[3.11] Brittleknee’s SRS Necromancer - Reliable, Beginner-Friendly. All content. Harvest Ready!

why use empower over ruthless when it gives more dmg than even empower 4? am i missing something

love the build but damn if it isn't squishy. didn't think i was going to waste money on that bestiary flask but i think its too nice to pass..

was reading the guide thinking grip would go down in price and yet it doubled in the past couple days lol

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austeemo wrote:

why use empower over ruthless when it gives more dmg than even empower 4? am i missing something

love the build but damn if it isn't squishy.

Because SRS are more susceptible to full minion wipes without Emp 4.

Empower gives not only damage, but total minion life since it scales the entire minion. Sometimes this is the difference between life and death in certain fights, such as Uber Atziri. A flame blast, followed by a split phase with a mirror clone immediately casting another flame blast means you're a dead necromancer because you can't get enough SRS summoned and damaging the boss to phase her because you just had two full minion wipes.

Ruthless is the budget option until you can level/purchase an Empower. The extra life is more valuable than you'd think.

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brittleknee wrote:

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austeemo wrote:

why use empower over ruthless when it gives more dmg than even empower 4? am i missing something

love the build but damn if it isn't squishy.

Because SRS are more susceptible to full minion wipes without Emp 4.

Empower gives not only damage, but total minion life since it scales the entire minion. Sometimes this is the difference between life and death in certain fights, such as Uber Atziri. A flame blast, followed by a split phase with a mirror clone immediately casting another flame blast means you're a dead necromancer because you can't get enough SRS summoned and damaging the boss to phase her because you just had two full minion wipes.

Ruthless is the budget option until you can level/purchase an Empower. The extra life is more valuable than you'd think.

thanks for the reply.

was going to buy empower but waiting to see if it drops further for emp3.

also i tried unleash and it seems pretty nice for a more active playstyle (really hate casting part of srs even with 4+ cast rate and extended dura cluster), may have to switch for elder maps as i havent gone past t14s yet

What is the current meta 6-link setup?

Hi,

I have been following this SRS build for this league but I have encountered a few issues. This is my first time playing SRS.

1. Are the mana reservation nodes really neccesary? Is haste aura so big for SRS? If not can it be replaced by a 35% aura that would make a difference?

This is coming from the point that you said we can drop Necromantic Aegis. This would save 9 points on the tree going to necromantic aegis. As well as the 5 points from Soveregnity wheel.

2. What is the point of the 5 points used for Death Attunment wheel since we do not use zombies or specters?

3. Those points could be used to gain the Ravenous Horde wheel which I feel is a big increase.

4. I am still missing Commander of Darkness but even on low tier maps my SRS gets demolished by most bosses that have any form of AoE. Ivory Temple searing bonds boss was a struggle as the SRS would die while going through the bonds.

5. Why not level and quality your Shield Charge. The difference between 20/20 Shield charge and 1/0 is 39% move speed and around 1 APS which is noticable?

6. The summoning of raging spirits is really slow. It takes me ages to summon them on a boss. Should unleash be used to help with this problem?

7. Since we can drop Necromantic Aegis what is your recommendation of a good shield? Rares do little for us; provide life and resists. Shaffel seems irrelevant since we have no block chance; Aegis Aurora is useless since we don't use ES or block; Chernobogs Pillar is out of the question cause it converts damage to fire and messes with EE and Magna Eclipsis provides nothing other than +2 to socketed gems and some life.

8. Dropping haste allows us to use another body armor. So what are the other options? Saqawal's Nest and replace aspect of the spider and careful planing freeing up a jewel slot on the tree while also giving us and our SRS 20% MS and 20% chance to deal double damage(because got to go fast?), Vis Mortis for the minion damage increase, loreweave for the max resist, a good rare with life and resists?

Also you should recommend Infernal Legion support for leveling as it makes SRS destroy entire screens by just walking by.

Just wanted to say that this is one of the most constructed and beautifully written guides I have seen. The first one to ever look appealing enough to make me try SRS.

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TrexerPoE wrote:

Hi,
1. Are the mana reservation nodes really neccesary? Is haste aura so big for SRS? If not can it be replaced by a 35% aura that would make a difference?

If your plan is stacking lots of auras and casting bm srs then enlighten and mana reservation nodes are required. Haste is one of the best auras because it affects your speed as well.

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Aeui wrote:

A helmet with +2 to socketed minion gems means ~25% more life for them. If that's not enough, I guess Meat Shield would fit the purpose you're using them for and could be used instead of Minion Speed. You can also consider Fortify instead of Minion Damage.

