This thing about destroying weapons by accident is worrying.
So... the only way to avoid is is to try to spot them and try not to activate AW while they're on the ground? What if the item drops while you're still fighting?
Sounds as though some good items are going to get destroyed. :(
It will only target ID'd weapons. Just be careful not to hit something with 6 sockets...
This thing about destroying weapons by accident is worrying.
So... the only way to avoid is is to try to spot them and try not to activate AW while they're on the ground? What if the item drops while you're still fighting?
Sounds as though some good items are going to get destroyed. :(
It will only target ID'd weapons. Just be careful not to hit something with 6 sockets...
New AW ignores 6 socket weapons
From what I can understand it is almost impossible to accidentally destroy a valuable weapon.
Between the need for a weapon to first be IDed and the ignoring of 6 socket weapons all together, the odds of animating something valuable that is not covered by those two conditions seems really remote.
Last edited by AndyLovesHisBge#5265 on Mar 12, 2020, 7:00:23 PM
To the Death Attunement discussion: I think it is always worth picking up. Even more so because you can just get the jewel socket up there instead of to the left for a cluster jewel setup. The +1 Spectre is very valuable, either get a 2nd Carnage Chieftain for better FC uptime or get that Spectre that spams the high level Vulnerability curse (phys version only of course). And if you go damage/clear speed spectres instead of charge generation the +1 is worth even more.
Looking forward to trying this build, I just hope clear speed isn't terrible with the lower minion movement speed and fewer weapons.
I don't quite understand how the feeding frenzy nerf is going to effect things but last season I ran a summoner build that focused on 15 zombies and 4 specters and the DPS of the zombies was very close to what I am seeing people post in the theory crafted POB's for the AW lingering blades, so I think the clear speed of 15+ AW's should be pretty good.
It's like playing Summon Raging Spirit but the minions last longer, look better, and deal more damage!
How to Read This Guide: sections marked with stars (***) are essential to understand the build. For those in a hurry, read the marked sections first! Then go back to read the rest.
If you jump into the comments, from Page 13 and forwards is discussion after the patch notes reveal. Before asking any questions, read the FAQs section! I will not respond to questions about the build if you message me in game, post any questions here so others can learn more as well.
Changelog (Most Recent: March 12)
3/12/2020: gem links and leveling section update. Essential update to 3.10 patch note info.
3/11/2020: More revisions complete, streamlined formatting and new POB. Ascendancy order section added.
3/11/2020: patch note update, cold scaling now favored. In the process of updating large sections of guide, parts may still be outdated for a day or so.
3/10/2020: Cluster jewel section, added note to Gem Setup (check back for revision here)
3/8/2020: flask section.
3/7/2020: added explanation of why Necromancer class is preferred.
3/5/2020: cosmetic changes, improvements to introductory sections, pros and cons.
3/4/2020: suggested leveling trees added.
3/3/2020: added Map Mods, Advanced setups, and comment on Spellslinger automation method.
3/2/2020: Added video guide for getting 4 green sockets in Triad Grip. and FAQ section.
3/1/2020: added more about full cold conversion option. Updated utility gems section for that.
2/29/2020: Large update to gearing, added skill tree.
- added Animate Guardian, Utility Gems section, leveling section, curse section.
- added gem links for fire conversion, cleaned up gear section, added cold conversion discussion.
2/28/2020: Original post.
- added section on how DPS for your animated weapons works, under “Mechanics”
"Should I league start with this build?" and other FAQs.
Pros and Cons
+ Safe playstyle with minions that chill, freeze, taunt and blind enemies. + High DPS for bossing. + Can do ALL map mods. + Low budget to get started, but scales easily into end game. + Can get high health and/or hybrid defenses, with easy 200% increased life on tree. + Very flexible passive tree which you can customize to your own playstyle or budget. - Other builds can accomplish higher clear speeds. - Cannot tank big hits. The best defense is mobility and avoiding huge slams. - Some dexterity is needed on gear to meet gem requirements. - Not everybody finds summoner playstyle fun.
