[3.10] Ston3Cold3's Spidermancer 2.0 | Arakaali's Fang Ascendant | SC/HC variants | WIP

Good Day,

my name is Patrick, aka Ston3Cold3 on Twitch. I play since Nov. 2013 and played most of the leagues, with some minor breaks due to work/life, and played many, many builds. I usually play Softcore due to stream schedules and full time job, but any time I play HC I love it, though to be able to make progress more easily and since I talk to my chat a lot, I stay on SC for the majority of the league.

At the end of Legion League, I discovered the Spiderbro's aka Skyscan's Arakaali's Fang Spidermancer Spider (Kudos to him, you should check it out, it really is a great build and still being updated to this day). Having played this build for 2 leagues and even having altered it a bit (pastebin), many of my viewers asked me if there is a chance that I have a look at my version of it, so they can still find a way of playing it safe and strong. This is how Spidermancer 2.0 was born. And it is now a Scion.

"
UPDATE:
April 6th 2020:
-Updated the SC PoB with leveling trees and my current updated gear.
-Added some points into the leveling section (not finished yet but probably enough for many)
-Will try to add images later this week


Beware of the Wall of Text, though I really tried my best to explain everything and hope you will enjoy reading this and easily understand it.

Backstory
Spoiler
After trying Skyscan's Spidermancer at the end of Legion, it felt so strong, that I was like 'okay, let's try to get that dagger asap in Blight League', which I did. First day I had the dagger and the flask and started rocking the league. Second Day I had the rest of the gear.

Spiders are the coolest and strongest minions in Path of Exile right now, reason being they are invulnerable. The only downside is they are duration based, but since you can respawn them at any time utilizing the Writhing Jar Flask, you have an absolute Powerhouse by your side times 20, since you can have 20 spiders.

In Blight league Necromancers got buffed and I played the Spidermancer to Lvl 99. Didn't manage to get to to 100 due to real life duties and internet problems, but I enjoyed it so much, I never got bored.

In Metamorph GGG even buffed Necromancers further so I played it again, this time up to Lvl 97.

Next and current league is Delirium. GGG noticed the extreme difference the buffs back from Blight and Metamorph caused, so they decided to hit the Necromancers hard this time by reducing life of minions, making it harder to get a certain amount of minions and additionally of course reducing the minion damage.
Another nerf which also hit the Spidermancer was the nerf for the spell Spirit Offering. The utilization of Spirit Offering gave minions and players an insane Energy Shield buff, so they decided to totally negate its upsides for players. Being Evasion/Energy Shield based, this made the old Spidey kinda squishy for some players. Though yes, a Necromancer doesn't have to play too aggressively, the best thing about Spidey however was, that you didn't have to care about any map mod. I ran insane mods on T16 Maps, gave Uber Elder Carrys, dang this was so much fun. I totally understand, that some of my viewers now would love to play with it again. While I always referred them to check out the original Spidermancer by Skyscan, I checked my slightly altered version and well, here is my take on it, called Spidermancer 2.0.


Pros:
Spoiler
Cheap
No 6 Link required
Very Strong
Super Fast with Perma Onslaught
All Map Mods on a Budget
Survivability is very high for just 5-6k life +1k ES
Can do all content, though I didn't finish Simulacrum yet (with level 89 and just 4k life when I tried ;)

Cons:
Spoiler
Mandatory Unique (no spiders without the dagger)
Not League Starter friendly
Not everyone enjoys playing Necromancer
5-6k Life pool +1k ES is okayish
Casting Spiders needs training for newer players


Since this is still Work in Progress, I will try to find the best setup for it. Everybody is welcome to give suggestions and I will consider them, also feel free to check out my stream when I'm live to chat about it. Please consider Path of Building calculation misses a couple of things which need to be considered in this:

- Impale calculation has not been implemented yet, especially not for minions
- Not sure about if Onslaught is calculated for minions and if correctly
- Not sure if Chance for Double Damage is calculated
- I don't think Blood Offering Calculation is correct and expects the base value
- I don't think the new Spectre minions are all included yet

Current PoB (WIP):
Spoiler
Besides writing this long Guide and not getting enough sleep, since I have to get up in about 3 hours, I am working on providing a better PoB with leveling sections, so this is only the current PoB with my current (not good/bad) gear, which will be expanded in the coming days, also by adding recommended gear with stats, etc. Please read more about the recommended stats and gear further down below in the Gear section until then. Thanks!

