[3.21] Animate Weapon FIRE Guardian - Minion Starter - Low Budget, High DPS [outdated]

With patience and knowledge on how to craft / where to farm what you need in SSF, Would you say this is build is going to be enough to get the 4 voidstones myself? Done them all myself with other builds in multiple trade leagues but I am hesitant to pick a build I haven't personally tested for solo Maven viability.

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loudpinks2000 wrote:

With patience and knowledge on how to craft / where to farm what you need in SSF, Would you say this is build is going to be enough to get the 4 voidstones myself? Done them all myself with other builds in multiple trade leagues but I am hesitant to pick a build I haven't personally tested for solo Maven viability.

I think so - single target boss DPS is a strong point of the build, even with questionable gear. Triad Grip can't really be farmed but it does drop pretty often (or can be chanced).

The biggest areas of weakness for SSF gear are probably:

1) lacking added gem levels from armor and amulet - may need to take Indomitable Army wheel for better minion survival, because they get a lot of HP from extra levels

2) rare abyss jewels and the Covenant jewels - the Covenants are good but replaceable, it may take significant effort to farm/craft good abyssals. These are a big deal for DPS

3) Animate Guardian gear wants some very specific uniques, specifically Sign of the Sin Eater is really nice for ailment prevention. And the stuff needed for a double-curse on AG. You could instead self-cast a curse, or lean into crit more and use Assassin's Mark for bosses. Not having a way to break resists will be a problem for bossing.

You could do a Phys version instead of Fire - no Triad Grip, swap Pride in for Anger, Maim for in Combustion, Impale/Brutality/Melee Phys damage supports, take Minion Crit nodes and self-cast Assassin's Mark. The tree looks almost the same.

Thank you for the guide. I'll be playing HC Ruthless and wanted to play animate weapon. But, I was about to throw in the towel on that idea since there is no crafting bench. Meaning it would pretty much be impossible to obtain a 4g triad for the cold version. This fire version makes much more sense for ruthless, and I'm now set on trying it out.

Do you think necromancer is the better option in ruthless given that onslaught does not provide movement speed there?

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Iodo wrote:

Do you think necromancer is the better option in ruthless given that onslaught does not provide movement speed there?

Yes that seems like a reasonable swap to me. Necro also has a bit easier time getting minion defenses (life and resists) which Guardian has to fill out with gear - I don't play ruthless, but I'm guessing that Bone Rings are a rarity there.

The other thing is that not being able to craft minion speed onto jewelry means you'll want to be on Flesh Offering (many necro builds would use Bone Offering for better defense) but I think it should work fine!

" For spectres we summon a Stygian Silverback plus a Host Chieftain from Act 6 Riverways to give Frenzy/Power charges to our minions."

Thats outdated use them instead

Specter xophs favorite and xophs loyal for 40% more fire damage
through cover in ash and the 20% phys damage as extra fire.

How fast is the mapping speed compared to other minion builds such as absolution, srs, skelly mages, etc?

Just curious, why not witch/summoner? I would just like to understand the logic behind the Templar choice.

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ArrenGR11 wrote:

" For spectres we summon a Stygian Silverback plus a Host Chieftain from Act 6 Riverways to give Frenzy/Power charges to our minions."

Thats outdated use them instead

Specter xophs favorite and xophs loyal for 40% more fire damage
through cover in ash and the 20% phys damage as extra fire.

I'm finding mixed reviews about the specter that does Covered in Ash. Many are saying it only does this ability at 50% health or lower. Could you clarify?

Also, are you saying not to use frenzy and power charge monkeys? If so, is it because they are worse or because you are getting charges elsewhere?

The skills from the Xoph's minions certainly seem to have a ~50-55% uptime; at best. That would make the Phys as Fire minion (Xoph's Favour) most likely better than Power Charges giving about 25% more damage, but on par with Frenzy Charges.

CoverInAsh: 1.8 second cast time, 5 second duration, 10 second cooldown.
https://poedb.tw/us/Xophs_Loyal
EmpoweringHowl: 7.5 second duration, 12 second cooldown.
https://poedb.tw/us/Xophs_Favoured

Also I don't know how Spectre skill priority works, so it could be less uptime. That being said, you can't overlook Ash helping defensively, giving 20% less movement speed to enemies. It's all quite variable, and there are some other interesting options I imagine depending on preference, but chargeboys are always good. That's what's fun about spectres! :)

Whats the minimum gear needed for t16 red maps to be able to farm em ?