Shouting Summoner
Chieftain Build

Created for Patch 3.25

The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo

The Transfigured Animate Weapon of Self Reflection creates a living copy of your own Melee Weapon. With this version, you don't need to worry about creating Lingering Blades beforehand, but you have to resummon them more often as their duration is much shorter, and you can also create only 7 Animated Weapons at a time. 

Your Minions inherent all the specific and unique modifiers of your Weapon they are based on, so instead of the usual Wand with bonuses to Minion Damage you will want to equip the strongest Melee Weapon you can find. Ideally, it should be a Rare Two-handed Sword with lots of Elemental Damage, Attack Speed, and Crit, but there are other notable variants you could use such as Starforge, Rakiata's Dance, or Paradoxica.  

The Chieftain is a very unusual pick for this type of Build, as this Ascendency has no bonuses for Minions. Instead, you will use Call to Arms Keystone and infinite Power of your Warcries to massively boost your Minions with temporary Buffs. With the investments into Warcry Buff Effect, your Battlemage Cry grants a 5% base Critical Stike Chance while Rallying Cry adds an Extra 100% of your Weapon Damage. Intimidating Cry increases Movement Speed by 36% and Intimidates nearby Enemies, causing them to take 10% increased Damage from Attacks.  Using a Warcry also grants you and your Minions the Onslaught Buff for 20% increased Attack and Movement Speed. Other than that the Chieftain Ascendency offers great defense against Elemental Damage and Explosions that boost your Clear Speed. 

You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List

1. Gameplay

It is a very active Summoner Build. You should resummon your Minions fairly often to always have 7 of them active during clearing, and Boost their Damage with Warcries. Against Bosses, you should try to resummon them all at once to get the most value out of your Warcries. For Movement use the Frostblink. All other utility Skills should be automated via Arcanist Brand and Cast when Damage Taken Setup. 

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

The Build doesn't perform well without bonuses to your Warcry Buff Effect and Minions, which are quite hard to acquire during leveling. We recommend leveling up with a typical Marauder Slam Setup. The baseline Exertion bonuses from the Warcries are very powerful on their own and will help to get used to casting them. You can take inspiration from our Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Chieftain to gain levels and complete the campaign.

Bandits:

Kill all Bandits to get an additional Passive Tree Skill Point, or help Alira to gain additional Resistance.

Leveling Skill Trees:
33 Points Passive Tree
It is a universal starting setup that offers plenty of Damage with 2-Handed Weapons and solves your Accuracy and Mana issues.

68 Points Passive Tree
Pick up Damage Notables relevant to your leveling setup, usually a Two-handed Axe is the best. Start the Warcry investments with the Admonisher which drastically improves your Warcry Speed. 

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

98 Points Final Passive Tree  
120 Points Path of Building (PoB)

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in this order:

1. Sione, Sun's Roar
2. Tasalio, Cleansing Water
3. Valako, Storm's Embrace
4. Hinekora, Death's Fury

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of Arakaali: 10% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time; +40% Chaos Resistance against Damage Over Time

Minor God: Soul of Ralakesh: 25% reduced Physical Damage over Time taken while moving, Moving while Bleeding doesn't cause you to take extra Damage

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Animate Weapon setup
	Animate Weapon of Self Reflection - Create a living copy of your Melee Weapon that attacks nearby Enemies. You can summon up to 7 Minions.
	Minion Damage Support - improves the Damage of your Minions but lowers their survivability.
	Elemental Focus Support - greatly boosts the Elemental Damage of your Minions but disables Elemental Ailments.
	Elemental Damage with Attacks Support - further improves the Elemental Damage your Minions deal. The Awakened version also makes them immune to Elemental Reflect.
	Increased Critical Damage Support - grants tons of Critical Strike Multiplier, which is quite hard to acquire for Minions.
	Multistrike Support - your Minions repeat their Attacks twice, dealing More Damage with each attack. For better Clearing, you should replace it with Melee Splash Support.

[UTILITY] Aura setup
	Purity of Elements - makes you and your Minions immune against Elemental Ailments and grants all Elemental Resistance.
	Eternal Blessing Support - allows you to use one Aura for free, but disables other Mana-Reserving Auras, which doesn't affect you as you use the Blood Magic Keystone anyway.

[UTILITY] Aura setup
	Petrified Blood -  half of the incoming Damage will be taken over 4 seconds instead. It offers more protection against Hits but makes you susceptible to DoTs.
	Precision - improves the Accuracy Rating and Critical Strike Chance of your Minions.

