3.24 Summoner Necromancer Optimized Leveling Guide - League Starter

Hi guys, Asmo here!

In this guide, I will explain how to level a Summoner Necromancer in a very detailed and comprehensive way. This leveling strategy has been tested and carefully crafted with every gem and passive compared against their alternatives to give you the best leveling experience possible for this archetype at each stage of the campaign.

If you're tired of being slow, having low damage or having your minions die a lot during the campaign, this guide will solve all those issues for you.

This leveling strategy transitions directly into a generic Summoner Necromancer League Starter build (also known as the Zoo Necromancer), but it is a great approach for leveling any Minion Based Necromancer build that scales primarily minion damage.

This guide comes with a detailed PoB and a Video version that contain a step by step passive point progression and further explain it.

Video Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acz9TAhiZ2I

PoB: https://pobb.in/bWxeab5oqZ4u


Disclaimer: While Summoner Necromancer is considered a very beginner friendly build and can be leveled with relative ease, an optimal playthrough will be very demanding in terms of gear manipulation due to heavy socket pressure. If, like me, you want to level a Summoner Necromancer as fast as possible, I recommend practising it ahead of time. Specific loot filter will make that process much easier.

Preparation:

I highly recommend using a loot filter prepared specifically for this build. Here are build specific items to highlight that will save you a lot of time and currency while leveling:

3 link BBB in act 1
3 link BBR in act 1
2+ link GR shields in act 1
Goat's Horn in act 1

Jade amulet in act 1 and 2
Heavy belt in act 1 and 2

3 link GGR shields
3 link Minion Wands and Shields
2+ link GR Minion wands and Shields

If you're interested in using my personal loot filter that I use for this build, I share my filters with Patreon supporters - you can find a link to the page in the description of my video guides.


Act I.

1. Mule a Templar.

Before making a Witch, which will be our main character, I highly recommend making a Templar character and killing Hillock with it. With the 3.24 League - Necropolis - every zone will force you to fight harder monsters than usual. This will be especially impactful at the early stages of the campaign (such as the Mud Flats Rhoas). Making a templar grants you access to a full vendor reset for both vendors, extra scrolls of wisdom and Elemental Proliferation gem from lvl 2. It is worth the 1.5 minutes it takes.

Use this regex to highlight items in the vendor for quicker search by pressing ctrl+f ctrl+v

-\w-.-|g-g-r|g-r-g|r-g-g|b-b|nne|rint|minion

(this will highlight 4 links, movement speed boots, items with GGR 3-link for your Shield Charge setup and items with BB 2 link which will include BBR and BBB 3 links that you need, minion gear as well as an uncommon "+1 to all minion skill gems" helmet modifier that becomes available from ilvl 14)

lvl 2 Initial Witch Setup

In the beginning you're looking for:

3 link BBB - or at minimum 2 link BB
3 link BBR - or at minimum 2 link BR
movement speed boots*
Optionally you can buy a Coral Ring, especially if it has a high implicit roll

*(A note about MS boots. It is generally more important to have the right gem sockets than the extra movement speed. At the beginning of act 3 you can craft movement speed prefix on boots from your crafting bench for 3 augmentations, until then only use MS boots if it doesn't stop you from having the right sockets and links, but of course ideally you'd want both)

- Pick up Rolling Magma as your quest reward and link it with Elemental Proliferation and Arcane Surge (I'll be listing gems in a proper priority order so if you can't socket all of them yet, just use as many as you can in the listed order - Ele Prolif being more important here).

lvl 4

After Mud Flats and Killing Hailrake

- Pick up Flame Wall, Frost Blink, Quicksilver and Summon Phantasm as your quest rewards.
- Buy Holy Flame Totem

cost: 1 wisdom scroll

Equip them all and link HFT with Summon Phantasm

Pick up any coral, iron or sapphire rings you find on the ground - you can turn an iron ring into a Sapphire ring by vendoring Iron ring + a blue gem to the vendor (you will have excess blue gems after the lvl 9 swap). You can also pick up rustic sash as it will boost your HFT damage (replace it for a Heavy Belt at lvl 18). Ideally you want your gems to primarily occupy non-weapon slots as that will make it easier to equip any Goat's Horn you find, which should be your weapon of choice until lvl 18.

