Stress-Free PoE! BONE ZOMBIES: No Required Items! 1-Button Play! SSF League Start-End! 3.12

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Afura wrote:

Spoiler

Thanks for your build, looks good.

I personally don't like it when there are too many buttons to click :) , like you I have a medical condition and have to adapt my builds to it. I will give this build next league a try (just did read that they delayed the league to january :( ). But I will probably change your build a bit, thinking about to use a golem, using minion speed instead of predator and using paochers mark curse with blasphemy or maybe selfcasting it myself, but not sure with which gems in your build to swap it for.

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Wrecker_of_Days wrote:

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dlvbrown1969 wrote:

Spoiler

Really enjoying this build. I've turned several friends from my FB group on to your builds. Nothing but high praise. Thank you.

I am level 95 in Heist league. I made a few minor tweaks to the passive tree. I know my max life could be better, but I'd like to ask if there is anything besides life that I could realistically improve on. To me, the biggest weakness with the build - at least in my experience - is getting one shotted...or 2 shotted in a very quick manner not allowing adequate heals from flasks.

I am using Chaos and Carrion Golems with Golem Commander annointed amulet.

I am using 10 Zombies thanks to +1 from amulet and +1 from helmet.

I am using 4 Spectres thanks to a lvl 21 gem and equipment and passives raising it to lvl 25. I am using 1 Host Chieftain, 1 Carnage Chieftain, 1 Ruins Hellion and 1 Kitava Herald.

I've been fortunate enough to have some loot drop for me which I sold for enough exalted orbs to buy some of the fancier gear I am using. It's not perfect, but I've managed to find a synergy with it all together.

My stats are:

Life - 5055
Mana - 1363
ES - 516
Armour - 4094
Evasion - 773

Fire res - 118
Cold res - 101
Lightning res - 107
Chaos res - 73

As soon as I acquire more Prismatic Catalysts, my resistances should all be 110+% for the big three and 75+% for Chaos.

My estimated physical damage reduction is 41%.

My attack block is 72% while my spell block is 32% (I wish it were higher).

All of the above stats are taken while in my hideout with Pride, War Banner and both golems summoned.

If you will notice. I have one or more lvl 21 gem and one or more quality 23 gem. Are there any I could upgrade further or differently to boost my build?

I managed to find a couple Alternative gems and am using them. Are there different versions that would be better for me to have?

I know this is a big "ask". Anyone is welcome to chine in with comments or tips ... even criticism.

I CAN clear T16s and I CAN clear lvl 83 Heists...but they are rough. For instance, I just beat the Warlord to get my 19th watchstone and I got 1 shotted. I only died the one time, but taking 10% losses to my exp means never leveling up. I am trying to leave my watchstones in my atlas this league...whereas last league I would remove them and fight the bosses at A0 instead of A1 to A8.

Anyhow, sorry for wall 'o text.

Thanks

Edit:

I should mention my jewels ... I would like them each to give me some needed life and then some physical damage for my minions as well as a %boost . They are a work in progress.

Also my cluster. It seems to keep my minions alive. Not sure if there is a better one for me.

Hey dlvbrown1969!

You rock :). Thanks for the kind praise. I'm glad you're having such a great time! You've made some cool changes to the build! Your gear is awesome!
You were asking about what tweaks you could do to improve your build...I'm unfortunately not familiar with the alternate qualities of gems so you'd just have to pick your preference. But in regards to your gear, it all looks awesome! I think the next stage, if you so wanted to (which you don't need to) is to start looking for influenced items that can take your build to the next level. That being said though, this is where your low life starts coming into play. Having a low amount of life % from the tree will really hurt when going from items that have 100 health to items that have 65 health. 65 isn't great on most items but when you have an awesome "+3 to socketed minions" and "+1 to zombies" in your helm, 65 life is worth it (I love your helmet). So as you start getting the influenced gear and crafting life on those, having lots of gear around 70 will hurt in the long run. But that's your next step; influenced gear. That being said, you can totally do the content with mos tof the gear you have. But honestly, outside of the life you mentioned, I think you're dancing. Your changes look great :).