*** FAQs ***
Very brief summary of the build: Get Triad Grip gloves to convert all minion damage to cold. Use Hatred aura and Summon Skitterbots - Bonechill to scale cold damage to big, girthy levels.
For newer players there is a highly detailed description of all build mechanics, without any jargon, in the very next section!
"Should I league start with Animate Weapon?"
A summoner playstyle doesn't depend heavily on gear, making it very easy to start a new league with. Further, you get access to the Animate Weapon gem right at the start of Act 1 so leveling should be a breeze.
"I'm new to Path of Exile. Can I try this build?"
Sure! This guide is comprehensive, intended to be accessible for players with all levels of experience, and the mechanics are not complicated. Check out the Intro and Mechanics sections first, and then leave a comment if you still have questions.
"Solo self found (SSF) and budget friendly?"
Mostly. There is only one "highly recommended" unique, Triad Grip Mesh Gloves. This drops frequently in maps. Even without finding them right away, the build should still be functional without those gloves for a long time. Aside from that one unique, you can reasonably craft or find every needed item yourself.
"Hardcore Viable?"
Probably. The skill tree is 90% the same as one for Summon Raging Spirit, and many people have taken that to high levels in HC before. This guide is for a SC perspective but with small adjustments, more defensive options are available. (i.e. more Marauder life nodes, Soul of Steel, and Bone Offering for block rather than Flesh Offering for speed)
"I want to avoid a lot of clicking. Is this hard to play, mechanically?"
While leveling, Ethereal Knives or Bladefall generate "ammunition" for Animate Weapon. It's a one-two skill usage, a bit like Essence Drain/Contagion, but not as bad because weapons have a long duration. Flasks are only used defensively, so no "piano flasking" to keep up DPS.
Later on some of this can be automated away through gearing. I personally prefer having at most 2-3 active skills to use plus a movement skill, so that's what the build is designed around.
"What about some other Ascendancy?"
I wrote a section on why Necromancer is the best for this build, so at minimum read that before asking. Feedback is welcome and helpful, and the guide has changed a lot based on comments here. BUT, if you have a suggestion please back it up with some evidence as to why your change would be a good idea, and include a Path of Building link to demonstrate why it's an improvement.
"Cast While Channeling / Spellslinger / other clever gearing setups to trigger Animate Weapon?"
I fully researched and considered most automation methods, and the conclusion I reached was Not Worth It. Huge loss of DPS for very small added convenience, and gem slots are in short supply as it is. Link an Unleash Support to Animate Weapon if you are bothered by casting it repeatedly. For a fully automated build, look into Chains of Command instead.
"Why Cold, instead of Physical with Impale?"
In short, physical has more flexible gem slots but the damage with cold can scale a bit higher. I started off the guide with the idea of showing various different damage types but it was getting too wordy, and the gearing for different setups is different enough to make it awkward to cover all of them. Any advice on an Impale setup would be purely theoretical as I'm doing full elemental conversion myself.
The difference between damage types is probably extremely small and both versions will be good. If you want to read about an Impale version, look at Ghazzy's content instead.
If you have other questions, please do leave a comment!
3.10 Patch Comments
This build after 3.10 minion and Necromancer "nerfs"
Other minion builds get hammered, Animate Weapon buffed! (As expected). The gem has been changed significantly relative to its previous form. Read about it yourself in the notes, but here's the part that matters for damage scaling.
- Physical tag added.
- More flat added physical damage (this is good for Cold and Phys builds)
- More attack speed (good for flat added Fire builds).
- A subtle difference is the change from "increased attack speed" to "more attack speed" (48% at L20) on the gem. We already have significant increased attack speed from the tree, Flesh Offering, various jewels and necro ascendancy... So the "more" attack speed is very close to a standalone "more damage" multiplier. Massive!
