Feedback on the State of Minions in POE2 (Itemisation, Crafting, Performance and "feel")
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I would like to see more actual armor instead of gems to buff pets. Such as attack speed for gloves we have attack speed for minions. If possible a passive tree for our minions.
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I kinda disagree with the idea that minion gearing is literally "+levels only".
Yes, levels are huge. Obviously. But if you're ignoring -reservation% you're leaving a lot on the table. Between -reservation gear, passives, body/helmet socket stuff, boots, and Lord of Horrors, you can straight-up get MORE minions online. And depending on the setup, stacking minion damage can actually beat "just add more bodies" - it isn't always linear. Toss it into PoB and you'll see pretty fast where your own breakpoint sweet spot is, because the best balance is not one-size-fits-all. That said, I get the underlying point and I'm not pretending minion gearing is some galaxy-brain puzzle right now. My practical checklist still looks like: - All minions level 36+ (minimum spirit reservation, doesn't decrease any more) - Maxed -reservation% (or it's called "increased reservation efficiency") - Muster for all minions (I have 10 different minions, muster on all 10x 7% increase on all) - Dialla's, Rakiata's on the main minion - And since I'm running Storm Mage, Esh's Radiance too Also, I've actually dialed BACK minion damage because it's already way too strong for what I'm doing, and I wanted more energy shield. The build works. It's solid. But... compared to other meta builds, minions are still kind of "meh..." in how they feel. The biggest win would be aggression and initiative. Right now I spend too much time babysitting them like I'm herding cats with a flute. Make them pick targets faster, commit sooner, and stop trailing behind me like they're on a sightseeing tour. I'd gladly trade some raw power for minions that actually behave like minions instead of confused tourists. Last edited by Jyrlep#4788 on Jan 21, 2026, 12:08:27 AM
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" How do you achieve level 36 minions? Scepter gets +4, helmet gets +2, amulet gets +3, and you can use either Minion Mastery or Dialla's for +1. I can't imagine you can get very much more than that without paying a crippling sum of currency or sacrificing defenses/reservation for something like Trenchtimbre for an additional +2 level. The immense gear requirement is why I've given up on summoners in PoE2 and moved to Essence Drain, which sucks as a summoner main from PoE1. Where my summoner fails to do Simulacrum or T3 Xesht breaches on a lategame budget, ED can clear them on a similar investment. PoE players: Our game has a wide diversity of builds. Also PoE players: The [league mechanic] doesn't need to be nerfed, you just need to play a [current meta] build! And the winds will cry / and many men will die / and all the waves will bow down / to the Loreley Last edited by Pizzarugi#6258 on Jan 21, 2026, 7:59:08 AM
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Yeah, it's not easy...
Here’s how it’s done on my side, since people asked how you even get to lvl 36+ minions. Baseline for all the other minions (they end up lvl 36): - Gem lvl 21 - Sceptre +5 levels - Offhand +4 levels - Helmet +2 (also 8% + 8% reservation efficiency) - Amulet +3 levels - +1 to minion gems (from Minion Mastery - I run it on the other minions, not Storm Mages) - And the reservation efficiency that makes the whole clown car actually fit - Body 12% reservation efficiency - Boots 35% reservation efficiency for undead - Lord of Horrors passive 12% reservation efficiency That gets all non-Storm Mage minions to lvl 36. Storm Mages are the special snowflakes (lvl 39, or 40 if I really want to juggle gems): - Jewel +3 levels - Dialla's +1 - If I wanted lvl 40, I could swap in Minion Mastery for a different support gem... but I don't, because I'd rather have a working setup than a screenshot flex. So yeah, it's doable. But this is exactly the point people are complaining about: the "depth" is mostly just stacking +levels and reservation efficiency until your gear looks like a tax form. The puzzle isn't "how do I scale in interesting ways", it's "how do I cram more levels into fewer slots without my build collapsing". |
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" Muster is not a proper scaling, because it just a support you cant scale. If you can level it up and stack up to 5 for a gem - then it would be called scaling.
its actually a very bad design
its actually a very bad designed support gem, it reduces variability of builds, forcing all minion players to use it and fill all their free 7-9 slots with minions.
