[3.6] Zombiemancer - High Survivability - End Game Viable

So, what did you guys choose? 2 Carnage Chieftains for more consistent Frenzy charges or 1 Carnage and 1 Host Chieftain for a Frenzy/Power charge mix?

Was able to clear T14 phys reflect by deactivating an aura to have more mana and manual recasting the zombies. Wouldn't recommend it though, but if you don't want to waste a corrupted map (e.g. for completion) it's doable.

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Grand_Krab wrote:

Forgive the dumb question, why do stone "magic of blood" need ghosts?

You mean why the spectres need Blood Magic Support? They use their small mana pool to cast "Mass Frenzy", if you give them Blood Magic they are not limited by their mana anymore.

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Converge57 wrote:

1) When is it 'safe' to use Animate Guardian with the uniques you've mentioned? As soon as you can use the chest at 43, or later on at a specific point in the passive tree. He seems pretty tanky without the uniques, but just worried there's an encounter that will waste the uniques if I use them prior to level 75+

You can probably use him at as soon as you can and he wont die, but to be honest he is not that important that you need to set him up to make you that much stronger. Just give him only the boots first for the movement speed if you worry about him dying.

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ElJesse wrote:

why dont you use instead

The shield is not required for this build to work, so i thought it's too expensive to recommend. People should spend their currency on other things first, like rings and a belt.
But looking at the prices of both shields again now, i think there is not much of a difference. I should also add Magna Eclipsis though.

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ol_baid wrote:

So, what did you guys choose? 2 Carnage Chieftains for more consistent Frenzy charges or 1 Carnage and 1 Host Chieftain for a Frenzy/Power charge mix?

I would go with two Carnage Chieftains, power charges dont add much damage for this build.

Great guide/build!! Thanks! This is my second season and 6th build that I have followed deeply and I think this is best so far! =)

Sorry if you answered this already or this is silly question but.. Many other pet builds use Necromantic aegis passive node with Victario's Charity shield. Why don't you use it? I haven't seen any charge procs but maybe because I am not looking enough or that I am using arc gem as bonus EE spread. If I use Necromantic aegis passive node charge procs all the time... but it is defense drop down...

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Rugra wrote:

Great guide/build!! Thanks! This is my second season and 6th build that I have followed deeply and I think this is best so far! =)

Sorry if you answered this already or this is silly question but.. Many other pet builds use Necromantic aegis passive node with Victario's Charity shield. Why don't you use it? I haven't seen any charge procs but maybe because I am not looking enough or that I am using arc gem as bonus EE spread. If I use Necromantic aegis passive node charge procs all the time... but it is defense drop down...

The guide just changed recently (yesterday I suppose).
Before the change you used Victario's Charity but no Necromantic Aegis and procced the Frenzy charges for your Zombies via CWDT - Blade Vortex.
Now you use Spectres - Blood Magic who cast Frenzy charges on your Zombies and you. Carnage Chieftains for Frenzy charges, Host Chieftains (if desired) for Power charges. Reommendation is to take two Carnage Chieftains for more consistent uptime of Frenzy charges (they are more important and stronger than Power charges for the Zombies).

@Clooney: I just noticed your CWDT setup is in wrong order. CWDT starts from the upper left corner and follows the links. Right now you have positioned Spirit Offering before your Desecrate, i.e. your Spirit Offering doesn't profit from the created corpses from Desecrate.

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Converge57 wrote:

1) When is it 'safe' to use Animate Guardian with the uniques you've mentioned? As soon as you can use the chest at 43, or later on at a specific point in the passive tree. He seems pretty tanky without the uniques, but just worried there's an encounter that will waste the uniques if I use them prior to level 75+

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Clooney_is_best_Batman wrote:

You can probably use him at as soon as you can and he wont die, but to be honest he is not that important that you need to set him up to make you that much stronger. Just give him only the boots first for the movement speed if you worry about him dying.

OK thanks matey! :)

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rahven32 wrote:

If you link enlighten to haste and hatred it will mean generosity will make it so you no longer have haste only the minions.

Fair enough, but surely it's better the minions have the generosity version of haste than me?

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ol_baid wrote:

@Clooney: I just noticed your CWDT setup is in wrong order. CWDT starts from the upper left corner and follows the links. Right now you have positioned Spirit Offering before your Desecrate, i.e. your Spirit Offering doesn't profit from the created corpses from Desecrate.

The order doesnt matter for Desecrate+Offering, that combo is not working in a single trigger instance, i think it used to be different, but im not sure about that.

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Converge57 wrote:

Fair enough, but surely it's better the minions have the generosity version of haste than me?

You really want to have the extra movement and attack speed for your shield charge, the minions dont need the extra damage. You also need one aura for yourself to get the +20 all res from Commander of Darkness.

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ol_baid wrote:

As you mention the Violent Dead jewel, the best slot for that would probably be next to the "Shaper" node. You gain 1.7% ES regen and need 4 points for that. Or below Constitution for 30 Strength.

The 2nd spot below Constitution doesn't have enough int in range to get the requirements of the jewel. The other spot near Shaper seems good for it tho.

fundamentally the animate guardian setup is almost a legacy aspect of traditional summoning


Back when it was introduced there were no jewels or ascendancies to boost your minion damage.

so getting to 200% minion damage was considered an achievement



plus curses were much much stronger since curse effect was used to pierce boss curse resistances.


these days curse effect is next to useless vs bosses unless it is stacked absurdly high
and i is quite easy to reach 500% minion damage on certain minions.

so the guardian is rather .. redundant.

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StuntmanBob wrote:

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ol_baid wrote:

As you mention the Violent Dead jewel, the best slot for that would probably be next to the "Shaper" node. You gain 1.7% ES regen and need 4 points for that. Or below Constitution for 30 Strength.

The 2nd spot below Constitution doesn't have enough int in range to get the requirements of the jewel. The other spot near Shaper seems good for it tho.

You exchange it with the Brawn jewel spot directly over Devotion. I just built in the Violent Dead in my skill tree.

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Clooney_is_best_Batman wrote:

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ol_baid wrote:

@Clooney: I just noticed your CWDT setup is in wrong order. CWDT starts from the upper left corner and follows the links. Right now you have positioned Spirit Offering before your Desecrate, i.e. your Spirit Offering doesn't profit from the created corpses from Desecrate.

The order doesnt matter for Desecrate+Offering, that combo is not working in a single trigger instance, i think it used to be different, but im not sure about that.

Oh man, that's a bummer. Didn't know that, thanks for enlightening me. Means you need to be hit twice (with 250ms delay so CWDT is not on CD) to profit from Desecrate.

Thanks for guide/ Can't understand why my spectre dies very fast