[3.5] Automated Arakaali's Fang Summon-finder (WIP)

I usually don't create build guides, but I thought this idea was unique and no one else seems to have discovered it.

This build shines best as a Pathfinder, in my opinion, but a Necromancer is likely not far behind.

At a very base level, this build requires 3 components

1. Arakaali's Fang (dagger)

2. Speaker's Wreath (helmet)

3. Corpses, I wonder where we are going to get those

For extra spice, which I recommend, add in a 4th component

4. "Poison Proliferation" (either the Pathfinder ascendancy, Nature's Reprisal, or an off-hand Bino's Kitchen Knife, which seems to be a lot more common after they re-balanced drop rates; using a Bino's allows other class choices, but I prefer a shield)


The way this build works is that the spiders summoned from Arakaali's Fang will try to kill stuff, but Speaker's Wreath prevents them. So their poison kills stuff which counts as our kill. And on kill, we summon spiders.

The "Poison Proliferation" spice comes in via a Herald of Agony. There is an interesting mechanic where since we get credit for our spiders' kill, and since they are poisoned, that poison spreads and counts as creating a virulence stack for Herald of Agony. Now imagine how many stacks of poisons are spreading to all the mobs. Lots and lots of virulence stacks.

At this point I think the build is concrete enough for others to take in whatever direction. Below I will expand upon how I polished this idea.

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I wanted to take full advantage of "Nature's Reprisal", so I went with a Death's Oath chest (free 50% aoe from the ascendancy node, which applies to the Death Aura). This has three additional benefits besides adding more damage.

1. Death's Oath is the ignition for the automated summoner (you technically need to generate at least 1 spider before they self-sustain themselves, granted this can be achieved via a simple Desecrate and Writhing Jar)

2. Death's Oath has a good number of attributes, and I was planning to stack Dex for the benefits it gives via Speaker's Wreath

3. I plan to scale aura effectiveness for my minions, and this also buffs the damage of Death's Oath. So much synergy!

An alternative chest could be Wildwrap for the dexterity scaling, but some rare options are likely better.

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Remaining slots: rares, see path of building for a preliminary setup.

Note: The tree is not trimmed, but it shows you different options you can take based on preference. Also, gem links are free to be tweaked.

https://pastebin.com/x7Yvq8pG

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Single target optional tweaks:

Note that our automated summoner only works if we can get kills and have corpses (granted we only need to get kills once a minute, so Writhing Jar works well with Pathfinder). Additionally, the automatic virulence stacks require kills. One way to handle this is a simple Ball Lightning + Poison support. However, if you are going to sacrifice the automated aspect of this build, why not go one step farther and do a super quick chest swap.

Saqawal's Nest!

This chest has even more attributes for our dex stacking. Furthermore, for those unaware, the Aspect of the Avian buffs your minions as well as you (this is true without the chest). But the chest gives the aspect buffs to nearby allies, which includes your minions. These effects stack and both get the 100% increased effect from the chest (see Theuberelite's Mirror/Blink Arrow build for confirmation: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2134507 )

I would suggest socketing Ball Lightning + Poison + Curse on Hit + whatever you want into the chest, since this is only needed for single target (clearing is automated with any chest). This gives ridiculous numbers of virulence stacks for Herald of Agony, and we all know how insane the crawler is for single target.

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Let me know if you have any suggestions to improve this build or any criticisms of my work-in-progress guide.

Leveling options:

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League start:

I would recommend Herald of Agony leveling.

Super strong, you can use any bow, even Quill Rain with the recent changes, as we don't care about our damage.

Simply use Rain of Arrows with Lesser Poison support plus Herald of Agony with Minion Damage and other supports.

This begins at level 16 when you get access to the Heralds.

Most endgame herald of agony builds need like 0 minion damage clusters, which holds true for early levels. So being a pathfinder and being far from those nodes is no issue at all.

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Twinked leveling: This is my new favorite way to level all classes.

The following alternative idea I had for a while, but never got the fated Geofri's Crest helm in SSF until now (plus I saw Octavian0 try this setup for endgame, but it works well for mapping).

For non-league starters, equip a Tabula (+1 is even better, obviously), socket Holy Relic (20 quality if possible, adds AoE) with whatever supports you have access to at early levels (minion damage, added fire/cold/lightning, and summon phantasm). The phantasms are great for killing stuff further away from you, and for the times when you stop paying attention to your Static Strike buff.

This setup really shines as early as level 12 when you get Static Strike.

Support Static Strike with Ancestral Call and any other supports you want such as blind, maim, or whatever (increased duration later on). Swing once, granting 3 stacks, and run through everything while your Holy Relic's nova one shots everything.

Additionally, you can also add Herald of Agony to this as well (which I do myself). Just add Lesser Poison support (or Poison support at higher levels) to the Static Strike links to generate virulence as you are running through everything.

Once hitting level 18, for the Holy Relic, I suggest replacing added cold/lightning with Controlled Destruction and Phys to Lightning or Empower (since the relic's nova seems to have lots of base damage, so flat added is less useful).

Phase Run and/or Quartz Flasks make this even stronger.

Super interesting. I'd be very interested in seeing a video.

Currently in SSF and haven't gotten an Arakaali's yet. Might give up and go to trade soonish. But have tested this with Dancing Duo to confirm the interaction works. Haven't recorded anything before, but might give it a try.

your passtebin tree has 177 points on it. is this intentional?

i played this build in betrayal and reached level 93 (i didnt play too much cuz real life stuff) altho i went with champion for the impale,banner aura and giving my minions 20% more damage and hits cant be evaded...the coolest part about bino+speakers wreath is that you can make your own agony crawler generate virulence stacks.giving the agony crawler 100% poison chance (and pierce which adds hugh pack clear ...and lioneyes vision has pierce built in so a good 7 link chest imo) and it shreds packs..in synthesis i found few more cool items that work very well with this build 1 of them is storms gift gloves which makes enemies that are killed act as if they were also shocked and it spreads just like the poison ..now combine that with inpulsa and you have something awesome going on.im also playing the same build in synthesis aswell.
im working on finetuning this build as i go and i gotta say its the most fun ive had in a very long time.

Nice build!
Any updates for 3.6?