[3.11] Odif's League Starter Electric Skeletons-Spectres Necro Build, DISCONTINUED

NOTICE:
I have discontinued this guide.
I made so many changes, that it seems better to start with a new thread.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2883137

You can continue to play this one, or go to the other thread to see what I am actually doing in 3.11 Harvest League.

Spoiler
This build guide is for a super duper cheap league starter build.
It will get you deep into red maps with minimal investment. (30 c or so)
It scales with currency, and should be able to do any non deep delve boss in the game once you get some currency.

It's a minion build, skeletons and spectres, so if you don't like minion builds this is not for you.

Vaal Summon Skeleton should be particularly good at harvest, as you can fill the harvest area with 50 skeletons and lay down 3 brands before activating the plants.

I have included a variant that uses zombies instead of skeletons.
In my opinion zombies are weaker at first, but stronger later when you have currency for strength stacking to 1000 str with the Baron Helm. It's also less clicking.

You could start with skels, then transition to the zombies later when you have some currency.


Overview
Spoiler

We use two types of minions to do damage. Skeletons and Spectres.
Skeletons do physical damage, we use a 4 blue socket Triad Gloves to turn the skeleton damage into lightning damage.
We use Slave Driver spectres that inherently do lightning damage.
We use Elemental Equilibrium to lower enemy lightning resists by 50%.
We use Elemental Army Support in Spectres to lower enemy lightning resists another 10%.
And Conductivity curse to lower it even more. (Has a lesser effect on bosses, and has no effect on hex proof monsters and maps with hex proof mod.)

Its crazy how fast bosses melt with this set up, as it will take most bosses deep into negative lightning resists.

For defense we use Bone Offering to gain 75% attack block, and over 50% spell block.



League Starting
Spoiler

If this will be used as your first toon in a league, you should know the build comes into its own in ACT 5. Act 2 and 3 can be a bit slow. Don't be discouraged early on. In act 5 you get slave drivers and should hit the +1 spectre skill tree node. With 4l spectres and 4l vaal summon skel, everything after that is a breeze.


Some PoB pastebins showing my 3.11 progress as league starter
Spoiler

You may need the community fork of PoB, as thats what I used to make the pastebins.
https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding/releases

Shows tree, gear, and skills.
Note:
I am doing the Zombie variant.

Level 54
https://pastebin.com/k92SsJib

Level 63
https://pastebin.com/MENvWVfM

Level 68
https://pastebin.com/qBDrEutV

Level 77
https://pastebin.com/t80LHrh8


Skill Tree
Spoiler

Kill All Bandits

Poe Planner 3.11

23 Skill Points
https://www.poeplanner.com/ABUAADUAFTMAABffsJLBjr4RLSyc7Ipr20yz0B_v6zsNEQ-smDpYVcZ8g7zqakMI9It2Vi466R4IAAAAAAA=


46 Skill Points, normal lab
https://www.poeplanner.com/ABUAAGcAFTMAADDfsJLBjr4RLSyc7Ipr20yz0B_v6zsNEQ87P2EohsqsmDpYVcZ8g7zqakMI9It2Vi466R4I6-4y0UVHwGYEs6IA8B9o8q9sC2HT-1qRqH1qrPfXm6HMvKrEhWBNueyD048AAAAAAA==


86 Skill Points, Cruel Lab with EE
FYI the url command on this web site chokes on really long urls, so you will have to cut and paste for the rest of them.
https://www.poeplanner.com/ABUAALsAFTMAAFrfsJLBjr4RLSyc7Ipr20yz0B_v6zsNEQ87P2EohsqsmDpYVcZ8g7zqakMI9It2Vi466R4I6-4y0UVHwGYEs6IA8B9o8q9sC2HT-1qRqH1qrPfXm6HMvKrEhWBNuRzcuJMo-nHzd8JjQXl_iEAqmJAzBknZCwKLDUYuLKasYPgabDbpJKoWb-Nqqqn60maeYvRxsjrGcg9Z8xo4kFUnL48alG9mVJrgRZ1TUpit7IPTj0eF_oEAAAAAAA==