SC:
Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/UsuacESj

HC:
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https://pastebin.com/NQeg540W



Why we use a Scion:
Spoiler
In Delirium league GGG added new Cluster Jewels. Alongside the Necromancer/Minion nerf, those jewels provide a lot to mitigate the nerfs, but for a Ascendant it means it buffs our beloved spiders into oblivion.

Cluster Jewels add passives nodes, but passive nodes require skill points. Luckily Ascendants have the possibility to reach 128 skill points, perfect choice for us to experiment with all kinds of Cluster Jewels.

The great buffs (except for one) of the Witch Necromancer Ascendancy are all included in our Ascendancy, so we of course will use it. Additionally being an Ascendant we have two choices for our second Ascendancy depending on our playstyle, of which one might be great for HC too. More about this in the Ascendancy section.


Let's begin with the Gear:

Spoiler
Mandatory Items

Spoiler

This is absolutely needed to be able to have the 'Raise Spiders' skill.

Mandatory for this setup is also





Shield:

Spoiler
For lazy reason you will want to get a Elder shield with the mod 'Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 5 Cast when Damage Taken', lots of life and resistances. Something like this:



At the time of this writing I need to improve mine, but this is what I use at the moment :D :



Helmet

Spoiler


This is highly recommended, but not necessary. The Level 15 Feast of Flesh Buff however synergizes extremely well with all other Life Regen buffs we get and is an amazing life saver for risky/fast players, also enabling us to play no regen maps. Aside of that it gives socketed gems +1 Level and 20% reduced Mana Reservation, therefore absolutely perfect for our Auras.


Body Armour

Spoiler


How can such a cheap 1 Alch to 1c EV/ES Unique be even considered for this build? Well, it gives our minions and ourselves nice inc. max life, but the major reason why this one is recommended is the Level 15 Blood Offering Skill.

We sacrifice 20% of our life to grant our minions 35% of those 20% as Life Regen per second, as well as ourselves (thanks to the Necromancer Ascendancy) a little less of that. The duration of the buff increases +1 second per consumed corpse, also increasing the life regen granted by 10% per corpse consumed. Using Desecrate + Spell Cascade anyway, we consume a lot of corpses, keeping us and our minions alive.

However, additionally and the main reason for using this armour and its skill is that it gives our Minions for our life expense 50% increased Damage. Our spiders do shred enemies apart already, why not make it faster?

Other options of course would be using any rare EV/ES or Armour, Armour/ES base with tons of life, losing a lot of life regen and the dps buff though.


Gloves

Spoiler


Highly recommended. It does not give the best life, at least some cold res, but it gives our minions 20% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage. And our Spiders do a lot Physical Damage.

Other options would be EV/ES or Armour, Armour/ES bases with tons of life, losing dps and shattering.


Boots

Spoiler
There are the obvious stats (in order of priority):

As much Life as possible
Any Resistances you need
Movement Speed (you will want 35% Movement Speed)
Optional, but recommended: Cannot be Frozen

At the time of this writing I used:





Amulet

Spoiler


I did not manage to get my hands on it yet, due to playing other builds too, but, this is definitely Best in Slot for our minions. Attributes, Life and the Envy Buff is just too good to not utilize it. A huge dps increase.

Make sure to get the Annointment 'Ravenous Horde' by Cassia (2x Opalescent Oil 1x Verdant Oil) on any amulet you end up using.

Alternatives are anything with High Life, Minion Damage and/or Minion Movement Speed and well, you will need to get some dexterity on some items. Amulets are the easiest choice, or you could use a Shrieking Essence of Sorrow for a guaranteed Dex roll of 43-50 Dex on any other rare item. Just what I used at the time of this writing:



Rings

Spoiler
Here we use rare rings. Coral Rings or Vermillion Rings (Level Requirement is 80 for vermillion) are the best for us, since we can no longer rely on a huge ES boost by Spirit Offering. Stats to look for as usual:

As much Life as possible
Any Resistances you need
If needed Shrieking Essence of Sorrow for a guaranteed Dex roll of 43-50 Dex