- Increased damage on gem has been reduced (bad for flat added Fire)
- This is looking like the strongest summon skill going into 3.10!
Other incidental changes:
- For necro ascendancy, the Bone Armor node has been nerfed, Commander of Darkness buffed. Overall a win.
- Spirit Offering nerfed, no longer gives energy shield. Wasn't planning to use this anyways so no big deal.
- Carrion Golem attack damage nerfed. Irrelevant to our purposes. Feeding Frenzy support damage also nerfed, also doesn't hurt.
- Fossil crafting methods nerfed, only really matters for crafting a -resistance helmet. Influenced items used instead.
- Temple mods for minion damage on weapons reduced slightly (meh?) BIG PICTURE is we escape with no significant nerfs. Skill is looking amazing for 3.10!
Custom Loot Filter for Animate Weapon
Normal rarity weapons we might want to animate will be hidden by default for most loot filters. If you want to customize your filter to have more weapons to animate, here's how.
2. On the first page, select the Strictness of filter that you want (for example, in late game, Very Strict).
3. Under the “Customize” tab, scroll down to Miscellaneous >>> Optional Filter Modules >>> Animate Weapon Mode.
4. Pick the correct option (Normal, Spirit Guards if you use that jewel, Cloak of Tawm’r Isley if you use that item) and click Show.
5. By default, the font size will be tiny. I’d recommend grabbing the slider and moving it to at least 25. Your eyes and your mouse hand will thank you.
Make any other changes you want to customize your loot filter, then put it in the correct folder and load it in Path of Exile.
Also, I will have custom loot filters available in my character profile when league goes live - check there!
Introduction to Animate Weapon
If you have little experience playing summoner builds or are new to Path of Exile, this section will get you up to speed.
Animate Weapon: the Basics
The Animate Weapon skill turns an identified melee weapon on the ground into a flying minion with high damage, which chases down and slays your enemies. And you can summon a lot of them!
If you've played other summoning skills in Path of Exile, think of Animate Weapon as the cross between Raise Zombie and Raging Spirit. Like a Zombie, the Weapon must be raised from something on the ground - a dropped weapon, rather than a corpse. And, like a Raging Spirit, the Animated Weapon flies and has fixed duration before expiring. (Unlike Raging Spirits, Animated Weapons will be targeted by enemies so their health pool does matter).
The problem for Animated Weapon builds prior to 3.10 was that unless monsters dropped enough weapons for you to raise, your animated army could stall out for lack of "recruits". Further, the targeting of weapons on the ground was awkward, requiring very picky selection with your mouse cursor to animate them.
In 3.10 the first issue has been fixed because blade-related spells (Blade Vortex, Ethereal Knives, and Bladefall) now leave behind lingering knives to animate at will. The second part has also been simplified with buffs to cast speed and a reduced mana cost, making the skill much more pleasant to play.
We now have an easy two-skill combination - cast a blade skill (most likely Bladefall because it creates the most knives) and then animate those knives to fight for us. This combo can be streamlined with some easily-obtained gear to reduce the amount of clicking needed (that's covered in the later section on Automation). As an added benefit we can apply curses and debuffs to monsters with hits from Bladefall, making our minions more effective.
How Animate Weapon Calculates Damage
When you cast Animate Weapon it inherits the damage, crit chance, attack speed etc. of the identified item on the ground which you targeted. This includes any magic, rare, or unique modifiers(though be aware, you won’t get that weapon back!) Then the skill adds its own modifiers to base damage, attack speed, and so on to the minion which flies around and hits things until it dies or the duration expires.
When a weapon is summoned from a lingering blade (for example, created by Bladefall) the process is slightly different. All summoned blades have base stats roughly equal to a Glass Shank. Then, Animate Weapon adds an additional damage bonus based on its own skill level to the created minion, if it is from a lingering blade. This boost is substantial!
