[3.10] Animate Weapon league start mini guide
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This is not intended to be a full fledged guide, although I may make it so later.
Animate Weapon Necromancer with MoM League Starter Animate Weapon was changed SO much this patch, that as of me writing this, the day before launch of 3.10, nobody knows for sure how good AW will be. I think...suspect...it will be crazy OP as a low budget league starter. I think....suspect...that with just the gear listed below in the "cheap endgame gear" section, you will be able to steamroll thru t16 maps. Time will tell. SUSPENDED
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I am temporarily giving up on this build. The dps is amazing. Having to recast over a dozzen weapons, is annoying, too annoying for me. Maybe you will not mind it, but its cutting into my fun, too much. Update on day 2 of league
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Am only in act 7, but..... Dps is even better than expected. Just crazy. Downside is its annoying to keep casting animate weapon so many times. I can see cast speed is gonna be needed on gear. Flesh Offering will be desired, just for the cast speed. Bladefall linked to Spell Cascade and Unleash is THE way to generate weapons on the ground to animate. Dps is a bonus. Theory craft why it will be so strong with so little investment
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The new AW scales amazingly with gem levels.
AW gets with gem levels: MORE damage multiplier, MORE attack speed multiplier, increased base damage, increased number of weapons. That's insane! And....AND it now has the "physical" tag, so you can dual wield Cold Iron Point Daggers to get +6 to gems level for AW. These daggers cost 1 alc in previous leagues!!!!! Witch start.
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Ethereal knives bought from vendor at level 2.
Use any spell you want to get to level 4. Animate weapon bought from vendor after reaching submerged passage. Look for linked rbg every time you go to town, wands or armor. Early 2 supports for AW are Minion Damage and Melee Splash. Act 2, swap in melee phys support for melee splash. You can craft a +1 minion helm, once you get the right colors. Do this twice, once when you get a rbg helm, then again, when you get a rrbg helm. Vendor helm + alteration + life flask of animation can craft a life flask of animation via Vendor bone spirit shield + life flask End game gear (cheap)
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2 x cold iron point daggers
Everything else rares, life/resists/dex/mana. Get cast speed if you can on gear for QoL A cheap 6l chest can be had if corrupted, make sure its 3r,b,2g AW linkage: (3r,b,2g chest) AW, Empower, Min Dam, Impale, melee phys, fortify or ruthless End game gear (5-??? ex)
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2x cold iron point daggers
Triad gloves 4 white socket (highest priority for expensive gear) Amulet with +1 dex gems Corrupted chest with either or both +1 gem, +2 duration gems Rares with life/resists/dex/mana Get cast speed if you can on gear for QoL When you get your triad 4 white socket gloves, swap out impale, and swap in Withering Touch Support. Other Skills
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Spectres in your helm, act 7 fields Carnage chieftains and Host Chieftains
Blood magic, minion life, feeding frenzy supports Golem, Stone golem (gets the +6 levels from cold iron point) Offering: Flesh Offer, cast speed is just a huge QoL bonus. Auras:
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Before you get the 4 white socket triad, you will need to run Dread Banner. Drop it after you get the triad.
