Kay's Summoner Memorial Page | New Guide is linked inside!

I've been looking at your new spectre build but i couldn't get convinced that Slave Drivers are better than Frost Sentinels just yet.

FS on Uber Elder barely looses HP (i have not watching them loosing any life at all).

I'm a necromancer beginner so i trust you when you say Slave Drivers are awesome, but i dont know if i should switch to them.

It's so hard to make these choices...

"

kayella wrote:

"

Gunkata7 wrote:

Sorry if these questions have been answered elsewhere..

1. Transitioning to spectres at lvl 34, will any spectres work for leveling or are there specific ones I should get?
2. Build guide recommends EE but I don't understand why since we're using Storm Brand to apply and Slave Drivers do lightning damage. Also why curse on hit flammability? I think maybe there are leftover bits from when the build used fire damage spectres? Would be good to get clarification.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Re-read the guide and noticed the note about the leveling section being out of date. For now I'm using flame sentinels and I'll stop using storm brand to apply EE when I get slave drivers.

Slave Drivers have lower hp than other spectres and may die a lot in the Acts*. I haven't had time to relevel a summoner to test it, so I haven't changed the levelling guide yet. I recommend using Fire-Eaters, Flame Sentinels or even Prayer Guards for now. The problem goes away once you get your Raise Spectre gem to level 19/20.

Storm Brand and Armageddon Brand are both blue gems and we only need them at level 1, so switching between the spectres won't be a major problem.


* GGG puts a heavy penalty on spectres: at level 1 of Raise Spectre gem, they have 30% less damage, 20% less life, 20% less energy shield.

had no issues so far from Act 5 onwards - I used a skullhead though, so maybe the regen and armour from that helps

They do crazy damage from act 5 onwards in a tabula, easiest leveling I've had as a summoner ever, 3 spectres, with six 3 link zombies - physical to lightning, multistrike. Wrath aura
Flame totem and wave of conviction with physical to lightning, for generation of frenzy charges and -25 lightning resist. EE from ice golem in Malachai's Artifice ring. No curses

to give you an idea they do over 500k shaper DPS each at level 68 spectres :o

---

just bad at legion clearing...

so I'm designing a new build with these and arc/spark totems :P

My spectres keep dying on the uber elder fight, i can kill shaper super easy, but they keep dying to uber elder... what i'm doing wrong what can i improve?

"

Luttrix wrote:

My spectres keep dying on the uber elder fight, i can kill shaper super easy, but they keep dying to uber elder... what i'm doing wrong what can i improve?

Their hp is a bit lower than other spectres, so you need to take a little more care with them, ie. make sure they're not standing in the beam.

I've changed the tree a little to account for their lower hp and am currently testing it.

"

CoolColJ wrote:

had no issues so far from Act 5 onwards - I used a skullhead though, so maybe the regen and armour from that helps

They do crazy damage from act 5 onwards in a tabula, easiest leveling I've had as a summoner ever, 3 spectres, with six 3 link zombies - physical to lightning, multistrike. Wrath aura
Flame totem and wave of conviction with physical to lightning, for generation of frenzy charges and -25 lightning resist. EE from ice golem in Malachai's Artifice ring. No curses

to give you an idea they do over 500k shaper DPS each at level 68 spectres :o

---

just bad at legion clearing...

so I'm designing a new build with these and arc/spark totems :P

I usually suggest Wraithlord instead of Skullhead for the +1000 life, but Skullhead works too.

It's good to know that they're OP in levelling. I'll update the levelling guide this weekend for them! I'll add in your idea for the zombies, too.

"

Mantikera wrote:

I've been looking at your new spectre build but i couldn't get convinced that Slave Drivers are better than Frost Sentinels just yet.

FS on Uber Elder barely looses HP (i have not watching them loosing any life at all).

I'm a necromancer beginner so i trust you when you say Slave Drivers are awesome, but i dont know if i should switch to them.

It's so hard to make these choices...

Yeah, it's really weird how they seem to take so much damage. I think the health pool is really low with Vis Mortis (20% life penalty).

Frost Sentinels are really good. They have excellent range and the ability to freeze everything. Their main problem is lack of top end damage and the spell effect is really hard on video cards and people's eyes. They're actually unusable on consoles.

I think if you're doing fine with FS, stick with them.

