[3.10] Brittleknee’s Unstable Spirits - An All Content, Defensive, Alternative to Pure-DPS SRS.
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[3.10] Brittleknee’s Unstable Spirits - All Content Viable, Alternative to Pure DPS Spirits.
 Greetings, Exiles! I’m Brittleknee. This project started as a personal challenge in Legion to make a budget-friendly SRS build that can kill Uber Elder. I have a Pure-DPS SRS Build, but that one is, in general, a higher investment, higher DPS build, and can be a bit of a Glass Cannon. So, I wanted to make a tanky, cheap-ish, SRS build that could do everything, and after some trial and error, it came together and we did Uber Elder and the whole gambit of available bosses. Legion being a mapping occurance only means that the ammy will always be a bit rare within the first few days of a league. You can use Infernal Legion Support until you can get a hold of the Fortress Covenant Jewel as well. Check out the Media section below for kill videos/clips! Catch me Streaming on Twitch or in game as @Brittleknee!
Delirium Update
 Delirium UpdateANOINT: Deflection This build is a consistent bosser, but I'll be upfront and say that this is not the best clear speed skill. However, after some retouching and working with the build, we've pushed the damage and defenses up quite significantly, and now boasts a robust toolkit for handling content. Right now, I've been working with awakened spell Echo, but between redeemer +1 Seal and now the Cluster notable for an additional seal, Unleash may be back on the menu. Unleash is still nicer for mapping, but I think Echo may win out as the more consistent of the two in bossing situations. The re-worked jewel, Fortress Covenant, was quite the game changer for this particular build. When used in the Templar area, our SRS will take up to 80% increased damage from Tavukai. This means 2-second or perhaps less Detonations are definitely possible. I'll include a list of Notables that stood out to me from the notes to use if you'd like to explore Cluster options: Good luck, everyone, and have a wonderful league! <3BK
Cluster Notables
SRS Pops ======================= Hulking Corpses Minions have 20% increased maximum Life 20% increased Raised Zombie Size Raised Zombies have 5% chance to Taunt Enemies on Hit Call to the Slaughter Minions deal 15% increased Damage Minions created Recently have 10% increased Attack and Cast Speed Minions created Recently have 30% increased Movement Speed Life from Death Minions have 15% increased maximum Life Regenerate 2% of Life per second if a Minion has Died Recently Minions Recover 4% of Life on Minion Death Fettle +20 to maximum Life 10% increased maximum Life Surging Vitality 8% increased maximum Life Regenerate 0.5% of Life per second Every 5 seconds, Regenerate 10% of Life over one second Prismatic Carapace 30% increased Armour +1% to all maximum Elemental Resistances Militarism 30% increased Armour 8% increased maximum Life Second Skin 3% Chance to Block Spell Damage 30% increased Armour +3% Chance to Block Attack Damage Enduring Composure 30% increased Armour Gain an Endurance Charge every second if you've been Hit Recently Flexible Sentry 3% Chance to Block Spell Damage 25% chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments +3% Chance to Block Attack Damage Rote Reinforcement +20 to maximum Life 20% chance to gain an Endurance Charge when you Block +4% Chance to Block Attack Damage One with the Shield Recover 50 Life when you Block 50% increased Defences from Equipped Shield +5% Chance to Block Attack Damage while holding a Shield Path of Building Links: Popcorn SRS - Base Setup: You'll want a convoking wand with lots of minion life and damage, movement speed is nice, too! With Awakened gems, looks like the detonation damage is touch over 900k per pop. 
1.0. Introduction
1.1. Pros & Cons
Pros This build is pretty versatile and offers a lot to new and veteran players alike.
Cons This build does have some weaknesses that should be addressed.
1.2. Playstyle
Similar to Pure-DPS SRS builds, this build focuses on summoning as many spirits into existence as possible. However, rather than fight, the spirits explode for a percentage of their life as damage due to Minion Instability. Due to this fuse-delay, you will likely need to play a bit more defensively. Incorporated into the build is also a number of secondary defenses, as well as a high eHP pool. Due to ES/Life/MoM you have an eHP of around 8900 fully geared. In addition, you will have a not insignificant amount of armor (18k) and A considerable amount of Block. If running the recommended shield, you’ll also gain an elemental damage protection bubble. This should make up for the lack of zombies as meatshields.
