & Accessories

Jewels & Flasks

Weapon

Body Armour

Helmet

Boots

Gloves

Unset Ring

Spectres & Spiders

This build is focused on having massive boss killing DPS and fast clear speed. It uses the hardest hitting spectre in the game (EVF) and one of the faster clearing minions (spiders).

It has a slightly more complicated playstyle compared to the other build options, so please read the 'how this build works' section.

PoE 3.9 - Spectres & Spiders Summoner Build Guide Video[/b]

HOW THIS BUILD IS DIFERENT TO OTHER SPIDER BUILDS

Firstly: The spiders are only used for fast map clearing. Boss killing is done completely by the spectres. You never have to worry about spiders despawning during a boss fight!

Secondly: There is no clunky Writhing Jar/spawn/despawn mechanic. The spiders will spawn from the first player kill and then self-sustain. You never have to worry about spiders despawning while mapping or delving!


HOW THE BUILD WORKS

DPS and Mapping
The build uses spectres for boss killing and spiders for fast map clearing.

Spiders have high movement speed, are extremely aggressive and attack everything on-screen and off-screen. They hit with physical and chaos damage, and most importantly, proc poison. They are also immune to damage.

Their major downsides are summoning and sustaining them. In this build, Speaker's Wreath is used, so that monsters will die from spider's poison instead of the spider's hit because of 'minion hits can only kill ignited enemies'. There are no sources of ignite in the build.

And because poisons count as player kills, the poison kill will proc any 'on kill' effect. This means the spiders own poison will spawn more spiders. The end result is self-sustaining spiders in mapping and delve.

For boss killing, the build uses Enhanced Vaal Fallen. They hit extremely hard and make short work of any boss, including endgame bosses. But they move like snails, so that’s why spiders are used for mapping. They also have about 150 thousand life, so are almost mmortal, but they will still kill themselves on elemental reflect maps, so be careful.

You can get them in the temple of Atzoatl or Vaal city in delve.

Lastly, the build uses Hatred aura for added cold damage, and Victario’s Charity for power and frenzy charges. So, the minions will always have power charges while mapping, and will proc chill and freeze on monsters. And the EVFs can freeze lock map bosses, beyond bosses or anything that doesn’t die quickly.

Defenses
There are several defensive layers:
Firstly, the build uses level 1 cast when damage taken + level 8 spirit offering + level 1 desecrate.
Spirit offering consumes 5 corpses for 15% life as ES regain for the necro.
And CWDT has a 250 milisecond cooldown, which means it can proc spirit offering four times a second!

The watcher’s Eye with fazing will prevent monsters from body blocking you. This helps a lot in delve and juiced up maps with big monster density.

The flasks will provide: Evasion, curse immunity, bleed removal and life and ES recovery when monsters die from poison.

And the animate guardian will provide fortify and blind aura.


HOW TO PLAY

Mapping
To start, you just need to cast desecrate on the nearest pack of monsters. The EVFs will attack but won’t be able to kill them because of Speaker’s wreath, so desecrate will get the killing blow and some spiders will spawn from the corpses. From here, the spiders will spawn more spiders on their own and self-sustain,
so you can focus on moving your necro around the map safely.

Boss killing
For map bosses, endgame bosses or any dangerous rare monsters, you cast deathmark to focus the EVFs on the boss, and ball lightning to proc EE, frenzy charges and curse.
If you are experienced with playing a necro, you can also run close and use convocation to teleport your EVFs on top of the boss.

For endgame bosses, it is actually better to de-spawn the spiders because they will body block the EVFs and prevent them from hitting the boss. You can do this by quickly weapon swapping.

To fully min-max the build, you can use a second pair of wand and shield to give the EVFs about 25% more DPS.

Path of Building Pastebin
https://pastebin.com/dNDrUd9r

Passive Tree

Level 100

Special Features
1. Death Attunement anointment on the amulet.
2. Medium Thread of Hope above Lord of the Dead to get Cruel Preparation and Ravenous Horde.
3. Very large Thread of Hope near Melding will allow for Blood Siphon, Foresight and Arcane Focus.
4. Anatomical Knowledge is socketed near Quick Recovery.

