[3.20] MOM & POP SRS - Excellent Starter/Farmer/Regular Bosser
 I like this build because it feels very nice to play and has some unique aspects. It beats the usual paradigm by excelling at everything - bosses, clear speed, and toughness - but with a power ceiling below what can comfortably kill Uber Bosses or Wave 30 Simulacrum. Recommended as a League Starter, a low/medium budget alt character, or just for any Minion Instability enjoyer who wished it could be faster. The Gist You Summon Raging Spirits, they die in about a second and blow up with Minion Instability, or POP, for Fire Damage equal to a third of their Maximum Life, which you stack as highly as possible. Your support Minions also become very chunky. For defense, you take Mind Over Matter, or MOM, along with The Agnostic to reach a high EHP and massive regen with relatively low investment. This requires that you do not Reserve your Mana, like most builds would for damage or Determination. Your only Aura Gem will be Vaal Clarity. Free Onslaught and you never have to worry about Mana Costs. With fewer Gems, we'll have room for a very spicy Animate Guardian recipe that jacks up the clear speed with more explosions. Mana is also a cheap stat on /trade so you can get a lot on a budget. Kay's Guide Before you read any more of my crap, watch Kay's video guide for the Life-based version because it's our starting point:  Why MOM version? Much better clear speed and faster overall At what cost? A bit less damage without Skitterbots Less tanky at high investment My experience has been that MOM version only falls off at the level of Uber Bosses or Wave 30 Simulacrum, having enough damage but a very rough time surviving while the Life-based version with high investment can be a little more comfortable. Personally, I'd rather make a second character for Uber content. By the time your MOM & POP SRS is nearly finished: Very smooth and fast clearing of juiced/delirious t16 Maps with literally any mods Have a comfy time on regular Pinnacle Bosses such as Sirus or Maven Level into the high 90s safely without having to be extra careful POBs (community fork version) Low-end but Completed High-end, more than you need to spend Videos High density Phoenix Map clear Low quant The Feared where I forgot to use Taste of Hate (did my 80+% Feared earlier for Sanctum challenge, just wasn't deathless) Mind Over Matter and The Agnostic
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MOM lets 40% of your damage taken from hits go to Mana instead of Life. That damage comes in 6 parts Life and 4 parts Mana, or a 3/2 ratio, which you'll need to closely maintain to maximize your "death in one shot" potential. The easiest way to check your ratio is to multiply your Unreserved Max Mana by 1.5: this will be the most Life damage your Mana can support in a single hit.
For Regen you'll take The Agnostic, which harshly drains your Mana to heal up your Life. You can obtain far more Mana Regen than Life, so this becomes a strong effect that can reach Inquisitor-levels of sustain. Because you want extra Mana for Regen, it's best to exceed the 3/2 ratio a little in favor of Mana. With 3500 Life, for example, you'd need at least 2,334 Unreserved Max Mana. Sometimes you want to move your Passives around after changing gear. Your biggest weakness will be long DOTs as they drain your Mana for full duration by keeping you below Max Life. Flasks, Bone Barrier, The Balance of Terror jewel, and a Corrupted Blood Immunity jewel can make you forget there are DOTs in this game. Vaal Clarity helps a lot, as well. When playing Trade League, Mana is not a popular stat and even a high roll usually doesn't cost extra Chaos. SKILLS - alt qualities/woke mentioned to get when you like Summon Raging Spirit
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Minion Life
Unleash, lv5 Awakened when you can Concentrated Effect Empower, see below then either Fire Penetration (Awakened), Predator (Anomalous), or Empower This is your main damage skill and its best links. Unleash won't increase your damage in POB but it is mandatory for spawning enough Raging Boys while letting you move. Socketed into at least a Tabula Rasa to start and then a Skin of the Lords, just like Kay's, equipment section below. No need for Empower before getting Skin of the Lords, the additional +2 is what puts it over other Gems. Lv3 to start, lv4 when you can afford it. At lv5, Awakened Elemental Focus becomes good enough with its +1 to SRS, so your completed link colors will be 5b1r. Feel free to start with 4b2r if shopping requires.