What it means to you: the level of Bladefall you use, or any supports attached to that skill, don’t matter for your DPS. All that counts is the level of your Animate Weapon.
The plan is very simple: keep up as many Animate Weapon minions as possible, buff their damage, and we're along for the ride as they kill everything in the game! The rest of this guide is about how to accomplish that.
Minion Mechanics for New Players
For those completely new to this type of build, here are the game mechanics that matter.
An Animate Weapon skill gem has the tags Duration, Minion, Spell attached to it so let's unpack those first.
Each animated weapon lasts for either 40 seconds duration or until it has zero hitpoints. We eventually increase that duration with gear or passive points so that we don't need to recast them as often.
Minions count as Allies (but are not Party Members, which is only other players - this distinction occasionally matters). In order to improve our minions' damage with gear or the passive tree, the modifier must explicitly say "minions have..." or "allies get..." otherwise it has no effect!
For example, although an Animated Weapon attacks with physical damage, a passive node saying "15% increased physical damage" will not benefit it, because that is only for the player and not Minions.
Casting Animate Weapon is a Spell, and is improved by Cast Speed. However, as the Animated Weapon is a Minion, increases to spell damage do not help our minion damage. If you add Spell bonuses or supports, it will support the spell which animates the weapon, but won't affect the weapon's damage when it attacks enemies.
The reason these tags matter is that a support gem usually has to match a tag on the skill it supports. In addition to Duration, Minion, and Spell, Animate Weapon can also be supported with MeleeAttack, and Physical tags. There are other support gems that just have the tag "Support" and can attach to almost anything. Read the text on a support gem and it will describe any special cases and what it can or cannot apply to. GGG's wording tends to be VERY literal.
The damage our minions deal with attacks can be Physical, Elemental (Cold, Fire, Lightning), or Chaos. The type of damage matters because monsters can resist attacks by having resistance to Cold/Fire/Lightning/Chaos, or armor against Physical. Bosses especially have significant amounts of armor and resistances.
Animate Weapon deals physical damage by default but eventually, we want to convert all that damage to cold.
Why Convert Damage to Cold?
There are three benefits to converting all damage to one element.
First, it lets our minion benefit from more sources of increased damage. If we convert all minion physical damage to cold, any item that says "minions have % increased physical damage" or "minions have % increased cold damage" will benefit them equally.
Second, by picking just one element, we can focus our build toward breaking through that one elemental resistance on bosses. It's easier to find gear and skills which reduce, or penetrate, one sort of resistance rather than all of them.
Third, physical damage from minions gets reduced by armor. Armor blocks a set, flat amount of physical damage from each hit (rather than a percentage as resistances do), making it most effective against small hits. Animated Weapons attack with a lot of fast hits so bosses with high armor won't take as much damage. Converting fully to elemental damage ignores monster armor, and we have lots of ways to break through resistances.
One way we do that is with Elemental Equilibrium (EE), a keystone node located between Witch and Templar. With EE, when an enemy is hit with one element (for example, lightning) they get +25 resistance to lightning but -50 resistance to cold and fire. By hitting enemies ourselves a small amount of lightning or fire damage, they will have negative cold resistance when hit by our minions.
Lastly, cold damage benefits from some of the most powerful damage multipliers in the game. Very rarely, buffs can "double dip", or increase both physical and elemental damage at the same time, so final damage benefits from both increases. The Hatred Aura is one example, because it gives added cold damage based on physical damage, and also more cold damage, double-dipping from any increase to physical.
The other big multiplier we gain is from linking the Bonechill Support to Summon Skitterbots. Skitterbots have two effects: one is a shocking aura, which at level 20, causes monsters to take 18% more damage. There is also a chilling aura, and with Bonechill, that causes monsters to take 18% more cold damage. Together this causes 36% more damage to the unlucky boss which is affected by both our shock and chill at once.