111 Skill points, level 88, Uber Lab done
Assumes anointment of Death Attunement on amulet
https://www.poeplanner.com/ABUAAPUAFTMAAHffsJLBjr4RLSyc7Ipr20yz0B_v6zsNEQ87P2EohsqsmDpYVcZ8g7zqakMI9It2Vi466R4I6-4y0UVHwGYEs6IA8B9o8q9sC2HT-1qRqH1qrBzcuJMo-nHzd8JjQXl_iEAqmJAzBknZCwKLDUYuLKasYPgabDbpJKoWb-Nqqqn60maeYvRxsjrGcg9Z8xo4kFUnL48alG9mVJrgRZ1TUsauPC2DX-8OFCBfP8EEVbWezacwAecb-iXfpBkUTfxLvJ8YkaDmZ3FKn5it0iFXDdlhGS4n7cT2r6c9D5shn8vsg9OPR4X-gdleOQubir5PAAAAAAA=


After Level 88 put every point into life.


Zombie Version with Baron Helm and Str Stacking
Level 88

Assumes anointment of Death Attunement on amulet
https://www.poeplanner.com/ABUAAPUAFTMAAHffsJLBjr4RLSyc7Ipr20yz0B_v6zsNEQ87P2EohsqsmDpYVcZ8g7zqakMI9OvuMtFFR8BmBLOiAPAfaPKvbAth0_takah9aqwc3LiTKPpx83fCY0F5f4hAKpiQMwZJ2QsCiw1GLiymrGD4Gmw26SSqFm_jaqqp-tJmnmL0cbI6xnIPWfMaOJBVJy-PGpRvZlSa4EWdU1LGrjwtg1_vDhQgXz_BBFW1ns2nMAHnG_ol36QZFE38S7yfGJGg5mdxSp-YrdIhVw3ZYRkuJ-3E9q-nPQ-bIZ_LOlJju02swmzsg9OPR4X-gdleOQubir5PAAAAAAA=


Skills
Spoiler

Vaal Summon Skeletons in a 6l CHEST
Support with Minion Damage, Elemental Damage with Attacks, Feeding Frenzy, Multistrike, Empower.
If you don't have a level 3 or 4 empower, used Melee Physical Damage until you do.(Both are red gems!)
Feeding Frenzy Support grants skeletons the DASH ability, it is HUGE for helping them get around, as otherwise they move very slowly.

Note:
One of the things that makes Vaal Summon Skeleton so very OP, is that unlike other Vaal Gems, increasing the duration does NOT increase soul prevention time.
With the increased duration we get on tree and ascendancy, Vaal Skells last close to 40 seconds, but still only have a 10 sec soul prevention. It's easy to keep 100% uptime, although since skels dont follow you, this is not as good as it could be, except in "stay in one place" fights like Blights or multi phase boss fights.

Summon Spectre in a +2 minion gems HELM
Support with Minion Damage, Elemental Army, Spell Echo

Armageddon Brand in the Triad Gloves
Supported by Curse on Hit, Conductivity
Keep Armageddon brand at gem level 1, to save mana.

Auras
Wrath and Precision linked to Generosity (big damage boost to minions)
Skitterbots (Shocks and Chills enemies) (Optional)

This reserves approx 90% of your mana, the rest is left to cast skeletons with, no need for enlighten. (This assumes a low level of Precision, as the higher the level, the more mana it reserves, play around with it, and dont over level it, make sure you have enough mana to cast.)

If you are feeling Mana Starved, turn off skitterbots, then you are at about 55% mana reserved, and you should have no problem.

Misc
Bone Offering Linked to Increase Duration (HUGE defensive boost)
Desecrate (to make corpses to use Flesh Offering
Keep Desecrate at level 1 to save mana.
2 golems, chaos and stone for the buffs.
Any Movement skill you like, I prefer Flame Dash linked to Second Wind

This uses up all 24 gem slots, if you want an animated guardian or something else, you will need an unset ring, or cut something above.


Gear
Spoiler

Required Unique
Triad Grip gloves, with 4 blue sockets.
These are VERY cheap, even at league start, and are easy to get 4 blue sockets on. Early league cost to buy AND get 4 blue sockets, 2-3 chaos.

That's it, thats the only required unique.

Optional Unique
From Dust Jewel
This allows you to summon 4 additional skeletons per cast, but puts a 1 sec cooldown on summon skeleton. Its not needed, but can help make mapping a bit smoother...one cast per pack of mobs.
Costs less than a chaos.

Rare Jewel with "minions have x% chance to taunt on attacks"
Cost: depends, if thats the only mod, 1 alc, but if you want other good mods the cost can be many exaulted. You do need your skels to taunt, so buy what's in your budget.

