{3.10} Speaker for the Dead | The Mass Minion Summoner | League Starter, Leveling Guide 💀
" I opted out of cyclone on my build. I understand what it brings to the build, but didn't like the -30% move speed. It caused me too much grief in t15+ maps, and was unusable in uber elder. I also opted out of EE, as I wasnt using ball lightning to proc it with cyclone. My damage was more than enough for everything without it. My tankiness was pretty gimped, tho, without the benefits from cyclone. I also went with dream fragment, to be chill/freeze immune. I made a few changes to your build, but started out with using everything the guide suggested. The only problems I had with the modified version of your build was surviving UE beam of death, Elder's icicle shots, and maze of the minotaur boss. Those gave me alot of grief, and killed me many times. Last edited by Ysonoko on Dec 12, 2019, 10:48:44 AM
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Awesome, thanks for the updates. Will be playing this to start the new league!
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All my other planned league starters seem pretty popular and I haven't seen that many people say they'll be playing minions. I don't usually play the same build twice but I figured I might as well come back to this since the changes don't look that bad. Boss League with unchanged skellies should go down well.
Hopefully now that there's less people playing with spectres Unending Hunger won't be 1 ex at league start again. Losing the extra spectre with sentinels shouldn't matter with one of these socketed. Since this will be my second time playing a minion build, what are your thoughts on early league items now after the changes? I'm thinking of trying to get a Queen's Escape early on as they seemed to be pretty cheap to buy at the start of last league, or even doing the Prophecy instead. It makes up for all the movement speed lost from the nerfs and gives back the spectre too. Obviously much lower damage but for early on in the league it shouldn't make a difference. Unless I'm missing something, Triad Grip are not a league specific drop. I got a pair of Phoenix last league so their drop rate should stay the same. Either way, with less people playing summoners they should still be very cheap. | |
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Hail Necromancer,
Please accept this mere piece of my soul, in exchange for your teachings. I'm about to try this build in the upcoming league, and read somewhere that an alternative-build was using Cyclone+CwC+Desecrate+Spirit_Offering with the Stampede unique boots, and I liked the idea! Did you list somewhere a link to a discussion about this alternative, by any chance ? I'd like to learn more about the changes this player made to the Speaker for the Dead build. | |
" I don't know which pages the discussion was on, but Cyclone+CwC+Desecrate+Spirit_Offering is a very solid defensive set up. The Stampede actually isn't very good. With decent boots + flasks up we can easily beat 150% movement speed. The boots also don't provide anything else for us other than a bit of energy shield. With some rare boots we can get life, movement speed, resistances, energy shield, attack or spell dodge (nerfed in 3.9) and possibly even some strength or dexterity. On top of this, The Stampede are a blight league unique which means they'll be much harder to find in this league. | |
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METAMORPH LEVELING
 Act 1 complete. 1. Zombie Slam is pretty damn slow after the nerf. 2. Holy Relic life regen is great as always. Holy Relic area looks like it might have been stealth-nerfed. I could just be too used to its endgame radius, so take this with a grain of salt, but it seems smaller from what I remember. 3. The very first Metamorph's Firestorm is absolutely brutal for Zombies. Otherwise, Metamorphs haven't been too bad so far. 4. Smite with Ancestral Call still feels damn good this early. 5. Helm and gloves are the best places for sockets. We don't care what item this is, and we don't need to replace them often. In contrast, the weapon will be changed frequently, and boots will be upgraded whenever we can get more movement speed, so only use the sockets on these items if you have to. Ignore the chest slot, so you don't receive a movement penalty, and use a 3% movement shield (or dual wield) to nullify the shield movement penalty. 6. Don't forget to rush to the Practical Applications notable on the tree for the STR. Also, the Arcane Will notable pretty much removes the need for a mana flask.
Gear and Tree
 Last edited by Hercanic on Dec 13, 2019, 6:21:27 PM
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METAMORPH LEVELING
 Act 2 complete.
Gear and Tree
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I'm 58 now still wearing trash and the build is still flying through content at light speed. Smooth leveling experience.
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METAMORPH LEVELING
 Act 3 complete.
Gear and Tree
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@ Ysonoko:
Fulll Post & Previous Conversation
" " " I wouldn't continually use Cyclone. Rather, when you have an opening to cast Ball Lightning (applying EE and all that jazz) or CwC Spirit Offering, Cyclone lets you do it without fully stopping. Cyclone only as necessary; the rest of the time run around in circles and dodge while your minions do the work. " Rin's boot craft, "Cannot be Frozen", is good for this if you have an open prefix and 1ex. Chill is less dangerous now that mobility skills backload their animation. " Beam: Keep moving so you don't get caught in it, and dash away the moment you see it. I've found that if I'm not already moving, that's when the beam becomes most dangerous, since I'm more likely to have a delayed reaction as well as have more ground to cover to get clear. He telegraphs before firing the beam, and in that moment the direction of the beam is set. Just by being in motion during this telegraph, you're already more likely to be mostly out of the way when it releases. Icicles: Keep behind Elder as much as possible. If you stay relatively close to him, you can simply dash behind him the moment you see him summon the icicles, since there's a ~second delay before they launch. Minotaur: Keep close and he can't use his Burrow. It has a minimum range, and is meant to punish ranged characters. The more he Burrows, the longer the fight will take, because he's immune to damage while underground, and then there's the DPS time wasted on your minions catching up to his new position. It's easier to survive his melee Sweep than his Burrow. @ Dashbb:
Full Post
" " Welcome back! It's great to have you! =oD " Check out @ Kirian42 for more on Queen's Decree and Femur of the Saints. The Black Cane scepter is an interesting option for hybrid casters. Not sure exactly how much damage it adds per Phantasm level, but it does stack. The Mother's Embrace belt would be good on a Pathfinder for Herald of Agony. Eye of Malice helm has a lot of potential with Cold Triad Grip. It increases resistances of nearby enemies, which includes negative resists. -50% EE, -10% Cold Exposure, -29% L5 Frostbite on Hit, -24% L5 Ele Weakness on Hit = -113% * 1.5 = -170% Cold Resistance. The change to Yriel's Fostering holds promise for cheesing Hall of Grandmasters with Infernal Legion, since the Bestial Minion is now immune to damage and untargetable. I do wonder if they disallowed the Ursa from Taunting with its Rallying Cry. If GGG overlooked that, there's extra cheese to be had. The Scourge is a fine 1H alternative to an Influenced weapon, something I covered in the original FAQ. Arakaali's Fang is ~twice as powerful as Zombies in an Influenced 1H weapon, so that's always an option if you don't mind dealing with worm flasks. " Yep, you're right! I mistakenly assumed it was a Blight League drop because all five of the ones I found came from Blight chests. I have corrected the original post. Thanks! @ Amnexty:
Full Post
" " Not on hand. You can find it by searching "Stampede" through the pages of my posts. It may be a few dozen pages in. Last edited by Hercanic on Dec 16, 2019, 1:39:43 AM
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