At the time of this writing I used:





Belt

Spoiler
We prefer a Stygian Vise for the Abyssal Jewel Socket with high life, res and I personally like the Aspect of the Spider Craft on this one the most. You can absolutely get this suffix on something else, e. g. Rings, Boots or Gloves, it does not affect the skill itself at all. But I believe the suffix is not wasted on a stygian. Stats to look for as usual:

As much Life as possible
Any Resistances you need
If needed Shrieking Essence of Sorrow for a guaranteed Dex roll of 43-50 Dex

At the time of this writing I used:



Flasks:

Spoiler
You will want a Life Flask with Anti-Bleeding, preferrably with 100% increased recovery when on low life, a Rumi's Concotion, a Quicksilver and a Basalt Flask, of which those two one should have anti-ignite and one anti-curse. One of your flasks will always be the Writhing Jar. At the time of this writing I used:



Jewels

Spoiler
Overall there many options. In general we want to use Ghastly Eye Jewels, preferred with high life, any high tier flat minion Damage, one with 'Minions deal #% increased damage if you've used a minion skill recently' and 'Minions have #% increased attack speed'.

Further options:

I had the Anatomical Knowledge drop and luckily hit the corruption 'Minions deal 5% increased Damage". Placing it in the right Jewel socket, it increases my life from 5k to 5.2k.

I will add more options in the future as well as screenshot of where I placed it, it can be seen in the PoB though.


Cluster Jewels

Spoiler
I took a look at all the new passive notes to be considered for our spiders and the minions we use. Our spiders seem to benefit the most from the following:

Rotten Claws (20% to Impale)
Renewal (10% chance to deal double damage on full life (and our spiders are always on full life) and also life regen for our other minions)
Vicious Bite (50% Crit Chance, also granting our Skeletons, Zombies and Spectres 50% Crit Multiplier)

Further options are Feasting Fiends (Minions have 10% increased life, 10% increased damage and 0.4% of Damage as life leech).

You will want to get 3 Cluster jewels (Large, Medium, Small) and Large and Medium with the above mentioned passive skills on them, preferrably the large and medium with 1 jewel socket so you can use all 3 cluster jewels (Large to Small).

Check the PoB for the cluster jewels I used at the time of this writing.

As a small Cluster Jewel I checked poedb.tw for handy notables we or the spiders can benefit from and came to the decision that getting life or chaos resistances or resistances in general is a very nice to have choice. While our spiders do their job and eat everything alive, we want to stay alive, dodge and mitigate damage which might hit us or we can't dodge.

While playing around with a small cluster jewel which gives 3 passive skills + 12% chaos resistance, I came along the node Antivenom.

Antivenom gives incredible 17% chaos resistance and 'Unaffected by poison'. This makes another map mod, 'Monsters poison on hit' even more enjoyable. We don't need a utility flask against Poison, and best part: We can make a different choice for our Pantheon. See Pantheon section for our choices.



Bandits:

Spoiler
Kill all. HC might choose Alira for the res and respecc later


Ascendancy:

Spoiler
Here one choice is clear, the Witch and her Necromancer Ascendancy.

Spoiler
Our Offerings affect us too with 25% reduced effect, our minions deal 30% increased damage, our auras from skill grant 2% attack and cast speed to us and our minions and if we've consumed a corpse recently, we and our minions have 30% increased area if effect.


However, for the second class we have two choices:

Templar - Guardian (my choice)

Spoiler
This gives us Reduced Effect of Curses on us, our Auras grant physical damage reduction to us and our minions/allies, every 5 Seconds we regenerate 20% of our life over one second, we share Power, Frenzy and Endurance Charges with our minions/allies and while there are at least 5 nearby minions/allies, we and our minions/allies have Onslaught. This means perma onslaught, since we have a LOT of minions nearby all the time.


HC players however might enjoy the following option more:

Marauder - Juggernaut

Spoiler
This gives us Accuracy Rating we don't need, but Cannot be Chilled, Cannot be Stunned and we gain an Endurance Charge every second if we have been hit recently. Cannot be chilled and stun immunity alone are already very welcome by hardcore players, but if you get hit getting endurance charges every second really is handy. Plus, on the skill tree we do have at least one endurance charge as an optional choice accessible for a small amount of passives.