If you just want to check out Slave Drivers without recolouring your Vis Mortis, look for a helmet with conc effect and minion damage. Level 16 version costs about 5-10c and you can have a try of the Slave Driver and see how you feel about them!

"

raskolooo wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGyyqr6ZR0g&t=1s

you are using slave driver or other spectres?

"

WaffleT wrote:

Cheers to Inferius for asking and Kayella for the prompt reply. Your youtube link appears broken but I went to your channel to have a watch. I spent some time considering the staves before deciding to go with the wand for myself, in case anyone was curious I'll share my on paper results.

Spoiler

- Wand + Charity (frenzies) + Flesh Offering (autocasting) = 568,519 DPS
- Wand can be multimodded to add cast speed = 608,796 DPS

- Pledge of hands + Flesh offering = 533,599 DPS
- Pledge of hands w/o Flesh offering (not autocasting) = 440,082 DPS

- Multimod power charge on crit staff + Flesh = 551,241 DPS
- Multimod power charge on crit staff w/o Flesh = 469,038 DPS

Wand + Shield has the highest damage, auto casts offering & the frenzy charges grant minion movement speed. Downside is that it does not have the 18% block of staves

Pledge cannot be multimodded for more damage but is cheaper to obtain a base copy. Gains additional AOE on repeat casts. Con is that it only gives its 52% More damage when all 4 casts are completed and hit the target. The projected damage will not be true if the specters get leashed or if the target teleports, becomes immune, moves or dies during the gap. 100% increased mana is there too which is neat

Multimod staff has good damage and the high crit is neat, could swap out gems for shock/shattering. 45% increased minion life would help keep the spectres alive. Does require multimodding to be good putting it 2-3ex above the pledge in projected cost

Craftable multimod staff is

Spoiler

- Socketed Gems are supported by Level 18 Power Charge On Critical Strike
- Minions have 45% increased maximum Life
Minions deal 45% increased Damage
- +2 to Level of Socketed Support Gems
- Minions have 28% increased Attack Speed
Minions have 28% increased Cast Speed
- Can have multiple Crafted Modifiers
- Any 6th Sufix, Resistances or Attributes

After playing with auto cast flesh offering and convocation I don't think I can go back, its feel is just too fluid/convenient for me, much better then my last minion build using a +3 bow.

I think at this stage of theorycrafting/testing. Trigger wand + shield is THE dps set up. Nothing can beat it. DPS is great, smoothness is great (BV+fire). I feel like, apart from finding ways to reserve more mana and get more auras, the build has reached the top end of dps without becoming a total glass cannon.

Pledge of Hands is THE defensive build. The great thing is that even with the drop in dps, SDs still pump out a lot of DPS (are your calculations correct?), especially considering that a single spectre was able to carry my UberE fight from the second portal phase till end. AG isn't even needed for extra dps (with debuff, etc). I'm not sure what uber is doing with regards to a guide, but if he doesn't cover it, I might add it to my build as a defensive version of 'Big DPS Summoner'.

So about the defensive options Pledge gives, we can ignore the right side of the tree and go for staff block passives, as well as going with Mistress + Bone Offering.

It's possible to get the Offering on trigger with the helmet craft 'trigger socketed spells on focus'. So something like Desecrate + Cascade + Offering + Inc Duration in the helmet with the craft. Focus has a 12s cooldown. So we should have enough uptime on the offering.

One thing that's not evident in the UberE fight is that PoH + Inc aoe makes the SDs attack reach across the screen (after the repeat) which adds a lot to their clear speed.

It's quite an exciting development.

"

andreicde wrote:

I am curious what are your guys' thoughts on vaal advocates instead of Slave Drivers? The ball lightning, ones. Mind taking a look at my current build?

I am using Vaal advocates with double curse, GMP on them. I am also using a timeless Templar jewel that provides me with 15% attack/cast speed for my minions, 15% increased aura effectiveness and a trait with ''15% physical damage taken is transformed into cold damage''.

They're really good if you can scale their damage high enough. @WalkwithWolves uses them and his set up is amazing (I went on a T16 clear with him).


I like your idea of using Queen's Hunger. Your tree looks like a HC tree (all left side), I'm not really familiar with that style of build, though.

Why did you changed the specters to Slaves? And when you will update the passive tree? I think it won't be another at all, but what do you think and want to change?