[3.12] Invincible Spectres Necro Summoner - HC Viable - Boss Killer - High Clear Speed

Tough, cheap with huge potential, immune to all ailments, has invincible zombies and spectres, is HC viable, can run any map, uses the same gem setup for bosses and maps, run Necromantic Aegis with 75% change to block attack and spell damage, becomes powerful from act 5, and can safely run animated guardian with expensive gear!

Suffers quite a bit for SSF due to useful uniques being difficult to acquire reliably on your own, and has a limited poll for viable spectres.

Vis Mortis is a strong pick for this build, it may even be stronger than having another spectre, if you can afford to give up on resistances from your body armor. The added elemental damage as chaos damage benefits both our spectres and our phantasms, becaue our phantasms gain a substantial amount of elemental damage from our aura.

Victario's Charity is monumental, as it allows us to reliably keep up frenzy charges on our minions. Having a shield also allows us to run Shield Charge with Fortify Support for added movement and survivability, and will help us become block capped.

Rumi's Concoction will bolster our physical as well as magical defenses, help us become block capped, and allow us to trigger life recovery from Bone Offering more often.

Cindershallow Urn is a reliable source of onslaught, additional damage, and life, mana, and ES recovery. If you are using spectres that deal fire damage you will not benefit from the damage bonus, as Elemental Equilibrium will prevent you from dealing fire damage to ignite monsters.

Cyclopean Coil makes us immune to ignite and shock while our intelligence is higher than our strength, and our strength is higher than our dexterity. These are the two superior of the immune modifiers, as being immune to freeze doesn't prevent us from being severely chilled. This belt helps us make room for Rumi's Concoction and Cindershallow Urn without making us vulnerable to ailments, gives a good amount of life, and helps us covering dexterity requirements.

The Jinxed Juju helps us survive while also making our curses and auras more powerful, which benefits our minions. It also helps us cover dexterity requirements. A strong item that helps with chaos resistance as well, if you can cover your elemental resistances elsewhere. If you can cover your stat requirements elsewhere, it can also be corrupted to grant 4 - 5% chance to block spell damage instead of Strength and Dexterity to help reach spell block cap in place of other sources.

Seething Divine Life Flask of Curing for poison immunity and instant life recovery. We will get bleed immunity from Bone Armour.

Chemist's Basalt Flask of Warding with at least 24% reduced charges used so you can use it twice, for curse immunity and added physical bulk.

Rumi's Concoction for physical bulk and block.

Cindershallow Urn for attack, cast, and movement speed, minion damage, and life, mana, and ES recovery.

Quicksilver Flask of Heat with your preferred suffix for movement speed and chill and freeze immunity.



Players who run Mind Over Matter should use an Enduring Hallowed Hybrid Flask of Warding in place of the Basalt Flask. All players should keep one handy for maps where you cannot recover mana. Just go back and switch when you notice you are not recovering mana.

Our other items should cover our need for elemental resistances, stat requirements, and bolster our life. These items should also feature mana as well whenever possibly, if running Mind Over Matter. We may also need added elemental damage of a particular type to apply Elemental Equilibrium or ignite monsters for Cindershallow Urn. Likewise, you should be wary of items that cause you to deal damage of the same type as your spectres.

Convoking Wand, preferably with +1 to level of all minion and spell skill gems, and trigger socketed spell when you use a skill.

Two Unset Rings for additional gem sockets. These are not strictly necessary, but the sockets are useful.

A body armor that gives +1 to maximum number of spectres, if you are not using Vis Mortis instead. Astral Plate as base for armor and additional resistances if possible.

Any variety of Elder Two-Toned Boots for additional resistances that has +1 to level of all Raise Spectre gems and increased movement speed. Preferably with elemental resistances and/or dexterity as well.

Elder Bone Helmet for additional minion damage, preferably with increased minion damage and life support, possibly with +1 to number of raised zombies.

Raise Spectre should be 6-linked with Summon Phantasm Support and staple gems such as Spell Echo Support, Minion Damage Support and Controlled Destruction Support. Raise Spectre and Summon Phantasm Support should both be level 21 if possible to drive up minion numbers, damage, and life. Added levels to our Raise Spectre gem also benefit the life and damage of our phantasms. Use awakened gems instead of standard ones whenever possible if you can afford it.

Note: Spell Echo Support doesn't affect phantasms from Soulwrest, because they are summoned by a triggered skill, but phantasms from Raise Spectre will benefit from it.

If your spectres deal cold damage, use Hypothermia Support. If you run Summon Skitterbots you can reliably chill map monsters and bosses.