I chose the ascendancy in this order:

40 Int + 1 Passive Skill Point to the Witch classes
Necromancer + 1 Passive Skill Point
20 Str+Int + 1 Passive Skill Point to the Templar classes
Guardian + Path of the Witch (+2 Passive Skill Points)


Pantheon:

Spoiler
For our Major God I chose Soul of the Brine King for 'Stun Recovery and Reduced Effect of Chill on you' for now. Though you might make this choice depending on which content you take on, since all gods give great advantages. Make sure to fully upgrade the one you want to use.

Concerning our Minor God, since we get 'Unaffected by Poison' from the Cluster Jewel Passive Skill 'Antivenom', we have multiple choices for it. I chose Soul of Ralakesh for the 'You cannot be blinded' and 'You can not be maimed' buffs, though more because of the maim immunity. If you get a corrupted jewel with 'You can not be maimed' instead, then your Minor God can be Soul of Tukohama, Soul of Ryslatha (also good for Lab Running), Soul of Garukhan (6% more Movement Speed) or Soul of Gruthkul instead.


Gem Setup:

Spoiler
This is my current setup and this can still change and will improve. However, from my experience with playing with the spiders, I mixed the already high physical damage with their already high poison damage by buffing both. I might even try to fit in a Animated Guardian with Kingmaker utilizing a Unset Ring, I don't know yet. Make sure to check out this guide in the coming weeks.

Spoiler
All Gems should have quality (only auras don't really need it) and be leveled to maximum. Corrupting them to a higher level obviously is good if you can do.

Dagger:
(Awakened) Multistrike
(Awakened) Melee Splash

(Awakened) Minion Damage

Shield with 'Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 5 Cast when Damage Taken':
Immortal Call (Level 7)
Increased Duration (Level 20)

Flesh Offering (Level 10)

Helmet:
Dread Banner
Generosity

Vaal Haste
Malevolence

Body Armour:
Temporal Chains
Curse On Hit
Increased Area of Effect
Orb of Storms


Desecrate
Spell Cascade

Boots:
Whirling Blades
Summon Carrion Golem
Raise Zombie

Fortify

Gloves:
Vaal Summon Skeletons
Raise Spectre
Elemental Army

Fortify


Spectres:

Spoiler
The obvious choices for Frenzy and Power charges are Carnage Chieftain (Act 2) or Stygian Silverback (Act 2 and 6) and Host Chieftain (Act 6). Those provide Frenzy and Power Charges to us and our minions, which are shared.

However, I am currently using Solar Guards so am not buffing my minions or myself. I plan to try out some of the new spectres and those poison spitting dragons by Al-Hezmin cought my eyes. Once I've tested some, I might add it to this section.


Proccing 'Raise Spider':

Spoiler
In general you cast Desecrate, Orb of Storms, walk forward while pressing your flask button of your Writhing Jar flask. When your Orb of Storms kills the worms your spiders are casted. There is a clip in german language on my Twitch channel as well as you can check out Skyscan's original Spidermancer, where he has a gif showcasing how it is done.
I've recorded a 2 minute clip now showcasing it and also giving some advice on what to keep in mind. You can check it out here:

How to cast Raise Spider



Leveling:

Spoiler
Added Leveling Trees in new SC PoB code. Will expand the Guide in the coming weeks.

In general you can start with Lightning Tendrils->Fork->Onslaught and Raise a Zombie->any Support Gem you can get at the beginning to buff them. Try to get Sidhebreath with Ravenous Horde Annointment. You can keep this even in the endgame, though there will be better options once you get into the endgame. Also you might need a different amulet then for capping your resistances or getting Attributes. Further Skills Vaal Skeletons->Any Support to buff them. You could even level using Animate Weapon if you want to.

With level 53 you can use the dagger and cyclone into the enemies (or any other skill which you can use with your dagger to kill enemies), which will spawn spiders after killing a few if you want to. From level 60 on you can use Writhing Jar Flask to cast your Spiders (see 'Proccing Raise Spider' section for how to do this). From this point on you can do any lab if you got the trials, know the Izaro fights and know how the traps work (make sure to take care of your flask and Pantheon management for early lab runs). The Spiders bring down Izaro very quickly, with low life however and low character level you can not be hit by his attacks as this will instantly kill you. The fight itself is easy though because once you got your spiders casted, just run in circles dodging the attacks. Your other minions will do their job while your spiders eat Izaro alive. Most players told me they die to traps. This however just requires some training. Overall from this point on you will wreck the game (or your spiders will).