Kill all bandits for the 2 passive points.


Ascendancy
1. Mindless Aggression
2. Unnatural Strength
3. Mistress of Sacrifice
4. Commander of Darkness


Pantheon
Soul of Arakaali
Soul of Shakari

Note: There are some required equipment for this build.

Armour

Weapons

Accessories

Jewels & Flasks

Body Armour - Spectres

Boots - Animate Guardian

Helmet - Auras

Gloves - EE & Curse, Desecrate

Arakaali's Dagger - Spiders

Shield - Spirit Offering

Optional Wand & Shield - Weapon Set 2

Best for:
All round mapping/bosser

Damage type:
Lightning spell

Strength:
High damage
Area of Attack spell

Weakness:
Short-range
Low health pool
Runs into storms (sirus fight)

Demo videos:
T16 map: https://youtu.be/aaD5slUdtyE
Sirus, AL8: https://youtu.be/VDL86ThQ8Wg

Where:
Act 5 - Control Blocks

6-link:


Aura:


EE trigger:


Frenzy charges (with Vic's Charity):

Best for:
Mapping

Damage type:
Fire spell

Strength:
Long-range projectiles
Long-range AOE (long cooldown)
High health pool

Weakness:
Mid range damage
Requires white socket for gem swap (mapping -> bossing)

Demo videos:
T16 map: https://youtu.be/aaD5slUdtyE
Sirus, AL8: https://youtu.be/VmsatHljnzg

Where:
Act 8 - Solaris Temple

6-link:


Gem swap:
You can swap LMP for Elemental Focus against bosses for more DPS.


Aura:


EE trigger:


Frenzy charges (with Vic's Charity):

Best for:
Boss killng

Damage type:
Elemental melee

Strength:
Extreme damage
High health pool

Weakness:
Slow movement speed
Slow attack speed

Demo videos:
T16 map: -
Sirus, AL8: coming soon

Where:
Delve - Vaal Outpost
Temple of Atzoatl

6-link:


Aura:


EE trigger:


Frenzy charges (with Vic's Charity):

You can use an AG for added utility. It can be equiped with armour and a weapon to get buffs and debuffs. But note that if your AG is killed, all the equipment will be lost!

There are two main options for the AG based on the weapon:
1. Dying Breath
2. Kingmaker

Dying Breath AG is cheap. Each piece of equipment should cost 1c each. The equipment will provide some damage buffs for your spectres and debuffs on the enemy.

Kingmaker AG is expensive. It can cost around 4-5ex to equip. Kingmaker provides fortify (20% less damage taken) and culling strike (instantly kill enemies at 10% hp) for you and your spectres.

NOTE: Never use AG in Hall of Grand Masters or in Delve 500+. The damage scaling can instantly kill it.

For both Kingmaker and Dying Breath, I recommend a chest with 'nearby enemies are blinded'. This reduced enemies accuracy to 50%.



AG is in the yellow circle. Red circle shows how far the blind goes.


Dying Breath AG:



Kingmaker AG:
You must have 10% life gained as ES crafted on your AG's body armour. It combines with the Mask of the Stitched Demon and Minion Life gem to give your AG about 17% life regen. This will keep it alive for most of the game content. NOT: delve 500+ or HoGM!




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Gems:


If you want more DPS, swap Raise Zombie and Meat Shield for Feeding Frenzy and Elemental Army



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Video guide on how to summon and equip your AG:
https://youtu.be/V5MSR9bARg4

Crafting in PoE is random, so you may need to repeat the craft many times to get the required mods. Some mods have a very low chance of rolling and the crafting mats can be extremely expensive.

Keep these points in mind before you start crafting!

Look for a 5-link/6-link chest with INT base & Screaming Essence of Greed.


SSF: Farm 6 Dapper Prodigy cards.

Trigger will auto-cast any gems in your wand when you use another skill.

You will need: wand with 1 free suffix.

Bench craft 'trigger' (3c).


Note: This craft comes from syndicate encounters and is rare.

You will need:
Convoking Wand
Bound fossil
1-socket resonator


Note: +1 minion gem has a very low chance. You may need to use many bound fossils to get the mod. The craft for +2 minion wand has a higher chance to get the mod, but will cost more.

