Cold ANIMATE WEAPON Summoner | League-Start & Leveling Guide

Hello !

Thanks for the well done and in depth guide !

I have played it as a league starter, it felt very strong and cheap to get going !

I've just upgraded with double curse with AG, very nice dps boost (also the fortify and movement speed from kingmaker is really nice)

Just to thank you for the time you put in the build

Here is my current pob if anybody has suggestion : https://pastebin.com/H5jCS5tV
5.5M sDPS, 77% ele res, 32% chaos res, 6k life

I'd say my biggest problems is getting one shot in scourge T15 juiced map, but I don't think anybuild can facetank that anyway.

Also when the screen is full of minions, since I don't run melee splash, it takes a bit of time to kill, which can be dangerous, but melee splash felt like a huge loss of dps (when I swap with fire pen). If anybody know other solutions, I'd be interested !

Thanks for replying, I've taken those passives and yes I can run the three auras.

I've hit a bit of a wall on about tier 10 and not sure what the most effective thing I can do to improve is.

I'm following the guide and as far as I can tell there isn't any significant upgrades I need to make, I have quite good jewels for damage, resistances and gems but obviously something isn't quite right.

https://pastebin.com/ichqs7Z9

"

bizbiz77 wrote:

Hello !

Thanks for the well done and in depth guide !

I have played it as a league starter, it felt very strong and cheap to get going !

I've just upgraded with double curse with AG, very nice dps boost (also the fortify and movement speed from kingmaker is really nice)

Just to thank you for the time you put in the build

Here is my current pob if anybody has suggestion : https://pastebin.com/H5jCS5tV
5.5M sDPS, 77% ele res, 32% chaos res, 6k life

I'd say my biggest problems is getting one shot in scourge T15 juiced map, but I don't think anybuild can facetank that anyway.

Also when the screen is full of minions, since I don't run melee splash, it takes a bit of time to kill, which can be dangerous, but melee splash felt like a huge loss of dps (when I swap with fire pen). If anybody know other solutions, I'd be interested !

Very nice that it is working well for you! In clearing, I'd strongly suggest Melee Splash... Big difference in clearing and therefore safety.

"

Hotpoop wrote:

Thanks for replying, I've taken those passives and yes I can run the three auras.

I've hit a bit of a wall on about tier 10 and not sure what the most effective thing I can do to improve is.

I'm following the guide and as far as I can tell there isn't any significant upgrades I need to make, I have quite good jewels for damage, resistances and gems but obviously something isn't quite right.

https://pastebin.com/ichqs7Z9

For more DPS, cluster jewels are the most significant upgrade. Get an 8 or 9 passive large (the 12 you have is very inefficient), and then 2 mediums which each have Renewal. Then socket Fortress Covenant and Quickening Covenant into the sockets in the medium.

This will dramatically boost your damage.

To get the extra passives to do that, you can spec out of a few armor nodes.

In your gem links, running Minion Speed isn't great for DPS, replace it with Increased Critical Damage.

Obviously getting a 6th link will also help.

Get an Animate Guardian using Sign of the Sin Eater to absorb ailments, and Victario's Flight boots for extra move speed.

Rings with minion speed crafted on are also good.

Those are the upgrades I'd suggest, good luck!

I really want to give this a shot - Especially the Fire conversion (I like fire for some reason!) I'm really concerned though about how the build plays and most of this is just my lack of understanding, I have a level 90 Righteous Fire and am so far really spoiled with the defense.

Other than 4-5k life here how do you do any defensives? I don't see much armor or ES, and I don't see any evasion or other defense nodes, Could someone take pity on a newer guy and explain how it works here? I really want to try a summoner and just end up getting really frustrated because I keep dying and have never been sure what kills me!

Thank you all!

"

scjohnson243_1 wrote:

I really want to give this a shot - Especially the Fire conversion (I like fire for some reason!) I'm really concerned though about how the build plays and most of this is just my lack of understanding, I have a level 90 Righteous Fire and am so far really spoiled with the defense.

Other than 4-5k life here how do you do any defensives? I don't see much armor or ES, and I don't see any evasion or other defense nodes, Could someone take pity on a newer guy and explain how it works here? I really want to try a summoner and just end up getting really frustrated because I keep dying and have never been sure what kills me!

Thank you all!

Hi there. The main defense (especially on the fire version) is armor stacking - several notables plus Determination + Defiance Banner. With some investment, you could also get a significant amount of block with nearby passives, or use Bone Offering instead of Flesh Offering to be safer (with a tradeoff of lower clear speed).

I like using Jinxed Juju to have spectres take 10% of damage for you, that's another 10% less damage taken. Animate Guardian gear also helps defensively.

Late game it's easy to get 6-7k HP.

I won't say the defenses are wildly amazing because they're not. It's a summoner, best defense is to not be near the action, but between armor, block, and 190+% HP on the passive tree I think this is better defensively than many.

"

The main defense (especially on the fire version) is armor stacking - several notables plus Determination + Defiance Banner.

Thank you very much! So I guess most of my armor would be Str-based, correct?
Then get a shield and try to find nearby +block passives - that makes sense!

"

For more DPS, cluster jewels are the most significant upgrade. Get an 8 or 9 passive large (the 12 you have is very inefficient), and then 2 mediums which each have Renewal. Then socket Fortress Covenant and Quickening Covenant into the sockets in the medium.

This will dramatically boost your damage.

To get the extra passives to do that, you can spec out of a few armor nodes.

In your gem links, running Minion Speed isn't great for DPS, replace it with Increased Critical Damage.

Obviously getting a 6th link will also help.

Get an Animate Guardian using Sign of the Sin Eater to absorb ailments, and Victario's Flight boots for extra move speed.

Rings with minion speed crafted on are also good.

Those are the upgrades I'd suggest, good luck!

Thanks I got the jewels changed and removed my armor node and unfortunately a few life nodes and life regen nodes but it's made a big dps boost. Admittedly I am too squishy as I've specced into the mana reserve nodes but hopefully the animate guardian might help with that, and hopefully some more levels if I can stop dying. I am progressing through the maps if I'm a bit careful though which is good.

Only a little thing, in the guide you said end game chest needs 3 red but I can't see why that is? Is that from an older patch?

Yes the 3 red is older patch, I'll revise that when I next update.

Anyway, good luck as you continue progressing the build!

Feel free to check my character. Does really well with almost all content.

Playing fire conversion here in scourge and I love this build. Been playing cold conversion last 3 seasons.

I made minor adjustments especially conserning my armour.

So big thx to creator of the build :-)

And btw I am unsure what best amulet annoint for 3.16 Would be….

got all the watchstones for the first time and wasn't too difficult so thanks, still die a bit but I think that's mainly to map mods I don't understand or going too deep in scourge.

Is there a particular league mechanic this build excels in that it's worth focusing on for currency or advancing?