Incidentally, cold damage has some defensive benefits as well by chilling enemies so they hit us less often, and freezing and shattering corpses to avoid nasty on-death effects. But mostly we're in it for the big, meaty damage increases.
Passive Tree
Suggested Passive Tree: Level 80
This tree is very flexible. With additional levels you can either invest in cluster jewels, take more life nodes by moving toward the Marauder area, or additional jewel sockets in various places.
Alternative Tree: More DPS, Lower HP
Gains an extra Spectre and a little more damage at expense of less life. Best if HP available on cluster jewels.
*** Path of Building ***
https://pastebin.com/53sJqPwt Includes different versions for leveling guide.
DPS figures are largely meaningless at this point, and will be until after the patch officially launches so don't read too much into that just yet. Also, note that the gear on this is mostly placeholders. Read the section on gearing for more specific/realistic suggestions.
Estimating DPS, using method from Ghazzy (Flask item):
https://pastebin.com/XdLQb8xt
Results in 13 million shaper DPS with "moderate" Gear.
Explanation of Configuration settings:
- Enemy hit by lightning damage for Elemental Equilibrium, added by some piece of gear.
- Minions have power/frenzy charges from Raised Spectres on monkey shamans from A7
- Shock effect: 36% accounts for Skitterbots 18% shock, plus the stacked effect of Bonechill causing increased cold damage (another 18%)
- Enemies given -10 cold resistance from Elemental Army attached to Animate Guardian
Buffs from Animate Guardian equipment not included.
You MUST have the Forked version of Path of Building installed or DPS calculations will make no sense! Not sure what that is? Read below.
You will also need LocalIdentity’s fork version, which more accurately calculates DPS for a variety of skills, as well as adding several useful features and more regular updates. Once PoB is installed, follow the instructions here: https://github.com/LocalIdentity/PathOfBuilding/wiki/Installing-this-Fork
After you update Path of Building to the newest version, follow these steps to load a build:
- Click "New" (top middle) for a new build
- "Import/Export build" at top left
- "Import from Pastebin", paste the URL given above, and click "Import".
Done!
Ascendancy Choices
Recommended Order:
1. Mindless Aggression - boosts minion damage and movement speed to kill stuff faster.
2. Mistress of Sacrifice - increased Animate Weapon duration and lets us benefit from Flesh Offering. Can take this first instead, if DPS seems sufficient and just want the QOL improvement sooner.
3. Commander of Darkness - get this before killing Kitava in A10. The resistance boost means that the final resist penalty will not require a big gear change-up.
4. Unnatural Strength - +2 Minion Gem levels from Eternal Lab so our minions HP and damage continues scaling nicely into the endgame.
Why Necromancer?
You can actually get comparable DPS with a Guardian ascendancy - at least, with numbers on paper. The main reason to play Necro is the Mistress of Sacrifice node:
- 30% Increased Skill Effect Duration; 30% Increased Minion Duration
- Your Offerings also Affect You, with 25% Reduced Effect on You
Increased duration is not available on any other ascendancy, and reduces the amount of times recasting minions, improving QOL and clear speed.
Even more importantly, the ability to benefit from Flesh Offering, which increases movement speed, attack speed, and cast speed makes everything play much smoother. It's like having Onslaught all the time, except you can still stack real Onslaught on top of it! Casting minions quickly and having them reach enemies faster further improves their effective duration, and in turn, clear speed.
Alternately, if defense is the priority, Spirit Offering and Bone Offering are large boosts to Chaos Resist and Block Chance, respectively. It's an incredible amount of flexibility for very little investment.
Guardian also does not have any boosts to minion life, which Necro gets incidentally with +gem levels for minions, as well as the Bone Armor buff if you take those nodes. You will have to invest harder with Guardian to keep your Animated Guardian (ironically) alive. The fact that Necromancer also gets more minion damage and move speed through other powerful nodes like Mindless Aggression is just icing on the cake.
Bandits & Pantheon
Kill all the Bandits for skill points.