[UTILITY] Warcry setup
	Battlemage's Cry - it's Buff increases the base Critical Strike Chance of affected allies by a large amount.
	Intimidating Cry - improves the Movement Speed of your Minions and Intimidates nearby Enemies.
	Rallying Cry - adds a portion of your Weapon Damage to nearby Allies. It is twice as effective for your Minions.
	Urgent Orders Support - greatly improves your Warcry Speed.

[UTILITY] Arcanist Brand setup
	Assassin's Mark -  a Curse Spell that greatly improves the Critical Strike Chance and Damage of your Minions while attacking the Marked Enemy.
	Spirit Offering - an Offering Skill that consumes Corpses to greatly boost the Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier of your Minions. You can have only one Offering at a time.
	Desecrate - summons Corpses for the Offering. You can keep it on a low level if Gem Requirements are too high.
	Arcanist Brand - automatically Casts all linked Spells in rapid succession. It needs to be attached to nearby Enemy.

[UTILITY] Cast When Damage Taken setup
	Steelskin - creates a protective shield that absorbs part of the incoming Damage and disables Bleeding effects on you.
	Carrion Golem - this Golem aggressively Attacks nearby Enemies and increases the Damage of your other Minions.
	Feeding Frenzy Support - linked Minion's Attacks grants you a Buff that increases the Damage of all your active Minions.
	More Duration Support - makes your Steelskin and Feeding Frenzy last longer.
	Cast when Damage Taken Support - automatically triggers linked Spells when you take enough Damage.

6. Gear Setup

Your Weapon is the biggest source of Damage for your Minions. The best Weapon is a Rare Banishing Blade to ignore Elemental Resistances, but on a lower budget, you can use the Rakiata's Dance. The Gravebind Gloves are used to trigger Cheftain's Explosions. The Devourer of Mind and Ralakesh Impatience grants all your Charge effect to your Minions. Your Rare Rings and Jewels are the biggest source of Minion Damage modifiers. On the remaining pieces, you should focus on maximum Life, Resistance, and Attributes. 

(Helmet) The Devourer of Minds - it is a great way to improve the Critical Strike Chance and Damage of your Minions. It also makes them more durable and provides plenty of Intelligence for you. Try to get a Corrupted version that raises your Power Charge limit.

+(30-50) to Intelligence (80-120)% increased Armour and Evasion +1 to Level of all Minion Skill Gems 25% increased Light Radius Minions count as having the same number of Endurance, Frenzy and Power Charges as you Minions have the same maximum number of Endurance, Frenzy and Power Charges as you

(Weapon) Rare Banishing Blade - with a Banishing Blade your Minions will ignore Elemental Resistance, which saves a lot of investments. Look for the highest DPS and Critical Strike Chance you can afford.

Min. requirements: +1000 DPS 7% Critical Strike Chance Attack Critical Strikes ignore Enemy Monster Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Critical Strike Multiplier Hits can't be Evaded

(Weapon) Rakiata's Dance - a great starting option that reverses Enemy defense into their vulnerability. It has low Critical Strike Chance and limited DPS, so a well-rolled Rare Weapon will eventually be better.

Adds (150-200) to (300-350) Cold Damage Adds 1 to (550-600) Lightning Damage (15-20)% increased Attack Speed Treats Enemy Monster Elemental Resistance values as inverted

(Body Armour) Doppelgänger Guise - a very good Armour that grants you tons of protection against Physical and Chaos Damage, and solid Life Regeneration after taking a Hit. It is also quite easy to match Socket Colours to your setup.

Grants Level 20 Unhinge Skill (40-60)% more Critical Strike Chance while Insane Enemies Killed by your Hits are destroyed while Insane (40-30)% less Physical and Chaos Damage Taken while Sane Regenerate 10% Life over one second when Hit while Sane

(Belt) Rare Belt - look for bonuses to your maximum Life and Resistance. It should also help with Flask sustain. Use the Stygian Vise to get an additional Abyss Socket.

Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life +80% total Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Chaos Resistance % increased Maximum Life

(Boots) Ralakesh's Impatience - The Devourer of Minds shares the effect of your active Charges, so you have to generate them or use those Boots to always have their Effect.

+(15-25)% to Cold Resistance +(15-25)% to Chaos Resistance Count as having maximum number of Endurance Charges Count as having maximum number of Frenzy Charges Count as having maximum number of Power Charges

(Boots) Rare Boots - if you can generate Charges otherwise you should use a Rare pair of Boots that grants you tons of maximum Life, Movement Speed, and Resistance. You can use the Exarch Influence to raise your maximum Fire Resistance.

Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life 30% increased Movement Speed +80% total Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Chaos Resistance % to maximum Fire Resistance

(Amulet) Rare Amulet - you will use a lot of Unique Items, which makes capping your Resistance and Attribute Requirements quite hard. A rare Amulet can provide tons of maximum Life and Resistance or Attributes.

Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life +80% total Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Chaos Resistance Attributes Minion Movement Speed

(Amulet) Defiance of Destiny - a great defensive Amulet that works perfectly with the Petrified Blood, restoring half of the initial Hit Damage instantly. Use the Fertile Catalysts to improve the Unique Life modifier.

+(60-80) to maximum Life +(10-40)% to Fire Resistance +(10-40)% to Cold Resistance +(10-40)% to Lightning Resistance Gain (10-20)% of Missing Unreserved Life before being Hit by an Enemy

(Amulet) Ashes of the Stars - additional Quality on your Gems allows you to Summon 1 more Animated Weapon and significantly lowers the Cooldown of your Warcries.

+(10-16) to all Attributes (5-10)% increased Experience Gain of Gems +1 to Level of all Skill Gems +(20-30)% to Quality of all Skill Gems

(Gloves) Gravebind - thanks to these Gloves all Kills will count as yours, which will trigger the Hinekora's Explosions that massively improve your Clear Speed. You can find a Corrupted version that raises your Frenzy Charge limit for quite cheap.

(100-150)% increased Armour and Evasion +(19-29)% to Chaos Resistance Gain (15-25) Life per Enemy Killed Nearby Enemies Killed by anyone count as being Killed by you instead

(Ring) Rare Ring - look for bonuses to maximum Life, Minion Damage and Speed, and Resistance or Attribute. The Minion modifiers appear naturally on the Bone Ring only.

Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life +40% total Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Chaos Resistance Minions deal #% increased Damage Minions have #% increased Attack and Cast Speed Minions have #% increased Movement Speed

(Jewel) Rare Jewels - on your Rare Jewels you should look for Life and maximum Fire Resistance. They should also boost your Minion's Accuracy or Damage.

Min. requirements: increased maximum Life Maximum Fire Resistance Recommended affixes: % increased Minion Accuracy Rating % increased Minion Damage Resistances Attributes Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you

(Jewel) Rare Abyss Jewel - the Abyss Jewel socketed in your Belt can grant you plenty of maximum Life, bonuses to your Minions, and cover lacking Resistance or Attribute.

Min. requirements: +30 to maximum Life Minions deal 15% increased Damage if you've used a Minion Skill Recently Recommended affixes: Minion Accuracy Rating Resistances Attributes Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you

(Jewel) Large Cluster Jewel - most Notables on the Large Cluster Jewel are quite weak, so you should use a Jewel that boosts small Notables and adds extra effects to them, such as Attack Speed for Minions, maximum Life, Resistance, or Attributes for you. It is quite expensive, so at first you can use a regular Jewel with any 3 useful notables.

Recommended affixes: Added Small Passive Skills have 35% increased Effect Added Small Passive Skills also grant: +10 to Maximum Life Added Small Passive Skills also grant: Minions have 3% increased Attack and Cast Speed 1 Added Passive Skill is Vicious Bite 1 Added Passive Skill is Feasting Fiends 1 Added Passive Skill is Renewal 1 Added Passive Skill is Vicious Bite

(Jewel) Medium Cluster Jewel - a Minion-related Medium Cluster can greatly boost the survivability of your Minions by granting them Leech via Feasting Fiends Notable, as well as Boost their Damage while on Full Life with the Renewal Notable.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Feasting Fiends 1 Added Passive Skill is Renewal

(Jewel) Medium Cluster Jewel - a Warcry-related Jewel offers you Charge Generation via Mob Mentality, reliable Onslaught Buff for your Minions from the Lead by Example, and boosts your Armour with the Warning Call.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Mob Mentality 1 Added Passive Skill is Lead by Example 1 Added Passive Skill is Warning Call

(Jewel) Fortress Covenant - you can disable the downsides of this Jewel by socketing it in the Cluster Jewel. You will still retain the massive bonus to your Minion's Damage.

Minions deal (35-45)% increased Damage Minions have +(10-12)% Chance to Block Attack Damage Minions have +(10-12)% Chance to Block Spell Damage Notable Passive Skills in Radius are Transformed to instead grant: Minions take 20% increased Damage

(Jewel) Impossible Escape - use this Jewel to allocate Notables near the Necromantic Aegis that boost the Duration of your Minions and grant them a massive amount of Block chance. You can also opt for the Magebane Keystone variant that grants you access to improved Life Recovery from Flasks.

Passive in Radius of <Keystone> can be Allocated without being connected to your tree

Suggested Flasks: Life Flask  with Bleeding Removal Quicksilver Flask with bonus Movement Speed  Quartz Flask with Curse Effect Reduction  Granite Flask with Armour Rating bonus Ruby Flask with bonus Life Regeneration

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.