Cold ANIMATE WEAPON Summoner | League-Start & Leveling Guide

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SassyBeard wrote:

Honestly the chaos version was the best build I've played in a long time. The author isn't the best but with some tweaking it's a really solid build.

I'm looking forward to this one, gonna try it out in SSF. thanks for the guide!

Awesome, good luck! This is a great build for SSF because having to jump out of maps to trade, and then resummon all the weapons, is a big annoyance. I think it will be good for you.

Guide is now updated for 3.17.

Slight changes to defensive setup, I recommend Determination and CWDT - Molten Shell for late game defenses. Earlier, while you need extra DPS if gear is bad, those sockets go to Skitterbots - Bonechill - Unbound Ailments.

For killing tough rares from the league mechanic I think Animate Weapon will be great. Best of luck, everyone!

Hey guys,
love the build so far!

I was wondering:
Is the "10% max life, 10% reduced recovery" mastery really not worth it?
Or did i miss you taking it?

Thanks for the great build guide!

Hi everyone,

A friend and I find the animated weapons die a lot (too much tbh) this league. I was wondering if you were strugling too doing the high level content or if you found a solution to increase your minion survivability, like taking minion elemental res affixe on ghastly jewels or crafting it on your jewels ? Even with renewal and mastery node they're dying too fast...

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_Space_ wrote:

Hey guys,
love the build so far!

I was wondering:
Is the "10% max life, 10% reduced recovery" mastery really not worth it?
Or did i miss you taking it?

Thanks for the great build guide!

It's okay, but lack of life recovery is already a bit of an issue. It's not bad to take, just not super high priority.

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MasterJawa wrote:

Hi everyone,

A friend and I find the animated weapons die a lot (too much tbh) this league. I was wondering if you were strugling too doing the high level content or if you found a solution to increase your minion survivability, like taking minion elemental res affixe on ghastly jewels or crafting it on your jewels ? Even with renewal and mastery node they're dying too fast...

In addition to the "minions recover 5% life on death" mastery, try some combination of these things:

- path to Indomitable Army - very strong

- Quickening Covenant and Fortress Covenant, and path to the "minions recover life on block" node

- add Medium cluster: take Dread March

- extra gem levels (this is big). Drop the shield, use Cold Iron Point

- stop using Minion Damage support as it reduces HP

- Auras, Determination + Defiance Banner

- make sure you have some source of minion life leech (Feasting Fiends or an abyss jewel)

I'm playing with ballistas now for earning enough currency to swapping into Chaos Animate Weapon (need 15-25 ex).
Is this build more/less comfortable than explosive arrow ballista elementalist?

hello, is the build suitable for ssf?

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kubaqq999 wrote:

hello, is the build suitable for ssf?

Yes. You can get most minion builds running without specific uniques. This build is functional without the triad grip gloves, you will just miss the added safety net of cold damage (freeze). Depending on what, exactly, you have you might run into some issues in yellow maps until you get better gear.

The Triad Grip is more of a quality of life / safety thing than a build enabling unique for this particular flavor of summoner, in my opinion.

Besides, the triad grip gloves are a relatively common unique to drop.

Well.. The guide is perfectly written and understandable for new players/non expert like me

I like minions, but never tried Animate Weapon. I played Absolution + Phantasm as a starter, very cool I liked it a lot but some times when you run out of mana it was hard against bosses.

If my weapons die against a boss for example, is it easy to resummon ?
I play on Xbox so builds that require multiple permanent skills are quite difficult for me.

Thank you for this great guide!

Looks like this build didn't get much attention in 3.17. I tried it this league (first time I used AW) and loved it and just wanted to share my experience.

The most important and easily obtainable buff in 3.17 is a searing exarch's implicit on boots which drops brittle ground while moving. This alone skyrockets our DPS and together with tree/assasin's mark caps minions' crit chance at 100%. You have to move and run under a boss from time to time but it's easy to do.
Also the new amulet Ashes of the Stars is fantastic. One could argue a +2 skill and max life amulet would be better but it's also much more expensive.

I focused on defense as I'm lazy and I can say this build can stack a lot of defense layers and still have great DPS:
- full block (75/77)
- life recovery on block
- divine flesh + 85% chaos res
- 50k armour (determination/defiance/molten shell/flasks)
- additional phys reduction (endurance charges + watcher's eye)
- reduced crit damage taken (up to 90%)
- 15M Sirus DPS

I farmed all bosses/invitations with it (except Maven and Feared - I have no skill for them) :)

Also a small tip - if you struggle to summon a lot of AWs on entering a new zone, buy 1c wand/shield with high cast speed and mana regen and put them into secondary weapon slots. So when you enter just switch to them, summon 10+ AWs and switch back. If you have any auras in your weapons, put same auras in the same sockets in your secondaries, so they will not deactivate when switching.

PoB (almost min-maxed gear, but not crazy expensive)
https://pastebin.com/JT3fyY5h

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zzeneg wrote:

Also a small tip - if you struggle to summon a lot of AWs on entering a new zone, buy 1c wand/shield with high cast speed and mana regen and put them into secondary weapon slots. So when you enter just switch to them, summon 10+ AWs and switch back. If you have any auras in your weapons, put same auras in the same sockets in your secondaries, so they will not deactivate when switching.

That's really clever. I may steal that tip and put it in the guide!

Glad the build did some work for you, fantastic to hear, thanks for the comment!!