If you find extra 3-link items with the right colours, but you already have a good 3 link in that slot - it is often worth putting it in the stash as a backup. Finding a 4-link or a good pair of boots can force you to replace your old 3-link and having a couple of backup items for your main gem setups can save you in those situations for a few seconds of time investment.

lvl 9

After killing Dweller of the Deep and right before fighting Brutus

- Pick up Infernal Legion as your quest reward
- Buy Summon Raging Spirits, Minion Damage and Added Lightning

cost: 1 wisdom scroll, 2 Transmutations (if you don't have the required currency just buy your gems next time you're in town and have the currency for it)

You should hit level 9 right before Brutus and spec into "Enduring Bond". At this point you will swap Rolling Magma for SRS as that will be stronger from now. Your setup should ideally look like this:

SRS + Infernal Legion + Minion Damage
HFT + Summon Phantasm + Added Lightning
Frost Blink + Flame Wall + Arcane Surge (typically you won't be able to link these three which is not a big deal, but this is the ideal setup)

lvl 10

After Killing Brutus pick up Flame Dash as your quest reward and use it instead of Frost Blink

lvl 12

Pick up Flesh Offering as your quest reward from Nessa - use it in the Merveil fight after one of the golden statues or squids dies

Act II

Rush to the "Retribution" node first, since we can still benefit from increased damage modifiers to our own damage, before we fully swap to minions. In this act you will need one extra Green and one extra Blue socket

- After Chamber of Sins, pick up Desecrate as your quest reward and buy Summon Skitterbots.
- Buy Jade Amulet if you haven't found one yet (the higher implicit dex roll the better).

cost: 1 alteration, 1 transmutation

Link Skitterbots with Infernal Legion - they will act similarly to Righteous Fire, dealing damage around them, but they can't be damaged and thus will never die.

Kill all bandits.

lvl 18

At lvl 18 you should pick up the "Sacrifice" notable and "Minions Recover 5% Life on Minion Death" mastery which are required for the swap to Zombie/Skeleton setup.

After killing Weaver pick up Minion Speed as your quest Reward and level it in the off-hand weapon.

Go to act 1 town to pick up your passive skill quest reward and buy Raise Zombie + Summon Skeletons. Buy Melee Physical Damage in act 2 town.

cost: 1 wisdom scroll, 1 transmutation, 1 alteration

Your setup after the swap should look like this:

Raise Zombie - Summon Phantasm - Added Lightning*
Summon Skeletons - Minion Damage - Melee Physical Damage
Summon Skitterbots - Infernal Legion
Flame Dash
Desecrate
Flesh Offering

*Do not use Minion Damage with Zombie setup yet as the Max life penalty will cause them to die

Look for Bone Spirit Shields (lvl15) and Calling Wand (lvl20) ideally with 3 linked sockets. If you find one with good sockets and decent implicit roll, you should craft it with any random essence for a chance at additional minion modifiers. Just be careful because if you commit to a Bone Spirit Shield without at least GR 2-link, you'll have to find another slot for your Shield Charge Setup (GGR) so keep that in mind. You should swap to minion weapon/shield as soon as you can after the swap to Zombies/Skeletons.

To maximise damage during boss fights, after summoning Skeletons and using Flesh Offering, you can also cast Desecrate and Flame Dash through the target for extra damage. If you time things correctly you'll have all of your skills dealing damage at the same time, without losing anything.

Act III

lvl 24

Buy the Pride aura gem from Clarissa

cost: 1 alteration

Remove Infernal Legion from your Skitterbots setup as it is not worth using anymore and you need the extra mana reservation to use Pride. If you find the mana cost to be too high, you can temporarily disable Skitterbots until you pick up the Life Mastery for "Skills cost Life instead of 30% of mana cost" which is designed to be acquired a the time of your swap to Shield Charge at lvl 28-29. However with the right usage of mana flask you should be perfectly fine. Summoning Skeletons doesn't cost too much mana and the most draining skill is the Desecrate + Flesh Offering combo. At this stage I make sure to press my mana flask whenever I Desecrate which is the perfect time to do it and automatically deals with any mana issues.