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Elemental Proliferation, Anomalous
Increased Area of Effect, Awakened if you want Elemental Army, Anomalous then Enhance when you get Inc AOE Helmet and Anomalous AG Socketed into Helmet, Gloves, or Boots until you get a Shaper Helmet with the "Socketed Gems are Supported by Level X Increased Area of Effect" and upgrade to 5-link. More about Helmets in the equipment section below. Full Animate Guardian section below!
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Linked with low-level Arcane Surge, Anomalous
Socketed in Gloves, Boots, or Shield. Gloves later when you can squeeze in a bench craft "+1 to Level of Socketed AOE Gems". Arcane Surge should only be around level 5-7, low enough to be triggered by a single Flame Dash.
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Linked with Combustion and Feeding Frenzy (Anomalous) in your Boots, Gloves, or Shield, level and quality doesn't matter.
Zombies gain chance to Taunt from a Cluster Passive and do all the tanking, applying Combustion to big single targets.
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Linked with Minion Life in Shield, Boots, or Gloves.
The best Spectres are Tukohama's Vanguard from The Coast in Act 6. They summon Scorching Ray Totems which apply -25% Fire Exposure to big single targets. There are other good options but I like Vanguard for all three to ensure Exposure uptime. Lightning Golem is just some nice extra Cast Speed.
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Linked with Spell Cascade in a Trigger Weapon, bench crafted at first and then the 4-second Unveiled version later.
Spell Cascade and later Divergent Desecrate ensure you have extra corpses for Plaguebringer buffs. Once you have Unveiled 4-second Trigger mod, you can swap in Anomalous Bone Offering for some extra Life Gain on Block (alt quality reduces Duration).
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Put in your last two extra Sockets, unlinked.
Yes, Vaal Clarity, because there are occasional moments when taking heavy damage that you can't afford a spell, also increasing your Mana sustain. It nicely eliminates those scenarios and should be there anytime you need. No other Vaal skill really helps. Infernal Cry covers targets in Ash, but only Duration goes up with levels and the Strength requirement is high. Keep it only as high as you can without deliberately getting Strength, mine's only lv13. Elemental Explody Animate Guardian Secret Recipe
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POP SRS can get away with a greedy AG because it already stacks so much Minion Life with massive sustain from a Cluster Passive, and POP SRS needs clear speed.
Credit to my buddy Promaore for coming up with EleSplody AG for Spectres back in Archnem league. Starting with Gravebind, your AG will take credit for kills and trigger Explosions and Freezes across your screen. Here's a brief video demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy-kYYagP9s The freezes are hard to see cus things die too fast, but you'll see them a lot in practice. Anything that increases AG's AOE will improve everything going on here. It will also exploit The Three Dragons Helmet, more on that below. Other AG equipment: Explody Shaper weapon - any 1H Melee weapon with the Shaper suffix "Enemies Killed with Attack or Spell Hits Explode, dealing 5% of their Life as Fire Damage". Also look for "Socketed Gems are supported by Level X Melee Splash" for the secondary bonus "(33–37)% increased Area Damage". On an open prefix, bench craft "(51–60)% increased Lightning Damage, (18–20)% chance to Shock". Inpulsa's Broken Heart - You may have noticed the Fire weapon explosions can Shock, the Inpulsa explosions can Freeze, and AG is linked to Elemental Proliferation. The Three Dragons - Lets Fire explosions trigger Inpulsa explosions and Freezes proliferate. Legacy of Fury - Scorch + Burn-splodes, the Burn-splodes aren't as good but they look nice, Scorch is a solid DPS boost. Shield - AG will only lack Chaos Resist, so just get a Shield with Tier 1 Chaos Resist, high Max Life, and an open suffix to craft "+15% to Fire/Cold/Lightning and Chaos Resist". That plus Gravebind can get him to exactly 75% Chaos Resist. Save your AG in POB! - there's no other way to record your AG's items, video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtowAeEAOss You can mouse over, ctrl-c and paste in-game items into POB. Gems Anomalous Animate Guardian for much more AOE Elemental Proliferation lets those Shocks and Freezes spread, chaining more explosions and making your safer, Anomalous for a little more AOE Increased Area of Effect until you get AOE Helmet, Awakened if you want but don't bother if expensive Elemental Army for more explosion damage and AG tankiness, Anomalous for a little more AOE Enhance when you get Inc AOE Helmet Helmet Shop patiently or craft a +2 Minions Helmet, any base, with Shaper prefix "Socketed Gems are Supported by Level X Increased Area of Effect" and you'll have room to squeeze in Enhance for your Anomalous Animate Guardian, adding up to another 72% increased AOE. More in equipment section. While most Minion builds will have a hard time keeping AG alive, this build's AG will be almost immortal thanks to all the Minion Life and Life from Death Medium Cluster passive. Equipment