If your spectres deal AoE damage, such as the Flame Sentinels, use Concentrated Effect Support instead of Hypothermia. Alternatively, if your spectres don't deal AoE nor cold damage, use Elemental Focus Support instead. This build also plays well with any Redemption Sentries setup, in which case you just link your Summon Phantasm Support gem to your zombies instead of your spectres.



Raise Zombie should be used as a support minion for our spectres and phantasms. We link our zombies with Feeding Freenzy Support to buff our other minions, Elemental Army Support to make them apply exposure reliably, and Meat Shield Support so they can taunt often. We could also get taunt from jewels, but we'd rather use other jewels instead. Place these in your Bone Helmet if possible, so they can potentially be supported with Minion Life and Minion Damage Support as well, though these are strictly nice-to-have. Less than 10% of our damage stems from our zombies, and due to Life from Death they shouldn't die regardless of the added life.



I recommend using Animated Guardian, Summon Stone Golem or Summon Carrion Golem together with your Raise Zombie gem, unless you are using Redemption Sentries, in which case you should link your Summon Phantasm Support to your zombies instead. Animated Guardian and golems are also ideal to be placed in ring sockets; because of Life from Death, these minions will be a lot tougher than in most builds, even without support gems.



Desecrate and Bone Offering goes in our wand, so we can trigger them every fourth second when we use another skill to auto buff Bone Offering. Bone Offering is monumental to our survivability, and grants us not only a lot of block against attack and spell hits, but also allows us to recover a significant amount of life when we do so. Considering the amount of damage mitigated, and the amount of life recvoered from blocked hits, swams of minor monsters are much more likely to heal than damage you. Paired with immunity to stun, you will always be able to block attacks. Place Frost Bomb in your wand as well if your spectres deal cold damage, in order to lower monsters' resistance to cold damage.



Alternatively, if your spectres do not deal cold damage or in order to reach block cap, consider placing Tempest Shield in your wand instead of Frost Bomb, so you can auto buff additional chance to block attacks and spell hits. It's tricky to use Wave of Conviction to apply lightning or fire exposure, as it's reliant on you dealing the same type of damage, which fights Elemental Equilibrium. It is possible, however, if you only deal the damage you wish to expose with spells, and use an attack instead for applying EE and curses. Another alternative is to fossil craft an abyss socket into your wand as well.



The aura skill we use to buff our minions depends on the damage of our spectres. Hatred for Frost Sentinels and other spectres that deal cold damage, Anger for Flame Sentinels and other spectres that deal fire damage, and Wrath for spectres that deal lightning damage. These auras improve all our minions, but most significantly it gives elemental damage of the proper type to our phantasms, further synchronizing them, our spectres, and the build as a whole. Link the aura with Generosity Support so it buffs our minions further and we avoid the added damage so we can apply EE.



Similar to our aura skill, our curse skill depends on the damage of our spectres. Frostbite for cold damage, Flammability for fire damage, Conductivity for lightning damage, and finally Elemental Weakness if our minions deal a significant amount of elemental damage other than our primary type.

We apply the curse using Curse On Hit Support. There are many good candidates for spells and attacks to apply the curse with. Ball Lightning with Greater Multiple Projectiles Support is a classic. I've also used Power Siphon that comes with extra projectiles and Chain Support for its culling effect. Armageddon Brand is another popular skill that doesn't need a forth linked socket to work properly.

I prefer Kinetic Bolt together with Greater Multiple Projectiles Support. It's projectiles travels fast and far, which helps tremendously with cursing monsters when moving at a fast pace while clearing, and it's movement pattern and how it splits allows it to hit wide, deep, and even around corners!

Be wary of the damage type you use, as this attack or spell will also be your primary source of applying Elemental Equilibrium. You can use Avatar of Fire to only deal fire damage and ignite for Cindershallow Urn, if your spectres don't deal fire damage.



Summon Skitterbots is great for reliably applying chill and shock to monsters and bosses for added survivability and damage. If your spectres deal cold damage, link it with Bonechill Support. The wording of Bonechill is important: It increases damage taken by chilled monsters, as opposed to increasing damage dealt by your minions to chilled monsters. The former is a substancial multipler compared to the latter, and you can link Bonechill Support to Summon Skitterbots without having to invest in reduced mana reserved.



Flame Dash, Convocation, and Second Wind Support should be placed in our shield.



Alternative Quality Gems:
Here's a list of the alternative quality gems I think we should look out for.

Greater Multiple Projectiles Support - Anomalous for increased projectile speed and reduced mana cost.
Bonechill Support - Divergent for increased chill effect that increases cold damage taken in turn.
Convocation - Divergent for Unnerve that cause enemies to take increased spell damage.
<Golem gem> - Anomalous for increased buff effect.
Spell Echo Support - Divergent for more damage!
Animate Guardian - Anomalous for a significant increase to Area of Effect of its auras!
Summon Skitterbots - Divergent for increase chill and shock effect.
Frost Bomb - Divergent for increase to Area of Effect.
Tempest Shield - Divergent for increased block and spell block chance.

