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

"

CedricDur wrote:

Man, I love it. I did just that and skipped everything, ran to the gem cluster, slotted a cheap 5c gem there with Renewal and Life from Death.... and you know how zombies are useless in the low levels since they keep on dying, and how they simply don't survive a Delirium encounter..? Yeah, no, they are up 90% of the time now straight at level 10+ :D Merveil did bash them but other than that it's as if I had them by level 40.

I started leveling with Explosive trap linked to chance to bleed and chance to poison with Phantasm and Zombies all clustered together in Tabula.

Moved to Firestorm at 12. Added Lightning and Ice heralds, changed from chance to bleed/poison to added lightning and cold damage. Minions are up 95% of the time even during Delirium and I'm blitzing the campaign.

I had been leveling a SRS before this and didn't bother summoning zombies since they would die in the first 10 seconds of a Delirium encounter (man, SRS builds are sleeping if they don't use this gem. They don't even need phantasms).

This setup is a game changer for summoner.

This is definitely a two thumbs up. Kudos man!

Thank you so much for the detailed leveling experienced! I leveled up as a VD Necromancer, but changed into this after I saw Life from Death and remembered that phantasms, unlike Herald of Purity minions, don't refresh but die when another one is spawned above max amount. I just had to test it, which turned out great!

Using Life from Death together with SRS for leveling is an excellent idea!

"

Drakkashi wrote:

Thank you so much for the detailed leveling experienced! I leveled up as a VD Necromancer, but changed into this after I saw Life from Death and remembered that phantasms, unlike Herald of Purity minions, don't refresh but die when another one is spawned above max amount. I just had to test it, which turned out great!

Using Life from Death together with SRS for leveling is an excellent idea!

Update. Reached 28, had a Spectre gem waiting, changed slotting. Two Flame Sentinels with phantasms attached, multiple projectile (since it helps the phantasms), elemental focus, controlled destruction, minion damage, and finally cold damage (just a placeholder since it helps both phantasms and specters until spell echo unlocks).

No longer have to cast to spawn phantasms as the spectres do it now. It brought a tear to my eye it did, almost like the 'specters and zombies on steroids' build back before the guy who wrote it went full ham on min max damage and we just walked around with Queen's Decree while the minions zoomed around.

Flame Sentinels are poor country cousins compared to Frost Sentinels though. They lag behind and aren't nearly as aggressive as Frost Sentinels with their two kilometer ranger snipe hitting things off screen. This makes convocation nearly a necessity.

Nothing has died since the switch though so its still full on.


As you mentioned a couple posts back how you felt squishy because undergeared the more I look at it the more I feel something that could be worked in would be a setup with cyclone, cast when channeling, dessecrate, spirit offering, flesh offering, bone offering, combined with the Oblation belt (that stacks with Mistress of Sacrifice).

$#&% ton more zoom zoom for our minions and us, more resistances, some more damage, more block.

I saw it over here, bottom of the OP.


Not sure exactly how it could be made to fit other than placing the specters in a helm with built in mods to allow for the missing gems. Not even sure if it would be worth it, but we have so many bodies on the screen blocking hits and being healed that them all being boosted by a stream of offerings just seems cool.

Yeah, I think you'd have to move Raise Spectre and Summon Phantasms Support to helmet in that case. I can see where you get the extra block from, but you'd also lose 25% of the block you gain from Bone Offering.

I don't think it'd be strictly worth it, but I definitely think it could be viable. Sounds like a lot of fun to have three offerings up!

With Call to the Slaughter, which is the only alright third skill for a Large Cluster Jewel, your phantasms will get 30% more movement speed and 10% more cast speed for a short while after being spawned. This may also be a fun way to give them some extra speed, and they will often have just been summoned.

Hey, super interesting setup ! Thanks for Sharing !

Do you think this setup works well with the Reeption Sentries ?

I didn't test yet (still leveling) but for some reason i think they have higher damage, specially single target.


Thanks again !

The extra elemental resistances could possibly ease up the gear requirements?

Anyway, I decided to try it since I'm just in the campaign.




I just feel powerful, that's all I ask.

"

ikkyhirsch wrote:

Hey, super interesting setup ! Thanks for Sharing !