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Body Armour
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You can start with a Tabula Rasa or any 5/6 link you like, but Skin of the Lords is your BIS by far. Its +2 also applies to all five support gems, including Awakened ones and Empower, which benefit even more from +levels. It comes with a random Keystone and cannot reroll socket colors, so shopping can be slim. Remember that all your Gems need to be corrupted to socket. Start with: Cheapest Skin with the right colors you can buy with a Keystone that at least doesn't affect you, such as Crimson Dance or Iron Will. You'll eventually want to get one with 5b1r and a good Keystone, such as: Glancing Blows I believe is best, saves you a lot of passive points and is needed to cap block chance to take advantage of life gain on block. Call to Arms makes your Infernal Cry instant-cast. Mind Over Matter saves you a passive point. Minion Instability saves you a passive point. The Agnostic only helps if you want different boots, more on that below, and you already have an Elegant Hubris blocking it (again, more below). Here's mine for example:
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Tavukai makes the build work. Before you have Tavukai, you'll need to link SRS with Infernal Legion Support in order for them to suicide.
The Minion Chaos Resist roll goes down to -17%, which speeds up said SRS suicide, so get something close at first and then a perfect -17% later with high SRS Life/Damage rolls as well, if possible. Good Anoint options are plentiful, such as Arcane Will if you need Mana, Heart of the Warrior if you need Life, Prismatic Skin, or even Gravepact. Mine is Anointed with Divine Judgement because of an Elegant Hubris (more below). Use Noxious Catalysts to raise the "Summon Raging Spirits take 20% of their Maximum Life per second as Chaos Damage" to 24% so they POP a little faster.
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Your top-end Helmet will need to have "+2 to Level of Minion Skill Gems" and "Socketed Gems are Supported by Level X Increased Area of Effect", plus hopefully some Life/Mana/Resists, and then Enchanted with "Summon Raging Spirits has 24% chance to summon an extra Minion". They're not cheap to craft but are sold fairly cheaply, very cheaply if it's only +1 to Minions.
A Bone Helmet is ideal but any base you have the attributes for is fine. Here's mine for example:
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Dance of the Offered gives Onslaught and The Agnostic keystone, saving you just a passive point at first and becoming necessary when you slot an Elegant Hubris (which blocks it on the tree, more below) later. Since a Necromancer has no other real source of Onslaught, these Boots might as well read "45% increased Movement Speed and 20% increased Cast Speed".
At first, you may worry that losing Onslaught when on Low Mana puts you at a disadvantage when in danger. What really happens is that you'll naturally react to Low Mana instead of being near death, playing safer without thinking about it. Plus you can just Flame Dash anyway as long as you conserve it a little. As you increase your Mana Regen it'll get easier and easier. Here's mine for example:
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As with most other Minion builds, your BIS weapon will give +2 to SRS and have Aisling's 4-second Trigger casting. +1 to all Spell Skill, all Fire Skill, and/or all Minion Skill Gems.
But, Minion Instability privilege lets us double-dip+ from the bench prefix "Minions have x% increased Maximum Life / Minions deal x% increased Damage", so much that it's about half as good as a second +1 to SRS. This dagger with an open prefix, for example, would cost like a tenth as much as a +2 and be nearly as good: To upgrade after that, craft or shop for a +2 Aisling Trigger weapon with something extra, such as Cast Speed, Mana, Resists, Minion Life, Minion Damage, or room for a bench craft. +2 Trigger weapons get extremely expensive the better they are. Here's what I settled with:
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From your shield the stats you want are Life on Block, +1 to all Fire or Minion Spell Skill Gems, Life and/or Mana, and Resists, which is a lot to ask.
