[3.21] Cold Conversion Summoner | Build guides for all budgets | (Ghazzy Zoomancer)

Hey everyone!

First of all I want to thank everyone for keeping the build alive during my absence. It's really cool to see how you guys have managed to evolve and adapt the build to the problems introduced during Expedition league.

Unfortunately, expedition was one of those leagues I simply couldn't stand playing. There simply was nothing for me to get there and the game simply wasn't fun to me. So I decided to take a break from the game to come back for 3.16 in hopes of GGG implementing fun changes that would let me take the build further.
Now most of you guys are even better experts at the build than me and it's been awesome to see cool solutions you've implemented to the build to make up for the 3.15 nerfpocalypse.

Now, after reading the 3.16 patchbotes and watching the Scourge trailer I'm left with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. On one hand I'm extremely hyped for the league. The overall changes is the best changes I think I've ever seen to the game. We're granted several new sources of playerpower, which means new toys for our builds, new uber content to push our builds even further and new chase items.
However, I still find the crafting system "questionable" due to the heavy reliance on RNG and the changes GGG made to minions borders on incompetence.

Lets discuss the nerfs and how they will impact the build first of all.
There's two absolutely devestating nerfs in the patchnotes. One which I saw coming and one which appeared out of nowhere completely crippling almost EVERY single minion build in the game.

Nerf to Syndicate Operatives:
Firstly, GGG decided to nerf Syndicate Operatives. The word nerf isn't enough to describe the changes. I think eliminate is a better choice of words. These spectres will be COMPLETELY unplayable during 3.16. Don't try to make them work, you're wasting your time. The only thing that made SOs work was their shotgunning ability. These spectres have a very low damage on their projectiles. The fact that they were able to shotgun a target with up to 15 of these low damage projectiles at the same time was the reason why their damage was high. Basically, divide your current DPS by ~10(Assuming 10 projectiles are able to hit a boss for single target) and that will be your new SO dps.

The sad part about this nerf however, is that there's no other spectre like SOs out there. With that I mean a ranged physical damage dealing spectre that we can pair up with our Golems to improve clear. Unfortunately, there's actually no other good spectres in the game.
During 3.13 GGG decided to nerf ALL spectres by 4 gem levels because Syndicate operatives were deemed too powerful during 3.12 Heist League. So because they believed SOs were overperforming they decided to GUT all underperforming spectres aswell. This means we're left with no strong spectres.

Nerf to Elemental Equilibirum:
Ontop of that, GGG decided to remove Elemental Equilibrium from minion builds. EE basically served like an additional support gem. That's how powerful it was. This change makes no sense at all. It basically destroys ALL minion builds in the game right now because elemental is the only option we have to deal competent damage. Phys minions could work somewhat, but it relied on Aurastacking to scale its damage which is gone now.

The change to EE destroyed my backup plan for the inevitble nerf to SOs so I'm not really sure what to do with the build now. I've talked to Ghazzy and he's as astonished by the changes as I am. Ghazzy believes that the only way forward for spectres next league is to go with a hybrid summoner build like we've done here. He says Spectres will be completely unable to carry a build themselves and the only real option is to run Spectres for clear and either Golems(Like we do) or Skeletons(Lich Queen) for single target.

Despite the nerfs, this build can still fall back on Golems somewhat for single target which stops the bleeding somewhat. Pure spectre builds however.. are welcomed to the graveyard with unplayable builds like Blade Vortex and Aurastackers.

So what is the solution going forward?

I have some ideas on how to salvage the concept of the build and still make it work. But it's simply not going to be the build that it once was.
First of all, we're probably going to scrap Syndicate Operatives and run Redemption Sentries instead for ranged clear spectres.
These spectres have an inbuilt 75% cold conversion and very high base damage on their attacks. I used to run them during Harvest league and in the beginning of Ritual(During league start SO were broken and didn't work).
So these spectres are capable. Since they however already have in built cold conversion Triad Grips don't do too much for them unfortunately. But we still need Triad Grips to convert our Carrions which is a shame.

The nerf to EE just hurts the build alot aswell as it affects the damage of both minions. Running Eye of Malice, we basically lose 75% cold penetration on the build which is massive.