1.3. Origins
This project started as a personal challenge in Legion to make a budget-friendly SRS build that can kill Uber Elder. I have a Pure-DPS SRS Build, but that one is, in general, a higher investment, higher DPS build, and can be a bit of a Glass Cannon. So, I wanted to make a tanky, cheap, SRS build that could do everything, and after some trial and error, it came together. Boasting a not inconsiderable amount of DPS with fairly unoptimized gear, I have a lot of hope for what this build can and will be once fully configured. That’s my goal, moving forward into this next league. Better gear, new jewels and passives, new ascendency, and so on. I’m thinking this could likely be competitive with pure DPS SRS builds. 
2.0. Skill Trees, Ascendancy, and Leveling
Here you should find all the relevant information needed to get started.
2.1. Ascendancy Choices
Ascendancy Skills While leveling, pick the Ascendancy skills:
2.2. Leveling Toolkit
If you would like to level this build from scratch as a Summoner, I recommend loosely following the leveling guide I wrote for my Pure-DPS SRS. You cannot equip Tavukai until level 54, so using the recommended Pure-DPS damage links will be best until you can transition to Minion Instability.
Leveling Trees
   Invest your Mana Points into MoM and associated mana nodes when you're ready switch over to a more hybrid playstyle.
Main Attack Links
4 Link SRS - 4B
5 Link SRS - 5B
6 Link SRS - 6B
2.3. Pantheons
Major:
Minor:
2.4. Bandits
In Act 2, Kill ALL THREE Bandits to receive two passive points from Eramir.
2.5. Keystone Explanations
Minion Instability This keystone causes minions to explode once they are reduced to low life, dealing 33% of their maximum life as fire damage to nearby enemies. Low life is considered 35% or lower life value. These explosions are our primary damage in this particular build, and only a few things can scale it effectively. Those are the following attributes on the passive tree/gear:
And the following support gems (not in any particular order):
Note that any fire damage taken on the passive tree will not affect the minion detonations. The other indirect way to scale MI is by reducing the time it takes for minions to detonate. This is sometimes provided by items in the game as well as avoiding sources of Resistance, Life Regen and Leech from your minions so they cannot recover their life. Elemental Equilibrium Elemental Equilibrium is an amazing damage boost for this build. SRS uses physical and fire damage, and we add additional cold damage through Hatred. This leaves lightning as the remaining element to proc the effect, and this build includes three different ways to do so. EE lasts 5 seconds at a time and can be refreshed as needed to keep 100% uptime. You will know when EE has been properly applied to an enemy by the Pink/Purple/Blueish spell affect at their feet, which is seen below:  You will also see a written confirmation that EE is both active and attuned to the correct element when you see “Vulnerable to Fire, Vulnerable to Cold” listed on the mob’s affixes. With trash this may be hard to see, but with rares and bosses, you should be able to see this on mouseover targeting. It will look like this:  Check me out on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee All of my builds are here: https://tinyurl.com/y5vwayk2 Last edited by brittleknee#2158 on Mar 11, 2020, 11:03:26 PM Last bumped on Apr 9, 2020, 3:58:21 PM
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3.0. Early Gearing & Budget Setup
3.1. Required Uniques
 Tavukai Introduced in Legion League (3.7) this amulet allows our SRS to detonate with Minion Instability due to a Chaos DOT that is inflicted on our minions. Remember to pick an ammy which reduces minion’s chaos resistance the most (-17%) so that they will detonate faster. It is also a great source of Minion Life% and Minion Damage%.  Bloodbond This body armor was chosen due to its relative price, but more importantly because it scales Minion Life. Though it comes with a skill, Blood Offering, we will not be using this ability at all. Other armors are generally less preferred so here’s to hoping it stays affordable!  Magna Eclipsis Unlike Pure-DPS SRS, this build does not utilize Necromantic Aegis, so we’ll be picking out a nice, defensive shield for ourselves. I picked Magna due to its high armor, +2 gems, Life and of course, Elemental Aegis. Elemental Aegis is a self-refreshing bubble which will absorb up to 1000 incoming elemental damage at a time.  Rumi’s Concoction Another important part in the equation that helps mitigate incoming damage. This augments some of the block we already take from the passive tree and skills, and the granite base helps out Molten shell.  Lavianga’s Spirit This is a powerful tool for MoM builds as it can quickly replenish your mana pool while you get n-cost casting during its effect.  Blood of the Karui This potion is extremely powerful when combined with Ryslatha’s Pantheon, and passive tree nodes. It has the ability, when at low life, to heal you 8410hp over 1.67 seconds. This provides a tremendous amount of survivability, plus the instant heal to full life at the completion of flask effect is quite nice.  Careful Planning Easily solve the Dexterity requirement most Summoners face with one simple jewel. Careful planning, when socketed in the jewel socket west of the witch starting area, provides a total of 114 Dexterity if it is a +24 Roll.