Do you think this setup works well with the Reeption Sentries ?

I didn't test yet (still leveling) but for some reason i think they have higher damage, specially single target.


Thanks again !

Redemption Sentries sound like a lot of fun; I'll have to try them out for myself!

The issue I see, is that phantasms use projectile spells, while sentries use projectile attacks (except for one spell which is on a 10 second cooldown), which gets a bit tricky.

Spell Echo Support and Controlled Destruction Support will benefit your phantasms, but not your spectres.

Elemental Damage with Attacks Support, Vicious Projectiles Support, and Damage on Full Life Support will benefit your spectres, but not your phantasms.

The best option I see, is to use Raise Spectre with Summon Phantasm Support, Minion Damage Support, Hypothermia Support, Added Cold Damage Support, and Empower.

Elemental Focus Support would benefit both minion types, but in this case both your spectres and phantasms deal a substantial amount of physical damage as well, which will not benefit from the higher multiplier at all, while giving up their ability to chill and freeze enemies. Raw damage will likely be about as good, if not a bit better.

Minion Speed Support could also be alright, since it also benefits both minion types equally, but I suspect Unending Hunger will undermine it quite a bit for your spectres.

Edit: Awakened Added Chaos Damage Support will be powerful, because it adds raw damage and increases the level of your Raise Spectre gem, which also benefits your phantasms. Alternatively, if you can avoid dealing both cold and lightning damage, Physical to Lightning Damage Support seems really strong as well. Both are quite a bit better than Elemental Focus Support, Minion Speed Support, and Empower Support.

"

CedricDur wrote:

The extra elemental resistances could possibly ease up the gear requirements?

Anyway, I decided to try it since I'm just in the campaign.

Spoiler

Bought a Realm shaper for no other reason it was cheap and had the right colors. Bought a Praxis ring to make Cyclone's mana cost disappear.

Anyone smarter than me would have realized that without the belt that comes at 49 it would be useless to be spamming all three sacrifices at level 40 <_<

I am not a smart man.

But it's fine. 42 atm and got an Oblation waiting in the stash. I will abuse the fact it's just the campaign and get Mistress of Sacrifice before Unnatural Strength just to play around with it while I level. The trick is remembering it's a fake cyclone and not go into melee :D

With the minions immortals everything is going well in any case. Meat Shield makes the zombies too cowardly though, but they don't add much to the damage, and the Flame Sentinels aren't aggressive like the Frost Sentinels, so both tend to pull back if I move slightly too far. The phantasms are champs in that aspect.

I just feel powerful, that's all I ask.

Added elemental resistance is definitely always nice while gearing. A change of pace is also something I quite enjoy. I prefer builds that are not too rigid in their requirements, so they allow some room for variety.

Haha! And phantasms are rabid honey badgers; they just don't give a sh*t! Their AI seems incredibly aggresive, even without Feeding Frenzy Support.

Maybe how they spawn on top of enemies has something to do with it: Frost Sentinels snipe enemies off the screen; spawn phantasms that are immediately like "F*ck these guys, right?!"; starts blasting off even further.

Started leveling a character in HC to test out exactly how viable this version of it is, and it's incredibly strong!

Half way through act 3 I was able to afford a Medium Cluster Jewel with minion life and crafted it into one with Life from Death and Renewal, and it's an absolute game changer. Immediately I could rely entirely on minion damage and they were shredding everything!

I didn't even make it to Spiritual Aid before it became obsolete, and I could spec into Death Attunement the moment I got access to the Raise Spectre gem. I have played a summoner for years, and I've always had to wait until MUCH later in the game before I could trade out my own damage for that of my zombies and spectres.

I'll update the leveling tips section with my new knowledge tomorrow.

Edit:
nvm, sorry!

I don't really like shield charge so trying AG and Stone Golem linked with meat shield, If AG proves tanky enough and maybe it is with all this extra block and life from death I'll give it a Kingmaker. Hopefully I'll get lucky and get a 21 gem so I can at least have the 4th spectre. I tried to go for cheaper items and more survivability because I hate dying. I might settle for level 12 projectile weakness and get a boot with 20 movement speed instead. I usually only go to level 92 so gonna look into what I can do with my last 7 points cluster jewel wise.