You will need:
Convoking Wand
4-socket resonator
Jagged, Shuddering, Corroded, Metallic fossils


Notes: These 4 fossils will block all mods except spell and minion.

You will need:
Any boots
2-socket resonator
Bound, Shuddering fossils

This will give your support minions more survivability.

You will need:
item level 86 Bone helmet
1-socket resonator
Bound fossil

In act 1, use holy flame totem and zombies. Stand close to the totem for 6% heal. Zombies will sometimes die, re-summon them. Later, you will get skeletons. Summon skeletons to kill monsters and bosses.

In act 2, you will get skitterbots. Link them with infernal legion gem. They will burn and kill most monsters. Summon skeletons against bosses.

In act 3, replace skeletons with spectres. Keep zombies & skitterbots.

Make sure you have these gems at the end of each Act.

Levelling trees are at my imgur account: https://imgur.com/a/FYLPyDM.

The level ranges are labelled below the image. The level ranges are based on my own playthrough which included doing the side quests for extra passive points. You might be slightly ahead or behind.

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Enemies you hit with Elemental Damage temporarily get +25% Resistance to those Elements and -50% Resistance to other Elements

The effect lasts 5 seconds or until being overwritten.

Trap, Mine, and Totem skills trigger EE ... Minions do not trigger EE.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Elemental_Equilibrium

Any elemental spell you use will proc EE on all enemies that you hit. Your minions cannot proc EE, but they will benefit from its effects.

Example:
Slave Driver spectres use a lightning spell. So, you hit a boss with Armageddon Brand which is fire damage. It will proc EE: monsters will get +25% fire res and -50% lightning and cold res.


Elemental Equilibrium appears as pink circles under monsters.

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Spell Echo is a support gem that makes linked spell gems repeat themselves after the initial cast.

Spell Echo only works for spells cast by an actual player or minion

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Spell_Echo_Support

This means that both the player and minions will benefit from the repeated cast, as well as the increased cast speed. Spell Echo will more than double your spectres' DPS.

Note 1: Wand & Shield Build
Spell Echo will cause Raise Spectre to repeat, so you need to remove it before raising spectres. Remember to put the gem back in when you are finished.

Note 2: Pledge of Hands Build
Spell Echo stacks with Greater Spell Echo. It will give a 3rd repeat with 105% more Damage and 150% increased area. See: official wiki for more details.

1. RAISE SPECTRE GEM LEVEL
1 spectre at level 1-12
2 spectres at levels 13-24
3 spectres at level 25+

Raise Spectre can be level 20 or 21.


Unnatural Strength ascendancy passive gives +2 level to minion gems.


Hunter influence amulet can give +1 to all intelligence skill gems.


Convoking Wand can give +1 or +2 to minion gems.


Boots can give +1 spectre skill gem.



2. DEATH ATTUNEMENT PASSIVE SKILL

Death Attunement gives +1 spectre. It can be found at the top left of the passive tree.

3. +1 MAXIMUM NUMBER OF SPECTRES DELVE BODY ARMOUR

Note: +1 chest is a rare delve drop; it cannot be crafted.

You need to use Midnight Bargain to get +1 spectre. But it takes away 30% of your life.
Another option is Queen's Decree, but it is a 2h sword so you can't use a shield and trigger wand for easy Bone Offering.

You cannot do reflect maps.



All useful spectres will die quickly because they do elemental damage and their DPS is much higher than their regen/leech.

The Slave Drivers will instaphase Atziri, but they will also instantly die if they hit the mirror clone. So you need to be very quick and careful with positioning your spectres.

Here's a full run from 3.7: https://youtu.be/gRaieNyJgRg?t=150

At 2:50, one spectre hit the mirror clone and died instantly.

There are 3 things you need to do:

1. Check the gear sections in the Wand & Shield and Pledge builds for suggested items.

2. Make sure your spectres are in a 6-link.

3. Stack life on all your gear. You should have a minimum of 100 life on your gloves, belt, rings. Other items will vary depending on whether you are using uniques or rares.

That's basically it.

Previous build versions can be found in the build archive.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2581892

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