Summon Raging Spirit

I've been doing dagger CoC for this skill and it's the highest dps I've seen for my lack luster poor man's gear. Getting to 50 skulls is pretty common. And you guys are right GGG is very vague, so vague that I don't even bother to read the skill gems anymore. lol

I thought this gem was called raging skulls because I didn't even bother to read the name =p If you want info you have to get it yourself.

Overall I love the skill. It's a puzzle figuring out what passives to take and what gear to equip. My passive tree is very weird but it's fun, never thought I'd be going "crit and minion damage"

As usual Scion does it best.

Passives @ level 58 - going for mana regen + aura buffs so I can sustain clarity and grace with hatred and a level 8 arctic armor. Along with Immortal Flesh and mind over matter. A character with 2k HP becomes even tankier than a character with 4k. Saves me nodes so I can crawl to the areas of the tree that I need to reach.

Well, imo the best ways of using sulls are:
CoC with aoe skill to have 50 skulls around(if they can be killed by monsters its awesome meatshield) but they dont have much dmg
Less skulls, casted by player but they have way more dmg
Summoned via totems, with increased duration, ignite and proliferation(can fit in 4L) to spread constant ignition on monsters for good dot

Also, seems like players will have to geet all data on skulls themselves which is gonna be a pain

Have to say I'm loving this skill. The one thing summoner builds lacked in the past is good direct damage skills; because none of the spell/elemental damage mods affect minions, you generally had to sacrifice these in exchange for minion mods, making direct-cast spells very weak. SRS fixes this by giving you something to spam that basically acts as a homing projectile but is affected by minion damage mods AND auras...wonderful! I've currently got them hooked to +minion damage and added lightning damage and they are absolutely devastating on top of a horde of exploding zombies and skellies...lovin it!

Am currently level 66 with RS as my main. And I must say it has been working very well and I can solo clear merc Lunaris and Piety at a good speed.

Went triple totems with wrath and anger auras.

RS + Minion Damage + Multistrike + Increased Duration + Faster Cast in my 5L Soul Mantle

Key is in getting lots of faster cast and increased duration to pump out as many spirits as fast as possible. Right now I can summon about 42 spirits.

I also went EE using ice nova to trigger... it increased my clear speed tremendously.

I could self cast to reach the 50 spirits limit, but I'd rather use the time to cast elemental weakness curse, ice nova, desecrate, and flesh offering which has much better effect. This has enough damage to clear everything, even in full groups. People who I grouped with are usually amazed at the spirits. I play without spectres as there is no need to, and saves me from the hassle to resummon them all the time.

Its always satisfying to cast flesh offering and to see all your spirits start to go on crack :)
Not sure about its end game potential, but RS is a good summon to get to at least merc.

Wait, but if you go triple totems you dont do dmg yourself, so how is it possible that you trigger EE(or anything actually, i thought no dmg=no trigger)

Ice Nova hooked up to one of spell totems ?

trap support gem
I added a multi trap support gem too for wider coverage

Well, I'm none too knowledgeable about this game just yet. Only been playing for a bit. But, I am pleased with how the skulls complement my minion build. Much better than using Firestorm.

I like some of the ideas in this thread (Multistrike...yummy). I may try them. As of now I have them on 4L with Faster Casting/Increased Duration/Added Chaos. Combined with some cast speed nodes I can pump out 12 now (which seems pathetic compared to the CoC suggestion above). They are OK, and after reading what's here, I can see why. From the design of the gem I assumed GGG only intended them to complement an established summoner build, which they do quite well. With zombies, spectres and skeles in play, it's just a better thing for the summoner to be doing than casting Firestorm since it takes advantage of my Hatred Aura (was running Purity of Elements earlier) and all minion nodes I've taken in the tree.

One thing I haven't seen in this thread (unless I missed it): If the skulls are killed do they benefit from Minion Instability? If they have no measurable "HP" I would presume the calculation of damage would be nil. Has anyone seen one explode?

I'm now wondering if I should move these puppies into my 5L and demote my spectres.

My build is not defensive enough to survive the rain of blood phase of the Dominus fight on Merciless. But, since this is really my first self-made build, I'm amazed I've made it this far.

Decent build for clearing maps, though.

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trolldemort wrote:

Wait, but if you go triple totems you dont do dmg yourself, so how is it possible that you trigger EE(or anything actually, i thought no dmg=no trigger)

Link it to trap I guess.

How does SRS interact with minion instability?


Do they need to die via aoe damage to trigger it?... or does it trigger when they expire?


Also, I was thinking about making a GMP Fireball CoC SRS build, with the intention of using %fire damage nodes for synergy... but after reading this thread, it sounds like % fire damage would not affect SRS. Is that correct?

Thanks.