(If you don't care about optimising speed, you can use Purity of Elements instead of Pride - at least until you do your Lab and ascend. This will make you tankier and safer)

You should check the vendor for 4-links any time you're in town from now on. Your ideal 4-link colours are: BBBB and BBBR

I recommend fully clearing The Docks zone for an optimal xp curve with this build, in order to time your levels with access to extra gems in the library.

lvl 28

As soon as you get to the Ebony Barracks you should pick up the waypoint and head up and to the right, to the Imperial Gardens. Grab the waypoint there as well and do the Library. Make sure to cap your Cold Resistance before entering this zone or you will risk getting Frozen to death (or at the very least significantly slowed down).

From Library you should pick up Feeding Frenzy as your reward and buy: Shield Charge, Vulnerability, Momentum, Faster Attacks, Raise Spectre

Go to Act 2 town and purchase Minion Life

cost: 1 wisdom scroll, 2 transmutations, 1 alteration, 1 chance orb (if you don't have a chance orb, kill Gravicius for a free Raise Spectre gem form the quest reward)

After purchasing Minion Life gem in act 2 town, go to the Old Fields right next to it and cast Desecrate until you get the Carnage Chieftain corpse. Raise two of them as Spectres. They will provide you and your minions with Frenzy Charges.

Your setup should now look like this:

Shield Charge + Faster Attacks + Momentum
Raise Spectre + Minion Life
Summon Skitterbots, Pride, Vulnerability
Flame Dash,
Flesh Offering, Desecrate

Raise Zombie + Summon Phantasm + Minion Damage + Minion Speed*

* Since we're using Pride and Vulnerability now, we will favour support gems that scale physical damage of our minions. I recommend swapping Added Lightning for Minion Damage around the time you do your Lab and ascend. Depending on the 4-link colours you can get, you also have options of using other support gems that will increase your damage even if they're not the ideal choice. You can use: Added Lightning Damage, Added Cold Damage, Added Fire Damage (available from the Library). Just remember that Phantasms are spell casters that use Projectiles, so gems like Melee Physical Damage or Multistrike are not good in this setup, because they do not benefit your Phantasms.

Summon Skeletons - Minion Damage - Melee Physical Damage - Feeding Frenzy*

* The Feeding Frenzy gem will make your skeletons Aggressive and allow them to use the Dash ability to move around more and help with their DPS uptime and clear speed. Just like with the Zombie/Phantasm setup you can use other support gems if you don't have socket colours for the perfect setup. Alternative support options include: Minion Speed, Added Fire Damage, Added Cold Damage, Ruthless (available from the Library)

lvl 30

I recommend picking up a couple of Life passives (Discipline and Training or Heart and Soul) and doing your Lab before Dominus. You want to ascend as a Necromancer and pick "Commander of Darkness" first. The extra resistances will help you as well as your Zombies and Spectres, making sure that they will not die. During multiple leveling tests of this setup I've not lost a single Spectre during the campaign and only had to resummon a couple of Zombies while fighting Dominus, Crematorium Piety and Belly of The Beast Piety. Remember that summoning Skeletons during AoE heavy fights will heal your other minions thanks to the Minions Defence Mastery we've picked.

Act IV

lvl 34

Pick up Carrion Golem as your quest reward after the Dried Lake and link it with Minion Life support together with Raise Spectre. This will make sure it never dies during the campaign.

Around lvl 40 you'll get another max Zombie - make sure to summon it.

Act VI

In act 6 you can buy the Brutality support from Lilly and use it for your Zombie/Phantasm setup instead of Minion Speed if you want to maximise your DPS.