MoM: Flesh and Stone for the defense, with appropriate level clarity. If not going MoM then haste or hatred (although hatred has to be turned off in ele reflect maps) with Flesh and Stone Skill trees at various levels (for MoM):
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18 points https://www.poeplanner.com/ABQAACsAFDMAABLfiukCJbJihp69bRkI9GpDvOr-s2obLJwRLXyDi3ZWLjrpHggAAAAAAA== 32 points https://www.poeplanner.com/ABQAAEcAFDMAACDfiukCJbJihp69bRkI9GpDvOr-s2obLJwRLXyD6-4y0UVHwGYEs6IA8B9o8q9sC2HT-1qRqH1qrIt2Vi466R4IAAAAAAA= 59 points https://www.poeplanner.com/ABQAAIEAFDMAAD3fiukCJbJihp69bRkI9GpDvOr-s2obLJwRLXyDi3ZWLjrpHgjr7jLRRUfAZmjyr2wLYdP7WpGofWqsBLOiAPAfmuBFnVNS7Oin5dIqhTKIQCqYkDOmrKqp-tIWb-NqYPgabDbpJKp8DqdVW6BDyGaeoOZncUqf7IPTjwAAAAAA 114 points https://www.poeplanner.com/ABQAAPsAFDMAAHrfiukCJbJihp69bRkI9GpDvOr-s2obLJwRLXyDi3ZWLjrpHgjr7jLRRUfAZmjyr2wLYdP7WpGofWqsBLOiAPAfmuBFnVNS7Oin5dIqhTKIQCqYkDOmrKqp-tIWb-NqYPgabDbpJKp8DqdVW6BDyGaeoOZncUqfxq6uPmeb5FFQR-8OFCBfP_ZIxFg9_FhjGj7xrCkufLjSIfJBggeezacwAecUTfxLvJ8YkRv6Jd-kGTwtg8y3Pv4K2L2DXzWS_o9N46ZXOuHyRRzcjxpyD1nzGjiQVScvlG9mVIm8EFFi9HGyOsbsg9OPR4X-gdleOQubir5PAAAAAAA= Last edited by Odif#4251 on Mar 14, 2020, 5:12:49 PM Last bumped on Mar 15, 2020, 5:06:35 PM
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What is the reasoning for going 4 white socket triad versus another colour?
Looking over the tree I can't see any real reason. Not saying its a bad idea, just wondering what brought you to the decision "just for try, for see and for know"
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Whats your opinion on this Animate Weapon build vs Chains of Command Animate Weapon build?
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" Minions convert 25% of Physical Damage to Chaos Damage per White Socket |
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" Right, but why do we want this? I'm sure its a stupid question but I am just not seeing the reasoning for wanting chaos conversion "just for try, for see and for know" Last edited by jdilly23#2851 on Mar 13, 2020, 3:32:28 AM
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" because of cold iron point daggers ----------------------------------------------- +3 to Level of all Physical Spell Skill Gems Deal no Elemental Damage ----------------------------------------------- but I'm not sure that minion also don't have elemental damage. |
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" Ah okay this makes sense for why we don't use another element. But why do we want to convert away from physical in general? "just for try, for see and for know"
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" I'm gonna try my first minion build so I'm not an expert but with everything I have read about it past few days I'm pretty sure that minions are not affected by "Deal no Elemental Damage" Anyway it prevents you from using Elemental equilibrium which is an easy fat boost working well with minions. So maybe there is no point playing elemental minions without EE. |
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" Because Cold Iron Point precludes doing elemental damage, one cannot proc EE for ones minions. This is usually the prime way of increasing minion damage. So, having minions do elemental damage is less valuable than normal. That leaves phys or chaos. I could go phys impale, but chaos is SO strong when you have many minions with withering touch support. Withering touch support gives 25% chance to put a wither stack on the enemy. If i have 20 animated weapons, thats on average 5 stacks of wither per hit on a boss. 3 hits to get max stacks on average! Max stacks means enemies take 90% increased chaos damage, thats multiplicative! Huge, huge, huge dps. Plus pure chaos damage is not reflectable. With phys, i would go impale, want to have a curse like vulnerability, need to run dread banner, want to go into the new delerium cluster "minions have 10% chance to impale"....and it would still not do as much damage as 9 stacks of wither, not even close. | |
" Some theory craft here. Who knows if it will actually be this way. From my reading of the new Animate Weapon skill, they have massively buffed how much AW gets from gem levels, and reduced the number of weapons to compensate. Chains of command fixes the gem level of AW's summoned by the chest, level 18 if summoned via a AW kill, 20 if summoned via a animated guardian kill. They have stated that chains of command WILL be limited in number of weapons just like if summoned via self casting, i.e. limit of 13 at gem level 18, limit of 14 at gem level 20. Thus, with Chains of Command, one gets none of the new benefits of bonuses of high gem levels, but all of the drawbacks of fewer weapons. I think chains will suck. Time will tell |