It would be better not beign a gem, but a keystone or ascendancy point because of how restrictive its to builds Beyond +level, there is only +minion damage +reservation efficiency are actual scalers. And all of them are pretty hard to get due to all of them are have low weights and all must be hit on single sceptre. About gearing: 1. any caster can take a staff with t1+t1 = + ~450 spell increases w/o runes, while sceptres +minion (allies) damage increas maxroll is +120%; For attack builds its even more insane of what weapons and offhands provide. 2. same staff can give up to +60% cast speed. Imagine having such option for minions... Sceptre roll just up to 20%. 3x times lower. And requires minions to be in area of presence. Etc, etc, no converts nor on scepter, nor on necromancer wands/lich staff, no way to even close numbers on whole geared characters to what other archetypes get from weapon slot alone. |
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if you want complexity, they will take away from + skills
sad state, but true unfortunately. having same problem with command minions - nowhere to go but sideways :/ |
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Make minions and companions be worthy also for non-mage builds. Minions are pets and have nothing to do with spirit cost. Provide us fighting pets that cost other elements than spirit. For example mana,life,Es.
Enough with spirit cost. |
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Yeah, the gearing on minion builds is pretty insane, and Muster is a bit of a forced direction. It also kind of nudges you into running as many different minions as possible just to stack the 7% per different minion, which can feel less like choice and more like obligation.
That said, I still don't agree with the idea that it's literally "+levels only" and nothing else matters. Levels and reservation efficiency are the biggest pieces, sure, but there are still other stats worth chasing. You still care about +spirit. You still care about defenses (especially energy shield, depending on the setup). And on the passive side it's not only direct minion damage or attack/cast speed either - crit chance and crit multi can matter a lot depending on which minions you're scaling and how your setup is built. So yeah, sceptre priorities are pretty rigid: +levels, +spirit, and then allies damage / cast speed / crit chance if you can get it. But that's the long-term goal, and you build toward it like any other archetype builds toward their best weapon. It also depends on what kind of summoner you want to be. I personally like it as passive as possible. I don't want to be attacking mobs myself - I want minions doing the killing while I focus on support and upkeep, like using Pain Offering and managing positioning. Where I fully agree with the broader criticism is hybrid play. It's hard because we don't really have enough gems or mechanics where minions meaningfully support the character - tanking for you, reducing your damage taken, enabling your own damage in a real way, etc. Right now it's mostly "scale minions harder", not "minions and player actively amplify each other". That's the part I think is genuinely missing. |
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I hate minions. I played all my life with fighting pets. Wolf pack is a good implementation but cost insane spirit. These tactic benefits only classes that rely their build in spirit amount. Build diversity is a joke.
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About taking away levels - they do not need to take levels there are plenty of ways to make minions better.
They can give us even more minion levels on gear and create a nodes on a tree which gives us - minion level. That way we would have to balance minion gear with nodes. Sceptre requires redesign cuz it's having an identity crisis between being an ally weapon and minion weapon. Things like cast speed on a sceptre should boost minion player as well. Stats on a Sceptre are mostly a joke to the point the difference between perfect one and 80-70% perfect as long as it has minion skills is negligible. Either sceptres have to completely redesigned or we need node on a tree which significantly boosts Sceptre Allies effect while applied to minions. For example allies bonuses becomes mores but with 50% efficiency. Sceptre overall should be more impactful. Minions should have some kind of crit building option available (right now the best way is Djinn with Time-Losts) but we should also have some way of increasing our minion base crit (except the crit weakness). We should be given a keystone on a tree which works like Gravebinds for our minions. Due to minion kills being attributed to them minion builds are completely cut off from on kill mechanics. Minion levels should probably by taken out from focus desecration and moved to normal spot. Tree should have some heavy mana cost reduction and cast speed for minion commands. (I am speaking about nodes which have 3+ times effectiveness of a normal node). Minion archtype should get it's own Jewel Socket (I suggest the one left to the Lord of Horrors). Minion nodes should be moved into close proximity to it so they are in range of AtD / Large Time-less Jewel. AtD should get some minion extra dmg modifier. Minions should get massive move speed increase if manually commanded to move to a spot. (Maybe some kind of stacking mobility buff maintained by issuing commands). Minions should get their AI reprogrammed to be a lot more aggressive (in compensation monsters AI should also change to priotize killing summoner if minions are present). -without this no amount of changes will make minions feel better. Minion players should be given some notable which increases base presence range by 1m. All allies effects (including the Sceptre buffs) should get tagged as auras and scale with Aura Magnitude. Last edited by Jashin#5464 on Jan 21, 2026, 9:35:35 PM
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