You can also purchase gems you wish to start leveling for later. I recommend: Hypothermia, Determination, Unbound Ailments, Poacher's Mark, Haste, Divine Blessing

From this point your setup remains the same until the end of the campaign. From your second Lab you should select the "Mindless Aggression" passive, followed up by "Bone Barrier" from the third Lab.

Around lvl 56-57 you'll get another max Spectre. You can get another Carnage Chieftain or a Host Chieftain (power charges) from the Ashen Fields in act 7.

Continue working on your gear and resistances and progress to maps.

Mapping and the League Starter Build

In PoB, besides the leveling setups, you will find a low budget endgame setup for Minion Summoner Necromancer. It includes a passive skill tree, gem setups and a set of gear.

The gear consists of items that mostly have one essence modifier, two good/desirable modifiers and a bench crafted modifier. You can purchase or self craft this gear. The build also uses a couple of cheap uniques and an Animate Guardian setup.

For your first upgrades I recommend going after a Medium Cluster Jewel with "Blessed Rebirth" notable (Feasting Fiends and Renewal are good notables to pair it with if possible) which will make sure that your Skeletons can deliver their damage even against difficult opponents that would otherwise kill them.

After that I recommend getting a Helmet with extra levels to all Minion Gems and a Jinxed Juju unique amulet + anoint. Getting the anoint done early will allow you to pursue the 100% chance to avoid elemental ailments which we get from boots and a shield craft. This should be one of your main priorities early on.

Check out the PoB and the Video guide for more information about passive tree progression.

Good luck!

- Asmodeus

FAQ:

Q - Why not just level with Absolution?
A - I've tested it and since the removal of early caster weapon crafts it's slower than this setup

Q - Why not just level with Rolling Magma/Arma brand?
A - This is a summoner leveling guide, which assumes that the user wants to play with minions without spending a lot of regrets and changing their gem and gear setups completely. It is also competitive with Arma brand leveling in terms of speed due to Spiritual Command attack speed scaling and Shield Charge

Q - Why don't you use Minion Instability?
A - It forces bad pathing at the start of your tree which results in much less overall damage

Q - Why not level with BAMA?
A - This is a League Starter leveling guide intended for a quick fresh start and as such farming or buying Transfigured gems is not a part of it. It's also faster than BAMA because of Shield Charge

Q - Why are you using HFT with SRS?
A - HFT's high hit rate makes it the best skill for spawning Phantasms while hitting Rare and Unique monsters and there is no better damage setup you can use at that time while building a passive tree that will support minions

Q - How do you know this is the best leveling setup?
A - I've measured different campaign boss kill times with a stopwatch, while trying different setups at the same levels to get the most objective measurement I could and took the character through the entire campaign multiple times while exporting it to PoB at various stages and checking the damage numbers given by all available support gems

Awesome, thank you so much for your time and effort.

Looks good, ty asmo.

Thanks for posting this! To be in tune with the Necro league, I want play a Necro this time!

Any recommendations for Animate Guardian gear?

"

Alindra888 wrote:

Any recommendations for Animate Guardian gear?

For league start (grab these when you can and don't run AG until at least lvl 70 as low level can easily die to new overtuned mechanics!)

Helm : Leer Cast

Boots : Windscream (AG can apply a curse as well as you)

Body Armour : Blunderbore (for knockback)

Weapon : Dying Breath (for increased damage and aura effect)

Gloves : Any gloves with corrupted curse implicit and some resistances

what's your opinion on Raise Zombie of Slamming for the zombie gem

Many thanks both for your PoB and video guide on this minion build for league start.

I notice that you have "The Hungry Loop" equipped but i haven't read or heard anything regarding what support gems to slot in it (neither in your PoB or video guide).

Have i missed something?

Great guided! Awesome Tipps and compact!

Thank you a lot!

I linked also a recommendation to your thread in the Arachnophilia Allstars.

Hi! I'm a new player following this guide. In POB, I see that you use Hypothermia and Brutality as supports for zombies. I don't understand how that works: brutality removes all elemental damage from skills, hypothermia increases cold damage.

How does that work? Do you only use Hypothermia for the other effects?