Helmet with +2 to minion gems
Even with life and resists, these are crazy cheap, 2-3 chaos early league.
As you get wealthy you can upgrade this to +3 with supported by minion damage.

6l chest
A corrupted 6l chest 3b/3r will cost 10-20 chaos early league.
You should get enough chaos pretty quick, maybe before you hit maps.

Wands
After you get your chest, buy 2 wands that have "+1 all spell skill gems"
These run 5 or so chaos early league. If you can afford it, get some minion damage/minion attack speed mods also, this will up the cost, so its optional

Do NOT get + lightning damage to spells on your wands, it will mess up EE.

Everything else is rares with life and resists, and maybe some stats if you are short of dex or something.

It's preferable to get a stygian vice belt, its a great place to socket in the jewel with "minions taunt on attack"

If possible, get gear with armor, the more the better.

So cheap!


Defenses
Spoiler


This build uses high block, both attack and spell, life gain on block, a high life pool, high life regen and whatever armor you can get on your gear.

Chaos golem with 70% increased golem buffs, gives you 8% phys dam reduction, 10% from ascendency is 18% phys dam reduction before flasks and armor.

77% max ele resists is not too shabby also.

I use flasks for defenses
Life with anti bleed
Quicksilver for movement
Quartz for dodge
Basalt for phys damage reduction
Granite for more armor
Get anti freeze and anti curse on two of the above, your choice of what other mods on the other 2 flasks.

Minions will absorb a lot of hits, so the defenses are fine, unless you are doing something crazy dangerous like Sirius. But you can do Sirius if you are good at manually dodging.

Cast your skels and armmageddon brand and keep moving, keep moving, keep moving. Keep Bone Offering up at all times, its crucial to your defense.



Spectres
Spoiler

We use Slave Driver spectres.
These are found in act 5, in the Control Pens (first area after act 5 town)

Just go into the area, desecrate until you see a Slave Driver corpse, (hold down A to see corpses)
REMINDER: if you have spell echo in your spectre link, TAKE IT OUT before summoning a spectre, as with it IN the link, the summon will cast twice, often getting the wrong spectre. Put the gem back in after you have max spectres.

If you want to start using spectres before act 5, and want to keep with the lightning motif, you can get BlackGuard Archmage in act 3 Ebony Barracks. Not nearly as good as Slave Drivers, but better than nothing.


Gameplay
Spoiler

Run around maps, often your spectres will kill things before you can even cast skels on a pack of mobs. If you see a rare (yellow mob) or a boss, put armageddon brand on it. Cast skels as needed. Cast Vaal Summon Skels on Bosses and other hard content. a 6l'd Vaal Summon skeleton is the best I WIN button in the game, in my opinion, its crazy good.
In general, spectres are for clearing, skels are for rares and bosses, as the spectres will kill white mobs instantly.

Keep Bone Offering up at all times, its key to defense.

Keep moving,

FYI
Skeletons are one of the few minions that are NOT leashed to you.
They cannot be convocated, but they will keep attacking mobs that are in their agro radius for as long as they last. With DASH (feeding frenzy gem), if the mob packs are dense enough, they will dash from pack to pack, often killing stuff 2 screens away.

They are amazing for blight, as you can hang out by the pump, and see on the mini map that mobs dying 2 screens away at the hands of your pack of 50+ skels (regular skels and Vaal Skels.) Your spectres stay with you to protect the pump.


Leveling Tips
Spoiler

(Endgame support gems are detailed in the SKILLS section.)

When you get to town at level 2, check the wand vendor for linked BBR wands.
do this EVERY time you go to town, until you get one.

Use any skill you like when you first hit town, i like ethereal knives, but whatever you like.

Rush to Mud Flats, find the 3 quest items on the ground, go to underground passage and waypoint back to town.
Quest reward is Summon Raging Spirits (usable at level 4)
Put this in the wand, with Minion Damage (quest reward on reaching prison) and Melee Splash (buy from vendor after reaching prison)
Use Summon Raging Spirits untill you get skeletons

When you get Summon Skeletons (After killing Brutus), swap out Summon Raging spirits and swap in Skeletons.

BUY A VAAL SUMMON SKELETON GEM ASAP!!!
They are often only 1 alc early league.
When you do, throw that regular skel gem away, and use the vaal gem

Regular skels for most stuff, vaal skels for bosses.