For starting/budget I recommend to forget the +1 and instead get one that makes you chunky. Once you have % Life on Block or high flat Life on Block, you can grab Glancing Blows on tree or Body Armour. Getting the defenses first for cheap and expensive damage later is most comfy. Your big boy shield will have it all and be expensive to buy or craft. % Life on Block can come from Shaper Influence suffix or a Synthesized Implicit. +1 Fire only comes on Int shields and +1 Minions only comes on Boner Shields. Some luxury stats are "Recover X% of Mana on Block", +Max Resists, Block/Spell Block, or Minion Life/Damage. Mana on Block is good but still not as important as Life on Block, as your Mana will be drained to heal you anyway. Here's mine for example:
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From Gloves the stats you want are Dexterity/Strength, Resists, and Life/Mana. Try to get the most stacked Gloves you can afford on trade. Don't forget you can swap Elemental Resists with Harvest bench easily. Eldritch Implicits to get are Minion Damage and Spell Suppression.
Here's mine for example:
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To cap the resists of your Zombies/Spectres/Golem, you need a pair of Bone Rings or to get Minion Resists from somewhere else, such as a jewel. You can check your Minions' Resists in POB in Calcs.
Other stats you'll need from Rings will be Resists and Life/Mana. The primary luxury stat you'll want is Minion Life as well as an open suffix to craft more Resists or, ideally, +1 to Minimum Endurance Charges. If you get a really nice Ring with an open prefix, make sure suffixes are full and slam it with a Redeemer's Exalted Orb for a chance for Minion Damage. Here's my Rings for example, second one I got super lucky: Use Fertile Catalysts to crank up the Life, Mana, and Minion Life numbers.
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The only choice of Belt, Replica Siegebreaker. Some say that Darkness Enthroned can give better single target DPS but I don't believe. If the Burning Grounds stacked, it'd be absurd, but 24% of Minion Life per second as Fire Damage comes out to an extra SRS's worth of damage potentially every 1.4 seconds.
Use Turbulent Catalysts to raise the Burning to 24%. Passives Tree and Ascendancy
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POBs linked near the top, note all the Masteries and Wheels taken. Sacrifice is skipped despite the 20% Minion Life because the Regen slows your SRS POP.
Ascendancies are Mindless Aggression to Bone Barrier, Mistress of Sacrifice, and Plaguebringer. Commander of Darkness is fine to take early but after you have Tavukai, but don't doubt Plaguebringer. Once you have Elegant Hubris, you can probably change your Tree pathing and save some points. Level up with Infernal Legion SRS until you have Tavukai, which you should buy and equip as early as possible. It's easy leveling, so I recommend you actually fill out travel nodes early because it's nice to take wheels later when the XP is slower. Jewels
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Cluster Jewels
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Clusters will be crucial and there's only room for one set.
Large Cluster: ideally an 8-point, 3-notable Minion Large with Raze and Pillage and Feasting Fiends up front (any third Notable will be in back), or at least Raze up front. Raze is decent damage and ensures your Zombies have some Fire damage to work with for Combustion. Feasting Fiends is just good damage. Kay recommends a Spell Damage Large for Seal Mender, but I recommend getting that from a Megalomaniac instead (more below). Medium Cluster: You only need Life from Death and Hulking Corpses, maybe Feasting Fiends again if you have room. No need for any Small Clusters. Megalomaniac: Find a Megalomaniac with Seal Mender and at least one other good Notable, they're quite random and limited on /trade so shop patiently. You always find an awesome Mega when you look. Here's the one I found:
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From jewels you'll to finish up your Resists, Dexterity or Strength, and then Minion Life and Life/Mana for yourself.