I know that's not the answer you were hoping for, but it seems like you've got everything down pat and you know the pros and cons of what you've changed. Nice work! And thanks again for the kind praise :).

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Wrecker_of_Days wrote:

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Afura wrote:

Spoiler

Thanks for your build, looks good.

I personally don't like it when there are too many buttons to click :) , like you I have a medical condition and have to adapt my builds to it. I will give this build next league a try (just did read that they delayed the league to january :( ). But I will probably change your build a bit, thinking about to use a golem, using minion speed instead of predator and using paochers mark curse with blasphemy or maybe selfcasting it myself, but not sure with which gems in your build to swap it for.

Awesome Afura! You're very kind.

I hear you. Even before all my concussion stuff came to be, I too preferred a more relaxed playstyle...though I wasn't required to play it so.

I really like this build. It's solid. I think the only change I'll be making next league (if the 3.13 changes don't change anything regarding this setup) is that I'll have the Spectres in a 4-link so that we don't lose our spectres every time we weapon swap. Putting Feeding Frenzy or Minion Speed instead of Predator has been something I've been considering as well. I love the bonus damage that Predator brings but I don't like to worry about it either.

Now, just to help out your internal theory-crafting until you start playing, curses have been changes. Curses are now in two categories: Hexes and Marks. so Hexes can be used with Blasphemy, Marks cannot. Marks can only be self-casted and only hit one target.

I appreciate your note. Thanks for the kindness and feel free to make whatever changes you like.

"

You're very kind.

"

I hear you. Even before all my concussion stuff came to be, I too preferred a more relaxed playstyle...though I wasn't required to play it so.

"

I really like this build. It's solid. I think the only change I'll be making next league (if the 3.13 changes don't change anything regarding this setup) is that I'll have the Spectres in a 4-link so that we don't lose our spectres every time we weapon swap.

"

Putting Feeding Frenzy or Minion Speed instead of Predator has been something I've been considering as well. I love the bonus damage that Predator brings but I don't like to worry about it either.

"

Now, just to help out your internal theory-crafting until you start playing, curses have been changes. Curses are now in two categories: Hexes and Marks. so Hexes can be used with Blasphemy, Marks cannot. Marks can only be self-casted and only hit one target.

"

dlvbrown1969 wrote:

Spoiler

Thank you my friend. I appreciate the compliments and affirmations. One small thing I did tonight that is making a pretty big difference is that I added a Blood of the Karui to my flasks. I place it on the far right so R1 triggers it. To it's left I place 2x Seething Divine life flasks - one for bleed and the other for poison. If I see that I am bleeding, I spam R1 3 times. Having the BotK proc before the Divine insta heal seems to really make an impact ... that and the fact that the BotK heals for 1400 lps. I also swapped one of my chemist granite flask of heat and replaced with chemist granite flask of dousing. I can now remove most all the deathly ailments - and best of all, I can do it by using R1 and L1 because I am not good with fumbling thru directional keys.

I still get one shot occasionally, but I attribute that to poorly timed RNG. My build and gear has quite a few "if this, than this" things going on. As long as a couple are active, I feel very strong. But if my bone armor has already protected me and it is in cooldown AND if my shield fails to provide its 1500 armour AND if the enemy crits or devastating crits me AND I happen to not block it ... well, you see where I am going.

All in all this build is quite strong. I will search trade in the next couple days and compare alternate gems. Perhaps you could help me though ...

The Spectre gem at lvl 21 with the +4 from other sources gives an extra spectre. Are there any other gems that make a substantial difference if they are either 21 on lvl as base or 23 in quality? I can search each gem one by one and try to compare, but I thought perhaps you might know. Like is a 21 zombie that much better than a 20 (knowing I get +4 to minion gems and so it's really 24 vs. 25)

Anyhow, thanks again.

