[3.23] [SC+HC] Summon Homing Missiles (SRS) Necromancer: Starting, Leveling & Endgame Mapping

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Jiopaba wrote:

Gonna be playing this in 3.20, since I don't think there's been any significant changes to SRS or anything else that's particularly relevant to this build.

It looks fun as hell, and I'm really looking forward to something fairly general-purpose like this. I'm not super interested in just making a god-tier mapper who can't do bosses, or something super specialized for delve or expedition. This seems like it does fairly well at everything, and the playstyle honestly seems neat as heck.

I'm going to give a whole thorough examination before I tweak some of the language and then state the tag's updated to [3.20], but you are correct: there's really little to no meaningful change in this build due to the patch. The Flammability hex is slightly weaker, and Fortress Covenant is now a corruption-acquired jewel, and that's... Really it.

I do find it pretty fun. It remains my most dedicated Blighted map runner, and also does good for invitations. So it definitely is very viable for many endgame farming strats.

Probably my favorite part is that it absolutely doesn't care about any map or monster mods at all. Very good for low-effort/care mapping.

I'm having a blast so far! Great build, scales to maps super well, clear progression and having all the required uniques so easy to get feels great.

My only confusion is the amount of time that seems to be spent talking about how incredibly mana hungry this build is, when I have like 50% unreserved mana going into maps. Even if I throw in Defiance Banner and Discipline I can still sustain mana pretty much forever with a couple levels of Clarity.

I'm super confused as to whether there's something I'm missing that would justify this. My mana regen per second is easily enough to sustain me for pretty much forever unless I want to just stop in place and hold right click all day far faster than they'll explode with my Mark of the Red Covenant and Tavukai.

Am I missing a couple of auras or some 500% more damage for 1000% more mana mod somewhere?

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Jiopaba wrote:

Am I missing a couple of auras or some 500% more damage for 1000% more mana mod somewhere?

Mostly, it's that once you get your empower on there, (not just its multiplier, but also a higher level SRS = higher base cost too) as well as change your helmet to a rare bone helm from a MotRC, you'll find that you can consume mana faster spamming it than you can regenerate it. (i.e, a 6L'd SRS at level 30 with the Dreamer passive will run 51 mana per cast)

In part, a lot of the warning is from the expectation of how most players will treat a minion build, as one to "hang back and spam and wait for everything to die;" for multiple reasons that's not the optimal way to play, but that definitely can become a problem with the skill if a player insists on sticking with that.

The helm swap makes a difference there too, since it by necessity forces you to not sit there spamming, lest you summon a 6th and waste your oldest one.

So for your current progression, you should definitely have little mana issues; it's just something to be aware will shift a bit once you get further along. (e.g, level 90+ and sinking a few divines in)

Glad to hear you're enjoying it!

Sounds good, thanks! That makes a lot of sense, it just felt like I was having a huge disconnect the whole way through the campaign yesterday like "I will never ever run out of mana though?"

I just turned in my first set of chaos recipes and I've got 70c burning a hole in my pocket lol. Looking for my next big upgrade!

Great guide, very well written. I plan on using this as a first build in SSF as it now looks like Tavukai has a div card. Quick question about unleash support:

I would have assumed unleash would provide enough quality of life to replace one your support gems. Could you explain why you do not use it?

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Thegateisdown wrote:

I would have assumed unleash would provide enough quality of life to replace one your support gems. Could you explain why you do not use it?

In my testing so far, there appears to be a cast time difference. The actual casting speed itself isn't changed, however when Unleash is socketed the cast animation cannot be interrupted and finishes. Meanwhile without it, the animation can be interrupted and cancelled out of as soon as the minion appears. In fact, if you are holding down the "Move only" button for the entire time when you press to cast it, the game will automatically cancel out of the cast animation (and resume running) the moment the minion appears.

Overall, this is the optimal & safest way of playing this build: constantly moving, never letting go of the move button, but merely pressing your SRS button (as well as flame dash, etc.) buttons on top of that. Stay moving, and trust in the constant stream of SRS blasts to tear down all the enemies.

whats about spectre setup for this build?

is the ring heartboundloop any good for the build? , or should i just focus in resistances for the ring

Thank you for this clear, informative build guide! I really appreciate your style. I had a Mark of the Red Covenant drop in SSF Ruthless, so I'm giving this a shot as a blueprint to build off of. I haven't played many minion builds before but I'm loving it so far. Cheers!

WOW!!! Talk about melting everything in sight. Still suffering from lousy equipment so far but doing good with what I have. Really love this build. Still on act 1 but even melted the warden. LOL Thanks!!!