Both Ghastly Eye and Cobalt jewels can have Minion Life, but Ghastlys will be best when you can afford to buy good ones. Watcher's Eye: Obviously only Clarity mods matter - "Damage taken while affected by Clarity Recouped as Mana" "increased Mana Recovery Rate while affected by Clarity" and possibly "Damage taken from Mana before Life while affected by Clarity" if you don't mind having to adjust your Life/Mana ratio. Not essential but nice. The Balance of Terror: with "You are Unaffected by Ignite if you've cast Flammability in the past 10 seconds", Ignites can be tough so this and its All Resists are pretty good. Impossible Escape: Runebinder and Zealot's Oath both let you cap your Spell Block if you can squeeze it in. Elegant Hubris: The only good place to socket an Elegant Hubris is over to the left, between Endurance and Overcharge. It can be a big damage upgrade. If you haven't learned the Timeless Jewel calculator in POB yet, do so and look up some good numbers and shop. The Notables you're looking for are: Axiom Warden: 80% Minion Life, ridiculously good Slum Lord: 80% Minion Damage, still very good Several other Notables can be worth using if you get them, but prioritize getting at least 2x Axiom Warden. If an Axiom Warden is far out of reach, feel free to Anoint your Tavukai for it, like I do with Divine Judgement. Flasks and Pantheon
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Major God you want Brine King fully unlocked. Minor God's your choice of Shakari or Abberath. Take Ryslatha for bosses to keep your Life Flask full.
Flasks: GGG did us dirty by removing some utility mods from Mana Flasks, but it's fine. Feel free to experiment with different Flasks if you'd like, I recommend 1 Life, 1 Mana, 1 Quicksilver, 1 Quartz, and 1 Granite. My examples: You'll use the Mana Flask more than anything else, pressed anytime damage is incoming because the charges are nearly free. You'll use the Mana Flask a little more on No Regen Maps. I like "Used when Charges reach full" on the Utility Flasks. Get a Taste of Hate with 15% Damage taken as Cold for Shaper/Elder/Uber Elder, Enchanted with "+100 to Maximum Charges. -1 to this value when used." on the Harvest bench for virtually infinite uses. And I think that's it. Once built you should be free to farm nearly anything you like, any map mods. I'll reserve the first comment for updates. Share any thoughts or questions below!  Last edited by therealtoothman#2453 on Jan 24, 2023, 10:02:23 PM Last bumped on Apr 4, 2023, 1:51:36 PM
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UPDATES AND HIGH-END OPTIONS
Update:
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Came back to build later and beat Ubers with it, adding more high-end information.
Removed Death Attunement because it's 6 points you don't really need, which may unfortunately limit you to 1 Minion Offence Mastery. You'd have to choose between 8% Pen or 30% AoE, probably just switch for bosses vs mapping.
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You can ditch the Skin of the Lords for your choice of another body armour if it has +3 or +4 double Corruption Implicits. Two of the following corrupts:
+2 to Socketed Duration Gems (+2 to SRS only) +2 to Socketed Minion Gems (+2 to SRS and Minion Life, the best) +1 to Socketed Gems (all six of them) Skin of the Lords only gives +2 to Socketed and a Keystone, so these Implicits on almost any other chest will be an upgrade. You'll also replace Empower without Skin, too, with lv5 Woke Ele Focus or 21/20 Conc Effect. I believe there are two best options: Dialla's Malefaction with 5x Red Sockets, doesn't matter as much what the Unleash is in - this is most DPS I can think of, like a 30% upgrade from Skin. A 78% Loreweave - there's few other decent sources of +max res for us, so this is a huge defensive upgrade. It's also about a 15% DPS upgrade from Skin, so Loreweave is my favorite double-corrupt chest upgrade. You can also just try double-corrupting Tavukais, there's lots of nice implicits. Other than that you're just looking for better rolls and general upgrades.
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I invested about 60 divs into a Corrupted Soul Poison SRS Occultist, about 30m SDPS and 70k eHP in PoB. Maybe Corrupted Soul is a bad choice, it feels great to me in anything except Ubers, I may try a couple rebuilds. I'm definitely not as good as BalorMage.
Poison SRS I enjoyed but felt much stronger every time I switched back to MOM & POP. Last edited by therealtoothman#2453 on Feb 26, 2023, 2:17:24 PM
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Bumping to note that I've seen nothing in the patch notes that negatively affects this build, except that Clarity will reserve a little more Mana. The tree may need small changes, will keep an eye on it.
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Looks interesting, especially for HC.
What about damage issues until we have replica siegebreaker? |
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"It'll just be an upgrade similar to when you put on Darkness Enthroned |
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