When fully upgraded the Soul of Lunaris lets us avoid chained projectiles, which are otherwise very dangerous to a summoner. Lunaris also has some helpful damage reductions which we otherwise are weak on, making this the favored choice.
As a minor god, I'd suggest either Gruthkul (more phys reduction) or Shakari (poison immunity when upgraded). Optional: switch to Ryslatha for going through Labyrinth.
Leveling Guide
From a fresh character in a new league up to the end game. Click Here for a walkthrough using POE Leveling Planner Tool for this build, or just follow along with my comments for each act below.
Item goals:
- several 3-linked items with GB B colors.
- 2x one-handed weapons with 3 sockets each (used in off-hand weapon swap to level gems)
- any rarity of Bone Spirit Shield, to be used for a vendor recipe.
- Boots with Movement Speed (check vendors), and a Jade Amulet to meet dexterity requirements.
- Sell unidentified magic items for Transmute shards (needed to buy skill gems).
Act 1. After Hillock, take Raise Zombie. Purchase Ethereal Knives.
In Submerged Passage, take Frostblink and purchase Animate Weapon. You can now use Ethereal Knives to fuel your weapon summonings!
After Tidal Island, take Quicksilver Flask and Summon Phantasm Support, link to Ethereal Knives. Can buy Spell Cascade (won't need this right away).
After Brutus, take Flame Dash, replace Frostblink. Buy Added Lightning, Minion Damage, and Clarity aura.
The Weaver: take Deathmark, buy Faster Casting and Melee Physical Damage.
Passive Tree: End of Act 2
Acts 3 to 5
Item goals:
- get a 4-linked helmet with 1 green socket, 2-3 blue and 0-1 red.
- Recipe: magic helmet + Orb of Alteration + Life Flask of Animation = +1 Minion Gems.
- (Bone Spirit Shield + Life Flask + Orb of Transmutation = Flask of Animation)
Act 3.
Tolman: take Convocation. Buy the Hatred aura and Frostbite curse from Clarissa.
Ribbon Spool: take a Jade Amulet to help with dexterity requirements.
Gravicius: take Raise Spectre, purchase Bladefall. Link Bladefall to Spell Cascade and Faster Casting. Keep Bladefall at level 1 to keep mana cost and req's down.
Fixture of Fate: take Feeding Frenzy (optional).
Act 4. Pick Summon Carrion Golem after opening the mines and start using it. After Kaom and Daresso, you can take Bonechill.
Gem links will depend on items found so far, but the goal is to have:
- Animate Weapon in a 4-link with +1 minion gem levels;
- Bladefall - Faster Casting - Spell Cascade;
- Carrion Golem - Feeding Frenzy (or Minion Speed);
- Auras: Hatred and Clarity;
- Flesh Offering, Desecrate and Convocation un-linked.
Do first Labyrinth trial before entering Act 5.
Passive Tree: End of Act 5
Acts 6 to 10
Item Goals: Capped (75%) resistances.
Act 6. After clearing Twilight Strand for Lilly, purchase gems: Elemental Focus, Summon Skitterbots, Animate Guardian, Generosity, Elemental Army, Elemental Damage with Attacks, Melee Physical Damage, Multistrike, Hypothermia and any other gems you might have skipped.
If playing in hardcore, I would also set up Cast When Damage Taken - Steelskin links here.
Go back to A1 and buy as many copies of Animate Weapon as you can fit in remaining off-hand weapon slots, and begin to level them.
Acts 7 to 8. Item Goals: acquire defensive utility flasks.
Silver Locket: take the Basalt or Granite Flask, whichever you have not yet found.
Wings of Vastri: take Conqueror's Efficiency as reward, consider socketing it if you have mana issues.
Act 9. As soon as a Divine Life Flask drops, upgrade its quality to 20% and roll a Bubbling/Seething prefix onto it with Alteration Orbs, then use Einhar's Menagerie to craft "...of Staunching" onto it. You can use that flask for the whole game!