However, GGG decided to implement alot of new sources of player power this league which might help offset the nerf to Elemental Equilibrium somewhat. We get new masteries in our skilltree, some insane buffs to Awakened Gems and even a buff to our choice of body armour. Some examples of the buffs we get are:
- Skin of the Lords gets +2 to socketed skills
- Awakened Minion damage gets +1 to linked minion gems
- Awakened Melee Phys gets intimidate back (10% more damage to the build)
- Buffs across the board to flasks
- New Scourge corrupting on item slots for additional modifiers.

et.c.
By the looks of it, getting a Skin of the Lords with Elemental Equilibrium is going to be the strongest item you can get now and you'll be running an Empower4 in it too which goes to Empower6 because of the +2.
I'm unsure how the defense rework will end up and how much we really gain from it. But as it looks right now, almost all builds will be able to squeeze in another Aura into their build with enough reservation Efficiancy.

My goal next league will be to run Hatred + Skitterbots for damage and Vall Grace again from an Auls Uprising. When trying to fit another Aura my goal is to try and get Determination into the build somehow. Running both Grace and Determination with the 100% increased global defense modifier from Skin of the Lords will make the build an absolute unite when it comes to tankiness.

Preperations for 3.16:

In preperation for 3.16 I'd like to ask those of you who have time and already have geared up the build somewhat to try out the nerfs and see how the build plays.
As mentioned earlier, I kinda quit the league early so my gear is absolute trash and not really well suited for high level testing. I will try it out during mapping though to see how low budget feels.

What I'd like you to do is specc out of Elemental Equilibrium and swap for Redemption Sentry spectres to see how they fit the build.
The gems you'll run on them are:
- Raise Spectre
- Minion Damage
- Elemental Damage with Attacks
- Greater Multipile Projectiles
- Fork
- Chain/Hypothermia/Empower

I used to run Chain during Harvest league. Having Fork + Chain + GMP allowed for some ridiculous clear, actually more insane than SOs. Unsure whether the damage will be enough though.

By running these tests we can atleast get some sort of benchmark for how well the build can perform. And we know from there that everything else will get better because from this benchmark there's only buffs ahead fortunately.

I'm glad to see that just like true necromancers we will be able to raise the build from the grave, where as I thought in belonged due to ~50% dmg reduction overall without EE. The things I'm interested in for now are whether a Rare armour will still be better then Skin (unless they've done something to the tree that we won't be able to take both Golem Commander and Whispers of Doom) and if Skin of the Lords with Versatile Combatant will outperform one with Elemental Equilibrium ?

"

DontThinkJustClick wrote:

I'm glad to see that just like true necromancers we will be able to raise the build from the grave, where as I thought in belonged due to ~50% dmg reduction overall without EE. The things I'm interested in for now are whether a Rare armour will still be better then Skin (unless they've done something to the tree that we won't be able to take both Golem Commander and Whispers of Doom) and if Skin of the Lords with Versatile Combatant will outperform one with Elemental Equilibrium ?

My plan is to run Skin of the Lords with Elemental Equilibrum next league and try to work in an additional aura with the buffs to aura efficiency.
EE will still give us 25%(37.5% with AG) cold pen which is decent.
The problem right now is that you won't be able to access it since it's to the far right of the skill tree.
However, Skin of the Lords allow us to get it. I believe minions won't be meta this league so hopefully we'll be able to get the chest this time.
Got kinda surprised when I saw that the Phase Acro skin of the lords cost 20 ex this league :D

Considering the chest gives +2 to socketed skills we'll be able to run Empower4 bringing it up to level 6.

This means our spectres should be level 21(from gem) + 2 from ascendency + 2 from wand + 2 from chest + 5 from Empower + 1 from Awakened Minion Damage = level 33
That's kinda insane.

If we manage to fit another Aura we'll use both Vaal Grace AND the buffed determination which both will be buffed by 100% from the chest.
And since both Armour and Evasion got buffed ALOT this league this should create some insane defenses. Dodge being gone might hurt us alot but I think we'll make up for it with the new buffed values from Evasion and if we manage to fit Determination. This will require investment though.

My biggest fear is lack of damage.
Not only did they decide to nerf and remove EE from elemental minions, they also decided to delete our Medium cluster jewels. This makes everything infinitely more complicated. I'm not sure which medium cluster jewels will be played now instead, maybe minion ones with renewal but it seems weak.

I'm gonna try running Redemption Sentries without EE in a scuffed budget version of the build now without any clusters to see if we still can do maps at least. The most important thing is that the build still can clear maps on a low budget. If that fails we're in trouble.

SO medium budget



RS medium budget

"

Deadandlivin wrote:

Nerf to Syndicate Operatives:
Firstly, GGG decided to nerf Syndicate Operatives.

I didn't run SO at all - never had them spawn while playing this build so I'd generally pick other ranged stuff that seemed to work well enough for general clear.

Golems and Zombs did the rest.

I'm still planning on league starting Golems, hopefully people smarter than me will work out a decent budget solution!