"

dlvbrown1969 wrote:

Spoiler

After running a few grand Heists today, I was lucky enough to come across two alternative gems for my build - a divergent raise zombie and a divergent summon chaos golem.

As I GCP'd them, i checked on my backup weapon(s) gems. I had been trying to get a 21/20 spectre. Today I got one. I'm guessing somewhere around 6 to 10 tries in total so far. I even have an extra 20/20 that I can save and try to double corrupt in Alva's temple at some point.

Anyhow, the real reason I am posting us that after reading about moving the spectre out of the weapon slot, I decided to try it. I moved the CWDT, bone offering and Desecrate to my weapon and then moved the Spectres to my gloves. The only "problem" is that the 3 link spectre comes with a blood magic and linking an aura to blood magic might now be productive. Fortunately for me, I had previously added a movement skill (flame dash) and so I rearranged a bit and fit the FD in with the Spectres. Now I can check on my backup gems anytime I want and not lose my Spectres. Yay!!

"

dlvbrown1969 wrote:

Spoiler

The following is my list for what I feel are the best types of gems for me in this build. By types, I am referring to the new Alternative gems found in Heist league.

Opinions may vary based on play style and preference. For instance, would you rather have your zombies with 2% life regen OR 20% movement as well as 20% more life. I choose the latter. Perhaps you like the former.

There are some very clear choices however. For instance, Bone Offering regular gem provides minions with increased cast speed which is fairly useless in this melee attack build. On the other hand, A Divergent Raise Zombie will give your minions an extra 2% to block both attack as well as spell damage. And, let's not forget that the extra also transfers to you from this build. To me it's a no brainer.

Anyhow, here is a list of the gems I would use. Call it a "dream list" similar to W_o_D dream mods in his guide. I marked an * in front of those changes which imo provide a significant boost.

CWDT- Divergent
* Desecrate - Divergent
* Bone Offering- Divergent

* Culling Strike- Divergent
Summon Chaos Golem- regular
Summon Carrion Golem - regular
* Feeding Frenzy - Anomalous

Pride - regular
* Flesh and Stone - Anomalous
Maim Support- Anomalous
War Banner - regular

Withering Step- Divergent
Purifying Flame - regular
* Vulnerability - Anomalous

Flame Dash- Anomalous
Minion Life Support- regular
* Raise Spectre- Anomalous
* Blood Magic - Divergent

Brutality- regular unless you find Awakening
Melee Physical Damage Support- regular unless you find Awakening
Raise Zombie - regular
Predator Support- Divergent
Minion Damage Support - regular unless you find awakening
Fortify Support- regular

I am interested to know if anyone disagrees with the above and most importantly, why. I am no expert and am learning every day. For instance, there are 3 gems listed above that provide 10% damage with my recommended regular gem. An alternative Divergent gem would instead provide a 5% overwhelm of physical damage reduction. After reading some thoughts from Reddit on the matter, I concluded 3x 10% damage is better than 3x 5% overwhelm. But, as stated, I am no expert and could be mistaken.

Please feel free to offer thoughts, comments and even criticism.

"

Afura wrote:

Spoiler

"

You're very kind.

Thanks, I can only give this back, thx for your reply.

"

I hear you. Even before all my concussion stuff came to be, I too preferred a more relaxed playstyle...though I wasn't required to play it so.

Same here. I always liked more relaxed builds and where I didn't need do the damage myself like summoners, totem builds, trappers and so on. I had rarely more builds with more than 4-5 buttons involved. Due to chronic lyme disease which messed up my hands and gives me a hard time to focus I had to switch over to playstation, playing with a controller is much less painful than with a mouse and keyboard. So I always pay attention that my builds have not more than 3-4 buttons to use :)

"

I really like this build. It's solid. I think the only change I'll be making next league (if the 3.13 changes don't change anything regarding this setup) is that I'll have the Spectres in a 4-link so that we don't lose our spectres every time we weapon swap.