Act 10. Safe Passage quest reward: take Quartz Flask (very useful for Delve).
Passive Tree: Entering Maps
Note the small re-spec, changing the pathing out of the witch start and around the center. This is optional but slightly more efficient. I suggest taking that respec right around the time you reach "Righteous Army" on the tree to fill out that wheel to the left of Templar.
Early Maps
Going into maps you'll be about Level 66-70. You won't have the "trigger socketed spells..." craft unlocked from Jun yet, and your resistances might be bad. However, what you should have is a 4-link helmet with +1 minion gems and some decent flasks.
Your active links at this stage should be: Animate Weapon - Minion Damage - Melee Physical Damage - Multistrike.
and Bladefall - Faster Casting - Spell Cascade (or Curse on Hit - Frostbite).
These are boosted by: Carrion Golem - Feeding Frenzy; Hatred - Generosity and Skitterbots; Flesh Offering for clear speed, and a curse for bosses. Other gems will be used eventually but that's all you really need.
"I Just got to Maps and my Gear is Awful!"
Relax, this is why we play a summoner! The only "required" unique is Triad Grip and while these gloves do boost DPS, it should be possible to progress before finding or trading for them (and they are dirt cheap...) In fact, having a full elemental conversion probably doesn't even matter until late yellow/early red maps where monsters have high armor ratings.
"My Resistances are Bad!"
Use the Crafting Bench to add resists to your gear. Even with early crafts you should be able to get them to decent levels. You can also spec into parts of the passive tree which add resists, and re-allocate those points later.
"I run Out of Mana all the time!"
Take the nodes near Templar which give extra mana and reduced mana cost, and re-allocate them later. You may not be able to run Skitterbots right away until leveling up more, and can use Clarity aura instead.
Dream Fragments is a useful ring that can fix mana problems in a pinch.
"My Minions die a Lot!"
Resummon them. They're just made of shanks, right? More seriously, you can trade for a Skullhead helmet and it will keep both you and your minions alive.
Once you have a little currency, get a Fortress Covenant jewel and it will help both DPS and survivability.
You can pick out areas of the Atlas where Convoking Wands and Bone Helmets are able to drop (a guide to these locations). Farm these maps in a targeted way to find upgrades, and use Essences you've picked up in the campaign to craft useful stats onto them.
Get some damage boosting items on your Animate Guardian, and summon spectres that buff your minions with frenzy/power charges (see those sections later in the guide).
Map Mods
This build can do every map mod, but there are a few which require some preparation or are just easier to re-roll.
- Elemental Reflect. Remove the Triad Grip gloves, turn off the Anger/Hatred aura, equip a Pride aura instead. Lower DPS but should be fine. Additional monster Phys Reduction with this could be very slow, however.
- Cannot Regenerate Life/mana/ES. Have an Enduring Mana Flask ready to swap in. This mod is very annoying regardless.
- Temporal Chains. I like to have "of Warding" on my Quicksilver Flask. Extremely annoying if map has reduced flask charges. Big brain solution: Timetwist ring.
Mods that are dangerous:
- Monsters skills Chain (bad unless you have Lunaris pantheon fully unlocked)
- Multiple "% extra damage as <element>", especially with -% maximum resists or extra damage/speed.
- Bloodlines: Corrupting Blood could surprise you on hitting a pack with Bladefall.
- Chilled Ground. I hate this mod as much as Temporal Chains. Get a Heat flask with very long duration.
Dangerous combos, but less obvious:
- Inhabited by Goatmen + Increased Monster Speed.
- Inhabited by Lunaris Fanatics + Extra Projectiles.
- Cultists of Kitava + Increased Crits.
- Rogue Exiles + Tormented Spirits.
- Inhabited by Sea Witches + Monsters from Beyond (this can be either amazing or terrifying).