Bear in mind that Meat Shield will apply the "defensive" behaviour to SRS, which I would say is pretty undesirable.

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TrexerPoE wrote:

Is haste aura so big for SRS?

More speed for you is as valuable as you judge it. Vaal Haste on the top of Haste is rather significant for minions. Actually, for some people Anger + Vaal Haste only can be considered optimal (Precision can be dropped), but that requires another socket for Clarity (for the constant effect of Commander of Darkness) and there's already a lot of damage.

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TrexerPoE wrote:

2. What is the point of the 5 points used for Death Attunment wheel since we do not use zombies or specters?

DPS :)

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TrexerPoE wrote:

3. Those points could be used to gain the Ravenous Horde wheel which I feel is a big increase.

Ravenous Horde is recommended as an anointment. If you feel like you can utilize even more minion movement speed, you can go for the whole wheel, but I wouldn't count on reliable Onslaught. Without its effect, DPS gain per node should be similar to picking Death Attunment instead.

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TrexerPoE wrote:

4. I am still missing Commander of Darkness but even on low tier maps my SRS gets demolished by most bosses that have any form of AoE. Ivory Temple searing bonds boss was a struggle as the SRS would die while going through the bonds.

Their base elemental resistances are all equal to 40%. That means they take 50% more elemental damage as compared to w/ Commander of Darkness.

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TrexerPoE wrote:

5. Why not level and quality your Shield Charge. The difference between 20/20 Shield charge and 1/0 is 39% move speed and around 1 APS which is noticable?

Brittleknee will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the level has to do with phys reflect maps. Quality wouldn't hurt, that seems right.

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TrexerPoE wrote:

6. The summoning of raging spirits is really slow. It takes me ages to summon them on a boss. Should unleash be used to help with this problem?

It definitely helps to overcome low cast speed, yeah.

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TrexerPoE wrote:

7. Since we can drop Necromantic Aegis what is your recommendation of a good shield?

Ahn's Heritage is a popular choice. You can invest into constant Onslaught if you want and your SRS damage still holds with 2 jewels less.

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TrexerPoE wrote:

8. Dropping haste allows us to use another body armor. So what are the other options?

I think trading Haste for Ashrend can make some sense. I think I'd still keep Vaal Haste though. And I'm worried that without some additional investment or trade-off mana still would be an issue.

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FramFramson wrote:

Bear in mind that Meat Shield will apply the "defensive" behaviour to SRS, which I would say is pretty undesirable.

It's applied only to supported minions and we were talking about zombies and a golem.

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Aeui wrote:

Ravenous Horde is recommended as an anointment. If you feel like you can utilize even more minion movement speed, you can go for the whole wheel, but I wouldn't count on reliable Onslaught. Without its effect, DPS gain per node should be similar to picking Death Attunment instead.

I cannot stress and recommend this option enough. Anointment are one of the best things that GGG has added to this game as it will give the benefits of notables without having to go out of your way to spend a bunch of skill tree points. Ravenous Horde was the first thing that I anointed on my amulet and haven't looked back. Its too bad the rings only allow for improvements for the league mechanic instead of more notables on the tree lol.

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FramFramson wrote:

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Aeui wrote:

A helmet with +2 to socketed minion gems means ~25% more life for them. If that's not enough, I guess Meat Shield would fit the purpose you're using them for and could be used instead of Minion Speed. You can also consider Fortify instead of Minion Damage.

Bear in mind that Meat Shield will apply the "defensive" behaviour to SRS, which I would say is pretty undesirable.

It is desirable. This build doesn't require more damage from them. With aggressive behaviour they are more likely to die - more hassle with resummoning, there is also bigger chance that they are not going to tank the projectiles -> less surivability overall.
I think a lot about summoners will change throughout this league, especially in this build, it is in no way optimized right now. new shield charge is garbage and not worth it i think. Maybe i didnt stack enough movement speed or attack speed whatever is affecting it, but it feels so fucking shitty with new behaviour changes, so i dropped it pretty early. Instead i use Zombies with meat shield, feeding frenzy (i think it has at least 90% uptime) and elemental army. They boost survivability a lot and should help with the damage.
Atm the only thing i am not sure about is links on carrion golem, i use damage gems and culling strike, but in the end it is probably useless and i can use those links for something else. Something defensive, since i killed uber elder yesterday and damage wasn't a problem for sure. Probably it is reasonable to drop necromantic aegis in this build and get more defense through shield.