That's a good idea, can be frustrating sometimes when you lose very good spectres due to this.

"

Putting Feeding Frenzy or Minion Speed instead of Predator has been something I've been considering as well. I love the bonus damage that Predator brings but I don't like to worry about it either.

You are right about predator, it gives some good damage in addition, I didn't read correctly the skill description. I will test it out, minion speed is also a blue game, so it will be easy to interchange with predatator and swap back if it doesn't work.

"

Now, just to help out your internal theory-crafting until you start playing, curses have been changes. Curses are now in two categories: Hexes and Marks. so Hexes can be used with Blasphemy, Marks cannot. Marks can only be self-casted and only hit one target.

Oh wow I didn't know this, I just googled it, so this means that poachers marks only can be apply to one enemy at the same time? I don't like this change at all, but I can understand that why they did it.


The reason why I am asking about using a curse is, that I see in your video that you go very close to the enemies which you have to do if you want to fully benefit from the pride aura. Personally it scares me to go very close in the fight as a summoner, makes me think I will die all the time lol. I am not used to play a summoner in very close range :) , thats why I was wondering if I could change the build a bit so that I can stay outside of the fights, being more ranged. I thought using a curse would compensate the loss of the pride aura (damage bonus if you stay close for 4 sec).
Is there a change you can do to play it more ranged and still doing the same damage as you do?

Have a nice day

"

Wrecker_of_Days wrote:

"

dlvbrown1969 wrote:

Spoiler

Thank you my friend. I appreciate the compliments and affirmations. One small thing I did tonight that is making a pretty big difference is that I added a Blood of the Karui to my flasks. I place it on the far right so R1 triggers it. To it's left I place 2x Seething Divine life flasks - one for bleed and the other for poison. If I see that I am bleeding, I spam R1 3 times. Having the BotK proc before the Divine insta heal seems to really make an impact ... that and the fact that the BotK heals for 1400 lps. I also swapped one of my chemist granite flask of heat and replaced with chemist granite flask of dousing. I can now remove most all the deathly ailments - and best of all, I can do it by using R1 and L1 because I am not good with fumbling thru directional keys.

I still get one shot occasionally, but I attribute that to poorly timed RNG. My build and gear has quite a few "if this, than this" things going on. As long as a couple are active, I feel very strong. But if my bone armor has already protected me and it is in cooldown AND if my shield fails to provide its 1500 armour AND if the enemy crits or devastating crits me AND I happen to not block it ... well, you see where I am going.

All in all this build is quite strong. I will search trade in the next couple days and compare alternate gems. Perhaps you could help me though ...

The Spectre gem at lvl 21 with the +4 from other sources gives an extra spectre. Are there any other gems that make a substantial difference if they are either 21 on lvl as base or 23 in quality? I can search each gem one by one and try to compare, but I thought perhaps you might know. Like is a 21 zombie that much better than a 20 (knowing I get +4 to minion gems and so it's really 24 vs. 25)

Anyhow, thanks again.

"

dlvbrown1969 wrote:

Spoiler

After running a few grand Heists today, I was lucky enough to come across two alternative gems for my build - a divergent raise zombie and a divergent summon chaos golem.

As I GCP'd them, i checked on my backup weapon(s) gems. I had been trying to get a 21/20 spectre. Today I got one. I'm guessing somewhere around 6 to 10 tries in total so far. I even have an extra 20/20 that I can save and try to double corrupt in Alva's temple at some point.

Anyhow, the real reason I am posting us that after reading about moving the spectre out of the weapon slot, I decided to try it. I moved the CWDT, bone offering and Desecrate to my weapon and then moved the Spectres to my gloves. The only "problem" is that the 3 link spectre comes with a blood magic and linking an aura to blood magic might now be productive. Fortunately for me, I had previously added a movement skill (flame dash) and so I rearranged a bit and fit the FD in with the Spectres. Now I can check on my backup gems anytime I want and not lose my Spectres. Yay!!