3.2. End-Game Gem Setup
Chestpiece: Summon Raging Spirits, Minion Damage, Minion Life, Elemental Focus, Unleash/Echo (whichever you prefer), Concentrated Effect Helm: Shield Charge, Culling Strike, Fortify, Faster Attacks Gloves: Storm Brand, Curse on Hit, Flammability, Elemental Weakness Boots: Cast When Damage Taken, Vaal Molten Shell (2-Link), Flame Dash and Faster Casting or Portal. Main Hand: Desecrate, Bone Offering, Tempest Shield Shield: Rallying Cry, Vaal Haste, Clarity
3.3. Flasks
Karui and Lavianga work in conjunction to buff out incoming damage. Sometimes you will need to hit both at the same time for it to function as a very powerful life flask. Rumi’s the the best choice for augmenting some of the block values we’ve picked up from the passive tree and from using Tempest Shield. The other two can be defensive, or one defense one quicksilver. Entirely up to you!
3.4. Jewels
Your priorities for stats on Abyss Jewels should be:
3.5. Crafting
Crafting Jewelry
Using a Essence of Fear on a ring or amulet will result in a minion movement speed affix. This is a huge quality of life improvement and works several ways synergistically with the build. It first helps by allowing your minions to chain between packs of mobs more easily, as this seems to lengthen their aggro radius since they can cover more distance. This contributes to the ‘rolling wave’ playstyle by limiting your need to resummon once you arrive at a new pack, allowing you to supplement your existing SRS as you go, rather than having to rebuild your SRS between packs. Furthermore, since this is a all-in-one build, faster minion speed means faster farming. It also means faster arrival time for your SRS to bosses which change positions during a fight, resulting in a higher DPS uptime. Ideally, you’ll want high life (70+), a resist or two, and maybe a helpful stat such a Dexterity for a ring or amulet to be ‘good.’ But there are plenty of other combinations of stats which can also be useful, such as Mana Regen, + Mana, or even Rarity. A Screaming Essence of Fear will net you 19-22% minion movement speed per jewelry item. Some examples are: 
5.0. End Game
5.1. Final Build Gear
After another league of fiddling with gear, here's the outcome:
5.2. Improving Further
There is so much more that could be done with the build! Let’s get into a few: Getting Awakened gems, and +Level scaling for SRS in the form of wands would be interesting. There's also a number of Minion Life scaling available in the form of new notables that could be worth exploring. +1 Bloodbond would also be pretty neat. Check me out on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee All of my builds are here: https://tinyurl.com/y5vwayk2 Last edited by brittleknee#2158 on Mar 11, 2020, 10:41:59 PM
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6.0. Frequently Asked Questions
6.1. Frequently Asked Questions
How can I figure out my detonation delay? Xayazi(Aeui) has created a handy tool which you can use: https://tinyurl.com/yxsbykdg How does Minion Instability scale? The wiki has a wonderful article about scaling MI, found here: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Minion_Instability What’s better, Minion Life or Minion Damage? Increased minion damage and minion life are multiplicative for Minion Instability, so at a given moment, if you can increase them by the same absolute value, it’s better to increase whichever has the lower total value. Overall, you end up with much lower total minion life than minion damage, hence minion life will almost always provide more DPS. Molten Shell? Flame Dash? You know how EE Works, right? We use Storm Brand as a primary applicator for EE in this build. EE is applied on a spell-by-spell basis and the debuff lasts for 4 seconds, which means it can be over-written at any time. Even during your damage reflect phase from molten shell, or even if you flame dash through an enemy, it will be overwritten almost instantly due to Storm Brand’s activation/cast speed. How do I know if I have enough Mana for MoM? Ghazzy made an awesome MoM tool, which can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/49yos2/mind_over_matter_ehp_calculator/
6.2. Troubleshooting Common Issues
This area will be compiled when there is more feedback from the thread. 
7.0. Media
7.1. Videos, Gifs, Clips
Bossing with Budget Gear:
7.2. Social Media
Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee Twitter - https://twitter.com/brittlekneetv Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/brittlekneetv Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brittlekneetv/ Discord - https://discord.gg/36mXkFq 
8.0. Credits, Updates, Changelog
Credits
A big thank you to Xayazi, who is basically the PoB equivalent of Spellcheck. Thanks for always being willing to look over my builds, even when I send them over in the middle of the night. He also created the tool located in the FAQ section which helps calculate the detonation delay for your SRS. I’d also like to thank all of my followers as well as subscribers, in addition to those of you in-game on the forums who have helped me work on this build and recommend things to try and content to write. You’re all legends!