Feel free to pick attribute points (Dexterity and Strength) whenever needed. You can respec them later. I did that too. In the PoB you can see I got my Aul's amulet now. Will work on improving the jewels soon.


Epilogue:

If you have any questions or want to help the build with suggestions, feel free to comment (I will check comments section here every once in a while) or to hop into my stream:

https://www.twitch.tv/ston3cold3

I usually stream every day in the late afternoon/evening (currently CET+2) and the whole days on weekends. The majority of my viewers are german, being from Germany I usually stream in German language, but I do speak fluent English so simply say 'Hello' and let me know if I need to switch to English language for you, since I won't know about it otherwise ^^.

Thanks/Credits:

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First and foremost I have to thank Skyscan and his Spidermancer build (make sure to also check it out here), since without it who knows I may have never checked out Spiders at all. Also many things are as mentioned at the beginning are based upon his Spidermancer build. Also thanks to GGG, the Path of Exile Community and of course my community on Twitch <3
https://www.twitch.tv/ston3cold3
Last edited by Stone__Cold#7937 on Apr 6, 2020, 3:47:47 PM
Last bumped on Jul 9, 2020, 9:59:56 PM
Nice Build Bro!

See you on Stream :)
Could I easily do sirus with this? I'm just trying to figure out if this can destroy bosses at high level, I played the original spiderbros to lev 93+ one of the previous leagues and enjoyed it.
"
krowdey wrote:
Nice Build Bro!

See you on Stream :)


Thanks Krowdey :)
https://www.twitch.tv/ston3cold3
"
CharityCase wrote:
Could I easily do sirus with this? I'm just trying to figure out if this can destroy bosses at high level, I played the original spiderbros to lev 93+ one of the previous leagues and enjoyed it.


Yes, the Sirus Fight however requires a bit of knowledge about it. At a later phase you need to stay close to him to avoid being killed by his beam. I will continue to work on this the coming days and weeks and will also provide some video footage soon. At the moment you can check out my Twitch channel to see Spidey 2.0 in action, I should be live again in about 15 hours.
https://www.twitch.tv/ston3cold3
Why not Pathfinder?
Hello, I specialized my scion to test this build, I have all the recommended equipment (except Aul) but I can't keep my specters and my zombies alive. My creature gems are level 20 and I do t12-14 A4 mapping. My character is level 90. In addition, the invocation of spiders with the bottle only works 1 time out of 4. I don't understand how to make this construction viable. I just tested the A4 hunter, all my creatures (zombies, specters and spiders) are killed suddenly.
Last edited by Bhaal807#2392 on Apr 1, 2020, 7:37:22 AM
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Last edited by Bhaal807#2392 on Apr 1, 2020, 7:37:36 AM
"
Bhaal807 wrote:
Hello, I specialized my scion to test this build, I have all the recommended equipment (except Aul) but I can't keep my specters and my zombies alive. My creature gems are level 20 and I do t12-14 A4 mapping. My character is level 90. In addition, the invocation of spiders with the bottle only works 1 time out of 4. I don't understand how to make this construction viable. I just tested the A4 hunter, all my creatures (zombies, specters and spiders) are killed suddenly.


If the spiders were "killed" I believe you might weapon swapped? This will cause the spiders to disappear. Of my Zombies usually a few die and I have to recast them, yes, my Spectres however survive like always and my Golem usually too. If any I would lose them in really hard boss fights, which actually doesn't matter, because you have your spiders for this. All other minions are more nearby protection for you and to keep Onslaught permanent.

I'm playing around with using Precision instead of Dread Banner, though this will mean my enemies don't get less accuracy, but my Spiders get more damage. Also I swapped in Feeding Frenzy instead of Fortify on the Spectres. I'm trying how this works. I will be live in about 30 minutes.
https://www.twitch.tv/ston3cold3
I can not call spiders, ghosts and zombies interfere with me. More zombies and ghosts are dying all the time, what's wrong?

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