"

dlvbrown1969 wrote:

Spoiler

The following is my list for what I feel are the best types of gems for me in this build. By types, I am referring to the new Alternative gems found in Heist league.

Opinions may vary based on play style and preference. For instance, would you rather have your zombies with 2% life regen OR 20% movement as well as 20% more life. I choose the latter. Perhaps you like the former.

There are some very clear choices however. For instance, Bone Offering regular gem provides minions with increased cast speed which is fairly useless in this melee attack build. On the other hand, A Divergent Raise Zombie will give your minions an extra 2% to block both attack as well as spell damage. And, let's not forget that the extra also transfers to you from this build. To me it's a no brainer.

Anyhow, here is a list of the gems I would use. Call it a "dream list" similar to W_o_D dream mods in his guide. I marked an * in front of those changes which imo provide a significant boost.

CWDT- Divergent
* Desecrate - Divergent
* Bone Offering- Divergent

* Culling Strike- Divergent
Summon Chaos Golem- regular
Summon Carrion Golem - regular
* Feeding Frenzy - Anomalous

Pride - regular
* Flesh and Stone - Anomalous
Maim Support- Anomalous
War Banner - regular

Withering Step- Divergent
Purifying Flame - regular
* Vulnerability - Anomalous

Flame Dash- Anomalous
Minion Life Support- regular
* Raise Spectre- Anomalous
* Blood Magic - Divergent

Brutality- regular unless you find Awakening
Melee Physical Damage Support- regular unless you find Awakening
Raise Zombie - regular
Predator Support- Divergent
Minion Damage Support - regular unless you find awakening
Fortify Support- regular

I am interested to know if anyone disagrees with the above and most importantly, why. I am no expert and am learning every day. For instance, there are 3 gems listed above that provide 10% damage with my recommended regular gem. An alternative Divergent gem would instead provide a 5% overwhelm of physical damage reduction. After reading some thoughts from Reddit on the matter, I concluded 3x 10% damage is better than 3x 5% overwhelm. But, as stated, I am no expert and could be mistaken.

Please feel free to offer thoughts, comments and even criticism.

Hey dlvbrown1969!

Awesome posts! Thanks for the opinions and update! I've barely touched Heist so I'm not too familiar with all of the alternates but as they drop I'll check out your post and see what's what. Until then I'll let others comment on your gem suggestions. I'm not sure how many folks are still playing PoE...I'm always playing ;).

It's nice having Spectres on an item that doesn't swap hey? I'll be making that switch for 3.13 for sure.

Good call on the flask!

I'm glad you're having such a good time with the changes that you've made! It's great to see your own things come to fruition so I'm glad it's going well. Thanks for the posts!

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dlvbrown1969 wrote:

Spoiler

Cant wait for you to get caught up with Heist. The gems just give so much variety. Perhaps you could help clear this up for me since I am unclear as to how the mechanics work ...

The regular Maim Support gem gives this as its "bonus" relatively speaking when comparing to alternative versions:

"Supported skills deal 10% increased physical damage"

Whereas the version I mentioned provides:

"Supported skill gave 20% increased effect of maim".

Now, my thought process is that the former does nothing because it isnt linked to a skill which actually does damage. It is linked to an aura skill Flesh and Stone.

So, am I wrong? Does the "bonus" I mentioned if 10% increased physical damage actually apply? And, if this is the case then the latter I listed is just better by default. It's not great mind you. But something is always better than nothing ... unless the 10% increased physical damage applies in which case it is better and I have to re evaluate my list possibly.

FWIW, I have every one of the alternative gems in my gear - except I am missing 2x CWDT Anomalous and the almighty Anomalous Raise Spectre which of course has to be 21/20 so it might be a while before I can grab that one. Btw, the Anomalous version of the Spectres replaces 20% movement with 20% life and 20% attack damage.

Anyhow, I hope that all made sense. Lmk pls. Ty