Some map bosses with extra speed or extra AOE can become extremely difficult to fight and are best skipped. Acid Caverns boss is very good at killing Animated Guardians.
This build should be more flexible than most in the mods it can do. Just slow down a bit in the dangerous ones.
*** Final Gem Links *** A cold conversion has access to the best damage multipliers.
This happens because Hatred will double-dip off added physical damage from Jewels or other gear, and Summon Skitterbots linked to Bonechill provides an additional "more" damage multiplier to cold, which other elements don't have access to.
Here are the gem links used to take advantage of that in the endgame.
Cold Conversion - Animate Weapon Supports (5L/6L)
Optimal damage supports:
- Minion Damage
- Melee Physical Damage
- Elemental Damage with Attacksmust have 4G Triad Grips on first
- Multistrike - highest mana multiplier, and less useful if mobs die in 1 hit
Other damage links that have some small downsides:
- Elemental Focus - great damage but can't freeze/shatter corpses
- Ruthless - every third hit deals extra, much less consistent- especially with Multistrike
- Deathmark - good for bosses but needs a hotkey
- Hypothermia - not as much damage but more freeze.
Gems for clear speed:
- Melee Splash
- Unleashto raise multiple weapons per cast
Switch in Awakened supports when you have access to them.
(To accurately estimate cold DPS in Path of Building, set Shock Effect to 36% from Skitterbots, for the stacked effect of Shock and Bonechill.)
Cold Conversion - Utility Skills
Gloves: Bladefall, Desecrate, Dash - Second Wind (or Portal, or Vaal Haste, or Precision Level 1).
Must fill those 4 green sockets in Triad Grip. Don't level these dex gems all the way, keep requirements under 110 Dex to avoid gearing issues. (How to get 4 green sockets into Triad Grip).
Boots: Hatred - Generosity and Skitterbots - Bonechill.
Having some minion life nodes on the tree is recommended, or these may get killed. Minion life support in helm is also very desirable. Elemental Army will cause our utility minions to apply Exposure to Cold on hit, and also keep them alive.
For spectres we summon the Host/Carnage Chieftains from Act 7 to apply Power/Frenzy charges to our minions. Blood Magic causes them to spam this buff more regularly.
Weapon: Summon Carrion Golem - Feeding Frenzy and Flesh Offering. (Has crafted "Trigger Socketed Spells when using a Skill")
The Golem will die a lot so we just resummon it automatically. Its job is to apply the Feeding Frenzy buff by hitting enemies. Flesh Offering should be active all the time.
Shield: Cast When Damage Taken (Level 13) - Steelskin (Level 17) - Convocation (Level 15).
The guard skill gives us some protection against large damage spikes. I prefer to have it trigger after losing between half and a third of HP, so the specific level is a matter of preference. If you prefer to cast Convocation manually, unlink it with CWDT.
Optional: unset ring to run Clarity or other desired utility skill.
To truly min-max the damage we could also try to apply Frost Bomb exposure (-25 Resistance) rather than exposure from Elemental Army (-10 Resistance). It's up to you to decide if your clicking fingers are up to the task with an extra hotkey for that DPS boost.
This setup will manually cast:
- Bladefall
- Animate Weapon
- Desecrate
- Deathmark, if we're using that support.
...Continues...
When will you update item filter
Last edited by SimplyNextGen#4916 on Mar 12, 2020, 7:17:39 PM
Tomorrow morning (Friday) before league goes up - right now it appears that Filterblade has not fully finished the 3.10 upgrade.
As discussed above, it's also possible that a specialized AW filter won't be necessary if it just targets stuff on the ground already. I don't know whether or not this is the case yet
I'm probably going to run something pretty similar to this for SSFHC: https://pastebin.com/DPHhBiAM
Keep in mind that I am a total PoB noob, i was just looking at stacking as much defence as i could with enough damage to clear effectively. May go triad grip, but the lack of hp/resists/armor is a huge turn off for HC.