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Ulvheart wrote:

"

Deadandlivin wrote:

Nerf to Syndicate Operatives:
Firstly, GGG decided to nerf Syndicate Operatives.

I didn't run SO at all - never had them spawn while playing this build so I'd generally pick other ranged stuff that seemed to work well enough for general clear.

Golems and Zombs did the rest.

I'm still planning on league starting Golems, hopefully people smarter than me will work out a decent budget solution!

Did you play SSF? If that's the case, yeah, getting Syndicate Operatives is close to impossible :)

You could've aimed to get Redemption Sentries or Hyrr's Watchers spectres instead. They are far easier to get, just requires a specific map and then you go in and raise them from the ground. Once you've got them, just desecrate the rest of the army.

We'll see if GGG gives us some love from the masteries in the new skill tree. Hopefully we will get things to make up for the asinine removal of Elemental Equilibrium from minion builds.

After looking around for new spectres to replace Syndicate Operatives I found out that there's a spectre called Hyrri's Watchers, which in my eyes look like the new best ranged spectre to play with.

They're basically copies of Redemption sentries.
The main difference is that they do around 30% more damage but have half the HP of Redemption Sentries(Still tankier than Operatives).

Hyrri's Watch Spectres
Here's a video of the Hyrri's Watch spectres on a higher budget version of the build:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fda0hUOOHK0&ab_channel=HenrikSwanstr%C3%B6m

The video is just to show the new spectres. I'm running the spectres alone without any Carrion Golems or Zombies. Elemental Equilibrium is also unspecced to simulate 3.16 DPS.

a 3.16 Update will be much apreciated! Thank you.

"

Deadandlivin wrote:

After looking around for new spectres to replace Syndicate Operatives I found out that there's a spectre called Hyrri's Watchers, which in my eyes look like the new best ranged spectre to play with.

They're basically copies of Redemption sentries.
The main difference is that they do around 30% more damage but have half the HP of Redemption Sentries(Still tankier than Operatives).

Hyrri's Watch Spectres
Here's a video of the Hyrri's Watch spectres on a higher budget version of the build:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fda0hUOOHK0&ab_channel=HenrikSwanstr%C3%B6m

The video is just to show the new spectres. I'm running the spectres alone without any Carrion Golems or Zombies. Elemental Equilibrium is also unspecced to simulate 3.16 DPS.

That actually looks pretty sweet, i'd be interested in seeing what a budget league start version of this would look like, with golems and zombies as well.

Luckily the damage was still pretty insane in 3.15, so hopefully with the buffs to defence, buffs to awakened gems, and added ele penetration on minions from new mastery nodes, this will still be a very powerful build.

"

Domo wrote:

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Deadandlivin wrote:

After looking around for new spectres to replace Syndicate Operatives I found out that there's a spectre called Hyrri's Watchers, which in my eyes look like the new best ranged spectre to play with.

They're basically copies of Redemption sentries.
The main difference is that they do around 30% more damage but have half the HP of Redemption Sentries(Still tankier than Operatives).

Hyrri's Watch Spectres
Here's a video of the Hyrri's Watch spectres on a higher budget version of the build:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fda0hUOOHK0&ab_channel=HenrikSwanstr%C3%B6m

The video is just to show the new spectres. I'm running the spectres alone without any Carrion Golems or Zombies. Elemental Equilibrium is also unspecced to simulate 3.16 DPS.

That actually looks pretty sweet, i'd be interested in seeing what a budget league start version of this would look like, with golems and zombies as well.

Luckily the damage was still pretty insane in 3.15, so hopefully with the buffs to defence, buffs to awakened gems, and added ele penetration on minions from new mastery nodes, this will still be a very powerful build.

Did some testing on my Expedition character. Put on lower budget gear and unspecced Elemental Equilibrium.
In the video I'm running Redemption Sentries, not Hyrri's Watchers.
The reason is because I couldn't find any Hyrri's watchers because I have zero Legion Scarabs (They come from Kurai Army). Keep in mind Hyrri's Watchers function basically the same but deal roughly 30% more damage than Redemption Sentries.

The testing is done on alched T15 maps and I estimate the budget to be ~2 ex.
Overall it feels good but it's very squishy on a budget. Can't tank anything since almost everything goes into damage.
Unfortunately my PoE file is installed on my external harddrive currently so my performance is extremely poor when recording so video is very choppy.
The Redemption sentry missle animations causes alot of framedrops for me too.

Redemption Sentry low budget testing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuBcHx_AjpY&ab_channel=HenrikSwanstr%C3%B6m