Updates
Archived updates posted at the top of the guide at the beginning of a new league will be moved here at the league’s conclusion.
Metamorph League Update
3.9 Metamorph League UpdateANOINT: Deflection Metamorph is going to be a pretty fun league. This build is a consistent bosser, and since it doesn't seem like the Metamorph moves a whole lot, the SRS should do nicely. I am very curious about Awakened Spell Echo and if its smart enough to cause the double-damage to count on the minion pop. The re-worked jewel, Fortress Covenant, was quite the game changer for this particular build. When used in the Templar area, our SRS will take up to 80% increased damage from Tavukai. This means 2-second or perhaps less Detonations are definitely possible. We’ll also be using one of the new wands in lieu of a Temple Scepter, but the Trigger on Socketed Skill aspect of things will not change. At this time I have no plans to migrate this over to a dual-wield build. Good luck, everyone, and have a wonderful league! <3BK
Blight League Update
3.8 Blight League Update13 Sept Update: Yes, I've seen how much Tavukai and Fortress Covenant are. So, this build for this particular league is not as cheap as it was last league. Hopefully the prices of these items drop, but due to the popularity of minions, the price may be high for the time being. Just like Atziri's Disfavor was 4Ex last league and is now 50C, what's current now may not always be. Meta will always influence prices. Blight is going to be a pretty fun league. It has been particularly heartwarming to see some scrutiny and improvements made to minions. While some of the changes certainly aren’t ideal, it is nice to have some new tools in the ‘ol minion toolkit. The re-worked jewel, Fortress Covenant, will be quite the game changer for this particular build. When used in the Templar area, our SRS will take up to 80% increased damage from Tavukai. This means 2-second or perhaps less Detonations are definitely possible. This, however, should only be used if you’ve got the helm enchant, and plan on using Echo or Unleash with sufficient cast speed. We’ll also be using one of the new wands in lieu of a Temple Scepter, but the Trigger on Socketed Skill aspect of things will not change. At this time I have no plans to migrate this over to a dual-wield build. Good luck, everyone, and have a wonderful league! <3BK
Changelog
5 Sept 2019 - Build Published Check me out on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee All of my builds are here: https://tinyurl.com/y5vwayk2 Last edited by brittleknee#2158 on Mar 11, 2020, 10:42:32 PM
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*UNNECESSARILY ANGRY COMMENT*
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" You always know the perfect things to say.  Check me out on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee
All of my builds are here: https://tinyurl.com/y5vwayk2 |
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dank
I do this for money
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Nice build, cought the rest of your stream today. I used this build with slight variations as my league starter for Blight and anointed Ravenous Horde on my Tavukai. Currently I'm level 92 and clearing the rest of my atlas from red tier maps.
For you setup of PoB I would suggest picking up Mystic Bulwark instead of some other mana node like Deep Toughts. I think the 8% additional spell block is worth it. Personally I skipped a bunch of the Templar / Marauder area to get down to Battle Rouse, Soul of Steel and Bloodless. I'm also not totaly sold the Fortified Legion jewel for me because I use Solar Guard Specters in 6-Link Body Armour with Combustion, Elemental Army, GMP, Spell Echo, MD as Support for my SRS. |
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" For sure! Always adapt builds that suit you best and absolutely, Fortress Covenant is not a good idea if using other minions. There was an early tree that had Mystic Bulwark, it was some four-node spell block wheel, but I went for more minion life instead. I am hesitant to drop below the recommended mana for MoM at this time because in this particular setup there's not much beyond flasking for regaining large amounts of mana during heavy damage. The thought is to eventually work in the Clarity watcher's eye with mana recovery on skill (like a baby Weave the Arcane). This reliable recovery would allow for additional wiggle room, be it dropping Lavi's entirely for an additional defensive flask or allowing the MoM ratio to be a bit off. This will be my second project of the league granted I can get my first build off the ground and I'm excited to fully min-max it. Thanks for stopping by the stream! Check me out on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee
All of my builds are here: https://tinyurl.com/y5vwayk2 |
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I also try to maintain above ~43% total unreserved Mana for MoM. I just get more total mana from Gear. (like the Xopec's Roll on gloves)
My planned build currently looks like this https://pastebin.com/rz5J2502 Could see me using Unwavering Stance with a armour based chest and/or Whsipers of Doom in the future. |
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"The new jewel will bring us down to a 2 second Detonation which will sharply increase DPS, but also must go in the same place the Legion jewel would, so it would be a ‘choose one or the other’ situation"
Name of this new jewel? |
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