Because of how tough our minions become, we are able to run Animated Guardian reliably with expensive items, without fear of losing our investment or having to deal with gathering the whole set again and again!

Disclaimer: Our minions aren't in fact invincible, and we may in rare occations lose a semi-fragile zombie or golem to high damage boss attacks in situations where the boss cannot be hit (no healing). Our spectres can also die if suffering incredibly abuse from reflect damage, such as shooting down a group of invulnerable monsters, suffering the full reflect damage without any healing. Our Animated Guardian, on the other hand, hits like a wet noodle and has tremendous amounts of health. I ran this setup against Sirius, and my Animated Guardian and spectres were completely unfazed by everything he had to throw at them.

Gear:

Helmet: Helmet with Nearby Enemies have -9% to Cold|Fire|Lightning Resistance
Boots: Victario's Flight - Aura that grants you and your minions 10% increased movement speed
Weapon: Kingmaker - Aura that grants you and your minions 30% increased rarity of items found, culling strike, +50% to critical strike multiplier, and fortify
Body Armour: Belly of the Beast
Gloves: Southbound

The resistance reduction of the helmet should reflect the damage dealt by your spectres. You can use Leer Cast as a cheaper alternative for a helmet, for 15% increased damage to you and your minions.

A cheaper alternative to Kingmaker is Dying Breath, for an additional 18% increased damage to you and your minions, and 18% increased effect of curses.

Passive Skill Tree (level 90)

Use Path of Building Community fork.

Keystones explained:

Elemental Equilibrium:
Incredibly powerful keystone for summoners with minions who deal elemental damage. Enemies get -50% resistance against any elemental damange other than what you dealt, which they get +25% resistance to. The trick is to deal elemental damage that is different from that of your minions. For this purpose, it is necessary to use Generosity Support with Wrath, Anger, or Hatred so we do not benefit from the added damage while your minions do.

Unwavering Stance:
Makes us immune to stun. We cannot block while stunned, or for an equal duration after blocking a hit that would have stunned us. By becoming immune to stun, we are certain to always benefit from our chance to block. Paired with Bone Offering, this also allows us to maintain our life recovery from blocking hits at all times.

Glancing Blows:
Doubles our chance to block but we take 65% of damage from blocked hits. This keystone allows us to become block capped for both spells and attacks, even while using Necromantic Aegis! It's a great source of damage reduction and life recovery.

Necromantic Aegis:
Your minions use our shield instead of us. Usually a pretty big trade because it will leave us open to hits, but Victario's Charity has very little to offers us in terms of defense and stats since we can become block capped without it. We still gain benefits from effects that require us to hold a shield and our minions are much better at giving each other charges with the shield, power charges in particular.

Jewels:

Unending Hunger is the only required jewel by this build, and helps us tremendously with clearing hordes of monsters. Ideally, we wish to have a Ghastly Eye Jewel with Minions deal #% increased Damage if you've used a Minion Skill Recently, Minions have #% chance to Taunt on Hit with Attacks and life. We want it for the taunt, which is useful for reducing damage taken. We can also effectively use a medium Thread of Hope to reach both Ravenous Horde and Arcane Guarding at the same time.



Cluster Jewels:



Large Cluster Jewels:
Our Large Cluster Jewel should be one that grants minion damage and 3 added passive skills, where one is Renewal. Raze and Pillage could be good if you have spectres that deal fire damage, otherwise aim for Feasting Fiends as the second added passive skill. The third should be Vicious Bite. Regardless, we always wish for it to have 3 added passive skills, as it will save us two passive skill points when getting to our Medium Cluster Jewels and Renewal. Alternatively, you can skip the Large Cluster Jewel altogether, as we only rely on having a single Medium Cluster Jewel.

Medium Cluster Jewels:
One of our Medium Cluster Jewels should grant minion life, Renewal, and Life from Death, preferably with 5 of fewer passive skills. The other should be one that grants increased effect of curses with 5 or fewer passive skills as well. This will grant us access to the poor man's culling strike through Wish for Death, until we can afford culling strike on gloves or from our animated guardian. Master of Fear is also strong and will increase enemies' damage taken from spells by 10%, which is a significant damage boost compared to most alternatives. If you don't need culling strike, you can take Evil Eye or Dark Discourse instead for additional damage. Alternatively, you can go for a second Medium Cluster Jewel that grants minion life and another Renewal and Life from Death or Feasting Fiends.

