[3.4] Necro-Archer Toxic Rain + Spectre + Zombie

It's basically a summoner, raise spectres and zombies, also do some archer's job. xD

New notable skills 'Spiritual Aid' and 'Spiritual Command' make x% increased minion damage / x% increased minion attack speed from skill tree, jewel and gears also apply to character, so we save some investments, extra room for more life or simply go for more damage.

Video
Red Elder (after patch 3.4.3e, Minion AI bug, back to Solar Guard this one)
T14 Dark Forest
Maze of the Minotaur

Clear speed is not likely to be fast while comparing with efficient builds, usually I fire several shots to monsters, minions take care of the rest. When it comes to tough fight, zombies draw fire, summoner and spectres do the damage. If zombies die I summon more or rely on spectres, play as an archer.

+ Summoner himself has decent DPS.
+ Decent life pool with belly, fair life regen, fair block chance.
+ Minions slow/taunt enemies, more safe for archer? xD
+ Can do reflect / no leech / no regen map.

- lack of dex, need find on gear or tree
- Mana sustain could be a problem, especially for 6L. need Master Elreon's ring/amulet, and mana regen / reduced mana cost investment.
- lack of gem slot and suffer limited hotkey bind.
- move slow if don't have movement speed on boots. need haste plus craft movement speed to get 30%+
- map mod with Monsters cannot be taunted, cannot be slowed screw up both our defence and offense layer.

I'm newbie to summoner, there's a spectre options (UndeadLibrary by Matt). I was using Solar Guard while leveling and map farming.
Then I learned about this article, I wondered if the chaos one could work better with my current setup, so I went for the chaos Risen Vaal Advocate
They can be found in Vaal Outpost in azurite mine.

edit Oct.27: since Path of Building v1.4.110 update, we can now calculate DPS of minion skills! I checked the status, it seems Solar Guard and Lightning version of Risen Vaal Advocate are now the best spectres for this build.

For this build, I use Quill Rain and focus on damage over time.

edit: Caution, Quill Rain nerf in 3.5, 40%less damage!
Below DPS is based on 3.4 version. For 3.5, I think fossil craft +3 bow with attack speed will be better.

As the skill described, each spore pod deal DOT within an area, they overlap.
Based on my testing, the average overlap number per attack is 2.96 for no AOE modifier, 3.34 for +30% AOE, and 3.85 for +60% AOE.




It's 5L lv20 Toxic Rain tool-tip, below is my calculate, please correct me if something wrong here.

Defence status
52/38 block chance when Rumi's Concoction + Bone Offering triggered
around 10% life regen, from passives, stone golem and Holy relic.
7K hp with belly, was 6680 hp with rare chest(130 life)
8% additional physical damage reduction if I have 8 zombies raised due to Flesh Binder

.
Tooltip DPS, right one is buffed by Mistress of Sacrifice when cwdt triggers Desecrate and Bone Offering consume corpse.

I recommend taking Soul Weaver as soon as you finish cruel labyrinth, so you can have stronger spectres (Flame Sentinel / Frost Sentinel / Solar Guard) for early game.
Then go for Mistress of Sacrifice, as it grants both DPS and defence, in our case, it's skill effect duration + damage and attack speed by corpse consumed, and Bone Offering apply to character.

lv95 passive skill tree - forum
Picture version in case break in new tree
PoB https://pastebin.com/kFFhcmBK
Bandits: kill all.
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Jewels

Basically life and x% taunt chance for zombies.

These two for spectre, lucky to have Unending Hunger in SSF.
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Pantheon
it's my pantheon setup for azurite mine, you can pick whatever you want to suit your character.

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Level up
1 Go straight for Spiritual Command and Spiritual Aid

2 more life, minions damage, + zombies +1 spectre

3 more life, skill effect duration, AOE, life and mana regen

4 lv90, connect top, refund left side nearby the start point.
all main point allocated, you can alter whatever you want to suit your character depend on various gear setup.

6L Toxic Rain

if 5L, remove Efficacy Support
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Spectre + Zombie on a 5L chest

this is my early game setup when I was using Solar Guard.
Changed to Risen Vaal Advocate as soon as I reached map level 83.
lucky to have an elder helmet with Minion Damage Support, replaced Maim support with GMP to improve Risen Vaal Advocate's clear speed.

I'd add Minion Speed or put Maim back if I have a 6L chest.

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Curse and wither Totem

Reduce enemies' resis and make them take more DOT, Despair is the best for this build.


this setup could inflect 10 stacks of wither within 2sec, I use it for boss fight.
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CWDT set

Desecrate + Bone Offering gives 15/15 block chance, plus Rumi's Concoction and block chance on Rearguard we can have 50% chance to block attack and 35% chance to block spell.

Also swap between Temporal Chains and cold snap time to time.
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Aura

resistance for minons (mainly zombies) and my character.
attack / cast speed for minions and my character. Besides, I failed to fossil craft +1 spectre boots with decent life and movement speed, haste really helpes.
But I have trouble in using vaal haste due to not enough hotkey could bind to, appreciate if any suggestion here.
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Other skills

Stone Golem gives life regen and can taunt enemies.
Holy relic also gives life regen to my character and all the minions.

Quill Rain , 4L Link is enough for early game. I start Delve with a Arc traper, got two of them before lv70. I crafted one 6S 5L, did guardians with it, and first shaper attemp, failed though. xD

If you don't care much about survivability, Carcass Jack gives more AOE and damage (around 6500 hp with Carcass Jack).

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My current gears

Rearguard, chance to block attack and spell, I think it's my only option to get one more effective defence layer for this build.
Acrobatics is on the other side of the tree, and I need mana to run two auras so MOM does not suit this build either.
plus some armour and projectile damage, all good, lucky drop while leveling my arc traper league starter.


It took a lot of chaos till I get minion damage support and life / resis on the elder helmet. I'd move raise spectre and zombie to belly if I can 6L it, then put bone helmet back.
dex on the gloves just saved 1 skill point that was for 30dex.
Spent all Bound fossils, those +1 spectre boots are the best I have so far, was aiming for 25%+ movement speed but ended up Tora crafting.



I crafted two Elreon's accessories to sustain mana cost of 6L TR (one is enough for 5L)
Stygian Vise is fossil crafted minion life on it, plus movement speed from Tora, it cost divine :(

Flask

Rumi's Concoction is another lucky drop, it works great with Bone Offering and Rearguard.

These orbs are very useful for exploring Atlas, I found a few of them in Vaal Outpost and Abyssal City in azurite mine. It's my first time to have all fragments of guardians in one league, thanks to zana and these orbs.


Once you get acces to T16 map, you can use prophecies like extra reputation master mission (haku is better) or Trial of Ascendancy to access lv84 area where you can raise high level spectre, it's important for Risen Vaal Advocate.


I'm still newbie as a summoner, there are a few things you probably should know
-If you link zombie and spectre gem together, do not apply MTX to zombie or spectre gem when you are in map or hideout, you would lose your spectre.
-If you want to change color or link of your +1 spectre boots, do it at town, otherwise you lose one spectre.
-Take off Spell Echo support when you raise specific spectre, otherwise you could raise another spectre from nearly corpse which remove one of your exist spectre.