Act two you will have the opportunity to buy Melee Physical support after doing Sharp and Cruel quest.
Swap it in for the melee splash.

At level 32 you can equip Triad Gloves, so buy them and wear them.
Getting them 4 blue can wait, if you are short on chromes.

Act 3 you have access to auras.
Use Purity of Elements aura while leveling.
It helps you cap your resists.
Once you are in maps and have spent some chaos on gear with good resists, drop it for Flesh and Stone.

Precision Aura is optional leveling.
If it eats too much mana, dont use it.

Wrath is needed as soon as you get Triad gloves blue sockets.

After you have the gloves with 4 sockets, Elemental Attack Damage is a good support.
(Can purchase from Siosa after doing his quest in act 3 in the library)
When you get the triad gloves to 4 blue, start using conductivity.
You wont get curse on hit support till act 4, armegeddon brand in act 3.
If for some reason you still dont have 4 blue sockets by the time you get curse on hit, use elemental weakness until you do get 4 blue on your triad gloves.

Don't get Elemental Equilibrium untill you have 4 blue sockets on the triad gloves.

In act 4 you get mulstistrike support, this is a HUGE dps increase. USE IT.

You also get curse on hit in act 4.

If you find a white or blue helm with good colors (2b2r) you can craft +1 minion gems on it.

Recipie:
For the +1 minion gems helm:
Any MAGIC (blue) helm
Alteration Orb
Life flask of ANIMATION

To craft a life flask of animation:
Life Flask (Any rarity or size)
Transmutation orb
Bone Spirit Shield (any Rarity)(keep a lookout for these, they start dropping in act 2)


Other than that, just get gear with life and resists and any stats you may be lacking.

If you feel like it you can buy From Dust to summon more skels per cast, but its optional.


Zombies instead of skeletons option

Spoiler

NOTE: Zombie variant needs 2 more gem slots, so 2 unset rings, or drop something like second wind.

Replace the vaal skeleton gem with a zombie gem.
Replace the 3b3r chest with a 2b4r chest, replace the feeding frenzy support gem (blue) with a fortify support gem (red)
Link feeding frenzy support to whatever golem you use.
Convocation becomes mandatory
The minion duration cluster on the skill tree becomes optional.
Death Attunement anointment on the ammy becomes a much higher priority
The Baron Helm and stacking strength becomes an option.(Strength stacking is more expensive.)

Zombies mean a lot less clicking, but you lose the power of vaal summon skeleton.
Zombies are squishy very early, so i would keep using SRS for quite a while, maybe till act 5 and you have slave drivers.
If you have enough wealth to get to 1000 str with the baron helm, the leech and the added life from that is a HUGE defensive boost, and defense is a weakness of this build. And with 500+ str, zombies start doing some serious damage. (minions get 1/2 of your str with baron.)


As you get more currency, what to upgrade.
Spoiler

Wands:
You can dump a LOT of currency into wands. +1 all skill gems, +1 all minion skill gems, bonus to minion damage, bonus to minion attack/cast speed, crafted "trigger socketed spells when you use a skill".

Amulet:
Jinxed Juju gives nice defense.
A rare ammy with +1 to intelligence gems and or +1 to strength gems.

Rings:
Increased minion movement speed essence crafting

Chest:
+1 spectres
Corrupted +1 gems and or +2 duration gems

Boots:
+1 level of all spectre gems

Helm:
Another "sky is the limit" slot
+3 socketed minion gems, socketed gems are supported by level 20 minion damage,
Nearby enemies have -% to light resist. Crafted +1 skels/zombies



Animate Guardian
Spoiler

I have not included animate guardian in the main part of the build, as it does not do much at low currency levels, but is VERY strong at high currency levels.
And this guide is mostly about getting far on low currency.

But, once you are rich:
It needs another gem slot.
Skel version use an unset ring.
Zombie version drop second wind off of flame dash.

Animate Guardian Gear
Cheap
Weapon-Dying Breath
Helm-Leer Cast
Chest-Ambu's charge
Gloves-Southbound
Boots-Victarios Flight

Expensive
Weapon-Kingmaker
Helm-Rare with life/chaos res/nearby enemies take % increased elemental damage
Chest-Gruthkul's Pelt
Gloves-rare with life/chaos res (Zombie str stacking should use Meginord's Vise)
Boots-Wake of Destruction

BE WARNED
IF your Animate Guardian dies, YOU LOSE ALL THE GEAR!