Small Cluster Jewels:
Our Small Cluster Jewels should grant increased maximum life, idealy with 3 passive skills and increased effect, which will bring small passive skills from 4% maximum life to 5% maximum life. Otherwise, we aim for resistances or dexterity on small passive skills, and there are many great added skills to pick from: Surging Vitality, Fettle, Peak Vigour, Sublime Sensation, and Feast of Flesh. Mind Over Matter users should aim for Holistic Health.

Kitava's Teachings:
Alternatively, you might wish to use Kitava's Teachings instead of a rare Small Cluster Jewel. It grants a considerable amount of life and mana each second, and we should be able to sustain corpses with Desecrate at any time to avoid it's downside. It is particularly powerful for Mind Over Matter users who benefit more from the mana recovery.

Bandits:

Kill all for two additional passive skill points.

Anointment:

Ravenous Horde for damage.

Alternatively, you can reach it with a medium Thread of Hope to choose one of the following instead:

Sanctuary for elemental resistances and additional attack and spell hit block.

Deflection for even more attack and spell hit block, but no elemental resistances.

Pantheons:

Soul of Solaris, to protect us from suffering consecutive critical strikes and bolster our defences against single enemies, which we are most vulnerable against thanks to Bone Offering.

Soul of Gruthkul for physical bulk or Soul of Ryslatha for life flask charges and improved healing on low life.

You should be wary of triggered enchantments for boots and gloves that deal or add element damage of the same type as your spectres, as they are strictly worse than having no enchantment at all!

Gloves: Commandment of the Grave. Summons minions on skill or minion kill.

Helmet: Spectres have 40% increased Damage. Also affects our phantasms, as they are linked to our Raise Spectre gem.

Boots: (Whichever of the following you prefer)
10% chance to Dodge Attack Hits if you've taken a Critical Strike Recently
8% chance to Dodge Spell Hits if you've taken Spell Damage Recently
Regenerate 2% of Life per second if you were Hit Recently
10% increased Movement Speed if you haven't been Hit Recently

Convoking Wand with +1 to level of all spell and minion skill gems:
Base must be a normal, Warlord, or Crusader Convoking Wand with item level 60 or greater. Craft using Jagged, Matallic, Shuddering, and Corroded Fossils in a Prime Resonator. You wish to have a free suffix to craft Trigger a socketed spell when you use a skill, using your workbench. Attempt to free up a suffix using an Orb of Annulment if necessary. This mod must be unveiled three times before you can craft it. It is my understanding that Aisling has a higher chance of dropping items with the mod.



Two-Toned Boots with +1 to level of all Raise Spectre gems and increased movement speed:
Must be an Elder base with item level 75 or greater. Craft using Bound, Dense, and Pristine Fossils in a Powerful Resonator. Cannot roll life, but has a high chance of rolling +1 to level of all Raise Spectre gems and increased movement speed. You wish to have a free prefix to craft life using workbench. Attempt to free up a prefix using an Orb of Annulment if necessary. Base must have evasion to roll dexterity for gem requirements. A base with energy shield is required to roll mana for Mind Over Matter, but will also lower the chance of getting movement speed.



Rumi's Concoction is a reward from Earth Drinker, and it's often worth it to buy the cards instead of a cheap Rumi's Concoction. The cards can be farmed for SSF, and only has two possible outcomes at the time of writing.



Flasks with the correct combination of prefix and suffix are often very expensive. If you can roll the right prefix without a suffix, you can use the Blood Alter in the Menagerie to add the correct suffix to it afterwards. This is often much cheaper than getting it from another player, if the flask you are looking for is a popular item, and the safest way to craft it in SSF.



Cyclopean Coil drops from The Elder exclusively.



Cindershallow Urn drops from The Mastermind.



Elder Bone Helmet is a reward from Nook's Crown, which drops from The Mastermind. The result is an Elder Bone Helmet with item level of 100, the perfect base for crafting summoner helmets.

Use a Tabula Rasa if you have access to one. Another strong, yet cheap, candidate for an early 6L is Dialla's Malefaction, because you can use it to raise the level of your Raise Spectre gem. In combination with an Empower, which you can also give another level with Dialla's Malefaction, you can get your a third spectre from the gem early on with little investment. Due to Vis Mortis being dirt cheap this league, you can even get your hands on a very powerful 6L for this build pretty early. If you are behind the curve, consider buying a cheap bricked level 20 Raise Spectre gem from another player when you hit level 70, if possible.

Another unique to consider when you first start using spectres, is Bones of Ullr, which is both cheap and a fairly common drop for SSF. Otherwise, you should prioritize boots with movement speed while leveling.