I have leveled this as my first toon in several leagues.
Even after the 3.10 nerfs to skeletons and spectres it is still a GREAT SUPER CHEAP league starter.

3.11 Patch notes left this build unchanged.

Patch 3.11 tree changes that effect this build:
Adds 1% to max elemental resists.
Subtracts 5% physical damage reduction.

Enjoy.
Last edited by Odif on Jun 24, 2020, 1:38:17 PM
Last bumped on Jun 25, 2020, 2:30:45 AM
Cool ! Thanks for sharing, might go that way for league start (CANNOT DECIDE AAARGH)
I think,

Unless you are deep delving (+1000) or %100 delirious map you dont need a curse on hit setup.

What will change if you proc curse and EE on normal mobs or even rares in maps?

For bosses you can use flame dash to proc EE and cast manual curse if you need.
Or desecreate + offering + conductivity on trigger wand. This gains you +1 gem slot which is very valueable for minion builds.

For the weapon section you can state that "DONT take flat lightning damage to spells".

Chance to blind jewels are good too.

Jinxed Juju amulet provide more tankiness than +100 life rare amulets if resists are no problem. +curse/aura effect is a plus for dps.
Last edited by pphnx on Jun 16, 2020, 8:46:18 AM
Would Doryani’s Prototype be viable for lightning summoner build? 3.10 was my first league and I'd like to run summoner again for 3.11 but would like something a bit different and have been thinking about lightning based summoner, just not sure what is viable, so this is an interesting thread for me!
"
pphnx wrote:
I think,

Unless you are deep delving (+1000) or %100 delirious map you dont need a curse on hit setup.

What will change if you proc curse and EE on normal mobs or even rares in maps?

For bosses you can use flame dash to proc EE and cast manual curse if you need.
Or desecreate + offering + conductivity on trigger wand. This gains you +1 gem slot which is very valueable for minion builds.

For the weapon section you can state that "DONT take flat lightning damage to spells".

Chance to blind jewels are good too.

Jinxed Juju amulet provide more tankiness than +100 life rare amulets if resists are no problem. +curse/aura effect is a plus for dps.


There are lots of ways to proc EE, I like a brand linked to a curse, but its certainly not the only way to go.

There are gem slots to spare in this build, and yes, as you gain currency, you can get a wand with "trigger socketed spells when you use a skill" and stuff like that.
The guide is not meant to be super detailed and complete.
I will add in a line for "dont have + Light damage to spells on yer wands"

Chance to blind jewels dont do as much for this build, as it uses flesh and stone to blind, but ya, it would help blinding further distance mobs.

As far as Jinxed Juju, I did not include it because I was going for a super cheap, as few uniques as possible, starter guide.
I may add a section on "as you gain more currency, what to add".

Last edited by Odif on Jun 16, 2020, 2:16:40 PM
"
Checkhook wrote:
Would Doryani’s Prototype be viable for lightning summoner build? 3.10 was my first league and I'd like to run summoner again for 3.11 but would like something a bit different and have been thinking about lightning based summoner, just not sure what is viable, so this is an interesting thread for me!


Doryani's Prototype is a no go.
You lose the ability to proc EE, negating much of the advantage of lower enemies lightning resistance to yours, and you would still have all the drawbacks of having to compensate for low light res on yourself.
I added a section at the bottom of the guide for suggestions on how to throw currency at the build to make it stronger.
Hi there, this build looks really interesting, but I have a question, don't know where i missed it but, how do you proc EE, everything does lightning dmg, what's the source that first hits the enemy doing an other ele dmg, so that lightning res gets lowered pls?
"
Odif wrote:

Doryani's Prototype is a no go.
You lose the ability to proc EE, negating much of the advantage of lower enemies lightning resistance to yours, and you would still have all the drawbacks of having to compensate for low light res on yourself.


My thinking was to bypass EE altogether and just use Doryani to lower enemies lightning res.... I guess its probably not worth the effort over EE though.

Thanks for responding, much appreciated!
"
Jyliac wrote:
Hi there, this build looks really interesting, but I have a question, don't know where i missed it but, how do you proc EE, everything does lightning dmg, what's the source that first hits the enemy doing an other ele dmg, so that lightning res gets lowered pls?


The player casts armageddon brand linked to curse on hit and conductivity


This both procs EE and curses enemies.

Minions DO NOT have EE, only the player, so minion hits do not effect EE, only player hits.

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